Last few days of 2016

2016

So 2016 is almost over and I'm coming out of it feeling like this pic above. 

It's been a very shitty year both for me personally and, it seems, for the world in general. 

I could list the bad stuff but you already know it and probably have your own shit to deal with so I'm not going to. 

I'll list the good:

Lived for 6 months with Niki in a 1 bedroom apartment in Stockholm and it wasn't just sad and lonely and horrible to be away from older kids and husband (but yes, it was that too), it was also plain necessary for me to grieve my dad in my hometown.

Peaceful people put DAPL to a halt despite being attacked in numerous vicious and unnecessarily brutal and violent ways. 

Paralysis might be reversed

I published a new book (and Sweden's minister of culture officially recommended it )

I went to see Sara and fam up north

We went to Italy -Tuscany, Florence, Rome and I always love it there. 

I went to Paris with Sarah, Niki and Simon

I stayed mostly healthy except when I couldn't walk straight and had to have my brain scanned. Though on the bonus side: got brain scan off the bucket list!

I discovered I really hate working out on treadmill but find it completely ok to run while watching tv-series. I thank 1 Mississipi, Better Things, Bleak House, Dr Thorne and Transparent for getting me in better shape than before. 

We sold our house in Sweden. 

I took a lot of pictures and found true love in taking pictures. I really really love snapping pics. 

I signed contracts for more books to be published in the next few years.

I contributed to great new kids mag Koko.

Every dinner with friends. 

Every walk in the park. 

Every school visit

Every time I looked at the kids while they were sleeping.

Also - crowning moment of 2016 - finally biked out to IKEA and bought some bedside lamps. 

Niki turned 9

she got what she'd wished for: a lavalamp

Childrens book author

Just handed in my fourth book to the publisher.
Readers who've been me for long - it really happened.

it was my dream, now it's my reality.

what's your dream? dare dream it.

Visiting schools

I just came back from Sweden. It was so beautiful, snow had fallen and everything looked its best kind of wintery.

I visited a few schools too, talked about my books and met 100+ kids and teachers. It was all I'd dreamed it would be and more! The kids were so great and curious and lively. Loved it!!

This is the school library at one of the schools I visited.

And this is the school librarian Malena holding two of my books. 

Malena is such a star, she seems to really love her job and excels at it. 

Her school library was so cosy, I never wanted to leave. Just wanted to stay in there and read. 

Jazz hands

makes perfect sense to me

Read up on forest bathing

http://qz.com/804022/health-benefits-japanese-forest-bathing/

what really makes me feel like a freaking genius

is looking for an ancient receipt and actually finding it.
so proud right now.

when I was younger I thought I'd be proud of other kinds of achievements but really, this takes the cake.

now at work on my 5th childrens book

It really happened, my lifelong dream of writing for kids.

Next week am going to Stockholm again, will visit 3 different schools, meet hundreds of kids and travel with a book bus!

I sometimes forget how long I dreamed for all this to happen.
and then it did.

I'll post pics here next week.

at least weather is more friendly today

every morning I wake up and am at disbelief that trump won. 

america, how could you. 

Yesterday

Yesterday New York experienced Seven-weather. As in Seven, the very grim movie starring Pitt, Morgan and Paltrow

Have also been watching The night of lately and yes, that kind of cheery weather and setting.

So anyways the whole city seemed bleak. Really bleak.
I had an hour before picking kids up from school, too little time to get any real writing done, too much to just sit and stare.

Walked up to Fresh cosmetics on union square to see if I could get a sample of some night cream I wanted to try.

Was offered a little pampering session by a young man with beautiful skin and thought "why not?".
He went on an on about the various products he was about to use and after applying them to my skin he exclaimed "look! so refreshed" and I just couldn't stop laughing and then he laughed too cause it was such an apparent lie, a charade being acted out by the two of us.

Me  - november gray, tired, mom of 3 in Seven-weather and him a young male with dreams of Hollywood.

So refreshed!

not really.

then took off to pick up niki and on the way saw a young man on a bench surrounded by paramedics in no hurry what so ever. The paramedics were putting on gloves. The young did nothing. He looked strange. In fact, he looked dead.

he looked like a character from game of thrones. so strange to have seen so few dead people that when I see one for real, my only analogy is from a tv-series re-enacting death. his face had that bluish dead pallor.

felt so so sad. so so sad for young man on bench surrounded by people in no hurry. HURRY! I wanted to scream. I think it was an overdose, but what do I know? but that's what it seemed like. the opiate epidemic is everywhere here now.

thought about his parents getting the phone call.

then went to get my own child

it was a horrible day.

Dear Spanx

Dear Spanx, I love the following USP to sell shapewear:

• Back seam ensures no uni-butt

Uni-butt. I love it. Perhaps that's what I really want. 

Dear fellow haters of treadmills

I don't really like running but I like what it does to my mood. So thanks for making treadmills so I can just run off some anger/sadness.

Lately have even laughed on treadmill because I've started to watch Better Things while running.
I highly recommend this combination.

people have accused me of stealing Marcus and Martinus unknown triplet

we try to give him a chance to dance and sing too

book for that person in your life who loves women and trees

Yes, I am one of those persons in your life but as you can see, I already have this book. 

ps. as you can see, it's also a great concealer for a rosacea outbreak.

Bonus pic from Lidingö:

Vanja turned 15

and Anders mom was here to visit.

Joel

I wrote a kids book where the main character was HEAVILY based on my son Joel. 

Here's the character description I wrote for the illustrator. I'm only blogging it cause I want to save it somewhere where I can find it again.

----

He has blonde unruly quite longish hair and eyes that are the color of coca cola.

He finds shirts and dressy clothes confining. He doesn’t feel like himself when he’s wearing “nice clothes”. He starts to walk all stiff and weird and can’t wait to get out of the dressy clothes. He’s really miserable in his Sunday finest.

He loves to run, jump, climb  - be physically active but most of all he likes to play soccer. Or basketball. Or just play with a ball.

He’s very loving and protective of his younger sister, which is surprising since she’s so often really, really annoying.

If he’s grumpy, it’s for one main reason – that he’s hungry. Otherwise he’s in quite a good mood, but often impatient especially if he has to sit still without a book or a game.

He’ll read anything, anywhere. He gets really lost in reading.

He’s very stubborn. So stubborn it will drive you up the wall.

He talks with a lisp which kind of softens the blow that his beyond-his years vocabulary would give if he didn’t.

He has absolutely no respect for authority.

He can focus really well.

He thinks a lot. A lot. And he will look you straight in the eye and tell you what he thinks and he’ll have reason for thinking what he does.

Perhaps because he can be so serious, his laughter is contagious and surprisingly carefree and melodic. It’s beautiful, like the sounds of the first birds returning in spring.

Likewise   - because he can be so serious and focused, his sudden (but frequent) expressions of love are so true and strong you’re taken off guard.

Since he was little (perhaps because of all his reading,) he’s been giving scientifically convincing backing to the most ridiculous statements. He’s never short for a reply. Ever.

When we asked him how a specific dinosaur might have sounded, he replied:

"His head was so small it was hard to hear him at all".

such a horrible day

Everything feels horrific and planet of the apes-y.
As I perceive it, New York is right now a city in shock. 

So deeply troubled about the outcome of the election.

Just got back from Stockholm

where fall was peaking

me in three/four fictional characters, revisited.

Liz from Philadelphia Story .

Frances from The Frances books. 

Lucy from Peanuts. 

Autumn light

Same same, but different

11 years. 

Subway eavesdropping - some day you may experience it

Teenage girl 1:So are people really nicer outside of New York?

Teenage girl 2:Yes! They really are.

Teenage girl 1: Really? I've never experienced that out-of-state-niceness.

Teenage girl 1: I mean, people are nice sometimes in New York too. Just not on the subway.

Teenage girl 2: Right. Then you just kind of have to fend for yourself.

Pics from yesterday - could I be announcing new TV-series?

Subway Swedes (above) - a comedy about two Swedish teens out and about in NYC, trying to navigate the MTA weekend schedule, constantly getting lost but not down.

Grand Street Playground (GSP) a dark tale about staying late at the playground, potentially there are zombies involved. Some kind of desperation de vivre is certainly featured. 

Also, that is what a man looks like in the afternoon after a 35 km run in the morning.

Anders had taken a friend out for a run, a friend who wanted to break his 30k barrier. So Anders helped him across that magic mark and then some.

We discussed the idea of Anders selling that feat to rich NYC runners. What should the pricetag be for taking someone across the 30k? 

We agreed on a 1000 for now.

Kerber does it again

I want everything.
https://www.kerber.se/collections/aw16

Ps. I thought I'd lost my Tux jacket and Fatal pants during all this moving and traveling. Would have purchased a new set. That's how much I love Kerber.

Me in 3 fictional characters

Starstruck

Went to Brooklyn Book Festival, saw Christian Robinson, got starstruck

He is a genius. 

Here's his website

Key words

Was in Florence, saw this window where Pucci stated their 2016 FW keywords: 

Ease. Velocity. Irreverence. 

Got me thinking about my own keywords for the upcoming season. 

I think they are

Persistence. Joy. Movement. 

But they could also be: 

Patience. Beer. Run.

these two sets of words might actually stand for the same thing. 

what are yours?

street sign

in Canada, cross the street tous ensemble

Most offensive 4-letter word

The other night met a newly engaged couple who'd arrived at the restaurant after having had drinks at a different bar.

I mistakenly used a 4-letter word to state I hadn't been there myself but I knew some **** who had been to that very bar and loved it.

I felt the energy drop, the mood killed. We never regained momentum after that.

Yes, the 4-letter word I had used was "moms".

What I should have said was "friends", "colleagues", "executives". Or any give 4-letter word, it would have been more welcome I think.

But I chose "moms".

Don't do this don't. People tend to find it offensive.

The trip up north - woodstock, long lake, montreal - my longest post to date

We took the train from Grand Central to Poughkeepsie, rented a car and went up to Woodstock to meet up with our friends Anker & Monica who had generously hosted Joel for close to a week. Went to dinner at Deer Mountain in, then slept a night here

The house Anker & Monica rented. That's a sauna and hot tub to the right. 

When night fell, there were stars. So many stars. 

Anders and Niki at Deer Mountain Inn

Joel & Jonas. 

With two kids in the car, we ventured up north to get the third back from Long Lake camp in upstate New York

The child

The camp grounds

The daughters

One of the many small cabins where the kids at camp get individual lessons in singing, playing instruments etc.

That's my husband out there. At parents weekend. It was very relaxed. And relaxing.

Then slept a night at a hotel in where the staff seemed to have jumped out of a Cohen brothers movie - one employee was missing his right arm while the other was very very fit, like Brad Pitt in burn after reading. 

Picked Vanja up and headed for Canada. 

Here's Anders and Niki on the Montreal subway.

I liked the Canadian street crossing signs.

And loved this bookstore - Drawn & Quarterly

Met a native Montrealean

Enjoyed the color of Montreal 

Passed a church festival

went to the Insectarium

Went to the biodome - which was originally built for 1976 winter olympics

Marveled at biodome

Then went glamping

Before heading back home to NYC