| June 8, 2007 - Leaving for Sweden! |
| Dear Friends, the time is rapidly approaching. I'm leaving for Sweden on Wednesday! I'm finally starting to get excited about it. You know from my previous post what all I'm planning to do: you know, Stockholm, Zurich, Dublin, but I neglected to tell you a couple of things. The friends I'm visiting in Zurich are actually going to come see me next weekend in Stockholm. Then sometime between now and June 29, my personal trainer AKA The Torturer is moving back to Ireland. She has a sister in Dublin, so she's planning on coming into Dublin that weekend and staying with her sister. That will be fun to have someone to hang out with there. On top of that, I ran into her just last weekend and she introduced me to the sister of a friend of hers. The sister was visiting here from Dublin! So all three of us will make the rounds, I guess. I also neglected to tell you that some friends of mine are moving from the States to Stockholm. The wife and child are already there; the husband will move after I'm already back home. I've already made arrangements to meet up with Ingrid while I'm there. So my Zurich friends, Ingrid, and I can all sit around chowing down on Swedish meatballs and saying things like "Jag talar svenska". Oh! Before I forget. The other night I went with a friend to see the play "Peter and Wendy". The whole thing was done with puppets that had to be operated by 3 or 4 people, like bunraku, and also shadow puppets like those flat Indonesian ones you sometimes see on National Geographic programs. The puppeteers were dressed totally in white with their faces covered. The only person who was visible was the Narrator, who also acted the part of Wendy. She also provided all the voices for the puppets; I'd say about 10 or 15 distinct voices. The production was part musical with melodies based on Celtic sounds. In fact, the lead singer with the orchestra was from Dublin. Dear Friends, I have never seen anything like it! If the play is ever performed in your fair village, you must be certain to see it! I came away with the feeling that I'm in the wrong profession; I would have made a much better puppeteer than whatever it is that I do. Yesterday I ran into a friend of mine who told me about a documentary he watched called "The Secret". I don't know if you've ever heard of this theory, but some nut has come up with what he calls "the Power of Attraction". His theory is that if you always look at things in a positive way, then whatever deity you believe in channels that energy for you to make things come true. So my friend said, "I decided to try it. I knew I was going to have trouble finding parking in the area. As I headed down a street, I told myself that there would be ample parking there. And whadya know? There were three spaces all together!" What balderdash! I've heard of that theory before and it's just silly. First of all it reduces whatever deity you believe in to a personal servant who ensures that you have access to trivial bullshit like parking places and topnotch hair stylists. Secondly, as I said to him, "What about the starving people all over the world? Are they just not positive enough to get food?" I think I would much prefer a deity who magically provided tons of food for the hungry over one that enabled me to get Lindsay Lohan's autograph! Another wild example he gave was "If you think your mailbox is going to be full of bills, then that's all there'll be. But if you believe there won't be any, then there won't." So I responded, "Are you saying that if I believe the electric company will start providing me with free electricity, then I won't be getting any more power bills?" "Well, not exactly," he said, "you'll still get bills. But if you look at it positively, you'll be able to deal with it better." What a crock of shit! If you haven't learned how to deal with a monthly bill that you've been receiving for quite some time, then you have some serious problems! Lordie! On that note, I'm going to use the Power of Attraction and start making myself fantabulous for work today. Toodles! Next entry Previous entry Go to diary entries Go back home |