Before his alarm sounds in the morning, I sometimes get up and push it back by a few minutes. He wakes then to my shuffling in the dark room. Even with the shades up, the bedroom remains dark; dawn come so late this time of year. I crawl back under…
When Faced With What Will Be the Past
Do you ever feel nostalgic about the present? On Friday, this not-as-of-yet nostalgia overwhelmed me. It was a clear day; the chilly wind smacked my cheeks red and wrang tears from my eyes. The tears weren't attached to anything, unstemmed, like the dry leaves that skittered on the sidewalks around…
Time for a Haircut
In the middle of the night, I wake with it twisted around my throat like a noose, or tucked into my mouth, or caught in my earrings. By day it whips into crazy tangles unless I braid it, knot it, or bun it. Throughout the winter it snaps with static…
Autumn in Oslo - Uranienborgkirke (Photos)
From nearly every window in our flat, you can see a tall, copper steeple. Uranienborgkirke (Uranienborg Church) is one of my favorite fixtures in the city, and it's surrounded by a lovely park which goes dazzlingly yellow every autumn. I thought I'd have a LOT more time to run out…
Each Man's Life
"Each man's life touches so many other lives," says Clarence, the angel. A shell-shocked George Bailey, standing in a graveyard, turns slowly and stares into the middle distance. He is here because he almost took his own life out of desperation. Clarence's last, ditch effort to make George see his…
A Look Inside Oslo's National Gallery
Oslo's National Gallery may not be the Louvre, but I enjoy visiting it for many reasons. That's just one of them. The gallery is on Universitetsgata, just a couple of blocks from the palace grounds, and holds the country's largest public collection of paintings and sculptures. While the museum does…
A Teacher's Rights: Tribute to Banned Books Week
Among my favorite fall movies is The Male Animal (1942). It stars Henry Fonda as English professor Tommy Turner, a man whose quiet, ordinary, academic life is turned upside down in a single, whirlwind weekend. First, it's the weekend of the Big Game, and Tommy's wife, Ellen (Olivia de Havilland)…
My Guide to Oslo - Cheapflights.ca
Det Kongelige Slott -- Oslo's Royal Palace Oslo, Norway. My home these days, and a great place to visit! Jonathan and I vacationed here about a year before we moved over, and were dazzled by everything the country had to offer in the summertime. Since then, I've lived through (and…