#evening notes Archives - Chasing the adventure

The advantage of walking an uncomfortable dog

Let us temper our criticism with kindness. None of us comes fully equipped.
Carl Sagan

Those who know me know that I have been living in this country for almost nine years. And all these years I have a few feelings that I carry on.

One of them is the admiration of coziness.

It comes to me suddenly, at different times and occasions, but sharp and clear.

Sometimes my cute “uncomfortable” dog Crackle causes this feeling to appear.

Evening notes, 4, Boston

How to spend a vacation without being excruciatingly painful?

Make a to-do list, do almost everything from it, get tired.

One of the action items was a trip to Boston. Beautiful Boston… always beautiful Boston.

The decision to travel was spontaneous, as always. But there was also a plan – to go to a Russian store and meet with Dan’s sister and her husband. But they couldn’t make it to Boston at the last moment. So I spent the whole day alone with Boston and a backpack with trophies.

Friday morning in Boston was overcast. The day was partly cloudy. Temperature – I don’t know. It’s warm in the sun, but it’s uncomfortably cool in the shade of even a small tree. Spring. It’s still spring. And in spring, cold winds often blow on sunny days.

Evening notes, 3

-You speak with an accent. Where are you from?- the visitor asked.

-From Europe – I replied, rolling my eyes (here we go again).

The visitor turned to the door, about to leave, but realized that he had not heard the answer and asked again: from which part of Europe?

-From the cold – was the answer.

He realized that he would not get an answer and left.

I told my husband at home. He said: “Well, you could say that you are from Sweden.”

I don’t want to and don’t like to lie unnecessarily.

Evening notes, 2

I am deeply convinced that learning a foreign language, learning to swim, ride a bike, and drive a car is necessary the sooner the better.

I started driving after the age of 40, when I moved to the USA. It’s really late.

We live in a small city. There is public transportation in the form of several bus routes. But with a car it is much more convenient, faster and more reliable. And driving is not a big deal for most people. For most, but not for me.

Sometimes it seems I myself create difficulties so that life is not always so rosy.

In conversations, I admit that I’m afraid to get behind the wheel. But I don’t remember ever writing about it.

I think the category #evening notes category is perfect for this.

Evening notes, 1

Weekend. I was at the computer, inventing a new pin for my Pinterest. The husband came up and said that I am the perfect wife.

-WHAT?

I almost dropped the mouse (PC mouse) out of my hands.

My ex-husband (the one from a previous life) tried to make me the perfect wife. He taught me how to live, what and how to do. I honestly tried, especially at first, but everything was hopeless, probably genes…

And right now I don’t know what to think. All I needed to do was just to be myself. Flighty, creative, funny, sensitive, sad, caring, attentive.

And then I remembered the tale of the Ugly Duckling. Clarissa Pinkola Estes deciphered it in the book “Women who Run with Wolves”. The book is complicated, you can’t read it while cooking borscht. I read it slowly and partially. That’s why my friend Lena explained the transcript to me. I am sincerely grateful to her for that.

So, referring to Clarissa, the problem was not at all in the duckling. He wasn’t ugly, he was different. Everything was resolved when he found his pack.

The next day I was driving home from work and not for the first time I thought that I probably did something right in my life, that I ended up where I am now.

Announcement of evening notes

Once upon a time in another life (in another country and with another husband) I watched the TV series “Sex and the City”.

For some reason, I remember the moment when Carrie Bradshaw, sitting in her New York apartment in the evening, types an article on her computer, then closes her laptop and goes to bed.

Of course, we know that she was a columnist in some fashion magazine, and her articles were about relationships and sex. She had plenty of ideas for the topics from personal experience, her own and her friends.

I also periodically have a desire to write short posts in the evenings.

But WHO am I and WHO is Carrie?