HB COLD

This is my 100th post, so I will try to make it a good one. I was writing about the weekend at the summer cottage yesterday when I had to go and watch several long, boring, ethnographic documentaries; and this is harder than it sounds.

Well anyway, the cottage was about an hour's drive away from Joensuu and it was on a beautiful and very large lake. Unfortunately, this place is not visited regularly so there have not been any improvements or renovations. The boats were in disarray and the lawn, as I mentioned yesterday, reminded me of one of those houses you see where you know either the people have left or something is really wrong with them, because they have not cut the grass in months and eventually the city sends someone out there to do the job. Well in this scenario, I was the person that the city sent out. Enough about the lawn work, let's talk about the dishes.

Now I've lamented the fact that Karoliina and I have not had a dishwasher in many, many years, and yes this is a sore spot and one that needs immediate attention, but at least we have had running water. Doing dishes without running water is one annoying task - especially when cooking for 4 people and not using paper plates and cups. Also when the sink pipes are broken rendering the sink and drain useless, it can add to the frustration. So the first morning K and I took a couple of buckets, filled with semi-clean water, down to the lake and K kept the mosquitoes off of me as I washed them. I think she may have suffered a few bites in the process, but she should never have worn a tank-top in that situation - too much flesh for the bugs to resist.

Also, there is not as much motivation for staying clean when there is no running water. So I spent minimal time with soap over the weekend, and I think I still have a lingering scent of disgustingness on me. But, all in all it was an enjoyable and relaxing weekend. However, yesterday, while playing basketball in an un-air-conditioning gym I was suffering from several weeks of food and drink with not a lot of exercise in the equation. Why is it that it takes me months to get into decent shape and days to fall right back out of shape? I wish I could sustain it for a while, without having to go through the process of it all. It's the process that stinks, I like the end result.

Well, 100 was way over-rated if you ask me. I think the pressure got to me. Back to the old drawing board.

What is it about doing nothing that is so exhausting? Whatever it is, it's on me and everyone else for that matter. Ask me what I did this weekend. I did nothing. We spent Thursday evening, all day Friday, all day Saturday and Sunday morning at the summer cottage near-bye with friends Mari, Greg and their baby Niilo and I am completely wiped out. Karoliina and I have not been home, alone on a weekend since May 1, and that was May day in which everyone was partying. We spent all winter longing for some excitement and some distraction and now we can't seem to avoid excitement and distraction no matter what we do. I have a strange longing for winter already. Not really, but I would like to enjoy the summer here in Joensuu. Not that the weather is conducive to enjoyment - all rain, all the time. I'm serious, we may truly have to go to London in order to get some sunny, dry weather.

Back to this weekend. I mowed a lawn for the first time this decade, and maybe for the first time IN a decade. And this was no front lawn we're talking about here. This was a prairie that had not been mowed yet this year. A prairie that was a habitat all on its own - home to some 10,000 bugs - and a habitat I took great pleasure in utterly destroying. However, it was not without difficulties: an ancient mower, rain, and did I mention the bugs? Every few feet the engine on the mower would give out due to the massive workload and as the grass got more and more wet, it became more and more difficult to manage. But after an hour or so and a few blisters (I forgot that I should have worn gloves) we had some grass that I wasn't afraid of and that is the way I like my grass.

I'll pick up later today...Gotta go and view some more films for the festival. One thing I learned after watching so many of these things, I gotta get off my ass and make a movie, cause if these things can get made, anything can get made.

hb hopeful

Crap! I was in Lapland for Father's Day and I did not extend everyone in the family a happy one. Father's Day is celebrated on a different date here in Finland so there aren't all of the friendly reminders everywhere. That being said:

Happy Father's Day to the pops of the family.

Dad, Wes, Allen, Marvin, Andy, Glen & to the one with a bun in the oven.

Lots of love to everyone.

Hooray! At last I am able to post some pictures on this thing. Although not quite the way I was hoping for, but good enough for the time being. Here are some photos from our trip to Lapland and the Midnight Sun Film Festival.

http://www.cadimef.net/valokuvia/lapland2004/indeksi.htm

For some reason I can't create the hyperlink, but you can open another window and copy and paste the url address. Not quite working condition, but I am getting there.

Let's go through them one-by-one. All but one of them was taken at 2:30 in the morning at the lake. Karoliina and I had just walked back from the party and decided to check out the scenery and we were real glad that we did. The water was so still, it created an almost perfect mirror reflection. And luckily for us the sky was as beautiful as could be imagined.

That close-up picture is one of a dozen or so that we took, trying to get the perfect picture, but it never came about. After realizing that we were a bit full of ourselves and we that our super model days were long since over, we gave up and decided on the one that was the most fun.

The picture not taken at the lake was taken in Rovaniemi, which marks the crossing of the Arctic Circle - as you can see. This stop also happens to lay claim to the home of Santa Claus and it is Christmas here all year round. Christmas music blaring on the loudspeakers, food in the cafeteria, Santa Claus working all day, everyday so that visitors can plop their kids on his lap regardless of the sunshine and warm weather outside.

Today we have an office party at 4pm with mini-golf and everything! It should be the perfect opportunity to talk bad about other people while they are not around and get a little tipsy. Not that anyone needs to do that considering the largest celebration this side of New Year's - Johannes or the Mid Summer - is this weekend. Karoliina and I are joining our friends Mari and Greg at their summer house for the weekend. They also have a newborn baby, Neelo, which should make the time a little more interesting.

I must admit, the pictures are fun, but now that everyone can see what I am talking about, do I still need to talk about it? If a picture is worth a thousand words, where does that leave me?

We are back from Lapland, but I am waiting to make a full post. I am hoping that the next time I am able to post, I will have pictures attached. Hopefully tomorrow. In the meantime, hb waiting

But one thing I do want to say is that I am experiencing a sports first. I am watching the Euro Cup of Soccer and the current match is between Sweden and Denmark and I don't know who I should root for.

Official Scorecard - for those of you keeping track - Brodsky's 1, Finnish Summer 0

Karoliina and I have started our offensive against the mounting obstacles of a Finnish summer. Namely, we now have 80% darker window shades and have put up our screen-like material in our bedroom. I got my first full night's sleep last night. Sure this may be in large part to the jetlag wearing off, but peace of mind and a dark room help out in their own special way.

We still need to protect ourselves in our living room, where we will put up an interesting screen door like contraption and I have yet to find those bug-zapping tennis racquets we have grown to love, but fear not, the scorecard will read 2 - nil soon enough.

K and I will set out for Lapland tomorrow for the Midnight Sun Film Festival in Sodankylä and we are both looking forward to it. Although getting there will be a pain in the ass. We will be taking a mini-bus along with 5 other people and the drive will be close to 10 hours. This will be my first Finnish road trip and I have no idea what to expect. The country-side that we will be driving through is supposed to be beautiful, but 10 hours is a long time regardless of what is out the window. Besides, it has been raining in Finland for weeks now and it is not supposed to stop anytime soon. Good thing is that there will be plenty of light for driving.

I'll fill you in with all the details when I get back. I hope to have a couple of pics too. Until then, hb wet.

I would like to extend a thank you to British Airways for the little sleep package they provide to all their overseas passengers. Included in that package is one of those sleep masks that you wear to block out the light. Well at 4 am this morning Karoliina and I went searching for our masks luckily we found them quickly and were able to get another few hours of sleep.

Funny thing about this sleep situation. Let me start off by saying that, under normal circumstances, there is no greater feeling than waking up at 2 am and thinking that it is really 7 and then realizing that you have another 5 hours to sleep. And when I say normal circumstances I mean that it still feels like 2 in the morning (i.e. it is dark out). Well, since Sunday night I have gotten up from a decent sleep no less than 4 times thinking that my sleepy time was at an end and the day was about to begin. Each time I was wrong. But the thing is, at 4 am it is extremely bright in the room and it really feels like 7 am or 8 or 9 even and this makes it much more difficult to get back to sleep, hence the gratitude towards British Air.

I think that I am gradually ridding myself of this jetlag and in the process I have discovered something, going East is harder than going West. Also I have discovered that it is easier to sleep in the dark than in the light. Also, I have discovered that I hate mosquitoes more now than I have ever hated anything in my life. I just with Samuel were around to make them somewhat enjoyable, "Skeetoos, go away from Howie!" Speaking of skeetoos, we are about to go to Skeetoo heaven this weekend. I hope to come back with at least some of my skin still on my body and not trapped underneath my fingernails. All right, I seem to get bogged down with the insect discussion. I promise not to turn this blog into a one-trick pony, but did I mention the bugs?

So back at the job now and not a lot has changed, kind of the way it was when going back to Nederlander. The more things changed here for me, the more they stayed the same there for them, and I take a certain comfort in that. It was as surreal coming back to this tiny town of Joensuu and resuming my life now as it was hanging out on Houston Street thinking about my life a year ago.

I want to give the blow-by-blow of the trip, but I don't have the patience to sit down and do it right now, I'd rather blabber on about nothing. Except for the fact that it was really wonderful to see everyone again and aside from the hours of time we spent in airports in London and in Helsinki, I wouldn't change a thing. Well, maybe I would not have done so much shopping, but whaddayougonnado?

I'm a little exhausted right now so there's a decent chance that I will fall asleep on the keyboard as I write. There's also a pretty decent chance that I may sound a bit delirious and that's because I am. K and I returned last night at 9pm although from the looks of it, it could very well have been 6. It might not seem like summer yet on the ground, but in the sky it was the middle of June. Right now it is rainy and cool, like in the 50's, and there a swarms of mosquitoes everywhere.

Well we got in last night and all the stores were closed so we had no food, just a couple of cans of tuna and some water. So now I've got to go to the store and buy just about everything. And then we need to unpack, do laundry and then pack up again because we are off to Lapland on Friday for the Midnight Sun Film Festival.

Some quick things about our trip in New York (I will do a more detailed version of this later, but for right now here's a few things that stood out): I had the most unbelievable streak of subway luck in my life and no matter how many times I mentioned it (and there were many, many times) it never was jinxed. From Wednesday evening until Friday night I never waited more than 10 seconds for the subway to come and I must have taken the subway 12-15 times during that span. And to top it all off, the streak even converted to taxis as well. Late Friday we were on Houston and 2nd Avenue and needed to get to the Upper West Side for late-night drunken pizza at Big Nick's (a helluva discovery by the way) and then off to bed at hotel Appelbaum. Well from 1st street until 79th street on 3rd Avenue we did not miss a light. I was freaking out the whole time...79 lights in a row! Are you kidding me? When we turned onto 3rd Ave I saw nothing but green and it never changed. I think I may have gotten on Karoliina's nerves a little bit, but damn, she just didn't understand the magnitude of this accomplishment. Not that I had anything to do with it, but when you're riding a streak of public transportational luck like I was riding, everything is because of the streak, everything.

I will get into the family, friends and food stories a little later, but I just had to get this one off my chest before I pass out and can no longer remember it.

Oh yeah another interesting fact before I go, on the flight from London to Helsinki our row of three people were all UT alum.