Bortinatta

If you want to vist me on my blog, the place is:

Nytt fra Fjærsteinan

And I promise, it's in english from now on:)

...a couple of months actually. I have been buzy, so much to do, so much to get in order, and so much to adjust to.
And throw in a little bit of LJ-phobia too. My life is thrown out of it's usual rythm, and some of the things I usually love to do, is just not working here. I knew there had to be a few obstacles coming my way. But in time I think I will get into new habits and hopefully I will also find time to paint and draw a little later.

I'm closing this account from november 9th, so from then on I will only be using my blogs. I'm not very active over here anyway, so I figured I might as well leave it. Oh most of this will still be here, I won't delete my LJ, but probably just not use it anymore. We'll see:) Since I won't pay for this anymore, my scrapbook and all the userpics will be lost, so before the closing date I will have to move my pics over to flickr or another blogfriendly place. I have started a new blog: Nytt fra fjærsteinan, it's written in norwegian, but maybe in time I will also write in english over there. Anyway, the adress is www.irenekjaerstad.blogspot.com. Welcome over to take a look. For those of you who don't understand norwegian, at least there are pictures from my new life, and home, if you're interested.

So, see you around!:D

My last day at work! It sure feels strange. To not walk in that door in the morning, to not "meet" my über-lovely mac again, to not see all the familiar faces, some of them I have known all the time I have worked here, -over 10 years. My god, it almost makes me go all mushy and sentimental. No more long lunches with the fun, creative, crazy girls in my department. *sigh* That is definitely the worst part!

In a couple of hours there's a coffee and cake farewell-party in my honor, with all my colleagues present, both my closest ones, and those from the other departments we collaborate with. Just hope I don't have to make a long speech:) Those things always makes me nervous.

And then, in a few days, I will walk out of my door at home for the last time, my home the last four years. Lots of good times with my kids and my cats there. Met my old neighbour Gunnar this morning, he stopped when he drove past me at the busstop. He was always so kind to me and my girls.

But I do look forward now, to a new life in the north, with all my old friends and family, that I have missed for so long. It's gonna be good.
My plane leaves on tuesday, and then my life in Oslo is behind me. I will return pretty soon, tho, as I have to see how my daughter is doing all by herself. I worry about her, but as quite the sensible girl she is, I'm certain she'll be fine.

Oh! now I'm all excited! My truckload of furniture and stuff is leaving Oslo on saturday, and I'm off the tuesday after. Finally things are happening. I can't believe I have only four more days at work, and then I'm FREE!! Well, almost. They asked me if I could take part of my job with me, and work over ftp and internet, and I said I could. It'll only be part-time and only as a backup when needed, but it's money I can't afford to say no to. And I can work from home. I also got a call from one of the places I applied for job at, they want to see me as soon as I get up there. Things are looking up, and I'm sure they will also work out!

My kids, Simon and Terese had bday on the 19th! Happy birthday to them! I think it's totally crazy that it's been 18 and 20 years since my husband drove like a maniac the 80 kilometres to the hospital, with me barely fitting into the passenger-seat. Where did the time go since then? I feel like it was yesterday, and now my babies are all grown up, and my daughter moved into her own apartment today. I hope she'll manage by herself, and with her roommate, as I will be far away soon.

My youngest has pierced her tongue, but otherwise behaved herself the last couple of weeks. All her friends are gone on holiday, so she is bored and hangs around the house a lot. Sleeps during daytime and on internet-chat at night. Annoying and incredibly lazy, but I think it's normal for her age.

It is close to 30 degrees Celsius here in Oslo, if not more, and I really enjoy cycling to work in the mornings. But the rest of the day nearly kills me, it is so hot! I get a little crabby and the smallest things get to me, and as we live in cardboardbox-hell right now, it makes it even worse. I snap, or cry, and I sweat, and feel a little sad about the situation of leaving Oslo. Well I blame the heat. I should be on the beach, taking long swims, and getting tanned instead of working all the time.

Not much to add, really. A relief of course. I got some critique on a few things, but all in all not bad considering I'm such a newbie at design. So I'm happy.

Something much worse, -I have a teenager who's acting up. Smoking, drinking, lying, stealing, staying out way past her curfew, and generally making life a little hard for herself. I called her dad for some assistance after a rather heavy incident last night, and he's coming down in a few days. The daughter is in need of some serious attendance, and I'm not going there all alone.
She doesn't want to move, that's the case, and does all kinds of stupid, over-emotional things to demonstrate. It is hard for her, I know that. But is is hard for me too, and I know things will be better after a while. In the meantime, she'll wear me out, I'm afraid. I am calling a family-center tomorrow, maybe they have some good advice for how to handle the situation.

It's friday night and I'm having a beer to celebrate that I finished my exam in style!! I hope...I will not have the results until next week. I have burned the whole thing on cd, and have printed out great prints and done everything in my power to make an attractive folder of my work, even explained every little detail in words....I have worked like a beast from early morning until late every night all week, and I really feel I have delivered a good exam, but you never know.
I swear I'm gonna choke the person who dares to fail me! I'm so tired right now I'm probably gonna pass out after this beer, but...Hooray! The week I have dreaded for so long finally came to an end. Have a nice weekend everyone!!

...is a big day. Tomorrow and the rest of the week I will have my final exam in graphics, and today I'm a bit nervous. The first thing Brian and I have to do tomorrow morning is to go and get the exam papers delivered to us at the school. Then it is hard at work until friday. I am very excited about what topic they have chosen for us. I hope it's not too complicated, or filled with trick-questions and such. It happens.
So, ask me in a week how I'm doing...

This weekend I started the rather painful and frustrating process of packing. Filling up box after box with STUFF and sealing them. Holy crap, the amount of CRAP a person, not to mention three, can gather in a few years. So I'm packing and purging, yesterday I filled at least three boxes with things that are going out, into the junk. Or to the fleamarket. I counted at least twenty boxes of books, and it is probably going to be more. A lot more. I also got an estimate over the transportation costs, -20.000 Nkr!!  Yikes!! Not included insurance. So, to avoid having too much when the truck arrives, I am selling some of my stuff, -books, cd's (no, not my rammstein-collection, although I have considered putting some of it out on ebay) videos and dvd's.

Oh I wish I could make a jump in time and land on the "other" side, -all over and done with moving and planning and applying for jobs, and getting loans and so on.  Safely there, with all my boxes, but relaxed and ready for a new life. Somehow I just KNOW that everything is going to be fine, but first , -all the doing and frustrating. This is all very exhausting.

Otherwise, it's been sunny and warm and lovely, and I'm itching and scratching as usual after sunbathing. My hair is dark, but my skin is sensitive and rather freckled, and I get sun allergy as soon as I take my clothes off. My upper arms, legs and chest is all covered in blisters. But as I insist on getting a tan (it IS summer after all), I grit my teeth and and stay out as long as I can bear the itching. We have been barbequeing in the garden almost every day the last week. Summer is nice, sun blisters or not.

Amanda on her confirmation day. I took a bunch of pictures, but this is one of the few where she actually comes close to looking herself:) She makes funny faces nonstop, whether she is the center of attention or not. Bring a camera and she gets downright impossible to get a good picture of. So, out of 40-50 pictures this is the best by far. Sideways. Well, she is a little sideways, my young quirky aquarian daughter.  She already has quite a personality, and lots of attitude.