Tag: almost daily selfie

feelings

unexpected wisdom

abby mumford

“Whatever decision you make becomes the new normal.”

He said it in with a brass band spilling their artistic guts onto the dance floor. He said it as we celebrated friends combining their lives and love. He said it partly in reference to the imminent birth of his daughter and partly about buying a house in an unexpected neighborhood.

He meant it as he said it. He meant it as advice to himself.

I couldn’t help but think how true to life/everything it was.

No matter the size or density, change is scary and difficult, but he was right that with time, life softens the edges of each decision until it takes on a familiar shape and you forget your fear and sink into what is now true.

I snatched that gold nugget and tucked it in my purse along with my chapstick, mints, and ID because the clarity, sageness, and calming aspects of M’s unexpected advice lingered longer than the very last note of the excellent trombone player.

convos with strangers

conversations with strangers #129

abby mumford

3.24.16

Me: What time do we land? 12:30? East coast time.

Flight attendant: Hmm. What time is it now?

Me: It’s just before 11 East Coast, so 9am Denver time.

FA: We’re due to land at 10:30 Denver time.

A: Okay yeah. 12:30. I haven’t changed my watch yet to Colorado time. Plus my grandmother lives in Denver so I’m used to the time difference.

FA: I live in Denver so I’m used to it too but when you’re flying all over and through various time zones, I’m not quite sure what time it is!

A: Now that is some challenging math.

Not to mention an interesting career choice that bleeds into one’s personal life unlike a lot of other job options. As she pushed the drink cart to serve other customers, I pondered all the questions I had about being a flight attendant. Hey, anything to make the flight time feel faster, right?

writing

what’s the word I want?

abby mumford

Sometimes the English language just doesn’t have the right word…

The Japanese have “komorebi,” which means the scattered, dappled shape sunlight takes when filtered through trees.

They also have “tsundoku,” which is when you buy a book, don’t read it, and it goes into a pile of similarly unread books.

“Waldeinsamkeit” is the German way to describe the feeling of being alone in the woods.

I need a word for the exasperated sound you make when a parent asks you to do something you desperately don’t want to.

Inuits have “iktsuarpok” to describe the frustration of waiting for someone to show up.

“Utepils” is when Norwegians sit outside on a warm, sunny day and enjoy a beer.

“Culaccino” is the Italian word for the ring of condensation left behind on the table. It often happens when sitting outside on a sunny day.

I need a word for when you’ve been searching for years for a product you first heard about at work and you randomly find out your mother’s had the answer all along.

Walking on your tiptoes across hot sand is pronounced “hanyuku” by the Rukwangalis.

“Gökotta” is the Swedish word to wake up early enough and with the specific desire to go outside to hear the birds singing.

“Pochemuchka” is Russian for someone who asks too many questions (aka me during movies.)

I need a word for the shocked silence after someone asks a question and you answer differently than s/he expected.

Anything you can put on sliced bread is called “pålegg” in Swedish (and called delicious by me.)

“Sobremesa” is Spanish for the post lunch conversations had at the table.

In Indonesia, they say “jaysus” to describe an unfunny joke told so poorly people can’t help but laugh.

I need a word for when you type and delete and type and delete and type and delete words in rapid succession until you find the right combination appropriate to email your boss/coworkers.

“Tartle” is Scottish for that moment of hesitation when introducing someone because you’ve forgotten their name.

To eat past the point of being full because the food is so good can be explained with one Georgian word, “shemomedjamo.”

“Trepverter” is Yiddish describing when you think of the perfect witty comeback too late.

I need a word for when you’re walking outside on a frosty evening and the smoky scent of a wood fire wafts by.

convos with strangers

conversations with strangers #128

abby mumford

3.17.16

It was early for the usual post work crowd, but since it was St. Patrick’s Day, the Irish bar C and I were in was packed four deep. We each had a Guinness in hand, continually shifting and rearranging positions to avoid those who’d been celebrating far longer than us.

The guy next to us grabbed his friend’s thigh high up and obvious enough, we took the bait with raised eyebrows. They started laughing and the salt and pepper haired friend mentioned something about restless leg syndrome. I nodded.

“I have that too,” I said.

“No one ever believes me,” he said with an appropriately thick Irish accent. “I couldn’t sleep last weekend. I had to get up and get on the treadmill.”

The live music blurred the edges of conversation or maybe it was the Guinness but I perked up again when he said he’d just been in Panama.

“I was there last month,” I said.

“I was there last weekend,” he said.

“Wow. That is recent! What took you there?” I said.

“Buying property,” he said.

The similarities between him and me were not great enough to combat the gulf between our locations or the thickening crush of people or the wail of the music, and with the arrival of my other friends, he and his friend vanished like two leprechauns protecting their pot of gold.

feelings

on re-reading

abby mumford

I read a lot of books, but more importantly, I re-read books.

I’ve come to find out not a lot of people read something more than once, which boggles my mind because if you liked a book, why not re-join that universe and those characters over and over again?

Why read something when you already know how it ends? You say. That’s precisely why I re-read! I answer. I can predict the ending and the twists and the turns and even if the obstacles seem as insurmountable as before, I already know the outcome, so I can enjoy the journey to get there. I can pick up on more details instead of focusing on just the big plot points, which allows me to breathe in the book’s universe more deeply.

Occasionally, all I want to do is wallow and cry and picking up a sad book facilitates that. Knowing how the sadness takes shape allows me to control how low I go. (And sometimes, I’ll just turn on the beginning of BRIDGET JONES’S DIARY (the movie) and that does the trick of encouraging self-pity, but then dragging me away from it.)

Or I’ll pick up a book I know will make me laugh and grin away the dark mood.

Other times, I want to surround myself with pretty language to drown out the ugly words in my head.

There are also times I want to play detective, but I’m horrible at solving mysteries, so re-joining a universe where I know who the bad guy is means I catch all the clues giving my ego gets a much needed boost. And some books have such a huge twist that you have to read it twice in a row so you can read the story with a fresh set of eyes and pick up on all you originally missed.

But the main reason I re-read is because it’s the familiar that’s comfortable / what I’m seeking. Life can get crazy and be unstable and hard to handle. Knowing how a book will take shape? Being able to predict the ending? That’s a nice walk down easy street. A fabulous way to clear the mind and steady the heart.

What are some of the books I’ve read more than once?

CODE NAME VERITY by Elizabeth Wein*

GRACELING by Kristin Cashore

HARRY POTTER series by J.K. Rowling (I’ve re-read books 3 and 4 the most.)

IF I STAY by Gayle Forman*

METRO GIRL by Janet Evanovich

SIMON VS THE HOMO SAPIENS AGENDA by Becky Albertalli*

THE FAULT IN OUR STARS by John Green

THE GUERNSEY LITERARY AND POTATO PEEL PIE SOCIETY by Annie Barrows*

THE HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins* (note, just THG, not the other two)

THE RAMBLERS by Aidan Donnelley Rowley*

THE ROSIE PROJECT by Graeme Simsion*

THE SCORPIO RACES by Maggie Stiefvater* (I re-read this every November. If you’ve read the book, you’ll know why.)

THE SKY IS EVERYWHERE by Jandy Nelson

THE WITNESS and CHASING FIRE by Nora Roberts*

TINY BEAUTIFUL THINGS by Cheryl Strayed*

*Books I’ve both read and listened to.

Do YOU re-read books? If so, which ones? If not, why not?