Sakura Matsuri og Andre Saker

I promised you that I would post pictures from the Sakura Matsuri last weekend. I can't do it right now; I have to wait until I get home. I don't have picture editing stuff on this computer. Yeah, I am on "lunch break", and today, I actually GOT a lunch break! It's been so hectic recently that I've gotten little breaktime.

UPDATE - Here are the pictures:




I cropped my dad out of the third pic, to protect his identity (and mine). The teddy bear tummy sticking into the left-hand side of the pic belongs to him. :)

UPDATE #2: I finally got news from Hunter College today. They rejected my application. Well, so I'm even more glad that I just said "yes" to Columbia. Funny how the ivy league school accepts me and the public city school rejects me. I've heard that Hunter is the hardest to get into, though, because it's such a cheap school. Well, I'll be paying more, but I'll get a much better-quality overall experience. CUNY SUCKS. The specific Hunter social work program may be good, but CUNY SUCKS. Before anyone who might happen upon this gets huffy at reading this, just know that I say that CUNY sucks out of EXPERIENCE. I used to be an employee there. Yeah. And guess what? I need CUNY's authorization to withdraw my retirement money. FUCK. Those people at the central office are SO incompetent. Will I ever get through to the right person, and will they ever do their job correctly and sign the papers? Seems easy enough, but even the simplest task seems to get bungled at that fucking office. Well, I will be calling them tomorrow. I need that money NOW. I need to pay my $3,000 medical bill.

BACK TO OUR REGULARLY SCHEDULED PROGRAM: I know where you are, you lurkers. See that world map down there on the right side of the screen? I can tell where folks are who happen upon this online diary. I know of only two people who read my blog: my friend here in Queens and my friend down in Georgia. Yup, there's a New York blip and a Georgia blip on the map. What about the other blips? Looks like there is a Chicago blip. Maybe that's my friend who just moved there a few months ago. I can't remember if I gave her my blog address. What about the blip southwest of NYC and the other blip down in the South near Georgia? Hmmm...probably some unsuspecting person happened upon this site by mistake. The most compelling blip is the one coming from Stockholm. The Swedish words I write on here must have come up on some Stockholmer's internet search or something. Maybe if I start writing words in Norwegian, I'll get some blips from Norway.

Speaking of Norway, Norwegian Independence Day is on the 17th of this month, and I am going to go to Bay Ridge, Brooklyn to watch the "Syttende Maj" parade. :) I have a huge Norwegian flag and several smaller ones. Why, you ask? Because I am part Norwegian. I mean, I REALLY am part-Norwegian, meaning I have cousins there that I have visited several times. So what's up with all this about Sweden, then, you ask? Because I love Sweden as well, and I used to live there, and my deceased partner is Swedish, and I consider his family to be my family. And...my ancestors in Norway originally came from Sweden, so you could say I'm part-Swedish. My ancestors were glassblowers. Some of them moved to Norway (the ones I'm descended from) and some settled in Småland (an area in the southern part of Sweden). I may very well have distant relatives still in Småland or other parts of Sweden. I would like to find them. There were many artistic people among my Scandinavian ancestors. My great-grandpa's brother immigrated from Norway to San Francisco, where he was an opera singer. My cousins with whom I have stayed build houses for a living, and the houses they build are INCREDIBLE. The houses they build are not mansions or anything like that. They are traditional Norwegian houses, and they include all sorts of awesome details like intricate carpentry in here and there, and rosmåling on some of the doors. "Rosmåling" is a kind of Norwegian painting that is absolutely gorgeous. It is often done on everyday wooden objects like bowls, plates, jars, doors, etc. I even have salt and pepper shakers with a bit of it on them. They look like miniature, painted wooden barrels. :) They were passed down to me by my mother, who went and stayed with the cousins in the 1960s. I've also been handed down a silver broche with the word "Christiania" engraved on the back of it. "Christiania" is an old name for Oslo. The broche dates back the the early 1900s, when my great-grandfather immigrated here.

Speaking of Scandinavia, I am currently reading a book by Nella Larsen (who was part-Danish, part black), called Passing. No, I didn't finish the Sembene Ousmane book, God's Bits of Wood. I started on it but just am not in the mood for that sort of book right now. Yeah, so I haven't actually started on Passing itself. I'm still reading the introduction, which is long (and very interesting). I look forward to reading the book itself. I'm sure it will be very thought-provoking.

I hope my Norwegian words above will lead to a blip or two from Norway. :) HEI NORGE!!! JEG ELSKER DEG!!! HA DET!!! :)