summer's almost gone

Summer's almost gone
Summer's almost gone
Almost gone
Yeah, it's almost gone
Where will we be
When the summer's gone? 

- The Doors

 Yes, summer is indeed almost gone. Four months of work at the cemetery ended last Friday, this is the first Monday in four months I didn't get up 6:04 AM. It feels weird. I mean... I think it's always like that, for me at least: you look forward to lazy days when you can do whatever you want (or do nothing) but when the time finally arrives, you feel kind of lost.

Well, as often happens to me, I wasn't much online this summer (except for updating GetGlue, which is currently my biggest Internet addiction). I'm sorry for not reading your blogs, following your Twitters and all that - I simply don't have energy for those lovely little things during the summer. I don't mind, actually. I spend so much time online during the dark and cold winter days anyway. So, since it's my summer holiday now (which is pretty awesome - it's September, and right now it's raining cats and dogs outside), it's time for me to catch up with my Internet life - I've missed all my favorite bloggers, writing nonsense updates to Twitter etc. However, I'll start by offering you a summary of my summer.
Here goes (yes, I still love writing lists)...

Summer 2012

Books I read...

• Amy Tan: The Joy Luck Club (1989)
• Ray Bradbury: Something Wicked This Way Comes (1962)
• Jack London: The Road (1907)
• Torey Hayden: The Sunflower Forest (1984)
• Joyce Carol Oates: Rape - A Love Story (2003)
• Kurt Vonnegut: Deadeye Dick (1982)
• Jared Cade: Agatha Christie and the Eleven Missing Days (1999)
• Åsa Moberg: Florence Nightingale - biography (2012)
• Oliver Sacks: The Mind's Eye (2010)
• Barbara Demick: Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea (2009)
• Helen Keller: The Story of my Life (1903)
• Shlomo Venezia: Inside the Gas Chambers - Eight Months in the Sonderkommando of Auschwitz (2007)
• Stephen King: Duma Key (2008)
• Stephen King: Lisey's Story (2006) 
• + currently reading Sophie's Choice by William Styron & Room by Emma Donoghue

TV Shows I was addicted to...

• House, M.D.
• Bones
• The Amazing Race
• Hex
• New Girl
• Little Mosque on the Prairie
• Trauma
• Whose Line Is It Anyway? (USA)
• Bedlam
• Eureka
• 18 to Life
• Whitechapel
• Two Pints of Lager and a Packet of Crisps
• Rizzoli & Isles
• The Twilight Zone
• Murder, She Wrote
• + currently 100% addicted to PERSON OF INTEREST!

Music I listened to...

•  AC/DC
• The Cornell Hurd Band
• Emmylou Harris
• Guns 'N Roses
• Hurts
• Judas Priest
• Keith Urban
• Lady Gaga
• Melissa Etheridge
• Melissa Ferrick
• My Chemical Romance
• Nanci Griffith
• Nickelback
• P!nk
• Reckless Kelly
• Rodney Atkins
• Secret Sisters
• Sheryl Crow
• Willie Nelson

Random Stuff I Did...

• WORK, WORK, WORK - I think I've never worked this many hours in a summer. That's how I am - always volunteering for working over time and doing weekend shifts. That's the Uncle Scrooge in me
• Lost 12KG (26 lbs) and now I feel great about my weight! :-)
• At this age of 26 I finally learnt how to crochet. I also learnt to read crochet instructions both in Finnish and English (ohh I'm so proud of myself!) - I'm so addicted to crocheting that I'm actually planning on putting up a Craft Blog where I could collect photos of all the stuff I've done :-)
• For some reason I argued over nothing with my sister more than in years )-: Nothing serious really and at the moment we're best friends again, it's just... ohh well, we're both such nasty bitches when we get annoyed, and we're both a little too good at hurting each others feelings when we want to. Blah.
• Applied for a flat in Luumäki like I planned! I'm so excited about moving back here permanently. Sadly, I haven't found a perfect flat yet, but I'm not in a hurry. They offered me one place, but it was too expensive for my taste, and then there was a flat I loved but in the end I didn't get it... Well, I know I'll find my dream flat occassionally, but sometimes it's difficult to be patience in these things, right?
• In four months, I've managed to put a side over 2,000 euros for that crazy Chevrolet Impala dream of mine. I know I have a looooong road in front of me, but I'll get there. 

Hmph, that's pretty much all I have to say about this summer. I think I spent 40% of the time sleeping, 45% working, and above I've described how I spent the remaining 15%. Nothing exciting, just simple Apple Pie Life, you know.

I'm going to spend this week in Luumäki; simply relaxing and getting used to have much more spare time in my hands. Then I'm driving to Joensuu / North Karelia for a week or two. I obviously have a lot to do there before moving away; boring office stuff etc. Kind of stuff I just want to get done with, get rid of it. Then I'll go back to work on first of October, so by then I'll be back in Luumäki. Gosh, I have so many plans for the winter I feel my head is going to explode (in a positive way, if that's possible)! I have high hopes of starting to update this blog regularly again, so... so we'll see.

Anyway, I hope you all had a nice summer;
see you around,

yours truly-

photos from Google

busy, busy, busy

Where did May go? Time for sure flies nowadays! I can't believe I've been back to work for a month already, feels like just a few weeks. I guess that's what happens when all you do is working, housekeeping and sleeping (and the best/worst part, when you're enjoying all of it). I also guess that's the reason I've been such a lazy blogger recently - there's simply not so much interesting material for blogging in my life right now - I'm just quietly enjoying this summer life of mine, and prefetably offline.


Seriously, I don't have anything special to write. I just felt guilty for not logging in in a month, and had to come around and try to write something. I know I will be missing these summer days later, so the least I can do now is write something about them, something to read next winter when I'm most likely freezing my ass off and broke again...

These are the busiest weeks of the summer at work, but in a few weeks it will get easier. Eventhough then we'll start weekend shift rotations again. Well, I don't mind going to work for a few hours on Saturdays and Sundays - it just stands for some extra money and makes my inner Uncle Scrooge happy ;-) I've also had some time for photographing at work, and hopefully some day I manage to put together a photopost of those photos (there's also some absolutely awesome "gag reel" photos we took with Abby!) ...yeah, work is going just fine. LMAO the other day we were kind of playing Treasure Hunt (our own twisted work related version of it, anyway) and I won by finding a whole hipbone! xD ...I still look forward to the day I'll find a skull, that would be cool (that sounded so wrong).

Besides work, I have a few little projects going on on the side. Project number one is saving money for my very own car. I've had a driver's licence for almost a decade now, but this is the first time I actually have an urge to buy my own car. I've always been allowed to borrow my parents' cars, but suddenly... I just want my own. Probably because my idea of a car is quite different than my parents - they're perfectly happy with '04 Fiat Punto, and my dream car would be something like Chevy Impala from 70s or 80s. So, I signed for a new saving account, and I'm aiming to save 20,000 EUR and buy my dream car. Laugh all you want, but I'll be the one laughing when I finally get the money together and buy the coolest car ever! So far I have something like 1,050 EUR. The great thing is that I actually enjoy saving money and think of it as a hobby (one thing to be thankful for my parents - eversince I was a kid, I was taught to work hard and save money if I wanted something). I know 20,000 EUR is a lot of money (25,000 USD, btw) but it doesn't feel impossible. Nothing is impossible, it just takes time & patience!

1959 Chevrolet Impala

And my other project is... losing weight! I was beyond shocked when I realized I've gained around 10KG in the course of the last 12 months. That's just wrong. I used to be around 62KG, but when I first weighted myself in May, I was 72KG. NO NO NO NO NO not funny at all! No wonder all my jeans felt so tight suddenly, L0L. Okay, diet it is, let's see how much I can lose by the end of August (when my Luumäki time ends and it's time to move back to the city). The bright side is that I get a lot of excercise at work, so basically all I need to do is watch what I put into my mouth (goodbye, Apple Pie, for now!) I guess it's working, since I've lost 2KG already. And the reason I'm telling you all this..? Because I'm telling EVERYONE about it! You know like, gathering some pressure to lose weight (not "letting everyone down"), and all that. So, dear Everyone, come and ask me in September how much weight did I lose during the summer, please? ;-)

Also, take a look at my sidebar: there's new gadgets for both gathering money and losing weight - you're more than welcome to follow my projects. Just... don't be too hard on me if I mess up somehow (spending money on DVDs instead of saving or eating a whole cake instead of carrots).

Okay, now I'm off to enjoy the rest of this Sunday. Watching a few episodes of Eureka (my newest TV series discovery) and finishing Agatha Christie's Memoirs. Sounds like a plan... Take care, have fun & see you around! xxo

Yours Truly-

Luumäki state of mind

Here I am - back in my summer life. Back in South Karelia, back in Luumäki, back living with my parents for the next four months, and back working at the cemetery, too. Life is easy, slow and overall predictable.

So, Luumäki is a small agricultural town in South Karelia, and the place where I lived the first 18 years of my life. The name means Bonehill, by the way. It's the greatest joke ever, like "Hey, my name is Sanna, I live at Worm Bay Drive in Bonehill, and I work at the cemetery" - like I'm from some frigging Tim Burton movie! Erm, anyway... with around 5,000 people living in Luumäki, all scattered around in their farm houses and separated by forests and fields, life is exactly like it is in any other place like this all over the globe. There's one grocery store and a small library which is open three days a week. Pretty much everyone knows everyone by name, and it comes with its pros and cons. Some serious apple pie life, I tell you! As a teenager I hated all this and couldn't wait to move away ASAP, but after years living elsewhere, I've learnt Luumäki isn't that bad. Or more likely, it not any better or worse than any other place.

My life here during the summers is simple as hell, and it goes like this:

• Get up 6AM
• Go to work 7AM - 3PM
• On your way home, go to the grocery store (and library if you feel like)
• Come home, cook, take a shower (or sauna, if it has been a chilly day)
• Be online or watch TV series for the rest of the evening
• Go to sleep 9 PM
• (REPEAT)

Honestly, my weekdays are this predictable, and I'm okay with it. It's hard to explain, but it feels like... like when you don't need to concentrate on what to do each day, you get time to think everything else. Random thoughts you usually push away thinking "I'll get back to this as soon as I've sorted out all this daily stuff". It feels like my head is full of ideas 24/7, everything from little internet projects to bigger future plans and everything in-between, you know. It's a wonderful feeling! For example, recently I've started updating my mp3 collection, returned to my Modern American Classics reading project, and started a new scrapbook - not to mention I've got some pretty neat ideas of what I want to do next fall as well! :-)

I have my own room in my parents' apartment (not the same house I grew up in, btw), and I actually love it. It's quite different than my own apartment in Joensuu, but I still feel equally "home" here. I've got my books and DVDs, and an internet connection - I'm happy.

Home sweet Home - everything I brought with me for the summer!

my Luumäki room

I've also been "living" Supernatural pretty much 24/7 recently. You know how it is when I get a new obsession... I've been reading a lot of fanfiction, and I'm especially in love with Hoodie_Time - there will never be enough awesome whump!Dean for me. I've also found the world of audiofics recently. At first it was a little awkward - listening to fics instead of reading them - but now that I've got used to it, it's great! Especially since I've started getting headaches from reading too long (damn I need new glasses!), with audiofics I can just close my eyes and let go... yeah, sweet. Of course I've also been watching SPN, recently started with the 7th season. Aaaaand since I'm also a collector by nature, I started collecting those Official Supernatural Magazines. I recently subscribed to OSM, but now I'm searching the net to buy the issues I've missed - haha, I've always loved the feeling you get when you're hunting for the pieces you're missing from your collection! So far I have issues #24, #25, #27, #28, #29, #31 and #32 (which is the newest issue, btw). I made a deal with myself - everytime I have a bad day, I'm allowed to order another issue ;-)

my SPN collection so far

lovely box I found for my SPN treasures! :-)

.

.

.

Well, that was a surprisingly long entry since I didn't have anything special to write about! Now I'm off to read The Sunflower Forest by Torey Hayden, and then early to bed again. Abby just called and said she won't be coming to work because of a flu, and frankly, I'm not too sad about it. Why does it feel I need to take some distance to her, eventhough all there has been for the whole winter, is distance? I confuse myself sometimes, dammit!

Yours Truly-

nothing to write home about...

Madison: I don't understand how grown-ups can be busy when they aren't doing anything.
JD: Sometimes we're... you know, like, busy on the inside.

...Harper's Island, anyone? I think the dialog above describes my current life pretty well. I've been damn busy for the last weeks, but at the same time I feel I haven't actually done anything. Nothing worth of blogging at least, that is. Today I forced myself to log in, just to avoid Blogger's Block. I don't have anything special in mind, I just feel like writing.

This is Abby :-)

Well, my boredom will end tonight - Abby is coming over for a week or so, yay! :-) Abby is one of my best friends, and we always have so much fun together. I have my plans for our Valentine's Day, we're planning to visit the botanical gardens, the museums... and watch crime series for countless hours! Crime series are kind of our thing... actually, I think crime series were the reason we became friends in the first place. We're both addicted to stuff like NCIS, CSI and Bones, and I think our first real conversations were about those shows. In case you didn't know, Abby is also my boss at the cemetery where I work during summers. I consider myself lucky, being good friends with my boss - makes the job so much funnier.

CSI: Cemetery Scene Investigation!

And while talking about TV series, Abby and the cemetery... I'm also going to introduce Abby to my latest TV addiction, Supernatural. Haha, I hope she likes it! You know, I've worked at the cemetery for 5 years now, and I've never really thought anything about it, but after watching 6 seasons of Supernatural... L0L, I think I might have some issues next summer! xD Like for example... well, I don't think I'm allowed to tell you what happens to human remains we found at the cemetery (the fact is that we always find bones and stuff), but I think I can tell you that those don't always go back to the grave they belong to (in most cases, just because we don't know where they belong)... I've never thought anything about it, but now, after all those salt'n'burn Supernatural cases I'm thinking "OMG, I hope this person's spirit doesn't come back, getting rid of him/her would be a bitch with some remains missing!" xD

Abby taking it easy at work! ...the best boss ever :D

Erm... back to Abby. I think I like her so much because she really understands me. I know I'm pretty complicated person and not always the most pleasent one to be around, and Abby must be the only person I know who really gets it. Like, I can be so damn moody, and it's like Abby always knows when I need someone to talk to and when it's better to leave me alone. For example, last summer Abby did something that really pissed me off, and I was sure she wouldn't realize what she had done. I bet no one else would have realized it, since it was actually just a small thing, but it deeply insulted me. But... at the end of the day, Abby came to me, and apologized for what she had said. I cannot tell you how surprised I was that she had figured it out. I think that was the moment I really realized that she understands me. That's the great thing about Abby - I can talk to her about difficult things and trust that she understands and helps me, but I can also fool around with her and LMAO at our insane inside jokes. Abby is great.

Last September we were in Vienna :)

We work together, we travel together, we go to concerts together, we go shopping together, we watch TV series together, we gossip together... we have even been in a car accident together! xD We complete each other, we're similar enough but also different enough to spice up our friendship. But the most important thing is that I trust Abby, I really do. Sometimes she pisses me off or I get annoyed with her, but I still know she will always have my six (works both ways, obviously).

Ohh, seems like I got a little carried away with introducing Abby to you. Well, I think it doesn't matter, you don't mind, do you? After all, this is a blog about me, and Abby is an essential part of my life and who I am. Take this as a countdown to Valentine's Day, it's time to appreciate your friends and let them know how much you love them! You can say all about how letting your friends know how important they are should be a daily act, but still it's good to get it loud and clear once in a while.

Soon I'm off to meet Abby at the railwaystation. I guess I'll see you in a week or so. When Abby leaves, I will take a train with her and go to South Karelia for a few days. As long as wifi works, I try to blog something once I'm home-home (see, 'home' stands for my own place here in Joensuu / North Karelia, and 'home-home' stands for my childhood home in Luumäki / South Karelia).

In the end... my favorite photo of Abby. She's such a badass! =D

SNIPER!

yours truly~