216 posts from 2007

My son, who is in California at this very moment visiting his birth mother, decided that our family's December 2007 charitable contribution would go to California wildfire relief. We donated some money to the California Community Foundation's "Southern California Wildfire Relief Fund" today. My husband chooses the January 2008 charity--we rotate turns every month and try to always pick a different charity (although there's a few repeats every year, depending on our favorite causes.)

My oldest cousin is being buried in Finland today. He succumbed to cancer after fighting a hard, three year long fight. He was a good man: a father, a husband, a man of the church. Our huge family is there today to honor him, and I know there are many friends and colleagues there to honor him as well. Because I can't be there in person I wanted to say a public good bye as well as send my condolences to all of my surviving relatives. Tero was only in his 40s, so we wish he could have stayed with us longer, but we can honestly say he lived a good life. And there's a lot of relatives in heaven who are welcoming him in with open arms, so he won't be alone. The family has started a fund to help his children, the youngest of which is only 7 years old. We're a large family so these kids will never be alone. And now they have their own guardian angel looking out for them too. It'll be all right, in the end.

Well, kids, nothing severe to report this time, but because I promised to publicly log everything that Mr. Cranky Pants does to us (or tries to do to us), here's our latest report from about 15 minutes ago: Mr. Cranky Pants attempted to "intimidate" my husband by staring him down with evil eyes. My husband had to run to and from his car a few times to find some stuff, and Mr. Cranky Pants shot him nasty looks the whole time. Happy Holidays, Mr. Cranky Pants! Keep on spreading that good-hearted holiday spirit. I mean, you are one of this town's finest, most upstanding citizens, right?

Anyway, Kids, don't you fear--most of the people in this town ARE fine, upstanding citizens. It's too bad even one bad apple has to mar the reputation of this place. But I guess every town has a Mr. Cranky Pants, right?

At least Mr. Cranky Pants did not try to talk to us--otherwise we would have grounds to institute the restraining order (a.k.a. peace order), as we have grounds to do because we served him with a "cease and desist" letter a few months ago. Unfortunately, trying to be intimindating and shooting someone nasty looks is not criteria for a peace order, so I guess the games will continue into 2008. 

On Saturday, December 15, after two days of intense one-on-one matches, Brunswick High School's Railroader wrestling team came out on top at the Joppatowne Duels held north of Baltimore. Eight regional schools competed at the duels and Brunswick bested all of their opponents to capture the top trophy. This win represents a lot of dedication and devotion to the sport, a lot of discipline and hard work conditioning their bodies and minds to compete, and a lot of blood and sweat (and perhaps a few tears) along the way. Coaches Trey Coates and Scott Tillis deserve a lot of the credit, too, for training these kids into the winners they showed themselves to be at Joppatowne. Good job, Railroaders!

Tonight I came across a webpage that has a demo version of an English to Finnish to English translator. I used it tonight to help compose a letter to one of my Finnish relatives. It helps if you already know some Finnish and English so that you can catch any mistakes in the translations, but it's particularly helpful for English speakers who have trouble remembering where to place all of the diacritical marks in the Finnish words. The demo will only let you do 10 translations of 60 characters or less a day, but that was enough for me to pen a nice short letter to my aunt using words I already knew plus spellings that I had to confirm in the translator. There are various software packages allowing you to buy the full version of the translator, but the package I wanted was too expensive for me at 89 Euros. Still, I might go for it one day as I try to increase the amount of Finnish that I write each year.

The English-Finnish-English translator can be found at this web address:

http://www.sunda.fi/eng/online_demo.html

Sometimes being a mature adult and doing the right thing really sucks badly.

Last week, as I posted here, we took in a stray cat that a neighbor found, and over the last 9 days, we took care of him, named him Linken, and fell in love with the little guy.

I figured he was like many cats in Brunswick: tossed, dumped, abandoned. But I had to be responsible, and check for an owner. I ran an ad in today's Brunswick Citizen, figuring nobody would respond to it, and that would be that, he'd be our cat forever (or at least as long as he lived).

Well, somebody called tonight, and they described the kitty perfectly--it was undoubtedly their cat. The owners came up to the house and took him home.

It was really hard to give him back because we were all so emotionally invested in this cat already. Afterall, we had named him, taken him to the vet to get his shots, given him a bath, combed and brushed him, spent countless hours playing with him with all the new cats toys we bought for him, slept with him curled up in our arms at night, and given him lots of love and petting and attention.

But it turns out that a 3 year old little girl had been crying her eyes out over the last 2 weeks, inconsolable about her lost kitty. She had even made him a Christmas stocking, hoping he would return home. So, he had to go back to his original family--it was the right thing.

The cat's name is actually Lucky. Kind of funny that the name my son picked for the kitten--Linken--has some of the same letters and sounds in it as the name Lucky. And I guess he is a lucky cat, because unlike many cats in this town, and in many other towns like it, he is loved. Obviously the owners were doing something right with him because he is such a great cat.

I offered to pay for the cat to keep him, or to take Lucky back later if they decide they don't want him or can't care for him properly anymore, but I don't think that's going to happen, so I have to give him up and move on. Writing this piece will be a part of this process of moving on.

I know cats are not as important as people, but for me, they are indeed like family members. I will never have a baby in this life (my son is my stepson and has been my stepson since he was age 9; due to infertility and other circumstances, I'm fairly certain not ever going to be a bio-mom), but when I was holding the kitten it felt like I would never need a baby--cats are my kids, and I loved that cat.

So, this sadness I feel now is not equivalent to the sadness a person would feel giving up or losing a child, but it hurts a lot for me nonetheless. Cats are also like kids for me in that you can't ever replace one cat with another; each one is unique and distinct. So the little empty spot I will now have in my heart for Linken/Lucky will remain there for a long time, probably forever. Because I was once a 4 year old little girl whose beloved kitten ran away; I was once a little girl who cried over her lost cat for 9 days, and for many more days after that. In fact, 2008 is the year I turn 34, so it's kind of silly of me to mourn the loss of that cat I had briefly back when I was 4, but it still feels sad and empty to me three decades later.

I'm glad a different little girl will never go through that sort of emotional pain. She got her Lucky back. And that's the right thing. I just wish it wasn't so hard to let little Lucky go. 

OK, so my son already named the cat, so we are secretly hoping no owner turns up. The cat is named Linken after a video game character (we let my son pick the name). I also have to add (self consciously) that the markings on my steps are not dirt--it's damage to the wood. In '08 I plan to either refinish and restore or carpet and cover the steps entirely. The damage was there when we first bought the house but hey, the house is almost 100 years old, so there's bound to be some flaws...

Linken

Which are your favorite sites for shopping online?

Oh man, being a shopaholic, there are too many to mention. Here's just a few:

• www.sephora.com for bath and body products galore
• www.wishingfish.com, www.fredflare.com, and www.etsy.com for unique and weird gifts
• www.seejanework.com for cute and special office products
• www.finnstyle.com for Finnish products

Finland map

Yesterday Finland celebrated the 90th anniversary of its independence. I had the pleasure of attending the Independence Day celebration at the Finnish Embassy in Washington, DC, last night, an event hosted by Ambassador of Finland Pekka Lintu and Mrs. Laurel Colless. More than 600 celebrants gathered together to sing the Finnish anthem, watch a beautiful slideshow of current and vintage photographs of Finland, and eat Finnish treats like gingerbread and Finlandia cheese.