March went out like a lamb

From what I have seen, it looks like we've been blessed with the same weather as those of you in the Midwest. It's different here though. There's always foot traffic, but as soon as the sun starts to shine, people just start sitting around everywhere. Not quite everywhere...only the places where they can sit and enjoy the sunlight.

Today we walked down a street and saw two pubs straddling the street, both with sidewalk seating. The pub with seating in the sun didn't have enough room to handle everyone that was lining up for the next seat. The pub in the shade had set out huge blankets on each chair for their patrons to wrap up in (a very cool idea), but still only had about 25 percent of the people that the other pub was entertaining. We thought that this may have something to do with the quality of the pub, but as we continued down the street, we noticed that this was a pretty common occurrence. Not only at restaurants and coffee shops, but in parks, in front of public buildings with large staircases...pretty much anywhere you could stop and sit in the sun. I think it's fair to say that nobody takes the sun for granted. Either way, it's pretty cool to see so many people enjoying such a simple pleasure.

The other cool part about seeing everybody out and about is that nobody is really doing anything. Some shop because they want to shop, but there's no sense of urgency in the air. People are out for day-long strolls, stopping in parks, sitting in the sun, moving on to the next coffee shop, and then walking along the water again, just because they can. When was the last time you took a day-long walk? How about multiple weekends in a row? Until I got to Stockholm, I hadn't enjoyed a day of just walking around and doing nothing since a lazy spring Saturday in college. Personally, I love it. Give it a try. Forget your errands and spend a day just enjoying the parks and street cafes around town. You'll remember how much you love it too.

Today was another big step for me. I put in my contact lenses for the first time in ages and decided it was time to get some "hip" sunglasses, a spring jacket and maybe a new pair of jeans. Finding a jacket was the big goal, but so far the jacket has proven to be quite elusive. Either that or I'm too picky.

Next came the jeans. You've heard our rants about skinny jeans. Well, I decided to make the plunge. It was quite difficult. Not finding a pair that I liked, they all look cool. The difficult part was to get into the jeans. Guys don't like trying on clothes because we're lazy. I learned today that girls don't like to try on clothes because it takes a lot of work to get in and out of tight clothes. After I had pulled on my denim skin and sucked in my gut far enough to button my jeans, I actually liked them. They're straight leg, which in the U.S. would be the "skinny" cut. I thought about trying on the Swedish "skinny" cut, but decided that would be too painful. I'm pretty sure they would have cut off circulation to my ankles. I'm wearing them around now to break them in. Miranda laughs every time I try to bend over. Hopefully they'll loosen a little with wear.

Our last stop was to find some sunglasses. Most of you have probably never seen me in sunglasses, mostly because I think I look like a bigger dork than normal when I wear sunglasses. Also because even though I'm not blind without my glasses, I like being able to see off into the distance. So we found a few cool pairs, but I was unwilling to pay 1200 SEK ($200), so we had to dig further. After about a half hour of trying on every pair of shades in the store, Miranda finally gave me a pair I liked...except they were brown and I wanted black. I finally gave in, and I liked the price, so had no real reason to complain. So now have a sweet pair of sunglasses...cheap and hip. Just saying that means I'm still a dork, even if these sunglasses do look somewhat cool.

Miranda has some other news to share, but since we're falling behind in the post count, I'll let her post separately.