updating "about me"

it seemed like it was about time to update my "about me." so i did.

waves hello!  this is me. or at least my feet (if you like them, you can see more of them over here). i'm american, but i've been living in the little land of denmark for nigh on 14 years. i met a lovely danish boy in the balkans in 1997 when i was on a fulbright there and i followed him home (after going back home to the states to get rid of that starter husband take care of a few things). it's really true that a fulbright can change your life.

i thought i was going to be a professor of russian literature, as russian literature is my first love but life took me in another direction and i've worked for some of the biggest companies in the world. however, now, together with a couple of friends, i have a very tiny little consultancy specializing in all kinds of communications and strategy development in english. and that suits me just fine.

at that point in life where you're supposed to be settled down, enjoying your career, your volvo and your perfect house in the suburbs, we gave it all up and moved to a falling down house on a little 17 acre farm property in the middle of nowhere in denmark. i live there with that danish husband (and i really do call him husband) and our daughter who is not quite a teenager, but starting to show signs. we actually live in a town called give, which i feel makes me a little bit kinder and gentler towards the world, just because of what it means. actually, being kinder and gentler towards the world is something i'm working on - both literally (in terms of consuming less) and internally (in terms of trying to turn off my evil corporate persona, which, if i think about it, started out as an evil academic persona). and i don't always succeed. but hey, it's a process. (damn you apple and your shiny, appealing products. and damn you cult company who made me drink the blue kool-aid for four years.)

we have horses and chickens and bunnies and cats and bees. and one end of a beautiful lake. we've planted cider apple trees and 15 rows of potatoes. we have a big kitchen garden and want to live a more sustainable life, knowing where our food has come from and how it's been treated. but that too is a process. i share a bit of it here.

i struggle and laugh and love and try to make sense of the danes. i am trying to be involved in my community. i don't travel as much as i used to. i miss that a little bit. but i want different things now - to open a little posh bed and breakfast, to have a rustic office space in the back garden, to hold creativity weekends where people can get back in touch with themselves and their creativity. husband, he just bought equipment for a sawmill, so he clearly wants something new as well. oddly, with all these things we want, we are also feeling quite content with how things are right here and now.

this blog is where i work out what i think about things. after all, blogging is cheaper than therapy.