W42. Office and fall.

Time! Goes! So! Fast! When one is all wrapped up in work.

It's been ten years since I was last office-bound. When I signed the contract for this assignment I did wonder how it would feel to be back. Had you met me 2015, I would have told you that I loved my job and hated my life. It was slightly more nuanced than that, but still, I felt incredibly stuck.

Some mornings I would go to the office at 7am to avoid the commute chaos, and I liked hanging out at the office when it was quiet. Sometimes I would stay and drink wine with colleagues for hours, too tired to go home, even though I wanted to. It sounds a tad depressing, because it kind of was. Or, more accurately, I kind of was.

A lot has happened since then. It's a different time, and I'm a different person. When I left I was usually the youngest in every professional context. Now I'm often among the seniors. Putting my brewing midlife crisis aside, it feels pretty good. And having a clear time limit here means I can relax and enjoy what I like about being in Sweden, and not spend too much time on what I don't.

Plus, we have a really cool office. Every morning there I start my day with nitro cold brew on tap, with a dash of vanilla oat milk and ice. It's my favorite perk of all time. 😌

One guy shook his head at me one day and asked how it felt to be dubbed "the AI enabler". Kinda brought it on myself, I replied. In all seriousness though, I'm having so much fun digging into use cases that can actually be helpful in people's work, and not by outsourcing their creativity or cognitive abilities.

Anyway, enough work ramble.

Here's what else I've been up to the past month.

Took the train up north to visit family. Passed by the town I lived in for my teenage years (and hated every single moment of). Thanked myself for having the drive to make it out of there.

Went to Tove Schunnesson's author talk at a bookshop. Ultravåld was such a joy to read, I inhaled it. She mentioned something about the trashiness of teenagers in small towns and I felt seen. That was 100% me and one day I'll attempt to write about it.

We've been having some amazing fall days here. In the early October I could still leave the house in just a sweater. Ah, good times.

Read A Bigger Life (loved it) and found this delightful statistic.

Had friends over and made a quiche. Not winning any cooking show awards soon, but turned out pretty good.

One evening I suddenly noticed flashing blue lights outside. Two fire trucks and too many police officers to count. Attempted arson in the house next door.

Ok cool.

Met other friends at a french fries restaurant and felt Dutch for a moment.

The good weather has sailed away and we're back to our regularly scheduled Swedish programming: rain, rain, and then some more rain.

Finally tried an improv class here! Not sure if it was the format or the Swedishness of it all, but did not feel called to sign up.

That's it for this recap. Happy weekend!