My Rønne
Places, Stories, People!Thank you so much for dropping by. You can read what is on this blog thanks to an editor who made this spine-chilling statement years ago:
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My blog posts may not be perfect, but they are human-created, not generated by ChatGPT or other AI tools. However, Haute Stock image texts and the voices for the audio files are AI-generated.
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The Anatomy of A Nightmare
I am not a sociologist or psychiatrist, so I don’t know which is the correct professional term to use about groups such as these – cults, extremists, fanatics, echo chamber lunatics – so I stick to my chosen term: Monsters!
Return to Happiness
Life can be a rotten deal sometimes, but that does not mean everything in your life has been bad, even if it feels like that when you are neck-deep in a situation that seems only to be getting worse by the minute. When life is like that, one of the remedies to stay happy can be the psychological trick of an emotional and visual return to happy moments. It is the same as when you fix your computer by returning to the last point where it worked.
Out Of The Grumpiness
When you lose a dog, it feels like life has ended. You think that you will never, as Lady Gaga sang, love again. But then, one day, suddenly, 1 ½ years after your fur-BFF passed away, something happens. You realize you have returned from the land of perpetual grumpiness.
The Marais
Of all the places I have lived in my adult life, the best was the Marais. So I reserve the right to remember and idolize the place, covering up the bad days with the candy floss veil of time. Despite the price level, the lack of greenery, and the almost stale air in the summer, it is a people magnet, and if you have ever been there or been lucky enough to have lived there, you will understand why loved it so much.
Montmartre Faves
Montmartre, also known as La Butte (The Hill), is most often associated with the artists who lived and worked here from the 18th century until the 1920s. But this unique and colorful neighborhood has much more to offer than days gone by.
Paris Is Romance, And That's It!
In the '00s, the French state desperately needed to kick their linguistically behind nation into the 21st century. Hence, the jobs in the Parisian language schools were plenty, and they would hire just about anyone, including me. On a dare, I made a bet that I could get a teaching job in a Parisian language school more or less just by showing up, having a university degree, and being able to spell my name. I won the bet. I got the job, and I got a story.
Don’t Give Me Numbers!
I know it is paw-sible to love a human with all your heart. But I would take a dog over a human any day. Dogs are people, too, and in my opinion, they are much better people than humans. They have bigger hearts, and, unlike most people, they are 100 % loyal.
Why I Still Love Yoga
Few relationships will stand the test of time, but some do. My relationships with Oreo cookies, Hemingway, and yoga have all been part of my life for more than 25 years, and we are still going strong!
Darkness
“We cross our bridges when we come to them and burn them behind us, with nothing to show for our progress except a memory of the smell of smoke, and a presumption that once our eyes watered.”
Tom Stoppard
All Shall Die
“Certain, ‘tis certain; very sure, very sure: death, as the Psalmist saith, is certain to all: all shall die.”
— Shakespeare, Henry the IV, Part 2, Act III, scene II
Over The Rainbow
My best friend, my dog, went over the rainbow about a week ago. It has left a hollow, a void, a feeling of being left behind and lost. I had had my dog for 14 years and three months, and he was my best buddy, my soulmate, and I was happy and proud to be his human for all those years. And I am angry with the universe that I could not keep him forever.
Teaching English in Paris
Years ago, a friend and I decided to write a story about working as underpaid and overworked English teachers in Paris based on my experiences as an English teacher in a Parisian language school. I had taken the job on a dare to prove that these schools would hire anybody. They did. They hired me. I won the bet.