Despite this universal truth, she would always smile at them and say, “That’s okay. Everyone’s a winner!” This always bothered me because there was in fact only one winner. He won because he was the best. Saying that everyone’s a winner totally diminishes the achievement of the kid who actually won the game. It’s unrealistic, dishonest and unfair, and it sets kids up for disappointment later on in life.

It used to be when a child did poorly in school her parents would go straight to her and say, “These grades are terrible!” Nowadays, when a child does poorly in school her parents go straight to her teacher and say, “These grades are terrible!”

Not that there aren’t any bad teachers. Of course there are, just as there are bad examples from every profession. However, I wonder if it ever occurred to the parents that maybe their kid is just a bad student. I know a thing or two about being a bad student because I used to be one. Then again, I had very low self-esteem, so when I got bad grades I assumed it was because I (and not my teacher) was useless. No amount of attempted bribery or bolstering of my nonexistent self-esteem was going to improve my performance in school.

Then one day I realized that I’d better get off my ass and get some decent grades, so that’s what I did. At first I did it mainly to keep my parents from yelling at me, but after a while I figured out that I was actually a good student and I did it for me.

While I strongly believe in encouraging young people to do the best they can, I also believe that it’s ultimately up to them. They choose whether to do well or bad in school, and while we can encourage or even intimidate, their performance in school is their responsibility. The young people of today aren’t being taught self-reliance and accountability. Many of them are little narcissists who have been led to believe they are “special” and therefore entitled to “the best.”

However, we seem to have forgotten to tell them about having to work really hard in order to get it, about taking charge of their own lives, about having to get it themselves if they really want it, and about them not being entitled to anything.

Remember that if everyone is a winner that means that everyone is also a loser.

Burnt Corn, Alabama (Mmm, I bet it smells like popcorn there all the time.)

Unalaska, Alaska (What happens when Unalaska and Alaska meet? Do they catastrophically annihilate each other? I need to know this.)

Why, Arizona. (…and so we decided to put a town here in the middle of the freakin’ desert. Okay…why? Say, that’s a helluva good name!)

Hooker, Arkansas (One wonders how many visitors this town gets each year seeking out certain…services.)

Toad Suck, Arkansas (I’ve heard that this can get you high, although I’ve never tried it myself.)

Cool, California (Dude…this has got to be the awesomest town name ever.)

Frying Pan, California (Located right next to the town of “The Fire”)

Keg, California (The non-stop party town)

Mormon Bar, California (Now that’s just ridiculous. Everyone knows Mormons don’t go to bars…sheesh.)

Rancho Cucamonga, California (Funny-sounding but not particularly weird. I’m only honoring it because this is where I grew up and went to high school.)

Weed, California (Again, there may be activities happening here that aren’t strictly speaking legal.)

No Name, Colorado (Yes, there’s actually a city in Colorado that’s named No Name. Weird.)

Yellow Water, Florida (Way down where the ‘gators slaughter don’t you drink that yellow water.)

Cumming, Georgia (The most satisfying city in the world.)

Idaho Beer Bottle Crossing, Georgia (This name is a total mystery to me. Idaho is nowhere near Georgia)

Normal, Illinois (The most boring place in the country. Even more boring than Boring)

What Cheer, Iowa (Winner of the Most Ironic Town Name award)

Gas, Kansas (This town probably started out as a service station and expanded from there.)

Beaver Lick, Kentucky (Although, I’m not entirely sure if licking beavers is legal in Kentucky.)

Paint Lick, Kentucky (No one should ever do this. For chrissake, show some common sense!)

Grosse Tete, Louisiana (French for “fat head.”)

Boring, Maryland (Not the most exciting place in the world, but still more interesting than Normal, Illinois.)

Gay Head, Massachusetts (Uhh…perhaps it’s best if we don’t even touch that one.)

Hell, Michigan (Yes, Hell really exists. And it’s in Michigan. Figures.)

Hot Coffee, Mississippi (This is the working-class town located next to the posh village of Iced Decaf Vanilla Latte)

Useful, Missouri (Second runner up in the Most Ironic Town Name contest)

Truth or Consequences, New Mexico (Does this have something to do with the building of the first atom bombs in New Mexico?)

Cat Elbow Corner, New York (Do cats even have elbows?)

Horneytown, North Carolina (Finally, I have somewhere to tell guys in the bar to go back to.)

Knockemstiff, Ohio (I’m trying to picture this action in my mind but cannot seem to grasp it.)

Cookietown, Oklahoma (Take me there now and no one gets hurt!)

Happy Land, Oklahoma (First runner up in the Most Ironic Town Name contest)

Idiotville, Oregon (Finally, I have somewhere to ask stupid people where they come from.)

Half.com, Oregon (I’m curious as to whether this town still exists or was it a victim of the dot.com bubble in the late 90s.)

Drab, Pennsylvania (Still more interesting than Normal, Illinois)

Virginville, Pennsylvania (Only a few miles away from Intercourse, actually)

Disco, Tennessee (The most obnoxious town in the world.)

Looneyville, Texas (You’d have to be insane to move there.)

Paradise, Utah (With unusually high levels of green grass and pretty Mormon girls.)

Fourway, Virginia (Apparently, there are two towns in Virginia called Fourway, and both are very popular with the swinger community.)

Humptulips, Washington (I know for a fact that this is illegal, unless you’re a dog.)

Big Ugly, West Virginia (One wonders if the thing that inspired the name still exists.)

HooHoo, West Virginia (A well known pilgrimage destination. For some reason everyone wants to enter this town.)

Imalone, Wisconsin (The saddest town name in the world.)

Cokeville, Wyoming (This town gets a lots of visitors searching for certain illicit substances.)

Ray Charles’s version is the best, in my opinion:

And just to show that I’m not overly sentimental:

Happy Fourth of July. \m/=^.^=\m/

Still, that doesn’t mean that being in that suitcaseless situation sucked any less than it did.

I’m well traveled and have had my bags lost and/or delayed many times, but previously it was only a matter of hours before they showed up on the next flight. The longest I ever had to wait was when the two huge bags I brought from Japan to Sweden on Air China were delayed when I changed planes in Beijing, and there wouldn’t be another flight to Stockholm for two days.

This was different, though. As I wrote in a previous post, my bag was not only delayed, it was well and truly lost. The longer it was delayed the more convinced I became that I was never going to see it again. Just when my frustration and despair had reached their peak the airline sent word that they had found my suitcase and it was on its way. It was a hallelujah moment.

I never found out the reason for the delay but I believe the culprit was a combination of bad weather and bad timing. There were snow and ice storms occurring all over the Northern Hemisphere during that time. Anyway, it doesn’t really matter to me why my bag was delayed. I put that down as another incident of shit proverbially happening. All that mattered to me was that it was found.

The next step was dealing with the “consequential expenses” claim. While my bag was delayed the airline authorized me $250 so I could purchase clothes and toiletries. They instructed me to hand in my receipts to any American Airlines ticketing office up to thirty days after my original flight date and the airline would reimburse me. Sounds simple and straight-forward, doesn’t it? Well, predictably it turned out to be a bit more complicated than that. There is an AA ticketing office in Sweden but it’s on the other side of the country. I contacted them and was informed that although they are indeed an AA ticketing office, they do not handle lost luggage claims. However, they did offer to act on my behalf. I sent the receipts to them and they faxed them and my details to the main American Airlines Central Baggage Services office, which is located somewhere in Texas. This was back in January.

Months went by and I didn’t receive so much as a confirmation email from American Airlines. They appeared to be employing the “frustrate and delay and maybe she’ll forget all about it” tactic. Having not heard a single word, I wasn’t sure if they even received the claim, so I once again contacted the ticketing office here in Sweden. They apologized and said they’d send the claim again. Another couple of months went by. Then a couple of days ago I got a letter from the AA Baggage Services office at Heathrow Airport in London. Apparently my claim has bounced around the globe, from Sweden to Texas and then to London. The letter informed me that they were authorized to pay my claim and all I had to do was fill in an enclosed form and send it to them by mail.

It’s all so very twentieth-century, isn’t it? Filling in a form by hand, with an actual pen, and placing it in an actual envelope with an actual stamp affixed and dropping it in an actual mailbox. It’s probably done that way deliberately as part of the “frustrate and delay” tactic. Anyway, it’s all taken care of now and therefore it’s back to Waiting For The Money. Who knows how long but at least things are sort of happening now.

The storm started yesterday and by late last night my balcony had accumulated quite a lot of snow:

By this morning my balcony was nearly filled in and the mushroom of snow on the table had doubled in height:

This is caused by the snow accumulating on the roof until the wind and the force of gravity causes it to fall:

A picnic table and a bench, almost buried:

A gazebo also nearly filled in with snow:

Here’s a short video I took of how fast the snow is coming down:

You have some time today, I see.
Your teacher’s canceled Chemistry.
My class won’t start till three-thirty.
And would it okay with me,
Since there’s some place you’d rather be,
You ask, I hope, facetiously,
Whether I would mind terribly,
If you skipped my class and left early.
I try not to take it personally,
But it’s very plain for me to see,
You don’t care about the class or me,

But I know you want me to agree,
And so I do, but quite sadly.

Tomorrow I’ll have to go and see my neurologist and it will be cost me a bloody fortune: about $40. My medication runs a ridiculous $30 for a four-month supply. I just don’t know how I manage this nightmare. However, this is not just happening to me. My friend Mark recently had his very own hellish experience with the Swedish health care system, and he barely got through it alive and financially intact.

If only I were back in the US where I’d be paying thousands of dollars for the same treatment. The fact that no American insurance company will offer me coverage due to my pre-existing medical condition is just better all around. Those companies need to make money and someone like me is a huge liability. In fact, it would be much more convenient for them if I just died. What the hell is Obama thinking trying to pass a health care reform bill? Doesn’t he know that Americans care more about money than they do about peoples’ lives?

What an un-American freak.

Anyhow, during the last two weeks of 2009 my boyfriend and I were in California visiting my family for the holidays, an experience that was stressful but mostly relaxing and fun. The main contributor to the stress factor was the fact that my suitcase was delayed for almost a week. Actually both of our suitcases didn’t show up when we arrived at LAX. I’ve traveled a great deal and my bags have been lost many times, so one might think I’d be used to it, but it’s always a sinking feeling with the carousel stops turning and your bags aren’t there, “Oh crap.” This means that the fate of your bags is now totally out of your control. After filing a report with the extremely slow-moving and unsympathetic baggage services clerk, we went straight to an In n Out Burger where two Animal Style Double Doubles helped us temporarily forget our baggage woes.

Previously, whenever my bags failed to show up on the carousel, they’d always arrive first thing in the morning or sometimes that same evening on the very next flight. Not this time, however. They couldn’t even locate our bags, let alone tell us when they’d be arriving. They could be in Siberia for all they knew (and probably were).

After checking the lost baggage website several times a day and talking to about a dozen different people on the phone, they located my boyfriend’s suitcase and delivered it on Christmas morning three days after we arrived. As momentous as this was, my bag still hadn’t been located. Just when I was beginning to think I’d never see it again, it was located and summarily delivered on Monday the 28th, six days after we first arrived.

Now that was a super-sized relief. When I handed my suitcase over to be checked onto our flight heading back to Sweden, I momentary thought, “hmm…will I ever see this bag again?” However, both our bags made with us when we arrived. Hooray for baggage claim.