the Swedes

The Swedes are an amazing group of people.  They seem to be a quiet, nice, reserved, able to deal with extreme and harsh conditions kind of group.  Or rather, a group of individuals, because the ones I know seem just as happy on their own as they are in a crowd.

This is my favorite Swede...

Yes, that is my dear dad.  My mother has a coffee mug that says something about marriage to a Swede being bliss or a slice of heaven, or some such sappy thing.  I think it's a physical reminder of a happy marriage because unlike me who loves to remind my husband how fortunate he is to be married to me, dear dad just kind of goes with the flow.

And of course there is my sweet southern friend who moved with her Swedish husband back to Sweden.  Her biggest struggle was that no one wanted to shoot the breeze in the grocery store, on the street, or at the public park.  I'm with her, if you can't talk to strangers, what are you supposed to do with your time?

Strangers we met standing in a line in Vegas.

All that being said, I visited IKEA over the weekend.  And was astonished as usual.   First of all, it is just so ginormous.  It makes me dizzy and I spend too much money because when you buy 50 cheap things, it is still expensive.  Go figure.  Second of all, they sell Pepsi products.  Did Coke not make it that far North?  I can just imagine some sales rep with poor blood circulation saying "there is no way on earth that I am going to sell to any country past the Mason Dixon line, no matter which continent I'm on."

My child as a Diet Coke rep to the frozen tundra.

The third thing that astonishes me is that the biggest store on earth (seriously, it is bigger than a super Walmart) only has one up escalator and one down escalator!

That has to be Swedish design.  What other people on earth would expect such good behavior from mobs of people shopping?  I'm sure no self-respecting Italian would ever expect hundreds of people to line up for an escalator in a nice, orderly fashion.  No, the Italians would have built several at various speeds so that people could go at their own pace, enjoying a snack, each other and life in general.

On the other hand, Americans would also build several escalators for completely different reasons.  Americans need to compensate for their constant hurry and fear of fire.  We simply must get in and out of a place with no waiting, ever.  Things to do and people to see and all that mess.  Our multiple escalators would go super-fast.  Hmmm, as the mother of three children, I kind of like that idea...as long as dramamine is available and there's someone to catch the kids at the top before their shoe laces get stuck and I lose them forever.

In any case, I did manage to find lighting for my children's rooms at IKEA.  Pink reading lamps and blue stars.  I will leave it to you to guess which ones go to which room.

Have a great Tuesday!