Thursday Thoughts -Teeth and Trains

Thursday Thoughts are back! On Thursdays I normally share random thoughts I plan to use as writing inspiration or prompts. Over the holidays, however, I took off for two weeks and spent that time focused on my family. The kids start school again tomorrow which means I guess it’s back to work for me, too. And I like my job. Most of the time ;).

So what am I thinking about today?

Trains — On New Year’s Eve I took a train into the city to visit a friend for lunch. For those of you who don’t know, Stockholm is an archipelago. Trains, no matter which train line you’re on, frequently cross over lakes. In the wintertime you can see folks walking out on the ice. In the summer, you can see the boats skimming the water. Almost everyone in Sweden stares at their phones while on the train, but I enjoy watching the people below so as I looked around, I started thinking about trains in general. Trains that go through mountains and cross rivers. Trains that go faster than I can imagine. Trains I probably wouldn’t want to get on even if you paid me a million dollars and trains so beautiful I wouldn’t want to walk in them with my dirty boots.

Art — Almost every subway stop in Stockholm is a mini art exhibit. Each stop has a different theme. Some of them are breathtaking. One of my favorite stops is set up like a primitive computer game. I love how Swedes decided to turn something ordinary, like a subway stop, into something special. And I love how these stops challenge us to see art in unexpected places.

Teeth — My son fell when he was around four years old. Actually, my son falls a lot. All the time, would be more accurate. He jumps. He dives. He crashes into things. All boy. But after one particular fall he killed one of his front teeth. It went from the same kid-white all the other boys had to grey. Every six months we pop in to the dentist, who checks it out and always makes the decision not to pull it. We’ve been waiting a long time for this tooth to fall out. He’s quite proud of it. It’s usually the first thing he shows to people when he first meets them.

Snow — I normally include some type of texture and today I’m including snow, which is cold, wet, powdery, and crystalline all at the same time. Snow finally came to Sweden! We’ve been waiting for it forever. In about a month, you might hear me start to complain. But for now, we’re loving it. Well, I say ‘we’ when I really mean ‘the kids.’ Because it’s not like Mom gets to ride the sled anymore.

So those are my thoughts today. Trains, art, teeth and snow. Horror. Sci-fi. Romance. Surrealism. So many possibilities. But the important thing is I can make a story out of these =).