I’ve finally recovered enough from our Stockholm weekend to start blogging again. We had a great time, but man were our days long and full. We came home completely exhausted and I don’t think either of us has caught up on sleep yet.

Our flight left at seven o’clock Saturday morning, which put us at Arlanda airport just past eight. We went out to our hotel and left our suitcase before heading out to IKEA. All I can say is that it’s a good thing for my bank account that we don’t have one of those anywhere near us. True, I hardly ever went there when we lived in Stockholm, but I also didn’t have a big house just begging to be filled up with “affordable Swedish crap,” as a character on Futurama once put it.

We filled up the rest of our days and evenings meeting up with friends and walking and eating and shopping and not getting nearly enough sleep. I even got to meet Marie and Jessica, finally. I’ve known them online for years but this was the first time we were all ever in the same place at the same time. It was a lot of fun hanging out with them and I love how I felt instantly comfortable with them, like we really are good friends despite never having met face-to-face before. Amazing how not that many years ago I couldn’t have imagined something like the internet and how much it could change my life for the better.

The highlight of the trip, of course, was the concert Sunday evening. I expected to enjoy myself, but I was totally unprepared for the intensity of my emotional response to seeing Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel in person, performing together. I was literally moved to tears and my cheeks weren’t dry until at least the third or fourth song. It was such an amazing, indescribable feeling to actually be in the same building as the two of them and to hear those voices that I have loved all my life, raised in song together. And, oh my god, Paul Simon. Words fail me.