Jeg tenkning

I had an anxiety attack this evening. After I spent so much time talking to the women at the shop about the Norwegian and our interactions and my upcoming trip to Norway, one of them mentioned that I might go there and fall in love. As I was driving home it hit me: this could be the real deal! Those six words crossing my mind started a thought-jacking I have never noticed feeling more strongly.

I decided I needed to get out of the house to help me stop thinking. I called my prayer partner (my local sister super Christian) feeling a need to see her in person. We met at the Barnes & Noble in Metairie and I shared my feelings of anxiety with her. Shortly after starting on my downward thought spiral she said, "You're thinking too much." Truer words have never been spoken.

We changed the subject and later browsed the travel section for a Norway travel guide. While looking at some of the names of towns in Norway I said to her, "There's no way I'm moving to Norway! Look at some of the names of these towns. I can't pronounce that!" She then pulled out a Norwegian-English dictionary for us to peruse as we chatted.

In an attempt to pronounce some basic Norwegian phrases, I stumbled over the words and they must have come out sounding like a language murder-suicide. We laughed at my miserable attempts to speak Norwegian which made it all better. At the end of the night, I felt much more calm.

God only knows what's going to happen between now and the 29th, but should I have another anxiety attack about the trip, thinking (or as it's said in Norwegian, tenkning) more than 5 minutes away, I'll just practice saying my thoughts in Norwegian, have a good laugh and realize that laughter disarms a more than 5 minutes from now thought-jacking any day.