Running Through My Head For Some Reason

When I was in Sweden, the grocery store chain nearest to the apartment I shared with Luneray had a chain of generic personal care products. It was called "Blåvitt" ("Bluewhite") and each product was packaged in white with big blue letters labelling the product name across the front. Now, when I say "the product name", I mean that in the most literal sense possible. For example, the tube of toothpaste has big blue letters spelling out "tandkräm" ("toothpaste"), and the moisturizer is called "hudkräm" ("face cream").

When I packed for the summer, I took full sized bottles of all of my personal care products with me. My theory was that it would save me a little money, given the weak dollar* and the fact that conventional wisdom warned me that everything would be very expensive, and it would also trick me into having some space left in my luggage at the end of the trip to pack all the things I bought. Things worked pretty well-- I found myself running low on most things during my last week in Sweden, just in time to throw out the bottles in favor of packing some of the nine thousand books I'd bought. The one thing that I ran out of quickly was toothpaste. I hadn't packed a full tube for some reason-- maybe I just didn't have a full tube on hand. I did pack in something of a hurry-- and I ran out just past the halfway mark.

So I went to Konsum and bought a tube of tandkräm. And I packed the tube of tandkräm when I left for Germany... and eventually brought it all the way back to the States. There was just something about the big blue label exuberantly announcing to everyone, "Hey! There's TANDKRÄM in here!" Even after the tandkräm** was basically gone, I kept the tube in the medicine cabinet, and it made me happy to see it there.

I finally threw it out when I was packing to move in to this apartment with Ash. We were having lots of discussions about paring down our possessions at the time, and it just seemed like the right thing to do. Still, sometimes I miss seeing that little blue and white tube twice a day, every day, reminding me of the fun I had living with Luneray.


*which, wow, wouldn't it be great if we had that kind of exchange rate now?

** I bet you guys will never forget how to say toothpaste in Swedish. Maybe you can win a bar bet or something with that knowledge. Or at least you can rest assured that you'll be able to maintain proper oral hygiene should you ever end up in Sweden.