narcoleptic blankets

When J and I were first dating back in Boston, we used to cook dinner together at his apartment in the cool autumn nights. After eating, the combination of good food and long days (I used to have to be at work at 7 am) made me drowsy and cozy, so I'd go to just have a little rest on the couch before starting the dishes together. His apartment was always slightly chilly thanks to the expensive electric heat and huge windows on two sides, so I'd unfold the gray striped blanket he had folded over the sofa arm. This blanket was a little scratchy, but cushiony and the most marvelously perfect level of warmth, so tucked underneath it, I'd promptly fall asleep, leaving J to do the dishes on his own. We were still so new to dating that he apparently felt awkward poking me awake so he'd let me sleep, cocooned in woolen warmth.

This blanket was, of course, from Iceland, purchased at the Álafoss factory store, one of J's few strategically selected Iceland souvenirs. He also had a Sigur Rós concert poster on one wall, and as I was falling asleep, I'd look at the strange words like "útgáfutónleikar" and "háskólabíó" and marvel that somewhere there was a whole country of people that understood everything on this poster.

Two months after we met, J went on the fateful Iceland trip where he got the job, and as a gift he bought me my own Álafoss blanket in creamy white wool. It was too warm to use in my steam-heated top floor apartment, so I hung it on a dowel on the wall above my bed. I looked up at it often when I was trying to imagine what Iceland was like, this place I heard of for a year before seeing.

Now, both blankets have returned to their homeland, and they spend the day folded and piled together, and in the evenings they still manage to put me straight to sleep almost without fail.

Ship sighting: J's brother came to The Land this morning, and as we were eating breakfast together, we spotted a cargo ship emerging from the snowstorm on the horizon. It was Reykjafoss, containers stacked two high, on the way in. It's due for a quick turnaround, and is scheduled to leave this evening at 6pm.