howdy. 
last thursday, i was supposed to start my new job.  but i waited for almost an hour at the office, and no one showed up, so i left.  turns out they forgot i was coming in.  heh heh.  no big deal.
friday, flew to london, where i spent the weekend sick and imbibing mass quantities of medicine.  yuck.  what a waste.  still managed to shop, but absolutely didn’t manage to party.
sunday, after delays, finally got home around midnight.  next day, tried to sms both jobs (new and old) to get out of coming in.  old job:  no one else available to work, so i had to.  new job:  no one got my message, so i showed up with medicine and kleenex, and was promptly sent back home.  still had to work evening at restaurant, which only made me worse.
tuesday: called in again to new job.  stayed home all day, in an attempt not to talk (because even whispering hurt).  rested.  watched movies from the library.
wednesday: went to new job.  heh heh.  here’s how the day went:
10:00 – i arrived, as did thera.  kirsty and ian arrived between then and 11.  was given basic tour of duties by the girl who i’ll be replacing (thera).  this went on until 1, when we all 4 went to a fancy restaurant nearby for a “business lunch.”  2 hours at lunch, including wine, appetizers, main courses, desserts and coffee.  returned to office, where we stayed another hour or so, then everyone left.
luckily, since i still barely talked (and, by the way, didn’t have much at lunch:  juice, salad, coffee), kendall was able to work for me at the restaurant.
thursday: today.  thera and i got in at 11, ian a little later. kirsty’s working from home.  so far, i’ve gone through the mail, read the “readings” file, and looked up some conferences they’ll be attending, so i have a sense of what is done here.  then i checked email.  now i’m doing this.  kirsty’s coming in soon, and i may do some filing.  woo-hoo.

i think things will get occasionally very hectic here, but with wendy (the boss) and amy (the other colleague) on vacation, there’s very little to do for me and for thera, as PA’s. 

i’m definitely going to need to plan on a better exercise program, since it sounds like rather filling meals are frequently done here for lunch.  and the office gets deliveries from the supermarket, including everyone’s favorite snacks, every two weeks.  yikes.  and i guess i’ll probably also get readdicted to various online comics.  damn.  i thought i’d kicked the habit good.  🙂

wow.  got unintentionally embroiled in other people’s drama this weekend.  a very messy breakup between 2 people i barely know.  i’ve had good somewhat drunken conversations with each of them exactly once, so feel absolutely no loyalty to either of them.  but one spent the night over here, in the guest bedroom,  this past saturday night, resulting apparently in being locked out of the house upon returning home.  and how did i get involved, exactly?  by telling the other one off when i was rudely called (without my knowing said person had my phone number) and yelled at to account for all activities of the previous evening.  said activities, by the way, were:  attending the opening of the new library, having dinner at home with matt and ivo, trying on various clothes in preparation for an upcoming costume event, then going out to a couple of bars, NOT flirting with anyone, chatting and enjoying some expensive cocktails, and rudely rebuffing a drunken swede.  sounds really sinister, doesn’t it?  of course, not knowing any of the back story (which amazingly, we did NOT talk about), who am i to say?

anyway, i am bowing out.  i’m just upset because these are good friends of dick’s, which meant good potential friends for me, and now it’s unlikely i’ll be friends with either of them.  just too damn messy.

on the upside:  have a new job.  start tomorrow.  so, more tomorrow, or soon thereafter.  🙂

matt and i are the owners of two chandeliers.  one is from ikea, that friends bought for us as a housewarming gift in maastricht.  it holds taper, or dinner, candles.  the other we bought two weekends ago while visiting the same friends (well some of them, anyway) in lyon.  it holds tealights.  we hung them a few days ago.  the taper one over the diningroom table, and the tealight one over the foot of the bed.

they rock.  i mean that literally, as in what a cradle does.  it’s a very constant reminder that we do not live on solid ground.  one forgets.  we get used to the motion, quite slight, of the boat.  but the chandeliers rock constantly, sometimes a lot.  🙂  i like it.

in other news, job prospects are opening up.  the film company that i interviewed at several months ago, and who recommended me to another film company last week, just sent me another email saying that they now have an unexpected opening.  fascinating.  anyway, i’m going in to chat with them on thursday morning.

and, further interesting news.  my brother is writing a book!  he sent me the outline, which at first glance (all i’ve so far had time to do), looks very very interesting.  i would read it.  🙂  and no doubt will.  eventually.  the book, that is.  obviously, i’ll read the outline. 

it’s raining, and i’m off to work soon.  last night i was so amazingly busy.  we ran entirely out of food.  by an hour before “kitchen closed.”  tonight i have to call a coworker to try to arrange some hour swapping. 

moving into july, the weather decided yesterday to be lovely.  after listening to my crazy austrian pothead boss rant and rave about coming ice ages and how there is no such thing anymore as summer, it was very nice to enjoy the first day of july by wandering around the outskirts of the city with matt and dick.

first stop was an organic/recycled crafts market in beatrix park, where we discovered that while living across the street from it, we never noticed a very nice restaurant.  maybe it was closed in the winter.  service was ridiculous, but the food was fresh and lovely.  at the craft fair, matt bought me a new purse made from used innertubes.  🙂  i like it.

then we wandered off in the direction of jane and jonathan’s place, closer to the vondelpark.  jane refused to leave the house, and i refused to go in, since it was so gorgeous out for the first time in 2 weeks.  jonathan joined us out at a nearby tapas restaurant.  after an hour and some, matt went home to nap.  a while later, jonathan went to drop off his library videos and go home.  dick and i walked through the vondelpark, then took a bus from leidseplein home.

at home, napping on the benches of the garden was a priority, until matt made delicious lunch, then dick went home to utrecht.

matt and i got ready to go out to living in oblivion, which was really fun.  we are starting to know more people, so talked to the ones we knew a bit, then i ended up talking to a very nice american living in london who had been (with friends) in the restaurant the night before.  they were all there, but i ended up chatting with her most of the evening.  really fun, too.  when they left, matt and i danced a bit, chatted a bit more with the couple of people we know, then went home.

it was a nice day, all in all.

today seems to be landlord day.  piet-with-haircut has been by several times already.  the doorbell keeps ringing.  🙂  piet-with-haircut is nearly unrecognizable from the guy we originally rented the boat from.  weird.  he says he gets one around summer solstice every year. 

what did i do saturday?  don’t remember.  no, really i do.  i had a nice relaxing day with matt, then went to work.  work was insane, and i didn’t get home until 1am.  ugh.  see, nothing much to report.

why is it that tourists never take the buses?  only the trams.  the trams are always crowded and unpleasant in the center, as a result, whereas the buses are so very relaxed.  lots of seats, and they’re usually padded.  yay.