in case i haven’t mentioned it before, my bike rocks.

so i went over to it, and took my helmet with me.  it started right up!  i moved it over to elandsgracht, where i prefer to park it.  the front brake was a little squishy.  so i went home, picked up my brake fluid, a zip tie, a screwdriver, and my chain lube.  i lubed my chain really well, then checked the fluid.  it was full, so i attached the zip tie to the hand lever, and left it.  i also picked up some bicycles and moved them so that my bike was in a prime location for easy out.

i was thinking of riding to the combichrist show tonight, but just as i got home, anne called me.  she and patrick and a friend (emily) were wandering around, and i joined them for a drink.  we’ll be meeting up at soundgarden in a couple of hours then taking the bus to the concert.  helaas.  but on the other hand, it would have been a damn cold ride.

tomorrow i think i’ll go out for a spin.  yay!

i’m having a great weekend.  i finally feel better.  yesterday i did some necessary shopping and errand-running.  last night ellie & mark came over.  ellie redyed my hair for me (it was so faded i was actually blonde!), and mark brought and installed his old surround-sound system for me!  today i did some fun shopping, and ran into cheryl, which was nice.  i’m going to walk over to my motorcycle now and see if it starts, and if not, remove the battery so that i can charge it and try again tomorrow.

and tonight i’m definitely going to see combichrist at P60.  yay!  i could use a bit of stompy dancing!

so, after a lovely week spent hanging out in new mexico with my mom & stepdad (details when i’m feeling positive again), i have paid for it…

i came back to discover that my bank card had been blocked.  why?  because the energy company had auto-deducted 13000 euros from it.  obviously that’s a mistake – no one can use that much gas in 3 months.  the bank people were very nice about it, but won’t be able to get the card unblocked for 2 days.  in the meantime, there were a bunch of bills that needed paying because their auto payments had been blocked.  fortunately, there is still money at our old bank, so i paid them with that account. 

the energy company has promised to get back to me today, but here it’s mid-afternoon and no word yet.  argh.

work is insane, as we get ready for our big conference.  on the super duper plus side, my most wonderful assistant is back from her long vacation, and is her fantastically efficient self! 

but on the bad side, all the travel & stress with finances & work etc seems to have prematurely brought back my weird mystery skin condition which has the dermatologist confused.  it’s on its way to a mighty big flare-up, and i have no meds left because it usually only comes about every 3 months, and it’s only been about 1 1/2 months.  i have an appointment on thursday which i had to fight with the damn receptionist to get (long story that i don’t even want to think about), but by then i’ll have pus and sores all over.  nasty shit.  with any luck, though, they’ll get a better sense of what’s going on when they can see it at its worst.

basically i feel like crap, there’s a shitload to do, tons of bureaucratic nightmares to navigate, and all i want is to curl up on the sofa with my cat and hours and hours of buffy. 

sorry for the venting.

for anyone expecting to see me out in the next week or possibly two, it’s unlikely.  sorry.