not only is it a silly picture, but i couldn’t seem to figure out how to rotate it. yes, i’m a dork.

but really i’m on here to continue THE MOTORCYCLE SAGA…

ch. 1(well… not really, as you know): early last week, i still hadn’t heard from the mechanics about when they planned to be finished. so, since dick needed to call them anyway, he offered to ask them about it. they said they’d be done by the next day. so i called the RDW (like the DMV) to schedule an appointment. the RDW said that i couldn’t make an appointment for several weeks because they are booked, but that i could come in monday or tuesday morning between 8 and 12 with no appointment. worried about how i’d get the temporary license plate in time, i asked them what i could do. they said i could come into their office and get it printed out.

ch. 2: the next day, oh excitement, i heard from the mechanics. they were done, but said they’d need to also replace the tires or they wouldn’t pass inspection. shit. add 400 euros. i call matt about finances, mechanic calls back. i ok it, then when finished with work, hop onto metro then bus out to RDW, where i first get lost, then sit in the waiting room for 40 minutes, then the very nice lady tells me that i could have just called in and had them TELL me a license plate number, since i just get a number that i in fact have to write onto a piece of paper and attach to the back of my bike. silly, huh? anyway, then i wait for the bus back to the other bus back to jane’s house, total time since leaving work: just over 3 hours. then a bus to the train station to utrecht to meet matt and dick and then go to bauhaus concert. details on summer darkness to follow.

ch. 3: call mechanic to find out how early they open on monday, since the RDW actually allows people to begin the appointment line-up at 7:45. they say ok, you can come early monday morning, just call us before you come, so someone can be there to open the garage. oh, and by the way, we don’t take credit. shit again. so matt and i will need to use our american debit cards to get enough money out by monday morning to be able to afford all this, because our insurance just came out of our dutch account, and we are beyond even over-draft limits.

ch. 4: i screwed up and totally forgot that i can only draw a small amount each day from my tfcu card, and matt had left his card in maastricht. but i decided to try, and went to use my card at the train station, on the way to saturday’s concert events. i used the wrong pincode, long story there, and my card was blocked. i skipped all concerts that night because i was stressing too much.

ch. 5: this morning. 7:15. i call mechanic. no answer. 7:45. i call mechanic, explain that sorry, i can’t come in until after 2 or 3, when i can get a hold of my bank finally and fix problems. they, amazingly, seem amused, even happy about this. i go back to bed. matt and i get up around noon, pack up all our stuff, and leave dick’s. we get off the train at just about 2 pm. we see that there is a bank office near the train station, so we wait until 2, call tfcu, and explain the problem. the woman on the phone tells me that i can go to any bank and ask for a cash advance on my card, and take out the full amount, but that it will be impossible from a machine. we go into the bank office. it is not a bank. they tell us where to find one. we find it, they tell us they don’t have money services, but that we can use the machine. we explain the problem, they tell us where the most convenient branch that can help us is. we go there. they say we can only do that at a GWK office, which is a money-changer’s. the nearest one is on leidseplein, nowhere near where we are. we split ways at this point. matt thinks i’m crazy for even bothering any more today, and i’m simply desperate to get this done. matt has plans to meet up with miko, so off he goes.

ch. 6: at the GWK. long line. but good news: there’s no commission on such a large amount. yay! next good news: although the line is very long and slow, there happens to be a busstop for the VERY bus i need right on leidseplein, and i JUST make it, running through tourists with leathers, helmet and backpack in hand. and umbrella. next good news: when i call the mechanics, i find that indeed they will still be open when i get there, over an hour later. yay! then bad news: when i called the RDW to get a new one-day license plate number for tomorrow, their computers were down. luckily, 30 minutes later, still on the bus, when i called back, they were up and running and they were able to give me a number.

oh, but we’re not done yet.

ch. 7: when i finally get to the busstop i need, with help from a very kind young woman on the bus, who also offers to walk me part way to where i’m going, i learn from her that the address i have for them is wrong. they have moved locations in the past 2 months, and no one thought to tell me. so i call them. after sounding both annoyed and amused at the same time, they sent the mechanic, kees, who’d done the work on my bike, to come get me. then it started pouring rain. not just raining, by the way. pouring. then, although i had shaken the bike to listen for gas, and had in fact heard plenty of gas moving around in there, i ran out of gas a few minutes out of the shop. thinking it couldn’t possibly be the gas, i called the shop. they asked if i could just leave the bike there, and they’d go get it later. i said that, considering that i had no idea where i was, didn’t see any busstops, and don’t have any friends who currently have access to transportation, that no, that wouldn’t work. dick’s bike, as they know, has a dead battery. they know this because i’m picking up his new one from them for him tomorrow morning after my inspection. matt left his in maastricht because of all the rain, and everyone else i know is elsewhere. inconvenient. so they put kees on the phone. kees says, are you sure it’s not the gas? i say, yes. he says, just check. i do. they fixed my reserve valve (which used to be broken, and thus useless), and so… happily, i had a reserve tank. and i went to the nearest station, and filled it up. then i headed here. i walked in the door at 7:10 this evening. what a fucking day.

let’s hope that tomorrow goes smoothly. 🙂

oh, here’s a picture of matt looking cute:

yay! so, more news when i have it. oh, but it WAS nice riding my beautiful bike here. 🙂

it’s been a rough couple of days. exhausting, and sometimes crappy.

but today i got to climb the tent!!!! miko took pictures, so i’ll post them after i get them from her. yay! it was fun, i put on a harness and doug went up with me. first we climbed a ladder to the bottom of the slopey part, then we walked up its bouncy surface. i could see pretty far. i could see all the people coming to see the circus. 🙂

first, dick’s reaction to cirque:

he loved it. we had a moment there where we thought we weren’t going to get in. the box office gave me a coupon for one, and a lecture on how friends don’t count in the staff last-minute listing. i texted miko, and she fixed it!!! yay!

and here’s what we found when we got back:

that’s james, jane’s cat, with his i do believe, VERY FIRST MOUSE! congratulations, james! but sorry to inform jane that her apartment has mice… fortunately, she now has a mighty hunter!

gotta run!

ok… that’s just a picture of last friday’s dinner with matt, ivo and marieke. i had given them tickets to cirque, then they came over for mole enchiladas, guac and margaritas, even though it was rainy and not so nice for sunshiny food.

tonight miko has been so lovely as to arrange more tickets for me, because dick still hasn’t seen it… but it’s still possible we won’t get in. we’ll see.

this morning, when i went down to get my bike and ride to work, this is the image i was confronted with. it took me a couple of minutes to process, and then i realized that indeed, my bike was gone and both locks cut through.

dammit.

i didn’t have enough money for a new strippenkaart to take the bus and metro, nor time, so i ran back upstairs, got jonathan’s keys, and rode his bike to work.

it sucked. at his tallest setting, my knees were still pumping high, and really strained my bad left knee. i won’t be doing it again. so i’m going to need to cough up money for a new stippenkaart.

dammit.

and we’re dead broke right now. in the hole at the bank and everything. sucky sucky sucky.

i come into work at 10:00 every morning but sunday, when i come in at 8:00, and monday, when i don’t come in… in this order, this is what i do:

1. check to see if there’s any dirty laundry to do, and if so run it.
2. begin putting angel costumes into dryers.
3. plug in ipod
4. retrieve necessary hangers for angel costumes
5. get coffee from kitchen
and then the day continues… i won’t go into more inane details.

note step 3. the ipod. at 10:00, when i come in, i am the only person in the artistic tent, which is the large tent behind the “big tent,” where the dressing rooms, practice spaces, wardrobe department and physio department are. the cleaning guys come in soon after, but they have their own ipods, and don’t care. i play my music loudly because i’m all over the space with the costumes at that time, and there’s no one to disturb.

the hula hoop girl, masha, sometimes comes in to practice in the mornings. usually i don’t see her come in, and am surprised when suddenly i am being drowned out by HER ipod, plugged into a different stereo, on the other side of the tent. since hers was the louder stereo, i usually either turned mine off or gave up trying to hear mine for the rest of my shift. which began to suck, because she plays exactly the same bad russian pop every day.

so around a week and a half ago, i decided to talk with her. so i approached her and here is how the conversation went:

S: hi! so, i think you don’t like my music…?
M: (general stare)
S: well, that’s fine… i don’t mind. i don’t like your music either. (big big smile)
M: (general stare)
S: so, listen, i had an idea: if i move the speakers for my music closer to me, and turn them so they face my little work area, my music will not be so audible to you, and you won’t need to drown me out with your volume. so you could turn yours down, too. what do you think?
M: (general stare)
S: (big smile, eyebrows raised)
M: uh, ok…
S: thanks! that’s great! i’ll go take care of that right now!

so i went over, turned mine down. so did she. and about 30 minutes later, i asked her if it was working ok for her, and she said, “yeah”.

the next day, another performer, rosha, came over to me and asked me if it would be ok if she and masha turned up their music so they could practice their routine. i tried to explain that i wasn’t trying to stop them from what they needed to do, just that i thought we were playing unnecessary stereo wars. rosha repeated the question. so i said, sure that would be fine, thanks for checking…

🙂 kind of funny, really. i didn’t mean to sound like a music nazi, just to find some way we could peacefully coexist. oh well. at least now i’m not subjected to the same repetitive song every day.

so, my beautiful machine cleared customs yesterday afternoon. i went this afternoon to pay. tomorrow it will be picked up by the mechanics, and they will prepare it for clearing RDW next week. yay!

here is a picture of my baby in the “hazardous materials” corner of the shipping warehouse. covered with shipping labels!

at 5:57, the shipping company called me. customs has cleared my bike. i will go in tomorrow and pay… (that’s the icky part).

at 5:59, i called the mechanic. he is going to try to schedule the pickup of my bike from the shippers for tomorrow afternoon, or friday morning. he’ll make sure it is totally good to be cleared at the DRW (something like DMV)…. yay!

soon, soon…

yesterday after work, i took the metro then the train then the bus to the shipping company near schiphol to give them the paperwork they needed to present to customs.

and i got to see my bike!!!!! oooohhhh, it’s beautiful! and mine! and here! and mine! and here! yay!

so here’s the run-down:
1. customs will decide it’s clear (probably within a day or so)
2. i will go to shippers and pay… probably a lot
3. mechanic will pick up bike from shippers and take to shop
4. next week, mechanic will replace fork seals and brake pads, plus any other things necessary to clear european standards.
5. i will apply for a one day temporary license plate, so that i can drive to the inspection office.
6. they will inspect it that everything is to european standards.
7. i will receive the paperwork (if i don’t have to do it again), and can apply for a permanent license plate
8. i will receive a permanent license plate
9. then i can ride.

no, i have NO IDEA how long this is going to take, but it’s pouring buckets on us here right now, so the weather is cooperating to make me feel less bad about the fact that i’m not riding AT THIS MOMENT.

which is good, i guess. but it’s quite rainy.

i tried to take a picture of my bike sitting in the warehouse, but the battery was dead on the camera. damn it.

yay! today i got more free tickets for cirque. nice, huh? these ones are for next friday’s matinee, and i’ve offered them to ivo and marieke. they weren’t planning on going at all, CAN YOU BELIEVE IT? i think their reason was financial, though. ivo sounded pretty excited on the phone this afternoon.

in other news:

dick spoke to the triumph dealership this morning, because my bike isn’t safely ride-able until i get the left fork seal and brake pads replaced. they can pick it up from schiphol for me next week, but they won’t be able to do the repairs until the following week. bummer. still, the date i ride my baby here is rapidly approaching!!!

tuesday i will take all the papers in to have customs begin their thingy. and then i wait. again. damn i hate waiting.

matt’s on his way up here by train. we’re going to the shape of sin party tonight in alphen aan den rijn. somewhere along the line i’ll be needing a nap. but here i am, typing. hmmm….