tried to go to kickboxing tonight. unfortunately, the schedule i found online is out of date. i got there and they told me that it’s not there anymore, but that it is on saturday mornings, so i’m going to try to go then. still, it was disappointing; it took a lot for me to get motivated, and then nothing. damn.

i have some choices regarding schedule to make. there are several classes at kumulus (a school for the arts) that i’d like to take this year, and two of them not only coincide with each other, but also with kickboxing (possibly). anyway, sign up for those classes is sunday, so i’d like to have gone to at least one kickboxing class to find out how i like this school before it’s time to decide.

the classes, by the way, are pottery (wheelwork, this time, not handbuilding), metalsmithing (COOL!), and fiber arts. i’ll try to meet all the teachers on sunday, too. maybe that’s part of the problem i had last year with the handbuilding class i took: although the teacher was very friendly, i don’t think i really liked her very much, and it’s not like she just got out of the way and let you work, either. on the other hand, when i did need some help, i had trouble getting it.

i checked out the prices for kayak rental while i was feeding mark’s cats this evening. it seems to be a flat rate, depending on people and type of kayak. a one-person kayak is 15 euros, a two-person is 20. perhaps i’ll go friday, if i get some of the things i want to do done this week.

monday through wednesday i’ll be in hamburg for an espresso trade fair. i’m pretty excited, actually. if anyone who’s reading this knows anyone in hamburg who might be interested in getting a drink or dinner with me while i’m there, let me know. i’ll get there monday afternoon, be at the fair all day tuesday, and leave wednesday morning sometime. i’m planning on staying in a hostel, although i haven’t booked a room yet.

by the way, anyone reading this is also invited to my birthday party this saturday, in case i forgot to call or email you about it. la la la. i got confused, with all the halloween early notices and all.

well, today is hair bleach and dye day. last tuesday we took out the braids, and thursday i will get new braids put in. that meant i had one week in which to enjoy incredibly faded, rather damaged hair with big bad roots. actually, i did enjoy it. there are some things i can enjoy more freely when not worrying about fading color or tangling dreds. such as swimming and spa days. 🙂

yesterday i enjoyed not only a full massage, but also hours and hours in the baths and saunas of thermae 2000, in valkenburg. it was really fun. it was basically my last chance to do it before the braids, since i have to do the dying a couple days before, and what a waste of dye to do it then swim in salty and chlorinated water.

anyway, i have finished the bleaching and am now sitting here with red dye all over. yep, i made a mess this time. i’m a bit out of practice. the last couple of times, matt has had to do it for me, as i wasn’t able to get everything by myself.

had my violin lesson this morning. i’m having a bit of trouble with the 3rd position. we’ve just started it, if you don’t count the bit of gypsy stuff i’ve been working on for a while, and i just get confused. it feels like starting out all over again. very deliberate, all the time, and carefully placing my fingers, and checking against other notes, all the time. ugh.

matt is looking for a motorcycle, and i am getting sad and lonely about not having mine. dick and i went for a ride on his bike, a bmw, before the spa yesterday, and well, his is just fine, but i can’t wait to see mine again. soon i’ll hear something about the paperwork, i hope. anyway, matt and dick are going testdriving some bikes either wednesday night or saturday. matt needs a new bike before he starts his new job.

saturday, by the way, is my 31st birthday. i’m having a party, and matt’s being quite a sweetie and handling most of the invites, since i kind of bullied him into the whole party thing.

we’ll also be having a halloween party, in case any of you u.s. people want to plan a trip over! it’s on the 29th, the saturday before halloween, and will hopefully be a blast.

well. it is friday. i have spent the day cleaning, since the construction has entered the demo phase on the parking garage, and our house is coated in dust. it is nasty, and yesterday my nose itched terribly.

it is hard being back here, after the month in the u.s. when i was in minnesota and washington, my life was so filled with friends and family, and it felt great to be with lots of people i really like and/or love. and on the road, i had all the chosen self time i needed, but no boredom to go along with it, since i was on the move all the time, and also exploring new places.

here, i have way too much time alone. i only have 2 students now, since i haven’t heard back from the ones who had inquired before vacation, and others have moved away. i am seeing loads and loads of basically 2 people, who are both likely to get sick of me at any moment, since i call them both rather frequently, and see them even more often. certainly, i’ve seen lots of other people that i know as well, but not so much, and the rest aren’t available during the day at all. yes, i’m doing many of my own things and projects, but generally speaking, i would like to spend a little more time with other humans. i would like to know more people to invite along to do the interesting things i want to do around here, since it’s more fun to do most of them with friends.

things i want to do:

kayaking on the maas (there’s a rental place nearby, and i’ve never kayaked before)
exploring the cellars under the construction before it is entirely demolished
climbing the crane in the construction site
kite-boarding in the ocean (somewhat more difficult, since i haven’t got transportation to the beach)
massage and spa day at thermae 2000 in valkenburg
time with the monkeys at apenheul (again, transportation an issue)
wadlopen (this is walking through mud-flats to islands in the north of the netherlands. transportation and time of year are issues, and matt is showing a general lack of enthusiasm.)

that’s all i remember at the moment. tonight i’m going out with GIRLS ONLY (can you believe it? me?) for dinner and drinks. i’m really looking forward to it. i have no idea what matt’s doing. he was thinking about attending an aikido seminar in the early evening, but he also wanted to do an x-box evening. unfortunately, i think none of his x-box friends are available. poor thing.

since matt doesn’t post so often as i do, i will also update for him:

happy boy, he has successfully scored a parking place for his motorcycle. now he just needs to buy one. also, he’s probably going to be taking a new job in medtronic, at the offices in heerlen. he is pretty excited about it. yesterday he went to an all day training meeting, and came back announcing that he thinks he’ll like this job. yay! he’s been hating his current job for a while.

hey, todd… i’m finally doing something with those bog tree photos you wanted me to blow up all those years ago. i’m about half way done with the project. i’ll send you a picture when i’ve finished.

You are Kermit the Frog.

actually, i find this a bit of a surprise, but i had a difficult time answering the questions. i was a bit torn, sometimes between several possible answers.

oh well.

recently i was at a party, and someone i know introduced me to someone new as, “this is my english teacher.” this is not particularly strange to me, since i’ve been an english teacher for much of the time since approximately 1992, when i had my first teaching position.

two evenings ago, while walking around maastricht, i pointed out a shop and said, “and that’s my hair person’s shop.”

i am very self-centered. i talk about myself a lot. i connect events in other people’s lives to mine. everything in my world (note use of possessive again) is mine or relates to me. if i were on one of my rants about personal responsibility and my own philosophy of life, this entry would be a lot more of that. i’m not. i’m just commenting on how strange it is to be referred to as “my anything” by people. my friend, my wife, my lover, my ex, my girlfriend, my acquaintance, my sister, my coworker, my daughter, etc etc etc.

“this is sharon.” no explanation. i’m going to start doing that with other people, when i remember, and see what happens to conversation. without possessing the people i’m introducing.

on another note, i asked dick if he had an non-native english speaker’s perspective on why “how come?” means the same as “why?” he explained that it translates exactly in dutch (yes, with the same sounds, actually) and is like, “how comes that to be?” which, now that i didn’t think of it, makes perfect sense. or, as kristi’s shirt says, “it seems so easy to recognize…”

have you seen this? it’s in adbusters #61, which is where i’ve just seen it. wow. it’s made entirely of paper.

http://www.moma.org/press/demand/Clearing.jpg

hello, friends (including anyone reading this anonymously)…

i was reading a series of articles in the utne reader about sounds and noise pollution, etc. a column on the side of one of the articles listed some of the favorite sounds of people on the utne staff. personally, i’m more interested in smells. i have always loved smells, especially how they trigger memories, like when i first walked into jj’s apartment in minneapolis, when matt brought me there to meet him for the first time, and my god, it smelled like the rooms and apartments of friends from centralia and olympia… the coffee, the books, the music stuff all over… i don’t know what makes that exact smell, but i love it. i love the smell of pierre cardin cologne, especially if it’s really old, and lingering in the smell of an old, much read book. i love the smell of cinnamon. and cat fur. and lots of other things…

anyway, what i’m wanting is this: some of my friends’/acquaintances’ favorite sounds and smells. you can post them as comments or email them to me privately, if they’re private. whichever. anyway, i’d like that. thanks.

well, matt had just left for aikido and i’d just put in the first episode of zim for a little doom singing, when the phone rang. when matt was at summer darkness in utrecht a couple of weekends ago, he met and hung out with 3 americans (?) from a band called the azoic. he invited them to stay with us if they wanted while they’re touring around europe. anyway, they’re due in an hour or so. unless my directions here really fuck them up, which isn’t unlikely, since i couldn’t remember how to describe the way here. i’ve been having similar problems all day today. feeling a bit jet-lagged still, and today has felt a bit surreal that way. and i can’t seem to sleep much, but it’s all i want. ugh.

well, maybe i should go and unclean the house a bit. since i haven’t been sleeping much, the house is ridiculously clean, and i think that sometimes that is a bit freaky to people. maybe i should muss it up! heh. too much trouble. i’ll probably just continue moping around and trying to decide if i should start a new book or finish one of the ones i’m in the middle of. i’m in the mood for some junk reading, but i think i’m all out of fresh ones. i could re-read something, i suppose. the attic is full of boxes of books i haven’t seen in a long time.

well, i am back in maastricht, and finally feeling up to spending a little time updating things here. and reading everyone else’s journals, but only if they come up on the first 25 entries of my friends list. so, sorry if i’ve missed anything important.

i had an interesting return to the netherlands. i got myself checked into my flights from minneapolis with no problems: 2 pieces of checked luggage, one carry-on. got upgraded to first class FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY ENTIRE LIFE for the flight from minneapolis to detroit. yay! went through security, no problem. bought and ate some sour patch kids. yay. then first class was boarded, and i got on. then we were offloaded, due to a giant rip being found in one of the wings. then a couple of hours while we waited for a new plane. boarded again. then delayed in take-off.

missed connecting flight from detroit to amsterdam due to delays. was put in a hotel for the night, with food voucher coupons for dinner, breakfast and lunch the next day, with a new flight time for the following evening. i have never been more glad of packing a change of underwear, shirt and all my toiletries. last time this happened, i had nothing. a book and a bottle of water. i also got vouchers for $125 off later flights, and some air miles! score.

interesting fact: if your flight is delayed because of weather, rather than mechanical problems, northwest airlines DOES NOT compensate you in any way, or provide a hotel room. can you believe that? i was in line getting all my goodies and overheard others being very upset that they weren’t. i think that’s really wrong. it’s not their fault that they were delayed for weather, any more than it was my fault that i was delayed for mechanical problems.

anyway, the following day, i checked out at noon, and headed to the airport for my 5 hour wait until my flight time. heh heh.

if anyone remembers that i was complaining about a missing knife after my road trip, well, good news: it was found.

bad news: by the security people at the airport, when i was going back in. oops. heh heh. this was actually pretty funny, because they were really short staffed, so before they had a chance to go through my bag, i had ample time to be chatting with the ones who were searching other people. i was really relaxed because i had so much free time, and besides, also knew i didn’t have anything worth searching in my bag. i thought. so i was chatting them up, and having a good time. when finally someone came to search the bag, he asked me if there was anything sharp, and i said that somewhere there was a pair of tweezers, but i didn’t think they counted. then he mentioned that the xray had shown something that looked like a knife. and i said, “oh! was it about THIS long? excellent!! i’ve been looking ALL OVER for that! but i don’t think it can be in here. i completely emptied it looking for it.”

he said, “no, it was clear as day in the xray, so i have to search it.” i said, “no problem! i’m happy if it’s been found; that was driving me nuts!” and he looked at me funny and said, “this isn’t a good thing; you could be fined. or jailed.”

“oh, you’re right,” i said, a bit chagrined, then, “but at least the mystery would be solved!!”

so he searched, through everything, twice. didn’t find it. took out the toiletry bag. searched it, twice again. nothing. put it through the xray again. searched again. still couldn’t find it. put it all in pieces through the xray. searched again. found it, in the toiletry bag.

the woman i’d been chatting with before pleasantly escorted me back to deal with rechecking it in my check-in bags. 2 hours later, i was back through security, no problems this time.

i have three possible reasons why i was lucky enough not to be fined or jailed. one, i was already relaxed and chatty with everyone right at the beginning, two, i was genuinely excited to have had my knife found, and three, that the guy who searched also looked and looked in the same places before finding it. he must have believed i’d really looked, since he had as well, without finding it. i don’t exactly have an xray machine at home. mixture of all three, perhaps? anyway, very lucky.

so, after getting through security after the second try, i had just enough time to pick up some lunch and get to where i was supposed to board. only to be delayed by broken air conditioning on the plane. and then again for some small mechanical reason, then by some paperwork, apparently. anyway, we finally were airborne, but the flight was nearly empty, yay! so i had my own seats all to myself, and those personal video screens where you get to choose your own movies. yay! so i didn’t sleep; i watched movies instead. all night. and missed my flight from amsterdam to brussels, which i was happy about because then maybe i could talk them into letting me off at amsterdam.

they wouldn’t. so i called matt and he told me to go try at another transfer desk. so i did, all in dutch! yay me! and this time, the very nice lady helped me out. and told me where to wait for my luggage, but that it might take a while, which i didn’t mind.

about an hour later, i went to check with the baggage people and ask about how long i should wait until i got worried. they said another hour, so i went back an hour later, and a very nice guy there said, “why wait around? we can just say it was lost, and courier it to you later!” so i got to go home without having to lug my bags. and caught the train right away with no wait. yay! that was all very nice. one bag came in the next day, and the other the day after. same courier both times.

it was weird not being met at either the airport or the train station, by anyone, but as matt says, we didn’t know where you were getting in or when by that time! and he’s right.

and that’s the story of how i got home.

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