I wanna be sedated… as the classic Ramones song goes. In my case, I nearly wore out the cassette tape I had of Ramones Mania (their first greatest hits album) listening to that song. As a matter of fact, I am going to play it write now while I type just to keep me bouncing along.

I haven’t packed yet but the boys already know something is up. There’s been a high amount of anxiety peeing around here. Them, not me. As for me, I know everything will be fine. I showed Nikah today how to give the cats their medicine. If you can catch her, Lientje is alot easier than Moortje about getting her medicine. Of course, catching her is not that easy.

I went to the Albert Cuyp market to get stroop wafels for Meredith. She loves them, they are about as fresh as you can get and extra delicious. Besides, I think that since I will be staying with them for a week, it is the least I can do. I also bought cheese and Indonesian spices and sauces so I can cook for them as a way of saying thank you. I can actually cook, tortillas being the exception of course!

I had a rought banjo lesson today. Most likely because I was stressing out about leaving tomorrow and that it is not the brightest time of the year to be taking a week off from work. It will be okay. I have 8 hours of flying time tomorrow to be doing work stuff. Except KLM doesn’t have wifi on their international flights. I don’t that’s a bad thing really. I am supposed to be writing a magazine article and that doesn’t require wifi.

I felt like PigPen from Peanuts while I was trying to play the banjo today. It seemed like no matter what I tried, stuff kept getting stuck and swirling around making the songs sound terrible. Luckily, the mess was musical as opposed to bricks or other hard objects so no one was seriously damaged.

Tomorrow morning, one more open house to look at before I leave for the airport. It feels strange to be going to the US. I am going to be very happy to see Cedric, Rupert and Meredith. That’s not it. It just feels odd somehow. I have to go since my new check in sized suitcase has already been delivered to Rupert’s third floor walkup.

I think I better get my butt in gear and try discreetly packing around the pets.