Well, not precisely the blues but definitely wishing it was still the weekend 🙂 It’s 830AM and I have been slogging away at the email for a bit, long enough to be on my second macadamia nut milk latte and for the boys to have fallen asleep by my desk.

I’ve decided to work from home today since I need to prepare for that webinar for tomorrow which I still don’t have any updated information for. So, I anticipate I will be rushing to make sure everything is installed and that it all works and I have rehearsed it 27 times before tomorrow morning. I am not going to deliver it in Dutch. Well, that’s what I say now but I know tomorrow I will fall into it. Sometimes, when I am looking for words and expressions, I slide over into Dutch because I can’t think of how to say it in English anymore.

Wednesday is King’s Day. The weather forecast is not looking great, which doesn’t inspire me to want to brave the crowds in the Centrum to see all the boats. However, this is the Netherlands and the weather can change in 5 minutes. In the park on Saturday, the boys and I kept getting caught between bright too warm bursts of sunshine and nasty stinging hail pellets. It makes me glad that I am such a procrastinator that I haven’t planted my garden yet because everything would be damaged 😉

Had a really lovely time with GG yesterday – formerly known as Sunday’s Terrace Company (which doesn’t exactly roll off the tongue). It was delightful to know that last weekend was not a fluke and not some weird once in a bazillion years galactic storm event. I was also pretty excited to find out that she can easily share my soup with lactose free grilled cheese habit 🙂

I have a banjo lesson this morning, which will be good for me. I’ve got some stuff I need to let go and banjo always seems to help that – or replace it with the frustration that I can’t play something 😉 But frustration is something I am good at!

Okay, time to tear myself out of the protective shell of my bathrobe and face the world, or at least banjo — one step at a time 😉

P.S. – well, I didn’t end up working from home today. I wanted to call into all my meetings but my manager put the kabosh on that. So, after my banjo lesson I ran to get my bike and then to Astrid to make it to our office on time. Completely wearing tennis shoes, my DubSea coffee hoody and old jeans. I made it into the meeting with 2 minutes to spare – not bad considering there was no parking to be found anywhere nearby.

Banjo was really incredible today. Mostly because of all of the emotions. Paul has been working on music for his sister in law’s funeral and she has passed. So, we played a lot today just free form and I asked him to play the pieces that he is going to play on Friday. And it was super emotional, for both of us. Not a dry eye in the house. In between the concern that he has that he is not a proper banjo teacher to me, since I don’t learn the way his other students do, he also told me that he really values our lessons and that they are special to him. Which I treasured hearing because I look forward to my time with him. And it is good to know that you are giving something back and not just taking.

Today I left my lesson thinking that maybe sometimes because I am what some people would consider fairly emotional that I might make it okay every now and again for others to share their’s. Maybe I am a safe place of sorts. Or maybe it is just the fact that I am not a stranger but not a friend. Who knows exactly why? In any case, I was glad I could be there.

I got an email from one of my tenants telling me all about his future housing and relationship plans. Which was interesting and I am excited for him. At the same time, I was like I am not quite sure why he is sharing this with me but okay, just go with the human side of it. Or it could be that people might think I have some capacity for wisdom – in which case, boy, do I have them fooled! 🙂

Moortje is having a rough time lately, he’s really disoriented again. When I hold him, it also seems like his eyes are a little cloudier. I know this is the progression of his very old age but it is still hard to hear him. It is interesting, the pets have all taken to GG like Velcro – which makes me glad. I haven’t seen them work that hard to be charming in a long time, they don’t bother with me anymore since they know I am a guaranteed Food Provider 🙂