I thought I was having a bad day on Friday by sleeping through the alarm, missing my first meeting (in person), forgetting my wallet and having a presentation fall apart. Then came the news alerts Friday night about what was happening in Paris. Since France is just on the other side of Belgium, it feels awfully close to home. I think some of the things I have realized over the weekend is that it isn’t understandable what happened. I am reminded that since no one of us is guaranteed a specific exit time and place, we need to make the most of the days that we have and the relationships that we have in our lives.

In my messed up presentation on Friday, I said to the audience “Do the right thing for the change you wish to create” instead of following a formula. They all looked at me as if I had gone around the yoga bend. I was surprised by myself and a little embarrassed but as I was thinking about on the way back to the parking garage, it really is a statement I could get behind. Kind of like my Mom’s tagline of “Do good only”. Last week I signed up do some volunteer work twice in the month. This week it will be homework help with youth who are struggling at school/home etc. And next week it will be with a group of female teenagers who are Muslim. The goal of their program besides homework help, is to give exposure to other possibilities for women. Both opportunities are centered on empowerment. I think that’s a message that resonates with me strongly.

Speaking of empowerment, R received a mobile phone from his latest family so he has been calling me fairly regularly. He usually calls when he is in the cafeteria at school. If I remember school food correctly, I can understand why he is looking for a distraction! Some calls are better than others, depending on his background audience. Either way, I am glad he calls, even if I don’t always know what to give him as advice.

I had my first glühwein of the year with Marianne on Sunday. We were at a potato festival of all things and next door to the festival building was a small wine bar. It is pretty powerful stuff, I would have thought heating it would cook the alcohol right off but I was a little wobbly navigating through the park after that 😉

Going for Indonesian tonight with a friend. We’re going to talk job opportunities and possibilities. I hope that I have something useful to add to the conversation. Tomorrow night, I am going to the movies. I want to see both Son of Saul and The Lobster. Obviously not in the same night 🙂 Thursday it is off to Amsterdam Noord for a Wild West theatrical production complete with banjo music. And finally, Friday to Utrecht for a housewarming party. Heh, I just realized that I am doing a good job filling up my calendar without intending to do so! The weather we are having, rainy and stormy, makes me want to stay home and hibernate so I have to give myself a little push sometimes to leave the house 😉

At this very moment, two men are digging up a corner of my new backyard to place an 8 meter high tree. Apparently, the city removed one in the spring and as such had to wait until the right time of year to replace it. And the tree had to reach the right height. I now understand why they had to come in through the bedroom window instead of trying for the curve in the hallway.

In the meantime, we’re still camping among the boxes. It is getting better slowly. Cedric and his best friends, Tanner and Katy, were here from Tuesday night through Sunday morning. So while there was alot of good eating (at restaurants), beer testing and conversation, there wasn’t much time to unpack. Particularly since last week I was at various nerd conferences from 7 am to 7 pm. Not expecting anymore houseguests for awhile. I have to say, between Tanner and Cedric, various tasks involving engineering talent got done without my even having to ask. I definitely appreciated that 🙂 We did have a really good visit even if there wasn’t much time together due to my overscheduled work life.

Tonight I am going to see Carmina Burana at the Concertgebouw with some friends. We have 10th row seats so I am looking forward to being thrilled out of my mind. As Jonathan says “We’ll be able to feel their vibrato” Not entirely sure what that means in regards to the music world but I am looking forward to it.

The Halloween party and after party were a good time. For the Halloween party, everyone enjoyed themselves and my moldy eyeballs, pumpkins and Zombie punch were a big hit. Marianne and I had a good time 🙂 I am glad I could be part of her first Halloween celebration and she makes an excellent wingwoman!  Here you can see the punch that was empty by the time it was off to the after party!

My favorite holiday! Finished carving tonight and will bring them to the house party. And then at midnight, the major Halloween party at Sugarfactory! Hope you end up with more treats than tricks… And as for me, I will take the tricks 😉

This morning I had to make the last run by the old house and do the walkthrough and give up all the keys. In the meantime, the people were there unloading their sanders and other equipment and getting ready to make it ready for the next renters. It was a little bittersweet walking through one last time. I was remembering the day we came there for the first time to get the keys and Lawyerella and I each with a dog. We took a picture outside the front door and it was a good one. Anyway, that part of my life is another lifetime ago almost.

Yesterday, I learned a valuable cultural lesson about front doors. I was running out the door to the office and as I was closing it, something didn’t feel right. I thought I would try locking it with my key but the lock wouldn’t budge. You guessed it, I was effectively locked out. I thought it might be my key so i went to working figuring maybe Kate’s key would work when she came to pick up the boys for their daily woods adventure. Nope, her’s didn’t either. I ended up calling a locksmith to meet me at the house. He said to me “Madame, are you sure you do not have a key in the lock on the inside?” I looked at him very puzzled and said “Of course, I do! How else would I lock the door when I am inside?” Kind of like Duh…. and he says “Well, that’s your problem. If you have a key in the lock, you can’t put another key in it from the other side.”

Anyway, he took some useful locksmith device and ran it through the mailbox and unlocked the door. Literally 15 seconds of work for 55 euro. I am in the wrong line of work 😉 Apparently, every Dutch person seems to know this about the locks. And now I do too.

As for the unpacking, it is definitely taking a lot longer this time. The kitchen is accessible. Tonight my goal will be to set up my office so I can work properly instead of from the couch 😉 I will get there eventually.

The movers came today and tonight we will sleep in the new house. I have no idea how long it will take me to unpack this time. All I know is that when Cedric arrives in two weeks, he will definitely need to move between the boxes.
In true Dutch fashion, there are no closets. They will have to be built. However I did find the silverware drawer tonight, it is hidden under the stove. That makes me happy since I couldn’t imagine a kitchen without a silverware drawer!
It is a beautiful little house. The pets are a little shell-shocked but they are loving the entire glass wall back of the house and skylights. I think we will be more than okay once we get settled.
Still some things to do at the old house, like dismantling the veggie garden. I have to turn the keys in Friday so I have a few more days. Back to work tomorrow since you get two moving days.
Wishing I had Martha Stewart’s army of minions….

I was prompted by Joni’s comment that it had been a while since I’ve even visited the blog site. It seems that all of the writing I have been doing over the past month consists of writing things down since my short term memory is overloaded and things tend to get forgotten!

Last night, I helped teach 80 kids to begin coding their first computer game. Tomorrow through Saturday, I’m helping teach 35 women how to begin coding and prepare themselves for making the transition to looking for and finding an IT job. Sunday I will be finishing sorting the current house, Monday the packers come and Tuesday the movers. Then on Wednesday our current house needs to be cleaned and the garden returned to rights and the handyperson chores need to be completed. I have given myself two days to get that done. Friday I do the walkthrough and turn in the keys for our soon to be old house.

Oh right, and Monday the washing machine gets delivered to the new house. I decided that to save space, I would get a washer/dryer in the same machine. They have those here. They cost more than a washer but less than a washer and dryer together. Exciting, I know…

Lots of juggling going on, work is a state of high friction and I am experiencing being micromanaged which I find demoralizing and frustrating. One of the things I like most about the Netherlands is the lack of hierarchy. Right now, I am experiencing the complete opposite of collaboration among equals. My whole team is struggling with it and it is really impacting how we work with each other and what we deliver. We are all hoping that it is a temporary thing but the longer it stretches out, the worse it gets.

The boys are still very cute and the cats are still running away when I try to round them up for their daily medicine. Moortje is a little more agitated lately, it seems like he gets lost in his head. I was doing some reading about dementia in cats and decided I didn’t need to know any more detail. Instead, as long as he is eating, sleeping, playing and searching for affection, we will take the Slightly Lost in the Living Room episodes in stride.

Maybe more next week 🙂

between posts that is. Every day for the past two weeks, I have heard the little voice in my head that says “You promised to post after getting back” and every day it gets drowned out by the louder voices of work, move, women’s coding conference, etc that are also competing for attention.

Lynn Marie lands in a few hours and I will pick her up from Schiphol. The guest room is ready – which means I also finally unpacked my suitcase from Italy. The washer is running and the house looks presentable. The garden is another story but I know it is always a good thing to have a task on hand for Lynn Marie. The dogs are drying out since just as we timed our walk and glass recycling run, it began raining. Usually, I try to make a deal with the weather to hold off for 5 or 10 minutes but lately that hasn’t been working so well so we just went for it.

I feel like I was never even on vacation, except now I have this overwhelming daily craving for tomato and basil. Given the chaos that we came back to, I think I will definitely go for three weeks next year. Which means between now and then, I will need to find someone who can drive. Or teach the boys.

We are moving. I have the keys to the new house. We have until Halloween to be out of this one and in the new place. If you have stayed with me before, don’t worry, it is still the same neighborhood so you won’t have to relearn Amsterdam 😉 I do try to be considerate of my houseguests! A few things still need to be done, like closets built since it doesn’t have any but other than that it is move in ready. It was fully renovated this year so it will be our germs only! It is really beautiful, I wish my mom could see it.

It turns out that Cedric will probably be my first guest. He’s coming with two of his friends the first week of November. It will be really good to see him. He’s the only one who hasn’t been here since I moved. And while he’s here, we’re going to engineer the garden with a hanging vegetable garden and irrigation system. He just doesn’t know that yet 😉

I have alot of stuff going on right now. I am trying to keep myself from going too far in one direction or the other. After the first week of November, things should be considerably calmer.

Moortje and Lientje are still not lining up voluntarily for their kidney medicine. I think I need to hire an expert in collaboration to teach us how to work together 😉 Henry is 10 on Wednesday and George next Wednesday so it will be a McDonald’s plain double cheeseburger for them. I think they miss Italy too. I know we all miss the sunshine!

We got back last night. I will write more about our adventures tomorrow. This afternoon I went to celebrate the opening of the new entrance hall to the Van Gogh Museum with a labyrinth of 125000 sunflowers. As a plus, you could take as many home with you as you could carry. Luckily, I had some help.

Seriously, yesterday, after wandering down yet another picturesque street I had the urge to see something contrasting, like an gigantic, icy Stalinesque building like they have in parts of Moscow. I needed something to interrupt all the charm and beauty of Italy.

 Yesterday, I left the dogs here at the agriturismo with the teenage children of the owners. I left early and went to Urbino. You might know it as the birthplace of the painter, Raphael (not the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle). It is set on top of a hill and it was a very important city in the time of the ducal states. After hiking up and down the streets, I took some time and ducked into their Orto Botanico – Botanical Gardens. They date from the 1700s, making them somewhat younger than the Hortus in Amsterdam 😉 It was an oasis, even standing near the carnivorous plants was peaceful. I pretty much set my internal compass to “Wander” and did just that through the streets.

Around 1245, the crowds started to get to me a bit since it is a UNESCO heritage site and they had two festivals planned for this weekend. I hiked back down to the bottom of the walls, where the car park is and set off with the windows open for Urbania. The letter of the day yesterday was U 🙂 Urbania is a bit smaller and more level. Unfortunately, I arrived right in the middle of siesta time which meant I had the city to myself to walk around in. In the end, I gave in to the wisdom and found a small sidewalk cafe and had a glass of Prosecco in the shade.

 On the way back to Mercatello sul Metauro, where we are, I took the drive up into the hills and saw the village of Peglio. It is a village on a hill top that has the best view of the Marche for kilometers. You can see approximately 63 km in distance from Peglio. And once you are done, you head back down the winding mountain road. I didn’t use navigation once yesterday, which was kind of liberating.

 As a treat and because one must eat pizza in Italy, I took my host and their teenagers to the pizzeria that is three 16th century villages over. It was definitely unlike American and very good. They don’t open until 7pm and by 9pm they are quite full. There were some very interesting options, that are apparently pretty normal Italian pizza options. I stuck to the basics, eggplant, zucchini and mushrooms.

 I have been alternating my days. Monday, the dogs and I drove to Cartoceto in search of olive oil and vineyards. Tuesday we took it easy and went to Sant Angelo in Vado. Wednesday, we stayed here, only climbing all the way up the side of the hill when I got restless and thought I needed something to do that was “productive”. Thursday we went to Tuscany and explored there. Friday, we were here and walked all the way down the hill to the river and went swimming. And then consequently faced the climb back up the hill. Tonight is the festival of the red potato in Borgo Pace (population 665) and a town over. We’re going to that. Tomorrow, I may make the drive over to Assisi and leave the dogs here since it promises to be around 95 degrees again.

The dogs are having a field day, spending the whole day free and unleashed. As for me, I am practicing my banjo regularly, reading, writing and taking a nap per day. For our next trip to Italy, I will choose either the fall or spring since the summer is a bit too sunny for me – what a complaint, I know! I like it here and I would like to see more of Italy, although I think I am doing a pretty good job so far.

I can’t really express it better than this