Sunday, May 01, 2005

Day After Queen's Day

This morning I rode into the Center to go to church. I was sort of expecting the streets to be cleaned. Last year the streets were amazingly cleared of trash and scraps from Queen's Day. I think because it's Sunday the trash clearing will be delayed a until Monday.

Yesterday was fairly interesting. It wasn't great. It's always fun to wake up and see all the hubbub in the plein below our fabulous window. I woke up to pee at 6:00 and there were already people down there. I asked F if we could please get out of the house as soon as possible. We left at 1:30. It's sort of like picking someone up. Even if it's a small woman (I learned this once from a dancer friend of a guy I was dating) she can either make herself light easy to pickup or heavy and difficult to pickup. So F drags a bit and no matter how much I try to propel us out the door, I'm fooling myself.

I did get one wonderful thing accomplished. The door to the balcony was locked. We tried several things to get it open (a number of keys, visiting a locksmith and then asking a neighbor for the number on his key because the locksmith thought it might be from the same series) and we finally ended up cutting a square out of the door. It sounds like a crazy option, but F thinks that we can find a piece of metal to put over the hole, and then just get an eye screw and be done with it. It's for flower pots and the ladder and other crap, not jewels and valuables.

I worked on that project for about 45 minutes. I had my method. (All those sorts of things should be, and are, left to me.) I was sort of expecting a dead body or some kind of fabulous surprise. It was just a dirty little closet. But it's sort of like having and extra room suddenly. Like in a dream where you say, "Oh wow. I totally forgot about this wonderful room full of things that I love." And this closet is full of empty space, which to apartment dwellers is the thing we love.

We headed immediately towards the apartment of Sally, my fabulous ex-pat friend. She lives on a canal and was having a little drop-in/open house thing. We parked our bikes, found the apartment and had a few beers. I don't usually drink beer t 2:00 in the afternoon, but it was a "white beer," which is light, and it was Queen's Day. Sally's mother, Dotty, is here. Fun to be around Americans. Dotty's totally sweet. They've known each other fourteen years. Dotty is Sally's birthmother. Sally's adoptive parents are both dead. Sally's whole life is a great story. F really likes Sally, which is nice. We've made a date for the four of us to go to Gouda, where Sally knows of a good Mexican food restaurant.

After Sally's, we walked for a bit and then headed back to our bikes. It was an exhausting day. Upon arriving at the Center, F said, "Next year you will find me on a deserted beach." Hours later, upon leaving the Center, I agreed that it was the best course of action.

Left to my own devices, I would have bought a lot of stuff. Queen's Day is one big flea market across the country. With F in tow, I bought black socks and a canvas grocery bag, and got free books from Sally. It's just a big, crowded, drunken mob in places. I wore casual clothing. F wore a suit jacket and jeans. He's not the casual type. He said, "Buy anything you want. Just don't bring it into the house." Such fun he.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

I love the "buy anything you want but don't bring it into the house" you go Fred my sentiments exactly.

....Cousin Blanche