March 26, 2003 : supposing I was bridget jones
Today I tried to check a few things off my list. The list included many things that didn't get checked-off, but there were some additional elements of surprise (for Eva) that did. Namely the washing.
I took the clothes down to the laundromat, stuffed the washers full (actually just the right amount) and sat down on the sunny front step of the building. Susan came by walking her dogs and I took her to show her Debbie (the car). I still haven't made my mind up about calling her Debbie, but apparently that's what has stuck thus far. Maybe we should christen every vehicle of mobility Gretta. I don't know. Apparently we're going to do a champagne party on Saturday with Eva's mother...so I suppose we must have a name that sticks by then.
I returned to my sunny spot only to find that the sun had suddenly retracted itself (moved on, really) and my spot was not shady-cool. I returned to the car, opened the passenger door, and worked on some Dutch lessons. I figured in the car I could read it all out-loud and no one would bat an eye.
The laundry finished, I headed back home to drop off the stuff and pick up Eva. I figured it would be fun if we drove somewhere for dinner tonight. I was thinking fritjes in another town, knowing all the while that we didn't necessarily have money for the fritjes in another town, so once I met Eva and discussed my plans with her, we both decided it was better for me to simply fix rookworst, steamed veggies, and mashed potatoes. Eva was shocked at the fact that I had even found money to do the washing. As she has stated many a time that I don't care about saving up the 2 Euro pieces and larger coins to do the laundry, I have to admit that I had a rather large inner-smile when I told her that I had been saving up Euros here and there just for the laundry. :)
Joris came over and the three of us went to the videotheek and picked out Brigit Jones's Diary. Maybe it was me that picked it out, as I am a home-movie fan of humor and lighthearted flicks. Eva's still keen on seeing One-Hour Photo, but it looks creepy. I usually like somewhat creepy films, or daunting ones. Maybe I'm getting old. (don't forget that my birthday is only a few weeks away and I shall turn 27!)
Eva finished up some work and Joris quizzed me on Vraags and Waaroms in Dutch. We even discussed "Waarom is de lucht blauw?" to which I answered Daarom something about particlesje in de lucht een de son. And then we looked it up online because it's a question we've all known the answer to once in our lives but have since forgotten. It's the sunlight and it's colors being broken up by the particles. I was somewhat right. Now why is the sunset red? I've since forgotten that one as well. :)
The film was great. I was troubled a bit by her target weight of 135, as if I was suddenly 135 again, I would look like a starved out victim of some horrific eating disorder. 135 was what I weighted back in 1994, and slowly, over time I have added 20 and then another 20 post-graduating from college. I suppose I should slowly digress to target weights of minus 10 times 6 or so, and then I'd look healthy. Now I'm just the ideal poster-child for somewhat girthy paintings of 300 years ago.
Bridget also had a great little apartment and a great tight circle of friends. It made me re-remember how great it was to live alone and how wonderful having a circle of friends looking out for you (and vice versa) was. Once significant others enter the picture, all circles become changed and misshapen a bit. It becomes couple-parties instead of friend-parties where you all sit around and blah blah blah until your heart's content. There's something to be said for both sides of the story, but I must admit that I look back to alone-time as being fruitful, and though together time is fruitful as well (!) alone-time is priceless. Everyone should be alone for awhile in their life.
The movie ended and we watched the deleted scenes and some of the additional DVD-perks that VHS people miss out on. Once again, DVDs are just plain cool and I still think it's sort of funny to think about how long we could have been watching movies during the end-of-the-month poor spells, but didn't.
Joris kissed us farewell and Eva and I crawled into bed. We've decided that we should simply set our worries to the side occasionally and get back to being two carefree lovers (it's only appropriate in the sense that lovers tend to be a bit more romantic and carefree poetically speaking!) and not worry so much about the thing piling up a le carte next to our already decked out plates.
Ahhh...analogies are so fun to make sometimes!
IN THE NEWS:
North Korea cut off the sole regular military contact with the U.S.-led U.N. Command that monitors the Korean War armistice, saying it was "meaningless" to sit with the Americans.
