Since we now have Debbie (the car) it's actually much cheaper for me to go and see Eva for lunch these days. At around 5 Euro or more for every trip to Nekkerspoel and back it's cheaper to go by car. So I did. I was starving by the time I got there, and ready for lunch. Eva promptly came outside and a few minutes later Jenneka came out as well.

Every workplace seems to have groups that go out to lunch together. Jenneka and Eva make up one of these groups, and since I occasionally come as well, I suppose I complete their group. The ATM was out, so we headed to Pizza hut for their overpriced personal pan pizza and one trip to the salad bar combo. Eva's not crazy about pizza or cheese, and she actually chose the cheesiest of the options. I chose pepperoni.

I can't eat at Pizza Hut anymore without thinking of two things. First and foremost, the Pizza Hut in Marshfield, Missouri and all of the memories it holds for me and the Tastee-Freeze turned Pizza Hut in Buffalo, Missouri and all of the memories it holds. (Namely the latter holds more recent memories and my parent's love for its all-you-can-eat lunch buffet which is literally a steal it's so cheap.) The second thought is of Eva's retelling me a story from Paraguay and how her host family told her they were taking her someplace special that had just opened up. They called it "Pizzah Huh" slurred together in a way that made it unrecognizable as the well-known brand. This makes us both chuckle.

I daresay this was my first salad bar purchase that saw me loading up my salad plate with just as much salad as anyone else. It wasn't made up of typically American salad-bar fixings, a lot of potato-salad type dishes as well as a very nice assortment of loose-leaf options as well as olives, eggs, and pickles. No croutons, bacon-bits, or cheese. Regardless, I considered it a wild success.

We ate our pizza and as usual, time flew by. I was eager to have a coffee before we parted ways, but they both seemed intent on getting back to work. (It's that Belgian work ethic masked over a bit by simply being prudent.)

I came home and continued to work on applicable things just minding my time until Eva was to arrive. I couldn't do much in respect to food preparations or tiny surprises for Eva due to the fact that I am currently dirt-poor. When she finally arrived, we barely had enough time to eat dinner before biking to Het Roze Huis to talk about the current issue and next issue of De Magneet.

Sometimes I struggle during these meetings a bit. It's really good for my Dutch, and if I can force myself to concentrate for 2 hours, I can understand most of it and interject occasionally in English. Today I managed to concentrate for about an hour and then my mind started to wonder. I thought about all sorts of things; how to put a stereo into our car, how it had turned so cold outside, how much I like my bicycle, the scooter that is sitting in Eva's mother's garage with brand new tires, freelance projects, using some of the Pink House's space for my end-of-year, and growing old.

The later isn't so much growing old as it is birthday I suppose they go and in hand, and though Eva has done every effort to remind me of it's approaching fact, (this Thursday) I can't help but overlook it and count it as yet another day. Or is it? When I think of 27 it sounds so much older than 25, but in respect to 26, well it's not all that bad at all. Any day now I'll get to hear my mother's recitation about the day that I was born and I'm not trying to make light of it at all. It's tradition, and I daresay I'd miss it if she didn't.

So this is my birthday week, if I was a kid, I'd definitely be counting down the days. And since I'd like to still be a kid at heart, there are only 3 more.

IN THE NEWS:
The Supreme Court ruled Monday that states can punish Ku Klux Klansmen and others who set crosses afire, finding that a burning cross is an instrument of racial terror so threatening that it overshadows free speech concerns