Back when I was a regular entry writer (actually, I just wrote rider...if that tells one anything) every single day had something packaged away that was important enough to get mentioned. (or not mentioned for that matter!)

It is good to know that those things are still here and still happening and still exist, though I have never found myself in the situation like tonight--Eva is sleeping and I'm awake. For the sake of ease, I'll put the blame of empty dates there and even place a bit of guilt on the head of Victor. No one is ever alone doing "nothing" if Victor can have his say.

And yet I miss it. I miss the purpose in each just-before-bedtime, a half-hour or hour filled with my eyes glued to the screen and my hands whizzing around on the keyboard, sometimes lightening speed...sometimes amazed or disappointed in my insight and wit (one mustn't be too hard on oneself!) and sometimes feeling so guilty myself at the sleeping Eva.

Not tonight. We climbed into bed after a beans and rice dinner, accidently left the heat on, and now after peeling my contacts off of my eyes and leaving the protesting "I'm dreaming about my grandmother" Eva, I found a few half hours alone. Maybe just one, maybe even two. Probably one, as Eva plans to take the written part of the driving test tomorrow and she's so filled with importance over this test, that she'll be studying till one or two if she has her way.

After a few minutes of all out "hello.....hello..............hello......hello...." from Victor signaling his need for food and/or attention, even Victor climbed the stairs into heaven, looked at me at the middle-rung as if to say, "oh yeah, well I'm going up to Eva then" and is now napping peacefully up there. I've turned down the heat, so Eva should be almost normal once her grandmother dream is over.

So these were my few minutes to myself, to catch up and remind myself of the value of typing late at night with the sleeping Eva peacefully breathing behind and above me.

The treasure in today's living, I might add, must have been the weather. If I had been writing faithfully, I would have started out with it first thing. As it rained bucketloads from morning till night, it seemed my route to and from work were dry. Or, if perchance i had recently spoken of weather, I would have certainly mentioned the lost-boy in Carrefours which Eva followed around and convinced that he was to wait there with me while she had his mother paged on the intercom. "Daniel zoekt zijn moeder, hij wacht op kassa tien." Eva was so persuesive, so tender, so putting herself at eye-level with him and saying, "dont' worry, I'll help you out" that I could have stood there next to the crying boy with a bagful of candies and cried myself.

We bought a new swimsuit for me, and blood oranges. After a little coaxing and after seeing myself only underweared in a full-length dressingroom mirror, I skipped my new favorite treat at the frituur, the vlaampijp. It was a normal day, a day packed with tiny little things that used to be worth writing about, that helped me remember them after absenses of even a year. Maybe, like always, I'll get into again. If not, let the newsclip be the only thing that you remember. That, and the fact that you must try a vlaampijp the next time you have the chance.

IN THE NEWS:
My president (by default) wants to spend 1.5 billion (yes, billion) on marriage. I thought this an absurd sentence--he wants to spend 1.5 billion dollars on counselling and government programs geared to get lower-income people to marry, and everyone who is married to stay together. I'm not kidding. It made me sick. 1 billion to put a man on mars and 1.5 billion for marriage!!! Besides healthcare, pensions, higher education funding, culture and arts, etc, the basic education of a person helps a child turned teen turned adult make good decisions. The word in bold is a good place to start.

I'll be damned to vote for you this fall, Mr. Bush, and if I happen to be stateside by the end of the year, I promise to take every home-bound democrat to the voting polls if that's all I do from 8 till 8! ;)