Hmm, didn’t do a real update for a while, and it’s not like anyone will be really interested anyway, but hey…
Spent
my first week and a half of my vacation running from one spot to
another, performing one task after another. Weather’s not been that
good, so why not ? Still ever so busy these days.
On friday Bart
started his first day at his new job, leaving him pretty exhausted. He
had promised to cook in the evening for Faust and Jurryt, but since he
felt all empty, I decided to cook us all a Thai/Chinese meal. Bit of
chopping, but all worked out fine. Was a good night, I daresay.
Had a
wonderful evening on saturday with Gwen and Erik, two of my fellow
college students who have been my best friends ever since. Bart and I
were invited to go out for Thai food for her birthday, so we said hi to
their little boy Leander and left for a nice meal indeed. Ended up in
the Opatuur, a jazz cafe here in Gent. They truly are my best friends,
apart from Faust then.
On monday I went out at night to one of my
former students, she just finished her first year at college as a Civil
Engineer Architecture. As it was a nice and warm evening, we went into
town, bought ourselves a huge ice cream cone and sat on the banks of the
river that runs thru the city, surrounded by very old and pretty
houses, the medieval castle, some works of art, a lot of people, mostly
young and alternative, and a bunch of guitar and violin playing young
guys who sat there just for fun and smoking some weed. All this created
this special atmosphere that I so appreciate in my hometown. So we sat
there and talked, discussed Art Nouveau, the evolution of Classicism,
the developments and novelties from Roman architecture into Gothic
style, the forces which contain an arch etc etc. Was really interesting !
Then we headed to her place and she taught me some basics of
perspective drawing. Had a real Aha-Erlebnis there :-). Was only home at
2.00 AM, in bed by 4 (couldn’t sleep).
Tuesday was pretty busy too,
and somehow I felt exhausted by all of it. Pulled a string in my arm too
in trying to tame another part of our ferocious hedge. Managed to get
away in the afternoon to have coffee with Faust, was nice 🙂
Today I
spent the day at an old friend’s house, making another banner for the
LARP. Hadn’t seen her for a really long time, so it felt good… Hadn’t
even seen her little boy since he was born, and he’s about 1.5 years old
now ! Such a shame, he’s sweet.
Anyway, I did manage to do a lot of stuff, all in all. Feels good.
I like going out once in a while still, and then I wear nothing special,
just my normal feelgood clothes. I just dance a bit, and I watch the
18year olds, their clothes, their make up, their way of behaving… And
I’m so glad I’m no longer part of that, that I don’t need to belong to a
scene to have an identity, that I can be proud of who I am, without the
consent of my peer group. That I no longer have the need to be accepted
by them. I can just stand there, and watch, and enjoy the sight, and
not give a damn about what they think of me. If I’m fat, so what ? I
like dancing so I dance. I no longer have the need to seduce other
people, to attract all eyes.
Oh yes, I love to wear a spikey collar,
but just cos I like it. Actually, I really wouldn’t want to be 18
anymore. Not with this peace of mind, this … maturity. Weird ?
Maybe… But when you have reached a certain state of mind, you’ll know
what I mean.
I can have great fun with 20year olds, since there are a
lot of those in my wide circle of friends, but sometimes me and Faust
just sit back and listen, and smile. Were we once like them ? As
single-tracked, as naive, as zealous, as eager to conquer the world ?
Maybe I lost a lot of ideals and gained a lot of hard reality… I don’t
think it made me bitter, only a lot richer. It does take a while to
realize that tho. Guess I’m just happy the way I am now, and that counts
a LOT !
Man I feel lousy !! Hardly slept last night, tossed and turned all night
long, and so did Bart. We didn’t eat anything wierd tho, wasn’t our
stomach. Grmblll. Bet I look horrible too now. AND it’s still raining
outside. My first days of holiday and I’m bored already. So many things
to do outside, eg. the sales which I wanted to go to. I just can’t park
the car in the city these days, and it’s raining too hard for a bus, cos
I HATE damp buses with wet people on it. Grmbl.
Faust ICQd me
yesterday afternoon, while I was doing the invoices for our company, and
he wanted me to come over for coffee, after he had done some chores in
the city. ‘Fine’, I said, ‘lemme know when you’re back, ok ‘? I called
him in the evening to ask why he didn’t notify me. ‘Oh’, he said, ‘I
thought you’d be coming anyway, I was expecting you.’ Hmm. How was I to
know when he was back home ? Moron. Prolly not gonna see him this week
now 🙁
Gonna go to a ‘party’ this afternoon: a friend/colleague of mine asked some other colleagues for a drink in her new house, we planned on sitting in the garden. It’s cold and soaking tho, we’ll be sitting all inside having hot cocoa and coffee, I suppose, instead of cool long drinks.
Man I hate it when summer starts like this !
Finished correcting for this year, and even without spending my nights
at it ! That must be a real first ! I remember years that I had
procrastinated all the work that much, that I spent correcting all day
up till 6 AM… Not this time. I’m DONE !!
Another week at school for meetings and deliberations, adn then: two months off ! Yay !!
Me happy camper now !
BTW, today ruled: spent a whole part of it with Pumuky and Samalla, and man, she’s hot !!! And did you know that Pum is a wonderful tuba player ?
Ok, I’ve had bad groups, but this one… Out of 19 first graders, I expected 8 to flunk. Hoped for less, but that was realistic, I thought. NOT ! Only 7 of them made it, which means 12 did not pass for Latin. Am I really such a bad teacher ? This never happened to me before ! Sheez, makes me all depressed ! Those poor kids ! I did show the exam to Xavier, and he said it was not too hard, actually. Hey, first one has 95 %, second has 87 %, heh, last one has 7 %. They just didn’t study. Or are they that stupid ? I refuse to believe that. Man… This sux big time !!!
Hmm, cast quality was below every standard: it just didn’t want to dry. This kind should be dry in about two hours, but although it had been cast at 5 pm, I had to put on a very thick sock to keep it from staining my sheets. Cast was still wet this afternoon, so I went to see the doctor once more and he put on another cast. Foot is hurting too…
For the rest: busy as always, haven’t been in game for over a week now. Exams are coming nearer, and I still have to make them all up. Hmmm. Lots of work still. Can’t say I’m looking forward to it.
On June 12 the carpenter will come to install the new stairway to the second floor of our house. We used to have a gigantic attic, now we’ll get it finally transformed to sth usable. This being a new attic (was like 4-5 meters high), a big room/office for our company (www.netlash.com, working on the English version, Dutch only for the moment), a sauna and a relax room (with our comics collection, a bar for cocktails, stools, comfy chairs…) shower, toilet and a little hall. Not bad, huh ? grimlach already promised me to help a bit putting all the stuff up there. Gonna be quite a change, when Bart will finally have his own space to work and I can do whatever I like down here. I’m such a chaotic mind: I’m working and doing tons of stuff at the same time, which makes me run around a lot, and gets on his nerves. It will be better…
BTW, gonna start IVF again at the end of this month. Third time, good time ? Dunno…
Had a very weird day yesterday, nothing seemed to go the way it should.
For example, I got so annoyed that in the one school the classroom
hadn’t been cleaned for months, that when one of my papers stuck to the
table, I had enough of it and went, pretty angrily, to look for some
cleaning material.
The corridors, tho not that clean either, are
pretty slippery, so there I slipped with my heel, and sprained my ankle.
Didn’t think it that bad, but went to the doctor anyway for insurance
matters. He put a kind of a cast around it. Hmmm. Nice… Oh well.
I can still walk, tho Bart calls me Humpty Dumpty right now. Wonder what the students will say
Had this wonderful larp this weekend. The weather gods favoured us,
since there was rain announced, but somehow we managed to avoid the
showers there.
Had to play the beggar’s queen of a complete gang of
beggars, was hilarious… Those poor players didn’t know what hit them:
organised beggar crime ! Their leader was a real tyrant, blackmailing
her own people, threatening them, organising them too. Black market,
thieving, anything. Man, this was so typecasted !
At least as
hilarious was the short part I got as Sister Almonella, the cooking
nurse. She walked around waving herbs, had to explain the most crazy
stuff. Was nice.
Had the most fun tho with the sunday morning part as
noble lady, daughter of a duke, very naive but very haughty and rather
pregnant, tho she didn’t know that at first. Poor doctor (player) who
examined her: she fainted, squealed, sighed, and agreed to use abortion
herbs since her father would kill her if he ever found out. Had to ‘ask’
the other nobility around for money, loads of them, since the herbs
were very expensive. Explained to them the techniques of Heraldism too,
improvised there for over half an hour about heraldic signs and colours
and specifications, without (out game) knowing the least about it. Big
fun !
Very tired now and a working day ahead, but happy again. Had good fun. Liked it a lot !
BTW, I love my Bart, my Les and Faust! Heh. Lucky me !
Poem of a young (19) friend of mine, we go a long way, and we’re both the real gothic type, I’m afraid. It just made me cry again. Damn, I’m sad…
Sit down and have a drink
We’ll talk about our misery
So we won’t have to think
It’s been a while for you and me
Since we’ve known the way to go
In fact we never did
We just put on our little show
And kept fears and doubts well hid
So come on and have another round
It doesn’t matter either way
‘cause when they close, we’ll head on home
And forget all about our fighting day
When we hoped we would survive
Sad to say we never did
…to think it’s only years ago
that I was still a kid…
Ok… Maybe I have all the luck right now I deserve, and there wasn’t room on my luck list for anything more… Oh well… Maybe next time…
Sigh… Can’t say this is easy tho…