fri 02 apr 2004 12:00:00 — raamgracht
got back from usa
i just got back this morning from a month in the states.
i was incredibly relieved to be home. my time in massachusetts (plus a quick weekend in buffalo) was great, but toward the end i began to despair of never getting back.
i came out of the airport terminal and smelled that faint distant agricultural aroma that fleetingly lets me know i'm back in holland. funny, i can't smell anything else because this bronchitis i picked up over there has me down for the count. coughing fits that make me sound like i'm about to croak.
pani was pleased to see me but generally a bit grumpy. she's kinda sick of her old friends and is having wanderlust. will it be the crimea or azerbaijan this time? meanwhile she has a job at a bar called caprice near leidseplein. she often works right through the night because it's a night bar. but this morning she got up and went to the store to buy bread and stuff so we could have a little continental breakfast together. i had a nap during the mid day.
dvr and jl came in the evening and dvr tried to get my internet working but couldn't quite get the modem to talk to the internet. will try again tomorrow i guess. then pani went out and dvr and jl and i went to this place called "thaise snackbar bird" on the zeedijk. good thai food in a cramped very popular eatbox. sat at a counter facing out the windows. later we walked to molly malone's on the oude zeedijk, right across the water from the back of st nicolaaskerk.
aj worked on the gig for avid with me and did a good job. i did not especially enjoy meeting her new boyfriend, at times i felt like she was trying to intrude him into my existence when he and i really have no relevance to each other. i did enjoy one wednesday night when aj and i got drunk and [...] but then i'm still sposed to still be her dirty little secret. when i saw her the thursday i was leaving, she told me "you can't tell anybody about that."
pani is out at work and i am resting at my place. i guess there's a lot of things i have to take care of but right now i feel like taking it easy and light -- at least till i'm through taking these antibiotics. then i should go to my huisarts here i think, cuz i have a feeling this isn't fixing it.
i'm reading yann martel's book "life of pi" which jenny gave me when she came to gloucester to visit with max the dog. she drove 16 hours in a crazy snowstorm to see me.
i will go lie down now.