Happy Birthday K.

Wishing you joy, peace, love, and free hugs on your birthday and always.

July 2, 2007

On my mind

Just a few words from this poem have been echoing in my head for a week or more. I kept turning them over in my mind, trying to remember the title or author. I finally Googled "pilgrim soul" and these perfect words from William Butler Yeats floated up onto my screen, and I thought I'd share them--

When You are Old

When you are old and grey and full of sleep, And nodding by the fire, take down this book, And slowly read, and dream of the soft look Your eyes had once, and of their shadows deep; How many loved your moments of glad grace, And loved your beauty with love false or true, But one man loved the pilgrim Soul in you, And loved the sorrows of your changing face; And bending down beside the glowing bars, Murmur, a little sadly, how Love fled And paced upon the mountains overhead And hid his face amid a crowd of stars.

William Butler Yeats

Mr. Credit Card is getting plenty of exercise

On Saturday, I spent three hours in Target—and never even made it past the health and beauty, clothing, and office supply sections. At 11:30 a.m. the very patient men in my entourage could be put off no longer, and E-Grrrl and I were reluctantly drawn out of the store without ever trying on shoes or looking at CDs.

I bought some lip gloss, my favorite eye shadow, and several makeup brushes that were on my list. (Middle age is making me a high-maintenance woman). I tried on piles and piles of clothes. There’s nothing like re-stocking your closet with $9 t-shirts, $15 tops, and $22 capri pants.

For my European readers, Target is the leader in discount fashion in America. They’re kind of like H & M in Europe, only they offer more than clothing—they have housewares, electronics, furniture, office supplies, food, books, accessories, shoes. Wal-Mart offers the same categories but the products lack the style and design advantage of Target. Target gets top designers to create exclusive lines for them, and everything they sell is just a little nicer, cooler, and more fashion-forward than their low-price competitors.

We picked up some practical items, bought E-Grrrl some sundresses, and the guys a few t-shirts and then had lunch. E-Grrrl and I were then dropped off at craft mecca: Michael’s and its corporate sister, Recollections. We spent two and a half hours checking out all the art supplies and tools.

My big obsession in the craft stores was the decorative paper. That’s what I spent most of my money on. A sheet of 12 x 12 decorative scrapbooking paper costs 59 cents in America and about a $1.20 in Belgium—a good reason to stock up.

I also browsed through dozens of paper craft books before purchasing one. Others will go on my wish list (like the Urban Diva scrapbooking guide), along with the Tim Holtz collage technique videos, and some high-end supplies. I did pick up three different sizes of circle punches, one rubber stamp, some distressing ink, a few travel-theme embellishments, paper storage boxes, and a selection of ribbon, decorative tape, brush markers and high-quality art pencils in muted earth tone palettes. Y’all have no idea how hard it is to find the perfect shade of brown, gold, or green. Really. A Grrrl can’t have too many earthtones to blend.

Of course, after all that time shopping with my creative Muse on my shoulder, I’m twitching about not being able to work on any projects until I return home. I keep taking my purchases out of the bags and boxes and admiring them, thinking of how much I can’t wait to jump in and use them.

The rest of the day was spent getting the laptop repaired so that V-Grrrl Mission Control could get on with posting. Between Target, Michael’s, and computer repair, we spent a small fortune our first full day here. Nothing like stimulating the home economy. : )

July 1, 2007

The Sleep Olympics

(This blog brought to you by Sohaib with Computer Geeks and Solutions in Woodbridge, Virginia. He came to our rescue when my laptop refused to connect to the network. After we paid $350 to have the entire system reconfigured, my darling offspring confessed to illicit computer use while we were in Belgium, including turning off the computer without shutting down. Oy. Thanks Sohaib for getting out here within an hour or two of our call and getting me up and running.)

I was so tired coming into this trip that I fell asleep in the taxi on the way to the airport, fell asleep at the gate waiting for boarding, fell asleep on the plane waiting for take off, dozed off and on for the entire eight-hour flight, fell asleep on the ride in the car from Dulles to Woodbridge, and then went to bed at the equivalent of 2 a.m. Belgian time and slept until noon Belgian time, 6:30 a.m. local time..

Y’all, I am a champion sleeper. I could be a gold medalist in the Sleep Olympics.

Rock Grrrl’s condo looks like she decorated it with me in mind. We both have a love of deep red, olive green, and khaki colors and a rustic, natural decorating style. We felt at home immediately, and Virginia’s grey skies and rain were a taste of Belgium. : )  The kids were excited by wall-to-wall carpet and delighted in its padding and squish factor.

Then they discovered the garbage disposal in the kitchen.

E-Grrrl says: What is that?

V-Grrrl: It’s a garbage disposal in the drain…

A: Yeah, it turns rotten food into a wet pulp, and that’s what hotdogs are made of.

According to E-Grrrl and A, the weirdest thing about Northern Virginia is all the pavement and all the wires. Electrical cables are all underground in Belgium and to see them criss-crossing the street and highways was strange to them. As I expected I would, I missed Belgium’s brick buildings and architecture. There isn’t room for sprawl in Europe so you almost never see commercial strip shopping centers and huge parking lots, and let’s face it, strip shopping centers and giant parking lots are big ugly. My kids, who are incredible chow hounds, were in awe of all the fast food restaurants lining the streets and popping up on every corner. They just couldn’t believe there were so many places to get junk food here. I laughed when E-Grrrl said, "Look, they have those things with the microphones!" Yes, those would be called "Drive-thrus."

Me, I was happy to be back in the land of the broad-bottomed woman. I feel so at home—and I know I’ll be able to find pants in my size. : )

June 30, 2007

Two hours until the taxi takes us away

Rock Grrrl and her friend Cindy started with the Belgian beers before dinner and after dinner was over, we made popcorn and opened a bottle of blueberry wine that I'd bought at a festival here in Belgium. Good stuff for those of us who like it fruity, though it made us all a bit nutty.

Under the influence, I spilled family secrets which I assumed Rock Grrrl knew about. She was delighted to hear how her younger brother's conception was heavily influenced by a pitcher or two of Singapore Slings and a fire in the fireplace and she learned who in the family had dabbled in mood altering substances during the 70s and how I got pissed and told off a certain family member's boyfriend when he crossed my path and did one of the Grrrl's wrong.

I should have been rounding up last minute things for the trip but I was too tired to move. When I finally showered and climbed into bed, I was wide awake and inexplicably anxious and annoyed beyond belief by mosquitoes and thinking of how much I was going to miss Petey the Cat while we're in America. Then I started to think of all the items I'd forgotten to drop into my luggage: nailclippers, razors, my son's sweatshirt, snacks for the kiddos, E-Grrrl's skin ointment, a bottle of ibuprofen, etc. etc. etc.

Since I couldn't sleep, I got up in the night and gathered some of those things and then went back to bed, with the stomach churning. Now it's time to get dressed, clean up and get moving. Oy. I'll sleep on the plane. I always sleep on planes....

June 29, 2007

A little more than a day

Even though we've been planning our trip to America for 9 months, and I've been eagerly anticipating it, I can't believe tomorrow is my last full day in Belgium for five weeks. I've given Rock Grrrl and her friend a crash course in mass transit and Belgian living, handed over maps and guidebooks, and now tomorrow I pack, and Friday we leave.

The washing machine is chugging and I'm consulting my lists. The last time I had to live out of a suitcase for this long, I found that I did fine with a limited amount of clothing but missed a lot of the grooming products I'd left behind in my quest to be efficient: the body scrub, my perfumes, my pumice stone, my scented lotions and hand creams. I'm more of a girly grrrl than I like to admit. I can wear the same outfits over and over and over again only if I have my favorite scents on underneath it all. If I had room, I'd bring my big fluffy periwinkle bathrobe--my ultimate comfort object, even in summer.

Our schedule is set, our plans made, and so there's little anxiety regarding what we'll be doing when. Social and business engagements, medical appointments, new house hunting and old house maintenance are all on the calendar. I've tended to all the details of the trip, and I'm excited about it, but a bit of anxiety perks under the surface.

How will America feel to me after two and a half years of living in Europe? What if after our visit, I don't want to move back next year? Or, conversely, what if I come back to Belgium in August and it doesn't feel like home anymore? True, part of expat life is never feeling completely at home anywhere, but it's one thing to accept that intellectually, it's another thing to feel it in your gut.

Will walking through the house we own, now being rented by a friend, make me smile, make me sad, or make me feel uneasy?

We can't see everyone on this trip--will those we can't manage to visit be insulted?

E's mom has a plethora of serious health issues that she's dealing with and requires 24 hour care. She lives with E's sister and has nurses that tend to her. We'll be taking on caretaking duties for a week and I wonder what that week will be like. E has seen his mom several times since we moved but the kids and I haven't. It will be hard for all of us to face how much her condition has deteriorated and to see her suffering. I'm sure it will unearth memories of caring for my own parents when they were seriously ill and those emotions will be hard to deal with as well.

Through it all, I plan to blog from my trusty laptop and post photos of our adventures in America. I will answer e-mails and keep in touch as I can. So don't be a stranger and keep coming by to see me. I'm counting on y'all to share the good, the bad, and the ugly with me and keep me grounded as I travel from Brussels, Belgium, to Woodbridge, Virginia to  Fredericksburg, Virginia, to King George, Virginia to Williamsburg, Virginia, to Charleston, South Carolina, to Jacksonville, Florida, to Virginia Beach and back to Brussels.

I hope we all have a "bon voyage" together.

June 27, 2007

Such a flirt!

Di Mackey,  a member of the Antwerp paparazzi, trailed V-Grrrl at Middelheim Museum and caught her shamelessly flirting with a naked man. Y'all can provide captions in the comments section.

June 26, 2007

I'm so dizzy

My niece Rock Grrrl arrives tomorrow for Stage I of her Belgian adventure. She's going to be staying at Chez V and tending Petey the Handsome Black Cat for five weeks while we go to America and stay in her condo in Virginia and visit E's mom in Florida.

Y'all may recall that about two weeks ago I embarked on my "room a day" spring cleaning program. It sounded so wise and so moderate when I conceived of it. I wrote how I would deep clean one room a day, (no more, no less) until the whole house was done. I was off to a good start, but then the kids got out of school, we traveled out of town for two consecutive weekends, and I got behind on my timetable. The rooms I did first now need to be done again.

This morning reality slapped me silly when I realized that not only did I have to finish the stupid cleaning, but DUH, I had to organize some menus, do some grocery shopping, and get the beds made up, because geez, I'm having GUESTS. All this in addition to getting ready for our trip.  And let's not talk about washing all the sheets and towels plus our regular laundry while also dealing with a heap of funky smelling clothes that E and A brought back from their weekend camping trip.

All day long I was spinning around, not sure what to do first or what to finish. Laundry, cleaning, vacuuming, packing, writing, phone calls, e-mails.  I had to finish writing my guide to living in Belgium for Rock Grrrl, I promised Martina, Sylvie and the editor of Expatica another cat story, and I needed to pinpoint the location of some Very Important Papers related to our trip. Did I mention I need to file papers from school and clear other papers off my desk?

As I kept spinning out of control from one task to another, my list got even longer: must return library books, check on film sent out for developing, pick up framing, claim my refund check, buy cat food, remind E to get trash bags, buy bottled water...

So if I'm so busy, why am I sitting here blogging?

Because I'm TIRED, y'all.  I need to sit down. If I have to carry one more stupid load of laundry from the basement to the second floor, I'm going to collapse. And if I stay upstairs and face the pyramid of clean clothes on my bed that need to be folded, I'm going to cry. And if I stop and consider that I need to clean the toilets AGAIN, I'm going to run away from home. And let's not even talk about the kitchen and all that needs to be spruced up there. Sigh.

So I'm going to just keep blogging until I get my second wind--and tomorrow I'll post the naughty photos Di took of me at the sculpture park and make all y'all SMILE.

June 25, 2007

Weekend in Antwerp

I spent the weekend in Antwerp at Chez Di and Gert, also known as Kiwi Villa. E-Grrrl and I arrived on an early train from Brussels, and we traveled into the heart of the city with Di and Little Miss Two, her granddaughter, for the "foreigners' market," so-called because of all the international vendors.

Di bought spring onions, fresh mushrooms, ripe tomatoes, crusty bread and a hunk of brie while I purchased strawberries and a giant bouquet of sunflowers. After lunch at her apartment, we headed back into the city for a theater program being given by the integration office. Di has worked for the office for quite some time now, photographing immigrants and their businesses, capturing a bit of what makes Antwerp's culture so diverse and colorful.

I had the pleasure of meeting Peter at the theater. He caught me in the act of pinning Di's business cards onto a display of her photographs in the lobby. (Shy Di is a humble New Zealander and relies on her brash American PR consultant to publicize her fledgling business and promote her talent.)

After meeting Peter for the first time, Di and I are convinced he made a deal with the Devil long ago or drank from some secret fountain of youth. My first impression was that he was at least ten years younger than me, when in fact, he's just a bit older. Sigh. Those Belgians men age well. : D

It's not fair. I could be BITTER about it, but Peter was so friendly and amusing, I won't hold his youthful appearance against him. During what was a rather dull program for those of us who don't speak a word of Dutch, Peter, a native of Antwerp, occasionally translated, laughed at my jokes, and assured me that even if I understood every word spoken, I'd still be bored by the city officials being interviewed on stage.  (Not that he has strong opinions about local politics or anything.  ; D)

I'm hoping that even though he had to endure not just one but TWO free hugs from this silly American Grrrl, he'll still be willing to get together again some time.

We got caught in a torrential downpour on the way back to Di's apartment where she fixed a stunning dinner of Persian chicken. When she said it was a "special occasion" meal, E-Grrrl and I high-fived each other since clearly we rated as "special occasion" people and we did indeed feel special. Thanks Di. 

Being a sophisticated woman of the world, I used my extensive knowledge of wine to purchase the perfect bottle of red for Di. Yes, after standing in front of a display for quite some time, I bought the bottle with the most attractive and intriguing label. This proved to be an effective tactic, as the wine was soft and smooth and better than good. California wine did me proud here in Europe.

We stayed up late because we were too tired to go to bed, and then on Sunday afternoon wandered through the sculpture park in Antwerp. I was stalked by some camera-crazed woman who acted like a papparazzi and caught photos of me in various compromising positions. I'm sure the photos will NEVER appear on this blog. Well at least not this minute. I have to give y'all something to look forward to later this week.

June 24, 2007 

Free Hug Friday

I know this has been around and back multiple times, but the video never ever fails to move me, and the music is just perfect. I've enjoyed my share of Free Hugs here in  Europe and one day hope to be standing somewhere with a sign giving them out.  Until then, let this serve as a virtual hug and warm fuzzy from me to you:

http://www.freehugscampaign.org/

June 22, 2007