for serious? no, for JOKE

Let Your Body Move To The Music

Have you guys seen that new Madonna’s new video “Hung Up”?  If not you can watch it here.  It’s the one where she is looking (ridiculously hot) wearing a pink leotard and glittery belt 80s style.  Don’t you just love how she always picks some thing (geisha, cowboy, pointy-cone bra) and just completely runs with it?  Well, she dances totally 80s disco style in this video, fingers spread, lots of hip thrusting arms flailing and chest pumping…  She said that this album is basically “unapologetically dance”. 

Well it completely reminds me of how I danced in middle school.  Man, I thought I was some pretty hot stuff.  Remember your 8th grade dances?  I was a pretty awkward teenager (who wasn’t?) but the one place where I had no inhibitions was on the dance floor.  It’s funny for me to even write that now, because even though I still adore dancing, self-consciousness has definitely set in.    Back then, I had a couple of “moves” that I busted out on dance floors.  My best move was a squat down and pop your shoulders to the left, then arch to the middle, then pop it to the right.  Yeah, I cringe reading that as well.   Gaaawwwd.

When I was 12 I took a Jazz Dance class with my best friend Alexandra.  We were the young snots in that class – in fact I distinctly remember feeling rather belittled by our instructor, who to us rather inexplicably seemed simultaneously flamingly homosexual as well as extremely interested in the breasts of all the twenty-somethings in the class.  As the only pre-pubescent people in the class, we felt pretty left out, and pretty damned flat chested.  But once out of that class, man, we put what we learned to WORK.  I believe we practiced in Alexandra’s bedroom.  And I used every move I had in my inventory during high school “dances”.

What I wouldn’t give to be that uninhibited again!  I mean, I am sure I was terrible but I had such fun I don’t think I gave a hoot – I truly believed I was the coolest thing on the dance floor.  I wish I still felt that way. 

All insecurities aside, you still can’t get me off a good dance floor.  I was telling my friend this weekend that I think it’s a sign that we’re getting a little old since the best places to get your groove on these days is weddings.  Kind of sad, right?  I just don’t know where in Amsterdam to go for some good tunes.  Even going out in New York City, I always seem attracted to a more laidback pub-like atmosphere, even though I am always itching to dance.   And nightclubs just are not my thing – well, not unless they start playing Madonna’s “Hung Up”!

Make new friends, but keep the o-old...

Last night I went out for drinks with a woman my age – I know her via via through work.  It was meant as a social thing (hello! I need friends) but of course I expected that we would only talk about work, which quite honestly I am getting sick of talking about, since it seems to be the only thing going on in my life right now. 

Frankly, I was preparing myself for the evening to exhaust me.  All that meeting-someone-new conversation, the faint awkward feeling I get when I don’t know where the heck to fold my legs under the table, and the miserable feeling that my wine is probably staining my teeth red.  Oh, and also always having two new conversation topics up your sleeve in case the conversation turns stale.   It’s like blind dating, but without the thrilling possibility of getting kissed in the end. 

I was moping about going just before she picked me up at my office, because it seems like I just don’t have the energy to make new friends.  And… I just plain really miss my OLD friends.   Sweaty beer on the Lower East Side with Marina, Tuesday Night Tea with girlfriends, cooking up a storm and drinking wine with friends from college, Saturday brunch with other equally disgustingly happy couples...   

But then she picked me up, and it turns out she lives about two streets away from me, so we biked together to a local brown café for cold beers and fresh salad… and it was actually fun!  I mean not fun as in oh-my-god-i-wish-this-“date”-lasted-four-more-hours fun but it was fun enough that time kind of flew by and we didn’t really talk about work too too much.  Ok we talked about work most of the time, but I also learned a little bit about growing up in Amsterdam and I told her a little bit about life in New York.   It was actually really nice to have had something social to do after work and then bike home at a decent hour.  Lovely! 

I shouldn’t have been dreading it so.  AND I should be a little more proactive about making new friends. 

Home Alone 2

Yesterday was a mopey day.   My mom left in the morning; I dragged her heavy bags down the steep stairs and kissed her good bye and waved after the taxi.  It was drizzling outside.

This summer, when the idea of mom coming to live with me for a little bit came up I was excited for the company but wary of it eating into my precious “living alone” time.   I had been figuring that since I am getting married, these few first months in Amsterdam are pretty much the only opportunity I will ever have to really live alone.  I was looking forward to my OWN apartment, only MY food in the fridge, getting all the closet space available and 100% control of the remote.  Do you know that feeling?  Most New Yorkers don’t, and I certainly didn’t.  I wanted to experience this – it was my silver lining on the storm cloud, or whatever that expression is.   

Mom announced she was thinking of coming for about 8-9 weeks.  I admit it, I freaked, and I thought “this will be way too long!”  So we shortened it to 6 weeks.  Aaaand now of course I regret it.  I wish she could have stayed longer.  Best Roommate ever!  (Anuj argues that even when we live together he is not my roommate, therefore I can freely give this award to my mom)   It was soo nice to have someone to eat meals with (and ahem… prepare the majority of them for you), someone to sit quietly in the evenings and read with, someone to say goodnight to, or go out to the theater or to a bar.   And now I am all alone again!

The time went by SO quickly – I think we both thought we would have more time together then we actually did.  With me traveling so much, my weekend in New York, and the rushed trip to Belgium for my grandfather, the time flew by much too quickly.  I had envisioned evening upon evening snuggled up on the couch with tea and lots of conversations… and somehow we didn’t get around to quite as many of those evenings as we had hoped.  Still, the ones we DID have, were wonderful. 

Mom – thanks so much for keeping me company.  I miss you already. 

AmsterDAMN Hazing Ritual

Well, it has happened.  It's a risk any biker takes in Amsterdam.  The Law of Biking in Amsterdam states that: 1) you shall at some point fall to the asphalt. 2) your bike at some point will be stolen.   Which is why no one in Amsterdam wears too fancy clothing, or rides a flashy bicycle.

Yesterday I went to my aunt's house in Edam with my mom.  We took the bus, so we parked out bikes near the bus station.  It was almost midnight when we got back to Amsterdam, and I went off to fetch my bike, which was not parked anywhere near my mom's.  I cycle back to where I think she's parked, and she's wandering around sans bike.  It was gone!   It was sort of sad actually.  We searched and searched, but knew it was a total loss when we saw a forlorn metal chain bike lock hanging onto the fence: my mom's key fit into it.   What must have happened is mom accidentally didn't make sure that the lock was actually threaded through some vital part of the bicycle (the frame, or the wheels).  What AMAZES me is that someone actually took the time to look through the thousands of bicycles that are parked in that area and find the one that was not well secured.  Bummers!

When you buy a bike here, you know to buy one that you wouldn't mind losing, so this isn't a tragedy.  Also, my mom is leaving (waahhhh!) tomorrow, so the Bike Burglar had perfect timing really.  I was looking forward to having a second bike around for when friends come to visit (hello Alan!  Looking forward to next weekend!) but oh well.   My mom is stuck on trams today.