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Monday, May 7, 2007
Thursday, May 3, 2007
Just Short of a Bushel...
"A handful of patience is worth more than a bushel of brains."
Dutch Proverb
"Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it."
Dutch Proverb
"Most men pursue pleasure with such breathless haste that they hurry past it."
Soren Kierkegaard
"I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process."
"I never failed once. It just happened to be a 2000-step process."
Thomas Edison
"Genius is eternal patience."
"Genius is eternal patience."
Michelangelo
"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."
"It is a mistake to look too far ahead. Only one link in the chain of destiny can be handled at a time."
Winston Churchill
"There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you. When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self destruct. It never fails."
Richard Rybolt
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
“He that can have Patience, can have what he will”
Benjamin Franklin
"There will be a time when loud-mouthed, incompetent people seem to be getting the best of you. When that happens, you only have to be patient and wait for them to self destruct. It never fails."
Richard Rybolt
“The two most powerful warriors are patience and time.”
Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy
“He that can have Patience, can have what he will”
Benjamin Franklin
Tuesday, April 24, 2007
Friday, April 20, 2007
When Dreams Become Reality: From Banality to Novelty and Back Again
What does it mean to “live the dream”?
Dreaming, in contrast, implies wanting to extricate yourself from the murky banality of life – striving to escape, make a change, or simply exist on a plane above the rest of the poor boring people you see at the corner store, bus stop or sitting at the desk next to yours. Even the word “dreaming” inspires imagery of verticality, being higher than the world, in whatever manifestation of heaven that works for you…
But to live the dream means suddenly those aspirations and your golden higher plane of being become just that – everyday life. One is forced to remind themselves that this – this life, this boring, annoying, mundane life of purchasing sustenance, finding a roof to live under, people to socialize with – is actually the dream we once so intensely desired. Then what are you left with? Must you alight upon the next dream - something bigger and better, newer and shockingly unique, or perhaps even something nostalgic and quant – to get you through your sudden ordinariness?
This manner of living will eventually lead to nothing – a fancy resume, friends that are more acquaintances than friends (who are themselves rushing from dream to dream without stopping to enjoy the commonplace), and the constant inner dialogue of “wouldn’t it be amazing if…” or “remember when we used to…” or “I hope someday…”.
Is that really what we’re dreaming for?
Do we, in fact, want to live our dreams? It suddenly seems grossly inappropriate. Living is for life, the beautiful, surreal, ugly and unnoticeable parts all thrown in together, mushed up so you can’t determine what is what. This is not to say we should move through life without ambition, or even without dreaming. This would lead to stagnation and no “moving through” at all. But perhaps a clear mental separation between life, dreams, and what one can expect to derive from the other. If continue to dream of living the dream, then no matter what life entails, it will always pale under the shadow of our dreams.
Monday, April 2, 2007
Monday, March 19, 2007
Please Press the Button for at least 4 Seconds
Viva Roma! My first trip out of Holland this year and my first real time back in Italy since 2000! It was incredible - full of laughs, good conversation, beautiful weather, an amazing city, amazing friends, and of course... the best food ever! I think the best and/or only way to really to explain the weekend is by way of photos (surprised anyone?)
Next morning, in a daze, we greeted Sergi and prepared for our first full day in Rome! After a much needed nap and lunch, we went for a personally guided tour of Filippo's neighborhood...
Then it was out for more amazing food, and great jazz in one of the coolest little jazz bars I've ever been to.
That gets us to Friday, I think... That morning Allison and I went on our long awaited Italian shopping-spree, while the boys collected another weekender, Leoni, from Switzerland. That afternoon... we have our first gelato!! Even after literally over a week of contemplation and discussion, it was hard to choose!
Then Sergi and I left the girls in the Piazza Novana with their newly procured bubble-gun and went for a walk, over to the Pope's castle and meandered through some of the smaller side streets. I couldn't help but marvel at how small and familiar Rome suddenly seemed... last time I was there it was big and scary. This time, it was just another city, and an easy one to manage at that.
That night: repeat. Beers at our favorite little bar on the Campo dei Fiori, another fabulous meal that left us all stuffed and hardly able to move... then onto the bars! We went back to the same neighborhood we'd explored Wednesday night. At some point, we decided to look for a place nearby to go dancing... a decision that ultimately led us into an hour or more of walking around Rome by night, asking random kids where there might be a club in the neighborhood, finding one at 3:30 that was already closed, and finally stumbling back to the apartment, tired, happy, and looking forward to the next day.
By Saturday the group is complete - at long last Sandra had arrived the night before, just in time to join us for the dinner and late night bar-crawl-turned-walking-tour-of-the-city. We started the day right, as tradition demands, with coffees and pastries at the nearest bar.
Stopped off at the market to buy a ridiculously expensive giant lemon with a 4 cm peel (which Sergi carried around for the rest of the day and which quickly became our Roma mascot)...
This lemon, by the way, has been sacrificed and candied, and now sits in a container in my freezer. Yummy.
That night: repeat. Amazing home-cooked meal of seafood pasta and greens, all groceries bought that morning in the Campo. By far the best meal of the weekend. Out again, for one last hurrah, to a super hip club in what looked like an old wine cellar somewhere on the other side of the city. At some point in the early hours of the morning, we wander out of the club hoping to cab or bus it back to the apartment. No such luck! Eventually one cab passes by, and half the group jumps in. Sandra, Sergi and I opt to pound the pavement, and many tired foot-steps home, after probably the best hour (I'm deluding myself into thinking we could not possibly have walked longer...) spent in Rome, we were home again!
And finally, Sunday, the last day of an unforgettable trip... too short of course, ended with a hectic and almost disastrous experience at the airport (still trying to find the humor in it), and then we were back in Holland. Greeted by inane signs above the toilet (see Title, above) and HAIL. No shit. Hail. After four days of sun and warmth, we knew we were home.
Our first night Allison and I could barely hold a conversation we were so excited. If anyone would have heard us on the train from the airport they surely would have thought we were completely crazy (and they would probably be right, actually). Poor Filippo, had to deal with two crazy American girls in Rome... He rose to the occasion, as always! We dropped our bags at his amazingly located apartment in the center of the city (near Campo dei Fiori), went to one of our first incredible meals in Rome, and then out to go bar hopping...
The night ended up something like this... This photo was taken AFTER the Brazilian bar... enough said. Fun times.
Next morning, in a daze, we greeted Sergi and prepared for our first full day in Rome! After a much needed nap and lunch, we went for a personally guided tour of Filippo's neighborhood...
Then it was out for more amazing food, and great jazz in one of the coolest little jazz bars I've ever been to.
That gets us to Friday, I think... That morning Allison and I went on our long awaited Italian shopping-spree, while the boys collected another weekender, Leoni, from Switzerland. That afternoon... we have our first gelato!! Even after literally over a week of contemplation and discussion, it was hard to choose!
Then Sergi and I left the girls in the Piazza Novana with their newly procured bubble-gun and went for a walk, over to the Pope's castle and meandered through some of the smaller side streets. I couldn't help but marvel at how small and familiar Rome suddenly seemed... last time I was there it was big and scary. This time, it was just another city, and an easy one to manage at that.
That night: repeat. Beers at our favorite little bar on the Campo dei Fiori, another fabulous meal that left us all stuffed and hardly able to move... then onto the bars! We went back to the same neighborhood we'd explored Wednesday night. At some point, we decided to look for a place nearby to go dancing... a decision that ultimately led us into an hour or more of walking around Rome by night, asking random kids where there might be a club in the neighborhood, finding one at 3:30 that was already closed, and finally stumbling back to the apartment, tired, happy, and looking forward to the next day.
By Saturday the group is complete - at long last Sandra had arrived the night before, just in time to join us for the dinner and late night bar-crawl-turned-walking-tour-of-the-city. We started the day right, as tradition demands, with coffees and pastries at the nearest bar.
Stopped off at the market to buy a ridiculously expensive giant lemon with a 4 cm peel (which Sergi carried around for the rest of the day and which quickly became our Roma mascot)... This lemon, by the way, has been sacrificed and candied, and now sits in a container in my freezer. Yummy.
Then on and up to the top of St. Peter's, listening to Filippo's insightful and completely unbiased comments about the Vatican and the Pope, and the wonders the Catholic Church is accomplishing in Italy.
That night: repeat. Amazing home-cooked meal of seafood pasta and greens, all groceries bought that morning in the Campo. By far the best meal of the weekend. Out again, for one last hurrah, to a super hip club in what looked like an old wine cellar somewhere on the other side of the city. At some point in the early hours of the morning, we wander out of the club hoping to cab or bus it back to the apartment. No such luck! Eventually one cab passes by, and half the group jumps in. Sandra, Sergi and I opt to pound the pavement, and many tired foot-steps home, after probably the best hour (I'm deluding myself into thinking we could not possibly have walked longer...) spent in Rome, we were home again!
And finally, Sunday, the last day of an unforgettable trip... too short of course, ended with a hectic and almost disastrous experience at the airport (still trying to find the humor in it), and then we were back in Holland. Greeted by inane signs above the toilet (see Title, above) and HAIL. No shit. Hail. After four days of sun and warmth, we knew we were home.
Sigh. Luckily, I only had three days until Hana arrived, and I was off again to Barcelona...
Thought for today: I need to find another word for amazing.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Spring is in the Air!
Well, on the fourth straight day of sun, things are certainly looking up! Here's a brief reprise of goings on in The Hague since I last posted anything of significance:
I'm moving! Decided that my place, although cute, cozy and perfect for dinner/movie parties, was just too expensive (i.e., I want to be able to travel more while I'm here, and need the funds...). So I found another studio in a more central location (now that we're going to be hanging out at the beach more, which is 5 minutes from current place) and will be moving in soon! So please hold off on sending your belated birthday gifts until I provide an address update...unless you're giving cash, in which case please contact my on location banker (my dad).
Tulips and all manner of other bulb flowers are blooming! I nearly caused an accident (with myself) on Friday night as I was biking to the bar downtown... I passed the same train tracks I pass every morning and every afternoon, but that night, I noticed something different - bursts of daffodils popping up everywhere. It's hard to hate a city that has daffodil lined train tracks!
I'm beginning my month of travel! This weekend I'm headed to Rome to stay in the house of a friend, located right in the heart of the city near the Campo dei Fiori (where there is a flower and farmers market every morning, heaven!). Then the weekend after I'm meeting Hana in Barcelona, and, well, I'm not sure I'll ever want to leave...
The skies are blue and the weather is warm (14 today). I know this is redundant, but it deserves special mention! I am continually amazed by the effect sun can have on moods - the first sunny day, people were literally smiling and laughing walking up and down the halls (basement halls, mind you) at work.
Speaking of work, it continues to improve! Getting some real assignments now, and even more importantly, I feel (*a little*) like I kind of might know what I'm doing, on a good day...
Please don't be too grossed out by my severe over-use of the exclamation point... I promise I won't continue to abuse it, but things are pretty good right now. After all, spring is in the air!
I'm moving! Decided that my place, although cute, cozy and perfect for dinner/movie parties, was just too expensive (i.e., I want to be able to travel more while I'm here, and need the funds...). So I found another studio in a more central location (now that we're going to be hanging out at the beach more, which is 5 minutes from current place) and will be moving in soon! So please hold off on sending your belated birthday gifts until I provide an address update...unless you're giving cash, in which case please contact my on location banker (my dad).
Tulips and all manner of other bulb flowers are blooming! I nearly caused an accident (with myself) on Friday night as I was biking to the bar downtown... I passed the same train tracks I pass every morning and every afternoon, but that night, I noticed something different - bursts of daffodils popping up everywhere. It's hard to hate a city that has daffodil lined train tracks!
I'm beginning my month of travel! This weekend I'm headed to Rome to stay in the house of a friend, located right in the heart of the city near the Campo dei Fiori (where there is a flower and farmers market every morning, heaven!). Then the weekend after I'm meeting Hana in Barcelona, and, well, I'm not sure I'll ever want to leave...
The skies are blue and the weather is warm (14 today). I know this is redundant, but it deserves special mention! I am continually amazed by the effect sun can have on moods - the first sunny day, people were literally smiling and laughing walking up and down the halls (basement halls, mind you) at work.
Speaking of work, it continues to improve! Getting some real assignments now, and even more importantly, I feel (*a little*) like I kind of might know what I'm doing, on a good day...
Please don't be too grossed out by my severe over-use of the exclamation point... I promise I won't continue to abuse it, but things are pretty good right now. After all, spring is in the air!
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