Book addiction

I was browsing through old photo's when I found these two. They are quick shots, made with my phone, but they had a tremendous effect on me!

Those of you who know me, know that I am a book addict and these two photo's made me realise that I haven't been in a bookstore for almost a month. That's insane! I love visiting bookstores in Utrecht, but the bookstore on the photo's is my favorite.

It's a second hand bookstore, Aleph, and I love the lay-out of the store. Books all over the place, a shabby salesman reading the newspaper behind his desk... You can just browse the store for ages without being disturbed. Although the shop is in the centre of Utrecht, it's not often crowded. People prefer to go to Selexyz, the big store just around the corner. I prefer to hang around at Aleph, where the smell of old books is all that enters your nose...lovely!

Workin' it

After yesterday, the contrast with my highly inactive summer couldn't be bigger. Working two jobs and doing a full-time study is no sinecure. In the fourth week of my new busy life, the ultimate culmination was the 15 hour work day I had yesterday.

For my first job, I had to cycle to Nieuwegein, where I assist an elderly woman in doing her household jobs. She can only barely walk, so I vacuum clean the house for her, dust her stuff, polish her kitchen floor...that kind of stuff. She is very kind, and more often than not we are also drinking cups of tea and coffee for more than an hour. It's also the only time of the week when I allow myself to eat a cookie. She knows I don't eat snacks normally, so she always has something special for me :)

I leave her house usually at 11:50 am, when I'm off to my next job at the computer store. This is another 30 minute cycle trip, and I had 30 minutes left to eat my lunch. The store opens at 1 pm, and you wouldn't guess, but monday is a very busy day. People who bought stuff over the weekend sometimes come to bring it back, or people who ordered stuff from the website come and collect it. There were about ten people waiting in front of the store, so a little invasion took place when we opened the doors. I actually like the monday, because the time goes by very fast! In my fourth week of working this new job, I'm starting to like it more and more. I discovered that I really like to help and advise people in what to buy. Yesterday I sold my most expensive laptop so far and I felt really proud ^_^

Working in the store has resulted in some funny moments already. Yesterday, for example, two guys just couldn't believe a girl would LIKE to work in a computer store. The look on their faces when I told them I LOVED computers was priceless. When I asked them if they liked to see more women in computer stores they said 'yes, more of that please!', but that was no surprise really. I also had other women express happy feelings of seeing a woman in a computer store. MyCom has 23 shops all across the country, but our store is the only one with women. Not just one, we have three!

Last friday, my last customer of the day was wasted. He was trying to buy a sound-cart, but he was barely realising what he was doing. He didn't say goodbye once, but like 5 times. The stench of beer around him was appalling.
That same day but a little earlier, another guy offered me a zen meditation course after we had talked for about 20 mins. He also asked what I was studying.
Almost every day there is a customer with whom I end up talking for 30 minutes or so. And I like it! I like chatting with people. It's very cool to meet so many people and talk random things with them. I realised that two years ago, I wouldn't have liked it. I was much more close-minded when it came to things like that. I preferred to keep to myself and avoid strangers as much as I can. How different it is now!

Ok, lets get on with the story. At 6 pm the store closed, but that wasn't the end of the day by far! We had to count all the products in the store, to see if some things were missing (lots gets stolen around here). I went to score some food with two colleagues, and while we were eating the boss had a little monologue about how things were going in the store (not too good of course, but when is it ever good for a boss?). When that was done and everyone had dumped his or her two cents we formed into pairs to count everything in the store.

The first person had to scan every item in a section, while the other looked on the laptop if everything was correct. This took about two hours and of course, mistakes were made. The mistakes had to be found out by hand. Lets say that someone had counted 3 of item X, but according to the computer system there had to be 5 items X. We had to find more of item X. It was in the store of course, but there could be more X's at defects, in the storeroom...basically everywhere. This is when my mood finally went down. It took a long time to find all the mistakes, and we couldn't even solve all. The best processor we are selling was gone (the Intel i7, worth 260 euro) and it wasn't on display in the store. Did one of us steal it?? We will never know, but fact remains that it was gone.

At 11:30 pm, the boss finally dismissed us. It was a long day, but it didn't feel that way until the last two hours. This morning I've been busy cleaning my whole room, because the cat had fleas -__-

Examenjaar 2004

Wat: Een reünie van de Oude Hoven. Kosten: 15 euro. Verwachtingen: geen.

Na een epische reis die 40 minuten behoorde te duren, maar die vanwege falen van de kant van Arriva twee uur kostte kwamen de heer Christiaan Mulder en ik aan bij onze oude middelbare school. We waren hongerig, dorstig en onze blazen stonden op knappen na twee uur treinen en bussen. Eenmaal uit het toilet werden we gespot door de andere drie mensen van ons jaar die waren gekomen.
Ons jaar bestond uit zo'n zeventig mensen, en we waren in totaal met vijf man! Een iets grotere opkomst was leuk geweest. Nu hadden we bij de lunch onze verhalen al vrij snel uitgewisseld. Een meisje die ik vroeger een vriendin noemde was nog steeds even lief en aardig en ik vond het prettig haar te zien. De andere twee kende ik nog slechts vaag en over Christiaan hoef ik het verder niet meer te hebben, want die ken ik maar al te goed!

Het was veel komischer om alle docenten weer te zien. Mijn favoriete docent, de muziekleraar meneer Den Hollander, was er helaas niet. Sommige docenten leken totaal niet veranderd te zijn, anderen zagen er of heel goed, of heel slecht uit. De geschiedenisdocent leek wat vermagerd, doch zijn ego was nog steeds even groot. Hij herkende me niet meer, terwijl ik toch drie jaar bij hem in de klas heb gezeten. Ik was dus echt een muurbloempje (boehoe). Hij zei dat ik er heel anders uitzag. De geschiedenis docent die ik de derde had, wist me echter wel bij voor en achternaam te noemen, dus toen wist ik het zonet nog niet.

Om kwart over drie hadden we een foto momentje met ons jaar en omdat we echt maar met z'n vijven waren, was dat zo gepiept. Daarna had ik nog een missie. Er was een persoon die ik met name wilde zien. In zes VWO ben ik bijna van school getrapt omdat ik teveel spijbelde (het ging niet al te geweldig met me toentertijd) en ik had het vaak aan de stok met ene mevrouw die over de aan en afwezigheid van leerlingen ging. Ik zag haar staan en was zelfs zenuwachtig om naar haar toe te gaan! Ik was bang dat ze me niet wou ontmoeten ofzoiets. Bleek ze me ook gewoon niet meer te herinneren. En ik maar bang zijn dat ik haar grijze haren had bezorgd.

Al mijn doelen voor de reünie waren nu afgehandeld en we besloten ervandoor te gaan. Na een drankje in Gorinchem ging ik met de bus naar m'n ouders. Ik ben blij dat ik ben gegaan, maar ik weet niet wat ik ervan vond. De school is veranderd en iedereen is zijns weegs gegaan. Nostalgie is wellicht het gevoel wat ik erbij krijg. Dat maakt dat ik me oud voel, en dat is toch best wel raar op je 23ste.

'Pics or it didn't happen'

Awful picture, but it did happen!
800m before the finish of the Damloop, a small army of photographers busied themselves with getting pictures of all the runners.

Damloop Veteran

Ladies and gentleman, I did it!
Last saturday I ran the Dam tot Damloop, whilst being hopelessly undertrained. I didn't go running for about a month beforehand; I only went to the gym once in awhile. Thankfully, my lifestyle is active because I cycle everywhere I can (I avoid public transport whenever possible), so my endurance level is pretty decent. This saved me during the run. But let's start from the beginning!

I signed up for the Damloop because an acquaintance of mine, Erik, persuaded me after the Batavierenrace that took place in April earlier this year. At the time, I was still ecstatic from running my race it seemed like a cool idea to run 10 mile. So I signed up, naïvely thinking I would really follow a training-schedule. This all didn't happen of course and the dreaded day of September 19th came closer. I'd glance at my calendar every once in awhile, as if 19 September would magically disappear (I also still keep hoping that my period skips a month..i'm a fantasising fool). The week before the race I spent trying to NOT think about it at all, and I must say it worked! Only on 18 september I began to worry about it. The enveloppe with practical details about the organisation, my start number and whatnot was still lying on the table, untouched. The package also contained a free special t-shirt. I had ordered size M, thinking that it would be safer to order a size bigger than I normally wear. The shirt was so big that it was almost a dress. I put it on and I felt like a little kid again, trying on my mothers clothes or something. I drowned in the thing!

Meanwhile, my three fellow Damloop-heroes had already e-mailed about the time we would leave for Amsterdam, so it was only a matter of buying the necessary food-stuffs and drinks. Saturday, the big day, I spent the morning in bed, idling around with my laptop. In the afternoon, Christiaan and I went shopping for a last light meal. At 5 pm we took the train to Amsterdam, because Chris already had to start running at 18:40. Erik and Christiaan would start at 19:35, I would start at 19:45. The train was packed with people in purple t-shirts. No wonder, considering 25,000 people were running this night! Outside the station, the purple was even more prevalent. Several tourists and random passers-by were trying to find their way through the mass, looking utterly bewildered. I'd be scared too, if I'd unexpectedly cross 25,000 purple folks. Chris handed in his bag (all bags were labeled and driven to the finish) and got ready for take-off. We cheered for him as he and the 2,449 other people ran past us, looking like a big herd of sheep.

With an hour to kill, Erik, Christiaan and I strolled around. We went for a last toilet-break, handed in our bags, drank some sports drink and I ate a banana for some last minute energy. It was time to go to our start groups. I was really getting excited now! At length, it was time for my group to go to the start. Really bad trance music accompanied us as we were getting off. It was a really weird experience to run in such a big mass. I hoped that it would spread out after awhile, but it didn't. I immediately felt I would be able to run the whole race. My breath was steady, and in a natural rhythm. This is the most important part for me while I am running. I have trainings when I can't stop panting. I almost felt like whistling, but after 8 km my legs started to feel a little tired. The running experience was good distraction though. Lots of people were watching, almost everywhere you could hear music and the 'by night' aspect was provided by the many lights and campfires on route. It was a little annoying to run in a big mass every once in awhile. It was very hard to run past people, because not every slow runner kept to the right side of the road. I haven't felt more like a sheep in my life as during this Damloop. You couldn't escape the big running mass even if you wanted to. It was like being part of a huge unstoppable moving organism. Quite the experience!

At last, the large purple organism of which I was part, ran past the 13km sign. My legs were really starting to go on strike now. "Please walk!" I tried to push on, ignoring my sore muscles as much as I could. Most of the time I was overtaking people, now others were overtaking me! I felt like my grandma could beat me in a sprint now. This thought sparked a last drive in me to continue the last kilometres on a decent speed. As we neared the finish line, the public grew larger. All the more reason not to succumb to walking! The photo moment 800m before the finish fooled me yet again. Thinking it was the finish I sprinted past a few others, trying to look heroic, only to discover that it was another 800m to the finish. At that moment you really start to swear to yourself. All sorts of nasty words flashed through my mind as I figuratively lashed my body to run the last meters. I was never more glad to pass a finish line than I was passing this one. In a delirium, I walked through, got a drink and some food. I didn't even feel proud yet, but was more worried that I couldn't find my friends in the crowd of 25,000 people. Luckily, my friends were smart enough to wait me up at the bag retrieval point. Then, I really felt the joy of completing the run. Sadly, we had to walk another hour to reach the train station (because we walked the wrong way) and that really killed the little strenght I had left in my legs. Being able to sit down in the train was almost orgasmic. An hour and a half later I finally reached my home, and the shower. I was so glad to wash myself and then to lay down in bed! Sadly, I had a really bad headache. I guess I didn't drink enough. Three aspirines later, the headache was still there but I finally fell asleep.

The next day I didn't do anything at all. The headache was gone, and I felt really proud about myself. I didn't think I could run 16km, certainly not with while being so undertrained. But I managed it, and I'll never forget the whole experience! It took me 1 hour and 51 minutes (8,6 km/h), but hell, I did it!

Runnin' like a fool

Last year I had the luminous idea to start running. I got into it because of the Batavierenrace, the biggest student running event. After a few weeks of training I thought it'd be cool to try and run the 1/2 marathon next year.

And now it is 2009 and guess what. Tomorrow is THE BIG DAY of the Dam tot Damloop. Not a 1/2 marathon but 10 miles. I signed up for it in june, with the event still comfortably far away and with the noble intention of following a training schedule.

I think I followed that schedule for about two weeks, then it all went to hell. I went to London, Copenhagen, played WoW, went to the gym, cycled, worked, chilled, picked my nose, did my laundry, stroked my cat...you name it...BUT I DIDN'T RUN. So errr...tomorrow is going to be a total joke. Sure, I'm not in a bad shape, I feel pretty fit physically. I don't know if I feel fit enough to run 10 miles comfortably though. The last two weeks I've been nervous for various reasons and totally lost my apetite for food. I was low on energy and didn't do much at all (and lost 2kg). All in all, not an ideal preparation *cough*.

Today I tried to make up for it by bulking food. I kinda failed though, because I only ate breakfast and dinner. How the hell can you eat, if you don't feel hunger????

So right now, I'm enjoying the feeling of chillin'. After the run tomorrow I think I'll feel more dead than alive!

Quicky

Just a quick post to let ya'll know I'm doing fine!
I still enjoy being busy again. I hope this feeling will last, but last year I felt shitty again during the winter, which led me to believe that I might have that dreaded winter depression thing. We'll see!

For one of my courses, History of Popmusic I still don't have the book. It's unavailable in shops in NL (figures), so I thought I'd be smart and order it on Amazon.com. I found a second hand copy for four bucks. The shipping costs were 8 bucks so for 12 bucks I'd have the book. New it would cost me 60 euro's! Feeling totally happy and snug I patted myself on the shoulder for saving money.

This morning I looked at my e-mail and Amazon told me that my book would arrive on October 21.....

*blank stare*

My exam on this subject is 27 October.

How the hell am I going to study a 500 page book in one week? I read fast, but to remember all the stuff in one week???

I might have to go out of my way to get my hands on a copy and FAST.

I can always use one of the books to start a bonfire. Or just throw it at someone. Or is anyone interested in "Rockin 'Out, a history of rock music in the USA"???

Concours

With one of my orchestras we have to enroll in something you call 'concours' in Dutch. According to Wikipedia this translates as 'competitive examination' in English. There are certain levels a amateur orchestra can compete in and ours is on the highest level. You can advertise this to your public, but in order to keep the title you have to participate in the competition every 5 years. If you fail to achieve enough points, you lose your title.

We have to play two works, of which one is compulsory. The director and a music-commission with members from the orchestra pick out the other work. Last night, we got it (although it's not 100% sure we're gonna play that one). It's a famous Overture called Oberon (by Weber).

Cool YouTube vid (symphony version)


It's a cool piece but the clarinet section has to do all the hard work. I reckon it's gonna take me about 2-3 months to study all the difficult parts to perfection!

A lot can happen in one week!

Music
My two orchestra's have started again, and it made me so incredibly happy to play again! I've been making music on my own during the summer, but it's much more fun in a big group. I was especially surprised with how well we could still play the difficult stuff (Cappricio Italian by Tchaikovsky and La Boda de Louis Alonso); it gave me a few goosebump-moments. Lovely!
It was very nice to see all my fellow orchestra members back. It's difficult for me to explain, but the orchestra members are like family to me. Music has helped to keep me sane in bad times, and the orchestras play a big part in my music experience.
Next saturday: jazz concert with a jazz band.
3rd of October: big classical gig in Winterswijk (of all places..zzz)
November: exchange concert with IJsselstein Orchestra and a big classical gig in Sluiskilde
December: Silvesterconcert

Job
This monday, I started with a new part-time job at a computer store. I sent an open solicitation, had a chat with the boss and was hired. I had no idea what was expected from me, and I when I arrived last monday they just put me in the store without much explanation or whatever. Turns out I have very cool colleagues (one in particular) so all is well. It appears I like selling things, who would have ever thought that???? (I wouldn't!!)
Yesterday I was helping two guys picking out a laptop, and it took well over an hour. It was fun! The inner nerd in me is just very happy to be around so many computers, and I want to learn more about it all. Working in a computer store will hopefully help me to gather more technical knowledge about computers. As a Apple fangirl I must say it's weird to sell other brands, but I'll probably be buying a new PC soon myself. I want to be able to game more (my three year old MacBook barely runs WoW on low settings), and my best buddy Christiaan found out that I can buy a good gaming PC for about 800 euro. An equivalent Mac gaming setup would cost 2,200. Ok, I love Macs, but my love has boundaries!

The only downside of being so busy all of a sudden is that, for some reason, I'm NERVOUS all the time. My stomach is tense, and it produces a funny feeling. I feel elated all the time and full of joy, but I can barely eat and sleep. Last night, I finally slept for 7 hours straight, but when I woke up the jittery feeling started again! I am used to going to the gym and running for 3-4 times per week, but when I couldn't even eat breakfast yesterday and went to the gym I didn't do good at all. I could barely lift 1/2 the weight I normally lift.
I feel hungry sometimes, then I try to eat and more often than not it just tastes not good at all. Even chocolate isn't attractive to me right now, well...that says something! I hope it'll be alright in a few days, because the Dam tot Damloop is also drawing nearer. No way I can run 16km with my current energy level.

Summer's End

The end of summer gives me a variety of feelings, good and bad.
Sadness because of the ending of my favorite season. The days are shortening, the warmth is leaving, soon we'll have to wear wintercoats again!
Excitement because my orchestra's are resuming rehearsals. I missed all the people, I missed the feeling of making music in a large group (one of the best things in life).
Apprehension because of several study and work related stress that will start again. During the summer I feel so utterly relaxed, I dread the stress that will certainly come again soon. I want to finally finish my bachelor education, but I also have to work a lot more because I plan to do another study after this bachelor. It will be something completely different, but I feel it fits my interests and values a lot more. I'll explain it in more detail later, because the plan is not fully formed yet, and I have to do some calculation as to how it'll all work out money wise. I only concluded that I do not wish to work in the field that my bachelor will take me; however, since I'm in my last year I am determined to finish it.

I have nerves right now, because I'm having a job interview later today. I want to work 2 days in the next 6 months, since my schedule allows it and I need the money (if I want to continue studying). Fingers crossed!

And I have to admit, I might also have the jitters because tonight I'm going to see my orchestra colleagues after a 2 month summer break. It's something I find hard to explain, but I'm really excited to play in the orchestra again, see everyone, find out if I can still keep up with the difficulty level...
Two upcoming concerts in the near feature and a lot of extra rehearsals, can't wait!