Went to the wedding at City Hall. The speaker tied Liberty Day into the wedding ceremony. Today there were marching bands going up and down the streets. It´s something that The Netherlands celebrates the day we Americans and Canadians liberated them from Germany. American veterans were here today speaking in the town square. We got caught up in a marching band on the way home from the rock-a-billy wedding party. Kaley, to my joy, thought the marching band was exciting and fun, and said it was the best thing that´s happened since she got here. I felt proud to be American. I´ve had several people ask me about the economy in the US and Bush. I get the feeling that people are confused as to what is going on. It´s a mix of fascination with America, confusion, appreciation and maybe disgust.
PS: Kaley had a ball with Macha (sp?), Eric´s sister´s (Melia) daughter. They live in Delft (sp?) and invited us to stay. Melia´s husband, can´t remember his name!, is into collaborative networking of some sort. They are more in the, how do you say it?, cultural mainstream. :)
PPS: Kovi is a handful! Will Kim and I ever ever ever ever ever ever EVER get to be alone without the meltdowns??? We´d so much like to take a couple bicycles and go to Nuenen or a train to Amsterdam to the Van Gogh museum. Little tyrant!
PPPS: In what I´d call Xtreme parenting, I took Kaley to see "Bang Bang Bazooka" for the wedding party. It was a mix of local crazies and family. I´ve got reservations and really fight an internal battle because I really really like psycho music... and fit in with the dropouts more than the established... and I hope Kaley doesn´t... and I want to be honest... and what I really want to do is go nutso... but I don´t know... and somehow it just happened to be fun on the side of silly with Kaley plugging her ears and laughing at the guys... the guys even laughing at themselves... and then I could relax... but I really really want to tear stuff up and be bad... but stay good... somehow get lost and stay... unwind, but not get stupid... but be stupid enough... and not regret not being stupid as I could be when I´ve got the chance at being just about as stupid as I want. :D
I think I want to cut loose, but the problem is it just doesn´t work or make sense. It´s best to relax. The problem is that I think I relax best when I peg the speedo at 184 or something like that.
Liberty!
Don´t worry, I´m just blogging... it´s relaxing :)
6 comments:
sounds fun...like a bohemian catholic wedding.
Do not be afraid to b yourself. that´s what you can be over here. nobody judges you on anything. be yourself aND ENJOY ALL THE MOMENTS. you did let you kids also enjoy in this wonderfull moment. And yes you r still a dad with responsabillity´s
Have fun and enjoy every second you have. do not regret anything.
Keep painting. you really have the touch of a painter. good luck and till next time
ricoradio
Ricoradio - Thx. I think you understood, I feel unleashed here and am uncomfortably lured by it... that with the mix of having kids and feeling simultaneously protective and crazy.
In the US, I feel like my main battle is consumerism.
Anonymous - There wasn´t much Catholic in it. There are a lot of churches around here. I use their peaks for landmarks.
It may not be that I like driving 184 or going nutso - I like looking over the edge and feeling like I could if I wanted to. It´s more alive. There´s a striking difference between the beautifully manicured villages here (like Nuenen) compared to the thriving seedy downtown Eindhoven. It´s embracing both that causes this dissonance, like the pop Nirvana.
Hi Keith,
Just for the record our complicated Dutch names ;-) It's Maartje (my 7yo Daughter), Milja (my wife) and Luuk (my 3yo son). My name is Maurice. Delft is right, and I think "cultural mainstream" is very well chosen. We would have called it "burgerlijk" compared to the way Eric and Conny live... Eric will explain you the meaning. 8-)
Thanx for letting us borrow your nice family! I have to work most of the time, but the kids and Milja and Kim seem to have a great time. Luuk calls Kovi "mijn vriendje" (my little friend), and Kaley and Maartje play together all day, not understanding a single word what they tell each other. However, tomorrow we'll send them back to you anyhow. So good luck in finding the ideal painting spot tomorrow, it might be the last opporunity, and great you enjoy this way of exploring Holland.
Thanks, Maurice. And thanks for putting up with our two year old. He´s a handful!
If I don´t paint, I´ve certainly had a blast exploring. Great to meet you guys. Sounds like my better 3/4 had a wonderful time at your place.
Post a Comment