Ok a title like that might sound a little odd being a “youngin” at 29 for the moment (give me until mid-Sept and I hit the big 30). I went in to town today, ready for a 2:00 appointment with the headshrinker (all part of the fibro game) and I decided to do a little shopping. Now the thing is, for those who know me, I like very few kinds of shopping, and clothes isn’t one of them. But I go in to town, wearing my nice baggy green pants, my long sleeve black Nightwish concert shirt and flip flops. Now as I walk around, I observe that the 80s are back in “Style”. Now the the question that comes to mind, was the 80s ever really stylish? I do not know the answer to that, since I am still traumatized by the perms that BOTH my parents had. The hot pink, electric yellow and the spandex pants are all coming back to haunt. The plastic bangle bracelets and big hoop earrings line the displays. I can’t help but notice the poor young souls that have gotten caught up in this and have done the “punk” look to a T but with out the understanding of what punk is. I laugh at the “modern” additions created to go with this look so they don’t look too out of place when the 90s come rolling in a year or two.

But I digress, I think. I am at the shops, keeping in mind the hot things on sale for the past few months, and decide to get those beloved shoes I had so many years ago. The thing is, my husband, being a “modern” man, HATES the shoes I had. When I was 7 my parents took my brother and I on a trip to California. I remember that trip very fondly and look back at it and smile. When we were in Carmel my parents gave the credit card to my brother, then 10, and had us go and get the shoes we really wanted. They were at the store down the street from the restaurant (Hog’s Breath) we were eating at and so we wandered off. After a few minutes of shopping and trying them on my brother was sporting a brand new pair of black Chucks and I had a pair of nice red Chuck All Star Converse high tops. I wore those things until they died on me, they were my basketball shoes, my tennis shoes, and my out of uniform shoes. They were awesome. Now pushing 30 I didn’t think I could pull off the red anymore so I thought I would tone the look down with the black ones. As I get to the one store that I know sells them, I find that they are out of my size. CRAP!!

But not taking no for an answer, as you can probably see in my other blogs, I go to other stores. I end up at Foot Locker. The last store I was going to try. I see the Chucks, I see the price, I see the other bright colors that might take me off the trail of those normal looking black ones. But finally I see a new product from my long time friends, the female All Stars. Now there is also the ballerina shoes that are really popular here in Europe so All Stars have come with their answer. They look like the old Converse, but muted down to a subtle, more feminine shoe. I couldn’t be happier. As if it was meant to be the one on the shelf was my size. Delighted and trying not to squeal I grab the shoe and head to the guy asking for the ones in the exact size I am holding. I try it on and like it was made for me I wanted to get up and dance. But I am too refined *cough* for that. I ask him for the pair and say I will take them. As he is routing around the back for them I find the pair of socks to set my whole outfit off, a pair of ankle black socks with skulls on them. I pay and put the socks and shoes on (hey it’s the Netherlands and it’s raining here and cold and I’m wearing flip flops, what do you expect?).

Now I am not finished with my make over back into the past me. I walked to shopping center near the Foot Locker and decide to get my haircut. I wanted to do this anyway since I am starting to like it shorter. So I go in and look at the clock and think I might have enough time before my head shrinking. When I get on the chopping block I tell her what I want and when she has finished I went away very happy. My hair dries up shorter than I thought but I am really happy with it. So I finish talking with the shrink and get home really happy. Then it dawns on me, I have gone through my mid life crisis. I have changed my clothes, my hair and walked with an air that says ” Look at me, I’m younger than I look and not as stupid as these kids”, the only thing I am missing is my purple Porsche and my 18 year old secretary. So I guess until I have the last two things, it is not really a mid life crisis, just me finally being “in fashion”.

Well an update to the last blog. I tried for several hours yesterday, about 7 to be exact, to get songs on to my ipod. I would get error messages and itunes would freeze every time I would try to sync the ipod with the music. I would have to unplug the ipod to get the computer to unfreeze and then have to hard reset the ipod and try it all over again. If I was lucky, I could get 40 songs on there. I was heart broken. I took my little green gem in my hands, I cradled it for a while and then put it back in the packaging and went to the store.

After explaining the situation, I told the guy exactly what I did with the troubleshooting and he was amazed. The first customer to actually try troubleshooting. He went to check the store for a new green one, but alas. The news was devestating, they only had the gray or the black ones. My heart sank. Since it was on special they weren’t counting on getting anymore in before the special was over. So I collected my money and left.

Being someone who is headstrong and stubborn as a mule, I went on the quest for another ipod. I would not accept  defeat. I noticed on my way in to the shopping complex another store was having the same offer. So I went up to Dixons. I looked in the display cabinet and there were the ipods…. a green one, a gray one, a black one and a blue one. I find a guy to help me out and I ask him for a green ipod. Much to my horror they were out of green. The guy even went to the back since they got a shipment in and they didn’t have any. Not one to take no for an answer, or the patience to wait for some to come in and then pay extra for it, I got the last of the blue ones. So I’ve got the blues baby…. and it’s pretty spiffy…. and better yet, it works

Well this title is for me mostly…. Today I finally did it… After years of fighting it, after another year of debating whether or not my life would be enriched by this…. I finally did it… I saw it was on special at the Mediamarkt and I had to have it… I got up early, brushed my teeth and proceeded to make my self look somewhat presentable in my jeans and Batman t-shirt, and went out… I got on the bus, I rode to town, I went to the shops, and I did it… I got an ipod… an 8g nano to be precise…. and so far I love it… then again I haven’t had a chance to listen to it… I have spent the past 5 hours going over all the music I have on the computer, putting it on to my itunes library, then copying CDs that I have around, debating which ones I should add and which ones to leave out since I don’t listen to it… Trying to make my ipod say that I am an interesting person and I listen to interesting stuff…. and writing this right now I realize that I have forgotten to add a CD…

But anyway… I know I have jumped on the band wagon a little late in the game, but as the Borg would say, “Resistance is Futile”… and if you don’t know who the Borg are then this will show my true level of geekness, it is from Start Trek… So after seeing the fabulous colors that the Nano comes in I had the choose… a tough, life changing choice…. which color… Now normally I would go for something subtle, sedated and even a little grim and plain like black… The Silver/gray was a nice color as well and they had plenty of them… White would look dirty and scratched in no time knowing me, so that left me with a few other choices… Red, Pink, Blue or Green…. now Blue has never really been my color… it was one of the crayons that was used the least in my box of Crayola… And Red, being a great color, they did not have in their selection since it was a brand new color out for them and there was a limited selection and that was not there… So this left Pink, or Green… Now what do these colors say about the owner? Pink is very girlie, it says “Look at me, I have boobs, I and like Barbie, and I will conform to the ideals of the female sex”… or it just says “I like Pink” or better yet “they were out of the color I wanted”…. but then you look at green… now this is more of a springy metallic green, not a dark forest green… It is fun, fresh and looks retro as well. This is the kind of green that you get for your new VW Beetle, the one with all the fun gadgets that a guy would not be caught dead driving unless it says “this is my wife’s car”… So you would get this green ipod in the hopes to one day color coordinate your Beetle and it’s accessories with… So of course, as you can guess, I got the green…. In hopes one day to color coordinate my new Beetle I want…. So here is to the 21st century and here is to my new (imaginary at the moment) beetle….. Oh, and of course… my ipod

Ok, here it is, another blog from me…. I know, a long time coming…. Well to be honest there hasn’t been THAT much to write… We went to the wedding of our friends and it was a blast. I got to meet another person from Dennis’ old group and he is awesome, just like the rest. And, of course, we get in touch with these cool people right before we leave. Other than that I really haven’t done much that would warrant a whole incoherent babbling on my part, until now….

Well today, as you might have seen in Dennis’ blog if you speak Dutch, the guy from the movers came to valuate our stuff. He was a really nice guy, everything went smoothly, and as predicted by him, we have more stuff than we thought. Well he says that most people under valuate their stuff, saying they have less than they really do…. Which I can understand. But anyway… The guy leaves and later we go to Dennis’ grandparents… Now I am really really close to Naina and Bompa (not their real names ). I love them, they are awesome…

So we are over there, having drinks and talking about the move. I am close to tears at this point and don’t want anyone to know. I  have it where I don’t want to move. I know it will be better for us in the long run and we can’t afford Amsterdam on Dennis’ paycheck but still… I have a lot of friends here and family and such…. And yes it is scary moving back to the states when I haven’t been there for so long, but still…. Part of me is really happy here… So when we get back from Naina and Bompa’s I was shocked to see 2… Yes you read that right 2… emails from people in Amsterdam that have seen my resume on Monsterboard and are interested in me…. VERDORIE!!! I know I should be happy that some people out there are interested in me for work, but come on!!! a few months too late… Oh well…. This was one of those moments where you want to scream … And the icing on the cake? Dennis gets an email from a test site saying “Stay or Go Test”… Now should I venture out and take it? or should I just sit here and silently come to my own conclusions?