21 January 2010

Photo Project

Because my camera takes ginourmous photos, and shrinking them down to blogger size is tedious, my photo project is now up at Picasa. I added a link to it in the sidebar, as well as a slide show made of that album. I think this is going to work out much better, because I won't have to fuss with the image sizes.

Living Space

Making some progress on paperwork, finally. Thanks in huge part to my future roommate, E, who took care of figuring out exactly what was needed and filled out the forms so all I had to do was sign them! Also thanks to R, who did all the printing/scanning because my computer's acting up and it's really really cold in the basement. I now have somewhere to live, just as soon as I can move! It's a three bedroom apartment, which I'll be sharing with two roommates. E is currently there, and another woman who will be moving out in March, so we'll be roommate hunting once I get there (or, if my departure is delayed, possibly sooner) to keep the rent nice and low.

When people say the Dutch tend towards bureaucracy, they aren't kidding. There were two forms to fill out/sign, which E took care of. Typically, proof of ending a previous lease is needed, but since I own my house, I had to send my mortgage info and a letter explaining I was in the process of selling. They also needed a passport scan and proof of employment. But it's all done and dealt with, so that's pretty awesome.

It's going to be weird adjusting to having so much less space. R and I could probably go an entire weekend without seeing each other and without leaving our house, if we tried. I'm actually kind of excited about it, because our house here seems so empty without furniture, and we simply hadn't filled it up yet because life got expensive. My car was totaled, we had wedding expenses, then the whole roof mess, then layoffs. And since I don't buy stuff I don't love, just to have it, and there's no IKEA (or similar cheap modern furniture) nearby, we just didn't have stuff. Which was fine, because just the two of us certainly don't need a ton of stuff. In fact, I'm finding that I prefer owning less, and doing more, if that makes sense. Why buy a dining room set for $1000 when I have a kitchen table already? I could instead use that money to take a weekend trip with R, or shop at the farmer's market and get delicious local produce instead of shopping at a chain store with flavourless tomatoes, or get season tickets at a theatre, or pay for half a cruise vacation. Or even put it towards R's master's degree (if he ever decides what degree to go back for) or to keep in savings as a comforting slush fund, just in case. I get so much more out of anything except the dining room table, and I'm grateful I bought this much-too-large house because otherwise I wouldn't have learned that. Looking at Dutch real estate, initially I was all panicky. How will I ever live in such a small space? Then I did some math, and really, R and I only actually use about 800 sq ft of space. We use either the living room or the basement, but certainly not the whole basement room, which is ginormous, the kitchen (but only the cooking side, not really the breakfast nook) and the master suite. Really, our bedroom could be 20 sq ft smaller and we wouldn't even notice. I've also found that while I thought for sure I'd need "my own space, to be alone" that that isn't the case at all. Even if we're doing totally separate things and not talking, I prefer that R and I are in the same room. This was true even when I was working, and not spending all day hanging out by myself. I married him because I enjoy his company, after all! So now I'm looking forward to having less space and less stuff. I'm also looking forward to the challenge of making a small space work in terms of furnishing and decor, although that won't be until we can find a house-ish living space.

Much as I love my little car, I am thrilled to be shifting to a car-free lifestyle. Which will only be possible because the new town is totally walkable and bikable. And while we may buy a car once R has a job there, the prevalence of public transport combined with high gas prices makes me think that's unlikely.

Even the dogs don't use the whole backyard, and would be perfectly fine with much less space. Especially since I'm moving somewhere that will be much more fun for walks. The path behind my house is lovely, but it gets boring to go in the same loop all the time. My new neighborhood/city will be much more walkable.

I will admit, however, that I will absolutely miss my glorious backyard, my trees, and the massive potential for oodles of flowers and vegetables. My apartment does have a patio, so I might try some small-space container gardening this summer.

15 January 2010

Crisis Averted

Apparently, the water just wanted to be difficult, and turned itself back on the next day.

Now I have a new problem. My marriage certificate came back to me today, because apparently the address wasn't specific enough for the office it needs to go to. You know, the address that I copied directly from the Iowa Secretary of State's website. So there's an entire week wasted, since I now need to re-address, re-send, and then wait for it to get back. However, they are willing to change the date on my contract to whenever I get there, since we don't have a lot of control of the paperwork pace. But now that I have somewhere to live, and the holidays are over, and my initial unemployment filing is almost up, I just want to get there and get started on the new job. I hate waiting for this sort of thing. The move will be stressful, the time change will be hell, and leaving the dogs (R too, of course, but I have plenty of practice at that) is going to suck. I want to get all that over with, and just get going! I'm like that with good-byes too. Whenever R or I dropped the other off at an airport, it was very "Okay, have a good flight, love you, hugs, bye" and that was it. Dragging it out just makes me feel worse. Once there's a plan, even if it won't be pleasant, I want to get it going. This even happens in smaller things, like cleaning the house. If we've decided to clean, I want to get it started and blast through it. R much prefers easing into the idea, then cleaning a room, taking a break, cleaning another room, taking a break again, and it took some getting used to. I hate dragging out boring, tedious, or otherwise unpleasant things. Being unemployed, for example.

Now that I think about it, this is probably why the weeks before I got my layoff notice were so so so stressful. I was pretty sure I was getting laid off, everybody else's optimism to the contrary, and rather than dreading it, I really wanted to get it over with. My last few weeks at work were actually a lot more pleasant, because I knew they were the end, I wasn't stressed about deadlines (what are they going to do if I don't meet them?) and I was much more able to focus on what I was doing.


10 January 2010

Who needs savings anyway?

Just because the visa paperwork chaos, trying to sell the house/car/furniture, and broken laptop power source weren't quite enough, we have no water to the house. There's no water coming in anywhere, at least, so there won't be another horrible sheetrock experience, but still. We waited all day (why yes, we were planning on doing dishes and laundry today) for the city water guy, who showed up at 9:18 PM. Twelve hours after we called, but who's counting? And it is Saturday. He took the meter apart, fussed around, threw fire in the ground, and determined that the city's end was working fine. Water is getting to the pipe that goes to our house, but not to our house. So hopefully tomorrow (Sunday! so probably not) but more likely Monday, we'll be summoning a plumber to figure out what's wrong, which will hopefully be cheap and fast to fix. Awesome.
Until the car sells, we don't really have a slush fund to cover major home repairs. And the car was supposed to be my moving slush fund, so that when I get to the Netherlands I can, for example, buy a bed. Not to mention that the plane tickets are going to be rather pricey, since I still don't have a visa and have 3 weeks until my theoretical work start date.
I might be a little frustrated.

Also, I feel really gross, and want to take a shower.

04 January 2010

Apostille

This process is going to be interesting. I need an apostille stamp on my birth certificate and marriage certificate (which is pretty easy and straightforward) and a stamp on R's birth certificate, which I predict will be problematic. These stamps are issued by the state that issued the document, so I have to have a parental unit mail my birth certificate, and I have to mail my marriage certificate, to IA secretary of state's office. R, however, was born on a military base in Europe, so I'm not sure at all where his apostille stamp is supposed to come from. Also, I need this done super fast, because it'll apparently take about 3 weeks from when the Netherlands gets the documents until I get my visa, and I need to move there in 4. Awesome.

I can't imagine how people dealt with this before the internet, since I had no idea what an apostille was when I was told I needed it. 10 minutes with google, and I knew what it was, why it was important, and how to get it. Other than actually picking up my visa (this is going to be expensive, since I don't live near anywhere I can pick it up) this will be my last task stateside. There's a bunch of stuff I'll have to do when I get there, but I have a list for that already.

01 January 2010

2010

I like making lists. A lot. So I usually make a New Year's Resolutions list, and in the past, it's been mostly about self-dislike, and unhealthy. Things like "Lose 20 lbs" when I have no medical indications that my weight is inappropriate for my body. Or things like "Keep my living space clean enough for a spontaneous photo shoot" which mostly makes me feel guilty and miserable, and encourages me to define my self-worth on stupid external parameters, like what people think of my house, rather than what I think of my house, or better yet, what I accomplish in areas important to me. Not to mention that keeping the house that clean is time-consuming, tedious, frustrating, and boring. (Why yes, my house is on the market, how could you tell?) This year I'm going to try something a little different, by creating goals that reflect who I actually am, and what I actually care about, and not random societal holdovers from the imaginary 1950's.

1. Refuse to respond to my reflection or image with "I need to lose weight" or "why can't I be as slender as {insert whoever here}." There's a fair amount of evidence that a weight range is DNA determined, and you need to put in a ton of work to shift past those boundaries. I am only overweight based on an arbitrary BMI scale that fails to take into account pretty much anything, since it's meant for use over large populations, not individuals. As long as my body performs the tasks I need it to, I'm fine. I am going to pause every time my mind says "lose weight" and replace it with "I'm awesome."

2. Relearn bike riding (or, fietsen). This is more a necessity thing than a resolution, though, since bikes are a primary form of transportation in the Netherlands.

3. Have an entire conversation in Dutch. I realize that pretty much everyone in the Netherlands speaks English, but I think it's important to learn the language of the country one is living in. At least enough that I could chat about the weather. This is going to be tough, because my brain keeps trying to put Dutch in the same space as all the German I know, and I get mixed up. Learning a third language should be a very interesting challenge for me, and help strengthen my mind.

4. Avoid complacency. Now that I'm leaving, I'm shocked by how little I explored this city, and how few friends I made. Delightful as simply hanging out with R and the dogs is, I think I need more variety to keep myself entertained. I am going to seek out and embrace new experiences, because I only get one life and I don't want to waste it. Megan's tragic death this past summer really brought this one into focus for me. She only got 25 years, but I think she really made the most of them. Only with Megan could taking a friend to an airport or dyeing hair be epic adventures, and I think that's a lot of why everyone was so shocked when she was gone. In fact, thinking about Megan and trying to describe her (she was just so alive! how do you explain her to someone?) is what gave me the courage to apply for jobs all over the world, and to take this one even with an interview set up with a company that would have been a much safer, easier, and familiar pick. I realize that avoiding complacency will often lead to feeling awkward or uncomfortable, but it was worth it as a college freshman to combat shyness, and it will be worth it again to combat falling into a mold instead of making my own.

5. Procrastinate less. I don't like the procrastination-anxiety-exhaustion cycle, and I'm going to strive to break out of it more often.

6. Knit for 10 minutes every day. This is simply to ensure that I spend 10 minutes a day doing something exclusively for myself. Knitting is my creative outlet (at least, the only one I'm taking with me initially, because it takes up the least amount of space!) as well as soothing work, and creating something beautiful and useful out of yarn is very satisfying. In addition, I'm going to keep the cast-on projects down to 5 or fewer.

7. Take one picture every day. I'm still deciding if facebook or this blog will be a better way to keep me honest on that one. Maybe both. I didn't buy an awesome camera for nothing! I have practically no photos of the past two years, except for my wedding. Like this morning, I realized we took zero pictures at our party last night, even thought it's the best New Year's Eve party I've ever participated in, and my brand new camera was sitting right there!

Here's today's picture. I can't believe Quasar both held still and looked at the camera. Even his tail is in focus!