I don’t think I have learned all that many interesting things out of 2009. For me, it was mostly a year that consisted of catching my breath, but also of stagnation. No big life-changing events apart from moving into our Nuttyville home. I accomplished a few things, but all of my ambition is going into the new year. I started to work on my self again in autumn, and I’m going to continue on that note in the new year. But before we look forward, let’s look back first.
Winter
The new year started with champagne in our old apartment in Rijswijk. We had a great time at the party. There was too much champagne; but we had a shitload of fun hanging out on the street and getting smashed and taking pictures. There was fireworks too, but I can’t really remember the fireworks to be honest. The hangover wasn’t too spectacular, fortunately, we just hung out and blearily watched TV. But then a couple of days later our ten year old bunny Bako suddenly took a turn for the worse and would just sleep all day. He passed away on 4 January. Olli and I had him buried in the garden of Olli’s parents in Hoorn, because we would be leaving Rijswijk and we didn’t have a garden of our own. We thought he’d be safer there. Work was insanely busy with one colleague on vacation and the other being sick, the whole three-person-workload fell on me. Looking back I was the happiest in my job at N in January, when I had to run around and scramble to make ends meet on my lonesome. (That’s not a good sign, is it?) And something else happened as well… we couldn’t stand to see Bako’s empty bunny cage, so we picked up another bunny we saw in the store the other day. Enter Charlie; the little fuzzball that’s currently driving us to drink by climbing on every surface that we own.
The rest of the winter was spent with going to several concerts (Sabaton, All That Remains, Enter Shikari, Dragonforce), the decision to start to learn how to play the bass guitar at some point this year, and then it was time to clean up the house, pack up and get ready to go! On 2 March we received the keys to our castle. It was a day of mixed emotions. I was shaking like a leaf when I realized how HUGE this was, and how AWESOME… and then we actually entered the house and realized how frigging much we still had to do about the house before we could actually move in. It was a mammoth task to get our house in working order, especially since we still had to combine it with work, but eventually we managed. No thanks to Olli. Love you babe! We moved out on 28 March, with help from our sweet friends, and then suddenly we were Nuttyville residents.
Spring
It was insane how violently the weather took a turn for the better. Once we’d moved into our new house, it was suddenly as if spring was attacking the Netherlands in full force. While settling into the new house, I became a bit disillusioned with my job. (Again, you’d say. :S) I did not realize this at this point, and just buried myself in Popmundo (which was full of drama), got sick with the flu, and got the scare of a lifetime when Olli passed out with flu at the top of the stairs and fell down. (he has a cool scar on his elbow now). And then there was the news about Lie and Sjoerd at the end of April. Say what you want, but even though when you think things might not be all peachy, it’s still one hell of a shock when it happens. And it broke my heart a little as well. We tried to support Lie as much as we could by dragging her along to pretty much every social gathering we could think of like the Fantasy Fair and Rock Rock. I dyed my hair red again, but it turned out pinkish, so from that moment on I’ve done more brownish/red/amber haircolour tones.
Olli and I finished up our decoration of the livingroom, which I’m still terribly pleased with. The work situation did not improve, and whatever malcontent I had escalated in full-on escapism. Popo was a lot of fun in those days, since Steph and I were in the middle of a RP that took the better part of two months to evolve. Still, work sucked. I felt like I was found wanting, despite not being all that bad at my job. Colleagues who look down on you are not fun, and it was giving me a hard time. I started looking out for other jobs, and it didn’t really come as a surprise when my contract wasn’t extended. I felt like a failure and dreaded having to start over again, although secretly I knew it was for the best. When something doesn’t work, it’s best just to end it, right?
Summer
Thankfully there was Graspop to take my mind off things! It was badly needed, too, because I slept like ass and walked around wondering where the hell my brains went. Deep down inside I was really stressed out about finding a new job, and while I applied like a mofo, it took me way too long to find jobs that I actually found interesting. Thank whatever’s up there, I found the GS job a mere two weeks after the news about the end of my contract came. I was invited to interview really quickly, but all in all the three weeks in which I interviewed and waited for the news to arrive, I felt like a zombie. So it was a blessing that Graspop was there! One of the best festivals I’ve ever been to, atmosphere wise. Also had a great time at Slipknot and Trivium especially, but the group in itself was also brilliant. And on July 15 I got my contract offer by GS and it was brilliant! They also wanted me to start on 25 August, after Lowlands, and because my contract ended on 24 July, that meant that I had a month of holiday!
I planned to do things about the house, but of course I ended up hanging out with friends, going to the beach, having a great BBQ party, reading, lazing in the sun, and buying my bass guitar. There are worse ways to spend a summer, I suppose. We ended summer (or at least, that’s the way I feel it, since afterwards I started my new job) with that other big festival: Lowlands. And while Lowlands was a lot of fun in that festival kind of way, I do think I’m done with Lowlands for a while. Despite the fact that it was fun to see Jos again and the Prodigy blew my fucking mind, the shite beer and the even worse logistics on the way home ruined it a bit for me. Especially since Lowlands didn’t seem that much different from last year. So I think this year we’re going for another festival again. Probably Graspop; but we’ll see how it goes.
Autumn
On 25 August I started my new job. Whoo! It started out quietly with trying to get to know the product and the organisation, but it was fun enough. From there on I got my own clients that I needed to work for, and the work became challenging. For the first time I found myself even working in the evenings; just to get those management essays done. But I got B as a client, and S was happy with us so far, so the projects started in full force and I learned shitloads about project management and training, exactly what I hoped for. Progression instead of stagnation, wonderful stuff. My boss gave me lots of good coaching and advice, and I can’t remember when was the last time I actually learned something at work before this. So I definitely think I made the right choice applying at GS for a job. In September I also started to learn something else: bass guitar. I got a gorgeous red bass guitar for my birthday (Olli <3) that I called Rebel, and my lessons started at the Drumschool in Voorburg. I’m still not very good at it, I should practice more, but I’m having a lot of fun with it!
Popmundo was terribly busy too, because Rebel Justice (yeah, I wonder what I named my bass after…) was playing at the Festival VII and we’d worked very hard to achieve what we did there (a mindmelting show, and we came in 16th). And to relaxed I watched myself through four seasons of Supernatural, ha 
November heralded Nanowrimo, for which I wrote Signals (and didn’t finish the story, although I reached 50K). Again it wasn’t a very thrilling experience, I am started to wonder if I’m not burnt out on writing or something? Reading back, I do genuinely like my story though (unlike last year, when I only liked the potential of the story), but I really need to plot out the rest before I can finish it. Things that made more of an impression on me in November were the concerts I went to (In Flames, The Prodigy!) and the decision to start getting off my lazy ass and do something about my weight. Olli and I started our Atkins diet again, and we signed up at the gym. While Olli lost shitloads of weight, I hit a wall at 4kg. It seems like last night I was able to break through it, though, let’s see how that continues… I do feel good about the gym thing though, I think we might actually be able to keep this up.
Early Winter: in December we suddenly found ourselves snowed in, we went to the Biffy Clyro concert, exercised our butts off… and suddenly the year is ending. It has gone incredibly fast and there are things that have happened that affected me that I’m not mentioning here, because they’re not mine to mention. (Yes, Lannie learned her lesson!) Don’t think I didn’t think of you this year though. A lot of friends had some shite things happening to them this year, and I’m thinking of you. But now it’s December. And December means reflection and it’s good to look back on everything that happened and the things we want to do for next year. I come out of this year richer, a bit slimmer, with a much better job and with a gorgeous house. Funny how I think that this year has been about stagnation, though… it just feels that way. For next year I would like to focus on getting healthier (like Lie says: my body, my temple), getting better at my job and… well, not very surprising, I am going to bloody well ENJOY myself. Because that’s what we’re all here for after all, right?
