Today has easily been as insane as I had expected. I was packing until 3:30 or 4:00 and had to get up and make it to the airport by 7:30 this morning. The first tram on Sunday is at 8:00. Needless to say I was late to the airport but still made the flight
:: as usual ::
In the pre-boarding area there was a television blasting CNN - I haven't watched television for over a month (since I was in Los Angeles last), so it was bizarre to see then with their eyes glued to the screen watching what amounted to an impressionist version of a split screen study in sand...
I almost cancelled this trip - as everyone else I know did. My mother called on Friday and we talked for the longest time - all the while she kept reminding me that she would feel a whole lot better if I would just stay put. Just wait until the war is over - and then come home. I, on the other hand, still refuse to believe that anything is going to happen to me. It is ridiculously naivet, but I still feel special - I haven't yet come to grasp my own mortality. I find it funny to say that now- because it was only two years ago that I
was a murder eyewitness and spent weeks completely freaked out ? unable to sleep, paranoid, and desperately wanting to go "home". We had just bought the house, though. I was living in the "solder" :it's like an attic: sleeping on the hardwood floor with a tiny plastic electric heater and a mini fridge. It was so fucking cold I would usually sleep with my clothes and jacket on. I lived that way for months - in the cold and dust ? furious because the construction guys NEVER showed up and were taking much longer than they had promised. Tess and Hayden were in the states then, but came back for Christmas. We stayed at my friends house for Christmas because the house was still unlivable, and then
moved into the Arena hotel for a couple of months. I think this whole experience is when I began to really despise most of the Dutch I had to interact with on a regular basis. It was a perfect example of a cultural conflict - as an American I expected people to deliver what they promised in a timely fashion as Dutch, they expected me to be flexible enough to accommodate vacations and long periods of time off because of fatigue, or good weather, or bad weather.
So I struggled through the flight and our meeting, and I am exhausted?absolutely exhausted. I have been setting up the tech in the booth for the last few hours, and am finally ready to pass out, or eat dinner, or something?
So I am eating eggs so far ? I brought a bag of hardboiled eggs and I have been eating them all afternoon. Eggs and water. For FUCKS sake!
I miss SOmeone.
So Jake and I are staying in this place called Le Villa Franca, up in the hills over Cannes. It is a bizarre place, and I will leave it at that. We did, however, have no lights in the main room last night as well as no hot water this morning. Well beyond no hot water, literally freezing water. So I have barely slept, not showered or shaved ? but it really doesn?t seem to matter ? after all we are in France. Cannes is beautiful, the weather is perfect ? sunny with enough wind to keep you cool (especially in our black suits).
--MON--
We got up this morning at about quarter of seven so we could get down to the show by Eight. I think it?s going to be a LONG day at the market?
:: as usual ::
In the pre-boarding area there was a television blasting CNN - I haven't watched television for over a month (since I was in Los Angeles last), so it was bizarre to see then with their eyes glued to the screen watching what amounted to an impressionist version of a split screen study in sand...
I almost cancelled this trip - as everyone else I know did. My mother called on Friday and we talked for the longest time - all the while she kept reminding me that she would feel a whole lot better if I would just stay put. Just wait until the war is over - and then come home. I, on the other hand, still refuse to believe that anything is going to happen to me. It is ridiculously naivet, but I still feel special - I haven't yet come to grasp my own mortality. I find it funny to say that now- because it was only two years ago that I
was a murder eyewitness and spent weeks completely freaked out ? unable to sleep, paranoid, and desperately wanting to go "home". We had just bought the house, though. I was living in the "solder" :it's like an attic: sleeping on the hardwood floor with a tiny plastic electric heater and a mini fridge. It was so fucking cold I would usually sleep with my clothes and jacket on. I lived that way for months - in the cold and dust ? furious because the construction guys NEVER showed up and were taking much longer than they had promised. Tess and Hayden were in the states then, but came back for Christmas. We stayed at my friends house for Christmas because the house was still unlivable, and then
moved into the Arena hotel for a couple of months. I think this whole experience is when I began to really despise most of the Dutch I had to interact with on a regular basis. It was a perfect example of a cultural conflict - as an American I expected people to deliver what they promised in a timely fashion as Dutch, they expected me to be flexible enough to accommodate vacations and long periods of time off because of fatigue, or good weather, or bad weather.
So I struggled through the flight and our meeting, and I am exhausted?absolutely exhausted. I have been setting up the tech in the booth for the last few hours, and am finally ready to pass out, or eat dinner, or something?
So I am eating eggs so far ? I brought a bag of hardboiled eggs and I have been eating them all afternoon. Eggs and water. For FUCKS sake!
I miss SOmeone.
So Jake and I are staying in this place called Le Villa Franca, up in the hills over Cannes. It is a bizarre place, and I will leave it at that. We did, however, have no lights in the main room last night as well as no hot water this morning. Well beyond no hot water, literally freezing water. So I have barely slept, not showered or shaved ? but it really doesn?t seem to matter ? after all we are in France. Cannes is beautiful, the weather is perfect ? sunny with enough wind to keep you cool (especially in our black suits).
--MON--
We got up this morning at about quarter of seven so we could get down to the show by Eight. I think it?s going to be a LONG day at the market?
BTW, if you don't travel because of what is going on, you are giving in to the wishes of the terrorists... allowing yourself to be controlled by the whims of madmen... Take care! Call me!