A snappy pic of the happy couple.
Hi everyone! How are ya? My job has been a bit crazed, but mostly things are pretty peachy.
As you probably know, the Euro came through on schedule. The only problems it caused for me were one or two days where the cash machines were emptied right away and lines at the store were a bit slow with confused people - you could pay in Euros or Guilders and you would get change in Euros. Within just a couple of days we got a Spanish Euro coin in our change and the when Jurjen remarked on it, the cashier said she'd already seen a Greek one as well. I've already been to Nice twice this year and have brought back some lovely French Euro coins for Jurjen to see. Guilders were the first coin phased out and more currencies have since have gone; typically, the stores stop accepting them, but banks continue for a while, and every country's National Bank will accept them for 30 years or something (although it is not always very convenient to get to the National Bank if you find a stack of cash you forgot under the floorboards). We look forward to seeing a Finnish coin or some Irish ones.
Now I can go to France (and other countries, of course) without having to maintain separate cash reservers - very convenient for me. And Euros are close to dollars in value, so it's mentally much easier for me to value things in familiar terms.
In other news, Jurjen and I performed in Sleeping Beauty, a British panto put on by the AATG, late in January; the show went really, really well. Many viewers gave extremely high opinions - best panto they'd ever seen, best show they'd seen in the Netherlands, etc. It was a good show; it had a great script (written by group members!), lots of talent, and years of group panto experience to work with. Jurjen was fantastic and stole major chunks of the show as Ivan C.Y.Zelph, the egotistical prince competing for the hand of the Princess (I saw his mother yesterday, she is *still* completely proud of him, she just can't get over it - he was wonderful).
However, I had some issues with what I did. To try to make this short, I took a chorus role, but as time went on it grew into a leading-the-whole-chorus role (as most of them were a bit confused and started following me, taking all cues off me, etc.), a brief but fun speaking role (Debbie the game show hostess - for which I affected an irritating Midwest accent and had a great time doing), singing backup in all but one number (they liked my voice, and I said yes to everything they wanted me to do), and doing a lot of prop moving (because most of the cast was clueless and forgot their prop responsibilities, so I and another guy ended up with most of them as time went on). So, I was constantly singing and had a lot of prop janitoring that kept me upstage. Also, my part of Debbie required a nasty quick change, 3 minutes maybe, including costume, having my hair done, and grabbing my props. At first I had no support but the director noticed and mandated backstage support for me. Then, for some reason one cast member decided she was more important and got in the hairdresser's chair right when I needed it, although she had 20 minutes before her next entrance. I have trouble believing she was so obtuse as not to notice, since I changed costume right there in order to have time enough. (She's always been polite to me, so I don't know what was up with that, or why the hair lady didn't prioritize.) Also, I just felt that I was loaded down with responsibilites, and then it turned out that I wasn't given the support I needed to get them done (compared to leads, for example). I mean, I've done grunt chorus roles, I've done leads, I've done pit orchestra, ASM, crew, what have you; but I've never, ever felt this way before. Normally I'm pretty good at speaking up for myself, but this came on gradually and then really hit when we were finally in the theatre and it was too late, really. Plus that, I had a weird flu that gave me what felt like a killer ear infection during the show weekend and I just had to keep going (turned out it was somewhere between the throat and ear, and/or throat pain felt as ear pain). I had some thank-yous and loads of nice compliments, but frankly I got more production team support and official recognition when I managed props once. (There's more complaining to be had if anyone wants to email me for the details.)
But, there is good news to come. I was frustrated, but Jurjen was livid, at the way things went for me. He saw a final rehearsal where I was home sick, that proved that without me the chorus didn't know when to sing, didn't know when to come in, and basically held up the entire show. He thought I should have walked out to make the production team acknowledge that. He was outraged when I told him about the hairdresser thing. Well, after the Sunday performances we had our cast party, in an upstairs room at an Irish pub. The cast always presents presents for the crew, so some cast members got up and gave speeches and handed out things to blushing crew members, to rounds of applause from everyone. And when they were done, Jurjen went bounding up to interject that he felt someone in the chorus deserved a round of applause, someone who really held the chorus together and helped everyone sing, someone who worked very hard to support everyone in the show, and it "isn't just because she's my girlfriend." So he has me stand up and wave, and everyone gives me a cheer.
Before I go on, take a minute and imagine: I've done two shows that day, the only thing I've had for pain control on my ear was massive doses of aspirin which (that or the loud noise of the show) gave me tinnitus, plus I've had some Bailey's (which, when iced, feels nice on a tired throat) and you all know I hardly drink, so between my hearing and my tiredness I was really on another planet, doing my best to track the current reality.
So then before I know it the cheers have turned into "Propose! Propose!" as I look around in bewilderment, so I look back around to see Jurjen, who gets down on bended knee, takes my hand and says "Carolyn, you know I love you, will you marry me?" And I manage to say something along the lines of "Yes, darling, of course I will, you know I will," but most of it's drowned out by whooping and cheering and applause, and most of the people line up to kiss our cheeks and wish us well, and someone hands us a bottle of champagne, and I just start tearing up and sniffling because I was happy, and although we'd talked about marriage it suddenly seemed really official, and the whole room felt like such a theatre family, and I was just plain overwhelmed, really. I don't know who started yelling "Propose" but it was a fitting setting for it, because Jurjen and I met when I ran props for "Romeo and Juliet" in 2000 and we are either involved with or at least come and see most of the productions, so everyone's seen us being a shmoopy and revolting couple over the last 15 months or so, is my guess. Anyway, the chair of the AATG board asked if she can put an announcement about us in the AATG newsletter.
I don't have a ring yet, but we're going ring shopping downtown on Thursday (which is Valentine's Day, so that's fitting). My pal Sharifa said that in Sweden both people wear rings, so we'll see what we can find.
Now that the show is done, it's nice having an open schedule again. But I have a project at work that is high-pressure and very hectic. I keep having conference calls, and the amazing thing is that the ferrets will be quiet all morning, but wake up when I'm listening to these calls and start sneezing (*kchuh!*) and snorting (*phwont*) and knocking things around in the cage (*wham!*) and wrestling with each other (*rheeeEEEK* *scuffle* *chitterchitterchitter!*) scattering chow (*pling pling pling*), which cracks me right up so I have to hit that mute button before I guffaw and snort at people in three countries. Those weasels are such a stress reliever! Also, when I have time, I'm working on getting back to the States, pursuing job leads in and out of Agilent, etc. So I sit down at the computer at 9 and work past 6 and then do my own searches and planning and basically I should be having a life here somewhere. To that end, Jurjen mentioned to his mom that I hadn't made it to Delft, despite it being the next town over, so we all three went yesterday (Sunday) and walked around the hometown of Grotius and Jan Vermeer. We had a lunch of pancake-based objects: poffertjes, like little puffy silver dollar pancakes with butter and sugar (quite delicious); apple beignets (like apple fritters, a ring of apple in batter, mmmm); and a pannekoek met spekjes (a big flat eggy pancake with bacon in it that you just have to have syrup on, 'syrup' being a molasses-like sugar syrup, and indeed it was tasty). The restaurant we went to proclaims that Bill Clinton ate there in 1997, and they display photos and a letter of thanks, and put poffertjes with strawberries and whipped cream in the menu as the Bill Clinton Special (apparently that's what he ordered). It was rather cute, and a gezellig place (cosy, that is). We went through the Prinsenhof, a great little museum, and once the home of William the Silent who was assasinated on the staircase in 1584 (there is glass over the bullet holes in the wall now). Lots of historical paintings. And Delft is a nice town. I have a few photos, I'll have to try to get them on the web site.
We had such a nice time that we're planning to go to Leiden next Sunday. Then I have to go to Nice for two weeks, but can hopefully import Jurjen to entertain me for a few days in the middle, and we can go to the Raoul Dufy Museum in Nice, which I still haven't made it to. So I guess I'm getting out of the house more.
So, loads of goings-on here. Let me know how you're doing!
C a r o l y n
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