My friend Suzan celebrated her birthday today. Just like the years before, she celebrated it in Leiden, during Leidens Ontzet. I joined the past two years, and had a great time, but this year I decided not to go, dispite invitations from various classmates: I haven't been in the mood to party, and I hate to travel nowdays (I'm prone to anxiety attacks when I have to sit still and do nothing).
Before mentioned reasons were part of why I didn't witness the basketball game of a friend of mine. He had invited me to come, but I decided to stay home and play some basketball myself: first on computer (NBA Inside Drive 2004), and then outside (Bakkersplein). There weren't any serious players, and the court was wet, so I took the time to practice my jumpshot a bit.
When I came home, I chatted with the cousin a friend of mine a bit: she needs to make a website for school, but has half a clue on how to do this; so she asked me whether I could help her. While I was chatting with her, I also started chatting with her cousin (my friend) because we were go to town for some drinks. Not much later he and an acquaintance of his came to pick me up.
We went to my favorite pub (Zwarte Ruiter. It was very crowded, noisy, and warm: this is how I would normally like it, but now I didn't feel comfortable. We ordered some (non-alcoholic) drinks and went outside. Dispite the rain and the cold, we felt more at ease there (though I was still a bit anxious … then again, I've been anxious pretty much 24/7 for almost a year now, so what else is new).
The three of us talked about everything and nothing: kids, women, marriage — then all of a sudden the acquaintance asks my friend whether I'm that one guy that makes websites.
My friend nodded. The guy turned to me and said he'd seen my work and was impressed. He then talked about a plan he has for a website and asked me for my quotes. I gave him my usual rate, and proceeded to talk about the possibilities of my services.
After some time, the guy went back inside to get some more drinks. He didn't return with another coke and jus, but with Tequilla. My friend and I raised an eyebrow, then our glass, and slammed it back on the table. I haven't done that for quite some time, but it seems much like biking and swimming: once you can do it, it's almost hard to fail at it.
It actually felt good being out with one of my best friends again; being at my favorite pub again; drinking, again; and seeing a lot of familiar faces that I hadn't seen for some time. One particular face I noticed was that of the photography student that took some very cool pictures of me two years ago (and we made out, too). She came up to me and said—Hi,
of course, but also—that she needed to make an interactive Flash animation, and asked whether I could help her with that.
Three assignments in one night, hmm…
There were some more tequillas, and then we went to see if we could do some dancing at Paard van Troje. It was some special night where they only play techno, and charge 25 euros. I've never seen them charge more than 15, and frankly, I don't see why they would: they're not that big. We went to the bar next to it. It didn't have much dancing, but it was free.
Inside, I saw more familiar faces, even though I'd never been there. This also worked the other way around—sort of—as a guy that I'd never seen before came up to me and asked me if I was A. C. J. Bizar.
It starts to look like my online activities bring me more fame
than my activities in sports, music, and fine art nowdays: a somewhat scary thought.
Anyway. More tequillas followed. I don't know how many it were exactly, but I was kind of surprised I could handle it … after all, I'm not nearly as practiced I used to be. We had a lot of fun, and I felt remarkebly comfortable. Perhaps we felt a bit too comfortable, as our planned 11P.M. became 4 something A.M.
Since it was already late anyway, and we started to get hungry (or the other two guys at least), we decided to go to El Basha to grab a snack. Inside there were yet more familiar faces, and also some very beautiful faces that I'd love to become familiar with (but didn't).
My new acquaintance eventually left, and my friend and I chatted for another half hour or so at the bus stop, and agreed to go out again next week (Friday). Now I'm finally home, and it's rediculously late; and to think I used to do this on a daily basis. I could wonder how I kept up, but I guess I didn't (some food for thought).
I had a great night, I hope you did too, Suzan! I hope to join you again next year, and for now; lots of love!
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