Posting from the train, early Wednesdaymorning

I went to Koudekerke in Zeeland on Tuesday, to man the registration desk of the annual meeting of the Dutch Society on Thrombosis and Hemostasis. The Chief is in the board of the Society and one of our other faculty has a seat in the board as well and was in charge of organizing the meeting. Her own secretary was supposed to go and do the registration thingy but due to personal circumstances she couldn’t make it… So I got to arrange to have The Kid stay at The Ex for an extra night and travel to Koudekerke to be the “registration and ask-whatever-you-need to know liaison” of the meeting.

It’s been an excruciatingly busy few weeks and there is another busy week coming up. I have work coming out of my nose and ears and responsibilities stacking up so high that it is not even funny anymore. So I really didn’t need another one, that involved 3 hours of travel there and 3 hours of travel back for a few hours of work, bút… I loved doing it.

Being at a registration desk for a meeting is not my favorite task in the world. It’s usually pretty boring and not very challenging work. It is however the place where you get to meet all the people attending the meeting. And having been working in the Thrombosis & Hemostasis “world” for over 16 years now, people appreciate seeing a familiar face at the registration desk. And for this particular meeting, I got to catch up with some people that I had not seen for yeeeeaaarrrs! And I love that! Sometimes it makes me feel increasingly old to have been hanging around in the same line of work for so long, but it has also resulted in some great friendships, and it’s fun to meet people here and there, and getting paid for that while I am at it.

So, I got on the train early Tuesday morning, bringing along a US guest that is visiting the department this week. We sat down in the Silence Carriage (yes, we were travelling first class for the occasion and some Dutch trains have a Silence Carriage in first class, yay!), he got out his laptop to work and I, for the first time in months, thought “fuck work” and allowed myself to get my book out and read… for 2 hours! I can’t remember the last time I got to do that! And you gotta love people NOT talking to each other in the train when you are in there early in the morning and have 2 hrs to go. Seriously!

We got there in time, I sat at the registration desk for most of the afternoon, and intermittently jumped up to welcome some old friends. Then, after the honorary lecture, it was PARTY TIME!!!

O.M.F.G.! I am not sure what happened there and how many glasses of wine I did have (rumors are that I singlehandedly dissolved the hotel’s winecellar and I must say that my head kinda feels like that could possibly be true), but I had SO much fun! I talked and caught up with friends and ex-colleagues. There were some “Try To Find DutchBitch a Guy”-attempts which failed miserably, as was to be expected (if there was a hot available guy in this line of work, trust me, I would know about it), we went about our traditional “switching badges for fun”, we were chucked out of the party venue at 0.30 a.m. and continued our fun in the lobby of the hotel until about 2.00 a.m. when I (and some of the other party guests) were requested to go skinny dipping… I remember declining and telling the guy that asked that “nobody would be served in ány way if I would come skinny dipping with them”, then talking for just 5 more mins, then going up to my room, setting my alarm (and there is NO fun in seeing your cell phone alarm tell you that you have another “4 hrs and 14 mins before your alarm goes off”, lemmetellya), and then I somehow got myself into bed (fuck the PJ’s that were in my suitcase, I didn’t even get ’round to taking them out of there, let alone wear them) and crashed and burned…

I got up this a.m., showered, got dressed, got my stuff together, checked out, only to find that apparently the night before I hád in fact been so wise as to order a taxi to the station for the morning, sent the dept peeps a text message that I was leaving, and got into the taxi to drive to the station. The fucking taxi driver laughed at me, when he drove off, the sun came slashing thru the front window of the car and all I could do was squint my eyes and go “phhhwwoooaaarrrrr”!!! I got a train ticket, got my ass into 1^st class again, found myself a seat in the Silence Carriage again, chucked out 3 schoolgirls that clearly did not understand the meaning of “silence”, and sat down to write this post and then after that I will close my eyes until the train reaches it’s destination.

I must say, though life is incredibly busy right now, and I am not the clubbing kind of person, and I sometimes don’t even know where to look for some peace of mind, I am slowly getting the hang of this “try to enjoy life whenever I get the chance”-thing. It also makes for whopping hangovers on weekdays at times, but boy… It can be fun! I can’t wait to get my ass in that plane to ConFab, Baby! in June. I think that by now I’ve had enough practice to keep on my feet for a few days over there… sorta… ish…

Next party: the public defense of a former PhD student and good girlfriend today. It’s going to be the day from hell: welcoming and taking care of guests for the public defense arriving at the dept, the public defense itself, rushing home to pick up The Kid, off to The Kid’s school as they had the supah idea to plan “presentation night” on this very day, then rushing back to the public defense festivities, including the party. I am taking The Kid with me to that one, and as usual after these functions, I have to drive myself home, so alcohol is out. But it’s going to be fun nevertheless. Another chance to meet up with people I haven’t seen for ages.

I’ll crash now… thanks… Someone tell these bitches that just sat down opposite me that they are in the SILENCE carriage!!! And that they could save tons on their make up bill if they would just tone it down a little… the make up… (and the blabbermouthing)…

P.S. As I post this today I by now know that I was even more dazed in the train than I thought…

P.P.S. It wasn’t us! (the reason that the chain of hotels, that the one we were staying at belongs to, filed for bankruptcy the night of the party…), was it?