The Dutch Files

Remember THIS? Yeah… well… I wish I could tell you otherwise but things have not actually really improved very much over the past week…

• I took my car to the dealership on Monday to get an estimate on the damage… It’s gonna be over 2,500 euros… That’ll be the equivalent of almost US$ 3,000… Yeah, I am insured and they will be covering it, and my dealership is providing a free of charge replacement car next week when it goes in for repairs, but my monthly insurance payments are gonna skyrocket… Cuz in the end we do pay for this shit ourselves, afterall, don’t we?
• The insurance of the mobile is giving me shit over “it being my own fault that I dropped it on the street”… Yeah, check your own insurance papers, dipshits! That is EXACTLY one of the reasons I actually took out insurance on the mobile phone… And it is actually one of the things you insure… I think this one is gonna require a tad more violent phonecalls from my end to theirs…
• We were informed that my aunt, The Mom’s sister, has been admitted to hospital over the weekend with a severe bowel obstruction. She suffers from Crohn’s disease and though she’s been pretty ok over the past years, this time it nearly killed her. She’s on the mend now but it’s been a shocker…
• Just a day later The Mom got a call that her cousin, one that is also a girlfriend of hers, suddenly passed away in her late 50’s… She suffered from emphysema, got admitted with a pneumonia and never made it… The Mom was heartbroken… obviously…
• Then on Wednesday my cousin, the daughter of the aunt that is in hospital, had another guh-reat update for us: her boyfriend, in his mid-30’s, has been admitted to the very same hospital with a heart attack… He’s now on the same floor as his MIL is, just in a different room…
• I got to talk to The Guy on cam the other day and he is having a hell of a time in Vegas. He’s there working and well, just about everything that can go wrong is going wrong: shit equipment, shit crew, people who can’t make up their minds on what they want… He’s actually lost his voice from shouting at all the fuckers who are not doing their work right… And he has hardly slept a wink since he got there almost a week ago… and it doesn’t look like the job will be finished soon…

OK.. so we’re pretty ready to scream out here. I have a message for whichever divine being is responsible for this… I am not religious nor spiritual, but you never know right? So here is the message:

CAN YOU PUH-LEASE HAVE BAD LUCK CRAP

ON SOMEONE ELSE’S LIFE FOR A BIT?!!!

SHEESH!

So… whaddayathink? Probably not a good time to buy a lottery ticket, right? *sigh*

OK… humor me… go over this past fucking asshole of a week with me, mkey?

• On Monday after hurrying The Kid to school (pre/post school daycare closed) I got stuck in a traffic jam… on the very morning my new temp was starting at the secretariat. I arrived an hour late…
• When putting my handbag away in my locker *SNAP* my bra strap broke… As I had NO time to get out to the store and get myself a new bra and/or straps, I stapled my bra strap back together… Yeah, that would be with the office stapler…
• That very night a match I had júst put out flipped out of my fingers and dropped on my beautiful red couch… which now has a black burn spot on there…
• On Tuesdayevening The Kid banged his elbow into my nose… I had my nose X-rayed and turns out that I have a slight fracture on the top of my nosebridge. It fucking hurts like hell!
• The Guy has been so excruciatingly busy that, aside from the fact that I truly feel for him, we have not been able to talk to eachother properly all week. I miss him like crazy.
• I spent most of my Thursday damage controlling the shit that BB left behind… as there is even more shit drifting to the surface than I could’ve evah imagined
• I let a dinner plate slip in the kitchen… I now only have 4 left, which means that right now… I can’t even have The Mom, The Sis and The BIL over for dinner…
• I was in a collision in traffic on Fridayafternoon that is gonna cost me dearly. Cuz even though the chick in front of me slammed on the breaks, in Dutchyland, traffic coming up from behind is always in the wrong… So I am paying for all damages…
• I am hurting all over, especially my shoulders and back, cuz I twisted some muscles bracing for impact…
• I spent the half hour after that in the pooring rain checking damages on both cars and filling in insurance forms
• After picking up The Kid from The Mom, and having dinner there, I dropped my brandnew Nokia E71 on the street… The screen is cracked. I hope to God that the insurance I got for it will pay for the damages as I can’t afford to have it fixed myself…

Yes, I know… it’s all material stuff… and there’s so much more important stuff… I know… Really I do… But right now I can’t afford any of this shit… And it was just too much for me this week…

I am locking myself in the house for the weekend, with The Kid. I feel like curling up in fetal position and just bawling my eyes out… SRSLY, I am not shitting you… I just don’t wanna deal with this week anymore…

And I want The Guy… Here! NOW! So I can bury myself in his embrace… and just “be”

Many have already dedicated posts to this and I won’t be the last either, but I need to as well…

See the “Feel Your Boobies” badge there in the sidebar? It’s there because October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. And it’s as important to me as to the next woman. Breast cancer, in my life, has come way too close for comfort already and I’ll be damned if I am not gonna do all I can to not let it get closer than it has to be.

Three of my aunts have already died of breast cancer. All three were sisters of my father. In 2006, the year my father passed away, his youngest sister died as well… She had been suffering from breast cancer and finally lost the battle at the end of that year… A few years before, 2 of my dads older sisters had already been diagnosed with tumors in the breast area and lymphnodes. Both got treatment and were in remission… One of those aunts was my very favorite aunt, of both of me and my sister. She was always closest to our family, so very much closer than any of the others.

Little over a year after my dad passed away, I got pregnant with The Kid. I was due to give birth in December 2007 and in October of that very year I visited that particular aunt. And for some reason we talked a lot about my Dad, their youth, my Mum and Dad’s marriage, and the fact that she was thrilled that I was pregnant. We were very close and I was also the very first of all her nieces and nephews that was going to have a baby. She didn’t have any children herself and she told me that this felt like the closest she’d ever come to experiencing grandchildren and she was loving the idea. She gave me the cútest PJ’s for the baby.

It was the last time I ever saw her…

A few weeks before I was due to give birth she was diagnosed with recurrent breast cancer which had spread all through her body. It was terminal. I gave birth to The Kid on December 16, and she passed away on December 23. She never saw The Kid, I never saw her again. I couldn’t even go to her funeral. Death and birth, so close together. Two sides of the medal of life.

The third of my aunts passed away earlier this year. She was also diagnosed with recurrent breast cancer and had extensive treatment but unfortunately it couldn’t save her anymore.

My dad had 4 sisters. Three of them are not with us anymore, as a result of breast cancer. Can you see the odds there? And I know that my family is not an exception to the rule. Unfortunately.

So get informed, click the “Feel Your Boobies” link to the US National Breast Cancer Awareness Month site or google for your local site. Every country has one. Read what it says on there. There’s instructions on every site on how to examine yourself. Do it, at least once a month. It only takes a few minutes. And when in doubt, go see the doctor. Better be safe than sorry. Trust me… you should…

Friendship is like peeing on yourself:

everyone can see it,

but only you get the warm feeling that it brings

I know I know… I promised regular Dutch-A-Pimpin’ service would be starting up again but it won’t. I just can’t get my mind around blogging right now…

In between the eye of Ike only being about 40 miles from The Guy right now, and power being down at his end, as is communication with him right now, and some fucking ignorant asshole deciding that this was the perfect time to upset him with a totally insane ignorant comment to one of The Guy’s posts… and consequently me being very worried about him right now… I just can’t do it…

There will be no posting until I am able to be back in touch with him again and know that he’s doing ok…

I just can’t blog right now… I will be spending my day bumming on the couch with a fever ‘n all, cuz of the cold I picked up end of this week, following live coverage on KHOU.com…

update 2.30 p.m. Houston time / 9.30 p.m. Dutch time

Just got a txt message from the cellphone of The Guy: he’s ok. Cell service is just back up. Power and water are not yet. Some flooding in the area where he’s at and some material damage. Thanks for everyone who kept me posted on everything in the area of the hurricane and kept me company waiting for news, you are awesome friends! I hope all your loved ones will be ok too!