If I were a religious Christian, I think I’d be loving the current storyline of the comic 9 Chickweed Place, for their acknowledgement that choosing to avoid sex before marriage doesn’t necessarily imply a lack of passion. Actually, I love it anyway; the strip makes clear that these are individual choices, and not all individuals make the same ones. Not all individuals have the same personalities or relationships, either; Seth and Mark relate in a very different way than Edda and Amos do, or Francis and Diane. Faith is central to the lives of some of the characters, not all, and in some cases it’s in fairly offbeat ways. (I wonder if Monty is sending a wedding present to Francis and Diane?) After the mess that For Better or For Worse has become, it’s really a relief to read something so beautifully done.
Tihs is my last day at the office here in the Netherlands. It’s kind of weird; I don’t have to say goodbye to the people I’ve been sitting and working with for the last month; they’re all Taiwanese so I’ll see them as soon as their time here is over. My old department had a joint going-away for me and another person who’s leaving on Monday, when they provided pie and presents, as is the Dutch tradition. The presents were very nice – a book about Holland, a company cap and scarf, and a backpack-style laptop bag (they asked Rudder what I’d like and I really hate the original bag that comes with our work computers). It was even nicer of course, to have the gathering and the card and the speech from former boss, and nicest of all when he said, “Any time you want to come back to our department, just let me know.”
Rudder’s competing in a regatta tomorrow (I’m not) and once again we will catch the plane to Taiwan the same night. The regatta’s about an hour away, I think; we’re debating whether to return to our hotel for him to shower or just hang out at the regatta and go straight to the airport from there. We need to be at the airport by 6:30 and can probably leave the regatta around 2 at the earliest. Amsterdam (Schiphol airport) is about an hour and a half from here when traffic is cooperative, but we always allow 2 hours in case it isn’t. I suppose I should look up exactly where this town is and what tomorrow’s weather will be before we decide.
I’ve begun new socks to Knitty’s Back to Basics pattern, using Lana Grossa Meilenweit Cotton Fantasy yarn, color 815. The yarn is a blend of cotton, wool, and polyadmide, but it feels more like cotton. (Unfortunately, it doesn’t have the stretch of its wool component.) It’s much prettier than it looks in online pictures; the blues and greens are frosted with whites and make me think of summer and sherbet and New England beach houses with white cottage furniture and bowls of sea-glass. Actually, that’s exactly it: this yarn is the colors of seaglass. Not exactly evoking this time of year, but then again I’ll be working them during a move to a semi-tropical climate.