Away from home, at loose ends and husbandless, I tend to indulge in retail therapy. I may be getting better however. Today I refrained from purchasing one pair of jeans (more expensive than I’m used to paying but not outlandishly so;jeans just seem to cost more outside the US) even though they fit fairly nicely; a chocolate leather (goatskin, I think) double-breasted short jacket because I’m tired of wearing Goretex when everyone around me looks stylish; a watch. The jacket or the watch but not both could have been justified as a birthday present to myself. Reasons for not buying jeans: anything substantial I buy here will have to be shipped back to myself. Not worth it for jeans, if I haven’t bought anything else. Reasons for not buying jacket: right now it’s mostly too cold here for it, if I spend any appreciable time outside, and by the time I get back home it will be too warm. However, I may change my mind on this if I will be staying until April; I really don’t have a nicer jacket, just sporty ones. Reasons for not buying watch: what I want is big enough to be readable, waterproof, band of both silver and goldcolored metals, and hardest to find, either light-powered or self-winding so I don’t have to ever worry about replacing the batteries. I haven’t found anything here that satisfies the last condition.
So that’s why I’m proud of me today. I’m much prouder of other people; I spent this afternoon at the Dutch National Ergo Marathon Championships (held only 1-2 km from my hotel) to cheer my former rowing partner on, and there were many moments of courage and gallantry far beyond even the (high) level needed to erg a marathon at all. There was the guy who managed to finish despite repeated leg cramps; the one next to him who got up to help him out of the footstraps at the end despite having just finished himself; my old partner who got *back* on the erg after she’d finished, so the one remaining woman still going would have someone next to her keeping pace. It was all fairly inspiring, in fact, and also cause for gratitude: watching other people erg for 3+ hours may not constitute riotous excitement but itbeats all hell out of doing it yourself.