Sudden Sadness

For those of you that haven't heard the latest twist in our lives, here goes.

Matt came home early a few days ago with the news that we are being called back to the states. The real gut buster is that we have 2 weeks to get gone. And just to keep things interesting, we won't be staying back in California, we'll be transferring to Utah with the rest of Matt's team. Salt Lake City to be exact. Who knew?

I've been taking pictures of the things we pass every day. These are the sights that will bring back our whole life here in a single flash. The crocuses are blooming now in the strip of median grass on the way to the Kingdom Hall. It's beautiful. In service on Friday Naomi-Ruth took us by the shop that I first went to on my second day in the Bijlmer (Bail-mar). It's the shop every Witness in the area frequents for their delicious and reasonably priced digs. Shredded chicken with pickled onions and peppers dripping with spicy goodness on a crusty soft roll for a wee 2 euro's 50. Brilliant. These are the small gems that make memories.

We've been a little frantic with the shock of suddenly loosing 4 months off of our stay. Just a week and a half ago we were turning in our paperwork at ORLY Plaza to extend our stay until July. Now we find ourselves trying to cram in as much of what we will be missing out on as we can into a few short days. Greatest regret: remember how I was saying we were expecting a visitor, and "Yeah Lanette" for making it happen? Well, she can still visit, but we won't be here when she get in. We'll be at least a week gone by the looks of things...we're still waiting to see how that one turns out. I am more sorry than I can say, Lanette, for this ridiculous turn of events.

We went out for dinner Friday evening to our favorite Irish pub, and followed it up with some live music at the Water Hole. They had a Red Hot Chili Peppers cover band that did a bang up job. Dead on attitude, and good beats too. Tonight we had a couple from our congregation over for dinner. We had plans with them before we knew we'd be leaving, so it was good to be able to keep at least one of the many commitments we had before we go. We're also trying to get them to take the handful of things we bought to make this fully furnished apartment truly furnished. A wooden shelving rack, a hanging clothes stand to add some footage to the roughly foot and a half wide hanging space in the closet here... monster shower caddy, a rug, some pillows... stuff we have in Cali, and really don't need to pack and ship home. They're going to be setting up house in a few months here anyways. We had a make your own pizza party, complete with a nutella and creme fraiche pizza dessert. I think everyone thought I was joking when I said we were having pizza for dessert too. Crazy American...

I should be in bed by now. It's after midnight, and tomorrow morning is likely to be our last Sunday meeting here. We'll be in the Netherlands for the following Sunday still, but that's the when Matt will be running a 12k race on the coast in Zandfoort, so we'll be there the whole weekend. Matt wanted to cancel it, but I told him he should still run. He's been looking forward to this event, and had it as a goal for so long now, that it would be an unnecessary blow to have to bow out now. Just because we have to leave sooner doesn't mean we have to leave all of our plans undone.

I'm still trying to figure out how we can fit in taking the train for 2 hours and seeing Brussels. That was one of the things we were supposed to do with Lanette (surprise...) so I guess I want to still be able to show her pictures, and maybe send a postcard. These are the plans of Mice and Men, eh?

Tomorrow a group from our congregation is taking us on an outing to a fishing village called Volendam. Apparently that's the place to be if you feel like dressing up Dutch...