Marco&Niki

A few days ago I wrote a blog post for Niki that I sent to her even before I came over. Today I’m writing this life, while tied to her fridge. No, just kidding..I’m lying down on the floor as I often do at her place.

For a week or so I wanted to write about the crazy subject of bugs. I have several fun memories of Niki attached to some of those sometimes bothersome little creatures.

There’s the one about her first day in the Netherlands ever. We went out for a walk, and ending up on ‘ het plein’ which is a famous place in The Hague, right next to the Binnenhof. The statue of ‘Willem de zwijger’ is in the center of the square.  As you might recall there is a copy of that statue in New Brunswick where Niki studied.

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On one of the trips where Marco and Roger visited, I was coming home from work on the bus. I remember getting off the bus, and seeing Marco there dressed up.

He led me to a quiet corner off the main path and said he had something different for me today. He had made a reservation at one of the local restaurants for us to have dinner together. How sweet! He had scheduled the reservation for a bit later, so we had some time to kill.

He led me to the local park that was on the way to the restaurant, and we sat down on one of the park benches. (Every time I pass by the park I think of this moment.) He said he had something for me. I was feeling positively spoiled and loved by this point. Not that I didn’t feel that before… But he pulled out a little bag, and inside of it was a pair of red earrings.

Now, a little bit about these earrings – I had been hinting for a while that I needed some red earrings to match one of my work outfits. It’s a running joke that I want earrings that match outfits in color. He knows I like earrings that dangle. I think he did an awesome job picking out these earrings!

After it was time, we headed off to the restaurant. It is actually an old house, since renovated. So each room only has one or two tables in it. It should be very cozy and private, although they seated a rather large table next to us and they were a bit boisterous. But c’est la vie.

(A side note… earlier in the trip, Roger, Marco and I were walking to Shoprite, which goes right past the restaurant. I was walking in front of them and said Oh look! It’s the expensive place! as that is all I had heard about it. Apparently Marco and Roger exchanged uh oh glances, as Marco had already made his reservation. But after a quick check of the menu online, Marco was relieved to find out that my definition of expensive isn’t… expensive.)

I don’t remember what I actually had as a main meal, but I can tell you the soda (pop!) they served was flat. I should have said something, but oh well. But the dessert was great… a cup of coffee (cappuccino?) with a fancily-spun stick of sugar to stir it with.

And of course the only awkward moment for me: I apparently suck at sitting down properly if a guy is trying to be a gentleman and push in your chair for you. But we survived, and had a laugh.

It was a great memory. It is nice that I walk past the restaurant and park at least once a week to be reminded of it.

From Marco…

A short time before Niki and I met, a friend of mine visited Japan.
We joked that she should bring me a Hello Kitty phone charm and that I’d attach it to my phone.
I expected her to forget but she didn’t…
Being crazy enough to be a man of my word in situations like this, I hung the charm as promised.
If I remember correctly it was a little rocker H. Kitty.

At some point in the conversations with Niki I showed the charm (possibly already at the first convention we met, but it might’ve been at another one).

Maybe to give the impression that despite being big and evil, I was not above being silly and cute 🙂
Or maybe it was just a simple and fun topic “hey look, I am crazy, I have a girlish charm on my phone”
I’m not sure if it helped to impress her, but she definitely remembered it.

Because some time later, the cord of the charm broke, so I took it off the phone. Then, not long after that, I got a gift from Niki.
A new Hello Kitty figure holding a pink heart with an even tinier little heart dangling next to it.
At this time we were still “just friends” but now I have to wonder if she wasn’t secretly claiming me already*grin*

To prevent scratching the enamel*, I put tape over the figure & heart. Though the heart has some scratches anyways..

She said I could use it to replace the other one but since it was a bit bigger than the original I decided to hang it from my key chain. (also the original was more of a small figurine, while this is more like a flat charm, I’m sure there’s an actual word for it)
It’s been on there ever since. Usually when I take my keys out of my pocket when I get home from work my fingers search for it just to make sure it’s still there.
I wouldn’t go so far as to call it a good luck charm or anything like it, but I got it from Niki, so obviously it’s dear to me.

* I had to look up enamel since it’s not an every-day word. Fun fact, in Dutch it’s email (or emaille in French)
Ooops. I bet not many people use it for THAT meaning these days.