Everything about friends

Dear Nienke, you should have a website

Every time I embark on a journey towards a published post about why itā€™s good to have a website, I get lost in the reality of personal details. Everyone has different reasons for believing something. Aiming to take them all into account doesnā€™t help me write anything that feels worthwhile and not like a derivative1. It feels much more relevant to focus my attention on specific people. In this case Iā€™m focusing my attention on you, Nienke. (Continue)

Meeting Yana and DJ

What I love most about todayā€™s snapshot is the despair I can see in Lemonadeā€™s eyes even when her entire body is a background blur. DJ is a calm 12-year-old dog, and Lemonade was thrilled to see another dog in our home for the first time, but her energy level was high enough that I eventually brought her back to her crate. It was right in time, too, because the afternoon light filling the living room made for a nice little portrait. (Continue)

A very Mathilde visit

Much like last year, Iā€™m so excited for Mathilde to visit our house that I get a headache just thinking about it. Weā€™ve known each other 23 years, and, by miracle, our friendship is both acclimatized to our adult lives and as full of energy and curiosity as it was when we met in our first year of secondary school. She comes bearing gifts: seeds for the garden, dyke poetry, David Sedaris. (Continue)

Week 11: Meeting Patrick

I got to meet one of my Internet heroes this week: Patrick Rhone and his family were on a Europe trip, and I was lucky enough to catch the planning stage on his blog right in time to extend an invitation. We spent a rainy Monday evening in de Jordaan at Cafe de Tuin, talking ye olde Internet productivity culture, the arts, politics, hopes and dreams, and how his teenage daughter apparently woke up one night singing ā€œraise a glass to freedomā€. (Continue)

A phone call with an old friend

Happiness today is the ease with which the nun gives me his phone number. Paul is an old friend, or really an old friend of my ex, and we havenā€™t spoken in eight years. I had emailed him late last year, missing our kitchen table conversations over coffee and cigarettes. His enormous house, a former school, functioning as his private art studio / gallery. He had replied right away, saying ā€œmy phone number is still the sameā€. (Continue)

Replied to Barry Frost

Darn Barry, I feel like 2023 is throwing you for quite a loop. Ever since you wrote about you getting laid off I think about you every now and then. Iā€™m sorry this happened last week, although I must say I suppose itā€™s a lucky thing those divvies wanted to get a break-in early bird special.