I'll be back in the summertime, with a handful of flowers and a bottle of cheap wine...

I've been happily settling into my new apartment for the past few weeks - "nesting" as one of my friends calls it. It's far and away the nicest place I've ever lived on my own, and big enough to host dinner parties, lunches, and late-night post-bar gatherings. Looking around my living room and seeing a group of friends eating and drinking is one of the best feelings in the world - even if we all still have to sit on the floor because I only have 4 chairs. The weekend that just passed felt like it lasted forever, which is the best thing a weekend can do. I was at the Soundgarden on Friday night, ate some of the most delicious pannekoeken on Saturday, drank a few beers at the Kriterion, took a long bike ride with a good friend, and generally didn't do anything hard or stressful or complicated.

Of course, all that being said, it's not like I was really excited for Monday morning to arrive, especially because Monday morning arrived for me around 7am (about 1.5 hours before I normally wake up) due to some construction project going on pretty damn close to my bedroom window. Why anyone feels the need to do the loudest part of the construction job at 7am is beyond me, and since I'm not much of a morning person, losing out on over an hour of sleep did not feel like the best way to start my day. When I finally dragged myself out of bed and went about getting ready for work, I was feeling pretty out of it - but my mood started to lift when I looked out the front windows on my apartment and saw the sun streaming inside and bright blue skies. After a cup of coffee and strawberries on the balcony, I put on my headphones and headed out the door. Riding to work while listening to music on my ipod is just simply the most ideal way to start my day and always puts me in a good mood. It also helps that I love my job. By the time I got to the office today I felt (relatively) awake and happy.

You know the metro newspaper, the same one that exists in a million different cities around the world? You usually find them in metro or bus stations in the morning. Here in Amsterdam, there's a woman that stands near the bike lane, handing them out to passing cyclists. I love that.

I'm headed over to De Nieuwe Anita tonight for a screening of Wrong Eyed Jesus (Andrew Douglas, 82 minutes, shown in English). Every monday is Cinemanita - for just €2,50 it's a great place to catch a film on Monday (though this will be the last Monday screening of the summer). I've got some good friends from Paris coming to visit this week, and then I'm headed to Berlin on Friday - I can't wait. It will be my second visit to Berlin and another opportunity to use my extensive German vocabulary (ein bier, bitte!) and hang out with a bunch of people I haven't seen in a long time. I never want this summer to end.