a bike rack and some lunch

the leidsekade bridge
Originally uploaded by Photo Doocker.

I've spent the last two days reliving what it meant to ride my bike from my house in the Watergrafsmeer over to Leidsekade 50, the soon to be former home of Zolder50.

I get to the bike rack. Sometimes I would see my friends locking up their bikes too. Sometimes, I'd see no one, but I'm confident others would see me - like Jurren and Steef - laughing at me for one reason or another. Other times, I would be playing a prank on Todd with the face of a doll, and at others I would be the end of the joke. I'd see Lee ride up sweating profusely from his ride (he only knows one speed on the bike - fast.) Once in awhile, I'd see Eric at the rack wondering how we missed each other on the ride. There were even the many times of talking with the neighbor about the scratches on her car caused by our church. The bike rack alone provides me with so many good memories.

My bike locked, I step away and gather my belongings. I pull out my keys and open the door to the office belting out an "hoi, FedEx..." just to get Theo to come to the door. We'd laugh and hug. Around the corner, Steef and Jurren were plugging away. Well, that's another stretch of the truth since Jurren was usually still sleeping or singing, but still. "Bpde, BPde, BPde, BPde" I would hear this at least 100 times a day from Steef. 99 of them I'd laugh.

Theo asks me to get lunch with him, so we walk back out the door, hang a right and head towards Albert Heijn, the impetus of many arguments between Steef and I about which was better - AH or Vomar. Of course he was always right, but it was still fun to argue with him about it.

Theo walked fast. For an almost 60 year old (another stretch of the truth) he had a mission - fresh bread. I loved lunch with Theo, Steef, Jurren, Lee, Brian and Seth. In fact, if I'm realistic about my memories of Amsterdam, lunch with these firends is one of top five greatest. I learned much about and from these brothers during our time together. I learned trivial things like how to eat Filet Americain and oude kaas. But, there was so much more. We shared unbelievable times at lunch. I cried on more than one occasion. I laughed on every occasion. These are memories etched to my very soul.