The conversation thing

following the last two year’s tradition, here is a list of things I did for the first time in my life, during 2010. Enjoy!

1) was a paranymph at my fiancee’s doctoral defense at VU Amsterdam.
2) witnessed a full ceremony doctoral defense at Vrije Universiteit
3) was asked and got the ring on the Zeedijk bridge in Amsterdam
4) locked the love lock on the Hohenzollern bridge in Cologne

5) got married in Bucharest’s Town Hall with all my dearest friends and family and had a great party afterwards
6) helped organised my fiancee’s doctoral party and enjoyed the first official party in Amsterdam
7) got invited to an interview in Amsterdam
had my first Europe adventure when the volcano exploded
9) appeared on bbc.co.uk with my europe travel story
10) met Dr Calin Fabian Romanian ambassador in the Netherlands at Andrei’s doctoral defense
11) had my biggest so far extensive illustration animation job.
12) my team extended its reach from EMEA to Global.
13) created a new team in Guadalajara and met very interesting young designers there
14) had a personal business record of 186 email communications in one day with teams from around the world spanning across different timezones
15) fired the first team member from my people management team
16) accepted a new job offer in another city
17) had my first relocation to another city, and another country
18) got residence from another country
19) traveled to the Boston, United States
20) traveled to Stockholm, Sweden
21) traveled to London, UK
22) got our first neighbor party invitation
23) rented our first apartment with a rent of over 1000 eur/month
24) live on a small island 8 minutes close to the city centrum
25) visited Delft
26) were invited to the Romanian embassy in den Hague for the Romanian National Day party
27) traveled to Paris, France
28) got married in Church in Amsterdam in a Russian Orthodox church by a Dutch converted priest
29) had our friends and family fly over and enjoy the ceremony with us
30) bought our first real bed
31) had a lovely honeynight in a 4 star one-of-a-kind hotel on Keizergracht in Amsterdam
32) woke up to a lovely morning and left the hotel with the water taxi to our home
33) ran barefoot in the airport
34) had my first transatlantic flight
35) ran with Amir Kahn at 6:30 in the morning on a 5 miles track
36) ran 4 km on Sunday mornings with Andrei
37) discovered the marvel of Fallopian tubes
38) bought my first city fancy bike
39) had my first fall off the bike and sprinkle my left ankle
40) rented our first luxury car
41) had our first Christmas in Amsterdam
42) had our first guests to stay over at our place
43) bought my first Nude shoes
44) bought my first blue cocktail dress
45) had 3 hair coloring in a 7 days period - not good, I can tell you that
46) had a professional make-up artist session
47) got awarded at worldwide HP CIRCLE Awards for a digital marketing project with a ROI of over 130 times the investments
48) managed my first 6 figures budget
49) rented my first 1920’s theater costumes
50) designed and published my first professional book cover
51) got a 10 year visa for the US
52) I met for the first time Sint Niklaas, full ceremony
53) made my first pickles
54) painted my first series of portraits
55) lived more than one month in a business hotel
56) went to my first Sail festival
57) sailed with a sail vessel for 5 hours
58) went to the AC\DC 2010 tour concert in Bucharest
59) skied for the first time on the Varfu cu dor peak in Bucegi
60) visited the Vienna Art History museum

I revisited in the past week Eugene Ionesco after more than ten years: a theatre play collection of The chairs, The Lesson, Victims of Duty, Jack or the Submission, and Amédée, or How to Get Rid of It to mention a few. Absolutely amazing.

Interestingly enough now I stopped seeing the absurd in his plays, but more the incredibly crisp evaluation of human moments: childhood and adolescence: gathering and passing on of knowledge, burst of adolescence with its freedom quest and love motions; adult life: emotional distress and subconscious burst of blockage, artist and the quest for inspiration; old age: memories and death, the theatre subject as such.

By far the most authentic writer and the best book I have read in the entire year: and I have struggled a bit with books, trying old and new, famous or not, awarded or not - after this true literary experience, I can say that one year of reading resumes to “books, three at the price of two”. Ionesco on the other hand, even though i have known his works since school, I have never paid too much attention to him: in my mind, the term “absurd” had secluded his works in the idea of manipulating form in its most pure sense. I could say: form which leaves meaning as a side note; now, though, I have discovered incredibly succulent meaning in its plays - true metaphors that create powerful messages in the reader’s mind.

Going back to Schwartz Responsive Chord, I truly see Ionesco as a point of art expression where the chord is touched in the most ingenious way.