7

I am facing the sun as I write this. Squinting. I will try to get it all out in one shot while glancing at whatever I can manage to see on my screen. This is a documentation about Brigitte Schuster and myself for whomever gets to read this in the future. It is also the first personal article that I am making public on this site.

On 2005-08-02 (seven years ago today) I met Brigitte in Montreal, Canada. Our commonality was and still is hunting down good food, experiencing the different, and curiosity to find out the other bits of one another.

I love the fact that we are in different fields of work and studies. To her, I am a computer monkey that occasionally looks for chaos, and to me, she is an artist cat trying to design some parts of the world. That is intentionally exaggerated and probably only makes sense in my head. The conversations never go stale, and we constantly learn a lot from each other along the way about what we do and why we do them. Naturally, we also get to pass around lines like don’t be so logical! or get real! too.

I clearly remember back when knowing her only for a week, I told my friend, while crossing a busy street, that she is quite insightful. In retrospect, I think this attribute of hers is like winning a life-long lottery for me. Sometimes I am not tuned into what she says, and so things don’t kick-in until at a much later date. Then, I am like woah, that is what she said!.

She picks me up when I fall down. Shows me light when there is darkness. She puts me before herself in order to help me be a better person.

She is fluent in boatload of languages – 7 and can probably get away with 8 or 10 – so I bug her more often than I probably should in order to hear her speak when the opportunity presents itself. Seeing her do such things astonishes me like a kid that repeatedly says do it again!. I am fascinated by her curiosity to hack into different cultures in various ways.

I highly value that we are both independent people but well-federated (if that makes sense here) with each other. Our arguments are short and are magically resolved by well-intended communication or with compromises wherever necessary. There is never a sense of control or bullshit. Content with whatever the universe throws at us and in harmony with another.

I can’t get enough of the pleasures we have and I can share some of them publicly: while I tap on my laptop late at night, I can feel that she is in her calligraphy flow across the room; me teasing her about stealing my ideas; she teasing me about not getting the beauty in some things; dancing for her in the living room; me acting as if she is not taller and her spotting it; scaring her during suspenseful films; telling each other not to dress like grey mice; appreciating empty beaches; she always knowing her way and me being clueless about where I am; realizing that we are adding more items to our never ending lists...

I am a Libra. She is a Libra. We are part of the same Libra.

In a few hours, I will say Dit is mijn vrouw.