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I got on the airplane with Alain De Botton’s Essays in Love and segued into Greg Iles’ Natchez Burning – a book that held me in its death grip until it ended and I picked up Mo’ Meta Blues from Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson, which was a romp through the mind of a music geek like no other. All I wanted to do when I put down his book was pick up my iPod and listen…
I bought online a dozen sky lanterns to bring to Zahara de los Atunes this summer. My plan was to release them on the anniversary of my friend losing her husband and child in a car accident, and in memoriam to my friend who passed this year. But the TSA would not allow the sky lanterns to pass security. Tin was on the beach in Cadiz and he dug a hole and filled it with…
We brought some of the thin books that a friend had given Tin years ago – each one asks a question – Why, When, How, Where, and Why. We were reading about the Nile River, how it is the longest river in the world. Later, I was asking Tin where the Nile is located and he said Australia {and we laughed]. Then I said, think of where your ancestors are from, but he kept saying…
Memory is supposed to take form after four years old, which is why a lot of parents put off life changing travel till their kids are of age. But Tin’s passport already had Tangiers, Spain, Croatia and Gibraltar stamped in it multiple times before we embarked again for Spain this summer. Now that he is five and a half, I thought some parts of travel would take firmer hold in his imagination. However, after sleeping…
Tin and I were going to get up and go to the Prado, but because we were up at 3am watching Frozen on my computer, we actually ended up waking for real at noon and having about an hour to run down the street to eat. We were in room number 7, an omen for a trip that was already going smoother than expected. We stopped into La Fabrica and I had another delicious pot…
The food in Spain makes me wary – it’s highly nationalistic – no one tires here of tortilla española, patata bravas, manchego, and jamon. Eggs, Potatoes, Cheese and Pork. SAVE ME. It’s enough to make me give up on trying to find a salad as I perused the menus at the open-air cafes along what is commonly referred to as the golden triangle – the blocks between Madrid’s three great museums – the Prado, Reina…
I noticed that the weeks leading up to our leaving for a month in Spain brought a rain of abundance in terms of work projects – YAY and HEY. With the surfeit of financial blessings also came friends and outings, all conspiring to make my goal of losing weight before the beach a fantasy gone awry. And at the 11th hour, the obstacle came out of nowhere – the four-ton air conditioning unit – on…
Vestida con mantos negros Piensa que el mundo es chiquito Y el corazón es inmenso… Draped in black She thinks that the world is small and the heart is immense… Frederico Garcia Lorca
A friend reminded me the other day that we always have the ability to begin again, and so this morning was my renewed expression of flipping the script. As Tin drew trains in beautiful detail and color on his drawing paper, I kept Stella in her kennel after the third paper towel was stolen and chewed to smithereens [sometimes it IS us and them], and began to organize my work day to encourage fruition instead…
I have taken to smiling thinly and telling people it’s like Groundhog’s Day around here because this is what my schedule has looked like every day even on weekends: 1) wake at 5:30 take Stella and Heidi out 2) feed dogs 3) make tea – watch it grow cold as Tin wakes and engages in counter maneuvers to thwart my parenting 4) argue with Tin about breakfast 5) argue with Tin about getting dressed for…