A Record Low!

Never in the history of this blog have I ever gone a full 36 days without a post.  Can I say much other than, "I'm sorry"?  And you're all wondering why I haven't been blogging when you know that my private classes are out for the summer and my exams ended in June...  Hasn't my life calmed down some?  Believe it or not, it hasn't.  The craziness has just manifested itself differently. ;)

A quick run-down:

My parents arrived June 12.
Friends from Belgium arrived on the 17.
My parents and Belguim guests left on the 20.
My university exams were that Saturday the 22.
On Monday the 24, Angelines and I packed up a small suitcase and our dog, rented a car and headed to Portugal to meet my parents who were finishing up with the Rotary International Convention in Lisbon!

Internet was scarce over the 10 days of our vacation and now that we're back Angelines and I are doing our best to take advantage of the extra help (and my dad's handy man abilities) to do such home improvement tasks as installing screen doors, and painting the railing in the patio.  My dad's vocabulary has grown to include such words as broca (drill bit), tornillo (screw), taladro (drill), brocha (paint brush)... you get the idea.

...So, happily, I have many wonderful and FUN excuses for not blogging.  How's that for a change?

I do promise some meaty posts about our adventures, but for now I'll leave you with this small apology and these pictures as a preview.

Our favorite beach in Portugal: Praia Amador  on the southwestern coast.

Bela's first time in the Atlantic Ocean...but not her last by far! ;)

No time for jet-lag...Much less blogging!!

I know I owe you some serious back-blogs...all in good time, I promise.  For now I'll just say that I had a wonderful blitz visit with my family.  I wasn't home for long enough to do a lot of what we would have liked, but we were still able to cram quite a bit into my 10 days: Rotary conference (obviously!), a horseback lesson on my boy, a hike in Lakes Basin, picnic at Lake Davis; and dinner with family friends, H.S. math teacher and much of my mom's extended family!!  ...Not bad, eh? ;)

I hit the ground running in Reno, NV...and upon my return did exactly the same!  My flight home went through Madrid and it just so happens that my very best friend, Miriam had been able to prolong a work visit to the Spanish capital and so I intentionally missed my connection to Malaga and stayed with her for two days before heading home on the train. :)

I arrived in Madrid at 7:40 am after a restless "night" with an annoying, complaining, girl who wouldn't stop pushing my seat.  She said I wasn't giving her enough room (!)--the seats only incline about 10 degrees (if that!); I'm pretty sure I'm entitled to put my seat as far back as it will go.  Sorry.

Anyway, after making my way to Miriam's hotel via subway I was determined not to sleep.  We had breakfast and then took a stroll through the Retiro Park behind the Prado museum.  We had a leisuerly lunch in the cutest little vegetarian cafe (YES,vegetarian in Spain!...ah, the benefits of the big city...).  The food was absolutely delicious.  My favorite was beet hummus--beautiful color--with pita bread. :)

Since I was determined not to sleep we had coffee and then decided to explore the Caixa Forum--a museum Miriam had read about in her guide book.  It's part of the social out-reach programs that my bank does.  If you have an account with them, you get in free. :)  So I saved four euros on this experimental visit.  M and I thought we probably wouldn't spend much time in the museum (don't know where we got THAT idea!)... but it turned out to be a fascinating show!  Really this deserves it's own post; sorry, no more details.  Sufice it to say we spent the remainder of the afternoon in the museum.

In the evening we hooked up with my friend Adam and his partner, Maria for tapas.  It was great to see them and enjoy some more good food.  So this means that I didn't actually end up getting back to the hotel and in bed until around 12ish; but of course being in bed doesn't mean I was asleep, especially when I'm sharing the room with Miriam.  We were wide awake and talking until around 3, I think.  Actually she was helping me with an assignment I had to finish for my art class by the next day!  What better candidate for the job than my very own Art Historian.  It felt a little as though we were back in high school working on a group project together. ;)  

Monday was another great day, though it got off to a very late start.  We didn't wake up until around 12 noon and spent most of the day simply enjoying each other's company.  In the late afternoon we made a visit to the Reina Sofia museum followed by tapas late into the night.  Then Tuesday at 5:30am I was out of bed and on my way to Atocha to catch the high-speed train home.  I had a cafe to hold my eyes open in the dining car and watched the sun rise over golden fields and olive groves.

Tuesday afternoon I had three hours of English classes with kids ages 3-8...  Are you beginning to see why I haven't blogged lately? ;)

My life since getting back to La Roda has been a blur.  I somehow made it through that first week (jet-lag is for sissies!!) and when the weekend rolled around, instead of sleeping I enlisted the help of family and friends to move EVERYTHING we own from one house to the next.  The entire time I'd been in the States, Angelines, her sister, brother and mother had been cleaning, scrubbing, scouring and painting the new house. It was pretty dirty...and by my in-laws' borderline OCD standards, downright appalling!  My sister-in-law actually took apart the pipes under the kitchen sink to clean them inside and out!! (Just so you know, the sink wasn't clogged...she's just that thorough)  

Anyway, Sunday we finally got the bed moved and so we're officially moved out/in. ;)  There are still some random odds and ends to be moved here from the other house, and lord knows I've got plenty of boxes to unpack still; but at least we have made significant progress.  All this week my mother and sister-in-law have been here cleaning (still!...) and in the afternoons, my brother-in-law has been helping A to paint walls and ceilings.  This has all been quite the undertaking, but I am oh so happy to be here!  What a beautiful house we've managed to buy (or begin buying is perhaps more accurate). ;)  I will be sure to post pictures once things are tidied up and in place.

...Well, I started off by promising  back-blogs to tell about home, etc.  but I think I've pretty well covered it!  See, this is what always happens: I sit down with the intention of just writing something quick, and get sucked into a four-screen-long blog post!  How does that happen?  This is why when things get crazy, as they have been, I don't even allow myself to begin writing.  

And now I'm off to bed.  It is late and there is much to be done tomorrow.

(I will save pictures for a future post)

Dad's Surprise

I have a little down-time at the moment, so I'll fill you in on details.

My dad has been the Rotary District Governor of District 5190 for the last year.  This weekend is his district conference.  My mom decided way back in January that this was too important an event for me to miss--the whole family needed to be together.  Anyone who doesn't know my mother, is unaware of just how dangerous she can be once she gets an idea in her head!  ...She began planning a surprise of epic proportions.

The first step was buying my plane ticket on a friend's credit card (dad carefully reviews the monthly bills...this way there would be no paper trail).  Once that was taken care of she needed to devise a way of tricking my sisters into picking me up at the airport without ruining the surprise!  She invented Rotary V.I.P. Vitorio Pearluchi (suspiciously similar to Viola Pearl!) who would be flying in from L.A. at 8pm Wednesday evening.  Maggie and Lucy would be asked to please do the favor of picking up and escorting this gentleman from Reno-Tahoe International Airport to the Nugget in Sparks where the conference is being held.  My mom was giddy with excitement through all these planning stages because she just knew Maggie and Lucy would NOT be keen to pick up some strange Rotarian and spend an awkward 10 min ride back to the hotel with him!

In the days leading up to the surprise she was getting more and more excited.  I was bombarded by enthusiastic emails detailing what I needed to bring and keeping me updated on the latest in her surprise efforts.  The theme of the conference is Star Trek ("Boldly Go Where No Rotarian Has Gone Before...!") and so in keeping with the theme, my mom ordered Star Trek outfits for all of us.  Of course when the box arrived with an extra dress, my technologically challenged mother had no problem feigning surprise and frustration as Maggie and my dad laid into her about being "dangerous" on a computer and "how could you not check the quantity box before clicking to purchase?!" :)  She loved every second of it.

Finally, on Wednesday and according to plan she played the part of the stressed and frazzled First Lady appealing to Maggie and Lucy for help picking up this V.I.P from the airport.  Thankfully the woman helping to orchestrate the surprise along with my mom filled the limousine driver in on the situation (yes, I was driven back to the Nugget in a limo!).  He was game for the surprise and so escorted Maggie and Lu into the airport to witness, all the while teasing them light-heartedly that they couldn't even pronounce this guy's name!  Maggie and Lucy, for their part, were willing enough it seemed although once out of ear-shot from my mother began immediately complaining to each other about having to run all her silly Rotary errands and how awkward this was going to be at the airport...and were they even wearing appropriate clothes to be picking up a Rotary dignitary??

From my end I had the good fortune of sitting next to a kind, business woman who said she'd be willing to film the surprise.  I sent her off toward baggage claim ahead of me and waited for about a minute before following.  You can see from the first video I posted that this was just barely enough time for her to get in position with the camera on before Lucy spotted me.  She came shrieking down through the slot machines toward me with Maggie hot on her heels.  Lucy grabbed me in a huge disbelieving hug and when Maggie joined the huddle she knocked us both to the ground!  Neither of them could believe it and all of us were coming close to tears.  With both my sisters clinging to me I made my way toward the limo driver and the camera lady, both wearing ear-to-ear smiles.  The first part of our surprise had been a complete success.

We cackled and laughed and recounted the story all the way back to the Nugget where it was time to surprise my dad.  My mom's partner in crime met us as we climbed out of our first ever limo ride and gave us a run-down of what would come next.  He was in the middle of dinner with visiting guests from Korea and last year's P.D.G. (Past District Governor).  They would all walk in front of me as human shields and then suddenly part to reveal me once we got to the dinner table.  As it turns out my dad was sitting with his back to us--perfect...

I'll let you watch the video and see the rest for yourselves:



My mom deserves a BIG pat on the back.  This has been the best surprise ever!  My dad just keeps saying, "She's real!"  And after the opening speeches this afternoon, I couldn't be happier or prouder to be here with him for the grand finale of his amazing adventure as District Governor.

I love you Mom and Dad. 

The Big Surprise

More details when I have more time.  For now I'll let the video speak for itself.  I asked a kind woman sitting next to me on my LAX--RNO leg to please take a video of my sisters' reaction to my surprise arrival.  I failed to mention that if you hold the camera vertically, the video comes out sideways...  Oops.  And I also forgot to explain how to zoom, but all the same I think you can get a good idea of the sisterly exuberance even though we're far away.  Pay attention, because when Maggie comes running up on me and Lu hugging, she knocks us on the ground!  Then they wouldn't let me walk them closer to the camera! :p

Enjoy!  (all surprise details in a future post)

Quick Pics

Right now I should be in bed... but I wanted to share some quick pics of the first floor of the new house. :)  I thought this would slowly become more real...but I guess I won't really believe it until I'm scrubbing floors and packing/unpacking box after box! :)

The street view.  You might not be able to read the name: Pablo Neruda.  One of my all time favorite poets. 

View of the patio upon leaving the kitchen.  This little landing will be my summer breakfast nook. 

Patio leaving the garage.  Bela LOVED her new digs. ;)

The patio looking back at the house.  The glass you see is the garage and the door to the right, the entrance to the kitchen.  The shutters on the far right are a door from the living room.

Kitchen... Some day I think we'll have to re-do the cupboards.  I'm not fond of the chocolate wood color.

 

Dining/Living room

Fireplace and door out to the patio.

My office. :)

Bela in the master bedroom. :)  The door on the left also goes out to the patio--I love all the natural light we can get!

Our bathroom!!  No more worries of falling down stairs when we have to go in the middle of the night!

View from the bedroom back toward the front door: Living/Dining room.  The fireplace is to my left...

Half-bath under the stairs.  This is everyone else's bathroom. ;)

Staircase... 

I know it's hard to get an idea of the layout with the pictures.  I promise a video at some point.  Tomorrow I'll upload the pictures from upstairs.  Yep, the house is THAT big! ;)  Now you know what you need to do...COME VISIT!  :)

Key in Hand

It's final.  We've got the keys. :)  Tonight I'll be doing a photo shoot so you can finally SEE the house we've bought.  All the papers are signed, everything's official.  We're homeOWNERS and still I can't believe it.  What a crazy ride it's been to get to this point! 

I can't wait to start moving!

This is Water...

I came across this viedo on a friend's facebook page and I think it's worth sharing here:  

Why is it that it is always so easy to fall into that self-centered trap of thinking the world is out to get us?  Why is it so hard to consider that other people might find themselves in similar situations to our own, or even worse situations?  By default, as the video points out, most of us tend to play the victim, rather than making conscious desicions to change our attitudes.

Books and movies are good when they have complexity; when you can't absolutely LOVE any one character or absolutely LOATH another.  The fall of a hero or the redemption of the antagonist is what makes for drama, a twist in the predictable narrative, and ultimately a more realistic story/character.  None of us is perfect...  even though, when we find ourselves in situations like the one described in this video, we might like to think we are.

When I read a good story or watch a good movie, I love analysing the characters' motives (is that the lit. major deep within?)--what drives them in their actions/interactions?  And it's deeply satisfying when I can sypathize with all the characters, at least on some level.  Why is it so hard to do the same in life?  Why am I so unwilling to be understanding with my real, flesh and blood fellow human beings, and yet get such pleasure from my fictional generosity, forgiveness and empathy?

The truth is, as the video above points out, that being fair and understanding is just plain hard.  It's all too easy to demonize.  If someone or something is Bad, we can ignore, marginalize, hate, kill... There is no thinking twice about it.  No question.  Contributing to making a better world means it's up to us to change the way we react in even the most banal of situations.  In the words of Gandhi: "Be the change you want to see in the world".