Indulgent Sunday

What a beautiful indulgent Sunday! It is cooler and crisper than it has been in weeks, the oppressive humidity dissipated to who knows where. The light morning lends a sharpness to my recently coiffed impatients and geraniums, the breeze brings wafts of jasmine with it. It is 10oC cooler outside than in, a flip flop over the past few days, and I must be out and enjoy it. How fortunate that I have started a new/old book, Garlic and Sapphires, lent to me this past week by a friend who knows me well.
Recently I have been lent books by friends who have said, ‘I thought you’d enjoy this’ and I realized how well they knew me. Those are the books I have most enjoyed reading this summer. In addition to Sapphires and Garlic by there’s also been Infidel by Ayaan Hirsi Ali, and Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. All different one from the other, but all stories that have pulled me in and appealed to different facets of who I am. Thank goodness for friends that think of me when they read!
So I made a pot of coffee, grabbed my book, retrieved my glasses and took to my reading lounger on the porch, saying to myself ‘OK Amy, you get an hour, until it gets too hot, and then you must get back to finishing the report on your project they’ll be expecting next week.’ Well, after an hour and the first cup of coffee, I forced myself to break from the adventures of Ruth Reichl, the New York Times restaurant critic who entertains with her beguiling tales of disguises and delectables in the Manhattan restaurant scene. A pang of hunger finally hit me, after no supper last night and all these mouth watering food descriptions. I wondered how it had taken so long, actually. ‘OK Amy,’ I said to myself, ‘make yourself a Sunday breakfast, enjoy the next chapter and a bit more of the breeze as accompaniments and then hit the computer.’
Scrambled eggs, yesterday’s “rustic loaf” toasted with apricot jam, and fruit salad with a splash of amaretto to compliment the odd mix of everything fresh I had on hand: pineapple, peach, melon, apple, pear and grapes off our vine – an odd but refreshing combination, perfect for a peaceful Sunday morning. While finishing the last of the 2nd cup of coffee, I started another chapter.
This woman and her antics, and mostly her beautiful writing, just sucked me in. I didn’t want to put her down. I wanted to be her, to be able to eat 4, 5 or 6 times at the best restaurants not worrying about the cost. I wanted to know food and have the culinary experience and ability to decipher even the most obscure ingredients: squid ink, chocolate in a burgundy sauce, something sweet turning out to be pineapple juice in a Japanese soup. I wanted to be able to disguise myself into someone unrecognizable and then take on a whole new persona to discover parts if me I didn’t even know (or was afraid to know) existed. I haven’t fantasized about being a character in a novel for decades. I am charmed.
Third cup of coffee (only a half – I never have more than two) and I pass the halfway mark of the book. The humidity is still low, the breeze coming around the corner from the patio to my spot on the porch is still fresh and cool, the bees humming in the jasmine are a comforting background noise, so much better than the racket of the lotus’, whose buzzing has been like an non-stop chain saw this past week.
So now I’m on apple juice and sharing my Sunday bliss for a later posting on my blog, and I argue to myself ‘Well Amy, if the report has waited all July to get finished, another Sunday won;t make that much of a difference.’
An evening glass of wine and now I’ve finished the book. What a beautiful indulgent Sunday.

Black or White

I looked at the photos from the Memorial to Michael Jackson held at the Apollo theater in Harlem this week and I couldn't help but observe the 99% black crowd. I found it interesting that they would "worship" a black man who tried to become white. Of course the posters and t-shirts being bought and shown off were images of his Jackson 5 days, Bad and Off the Wall, when he still looked black. I also observed that many who surrounded him, like his doctor and nutritionist, were black. So I ask, if he appealed to his race and supoprted those of his race professionaly, why did he try and look white?

When was the last time you went out to play?

It was hot on Sunday, I spent a good part of the day doing laundry and cleaning the house. So at about 6pm I put on the bikini and dove into the pool without even testing the water.

I proceeded to "play" in the pool like I did as a kid. I am grateful that at my middle age I can still do front and back summersaults in the water, often two in one breath. I can still reach a balance and hold a handstand for more than 10 seconds,

I can still do several backhandsprings (in the water) in a row, getting dizzy and feeling my body weight differently, just like I used to do when I was 12 or 13. (OK so I was a gymnast in my teens) What fun I had playing in the pool! Diving in, swimming lengths in one breath, kicking as hard as I could to make big waves. My 16 year old daughter and her boyfriend could only smile at me in surprised wonder and then take some pictures. I felt myself smiling the whole time too. And what good exercise it was! When was the last time you went out to play?
Last one in is a rotten egg!

Back to the Barter

With changes abounding in our economics, personal, national and global, we should consider how we can bring back the old fashioned barter system into our lives. Yesterday I gave a friend Reiki and she gave me a massage. Neither can afford to pay for those services, that seem like luxuries, but that are actually essential for our over all well-being and for keeping stress at bay. It was a win-win arrangement. We have set another date in two weeks.

Beat the crisis - go back to the barter system.. what can you offer? what can you receive?

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

I am grateful for a couple of hours of laughter and songs with my 16 yr old and one of her best friends. She took the microphone and small sound system I have outside to practice her songs for the talent show next month. She's a good singer and performer and has participated in the local edition of the X-Factor and past talent shows, and of course as a mother, I LOVE watching and listening to her. So I dropped all my "must dos" to take advantage of the opportunity! She sang some past numbers and "hammed up" Somewhere over the Rainbow (one of her dad's favorites). In her exageration of the emotion of it, she really made it 'hers' and powerful. Then she got her friend into duets and sillyness and we laughed heartily. Wonderful way to spend my afternoon.

Happy Mother's Day to All you Mothers!
Am grateful that I got my relaxed day of paella and beer with husband and girls at the beachside restaurant down the hill from our house, walk on the beach, siesta and a couple hours of reading to finish As I Lay Dying (william Faulkner) for Tuesday's book club I lead.

Now to read "Bodas de Sangre" Blood Wedding by Garcia Lorca to help my daughter with it for her class assignmnet.

One of my New Year's "resolutions" (why do I hate that word? or whole concept for that matter, yet still fall prey to it? Maybe for another blog entry I'll go there) was to keep a "gratitude journal". I didn't find a journal, calendar, or other writing vehicle that I liked for it (read procrastination or hesitation?) so when I finally broke down and opened a Facebook page - for socialogical research I told myself - I decided my regular commentary would be on something I was grateful for. As much for my own good as a possible inspiration to others to remember all the positive things instead of the negative things in their lives.

So here are a few of my recent ones - and since it has been become difficult for me to write longer entries on this blog space, I will include them here as well in the future.

I'm grateful for happy childhood and teen memories, triggered by songs on the "classic hits" stations. The more I know, the more I realize how fortunate I was to have been loved the way I was by my parents.

I'm grateful for the family gathering to celebrate Spanish Mother's Day. Today I cooked and entertained - maybe I'll get paella at the beach next week on US Mother's Day!

I'm grateful for the unconditional love of our 4 legged friends: Jessie the blonde lab, Nico the tabby cat, Lily the black and white cat. Comforting on a low day...joyful always!

I'm grateful for the fact that our teenage girls ask me to fix vegetables and "healthy food" especially after circumstances have had them missing the daily home cooked meal. All that work of insisting they eat some "green" every day pays off!