A lot of stuff

I´m not even going to apologize for not writing. So much has happened since my last blog. The biggest and saddest is that my first boyfriend/love/best friend that was a boy passed away this month. Of course, anyone who reads this blog knows him as Dave. He was only 28 years old and it is a tragedy. I can´t believe he´s gone, but at the same time, it´s hard to know he is because I haven´t been home yet. My feelings about him and how special he was are too personal to write in a blog, but I will always love him and miss him. Really, I don´t think he´d want me to write anything about him on the net, as he hated it when someone could type his name in google and get a hit, but I had to put something because it would be disrespectful to the time we spent together not to recognize it and let you all know.

Moving on, as he´d have liked... mom and dad and Whit just left from a week long visit with me. We were in Barcelona for a few days and then in Pamplona. I lost my camera just before they came, so Whit has all the pictures on her camera and I forgot to upload them. Mom took a bunch of video too. One of my favorite clips includes dad giving us a spanish lesson. It came up because before they left for Spain from Norway, dad mentioned to Whitney that he knew some spanish and remembered taking it in high school. Whit sort of laughed and said, "oh yeah? Like what?" dad says to her, "cómo está?!" And, it goes on from there.

Whitney and I also discovered that our beds were those adjustable kind with a remote when we went to sleep the first night. We had races with them and pretended to be invalids, which is also on video. We saw so many things! Here are some links for more info and pictures: Park Guell, Sagrada Familia, Mercado Boqueria, The Picasso Museum, all the Olympic stuff... I dunno, links lists are sort of lame. It was a fabulous time though.

When we got home to Pamplona, My French family met my American family and it was all wonderful. Whit and I went to practice together Monday night and left mom and dad to Catherine and her French champagne. My coaches and teammates enjoyed watching me get pissed when she´d kick my ass. Yosu wants Whit to come play here next year so he had a huge talk with us about character and good people and how the club is such a family. He must have pinched my face and grabbed the back of my neck like 5000 times! Don´t touch yoyo!

I took the folks and Whit to San Sebastian on Tuesday and we walked all over in the rain and had pinchos. It was a nice day other than the weather. Tuesday night we went out and had a beer with Kim and Iñaki and played some pool, that was fun. Wednesday was sort a late start and we mostly just shopped around the mall and had lunch. Wednesday night I had a game and everyone got to come! It was so fun and we won big time. Yosu tried to work his magic again by buying mom and Whit a tortilla at halftime and giving Whit a few armpit hugs... didn´t work. On Thursday I went to class and walked the fam all over downtown Pamplona. Mom did some mother of the groom dress shopping and we had lunch at Bar Iruña, which is a cool old one where Hemmingway used to hang. He actually mentions it in The Sun Also Rises. Thursday night we had beers at the Australian bar with alligator stools. Friday morning, it was time to get ready to go. I dropped mom and dad at the bus station at 1. I still don´t know if their travel was seamless. I dropped Whit at the train at 6:30 ish and that was that.

I was a little stressed while they were here and it made me a little grouchy. I hope they had fun even when I wasn´t being so fun. Now that they´re gone, I can´t believe it, too quick. But, it´s good to have some catch up time now.

Next week I´m heading to Cadiz, maybe a day in Sevilla and then on to Valencia, during Semana Santa. I´m hoping for lots of sun and a nice tan by the time I get back.

I hope all is well back home. Give mom and dad a call for a private viewing of our trip on mom´s new camera. Who knows, you may all be getting a DVD of it in the mail, knowing mom and her excitement for new electronic gadgets! Love, love, love you all!

Free at last! Free at last!...

... Thank God almighty, I´m free at last! I, also, have a dream... anyhow, the kids are gone! I thought these last two weeks would mean more blogging because I couldn´t go out and hang at night, but no. I searched for tickets home in July and did a little research on a trip to Sevilla and Valencia, but that´s it. I had dishes to clean, snacks to make, and kids to take to school in the morning. Catherine called yesterday and said that Max (their older brother) would be taking the kids to France Saturday night for some time togetehr Sunday. I´m so glad I get a surprise day off!

Since this somewhat of a holiday for me, I decided to create the perfect Sunday morning. It all began with a great wake up on my own and feel snuggly morning. I didn´t have to get up, but I could if I wanted to. I was eventually coached out of bed by the sun and went to work in the kitchen. It must be past 10 a.m. for this too work, or it´s too early. Here is the picture of my boons first and an explanation will follow...

First, I attempted to make grandpa Jim´s potatoes, but they´re just not the same without him. I used red onions and yellow potatoes, because that´s all I had. Honestly, anything to do with potatoes, salt and oil, is usually pretty yummy in my book. I also tried to fry an egg, which I´m usually pretty good at, but I didn´t have a clean spatula and was forced to use a cake froster to try and flip. The yoke broke and I wanted it runny, so I just slapped it on my plate really fast. The color is nice though, huh? Grandpa always tells me he married grandma Mary because she can fry an egg better than anyone. I guess I´m out of luck. Next, I made up a new juice. I mixed the rest of the Sanguina with Ruby Breakfast and it was delish. I added a banana and a few handfuls of spinach for luck, and that was my meal.

As the added Oregon State created maraschino cherry on top, I watched a Las Chicas Gilmore, otherwise known as The Gilmore Girls. The sun was shining in the window and it was totally silent in the house except for the girls, me breathing and the soft clink of my fork against my plate. Lovely. Here´s how much I enjoyed it...

Not to put a damper on this highly upbeat blog, but my team lost again last night. Except, this time, we expected to lose. No details necessary, just to tell you we lost.

Right now, I´m in a wonderfully hazy state of knowing I don´t have to pick anyone up or cook any dinner or hear anyone say, "why?" or "can´t you do it?" I´ve got a lasagna luncheon at 2 to say goodbye to our friend Anna who´s heading home to Minnesota for the summer and school. Until then, I´ll be continuing my lovely Sunday with another GG, perhaps a bath, or maybe just some sitting silently time. Love you!