Monday .. Look at This Blog !

Kees Terberg

Kees is a Dutch photographer, living in France. ( how do I envy her? let me count the ways)

But lucky for us, she has this fantastic blog full of her beautiful and inspiring work.

Go look, tell her hello, enjoy !

I would if I could ..

I would post photos of Pup that were taken this past week.

I would post photos of the way things looked today, right before the storm, when the sky looked like something from a Steven Spielberg movie.

I would listen to music right now while I type but ... when they put in the new hard drive, they did not put in my music, or my iPhoto.

I saved the photos taken, but I cannot download any new ones.

So I can go back to this place with the computer or get a new disc for Leopard or Lion or Giraffe and hopefully it will all be normal again plus better.

We had a really hot heavy day , culminating in a serious storm. It was sooo cool !

The clouds were black , not dark grey but black. And huge. They looked solid.

They were moving our way, we went to the market and practically ran home, wind whipping trees and us around.

As we came upstairs, the rain hit. It looked solid. Gutters filled immediately and ran over onto the sidewalks and filling intersections with small lakes.

People huddled in doorways or braved walking through it. I worried that my flowers on the balconies would be torn up, the wind was so fierce.

Then it was gone. Just like that.

Pup was walked after, while it was still raining.

He came back wet and droopy, then he dried and looked kind of pitiful, with short curly hair .. a big nosed , long eared, brown sheep... that wagged it's tail everytime I would fall over laughing at the sight of him.

So he is brushed now and looks his handsome self .

I would show you a new photo but , well, you know... Apple .. feh !

So here is a pre-haircut photo ..

Living in Babel

I lived in San Diego, California as a child. My grandmother used to say that I spoke Spanish before I spoke English. We had a lady that worked for us, from Mexico, she only spoke to me in Spanish, they took me to Mexico with them for visits to the family. Imagine this.. a truck with 2 Mexican adults, a back seat with little brown haired brown eyed children and one white haired blue eyed child. And no one said, wait a minute, where did you get that one ?!

I would run around and try to catch a chicken with the other children.

These are my memories. But I spoke Spanish.

When I was in high school, living in North Carolina, I took Spanish. Mistakenly thinking that having spoken it once, I would be good at it again.

I was wrong.

The teacher would humiliate me in class by holding my lips together like a fish and make me say Ohhhhh Ohhhhhh .. and being Southern, I would say Awwwwww Awwwwwwww. I decided then , never to speak Spanish again. Only French.

It was years later that I went to Paris and wished I spoke French well. Or at all. So that was my goal, someday I will speak fluent French and live in Paris.

And as Fate loves to play jokes on us all, here I am, living in South America and speaking Spanish. ( I say I speak Spanish, the locals are polite, kind, they hide their laughter when I babble away at them)..

There are days that I think I know what everyone is saying and then there are days that everyone sounds to me, the way everyone must sound to Pup. It is just so much noise. None of it makes sense. And the stress is that you have to look like you understand or at least not look panic stricken and clueless ( which I am, many times a day)..

I knew a girl back in NY, she arrived from Germany not speaking any English. She watched soap operas on television all day. She learned English. I don't know if she sounded like a soap opera actress every time she opened her mouth ... but it was English.

Here, I see them on television, I hear them but I cannot possibly mimic them or learn to copy them.

1- They speak at the speed of light. I totally do not understand how anyone speaks that fast or understands anyone else speaking that fast.

2- Does this mean I am slow witted ? Do I get a pass if I am ? hmmmm.

3- I don't have the lips for Spanish.

Spanish speaking people have soft full lips, those pillowy sorts of lips that easily round out words like Muchas or Precioso .. every word looks like someone is going to give you a Kiss.

( we won't get into the kissing thing, they kiss everyone here. Twice. )

This- I like.

So mostly I learn the words that are sufficient for getting around and for shopping and Just In Case.. Policia, Robo, Ayudame ! Please God I never have to use that Spanish !

I am fluent in Menu though. This is a good thing. And waiters are multi-lingual, at least in menu. They know what I am talking about every time. Of course, my skills at Pantomime are legendary, that might help.

We took the computer in to be fixed. My dear sweet pain in the arse computer decided to quit. I know I use it a lot but not as much as some people.

I think it was just being spoiled and threw a tantrum. It worked fast enough for that cute technician at Apple !

So now I have my computer. Some things are still not "normal" .. some things are gone. But they saved my photos, I can find more bookmarks , I can blog. I can email my children. So all is not lost.

But the computer came back speaking Spanish.

We did everything that we know how to do to stop it and it stubbornly insisted on answering me in Spanish. Was this some kind of trick ? That woman can't speak Spanish, this'll get her going !

And when the technicians tell you , in English, how to fix things, you (I) still can't understand them .. is that English ?

Last night, as I typed my emails to friends and family ,telling them we were back in touch again,

every word was underlined in red.

Because the Computer spoke Spanish, I was using a foriegn language ... aarrrrrggggghhhhhhh.

My husband, after listening to much whining and grumbling, told me to turn it Off.

Completely Off.

I did so, worried it would not go back on again or would be speaking Mandarin when it came back .. but no, I married a Genius.

My computer is now speaking English.. all is right with the World.

Catching up ..

I have my computer back.

It has a new hard drive. I lost a lot but they saved my photos.

Everything I type has a red line under it, I cannot seem to find the spell check thingee that needs to understand that this is English . The entire computer was set in Spanish, I am still fumbling around with that ..

I am trying to remember what was on my Favorites list, there were so many things, they are all gone now.

Thanks to Google/Gmail, I am easily able to get into my mail and my blog .. so all the news is not bad.

My legs do not hurt and I am feeling fine.

It is so hot, I am content to be inside with the A/C until dark when we will wander the neighborhood, coming home with sticky ice cream fingers and a sleepy Pup.

We went to a movie today, Somewhere, by Sofia Coppolla.
She is lucky she does not live close to me, I would find her and yell at her for wasting 2 hours of my life. And then I would yell at that actor , Stephen Dorf, for being a part of it. My God what a boring movie !

Not even the Chateau Marmont made it better, not even his Ferrari or Las Vegas. The actress who played his little girl,( Dakota Fannings sister, Elle)

.

almost made it better .. But only almost

Don't see it. You will thank me for this advice.. or if you see it, you will wish you had listened to me.

Now about Buenos Aires in January, the good part is that so many people left town. There are a gazillion visitors here from all over the World and that is a lovely thing. I can stand on the corner waiting for a light to change and hear all sorts of languages. I see families from China and I hear French and German and a lot of English. I heard Dutch today .. I always want to grab them and say Be Careful, Have Fun, Eat Helado, Be Careful ! but I just send it to them on the airwaves ..

I guess any tourist that has their pocket picked or purse stolen, can feel like they are in good company ( like that makes anyone feel better !) An assistant or something, of the President of Argentina, was carrying $90,000 in a backpack and she was robbed.

So if you are coming here or are here, be careful.

Limping but not Stopping

Yesterday I got to see the "inner workings " of the Hospital Aleman in Buenos Aires.
I have had these two little "spots" ... one on each leg .. I get my spots in matching pairs, apparently. And while they have been there long enough to blend in with the landscape, lately they have been worrying me. That old "what if" thing started to pop into my head too many times.

Living in a country where the sun seems to be much closer, where 363 days of the year seem to be bright and sunny and without clouds, everyone should know to wear Sun Block. Some of us know and forget anyway, some of us don't use enough and some of us are just lazy and skip it and suffer later.

I need to remember the old Southern ladies with their hats, they had good skin, I bet they didn't see the dermatologist often !
So summoning courage ... lots of it .. we went to the hospital to see a dermatologist.
She spoke perfect English and reminded me very much of my doctor back in the US.
She did not once.. say anything about sunblock and the fact that there were tan lines on my shoulders etc and that is a No-No.
She quickly and efficiently with pretty much no pain at all, performed 2 biopsies.
So now we wait and see and I am almost sure that the next visit will be to see the Surgeon.
I have two ungainly and large bandages on each leg, today they come off and bandaides will replace them and I will feel less obvious in my being "wounded" as I walk around.

You know, when you live in the US or elsewhere and you have a car... you drive to the hospital and home.
You drive to the pharmacy and home.
You stay inside or drive when you have bandages and might look less than perfect.
Here, you walk out on the street and flag down a taxi. You walk to the pharmacy.. you look like the walking wounded.
And sadly, so far, it has not garnered me any sympathy at all.
Today we might just go for a drink at the Hotel Alvear .. after I get those bandages off !