Ways to Charm Me II

Spring is coming!



And the soft serve on every corner is back! Be still my heart.

Ways to Charm Me~Birthday Edition

THANK YOU MY LOVELIES!!

2-8

I can't wait to see what happens next.

Thinking

About birthdays. I remember a year long ago (am I now old enough to say long, long ago?) when the daffodils outside my bedroom window waited until the morning of my birthday to open. I remember thinking that it was a sign, nature's way of noting my birthday. Because I have always thought that everyone should celebrate my special day, Flora and Fauna included. And I have always loved having a spring birthday, something about being born in the month known for coming in like a lion and out like a lamb seems right to me. I guess I can relate (and so can those who witness me in the mornings).

Last year on my birthday I flew back from NYC to San Diego. I had just finished a whirlwind trip full of interviews and spent most of my actual birthday wandering around the city, reveling in being anonymous and wondering if I could in fact make this wild city my home. The decision of whether or not to make the jump East was suddenly very real and it was a melancholy plane ride home. In the airport I was greeted by two dear friends and a giant Happy Birthday poster. I was then blindfolded and taken to a rooftop bar (with an interesting elevator ride in between) where all of my dearest friends were waiting. Did I mention that my plane was about an hour late? The fact that my friends had waited for me to arrive (and hadn't touched the cake) on a "school" night well, it still brings me to tears. It was perhaps one of my best birthdays--ever. A night I have gone back to time and time again in the past year, a magical evening that enveloped me in love and made me feel secure in the decisions I was making.

So, here I am on the eve of my first official NYC birthday. As I walked home tonight I was thrilled to see purple and white and yellow crocus popping up in my neighborhood. Mother nature found me, 3000 miles away, and my lovelies well, you haven't really left my side.

Ways to Charm Me

Eating Underground. Seriously, you can feed me a bologna sandwich in your basement and I am yours forever. One of my favorite things about NYC is the way that every bit of space is utilized and there are stores and restaurants (not to even get into the size of some bathrooms) in the smallest spaces imaginable. There are also countless places that you can walk by for weeks and never realize are there—until someone points them out, or something catches your eye. Last night I had the privilege of being taken to the Spanish Benevolent Society-a totally unassuming building on 14th street that, once you walk down a narrow flight of stairs and step inside the doors, transports you back into time. First there are the mismatched tables with people playing cards and dominos and then there is the bar, whose patrons look like they have been sitting there through the winter, possibly the last decade of winters. You can almost imagine the cigarette smoke that used to lay heavy throughout the room. Wonderful (if somewhat unschooled) paintings, some done by “society” members grace the walls, as well as posters of Garcia Lorca and old maps of Iberia----a total hodgepodge but it works. I was in the company of Lolo, a jovial restaurateur with several wonderful tapas and paella places around the city, and the unofficial mayor of the Spanish benevolent society. He was greeted warmly, called out to the chefs and we were escorted into the private dining room and to a table that, to my great pleasure, afforded us a view of people walking by (or at least their shoes). Why I find such a bunker like place so cozy and charming I don’t know, but I think it has to do with being tucked away, especially in this bustling city. You have to enjoy your peace and quiet when you can get it. An easy enough task when you are brought several wonderful tapas dishes and some icy cold beers. And then, to cap it all off was a paella like no other I have ever experienced. Instead of rice this was made with pasta (broken into bite sized pieces) and mixed with all sorts of wonderful seafood. It was a delicious paella, especially the bottom. You have to love a dish that finishes as strongly and beautifully as paella, a dish that you have to almost finish to get to the best part-the socorrat. Who knew that slightly burnt and caramelized pasta would taste so fabulous? Oh but it does, especially when enjoyed in such a hidden location.

Reading

...in life, each person can take one of two attitudes: to build or plant. The builders might take years over their tasks, but one day, they finish what they're doing. Then they find they're hemmed in by their own walls. Life loses its meaning when the building stops.
Then there are those who plant. They endure storms and all the many vicissitudes of the seasons, and they rarely rest. But, unlike a building, a garden never stops growing. And while it requires the gardener's constant attention, it also allows life for the gardener to be a great adventure.
Gardeners always recognize on another, because they know that in the history of each plant lies the growth of the whole World. ~Paulo Coelho

Thinking

Spring must be close, I have lost two scarves in the past week. Just left them behind as I went about my day. Am I shedding?