The Lunatic

Is she not the cutest dog you've ever seen? This is Luna..whom Mom calls "lunatic" because she's so hyper. Sometimes she has to shake her head just to get her brain organized... (not that there's much up there. we've deduced that she has only one neuron which feeds back on itself, allowing her to perseverate on birds as she does..)

Aphrodite's Child-Rain And Tears

This song haunts me still... after seeing a great flick several months ago up in Anchorage, entitled 'Three Times'. After seeing the movie I kept wanting to hear the song and hunted down it's location on YouTube, GO FIGURE. Three Times is SUCH a good movie. And this video?? Yeah, it's just kinda silly...but the song is addictive. Enjoy!

Time and The Self

This itty bitty picture doesn't do this oil painting justice...but this Picasso work called "La Salchichona" (Barcelona 1917) spoke to me above and beyond any other artwork/architecture I saw in 'Barce' over the past week. It surpassed even the Sagrada Familia's Passion Facade, Casa Batllo, Casa Mila, AND Parque Guell...and that's saying something!

So what is it about this painting?! It was painted toward the end of Picasso's cubist period, supposedly when he began experimenting with different painting styles and bright colors after a period of Analytic Cubism which he had removed some of the brighter tones. I admit I am no art scholar, so in general, I tend to view art for the visceral reactions it brings to me, and for the insights into the human state. To me...La Salchichona is a snapshot in time of what we must all look like...to eachother, to God, and even to ourselves (if we're able to give ourselves a bit of compassionate self-reflection). Here is a woman unfinished. Some areas have been elaborately colored and shaded (parts of her dress and mantilla), while some are mere sketches. Future splendor is suggested, but hasn't been fully illuminated.

And what's more...there seems to be no predictable pattern for the progress of the painting. Picasso didn't, for example, start from her head and work his way down...nor did he start from her eyes and move outwards. Instead we see patches of color and completion rather than a united and coherent finished work.

I find this painting, then, articulately portraying the human condition. We all have super-shiny finished parts, and we all have lack-luster, sketched aspects; and they're all collected together like a bizzare patch-work quilt with pieces which don't fully interlock. Further, I find no logical explanation to which parts are completed first or last. I suppose that's all part of the grand mystery.

This entry is getting long, but I must add this. During my 20 hours of flight-time yesterday I read "The Time Travler's Wife" and found themes which intersect with Picasso's above work. Basic premise: Henry is a "chronologically impaired" time-traveler and his star-crossed lover is Clare. The story follows them through their life together, with the added element of seeing one another at different ages through Henry's time traveling. For example, Henry makes visits to Clare as a little girl, knowing they'll marry someday. Clare later meets the Henry of her own age, but knows him as a more-finished product and has to tolerate his immaturity as he slowly becomes the man she knows he will become. The story plays on the evolution of "who-we-are"with the passage of time; and Henry and Clare are lucky enough to see the whole picture of who their partner was, is, and will be. Maybe that's why they fall in love so fully and deeply?

Or maybe it's just a story.

At any rate, both the concepts of living as a Woman Under Construction (La Salchichona), as well as a person who is mutable by the passing of time (Time Traveler's Wife) are comforting to me as I attempt to transform into the person I want to become.

And hopefully that wasn't too abstract. (sorry about all that, yikes!) Happy New Year, and Happy Transformations...

Quite possibly the WORST travel luck...

Yep. so I´m still in Barcelona. It´s been sooo wonderful...actually SO wonderful, that they´ve decided to keep me for one extra day. Yep, that´s right: Delta Airlines, in all their bankrupt glory, is putting me up for a SECOND hotel, this time here in Barcelona. Major bummer for me and my parents, as our time together will be cut short once again, but all the same it´s another day here in BCA with Ellie and her friend Heidi. We had a lovely Christmas dinner and are heading back to the posh hotel Delta has paid for.... Feliz Navidad...and SORRY MOM AND DAD!! :(

Barcelona or Bust

In keeping with my typical travel stories...I had yet another near travel disaster yesterday. Actually, it WAS a disaster, for a while. :) Got to the airport for my BCA flight yesterday at 5:30am. Proceeded to stand in line for 3.5h just to check in for my flight. Then stood in line at security forEVER, but made it to my plane. However, the plane had been delayed because MOST of my fellow passengers were actually in line behind me at the ticket agent. The plane finally left 3h late, putting me into JFK International Airport 20 min past my connection to Barcelona. That means spending the night at the Ramada Inn and missing an entire days worth of activities in Spain. This was most upsetting for a while.
HOWEVER. I made the most of it by having probably one of the best solo adventures I've had this year. I decided I couldn't just sit all cooped up in this silly hotel all night, so I made some phone calls for great salsa places in the city. Next I took three different transportation modes (hotel shuttle, AirTrain, LIFF) in order to get downtown into Manhattan from Queens...got a great view of the city on the way in...went to a wonderful salsa club called Copacabana...met up with an old friend from CVV...was out until 4am...etc. It was a GREAT night all in all...and I'm thankful that if I had to be delayed in a city...NYC is a perfect stopover!
Now just keep your fingers crossed that my flight tonight goes off without a hitch.
Barcelona or Bust!!

The Low following the High

So my manic feeling is pretty much dissipated right now, and here's why:

1. My definitive feelings about Ob/Gyn have been shaken severely by the allure of Addiction Medicine.

2. I lost my BRAND NEW cell phone. I couldn't even sleep last night because I couldn't find it. F*$#. And I can't believe how disabled I feel without it.

3. Oppressive forces of school starting to push on me...with surgery looming ahead and a presentation to put together, I'm feeling like quitting and going to nursing school instead.

4. I found a new artist I love, Regina Spektor, but her songs make me want to cry.

And yet...

"I like living. I have sometimes been wildly, despairingly, acutely miserable, racked with sorrow, but through it all I still know that just to be alive is a grand thing."--Agatha Christie