It is unreal how accurate this song feels right now, accordion and Spanish and all.
This whole week I’ve been walking around with a smile on my face—partly due to the cardigan-and-sunglasses weather we’ve been having here and partly because of Valentine’s Day, which happens to be my favorite holiday after Christmas (boy, you just learn something new every time you read this blog, don’t you?). I know that Valentine’s Day is just another excuse for corporations to cash in on over-eager, spend-happy America, blah blah blah, cynical cynical cynical, but I just love the idea of a day in the year where it’s not quite as creepy to let the lovely people who surround me know that I think they’re great. Plus, I always get so nostalgic for Valentine’s Days of old, when in Omaha the weather was getting warmer (disclaimer: I think I remember spring in Omaha as warmer than it actually is) and my dad would surprise us with little boxes of chocolates after school, and in still-freezing Boston where Lucy and Emily and I would go to Sugar and Spice to celebrate love AND my half-birthday. What a fantastic bunch of people I’ve gone and mentioned…
So I spent an hour Thursday afternoon sitting on my balcony in the sun, armed with scissors and colored pencils, listening to a cheesy love song mix, excited to make eccentric little Valentines for a couple new and old friends. My housemates and I spent the week planning an amazing weekend that included trips to Sagrada Familia and Montjuïc during the day Saturday and big, Barcelona-worthy nights. It all started so well—Friday we had an amazing time at this club called Elephant, where the clientele consisted of mainly friendly Spaniards of the non-creepy sort, and afterward Suki, Will and I even found a place to get pizza at 6:30 am when the club closed. Unfortunately, this meant that we didn’t stumble out of bed until around 3 o’clock Saturday afternoon, not quite in a cathedral state of mind. We spent a while that afternoon feeling kind of crappy that we’d messed up our sightseeing day, but in the end decided that we should come up with a new game plan and leave the other plans for another day. I know it’s strange to say so, but breaking plans I’ve made with myself makes me feel kind of liberated and wonderful, so I was good with all of this.
Saturday evening, I had a coffee date with my friend Jess. We went to a restaurant at the top of Corte Ingles that had a fantastic view of the city and the mountains. I’ve been keeping a mental list of places to take people when they visit, and I think this one definitely makes the list. That night we all went to Gracia, a trendy, gentrified neighborhood just north of the city, to have dinner and drinks. We ended up at a Lebanese restaurant that was really cheap and delicious. I’m drooling just thinking about it. Anyway, enough describing food and colored pencils for now, I’ve got to go see more of this delightful city.
Que lástima, pero adiós.
T
PS- I don’t think there’s anything wrong with being over-eager or spend-happy, anyway.
blast from vday past
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