meu deus corram para as colinas o fim esta proximo

have you experienced sea sick before? when your head starts to swirl like forever, and you start breaking out in cold sweats?

i think these are the symptoms for facing-the-lappy-for-too-long virus. well, the lappy is the first thing u see in the morning, and unfortunately it is the last thing you see too before you sleep. well. more to come in the upcoming month of december. 4 weeks. omgd!

anyway, i’m designing this very very very last survey before i graduate and so i will need alot alot alot alot of cooperations from alot alot alot of my friends to complete this last survey of mine!!! mentally preparing my fellow blog readers first before i start to spam  youuu on fb etc. muahaha.

and last of all, best wishes to you guys who are having exams tml, tml and many tmls!! good luck too! remember to shower me with lucks after ur exams!!

blabbering non stop whatsoever.,

me.

I just realized..

Blog came from Web Blog, right? Which was shortened to weblog.. and then finally to BLOG~

If you play with it.. “weblog” would become: We Blog~ which is quite cool.. like saying, “We, the bloggers, blog!”

Okay, end of non-sense mode~ lol~

as above. these are some of the places i NEED and HAVE to go in the NEXT TWO WEEKS! i need to START collecting my 500survey results and do my observational studies there!

if interested, please contact me ASAP!! short getaway! haha!!

• Chek Jawa at PulauUbin
• 
  
• Bukit Timah Nature Reserve
• 
  
• Sungei Buloh Wetland Reserve
• 

credits to you, you, you and you for the photos.. yea, to whom i koped these photos from. i googled them though.

yea. so please drop me a msg for interested parties. admissionfees not included. haha…….

OMYGOSH. 6MORE WEEKS to the DEADline of EVERYTHING.

regards,

me.

is what I most wish didn’t exist in the world. But only if the causes of anger didn’t exist. Because otherwise a bunch of things would be bad, but no one would be upset enough to change any of it.

But if the causes of anger no longer existed, neither, probably, would the world. Unless we decreased the population substantially. But how to do that fairly?

Which reminds me: I am reading Going Postal by Mark Ames. The opening section is about the first workplace massacre in America. His angle is was the killer justified? I like where he’s going with it, but I need to read more before I say more about it.

(Motor Mouth is not a murderer, serial killer, or terrorist and is only insignificantly unbalanced at times.)

I haven’t forgotten that I promised to tell you more about my purchases at Bell, Book & Candle, the used bookstore that I visited while in McDonough, GA! It was a large shop with a wide variety of books. I headed straight for the “Classics” section, and after the briefest of scans I noticed these:

Could you have passed these up? They’re part of a series that was published “on the occasion of Penguin’s 60th anniversary“. Aside from the Washington Irving stories, I’ve never read any of these, although the authors are all ones that are on my list. I figure the tiny books will be excellent additions to my reading stack for the Readathon on December 5th.

While these were easily packable, I scooted my butt out of the store before I was tempted by anything else! Later my friend caught me playing with them (I was taking pictures for my blog!!) and she laughed, but her daughter was impressed and had fun playing with them too.

In other news, I’ve updated my Woolf in Winter post to include a tentative list of the people (gleaned from Frances and Claire and Emily’s posts as well as mine) who have expressed interest in joining us for Mrs. Dalloway specifically, or for all four books. The list is long, and there are quite a few new blogs for me to explore – and it’s not even everyone who wants to be involved! Very exciting.

Há um ano atrás, mais dia menos dia, dei início a este blog.

Por ele e com ele, conheci algumas pessoas. Algumas apenas virtualmente, nunca ouvi a sua voz, com outras troco coisas simpáticas pela net, vou estabelecendo algo que se encontra na barreira entre a amizade virtual e a amizade in loco,outras consigo conhecer pessoalmente! O blog que serve para eu manter a minha sanidade na luta contra as saudades do meu amor foi a alavanca para uma amizade, que espero manter por muito tempo. Uma amizade que surgiu por uma situação similar nas nossas vidas, que entretanto deixou de existir, infelizmente. Mas a amizade manteve-se e é muito importante para mim, pois ela percebe algo na minha vida que mais ninguém percebe tão bem…hehe.

Aprendi, e continuo a aprender muitas coisas com os blogs que acompanho. Coisas sobre o Islão, sobre países e culturas diferentes, sobre relacionamentos, sobre a natureza humana…principalmente, aprendo muito sobre mim.

Descobri que os momentos em que menos escrevo no blog é quando tenho mais trabalho, quando ando triste e desmotivada…e quando problemas sérios aparecem na minha vida. Descobri, que tal como em outra experiência de 3 anos em outro blog, nunca me contento com o aspecto do blog, acho sempre que pode mudar, e ainda não encontrei nenhuma solução (grátis) que se adequa ao meu ideal. Já andei a pesquisar em outros locais, como o multiply , mas não…not yet.

Descobri o que é a desilusão com os assuntos burocráticos. Apesar de ser o nosso objectivo, o A. não virá passar o Natal e Ano Novo connosco. Não conseguimos contrato de trabalho. Não conseguimos o visto turístico. Terei que lá ir para fazer o casamento civil e regressar sozinha para Portugal enquanto espero por ele…e isso faz-me sentir muito desanimada. Mais do que eu gosto de admitir. Não planeávamos uma distância tão grande entre todos estes nossos passos. Não estou animada com o casamento lá.

Seria de esperar estar contente, desejar que o dia chegasse…mas não consigo deixar de sentir um vazio e uma tristeza. Muitas pessoas me perguntam detalhes, como será o(s) vestido(s), as cerimónias e como será tudo…e eu não sinto a ansiedade nem o contentamento de uma noiva.

Primeiro porque sou mais celtibérica do que possam pensar, depois porque…que dizer se para mim isso não será o MEU casamento?

O MEU casamento é partilhado com a minha família, os meus amigos mais chegados, na capelinha da minha aldeia junto ao rio, com bacalhau na ementa da boda e um bolo de noiva no fim com champanhe. Porque o MEU casamento é aquele em que a partir daquele dia passo a viver com o meu marido e não embarcar num avião e esperar poder ir ver-lo de 2 em 2 meses até que os papeis fiquem prontos. Que pelos vistos demoram, até ver, 9 meses…o tempo de ter um bebé.

Quero fazer o casamento lá, claro, até porque quero que ele também tenha o SEU casamento, com as SUAS tradições, que a sua família fique feliz por cumprir todas as etapas necessárias para sentirem que o seu filho e irmão está realmente casado. E isso é uma satisfação, uma alegria que quero proporcionar à minha nova família!

E sei que no meio da celebração DELE e da MINHA, iremos ter uma celebração NOSSA. E apenas por ter a certeza disso é que vale a pena continuar. Porque no nosso caso, haverá sempre um recanto da nossa vida espiritual  que será só minha, só dele e em alguns pontos, apenas alguns, será NOSSA.

Não sei se será normal eu me sentir assim. Não sentir exaltação por vestidos dourados e montes de adornos…mesmo que sejam os do casamento! Mas é que realmente aquelas coisas não são nada o meu estilo!!! São interessantes, o meu lado antropológico e etnográfico vem ao de cima, mas é apenas isso.

Talvez não esteja a ajudar o facto de estarmos cá em casa com um problema de saúde grave. O meu pai está com um problema oncológico, que nos tem dado muitas preocupações, muito trabalho…e muita angustia. Temos esperança…mas não deixa de ser muito perturbador.

E neste momento, com visto ou sem visto, com trabalho ou sem trabalho, casados ou não, eu queria que o A. estivesse cá.

E não tenho fotografias para ilustrar isso…

Very selfish title ? I don’t know. It’s just that since a couple of weeks, i have re-discover this endearing sensation of devouring books for my own pleasure. A selfish need that I missed since I integrated my school. This very jealous mistress invaded a lot different parts of my life. She take out my words, my love of words on the paper. Everything i read those last two years were mostly for develop projects, work on some essay or just low-quality books who could take off my mind from such things as concepts and plots.

Here, I had time for myself and since i met a lovely lady who opened again my eyes. Between some adventurous biographies and classics, I fell in love with Neil Gaiman twisted style of writing stories, Bartemius sarcasms created by Stroud and Murakami.

Kafka on the shore is one of the most intriging book I have ever read in my life, i’m eating it with delectation but my liking go also toward his short novels in Blind willow, Sleeping Woman. It’s not twisted as in Kafka but the generic and almost-indeterminated indivuals born under his pen express the human, the bad as the strangest are desperately Human.

My, my, my… I have somehow forget this blog. If I remember well, this was supposed to be the place where i could talk about different matters relative to my EVS on a personal and professional experience in Hungary. I am afraid to say that i failed on this mission. I’ve tried to think about it and well, I must say it didn’t mattered to me. Since I came here, I just merely reported my life to another place and have to thanks my dear Mads and his girlfriend who have bring me enough friendship for all my time here.

I have almost come to t he end of my evs project in Hungary and now I am just trying to figure out what to do with my life when i’ll go back to france. Usually, i don’t like to plan, but well, I have to think about it now, I don’t want to just go back. If  I can go away, I’ll go.

While writting this post, I thought about the well-being of this blog, it use and in which language do it. But it came naturally to my mind and fingers that this place would be the temporary space of my scattered thought and an occasion for practising more english. I rather well  keep doing it, I have this feeling that using a mere communicative english contribute it loss while I feel  that I  like it more and more.

Gestern, ich weiß – das hätte ich auch gestern schon schreiben können, aber wie es der Zufall so will..nein…also eigentlich war ich schlichtweg zu FAUL, um das gestrige Geschehen noch zu tippern.

Also…wo war ich? Ach, gestern habe ich  mich mit meiner Schwester verabredet, um mit ihr und ihrem Lütten (gerade mal süße 9 Wochen alt!) in die Stadt zu fahren (ich wohne außerhalb…mehr so in einem Dorf-Bezirk..in der Nähe vom Arsch der Welt). Wir hatten beide enorm lange Listen, die wir abarbeiten wollten – doch das erste Hindernis war meine Kurze. Sie kränkelte am Wochenende etwas und war ein bisschen miesepetrig und schlapp, sodass eine Shoppingtour mit ihr unter Garantie HORROR werden würde. Dieses Problem löst allerdings meine Mutter beinahe immer – sie hütet also die Kleine, während ich mit meiner Schwester mit ihrem Wurm in Richtung Stadt starten kann. Echt! Das ist Luxus, denn den kleinen Wurm sieht und hört man nicht. Mit dem lassen sich Weihnachtseinkäufe in kürzester Zeit erledigen.

Tja, so auch gestern.

Wir hatten eine mehr oder weniger lange Weihnachtsgeschenke-Kauf-Liste, die wir schnellstmöglich abgrasen wollten.

1. eine Handtasche für die liebe Omi

2. ein Buch für die Frau Mama

3. ein Fußpflegegerät mit Fußpflege-Creme für den Paps

und Geschenkideen für den Liebsten standen dann noch auf meiner Liste.

Tja, aber außer dem Buch und den Geschenkideen für den Liebsten, kam nichts weihnachtliches herum. Stattdessen kauften wir wieder Unmengen an Krempel, den wir eigentlich nicht miteingeplant hatten. Und um halb fünf kam dann der Anruf von meinem Liebsten:

“Hey Schatz, wo seid ihr denn gerade? Soll ich euch abholen, damit wir einkaufen fahren können. [Im Hintergrund hört man die Kurze, die den Weihnachtsmann mimt]“

“Was brauchen wir denn?”

“Eigentlich brauchen wir nur Getränke!”

Na, okay. Also gut. Wir regelten dann kurz, wann wir wo zu sein hatten, damit er uns einsammeln konnte und zu viert machten wir uns dann eine halbe Stunde später auf den Weg in Richtung Supermarkt, bei dem wir ja EIGENTLICH nur Getränke holen wollten…tja..eigentlich eben.

Wir kaufen nicht einfach nur Getränke, wenn wir sagen, dass wir Getränke kaufen. Dann fallen mir und vor allem meinem Liebsten noch mindestens zehn ganz, ganz wichtige Dinge ein, die mitgenommen werden müssen und schnell wurden aus Getränke noch Schnitzel und Chips, Tomatensuppe und Süßkram, Brot und Tiefkühlkost. Mit anderen Worten: Aus fünf Minuten “Wir hüpfen mal so eben in den Laden!”-Einkauf wurde ein ausgiebiger Einkauf mit allem drum und dran. Und es ist wirklich JEDES Mal so. Ich mache mir ja schon Listen, um dieses Sinnlos-Einkaufen zu verhindern und ich arbeite tatsächlich streng die Liste ab…aber dann steht mein Liebster  und manchmal auch die Kurze mit tellergroßen Augen vor mir mit irgendetwas in der Hand, sodass ich weich werden MUSS.

Ach, ich weiß nicht. Manchmal ärgere ich mich schon, dass ich in der Hinsicht so furchtbar inkonsequent bin, aber meistens fühl ich mich gut dabei. Selige Blicke, die auf dem Gekaudften ruhen, freuen mich einfach total.

The 2 year old doesn’t get sarcasm yet – when I told her she was pretty talented at being annoying (I’m sure you can conjure any number of scenarios that might have provoked that comment!) she shouted back in her garbled version of English, “I not talented, I MADDY!”

Indeed.

It’s my last night in Georgia. I’m trying to get a grasp on the experience. This trip has been such an awkward balance between exploration and a social visit. Past trips have definitely focused more on the exploration, with small bits of time spent with friends. This has been a new kind of vacation for me, one where my energy was more invested in my friend and her child than in getting to know the area I was visiting. We did a lot of touristy stuff, but a big indication of the difference in trip style can be seen by looking through my pictures and seeing more photographs of the kid than of the scenery!

I really enjoyed all the places we visited, but I don’t feel like I’ve gotten a good grasp of what Atlanta is like – I haven’t learned a lot about the history and culture, things I usually focus on. That’s probably okay. On the other hand I’ve learned, or been reminded of (after all I do have numerous younger siblings), a lot about what it’s like to have a 2 year old in your life – the joys and the…er…trials – and that’s certainly something worth appreciating.

Yesterday I had the opportunity to take the kid around the Fernbank Natural History Museum by myself while her mom ran some errands. It was a wonderful experience. She was really good, and full of energy and delight and interest in the dinosaur bones, the shell collection, the stuffed black bear, etc. I loved spending time with her and seeing her eager, grinning face. Her squeals of pleasure, her wide eyes and her adorable use of the world “Wow!” are things that will make me smile for a long time. I entertained thoughts of what it would be like to have a 2 year old of my own, but in the end I was super relieved to hand her back over to her mom. She’s a little cutie, and a miracle in her own way, but phew! Kids! Yikes!!

Anyway, it’s been a fun week. I’ve seen and done a lot, gotten my fill of babysitting, consumed 5 milkshakes (I recommend the strawberry shake from Chevy’s Diner if you’re ever in McDonough), and made very little progress in The Savage Detectives. I’ll be sad to wave goodbye to my friend and get one last hug from the kid. Once I get through airport security tomorrow (my biggest travel anxiety – it’s just such a pain!!) I’ll be able to declare that this has been a great trip. Although I’ll probably wish for a vacation to recover from my vacation…I feel recharged, and am ready to sink into the long, cold, cozy Maine winter.

See you again soon Atlanta!

(Taking a break from narcissismy vacation-related posts…)

Back in August I posted about my first experience with Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf, and it sparked off a burst of creative thought among my new-found blogging friends, Claire, Emily, and Frances, among others. We agreed that a read-a-long of several other books by Woolf was called for, and picked January as the month to do business. The idea has been in the back of my mind since then, and has shaped my vague reading plans for the new year. Claire, who planted the initial idea in our heads, got on the ball this week and what began as a reminder has blossomed into a full fledged group-read, spanning two months, four books, and three glamorous hosts + myself (the somewhat terrified newbie).

Frances and Emily have already posted beautiful invitations and explanations at their respective blogs, and the response has been huge – and hugely exciting.

The reading schedule looks like this, with each book being hosted by one of the four of us:

Sarah – Mrs. Dalloway (January 15th)

Emily – To the Lighthouse (January 29)

Frances – Orlando (February 12)

Claire – The Waves (February 26)

We’re encouraging participants to join us for one, two, or all of the books, or just chime in on the discussions if you’ve already read the books. Frances and Emily are self-termed Woolf ‘geeks’ and ‘dorks’, so the experience lies with them, while I’ve only read one book by the author and Claire is about to venture into the world of Woolf for the first time. There’s plenty of room here for any kind of reader. Please join us!

As I’ll be the first host up to bat, it would be super helpful if those who are planning to join for Mrs. Dalloway, specifically, would raise their hands! I’ll be starting a list.

Can’t wait to read with ya’ll!

………….

Here’s the tentative list of people who have shown interest in Mrs. Dalloway specifically, or have signed up for all four books. If I’ve left anyone out, please shout! And of course no one is held to anything by being listed here. It’s really just to help me keep track.

Amy – The House of the Seven Tails
Amy – New Century Reading
Andi – Tripping Toward Lucidity
Anthony – Times Flow Stemmed
Bellezza – Dolce Bellezza
Care – Care’s Online Book Club
Claire – Kiss a cloud
Ds – third-storey window
Emily – Evening All Afternoon
EL Fay – This Book and I Could Be Friends
Eva – A Striped Armchair
Frances – Nonsuch Book
Jackie – Farmlanebooks Book Blog
JoAnn – Lakeside Musing
J. S. Payton – BiblioAddict
Karen – BookBath
Lena – Save Ophelia
Lu – Regular Rumination
Mark David – Absorbed in Words
Rebecca – Rebecca Reads
Richard – Caravana de recuerdos
Sandy – You’ve GOTTA read this!
Simon – Savidge Reads
uncertainprinciples – another cookie crumbles
Vasilly – 1330v
Victoria – Views from the Page and the Oven
Violet – Manila Folder

Two days crammed full of adventures have swept me up. My friend and I bought Atlanta CityPasses, which give you 9 days to visit 6 major attractions for a reduced rate. We’re working on getting round to all of them, and not doing too badly.

Yesterday was Zoo Atlanta day, and the 2 year old was very good and seemed to like the animals. As zoos go, this one was decent. The enclosures were mostly naturalized for the animal’s needs, and seemed to be in a good shape. The zoo started life as a traveling circus that got stalled there in 1889, and grew into a glorified picnic area where visitors could gawk at animals behind iron bars. In the 1980’s the zoo was declared one of the worst in the country, and that prompted people in high places to do something about it.

Now Zoo Atlanta is supposed to be one of the best zoos in America. Aside from elephants, a lion, zebras, monkeys, colorful birds, etc., they have a wonderful family of gorillas and are one of the few zoos in the states to house giant pandas – and to have successfully orchestrated the birth of a healthy panda, one of only two baby pandas in captivity in the US. Pretty cool. I remember being far more impressed with the Albuquerque Zoo, but I was probably 2 myself the first time I went there!

By mid afternoon we were back in McDonough, browsing in Bell, Book & Candle where my friend went willingly to search for birthday presents for nieces, and where I of course went joyfully to try and not buy any books. More about my purchases later.

I was caught completely off guard by my friend’s husband’s suggestion to go bowling that night. I hadn’t been bowling since some childhood friend’s 6 year old birthday party. I remember that I enjoyed keeping score, but don’t actually recall playing. I played last night though, and embarrassed myself for the sake of a good time, doing only slightly better at air hockey and kind of excelling at some other arcade game that involved tossing balls into holes. An interesting evening for sure!

I had a terrible headache by the time we got home, which is why I didn’t bother to post here, and I tucked myself into bed early and slept long and heavy.

That was good, because today the pace didn’t slow down at all. The whole family – mom, dad, and kid, plus myself – went back into downtown Atlanta to visit the aquarium. I was completely overjoyed by this experience, and felt like I pointed and said “WOW” just as often as the 2 year old.

The Georgia Aquarium is the largest aquarium in the world, housing more animals than any other in over eight million gallons of water. It was a gift from Bernie Marcus, the co-founder of Home Depot, to the city of Atlanta. It opened in 2005 completely debt free, so it is 100% non-profit. It is a leading facility for research and conservation and is one of the only aquariums to be combined with a veterinarian teaching hospital.

I loved every minute that I spent there, whether I was watching jellyfish in a small tank, or whale sharks swim over my head while traversing an underwater tunnel. I would have loved to go round the exhibits twice, but our day was full and lunch was calling (pleading) to be consumed.

From the aquarium we drove outside of the city to Stone Mountain Park, home to what some say is the largest piece of exposed granite in the world. It also has an extremely large carving on it’s side, the Confederate Memorial Carving, which displays hugely Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Jefferson Davis. Being both a natural wonder and historically significant isn’t enough for Georgians though – the area surrounding the mountain boasts theme park-like elements, with rides, golf courses, a Christmas Village, a scenic train, and cable cars to the top.

We chose to hike the 1.3 mile trail to the top of Stone Mountain, and although there were moments of hesitation and near-turning back, all four of us made it. With an elevation of 1,686 ft. the mountain top provided excellent views of Georgia for as far as the eye could see, including the Atlanta skyline and Kennesaw Mountain (another historically important place). It was so clear today that we could even vaguely see the Appalachian Mountains.

Considering how steep the trail was, we were equally relieved to reach the bottom, and found ourselves to be tired, starving, and still far from home. We opted to work out some of these problems at a Steak and Shake, a halfway decent southern chain restaurant that I had never encountered before. Burgers and milkshakes consumed, we made it the rest of the way home.

I am about ready for an ‘off-day’! However, with rain coming Tuesday and my flight back to Maine leering at me from Wednesday, it looks like we’ll have to squeeze a few more things into tomorrow. Botanical Gardens and the Margaret Mitchell House, here we come!

I haven’t hung out with a 2 year old in quite awhile, so this visit is a steep learning curve for me! It takes twice as long to get ready to go somewhere, and if I ever thought that I got grumpy when I was hungry, well let me tell you, I have met my match…!

After a very late start today we finally made it to the College Park MARTA station and successfully navigated the rail system and the streets of downtown Atlanta, finding our way eventually to World of Coca-Cola. With a fussy child in tow, we checked out the huge variety of artifacts – all kinds of Coke advertisements, paintings, platters, machines, cans and bottles, etc. – and then thankfully trooped into the Taste It! room to sample beverages from around the world. Avoid something called “Beverly” from Italy, but go for the “Vegitabeta” from Japan! The South African ginger ale was my adult friend’s favorite. Not sure which one the kid liked best – we were just happy that the sundry sips kept her quiet for a little while!

The crabby 2 year old was somewhat placated by a snack from the Subway at the top of Centennial Olympic Park, but my friend and I weren’t that pleased to discover that the day had gone by so quickly and it was already too late to visit the Aquarium… Facing the drag of 5:30 traffic, we opted to detour a short way down Peachtree St. and visit Max Lager’s American Grill and Brewery. A comfy seat, with the child sleeping stretched out in the booth, and a couple of decent beers (Pumpkin Wit, and Max Black) took the edge off the long afternoon.

Our somewhat odd server told me I had an “interesting face”, so FYI if you ever meet me, or for those of you who have but haven’t noticed, now you know!

The trip back to the car on the MARTA train was uneventful and the traffic had mostly cleared up on the interstate, so we were back in McDonough in no time. The kid was adorable again, and let me teach her Karate Kid moves and helped to fight off the nibbling cat and the stinky-breathed dog until it was bedtime. If my pictures will ever upload, I’ll go to bed too…

Zoo tomorrow! I’m pretty sure I haven’t been to a real zoo since we moved to Maine, over 15 years ago, so I’m unexpectedly excited. Should be good.

It’s kind of funny how much this part of Georgia looks like Maine right now. What leaves that are left on the trees are mostly yellow and brown, and there is a similar mix of deciduous and pine, although a closer look proves them to be different varieties than I am used to. I left Maine during a surprisingly warm spell, and went from my pleasant 50s to what Atlanta considers somewhat chilly 50s. It’s supposed to be closer to the 70s tomorrow though, so that will be lovely. There is more wildlife still roaming about here, while in Maine most of the birds and small animals are mostly hidden away, so that’s a nice difference. I don’t know why I expected a more exotic local, but my mental picture is adjusting and I’m enjoying all the aspects of my visit.

Today we spent a lot of time outdoors, visiting Panola Mountain State Park. There is a 12 mile multi-use trail that winds through a wide variety of different woodsy habitats as well as swamp, field, and river areas. The 2 year old was a good little hiker and we had fun helping her pick out the perfect leaves and acorns to put in her pink, leopard spotted purse. I got a kick out of seeing a lizard, three small snakes (thank goodness!), a beautiful raptor of some type, several butterflies, and a whole handful of snails!

Not too long after we got back (via the circuitous route of getting lost – my friend is a newcomer to the area!) my friend’s husband came home and we all went into downtown Atlanta to meet up with other friends for dinner. I got to see the lit up skyline, and drive through Cabbagetown. We ate at La Fonda Latina, an old favorite haunt of the Atlanta-raised husband, where I consumed an astonishing amount of delicious paella. On the way out of town we stopped at The Varsity for an F. O. (frosted orange yummyness) and listened to the folks behind the counter call “What’ll ya’ have, what’ll ya have?” as they have done since 1928.

We have all kinds of things planned for tomorrow, but all I want to do right now is curl up with my food baby and my book – my camera batteries are charging, and it’s time I did the same. Good night!

BEBADA E MANGOLONA DAVA PRA LEVANTAR FUMAR…BEBER….COMER….DANÇAR……E DAI SIM SAIR

……

Tá aí o porquê de muitos filhos matarem os pais…

I already can’t believe that my day started out like this:

Early morning flights, once you get somewhat awake and past airport security, are quite lovely. Mine were uneventful, and my friends were there to meet me at the (gulp, huge!!) airport in Atlanta. I spent the rest of the day casually, grabbing some “real country cooking” at Johnny’s Family Buffet, playing with the smaller of my two friends (the 2 year old), getting beaten up by their Australian cattle dog, visiting the Veterans Wall of Honor in McDonough for some mild Veterans Day respect, and vegging out on TV and Pizza Hut.

We will hopefully start the more serious exploration of Atlanta tomorrow, or if it turns into a more relaxed day, at the very least I will try to drag my friends to Bell, Book & Candle, the used and rare book store right in their home town.

Once again The Savage Detectives will lull me to sleep, and not even the riveting mystery of who and what Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima are is likely to keep me awake for long…!