carindow

As honey said, as we ate our FABULOUS first meal in Barcelona here:

But let me start at the beginning:

We arrived around 10am Barcelona time, which is 4am for our bodies. And after barely sleeping on the flight, we were understandably a little groggy, but still excited! After getting super-confused by the train schedule, we finally made it on the way to center city.

Getting off and finding our hotel was an adventure, as we decided to just wing it. Who could complain when our walk looked like this:

We unloaded at the hotel, I took the most amazing shower, and by then we were ready to explore some alleyways (what’s with the super-clean alleys in Barcelona, anyway?)…

…and take the Metro to the beach where we would have some lunch! And again, we got a little lost:

But again… who could complain?

But we got there just on time (you know, lunch is only served 2-4 and dinner only 8-10 at the good places, but there’s plenty of tapas bars and cafes for all the time in between). And got the full treatment, with olives and pa amb tomaquet which I devoured:

A bottle of cava, the Catalan sparking wine (yes, I said a bottle. Europeans know how to drink. There was one small set of like 8 wines you could get by the glass, and then about 6 pages of wines and cavas you could get by the bottle!)

And then, of course, the seafood paella:

Which I believe was the point when PJ said… “This city isn’t fair.”

After lunch, we walked right onto the beach…

Then toward Port Vell and the Museum of Catalan History

Where we proceeded (I blame the bottle of cava) to make out in corners and giggle at the students and pay absolute no attention to the museum itself. When in Spain, right?

Speaking of… great city + great food + great cava + great company  is the perfect recipe for the sex-and-siesta after lunch break!

We woke up past dinner time but strolled La Rambla and grabbed un cafe and a beer, some tapas and a pizza with octopus and an order of sangria (which is a pitcher) and the classiest minutemaid I’ve ever seen:

And then of course… great city + great food + great sangria + great company + european soft porn on TV = well… you can only guess.

But now, honey is awake, so it’s time for day #2!!!!

janeklee:

Kiss Me | Mina Shin feat. Fo Onassis 
Link to download. 

Do me a favor and click play. It’s Mina’s first single and she’s gonna be huuuuuge! 

Go mina!

… oh, how I miss you

Are things really going to be different?

thedailywhat:

This x That:

Know This:

• “US sorry over deliberate sex infections in Guatemala.” I should hope so!

• RIP: Stephen J. Cannell, legendary television producer/writer, dead at 69.

Read This:

• Today’s Big Read: White America Has Lost Its Mind.

• Issue of Archie Comics featuring first gay character sells out, gets first reprint in Archie history.

The Other:

• NewsFeed: Yosemite National Park: 120 Years in Pictures.

• Techland: Facebook Pics in High Def Will Show Us Who Is The Fairest of Them All.

• Nerve: Five Comedy Albums that Changed My Life.

• Tea x Time List: 12 Dumbest Things New Yorkers Do.

• Above: Schuhle-Lewis. (via.)

I haven’t written anything in a while. I’m starting to think that I drank all my creative juices before the age of 15. Been so deprived of writing for me, I damn near spilled my soul in my thesis prospectus.

Started watching SATC 2. Remembered how complicated relationships are and decided to go to a bed race. A bed race. Alone. After the initial excitement was over, I walked home, ran into a guy who I met freshman year on the bus and whose path I seemed to cross every semester. He just spilled his soul in his thesis prospectus, too. 

Oh, RU. It was a good run. 

I need a good run. It’s all been as easy as sticking my left foot in front of my right, my right foot in front of my left. Repeating. 

Damn.

Everything was so sure a year ago. Of course I was going to get a job publishing in NYC. Because certainly that was my dream.

And R. Kelly said I could. (Think Space Jam, circa ‘95, ‘96)

We would be engaged within a year of graduation, marriage on our 10th anniversary. I would find my dream house/apartment and be a homeowner before the age of 26. We would wait until we accidentally got pregnant and I would start working from home more often so I could watch our babies grow. We would travel, work in fulfilling careers, learn to do all the things we wish we could do, grow to be just the people we wanted to be. And we’d love with a love that was more than love, I and my PJP.

No regrets.

It all seemed to be falling together so flawlessly. Until it got close and started to shake me screaming: SNAP out of these fairytale dreams. The college-career-marriage-house-kids-happiness formula. C’mon Carin… this is like when you, Nicole, and Doni all wanted to be dentists and buy fabulous houses right next to each other on a cul-de-sac, to raise your beautiful families. It ain’t real, chick.

So what is real? Carrie and Big losing the “sparkle” and letting tv and take-out take over their lives? 

Ugh. The surrealists weren’t geniuses. They were cop-outs. I can do this stream-of-consciousness shit all day, baby. All day. 

I told myself awhile ago that I need to start dreaming bigger so I could accomplish bigger things. 

…now the dreams are flooding in. Being “realistic” was so much easier… 

Day 1 of senior year: Worked all day, hung out with the roomies at night :-) 

Plans are finally finally set for this anniversary. This 7th 7/17 :-). I wanted to do something special… something different from our small anniversary outings (a few picnics in the park, a jazz show, lots of dinners, maybe a movie, BROADWAY/Bubba Gump Shrimp was AWESOME! so was the one in AC (when the pier was brand new)… but still :-P). So what evolved from “let’s go camping so we can bring Hugo” became “let’s stay at this amazing bed and breakfast!!” and then Hugo got sick and he couldn’t get his boosters so camping was out and then our budget was $200 lower (vets are expensive, man…) so the really nice B&B was out, then we would have gone to a less amazing, but still cute (and cheaper) inn, but this was of course the weekend before and so EVERYWHERE was booked except for cabins in campsites which again, Hugo couldn’t go to. And we weren’t about to leave our Huggo :-):

So, preview for the actual weekend to come (if no other craziness comes!)

:

Friday day: Drive to Lambertville/New Hope <3. This one was my choice… with this historic inns and picturesque river and valleys, and antique shopping and quaint bookstores and outdoor cafes and wineries and… yeah. Used restaurant.com for that $25 gift certificate for a dog-friendly indoor/outdoor restaurant that I’ve heard great things about! May or may not go to the botanical gardens.

Friday night: Will drive to Philly after we can’t deal with the heat any more. Grab a cheesesteak at Pat’s (This one was PJ’s choice). Hopefully Hugo will be knocked out and won’t mind us going out at night ;-). Staying at a pet-friendly hotel in Center City.

Saturday morning: Anything else we want to see in Philly I want to knock out in the morning because we can check into our next room at 3pm!

Saturday afternoon - Sunday evening: Staying right near the Delaware Water Gap/Appalachian trail. I have to walk the trail a bit, Hugo has to learn to be a hiking dog, lol (it should be a little cooler up there on Sunday but not much lol) looking forward to this change of scenery, a little escape not too far from home :-)

And by then, I’m sure I’ll be out of the money saved for this mini-vacation and we’ll head home fulfilled. :-). That’s the plan… though it probably will not be this easy. 

:-). I can’t wait! It’s never been just the three of us.

Here’s to our first family vacation! :-D