"The Road Not Taken" by Robert Frost

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;

Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,

And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.

I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.

 

This is one of my all-time favorite poems and it makes more and more sense to me as time goes by... Although the roads to take are getting "blurrier" by the minute. I just wish things got clearer in my life!!

Pretty Good Saturday Night

My social life nowadays is so dwindled that I thought it was already dead, but last night something happened that brought it back to life . I was invited to a friend's birthday party and I had a great time.

I'm not going to analyze here or now how I've come to this situation, but I'm glad some people still count on me to celebrate moments of joy.

I made a raw/vegan Hazelnut Chocolate Cake for the occasion. It tasted great, but was a little too "thick" after all we had had for dinner. I'm not sure my friends enjoyed it as much as I would have wanted them to (that's the impression you get when they keep saying "it's too thick, way too thick", instead of "it has such a great taste"!!). If you want to try it, here's where I got the recipe from (maybe I didn't measure the ingredients properly):
 http://www.thewannabechef.net/2011/08/15/hazelnut-chocolate-cake-rawvegan/

Our "shared" Spanish blood is thicker than all the water in the Atlantic Ocean...

I was an only child for 12 years. Then, life gave me one brother & five sisters over a very short period of time...

Only my brother is blood-related (on my mother's side) and I adore him (yes, even when he gives me a hard time!!). He's probably the best thing that has ever "happened" to me.

My three step-sisters arrived when my mother remarried.

After that, I found (*or did they find me?*) my two soul-sisters -formerly known as my "host-sisters". I lived with them (and their wonderful-generous-loving parents, María & Gary) the year I spent studying in the States... I love them so much! It's hard to believe how I can feel this close with someone when we have an Ocean (and a whole country, for that matter) between us!! We were "disconnected" for a while, but thanks to modern technology we were able to "reconnect" (Thank you social networks!!). I wonder if our Spanish blood (mom-María is from Sevilla!) has anything to do with that feeling... Probably not, but it is a cool thought, isn't it? I had a chance to spend a few weeks with these beautiful human beings again last Summer and I cannot wait to see them again soon!!

I´m still here...

It's been a nerve-wracking period since I last posted something in here. I was not in the mood to write about what was going on in a blog. These last few weeks were better for "tweeting" (& retweeting!) than anything else. Once more, I have to thank my friend Brooke for introducing me to that (birdy) world...

I had big plans for today. You know, it is not often that Monday comes and you don't have to work (today's the festivity of Santiago, the Saint Patron of Spain). I wanted to take advantage of it, specially because it was also my first day back eating after a ten-day lemon & maple syrup cleansing diet.

But... Alas! By noon I was already lying in my couch with the tv on. To be honest, I wasn't even paying attention. I was changing channels like crazy (wasn't that the title of a "Supernatural" episode...?) until I came across Gale Harold and I couldn't resist, I had to stop and really watch. I hadn't seen the show before, but I guess I got there at the right time. Supposedly, he was describing the things he liked about the girl he was with (not before pointing out that she was "like an advertisement for a male's midlife crisis"...!! Gee!!) and I thought to myself: "I wouldn't mind being described like that", but of course that only happens on a tv show (besides I'm not a blonde and I'm not in my twenties anymore... I'm about to start my very own midlife crisis, for crying out loud!!). You would think I'd write the words down, wouldn't you? Well, of course I would! Here it is:
"You are a fascinating, occasionally maddening woman. You have a quicksilver mind and a gigantic heart. You love your friends to a fault and despise injustice with a white-hot intensity. You resist authority, not because you're an anarchist, but because you're a leader by nature. You refuse to be bullied, and will not allow me to win an argument if you know you're right. And you're not afraid to laugh at yourself...".

Shortly after, the show was over. I started day-dreaming for a while and now I just decided to sit down, listen to some Billy Joel and write a few lines even if it's just to show a couple of people and myself that I'm still alive. Now more that ever I have to let those around me (or far away) know that "when the going gets tough, the tough get going".