NIGHT LIFE IN ATHENS

It seems that every time I take the trolley to go downtown Athens something (or someone) closes the street.  Today was a political demonstration. What else?

So I joined them.

After all they were carrying red flags.  They couldn't be all that bad.  I took photos and listened to the passionate speeches.  Who are they?  Not anyone you'd know. A new breakout group from the bigger leftist party. Syriza.  A young woman asked me what I think, I said it's exciting. She was skeptical.  Not a fan I guess.

Afterwards I took a taxi and came to the cafe/bar where my cousin djs.  Loud music, loud people, not too bad.  Believe it or not, some of her friends know me already and come and greet me.  Kisses on both cheeks.  What's new?  How is your mom?  They know her too.  We make friends easily I guess.

The beer tastes good right now. And the din fuels my words.  I've been asked to join the group.  I feel like the elder female of the tribe.  After all I'm older than their mothers.  Although I bet I'm a lot cooler than they.  I'm just saying...

ATHENS AGAIN

This time the suitcase arrived with me.  It was raining in Athens yesterday, cool, gray. Today the sun shines again.  It feels like I was just here.  Less than a year ago I spent a month.  This time 10 days.  Too little says mom but she accepts the reality of my life.

Last night we heard the same singer from last year at the garden cafe of the Numismatic Museum - a lovely space filled with greenery.  Mom, cousins and I spent a couple of hours listening and sipping wine.

This morning the traditional visit to the bank.  Never fails. I have to go every time to sign something or take something or just for the clerk to see me.  Mom deposits or withdraws and, in the meantime, I am seen.  I exist.  A somewhat surrealist visit.

Madrid never sleeps

After a long ordeal I arrived in Madrid yesterday.  My suitcase however arrived a day later.  I did not fret as much as I would have earlier in life.  The highlights?  Meyer my high school classmate Marise after 45 years.  Walked all around with her and then by myself.  The city is fascinating.  Went to the Museum Reina Sofia and saw the "Guernica" today.  Took 2 city tours and saw even more.  Ate lots of jamon iberico, tortilla espanola, and had beers.  Weather is lovely: sunny and warm.  

Unfortunately tonight one of the Madrid soccer teams won the championship and the city is crazy with noise, people, cars honking, and general chaos.  Will I be able to sleep?  I can't say.

My hotel is in neighborhood called Huertas - trendy, literary, filled with bars, cafés, restaurants, lively, very lively.

Tomorrow I plan to go to the Prado and Thyssen.  Looking forward to it.  Now I just hope I can sleep.  It's past 1 in the morning and the singing and screaming and drumming does not subside.

SISTERS OF THE ROAD

It is a surreal picture: in the distance I can see rather a bizarre collection of women, quite a few in dull-colored Victorian garb with a variety of bonnets, sola topis, and veils; one or two in the heavy habits of the Middle Ages (or even earlier) and several elaborately upholstered in glancing satin finery; there are some in shorts of trousers, perhaps men’s; some in medical or military uniform; now and again there is even the odd flowery sun-dress or flash of Lycra to be seen.  There must be well over a hundred altogether, and the noise, although muffled by the distance, is considerable.  Each seems to be hauling or tugging at something: some sort of rope, I think, and as I trace the tangling lines I realize that they are all connected to me, sitting here in the foreground.  I am perching slightly perilously in a fat and complacent armchair and these women, now hazy against the horizon, are lugging me along in it.  I am in, it seems, for quite a ride.       

                        Jane Robinson
                        Unsuitable for Ladies
                       Oxford University Press, 1994.

Listen to excerpts from the travel writings of women throughout history, focusing on American and British women of the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries. 

                                        
Francis Trollope                                                                 Flora Tristan

More Ollieisms

David - Did you watch the Bears game last weekend?  (Bears played the Packers - David's team. Packers won.)

Oliver - Yes.

David - What did you think?

Oliver - I don't want to get into an argument.

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In the car:  Oliver - Daaaad you know what?

Dad (Marc) - What?

Oliver - I know how to drive.  But I don't know how to drive safely yet.

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In the car driving to dinner:  Oliver - Can I have a snack as an appetizer?

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Back in the swing of things...

...or not.  Last Wednesday I took Ezri to Wiggleworms again.  I hadn't done it in a few weeks and the room was changed.  I panicked for a moment, thinking it was the wrong day or I had forgotten to register but then I figured out they had changed rooms.  So silly!  There were all new kids there except for one.  I guess the others have graduated to the 1 year old group.  I believe next time Ezri will also attend the next age level class.  She is so animated now: sits, crawls, claps, grabs things.  Pretty soon she'll start singing too.  And speaking of singing - Oliver is a good singer.  He's also taking piano lessons and singing while playing.  I hope Adelaida gets the opportunity to take music classes - at least, for a while.  Music is so useful for other things, the experts say.  On a related topic - Saturday evening we went to the Symphony Ball concert: the opening of the season for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.  They played a Ravel piece with a guest pianist and David whispered to me: "one day Oliver will be sitting on stage playing."  And I said - "and we'll be in the front row proudly watching him."

It's been a long time

Wow!  I've been away for a long time.  So much happened...so much to do...I am exhausted.  Not so much physically but intellectually and emotionally.

Mom came in mid-August and two days later everyone went to Delavan Lake (Wisconsin) for a week.  The house we rented was in the midst of other houses, no privacy.  The water stank of sulphur.  The floors creaked horribly.  It was not the best house we've rented but we had fun going to the beach in Lake Geneva and Fontana.  I loved going in the water.  And Oliver and Adelaide enjoyed themselves tremendously.  At the house we worked on puzzles.  Mom sat in the porch most of the time or at the beach, not one for walking.  I felt bad for her because her room had a couch, not a bed.  She slept in a narrow sofa but did her best.

A week later we went to South Haven for two days and then onto Madison with mom for two days.  The following week Toronto!  Mom stayed with her cousins and David and I went to TIFF (Toronto International Film Festival).  I never had to stand in lines for so long and so often.  My back was killing me.  You have to stand in line for everything at TIFF.  I didn't enjoy it as much as I had in earlier years.  Plus the red carpet crowd waiting got on my nerves and I exploded one afternoon, cursing people.  I think Ewa will never speak to me again but it wasn't directed at her but at the stupid women who wouldn't let me talk to her.

Mom left last week and I had to go back to Madison to watch the kiddies because the nanny went on vacation.  David came friday and we left sunday.  It was exhausting but I love the kids.  Adelaide celebrated her second birthday on sunday.  And she started talking in complete sentences that are intelligible.  She's the sweetest, prettiest girl ever.

I am finally at home for a while and trying to regain my footing, get back to my life and my routines.  This morning tennis.  What a whirlwind of a month and a half!  Now I need to get my classes going.  So far Loyola's Creative Nonfiction is a go.  Please please let the others run too.