The small things

Post-Office opens Saturday mornings. Banks too. (Neit!)

• 15% per cent tip is mandatory. Always. (Check your cell-phone, it has a tip calculator... Didn't you know?)


• Sender and receiver both pay for text messages.


• Cell phone plans? Most plans include contracts (monthy payments).


• Price tags (anywhere) don't include tax (6 per cent in Connecticut)... Had some weird situations at the cash register because of this...


• Bucket List are the list of things you want to do before you die. Jonh Mayer wrote the most beatiful song for a film with that title in 2007/2008... I guess (It's called Say)


• It will take you a whole week-end to finish reading the Saturday edition of the New York Times (just like Expresso in Portugal...lol)


• Whenever you slip on an icy area, don't think exercising your injured arm will make it heal faster... it won't (believe me)...


• Just because you decided to take french lessons at the local Alliance Francaise doesn't mean your teacher will have original french accent... She most likely will have american speaking french accent (AAAArrrrggghhhh!)

Have a good week!

PS- Yes, the photo. Saint Joseph's cathedral in Hartford. It's overwhelmingly huge. Went there this Sunday. Enough said.

Black History Month

I have been living in the US of A for a year now. Feb. 9th marked the date. Hot Tomato's in Hartford witnessed the celebration. At a very international table where Portugal, Poland, the Philippines and the USA congregated; my good friend Steve asked me about my comments on the accomplishment. I answered with th pseudo-burgoise attitude I am perceived with everytime I compare cultures - especially when those are european and north american. The different ways in which we satisfy our (spiritual/philosophical) insatisfactions. Here the ownership of things, the achievement of professional or social goals is in itself rewarding/fullfiling. There that is also true, but brings a bagage of new interrogations on their real meaning, the actual process of becoming owner and no longer aspiring, dreaming, longing for the thing and the analysis of what in fact has changed (if it did) are the new tormented torments. Left yet to mention are the lost of the person, the one who now is and is to become and what of him was lost and therefore cannot be salvaged. Was it worth we question? Who is this new me supposed to feel contempt and satisfied and still frustrated, lost and questioning. But in better clothes. Wearing better shoes. Looking better. Opening the door to a more admirable home than yours (now you are the new aspirer). Only to close the (very fashionable) new door and find myself still tormented.



Deb Goffe danced Infinite Space summoning Cesaria, Manu, rain. She contaminated other bodies. Dancer's I mean. So interesting to see a culture you know from the inside being introduced to you from the inside out.



By the way February is Black History Month, Valentine's Month and Carnaval's Month (not very hip in this neighbourhood, unless I move to New Orleans). Today was President's day.

Honestly? I feel overwheamed. Wouldn't you?



"The Seamstress" by Frances de Pontes Peebles. This is a literary recommendation for Marco, only. If your name is not Marco don't bother. Unless you are unsatisfied with your own and are considering changing. And if so... May I ask?... In which side of the Ocean are you?

Reiki

(I do work with schools... Photo by haitian (amazing) photographer Marc-Yves Regis.


Eu nao disse... Este fim-de-semana participei num workshop de Reiki - filosofia de transmissao de energia descoberta por um... Guess what? Japones. Ah... pois. Adorei o workshop e a minha instrutora, tambem artista/escultora (Thank you Marcy!) foi excelente. No final todas (7 mulheres... homens de pouca fe) fizemos uma sessao de Reiki. Fiquei esgotada. Ontem fiz a minha primeira sessao (sozinha) ao meu roomate polaco... Reticente, quase se desfez em gargalhadas mas no final estava tao relaxado que quase nao conseguia manter os olhos abertos. E eu tambem senti uma diferenca. Mas pronto nao vou falar mais disto porque ja estou a imaginar as sobrancelhas irrequietas e o (so)riso a rebelar-se ao canto da boca. Ai me esperam e depois digam. Outra coisa, vitaminas isotonicas. Outro workshop ensinou-me que sao a melhor forma do corpo absorver vitaminas, calcio, etc, etc. Mania da saude, ah pois. Nunca e demais. Tomem nota: isotonicas. Pode ajudar. Mais? Esta semana que passou? Mulher com 6 filhos teve mais 8. Comentarios? Assim que conseguir fechar a boca de espanto (e/ou pena). Ou o pai de familia que matou os 5 filhos e a mulher. Ambos perderam o emprego, iam perder a casa que tinham construido e nao queriam que os filhos fossem criados por mais ninguem. Faz-me pensar que gosto mais dos islandeses que dos americanos. Que mais? Apresentei o meu projecto perante um painel de especialistas em empreendimento. De 50 pontos possiveis a melhor pontuacao foi um 35. A parte da argumentacao, defesa da ideia, pontos fortes e fracos, competicao directa e indirecta: 100 por cento. Quando chegou a parte dos numeros foi tudo por agua abaixo. Decidi ir ao second round. Em Abril. Agora ninguem me para. E orgulho ferido!! Querem mais? Tomorrow comeco aulas de frances na Alliance Francaise aqui do sitio. Ah, pois, ainda vou viver uns meses em Franca... O que e que pensam?! (No fundo o que eu precisava mesmo era de melhorar o espanhol... porto-riquenho falado aqui nesta terra, but...).





E dai? So se fala do Socrates e do Freeport. No pasa nada? Mais nada?





PS - Esqueci-me (!) que tambem estou a trabalhar para recuperar a minha memoria de curta duracao que esta uma lastima... Lembras-te Marco?... Bombeiros... Nao, nao tem piada. Nao tem piadinha nenhuma (lol... baixinho)