Long Nights, Hot Days

My weekend was good.

On Friday I didn't have to work. I got the kids out the door then relaxed at home. I cleaned up my room and the kitchen, updated my blogs with pictures and just sort of bummed around all day. It was nice. At 10p I left for Madrid. I met Jenny, Manu (Argentinian girl), Claudio (Italian guy), and Andrew (American guy) in Sol. We walked towards the karaoke bar and stopped off to have sangria at a place that always has them for free to get people in the door. I wasn't drinking though, so I just danced. After the Sangria place we went to the Karaoke Bar but it was dead so we went across the street to another bar (equally dead) to have a drink and kill time. Eventually Andrew (Irish guy) met up with us. Then we went back to the Karoke Bar. It was probably around 12:30p or so by the time we got there. It was pretty empty, but the people that were there were young. Like really young. Like probably in high school still young. It was a bit annoying, but we still had fun. We sang (whether it was our song or not) and danced.

By 3:00a I was getting pretty fed up with the youngsters (don't I sound like a bitter old lady?) and I was tired of dancing (I can only do it for so long) and so was American Andrew. Irish Andrew (and his great accent) had left a while ago. So we all left and wandered the streets while we thought of what to do next. Claudio was pretty buzzed and up for anything. Jenny only likes to dance. And Andrew and I were ready to sit down, relax, maybe over food and/or drink. Manu was down for anything even though she was supposed to be at work at 8am aka in a couple hours. We ended up at another club/bar. We danced for about 20 min until the bar closed. I use the word we loosely though. Since the other four had paired off while dancing, I inadvertently was left all alone. Rather than look like a doofus dancing alone next to two couples I opted to people watch from the safety of a wall. It worked fine for me. When we left that bar we were really limited on options. The bars close at 4am and after that the only thing really open are the dance clubs. But since we were done dancing (or at least I know I was) we had to come up with another plan. We tried to find some place that had food. We couldn't think of anywhere so we ended up at Andrew's apartment where Claudio made us penne. It was tasty. Claudio left shortly after "dinner" and Jenny said she was going to leave, but never did. I was pretty stuck until 6am when the Metro lines started up anyway so I took a nap on the couch while Jenny, Manu, and Andrew chatted. At 6am we all left Andrew to sleep and headed home. I got back to Tres Cantos at about 8am and slept in until about 2pm.

On Saturday, I did nothing. All day. OK that isn't quite accurate. I woke up, had breakfast, checked my email and what not, read a little, and then took a nap for a couple hours. Then I woke up, had lunch, checked my email, read a little, and took another nap. I am very unaccustomed to staying up to the wee hours of the morning so it really jacked up my sleep schedule. Carlos' 50th birthday party was that night. He was left completely in the dark about the whole thing and was overwhelmed by what Consuelo had accomplished.

That afternoon all of the living room furniture was moved out the the front lawn. There were three couches each with it's own coffee table. Then around the table were several rented folding chairs. So on the lawn there were three different seating circles. On the patio there were three rented high tables and high/bar stools. It was quite a set up.

The 50 guests started arriving at 9:30p. I was ready and upstairs at 10p. I wore my red linen skirt, black heals, and an asymmetrical black tank with some sequins. I thought I looked close enough to a grown up to belong there. Everyone mingled drank on the lawn and patio. Caterers came around with various Spanish hors d'oeuvres and drinks. I spent most of my time listening to conversations that I had no clue what was being discussed and doing my best not to look bored and/or confused. I don't think I have every experienced the language barrier quite as deeply as I did that night. I knew a couple people but they were all busy talking with their friends and did little more than greet me, which is perfectly understandable. The kids were around in the beginning but even they had more conversations with the other guests. All in all it was ok, but it would have been nice to have someone to keep me company.

Twice during the evening a video was played that Consuelo had made for Carlos. In it she had all his friends and various family members record messages to him. I was on the video too, but I kept it brief and of course in English. Carlos loved the video. He was really touched. Later in the evening a magician showed up. He performed some coin tricks for the kids then did them on me. I wasn't too amused, though he was pretty good at slight of hand movements, magicians aren't really my thing. Later while he was at another table he repeated a rubber band trick for me saying he would do it again for those who were slow. I really didn't appreciate that comment. That was when I got really frustrated with the language barrier. I'm not a quiet person. I like chit chatting and socializing, but I couldn't do that here. I felt like no one there was getting to see me as me and it was not fun. The magician went on to do a performance but I opted to check my email and unload the dishwasher during that time. Natalia had translated a few of the things he was saying while I peeked in to see what he was up to. But that wasn't much fun.

Ar around 2:30a or 3:00a we all moved to the back yard for karaoke and dancing. They had hired a DJ and a bartender. I sat and listened to the first couple songs but then they started to play I Will Survive by Donna Summer. Consuelo and Natalia insisted that I come and "save" them because I spoke English. Not the most convincing argument, but I sang none the less. After a few more Spanish songs (which I just read along to) and another English song (You Are The One I Want from Grease) the cops came to bust up the party. Apparently we were being too loud. We tried to keep it down, but karaoke at a whisper isn't much fun. After that the party was pretty much over. I helped clean up and went to my room at about 4am. Then finally to sleep at 5am after talking with Flynn online for an hour.

Needless to say I needed plenty of sleep on Sunday. By the time I woke up at 1:30p most of the house had been put back together and by the time I had finished my breakfast you never would have guessed that there had been a party there the night before. I spent much of my Sunday the way I had spent my Saturday. I lounged around, read, and putzed around on the computer. I didn't take a siesta though. I didn't want to mess up my sleep pattern too much. Sunday night I went for a run. I ran for 20min, walked for 5min, ran for 40min, walked for 5min, ran for 5min, walked for 5min. When I got home I stretched and worked my Abs some. It felt great! I haven't run that well or with so little walking in ages. I really enjoyed it. According to mapmyrun.com I ran 5.5 miles.

After my run I came home, had dinner, and relaxed until bedtime. There was a big futbol match on last night so the kids were up watching that. Spain won and is going to the semifinals (or maybe quarterfinals) of the EuroCup for the first time in 22 years. It's pretty exciting.

After last nights run I decided that I'm ready to run a 10k race this fall. 10k is about 6.5 miles. Then I think I would like to start building up to run a marathon. I figure I should be ready to run one in a year or two. I could probably train hard and be ready within a couple months, but I'm not really in any hurry. I'll run some 10ks and half marathons to prepare. That's just something for me to keep in the back of my mind and start gearing towards.

Life here has been very comfortable. I haven't written much because I have found a nice day to day routine and not much out of the ordinary seems to be happening. That's find by me! I'm enjoying my time here. This week is the kids first week of summer vacation. We start morning lessons tomorrow. Our goal is to get them all done by the time I have to leave for work at noon. That way we all have our evenings to do with what we please.

Other than that I don't have much to report. Hasta luego.