Shopping

I am not crazy about going shopping. Basically, I only go shopping when I have to buy something specific. But for the last 2 weeks, I had the pleasure of shopping with my daughters :)
Last week L and I went shopping, she got some pants, tops and shoes. This week it was S and I, we went to the same store and she got some tops and shoes. It was fun shopping with my daughters, and seeing them trying things and finding something they liked (I found nothing for myself in either trip lol). I miss doing things like that with them more often, but we all live in different places and is hard to coincide, that's why it's always such a treat when I see them, especially if we do something together. Next week it will be shopping with T, he's going to stay with us while his school is off track.

Today is All Saint's Day in Spain. People go to the cemetery and adorn graves and basically party with the dead, like a holiday. There's special sweets called "panellets" usually made with pinenuts, yum. Say a prayer for your departed loved ones.

Tomorrow is back to work. Happily, parent teacher conferences are over!

Me too!

Well, OK, I didn't write anything in October, but because is nablopomo month, I guess I will try to write a little each day :)

Just got back home after a trip to Altadena to watch Berkley Hart. Awesome show. I really enjoyed it, especially because we were all there, M, girls, and T.

It's starting to look like fall... a little rain, cooler days, and also DST ends. Remember to turn your clocks back one hour tomorrow.

I'm way behind!

I haven't written yet about our visit to Burley, Idaho. I will soon.

I will try to do much better at writing in October.

September 24, 1964

This was the day M and I met in Barcelona. September 24 dia de la Merce, the patron saint of Barcelona.
It is the biggest annual festival in Barcelona http://www.bcn.cat/merce/en/merce-actual.shtml
M surprised me and gave me a beautiful white gold bracelet :) later on the day, we went out to dinner at El Torito Grill, my treat.
But the nicest thing was the beautiful letter he wrote me along with the bracelet. It made me cry.
I told him he should send it to the girls, so they could read about how their parents met. Maybe he will do so.
It was 44 years ago.

Idaho

And so, we moved to Idaho, because of M's work. First stop was Jerome. Now that was a smaller town than Dixon, and waaaaay farther away from the beach. We bought a cute 3 bedroom house with half an acre. We raised vegetables, and also bought a pony for S. Our second daughter was born there :)


That was my first time living in the cold snowy weather. One of my memories of Jerome, was waking up one morning and looking outside my window and seeing our pony's face looking back at me, somehow he got loose and was happily running around in the middle of a heavy snowstorm. M had already left for work, rain or shine there was always work to do. And I went outside, on my pajamas, with boots on and ran after the horse like a mad woman, until finally I caught his bridle and led him to his stable. Did I mention I was pregnant at the time? I also remember our first cat, a siamese that was evil incarnate. We didn't live in Jerome too long, just
from 1970 to 1973.


Jerome has grown some, it has more businesses, but the town itself is still the same, the downtown area has not changed, but the street where we lived looks different. It used to be in the country, with few houses around. Now there's many houses and trees. But again, I am glad I don't live there anymore.


By the way, we drove all around Twin Falls, and I could hardly remember anything about it, but M did, he was surprised I had forgotten many of the places in the town.

You can't go "home" again...

This July, I went on a memory trip to Northern California and Idaho. I wanted to see all the places I had lived in since I came to the US.

First stop was Dixon, California.

1965-1970 - That's the first town I lived in when I came to the US, a far cry from the big city of Barcelona. Dixon is a small town south of Sacramento, it has not grown much from the time I lived there .The very first place I lived in was a small house with 2 bedrooms, a backyard porch and a nice garden. After that, we lived in a one bedroom duplex. Our 3rd place was a duplex with 2 bedrooms (my mother was coming for the birth of my first daughter and we needed the extra room). After my mother left, we moved in with my in-laws. I didn't know how to drive and I was feeling very sad living there, so as soon as we could we moved to a 2 story apartment that was really cute. Some of my best memories of Dixon was living there. My English neighbors were members of the Peace Corps and we had parties which were fun. At that time I also started working at the Milk Farm. The last place I lived in Dixon, was a cute house with a great backyard. After that, we moved to Idaho.

The places I lived in have not aged well. The first 2 places are in what now is "the Mexican side of town". the only place that still looks OK is the last house we lived in.

All in all, I am happy I don't live there anymore. Although there were many good memories like having my first baby, and making some good friends, there were also memories of being lonely, away from my family, and away from the city I loved.

Next time I will write about Idaho :)

On a roll !