Lost in blogger land

It has been a while, I know I haven't updated. But, since Amanda and Paco seems to be the only ones that follow my blog, and they pretty much know exactly what is going on with my life on a daily basis, I haven't felt much urgency to update. And, besides, my life is not too exciting; I really haven't been up to much.
Work pretty much consumes mine and Paco's lives, so when the weekend comes I am just content to be at home doing anything and nothing in particular. We all know that I am not one for a smokey bar at 2am, or 7am, as the case may be here in spain.

So here are the highlights of the past month (or "dim"lights, based on your perspective....my glass tends to be half empty!)

• I turned 29....urg, am I really publishing that on the internet? It was quite an uneventful event, especially since it fell on a monday. On Sunday, my friend Amanda had a nice dinner in my honor at her apartment complete with a Betty Crocker cake....YUM! So, that was fun! And, my class on Tuesday evenings (with four boys ages 7-9) threw me a surprise party. They are kind of like Jack, any excuse to have a party! But, still it was nice.
  
  
  





• The weekend just prior to my bday we attended Paco's cousin's wedding. It was a very nice, albeit interesting event. Paco's cousin is a very unique individual and that was certainly reflected in his wedding. One thing that was very interesting, that I didn't realize, despite my experience with Spanish weddings, is that the cake is cut with a sword! Check out the pics.
  
  

• Other than that, some bday sushi, a few birthday packages (thanks mom and jess!) lots of flowers and another year under my belt. I am quite depressed about my last year of being in my 20's.
  
  
• I have taken to reading again recently, a favorite passtime of mine that I had abandoned since I started gradschool and continued to be abandoned due to my hectic schedule. I have read similar but two very interesting books. Although they are both written originally written in English but circumstatially I read both in Spanish. (One was a birthday gift and the other was lent to me by a student's mother.) I don't think anything was lost in translation, but I might have to read them in English to check. In any case, both I highly recommend. They are easy reads and if you enjoy books like The Diary of Anne Frank, you will fly through these: When Hitler Stole the Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr and The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne.
  
  
• I am signed up to run a half marathon with Javi April 6. My training schedule is less than optimal (I use the term training schedule extreemly loosely) but I stress that it is a HALF marathon and my only goal is to run it....I am not in it to win!
  
  
• We started to look at sites here in Madrid and the surrounding area for the wedding. We haven't decided for sure that we want to do it here, but I think we are leaning that way. There are so many factors involved for us just choosing the location that I don't know if I can go through with a whole wedding planning process. I mean looking at magazines and websites is fun, but actually choosing (and thinking about paying for) all of this is completely overwhelming. One pro for Spain is that there are less decisions to make. Here the site coordinators choose most things for you. So, unless you want something really particular you don't have to worry about every minute detail. Still, we'll see. Some of Paco's friends are lobbying for a NYC wedding! I am thinking if I could get over the stigma of saying "I got married in Vegas" that would be my choice.
  
  
• Last but not least, a child related anecdote:
  
  Every Wednesday I take groups of my second graders out of class to prepare for the Trinity College oral English exam that they will do in the spring. I have to ask questions and get the students to interact with me in conversation about their everyday life. Of course there are some questions about family. One as simple as "what is your daddy's name?" however shocked me. In the US I would have been more careful about this question, but in my 2nd grade class the majority of children come from intact stable homes...I thought. When I asked Saul that simple question "what is your daddy's name?" He told me he didn't know. Uh-oh I thought, because sure enough a "how do you say" was coming. Saul asked me "how do you say that I don't have a daddy and that I don't know who my daddy is because my mommy had the sperm implanted in her and we never knew who the daddy was?"

Geez, Saul, sorry I just don't know how to say that one!