Decompression

(photo: the Terazza at night)

Highlights of the 4^th of July Party:

• The bird who pooped on my party guests while on the terrace

• Laura had a mini make up party during the barbecue with a few if the gals.
  

• I have a cup with Kristen's balls in it: She loves to wear necklaces with big clunky beads and then she plays with them. And then they break. And then little balls are everywhere. Very dangerous on a terrace. I found the last of them while cleaning.
  

• Grease fire! How can there be a party without one? (quickly extinguished – i know the drill). This little electric grill fills up with grease quickly.

• Laura's chicken nuggets

• Nicole's beef and chicken

• Rebecca's brownies

• NY style hot dogs with sweet onion sauce

• Alphonso smelling onions out in the street before he rang the bell

• Watching Mets / Phils over the Internet

• The last 4 people here were all Spanish

• Party ends at 5:30 with birds circling. We had learned or lesson.

Run to the hills
Run for your lives
-Iron Maiden

Today I cleaned up and mopped everything, even the terrace. The house is spanking clean. Hooray. It took long enough.

I watched the insane Sunday game with the Mets and Phils, with a 2 hour plus rain delay and then it went 12 innings after Wagner blew the save. But they won!

Tomorrow: room cleaning and packing. I won't bring much. Most of my sh*t is on that side of the Atlantic.

Coming home. It always seems so surreal. And then i get there and time has passed even though i haven't been there to see it. Time has some gall!

But this place is home too. I finally have a nice flat i can have guests over too. The terrace is nice and cool at night. When it's hot I just sleep out there and wake up at five to the birds. Then i run to bed and go back to sleep.

I was thinking today, it's been good to have this week at home to decompress. Last year i decompressed in London. This year in Madrid.

T -9 and counting. Prepare for re-entry in less than 72 hours.

It's 3:16 am on lunes morning. Good night people! I hope you had a good 4^th of July weekend. We Americans here in Madrid sure as hell did.