I carry your heart (I carry it in my heart)

In honor of el dia de San Valentin, I have entitled my blog with a line from an e.e. cummings poem... which I also stole from Francisco's facebook status. I thought it was fitting, since we're all so far apart and I know I carry you with me wherever I go, you're two of the most important people in my life so I wish you a happy happy valentine's day. Now, the only thing we need now are truffles... I mean, I had a dream about truffles the other night, but frankly and raw-egg-filled truffle does not exactly suit my fancy. Moving on...

I am obviously still in Hartford... I thought El Paso was bad, but hey, at least it's close to Mexico. Last week I decided to pull a Marquez and take off to Northampton, MA to eat dinner with the lovely Malia and go to an Andrea Gibson Spoken Word event. Both were absolutely phenomenal. It's strange getting to know Malia after so many years of not really spending any time with her. It's nice. I wish I had spent more time with her during my time at Cornell. Andrea Gibson is a fucking phenomenal poet, I recommend that all of you go to her website and read some of her poems because that woman has a way of phrasing life that astounds me and reaches into my soul and brings me to tears.... in a good way of course.

Last weekend, my housemate Chrissa and I had a potluck for our PeaceJam mentors. As always it was very tasty. A couple of my Cornell friends also came over... Nancy, Emily, and Bart. It was nice to see them. 

Wow, I feel like I'm living a hideously boring life right now. What can I tell you of interest?

I'm hosting a benefit for Haiti with money going to Christian Haitian Outreach and GHESKIO. As such, I'm crafting like crazy, I believe I have about 5 crocheted hats, several pairs of earrings, and a necklace for sale. I'm going to craft more tonight and see if I can get more stuff together for this thing. I don't think it'll be all that successful, but perhaps we'll get at least $200. That would be okay. (Wow, that's nothing). 

I'm going to Memphis next weekend for PeaceJam and I'm sincerely hoping that I get to go to Graceland. That would be AWESOME!

Oh, important information. My kiswahili professor does know who I am, he just couldn't hear me very well over the phone. Hualelah! I might actually get into grad school. 

Tootles my lovelies, I'm going to attempt to write some poetry I can post. I feel the urge for creativity to seep from my pores. 

Wynken

"santa fe" is not only a city, but a gene trait.

well dearest wynken and nod i have come to the conclusion that the both of you have the amazing ability to smoothly spill out words of poetry and wisdom with out even thinking twice, or trying, i on the other hand have unfortunately not been passed down that wonderful gift so if my speech corrupts the flow of the writing i apologize in advance.

So i take back what i said about not meeting anyone who has really gotten it. thats BULLSHIT. BULLSHIT THATS WHAT I SAYY! hah little innuendo to drinkin out of cups ther haha...anyway on saturday i went to the duomo and the plaza with two of my friends lucrezia (who i'm pretty sure ton would fall in love with if he met her) and elena who are definitely some of the most down people i have met here and we had a fantastic conversation about north vs. south and the mindset between the people and they are both on our terms yay! Anyway later on we met up with milla (camilla), and a couple others including the new exchange student from south africa who is incredibly different from me its hilarious! but no shes really cool, but i must say i got a bit agitated when she started talking about food. (she has an enlish type accent you know how it goes) ex. "oh theres this place in south africa that just absolutttely has the best hamburgers, not like american burgers either these were thick!"..bitch. she has no flippin idea. and then went on to say "oh i just love mexican food theres this place in south africa where you can get a whole glass of a margarita and a whole plateful of nachos for only five euros!"..oh god i'm such an asshole but i seriously wanted to lash out. that woman has most likely never had real mexican food hah! okay anyways...........

that same night i cooked for my familia, sum fajitas, calabacitas, tortillas and guacamole. I must say that i was pretty flippin worried at first because not only was i to cook for 9 people (6 being men, meaning that they eat more, 8 being italian, meaning that they eat more) but also because they dont have a lot of ingredients here, like sour cream, yellow squash,cheddar cheese, proper baking powder and so on. So anyway i had all the food laid out and just sort of stared at it for awhile and started laughing and when they asked how they could help i had no idea what to say because i really had no idea what i was doing either! but luckily after those 5 minutes of contemplating what to do i threw the instructions to the side and decided to wing it like any good marquez should. and let me tell you thank god for our spanish/mexican blood, and our ability to make things up as we go with the outcome usually being fantastic, oh p.s. i also got luca to help me make the tortillas which was hilarious we whipped them out like pros and throughout the night he proceeded on to yell "MESSICO MESSICO MESSICO YAYY!' hah and also proceeded to ask me some ridiculous questions throughout the dinner. i was also asked that night if there were hippies in santa fe and if i knew any...haha! well being that thats most of the population of santa fe yes yes i do! oh if only they knew.

sidenote,(i'm following camilas lead)..later that night after we went to a pub we were lounging around outside, and one of the kids sat on the grass which you know is totally normal but everyone like freaked out "che SCHIFO!" which means disgusting..and long story short i was happy the kid stayed where he was. oh i long to lay in a park, my feet need to feel grass and not cement for a least a little while.

sidenote 2, after that they told me that the person standing next to me believed in ghosts and how ridiculous they thought that was..to which i told them that ah well i do so i told them my ghost story hah! this town needs a little superstition.

The next day i went to a soccer match between milan and some other italian team. we sat in the area where everyone constanty sings and chants and i tried to join along but ultimately failed so i just clapped and nodded my head in happiness. p.s. david beckham plays for milan. thats really the only reason i agreed to go. yay.


Going back a few days, on friday we went to mama patsys mums house for dinner to celebrate the birthdays of two of her siblings. the set up was pretty fancy and everyone was dressed really nice, but there was a woman there from teh phillipines as well who was the housekeeper/nanny. she sat at our table and i started talking to her. as nice as everyone else was i realized how much more interested i was in hearing what she had to say above anybody else. maybe this is because talk of the mountains and uranium in new mexico dont particularly interest me, or maybe because i finally got a chance to talk tos omeone i knew had had a different life than the rest of those who i've been surrounded by. one that was not filled with luxuries, and pollution. she showed me some pictures of the phillilpines and a trip she took to help people who had been struck by a terrible typhoon or hypoon...(bah they sound the same.) anyway i asked her if she missed home (she had only been back 3 or 4 times in the past 8 years) to which she replyed "theres no place like home".

p.s. also during my dinner, a conversation came up about the forest of sequoyas..haha i really couldnt help but laugh.
"now climb that tree"..
"what the sequoia?"

we really gotta find that video. :)

i love you both so much
bacimille
blynken