Back in the land of cheesesteaks, oversized cars, drive-thrus, excessive electronics, cereal aisles… Every time I leave Madrid for native lands it’s as if I’ve stepped into another dimension, as if the excruciating plane ride across the Atlantic were really a reality warp. Finally there are people who speak the language of sarcasm. Who say “water ice” the correct way and like eating greasy food. Funny that my first outing here was a reunion with my cousins at PYT Burger in Northern Liberties, complete with longed-for entire bottles of ketchup, shoestring fries, and juicy gourmet burgers.
Of course, actually being inside my home is my own brand of reality. Enough tv screens to confuse the already attention-deficit mind. Back-to-back episodes of Sex and the City. Home-made chicken wings and Shanghai vegetables. New animal additions to the household: Hermione the cat and Rudy, my sister’s dog. New human addition to the household: my sister, recently back from Chicago.
And of course there’s always the reoccurring existentialist doubts which plague the months of May through August. Extra time makes the mind wander, mostly in circles. There are always so many things I COULD be doing that on some days I end up choosing the vegetable path. This summer, it’s down to business:
- Some travel article and essay writing. Check out my page and articles on the Hedgehog Guides Madrid page
- Stay tuned for The PLUM plum, a new online ´zine under construction, brought to you by the tumor twins
- It´s time to polish up some poems long kept in the shoebox part of the computer and send them to some literary magazines
- Studying for the Spanish DELE diploma
- Reading and blogging and reliving old memories with my sister
Up and coming: Turkey trip log. Some new poems. New essays. Mind mush.
Happy summer all!
mabel lee 