Bodas de Ouro - 50th Wedding Anniversary

I have a lot of theories about the world. This should be already very clear for those who know me as I'm constantly saying "I have a theory that xyz is happening because..." and then I go into rather long digressions about life.

One of my theories is the "marriage wave" - as I'm surrounded by wedding invitations from friends, co-workers and acquaintances, I'm left to ponder why they happen at the same time. But, as I'm a cynical daughter of divorced parents, I believe that this is only the first "marriage wave" - about half of the marriages will end in divorce. Therefore we will have a "divorce wave" and people will remarry afterward on the "second marriage wave".

As I'm approaching 30 and I expect at least half the marriages to end in divorce, we will see very few 50th Wedding Anniversaries when we get old.

I went to see Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project here at Harvard a couple of weeks ago. The concert was amazing, I had a great time in great company. Yo-Yo Ma received an award at the end of the concert for his effort to promote education and art. The award was named "Thelma E. Goldberg Arts in Education Award" because it was the 50th Anniversary gift that Thelma Goldberg's husband (HBS professor Ray Goldberg) gave to her - an award to foster art and education with her name.

I thought that this was one of the most beautiful gifts that someone could offer a loved one after a 50 years shared life. They not only wanted to celebrate their life together but they also wanted to share their passion to arts and education with the society. I have to say that I think that couples that after 50 years want to celebrate their marriage are one of the things that make me emotional (yes, this is my kind of kitsch).

And then I dawned me: the probability that I will ever have a 50th Anniversary are very very slim. And that is kind of sad.

Feverish hallucinations

Whenever I get a fever, I have weird dreams.
I had a fever last night and I mistook my room here for my room in Sao Paulo.
I dreamed that it was all a nightmare and I would wake up safely in my green room.

But I woke up here.

Serendipity

One of my favorite feelings is discovering by chance a new favorite restaurant. You may never come back to the place - but the feeling of stumbling upon a restaurant you love is just magical. The mixture of luck and good food is just extraordinary and makes me so happy. This is one of the beauties of cities: you can have those lucky encounters any day.

I have to be honest about 2 things:

• I don't believe in "cosmic significance" or "signs"
• That said - when I discover a place that I really like by luck, it automatically becomes one of my favorite places.
  

I had long conversations with my friends lately about the role of fate. And some quotes really stuck on my head - although I don't like to think things are not meant to be, I do love lucky coincidences. Even if it's just to make my life a little bit more beautiful

"You can't ascribe great cosmic significance to a simple earthly event. Coincidence, that's all anything ever is, nothing more than coincidence. There are no miracles. There is no such thing as fate. Nothing is meant to be." - (500) days of Summer (yes, it's chick flick)

"Quien no lo sepa ya
lo aprenderá de prisa:
la vida no para,
no espera, no avisa.
Tantos planes, tantos planes
vueltos espuma
tu, por ejemplo,
tan a tiempo
y tan
inoportuna"
Jorge Drexler - Inoportuna

"Our day-to-day life is bombarded with fortuities or, to be more precise, with the accidental meeting of people and events that we call coincidence. "Co-incidence" means that two events unexpectedly happen at the same time, they meet: Tomas appears at the restaurant at the same time the radio is playing Beethoven. We do not even notice the great majority of such coincidences. If the seat Tomas occupied had been occupied by the local butcher, Tereza never would have noticed that the radio was playing Beethoven (though the meeting of Beethoven and the butcher would also have been an interesting coincidence). But her nascent love inflamed her sense of beauty, and she would never forget that music. Whenever she heard it, she would be touched." Milan Kundera - The unbearable lightness of being.

Defining Gisela

Gisela is a city.
Gisela, Arizona, has a population of 532.
It was founded by miners in the late XIX century. The city was named Gisela because the children were reading the book "Countess Gisela" in school and voted that the settlement should be called Gisela after the book.
It's located near the Tonto National Park
21% of the men are firemen - constantly controlling the clash of the high temperatures and the National Park.

Should Gisela, Arizona, even exist?

We're not in Kansas anymore, Toto

I'm back in Cambridge, MA. I'm no longer living in a Latin-American megalopolis. I'm back at the MPA/ID classes. But I have decided to continue this blog.

It was a road-blog to begin with. And I'm still on the road, trying to figure out a ton of things.

Le vent nous portera

Blame it on the wind. Blame it on the stars. Blame it on the fall season. Blame it on the moon.

"I shouldn’t tell you
but this moon
but this cognac
leave us moved like the devil."

Carlos Drummond de Andrade

Boston soundtrack of the day

Garbage - I'm only happy when it rains

Madonna - Rain

Phil Collins - I wish it would rain down

Burt Bacharah - Raindrops keep falling on my head

Gene Kelly - Singing in the rain

Prince - Purple Rain

Prince - Purple Rain (Live Original)
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