Not So Deep Thoughts

My friend Justin once said of me, “Paul may be slow, but he always manages to get there, even if it takes years.”  As a person who has seen me through most of my major relationships, my journeys from here to there, both emotional and quantifiable by physical distance, I think he’s pretty spot on.

Some people leap blindfolded into the future on the wings of a trust that all will inevitably turn out ok.  Others like to stare at their feet as they shuffle forward baby step by baby step, never risking a misstep that would send them tumbling into “unknown dangerous territory” (aka. New Jersey.)

I think I’ve always bordered on the over-analytical approach to scuttling my way down the yellow-brick road of life.  Often trying to wrap my mind around logic-defying situations (e.g. most relationships) until I eked out a grain of something resembling rationality, immobilized until I managed to do so.

For those who endured this futile praxis, I can assure you that I did it with the best of intentions.  And upon reflection, if any progress was made in forward directions, baby steps or trans-atlantic steps, I’d gamble that it was in spite of this habit not as a result of it.

Well, years have passed since Justin spoke those words, and I think (and hope) that I’ve managed to pick up the pace a bit.  Spending less time stopping to examine the map every time I feel lost (often holding it upside-down) and more time just letting life take me downstream and figuring it out as I go.

Some rather large baby steps have been taken lately and the results have been spectacular.  Vanesa and I are now living together, and we’re doing so swimmingly. Got me an office job and I’ll be finishing up my music studies soon. And after five long years I finally have residency and the card to prove it.

See!

Life is good. Period.

I still got some more grown up stuff to do, like things to do with bank accounts and bills and address changes… or things like updating my blog more often. But I say they can wait, I’m still in my 20s, I’m young and I got some more living to do! I’ll leave those responsibilities for when I’m 30.

Peace.

How you been?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/

So, I’ve just spent the last week bumming around Nathan and Edurne’s pad, down here in Albondon, Spain; going down to the beach, sitting around the terrace, composing, taking walks, playing video games, reading, just lazing about really.

And I’ve been so busy doing these certain types of nothing that I haven’t had ‘time’ to do anything with my blog.

Funny, whether I’m running around like a chicken with its head cut off or lounging around the house, it’s still a trial to get this blog running.

Well, at least next week I’ll have an excuse.  Vanesa and I are taking off in a few minutes to head off to a house on the coast in the south-east of Spain.  We’ll be there pretty much until we feel like going back to Madrid or we have to start working (Aug 28th.)

And there’s no internet in this house!  So, I finally have an excuse for not updating.

See you in September!!!!

Happy Summering!

Paul

Tee hee

Last night I got a phone call from my father informing me that his mother-in-law Bombi had just passed away.

Bombi and Papa, husband and wife since they were two bright eyed youngins, together formed the nucleus of the Cassinari family. And when my father married Carol, they were first in line to invite us 4 siblings into the clan.

Bombi was a real marvelous woman. She would light up any room she came into. One look at that smile of hers in the picture above will pretty much explain that. She will be missed, and she’ll be thought of often and fondly for many years to come.

I’ve a candle burning for her, Papa, Carol, Dad and the rest of the family who are surely open to any white light that can be sent their way.

Much love to you all.

Paul

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/xrShK-NVMIU" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Tee hee!!!  Makes me wish I had at least minored in Philosophy whilst I was at university.  Nevertheless, I got a good giggle out of it.

Back in the homeland, my sister, the photographer, introduced me to the magazine JPG – a magazine whose content is made up of submissions made by the subscribers/members of the website. Basically, you create a user and upload the best of your photos that suit the themes that have created for future publications of the magazine.

The users submit a photo to a theme (Next Edition: Noir, Split Second, Surrounding) and the community votes Yes (Right on!) or No (Not this time).  After weeks of voting the most popular of the 1,000s of photos submitted rise to the top and the editors  choose their picks.

Meanwhile, users leave comments, props, add various photos to their ‘favorites’ list and in general keep the atmosphere positive and enjoyable.

So, me and my other 3 siblings are now competing to see who’s the first to get published.  I have a few decent photos up that are hoping will make the cut, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed that y’all will sign up and vote Right On for all my photos no matter how cruddy they may be.

Back to work and onto coffee #3.

It’s almost 8AM and that jetlag was frickin’ relentless.

Did get a few hundred pages through my book though…  That’s a plus.

This is going to be a fun day.

It’s 4:00 in the morning and I’ve been stirring in my bed, unable to drift back into sleep and unable to think about anything other than a snippet of a dream that I was able to snatch during a moment of sleep I managed to get and which is why I’m sitting here in the dark, squinting into the brightness of a computer monitor, just so I can get it out of my head and onto ‘paper.’

The dream of which I speak is one where I started off fighting urban warfare style in an elite military special-op squad and ended up in ‘a place’ seeing (foreseeing?) how I’m going to propose to my wife. I know I’m single and far off from getting hitched, but I’ve always had a soft spot for those stories we hear about how so-and-so proposed to his lady so-and-so. The kind of story like where a young lady awaits her boyfriend’s arrival at an airport terminal just outside his gate (back in the day), and when the plane lands and the people start to appear from the jetway, she sees each one exit holding a rose in their hand. They are looking at a small picture which they’re holding with the other hand and, after scanning the crowd, they all begin to walk towards her. Each one gives her a rose and passes on without a word. Once every last person from the plane has done so, she looks towards the gate, arms overflowing with roses, to see her boyfriend, beaming at her and holding a small black box in his hand, and he asks her to marry her. ::cue tears::  Well, that’s what kinda dream it was

I too often hear about a couple pre-planning a marriage so much, that the presentation of the engagement ring is more like an expected formality rather than unanticipated popping of The Question., which, in my opinion, takes all the fun out of it. Ask first, plan later, I say. If she says no, then I hope I have a receipt. But there’s always something nice about a romantic and imaginative, yet not cheesy, way of proposing to someone.

So, how did I do it, you ask? Well, that would take all the fun out of it. Plus, what if she reads this? Then it wouldn’t be much of a surprise, now would it? So, if you or anyone you know is a 6-foot-tall Chinese woman with curly blonde hair and with one blue eye and one green eye, let me know.

Oh, and I’m back from the states safe and sound. A nice and pleasant trip back home it was. Photos to come soon.

Ok. There. Done. Out of my head. Now, if only this obnoxious jetlag will let me go back to sleep.