So the past six weeks have been nothing short of crazy. And I mean C-R-A-Z-Y. It’s been one of those spin cycles where I don’t remember having a moment to breathe, and I’m a girl who lives for downtime and being in control. But that wasn’t my reality. Allow me to break it down:
- Fast-tracked job interviews.
- Finalized my acceptance the morning I left for a fabulous two-week vacation in Portugal.
- Came home.
- Quit my old job.
- And am now gearing up for a whole new professional life, which in a lot of ways means whole new life life (hello, commute that doesn’t involve getting on the subway ever again. Love love love that part!)
And I know these aren’t bad things, but it was a lot to juggle. (I know…bitch, moan, bitch, moan…I got a new job and went on vacation…cry me a fricking river. I know, I'm in position to complaint...just trying to lend a little perspective to why I’ve been off the map.)
There was the typical post-vacation blues, which included the dreaded unpacking and the dreaded dealing with all the crap I debated packing and instead left piled on the couch. (And for the record I was totally over the suitcase weight limit and got dinged on both ends for it. That epically sucked.)
Then there’s the typical emotional crazy that comes with endings and beginnings. Yes, I surprised a few people when I got all girly-girl and shed some tears on the final day. But in all fairness, there was champagne and cupcakes and then some wine involved. The cupcakes have nothing to do with the crying, but they were fun so wanted to toss those in!
Factor in my needing to return far too many impulse-shopping purchases (this is what happens when I lose control). I just read an article about an epidemic of sipping-and-clicking (great name!) aka drunk shopping. Sadly I was sober for all my purchases so I have no excuse. I’m fairly certain my horoscope said I was trying to fill some sort of emotional void. That may be another reason I cried. LOL! I also have far too much good TV to catch up on (and by “good” I of course mean totally-indulgent-and-at-times-shameful) and came home to a pile of mail and September issues of about a dozen magazines. What can I say? Life has felt really overwhelming lately.
So where do I begin?
I suppose at the beginning. Or at least in Portugal.
I won’t even pretend to sugar coat it. The trip was ahh-may-zing. It was a total 180 from last year, which was one big party and I was stuck in one big rut. I certainly had fun last year (um, how could I *not*), but this year was more like one long day at the beach with some partying and shopping in between. (And is it just me or is shopping with euros kind of like shopping with Monopoly money? I mean I did think a *little* harder about my overseas buys since I can’t conceivably return them. Okay that’s a lie…I didn’t think too hard, but whatever, I love my new accessories!) On top of that, I actually got a tan, totally let go and had a blast. Allow me to demonstrate some highlights:
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| The beach in Cascais (aka home away from home) |
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| View of Lisbon |
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| Cathedral in Lisbon |
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| The beach in Adraga. Not so sunny but made for some amazing pictures. Plus good food and great wine at the beach restaurant! |
And then there was the token vacation theme song that was played at every club, bar, and thanks to a fabulous CD we got at the supermarket, it earned a lot of airtime in our rental car. Now I should explain, that while there are many nice boys in Portugal, there are a lot of annoying ones at the bars that seem to have zero shame and an incredible amount of persistence. Hence, this tune was super appropriate (and it’s just a damn great song):
Now last year we spent a few days in wine country, stomping grapes and drinking wine. We decided to stay local this year, but did make a day trip to Fatima. Now if you are wondering “what’s up with Fatima?” then you are in good company because it appeared I was the only person on the entire planet who didn’t know the legend of Fatima. Long story short, it is said the Virgin Mary appeared to three Shepard children in 1917 and the place has become a sacred destination for millions each year. (Happily not millions on the day we were there!):
I know I should be embarrassed to not know anything about this, given I spent a lot of years in CCD classes. Though truth be told I kind of lost faith in that process somewhere in elementary school when the teacher, in an effort to show why bullying was mean, decided to make a play on my name and repeatedly called me “Egghead” in front of the class. She taunted me (or at least that’s how it feels in my memory) and all the other kids in the class laughed at me as she chanted “Egghead! Egghead!”. Thanks to her, this nickname and the teasing stuck with my classmates for a while. Gee, thanks. I mean is this what Jesus would have done to an innocent child spending in her Saturdays in religious education? I’d like to think not.
But anychildhoodtrauma, the experience in Fatima turned out to be much more than I expected. I don’t mean to get all serious on you, but it was a pretty surreal experience. There were some visitors who camped out and others who literally approached the shrine on their knees, in penance. And if you look at the plaza you will see this was not a short distance. But what was most interesting to me is that The Basilica of Fatima isn’t necessarily a place of worship, but more of a place of prayer and thanks, a place to pay tribute, to light candles and make your own silent wishes and vows. I suppose, as with anything, it’s what you make of it.
I was completed impressed with the architecture and just the vast size of the plaza. But what I was most in awe of was the “candle lighting”, if I can even call it that. You can buy candles (for those wishes and favors and vows) and then place them in what is essentially a giant open fire pit next to the Shrine of Fatima. I was completely unprepared for how hot the open flames were and well, how scary the giant open flames would be. Especially with the wind whipping around. And all the small children around, who being typical children seemed to have zero fear about sticking their hands into an open fire pit. I was full on shaking-like-a-leaf because I was convinced that if I didn’t at least burn my hand then my sunglasses would definitely melt into my face. Seriously. An indescribable heat. But I did it and must confess, I’m glad we went. It was very much what I would consider a once in a lifetime experience.
We were also lucky enough to be in Cascais during the America’s Cup (who knew?), which meant not only were there tons of sailors in town (Yahtzee!) but there were tons of parties and free concerts and live events. So we danced and played and met all sorts of people, which let’s face it, is so much of what vacation is really about.
I have to say one of my favorite things is discovering new music (even if that music is fifteen years old and I just forgot how great it was). The funny thing about MTV in Portugal is a lot of the music is a decade behind and they do these little video montages where they play snippets of about 15 videos. The problem is they had two montages in rotation so after two weeks I was desperate to hear the full version of countless songs. I was also desperate to figure out some of the songs in the montages that we didn’t know…hence the discovering of new, but not new new music.
I think the first thing I did when I got home was download the songs I didn’t have and added them to the ones I did have into a playlist. Now I will fully ride the wave of these songs for entries to come, but for now, this is the one taking the cake. Bummed I couldn't find the actual video since I saw snippets of it fourteen days straight so I know it exists:
I would also suggest checking out “You’re Fit But You Know It”, also by The Streets, which was a One Tree Hill Season 2 find. (Sidebar…Chad Michael Murray is going to do some Lucas guest appearances for the final season. Um, thank you TV gods for making my Tuesday nights that much sweeter. Double sidebar…I’m crazy excited for the new Sarah Michele Gellar show Ringer. She had me at Swan’s Crossing.)
But back to Portugal (I wish I was back in Portugal….on the beach….drinking sangria), it was amazing. And is officially the annual girls trip. And this year’s coming to an end just means we get to start planning next year’s. And the entire trip came full circle in that it was raining when we landed and after the rain let up we went to a soccer (er, football) game and saw fireworks. On our last night, we got to see the end of a James free concert and once again, fireworks. And as fate would have it, it rained when we left, which is the only thing that helped us be a little less sad about heading to the airport instead of the beach.
So that’s it for me. Honestly I want to get ready to tune into Rachel Zoe on QVC. Her new luxe line is premiering and I’m a sucker for her. I’m almost done catching up on everything on my DVR (I've become derailed with the US Open too...again, who knew?) and with all the new shows coming out and the ones that are already going (Rachel Zoe, Real Housewives of BH, The Lying Game) there’s a good chance I’m going to be filling future blogs with my TV addiction. Consider yourself warned.
Until then, I leave you with a little bit of 1993. Happy listening!!!
