What Barcelona got right

There are lots of things that Barcelona does right as a city...

Great public transportation
Awesome Christmas lights
Preserving their great architectural landmarks
Cheap and good Spanish wine
Not making a big deal about Valentine's day. 

Thank goodness for that last one!  talk about an over-hyped manufactured "holiday" that drives me nuts!

But some of the window displays were pretty.

on Carrer de Carme in El Raval

Somewhere in Barri Gothic

Another cute shop in Barri Gothic

My friends & I were trying to find this great little wine bar we'd gone to on Friday night... and ended up walking some chocolate-lover's paradise of a shopping route.  I mean, we couldn't have found all these great chocolate shops if we'd been looking for them... but just because we weren't intending on finding cupcakes, cookies, pastries and chocolates - we couldn't turn a corner without finding another great shop.  Open on Sunday. 

What wasn't open on Sunday?
 That wine bar.

That first Rioja - Gavanza at EUR 3,50 - a winner!

This is the place.  They're smart to put a map on the back of the card... it's so hard to find places again.

Back in L.A. - and what I miss about BCN

I made it "home" - back to Los Angeles, the city I love.  But I no longer have a home.  

My suitcases will be in full usage as I will be hopping all around town and road tripping throughout the summer.  Why return to Barcelona for August when everything is shut down?

Good morning dead battery!

Yep, after 7 weeks of sitting in the driveway, my car battery was dead.  Not just drained - but completely dead.  At least I had almost a half a tank of gas left... 

Ok, fine... I'll take a new battery, Mr. Triple A man.  

I just need to get to Beverly Hills from Westchester by 10 am.  

30 minutes? That should be fine.

Hello 405.  Thank you for reminding me why I hate you.  15 mph on a thursday at 9:30 am? why?

Santa Monica Blvd - that was my mistake - shoulda taken Wilshire.  I know better than that.

15 minutes late for my appointment.  How dare I blame traffic - but it was true... but, oh forget it. everyone else was late too.

Is everyone heading out of town today?  

I thought it was a 3-day weekend, not 4!  

405 wasn't bad enough, eh? the 10 East - crawling.  

stop... roll forward a bit... stop... repeat... agonizing.  

At least no one was heading south on the 110 or west on the 105 this afternoon.  

I miss not having to drive.

I miss how everything is fairly nearby in Barcelona.

I love their mass transit system.  

I miss my new friends.

I miss being able to eat a croissant with my coffee in the morning - and being able to justify it due to my daily 3-4 mile walks.  

I don't miss the food there.

I had the most kick-ass Ramen at lunch today with my dad.

And this sunday - that's right - we're having Carne Asada from Sanchez Carniceria.  (swoon)

One part of the 90's that should just die.

Me:  I just don't get it - any of it...

Mick:  Remember how cell phone plans were in the 90's? 

Me: (gasp!)

Mick: Don't bother with a plan.  just get one of those pay-as-you-go cards. 

I'm happy to have this phone, but it seems to cause me more grief than if I didn't have one at all. 

• It texts, but I usually give up on a text after 2 minutes of trying to compose one. Remember hitting a key 3 times to get to the "f"... but if you missed, you'd have to go through the 3-d-e again to get to "f"? not on this phone - you get to go through all the variations of "e" with all the accents. 
• changing the language from spanish to english has helped... but I still go through the menu wondering what half of it means.
• The text alerts are silent, but I can't get the ringer silenced.  I want the opposite! 
• the phone rang in class - but the texts are always a surprise... with no time stamp.
• it doesn't even take pictures.

This little Nokia flip phone was my mom's old phone, which still has half of her contacts in - so i just quit scrolling through looking for my contacts.  It shouldn't be so difficult, but I have some sort of road-block in my brain that simply does not want to re-learn this old technology. 

I was so happy when I left my last job with the MCMfan - and returned the second iPhone that I was carrying around all the time.  I'm back to carrying 2 phones.  One to enjoy music with & take pictures - and sometimes find myself with a map... the other to take out of my purse, look at blankly, and shove back into the purse without even using just because I get so frustrated with it, and simply shut down.

At least the charge lasts for 4 days.