Great question, hmm… I’ll second The Great Gatsby, but it’s so hard to narrow it down to one, I guess if I had to the one that springs to my mind right now is Herman Hesse’s Siddartha, but that could change by morning time, gotta ponder this one a bit more.

Love this video! thanks.

Wow, Mary… how beautiful, thank you so much for sharing your travels with us, I can always use a little vicarious adventure :)

Ahh…The Cruel Shoes, that was a hilarious short story! No, new shoes don’t change my life much more that a new shade of lipstick makes my problems go away, but a great pedicure can work wonders on the spirit :)

Not only is he as much of a candidate but he is AHEAD… they both have a right to be in the fight but should really be clear about the fact that the fight should be against McCain and four more years of the Bush administration, not about destroying each other. Make your case about why you would be a better candidate not why your opponent would be a worse one, I think we’re all tired of slash and burn politics.

I yearn for alone time, my husband and I work together, and don’t get me wrong, I love the guy, there’s no way to survive our working and living arrangement if I didn’t, but he needs to NOT be alone much more than I do, and when every once in a while he goes away on a job while I’m on another I cherish my alone time, first thing I do is hit a bookstore and read, read, read, and I’m happy for three, four days, after that I notice myself turning on the TV and leaving it on whatever channel he would normally be watching (c’mon, really? Laker games?…) and I realize my life becomes one of those “be careful what you wish for” scenarios.

Such a great question and such wonderful responses… this is something I’ve pondered often, I always felt a twinge of envy for anyone who felt rooted to a place, those that can say “when I die, sprinkle my ashes over _______”. I suppose it’s due to being born in Cuba, leaving when I was a young child and living in this country I always felt without a place, didn’t feel 100% Cuban and didn’t feel 100% American. I’ve lived in Spain and have spent a lot of time there over the years, and the only time I ever got an inkling of feeling grounded anywhere was on the island of Menorca, but even so… At a time when I am faced with selling my home of 10 years, a place where I thought I would be live for quite a lot longer, I’m filled with wanderlust. If I could feasibly do it I would pack up and go somewhere very far away (New Zealand? Africa? France?, I currently live in Malibu, Ca, by the way, and have been in Southern California forever, though I grew up in Brooklyn). At any rate, what I’m getting at is that I think I am finally in a place where I’m not searching for a place, I feel rooted in myself for the first time ever. I’ve always lived in a place that other people have decided for me, and am in the midst of trying to figure out exactly where I would choose for myself. These posts give me so much food for thought, thanks!

Apparently being “elite” is as much of a political sin as bieng “liberal”, oh brother… let’s get real, the whole concept of not voting for a candidate because s/he is too smart or not the one you’d rather have a beer with (how’s that one working for you?…) to me represents the ultimate dumbing down of America. The two Deocratic candidate are qualified, intelligent people, I’m going to vote for Obama because I feel that he didn’t sell his convictions out for calculated political posturing (read voting for the war).

Hi, wow, complicated subject, and one that I know all too well. I have battled obesity for as long as I can remember and struggled all through my youth when it was just an issue of how I looked and the kind of self esteem and appearance issues that all us women deal with, no matter how reality based or they may or may not be. So for years it was the typical “oh my god I hate my thighs” and “how can I let him see me naked?” until I turned 46 (5 years ago) and my doctor called me one day to tell me I was diabetic. All of a sudden vanity and insecurity turned into fear for my health and I seriously tried and tried to lose weight to no avail. In fact, after the onset of my diabetes and subsequent hypertension (so cliché…) I wound up gaining and gaining more weight. Two and a half years ago I decided to have Lap Band surgery, and even though I researched Bypass Surgery I always felt that it was way too risky in spite of the purported benefits and the fact that it is irreversible was a complete deal breaker for me. Lap Band was safer, fully reversible and something that made sense to me. I’ve since lost 75 lbs, after the first 30 lbs my diabetes went away, I’m off all hypertension and diabetes medication and I feel much much better. OK, so losing the other 75 lbs I still have to go would go a long way in making me feel a whole lot better, but so far I’m happy. So, what I’m getting at is that although I had the “other” kind of weight loss surgery there is a stigma that goes along with the concept in general and it’s not really fair for anyone to judge someone as a lazy sloth who wants an easy way out. Issues of weight are extremely complicated, they are psychological, socio-political, medical, hereditary, habit based, cultural, and on and on… To simply say that you should eat well and exercise is a simplistic injustice in many cases, it’s like telling someone living in extreme poverty to pick themselves up by the bootstraps or a junkie to just snap out of it. What you can do is wish and encourage anyone contemplating something like weight loss surgery to be informed, to research and to not make any decisions frivolously and I REALLY hope that’s the angle that the 60 Minutes piece takes. The fact that diabetes can be reversed and hypertension controlled is due to the body losing weight, no matter how it is accomplished, and certainly not an exclusive benefit of Gastric Bypass Surgery.

Lack of compassion, ignorance, intolerance, injustice, disrespect for all forms of life, disrespecting our planet and no sense of humor :)

Aren’t these two places amazing? thank you so much for making the juxtaposition, brilliant. You gotta love a country that provides a home for these two icons of originality in architecture :)

Thank you so much for sharing these, I have always had more than tremendous admiration for Ann Richards, what an incredibly smart, witty, strong and admirable presence she has been and continues to be.

I take for granted the love and closeness I enjoy in my relationship with my son and with my brother, it’s completely granted in both cases, I know there’s nothing I could ever do to shake that. And I take for granted that my dogs will always greet me with unending glee, they are my happiness role models. And it’s been a long haul, but I finally take my husbands love for granted, spent years convincing myself I was unlovable but I guess he’s proven me wrong.

I wonder how many of us get swept up by the concept of putting a WOMAN in the White House rather than simply the best candidate, I know it’s tempting for me at times. I agree that Hillary blew it with the stupid Bosnia story and God only knows why she felt compelled to have to beef up any “military experience”, really bad judgement on her part but I guess sort of inconsequential in the larger context. What’s unexplainable and unforgiveable in my opinion is to have had the bad judgement to vote for a blatantly illegal and unnecessary war, why aren’t we questioning that? Let’s not get wrapped up in whetheror not having ovaries is reason enough to be elected president (granted, anybody can make a better one than the one we’ve had to bear for 7 years), I think she needs to be held accountable for what was either being incredibly misinformed or even worse, calculating enough to vote for the war in order to have the correct posture as a potential presidential candidate.

I love reading what you all have to say about my home away from home! all true, the good (your take on the hotels was right on the money, Mary) and the bad (no kidding nationalist navel-gazing…), and Marta, thanks for clearing up the Aznar/Zapatero thing. I know the area well, have been married to a Catalan for eons, and I love the place, the people and the food, I could go on and on about the food! but any trip to Barcelona should include a leisurely excursion up the Costa Brava, Pals, Bagur, Cadaques, all worth it. Ah, I would hop on a plane out there right now if I could…