I am so exhausted...

Back in the old days of Northwestern, a sure sign of springtime was seeing the hoards of students (myself included) heading to the Lakefill to enjoy some sunshine, some good tunes, and the beautiful scenery of Lake Michigan. Today, I had enough of missing that and had my own little "day at the Lakefill" -- Madrid-style, of course.

Amy and I went to a little hill on Madrid's Engineering School campus, located right off one of Madrid's principal boulevards. After settling ourselves down for an afternoon of chilling in the sunshine, we were joined by my friend and co-worker Mike. The three of us spent 4 hours (no joke!) sitting on that hill, watching Spanish lovers make-out hardcore, eating candy, having boxed sangria, and petting dogs. It was quite an enjoyable afternoon.

Interestingly enough, as Amy and I walked from our apartment to the hill a few blocks away, I had a brief moment of complete ignorance. For about two seconds, I was transported back to those moments in Evanston when the two of us would bring a blanket and a good book to read at the Lakefill. For those two seconds, I completely forgot I was in the middle of a huge metropolitan city. For those two seconds, there was absolutely nothing strange about Amy's appearance. The flip flops, running shorts, sunglasses, and flowered shirt were perfectly normal, as was the big blue blanket she was carrying under her arm. But the comfort bubble was popped pretty quickly when we crossed paths with the students and parents of the Italian School two blocks down. They certainly didn't think Amy's "ready for the Lakefill" appearance was as normal. But they are the ones missing out.

On a completely random brainwave, I have to rant about how upset I am that other people are taking photos of awesome street graffiti. Obviously, I am aware that I didn't invent photography or graffiti, nor was I the first to think to take photos of some of the REALLY awesome stuff, but it just chops my hide when I see other people doing it. That was MY thing, like being bilingual at age 10 and having been to Mexico. Then I grow up and realize all of that is much more common than I thought and that I'm really not such a special snowflake. How the hell am I supposed to be an individual, dammit? Guess I'll have to go back to coloring my hair extravagant colors -- or better yet, shaving it all off...