Love & Other Demons in Magical Realism

Rest in peace Gabriel Garcia Marquez. If you hadn't already noticed from my long-time diary title, I am a huge fan of the magical realism genre. In high school especially, I devoured his work along with Laura Esquivel, Federico Garcia Lorca, Isabel Allende. I had such a passion for Spanish and Latin American Literature at the time. Looking back I don't know how I found the time. I swam like my life depended on it, overloaded on classes, club meetings, play rehearsals, worked a ton, and went to parties at the weekend. I slept the bare minimum needed to sustain constant activity and often found myself nodding off when forced to sit too long in any one place.

These days, moderation can be a challenge for me. Back then, it wasn't even an option. I had my little hobbies though...I kept a journal written in Spanish and would write down sketches and poems/quotes that captured my fancy in a little notebook, even at parties. People would ask me what I was writing and I'd tell them to go away, laughing. I was such a strange little beast.

Even today sometimes I think I don't see things as they are, but maybe a more interesting or beautiful version of the world. Hard to tell what is imagination versus a keen eye for everyday beauty, color, excitement. I don't care to differentiate though. Life can be a comedy or a tragedy, a fairytale or a horror story, so why not choose magic whenever possible?

Back to the day to day. Wednesday after work I went to midtown to meet A and my workout buddy Kendra for our metabolic conditioning class. Hung out a bit after, then headed home for shower and a quick bite. Returned stuff at Zara and Uniqlo near Herald Square, then went to JCPenney to pick up some workout gear I'd ordered online and had shipped to the store. I saw these blue ombre capri leggings on a girl at rowing class and stalked them down online. I loved them so much but they were lined in some strange white fabric making it look like they were see completely see-through. So sad! I bought a cute Joe Fresh dress for way less than online or in their regular store, so I was pleased with that after being so disappointing with the pants. That JCPenney store at the Manhattan Mall is pretty amazing, very quiet at the time we went, large and well organized, with awesome prices, I think I'd definitely go back! After we checked out I started feeling really bad, so thoughts of getting groceries/making dinner were trashed.

We went to Hu Kitchen instead where I got a moroccan chicken over raw veggies (shredded beet, cabbage, kale, carrots, broccoli) bowl and A purchased approximately $40 worth of organic chicken tenders with almond breading. Ha! When we got home I was feeling poorly so I saved my bowl for lunch and went to bed.

This is so bad but too funny not to share - so apparently at 1am that night I kind of yelled, "Oh my gosh, what is that, what IS that?" looking to the other side of the room. This woke poor A up and of course he got up to see if there was actually anything there. There was not. I muttered something unintelligible and we both went back to sleep. Poor A, having to deal with me. I have absolutely zero recollection of the whole incident.

Yesterday I had an 8am call so I got up at 6:30am, showered/blowdried/curled hair and put on a cute dress before going into the office. The moroccan chicken/raw veg bowl was a fantastic lunch, and after work I headed out to the Javits Center to meet A for the New York Auto Show. I took the subway then walked all the way West to the center. We only go there twice a year, for the Auto Show and the NYC Marathon packet pickups - it's a hike!

The past couple of years we were invited to a Lexus party to preview the show, it was always a good time, lots of food and drink and there were musical performances by Caitlin Moe and Mia Moretti and then last year it was pop songs by Pennsyltucky from Orange is the New Black. (Random, but interesting to watch at the time at least.) This year Lexus didn't host a preview party, but A randomly was invited to something for Hyundai though his work featuring a performance by a mystery "eight time Grammy winner" so we figured we'd go to that. (We like to see the cars, but I can't deal with the crowds so the preview day is really the best way to go.)

When we got to the event, there were a lot of kids around, but the event was for a pediatric cancer research charity that Hyundai supports, so kind of made sense? The presentation was about the kids and the research but it was so sad, I was so uncomfortable and on the brink of tears the whole time. That went on for what seemed like forever, then they brought on a little girl in a tutu to sing "Let it Go" (I had the youtube link here but don't want to embed it so google Lexi Walker if you're into singing kids in tutus.) Then there was more talking, sad videos, etc. and then the eight time Grammy winner came on.

It was...a former member of Destiny's Child...but not Beyonce....or even Kelly Rowland...it was Michelle Williams (but not the one from Dawson's Creek.) Poor woman. It was maybe the most bizarre thing I've seen. She made a good fist of it, trying to gather the kids around her, but one ran away? I couldn't take it anymore and ducked out and we went to see the show.

Lots of good cars, my favorites were the Bugatti Veyron (apparently at 2.5 million the most expensive car at the show, crazycakes) and the 2015 Dodge Challenger which is much more reasonable if I were actually buying/driving a car, and perhaps even more awesome. For 2015 they've released a performance kit based on the old Scat Pack so the Challengers/Chargers all had that, plus the cool little Super Bee logos. Looove. My dad had a 1970 Dart forever, and when I lived in Ithaca there was a 71 Coronet (Super Bee) in bright yellow that we'd always see around town, it brought me so much joy to see that one. Lots of Fords, but they didn't have the new Corvette displayed which I would have liked to see. Other things - Rolls Royce once again had the best party, Toyota had the strangest (I don't remember them ever having a reception before.) Times are crazy though, I can't believe even a smartcar is 18k now...madness! We saw an exhibit of old NYPD police vehicles from the 30's through 80's and I took lots of pictures for my dad/brother. Took the Jeep ride outside, they take you up these uneven surfaces, up/down 35 degree hill, over jagged stumps, etc - those are pretty tough vehicles. The guy driving ours was from Utah and he said he takes his out to Moab all the time and puts it through the paces - sounds fun!

After all that, I was starving and in a horrible mood so we headed straight to the grocery store. Bought all this food and then when we got home, A's parents had sent us a box of Easter Candy so I ate that for dinner instead while watching the first episode of the new "Challenge" on MTV. Healthy living! Realized all the possible things for lunch today had meat in them, so went to sleep instead of trying to make food. Woke up today, came to work, just had a salad (no meat) for lunch and am procrastinating on my inbox and hefty to-do list. When I went outside to grab lunch it was still freezing outside, blahhh. I am having a hard time concentrating on work, or thinking on the meaning of this day, so am basically a waste of space right now.