The waitress looks at my cup.
— Is that all there’s supposed to be in there?
If you made it right, I say. There isn’t much to a double espresso.
I struggle through the first twenty pages of El Alquimista. My Spanish is far more deteriorated than I had realized, y entonces, tengo que practicar mucho. I smile at that looming steep path. The waitress approaches.
— I love the notion
(she says as she puts my bagel in front of me)
— that if you discover your personal legend, and if you live by it, that the universe will take care of you.
I nod. She looks into my eyes for a moment, intently and familiarly.
— I just… I just love it.
Ten miles down the road, a dead badger on the shoulder. Another mile on, a dead coyote.
Spring happened here today. Leaves popped, mostly just on the elms but others are budding brightly. Someone must have been worried about the melting snow in the forecast rains of next week, and they chose to open the floodgates up in Idaho, filling the rivers with wonderful raging waters. Crows were out chasing ravens and falcons; a pretty funny site really, especially over the falls.
And people, lots of lots of people actually taking the time to walk on the trails and ride on the bike paths and get in touch with all the vitality and fecundity of the natural world. It would be nice if they did it every day, not just on Earth Day.
Nothing is more exhilarating to me than watching crows chasing hawks. I can see why people were so jealous that they had to invent planes to dogfight.
“Ten miles down the road, a dead badger on the shoulder. Another mile on, a dead coyote.”
Wrong personal legend?
Buena suerte con tu español. Mi español es una mierda.
Lame Spanish joke: The only thing I can say in Spanish is, “Es muy importante hablar espanol.”
(Not actually true, fortunately and thanks to the efforts of a fine teacher whose excellence my Spanish does not remotely reflect. Mi espanol es una mierda tambien.)
And by the way, I think English should import “y entonces.” It’s just way too useful. Sometimes I find myself on the verge of saying it anyway.