Day 31: Last day of classes? Time to unwind!

My morning was academically ridiculous.

I spent my entire thirty minute bus ride memorizing poem titles and poets' names and trying to keep clear which belonged to which. Then, when it got to the test, question one (worth one third of the test points wise) was on the one page of notes I'd left in my art history notebook and forgot existed. Because yes, that would happen. So I BSed it as best as I could.

It's not that I'm worried about my grade - even if I failed the question I'd prolly still end up with a B on the test thanks to the extra credit (I hope)... but I was more upset worrying that Ernesto would read it, see through my BS, and think to himself, "Damn, and here I thought I had ONE intelligent and motivated and clever girl in my class who really cared about what I had to teach... what another disappointment straight from America." :-/ I felt like writing him an apology note at the end of the test, but a poker face is always the best thing to have during any test and so I made my answers rainbow colored and handed it in with a confident smile.

Ohhhhhh I hope Ernesto gave me the benefit of the doubt. It's been such a long time since I wanted to do well in a class for the teacher's sake. I hope I didn't mess it up... I'M SORRY ERNESTO. I SWEAR I GOT MORE OUT OF YOUR CLASS THAN 99% OF THE SEMESTER LONG COLLEGE CLASSES I TOOK IN AMERICA. *whimper*

Okay, let's be honest. I also sped through his test because I needed to go write my paper for Little Gay Professor Man and throw together the first power point of my life (okay, maybe i've made a few... but it was years and years ago... the last one I made was on the day I managed to lose J's "Lez be friends" tank top... which was indeed EARLY 2009... and I'm STILL upset I lost it... especially considering this weekend is Orgullo and I'm not sure what I'm going to wear yet -- EEK!!). My topic was stellar. Let's be real. Dali is the shit. For my paper/presentations I had to find a common theme in four separate works of art. My choices? Ridiculous. Theme? Sexual symbolism. Works? See for yourself:

Dream Caused by the Flight of a Bee Around a Pomegranate a Second Before Awakening

1944

The Great Masturbator

1929

Lobster Phone

1936

Royal Heart

1953

Yep. While everybody was monotonally rambling on in broken Spanish about El Greco and Goya (not that I have anything against Goya, but I can see why the King told Greco his art was BS)... I was talking about sexual symbolism in the strangest art Spain has produced (minus Picasso, perhaps). Some people take life so seriously... and then there's me. What a tonteria. LOL

During/after class I whipped up my Master's application and two essays and was home, fed lunch, and on the train in no time.The past few days had drained me. I'd been so blithe and sanguine in Spain and then Sunday night came and suddenly I felt claustrophobic in Alcala. So when my first opportunity to escape for a few hours presented itself, it was on, (on like Donkey Kong, yes...lol).

Tuesday night I spent an hour and a half attempting to meditate and calm myself down so that I could center and understand from a detached perspective what I needed to grasp from the whirlwind of upset over my family and my visa. After quieting down I realized that I'd started to lose perspective and focus on what I wanted and what I was grateful for and appreciating... and so I resolved to fix that.

Getting ready for Orgullo in Chueca. There are rainbows EVERYWHERE!!

I took the metro from Atocha straight to Chueca and began my search for Sushi. I stumbled into an adorable urban style market in a big warehouse type thing that big cities always have and I always drool over.

 

 Market! I <3 you!

The third floor had a sushi stand, an organic juice stand and... a cupcake stand! Nirvana!? YAY! Even more exciting were the RAINBOW frosted cupcakes. They were for real the gayest cupcakes you've ever seen in your life (but only the carrot cake kind... so I'll have to go back and get a picture of the really gay ones... haha).

Cupcakes. Yum!

From Chueca I journeyed down Fuencarrol and ran into Luke - the sweet guy from the tattoo/piercing parlor who helped me change my Monroe and gave me the jewelry for free a week or two ago! He stopped me and we had an adorable and pithy conversation! Turns out, he's from Buenos Aires but used to live all over Italy! What a cool dude! He's in a band and I wanna go to one of his gigs some time. Hee hee!

Gran Via back to Atocha and it was time to meet L. Finally! We walked over to Retiro and had a picnic on one of the benches near the randomly naked and lounging female sculpture. :o) She's my favorite sculpture in the park because she looks so serene and lazy. Hee hee.

Sushi, Acai juice, Rainbow Cupcakes, Picnic in Retiro and L combined to make EXACTLY what I'd needed all week. <3

In that one Sheryl Crow song, she sings that "It's not having what you want, it's wanting what you've got." The first time I really felt this was when I got Moxie. To this day, whenever I park her I always walk a little ways and then turn around to see if I really, truly and seriously have a YELLOW BUG. The first few days after I got her I would do this and be so in awe that I would squeal. That feeling has never gone away. Every time I see or think of Moxie I feel so grateful, proud and blithe that I can call her my bug.

And so I started to think about it and thought, wouldn't that be nice if I had that feelings about other aspects of my life (say, about something other than an "inanimate object," -- not that I would ever call Moxie such a thing, but I understand that those that don't know her might make the mistake)? And that's when it started happening more. My job at Hooters was a big example -- every day that I would go to work I'd think to myself, "I can't believe that these people think I'm pretty and outgoing and bubbly enough to work here?!" and then I'd make sure my incredulous gratitude would seep from me during my shift. Haha.

I'd had that same feeling ever since I landed in Madrid, but after the past few days, it'd worn off a little. So when I found myself in a park with my favorite foods and my favorite person within a 4000 mile radius... well... the feeling was DEFINITELY back. ^_^

  

XOXO

Jet-set Cupcake

P.S. I just gotta say, I'm leaving out the most hilarious part of the night... which would be when we spotted a guy doing inappropriate things to himself not far from where we were picnicking on the bench. I SQUEALED and ran and L laughed uncontrollably. Brother. THEN when we finally got to the night bus, there was a man sitting in the stairwell of the bus PUKING. OMG. The night was so good and then it went SO downhill SO fast... but in a really strangely amusing way. Oh, Madrid. You do have your surprises. LOL