Date in the West

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We finally made went through with a date night and didn't fall asleep before and call it off... as has been happening recently. 

We went to a drive-in movie and the baby was nice enough to sleep in her car seat. We ate gross McDonalds... that actually tasted really good at the time. We had to wait for the movie to start... and we actually both fell asleep during that time. But we woke up once it started and then it was great. It was the perfect date. And free! Yay Portugal for having everything be free all the time. 

The movie we saw: 

Red, red, red, red, red...

"Losing him was blue like I'd never known

Missing him was dark grey all alone

Forgetting him was like trying to know somebody you never met

But loving him was [is] RED..."

- Red by Taylor Swift 

Like this author here, I also painted my nails red this weekend: 
Everything I Know About Love I Learned From Taylor Swift on LifeTeen.com

My weekend was RED...
How was yours?
PS Don't you just LOVE my new socks?!

Fado and Theology

The same group from Orchestras and icecream, plus a few like my sister, had the privilege... the utmost privilege, it really is.. of watching my friend (and theology colleague) Catia sing fado. She not only sings fado and is a fado enthusiast, but she wrote her thesis on fado and theology! So in honor of the fado singer and theologians present, I made a quiche that says "Fado e Teologia. Viva!" (Fado and Theology. Long live/yippee!) for our potluck dinner beforehand. My friend Sofia made a delicious avocado and basil salad. We packed into the tiny Tasca do Chico (amateur fado bar) and had the pleasure of watching Catia perform. 

Orchestras and icecream

This has been the last week of month-long, free, open-air concerts in downtown Lisbon. I finally was able to go to one, and with a wonderful group of people. Three friends (two of them theology colleagues), one priest friend visiting from the Azores and his historian friend. We were able to get seats on some steps.. no chairs even though we got there an hour early. I was amazed at how many people packed in, on the surrounding streets and streets overhead, to listen to the orchestra. What is it about sounds put together that moves our soul so much? I think music is a very mysterious thing. 

Pictures of our chat on the steps while waiting, the crowds, my friend Catia enjoying the music and our delicious Santini's icecream afterwards...

England, France, Saudi Arabia, America, Portugal...?!

Hanging out with my sister's crazy English and French colleagues, plus a Saudi Arabian, at an American diner while drinking Welch's Grape Soda... in Portugal? Divine. I loved hearing the "habibi" (sweetheart in Arabic) being tossed around everywhere and finding out about the VERY different culture called the MIDDLE EAST. I mean really, I didn't even know what kinds of questions to ask someone who lives in a country where all women wear burkas. Crazy. So I asked who is top suggestions for Arabic music were. And they are: Mohamed Abdo (Saudi), Om Kolthom (Egyptian) and Karmin Suliman (Egyptian)... winner of Arab Idol (?). 

Pictures of us at the diner and overlooking the Cascais marina. 

Brownies at Tiffany's

My friend Sofia and I have been trying to watch Audrey Hepburn movies together. Today we had brownies for breakfast while watching Breakfast at Tiffany's! 

“I'm an introvert...I love being by myself, love being outdoors, love taking a long walk with my dogs and looking at the trees,flowers,the sky. I have to be alone very often. I'd be quite happy if I spent from Saturday night until Monday morning alone in my apartment. That's how I refuel.” ― Audrey Hepburn

PS Check out my article today on Virtuouspla.net called Nourishing Your Spiritual Life

The Nun's Story

Yesterday was the first  "Audrey Hepburn movie session" with my friend Sofia. We're going to watch her movies together. We watched "The Nun's Story" and I was pleasantly surprised. I think if that same movie were made today, there would be more inaccuracy in the portrayal of life in a convent and Catholic theology. I was surprised, though, because the movie was really good and the convent was kind of a background story, not too focused on and also not attacked. I really liked the theme of pride and humility. They would confess their faults to one another and correct each other and it was said that the degree in which it was difficult to do so was the degree in which pride was still alive in you. I also liked how she had to wait to get what she wanted, how she had to be patient and had to be prepared by time in order to be mature enough for it. Disappointment is an important lesson, a nun told her. Here are some other quotes I liked:

 

“You must learn to accept with love whatever comes to you.”

“The more we are looked to for examples, the better examples we become.”

“The sacrifices required of us are bearable only if we make them with love.”

 

 

“I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles.” ― Audrey Hepburn

 

PS To learn about real nuns, and happy nuns, the best place is to learn directly from them and not from mainstream movies. I love, for example, the Sisters of Life and Dominican Sisters of Mary... who were on Oprah!

Midnight in Paris

My BF and I pass by a billboard announcing movietimes everytime we walk from my house to the beach and everytime we think about how we'd like to go to that movie theater one day. We finally went and saw Woody Allen's new movie, Midnight in Paris. It was really good, I really recommend it. Woody Allen's movies seem to be either really good or really bad, but this one was funny and also really deep. I loved the lesson about living in the present.

It was an old movie theater in a teeny tiny "shopping mall", but it was cool because of that. There was a bell that told us when the movie was going to start and when the break was over. We were definitely the youngest people there... by far. We hadn't gone to the movies in AGES. It's so romantic!

Passion and creativity

Once I saw a TV show about recovering drug addicts and one girl's story really struck me. She said the hardest part about not taking drugs anymore was having to deal with her emotions. When she came home from a hard day at work, instead of taking drugs to make herself feel better, she had to let herself feel pain. Let herself feel sad, angry or hurt.

How many things to we do to avoid feeling negative emotions? I can think of a dozen off the top of my head. The catch, though, is that if you numb out the negative emotions, you take the positive emotions out along with them. In order to be open to joy, you have to be open to pain and all emotions are really gifts from God anyway. Something I've been learning... slowly.

So last week I felt angry and sad and had a few conflicts with important people in my life. It is SO hard to work through it, trying to accept pain. But as my wise, handsome boyfriend said, "I just realized why Jesus's suffering and death is called his passion. I used to think, what does that have to do with passion? But it has to do with love. Changing and suffering before giving Himself completely out of love." And it's what I'm experiencing in dating and also in life. This whole life is kind of a passion, a changing and a suffering in love before heaven. And the strongest people look suffering right in the face, and don't run away.

Or like Frida Kalho, they paint about it:

From here

Or like Johnny Cash they sing about it. I'm so excited about learning to play the guitar and Johnny Cash songs. I love Johnny and June:

And here, playing in a prison! :)

When your whole world is mad at you...

Have you ever felt like every single person in your life was mad at you? And maybe had reasons to be? I'm not sure if this is normal.

I don't spend enough time with one person.

I missed another's birthday dinner.

I am choosing work over being with these people.

I am quitting and not being faithful to a commitment I (apparently) made with this person.

I am not committing enough to these people.

I'm rejecting this peron.

It seems like lately I've been forced to make a lot of decisions. In all of them I've been highly confused/stressed and all of them have made certain people mad at me. I've realized how much I think about other people when making decisions. "Oh no, I can't... so and so will be _______."

I wonder... is God putting me in these situations for me to stop people pleasing? To start caring about what He thinks and just that?

Two people in the last week have told me, "I'm not mad at you." And it has made all the difference. I'd like to think God wants to tell me that too.



I'm in the back! Looking cool... ;)



Playing soccer with my youth group last Sunday...
one of the tough "decisions" I am trying to currently make!



If I die young...

My fish tacos today. I love my mexican theme cooking week. It's my favorite week. My mexican food isn't very authentic, but there's just something about making something wonderful com out of simple ingredients that makes you proud. Something about eating your own homemade tortillas that makes you happy throughout the day.

I'm obsessed with this song, "If I die young..." by The Band Perry. It's kind of morbid but hey, death is a part of life. As she says, "well, I've had just enough time". If I die young (knock on wood...hopefully that doesn't happen), I'd like people to play this song and know I'm happy and shining down as a rainbow.

If I die young, bury me in satin, lay me down on a bed of roses,

sink me in the river at dawn, send me away with the words of a love song...

Lord, make me a rainbow, I'll shine down on my mother,

She'll know I'm safe with you when she stands under my colors...

And I'll be wearing white when I come into your kingdom...

Don't you just love country music?

Dancing in my living room

One of the things I would like to do more of in 2011 is dance. In my living room. By myself. Really.

Have you ever danced by yourself when no one was watching? I have once or twice, and once I did it with a special someone. :) This year I want to do it more, all the time. It will be easier now that I have a dvd player and plan on playing CDs while I'm cooking/cleaning/etc.

Like this:

Reflects my thoughts entirely:

"Baby, why don't we just turn that TV off?

315 channels of nothing but bad news on.

Well it might be me, but the way I see it

the whole wide world has gone crazy

so baby why don't we just dance?"

Not just dancing for dancing's sake, but more spontaneity, art, creativity, music and silliness.

And if you loved Josh Turner and want more of him, watch the sexiest music video (PS it's his wife that's in the video with him!): Your Man by Josh Turner

Christmas blues

After my fourth post about how much I love and can't get enough of Christmas, I got sick of Christmas. It's true. I was overwhelmed with the "present-giving", impatient with family and just kind of sad for a couple of days. It was a bad case of the Christmas blues. :( I turned a little into this guy:

Yesterday I felt a little better. I reread a book I got this summer. The great person that gave it to me said it was a book to read and reread over and over again. I must admit I think he is right. I listed the book on the "About Martha and Mary" page on this blog. Here are some of the things I read this time that really spoke to me:
 
"The first goal of spiritual combat, that toward which our efforts must above all be directed, is not always obtain a victory (over our temptations, our weaknesses, etc.), rather it is to learn to maintain peace of heart under all circumstances, even in the case of defeat."

"Saint John the Cross expresses this same truth in other terms: 'All things were given to me from the moment when I no longer sought them.'"

"God asks for an attitude of detachment at the level of the heart, a disposition to give Him everything, but He doesn't necessarily 'take' everything."

"A desire that causes us to lose peace, even if the thing desired is excellent in itself, is not of God. It is necessary to want and desire, but in a free and detached way, in abandoning to God the realization of these desires, as He desires and when He wishes."

What really helped today was watching a movie that totally answered a lot of questions and problems I've been dealing with recently. I mean, it was so loud and clear it was almost as if someone had made that movie specifically for my life right now. Fools Rush In, with Salma Hayek.

It gave me a new outlook on what's important. My favorite part was when she visits her great-grandmother in Mexico, who she has a special connection with, and that great-grandmother tells her she hasn't been acting out of love but out of fear. She said, "If you really want to know love, you have to surrender to it." Love it. It's my 2011 new year's resolution.

SURRENDER

Amélie

I am happy I sent my blog to almost everyone I know. The feedback I have gotten has made me feel incredibly loved. Thank you. I have a new reason to add for blogging on the "about Julie" page: to keep in touch with people I care about that are far away.

I am also still unemployed. Just a little background: I quit my stable job at the end of the school year because I got another one I like a million, GAZILLION times better but since it involves a fundraising process I was planning on getting a temporary job in the meantime. In Semptember, I got a call from a not-very-nice-but-is-in-the-position-to-get-me-a-job-so-I-have-to-be-fake-and-nice person telling me he had a full-time substitution teaching position (which was EXACTLY what I was hoping for) but I had to start right away (two days from when he was calling) and of course he couldn't wait a week. I, however, was in the Azores at my parent's house and was just about to start the week I had reserved to shut myself inside and not see the light of day so that I could MAKE myself write my thesis. So basically I had to choose: job and money or write my thesis and not pay late fines every month like I had been doing for the past year. After a decision-making process of intense pain and suffering, I decided on the thesis and explained the situation to the guy and he said he would probably have something else in a month. Well, it's been well over a month and when I call him his secretary tells me he has my number and I shouldn't call back. Jerk.

I am trying not to stress out about it and learn to be patient. The only downfall is that my money will run out by the end of the month and I will probably have to ask my parents for help (BIG bummer). I was thinking yesterday, though, that all of last year I had been thinking "I will be so happy when I finish my thesis", "my life will be complete", "I will feel free"... and now that I finished and am relieved about that I have a new "problem" I am worrying about: not having a job. And I'm ignoring all the wonderful things that came with my decision, like for example:

·         turning in and being proud of my thesis

·         having had more vacation time that allowed me time with my family and a week in the Azores with Danny

·         time when I came back to Lisbon to establish routines and FINALLY, for the first time, get some disciplined habits like waking up at the same time, running, making meal plans and praying

·         realizing what relationships are important in my life and trying to figure out how to make time for them

·         realizing that work is not the most important thing, that it's definitely not what would make me want to survive after a plane crash

·         realizing that my routines, simple pleasures and relationships are what would

·         feeling happy and really alive, more than I have ever felt since I have been in Portugal

·         having time to start a blog, which made me feel creative in a way I haven't felt since I moved to Portugal

So why worry so much? I know God can give me a job when He wants to, I just am having a really hard time having to ask for money and telling people I am unemployed (especially my landlady and cousin... embarrassing! humiliating!)

Meanwhile, in other exciting events of my life, I helped my sister make a great dinner yesterday. Quiche and a yummy pea and mint soup:

  

And we watched Amélie. GREAT movie. Apparently everyone's favorite. Here are my favorite things about the movie:

·         I have Amélie's haircut.

·         She also lives alone.

·         Her boyfriend kind of looked like and reminded me of Danny.

·         I loved the "simple pleasures" she had, like putting her hand in a bag of beans at the market.

·         Her doing completely random and weird acts of love for the people around her made me really want to start doing things like that.

·         How at the porn/strip shop where her boyfriend worked the the lady asked him why he was so interested in knowing more about Amélie (they hadn't met yet) and he said, "Because of that, the mystery."... to which she replied, "Right, you don't find that here." (mystery! totally Theology of the Body!)

Having a blog is definitely making me appreciate my life and myself just a teeny bit more. In the words of a person I highly admire, "I hope that everyday you find peace in being yourself." Beautiful, huh?

Simple Life

My very first post! How exciting. I thought that the most fitting topic to start any blog off with, especially one that wants to focus on the simple pleasures of life, is my dog!

Spice, a 10-year-old Jack Russell Terrier that is in all seriousness the most beautiful dog I have ever seen in my life. Ever. Unfortunately she doesn't live with me, but with my parents. I think dogs are the absolute masters in teaching us about how to live in the present and appreciate life. Eat, sleep and play... pretty simple. And enjoy walks and nature... roll around in grass whenever you have the chance. Every time I see really fresh-looking shady grass I think of how if she were with me she would run and lay in it, stretching her legs out and sniffing it with pure joy.

Spice spends most of her life sleeping (with a pink blanket she carefully fluffs each time before entering her bed):

And her favorite season of the year is summer, when the sun warms our patio. Then she spends her whole day sunbathing: alternating between laying out in the hot, hot sun, coming in panting, drinking water, laying on the cold tiles, then repeating the whole process over and over again:

It's a dog's life!

"Spend my days in the sweet sunshine,
rock in my swing and watch my garden grow,
know that I'll always have someone to hold,
oh I wanna live the simple life!"

watch it here: Simple Life by Carolyn Dawn Johnson