what to do with an empty cage...

Remember all the birds, I mean, the Zoo I had inside my head? Well, the other day they flew away. Like birds should. And I was left with an empty cage. It wasn't easy. I kept looking at the empty cage and it made absolutely no sense. Having colourful birds inside was so much nicer, they made my days much brighter, the birds sang to me when I was bored. So I fed them every day...

But then someone came (let's say he was called Saturn) and opened the window for the cage and the birds flew. He told me: "You don't need this right now!" and the part of me that loved the birds (let's call it Progressed Moon in Pisces, the dreamer) replied: "What? You can't be serious!" and started crying. Oversensitive, you see? But Saturn, who these days lives in Virgo and loves things that are real, didn't even give the Moon a second look. The Moon is sulking right now. Every time I look at her I see sadness in her eyes but I know she'll get better because Saturn is only fair and he knows what's good for me.

I've been trying to find another use for the cage, maybe decorate it with other things. I don't think it'd be very nice to put something living inside it again, do you? Maybe I can recycle it. Funnily enough, while you were reading my previous post (certainly a work of birds), I was here worrying about the empty cage.

*the photo is from last year's RedBull AirRace here in Porto.

I've been dreaming of a little house with a garden.
Living outside the city had never crossed my mind before. In fact, I wanted to move to a bigger city, the bigger the better...to the place where everything was happening. And I wanted a flat...one with empty rooms where I could dance around, maybe sing too since singing to the echo of an empty room is fun (it is!).
How did I get from that to a little house with a garden in a small town? Hmmm. Well, times have really changed. First of all, small towns have everything you need right now, all the services, cheap prices...and if you have Internet, you can have almost everything. Plus, things don't happen only in big places now, no!, globalization took care of that.

In small towns there is more space (despite the apparent contradiction) and it's easier to find a place with a garden, even if it has the size of a pea. I don't care. It's that feeling of having real soil beneath your feet, where seeds can be put into and miraculously grow into plants. A little place where one can have breakfast with the sun, listening to the birds, being pestered by insects (but still, it's a garden!).

I don't need the empty rooms anymore. Small spaces that are tidy enough can be so much more enchanting. Plus I could get rid of half of my clothes and give away the books that I've already read. I don't like things, they get on my way, they restrain me, that's why I love giving them away or throwing them out.
All for a little piece of soil with worms in it...

123

If you were expecting me to stop talking about books and writing in this new post (I know I was! I'm getting a little repetitive) ...you may be disappointed.

The sweet Dharmabum (he's not really called sweet Dharmabum, just Dharmabum but he's so sweet and thoughtful, I think!) was tagged with this and gave me the oportunity to do this myself, if I wished...and I did.

You're supposed to pick up the book you're reading right now, go to page 123 (or the last page of the book if it doesn't get that far) and copy the 5th paragraph (or the last paragraph, in case there isn't one). I've already told you about the book I'm reading. It's Sleep with Me by Joanna Briscoe. Here it goes.

She was calm and milky, her hair roughly pulled back into a chopstick, her newly larger breasts visible at the opening of her dressing-gown. I hoped we wouldn't have to talk about the baby. She washed an apple and threw it haphazardly at me for my journey to work, opening her mouth in mock surprise as I caught it, and I thought, perversely, how pleasing it would be after all to have our child, kicking, smiling, grizzling in this warm place that we had made.

Good paragraph, I think, it sums up many issues of the book. I like it when the woman mocks him hehe. You're welcome to do this if you wish.

I've been having bad dreams lately. I've left the sleepless nights behind and entered the restless nights, too many dreams, all very detailed and ridiculous. I dreamt of strawberries that were the shape of carrots or bigger. What would Freud say? I don't really care. lol I also dreamt of disposable ties, made of shiny paper, that people got from those vending machines! Isn't it a good idea?

More than one season in a day

Some days are just unbelievable. This one started sunny and really hot. People were outside wearing t-shirts and shorts. Summer was here.

But later in the afternoon dark clouds started gathering from the East (strange, as they usually come from the West here).


And then...ta-ra! Rain, lots of rain and thunder! I was walking around with my friend and we had to cover ourselves in a bus stop - it was empty, so we took it as our living room and sat there for more than half an hour chatting.

After a while, the weather got better. You could start to see some sun rays through the clouds.

And we could enjoy the flowery trees better.

And peek through narrow streets while light blue houses inside.

And when I got back home, the sunset promised a bright sunshiny day* for tomorrow.

*obvious reference to that song: "I can see clearly now the rain is gone" ;)

crazy nights and others not so crazy

I've been having zillions of dreams at night. I think this happens when I sleep more than is necessary, but it's still hard to open my eyes wide in the morning. It's very restoring (this excess sleep) and I can't remember the last time I felt sleepy during the day, so it can't be bad for me.
Most of the dreams I've been having are quite banal so I sometimes cannot distinguish the dreams from the reality. Imagine I dreamt that my toothbrush was getting old, the next day I'll check it and find out it's not. Duh, how dull am I?
One of these nights, I dreamt I was in a maternity, but I wasn't having a baby, I was an intern or a student there (I may have caught a glimpse of Grey's Anatomy the previous night). One of my teachers was there and many women and men with babies...most of them looked very strange and quirky. The teacher told me and other colleagues we had to measure a baby's blood pressure and everyone started grabbing babies and doing that. I just stood there, completely terrified, not wanting to believe that I had to do that. I wasn't a doctor, why did I have to do that? And most of all, horror of horrors, I didn't know how to do that in a baby, they were so small...I had no experience.
It's funny now that I remember it but I was very scared at the time and felt completely incompetent.

I'm listening to Astor Piazzolla - the master of tango. It inspires me to write.