January 31st, 2011

My third birthday cake!  This one courtesy of my parents and an excellent French bakery - it's double fudge raspberry and it's amazing.  It's been such a nice week, my birthday and getting back into the rhythm of things, and this was the perfect way to end it.

~*~

January 30th, 2011

My family took my boyfriend and me out to dinner last night to celebrate my birthday!  We went to my favorite seafood restaurant and engaged in the family sport of banter the whole time.  (No one banters like my family does.)  And there was cake afterwards too.  Good times.

~*~

January 29th, 2011

Mallorca!  Puerto Rican pastry, sweet and buttery.  We ate two for breakfast this morning heated up on the stove and dusted with powdered sugar.

~*~

January 28th, 2011

This man is Amiri Baraka.  He is a civil rights activist who was contemporaries with Martin Luther King Jr. and Malcolm X, and a goddamn phenomenal spoken-word poet and playwright as well.  Last night I got a chance to sit for two hours in my old college theatre and listen to this man lay out the sorry state of affairs in the world for me, and it was breathtaking.  I mean, I've written papers about this man, and here he was in front of me.  Unbelievable. I got tunnel vision.

Do yourself a favor - look up "Somebody Blew Up America" on Youtube, find the version of him speaking it.  Listen and use it.

~*~

January 27th, 2011

Birthday snow!

~*~

January 26th, 2011

It's my birthday today!  And this is a picture of the absolutely decadent chocolate birthday cake Jules and his family surprised me with our last night in Puerto Rico.  I love surprises and I'm enough of a nerd to still be excited about my day.

~*~

January 25th, 2011

My boyfriend's lovely family, who have kept us and taken care of us for the last week or so.  They are all so amazing and kind to me and I've had so much fun down here.

~*~