For those of you who have lost track of what's going on in my life, here's a quick recap:
Five years ago I left Monterey, California to travel around Europe for a year. I ended up in Valencia, Spain with a terrible bladder infection, a wicked cold and the intention of staying for four months and miraculously learning perfect Spanish.
Well, suffice it to say, I realized that it takes a bit longer than four months to learn Spanish that's even tolerable to the native speakers let alone "perfect". Five years later, I'm still making agonizingly pitiful mistakes at least once a day (sometimes once per sentence, which would increase that figure by... well, let's not even go there). On the bright side, I'm never without an amusing story to tell.
Anyway, I digress. After a year of living like a college student again; sharing apartments with other foreigners, going out nearly every night and trying to survive off of the 15-20 hour week English teacher's salary, my life again changed. I started dating my exceptionally gorgeous future husband (who was also living like a college student, yet in his very own bachelor's pad). We hooked up in Madrid during spring break (You see, I wasn't exaggerating when I said we were living like college kids), and moved in together about a month later. Shortly after, I began the slow, painful process of turning his flat into a presentable couple’s home.
One year later, after the failed attempt as a real estate agent left Alex feeling rather empty and both of us motivated to try something new, we bought our very own café/cocktail bar, The Bohemian Café. Now, how many times have you heard someone say, "My dream is to one day own a café in... (insert wildly exotic location here)? I too, was one of those people. I think it's a popular dream because it sounds so picture perfect when you're not doing it. I had NO IDEA the work that goes into running your own business, especially when your job is to serve others, which I hate, by the way. For the first four months we worked from 8:00 am to midnight every day except Sunday. It was pure hell. The café had been called "The Chaplin" before we took it over and it already had its own clientele - old people. We were trying to change its image, but not without resistance. The university professors, always in a hurry and rarely without criticism, never missed the morning rush, the precise moment to find us running around like chickens with our heads cut off. That period of time was probably the most difficult in the past five years. We hardly had any free time. Our downtime was for sleeping and lying around, zombie-like and zoning out on the TV. We survived off of kebabs, drank too much beer and lived like slobs. Thank god that is over now!
On the following Valentine’s Day, almost a year later, Alex proposed to me right there in our café. He got down on one knee and proposed three times (once in Spanish, once in English, and once more because, like a dope, I gave him the wrong hand). We were married on September 29th, 2007 in El Huerto de Santa María. It rocked. I was so lucky to have my mom and brother and some of my closest friends there as guests. We are still planning on having a ceremony/raging party in The States someday in the future. Who knows when though.
Two months ago we were blessed with the cutest, sweetest, coolest baby ever - Arabella Lucía. She is a dream. Alex calls her "Cru Cru" I call her "Sweet Girl". Our lives are consumed with her at the moment, but we can't complain. She is highly entertaining to watch and not a very difficult baby. We are extremely lucky. I love being a mom. I feel like it is what I was always meant to do.
Well folks, that's about the gist of it. I wasn't planning on writing such an epic novel, but now that everyone's all caught up, I plan on making my future blogs much shorter, yet just as enjoyable. Stay tuned...
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