Guess what IIIII diiiid!?!?....

!!!!

 [I'm going to do a p.s. right now, and it's a Pre-Script. (Rather than post-script) So, I guess that might also be called an "announcement": I'm going to see if I can start writing my blog entries using better punctuation and capitalization of the necessary letters and better grammar in general]

I had an outstandingly super day yesterday,  
January twenty-first, two-thousand and eleven.

✺ First, I woke up and made myself an excellent smoothie and had some delicious tea for breakfast. And I took my vitamins :)


[Okay, this grammar plan already isn't working because I know I can't start sentences with "and" but basically, if I write using perfect grammar then I don't sound like myself. Who speaks using perfect punctuation? Who ever says "oh, the next word out of my mouth can't be "and" because I just ended a sentence" ??? No one. Except, maybe Obama because he is perfect. I'd rather sound like myself and start sentences with "and" when I write than have perfect grammar and sound like a boring word document. New plan: I'll just capitalize the letters at the beginning of sentences and use apostrophes when necessary and start my sentences with whatever inappropriate words I want.]


(M.S [mid-script] I like ✺ way more than ❦. Also, I have provided a map showing my displacement today.)

✺ Then, I (went  up to Tetuan [#1] and) got my NIE!!!!! YESSSS! I got my official Spanish ID! NOW I'M LEGITIMATE and don't need to carry around my passport anymore. I always felt so vulnerable when I did that. So, it's a huge relief that I have my NIE now. (Notice how I received it half way through my contract here? Such is Spanish bureaucracy.)


✺ After, I went to Gran Via [#2] and RAN (because I was running late) to Navarro Estilistas, a really cool salon I discovered in Chueca (the gay neighborhood in Madrid) and the blond lady sitting on the left side of the couch greeted me, and the guy just to the left of her chopped off all my hair while the girl sitting to the left of him gave me a free manicure and the guy standing on the right brought me green tea...They pampered me for 2 hours! I've never sat in a salon for that long in my life. I had a great time. They were awesome and their customer service was such a treat, because that just doesn't exist in Spain. And now I love my hair and I can't wear it in a pony-tail anymore (which is good because now I'm forced to not be lazy and actually DO my hair and look like a decent human-being when I go out). 

and the reason why I decided to cut my hair was because it was just weighing me down. It was too much of a hassel to fix it everyday, it was always tied back, and I just thought it was ugly. And I needed something new and fresh. It was so cathartic getting it cut. I'm so happy about it.


✺ Next, I met up with my awesome friend Elena at the Hare Krishna center in Tribunal [#3] which I've written about before.  As always, we stuffed ourselves to food-coma-oblivion. [Side note: This place is all you can eat delicious vegan food for 6 euros, and I used to eat 1.5 rounds, but now I finish the first plate with difficulty. My stomach has shrunken, and therefore, my appetite as well which I don't like because I enjoy eating food for long periods of time and I can't anymore :(  ]


✺ Later, I made the pilgrimage to Mecca (Ikea) [which is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyy down the blue line at Las Suertas stop #4...bottom right of map] and I definitely semi-napped on the metro due to the food coma. And then I arrived and walked [honestly, I was basically skipping I was so excited about my hair] approx 5 minutes from the metro across this strangely vacant and windy suburb of Madrid through the giant shopping mall and to Ikea. 

this one took 5 minutes

Then, I naturally walked 7 times around Kabba (walked through the Ikea display route) 

...and  I  bought this bed frame for only 30 euros!!! (and I bought a pretty red towel and pink rose scented candles...who AM I??) 


THEN, I stuffed everything (except the bed) in my purse and proceeded to carry the bed (well, it was disassembled and packed into a box, but the box was still as long as a bed) to the metro stop (which took 15 minutes, and I definitely wasn't skipping anymore). 

this one took 15 minutes

And onto the metro I went, bed-in-tow, up the light blue line again to Tribunal, transferred to the dark blue line, and made my way through the center of Madrid during Friday rush-hour (the simile of an ant carrying a cookie can appropriately be drawn for this scenario) and up and down stairs and escalators and elevators and through pushy crowds and across streets and into my apartment [#5]! 

And now you can call me Haj Khanoom.

(for those who don't speak Farsi or Arabic, haj khanoom is what you call a muslim lady who performs the pilgrimage to mecca). WHICH I DID. Obviously.


 ✺ Then I rested for 2.5 minutes, realized my arms no longer functioned from carrying a bed across Madrid (but then got excited because that means it was an arm workout! I'm still sore.) and went to lovely Carolina's house [in Goya #6] where we made delicious green curry with tofu and quinoa for dinner. And for dessert a bunch of fresh lychee (we bought for like 25 cents from her LEGITIMATE chino -which I've also written about before) and for thirst quenching: umeshu (japanese plum) liquor mixed with carbonated water (this thing tastes like candy). And laughed our faces off as we always do. 


✺ Finally, I did something I haven't done in ages: I went out on the town with Elena, and Katy and her 2 awesome friends: Juliet (who gave me an amazing compliment on my eyebrows. My favorite type of compliment.) and Guillerme (Remember ll sounds like y. Also Guillerme and Guillermo mean William in Portuguese and Spanish, respectively. Weird, huh?) to some really cool joints that I really liked. At this one place, called Tupperware, they were playing Spoon and Animal Collective and it BLEW MY MIND because those are 2 of my favorite bands, and everyone was like "man this music sucks" while I, in the meantime, was fighting back tears because it reminded me so much of Oregon and all my friends back home and of going to Sasquatch with Keon, and urban farm in the Spring of '09 when I was obsessed with Spoon, and my adorable room in my cute house (Monticello) on 1375 jefferson street in Eugene... so I went and attacked the DJ and thanked her for being such a ROCKSTAR. Then, I went upstairs to the bathroom and waited in line for way too long, but made a new Spanish friend named Carla, via my feather earrings I had made and was wearing (those things are girl magnets). I actually found a fly fish shop in madrid where I can buy feathers and make more! Oh and some guy there made fun of my name (typical) and I yelled at him (also, typical) and I was pissed off for 2 seconds, and then I remembered what a good time I was having so I got over it. But, HONESTLY, why are we still making fun of peoples names?? How OLD ARE WE? I seriously want to get "no como el cantante"(not like the singer) tattooed on my forehead.


✺ LASTLY,  I came home at 3:40AM. Fell asleep by 4AM and woke up at 7:30AM. I have no idea why I woke up, I was just bored of sleeping. (I think I am the most extreme/hardcore early-bird EVER). And now I'm going to Carolina's for breakfast :) and I don't even need to do my hair because it miraculously still looks amazing from last night. I love it when that happens! Oh, and on TOP of everything else, they banned smoking indoors in Spain, so now, I don't get a black lung every time I go out and the next day my clothes and hair don't smell like smoke! AND IT'S SUNNY OUTSIDE!! AND IT'S ONLY SATURDAY!! I'm in such a good mood, I don't even care that the freak who lives above me is still playing Good Charlotte, I'm actually humming along.

I just had such a great 24 hours! I had to share!
p.s. (post script this time)  next time you wake up, start the day with Queen's greatest hits, I know it's counter-intuitive, but it's WONDERFUL. 
I'll end on this note: