Marty Kaplan's Blog

Saturday, April 21, 2012

It’s a little after noon and the temperature is rapidly climbing to the 80’s.  As of this moment there is no plan for the day, but life here is always full of surprises.  Susan is off having her nails done and on the way back she will check in with Teresa at A Nou to see if she has anything she would like to add to or subtract from Susan’s article about her and the restaurant.  If all goes well, she should post the article soon.

Yesterday after completing my physical therapy session I decided that I would go in search of the barber and barbershop that a friend, Pepo, had recommended.  I searched the Internet for an address and did not find anything.  I asked Pep for the address and he was not sure of the street name, but he did mention that it was close by the Westin Valencia.  I hopped a cab and had the driver drop me off at the front door of the hotel.  I walked past the front door of the hotel until I got to the corner and hung a left there.  I walked no more than fifty feet and I saw the sign that read Peluqueros Beltrán.  Success!  When I walked in both barber chairs were occupied so I took a seat and waited.

It took no more than five minutes for me to get into the chair.  I introduced myself to Miguel Beltrán and told him that Pepo had sent me.  It turns out that his children and Pepo’s children go to the same school and they are roughly the same age.  I explained to him what I would like him to do with my beard and then to cut my hair so that its length goes well with the length of my beard.  He understood perfectly when I told him that I wanted to keep the shape and contour of my beard; I just needed to have it thinned out.

We chatted while he worked away.  The barbershop was started by his father who is now retired.  Miguel began to work there when he was seventeen and has been cutting hair for some thirty-one years.  He has two daughters one of whom is sixteen and the other is eleven.  For a while he entertained the idea of working in a beauty salon, but decided that the idea of looking after three customers simultaneously was way too stressful.  Cutting men’s hair is much less complicated in that you only have to deal with the person who is in your chair at the moment.

I went for the whole nine yards and Miguel cut my hair, trimmed my beard, gave me a shave and finished the job off with a thorough shampoo.  The treatment cost me 22.5 Euros.  He did a great job and the good news is that I have finally found my barber in Valencia.

Susan and I had lunch at La Fórcola and, as usual we opted for the menu of the day.  Susan and I both started off with a rather large bowl of mussels and then followed that up with a pizza for me and a pasta for her.  I had some ice cream for dessert and Susan chose the cheesecake.  We passed on coffee and a liqueur because we needed to get changed and meet Juanra in his office for a 4:30 appointment.

Juanra is in his mid-20’s and has been working at Kermocasa for some three years.  He works alongside his mother, Sylvia, who has been in the real estate business for a goodly number of years.  They have recently moved into a new office space that is small, but very impressive.  We chatted for more than an hour as Juanra explained the process and took information about what exactly we were seeking in an apartment.  We designated three areas of the city in which we were interested and described what our ideal apartment would contain.  In the next month or so he will send us information on some apartments that are available to give us an idea of how the process works and to see if we see something that fits our wishes.  At the end of June and after he will begin to seriously search for available apartments that we can rent as of October 1.  Our goal is to have everything in place when we return to Valencia in November.

Our appointment ended a little before 6:00 and from Juanra’s office we made our way to the Palau de Música for a family concert entitled Mágico Cumpleaños.  All the promotional material indicated that it was recommended for children ages five and above.  However, since this is Spain the age range of the audience was three months to ancient.  The good news is that the audience was remarkably well behaved throughout the performance.  Our friend, Nacho Diago, was the narrator and in addition to his interaction with the audience he performed a number of magic effects.  The standout for us was his version of the Linking Rings done to the music of Dukas’ The Sorcerer’s Apprentice.  It was beautiful to behold.

The orchestra’s selections were aimed at the younger members of the audience, although Susan and I enjoyed them thoroughly.  The fragments played included Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra, The Moldau, The Sorcerer’s Apprentice, Waltz of the Fishes, The Fire Dance, The Flight of the Bumblebee, Dances from West Side Story and Pictures at an Exhibition.  The event lasted a little more than an hour and we all left the theater in the happiest of moods.

It was 8:00 PM when we got home and after a rather busy afternoon we decided that we were in for the night.  We read and watched some TV and headed for bed a little before midnight.  There is only one picture today and it is of me with Jörg Alexander taken last Monday at his lecture.

Friday, April 20, 2012

We have an appointment later this afternoon with Juanra who is a real estate agent.  He is going to help us look for a new apartment that we will occupy when we return to Valencia next November.  We are looking for a top floor apartment with three bedrooms and two bathrooms.  It needs to have a large kitchen and it needs to be light and airy.  Hopefully we can find a place close to where we are now, but we are willing to look into other neighborhoods.  It would make life a lot easier if the apartment were furnished and came with a washer and dryer.  After meeting with Juanra we will head to the Palau for a 6:30 concert celebrating the 25^th anniversary of the Palau.  It is intended for families and Nacho Diago will be the Master of ceremonies for this event.

I forgot to mention in yesterday’s post that we watched the latest Mission Impossible offering.  It is called “The Ghost Protocol”.  It was a pleasant way to spend two hours and it had its requisite share of explosions and car chases, as well as superhuman feats.  Clearly there will be a follow up to this film.

Yesterday we decided to have lunch at Ballando Nudi – Francisco’s new place.  We sat down and chatted for a while and when he asked us what we wanted to eat, we just looked at him and said, “Feed us!”  He started us off with a breadbasket filled with Galician style bread.  It is a very dense bread and it is flavorful.  He then placed a plate filled with a variety of Italian cold cuts.  There was salame, guanciale, porchetta and pancetta.  He also served us a plate with a variety of cheeses all of which were topped with homemade marmalades.  The two standouts were a smoke scarmozza and a gorgonzola topped with a red onion marmalade.  Next came two pasta dishes.  One was a plate of tagliatelle topped with  a pesto sauce and the second was a plate of penne topped with a sauce that included wine, endive and Speck.  We were unable to finish the pasta dishes and we took them home with us for later consumption.

We had a bottle of a nice Italian red, La Poderina, from Montalcino.  Dessert was tiramisú and it was one of the best that I have ever had because the cream portion was incredibly dense as opposed to most where the cream tends to be quite thin and almost runny.  Since the cappuccino machine is still on its way from Italy instead of coffee Francisco offered us a little something to finish our meal.  I had a ten-year-old Port and Susan opted for some Tanqueray Rangpur gin.  What a great meal!

We stumbled out of the restaurant a little before 4:00 and made our way home.  I decided that I would take a little nap and given the fact that I had gotten little sleep the night before and I was a bit buzzed I woke up at 8:30.  Susan had already headed off to her Photoshop class and, as it turned out, I had missed last night’s meeting of the veteranos.  The good news is that there will be another meeting next week.  When Susan got home she played around on the computer a bit and we were both in bed by 11:30.

A drop of a 25 year old balsamic vinegar

Thursday, April 19, 2012

The King has issued an apology for his running off to Botswana to play the great white hunter while Spain average Spaniard struggles to keep his head above the rising tide of bad economic news.  The latest shoe to drop is that the co-pay for medicine is about to increase and for the first time ever pensioners will be asked to pay for a portion of the costs for their medications.  Most pensioners here live on a subsistence income and asking them to come up with the 60 Euros a month for their medication may mean that some will forego the purchase of medicine in order to eat.  The Partido Popular in their most recent campaign repeatedly insisted that they would not raise taxes nor would they raise the amount that Spaniards contribute toward the cost of their medication.  It seems that the Prime Minister has a Pinocchio complex and the size of his nose appears to be growing on a daily basis.

A positive step in the area of health care is that the government will clamp down on medical tourism.  Citizens of Great Britain, Portugal and France flock to Spain for surgical procedures because of the quality of treatment and the fact that there is less of a waiting period here than in their own country.  They also do not pay for their medical procedures because they are citizens of the European Union. Many who come here do not live here, nor do they pay taxes here.  The rules of the game are about to change and in order to access the medical system here for free foreigners will now have to show that they actually live, work and pay taxes here in Spain.  The estimated savings per year are expected to be in the neighborhood of one thousand million Euros.

I met with Doctor Rubio Tuesday afternoon and he determined that I have made major progress in my recovery.  In manipulating the knee in a variety of directions there was no pain to be felt.  I am still experiencing pain, however and the locus of that pain is changeable.  He allowed as how that was normal given the fact that my normal gait has been disrupted and the body finds ways to protect itself by accommodating that change, but at the same time it puts stress on different components of the leg.  He determined that I would benefit from an additional ten session of physical therapy and since my insurance will cover them that is fine with me.

Tuesday I had the chance to visit the small gallery where Ofelia has a workspace and where she is currently exhibiting a number of her paintings.  Afterwards the four of us – Susan, Brian, Ofelia and I – went in search of dinner.  We had hoped to eat at Sorsi e Morsi, but in spite of what its sign said the restaurant was closed.  We moved on only to discover that Appetite was closed, also.  We walked a bit further and came to a rather small restaurant called El Fino and since Brian and Ofelia had eaten there before we walked in and took a seat at the window table.

The place, though small, is very charming.  It is artfully decorated and very welcoming.  It is a tapas style restaurant and so we ordered a variety of dishes.  As best as I can recall we had habitas con jamón, esgarraet, croquetas, pulpo a la gallega and a sartén de ajos verdes con setas, patatas y dos huevos fritos.  Everything was well prepared and delicious.  For dessert we split a bicuit glace and some profiteroles.  We walked back to the garage where Brian keeps his car and he drove us home.  It was a little after 11:00 when he dropped us off.

Wednesday was rather uneventful.  After physical therapy we decided to go in search of some lunch and we ended up at El Molinón.  Vilma waited on us and gave us some of the details of her trip to Honduras with her boyfriend, Juanjo.  Our lunch consisted of some steamed Galician mussels and our favorite steak dish served with potatoes and pimientos de Padrón.  After lunch we stopped at Linares for our dessert.  From there we headed back home and we spent the rest of the afternoon and evening just doing “stuff”.  We were too tired to do anything else.

Tuesday, April 17, 2012

I have just returned from my physical therapy session and I return to the hospital this afternoon to meet with Dr Flores who is directing my rehabilitation.  I will find out if tomorrow will be my last physical therapy session or whether he will prescribe several more.  This evening I will have a chance to visit the gallery where Ofelia is exhibiting her paintings and afterwards Ofelia, Brian, Susan and I will have dinner together.

Yesterday Susan and I walked to Linares to have a late afternoon ice cream and that evening I made my way to the CIVAC meeting.  Jörg Alexander was lecturing and it promised to be very entertaining and very enlightening.  Jörg is part of a group called The Flicking Fingers and it is comprised of many of Germany’s best magicians and magic thinkers and inventors.  In the course of the evening he showed and then explained five effects: a three phase ring and string effect, an effect with 10 Euro bills, his version of McDonald’s Aces, an effect using 20 cards and two wine glasses and lastly an effect with Tarot cards.

All the effects were very impressive and extremely well thought out.  In truth, I do not know if I will eventually incorporate any of the effects into my repertoire.  However, I did learn a great deal about how to construct an effect and how to justify the presence of the materials you use in your effects.  After the lecture there were a number of items for sale and I helped out the cause.  The lecture was followed by one of Pepe’s paellas and the 22 of us present sat down for sustenance and conversation.  A little after 11:00 I was starting to lose steam, so I said my goodbyes and made my way home.  Susan was still up reading and both of us went to bed a little before midnight.

Monday, April 16, 2012

The calendar for the week is beginning to fill up.  There is a CIVAC meeting tonight that features a lecture by German magician Joerg Alexander. I have two more physical therapy sessions scheduled for this week on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Tuesday evening I have an appointment with the doctor who is the director of rehabilitation to determine if more sessions are necessary.  Tuesday evening I will visit the gallery where Ofelia now works to see her exhibition and afterwards the four of us will go out to dinner at a nearby Italian restaurant called Sorsi y Morsi.  I am hopeful that the veteranos will meet on Thursday and Friday I have a morning appointment with the traumatologist and in the late afternoon we will be attending a concert at the Palau de Música.  It is the 25^th Anniversary of the Palau and this is a family concert with nacho Diago serving as the Master of Ceremonies.  It looks like life is returning back to normal.

Last night Brian and Ofelia joined us for dinner.  Susan outdid herself preparing a delicious salad to start the meal and then we loaded up the sideboard so that everyone could help themselves to Ferrán Adriá’s “Supermarket Chicken” and a savory couscous.  The chicken recipe is sweet and it contrasted well with the savory couscous.  We opened a bottle of Mala Vida and it was the perfect accompaniment to the meal.  Dessert was strawberry shortcake and we took turns beating up the whipped cream with a whisk since we do not have a mixer in the house.  We finished the meal with a coffee and Brian and I had an orujo or two to help our meal digest.

Our conversation, as usual, was very lively and we talked a lot about the royal family and how they should be comporting themselves in this time of economic crisis in Spain.  We agreed that this really was not the time for Juan Carlos to be off in Botswana killing elephants while his fellow countrymen are in the midst of the worst economic crisis in years. The estimated cost of his Africa trek was a little less than $58,000.  There have been some calls for him to step down, but that is unlikely to happen.  We also talked a bit about creating art from found objects.

I did some magic last night.  I did a total of five effects and I was happy with the way they played.  Two of the effects come from Woody Aragon’s latest book and one of the effects was taught to me some twenty-five years ago by my late friend, Monte Smith.  Our evening came to a close at 11:00 PM and we finally got to be a little after midnight.

Here is the recipe for last night’s chicken dish.  I hope you give it a try.

Ferran Adrià’s Rotisserie Chicken with Dried Fruits
(Pollo con Frutos y Frutas Secas)
From The New Spanish Table, by Anya von Bremzen

As this recipe demonstrates, Ferran Adrià, the alchemist chef of El Bulli, is as practical as he is inventive. It’s adapted from the cookbook he dedicated to quick recipes that can be made with supermarket ingredients, and it features a store-bought rotisserie chicken that’s deliciously doctored with a sauce of dried fruit, pine nuts, and port wine. Though you can whip the dish up in less than half an hour, the flavors are sophisticated enough for a fancy dinner party. If you’d like to roast your own chicken, so much the better.

Ingredients:

1 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 cup pitted prunes
1/2 cup dried apricots
1/4 cup pitted dried sour cherries
2 Tbsp pine nuts
1 strip orange zest (4 inches), white pith removed
1 strip lemon zest (4 inches), white pith removed
1/2 cup tawny port
1 small cinnamon stick
2/3 cup chicken stock or broth
1 store-bought rotisserie chicken (about 3-1/2 pounds), cut into 8 pieces, juices reserved

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 425°F (220°C)

2. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the prunes, apricots, cherries, pine nuts, and orange and lemon zests and cook, stirring, until the pine nuts turn golden and the fruits are browned in spots, 3 to 5 minutes. Add the port and cinnamon stick and cook until syrupy, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock and the chicken juices. Increase the heat to high, bring the sauce to a boil, and cook until reduced, about 5 minutes.

3. Place the chicken pieces in a baking dish that can hold them snugly. Pour the sauce over them, scraping up all the fruit and liquid from the bottom of the skillet and turning the chicken to coat it with the sauce. Bake the chicken until it is warmed through and the sauce is further reduced, about 10 minutes. Transfer to plates and serve at once.

Yield: Serves 4

Sunday, April 15, 2012

I have just returned from a brief walk down to Mantequería Chisbert where I chatted briefly with Nacho and picked up some goodies for tonight’s dinner with Brian and Ofelia.  Susan will be making a recipe from the New Spanish Cookbook.  The author of the recipe is none other than Fernán Adriá.  It should be a fun evening.

Yesterday Susan and I did some shopping at the Central Market.  It gave me a chance to catch up with some familiar faces.  We stocked up on fruits and vegetables at Amparo’s stand.  Oranges are in season and many fruterías are selling six and a half pounds of oranges for one Euro.  Strawberries are back in season, also.  We also picked up some cinnamon sticks and pitted prunes for tonight’s recipe.  Our last stop at the market was at one of our favorite wine purveyors.  We picked up three bottle of white wine and a bottle of port, which is needed for tonight’s chicken recipe.

On the way back we stopped at La Bodega de la Dama Juana where we picked up some red wine.  She is one of the few vendors in the city who carry Mala Vida and it is an excellent young red that has a very good price point.  In addition to the wine we picked up a couple of Mala Vida coffee mugs.  It was a good thing that we took the rolling cart with us because we filled it to the brim.

When we got home we unpacked the cart and Susan went to Mercadona to pick up a few necessities.  I took advantage of that window of time to elevate the leg and apply some ice.  Around 3:00 PM we crossed the street at walked into A Nou.  We were hankering for a fideuá de mariscos and that is what we ordered.  We started off with a salteado de verduritas and that was a good way to start the meal because, in addition to being very tasty, the portion was small.  We ordered a white wine – A2 – and we discovered that it is made by the same winery that produces Mala Vida.  Here is a link to the winery’s webpage http://www.bodegasarraez.com/. The fideuá made its appearance and we did some magic and made it disappear.  We were so full that we passed on dessert and ended the meal with a coffee.

We had given some thought to going out later and getting an ice cream, but our next door neighbors came by to tell us that there was water leaking from our apartment.  Ironically, I had seen it before and I thought that it was runoff from the rain.  Miguel came by to take a look and an hour later the plumber came by to seal the leak.  By the time he finished it was too late to go out for an ice cream, so we spent the rest of the evening at home.  Thank to the PBS app on my iPad we were able to watch Dudamel’s initial concert with the LA Phil.  Airplay allows us to see the program on our TV.  This is definitely one of the pluses of modern technology.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

The royal family here in Spain is having a rather tough go.  The King’s son-in-law has been involved in shady economic dealings and his trial recently ended.  Last week the King’s grandson shot himself in the foot with a firearm that a minor is forbidden to use or own.  The King himself was hunting elephants in Africa when he fell a broke his hip.  He was airlifted back to Madrid and given a new hip.  I don’t think they made him wait on the benches outside the emergency room.  If that wasn’t bad enough, the royal budget has been cut and the King and his staff will have to get by with less money.  And you thought it was easy being King.

Last night we had dinner at La Mar Salada.  It is a five-minute walk from the house.  It is a small space with maybe ten tables.  It does have a sea motif with a plasma screen on one wall.  There is also piped in music that featured a lot of mellow music, including some of my favorite Beatles’ tunes.  There is one server out front and one woman doing the food preparation in the kitchen.  The menu is rather limited and the deal is that if there are two of you, you get to choose three dishes off the menu, one dessert and two coffees.  Most of the dished can be ordered as a half serving, thus expanding one’s possibilities.  There is a featured red and white wine each month and it is available at a very good price.  Last night’s price was 9 Euros.

After a bit of consultation we ended up ordering the mesclun salad with foie, half an order of croquetas de pollo, half an order of shrimp brochettes, half and order of lamb with hummus and a Carpaccio of cod with sliced potatoes.  Everything was very tasty and we barely had room for the lamb when it was set on the table as our last entrée.  We did have room for the brownie and ice cream, however.  We finished our meal with coffee and paid our bill.  The grand total for our evening meal was 40 Euros.  On the way home we stopped of at La Fórcola to say hello to the crew.  We were back home a little after midnight and we stayed up for another hour to let our meal digest.

Friday, April 13, 2012

Today is my brother’s birthday.  Happy Birthday, brother dear!  The sun has returned to Valencia in celebration of your birthday.  Last night it started to rain around 6:30 and the rain lasted most of the night.  Susan went to her PhotoShop class around then and I stayed home with my foot elevated applying ice packs every other hour.  The good news is that the knee is feeling significantly better than it did on Tuesday morning.

I was able to walk to the metro station yesterday and that certainly lifted my spirits.  On the way back I got off the metro at Colón and did a bit of shopping at El Corte Inglés and then made my way to the Ginger Loft.  It was a little after 1:00 and they were in the process of setting the room up for lunch.  I took a seat and ordered a beer.  I then called Susan and invited her to join me for lunch.  While I waited for her I chatted with Mike and did a bit of reading.

Lunch, as usual, was quite enjoyable.  We started with a bit of hummus and from there enjoyed a garbanzo and apple soup.  Mike served us what he called a Japanese version of ceviche, which was not quite as sharp as the Peruvian version.  It was marinated in Clementine juice, which is not as astringent as lime juice.  It was quite tasty.  Next came a dish of Vietnamese pork, followed by a dish of green curry.  Both dishes had the right amount of heat and both were served over rice.  For dessert we split a slice of a chocolate and banana cake that was served with a small scoop of ice cream.  We finished the meal with a coffee.

Before we left Susan asked Mike if she could photograph and interview him for her food project.  Mike graciously said that it was fine with him.  On our way back home I stopped off at Carusel to set up a time with Jordi to discuss his proposal of having me do magic on Sundays at lunch time.  That will happen when we return from Madrid at the end of the month.

I was running late this morning, so I took a cab to the hospital.  I did take the metro back home and my route took me past a restaurant that we have been meaning to try for a while.  It appears to be open only four nights a week and we never seem to walk by when it is open.  The restaurant is called La Mar Salada.  Ironically, I walked home via a different route today and as I walked by the restaurant the door was open and they were cleaning the place.  I walked in and made a reservation for 10:00 tonight.  I will let you know how it is in a later post.

Susan will be heading out in a short while to catch up with Zahava for some coffee and a movie.  She should be home in plenty of time for us to honor our reservation this evening. By the way, Monday is yet another holiday so my pt will not resume until Tuesday.  I also have a doctor’s appointment Tuesday evening with the head of physical therapy who will decide how many more sessions he thinks I may need.

Ceviche with a Japanese touch

Wednesday, April 11, 2012

There has been a small setback to my recovery.  When I awoke yesterday I discovered that the locus of my knee pain had shifted and was now located just under the kneecap.  It appears that the area became stressed as I made adjustments to the way I walked when the pain was more centered in my joints.  I am limping again.  They have made a change in my rehabilitation to deal with this new problem and I am hopeful that the inflammation will decrease over the next few days.  Be that as it may, it is rather frustrating.  I guess I will just have to dig the well of patience a bit deeper.

Monday we were able to go out to lunch and we ended up at Salatën.  Susan opted for a salad to start and I chose the arroz a la banda.  Susan’s entrée was salmon and I chose the veal.  For dessert we chose the almond flan.  The food was enjoyable, but, at the same time, one cannot fail to notice that everything appears to be made in advance in large quantities and then served in individual portions.  I like A Nou’s approach of preparing a dish when ordered and since the price is the same, I know where to go for lunch the next time around.

Yesterday we ate at home.  Susan prepared a veal with mushroom dish that was absolutely spectacular.  She served it over pasta with a salad on the side.  Life is good!  I spent the rest of the day on the couch with my foot elevated and applying ice packs every other hour.  Susan went to PhotoShop class last night and learned and practiced a few more techniques.  I forgot to mention that we paid a visit to the Apple Store yesterday in the hopes that they could fix the problem that she was having with iMail, but they were unable to solve the problem.

I am including a speech I made a number of years ago for two reasons.  The first is that some of the issues that we touched upon Sunday night at Brian and Ofelia’s are ones I addressed in my speech.  The second reason is that, out of the blue, I received an e-mail on Monday from one of the students who was in the audience that evening.  She sent me a belated thank you for my words and allowed as how she frequently reflected on them.   What follows s rather lengthy.

Remarks by Martin Kaplan

On the Occasion of His Induction into Cum Laude

February 17, 2008

I think the last time I spoke before this many adults it was at my Bar Mitzvah.  Some of you may have read about it.  Moses couldn’t make it because he was still wandering in the desert. Okay, I exaggerate a bit …but not that much.  And I say that because as I sat down to commit my thoughts to paper, I did the math and discovered that I have spent the past sixty-four years of my life in an educational setting either as a student or a teacher.  And in those sixty-four years I have always sat on the other side of this lectern, where you are sitting now, and have always been the recipient of the message rather than the deliverer.  So, given my experience and given the fact that I am a magician, I know what you are thinking.  You’re thinking, “Dear Lord, let him be interesting and, above all, let him be brief.  You will be relieved to know that those are my two goals for this evening and I hope to realize both, but, truth be told, I will be happy to realize one of the two.  That would give me a batting average of 500 and that’s not too shabby.  Especially when you consider that I will have done it without the use of steroids.

Our life is frequently compared to a journey and I, along with those of you who have been honored tonight and those of you who were honored last year, are about to travel down a new road.  You juniors will spend the summer thinking about your next steps after you graduate from Westridge.  By the first of May you seniors will have a clear idea of where your next destination lies.  As of this moment, as I prepare to leave Westridge, I am not yet sure where my path will lead me, but I know that many exciting adventures await me.  Keeping the journey analogy in mind, I have decided to share with you some of my thoughts about twelve items or reminders we should consider taking along with us in our metaphorical backpack as we continue on our separate ways.  I guess you could think of these as ROAD FOOD…FOR THOUGHT.

1. Cultivate the ability to laugh at yourself and always remember to pack your sense of humor.  They will help get you through a number of the difficulties that you most certainly will confront in the future. Try not to take what are truly the minor aggravations in life too seriously.  As we used to say in the 60’s – that’s the 1960’s – “Don’t sweat the small stuff.”  Or, as my wife is fond of saying to her best friend, Ruth, “Ruth, lighten up.”

2. Everyone has something to teach you.  My students have taught me some of the most important lessons that I have learned in my time here at Westridge.  However, keep in mind that in order to learn the lessons that others might teach us, we need to be a good listener and to truly understand what it is that someone is telling us.  In addition to processing the message, we need to capture the emotions behind the message.  We all need to tell our story.  We all need to be understood.  We all need people to listen to us and not just hear us. Make every effort to be an active listener.

3. Initially, everyone deserves your respect.  That means that, in my book, respect does not have to be earned, but rather it needs to be maintained.  It is incumbent on me, as it is on others, to continue to be deserving of that initial respect that was freely given, because, at the beginning of a relationship, no one deserves to be nor should they be disrespected.  When asked what is the secret of my success here at Westridge, I respond that, among other things, I treat ALL people as people and it makes no difference to me if they are a fourth grader or the Head of School.

4.  Happiness comes from within.  It is not a cloak that we can wrap around others. We can cheer people up.  We can make them smile and we can make them laugh.  However, no matter what we do, we cannot make them happy.  If your goal in life is to make your daughter or your friend or your partner happy, you are doomed to failure. That is something they need to do for themselves. As Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Happiness is not a goal, it is a byproduct.”

5. Seek to uncover your passions.  Discover what it is that really animates you, that really motivates you, that truly brings you pleasure, that makes you feel vibrant and alive. I shudder to think who I would be without my passion for magic, for Spain, for Spanish and for teaching.

6. Do not underestimate the importance of the little things in life – a smile, a hug, a please, a thank you.  They enrich our days and they enrich our lives.  They are the bases on which relationships grow or whither.  To greet someone by name empowers people.  It let’s them know that they are known, that they are not just one of the multitude, that they are someone.  Sometimes even a nickname will do the trick.  I recently made the acquaintance of a fourth grader.  We literally ran into each other in the main hall.  It was at that moment that I christened her Speedy.  From that moment on, every time that I saw her I would greet her with, “Hi, Speedy!”  You could just see her face light up.  Recently, she was passing through my office and stopped and said to me, “I need to give you a name, too.”  Fifteen minutes later she returned, looked at me and said, “I have a name for you.  I am going to call you Mr. Nice Man.”

7.  Be here now!  We are often so busy planning our future that we forget the present.  We constantly pass up opportunities to be with our family, our friends or our loved ones because we are just too busy.  Sometimes we even forget to make time for ourselves in our overly full day. Then comes that moment when we stop and ask ourselves, “Why am I doing all this?”  “What’s the payoff? These are excellent questions because it is the love; comfort and understanding that we receive from our friends, family and loved ones that help us feel good about ourselves and give life its meaning. One of my favorite quotes continues to be, “Yesterday is history.  Tomorrow is mystery.  Today is a gift.  That’s why we call it the present.”  This quote always makes me think of a memorable meal that I had in Spain with one of my best friends.  At one point I looked at him and asked, “Shouldn’t you be getting back to work?  His response was an eye opener.  He said, “Not really.  My work will be there tomorrow, but you won’t.”

8. Be worthy of other people’s trust.  Say what you mean and mean what you say.  Stephen R. Covey in his best-selling The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People writes about the need to establish with others an emotional bank account that we pay into regularly.  The currency of that account is trust and the more deposits you make the better and stronger a relationship becomes.  If you overdraw that account, you jeopardize your relationship with others.  They will no longer take you at your word.  They will no longer believe what you say.  They will no longer believe in you. On the other hand, if you have a large surplus in your account, it will see you through those times when you make mistakes- and we all make mistakes – provided that you acknowledge those mistakes.

9. Be your own genuine self.  As those of us who are familiar with Shakespeare know, this is not new advice. In Act I, scene iii of Hamlet, the character of Polonius prepares his son Laertes for travel abroad with a speech (ll.55-81) in which he says, “This above all: to thine own self be true, /And it must follow, as the night the day, /Thou cans’t not be false to any man “(ll.78-80).  As you may already well know, this is easier said than done.  Just who is your genuine or true self?  Is it the self your parents want you to be, or is it the self your teachers want you to be?  Maybe it’s the self your friends want you to be.  Or perhaps it’s the self that society wants you to be.  Maybe it’s the self that Westridge wants you to be.  Maybe it’s some of each.  Maybe it’s none of the above.  Wherever the answer lies, it is your responsibility to discover your true self and discover it you must.  So the question remains.  Who are you?  What is it you love?  What is it you value?  What is it you cherish?  What is it you espouse?  What is it you are willing to defend?  Who are you? I honestly cannot tell you how many times I have been asked why I am so nice. The answer is very simple. I am so nice because that is who I am. As you may have already discovered or as you will soon discover, there are three basic questions in life that we all must answer.  Who am I?  Where do I come from?  Where am I going?  It is clear that all three are inter-related, but the first must be answered before we can answer the other two.

10.  With time, as you look at the canvas of your life, you will realize, as I have, that it is populated by acausal events.  Acausal events are events that happen to us that cannot be attributed to a conscious or unconscious choice and show a pattern that cannot be explained away by attributing them to chance or happenstance.  If you were a Jungian you would call it synchronicity.  If you believed in destiny, that’s what you would call it.  No matter what you wish to call it, I can point out, at least twelve acausal events in my life that clearly show me what it is that I was meant to do and who it was that I was meant to be.  Why was it in 1960, when I was a sophomore at Boston University, needing a fifth course to round out my schedule, I decided, if that is indeed the correct verb, to take a beginning Spanish course?  I had no previous interest in the language.  No one in my family or circle of friends was of Hispanic heritage.  In truth, I just wanted to finish registering for the semester and get the heck out of that building.  Had I not signed up for that course at that point in time, I doubt that I would have ever considered taking Spanish again and had I not signed up for that course, I would never have been a Spanish teacher and I never would have met my wife of almost 44 years.  There are other acausal events in my life that explain why I am a teacher, a translator, a writer, a magician and an adopted Spaniard.  All of this is to say that we need to take advantage of every experience with which life presents us, because it is only later in our lives that we will be able to put them into a context, as we attempt to discover what it is that we are meant to do and who it is that we are meant to be.

11. Patience and persistence are two qualities that we should all cultivate. These two qualities are probably the key to why I am a successful teacher and why I am who I am today.  It is only by being patient, perhaps overly patient, with our students that we can give them the time and space to develop their true potential.  Learners send themselves a goodly amount of negative messages.  We, as teachers, should never add to that list.  The undeniable truth about teaching is that some students get the concept more quickly than others.  The true test of teaching is what you, as a teacher, do to ensure that everyone “gets it” to the best of their abilities.  Being patient is a virtue that is worth cultivating in all our relationships.  We need to recognize that we are all works in progress, no matter what our age.  I am constantly reminded of the need for patience when I recall a thank you note that was written to me by a former student.  It read, “Thank you for believing in me when I couldn’t.  Thank you for believing in me when I wouldn’t.  Thank you for believing in me now that I can and do believe in myself.”

12. Love is not finite.  Love is infinite.  The amount of love we are capable of giving to others is limited only by ourselves.  Life does not impose any limit on love.  Let me be clear in defining what I mean by love.  When I say love, I mean a genuine concern for the well-being of others and a genuine desire to help them become the best person that they can become.  Is it possible for me to love all the members of the class of 2009, as well as all the students I currently teach and all current students whom I have taught?  The answer is a resounding yes.  And I am not even counting the other members of this community for whom I have a great deal of love and affection.

In conclusion, let me extend my congratulations to my fellow members of Cum Laude, both old and new and let me extend my thanks to the other members of this community – parents, faculty, administration and staff – who have assisted, encouraged and supported us on this leg of our journey.  In all sincerity and honesty, I cannot think of any other place where I would have wanted to spend these past twenty-six years.  Lastly, let me thank all of you for believing in me even though you have known for a long time that I can and do believe in myself.

Monday, April 9, 2012

This is the last day of what has been a four-day holiday for most and a five-day holiday for some.  Most businesses have been closed since Thursday although some were open on Saturday.  Traffic in the city has been very light and most of the streets are rather quiet.  My physical therapy sessions resume tomorrow, as does Susan’s Photoshop class.

Saturday we had a very pleasant lunch at La Fórcola and at 8:00 we headed down to visit with Nacho at Mantequerías Chisbert to take him up on his offer of a beer and snacks, but when we walked past the store was closed.  We assumed that business was so light that he closed early so that he could enjoy some of his Saturday.

Sunday was a low expenditure of energy day.  We had leftovers for lunch and read for most of the afternoon.  At 7:00 PM Brian came by and drove us over to his and Ofelia’s house for Easter dinner. While the meal was cooking we sat in the living room and chatted about this and that.  One of our topics of conversation was how seemingly unimportant choices in our lives can drastically affect the course of our lives and how we can only appreciate or understand this in retrospect.  When dinner was ready we moved the conversation and ourselves to the dinner table.

Brian went all out and we filled out plates with leg and shoulder of lamb, haricots vert, carrots seasoned with ginger and cinnamon, and oven baked potatoes.  Bran had also baked a cake that was topped with raspberries and to which we could add either a chocolate hazelnut sauce or whipped cream.  Some of us added both.  While we eat we talked about a future visit we are planning to make to Lisbon.  Brian and Ofelia talked about things to see and do and lent us a number of books so that we could do a bit of homework before we go.  The discovery that Lisbon is very hilly means that my knee will have to be in very good shape before we go.

After coffee I did some magic and I was able to do a couple of effects for the first time to get an idea of how they play in a real setting, as opposed to practicing at home.  I gathered some valuable information and will make a few changes when I perform those effects next.  It was a little after 11:00 when we said our goodbyes and Brian kindly drove us home.