Keep Mediocrity at Bay

The Tango--passion, lust, heat, love, all combined in ONE dance.

 Va-Va-Vooooommmm!!

You gotta fight every day to keep mediocrity at bay
Gotta fight every day to keep mediocrity at bay

Well you're going through the motions and they can't hear a word you say
Well you're going through the motions, they don't want to hear a word you say
Got to keep boredom at bay and keep mediocrity away

Van Morrison

Buenos Aires---a sneak peak with some low quality digital photos. I took my trusty old Canon, shooting with film (I adore it so much more than digital!!) but I won't get those developed until I make it to New York next month...then a big blog with photos to blow you away will be forthcoming.


This trip was full of highlights and amazing adventures!!

1. Hopping into various cabs and having awesome 80s hits greet us in a loud manner....we heard "Come a Come a Chameleon" SEVERAL times.  Pet Shop Boys, Roxette, Pat Benatar. THE BEST!! Ah yeah!!!


2. Eating empanadas and chocolate blanco caliente (white hot chocolate to DIE for!!) each morning. I will try and post a photo of this, it was DIVINE! And my Spanish wasn't bad either, Alejandro, our driver to the ranch, said I had a PERFECT accent. I don't know if it was my blonde hair or my accent that really merited that compliment, but I will take it. And I WON'T let Michelle forget about it!! (inside joke laugh insert here)

3. Singing Evita outside the Casa Rosada!! Andrew Lloyd Weber would have been so proud of me, I do a mean Madonna impersonation. I looked all over for an Antonio of my own, sadly, none to be found.

4. All the sightings and almost attacks from feral dogs and cats (what BA is known for)...and again, lots of dog walkers. It's a city known for ALL the dogs with owners who have NO time to walk them. Watch those sidewalks, they don't clean up so well.

5. Spending the afternoon on a ranch with real guachos and eating four different kinds of beef in ONE meal! Don Juan, I miss you! Good horses, good food, amazing conversation, and a foosball table from the 40s that I played a game on with Michelle. And yeah, I was the champion, I sang and danced and rubbed it in her face, cause that's how I roll folks! Ah yeah, I rock the foosball table! Seriously, so old and vintage, if I could have brought it home with me, I would have. The photo I took of it will be amazing.

6. Going to the oldest city in Uruguay--Colonia on a Burquebus! Then  finding the most amazing handmade scarves and mittens and yes, LEG WARMERS!!! The 80s are alive and well in Uruguay my friends. The handmade windchimes were SO beautiful, as well as the jewelry of deep blue stones.

7. The antiques at the San Telmo market, I bought an old silver locket, a hat pin, and a Grace Kelly 1950s vintage black hat...what a treasure! I know who I am being for Halloween!

8. Hurricane Ike causing quite a stir, cancelling our flights, making it so we thought we would have to move to BA and I would have to learn how to make empanadas and be a guacho and get a job on a ranch herding cattle.

9. The fact that Michelle and I can spend 5 days together, and then when we get home, we still have things to say to make each other laugh on google chat...seriously, THE. BEST. TRAVEL. FRIEND. EVER!!! If you guys ever need someone amazing to travel with...take Michelle. And that girl can RIDE a horse. I may have kicked her butt at foosball, but she is the true cowgirl!

10. People, colors, smells, sounds, and culture of Argentina!!!

Recoleta Cemetery--Ava Peron's final resting place.

Singers in San Telmo on market day.

Michelle learning the Tango in La Boca.



One of the only surviving photos of the two of us. Michelle was a victim of theft! Crowded market, busy streets, distracted by empanadas, camera in coat pocket...something was bound to go wrong! We have the exact same cameras and usually just take photos of each other and then trade after the trip...so many of me and Don Juan (the guacho I spent the afternoon with at the ranch Los Dos Hermanos) are ALL LOST!!! Woe is me!  This is us on La Caminita


The streets of La Caminita in La Boca---personalities as bright as the colors!


Madonna and Child. I LOVED this statue in La Boca.

With the robbery of Michelle's camera, most of the photos of me and of the two of us together are lost (sniff, sniff)--however, I got this one on a random moment yesterday as we were walking through Recoleta!

And yes, when I got home today, my annual white cake was waiting for me. I've eaten some of the most amazing desserts that the world's countries have to offer, and yet, there is something about plain, white sheet cake with a raspberry filling that is perfectly delightful to me every year in September!