Tag Archives: old friends

Meeting new old friends, and eating mistakes

09 Thursday May 2024

Posted by in Daily Life, Daily Message

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“It is one of the blessings of old friends that you can afford to be stupid with them.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Last Saturday Michael and I met his best friends for lunch at Fishlips Waterfront Bar & Grill in Cape Canaveral . He has been friends with this couple since college. Michael, like myself, is not the best at keeping in touch with friends, so I don’t expect to meet many more people.

I really enjoyed meeting them. They are such great people.  We plan on traveling together in the future. The husband and I share the same birthday.  I love such coincidences.

The food was good and fresh. I had the mahi mahi tacos and to drink I had a prosecco wit lychee. I saw a couple of dolphins and seagulls. It was a fun day!

“There’s not a word yet, for old friends who’ve just met.” ― Jim Henson

My baking continues with mixed results. Lately I have had some success, but also some really bad failures while attempting to make the perfect rye bread. I don’t really care for rye bread, but it is Michael’s favorite, so I am in search of the best bread-machine rye bread recipe.

At lunch I was talking about my adventures with the bread maker, and mentioned the mistakes I made with the rye bread. My number one mistake is not following the recipe properly.

My new friend said: “we eat our mistakes”.

Haha, I love that. I also eat all my mistakes, the edible ones and all others.

Isn’t it better to eat our mistakes than to let them eat away at us?

We have to learn from our mistakes and move on. Stop obsessing about it. Just do better next time.

Here are 2 winners that tasted amazing:
A rye bread, that I have not been able to reproduce not matter how many times I try.  


Irish soda bread

“Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new.”
― Albert Einstein

I am happy Rosita is still here.

24 Monday Jan 2022

Posted by in Daily Life, Daily Message

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“I am incapable of conceiving infinity, and yet I do not accept finity. I want this adventure that is the context of my life to go on without end.”
― Simone de Beauvoir , La Vieillesse

My cell phone rang and it was a number that I didn’t recognize.  Immediately I thought it was a telemarketer trying to sell me car insurance or whatever it is they are peddling this week.

I wasn’t going to answer but at the last minute, for some reason, I felt compelled to.  On the other end, there was this little voice that asked: Ana, is that you?

It was Rosita, this wonderfully little older lady that my mother and I met when we travelled to Israel in 2015.  She was in the same tour group we were and we hit if off immediately.

“Only when a person reaches old age can he stop caring about the opinions of his fellows, or of the public, or of the future.” ― Milan Kundera, Life is Elsewhere

She is of Pilipino ancestry and lives in Los Angeles.  Since we met in 2015, we talk on the phone a couple of times a year and have sent each other a little treat here and there.

The last couple of years I have tried calling her, but her number would just ring.  There was no message or beep for me to leave a voice mail.  I assumed that she had passed away.  She is going to be 90 years old and with Covid disrupting our lives and robbing us of loved ones for the last 2 years, I thought it was the only conclusion.

I am glad to have her back.  She explained that she has had health issues, had been in and out of hospital.  She no longer has the cell phone, using mostly a landline now. 

“There is a fountain of youth: it is your mind, your talents, the creativity you bring to your life and the lives of people you love. When you learn to tap this source, you will truly have defeated age.” ― Sophia Loren

She was going through some pictures from her travels and found a picture that we took together.  She searched for my number and found it and was happy that she got me.

She is still funny, talking with a laugh here and there.  She is the type of person that exudes kindness and energy, in her voice and her being.  She was a joy in Israel and today she has been the bright spot of my day.

She mentioned again that she has a house with plenty of rooms for me and my mom to come and visit.  I really hope to have the chance and time to travel and visit her,  and all my friends across the US and overseas, before their light, or mine, gets extinguished.

 “The more sand that has escaped from the hourglass of our life, the clearer we should see through it.” ― Jean-Paul Sartre

My crazy friend Dalton!

22 Monday Jul 2013

Posted by in Daily Life

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I have known Dalton since he arrived in NY from Brazil in 1985. We have one of those relationships where we spend years without seeing each other and may speak once a year, or even longer, but every time we talk we pick up where we left off, like we had just spoken yesterday.

He will call me when he has an art showing or he is planning a trip to Brazil.  I call him when I see his name or his sculptures/artwork in some publication.

Dalton makes sculptures on the lead of a pencil (or whatever the inside of a pencil is made of).  I think he simply calls it “sharpening”.  The type of crazy detailed work that few can do or has the crazy detailed patience and focus to attempt.

I called him last week because I saw a small blurb about his artwork on O, The Oprah Magazine.  I left a message saying that I wanted to make sure to be in touch with him now that he was about to explode in popularity.  He had a good laugh about it.  He has one of those very freeing laughs, and he normally laughs at everything I say.

Dalton made me realize that I have great friends and that I should make more of an effort to be in touch with them.  I wish I would call friends more often, but unfortunately I am one of those friends that is right here for you should you need me but I will not call you unless I have something to say.  I have to stop that.  I have to start calling just to say hi, and say that I care.

Anyway, going back to Dalton, I call him crazy, not only because of his art work, but because of the minimalist way he chooses to live his life.  He doesn’t own a TV, computer or even a cell phone.   He has a Facebook account and a website now, but both are done and maintained by a friend.  I am not sure he even looks at them.

He told me now that he recently gave up listening to the radio.  He says he finds that since then he is more aware of his surroundings, the world and himself.  He has had more and clearer ideas. I don’t doubt that!

I am in awe and a little jealous of that type of focus,  but at the same time I think that is too drastic.  I believe in moderation.  Could I live without TV?  I believe I could as I believe that I can do whatever I set my mind to.  But, I believe that there is good and bad in everything, technology included.  It all depends on how you use it, and how much you use it.

Even though I enjoy living alone, everything I do is accompanied by the TV or the radio.  TV has always been part of my life.  My TV is my cat or dog, it is companion.  You will never find me just sitting and watching it, but it will be on most of the time.  If the TV is off, then the radio is on.  Perhaps I do have a problem with silence.  I notice that if I am with other people and there is silence I immediately fill it by saying something.  I can never let silence reign.

I think I need to try meditating again.  I attempted at the time of the Break up, and I think it helped.  I was in so much pain at that time that I would have tried anything that I thought it would help.

Enough about me and my shortcomings/bad habits, this post is about Dalton.  I debated the title for awhile as I do have a problem with calling someone crazy just because they are different.  I love the unique, the different, the strange.  I love people that believe and live by their own rules, therefore I respect Dalton immensely.  I decided to leave crazy in the title as this is what I always call him and he takes no offense by it.  I think he sees it as a term of endearment; and it is!

Here is Dalton’s website if you want to check out more of his work out:

http://daltonmghetti.com/

https://www.facebook.com/DaltonGhetti

“I think if I’ve learned anything about friendship, it’s to hang in, stay connected, fight for them, and let them fight for you. Don’t walk away, don’t be distracted, don’t be too busy or tired, don’t take them for granted. Friends are part of the glue that holds life and faith together. Powerful stuff.” 
― Jon Katz