In the heat of the night

It’s almost 11 pm and 90 F outside. It’s bloody hot and it’s been like that for a few days. It’s tough to get some sleep. But the heat in this post is more of an emotional nature. It’s a heat mixed with emotion, happiness, sadness …and, above all, surprise. I tasted such a cocktail yesterday.

Guy meets girl. Another guys meets girl. Guys like girl. Guys try to get girl. Girl chooses guy. Guy wins. Other guy moves forward. I guess almost all of you have gone through such a situation at some point in your lives. It happened to me some years ago and yesterday I had a revival. By the way, I was the one who had to move forward…

It was a pity at that time b/c I did really like the girl. She was pretty, friendly and smart. After a couple of tries I realized that I was not gonna be her choice. So, I withdrew gently. I still remember the night I met her and how things evolved the days after.

The thing is that I met this girl – and her “winning guy” too – again yesterday at a party. After some talking about our respective lives, and after some drinks, we had a conversation that, in her last words, “we will never have had”. Why? Because it essentially entailed that her choice some years ago could have been the other way around. At the beginning I didn’t take it seriously and I thought that she was just kidding. But soon I noticed I was wrong. The things she told me, a look in the eye, a touching hand, a cell phone number (again)… but it leads nowhere now, for good or for bad.

On the one hand, I felt good about what she told me. On the other, I was sad that past wrong signals, incorrect interpretations and so forth prevented it from happening in the past. When I have woken up today I couldn’t stop thinking about this, even more after receiving a short message on my cell…

It’s amazing how things may change in a nanosecond. How decisions that we take about others, or that others take about us, sometimes depend on very subtle things, on perceptions… What is not going to change, though, is the damn heat that won’t let me fall asleep quickly tonight.

Ciao

"Mom doesn't know"

It had been a pretty long time since I last partied in the city where I'm spending the summer...where I used to party a lot for nearly four years. I have come back for the summer but I haven't stayed long; a trip here and there, coming back home and so forth... it's funny to see how the almost first night out may become a farewell. And it's also kinda sad.

I'm willing to come back to NY in a month. But that doesn't mean that I ain't happy here and that, once again, I will be sad when closing time comes.

I was talking to one of my best friends tonight, after three drinks or so. It's been our last night out since he's going on holiday with his girlfriend and I won't see him again until I eventually come back from the US next year. Some thorough thoughts have come through, alcohol and farewells have always been a proper mix for that purpose.

There's no doubt that the scenario is changed. We have started talking about old stories, about how we met and about how he became one of my roommates. It seems ages since then... although it wasn't that long ago. To me, everything looks different from a year ago, maybe b/c I haven't lived the day-to-day life in here and have just seen the changes. Most of my very best friends are now going out seriously with their girlfriends, getting married or they are not just that much in the mood for partying every single night. As I said, things are changing, or they have already changed.

I don't feel bad about it. Needless to say, I am so happy for them. I feel that I'm playing a different ball game although it would be stupid to think that such changes do not affect me at all. As I said in the previous post, twenty ten is a serious age....

Abyway, I have told my friend that I will be waiting for his arrival - with his girlfriend or by himself - in NY. Things may change but some things, the most important ones, always remain.

Ciao

Twenty ten

Yesterday it was a friend’s birthday and I called him to wish happy birthday. A magic age around the corner: thirty…or, in his words, twenty ten. Dammit, I will be getting there in a few months and I wouldn’t say it’s scary but it’s gonna be weird to see the “2” disappearing …. That’s why I liked the way my friend referred to his new age. Why not taking the twenties a little further?

In the meantime, before I turn twenty ten, I got a couple of healthy surprises, which is great when talking about the age. First, I visited the doctor due to some back pain and he gave me some good news. My 5th vertebra is not as bad as another doctor said a year ago (that’s why I gave up golf!!) and he advised me to do anything I want.

A couple of hours later I went to the gym and I could check that I have finally been able to get rid of a couple of kg that I gained right after coming back from the US (surprisingly, I gained weight not in the US but after leaving the country. I guess I was very concerned about “Super Size Me’s and stuff).

Who said I was turning thirty?
Ciao

Music festivals

Hey there!

It's a pretty good, and rather unusual too, feeling to wake up on Sunday morning without a trace of a hangover. It's even better taken into account that I have partied really hard this w/e and I have gone to bed at 7 am both nights. The trick has been partying with just water, coca cola and a red bull from time to time!

This weekend me and my friends have attended a great indie music festival in Madrid, called Summercase. It's a festival along the same lines than Glastonbury, Reading or Benicassim. It's been the fourth time I have gone to a festival like this. The three previous times it had been Benicassim. It's been a lot of fun... Great music, awesome vibe and looooots of really cute girls.

Friday night was a great opener. Too hot at the beginning, close to 35C, but getting better as dusk approached. Main gigs by The Sunday Drivers, a Spaniard band that I like a lot. James, led by Tim Booth and his extravagant dancing followed and closed with "She's a star", one of my favs. The Jesus and Mary Chain gig was a good time for me to chill out a bit (I ain't a big fan of them) and get ready for the best of the night. Kaiserchiefs and then The Chemical Brothers.

I was back home around 630 am, after partying - and getting to know a cute girl who unfortunately lost her cell phone (I've got her email, though... hahaha) - for a little while at a cool dj session at the festival area.

By the time I woke up on Saturday it was almost time to leave again. Me and my buddies just had lunch, relaxed for a while and left for the festival again. It was expected to be the very big day and, fortunately, our expectations were even exceeded...what a night!!

The evening kicked off with Editors and followed with Lilly Allen. The former performed strongly for 45 minutes and sounded just great. Lilly was a lot of fun. We thought she was slightly drunk or stoned but she may be just like that...she kept talking and laughing between songs. The best moment was when she told the crowd that a song was dedicated to an ex-boyfriend (she even shouted out the guy's name)... and the song's title was "Not big". Any clarification??? :-)

Arcade Fire, a band that I didn't know, followed and I really enjoyed their show. It's definitely the new band I am taking home from the festival. Then I went for a drink and a snack while The Flaming Lips played (don't like them too much) and got ready for the gig I wanted to see the most: Bloc Party. We approached the stage early to get a good spot and we did indeed. We were just a few meters away from the band and we shouted every tune as if it was the last: Banquet, Song for Clay...and Hellicopter to finish! Without a second of rest we rushed to the other stage to see the very final concert: Scissor Sisters. We were rather far from the stage but it was just perfect since we had plenty of space to dance... And at this point I met again the girl from the night before so the night was turning out to be just perfect!

After some final dancing provided by DJ Amable, a famous Spanish dj who blends rock and techno beats and who often plays at Razzmatazz, a great venue in Barcelona that I recommend you, I drove back home at 7 am.

God, what a weekend! And, as I said before, today I am fit enough to do some other things...and hopefully tomorrow I'll be ok to work. There is an imprtant week ahead of me. I'll be working directly with the VP from Paris, so I better get some inspiration!!

Ciao

5 years ago....

330 am on Thursday night. I have just arrived at home after meeting with some friends and ex-colleagues of the law firm I used to work for. It's been a nice time although I did not expect it to take so long, particularly taking into acount that I will have a conference call tomorrow with my boss to discuss some aspects of the project we are dealing with... I'll have to be up in 4.5 h so I'd better rush!

As I said I have had a great time and, besides some good memories and catching up with some guys I had not seen since I left the firm a year and a half ago, I have realized that things remain pretty much the same in some aspects such as the complaints about relatively low salaries, long hours, senior associates going crazy to become partners and so on.

But it is also a fact that some things have also changed. For instance, half of the department I used to work at is new. I don't know any of those guys and although some stories are familiar to me some, I can't help but feeling like a stranger with respect to some others...and it's only been a year and a half!

The most shocking thing, though, is that I have realized how "tempus fugit". Today the new intake of trainees has been presented and they were all having some drinks at a club after socializing with their prospective mates. When I have seen that group of people I have come back for a second to London, 5 years ago. At that time I was about to join the firm. It was a time where I met some great people with the same expectations and thrill than these guys I am talking about were feeling today.

I remember myself pretty much like a kid those days. 5 years is not a long time but, at the same time is a lot. I can't believe how my life has changed since then. For better or for worse? That's a question that I'll be answering a year down the road...and I will be telling you about it.

Ciao

Recurring monogamy

It’s a curious thing how guys and girls look at many things from completely different perspectives. The other day I was talking to a colleague from work about how I perceived a situation I had recently gone through with a girl and she gave me the girly perception, which, of course, was completely different from mine. And she was just right, as I could confirm later.

Last Friday I went out with a girl that I met at a wedding last year, before I left for NY. We have been in touch throughout the year by email but we had never seen each other again from the wedding day in May 2006. Seeing her again was kinda weird but it felt really good from the very beginning. We went for a couple of beers and after catching up on our respective lives, we talked quite a long time about guys and girls, or girls and guys, as you prefer.

It’s a curious thing how single people in their late twenties and early thirties, who are in many cases surrounded by friends and relatives who have already got married or had kids or who are already separating or getting divorced (just to state a few situations), have to deal with singles’ tables at weddings, family questioning and the like. Although I fall within such age segment and status, I do not feel that “pressure” at all – probably due to my business school kind of living – and nor does this girl. At one point in the conversation she came up with the expression “recurring monogamy”, something I had never heard about and that immediately caught my eye. Not just because the expression itself but also because it had been pronounced by a girl and it is probably more likely to hear that from a guy.

If you look around you, you will probably have heard a story of people breaking up on their wedding day, getting divorced a few months after getting married or cheating on their partner at some point. It is a fact that such things happen. Is this something natural? Do “true loves” exist? Is it natural to be linked to just a single person forever? Or is it socially imposed? Is recurring monogamy a more “natural” status? I do not mean to give an answer. I don’t even have “the answer”. I just felt the need to write about it. Any thoughts?

Until next time. Ciao

A brand new feeling

It’s a curious thing how many long hours I used to work before the MBA at the law firm. June and July were really awful months were deals had to be closed one after another and that resulted in coming back home long after dusk on a day by day basis. I remember myself looking at many of my friends with envy as they finished their daily schedule by 3pm and left for the pool or their naps. It’s a common thing across the industry in my country but really unusual in the services world.

A year and a half later I may say that I have enjoyed my very first day like that ever. Today I was done by 3 pm. Awesome!! It's not just me - for the sake of clarity hahaha - but every employee at the company. I can’t believe how many things I’m gonna be able to do in the next month until my summer internship is over. I’m even gonna have time to get bored. Can you believe that? I still can’t.

As I have said, today I’ve left the office at 3. However, today I’ve had a busy evening since the company’s annual tennis-paddle tournament has taken place. I’ve reached the men’s final playing with a buddy of mine. Not too bad for the new kid in town. I think I will get a prize and a trophy!! And tomorrow it will be time for the second tournament but this time I will be playing with a chick from work. It’ll be a lot of fun for sure!

The summer keeps going by. It does so extremely fast although there are moments where I don’t realize. I’ll be done in a month and in 7 weeks I will be coming back to NY. I am enjoying my work, London, Barcelona or a weekend in the countryside with some friends, funny stories here and there…I have even had time to turn the very final page of an unfinished love story… A lot of stuff in just 5 weeks. Let’s keep it up!

Ciao