

A Black Cat Crossed My Path
I do not like cats, but when Le Chat Noir disappeared, it grieved me to see Black Mama Cat and Figo fight for their survival. Le Chat Noir was the biggest of the three cats who roam the house. They are black cats. Le Chat Noir was the big cat, a tom cat. He reminded me of a cat my family had when I was a kid: a tom, his face claw-scratched in alley fights, until it looked like he had fresh face piercings. I am allergic to cats, and here at Can Serrat I never touched the cats


I could be eating mealworms
If I could believe my eyes and ears, a meal of insects could be in my future all because I wanted to eat beef and drive cars. For two months, all anyone at Can Serrat talked about was an exhibit in Barcelona about humans doing an outstanding job killing the Earth, and ourselves. It was the After the End of the World exhibit. The last review was from some Norwegians who made the exhibit their first stop of their second day in Spain. I had to go to know what the buzz was about.


Tested by the Mountain
Little did I know how soon on my mountain hike I would wish I had the safety bolt called "Life Saver." I came to the mountains outside of Barcelona to write. The ground is hard-packed red clay and over that a layer of rock. It’s mountain, so the earth undulating, up and down, requires heavy thick-soled shoes which I had brought along. Most people come here to walk. Circles of the 1992 Olympics can be found on street signs, but the area icon is the mountain range. I am on one


Am I there yet?
I landed at 9:15pm at Barcelona, Spain, as it shut down for the night. Over the years, I have flown into strange cities to be with people I do not know many times. Each time my VIP vision of me has someone waiting at the airport, holding up a placard with my name on it. That has never happened and because of the event in Dublin, my mind leaped ahead thinking perhaps no one will meet me in BCN, much less a person holding up my name, but this older woman held up a piece of pape