3 Random Things I Did Last Week

Sometimes you need to just say yes to new things. This was one of those weeks. Something new? Something random? Okay, why not? Let’s GO!!!

First, I went on a blind date – before you start texting my husband, it wasn’t like that. My local movie theatre, sent an email with Cita a ciegas, which I initially ignored since I didn’t know what that meant. Later, becoming curious about whatever it was that was only 4 euros (about $4.24) and less than half the price of a regular movie ticket, I plugged in Cita a ciegas on my translation app and up popped blind date. I assumed correctly that it would be a surprise movie. How fun! I’m in! And I was the only one in our household that was. 

Before I left the house, I was taking bets on the genre, and had convinced myself it would be something that had been around for several years, comedic and wildly popular: Airplane, Animal House, Ghostbusters, or similar. My American was showing. When VOSE was listed I naively assumed the movie would be in English. VOSE means Version Originale referring to the original language the movie was shot. Most movies I see in Spain are in English and marked as VOSE. 

When I got to the theatre that Tuesday night, I was happy to see it was crowded, and nearly fully booked. It made me happy to know that I was with like-minded “risk takers” – we were in this together.

At start time, a man with a video camera was shooting some crowd footage and another man was handed a mic. Then the screen lit up with Bull Run, which sounded like an English film to me. It wasn’t until the man with the mic began speaking to the crowd in Spanish that I knew for sure I had assumed wrong. 

Bull Run is a Spanish documentary about bitcoin, written and directed by Ana Ramón Rubio who is from Valencia. With a combination of interviews, text messages, inserted between scenes, some in English but most in Spanish, I missed quite a bit but still found it entertaining, and especially love that it had the Valencia connection. I’ll definitely go on another Cita a ciegas or blind date if the opportunity comes around again. 

Second, I learned to finger knit. I first learned to knit the traditional way with knitting needles back in college, and I made a few things including a brown sweater that got soooooo big I needed to know a bear to give it to before I unraveled it and started over. With a bit more practice, I knitted a forest green, v-neck sweater that I was proud to wear to class, and a cute pink sweater vest that I made for my sister back when preppy was trendy. The key was that I had my mom nearby to save me from my mistakes. Here, I didn’t want to do anything too complicated, but had felt the itch to be creative and keep my hands busy. I needed easy. 

So thank you YouTube for giving me easy-to-follow instructions. I couldn’t believe how easy it was to follow the YouTuber and get started. A few days later, in little chunks of time, I had finished knitting the scarf Leo is wearing. As I headed off to bed one night after finishing a session, I realized I was drowsy and relaxed and ready to fall asleep. That was a welcome unexpected benefit. 

I’m not leaving Leo alone with this one, but he makes a guapo (handsome) model!

Third, I finally made it to Passage a Paris, a gorgeous French bakery here in Valencia’s cool Rusafa neighborhood. I knew my local friend married to a Frenchman would be a reliable source for French pastries. I had intended to go there ever since she told me about Passage a Paris back in May! I put it on my calendar for the upcoming Saturday.

I think I actually swooned when I walked in. Once I regained my composure, I had to take inventory – then carefully choose something to savor right away, a chocolate eclair which was larger than I thought, but had no trouble finishing. I brought home three huge croissants, two other chocolate-filled somethings and an almond croissant. The almond croissant was absolutely the standout! Oh, why did I buy only one!

So something else random happened toward the end of the intentionally doing-random-things week. I started saying yes to other things. For example, would I like to try a new coffee drink with tumeric, cardamom and cinnamon, Nora, the owner at my favorite cafe asked. Well, yes, yes I would, thank you!

If you need to shake up your routine a little, I highly recommend making a plan to do something you’ve meant to do for a long time, or saying yes to something that spontaneously pops up, or taking action to fill a creative hole or all three. If you do any or all, I’d love to hear about it!

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