2013 Writer's Market and my New Goal

Today I bought the 2013 Writer's Market. I am very thrilled about this because it will give me something to do during the time I am spending being unemployed.

I had last year's version of this book and I didn't make any use of it, but everything will change this year!

I will get published. Just you wait and see.

Sanlucar de Barrameda in All its Glory

There is a town in Cadiz where the Guadalquivir river ends. The town is named Sanlucar de Barrameda and that is where I've spent most of my childhood. It is full of amazing little tapas bars and wine, and the people are warm and inviting. These are some pictures taken in Sanlucar.

This is La Plaza. The locals come here every morning to buy their fresh vegetables and fruits and meats. A vast majority of the food is grown locally and the meats are always fresh. 

Some meat vendors in La Plaza.

More meat.

A vast array of clams and sea snails. Sea snails are pretty much the best thing that has ever happened to me. If you ever come across them in Spain, don't be grossed out...just eat them!

Camarones. They are like clear baby shrimp and they are eaten whole. There is a place in Sanlucar called Balbino and they serve the world's best Tarta de Camarones, or Camarones Cake. 

Another shot of La Plaza. This shot was taken while walking, thus the blurriness. You can see that they sell more than just edibles there. They also sell shoes and clothes, there is a blacksmith there that is not shown in the picture, and a little further down they have a tent filled with ladies's unmentionables. 

These are snails. You cook them in the shell, you eat them in the shell. None of that escargot nonsense. 

I could literally live off of these. 

This was a door I really liked off of La Plaza. Not entirely sure what it is. 

In this bakery, my dad buys bread every morning so that there is fresh bread for lunch. 

You've gotta love cured meats. 

That is a bar in the main street in Sanlucar which is actually called The Wide Street, or La Calle Ancha.

I love how the narrow streets inside the town look after a rainy day.

This is my family's bakery, also known as La Confiteria Pampin. My father also has his music studio there. 

Two uncles in Bajoguia. It is a little strip full of bars and restaurants and yummy things that follows the beach. 

This is also Bajoguia. In the distance you can see the Lighthouse of Chipiona. One of the oldest lighthouses in Europe. 

That little strip of land is a wildlife reservation called El Coto Donana. It is, as some would say, virgin territory. A lot of locals go there to ride dirt bikes. The only way to get there is through a ferry. 

Another picture of the beach in Bajoguia. The sun was beginning to set. 

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There it is. I've seen that sunset many times in my childhood and it always reminds me of my family packing up and getting ready to leave the beach. 

Those are just boats, but I thought they looked cool.

As an update, I have moved to NYC and am now living in East Harlem. I'll begin to chronicle that adventure as soon as I empty out the rest of my Spain pictures in my next blog post. Until next time!

Great Food and Better Architecture in Southern Spain

 Hello world!

I have been in Spain for the past two weeks revving up my engine for my big move to NYC. The culture here is amazing, and the food is even better, but if there is one thing I truly love about Southern Spain it's the architecture. Everything is so quaint yet grandiose in its own way, and even the smallest detail seems to be absolutely essential to the big picture.

Speaking of pictures, here are a few to get us started.

This is the local cathedral in Chipiona, Cadiz. It is known by the locals as El Santuario de Regla. I remember as a child I went inside during a field trip and even at such a young age I was awed by the beauty that surrounded me. In proportion to other cathedrals in the area, El Santuario de Regla is small, but seen from a distance it is a key player in the small town's skyline. 

This quaint little place in rural Chipiona is my grandmother's house. This is where I have been staying these past two weeks. The place is riddled with flies but I've never had a lunch as peaceful as eating out on that little patio with a nice cold beer or a glass of wine, and some amazing Spanish cheeses.

This is the guest house behind the house where mother has been sleeping. It is a small one bedroom half bathroom with an adorable Moroccan theme in the interior. I am using that theme as a base for my bedroom in New York City.  

My grandmother's garden. I love the shell in the middle with the palm growing out of it. 

This is the famous Calzada in Sanlucar de Barrameda, Cadiz. I've walked this stretch millions of times as a child, and this i also where the yearly Fair takes place. It gets filled with tents where lots of dancing and drinking takes place, and there are plenty of horses putting on a show for locals and tourists.  At the far end of this long walk is the beach, and on the opposite end is la Plaza del Cabildo where there are incredible restaurants.

Speaking of horses. Those are definitely not horses, but close enough. 

This is a bar in the military town Rota called Bombai. It has a Moroccan theme and hookas and awesome hand mixed drinks. I am recommending it right now if you are ever in Rota and want to feel like a fancy pants. 

This is a perfect example of what goes on in the above mentioned bar. I was smoking watermelon tobacco and drinking a strawberry daiquiri and some sort of lemony house special as a chaser. 

My mother and my grandmother preparing some chicken wings for a bar-b-q. 

Just some of the refreshments offered during the famous bar-b-q. There were also some hand crafted Gin and Tonics with cranberry and a very varied assortment of wines. 

This is Vista Hermosa in the town of El Puerto de Santa Maria, where my mother used to live. I don't much about this place, but I found the architecture very interesting. I loved the arches. 

This is another building in Vista Hermosa. It sort of looks like a church but it was actually  bar. Ah...Spain. 

I will continue to post pictures throughout the week. I have hundreds of pictures to post.

Until next time, everybody! I am now going to open a nice bottle of Cruzcampo and enjoy an insane lunch. 

Nashville, and there's a happy baby making faces at me...

Is it rude to ignore an adorable baby? I'm finding myself shielding my eyes with my hand so that he doesn't feel tempted to look at me. Of course, of the dozens of seats here they pick my row.

I'm exhausted and the flight was terrifying. I did the math and I have 8 more flights in the next 4 weeks. That's an average of two flights a week. I am absolutely petrified by the idea of flying. As soon as I feel the aircraft begin to take off, I start having second thoughts, like I'm going to be able to go to the cockpit and tell the pilot to pull over for a second. And it's not like I haven't flown enough to be perfectly okay with it.

Well, one more flight then I'm going to plant myself onto a bed, face-first, shoes on, until my body absolutely forces me to wake up.

Nothing New to Post, So Here's Chicago!

My brain feels absolutely fried today. I feel like I need to post once a day on this blog, and I still have no new pictures of Lafayette to post because I can't seem to get things in order enough to charge my camera. I feel like I've been wandering aimlessly, stress eating, and working my perky little butt off. 

So my project today was to Photoshop some older pictures of my last trip to Chicago. These pictures were taken in August of 2011. The weather was absolutely gorgeous up there--way better than it would have been in Louisiana during that time. 

I am a huge fan of buildings, especially high-rises, so get ready to see lots of buildings. The next few pictures were taken from the Skydeck at the Willis Tower, formerly known at the Sears Tower. 

The tallest building in this photo is a residential building called One Museum Park. It's 62 floors and 734 ft tall.

311 South Wacker Drive is the tallest reinforced concrete office tower. It's 65 floors and 958 ft tall. 

The building with the blue roof is the United building, standing at 668 ft with 50 floors. The two beehive looking buildings next to it are called Marina City and they are residential towers, also 50 floors.

The building that stands out the most is the John Hancock Center. It is 100 floors and the tallest multi functional skyscraper in the world. 

Water Tower Place hold some stores and residential areas, and was named after the old Chicago Water Tower. The Hancock building nearby, was the tallest building in Chicago for a short while between 1968-1973.

Another fun fact about the John Hancock Center: Chris Farley was found dead in his apartment in the tower in 1997. Also, Jerry Springer currently lives in the tower. 

Trump Tower is the 2nd tallest building in the Western Hemisphere, trumped only by The Willis Tower. Donald Trump originally planned on making it the tallest building in the world, but after 9/11 he scaled back construction a bit. It is 89 floors and 1,362 ft tall. 

I honestly could not find the details on this building. I'm assuming it's some sort of residential building. I think it looks super cool and if anyone could tell me what it is, I would appreciate it. 

This is another pretty picture of the view from the Willis Tower. Unfortunately, being that I was in the Willis tower, it's the only building I didn't get pictures of. Lame!

The whitish building on the right is the AT&T Corporate Center. It's 60 stories. The building next to it is called the Hyatt Center. It's shiny and 49 stories tall. 

This one has a ton of cool buildings! In The bottom right corner you have a cameo by the Chase Tower. The really cool pointy building is called the Smurfit-Stone building. It is the feminist building in the Chicago Skyline as it's going for something a little less phallic than usual. The Empire State looking building toward the middle of the picture is the Two Prudential Building. It houses a Consulate General of Canada and stands at 964 ft. It's also won 8 awards, apparently. The awesome looking black rounded building in the back is called Lake Point Tower. I'm pretty sure this is the coolest looking building in the Chicago Skyline aside from the Aqua, which I don't have a picture of. It is a strictly residential building of 70 floors. Then, of course, the tallest building in this picture is the Aon Center, Chicago's 3rd tallest building. Fun fact, they had to redo the whole structure because the marble they used was too thin. It took 2 years to renovate, which isn't bad considering the building is 1,136 ft tall. 

This thing is appropriately named the Willis Tower Globe. It was installed in 2010, so it's still young. 

This dude wrote abunch of children's stories like "The Little Mermaid", "The Ugly Duckling", "Thumbelina" and "The Snow Queen". I don't know why it's in Lincoln Park though. Someone enlighten me. 

This is a Lego version of the Chicago Skyline. I found whilst walking around and looking for a bathroom. 

Wrigley Field during a Cubs' game. Did you know Wrigley field was built in 6 weeks for a whopping $250,000? 

Wrigley Field is one of the last baseball fields to keep a hand-turned score board. It is still manually operated today, which is pretty cool.

Alright, those are my expertly photoshopped pictures of Chicago in 2011. I hope you guys enjoyed them. I feel like I learned a crap-ton about the Chicago Skyline today.

Until next time!

>>>>Edit:

Thanks to a fellow redditor, the identity of the short, white, S-shaped building was revealed. It is named River City and was the product of the same architect as Marina City, which makes absolute sense. Marina City and River City are very organic and I'm sure super amazing to live in. Thanks Reddit!