King Carlos

a cleaver headline declares Carlos of Spain the US Open King making him King Carlos . . . not King Carlos Tecero . . a different King Carlos . . . Carlos was on a promo and Hana and eye google-image searched his pic and knew of him prior 2the US Open in Flushing NY . . but nada mas . . . seems 2insiders Carlos was some1to watch . . 2me Carlos came fr no where . . my blogging is light on this month-long Iberian Peninsula vacation for three reasons: ONE: can’t reconcile fun on a vacation w the disclosure of marriage problems in this blog history TWO: Spanish . . . my Spanish studies have advance even while in this Portugues-speaking country THREE: our agenda is full . . we are out of our apartments about fourteen hours each day . . some basics like hygiene and laundry are fluid w the amount of traveling Hana and eye have done 2gether . . @hanamjmdd on instagram has our travel pics . . dear kind readers: plz, eye’m begging; eye’ll do anything, por favor . . find Hana’s pic of the sunset over the castle wall . . sincerely, Tom Doody . . it felt like a once in a lifetime opportunity . . we had 2skip the second final bus and stay late2catch the sunset and eye imagined the sun setting over the sawtooth wall . . we were on the narrow walkway of a wall of the same height as the 1in the pic and the sunset over farms w no obstructions except the castle wall in the foreground of the pic . . Hana’s creative process usually excludes all human suggestions . . w rare exceptions so having my input in this pic and having the pic plz both of us was a fun moment . . at this moment it will b hard to imagine 4getting that moment . . especially w the pic 2remind me . . . my Spanish advanced w a noteworthy milestone . . +61 Philippines Francisco Contreras eye’ve since learned is man who lives in Australia . . Fransisco voluntarily in my whatsapp grp w me and +52 Mexico Felix Paez as co admins along w r grp founder Abdulmalik of Nigeria . . Francisco voluntarily corrected my transcribed news . . it’s noteworthy for two reasons a Spanish-speaking person decided my transcrption was near enough 2 good 4a corrected version to b ez ly accomplished . . and in about a screen of text he made four corrections . . in addition there is a sense r whatsapp grp has the potential 2move people productively b yond survival-level Spanish . . w an ever-present fear of having 2file a missing-person report in a foreign country where eye don’t speak the local language or don’t speak the local language well . . . eye nvr split w Hana . . only rare exceptions like2day fetching a taxi and moving r heavy luggage on relocation day . . LX Factory is a hip shopping area outside Lisbon and as Hana went in and out of shops eye transcribed CNN Cinco Cosas while sitting on my yoga block relocating shop2shop . . it’s this not-collegiate-like learning environment where eye am advancing my Spanish . .

VIOLENT FEMMES

let me go wild like a blister in the sun VIOLENT FEMMES

tennis

NYC flushing adiós Rafael

US Open

Jimmy Conners at 40 ¿Serena?

severed links

Esperanza a short version x plaining my current status w kids and young adults . . . my 1st marriage ending in divorce effectively created several ex wifes including my sisters and effectively breaking my link 2 my kids and their cousins . . . in addition 2 inviting me u applied gentle pressure 2 accept . . an opportunity 2 present a gift 2 a birthday girl . . . wonderful . . . grazie

Mets 1

baseball is the best spectator sport . . but pero but . . Hana thought it was boring and complicated . . . an uncommon choice for dinner Hana and eye found r selves in a Jersey City sports bar w many big screens and the primary 1for us had early innings of the NY Mets and some1else . . in addition to Hana giving MLB another chance three things made the game much easier 2 x plain: ONE: the nifty scoreboard complete w outs, count ¿Runners? including where . . and por supuesto score TWO: the strike zone visible on TV and not vis-a-vis THREE: eye changed balls and strikes to bad marks against the pitcher and bad marks against the batter . . . less vocabulary and more practical. nice dinner . . overstayed2c the game end . . Mets 1 and . . . the step Hana took to understanding and may b enjoy the game was . . awesome . . playoffs . . world series . . still on the horizon.

in memory of KC

my gift 4 the thirteen yr old is ordered on ebay and on its way 2 my mailbox where it’ll wait till October when eye return fr Europe . . . the birthday girl understands it’s a picture book written by a woman whose first name is Maria José like hers . . . a loverly family gathering for a Cuenca Ecuador family of 12 kids now adults on both sides of my age . . . adult problems of competition and greed put siblings against one another in court . . eye’m not disclosing secrets about this family . . it’s a matter of public record . . with several dead and a social rift three men are scattered lv ing 2 women in SA and 4 tight and 2gether at the party 2night . . . the most emotional and fun lesson abt this family is jump rope . . a sm-twn family of 12 kids w a premature death of the dad . . . did not have luxuries like cars and bikes . . so jump rope was it . . and OMG can they jump rope . . . Caesar is the best 2day tho he’s also the youngest . . . and humbly accepts he was not always the best jumper . . the eldest of the party . . . setenta años jumped . . wat a gr8 moment 2 witness . . . my amiga Esperanza put some of the legal sibling claims in front of me early in r friendship . . so this happy kids jumping rope image was one eye cud not b lieve x isted . . but pero but . . it’s does . . gr8 fun . . . sometimes w proper mental health the only thing needed to replace a soiled image is a happy image and . . . 2nite that happened . . the cud-have-been famous Cuenca jumpers . . by chance Nirvana played when the grp reduced 2one table and no body cud say it was Nirvana . . x cept me . . eye tld my amiga abt Kurt and his premature tragic death . . . my thots turned 2 MTV unplugged: where did u sleep last night . . at this pt in my life it’s the most emotional music eye think of 1st . . deeply emotional . . . Kurt was a victim of his own hand yet his Amber-Herd-like overly-ambitious wife, Courtney Love, provided some of the pressure that broke Kurt . . and shotgun 2 his own head . . . game over . . where did u sleep last night . . w lilies and candles on the stage at Kurt’s request . . . like a funeral . . yep like a funeral Kurt said . . . it wasn’t but pero but eye feel it was Kurt’s final performance . . . when he walked off the stage of a sm intimate setting . . where he dialogued w the audience like he might have done b4 he was a rock star . . a taste of what Kurt longed 4 but could not retrieve . . a truly tragic death . . in memory KC.

Maria José

amiga Esperanza my gift 4 Maria Jose is acquired in 3 parts w 1 part purchased by me 2day at 3333 Park Ave Walgreens near ur home and party location . . . eye’ll pass by ur home on foot abt party time go ing2Walgreens . . thot may b . . . u cud send 1 or more members of ur entourage w me . . on my trip 2 Walgreens . . 100% optional u’ll prob have ppl outside abt that time so . . . eye’ll say something fr the sidewalk . . ciao Tomas

¿Happy? abt prison

NFKRZ is the YouTuber channel of Roman a Russian blogger . . he’s entertaining, and he gets some of my attention, so c ing Britney Griner in the thumbnail got my tap w out undue delay . . the news 2me is the mass social media celebrating Britney’s incarceration . . . ppl who r Americans claim 2 stand 4freedom celebrate a fellow American sentenced for nine years for a sm amount of marijuana oil . . . . considering oneself a freedom-loving American and voicing joy w Britney’s incarceration is wrong . . Britney’s sentence is excessive and no American shud b happy about it.

Trader Joe’s closed

Trader Joe’s Wine on 14th Manhattan NYC permanently closed this month . . here’s my theory . . NYU, TJ’s 14th Street landlord, doesn’t want NYC and TJ’s Wine on their building bc it looks like a party school . . TJ’s 15 yr lease is over and so is TJ’s Wine 4now . . notice on the door says TJ’s Wine is hunting 4 a new Manhattan location BREAKING: wrong labor negotiation failed