Keegen and the Big St. J Day

As I sit trying to place my words to express the joy I felt when Keegen came up the escalators a month ago, I look across to the balcony directly in front of us and I see what I am assuming is a daughter and father chatting in the cool summer night on their balcony, smoking a cigarette and looking out. I miss my daddy. I miss sitting with him just like that talking, catching up and having a moment. Now they sit and eat dinner together and I wonder if they've seen me, my desire to share that precise moment with my own daddy. The envy.

But at the same time, I know my day will come when my own dad will be sitting with me, sharing this new life I've created, challenging my thoughts and dreams, telling me his own dreams and challenges. There is something absolutely incredible when those that you love most come and share a moment of your new life with you. One of those people that has managed to find me continously, who has made the effort to see me and my surroundings is Keegen. When I saw her come up the escalators, my eyes swelled up with tears and I knew I was looking at someone who will forever be part of my life, a friendship that will always go to any length to find each other and to share.

Although it was already a month ago since she came, I still have her beautiful face engraved in my memory and I start smiling as I think about the whirlwind weekend we had together. That very day, I showed her my neighborhood and told her to prepare herself to see my very favorite town, none other than Sant Pol del Mar on a very big day, Sant Joan, or summer solstice and it's festivities. If you recall, last summer this time I was in Tunisia celebrating with the French and so I got to see Sant Joan for the first time. We took the train down to Sant Pol and met up with the famous Susannas and their boys, Pitu and Nuria the royal family of Sant Pol and some of their friends. Nuria set the table up for 15 people and we ate and drank like Kings and Queens as the fireworks went off in the distance.

Not only did we celebrate Sant Joan but we also celebrated Xavi's (center) big birthday. Double the fun peeps (by the way, Pitu, the King of Sant Pol, is the funny-face making guy to the left). After dinner we headed to the beach to dance our booties off til the sun came up. I loved seeing Keegen's face as Achy Breaky Heart in Spanish came on and everyone started line dancing...

Of course, when you are dancing you cannot let the drink down, no no no not in the heat or your beer will get hot and so you dance with beer in hand. Exhibit A: Picture to the right, Jordi and I doing the two-step with a "cold" Voll-Damm in hand.

The night when on and on, with tons of laughter, lots of bad live music and Sant Pol at it's very best, the only way to invite summer and the beginning of something new with one of your very best friends standing right next to you.

As the sun starting coming up and our bellies started grumbling, we made our way to the bakery bought ourselves some freshly baked croissants and bid each other goodnight. Jordi, Keegen, Joanna and I made our way back to the beach, at this point the sun was up and ready and we fell asleep, decked out and ready in our bikinis and swim shorts so we could wake up and jump right into the water. There is nothing like the sensation of falling asleep on an empty beach only to wake up at 11am surrounded by families have a normal day and your back nice and toasty from the morning sun after a long long night. You only live once and so you dance until you can't and then you jump into the sea to clean off all of last year and start a new.