Today, June 29, we are celebrating our 3rd anniversary of living in Portugal, or, hoje é o nosso aniversário de três anos de mudança para Portugal. Not a day goes by that causes either of us to question our decision to move here. Life is good and, most importantly, life here is calm.
This is my catch-up email update, as I missed writing to you in May due to my trip to California and my subsequent illness/allergy attack.
After arriving in California in late May, I was invited to stay with a childhood friend, Judy (and her husband Joe), at their beautiful home in Monterey. While there, Judy and I attended the weekly protest at the Tesla dealership in Monterey, where the wind was kicking up and caused the start of my cough. It was quite invigorating to finally protest this administration. I met a number of like-minded people at the protest, including one very passionate pastor who needed to speak about his feelings with regard to the current state of affairs in the U.S. Pastor McFadden spoke almost non-stop with Judy and me for an hour ... that is an hour while standing with us in a parking lot, after Judy and I stood for two hours on concrete pavement ... 😵💫 I could quite literally write a whole email just about our discussion with him.
The following day my sister Bonnie drove over to Monterey to visit for a few days, giving the two of us a chance to visit former neighbors of ours in Pacific Grove. Two other childhood school chums also visited while I was in Monterey.
On June 2nd I arrived in Walnut Creek and the following evening attended granddaughter Zoe's graduation at the Concord Pavilion. We're very proud of her accomplishments in school! In the Fall, she'll be heading off to Cal State University, San Diego. It was quite windy at the graduation and, sadly, I continued to cough and sneeze throughout the event.
The following day I enjoyed lunch and the company of good friends from our days in Brentwood: Jack, Myra, Deb and Ken. It was great to catch up with them. By Thursday I was not in good shape and decided to visit Urgent Care, where, after many tests, it was confirmed to be allergies. According to the doctor, allergies in the area were off the charts. Nevertheless, it was great to spend time my daughter Erinn, and grandson Owen as well. And many thanks to good friends John and Gina for hosting a dinner while I was there, giving me and my daughter a chance to catch up with many of our friends.
Speaking of friends, Ed and Rhonda were back in Porto on June 11th with their friends, Bruce and Wendy, to do the Camino Santiago walk. We enjoyed a great dinner and lovely evening with them on day one of their journey.
On the 13th I was thrilled to see that Democrats Abroad was organizing a protest march against the fascist regime in the U.S. on the 14th, so I got busy making signs. It was inspiring to see all the marches that took place in the U.S. on June 14, but I was also proud to see that there were similar protests held on the same day in 61 cities throughout 27 different countries outside of the U.S. After seeing footage of the huge demonstration in San Diego, I've advised Zoe to make sure she has comfortable shoes for marching! This pathetic excuse for a man is detested worldwide.
An estimated 250 people showed up for the protest in Porto, and not everyone was an American. It was an amazing day, and there were many impromptu and impassioned speeches delivered by some of the attendees. We were serenaded by a trio playing resistance songs from the 70's and 80's, with most everyone singing along. I posted more photos on Instagram of this event. As we were resting after 3.5 hours of standing, a gentleman came up and asked ii he could take our photo using a Polaroid camera. Who knows, maybe he was only there to document the dissidents in Porto, but who the hell cares. We got many thumbs up from drivers and even a bus driver. 😀
A few days later we were visited by our dear old friends from Dallas ... Dionicio, who used to work with Nick, Angela, his wife, and son Khai pictured here. We last saw them when they visited us in CA when Khai was three ... now he's sixteen!
On June 22nd I attended a booknic at our city park. Rosebud Bookstore, which I've mentioned before (the first bookstore in Porto to strictly carry books written in English) hosted the event. We all brought snacks to share, our beach towels, and our books to read. It was really a lovely event, attended by at least 50 people.
And I will end with this. The U.S. now has nazi "brown shirts," hiding behind masks while abducting people in broad daylight, from their homes, from their places of work, even from immigration appointments ... people who are often legal residents and/or citizens, but alas, they are the wrong color. The nazis working for this administration have literally zip tied the hands of the elderly and disabled in wheelchairs, while they were exercising their legal right to peacefully protest the proposed cuts to Medicaid and Medicare. WTF ... is this what conservatives wanted? Wow ... utterly appalling. The complete lack of empathy, the bigotry and the ignorance are stunning as well as shameful. I'm truly finding it hard to find the right words to express both my anger and my complete dismay at the state of the U.S. It's shameful, it's abhorrent, and it's being seen around the world. Well done conservatives ...I sure hope you are happy with whatever it is that you think you've gained from this. JFC is all I can say. 🤯🤬
Adeus, abraços e beijos,
MaryLou