Convertibles

A few weeks ago, Arturo and I were talking about life, love, and
renting cars. I told him that until recently, the only time I had
rented a car was with my parents in Arizona. We were going to visit a
college I had applied to..you know it was a tiny liberal arts school
in the mountains, lots of artists and hippys etc. So naturally my
parents would embarrass me to the fullest extent. When we got to the
car rental place my mom decided she had to have the cherry red
Chrysler Sebring convertible so we could cruise in style. It was
brand new, we had to put the top down, come on. There I was,
twentysome years old, chillin in the back seat hair blowin in the
wind, dad driving .
Anyways, so this week in Malaga im at a friends house downtown (city
center), about to leave and another guy at the house says hes going
towards my way and that he'll give me a ride. I was kinda in the mood
to walk, it was late afternoon and I was gonna put my headphones on
and stroll thru malaga..but it was nice of him to offer, so I said
yes. Next thing I know im confronted by the most crazy, european,
sports-car/smart car ever. Seriously, smart cars are their own little
weirdness, but the sports version of a smart car. Smart Roadster. just
imagine. I had never seen a car of such freakish style and size. Its
definitely the shiniest, most pimped out sportscar looking vehicle id
ever seen in Spain. So after the start button (that is where the
ebrake normally is) does not seem to work we realize the battery is
dead. But these smart cars require a strict following of the owners
manual to get them up and running again. So moments later me and 2
other dudes we found walking down the road (shout out to them bc they
saw the car an automatically said "venga, ponlo en marcha" and started
pushing..pura andaluz) are pushing and running the car down the windy,
narrow malaga street. The line of cars that had formed behind us, was
very patient till we got the battery to kick back in. So, back in the
car, I look up at the 2 by 2 foot roof that made of some sort of
cloth, oh shit..looks like it comes off. Oh yes, one press of a button
and bam! its a convertible! Ofcourse we turned the music way up as the
top came down at the stoplight. But this was different than dad
driving..this was im going to show off my smart car convertible
driving. No joke. We were going 80 mph on the highway and spinning
wheels at every stoplight. I was scared shitless. The nice little ride
home turned into convertible tour de malaga. Because of traffic, we
passed though seriously every neighborhood in the city and it took an
hour to get home. I was never so happy to get the hell out of a car,
convertible or not. That makes two bad convertible experiences for me.

vivienne leigh leave us alone!

so sarah and i went to trivia again today. a different place than usual but trivia nonetheless. and guess what they asked... what was the name of the main actress in "gone with the wind"??? come on!!!

The Boy with the Arab Strap

Simone was taking some mp3s off of Arturo's computer, when she noticed that he had a limited collection of Belle & Sebastian, one of her favorite bands. She mentioned that he should copy some of the albums from her computer. Arturo said that he only knows of one album, called "The Boy with the Arab Strap." Just as the words leave his mouth, Simone notices that her iPod, which is playing at random in the next room, begins to play the title song from that album: The Boy with the Arab Strap!

junior high flashback

i was flipping through the channels on the television (here in spain, no less) back and forth, back and forth, hoping for something interesting to happen. it was then that something caught my eye. it was an old episode of "medium," the show with the psychic woman that uses her powers to solve crimes, dubbed in spanish. what caught my eye was a familiar face, one i hadn't seen in years. it was an old classmate from junior high, named charlie. he came on the screen just as i was about to change the channel. i was even more shocked to find that in the episode, he played a character named charlie. what the hell?

Electric toothbrush

Wondering about dental hygeine in general because of his coming dentist appointment, Arturo randomly asked Sarah and Simone if they had ever used an electric toothbrush.  (Arturo and Sarah had never used one, Simone had).  The next day, Arturo visited the dentist and as he left the office, one of the dentists said, "Tenga Don Arturo, un regalo!"  Arturo gets home, opens the box, and finds an electric toothbrush inside!

Songs that speak for themselves

So, we all go on a road trip to Almeria armed with a ton of CDs. Our rental car has a top-notch CD player that displays the name of the current song. We are having a great time, listening to the cds in the car and chatting. We begin to debate the meaning of the word "desert"... what is the technical definition of desert? how many are there in the world? must they have sand?.... etc. We glance at the CD player and the name of the current song playing was "Desierto"!! Needless to say we freaked out.

Then... a couple days later we are again in the car, planning a "desconocidos" party that we were going to have (where we all invite someone the others don't know). We're busy planning who we're going to invite... when we look up, the current song playing is called "Desconocido"!!! I think we were meant to have that party. Also we are meant to go to the desert.

Looking at pictures

Ashley, Sarah, Simone and Arturo were looking at pictures from last year on Arturo's computer.  We were mostly looking at pictures Arturo had taken while we were out at places like White.  Ashley then says, "Hey, we should be looking at the people in the background of the pictures to see if we recognize anyone," and just after she says that, Arturo clicks to view the next picture and someone Ashley knew was in the background of the picture!

Vivienne Leigh

Simone and Arturo went to play trivia at O'Donnell's, and one of the questions was, "Which actress played the lead role in Gone with the Wind?" We had no clue at the time and later that night found out that it was Vivienne Leigh. The next day, we turned on the television and the game show "Money Money" was on, and the first question we notice is about Vivienne Leigh!

Edit: Good point, Sarah! A week later, Sarah, Simone and Arturo went to trivia at a different Irish bar, and one of the questions was to identify which movie a screenshot was from, and the screenshot was of Vivienne Leigh and Clark Gable!

Two Great States

Simone and Sarah returned home from a long night of partying at local malagueño hot spots. They grab some food and sit down to watch a little Atena 3, el cuatro, or la sexta, whatever has the least-bad show on at that time. The first commercial on is an advertisement to travel to the United States. Sarah and Simone begin to pay attention. Then the names of the states start rolling across the screen... here comes New York! And immediately after... Missouri! The two best states in the US!! (Also the home states of Sarah and Simone). Coincidence? I think so!

Cornholing.

Arturo had been wanting to see a specific Arrested Development episode where Lucille says something along the lines of, "Everyone's laughing and riding and cornholing but Buster," but he was never able to remember which episode the quote is from.  So, he resigned himself and just watched other episodes.  A couple of weeks later, he comes home from work to find Simone watching a DVD.  He asks her, "What are you watching?" and at that moment, the quote he'd been wanting to hear plays!  Simone was watching the exact episode Arturo wanted to see, and Arturo walked in on the exact quote he wanted to hear weeks earlier.