Surprise Sparkle!

 I have to leave for work in fifteen minutes--after taking two days off for bad air quality, I am swamped with donations at work--a good thing, but a lot to sort.

Yesterday was the most unexpected sparkling day.
The main event was--I got a book volunteer! A delightful young woman from Bolivia, Gabriela. Maybe she's 22?

Gabriela wore sparkle makeup around her eyes. I've noticed more young people coming in with imaginative face paint--usually around their eyes—extending outward. Rings of dots in pink; dark paint with white dashes... They look great!

And she was sparkly, full of ideas and enthusiasm for books--she's a writer herself. I invited her to Mr Furniture's next art opening. "He is a genius, but he works here, making minimum wage."

"That's the way it is," she shrugged. "Artists can't think in terms of money."
Sparkle confetti fell from the sky.

Later I said I was going to take down my Reading Rainbow display for June, and we could put up a new display.
"Lets do red white and blue for July," she said.
And she made a sign--“Land of Revolution”—not something I’d ever think of. Great to have a different voice. 

There’s so little innovation at work usually, I was almost shocked.
Mr Furniture is an exception---oh, and I hadn't mentioned, the over-the-top creator Emmler has left--not at all surprisingly. I miss her so much.

Another excellent thing:
I went to the eye doctor and he said, "You do not have glaucoma or cataracts or macular degeneration. You just have a 5% change of vision in your right eye."

I had been freaking out a little—losing sight is a big fear.

And then I went to dinner with bink and Maura to Sushi Train, where the little plates of sushi travel past your table on a conveyor belt. All food should be like toys!
PennyCooper is lobbying for me to take them, but I fear they would climb onto the belt and be carried away, and of course they'd quickly be selected by the other diners.
No!
______

It's Day 3 of Camino for Marz. I should record here for her that bink & The Curmudgeon went to the bakery café where she worked, and bink reports the place felt different--the other workers were lackluster and slow...
One of them said, "Marz was the pulse of this place."
!!!
Marz, do you hear this??? I will tell you when you get back.

My Day 3 sketches, 2001:

I remember these poor bikers pushing their bikes through the mud--they were going to give up biking the trail at that point and take the road--full of trucks... Not so nice.

  This dinner was an exception--the food in 2001 was mostly terrible---cans of tuna and dry bread with cheese.
I think Spaniards along the way cater to international pilgrims' taste more now--money to be made, and demands to be met... Everyone with smartphones...
I'm sure it's better in some ways (I would have killed for a bowl of hot oatmeal! and really, dinner at 9 p.m. is bad when you're getting up at 6 to walk),
but I'm glad I'd walked when it was closer to the medieval experience.