Funny thing

A funny thing happened tonight, and I'd like to share

See, I'm genuinely one of those freaks you meet here and there, saying "magic exists" and actually believe it. And I don't really mean that I'll stick out a finger and say a word and someone will get zits all over their face. I am thinking of real magic, of those tiny little ways nature has of showing you life's beauty, the magic of going on, the wisdom of things moving on, with or without you. The circles of the seasons, the birth, death and rebirth of the moon.

This morning, driving to work, I was in a weird mood. It was a sunny, hot day, not very hot but hot enough for a t-shirt, which I usually like. I wasn't in a bad mood, only a weird mood, if you know what I mean. I turned on the radio (I usually listen to my cd's while driving) and caught "Waltzing Along", one of my favorite James songs, right from the start. I started singing, and I sighed a deep sigh inside, cause the lyrics to this song really touch me. Every time. It's my cure song: "Help comes when you need it most/ I'm cured by laughter".

I laughed me a curing laughter and looked up.
And saw a swallow. It was just sitting there, I swear, bathed in light, pecking under its wings, moving its tail left and right. And it looked so perfect, it made sense.

I went to work in a magical mood. My stupid boss came up to me and said something that pissed me off. I thought to myself "damn, i could use a week without you soooooo badly!!". Five minutes later, she gets a call, some travel agency is paying her to go to Dubai for a week. I'm not making this up, this is for real. She hangs up and rushes off to call someone to tell, and we're all dancing around our desks that she'll be gone. She'll be away for a week, starting June 2nd.

So, now I'm in an even more magical mood. I leave work and go to the super-market. I pick out the best vegetables ever, and while I'm joking with the girl at the cheese counter about some cheese, my cell phone rings. It's my friend, who finally fixed us an appointment to get our tattoos. That will be my Kostas-Tina tattoo, it is really special to me, and I am so happy that the appointment was fixed on such a day. The problem is, my friend says to me, the appointment is on June 3rd, at 2 in the afternoon, when I'll be working. But that's when my boss won't be there. June 3rd. I wished her away, and she'll be gone exactly the day I needed her to be gone!
So my tattoo is on!

I went back home, we cooked a veggie burger meal and I made a salad, and made the tomato like a flower and garnished it with cheese and scallions, and cucumbers for leaves and we laughed and ate and had a good time.

After a while, I went to my parents' house to visit my parents. We talked, we laughed, we gossiped, and then I went into my room to snoop around a bit. Funny I used the word "snoop", cause that was Kostas' graffiti name. And that was exactly what I found. In a box I hadn't opened since we had moved in that house, 11 years ago. A notebook from university, from 1995 - one year before Kostas died. I don't really know what made me go through that notebook today, but I found something I had never seen before. He had sketched me a page, and wrote me a little note, inside my notebook. His favorite bands, a little man and "For Maria, with love, Snoop. Kostas". I couldn't believe my eyes. That was probably about a year before he was gone. I took the notebook and will try to salvage this page, probably in a glass frame or sthg. He had probably thought "This will be worth a fortune when I'm rich and famous", cause we always say that. And now it's worth, well.. so much, because it's actually all I have of him!

When I came home, I opened up the TV, and, sure enough, "Practical Magic" was JUST starting. I really like this movie, not because it's a cinematic wonder. But because I like it. And because I do think that, even though we can't make the spoon stir our coffee on its own, or blow-light a candle, we all lead magical lives. One way or another. We just have to see it.

Today was magic I think. If you don't believe in this hocus pocus horsecrap, then please explain this day to me!
I, for one, believe in magic. With all my heart. And even if you don't, take my advice and, just to be on the safe side, "always spill salt over your left shoulder, keep rosemary in your back garden, plant lavender for luck and fall in love whenever you can".