Good Luck - Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit

Joan is taking a couple of days to focus on her family since our return from Costa Brava and therefore I have some time to indulge myself.   Today I realized that tomorrow will be the exact mid-point in my summer in Barcelona.   Ever since I realized this I’ve been struck by how much I’ve done and enjoyed since I’ve been here and yet how much more there is planned for the next six weeks.  So, this afternoon I found myself wandering around the Gotic District thinking about how at home I feel here. 

I have all my favorite places and routines……..my favorite grocery store, my favorite afternoon bar, my favorite beach places, my favorite sports bar, many favorite restaurants, three very special waiters I now call friends, one artist who amazes me and a very unusual jewelry store that fascinates me.  My life here is turning out to be so much more than I had even hoped for, I’m a lucky girl!  And that thought ‘lucky girl’ stuck in my head and I kept thinking about this ring I had seen in the very unusual jewelry store. 

I’d like to say I found this store but I didn’t really it was ‘Queen of all Shopping’ Miss Sue who first noticed a ‘mummy looking guy sitting in a chair in the pathway’ behind my flat.  ‘I wonder what that is’, she said and before I knew it I was following her down the pathway to investigate.  As we peeked into a small front door both our mouths dropped open.  The first thing you see is the ‘Red Rose Petal Woman’ and then the ‘Black Reindeer Woman’………they pull you in, you can’t help it.  We now know they are made completely out of latex.  You can’t stop looking at them and the many more things like them in the store, including a full size camel all for sale. 

The store is called La Basilica Galeria and it is mostly a jewelry store.  Like my meal at 41 Degrees this jewelry is so unique it is difficult to describe.  They have very elegant, divine pieces, they have cartoon pieces, they have animal pieces, they have flower pieces, they have very small furniture pieces, they have pieces made of everyday things like soup cans or corkscrews and more, and more and more.  It is the most fascinating store I have ever been in.   On that first visit with Sue I didn’t buy anything but I did fall in love with these playful red earrings and a rabbit ring. 

You see I have this rabbit thing.  I’m not sure I always knew it or ever meant for it to happen it just did.  Many of you know of the ‘rabbit planter’ that has sat on my front porch for 25 years and made many moves with me!!  My most treasured Christmas decoration is my ‘Red Velvet Rabbit’ and the only decorative item in my kitchen is my ‘Rabbit with the Menu Board’.  It wasn’t until I had to leave the ‘Rabbit String Holder’ in Washington that I realized how much I actually adored it!  Undeniable, I do have a thing for rabbits.

Now here is something else you may not know about rabbits, they are good luck or they can be.  According to an old English superstition upon waking on the first day of a new month if the first words out of your mouth are rabbit, rabbit, rabbit you will have good luck for the entire month.  But remember these have to be the first words, if you slip and say ‘good morning’ or ‘I have to pee’ before you say rabbit, rabbit, rabbit you have lost the luck for the month.  And you must say them out loud; saying them to yourself won’t count.   Now just in case you need more convincing check out the Chinese Horoscope where you will learn rabbits are the luckiest in the zodiac.

The woman who manages the gallery has questionable English but the most delightful sunny attitude and the minute she saw me she said, ‘you come to wear the rabbit’.  I’m not sure I had decided to buy the ring before but I knew then that I was going to. 

Tomorrow when I wake up I will say, ‘rabbit, rabbit, rabbit’ wearing my new rabbit ring.  Maybe with both of these I’ll get a whole year of good luck instead of just a month!