Wednesday, April 30, 2025: Welcome to our April cocktail hour. It’s been a busy but not very fun month for us. Besides the ongoing degradation of our democracy, our economy, our foreign alliances and our world standing by our wanna-be tyrant and Russian sympathizer, the FELON, we’ve been busy getting our house ready for our son Alex and his family to move in for the next year to house-sit while we move to Costa Rica.
Let’s have shots of tequila, served up in Frida Kahlo shot glasses, along with some Lady Justice beer.
Lady Justice beer with two shots of tequila in Frida Kahlo shot glasses from Mexico
I also have a variety of beers, soda or seltzer water for those of you who are calm enough to survive the next four years without angst, anxiety or alcohol.
How did your April go? Did you have a happy Easter Sunday celebration? Have you welcomed any new additions to your family? Did you celebrate any birthdays or anniversaries? Have you read any good books that can inform your worldview, seen any good movies, binge-watched any television series? Have you planned any adventures or had any spring getaways? Have you dreamed any dreams? Have you gone to any exotic restaurants, cooked any new dishes? Have you been surprised by anything in life? Have you learned anything new, taken any classes or just kept up with the news? Have you sung along with any new songs? Have you undertaken any new exercise routines? Have you marched or otherwise participated in political protests? Have you been battered, or alternately, uplifted by any news?
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April was a busy month for us, especially as we’ve been preparing our house for our son and his family to move in while we move to Costa Rica. The things we’ve had to do haven’t been much fun, and they have been time-consuming and expensive.
A clothing decluttering & a new closet
I spent a great deal of time sorting through a lot of my clothes in preparation for having a closet built in the smallest of our spare rooms. We’ve never had much closet space in our house, and what’s worse is that I have a huge collection of clothes. So something had to be done so that we could consolidate all our clothes and clean out the master bedroom so Alex and Jandira can move their stuff in. We had an Elfa closet system installed on April 16, and I’m happy to say, it makes a world of difference.
Wrapping up yoga
My favorite yoga teacher, who now lives in Charlottesville, returned to the Beloved Yoga studio for a Saturday special Chakra Hatha Flow, so of course I had to go to that. I have a number of passes I need to use before I go, and ever since she left the studio, I haven’t been going to yoga at all. So now I’m in a mad rush to use all the passes I’ve paid for. I tried out a Beginner’s yoga class one Saturday, but it was horrible! It’s so hard to find good teachers there. But I’ll have to grin and bear it until we leave at the end of May.
Other than yoga, I haven’t done much exercise other than walking. At least springtime showcased some colorful & vibrant flowers. 🙂
Hear, hear!
I went to the ENT because Mike is always complaining that I can’t hear (or is it that I don’t listen?) and he wanted me to have a hearing test. I found that my hearing in both ears has disintegrated, but luckily not to the degree that I need hearing aids – yet! I really don’t want to wear them. I also had wax buildup cleaned out in my left ear. The ENT told me I should come back once a year for a cleaning and hearing test. Oh boy, another thing to add to my long list of annual doctor appointments as I continue to age.
Dining out
We ate dinner out at Ariake, using the rest of a gift certificate our daughter Sarah gave us for Christmas. We took out a Greek dinner from The Big Greek Cafe, and I made the mistake of getting the heavy pastichio (Greek Lasagna with Béchamel). Ugh, way too much thick pasta. Next time, it’ll be a shrimp salad for me. We also ate at our favorite vegetarian Indian restaurant, Woodlands, after seeing the movie The Ballad of Wallis Island at Cinema Arts Theatre.
On Good Friday, using a gift certificate Mike got from one of his high school friends, we went to Georgetown in D.C. and ate at Filomena Restaurante, which was decorated to the hilt with Easter bunnies, painted eggs and colorful blossoms for Easter.
We took a short stroll around Georgetown after lunch, passing by the Ukranian Embassy. Even though our government under Trump is treating Ukraine horribly, and acting as if it is Ukraine’s fault that Putin invaded them (an outright lie), we strongly support Ukraine and are utterly disgusted by the actions of the U.S. government under the current administration.
We didn’t do much of anything for Easter as we didn’t have the family around and we’re not very religious anyway.
It was heartbreaking that Pope Francis died the day after Easter; why is it we always lose the good people? And then we’re stuck with the vile and evil people like Trump, Vance, Musk, Bondi, Hegseth, Patel, Putin and all other power-hungry politicians and operatives, as well as basically most billionaires and the entire Trump administration, Republicans, and MAGAts in general? Why, why, why?
Shortly after Easter, I got the “Gulf of Mexico” and “Lady Justice” beers I ordered from the progressive beer company in Illinois and Wisconsin, Minocqua Brewing Company. They are focused on progressive causes so I was happy to give them my business.
“Lady Justice” and “Gulf of Mexico” beer from Minocqua Brewing Company
We ate out at Mazadar Restaurant on the 27th. It’s one of our favorite restaurants but we never seem to make it there as much as we’d like.
A new iPhone
I got a new iPhone 16 Pro (my old one was an iPhone 11), and activated it on the 17th, which is always a bit of a hassle. But at least I checked off another item on my list. Luckily, I got a large credit on my old iPhone to offset the cost of the new phone; all I had to do was sign a 3-year contract with Verizon Wireless. We’ve been using Verizon for years, so it was nothing new.
in the Verizon store getting my new iPhone
Power washing and sealing our screened porch
On the 21st and 22nd (Earth Day), we had our screened porch power-washed and then sealed. It’s supposed to be done every 5 years, so it needed to be done before we left. It involved moving all the deck furniture off. Mike spent hours cleaning the chairs and tables of all the accumulated pollen and vacuuming the cushions. Then we put it all back together again (Actually I can thank Mike’s biking buddy Eric for help moving all the bulky pieces).
Sarah’s 41st birthday
Our daughter celebrated her 41st birthday on April 26. She was busy working in Virginia Beach, but I went to Richmond to meet her on the 29th-30th to belatedly celebrate and to help her set up her new apartment in Richmond. She begins her new job with a Richmond law firm on May 5.
I was happy to be able to visit the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond so I could finally see a Frida Kahlo exhibit: “Frida: Beyond the Myth.” Sadly, I had missed much of what I’d hoped to see of Frida Kahlo when we were in Mexico City. Frida’s story was perfectly encapsulated by signs at the exhibit, so I have included the information below:
Beyond the Myth
Although Frida Kahlo (1907-1954) is one of the most recognizable artists of the 2oth century, our understanding of her as an individual is incomplete.
A mythology surrounds the artist and focuses on her significant personal challenges: relationships, injuries, numerous surgeries, and severe chronic pain. She constructed a public persona composed of opposing characteristics: seductive and innocent, strong and vulnerable. Kahlo was, in essence, the architect of her own myth. Fortunately, her friends, lovers, and fellow artists captured aspects of Kahlo that go beyond this myth.
Organized chronologically, this exhibition examines the events in Kahlo’s life and her responses to them. When her works are presented alongside candid and formal portraits of the artist, we can begin to lift the veil of Kahlo’s persona and renew our appreciation for her extraordinary life and art.
Portrait of Alejandro Gómez Arías, 1928
Kahlo and her first boyfriend, Alejandro Gómez Arías, shown below in the gallery, met at school in 1922 and were both injured in the bus accident in 1925. He convinced doctors at the scene to help Kahlo despite their doubts for her survival, thereby saving her life. The inscription an the upper right was added in 1952, which tells us that Kahlo held onto this painting for over 24 years.
Marriage & the United States (1929-1932)
Although Kahlo first saw Diego Rivera in 1922, they did not meet until 1928, when she asked him to critique her paintings. They were married in 1929 and spent much of the next three years traveling in the United States for Rivera’s mural commissions, including time in San Francisco, Philadelphia, New York, and Detroit. Early in their marriage, she terminated their first pregnancy when Rivera insisted they remain childless, and a few years later, she suffered a devastating miscarriage. Kahlo returned to Mexico to recuperate. These events greatly shaped her life and practice during this time.
In the United States, she encountered social elites and fellow contemporary artists. She also began wearing traditional Mexican Tehuana clothing-attire that became Kahlo’s signature style. While this self-fashioning displayed her Mexican pride, it also gave her a distinctive and even “exotic” appearance among Rivera’s wealthy patrons, who were garbed in designer clothing.
New York & Paris (1932-1939)
Following the death of her mother, Kahlo rejoined Diego Rivera in Detroit.
In late 1932, the two traveled to New York for his mural commission at Rockefeller Center. After their return to Mexico at the end of 1933, Kahlo suffered several setbacks, including major surgery on her right foot and, devastatingly, her husband’s infidelity with her younger sister, Cristina.
She retaliated against Rivera’s betrayal by taking several lovers. When she became pregnant a third time, she chose to end the pregnancy.
The 1930s also brought important milestones for Kahlo’s professional career. During a visit to New York in 1938, she was invited to exhibit at the Julien Levy Gallery. (The gallerist’s photos of Kahlo appear in this section.) This same year, the French Surrealist André Breton saw Kahlo’s work in Mexico City. He declared Kahlo to be a Surrealist and invited her to exhibit in Paris in 1939. After her return from Paris, she separated from Rivera and moved back to her childhood home in Coyoacán.
I found the paintings, photographs and paintings, along with their descriptions, fascinating. One in particular is shown below: The Suicide of Dorothy Hale, 1939.
Dorothy Hale was an actress with a failing career who, rather than continuing to rely on the generosity of her wealthy friends, died by suicide in 1928 by jumping from the 16th-story window of her apartment at the Hampshire House Hotel in Manhattan. Writer and politician Clare Booth Luce commissioned Kahlo to create a simple recuerdo (portrait of remembrance) for Hale’s mother. Instead, Kahlo chose to depict Hale’s final act. Luce was so shocked by this graphic portrayal that several friends had to convince her not to destroy it.
Professional Success & Physical Decline (1940-1948)
After divorcing in 1939, Frida Kahlo and Diego Rivera remarried in December 1940.
Professionally, her expanding fame brought awards, grants, and participation in several international exhibitions during the 1940s. Unfortunately, these successes were offset by the crushing loss of her beloved father in 1941 and her increasing health challenges as the years passed. Kahlo had become a professor of painting, but her poor health often confined her to bed and obliged students to attend class at her house. By 1944, she began wearing a steel corset to support and immobilize her back. In 1946 incessant pain prompted her to travel to New York City for a spinal fusion. The surgery and a series of subsequent operations were unsuccessful, and she slipped into more frequent bouts of depression.
Finally, in 1948, she endured Rivera filing for divorce twice: the first time to wed actress María Félix, and the second, to wed his art dealer, Emma Hurtado. He ultimately rescinded the divorce papers and remained with Kahlo until the end of her life. These years of immense physical and emotional pain resulted in some of her most powerful self-portraits.
Final Years (1949-1954)
After another spinal surgery in 1949, Kahlo was hospitalized for nine months and relied on a wheelchair for mobility. She spent increasing amounts of time in bed— either in the hospital or at home. Still lifes became an effective vehicle of expression, and they account for over half of her artistic production during this period. The artist appreciated the fact that she didn’t have to worry about her appearance when painting still lifes, so her imagination could lead the way. Still lifes also permitted her to express her growing anxiety in a symbolic, more secretive manner that allowed potential buyers to view them simply as pleasing compositions.
In 1953 Kahlo had a triumphant first solo show in Mexico, but due to her poor health, she was forced to attend the opening lying in a bed. Months later, it became necessary to amputate her right leg. Her last public appearance was at a protest demonstration in early July, 11 days before she died on July 13, 1954.
I was so happy I got to see this exhibit. I found myself saddened by all the heartbreak Frida suffered in her life, between the bus accident in her youth, to her relationship with the philandering Diego Rivera, to her miscarriages and the physical pain she suffered with during her entire life. I love her exoticism and the way she stayed true to and amplified her Mexican heritage, of which she was very proud.
Sarah’s belated birthday
After meeting Sarah at her new apartment, we had lunch at Stella’s Market and then shopped in Target and Home Goods to get some things she needed for her new apartment.
After dropping her and all her goods by her apartment, I stopped to check in to my Airbnb on Parkwood in Carytown.
Later in the evening, we had a lovely dinner at Alewife in Churchill. It was a most delectable meal, with my favorites being the steamed mussels with green curry sauce and the tuna ceviche with aji amarillo, pickled onion, cilantro and chicharrones. Both were over the top and “to die for!”
Sarah also enjoyed her main meal of John Dory with potato puree, roasted mushrooms, and ramps and I enjoyed the appetizer Smoked Fish Dip: Pickles, Dill, trout roe, and grilled bread. My least favorite were the special crab hush puppies with Cajun remoulade.
The next morning, we went shopping again, this time for some new clothes for Sarah’s birthday. I dropped her at the train station so she could return to Virginia Beach, and then I drove home to northern Virginia.
A new roof to top off the month
Our insurance company approved the replacement of our roof due to storm damage, so on the last two days of the month, we had a new roof installed on our house. This was a thing I wasn’t excited to spend money on, so I’m glad the insurance company finally approved it.
The family from afar
Here are some photos from April of the family in Nicaragua and in Atlanta.
Miscellaneous stuff
I finished 4 books in April, bringing my total to 15/48 for the year, with my favorites being Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips and What You Are Looking For Is in the Library by Michiko Aoyama. We saw several movies: La Dulce Villa and Sult (A Copenhagen Love Story) on Netflix and The Ballad of Wallis Island at Cinema Arts Theatre. We finished the 3rd season of White Lotus, the 4th of The Upshaws, and the 6th of Virgin River, the 1st of The Äre Murders and Paradise, and the final seasons of Modern Family, Valeria, and the Turkish show Kimler Geldi Kimler Geçti (Thank You, Next). We started watching several series: Dying for Sex, The West Wing, Long Bright River, Your Friends & Neighbors, & Severance. We continued watching The Split, Younger, & Unforgotten.
I hope you’ll share how the year is panning out for you, and what plans you have for the spring and the rest of this year.
~ wander.essence ~ 
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