Do I Look French from There?

My regular homeopathic pharmacy has been out of garlic tablets for at least two weeks. Garlic's good for my blood, so I passed by there this morning and peered through their glass front door with a hopeful expression. The clerk inside knew what I was looking for and gave me a thumbs down. Still no garlic.

On my way back home, I stopped in at another pharmacy. This one, I rarely use. An older woman with full fringe bangs and shoulder-length hair helped me. She "sold" me the garlic tablets, but then I had to go to the other counter to pay. A man took my money there.

He was 50-ish with salt and pepper hair and Buddy Holly glasses. A nice-looking guy in a nerdy way.

In the background, a female singer was crooning, "The More I See You." He hummed along, singing a word here and there.

"Buena musica," I commented to him. He held up a CD cover and started talking about how much he loved jazz and blues.

I mentioned a video that I had seen last week. The nine-year old Norwegian, Angelina Jordan, sounds like Amy Winehouse reincarnated.

"I love Amy." He showed me his playlist of oldies, telling me in Spanglish that he also loved Etta James, Ella Fitzgerald, Tom Jones. My kind of music. Our music conversation was going swimmingly when, out of the blue, he asked me, "Are you Canadian?"

I shook my head. The older lady joined us, and I asked in Spanish, "Do you like to dance?"

"¡Sí!"

I leaned slightly over the counter, trying to peek at his ring finger, but his hands were out of sight. "Are you single?" I asked him.

The older lady moved closer to him and said, "He's my husband."

"¡O, perdón! Vale la pena preguntar, ¿no?" Oops, sorry. It never hurts to ask. Luckily, she had a good sense of humor and found it funny instead of threatening.

He carried on, unfazed, and then must have decided that I was French because he began speaking to me in French.

Many people here have mistaken me for French or German, even Russian. Let's see. I know precisely...oh right...zero French. Well, that's not strictly true. I could throw around some "Bon jour" and "Merci" in a terrible accent. Beyond that, I would have to be mute.

I must have a "European face," but that's where it ends. I'm not skinny enough to look French below my collarbones.

~~Sally Rose
Author of Penny Possible & A Million Sticky Kisses
iamsallyrose.com

Forever 39

Today is my birthday. Like the old vaudevillian Jack Benny, who never admitted being older than 39, I've stopped counting.

People who know me best, know that my cake will be chocolate, but I couldn't resist posting this photo of a Cherbluble.

It is pie, baked inside of a cake. Actually, it's three pies, cherry, apple, and blueberry, baked in red, white, and blue cake layers. This indulgence only sounds appropriate after a dinner of Turducken, another over-the-top gastronomic creation. Think I'll stick with my chocolate cake.

On one of my birthdays several years ago, my son sent me this poem, author unknown:

“Count your garden by the flowers,
Never by the leaves that fall;
Count your days by golden hours
Don’t remember clouds at all.
Count the night by stars, not shadows.
Count your life with smiles, not tears.
And with joy on this, your birthday,
Count your age by friends, not years.”

I have received cards, calls, messages, and notes from Korea, Japan, Spain, Italy, Chile, Canada, and from sea to shining sea. In friendships, I am "old" and very, very rich.

But I'm still only admitting to 39!

~~Sally Rose
Author of Penny Possible & A Million Sticky Kisses
iamsallyrose.com

The New Young

Recently, I was reading one of those articles that floats around on Facebook. It was called "7 surprising things that make you live longer." That got my attention. I discovered that:

1. According to researchers, smiling in photographs is good for you. The theory is that people who smile in photos are genuinely happier than people who don't, supposedly a reflection of well-being. These animated people tend to live up to seven years longer than non-smilers.

I don't know how much I smile in daily life, but I can smile when someone says "Cheese!" or "Whiskey!", as they do here in Chile. Does that mean I'm actually happier or just a good at smiling on cue?

2. Next on the list was having "positive" initials. Huh? My initials, "SR," seem neutral. They don't indicate anything negative, but neither are they positive, whereas initials such as ACE, WOW or VIP can allegedly add over four years to your life. I might have to reconsider my nom de plume.

3. Number Three is getting married. While they claim that married people live longer, I've been there-done that, and I'm certain that and the divorce that followed took a few years off my life. I'm in the minus column on this one.

4. Being slightly overweight is Number Four. No problem. I've had this one licked for years.

5. Having religious beliefs helps deal with stress and often creates beneficial social bonding. No argument.

6. It's no surprise that Number Six is also about being social. People who have a strong social network tend to feel less stressed and depressed and often live longer than those who do not. I'm seeing a pattern here.

7. Last, but not least...laughter. Studies have proven that laughter can lower blood pressure, reduce bad cholesterol, and boost your immune system. I once took a laughter class where the teacher explained it all to us. Laughter suppresses our fight-or-flight response and stimulates the vagus nerve which promotes healing.

In Santiago, there is a laughter group which meets once a month in Barrio República. The facilitator leads games that encourage the participants to laugh. At first, you feel ridiculous, then only silly, and afterward lighter and happier. If you'd like information about this laughter group, you can visit Alex de la Risa's Facebook page.

Let's see. It looks like I need to be silly, social, and smiley, even if I have to fake it until I feel it. When I add up the above and subtract out the minuses, I might gain a few years, if the Santiago smog doesn't get me first.

~~Sally Rose
Author of Penny Possible & A Million Sticky Kisses
iamsallyrose.com

Polyglot or Bon Vivant

I watched a video about twins from England who are polyglots. Each one speaks more than six languages fluently. And here, I've been patting myself on the back just for wading through Spanish.

The video shows one of the twins demonstrating his extraordinary skills. I noticed that he cycled from Hebrew to French to Catalan to Spanish to Portuguese. Listening hard, I tried to understand him in languages other than English or Spanish and heard many similarities in the romance languages. I've been thinking about trying to learn a third language, though I'm not sure which it would be. Where would I most like to visit next? That would be the biggest motivator for me because I plan to keep traveling.

In a travel article I recently read, the author listed eight reasons that travel can make you healthier. Among them were pleasure, sense of purpose, and challenge to keep the mind sharp. Also, smiling for all those selfies. Apparently, just the act of smiling sends the "happy" message to your brain. It's hard to feel down when you're smiling.

Between practicing for my selfies and tickling my brain with new information, I may live to be 112. Wonder how many languages I could learn by then.

~~Sally Rose
Author of Penny Possible & A Million Sticky Kisses
iamsallyrose.com