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Cill is awesome. I have been meaning to write this so as to facilitate inspiration for her as she works on her many creative pursuits (like this one). ‘Cause obviously happy tiding posts written by me are the best means for her to accomplish that. I’ve also wanted to write it as a tribute to her and all the fun experiences we’ve had together.

Cill lives in Brazil, or so says her blog, deep thoughts with cill in brazil. But I know that it’s true because I have visited her there. We made pumpkin pie and went to Pilates together, because we are American. Americans do whatever they want when they go to Brazil. Cill showed me this was true by taking me on adventures to parks where we drank out of coconuts. She also showed me this was true when we went to beach. At the beach, we sat in chairs (not in the dirty sand) at a civilized table, with an umbrella, where waiters brought us caipirinhas and we were surrounded by feral dogs! But maybe this is a better example of how Brazilians do whatever they want, and we were stoked to be “soaking up” the culture.

Another thing Cill has taught me is how to “live out loud.” We first discovered this many years ago, when we were both living in Harlem. Back then, we would hang out on her then-boyfriend/now-husband’s couch and drink diet cokes, watch bad television and smoke cigarettes. Sometimes we would make vegetarian meals for then-boyfriend/now-husband before he got home from work. Mostly, we would make videos of ourselves “acting” that were not funny or relevant to anyone other than us. We thought we were living out loud then. When I visited in her Brazil, I realized that we really didn’t understand how to live out loud until we were choking down roasted corn and cheap beer (on the beach!), getting hit-on by 19-year old Brazilian dudes from Minas Gerais, with ocean-swims laced throughout. That is legit living out loud.

Lately, Cill has been setting goals for herself. I think this is awesome because I have always been pretty terrible at mustering up the courage to actually set a goal. So like, mad props to you, Cill. Lately as well, I have been working from home as it’s been snowing all the time and driving in a blizzard to the farm through the treachery of Brooklyn industry followed by Queens suburbia is just not worth it. Cill calls me on these days we video-chat. She updates me on the progress of her goals, like how she is quitting diet coke, staying up all night to write plays, and becoming super awesome at speaking Portuguese. Tudo bom, Cill! I update her on how when I work from home, alls I can accomplish is maybe writing three emails and making chocolate mousse or baking cupcakes. Which to be fair, are mildly awesome accomplishments, but are also examples of how I can’t get any work done at home. Cill can, which rules.

Another amazing thing about Cill is that she surrounds herself with good company. Her dog, husband, and Brazilian friends are pretty solid examples of this. Tenaby is a lover and a fighter (he spent twelve days missing on the mean streets of NYC in December one year…and he lived). He doesn’t mind that I make up songs about him that are insulting, and is always down for a little rough-housing or cuddling--whichever the situation calls for. Mad respect for this dog. And for Cill, ‘cause like she picked him out.

Cill’s husband is German and regularly complains about how “U.S. Americans” and “South Americans”, while having entirely different lifestyles from one another, pretty much can’t get anything right. Perhaps, he has settled on the opinion that South Americans make delicious sucos from fresh fruits (which they do). Maybe he could be persuaded to admit that at least one U.S. American (me) makes really delish preserved fruit spreads. I know this to be true; because whenever I speak with him he asks me to stop doing whatever I am doing and “get my ass into the kitchen to make him some more jam”. Potentially, this serves as an example of how he is kind of a jerk. But rather I need you to trust me that he is an incredible and dear soul who makes me laugh harder than most humans. And that aside from the above examples, according to him, Americans from both hemispheres don’t have an F-in clue how to best enjoy life. But he married an American, so we don’t listen to him anyway. We just like him and that he is married to Cill.

Finally, on to Cill’s Brazilian friends. I don’t really know them all that well. I met one of them, who is a chef and works at this tea house in their neighborhood(that serves delicious food and the most delicate teas I have ever sampled). He only met me once and we didn’t really converse, other than a cordial introduction. But I guess that was enough. Because without a wink of hesitation he recently agreed that we should all move to Detroit and open a place that teaches kids how to grow berries and make food from scratch (mostly jam & cracker sandwiches) and that it should be called Cracker Bitches. Need I say, more?

So because of all this good company-keeping, goal attaining, second-language speaking, living out loudness, Cill is awesome. I hope she is having a beautiful day on the opposite side of the planet and that when she reads this, she laughs until she snorts or pees…

BTW, I just talked to Cill and she told me that her wifi is spotty because she is in the jungle. Like I said, livin’ out LOUD.


Cill, Mark, and the winding streets of Sao Paulo.


Tenaby.


Visiting Cill meant I got to take photos of rad graffiti.


A Cill and a German.