¡Viva Mexico!

Yes and No

2009-12-26T14:44:00.009-06:00

Well, the break from the blog turned out to be a short hiatus. I started another one fairly quickly. I guess I am both a hermit and a private person and also a flambuoyant Leo who longs to share and express.
To pick up on the new blog, click on the title of this post and be taken there.

See you there. It would be really fun if you left a comment.

Laurela

The last post

2009-09-03T20:35:00.005-05:00

Things in my life have changed dramatically over the past few months.

I have ceased to be a traveller (for the time being) and have settled into a mundane existence, just like everybody else.

Granted, I settled in a foreign country, but it is a mundane life now, just the same.

I have a routine, established when I committed to teaching three nights a week at Jose Vasconsuelos Bilingual School.

In the daytime, the school is what we would call an Elementary (Primaria en español) school, so the desks and chairs are scaled a bit on the small side. All the better to cram 38 adults into the classroom. Everyone is happy to pile in and they do the exercises obediently.

Murv, my mentor, is a very creative teacher, not a slave driver (like me). I will have to be sure and learn some of his methods before he takes off for the U.S., leaving me on my own in the classroom.

I very much want my students to pass the exam and go to the next level without repeating.

So, the reasons that I had for beginning this blog are long gone, things of the past. I don´t need the creative outlet any more. My life is enough of a creative outlet.

And I think I have run out of things to say in this format.

To those of you who are my dear friends, let's talk on the phone.

It's been lovely.

Thanks for reading and extra special thanks to those who left comments, you know who you are.

Bye bye.

Gray, rainy day

2009-09-01T09:27:00.001-05:00

I told a friend recently that the sky is always blue in San Miguel. As soon as I used the word ALWAYS, I knew that nothing is always anything and that for the sake of pure accuracy, I should have found another way of describing the atmosphere here.

So, now, amazingly enough, I have experienced gray, cloudy skies day and night for two days in a row. We are having lots of rain and huge amounts of lightning and thunder at night.

Yesterday, the first gray day, made me feel depressed. The heaviness of the low cloud cover presses down on me and I can feel it in my body and my heart. Oppressive.

Today, though, I feel that groovy feeling of staying inside all cozy and homey. It is a very good feeling. It's the kind of day when you just make tea and paint pictures or listen to Miles Davis.

Or maybe I'll make a new blog or web site.

There are about 10 people logging on to this blog every day now and I wonder who they all are. I wish I knew. I hope they are people that I actually want reading my blog, you know, friendly people................

I might change this blog to subscription only. I don't know. Maybe just some new colors.

Getting my head ready for school........

2009-08-26T20:19:00.005-05:00

Since I have never done anything like this before, I am so glad that I will be working with an experienced teacher. We will work together in the same classroom three nights a week and by the time he has to leave for the United States for a long trip, I will be ready to continue on my own in the classroom. I think it is a perfect plan that Murv came up with. He is a very intelligent and mild mannered person. Interesting to talk to and knowledgable about many things in Mexico.

In the classroom, we'll speak only English and I have been looking at the book. These level 3 students already know quite a bit. They are mostly adult learners, with day jobs and probably families, too. Getting them to pass the course is kind of an effort, I think. I know how I used to feel when I took night classes. (Yawn.)

I am posting photos of my favorite (except for Nate and Steve) cat, named Tormenta. She lives at El Charco del Ingenio and must be a mascot or something. When I arrive early in the morning, I hear her meowing inside the gift shop before it is open. So that's how they keep her safe at night, they lock her inside.

She is small and SO CUTE! I love all blue eyed variations of the siamese look. Her face is so spattered looking, sometimes I wonder if she even has eyes, it's hard to tell. Often, after enough time in the sun, she will come sit on my table and visit me while I have coffee or an omelette. Because of all the splotches on her face, she is very hard to photograph.

You can see how much she loves her daily sun bath on the mat outside the gift shop.

I took a picture of Daniel on Saturday while we were there on that horrendous loop at 8 in the morning (he was fine, I was the hung over one.)

Tonight, he invited me for dinner at his house and the food was great. Healthy, spicy and great. I will miss him when he heads back to San Diego on the first. He has been a very cool companion.

Fortunately there are other friends on the horizon, I am starting to meet people who share some of my interests and whose company I enjoy. Funny thing, I like Californians best. Hmmmmm.

Last night at my women's social group, I was seated next to a playwright/novelist from Los Angeles, whose play, Real Women Have Curves was made into a feature film. She is now writing a novel, set in San Miguel and has been here doing research. We talked for 2 1/2 hours nonstop; what a fascinating woman, feminist, artist, healer. I was the lucky one, to have all that time with her. She was born in Mexico, one of 8 children and her cultural observations were very interesting to me, not to mention all the other things we talked about.

San Miguel attracts a lot of interesting people, they say we have an energy vortex here, like Sedona. I really couldn't prove that there is an energy vortex, but San Miguel sure isn't a boring place.

ThesconekTnsamble

2009-08-22T22:40:00.006-05:00

I celebrated on Friday for about 12 hours straight. It ran over into Saturday morning, technically, my birthday.

With several different friends I sort of marathoned it, beginning with lunch with Anila, (goat tacos and beer) to dinner and margaritas with Daniel, then he and I went to an amazing concert by the above named group; they were young, passionate, energetic and muy talentoso! I predict that these 4 will reach stardom before long. They are heading to England to record their next CD.

Click on the heading of this post to go to a film clip that will give you an idea of this unique and original sounding quartet. I could not sit still. No one else could, either.

When that show was over, we went to another club to dance like mad to a different band. Unlike me, Daniel is somewhat sane, and he went home at that point.

But David had arrived and invited me to go to yet another place, where I choked down more beer and we finished off the evening in the sixth and final venue of the day, a new club with a very young crowd and ear piercing punk rock. (¡Guacala!)

You guessed it, I ran. What the heck, it was one in the morning by then, anyway.

Needless to say, I had a tiny little hangover today.

And because I went to El Charco del Ingenio to do the big loop at 8 AM, I did not have much sleep!

Later in the day, I went to Veronica and Enrique´s house for Birthday Cheesecake. It is Veronica's birthday today, too!

I gave her a gift certificate for a massage and enjoyed a long visit and conversation with both of them in my pigeon Spanish. They are so patient and helpful with me. It turns out that Enrique was a student for three years at the school where I will be teaching. He learned his English very well and says the school has a good reputation. I hope I do as well with the students that pass my way as his teachers did with him.

Then I passed out on the sofa, or in español, sofá. It was an okay birthday.

You have to check out the young Sconek-T-nsamble. They played a lot of original music but slipped in a few familiar tunes like the Beatles tune, "Helter Skelter" and the Stones´ "Paint it Black". Helter Skelter on electric violins and cello with flamenco percussion? Yes!

here is another link with not bad sound and 2 tunes you will recognize: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C33fq-0Mr4w&feature=related

¡Mucho energia!

Enjoy.

School's Out for Summer!

2009-08-21T09:46:00.003-05:00

Today, our conversation group finished up and because it was the last day and because he had just been given a bath and brushing, Amberly brought her huge white beautiful dog, Naj to class. We used him as an example "Naj, no es pequeño" (Naj isn't small) as opposed to "poco" (as in I'll have a little). We're still trying to figure out when to use which word.

These women are all permanent (more or less, Amberly is staying a year) so it's okay to make friends eith them. I am trying not to get attached to visitors who will be leaving real soon. It gets old. (Except for Daniel.)

We are planning on taking the next class together or private lessons together, or just get together to practice. This is the place to meet people, not on roof tops!

Later in the day I went to the new teacher orientation for the English program and met more interesting people.

One woman has just arrived in San Miguel after living in the Gaza Strip for 37 years and running a big nonprofit organization helping the deaf. She is very elegant and to be honest, I was honored to sit next to her. What a woman! She has been teaching English as a second language for many years too, and will help me, if need it. Very friendly person!

There were other interesting people in this group, I will probably get to know at least a couple of them. The class starts on August 31 and I will be co-teaching with an experienced man at level 3 until I get my feet wet. As I often say on this blog before leaping off a metaphorical cliff, WISH ME LUCK! I am a little (lot) nervous about this!

Tonight I'm going to a rock 'n roll concert with Daniel and we will have dinner before the concert.

And I have a lunch date with someone else, so I better get going cleaning up the house because I sure won't have time later!

Social?

2009-08-20T10:17:00.007-05:00

I stayed cooped up inside all day yesterday, studying history and doing homework, so by evening I wanted a little fresh air and some company.

I walked up to the village and found one of the many restaurants that I have not tried before. This one hosts a singles or newcomers or just plain social group on Wednesday evenings during Happy Hour. It was the first time I went to this group. I am hitting them all in my social life rejuvination program. I'm going to find me some cool people, dammit!

I don't really care about having coctails every night, but I ordered one anyway and was enjoying being on the roof with nice views. The city looks different from a rooftop than it does from the sidewalk.

I have to say that I was mortified by the people who showed up, though. All gringos and all very very different from me. Three men breezed in, passed the group at my table and stationed themselves at the end of the seating area, sitting right next to each other. The women at my table got up and literally flocked to the tables where the men sat. There are supposedly 4 women for every man in San Miguel, so maybe that explains it.

I didn't want to be rude, but there was NO WAY that I would ever seat myself with this group so I paid for my not very good drink and ran out the back, pretending I had left a pan of chicken frying on the stove at home and had to go turn off the fire!

I wandered awhile, enjoying the pleasant evening and wound up at my favorite restaurant, El Pegaso, where I chatted with the waiter in Spanish about whether or not it was going to rain, whether or not I live in San Miguel, whether or not I have family here or in California, etc. Then I had a fine dinner. No need to shop, cook or clean up! Yes!

Ironically enough, a student from my current Spanish class, a redhead with a great sense of humor, fell in to the restaurant and joined me at my table. She was with 2 of her friends, so in a heartbeat I had the good company I had started out looking for. Things have a way of working out.

I told her about the next Level 3 class, starting on September 29, just after she returns from a month long trip. She says she will join the class and suggested that she and I be partners. Sure! We sit next to each other now and have fun.

After that, we left the restaurant and went shopping for shoes, then when back on my side of town, I said good bye and wandered on back to the house.

The chicas muy bonitas were waiting at the gate again, just like yesterday and I managed a little more conversation. The new friend is named Hanet (pronounced Yanet, like Janet.)

A few minutes later, the girlies showed up at my door with a plate of tamales. "¿Cocinaste los tamales?" (did you make these tamales?) I asked Paola. "Si, con mi abulita" (Yes, with my grandmother) she answered. "¿Los tamales son de res o de queso?" (Are the tamales of beef or of cheese?) "Son de queso". (They are cheese.) M-m-m-m-m-m. Mi favorita! (m-m-m. My favorite!) ¡Gracias!

Paola is learning English in school, but someone criticized her and now she is too shy to say a word in English. In order to talk to her, I must speak in español and it is hard, I really want to be able to talk with her. Jara, the younger sister is only 6 and she talks so fast, I never understand what she says. And she doesn't get my español either. (You should see the look on her face as I try desperately to share my brilliant insights. Ha!) But I think we are doing better than we were a year ago when I first came here.

So, it was a big accomplishment for me, asking in second person, past tense and quick enough to get it out before they left the scene!!! And Paola understood me perfectly.

I'm making friends with eleven year olds. Does it get any better than this?

Mavin of the day

2009-08-18T21:19:00.003-05:00

This was the penultimate class in the series. On Thursday, I will have the last class. There won't be another session until the end of September when I'll take level 3.

Now I can get some other errands done and have time to orient to the teaching thing, if it works out and I continue it.

So, after class, I walked up to the village and met the "girl's night out" group for a little snack, margarita and some interesting conversation about local issues, land distribution, eijidos and stuff like that. San Miguel, like everywhere is changing. It's the law of the universe.

I keep reading history and trying to understand how things got to this point, there is a lot of background. Someone said that the Americans here are naive. I'm wondering exactly what that means.

Anyway, I walked home in daylight and took a few more photos. I have very strongly been wanting (jonesing for, tengo ganas) a new camera. I feel I have reached the end of the ride with the one I have. But instead of buying a new one, I am trying to use one or two of the features this one has, ones I have overlooked. So, bear with me, these are more the product of just wanting to snap a few and see what would happen than being a choreographed set with a subject.

I walked home through Centro and then into my Colonia, San Rafael. I noticed the layers of grafitti that are accumulating lately. When I first came to this neighborhood, I didn´t notice any grafitti, but there must have been at least some.

Then, after the slow walk up the hill, I get to my gate and look at what's waiting, a trio of the prettiest little girls you ever want to see. Two of these are the granddaughters of the woman I rent from. The third half girl is a neighbor and I just met her for the first time. The youngest is Jara and she is 6. Her sister Paola is behind her on the right, about 11 years old. They are here many days per week because they just love and adore their grandmother, Doña Maria and they want to hang out with her constantly.

These girls are very intelligent as well as beautiful. They go to private school and are learning english as one of their subjects. They are both proficient with the laptop computer. Jara is a bit of a tom-boy and plays soccer like a deamon, according to their mother.

I wish I could carry on a better conversation with them!

Birthday/Housewarming

2009-08-16T00:59:00.005-05:00

It was so lovely to head out to the country to attend a birthday/housewarming party with a whole lot of casual, creative, colorful types of people. The home is on beautiful land about 5 or 10 miles out of town and past two tiny villages, waaaaaaay off the main road. It is entirely "off the grid" with solar collectors for electricity. It is a handmade house, quite unusual but with plenty of light all around and beautiful views.

The homeowner is a very interesting woman named Heideloh and until fairly recently she lived on this land with her mother in two tiny separate houses. Her mom was a known artist, who raised Heideloh on a boat. There is more to this story, very interesting!

After her mom's passing, Heideloh built one small room to join the two small houses into one larger house and then she opened the doors to all of us to celebrate the new digs!

The many large windows above the kitchen sink have the most remarkable view of the valley and mountains beyond. This country looks a lot like the crate label art of California in the 1940's, if you don't see the outlines of the nopales cactus in the foreground. Lavender mountains in the distance, I just love it.

Maybe I would like living in a little custom house way the heck out in the wilds................

I went with my two friends Daniel and David. We started early, I wanted to be sure to have plenty of light to find the house, so far out in the country. There was a large spread food, and we all brought drinks to share. The food was really delicious and Heideloh loved preparing it for all of us. Like me, she lives alone and doesn't get a chance to cook much unless she has guests.

The winners of the Chamber Music Festival graced us with their presence and gave a brief concert which was classical, but they closed it with the Beatles tune Yesterday. You know what a sap I am, I cried a little during Mozart's Nacht Musik (please forgive my spelling, if that is wrong.) I have heard the piece on CD by some famous orchestras, but it never moved me like this intimate version, up close and personal with the cello and three violins. The young men came from Morelia to take first place at the festival. So young! Muy talentosos!

Later, David played his guitar and sang outdoors for awhile, some other people joined him in singing. Nobody has chops like David, though. Not even close.

I stayed a lot longer than I thought I would, will explain that later.....

And when the stars came out, I was mesmerized by the Milky Way; I haven't seen it for a long time. My little piece of sky, above the back yard of the house where I live, never seems to be positioned to get a view of the milky way, even though I go out every night and look up to see what's there. So I was very happy to have such a big and beautiful view of the night sky tonight. And it was warm. So beautiful.

I was able to chat with many folks, some that I have heard of, who write books and teach photography and other things. My favorite yoga teacher, Ximena was there and oh-la-la, what a cute boyfriend she was with! Some folks I have never seen before, but we all had a good time.

I know I will be going back to Heideloh's again. Next time I will know the way without hesitation.

Being here in San Miguel is an "alternate lifestyle"; we are all drawn here by some powerful energy and there are many here who share the great sense of joy, feeling priviledged to be able to exist here in the now.

This group is not the gated community crowd or the country club set. We're the bohemians, I guess.

I really had a good time.

Queretaro again

2009-08-14T10:08:00.004-05:00

One of the women in the "girls night out group" said she was going to Queretaro the next day to shop for a refrigerator. Apparently when she buiilt her house, the electrician installed everything badly and all of her appliances burned up and were destroyed.

She has to replace every electrical appliance in her home, except the computer, which was on a big surge protector. The surge protector burned up. The jacuzzi tub never electrocuted her, which was a miracle according to the next electrician she hired. Yikes.

So I grabbed a chance to go with someone else and see things I might not find on my own. I showed up the next morning at the bus station and she was all ready to board a bus, earlier than we had planned, but it worked out. We went "economia", which stops more often and one of the stops is right in front of the Liverpool store and shopping mall.

Liverpool is an expensive department store with imported goods (there is a stiff Value Added Tax in Mexico.) Imports are very high in price, especially from China! It is easier to find goods from Spain or Italy than from China.

So, I discovered that there are big shopping malls here, just like the ones at home that I came here to escape. A bedspread was priced at over $160 (U.S.) I think I'll just keep the rag I have!

After scoping out the whole mall, I decided to escape to the historic center of town for a little while. I left my friends and got a taxi.

In the tourist section there are a lot of little colorful shops, the kind I like. I heard fabulous Cuban music blasting from one of the shops and was drawn in to listen and buy several wonderful CD's and also I fell for a double set of Ranchera songs, 50 songs, all original recordings! Linda Ronstadt's version of Los Laureles is on the collection.

I'm playing them now and am very happy with the new music. Now if I could just learn to dance to it!

I am still very careful about where I eat. The mexican places likely do not disinfect the vegetables like I do at home, so I often end up in a more expensive place and enjoy it less while paying more. Don't know when I will get over that.

So, I'm showing you a picture of the place I should have eaten and another of the elegant place under the trees, with white tablecloth where I did have my lunch. The mole' was good, but a tamale would have been better!

I met with the woman yesterday about teaching at the San Miguel School of English and it sounds alright if you like hard work. I have never shied away from hard work, but now I am so spoiled, I will have to push a little to commit three nights a week.

I think the payoff will be huge if I can get into a routine and get some of this behind me. Co-teaching with another person might be the answer. I can do one night one week and two nights the next week. Then we can cover each other for vacations.

What? You thought I wouldn't be taking vacations?

Wow, I'm tired

2009-08-13T22:01:00.003-05:00

Today was the unusual one.

I had an 11:00, a 12:00, a 2:00, a 3:00 and a 6:00. Socially I have gone from zero to sixty (car lingo) in one week. I will be taking care of someone else's cat for a few days while she goes to Mexico City and instead of going to a party with her on Saturday, I will be taking two of my favorite male friends.

I continue to lead the pack in Spanish class and it is a lot of fun to play all the games and tell stories, etc. I gained a lot of confiden¡ce in my last class and will join a couple of conversation groups after this class is over. It is SO FUN for me to speak espñol! I have no problem humiliating myself with mistakes. I love all the people here who are so patient with me and who correct me so gently!

Daniel and I went to a wonderful Spanish Tapas restaurant for dinner tonight. He has a sister in Oaxaca and promises me that I can stay there with her when I'm ready to tackle Oaxaca. He is such a delight, we really have fun.

And more good news is that the Dermatologist says that "it's not cancer", I didn´t want to gross anyone out by saying I had a biopsy last week, but it's okay. So much for Celtic skin! I wish I had brown skin, but oh well.

And I have committed to teaching English to adult Mexicanos three nights a week from 6-7:30. I will gain a valuable skill, meet many Mexican people and probably learn some español in the process. It is a big commitment and is open ended (goes on forever).

We'll see.

I have been looking for the volunteer work that would suit me and this happened on a quick impulse.

Wish me luck!

Art, music, friends and fun

2009-08-10T17:11:00.006-05:00

I have been neglecting my poor body, except for the exercise the last few weeks. But while in L.A. I lifted a ton of boxes and moved a lot of weight back and forth and back again. One outcome (other than finishing all my work successfully and on time) was that I hurt my back. After I quit torturing it, the pain settled down and I forgot about it and went on with my activities.

But this week the pain returned and I knew I needed a little nurturing from someone or somewhere.

There is a great chiropractor here in town. He is from California, of course. His spiritual vibe and his touch or way of treating me reminds me of my favorite doctor of all time, the one that moved away to Nevada city a long time ago and was never ever replaced. He doesn't look like the other doctor, he looks like a blond surfer, but I love his gentle way.

So, now I have a new doctor and I won't be going for a year without treatment again!

After the first correction, I waited a day and then made an appointment for a Thai Massage with a stranger whose number I took off of a flyer. Sometimes I just let the universe take me wherever it wants. It turned out well. And it was one of those times that one thing leads to another. Sometimes it is good to give in and go where the wind blows. We are never really in control anyway.

The masajista (masseur) is an artist who it turns out, lives in San Diego in a neighborhood I lived in many years ago (North Park). Before San Diego he lived in San Miguel and still returns here every year for a month or so. His name is Daniel.

He worked me over good and we had a great time talking and visiting afterwards for about an hour. He is in a gay loving relationship and has a very effervescent personality. I really like him a lot.

The next day, my back still hurt but the Art and Crafts Fair was being held at the Instituto Allende and I just love to go there and hang out with all the various artists, and look at all the amazing stuff. It takes a few visits to begin to really see what all is there. It can be overwhelming, there are over 100 artists! I am getting to know some of them.

Walking was no problem, so off I went.

I was there for about an hour when I ran into Daniel, the masajista and we started chatting and hanging out. The whole rest of the afternoon was spent looking at the various millions of pieces that interested us and he helped me decide which Huichol painting (string painting) to buy. My art collection is almost complete, if buy much more, I will have to move to a larger place! I also bought a Huichol Coke Bottle and you have to see it, it's a long story.

The Huichol Indians fled into the mountains in 1500's when the Spanish came and were able to escape the experience of cultural domination and slavery that everyone else was subject to. They live in caves and places impossible to get to so have retained much of their cultural identity. Roads and modern times are slowly infiltrating the Huichol people, that is why I love the Coke bottle so much. Give 'em a coke and get back a piece of Andy Warhol art! I think it is fabulous! And it was cheap!

Then, Daniel told me that he was meeting two women from the morning dance class and they all were going to hear some of the Chamber Music at the Angela Peralta (remember, the nicest place in town I mentioned before) Theater. He invited me to join them and I gladly accepted.

The women were young (there are a lot of retired people here and they seem eoooooons older than I am, so I was so thrilled to meet "normal" people). Both, of course were artists and we imbibed a little before heading out to the Angela Peralta on foot.

We all bought the cheapest seats for $50 pesos ($3.84 U.S.) and then moved to the very front row center before curtain time. The concert was good, but didn't have much beat. You can take the girl out of rock 'n roll but................... ha ha, I like classical music too.

The 4th and final piece was especially lovely when a very beautiful soprano with very long dark hair, in a dress I can only describe as magical, joined the 3 violins and the cello. Really, that part was very special. She looked like an angel and the music was angelic, too.

So, it was a winner all around, I made great strides in my "social life rehabilitation program", enjoyed walking the streets in a group late at night as we all walked each other home, seeing the inside of the Theater at last, and I think, making new friends, one of whom lives only a block away from me.

They invited me to a party next Saturday. Maybe there is hope for me after all.

Trees

2009-08-08T00:04:00.005-05:00

There are a few Americans living here who constantly complain about little things and you wonder, why did you move here? I don't want to be one of those people.

But there is one thing that I just don't understand. One phenomenon that leaves me in a complete quandry.

It is the practice of lopping off the top of a tree and leaving a naked but very tall stump that will inevitably die but remain standing for years as a reminder of the cruelty.

There was a very old and beautiful Mesquite tree on the street near where I live and it graced this humble neighborhood and gave a cool oasis to all of us walking up or down the hill in the sun. It was very beautiful as the season changed, especially when the rains began and it filled out with green leaves.

A couple of weeks ago, on a Sunday morning I was forced to detour while several men blocked the street and attacked the beautiful old tree with saws and hatchets, taking off the whole canopy. I practically crashed the car, I could not believe what I was seeing. I am quite certain that there are laws against this because back in the day, the poor people would cut the trees for wood to keep warm. That is when the laws were made.

I am an admitted tree hugger and probably more impressed with our leafy relatives than some other people. I once fell in love with a man because he said that he believed that trees had feelings. That was all I had to hear, I was done for.

Often I have seen businesses in Los Angeles cut trees to improve the visibility of their sign. I curse them and boycott them.

What I learned while working for TreePeople in L.A. trying to increase the urban forest was that for the health of the tree, you never want to trim more than 20% of the tree's mass at one time, otherwise you risk killing it. And I think I remember one of the arborists saying that to top a tree cuts it's lifespan in half.

But these trees are not trimmed, they are more than "topped". I just don't get it, it breaks my heart.

Trees are part of the water cycle and without them, we will thirst. Look at the climate change where the Garden of Eden once was.

I visualize a full, healthy tree every time I pass one of these poor victims. They are scattered around town.

It is a tough life for a tree freak in the 21st Century!

Maybe not so alone............

2009-08-05T07:24:00.004-05:00

Even though I have been here for almost a year and I know the streets of this little rabbit´s maze, I have not put forth much effort on my social life and consequently, I am and have been terribly alone. Not that Nate and Steve haven't been faithful companions, but....... there have been times when I felt that I was in a self imposed exile.

As I have mentioned before, I was physically "in recovery" for much of my time here in the beginning. Healing the body requires rest and that indicates isolation. But all that is the past!

I feel as though the sun is coming out for me because I am making connections with people left and right. It feels very good!

Last week or two, the Film Festival took place in San Miguel, this week or two is the Chamber Music Festival. There are world class groups playing at the top place in town, the Angela Peralta Theater for $20-$28 (US) per ticket, all the way down to students playing for free during twilight in the corridors and gardens of the large buildings, such as Bellas Artes and El Instituto. How wonderful, we can stroll and wander at magic hour, with beautiful views and beautiful music, all here just for the taking.

There are at least four venues with full schedules throughout the day. I have picked out the two groups I want to hear and put them on my schedule, too.

Because the musicians are using the dance room at Bellas Artes for practice, or storage or whatever, my yoga classes are cancelled for two weeks. I knew that perfect exercise schedule I worked out would not last!

So, I went back to the gym. It is so close and convenient! (And those cute sheep!) There are two people who show up at the same time of day as I do, after the working people finish and leave. One is a Spanish speaker and the other is a gringa. Yesterday, both acknowledged me when I entered and both spoke to me like an old friend. Others there were friendly, too, but I didn't really have a conversation with them.

Later in the day, I went to my new Conversation class at Warren Hardy and saw two friends from before who wanted to sit with me. One gave me a ride after class to a restaurant where I met about 10 women who have a "girls night out" every Tuesday evening. I immediately found several simpatico spirits, easy conversation and I look forward to further exploration with them next week.

There was a "newcomers" group get together following the girls night out and, since I was dressed and already out on the town, I stopped in. It was held at Harry's Bar, an extension of that chain in the U. S.

Very popular! Very crowded! Noisy! Lots of cigarettes! Lots of smelly meat and stench of swill! Ugh! I ran out and took myself home, hoping for another group in a different location another day. I hate Harry´s Bar! Awful! Run!

There are two more groups today, one at lunchtime and another, a "singles social group" at 5:30. Also, my friend David Garza (a.k.a. Lynx Maple) is playing at a brewpub this evening and I love hearing his unique song stylings whenever possible. I saw him perform on Sunday, too. So much for isolation! I'm done with that!

San Miguel is said to have some type of energy polarity or vortex, similar to Sedona, Arizona. It attracts people in a certain way, artists, and other types of creative people. There are many great people here, I want to meet some! It will take me a long time to get around to exploring all the potential that is here.

It is an enjoyable process.

Walking alone

2009-07-31T21:40:00.005-05:00

I don´t want to say that I am bipolar (I'm not!) but today was not one of those bursting out all over blissful days. I don´t think people can operate at 110% on a constant basis.

I dragged around the house, did some errands, presented the brownies and then walked to the village (Pueblo, Centro, whatever you call it) and browsed around.

I visited the pirate i love so much and gave him a record number of cd´s to copy. (Six at one time.) I didn´t used to trust him with my discs, I thought they would get lost among his millions, but he has always been so reliable abut returning them. He is organized!

In exchange, I get to double my collection by receiving one in trade for each I give to him. I love to spend afternoons at his cafe, drinking iced coffee and listening to music, getting a free copy of whatever I choose. What a diverse collection he has, and it changes constantly. I got Iris Dement from him once, that's an obscure treasure! Today it was Hawaiian Slack Key music Mariachi and some Steven Halpern that I can use for massage. Usually I run into a friend there and chat a bit, too. Juan's Café or Café Etcetera. It´s the greatest.

I sat in El Jardin and read an entire copy of our weekly bilingual paper called Atención. It has all the listings for events and always at least a couple of interesting articles. There is a lot of social consciousness here and it is inspiring to read of all the events that are constantly being produced. Always, volunteer opportunities are mentioned, too. I will get around to it. I´m a die-hard.

Then, because it is Friday night and I have had a busy week, I treated myself to a good Thai Salad at my favorite restaurant, El Pegaso. The Margarita went down well with the salad. As I ate, a parade went by my window. So San Miguel. Drums, flowers, dancers, kids.

It was a nice time of day to take a few pictures as I walked back across town on my way home. I hope you like them.

New time of day

2009-07-30T19:29:00.005-05:00

Today was the last day of school for the level 2 course. My partner and I were both so giddy that we could hardly do our lessons. She is a college professor visiting from Texas. She kept giggling and giving the wrong answers to the questions. Finally, she said "I´m acting just like my students act on the last day!" We tried to be serious, but every time we goofed up the sentences we were making, we both burst into laughter.

It felt good to complete a class and to have learned so much. (I never used to be able to complete any classes. I always had to run away.) And the games we played were so much fun that I changed my mind about taking another intense course right away with new information. I decided to take Level 2 Conversation to practice speaking the stuff I just learned. In conversation class we will dress up, play games and tell stories. Doesn´t that sound like fun? I can go to Level 3 in November.

I walked home after class; it is only about 15 minutes. After eating some of my amazing vegetable soup, I decided to go out and buy brownie mix and make brownies for all the construction workers next door. They are the most gentlemanly construction workers I have ever met. Every time I walk by, they all treat me with respect, a shocking occurence for someone used to cat calls and rude remarks (in the US, always, always, always, ugh!)

The foreman, se llama (whose name is) Natividades even walked me into the house and gave me a grand tour of every room and the roof deck. (Ya can take the girl out of real estate but.... I still love to look at houses!) And he politely put up with my español, even though he knows inglés perfectly well. It is quite a house and will grace the neighborhood like a jewel. Of course

it´s a gringo owner, whose name is Joe.

Anyway, I think these guys have earned a huge plate of brownies. The house is almost done and everyone will disappear suddenly, so I want to hurry before I lose my chance. Tomorrow afternoon, just before paycheck time, gringa loca will arrive and present the gift to Natividades to distribute.

While I was out, the most amazing downpour took place. I had to wait inside a store, because otherwise I might have been swept away. For this little girl from California, where it drizzles, maybe a couple of times a year, these extrordinary lightning storms and cloudburst rains are amazing experiences.

The huge clouds let go of their payload with such force, that it inevitably ends within minutes (unless it is at night) at which time one can go on with one's life as if nothing had happened. I guess that many places have "weather", but Santa Monica is NOT one of them. This is all new and very fascinating to me.

After I got home, I realized that a film was showing somewhere that I have not been inside of yet, so I put off the brownies for evening time and walked out again, to almost the same place I had been in the morning and I watched the film. It is a meditation center that hosts any group of silent meditators. A few different groups meet there. SRF is one of them and I don´t know who all.

I have vaguely known of the existance of this center for at least 8 months, but finding places sometimes takes time here in San Miguel. Many streets are only one block long and most do not connect with many other streets. The reason for that is that the Spanish built cities on what were previously Indian or indigenous villages. There were little goat trails that became walking paths that became paved at some point. None of it was designed for it's current use. It is kind of cool, really, once you get the hang of being lost almost all the time. I'm pretty good natured about it all, I realize that every time I'm lost, I find things I would not have otherwise found. Like the meditation center. As I said before, in time I find it all.

They say San Cristóbal in southern Mexico, near Guatemala is the most European city in Mexico because it was built from scratch by the Spanish and all the streets are laid out in a grid. What a concept.

I want to go there and visit right after I go to see Oaxaca.

Oh, how I digress, my intention was to describe the experience of walking home after the film. It was only 6:30-7:00 pm, but the vibe of the neighborhood had totally changed. I recently discovered the early morning time and now, the evening.

Street vendors set up and sell fragrant foods where this afternoon it was an impromptu lingerie shop. Fathers are home from work, laughing and playing with children. So much life takes place on the street.

It's fabulous.

No photos today

2009-07-27T12:12:00.005-05:00

This is one of those idyllic mornings, when my heart swells with joy and gratitude at the perfection that my life has become.

I know this will not last forever, having that knowledge makes the good times all the more precious to me. I cannot help noticing the little things (my specialty) that fall so nicely into place, just as I want them, and how these little gifts show me how satisfying it all can be.

I have worked hard to achieve even one great moment, but I realize that it would be possible for me to work equally hard and never know the feelings of satisfaction and contentment that occasionally arise for me here.

I have a new routine, the routine that I visualized for myself while I was living in Santa Monica, dreaming about all this. It has taken me awhile!

So, the big thrill of the day is that I can go to Bellas Artes, a huge, beautiful old building in Centro where art and music classe are taught, and in the dance room, co-op yoga classes are held on Mon., Wed. and Fri. mornings at 8:00 am. They are great classes and really cheap. So cheap that I cannot bail out saying it costs too much. I just have to show up.

Going there for the class gets me out on the street at a very early hour and I have the pleasure of driving on empty streets, finding parking easily and enjoying the beauty of this town in the quiet and cool of the morning. It is a special treat that until now, I have not had. Yes, I constantly find something new to love and enjoy.

After class, I was able to go to my mail box, buy fresh fruit, buy fresh flowers (every Monday!), pick up my laundry and return home by 10:30 am. This is a miracle in San Miguel! It works so much better than always going out in the thick of the afternoon to maybe get one errand done, on foot, in the heat of the day.

The other part of the routine is the running on alternate days. A perfect plan. Ha ha, let's see how long it lasts this time. Yesterday I went up to El charco del Ingenio for a most splendid time getting around the big loop that I have settled on for my run (walk/run, I still get credit,

don't I?)

There was one other person running up there but other than that, I had the whole place to myself. The sky was very clear and the views were spectacular. I had to stop and admire the different vistas about 4 or 5 times. Each different, all beautiful. I am pretty easy to please, ya think? It took me years to get here, but things are just like I like them and I don't take the good times for granted.

In San Miguel, we are having a film fesival this week. Films are showing from 10 am until 9 pm in about 4 locations and they are all free. Yesterday I took the oportunity to go up to the shopping center, to the regular theater to see a film called 5 Days Without Nora. I understood most of it, but not the jokes, except for one. Usually when the audience laughed I just thought "What happened?"

The Federal Gov. here gave a grant to support independent film makers and try to help Mexico recapture the reputation it once had of producing good films. Anyway, like all things in Mexico, it worked to some extent, more or less and maybe some of the work in this festival is a result of that effort.

It was my first time inside the "regular theater", a place I always believed was reserved for children to watch dubbed versions of Spiderman and some such things. Maybe it isn't so wierd there after all and I actually enjoy watching films in Spanish. I was able to recognize a few verbs in the past tense since my class at Warren Hardy these past two weeks.

I finish the Level 2 class on Thursday and have decided to plow right through Level 3 immediately. It begins on Aug. 3 until the 19th. While some criticize Warren for being a money making machine, I feel that his success is well deserved and that his product is fabulous, worth every penny. I would even call his classes cheap, given that the program is so well structured and his materials so well produced. I actually learned something.

At this point in time, I have studied español in three countries with 9 teachers, so I feel qualified to judge. Of course, not to overstate things, one class was in the 70's and I ran away after 6 weeks, one class was in the 80's and I ran away after 6 weeks, etc. But Warren lays out what the expectations should be and he talks about a realistic timeline and how many hours of practice are required for each section. He says that we should take all his classes (4) and THEN do immersion. No one else said that, they said "come to me to learn Spanish fast." Ha ha ha.

In the process, I notice that I have totally conquered my lifelong fear of school and I am probably now what would be called an A student. If we had grades. Which we don´t.

My last thought for the day is that I hope that all beings everywhere feel joy great and happiness and are never separated from their joy.

Warren Hardy Party

2009-07-22T16:05:00.005-05:00

I continue to be amazed at the people who run the Spanish school I am attending. This is really first rate.

Today is not my scheduled class but I went at 9:00 to hear Warren lecture on the compariative histories of the U.S. and Mexico, leading in to a talk about the correct social protocols in Mexico,once the background was laid out. These subjects are of great interest to me and it occurred to me to post all my notes from the talk, but then I wondered if anyone else would be equally enthralled as I.

Warren is such a polished and even speaker that I could listen him deliver a discussion on the comparative merits of various brands of laundry detergent and be completely engrossed. When he talks about a subject that I am very interested in and shares his 20 years of insights, having lived here for that long, then it´s a bonanza.

After the talk, I went out into the street to buy a tamale from the Señora who sells them in front of San Juan De Dios Cathedral before leaving for the party at Warren and Tuli´s house. They give a party and tour of their home for each and every class, so that people can get to know each other before the last day. The sprawling home and beautiful large grounds are a paradise and being invited there was wonderful. I am posting photos I took there today.

The amount of light and love that is reflected in every inch of their compound is very touching and amazing to behold, really. They live according to beautiful core values and the result is very successful in many ways.

Warren and Tuli went to San Miguel de Allende in 1990 for their honeymoon. They were from the Laguna Beach area of California. Within days they were in love with San Miguel and decided to make their new life together, right there in Mexico.

They started teaching Spanish, a continuation of what Warren had been doing in the States and very soon, they bought a large parcel of land on a hillside with a beautiful view of the Centro area and it´s prominent landmarks, the Parrochia and Él Jardin. At the time that they did it, there were no other homes there, nor was running water or electricity available there.

Over the years they built a house, swimming pool, guest quarters, offices, an organic raised bed garden and they planted many trees which have grown large and beautiful in time . There is still a rather roomy section with native mesquite and nopales growing, which has not been developed with brickwork, stonework, tile work or landscaping.

The "red room" is Tuli´s design and is a really fun departure from the Mexican colors and textures seen everywhere else.

Several of the rooms were decorated with artwork painted by Warren, he is a renissance man! In a previous lifetime he cranked out paintings of Navajo looking scenes for a Sedona Gallery that could not keep his work in stock. Consequently, he burned out on painting and turned to teaching. He is now returning to painting once again and he let us look at some of his current watercolor work.

The grassy area outdoors was only about one third filled to capacity with the 50 or so students from the school. We all brought pot luck and there was a lot of interesting food to choose from. I tried "tuna", which is the ripe, red cactus apple from the nopale cactus; it was filled with hard black seeds! It was a wonderful color which DID wash out of my white Levis, though. And I tried cooked nopales for the first time, a little like okra, with that slippery texture. They say that eating nopales helps manage diabetes, I´m sure it has many other benefits. (And, if you are wondering, tuna is called atun in spanish.)

The brownies I baked somehow all managed to disappear and they got rave reviews.

Visiting this paradise and sharing food and drinks with the other students in level 1 and level 2 was a really nice departure from the norm and I enjoyed it immensely. Now I can say that I have been to Warren Hardy´s house and it was great.

It is said that San Miguel atracts really amazing people and I was happy to meet some of them today.

School Days!

2009-07-14T16:52:00.005-05:00

Finally! Level 2! Preterito (The past tense)

I have found the teacher who presents material in a way that I can soak it up muy rapido! It doesn´t hurt that I have been trying (stumbling around) for a year already, I doubt if even Warren Hardy could have taught me immediately in the very beginning. But after today´s class, I felt like I had made a wonderful decision to finally swing for the big bucks and go to the school designed for people like me. I deserve the best, no?

Sometimes, holding the purse strings too tightly is not a good idea. Anyway, they reduced the regular $265 to $215 because of the sagging economy. (Dollars, not Pesos.) The course materials cost about $85 additional and I love not having to make my own flash cards. It is only 2 and a half weeks.

Warren Hardy, according to his web site was a corporate trainer in the United States for some number of years. He now lives in San Miguel de Allende and has developed this course over the past 8 or 10 years. He uses a logical progression of information and lots of repeating out loud to get the tongue moving in the right direction, then exercises are done with a partner. My partner´s name is Judith.

Today we started on the preterito, or past tense. In español, there is no word called "did", so you figure it out. How the ·$%& am I supposed to make sentences without the word "did"?

The answer is in at least 5 parts and I have never been able to remember the formula for more that 3 minutes, but after today´s work, I have some hope of getting this. Of course, after he hits me with a few million other pieces of information, I will probably be overwhelmed again! The first day is always so nice and simple!

Every Spanish verb has 5 different endings to express who did the action, in all of the 7 different tenses. (35 diferent ways to end a verb? aargh!) And you have to match the pronoun in gender and whether singular or plural to the object in the sentence.

Who the hell even knows what the object is of the sentence, or the subject, for that matter? Or whether it is masculine or feminine? Aye carumba!

It is necessary to be able to think on your feet here and it comes a lot easier if you have repeated it at least 20 times, like we do in the exercises. Maybe 100 times!

No one has mentioned the conversation class as a good adjunct to this class. Judith has taken this class once already, so maybe repeating is a good idea. Nos vemos! (We shall see!)

I arrived a half hour early, to take care of paperwork or be tested to make sure I was at the right level class. I couldn´t believe that the door was still locked at 5 minutes before class. Finally I noticed a smal sign directing me to another door (where?).

While I waited, I took a few minutes to look at La Iglesia San Juan de Dios. It is a beautiful church somewhat near the neighborhood where I live and also next to the giant market, San Juan de Dios.

The little shoolgirls were skipping together to class, wearing white pleated skirts, white knee socks and navy blue sweaters. So cute! And for some reason, they carried white rose buds on long stems and some had white ribbons in their hair.

These details always fascinate me. I don´t know why these special touches take place, but I am sure there is a reason.

Some Saint somewhere.............

Spartan no more!

2009-07-11T10:09:00.005-05:00

One of my friends came over to visit one night and observed, as he looked around my apartment, "you kind of have the Spartan look going on here". This is what happens when you arrive in town with a suitcase and start to build from there.

I have reached a whole new level of non-Spartanishness! While in Los Angeles, I happened to pass a cool store on Pico that sells Oaxacan Folk Art. It was closed, but when the proprietor saw me oogling from outside the window, he opened the door and welcomed my two girlfriends and myself inside for a look.

I bought a small bag of sage leaf and explained that I couldn´t buy more because I was driving to Mexico soon with a full car and didn´t have room for anything else. He answered that he drives back and forth every 6 weeks and had plenty of room on his next trip south. I asked if he could take a few boxes for me and he replied ¡si! ¡claro! (yes, of course!)

So it evolved that I sorted through all the boxes in my storage and discarded the items that I could feasibly live without (or had 10 of and could let go of 9). I repacked the items that I would really love to have in Mexico, and without the limit of what would fit in and on my car.

In the end, there were 9 boxes of things, plus my massage table and a large painting of the Kachina Mudhead that I separated out for him to bring.

What a huge pressure this took off of me. My return drive was much more relaxed, not loaded down like in Grapes of Wrath.

Yesterday morning, he arrived with my pots of gold! I spent all day unpacking, arranging and generally bathing myself in favored, familiar material goodies. I did not photograph the iron or the vacuum cleaner, the stainless steel cookware or electric blanket. But these items are prized... and not easy to buy here. I prefer my old pots and pans to cheaply made (expensive) new ones.

I do have one photo of Fernando as he taking the big painting out of his van. He loaded my things so carefully and brought them through Customs (ya never know what that will entail) and then carried them all the way into my house.

Yes there was a cost for all this, but it was only 15% of the minimum cost for the international moving companies I contaced last year before coming here. That´s why I arrived in San Miguel with a suitcase instead of a truckload, like other gringas.

Besides the obvious savings, I have had time to consider what I would need, what will fit in the space, and what I will never need. The thrift shops of Santa Monica are brimming with many of my things! Good!

Having so many familiar objects around me changes how I feel about myself and my place in the world. I have been pondering this, trying to find a way to express the feeling. After my trip to Los Angeles this last time, I have been feeling more seasoned, less wide eyed and innocent. There´s more, but I don´t have it all together yet.

Now my apartment is chock full of art, books, fabrics and more. My storage room holds my soapamking equipment and I am ready for a full life, enjoying all my toys!

And Fernando will be a great friend, I can tell. He is an artist and all his friends are artists. He carries the work in his Santa Monica store of a Oaxacan man named Martinez, who´s painting style just knocks me out. I love how he handles the paint on the canvas and the images of indigenous women that he favors. I think I have to take Fernando up on his offer to do "lay away" for one of the paintings of indian women washing clothes in a public well, surrounded by red geraniums.

I´ll save a place for it on my wall.

¡Muchos Exitos!

2009-07-09T19:48:00.007-05:00

I think that means something like a lot of success!

Today I took a bus, alone, to Guanajuato, which is the capital city of the state in which I live, also called Guanajuato. I successfully navigated a government bureaucracy office and at the end of the day, I came home with health insurance for a whole year! I did it! And no, they did NOT speak any English there. What a big girl, huh?

The insurance is for emergencies and after the first year (like a waiting period), it expands to cover specialists and everything (not dental). It would have taken care of my broken wrist, if I had had it in November last year. Now I won´t break anything, because I have insurance! I´ll never need to use it!

A whole year for about $250 US.

While I was in Guanajuato I visited the Museo Iconigrafico, which is a private person´s collection of 800 images (they rotate the art, not showing it all at once) of Don Quixote, mostly shown with his sidekick, Sancho Panza. The collection is remarkable in many ways, the diversity of sculpture, paintings, stained glass, ceramics, textile and other images, the amazingly rich collection of Mexican and Spanish, mostly Mexican Artists represented, the building which houses the collection is a well preserved example of fine Colonial Architecture.

All in all, I was in tears again on this my second visit. The famous Picasso Don Quixote image is in the collection and I have to say, is almost a minor piece when seen with so many other extrordinary representations. How did that one man collect 800 pieces of such fine quality images of just Don Quixote? Who IS he?

The bus took an hour and a half and to be honest, even though First Class, I did not find it all that comfortable. The idea of travelling all over Mexico for 17 hours at a time may need to be reconsidered. Maybe I just need to bring a pillow for my feet to use in addition to or instead of the leg support they offer. The seats are roomy and recline well.

I enrolled in a Warren Hardy, Level 2 class and will begin next week on the 14th. I think I have to also enroll in the Level 2 conversation class to take full advantage of this method. My days will be Tu-Thu-Sat 9-12 and Tu-Th 5-6:30. Reminds me of when I worked at the phone company and they gave me split shifts. But that is another story!

I am told that there is one hour of homework for every class hour. Oh goody!

I went out last night to hear some music and it was SO STRANGE........... I only got to hear one song.. one of the patrons at the restaurant (read Brew Pub) passed out near the front door and everyone gathered around to see if he was still alive or not. Then we waited for the ambulance, which in San Miguel, arrives pretty quickly. There was a nurse on site and she said that he had fainted, but in my non-professional opinion, I saw "seizure" (and I think he needs an MRI). Whatever, it was wierd and it made the rest of the night seem strange.

After that, the light of the moon was so bright, I could not sleep a wink. It was like I drank a coffee with caffeine instead of a mediocre glass of red wine. Tonight I will sleep great, though.

So, the photos are probably a little hard to decipher, they are from the Museum today. I was only allowed to photograph in the patio courtyard, not in any of the galleries. So, there you go.

My insane goal in life is to read Don Quixote in Español; but probably I should try it in English first because now I am so curious about all the images I saw. I want to know what they mean. I have heard about the windmills, but that is all I know.

Wish me luck with that!

And good luck to you, puzzling over these images of mine.

You may click on the title of this post to be taken to the web site of the Museo Iconografico. There you can see some images, but you will have to guess as to what is being said, unless you are familiar with Spanish. Ahh, go ahead, try it!

Soul Sunday

2009-07-05T18:32:00.005-05:00

Please click on the title of this post to be taken on a beautiful walk around the trails of El Charco del Injenio, as it can be seen in the rainy season, all full of water.

I have been home from Los Angeles (and a few other places) for a week now and my spirit is returning to normal. Today was gorgeous with totally clear skies and brilliant colors. I took a pair of binoculars and went up to my favorite place, El Charco del Ingenio to have a look around at what it is like in the rainy season and to see if I might spot a few birds. It´s been a month since I have been up there and things change fast in San Miguel, because of our climate.

I have not really used binoculars before, so mainly I wanted to practice getting them focused and such. Maybe I will go out with the birders one of these days and if I do, I want to already know how to use my tools!

There were so many beautiful views today with the reservoir full. Where I usually cut across to complete my loop on the morning runs, is now pretty deep. I need a new route or hip boots, one or the other.

I did spot one beautiful red bird with black wings and a little black mask over his eyes. And there were Swallows looping around. And someone told me that there were Thrashers..... I watched one at a time leave the group, pluck an insect out of the air and return to the group to feed the insect to another bird. What interesting behavior! What if we did that for each other?

It will feel good to begin exercise again after this long break. I ran one time in Santa Monica and hiked in the Santa Monica mountains twice, but mostly I just muscled boxes around and moved items from one storeroom to another, or washed walls, until I put my back out. There were a few days where I had to manually lift my legs into the car, I was pretty screwed up. Tomorrow morning I will return to El Charco del Ingenio for a morning run (ha ha, I´m sure I will walk it) and then a yoga class. In another week, I´ll be moving well for sure. Maybe it won´t rain tomorrow!

I opened my big mouth to my friend Veronica about wanting to run a half marathon in November and now she has told everyone else that I´m doing it. It isn´t like back home with this running thing. They haven´t heard of Jeff Galloway and the run-walk method. There is no group of recreational runners, who just want to finish the course, even if not in world record time. These runners are 95% male and real competitive and also FAST, I might add. They will finish the race and go home to eat and take a shower and I will still be out there, I´m sure. I kind of wish I had kept my mouth closed.

And I´m going to register this week for more escuela (school). I was thinking of going to Guatemala again or Oaxaca for another month of classes. But it is cheaper to go to school here and I think we may have the best school for my type of learning. I´ll let you know after I take one session with them. In any case, I am finally beginning to crack the code of verb conjugation at least conceptually, I think I´m getting it.

Don´t forget to click on the heading of this post for some nice views and even a little education about my favorite subject, Watershed Management!

July 4th

2009-07-04T19:25:00.005-05:00

Normally I avoid all forms of red-white-and-blue-ish-ness on this date, but I inadvertantly fell in to a benefit event today and many of the participants did not share my reservation. Some wore tri colored t-shirts, or other flagish looking things. I guess a 4th of July Barbeque is traditional.

The event was held outdoors, under tents, on a hillside with a lovely view of the center of San Miguel on another hill and a set of green mountains behind the town. They are selling lots on this festival site and if you care to build on one, it can be had for anywhere between $40K and $200K. For the lot. Then you can build. As long as you follow the rules of the development. And there are gates and a guard.

But it was a great site for the event which was a serious Chilé cookoff with prizes for best chilé, best beans, best sausage, best margarita, overall best.

And there were crafts, of course. I see some of the same people at all the events. I am beginning to recognize people here and I realize that I have a community starting to build, albeit in the infancy stage.

The event benefitted two organizations that help kids, so the entry fee of $100 pesos was for a good cause, feeding hungry kids and providing medical & dental care for kids, including surgery for cleft palate. Always nice to know there is a good cause involved.

But the real reason I went there was not to see all the Texans decked out in large hats, turquoise by the kilo, and cowboy boots, but it was to hear the band Voodoo Chilé. I have recently become friends with David Garza (or Lynx Maple) who is a good singer. I heard him perform solo, acoustically a few weeks ago and was pretty amazed by his beautiful song stylings. He has a 2 octave range (or something like that, i´m not musical) and a unique and wonderful sense of phrasing. So, I wanted to hear the whole band together.

The band rocked and the audience danced and the heavens let go with a crashing cloudburst, the kind that I have learned, pass through here almost every day and sometimes all night. The rain blew in to the tent and everyone got wet, some much more than others. I was pretty lucky. You will see in the photos that the kids were undaunted and just turned to playing water games. Woodstock with pea-gravel instead of mud. It passed in minutes but left us sitting in a lake.

There were also booths representing many of the restaurants in town, who competed for the distinction of best this and best that. Whole meals could be had, if you purchased the tickets, samples were free, though. Or you could buy tequila in personally engraved bottles. If you want something more subtle, I saw some women doing energy healing with their hands and I think there was a solar energy booth too; that´s always encouraging.

Many people say that the reason these nice Mexican people put up with all us gringos here is that we, as a group, do so much good through all the different charity events we produce.

I´m glad it was a benefit and glad the band was awesome.

The return

2009-06-30T12:23:00.003-05:00

I didn´t count the miles or the tanks of gas or the hours of driving or even the days I was out there. I didn´t count the friends I visited or those who weren´t within reach.

But it was a lot.

The return trip retraced my steps for the first leg to Phoenix where I visited my niece, nephew and great nephew. I played with a Wi (I think that´s how it is spelled?) for the first time. We bowled, played tennis and golf. It was fun to check in to a totally different reality for a little while. What a great family.

After that, I changed direction and headed north through the Saguaro country, past Sedona and Flagstaff through the northern part of Arizona to Albuquerque and at last, Santa Fe, NM where I stayed another two nights with my friend Jane.

She has a beautiful home, nestled in the piñons and she shares it with one ginger colored cat and 3 Pit Bull dogs (who are very sweet and gentle and if you attack them, they will probably lick you into submission) .

Also, she has landscaped the area surrounding her house with gravel paths, broken red rocks and an assortment of drought tolerant plants. I am not sure if the plants are snow tolerant. It is a dream location and I was so happy to see Santa Fe again, even if I did sleep one day away instead of doing the town.

From there, I went southeast on a back road type of highway to Fort Stockton, TX. It seems like the only town in West Texas that actually has some hotels and a couple of restaurants available. The drive was partly okay and partly dry, hot, flat, boring and horrible. I saved 100 miles over taking the Interstate, though and that was good. Rather than go to K-Bob´s again for a steak dinner with white bread, I just holed up in my room and watched Michael Jackson videos.

Even though I worked in the business and even knew the director of the Thriller video, I never watched VH1 or wherever those things were showing and at this late date, I had to catch up on all the videos. Never saw them before, where am I? It was a much better way to observe the passing than listening to those Bozos on the news stations! He was a hot dancer! And gorgeous to look at until the surgeon´s knife carved him up so bad. We each have our own kind of crazy.

The next day, from Fort Stockton to Laredo was a big drag. I wish I could pass through my beloved Southwest with all the Indian ruins and ancient history without leaving New Mexico. Maybe I could, if I studied the map enough for a route to San Miguel from NM, but I won´t be making that trip again for a looooong time, so it´s a non issue.

Northern Mexico is heavily industrialized and some of the landscape with the strip mined mountainsides, smokestacks or miles of modern, low factory buildings spooks me out. From Monterrey to Saltillo is so bizarre.

After Saltillo, things start looking better and better. Even the Federales were nice.

I didn´t know which highways to take for the very last section between San Miguel and the main highway, so I did a little back and forth, losing a little time and light and becoming a bit anxious, fatigued.

It started getting dark and then, a cloudburst that was the most radical rain I have ever seen, came out of nowhere. I had zero visibility and had to just stop the car and pray to all the great spirits I could think of. It passed.

I made it home at 9 PM to the roar of neighbors blasting music, dogs barking, fireworks bursting.

Ahhhhhhhhhhh, I´m home.

Touch the River

2009-06-23T14:01:00.004-05:00

WOW! Thank you Jan Williamson for taking me to see this fabulous play! Click on the heading above to see the web site of the extrordinary theater company and their other works.

Since my two year stint working for TreePeople in Los Angeles, I have had a heightened sense of awareness of the Los Angeles River, which was encased in cement by the Army Corps of Engineers to control flooding, dividing comunities, causing water shortages, ruined habitat and so forth. I know that a lot of people have worked to cause removal of certain pavement, trees and other native plants are growing, park benches have been installed. There is a bike path that goes for miles. A resurrection is in progress.

The play was a perfect vehicle for educating about this issue but more importantly (since I think the audience was already educated) it was brilliantly presented, creative and entertaining. The band was superlative and there were even some special effects!

One of the characters, a tortoise, representing the ability to cross over (the river, spiritually) from the side of the living to the side of the dead ... literally crossed the river and revealed to us spirits on the other side. It was a brilliant stroke. All of this happened outdoors on a set, complete with a sparkling river of it's own, right under the power lines and next to the formerly called "flood control channel"now referred to as the Los Angeles River. The reviews on the web site are much better than what I can write. I get so emotional about these life and death (of nature) matters!

On Saturday night, I got to go with two other friends to a small Indian Restaurant that I have been enjoying for years. It was a geat conclusion to my visit.

During my trip to LA and northern California I saw 2 movies, 1 play, ate breakfast, lunch or dinner in all of my favorite hang out places. I shopped, visited, hiked in the Santa Monica Mountains, went to Farmers Markets, listened to live music, saw my brother, two sisters, niece, nephew and great nephew. So great.

I am staying an extra day in Phoenix and will leave tomorow to visit Jane in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The drive there will be wonderful, past Sedona and Flagstaff. It has been years since I have gone that way.

See you later.

Keep on keeping up!

2009-06-18T23:55:00.004-05:00

Now that most of my work is done, I can take a few extra days to relax and visit with friends. I am excited to get home and back to my Mexican life, but also excited to see people, places and things around the city of the angeles, while I can.

Today I got to have a quick visit with Qu Ke, (pronounced Q-Kay)my foreign student friend who lived at my place for about a year while he attended Santa Monica College. He is the most motivated student I have ever known and never received a grade other than A. He finished the two years at SMC and achieved the transfer to UCLA that he wanted. In addition he did over 300 hours of community service during that time and received a Presidential Comendation. Plus, he traveled to New YorkCity, San Francisco, San Diego and celebrated his 21st birthday in Las Vegas. He is such an even tempered, intelligent, serious, but lighthearted and fun person. I know he will be the president of something successful someday. His family will travel from China to watch him graduate from UCLA in two years, even bringing his grandmother for the auspicious occasion. I want to be there, too! You rock, Ke!

Since my car stalled out this morning and left me stranded in the intersection, I returned the favor and left it stranded at the mechanic today. Let's hope it is just an adjustment.

Tomorrow I am going with a friend to a theatrical performance at the Los Angeles River, downtown. The Los Angeles River is a great success story in Los Angeles environmental improvement terms. Two years ago, when I saw the changes that the dedicated workers had wrought over the past several years of hard work, I wept with joy.

Now, I have a chance to return and take another look and at the same time, enjoy another art form. My past co-worker (that makes us sound like peers, NOT!) Andy Lipkis, the head of TreePeople, over a period of years of arguing and explaining to engineers in droll city planning meetings, changed the consiousness in Los Angeles about "storm drain management"as it used to be called. He convinced the city planners not to put up 16 feet more of concrete around the river, but rather to implement sustainable practices of "watershed management" to control seasonal flooding, to collect water runoff and return it to the groundwater to recharge the aquifers and such like practices.

The idea has spread to other cities and represents a substantial shift in attitude and approach to urban water and it's management. I was privileged to work with Andy for a couple of years and that's how I learned abut the river project. There was a fabulous photo exhibit at the Skirball Museum a couple of years ago showing the river and the rebirth of trees and other greenery. It used to be just a concrete ditch where gangsters went to shoot each other!

There is some fabulous graffiti art there, too. It is a community asset now!

Later in the day I got the news about my car repairs and wept again, not from joy!

Unity in Diversity

2009-06-14T21:38:00.004-05:00

Today was a relaxing time in the park, taking a walk then watching the various musical performances at the Unity in Diversity Festival. First, I heard a Native American group playing the traditional drum and singing a familiar sounding chant. It has been a long time since I have heard this, so I took little video of the gathering. Please click on the heading of the post to hear the chants for yourself.

In the background you can see part of the train station that was in use a hundred years ago and now has been developed into a park with one of the train cars next to the station. The tracks were converted to a biking/walking trail with tall trees on both sides. I enjoy using this path whenever I come to Paradise.

After the event, my sisters and I went out for a burger in a sports bar. I guess anything can happen in this life. Who knew?

Then Jan and I went home to finish waatching "Up in Smoke" a 1978 film with Cheech and Chong. How did I miss this before?

I think I will go to bed at 8 PM and spend another day here tomorrow to relax a little more. I'm not fully recovered from fatigue and don't want to be on the road quite yet.

I think the movie Star Trek sounds good for tomorrow. Bet it won't be showing in San Miguel when I get back.

Chico means small

2009-06-14T11:55:00.005-05:00

It's just a one day drive from Los Angeles to Chico, California. It is about 125 miles north of Sacramento in northern California. The summers are hot as blazes there, the political climate is way liberal and I found amazing art and vibrant people there.

The Chico Farmers Market is a huge attraction for me. It's held on Saturdays and is in a large parking area in the shade of towering oaks and sycamores. The sight of all these trees is a banquet for my eyes and my spirit, too, after living in high desert with dust, nopales and scrub brush for these past months. Also, the sky is very blue with white clouds, as I have become accustomed to. I really like what I see in Chico in June, the summer is another story, although not one that I have experienced ever.

The people are almostly exclusively very white.

My two sisters live in Paradise, a smaller town about a 20 minute drive from Chico. Paradise is a little higher in altitude, so cooler than Chico and the drive between the two locations is a very pretty one. There are seasons in Paradise, it snows every couple of years for a brief period and the oak and pine trees are thick and tall. I just drink it in.

The political climate in Paradise is mainly bible-belt-NRA-conservative, but next to the sign on the highway announcing the NRA convention this weekend, there is a sign for a festival on the same day "Unity in Diversity" Ha! what a combo. My sister Meems is singing in a choir at the festival today at 2:30 and I will be there to listen.

This trip has had some very tiring aspects and the period of rest here in Paradise with my sister Jan is restoring me to my normal self. I had become sort of ragged.

Now that my place is rented and my boxes are scheduled to be taken back to San Miguel for me, I guess it is the turning point and from here on out, I am returning to life in the slow lane.

I want to be boring for a long time after this trip!

Heading north

2009-06-11T23:07:00.007-05:00

I survived the sorting of the storage ordeal and chose 9 boxes of items to send to my place in San Miguel. The importer looked at it today and gave me a shocking number (price) to pay for his transportation service. I am contemplating stacking it all in the small storeroom and calling it a day. That would be a big defeat for me and I don't take well to defeat.

I am not big on shocking, either, though. I am thinking it over.

Tonight I am in Malibu in a small casita with my sister in law and brother. This area is called Serra Canyon, home of (Catholic) Serra Retreat. When I was 16, I spent a summer here babysitting at night, going to Surf Rider State Beach all day.

My attempts at actually surfing were somewhat disastrous and I tangled in the pilings under the Malibu Pier. Needed more lessons, I guess.

Anyway, Serra Canyon has changed in the decades since then. The ultra wealth, mega mansions and single name rock stars require armed guards at the gates now. We used to toodle all around enjoying nature. It was innocent then. Still, the foliage and greenery are dense, the air moist. It's beautiful, if a bit heavy.

Last night, I went to dinner with another of my friends, Connie........... She is too talented and bright to begin to describe. Recently she completed a Masters Degree in Literature or Writing or some intelligent thing like that.

Her husband is a commercial photographer and together the have run a very successful commercial photography business in Venice for many years. Ron's art photos are amazing, too. Connie is a very tall, thin, gorgeous blond who would be at home on any runway in New York or Paris, but she has the bookish, dorky side (the novelist) that you see in this photo of her. She makes sophisticated jewelry using beautiful metals and semi-precious stones. And there are other talents as I said, too numerous to mention, all of which involve her amazing sense of style. It was wonderful to take a break from all the hard work and have a really good chat and some good chow.

Tomorrow I drive up north to visit my 2 sisters and enjoy the oak trees of Paradise, California and the wonderful Farmers Market they have there.

I look forward to a real house with furniture and I know my sis will pamper me some. I need it after sleeping on the floor for the past little while.

Sunday

2009-06-07T21:10:00.005-05:00

Today was as beautiful here as it was miserable earlier in the week.

The ocean sparkles in a deep blue color that sets off all the green grass and trees that grow near it. The sand on the beach is a bright white with all the light. It is warm, but gently so.

My apartment is empty and I'm getting some final touches taken care of. A ceiling fan replaced, repaint one wall, change the locks, wipe inside the cupboards, change the air filter in the heater, change the exhaust pipe on the clothes dryer. Not a lot, just a little bit of love for the next tenants, so they can have everything perfect.

Over the years I have worried so about my beautiful but feral Siamese cat, Shyam. I never thought he would adapt if I moved him out of his territory in Pacific Palisades, but he did.

There was that one rough patch when he didn't come home for 6 months and was almost starved to death, but other than that, he has done real well. When I moved to Mexico, I asked a neighbor to please feed him for me but the neighbor, Steve, refused. He didn't want the responsibility.

Back to worrying ............. what to do, what to do? and then, Steve changed his mind and said he would feed the cat if I paid for the food.

So, I pay "cat support"!!!

Now, in his later years, Shyam has become almost (but not quite) friendly as you can see from the photo of him with Steve. I could take Shyam to Mexico with me, but Steve says NO! Everyone in the building loves him and he seems to like all of them too.

When I rescued Shyam, the cat ladies said not to worry, he would become friendly in time. They didn't say I would have to wait 14 years! It makes me very happy to see Shy so well cared for, fed and brushed every day. We should all have such care in our advancing years. Shyam still travels on rooftops and jumps fences as he has done all his life. And he has his boyish figure, too.

Today I drove 100 miles round trip, to visit an old friend he said he would like to see me again and show me his family, etc. etc. It was a long drive all across town with confusing directions, and it took a long time, but I found the address and guess what? I got stood up! I should have stayed at the beach, it was so beautiful here. So, no photos of that friend will appear here on this blog. Guess I should have confirmed earlier or something. These L.A. people move too fast for me!

On my way there, I passed through downtown L.A. and it looked quite stunning today. Because of the rain and weather we have had, the mountains and sky were just beautiful, it almost made up for the dry run I made.

My packing is going well. I have located an importer from Oaxaca who says he is going back with an empty van and can take my stuff, for a fee. Perfect. It so takes the pressure off of me, if things actually work out like he says.

I guess I'll pay him when he brings the stuff to my house and not before! He has a store in Santa Monica selling Artesania Popular (folk art) from Oaxaca and before this present location, he was near my apartment and I have kind of, in a loose way, known these people for a few years. I stopped in fairly often and I always liked the people there. They have some paintings by a Oaxacan artist I covet in the worst way, but sadly, they are not within my budget.

I hope, I hope, I hope it works. I should be all done with this work by the weekend. Oh, happy day!

Gray gloom with raindrops

2009-06-03T23:22:00.003-05:00

I liked the part when I was driving through all kinds of pretty scenery and I liked the part about meeting with lots of friends and having lunch, hiking in the mountains, etc.

But now we have moved on to the hard work phase, sifting through all my boxes of stuff and moving them around. All alone. Very sentimental stuff mostly and I don't know how to make it disappear, really. I don't want to take too much because I don't have a lot of space where I live and on the other hand, I don't want to let it go. I photographed the sound system and put it on craigslist already and a heater. Tomorrow is another day and I will keep plugging.

If I had a house in Mexico, I would take it all. But I don't, I'm still in the footloose and fancy free stage.

So I took a smaller room (now I have 2 storage rooms instead of one, this is going backwards!) and will see if I can condense it into a molehill instead of a mountain.

I have seen a couple of other friends, some got away without a photo.......... but, here you see Carmi, one of my oldest friends. When we were about 20 years old, we lived together for awhile. It was correct hippie jargon at that time for me to be his "old lady" and he was my "old man". I can hardly believe I ever talked like that. There was a huge amount of live music in the house in those days and at McCabes, too.

We practically subsidized the Sandoz Laboratory in Switzerland with our frequent outings, if you know what I mean. And we had a motorcycle. He is still talented and creative, designing houses instead of building musical instruments. It is a larger instrument he builds now.

And the gorgeous redhead is Jan. She and I met at a Buddhist event, a Vajrasattva Empowerment, if that makes any sense to you. When she was very young, she lived all alone in Mexico for a year to practice her art. She gave me some tips before I went.

It is cold and gray and raining here today! There was loud thunder on and off, all day. I saw the sky for about 2 minutes, it happened at 6:00 PM and then clouded back up.

This clammy cold is not doing a single thing for my frame of mind. I feel all goofed up and not very comfortable. I can't wait to finish my job and move on.

I need socks!

Friends

2009-06-02T10:33:00.004-05:00

I'm making the rounds of all my dear ones in Santa Monica and seeing my favorite cafes as well.

A couple of people have managed to get away from me without a photo, but here are a couple that I did capture. Carol has been my friend for quite a long time. I met her in exercise class in the early 80's.

At that time, her friend Ry Cooder told me that her house was "like an ashram" and I was intrigued. Later I ran into her on the street, running and wangled an invitation to her home. Once I saw all her amazing artwork, wild tropical colors and talked about philosophy of life and the Tao, etc. with her, I knew we would be friends for a long time.

She is a natural athlete and had she been so inclined, I know whe could have been Olympic level. Still, she daily beats the pants off the 30-something tennis players in her neighborhood and recently won a gold medal for the triathalon. (She sure used to beat the pants off of me!)

And when, because of moving, I had to give up my beautiful psychedellic flower plants, I gave them to her, knowing that they would thrive under her care. She brought me this bloom from a plant that I originally propegated in 1982. Still producing!

Suzy is my friend from Spanish class and she is an artist, too, but in photography, video and acting. We enjoy many things together, here it's a hike in Topanga, so green and magical in the Spring. Her neighbor dog went with us on the walk and maybe you can see from the doggie's smile, what a love he is.

I took a look at my storage room and wow! There is more stuff than I remembered. Guess that's the nature of storage and the reason storage facilities have prospered and multiplied in recent years. We have too much stuff!

But the first thing I saw was a picture of my niece, Jenifer at 5 years of age, and I knew that I would not be disposing of everything in the room! Probably I will sift and sort and condense to a smaller space, guess I still have some roots in Santa Monica after all. (And a storage bill every month.)

Sleeping in my apartment overnight went well. I have a little Mexican "colchoneta" that travels well. I think families buy them as new babies are born into the family and you know, it's comfortable. Just a little pad, not realy a mattress, but I slept like a rock. And I carry my coffee pot and decaf with me, so morning is normal, wherever I wake up.

Two friends I missed photographing were Molly, the film clothing stylist, whom I met in meditation class and Mary, the film special effects (FX) publicist that I worked with in the early 90's. We had a great lunch visit in Venice and I can't imagine how I forgot to take her picture for my collection, she has been one of my favorite people for so many years! Maybe we will have a group get together and I will have another chance.

It would be fun to publish a complete rogues gallery.

Kind of my own personal Facebook.

Santa Monica at last

2009-05-30T15:43:00.003-05:00

I had hoped to arrive at my friend's house at about 7 PM last night and miracle of miracles, I walked in at 6:58!

The drive from Phoenix was smooth and scenic. I never hit a snag of any kind, but I was careful not to speed, so many Highway Patrol! Thank you god for Cruise Control.

The desert landscape was so pretty and the sky blue and beautiful until I got to Palm Springs with all those wind mills. Suddenly the sky turned into gray cotton candy and the gloom only thickened as I got closer to the beach. June gloom is serious business around here. I am not used to the dampness any more!

My friend Dottie has extended her wonderful hospitality to me for a few days and I feel so comfortable and welcome. She has a 3 year old granddaughter named Madison who is visiting this morning. Now they have gone to Madison's Birthday party and I'm alone with the phone and computer setting appointments to see how many visits with friends I can squeeze into this visit. It's time to get organized.

It will be a busy week, and a maybe boring one to try and write about, so please forgive if I don't post for awhile. But, if my friends let me take their pictures, then maybe that won't be so boring. They are interesting people, but hey, I must respect their privacy!!

I'll leave the Los Angeles area on the 9th to go visit my big sis up north for a few days. It is about a 500 mile drive. Normal, right?

Here is shot of the saguaro cactus in Arizona as I passed by (and they are blooming, but who is tall enough to see the flower, 20 feet up in the air?)

The other picture is of Dottie and the birthday girl, Madison.

Phoenix

2009-05-29T00:27:00.008-05:00

I realized that I could have made this trip in one less day when I found myself overnighting just 138 miles from Phoenix, a major destination. I could have tacked that short distance onto yesterday's drive, but I might have been a little tired afterward.

This morning I headed out in search of a good breakfast in Tucson. I couldn't face a Denny's breakfast in Benson after a Jack in the Box dinner the night before and I remembered a place in the old section of Tucson that had awesome Mexican food when I visited once before. It was the favorite place of the Bobbie Kimmel, Linda Ronstadt, Stone Ponies crowd back in the day. I never found it.

I roamed around in Tucson for about an hour until I found a different Mexican restaurant for a delicious bean burro, nice and simple. I am already homesick for Mexico!

When I left Los Angeles a year ago, I sold my massage table along with all my other stuff and I made up my mind that when the time came, I would be able find a lightweight aluminum table to replace it. Much better than wrestling with that big beheemoth.

For the last month I have been cruising Craigslist in every city I could think of to find the used table and no dice, there were none. I checked Santa Fe, Austin, Phoenix, Sacramento and Los Angeles. Even in LA, a city with what, 10 million people? No used lightweight aluminum tables.

Then, a great table at a great price popped up last week in Phoenix and I called about it. (from San Miguel) The woman told me that someone else was coming to see it the next day.................... and so I gave her my sob story about coming to the US for just a short time and not having any other opportunities to get a nice table like hers to take back to Mexico. Fortunately, she was persueded by my story and was kind enough to hold the table for me until yesterday when my niece, Jen, went to pick it up for me.

Woo-hoo, what a great massage table! It weighs only 20 pounds! My old one weighed over 38 pounds. This is fabulous! So, I opened it up and right away gave Hunter a massage, which he said was the best massage he has ever had (he's 11).

Then I traded places with Hunter and he gave me a massage. What fun! Then his mom jumped on the table for a turn and I think I like this! My formerly broken wrist is functioning well, I can "knead" with both hands, although the left one needs a little more strengthening. Not to worry.

After Keith got home from work, he played his guitar for a little while until Jen took us all out to dinner at our favorite place, Pita Jungle with the cooling spray all around the patio and the pretty, artificial lake. Nice food, live music and pita monsters.

I would like to stay here for about a week to visit. Jen and I could stay up until 5 AM talking every night easily, but her family has a trip to Sequoia brewing and they need to leave early on Saturday. (The day and date of this post is wrong, it's Thursday night!) I think I had better get out out their hair so they can pack the car tomorrow. Boo hoo, we are having fun!

On the way back to Mexico, I promise to stay here longer to enjoy these people that I love so much and see so little of.

Hunter has asked if he can come to visit me in Mexico for two weeks this summer!

D'ya think I can handle it?

Road trip! (again)

2009-05-27T18:59:00.007-05:00

On Monday, my friend David and I left San Miguel at 5 AM and headed for the US Border. We made really good time, laughing and talking all the way and arrived at the border by about 3 PM. I had hoped to miss the "going home after work" traffic, as a lot of people work in on the Mexican side, Nuevo Laredo and live on the US side, in Laredo.

At the border, David hopped out. His job was done, to accompany me and he went in search of a bus to run him back to some town I have not heard of. He is meeting a friend there to play a musical gig and maybe some other interesting activities. Or maybe not.

Monday was a holiday so I think I missed that traffic, but crossing was no picnic. It took 2 hours to get across the bridge (over the Rio Grande). The line I was in was the slowest one and the border guard on my lane was mean! He tore apart the pickup truck in front of me, but let me go without a hassle. Thos guys aren't very friendly, though. Maybe they are stressed. (Ya think?)

While sitting on the bridge (it was one hour when I got to the halfway point), it was 103 degrees and the sun really beat down on me and my car. I was almost totally dissolved into a puddle of butter when I got to the Border Guard. If sweating is good for you, and I have heard that it is, then I am making steady improvement in Mexico and particularly in Texas.

The next morning in Laredo it was cold and raining and very dark with the heavy cloud cover. I did NOT complain! I had a very large case that I promised to send via Fed-Ex Ground for a National Geographic photographer in San Miguel, who paid me to do him the favor. His next photography assignmant is in Cody Wyoming and the camera is for him to use on that job.

From San Miguel, there is no Ground option, everything goes by next day air and an envelope costs $50 to send. I don't want to think what this huge camera case would cost. It filled up my whole back seat. I had the shipment dropped off by 10AM on Tuesday and headed out in the pouring rain from Laredo toward my destination, Fort Stockton, TX.

I just enjoy driving and I love the scenery of the southwest. (San Miguel de Allende is the far South part of the Southwest!)

No one is as happy as I am, playing 6 Bonnie Raitt CD's in a row and singing along, since I know them all by heart. Alone in the car at high speed is the only possible time to sing, I think I inherited my mother's vocal chords, the ones that were paralyzed with the stroke! And I'm tone deaf. (So sad.)

In my next lifetime, I pray to have chops like Bonnie and I will sing my heart out then and play dirty filthy blues licks all the time. For now, just in the car.

At day's end, I looked at a room in Fort Stockton on the edge of town, it seemed like a bargain rate kind of place. When I saw the inside, I knew that the only thing there for me would be suicide, and I politely declined and continued to look. Motel #3 was cheap and great and had internet, so I took it.

Then I treated myself to a New York Steak and a ton of vegetables for dinner. And a beer! Dark! Yum!

On the road again this morning by 8 AM. Out of Texas before long and halfway across New Mexico already, I had time to kill.

I decided that 87 MPH was too fast because 1) it's a speed trap out there and 2) I drained my gas tank so fast on Tuesday, I almost did not make it to my destination. It was very close (read, fumes). Yes, I was using cruise control.

So, today I slowed down and listened to several of my favorite Bob Dylan CD's and cruised nice and easy. Oh Mercy! Down in the Groove, Blood on the Tracks and I even suffered through The Essential Bob Dylan 2 disk set. That was dedication.

There was one Jackson Browne acoustic, live CD that brought me to tears twice. He is such an amazing poet. There is no one like Jackson! Lives in the Balance and one other social justice song that I do not know by heart were the ones that got me.

In Las Cruces, New Mexico I got off the freeway and had lunch at a great place, named Dave's and then searched for a cell phone to buy. It took too long, I had to go to several Verizon places and I gave up. No more time to spare. I had figured my mileage during lunch and knew what time I would arrive at the destination I set. Benson Arizona. Off I went.

Arizona is beautiful, too. Rugged, interesting, not flat like Texas.

I'm writing this from Day's Inn in Benson, about 55 miles before Tucson and I have to wrap it up now because the jaccuzzi is calling me, I brought a bathing suit!

Tomorrow, family.

And then, Santa Monica. My friends in San Miguel took their kids to see Hanna Montana and reported to me that it was filmed in Santa Monica. They think I am from a very pretty place.

I think all places are pretty if you look at them right.

Getting ready to go

2009-05-19T20:30:00.004-05:00

Only 5 more days to get everything ready to go. There isn't really much to do, but I always get the last minute heebie-jeebies.

The car could use an oil change and all the filters are probably packed with fine San Miguel dust. Brakes checked, how to say "brakes" in Español? I think tires are cheaper in the U.S., these cobble stones kind of chew up tires.

I already have several months worth of cat food and litter stockpiled. And a new outfit to wear in Santa Monica if I go to a "Happy Hour" or Art Opening.

I should double check if I need any paperwork at the border and if my Car Permit is in good order.

I, of course, don't want any problems with the officials. What about the American side of the border? Wonder what those guys are like? In Texas? mmmmmm, nos vemos. (we'll see)

And I put an ad on the local Gringo email list, asking for a rider to Laredo or beyond, but my phone is not ringing off the hook yet.

I'm scheduled to leave here on Monday the 25th, real early in the morning. It is a 12 hour drive to Texas and even with good eyesight, that is a long day to start out with. I'm thinking that I will probably overnight at a halfway point or a little farther north. Then the border crossing on the 26th.

I think it is more than one day to cross Texas. I guess I'll consult a map. Then New Mexico, Arizona and Santa Monica by the 1st.

I hope to find a Verizon store in Laredo or El Paso and get a phone with some minutes. If so, I can check in with someone each day. If that is too hard, I'll call from a hotel.

I hope someone keeps me on their radar screen till I'm safe and sound in my old stomping grounds.

Mid May and all is well.

2009-05-17T19:18:00.006-05:00

We had a big rain day before yesterday (antes de ayer) and the climate has changed a lot. Yesterday, I went to El Charco del Ingenio, which has become my refuge now and it looked so different there. The earth was saturated, all the plants had the dusty coating washed off and the colors were so deep and beautiful. Taking in a deep breath of moist cool air, I was enchanted and relieved at once. I find new corners to enjoy every time I go to El Charco del Ingenio. When I return from Los Angeles, I am going to volunteer to work there. Going often just makes me happier and happier. And I have enjoyed a couple of days of overcast. It is a nice break from the strong Mexican sun. I'm wearing #50 sunblock on my whole body now days!

On Saturday or Sunday, I like to take myself out for breakfast to just feel a little special and try something new. Yesterday I was invited over for "comida" at Veronica's house, where I watched my first soccer match also. That was fun.

So today it was brunch on the town.

I went to a new restaurant, one that I have walked past about 100 times. I finally went in and tried it out; it was good! Quiche Lorraine and a very fresh green salad with no iceberg lettuce in it! The price was right, too.

Then, a couple of hours of browsing around, walking very gently and carefully in my cute orange sandals. (No sensible shoes on Sunday!)

I am enjoying myself and planning my trip to California at the same time. It seems like it's going to be a real good one, I can take as much time as I need and I look forward to seeing all of my friends. And by now, I know exactly who they all are! While here, I have received a card or a letter from some folks, a phone call from others and of course, there is a whole crowd that operates only by using email. Even someone I had not spoken to in 10 years found me and expressed an interest in reconnecting. Smile. And I thought I was in exile! Ha!

So the drive will be mellow, probably solo, and I have a list of phone numbers to call when I get to Los Angeles. I can take side trips to Santa Fe and Paradise if I want to, or if I can afford the gas. Ha ha.

When I return home to San Miguel, it will be for good. I don´t have to go to the US except once a year now and that should coincide with my lease agreement. Things are falling into place. And, when I return, I will have the things that I use for hobbies, like sewing machine, massage table and soap making equipment. One person described these endeavors as "occupational therapy", could he be right? Oh, who cares, I like it!

As one of my friends said You had a dream and you made it happen. It was and is a good dream. A fabulous dream.

Mineral de Pozos

2009-05-09T23:59:00.007-05:00

You may click on the heading of this post to see the New York Times article about this town which appeared in November of 2008. It is a fascinating place!

It isn't that far from San Miguel to the place a lot of people call "Los Pozos" . All the signs on the road say "Mineral de Pozos". It is one of hundreds of mining towns all over Mexico, especially in the Central region where I am, that date back to the 1500's when the Spanish cut down all the trees to use in the making of mines and began to extract the mineral wealth of Mexico, which was abundant. They created Spain's wealth with the silver and gold taken by force from Mexico and with the use of slave labor. I'm surprised the ships didn't sink with the weight of it all.

Over time, the mines closed down, this one during the 1910 Civil War. According to the N.Y. Times article referenced above, the population had shrunk from a high of 70,000 at the peak to a low in 1950 of 200.

Ghost Town: in Spanish, Pueblo Fantasma.

There are some rather large buildings still standing, probably renovated. There are Canadians and North Americans buying property and renovating this town, slowly but surely. Art Galleries and a couple of nice hotels have been created.

I ate lunch in a colorful restaurant, filled with Artesania Popular, or Folk Art. Mineral de Pozos has been declared a Historical site, so probably, some care will be taken in the renovation of the central area. It is hoped that this will become a smaller version of San Miguel (read tourist magnet).

I'm not sure why the sight of old crumbling adobe fills me with such wonder and awe. This town is the mother lode of earthen relics. And they planted a lot of Pepper trees, like we had in north San Diego County, which also fill me with a sense of happiness, just to be near them. In this climate, anything that protects from the hot sun is something to be cherished!

Maybe it is because I was born in a desert, and a mining town, to boot. My father was a silver miner when I was born and possibly I imprinted something. But we didn't live in adobe, nor was there any around there that I know of. The photos show that we lived in a tar paper shack, so, I don't know.

Maybe it is because the ancestors of the Hopi and Zuni people in the Southwestern U.S. built those amazing pueblos like Mesa Verde and the Taos Pueblo and I associate the use of adobe with a pre-industrial period, some idyllic time of a natural and sacred way of life. But, even then, I know that the ancient ones disappeared about 1300 and possibly due to overpopulation and over exploitation of the land. (Like now.)

Anyway, it's my personal thing and I just love the sight of worn and weathered adobe, whether abandoned for centuries or even a crack in the plaster of a contemporary home, showing the brown flecked earth underneath.

Next time, I will hire a guide and be taken outside of town to see some of the old mines.

Why not, it's part of my history, too.

Tich Nhat Hahn

2009-05-08T10:18:00.007-05:00

You may click on the title of this post to be taken to an MP· talk from the Spring Retreat and hear for yourself how beautifully this man speaks. You may want to bookmark this, as I have, to return to hear other talks or repeat the same one.

Today I decided to sit down and avail myself of the privilege of hearing a "dharma talk", via the web, by one of the very important Buddhist masters of our time, Thich Nhat Hahn.

No crowds to fight, no tickets to buy, no drives across town.

I only listened to part 1 in just over 30 minutes, but, sitting quietly, listening, I picked up two important ideas that I know will enrich my life, if applied. If I forget, I can always listen again! Then, there is part 2 and there are other talks, too.

I got this link on facebook. Thank you! to whomever posted it! You are wonderful!

I have been listening to Thich Nhat Hahn for about 10 years. He spoke a couple of times at Santa Monica Civic Aud. and at the Pasadena Civic Aud. I have attended two "Peace Walks" with him in Los Angeles at Mc Arthur Park. Did you know that he was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize by Dr. Martin Luther King? He was exiled in 1966 from Viet Nam for his peace activities.

I have read several of his books and every other Buddhist writer that I read quotes him.

And yet, it's touch and go with my Buddhist practice. When I was working it seemed like there was not time enough in a day to devote to daily practice. There is always an excuse, there are millions of them.

When I officially retired, I had a list of things that seemed important in life and feasible, too for someone who could structure their time as they please within the confines of practical realities like eating, sleeping, cleaning, caring for pets. That should leave plenty of time for introspection.

Then, I had to set up housekeeping, it was a big priority.

Then I had to care for a broken bone and a damaged spirit.

Then I was lucky enough to find a cure for my problems about eyesight and recover from that.

Now I have to go "to go to work" re-renting my apartment and when that is done, I think I'm really here.

I'm free to create a life that includes all of and only the important items on my personal agenda. What a lucky girl!

So, every so often, I spend a little time absorbing some thoughts from the stream of consciousness of this great man. I absorb different things than I did last year or the year before. It is always good. He is the gentlest man.

Originally I was attracted to his talks because he endorsed laughing and an inner smile. He charmed me with his sense of humor. Now, he has become quite serious. It's all good.

I hope you like seeing his photo, or find time to listen to his voice or have your own methods of finding deep inner peace and happiness.

Here is a quote:

If we as members of the human race practice meditation, we can transcend our fear, despair, and forgetfulness. Meditation is not an escape. It is the courage to look at reality with mindfulness and concentration. Meditation is essential for our survival, our peace, our protection.

– from The World We Have

by Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh

Hot!, Hot!, Hot!

2009-05-05T17:19:00.005-05:00

I don't know how to photograph HOT!

Maybe I could show you a close up of me shopping for folk art and peasant blouses in Centro with my face swimming in sweat, my hair dripping. But why would I do that to you?

It is overwhelming, when I walk a mile or two in town. I kind of forget what I am doing. My brain gets dizzy. (Okay, I heard you, now take that back!)

Yet, I am not saying I don't like it, but, coming from within a few blocks from the beach for the past many years, I sure am not used to this weather yet. My ancestors came from Sweden for gosh sake!

This hot Mexican sun is a force to be reckoned with. Every day I say that I'm going to stay in during the hot part of the day and then, sometimes I forget, sometimes I get asked to go somewhere with someone else........

Yesterday I went to a small town not too far from here to buy flowerpots with Doña Maria and her daughter in law, Veronica. Veronica is determined to teach me some Español, so outings with her are half fun and games and half pay attention.

All three of us bought pottery of some kind and/or metal plant holders. You should have seen the car on the way home. In the hot Mexican sun, mid afternoon I loaded all the metal plant holders on top of my camioneta (little truck) and we put all the big pots, little pots and in my case beautiful blue and white pottery, inside the camioneta. What a great thing that I carry lots of bungee cords with me!

As we headed out of town to return to San Miguel, we were stopped in a traffic jam. We waited patiently (the Mexican way of doing things) for about 20 minutes and then (forget that idea!!) we decided to take a chance on a back road.

I got off the highway, (so great, having a 4-wheeler), following a rough dirt road through someone's hacienda (private property) in hopes of finding a way back to the highway on the other side of the obstacle.

There were lots of small mesquite trees and the road was narrow, just enough room for one car. We were doing well until 20 other cars came in the opposite direction. They, too were figuring out a detour.

I thought that since there were 20 of them and only one of me, that I would yield the right of way. I backed up dangerously close to the drop-off and put a few more mesquite scratches on the side of my rapidly aging vehicle. In the end, even the ridiculously wide vehicle passed me and I then raced through all the ruts, determined to get out before 20 more cars figured out the detour. We made it!

When I hit the highway again, cars were lined up for a mile in the other direction and lots of smoke was rising. I could not see the accident, but there was fire and smoke, I hope the people involved are not badly hurt. There was an ambulance on the scene. Our 30 minute drive had become a 2 hour drive!

And it was Hot!

But we have great plants!

And I did take one photo while in Comonfort. It is a political message on a brick wall, left over from a previous election. It says, more or less that if you feel for the people, support migrants and vote for the PRD. I think.

Life's little victories, how wonderful!

2009-05-02T22:56:00.005-05:00

You may click on the title of the post to go the the web site of the Charco Ingenio. It is the stronghold of environmentalism in San Miguel. There are photos there, much more beautiful than mine and interesting information.

I have been in Mexico for 7 months and I have undergone 3 surgeries. Most of my time has been spent recovering from the various bumps and scrapes.

The whole time I have had a desire, maybe you can call it a goal, to go outdoors and trot around like I used to do for so many years and like i just haven't been able to force myself to do for the past couple of years. I miss it! It was like a, well not really a religion, but definitely spiritual reinforcement.
Cool mornings, birds, nature, endorphins. Yum.

Besides the gym is N1H1 closed.

Even though I struggled and failed a hundred times, the memories were there and the desire never left. Today I did it! I got up early and went to the local "Botanic Gardens" el Charco del Ingenio and found dirt trails to run on.

Charco Ingenio is the nature preserve here in San Miguel. They rescued this beautiful land from the condo developers and protect and propagate native species, especially endangered species of plants and promote habitat of the animals, especially birds. It is well developed with at least a couple of miles of trails, nicely marked.

There is a reservoir that produced a little hydroelectric power a hundred years ago for a textile mill called Fabrica (factory) Aurora, down the hill in San Miguel. The fabrica now is a collection of art galleries.

Five hundred years ago, the Spanish built an aqueduct in this area.

Since I am given to more than a lick of good sense, I have not gone jogging on the cobblestone streets of the town and neither have I gone to deserted country roads all alone. But the Charco is not isolated and there are caretakers on site all the time, so this has been my dream place to try out my Asics once again.

First I parked my car about a half mile away from the Charco with some other cars. I figured it would be safe there. I trotted down the cobblestone road for a short distance before it turned into a dirt road, yeah, just what I like. Then I ran around the Charco on the outside of the barbed wire fence, the trail was rough, with a lot of rocks. Oh well. Careful.

Then through somebody's private property, alongside the water.

Then, the really fun part, I was a very naughty girl and found a way to run around the barbed wire fence and enter the Charco without paying the $30 (pesos) and I got to run on some really good trails, smooth dirt ones, for free! It's good to know that I can still be a bad girl once in awhile. I had begun to wonder.

Anyway, I figure I´ll make it up when I do volunteer work for el Charco del Ingenio. Since this is such a strong environmental group, I figure that it is where I belong. I hope they take me and I hope I can get a job working alongside Mexican people to further my conversational abilities while I'm at it. Who knows, I might even make friends.

That's my little dream for after I return from California. I will have a whole year to find new ways to apply myself. I will not be in recovery!

I wore my new heart rate monitor today and kept myself puffing just hard enough for nearly an hour. It was wonderful! Maybe I will be able to do that half marathon in November after all.

Wish me luck.

This flu thing is a scam

2009-05-01T18:03:00.005-05:00

By the way, every year in the United States, 36,000 people die of flu related causes. Does that do anything for your sense of perspective? It does mine.

I have been staying in. Not because of the flu, just because I want to.

Afternoons here are hot, hot, hot, so I don´t want to be out in the sun. Why should I? My apartment is cool and comfortable and I have a lot of toys to play with.

So, I don´t have a lot of new photos to show you, just a couple.

One thing caught my eye the other day, walking in Centro. It is the Volkswagen Beetle with red lights on top, part of the fire department. In Los Angeles this would be laughable, wouldn´t it? But here where the streets are sized more for horses than for anything else, maybe a Beetle is the only thing that can get to your house. We sure couldn´t get a hook 'n ladder very far here. I don´t know where they keep the water though.

Actually, it hardly matters because the houses here are made of bricks and mortar with a little rebar thrown in for good measure. It is not normal to carry fire insurance on your house. What can burn?

When someone wants to expand their house, a pickup truck full of what looks for all the world like dirt (not the gray sand I'm used to ) and another pile of small pebble/rocks appears near their front door. Maybe some bricks arrive, but they are NOT left on the street. I have seen two guys, one on the roof, one on the ground, throw the bricks one at a time from the ground to the roof. Sometimes I have seen the women doing it.

Anyway, at some point there must be some bags of cement involved. It is amazing that one day I see piles of dirt and rocks and the next day, an extra room on the second floor. If people have money to burn, they plaster over the bricks and paint it. If not, it is just bricks. The support beams are cement strips with the rebar inside. I'm getting used to this method of construction, there is a lot of building around where I live.

The other photo is of the cats, who decided to be different today and stay outside together all day. Of course, they found a shady spot. I was pleasantly surprised as usually it is Steve outdoors (al aire libre) all day and Nate, the little wussie, indoors with me. I love it when they hang out together, they are always in counterpoint with each other, it's cute!

Okay, now you get a reward for bearing with me and reading this far. I found another blog on blogspot that really inspired me and now I want to share it with you! Either click on the heading of this post or go to
http://sweetmango-sweetmango.blogspot.com/

This chick has all the transcentental poems, paintings, photos that I wish I had put there. What a colorful, delightful and inspiring blog she has. Go ahead, you won´t be disappointed!

Don't get shaken up! Don't get the flu!

2009-04-27T18:18:00.004-05:00

This is a hard one to put photos with. The header is what one of my friends wrote me in an email and it just about covers the situation as talked about in the news, both here and in the states.

5.7 is a sizable quake, if my memory of the Los Angeles shake-and-bake days serves me well. I think we had a 5.7 and no one liked it.

And the fashion of the day here is to wear a surgical mask. Blue is very popular. Everyone has one.......... except me.

Today I took another long and involved trip to Irapuato to have my two recovering eyes looked at and checked for progress. I am sorry to report that the first eye, the right one has experienced a serious degrading of the clear vision and now is blurry vision again. The color is okay, not that brownish amber look, but once again, I cannot read the highway signs as I drive these long distances between cities. There seem to be polka dots when i look close, like a photo in a newspaper, plus just blurry. Hrumph!

My dear Dr. Garduño looked at several different parts of my eye and explained that the cornea or the vitreous or the pupil, oh hell, I can´t remember which part, has 10 layers and that if fluid seeps in between the layers, then it gets blurry. He told me three or four parts that look perfect and are not a problem and then said that the fluid would be reabsorbed and the layers would stick back together and it will not be blurry any more.

He gave me drops for the right eye, every 3 hours (blue label) and said to continue the drops in the left eye every 2 hours (orange label). I hope I can keep all this straight and that it works.

He said to come back in 10 days and he will make my prescription for glasses and I will be all better by then.

As I started my drive this morning, I felt vulnerable and small. I felt like I had a lot of territory to cover and wished that I felt more safe. I relaxed and took the drive slow and careful. When I got lost in Celaya, I pretended I was on a tour of the city and let intuition take me where I needed to go.

Well, I asked a handsome motorcycle cop and that helped, too. And the nice man in the Pemex station.

So here is a special treat that came to me on Facebook today and it is perfectly appropriate for my feelings of vulnerability and may be perfect for you now or maybe another time. Click on the heading of this post to be taken to a 4 minute recording of Thich Nhat Hahn speaking on "Mountain - Solid". Or you can choose two other ones, if you want. You will like it.

I feel better already.

More celebration?

2009-04-24T21:48:00.004-05:00

I usually try to read up or at least talk to someone about the various holidays (around here they really are holy days) as they come and go. About two weeks ago, there was a firecracker or fireworks display, much louder and longer than most. It began at midnight and continued until dawn. I'm kind of used to this, so It doesn´t upset me or even keep me awake, but I do wake up.

In the morning, as I left in my car to pick up a friend and spend the day together, I was amazed at the little dumpy street around the corner from where I live. It was like a cocoon had become a butterfly overnight. The entire street, in fairly even intervals was decorated by brightly colored flags that fluttered in the morning breeze.

Within a couple of blocks I started seeing decorations on other streets, usually in the colors silver or white and purple. It had something to do with Easter, but I am not sure what.

Maybe by next year I will know more about this part of the Semana Santa celebration. Anyway, these decorations are too pretty not to show off a little, even if I'm somewhat behind schedule and uninformed, to boot.

You can enjoy looking and you won' have to listen to the fireworks.

Here we go again!

2009-04-21T16:27:00.007-05:00

I drove myself to Irapuato on Sunday, a day early and took a room at the Irapuato Hotel. Monday morning I cabbed it to the Instituto Oftamológo Privada for my second cataract surgery. By 1:30 that day I was back in my room, able to see out the window much more clearly than before.

The gift of sight is so wonderful.

The surgery went perfectly, I'm in love with my doctor. It took him 7 minutes to fix me up! He is kind, skilled and motivated by the love of the work, not the money.

His father and brother work there too, I believe their family owns the hospital. All 8 doctors on staff can speak English but they seldom see any gringo patients. It is a Mexican hospital.

Dr. Garduño is the resident cataract expert and has one other specialty which I cannot remember. Sometimes he travels to Palmer Institute in Miami FL as a guest lecturer. He has a wonderful "bedside manner" and marvelous hands. I want to marry him.

I will be all healed in a month, just in time to drive to the "states" to re-rent my apartment and empty out my storage room.

What I bring with me in the car when I return home to Mexico will be wonderful to have and what does not fit in my "camioneta" (little truck) will be disposed of in some manner, perhaps a sidewalk sale in front of the storage place.

I'm glad to be all finished with this eye business. I can never describe how happy it makes me to see well again.

I did not know how bad it was before with my eyesight, but I sure know how GOOD it is NOW!

P.S. I added some photos to the Irapuato slide show. That town has some nice stuff. Iif you want to see it, click on the heading of this post.

Hot Mexican Architecture

2009-04-18T22:16:00.008-05:00

Click on the title of this post to see the photos.

I have another friend visiting town, staying at an architecturally exciting home, designed by California Architect Susan House. House's work has been published in a book called The Colors of Mexico, in recent years she has designed many homes in various parts of Mexico. She is known for creative use of space and rich colors.

I was fortunate to be invited to tour a "House" house and folk art (artesania popular) gallery a short distance outside of town.

It is impossible to tell the difference between the gallery and the house, they flow together and are intertwined, even though they are separate buildings.

This house was formerly two rectangular buildings used as a rattan factory.

Architect Susan House created a fascinating space using varying ceiling heights, rich colors, curving lines, a water feature at the entrance and undulating yellow canopy joining the two structures. The owners of the home decorated it extensively from their personal collection of Folk Art.

The infinity pool is situated so that it points directly to the dome of the Atonilco church which is visible through the trees. An old aqueduct is used in concert with the new pool.

The house contains 6000 square feet and there are 10,000 square feet of flooring used. They recently added jacuzzi and other water features outside the master bedroom. Wow. All the bathrooms are amazing.

Mr. Schacter is an interesting man, with a nice sense of humor. He is an excellent artist in his own right, having done a lot of ceramic work which was published over the years. I saw a display case of his work and liked it very much. Organic, just what I like. Also, he is an expert on ceramics and all types of Mexican and other folk art and he speaks publicly on the subject. Shopping in his gallery or listening to him give a tour of his house was a very educational experience. And fun!

His wife is an author of some best selling books. She was not present.

I hope you enjoy a peek into a world that isn't within my budget, but is a feast for the eyes!

I bought one piece of folk art, maybe you'll see it sometime.

Irapuato, old and new

2009-04-15T22:19:00.005-05:00

Please click on the title of this post to be taken to the slideshow of Irapuato as I describe below.

When I came to live in San Miguel, I hoped to visit other cities and towns in Mexico, too. So far I am doing really well!

Today I drove 90 miles from home to a fairly large city named Irapuato. I got lost for a few minutes in Leon, so I got to see a little of that, but I will have to go back to see more. I also had to pass by Guanajuato on the way, but no stops there.

Irapuato is a modern city that has a beautiful center plaza which has been modernized but dates back really far, one plaque said that the older of the two churches is referred to in writings from 1517. That is old! The beautiful carved cantera stone facade is very detailed, I could look at it for a long time and not absorb all the details. That is how Baroque is.

The newer church is old, too, but slightly less so. The newer church was the most elegant I have seen so far. It had beautiful reddish wooden pews, shiny granite floor and beautiful stained glass throughout. There was a handmade glass block wall at the entrance in cobalt blue, with wooden mullions (dividers between the glass) that matched the pews. Wood is rare in Mexico. When you see wood, it is usually pine from the forests in the north. (One of my friends refers to this wood craft as "early conquistador"; it is rustic.) The wood in this church was polished mahogany or (probably) mesquite. And thick. The walls were smooth, white plaster with shiny gold detailing and several large crystal chandeliers in beautiful condition. It was breathtaking.

I took a moment to sit and meditate, I´m sure the other pray-ers didn't know I wasn't praying to Jesus.

Outside the church was an enormous bronze sculpture of Pope John Paul II. It was wonderful looking and grand in scale. Somehow, these modernizations of the area work perfectly, there is no culture clash.

Irapuato is a modern city and some of the photos show the historic section on one side and modern buildings on the other. A nice contrast. I thought it was "tranquillo" (mellow) although a couple of people did honk their horns in traffic.

This was a personal victory for me, as I have not been comfortable enough to venture out this far in the car, (not counting the road trip on the weekend!!!) but the road is good and the drivers courteous and traffic bearable. I made it fine.

Also, I had to ask directions a couple of times to get there and the fact that I made my appointment in time and back again is proof of my garbled Español slowly improving.

If you look at the slideshow, remember, you can turn the captions on and off. Turn them off if it gets in the way.

Road Trip to El Naranjo

2009-04-12T16:05:00.006-05:00

I was invited to join the "annual trip to the river with the kids for Easter vacation", better known in this part of the world as Semana Santa.

I´m not usually a river person, since I lived near the ocean for so long and no rivers around there. But this river, maybe a collection of two or more, really intrigued me because of the color of the water. It's turquoise. And the deeper (mas profundo) the water is, the bluer.

The drive was pretty long, about 325 miles, with about 200 of those miles on interstate highway 4-lane type and the other 100 was a really good 2-lane through amazing countrysides, all different.

The river is way too incredible to say I liked the drive as much as the destination, but it was a very great drive. It went from total desert, Joshua tree forests, to palm tree forests, to curving, mountain road under huge trees, a lot like San Diego North County. Love that!

Then, to red, red earth (like mars) and then sugar cane fields, and mango trees and turquoise blue rivers. It was humid and it was hot.

But if you spend your time floating in turquoise water all day or getting massages by the bubbles at the little waterfalls, or sitting in the shade, reading, then it's not hard to bear. And I think the freeing effect of "jumping in the river" may have been a cleansing experience for me in more ways than than one.

I was semi prepared to camp in my truck because initially there were no rooms available, but my friends found an empty room at the hotel and held it for me. They arrived the day before i did. There were 16 children in our party, the swimming pool was full every night. Probably we had about 8-10 adults, (9 counting me, the lone stranger). We sat outside the rooms at night with a beer and two guitars and singing. It was great.

There is so much amazing country to be experienced in Mexico. I was very appreciative of being included in this family outing, to practice a little Spanish, enjoy nature and see totally new views in a sub-tropical region.

It was a fabulous weekend, I hope to go back there another time, or many times!

And this trip really built my confidence for driving on the roads of Mexico and beyond.

Querétaro

2009-04-09T19:45:00.003-05:00

Having company is a great way to get to see all the sights yourself. It has been a very interesting and fun week.

Today we took a bus to the nearby city of Queretaro, the second largest city in Mexico. It is an industrial city, I am told but we limited ourselves to the historic district and found it to be exceedingly beautiful and muy tranquillo. The central plaza is said to be the most beautiful one in Latin America, a distinction also given to the Museo de Arte. We were in agreement with that.

Querètaro is one of the four cities that gave birth to the succesful movement for independence from Spain, which began in 1810. The four cities are: Querétaro, San Miguel de Allende, Dolores Hidalgo and Guanajuato. Next year is the 200 year Anniversary and a million people are expected to make their pilgrimage to this area to celebrate. It is like the 4th of July in the states, but I think the Mexican people may be even more passionate about this important event in history than the North Americans.

As I become more and more aware of the Independence movement, I am enjoying seeing the related sites and learning a bit more of the history.

Quéretaro is absolutely stunning in it´s beauty and has been well preserved and given UNESCO World Heritage Site status. I will return there many times, I think.

Rather than trying to describe any more than this, let me just say, put this one on your list of places to visit some time, it's worth it!

Rebirth and more Rebirth

2009-04-03T15:52:00.009-06:00

It's Spring! and I'm so excited.

Probably, it is Spring where you are, too.

Mesquite trees that I thought should be cut down because they were dead are suddenly full and green and lush. (Good thing no one listens to me.)

The Jacaranda trees all over town are in bloom along with flowering vines and bougainvillea in many different colors. Because this won´t last forever, I must drink it in and enjoy it to the fullest.

It is the rebirth time in nature. The time of yellow and purple blossoms in the flower markets by the bazillions. Everyone is buying huge bouquets of statice, white Easter lilies (called ascencera, from the same root word as ascencion?) and various wildflowers I cannot name, but I bought a ton of them. My apartment looks very beautiful. Every container I can find is filled with beautiful flowers.

I have no problems with pollen! Show me the pollen!

And I shopped today; I had to have some new blouses to wear with my jeans. The temperature reaches at least 85 every afternoon and only cool white cotton feels right to me. With embroidery of course. I have always loved peasant blouses and now I have hit the mother lode. Even the nights are pleasantly warm and I can definitely see how the custom of siesta came about. I hide indoors during mid afternoon. My apartment is "fresca".

I had my one week check up and my eye is healing perfectly.

I can see like a motherfucker, I mean, excuse me, a HAWK! My vision is back to 20/20 for distance. I can recognize people now, not just distinguish if they are male or female. I am reborn with the Spring.

Tomorrow my first visitor arrives and I so look forward to having a pal to go places with and to show off this fabulous little jewel of a town to. I can even drive now without fear.

And I have a refrigerator full of delicious dishes I have made like Mexican Tinga, Pozole, Frijoles Negros, etc. And a restaurant near here sells gorgeous organic lettuces and other vegetables, not to mention that the key lime pie is to die for, so I bought a whole one. It's in the freezer. And let's see, there's guacamole, tequila and lime.........

We'll give the restaurants some business.

But not that much.

Healthcare continues

2009-03-28T11:56:00.004-06:00

Well, I have not eaten at all the good restaurants yet, but I sure am finding out a lot about the various health care locations! If you need a good Orthopedic Surgeon in San Miguel or a Physical Therapist, I got 'em!

And now I can say I know an Ophthalmologist and an Eye Clinic in Irapuato that is very good!

But, really, even though this is setting my budget farther and farther back, I am so thrilled to have had a cataract removed yesterday and when both are fixed, I will be even happier.

For the last few months I have been stumbling around in a bit of a fog, not knowing that it could be repaired. I just feared that I was going slowly blind with no options. Pretty depressing, but I tried to overlook it.

But daily life and especially driving, have been so hard. I literally cannot tell if the (few) traffic lights here in San Miguel are red or green! I just follow the other cars and do what they do. We don't have those bright LED lights here. In fact the whole town only has two traffic ights that I can think of. It is a saving grace the way we all crawl the streets slowly on the cobblestones and over the topas (speed bumps). I would have been dead a long time ago in Los Angeles!

I was really afraid of driving back to California in May. Too scarey.

Well, now I have one good eye. It kind of gives new meaning to the saying,"I'll keep an eye on it".

Even so, I just finished reading a huge novel called "Shantaram", with over 900 pages. With perfect lighting, sitting very still and two pairs of glasses at once , I was able to do it! (The next book will be much easier!) Johnny Depp has purchased the movie rights to this book, I wonder how long I have to wait to see it?

My first rain in San Miguel

2009-03-17T18:47:00.002-06:00

And my first rainbow!

While I was having my lovely Spanish conversation visit with my friends Enrique and Veronica, the sky clouded up and then let go with big drops.

Veronica gave me a nice serving of frijoles to take home and off I went into the warm rain. Over the center of town, a beautiful big rainbow showed itself and delighted me. It has been so dry and dusty here! What a luxury.

I was too late with the camera for the rainbow, but here are a couple of clouds. If you live in a place with a lot of rain, this is no big deal for you. But here in the Altiplano region of central Mexico, this is a gift. The air smells wonderful.

It is a bit early for the monsoon season, maybe this is just a quirk.

Hiking again

2009-03-15T18:26:00.003-06:00

Today's hike was all uphill then turn around and all downhill. The people I hike with are for the most part older than I am and they are animals! I'm wasted after keeping up with them for a few hours. There are no sissies in this group.

The countryside is beautiful so it doesn't matter that we have to drive 45 minutes to an hour to find some of these places. Today we hiked on the private land of someone's friend and had the special treat of hiking in a totally wooded area.

The oak trees in this area, and there were at least 2 varieties, are unlike any I have seen before. I have to look up the genus.

The leaves of one variety are over 12 inches long and lay on the ground more than 2 feet deep in places. Crunching along through all the beautiful brown leaves made all of us feel like we were about 6 years old. One man wanted to eat cornflakes, because of all the crunching.

I took this picture on the way back down the mountain. To me, it looks like California.

It is warm here now, but not hot. I loved parking in the shade of a tree for the hike, a rare pleasure in my San Miguel desert home.

The Gatorade Gym

2009-03-12T13:35:00.004-06:00

After you see the photos, you´ll know why I call it the Gatorade gym!

I know I already talked about the gym, but hey, it´s a daily thing there are changes

Yesterday I ate an Atkins type selection of food, salad, meat, meat and vegetable. Yes, I quickly dropped a pound, but today without any glucose stored in my muscles from carbohydrates, I just could not run worth a darn. This has happened to me before and now I double proved it. Runners need carbohydrates!

So all my great progress reported earlier was in the proverbial toilet, oh well, I continued for an hour at a slightly slower pace. Still a good workout. My weak arm is almost as strong as my other weak arm. ha ha!

And the woman next to me on the treadmill was enjoying her first visit to the gym. Through talking to her I found out that she is a professional Spanish teacher. I kind of liked her style of correcting me and I think I will set up some lessons with her. Studying alone with a book is very difficult. I seem to have discipline problems.

And today I remembered to bring my camera to show you all the cute sheep and lambies outside the gym. I'm not so sure how good the lamb on my plate will taste next time after seeing that little balck and white darlin'. Maybe I´ll settle for eating wool sweaters and let it go at that.

I guess the family has quite a large piece of land to have the gym, parking lot and plenty of room for 25 sheep and a bunch of chickens, roosters, a turkey and two really efficient watch dogs. Presumably at least one house, too. And there is a beautifully manicured lawn area with tents, maybe they have weddings outdoors. (?) Who can figure all this out?

Here are photos inside and outside, including one of the gym owner, Humberto with his son.

The men here are so gentle and attentive with their children. They seem to love to hold them and carry them as much as possible.

I would have thought that machos would consider this women´s work, but they don´t seem to.

I have become a gym rat!

2009-03-05T11:56:00.002-06:00

Estoy muy allegre porque veo mucho majorando en el gymnasio, despues solamente tres y media semanas de trabajo. Puedo caminar o correr mas rapido y respiratr muy bien. Los numeros por mi pulso cardio son bajos mientras corro mas rapido!!! Esta bien!!

I am very happy because I see a lot of improvement at the gym after only three and a half weeks of work. I can walk or run faster and still breathe very well. The numbers for my heartrate are lower while I run faster. This is very good!!!

If I continue to improve at this rate, I will be able to go to the Olympics!

I see now that it has taken me about 6 months to begin to acclimate to living in a foreign country, but that I am making progress towards my goals.

A little secret about my particular neurosis is that I want to change and I want it NOW and if that doesn´t happen, and it never does, because change takes time, then I´m a little mad and disappointed.

So, I have been secretly trashing myself a little and feeling a little depressed on some level because of not starting to speak yet and not making friends yet, etc. etc.

Today at the gym I realized that as my body responds to the challenge of the day, so was I speaking to the people next to me on the treadmill and the owner of the gym. These are not long deep conversatons, but about as good as gym conversations anywhere in the states would be.

Several days a week I go to practice conversation with Veronica, the daughter-in-law of my landlady doña Maria. Veronica has two daughters in private school and they both study English. Veronica has studied English in University, but she strongly favors Español and never speaks to me in English, but she does understand my questions and can answer me in Español.

This is a very elegant family I have teamed up with here.

How much better did I think things would be, anyway?

Saturday outing

2009-03-01T17:10:00.003-06:00

San Miguel de Allende is a mecca for retired Americans & Canadians, 2nd-home people, snowbirds, Europeans, too. And a few Brazilians!

So, everybody is looking for something to do to entertain themselves from time to time and there are lots of scheduled activities on a regular basis to satisfy that need.

On Saturdays, there is a group called Saturday Adventures, sponsored by Centro Crecimiento. the proceeds benefit the organization and probably more important, it is a wonderful outreach program.

Centro Crecimiento means "The Growing Center" and is a nonprofit organization that takes in children as early as 2 months old, who have Downs Syndrome, Autism, Cerebral Palsy and that sort of developmental problem. They treat the illness, educate the children and now, even do job placement for the ones who have reached maturity.

So, I bought a ticket for $150 (pesos, check the currency calculator to see what this cost me in US Dollars) and lined up with the other old folks to see where I would be taken and what I would be shown.

First we went to a discreet little door in the Centro area. All the buildings are so anonymous here. You have absolutely no idea what is behind any of the doors unless they are open, and that rarely happens.

In we went to the studio of Thomas Le Noir who has been making jewelry in San Miguel for many years. He specialized in Amber jewelry until a couple of years ago, when he became bored with waiting in the store for customers. There are wonderful amber mines in Chiapas.

One day, he told his dog, who wanted to go play in the mountains that the next person to come in would buy the entire business. And it actually happened! He sold the store and took the dog to the mountains where he fell in love with a beautiful property and purchased it.

Lo and behold, the property contains one of the only good mines for Mexican Fire Opals that remain; most of the Opals have been taken already.

So he was able to show us many samples of the stones, the very best amber pieces, which he saved for himself and the beautiful jewelry that he has made. There was one piece of amber in the display case that looked like a rough old turkey egg, but is valued at $25,000 because of it´s size. Others had rare insects trapped inside, and were large enough to be seen from several meters away, so were museum quality. No wonder people don´t advertise what they have behind their doors!

After that, we all piled on the bus again and were driven outside of town to a large property, a hacienda, surrounded by farmland. It was a classic Spanish type of layout with a central yard and fountain, tall trees that look at least 200 years old, judging by the size of the trunks, large expanse of lawns. We viewed many of the bedrooms, the dining room, kitchen and in the back, a beautiful covered veranda (is that a Spanish word?) overlooking the even bigger back yard area, swimming pool and a huge outdoor kitchen area.

The hacienda is owned by a wealthy family who live in Celaya, and who support the Centro Crecimiento by giving them free gas (propane, they own the propane gas company), by allowing their hacienda to be used on the fundraising tours and probably generous annual donations.

The highlight of the day, I think, was the talk given by a small, somewhat elderly woman with a cane. She told of starting the organization 30 years ago by herself with one child. She was a physical therapist and had come to San Miguel from Mexico City in 1955.

Today the organization houses, cares for, educates 130 disabled children (and their parents, who need to be taught how to deal with these problems, too) from the poorest of the poor homes. There is a computer program, equine program, hydrotherapy, sports, speech and communication program and they offer daily meals.

This woman is the kind of person who will have statues dedicated to her after she passes on. She then admitted that she is 92 years of age.

She plans and leads the Saturday Adventure every week in addition to running the organizations day to day business, fund raising and so on. She never said her name, just the name of the organization.

What a woman.

The gym

2009-02-17T21:02:00.006-06:00

I walked over to the gym for my first workout today. It is small and clean and well equipped. The spinning bikes are Schwinn and the treadmills are Precor. Top brands.

There is a large dirt parking lot outside the gym and just to give me my daily dose of culture shock, there is chain link fence with about 20 sheep on the other side, all baa-ing at the top of their lungs when they saw me. The other side of the lot has a chicken coop visible with all the hens in there and the roosters walk around at will in the parking lot or under the fence back in the yard with the chickens.

Just when I think I have found something really familiar, like treadmills, there is a total twist just to keep my mind a little bent. Sheep are cute by the way!

I rode the stationary bike for a half hour and then walked on the treadmill for half an hour. I kept my heart rate at a moderate 130 the whole time. It is so easy for me to get hyped and overdo things, then regret it. I pumped a little iron for my weak arm, did some stretches and went home.

Then, since doña Maria is out of town for a month, I did some gardening; watering, clipping vines and then I installed two new clothes lines. The back yard doesn't look like much with the dead grass, but the walls are lined with pots of geraniums, fuchsias, coleus and the like, many of which are blooming. It's so nice to have a little color. I water twice a week because it is so dry here!

And I put on lotion twice a day.

Anyway, I suntanned for 20 minutes first and then did the gardening in my bikini. Thank god for 14 foot high walls!

Last weekend there was a big family party for doña Maria´s mother's 92nd birthday. Her 6 brothers and sisters were there and about 50 other relatives. I (of course) took photos and put together a slide show. To see the slideshow of the party, click on the title line of this post.

Included are photos of the beautiful house Enrique, doña Maria´s son the architect recently built and moved into. He is wearing the striped t-shirt. Beautiful, huh?

I'm posting just a couple of the party shots here. Doña Maria is an attractive, fit, 70 year old lady who views the camera as if she was looking at a firing squad, aiming right at her! She is not really so stern! And we laugh a lot! But I can´t prove it by the photos.

One day I will take her by surprise and get a nice picture. She reminds me of one of my sisters in that regard.

And I am still working on the pilows for the daybed, trying to get ready for company. I'm about half done on a borrowed 1954 Elna free arm machine. It is a relic, but hey! Its working.

Musings around town

2009-02-06T09:15:00.002-06:00

As I continue to regain normalcy with my wrist, I´m taking more walks around town. Partially I just like to explore and partially because I walk for transportation, so happen upon many scenes that entertain me.

I still tire after a few hours, but who wouldn´t?

And I wear men´s lug sole work boots. Haven´t slipped yet!

Here are a few photos that caught my eye this week.

The good, the bad and the ugly

2009-02-03T16:49:00.003-06:00

The good is that I am so happy living in my little refuge. The world almost can´t touch me here. The cats are happy and I am finding more and more things to fill my time in a worthwhile way.

Last night was meditation with a group here for the first time. Last week I discovered a lovely Tai Chi class, a very loving teacher. I have yet to join the gym and start pounding out the aerobic stuff, but last week´s hike around Jalpa lake left me with lactic acid in my quads (sore legs) and that hasn´t happened in a long time. I must have done a little pushing.

The bad is that San Miguel de Allende and indeed, all of Mexico is financially connected to the U. S. and people here are noticing changes. I think the endless talk on the news probably reinforces all of our fears. But I´m not as far away as I once thought. Time to hunker down and be simple and wait it out.

Meanwhile, here is a photo of some of the most colorful tortillas, purple, hot pink and turquoise blue and combination hot pink/turquoise blue. I like looking at them, but I´m not sure I want to eat them, a bit festive for me.

These were given to me by doña Maria, my landlady after she attended a large wedding fiesta in the country. I guess all the guests were given food to take home. The mole sauce is delicious! Picante, but not too much. I will have mole for dinner several times from that one bowlful. I was wondering when the real mole would appear, this is my first in Mexico! Yum!

And I´m including a couple of shots from this week´s hike around Jalpa lake. There is an amazing church there, it is in the process of being partially restored. Bear in mind that this town doesn´t have running water, but they have this amazing church.

Doing nothing can take all day.............

2009-01-31T14:43:00.006-06:00

One day this week I felt like getting out of the house and I left without an agenda of errands to do or other obligations. I felt very relaxed and just wandered slowly around, walking from my house to Centro.

The streets here are narrow and the sidewalks are about 1/3 of what I'm used to. Signs are small, if present at all- don't count on it. This means that as you walk the tiny sidewalk, navigating so as to miss other pedestrians and careful to look at the ground for holes, soapy water, etc., it is very difficult to take in all the businesses as you pass by. Everything is so close! I constantly discover new shops as I pass them on the same street I have walked on 100 times before. The density can be overwhelming. Stimulating to say the least.

So, a day of wandering, taking time to stop and look across the street or up above can be a day of discovery, even in the most familiar places.

For example, El Jardin, the central heartbeat of San Miguel, where people gather for all the festivals, parades, fireworks and for daily (or nightly) social exchanges. I wondered how I could get a view other than from the ground, as I have seen it so often before.

There was a stairway I never noticed before, so I went up. I thought it would be quite a pricey place, it was so elegant in a simple way. To my surprise, there is a restaurant with an outdoor terrace. It has an amazing view of the central square, the Parroquia and the hills beyond. The menu is interesting, healthy and cheap! I will be back when I have not just finished ice cream. Good discovery.

I rely on people who have been in San Miguel longer than I have to show me all the good spots, but wandering on my own is worthy, too.

Also discovered this week - a sunset Tai Chi class in a round studio right on the Prisa (it's a reservoir, looks like a lake). With cactus in the foreground and water in the background, what a great view for calming the end of the day with Tai Chi.

And............ I saw my first movie at the Biblioteca, a gathering place for gringos and Mexicans alike. The film was "The History of Mexico". I attended with a new girlfriend, very enjoyable and at only 50 pesos, affordable. ($3.84)

Tomorrow, another hike and then next week, down to the business of planning my itinerary for India. I have been looking at photos and reading about the different locations. It looks like my travel agent has me seeing both the north and the south. Wow, looks like a lot!

Sin Nombre Hike

2009-01-25T17:59:00.004-06:00

My physical therapist is a wonderful woman, full of life and energy. She has been giving therapy sessions from 7:00 in the morning to 8:00 at night, six days a week for over 20 years and she's not tired yet! And she knows a LOT of people.

We talk about San Miguel and all the various activities available here. She tells me of many things to help orient me in my new home town. During one of my first visits, she alluded to some group that meets in some gas station on Sundays at some time in the morning and then goes hiking together in the country.

My ears went way up. I listened hard to hear what gas station? What time? Which day? etc. But she said her patient was a member and he couldn't come this week, but she would ask him.

I saw her again. What about the hiking? I asked. Where do they meet? What time? She hadn't found out yet.

The next week, same thing. Where do they meet, what time? I really MUST know!

Finally she called me at home with the information. She described the place, a Pemex station (all gas stations here are Pemex, it's nationalized) on a street that has at least 2 Pemex stations. She said at 8:00 in the morning on Sundays. I thanked her effusively.

On Saturday, I drove over to make sure of the location and was satisfied that I knew where it was. I went home and took all my hiking clothes out of the cupboard, folded them, placed the sunblock where I wouldn't forget it and then went to bed early so I would be sure to hear the alarm at 6:00 AM. The meeting is at 8, but I wanted time for coffee and a few other things.

Boy was I amazed when, after driving 50 miles throught scrub, cactus and maguey, we reached a beautiful stream that meandered through a "bosque" (forest) of giant oak trees. These trees aren't exactly like any I have seen before, but kind of similar to the California Live Oak, but with bigger leaves and some were very very tall. We hiked along the stream, boulder hopping and crossing back and forth.

Eventually we reached an old mill, or what's left of it. There were several waterfalls. It made a great stop for lunch or a snack and someone brought luscious strawberries and another hiking essential, brownies!

We hiked for about 4 hours. This is my first hike in Mexico and I am completely ecstatic to have found such a group of nice people to show me the trails. It is so wonderful to be officially off the "sick list" and outdoors in the safety of a group.

Click on the heading of this post to be taken to a slide show of the day.

And now, I need a nap!

Yes, we did!

2009-01-23T13:48:00.003-06:00

I can't resist putting this image up, among the others. I almost have a reason to move back to the United States. Here are my favorite sentences from the inagural speech -

On this day, we gather because we have chosen hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord.

What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath them -- that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply.

As for our common defense, we reject as false the choice between our safety and our ideals.

And to those nations like ours that enjoy relative plenty, we say we can no longer afford indifference to suffering outside our borders; nor can we consume the world's resources without regard to effect.

from Barak Obama's Inaugural speech Jan. 20, 2009

"The Hood"

2009-01-22T11:07:00.004-06:00

There is a vacant lot near my house and it is filled with native chapparral and cactus. I don't know the names of these, but I enjoy walking the paths that criss-cross the area and I enjoy the views from this land, slightly higher than where I live. The small mountains can be seen in the distance and there is a feeling of spaciousness. Even though the area is mostly developed with homes, this little refuge remains.

The plot of land is currently being sold off, inch by inch and will be developed within the next couple of years. My landlord owns at least one of the lots and has his building plans ready (in his mind, if not on paper yet). His lot sits behind the neighborhood basketball courts. Since it is not likely that a house will be built on the basketball courts, his lot will retain the view of the Parroquia, so it has superior value. He owns several lots in this area and builds beautiful houses, I have seen several.

The house I live in was his first project as a new architect, built 15 years ago for his mother. The basement level apartment where I now live was his home along with his wife, before they started a family and had to build a bigger place.

The first house on this empty land is now under construction. I included a couple of photos of that.

If I join the gym near my house, this will be my walk to get there.

Not so bad, huh?

A Day in the Country

2009-01-11T19:53:00.007-06:00

It´s as if I am waking up from a dream, welcoming a shift in my reality. Tomorrow I expect to have my cast removed and the pins taken out. I can feel that I´m ready.

Life is starting in San Miguel as I had intended it to be ...... before the accident happened.

There is so much to do here, but I have not been doing it.

This morning I went to a free Tai Chi Class, held in a beautiful community outside of Centro, called Los Frailes. It was outdoors in a large plaza, complete with bubbling fountain and leafy Jacaranda trees against the ever-blue sky. I practiced my Tai Chi with bare feet in the warm January sun. As it should be!

The teacher is truly a Master who has been doing Tai Chi for 40 years. He teaches regular classes (indoors, for a fee) twice a week and I hope to attend them all. My body has been immobile for weeks and my Chi is most definitely blocked! This will help me with my recovery.

Then I drove out to the countryside to visit a friend, have lunch, walk around a little and drive back.

So nice to get out of the house (and the neighborhood), see some scenery and to feel better.

I hope you enjoy the photos of the dry Winter countryside. Like all of us, it has its own kind of beauty.

Three Kings Day at the Produce Stand

2009-01-08T13:14:00.002-06:00

I mentioned before that I have a favorite place to buy fruit and vegetables. The proprietress wears dark tailored wool suits (very European look) and that sets her apart. She also keeps the Romaine and Brown lettuce in a pail of water, nice and crisp, which also sets her apart. Never mind that my bolsa (bag) weighed over 15 pounds last time and I had to carry it about 8 or 9 blocks uphill. It only cost $5.84 and I tell myself the work will do me good.

My most recent stop there was on a huge holiday, I haven't learned them all yet, it seems like every day is a special day for one reason or another. In other words, it was a surprise.

Three Kings day is to celebrate when the Three Kings (Wise Men) took the gifts of frankincense and myrrh to the baby Christ child. For this reason, children in Mexico receive their gift (s) on Jan. 6.

In the market there were a whole bunch of little girls, all dressed up in colorful satin skirts, white satin blouse, a little bolero top and a head scarf. Each one was a different color. Between the girls, the fruit and the piñatas, I needed sunglasses, just to buy a little broccoli without being blinded!

A half hour later, the requisite parade went by with horses and costumed Kings. I think this is the end of Navidad.

Today whie I was out walking, I noticed that all the little girls are pushing new baby dolls in baby carriages. Little mothers in training.

The thrills of living low

2009-01-07T13:15:00.006-06:00

One of the nice things about living in a so-called "third world country" (a complete misnomer in San Miguel de Allende, by the way) is that it is not common to use clothes dryers here, except among the Gringos, who import their whole lifestyle.

Since I chose to live with a Mexican family, I am lucky enough to enjoy the wonderful smell of fresh sheets that have air dried in the sunshine. The climate here is dry and usually it is a wee bit breezy, so the whole process takes about the same amount of time that the clothes dryer would, or less.

The only energy consumed is that of throwing the clothes over the line and then bringing them in.

The bringing them in part is the best, that's when I bury my face in the clothes, especially the sheets, and drink in the ozone smell. Of course, everyone knows I'm a committed "olphile" or an olfactory freak. Love those good smells!

This is how we did laundry when I was growing up, but I remember some cold, stiff clothes back then. We used the same wash water for every load and the same rinse water (two rinses) by hand in a deep double sink with a wringer between each part.

And January mornings were NOT warm and breezy in the valley where I lived.

Here are a couple of photos of the sheets dancing in the wind against the turquoise blue sky.

Since I have been one-handed, my landlady, doña Maria has been kind enough to clean my apartment every week for me and to wash my laundry, too. I just get the good part, bringing it in.

Yesterday I saw her washing my sheets by hand before putting them in the washing machine. I was amazed. She told me that they get much cleaner that way.

Well, yeah.

2009-01-05T06:43:00.004-06:00

I don't have a lot to talk about, nothing new, just continuing pain and virtually inactive, at least physically.

Mentally, I'm real spoiled, though. I have a new stereo so that I can play music from my smuggled in collection. The sound track in my home has improved! The clock radio with one CD was not making it!

Before I started collecting Latin music, I had about 300 CDs . There are Rock n Roll (of course) Jazz, Classical, African, Folk, Flamenco, Hawaiian, Blues and probably a good deal of crossover between these genres.

And, on top of that, with my DSL connection, which is working great now, I can tune in to NPR and listen either to the same station I used to listen to or I can choose any of my favorite programs and run them in the background of whatever else I'm doing.

I enjoy reading the news articles rather than listening and I love seeing some of the photos (not the bombs blowing up), like today's article about the murals painted in the public buildings in Washington, D.C. during the depression. It describes the artists and the purpose and meaning of some of them. That was great.

Another day I read interviews with gang members from Guatemala which was interesting since I spent so much time there. I found out that in the city of Xela, where I first went to school, there are no gangs because if they see a person with gang appearance (tattoos & piercings) they pour gasoline on them and light it. Very effective.

I mentioned before that there was a man in the neighborhood who rides a burrow with two 5 gallon milk cans tied on. I have not been able to photograph him yet, but one day when I walked over to the store for some bananas, I saw his burrow in front of what has to be the worst looking house n the neighborhood. The house is for sale and has a large lot and two trees. The rest is a nightmare. I don't think he has money for improvements, but it's interesting.

Where does he sit? How long has he been doing this? Does it hurt?

Saturday, already?

2009-01-03T06:43:00.003-06:00

Only 9 more days until i get my cast off and these pesky nails pulled out of my wrist, but whose counting? Then I can start physical therapy and hope for a full recovery, I think it will be fine. I will wedge clay and make sculpture! You'll see!

So, I'm kind of cranky because I can never sleep past 4 AM when the Advil wears off.

I mean, Brett is in India sending email about having an 80 pound woman smear her with sesame oil and then walk all over her body for an hour and a half while hanging from a rope and I'm here, taking Advil. Of course I'm cranky.

I always wanted to get up early like this though, so I could be like a Zen monk, meditating in the quietest part of the day. It really is a special time.

Instead, I entertain myself playing with my photographs, hoping that someone will one day read all this and see some of the little vignettes i notice here. Here are a few that I have collected, I think the captions explain.

Because I am not caught up in anything, don't really "have a life" yet, I am very present all the time. It's like a "micro life", I really like it. The one time i was only focused on where I was going and not focused on where i was....... I slipped in soapy water and got hurt. That's my lesson, I guess.

Like Baba Ram Das said "Be here now."

Artisans Fair

2008-12-28T14:51:00.006-06:00

I enjoyed attending the Artisans Fair, I went both Saturday and Sunday.

There were beautiful things I would have liked to buy, just to support some of the artists whose work I found inspiring. For example, one woman prints her photos in a slightly sepia toned black & white, then she hand tints them using colored pencil. The effect is very soft and aged looking, kind of dreamy, not at all heavy handed. Her subject matter included a lot of roosters, chickens & burros, but also some of native women, doing daily things that were very interesting. One was of some women from a town south of Oaxaca, that I was told has a matriarchal culture. In my opinion, we would all be better off if all the cultures were matriarchal and I have added this town to my list of places to visit one day.

Many of the vendors are ones I have already met in the stores. After all, San Miguel is nothing, if not a mecca of Folk Art and Crafts. And I'm not one to miss anything that you can enjoy visually.

I bought products from one of the 3 vendors with face creams,potions and soaps. She is a perfectly delightful woman named Irena and seems to be originally from France. She has exotic but delicate sprays, eye cream, medicinal blends of essential oils and copal incense. I exchanged a couple of bars of my soap with her because she doesn't make soaps.

The vendors who do have soaps were nice, but nothing to rave about, I didn't come away with an inferiority complex or anything. Neither did I come away with information on where to obtain crucial ingredients here in central Mexico. I don't see any coconut trees around here. Olive trees, either. I miss my soapmaking equipment and I believe I will be bringing {smuggling} buckets of oil on my next couple of trips south. If you believe in praying, pray for me not to get red lights at the border.

Some of these vendors are indigenous, especially from Oaxaca and mostly they are gringos who have been here for years and who make a living from their crafts and from importing or designing using imported materials. Very interesting! There is a lot of kitsch as well.

Shawls are really beautiful and very practical to use here. A typical day will have at least a 40 degree change of temperature from the time you head out the door in the morning until after sundown. To have a shawl tucked away for later is a very smart thing, and easy. I saw many that I loved from India and Pakistan but it doesn't make sense to buy now because I will be in India in 2 months, stuffing my suitcase full at rock bottom prices.

Even though I haven't found any good wine yet, I bought a beautiful set of mouth blown, soft green wine glasses. They are much lighter in the hand than the usual Mexican blown glass and they sparkle. They're beautiful.

I get very tired because of this arm thing and wanted to come home to rest, but the live musician playing Flamenco, Spanish and Mexican songs on his guitar played so beautifully and sang so well that I just couldn't tear myself away. I ended up at the cafe enjoying a decaf Latte and lemon cake to extend my visit and rest at the same time.

It was really a nice day and I found out that there will be Artisan Fairs almost every month, so I look forward to going again.

2009 Here we come!

2008-12-27T11:21:00.004-06:00

Wow, what a busy and eventful year 2008 was for me! I really took the bull by the horns, quit talking about it and DID something about it!

Today I'm going to the Art & Crafts fair at the Instituto Allende. One year ago, I stumbled in there the first time and was so overwhelmed by the setting, the colors, the crafts and the the music, that I burst into tears and wished I had brought a box of Kleenex, or better yet a case of them. It was a turning point for sure and this is an anniversary day.

Now, I have almost settled into a routine in my new home. The little abode has been mostly "Laurelized". The dry, thirsty-looking wood shelves have been painted white, the old ratty furniture is gone, replaced by one white canvas easy chair. Colorful dish towels, tablecloths, napkins and pillows from Guatemala are all around. The guest bed is in place and it's comfortable! (Did ya hear that, the guest quarters are ready!).

I SOOOOO look forward to January!!! As always, I look forward to a brand new, clean, perfect year. A blank canvas on which to create a new chapter of our lives. No problems, no mistakes, no regrets, just renewal, dedication, optimism, enthusiasm and faith.

January 20th!!!!! Whodathunkit that a real, dyed in the wool progressive would be the elected leader of the US! There are lots of people who know more than I do, and who will write billions of pixels about this, but, ain't it grand? Read "Barak Obama, Dreams From My Father."

January 10th, approximately, I'll get my cast and these 3 nasty pins removed!!! That will be a very happy day! What started out as my friend and protector, has become a real imprisonment. I shall continue to take calcium supplements 3 times a day for the duration! And, of course the medicinal hot chocolate milk every night! And, just maybe, whatever else they tell me to do to strengthen my bones, though I hate pharmaceuticals!

January 5th: Now that have created a decent little home for myself (and you all know what a "nester" I am), I can turn my attention elsewhere. I have enrolled in the best Spanish School around here, Warren Hardy. The school was started 9 years ago by an American who taught Spanish in Corporate settings, to adults for 20 years. He developed his own unique method, designed for adults, such as myself. All the schools I have attended so far were filled with 20-somethings. I took the online placement test and of the first 87 verbs, I knew 85 of them, so I guess I move up to level 2 now! How wonderful.

January 1: Like so many others this time of year, I have vowed to join the local gym and get back into shape, or get into better shape! Now that I know how treacherous the streets of San Miguel can be, I will not consider walking or jogging on them for exercise. There is a small but adequate gym just three blocks from my home and it is equipped with treadmills, bikes, weights.

Let's see how long I last!

There is a half marathon from Atonilco to San Miguel next November and i vow to get myself another finishers medal for my poor rusting collection!

Who knows, maybe I'll meet a man.

To anyone reading this, I wish you every good thing that you want in your life and that all wishes and dreams come true for you in 2009!

And: Peace to all living beings.

The Posada Adventure

2008-12-20T17:43:00.003-06:00

It's my goal here in San Miguel de Allende to try blend in with the population and not to practice "gringo apartheid", so i was very pleased to be invited to participate in a neighborhood Posada last night. It is part of the holiday custom and happens on many nights leading up to Christmas.

Neighborhood people met at a pre-determined location at about 7:30 PM and then proceeded (together in a procession, of course) singing, to another location, some carrying the likeness of Jesus, Mary, Angels, etc, on their shoulders, others carrying candles.

When they reached the second location, a house, this group of about 50 people (which by now i had joined) stood outside singing, holding candles, like carolers in our world. Then, the people inside the house sang back, like "call & response" singing, which i love so much!

After a few minutes the doors opened and we all squeezed inside (most of us, it wasn't a real big house) while prayers were said and more songs were sung, i understood a few words, but I'm far from fluent. I looked around and saw people from one to ninety-one years of age.

Then we went back outside and everyone was given a goodie-bag of sweets (especially the kids) and next, someone else passed out tamales. We stood outside in the street, with the parked cars & trucks, eating tamale, peeling the corn husk down like a banana. Yum, i love tamales.

After that, a rope was strung from one rooftop to another and a piñata was hung up. The men on the roofs pulled on the rope to make the piñata dance up and down as the children took turns slugging away. Everybody squealed with delight as the candy finally started flowing and they all rushed in to pick up their share from the cobblestones.

By 9:00 PM, it was over and we all went home.

Tomorrow or the next night someone else will host and they will do it again. I hope I get invited again, I'd like to observe the differences, if there are any.

This stuff really knocks me out.

It is going to take a long time for me to get bored with this place, Mexico. A very long time, I think.

Up at 4:30 AM....again!

2008-12-18T12:56:00.003-06:00

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Yesterday i woke early and felt fabulous all day. It seemed like a turning point in my recovery. I knew it might not last, but I was so happy to have it anyway,

This morning I awoke early, too, but the pain has returned and I wouldn't characterize this as "fabulous". Oh well, no matter, it's just will take a little more time!

The critical path for today is to schedule my trip to India and change my airline booking online. The policy of British Airways is that you can change your booking BEFORE the departure time of the currently booked flight. In my case, Saturday the 20th at noon, London time. I translate that to mean Friday, because I don't know when the heck the time changes are.........Greenwich mean time. whaaaa? And they charge 50 British Pounds for the change.

Continental, on the other hand, changed my record with a phone call, gave me a year to make up my mind when I want to go and waived the $250 USD change fee, if I bring a letter from my doctor about my broken arm. Yay Continental!

Since I have two flights, Mexico to London (Continental) and London to Delhi(British Airways), I have to observe the policy of BA or lose it.

So I have tentatively picked March 4th (march forth) as my departure date, pending a reply from the travel agent in India. I would hate to go on a date that the country is closed or something.

It will be a completely different trip than the one I would have had, a first-timers trip.

I have added a currency converter in the upper left corner of this blog, in case you want to see how the dollar is doing against any other currencies. Rupees, anyone? Quetzales? Pesos?

Up since 4:00 AM

2008-12-17T09:56:00.007-06:00

Well, I still have this darned cast. I don't hate it, though. I have enough pain that I kind of love the cast as my protector. It hasn't started to itch yet like some people say. Once in awhile I feel a few fire ants marching around in there, but that never lasts long.

And the plastic bags I get back with my fluff fold laundry work perfectly to tape over the cast so I can shower from time to time.

It's half way over! On the 29th I get the cast cut smaller so I can bend the elbow. I think I'll ask him to free up my fingers a little, too.

Even though I can't be completely normal (you may argue that I have never been completely normal) I still manage to push ahead on a few fronts. My apartment still looks like a fire sale is in progress, but every day, small improvements happen.

My landlady and I talk a little or maybe a lot every day and that improves my Spanish, I get out on the street most days which is always fun. Even if I go out just to buy an egg, it's always an adventure for me because of the bustling neighborhood in which I live and the colorful markets nearby.

There is a man on the next street over that rides a burrow with two large metal milk cans strapped on either side. My guess is that he sells milk, but I haven't bought any yet. Bet you have to boil it before you drink it. (Home pasteurization.)

Even though we now have a Wal Mart subsidiary just outside of Centro, and two very lovely American style supermarkets here, I will only buy produce, eggs, milk, etc. from the human beings in my hood. I can afford the extra one cent!

And I have a favorite vegetable stand in the San Juan de Dios Mercado. I've been there enough times now that the proprietess recognizes me and stuffs extra regalos (gifts) into my bag as I shop. My bolsa is so full of fresh lettuce, tomatoes, grapefruit and broccoli that I can hardly carry it home, and all for a whopping 30 Pesos! ($2.30) Last time she gave me an avocado and cebollas (onions) for free.

There are several small markets near my house that I buy something once a week just to say hi. One is run by Pedro & Lucy, I buy paper towels there. Another is run by Olga Lidia and I buy papaya from her, sometimes milk. Etc. I want them to see my face around, to know that I live in the neighborhood. And I love it when i enter and hear "hola, Laura!" They never said that to me at Albertsons.

Kitty litter, on the other hand, comes from Soriana.

Here are a couple of cast, street shots and sky and whatever.

Second Opinion ........ Mine

2008-12-14T04:16:00.005-06:00

It became clear to me that this healing process is a big drain on my energy and that it would be unwise to fly for many hours and possibly incur swelling or in any way add to the risks by trying to keep up a breakneck pace, traveling in a country known to be challenging.

I decided that I didn't want to make the trip to India until my arm is all healed, the cast is off, the pins are out and I have enough physical therapy to restrengthen the arm & wrist.

All is not lost, my airplane tickets are good for one year, now I can plan another trip, only this time I will be traveling alone. Anyone want to go to India? I understand that the season is from November to March.

Or, should I try Morocco?

Turkey kind of scares me. Pema Chodrin says we should go to the places that scare us, but I think she was speaking metaphorically!

What about the East? Somewhere with a lot of Buddhas would be good.

So, while life here is not boring, my life right now is pretty boring. I only have a few hours a day to do anything and then I'm tired and must lay down. Healing is my only job right now. Nights are hard. Sleeping is sometimes impossible. Tylenol and Advil are good. I take calcium 3 times a day and drink hot chocolate every night for medicinal purposes.

And there is reading. Right now it is Barak Obama's book "Dreams From My Father". I still cannot believe that an actual "progressive" has won an election and will be president of the U.S.

I only wish the times were better for his tenure. Boy don't we all?

Today is the day of The Virgin of Guadalupe

2008-12-12T12:56:00.003-06:00

This iconic figure is most sacred to all the catholic converts in Latin America having any indian (or indigenous) blood. They say that this holiday, December 12 is one of the biggest holidays in Mexico.

But I'm in my third month here and have already seen at least three of "the biggest holidays in Mexico." I can tell you that there was no sleeping last night due to the firecrackers that went off intermittently until 2 or 3 AM. Maybr this really is the biggest.

In the Mexican rendition, the Virgin is shown standing within a black crescent with a cherub below it whose wings are red, white & green. In the Guatemalan painting on the back of a "chicken bus", I notice that only the black crescent is shown.

Tonight I will be at a party on the roof of a building close to Centro. I'll wager you that tomorrow there will be photos of fireworks!

Second Opinion?

2008-12-06T19:29:00.008-06:00

Ever since I left Los Angeles I have been one happy camper almost every minute of the time.

But this week kind of turned into a bummer and no amount of Mary Poppins baloney could save me from getting downright miserable. I even cried and, horror of horrors! I felt sorry for myself.

On Friday I went to see my follow up doctor over at La Fe Hospital. It seems I'm healing fine and I think everything is okay.

But Dr. Elias said that I cannot fly with my cast on......... that there can be problems because of pressure or something like that.

At the time of my proposed departure for India, I will be only a couple of days past 3 weeks since my accident. This doesn't work! Can't remove the cast and the pins after only 3 weeks! He gave me some horrible option that I ruled out immediately.

I have paid for my airfare and half of my hotel bill, all non-refundable. Not to mention this is just a tad bit disappointing. Now you know why I was feeling so sorry for myself.

Fortunately there is a kind of "gringo (and gringa!) support group" here, probably more than one...... but there is a Yahoo Group with about 2000 people registered. They (we, I'm in the group, too, but not much to offer yet) post recommendations for new restaurant finds, doctors, dentists, reviews of the plumbing stores, fund raising events, etc.

On the list I "heard" people raving about an orthopedic man in a nearby city and someone else posted his name and telephone number ......... so I called!

On Thursday I will go and show him all my X-rays and ask him for a strategy that might permit a slightly broken, but not totally wrecked version of Laurel to keep all those appointments with the airlines. Or not.

As fate would have it, tonight I struck up a conversation with a woman at the next table in a restaurant and she is the very woman who recently recovered from a broken wrist (yes, soapy sidewalk, consider yourself forewarned!) and who posted the name of the really great doctor on the list. In addition, she gave me the names of her entire support team, including a massage healer. He will be getting a call from me very soon!

It's hard to feel sorry for myself with this many helpful resources around me. Wish me luck with Dr. Schmidt on Thursday for my wrist and with the massage healer for the rest of my racked out body!

Light paintings & DSL

2008-12-04T15:03:00.011-06:00

Yesterday about 1:00, my DSL quit working, which didn't bother me because it cuts out for at least a couple of hours every day but this time it lasted a day and a half, So I went in person to the Telmex office. My Spanish isn't good enough to talk tech on the phone.

I knew what the problem was, though and was able to talk okay in person. So, lo and behold, it was fixed by the time I got home! Not exciting stuff to be writing about, but very exciting to be reconnected to the rest of the world. Just because I live in Mexico doesn't mean that I don't want to be plugged in!

I don't have any new photos today, so I'm posting some that I took a long time ago that no one has seen. I took them while walking home from a Summer concert on the Santa Monica pier, I don't remember which concert.

I call these light paintings. I just point and shake the camera while I shoot. The Ocean Front Walk near the Pier has some great street lights with little cobalt blue beacons on top, like a boat or nautical thing. I love those. And there were other good lights that night, too. Someone strung little green lights between the palm trees in the sand.

Who says we always have to be stay still and be in focus?

miércoles, 03 deciembre

2008-12-03T11:14:00.001-06:00

What a happy day, the pain is starting to subside, I am beginning to sleep well and this morning I had energy enough to finally sweep my floor! woo-hoo. Clean is good. (but no soapy water here.) Normally, sweeping is a two handed activity, but I have learned that it doesn't have to be. Leverage can be created using hips, neck or other parts.

As circumstances would have it, I never got around to posting a few pictures I took while Mike was here, after our marathon drive.

It was a lot of fun showing him around town for a few days. Of course San Miguel didn't disappoint us, there was another parade, this time by school age kids celebrating in costume for the Mexican Revolution (1936?).

The pom-pom girls dancing to rap music was one of my favorites and of course there was a lot of traditional dance, too. Maybe i can figure out how to post the video!

And, I'm always taken with mothers and their children that i see in the crowds, so I'm including one from that day. You can really see the local color scheme in the background.

17 days until I leave for India! Hope I continue to heal quickly.

Clean sidewalks

2008-11-30T10:22:00.000-06:00

Last Monday I was celebrating being back from Los Angeles with some new old clothes to wear (living out of a suitcase is very simple, but the weather changed and I missed my cowboy boots!)and I decided to move a little quickly down the sidewalk in El Centro.

Walking felt soooooo good after 5 days in the car driving back home to San Miguel de Allende with my clothes, car and cats. Thank God I had my friend Michael with me, to help me with all that! It was 2200 miles.

I was on my way to Telmex to order DSL service for my apartment, very exciting stuff after 4 months of working out of internet cafes, I can tell you. But that's another story.

The shopkeepers here are very vigilant about cleanliness and they mop their floors every morning. After the floor, they dispose of the wash water on the sidewalk and give it a good brooming, too, And in Centro, some of the sidewalks are paved with weathered but flat pieces of beautiful red and gold marble that dates back to I don't know when.

And, if it is the shady side of the street, it doesn't dry as fast. Are you getting the picture? Lots of soap.

Before I knew what hit me, I was looking up from the ground, rolling around in soapy water. I glanced over at my left hand, which seemed so far away and I noticed that it was pointing in a very strange direction.

Fortunately, there was a police woman by my side within 2 minutes. She radioed for an ambulance while I was still hoping the whole thing would clear up. I wanted to go to Telmex!

Instead I went to a private hospital named La Fe (The Faith) where I was speedily and competently cared for. The fracture is clean and simple, the surgery was "closed", meaning they didn't need to cut anything, just rearrange the bone. And the 3 pins, I guess, will keep it all together until it heals. I do feel a bit skewered.

The cats don't care a bit! They just want to sleep, be petted and go outside to play in their new back yard.

I am a statistic now in San Miguel de Allende, the "city of fallen women", but this will pass. All is well and I'm so happy it wasn't worse!

SMA Dia de Muertos

2008-11-29T10:39:00.001-06:00

So, September was the celebration of San Miguel's patron saint, the end of October and beginning of November is an even bigger celebration, Dia de Muertos.

It takes days to prepare for this amazing event when the spirits of all the loved ones who have passed away return for one day to be with those who remain. Altars are set up in homes, businesses, public squares and in the cemeteries. Photos of the departed can be placed there to guide the spirits in knowing it is their altar. The altars are caslled "ofrendas".

Also placed there are fruits, which represent the good works done by the person while they were living, flowers (especially fragrant marigolds of the season), favorite foods and drinks of the person, candles, sugar skulls and other representations.

In San Raphael, where I live, I took a walk around the neighborhood to peek into open windows and doors. One woman placed her husbands straw work hat on the beautiful ofrenda. Others had many photos, some faded with age, but not forgotten. I did not photograph any of these very personal reflections. If I had, I would show them in sepia.

After respect is shown and a few somber memories take place, there is plenty of time to party, party, party with the returned spirits. Tequila abounds, Mariachis are everywhere and in the end, all of that favorite food has to be eaten, I saw families camped out in the main cemetery, with rocking chairs and all sorts of things. It was such a long walk for me, it was dark before I reached the graveyard. It was wonderful at night, too!

To see the images in larger format, click on the heading, SMA Dia de Muertos, above.

San Miguel de Allende

2008-11-28T21:45:00.000-06:00

San Miguel de Allende, Patron Saint: Miguel the Archangel.

And I thought all this was for me! I arrived in this city on September 28, in time to witness solemn religious processions, a giant parade lasting over 3 hours, huge, colorful papier mache puppets, bands playing, native dancing and after all that, fireworks to light the night sky. It wasn't to mark the occasion of my arrival after all, it was to honor the patron saint of San Miguel and they honored him well!

Since I have lived in Los Angeles for so long and am not a stranger to Hollywood, it amazed me that there were no movie cameras, this was not a "set". These folks know khow to put on a show!

The next day, the streets had already been swept and life went on, ready for the next party.

For a look at some of the colorful action in larger format, click on San Miguel de Allende, above.

friendly san miguel

2008-10-01T20:38:00.001-05:00

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the stress of travel, driving guatemalan back roads for hours in the rain (at 4:00 AM), flying, waiting, flying some more, waititng some more, carrying heavy bags, sleeping in different places all the time......

it all seems in the past. today i awoke feeling relaxed and thrilled to the bottom of my toes. i have looked at one apartment that i absolutely love, but they don´t take cats, so i have 3 or 4 more appointments today. the cab drivers will be rich! muy rico!!!!

i have found a neighborhood that i love, it`s all mexican, upscale, beautiful and has tons of fabulous markets. it is called san raphael and i hope i can get an apartment there.

or maybe some other wonderful area that i don´t know about yet!

i have a cell phone and it is a LOT more expensive than the same one in guatemala. the calls to the us are $2 per minute, you can expect me to use skype from here! local calls are 4 pesos per minute, that`s 40 cents. its high.

i was recently adopted by two american women, both artists and very smart, charming, pretty, etc. last night we had drinks at sunset on the roof terrace of one of the places and were mesmerized by the view. then dinner at another place with spectacular view and a huge fireplace to keep off the evening chill.

things are good. wish me luck finding just the right spot for nate, steve and me.