At the library...which is not quiet



It pisses me off that the shiny new renovated library at school is now filled with freshman who hog all the computers, thus forcing me to bring my laptop to campus. In addition, they love to talk--on their phones, to each other, at their ipods...grrr. The only places where I can get proper wireless reception is where they tend to congregate and babble. I hate teenagers---I even hated teenagers when I was a teenager---and this only makes me hate them more.



I called out of work today because I don't feel very well. I spent all morning in bed, and managed to drag myself to campus around 1. I can't tell if it's allergies, a cold, or just plain irritation that I'm still in Atlanta. I've managed to get a few things done school-wise, but not nearly as much as I would like.



It also occurred to me last night that I'm probably 30 pounds overweight by Hollywood standards.



Not having internet at home is also getting old. The Comcast guy is supposed to be out again today to fix it, but if I were my landlady I would have switched carriers long before now.



God, I sound like the whiniest, crankiest person ever. Let's see, some good things...



I caught up with some of my friends this past weekend that I hadn't seen in a while. I'm doing well in all my classes so far. My life is pretty drama-free as far as interpersonal relationships go. Life's actually really good right now.

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Trouble



When I was in Mexico, I had a conversation with two 17-year-old girls that went a little something like this:



First 17-year-old girl: Do you have a boyfriend?

(giggles from both 17-year-old girls)

Me: No.

Second 17-year-old girl: Why not?

Me: Men are trouble.

Second 17-year-old girl: But they're such fun trouble.

(even louder giggling from both 17-year-old girls)

Me: I've had enough trouble for a while.



Besides, who needs first-hand trouble when I can live vicariously through all my friends' troubles? There's the friend who is in the process of lining up a new boyfriend while her soon-to-be-ex-boyfriend still lives in her house, the friend who emphatically declares her current lover is "so not my boyfriend!" while helping him unload boxes of clothing and his big screen tv into her apartment, the friend who has taken up with yet another balding dude whom she met through a guy who's heart she broke a few summers ago, the friend who can't stand her husband but would never consider leaving him, the friend who's husband left her but can't quite cope with the loss...well, the list of troubles goes on and on. It's amazing anyone ever manages to get together happily at all.



But even I can't remain cynical forever, and I have to admit that once the 100 degree heat wave broke last week, I began to feel a little hungry again for romance. Despite having a front-row seat to endless trouble, I think I'm almost ready to find a little bit of trouble of my own again.



Almost.

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So I'm going to go all Perez Hilton on you...



...and type this from a chic coffee shop, although that is where all similarities end because said chic coffee shop is not in LaLaland and I am not a large gay man currently starring in a celebrity rap show with the likes of Kendra from The Girls Next Door. (Incidentally, I had a bizarre dream last night were Bridget was no longer one of Hef's girlfriends and I was asked to replace her, despite being brunette, smart and ten pounds overweight by Hollywood standards.)



Moving on...



I know I seem to have fallen off the face of the earth lately, mostly because I left the country for a few weeks, then have had internet connectivity issues at home ever since returning Stateside. School started August 20, with classes that are both reading and writing intensive (for example, I have to do primary research at the Carter Center for my political communication paper, which is super exciting but also kind of a pain since they are only open M-F 8:30-4:30), plus I'm preparing to leave the A (that would be Atlanta) in January (Ms. casetheplace goes to Washington and all that) which involves filling out all sorts of forms, plus I'm trying to get all my various documents changed to the new spelling of my name, plus I'm planning a trip to visit Loy in San Diego in late Oct/early Nov (I really racked up the frequent flyer miles this past year, so I'm flying gratis), plus I'm going camping in the Everglades between Christmas and New Year's so there's all sorts of planning involved with that (mosquito netting, anyone?), plus I'm sure there's something else going on I forgot to mention.



In short, I am still alive, just very busy.

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I've been keeping to myself lately



I've been keeping to myself lately, which is why I haven't been posting here. Someday, when I'm feeling loud again, I'll be back.

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¿De verdad? De verdad.



So Jacinta, my dad's girlfiend, has two children, a 17 year old daughter and a 22 year old son. The daughter is your typical moody, antisocial teenager. (While I've been in México I've been working on my theory about teenage girls who tend to the literary, that they can generally be divided into two camps: those who worship at the altar of Jane Eyre and those who consider The Bell Jar their manifesto. I don't know if Jacinta's daughter has read either book or not, but she obviously falls into Bell Jar territory, so she's alright by me.). As for the son...well, he's been trying his damndest to get me to go salsa dancing with him since we arrived last week.





I know what you're thinking, but let me be clear - Jacinta's son is no Rico Suave. He's the Méxican equivalent of Burt Reynolds in Smokey and the Bandit, minus the moustache. He even drives a truck for a living. Thankfully I don't have to pretend that I don't understand him, because he speaks so fast and with such a heavy accent even his own mother can barely figure out what the hell he´s saying. I just stare blankly at him and occasionally mumble a¨"No sé."



We´ve taken lots of pictures, and a lot of them are really good, but my dad still uses a 35mm camera, so I won't be posting any until after we return.



Tonight we went to the movies and saw Los simpsons: La pélicula. It was the perfect movie for me to see dubbed into Spanish because I already know the characters like they are my own family and so many of the jokes are visual that I had no trouble following along. I'm hoping to see Harry Potter in Spanish also before we leave.

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Real de Catorce



Yesterday we left the house at 6am to drive a few hundred kilometers north of here to the town of Real de Catorce. After all sorts of adventures finding breakfast and avoiding a collision with a burro (I wisely slept through most of this), we turned off the highway onto a cobblestone road that wound up into the Sierra Madres 20 kilometers. 20 kilometers on a cobblestone road!! You can just imagine. At the end of the 20 kilometers was a tunnel that was 2 kilometers long, which is a really long ways for an old tunnel blasted out of the mountain over a hundred years ago. We paid our veinte pesos ($2), braved the tunnel, and soon found ourselves on the other side in the town of Real de Catorce. (My dad and I had a fun time explaining the expressions "rocky road" and "the light at the end of the tunnel" to Jacinta - "It's been a rocky road, but thankfully we can see the light at the end of the tunnel!")



We had a great time walking around the town. We bought a few souvenirs, looked at the church of San Francisco (the town's patron saint) and ate lunch at a little café that served coffee, crepes and sandwiches. I hadn't seen a sandwich in days and was amused at how excited I was to eat a sandwich again.



(On a side note, Real de Catorce was the town they shot the movie The Mexican in.)



Today my dad and I stayed home and did pretty much nothing. It's the first day we've really had to just lay around and be on vacation. Since we arrived, our time has been full of sightseeing and parties and everything else. It's been nice just laying around.



Oh, and our bags finally arrived Sunday night.

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Not in Atlanta



Well, here I am, typing this in México. My dad and I arrived about 10:00pm local time (one hour behind Atlanta) Thursday, but unfortunately our bags did not. Supposedly our bags are being delivered to us today, but we aren´t holding our breathe.



So far I´ve eaten lots of meals based around corn tortillas (the corn tortilla is to México what rice is to East Asia), purchased some toiletries and clothes to tide me over until our bags arrive, seen lots of sights, had a Spanish lesson (1 1/2 hours with a private tutor is 50 pesos, or $5), and learned lots of new Spanish vocabulary. I´ve also slept in the past three days, which is fabulous.



We're going to take several day trips out into the country, so hopefully I'll have lots of tales of excitement and adventure once we do.



Also, it is a little tricky typing on this Spanish-language keyboard. Many of the keys are in different places, which slows me down quite a bit.



¡Hasta luego!

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