Mexicoke

Like the hairs surrounding Negrito's mange sore, so are the days of my stay. We're rapidly approaching the end of March, the holiday weeks, the reverse-tsunami of Mexico-natives seeking intense sun, bebidas, and turquoise waters. That means only about a month or so until I should have the sale wrapped up, and my behind on a plane back to lovely San Diego. That's exciting and scary a la misma hora, I can't wait to see all those I left behind, but I'll miss my little chunk of third-world paradise ( and I'm hoping nothing goes wacko with the paperwork so we can actually make that deadline). Cuando yo vine a Playa San Bruno, fui un gringo sin color, y no lo pude hablar espanol muy bien. Ahorita, tiene color mi piel, estoy mas rubio, y puedo hablar y entenderlo mas bueno espanol. My grammar, conjugation, and spelling still need a lot of work - in english and spanish.

Today I made a bad choice. Honestly, I didn't know it was going to be close to 100 degrees today in Progreso. Lord knows I wouldn't have pulled on JEANS if I had. I was riding the sweat express without a ticket today, and to make it worse - I decided to ingest my weight in habanero peppers along with my tacos de arrachera. I'm so lethargic right now, the power of the sun and a little tequila should not be underestimated. Or the water lost by sweating in your jeans while in a semi-tropical climate. I actually made two bad choices, truth be told. I decided to make a small loan to one of of Mexican friends, Jose. He needed to buy this old VW right away, but supposedly won't get paid for the big jobs he's working on for a couple weeks. This is my very first adventure in making loans to un amigo. I have a feeling it will shortly be followed by another first - not getting paid back. Yeah! Put that between some bread with relish and snack on it! Wash it down with a warm 3-Liter of Coca-Cola!  Diabetes yeah!  Seriously though, sometimes you need to take risks (besides falling off a rock face or falling in love).

One of the local ladies is in heat, I suppose, because all the male dogs are running around like idiots - hips thrusting to nowhere, biting each others faces. My poor Negrito is one of the smaller dogs, and it doesn't look to me like he's even remotely interested in mounting, he is just used to running around with his friends. Now (ahora), these same friends are ripping holes in his face for even getting close. He was dripping blood on the tile this morning, and before I realized what was going on, I searched all over my body for the source of the mystery red smears on my arms and hands. I wonder how long he'll live after I leave? Nobody will be feeding him, Diego will soon be going bye-bye and I doubt he'll be taking the animals with him - not that it matters. I wonder if Negrito would fit in my uke case behind the neck...there's a small space there that I usually reserve for a book or a bag of cashews. Two plane rides later, he's searching for dirty diapers on the beaches of San Diego. Que Bueno!

It's strangely gloomy here today, which I think is a contributing factor to my mood. I wonder if I took up residence someplace more gloomy (Seattle?) with a marked propensity towards rainfall...would that turn me into a writer? I have little-to-no pain or angst in me as I sit, and the sunny days help to keep that feeling rolling. Perhaps I should try writing songs in spanish - I think I'd focus more on getting the vocab and grammar in line, and worry less about my lyrics laying gold eggs. On a related note, the last time I played in front of folks, I was booed by a group of old drunk gringos and canadians. Que Bueno!