Today my cousin Jessica chastised me for my lack of posting. In the past she has also told me that our grandfather who is 80+ works 4 days a week, so I should at least be managing two posts a day. I complained to her I had a lot of posts written in my head, but they were all kind of rude rants, and she reminded me that was her favorite kind. She also suggested that I write about animals. Like stray dogs. And post pictures of them. Here is a random smattering of things from my brain based on my conversation with the lovely Jessica.
1. Yesterday I took a walk with the kids to get ice cream. We were crossing a not very busy street when a car comes speeding up and even though we were halfway across the crosswalk he pulls RIGHT in front of us, and would have hit us if I didn’t guess what he was about to do. As we walked around the back of his truck (he couldn’t turn, there were cars coming on the busy street, good thing he got there before us) I seriously considered kicking it. Why on earth people think it is an awesome idea to drive as fast as you can towards a lady and two small children is beyond me. As I got around to his open window I shouted at him (in Spanish) “HEY! You need to watch out for PEOPLE!!!” He didn’t look at me and perhaps thought I was not talking to him, but as he finally turned and passed us a ways down the street I gave him my evilest look. Similar things have happened other times, including one time when we were crossing a street and a taxi sped up to scare us. Aaron gave him a piece of his mind in English that time, but sadly he was too far away to hear it. But really, I should have kicked the truck.
2. There are not a ton of stray dogs in town, but there are a lot of dogs. Little white poodle type things are very very popular. But there are a lot of dogs, and to let your dog go to the bathroom you usually just turn them loose in the street. And then they do their business wherever they please and you don’t have to clean it up. I suppose that is great if you are the dog owner and never walk anywhere on the street, but for everyone else it is awful. Luckily the city has it’s own janitorial staff who walk around night and day (no joke I saw one out cleaning our street at 3am last night) with their broom and dust pan picking up garbage and other “surprises”. About a month ago there was a guy who lived near us who kept bringing his dogs on leash to pee on our front gate. One time Aaron caught him and ran out and let him know that he should not be doing that, and we haven’t seen the guy on our street since. (He lives on the street around the corner.)
3. Men using the bathroom on the walls in the city is not uncommon. It is nasty and I always have to remind the kids to stay away from puddles that are near walls, because they are not from the rain. This reminded me of a time in 2008 when we were living here. Perhaps I have told this story before. But if not, you might not want to read it anyway. We lived in the center of downtown and one time I thought a nice old lady with her big fancy skirt had fallen into the street/gutter. I foolishly asked her if she needed help and she looked at me as if I was insane. She was busy using the drainage system. I should point out that this is not common, but worth reporting nonetheless.
4. Jessica should start her own blog. Not only is she ridiculously funny, she sees lots of amazing things living in Baltimore. Today she told me about seeing a pot thrown onto someone’s car. Full of soil, soil everywhere. Just imagine if she had a camera. It would be a wonderful blog and we would all read it. [Look what she produced today!]
5.
We bought some of these “puffs” yesterday. We don’t have a couch or really any furniture besides beds, kitchen table and chairs, and Aaron’s work desks, so these are our new most favorite things. They are not really beanbags and not as comfortable, as they are stuffed with tiny styrafoam pellets (I think) but they are better than no couch at all. Our big one is brown (so classy) and our two singles are blue & green, and pink & purple. Try not to be too jealous.
6. I hate cutters. This could be an entire post. But I think it is my biggest pet peeve. And is really really common here. For example if you were to go to a neighborhood tienda (store) and two people were already at the gate waiting to be helped/being helped, you would begin to wait patiently and then meanwhile someone else would come up and get the owner’s attention and shout “eggs! I want 7 eggs! And some papaya!” and you would stand there wondering A. why the store owner didn’t remember you were there first and B. why the person thought they were cooler than you and should go first. This would lead you to boycott many neighborhood stores, making your husband sad because he wants to get fruits and vegetables at the closer tienda, instead of the farther one. This is just one “hypothetical” of how cutting can ruin lives.
7. I have to go sit on the “puffs” now because I am tired of all this typing.
Love the puffs.
Jessica is a genius and her bossiness has blessed my life. Thank you, Jessica!
Your puffs look considerably more comfortable than my real furniture. When we move I want to sell/burn all out furniture and, as of reading this post, I know what to replace it with.
Cutting was crazy common in southeast asia. eventually I started telling me people no they had to wait or show them to the back of the line. It all started on one particularly over frustrated day at a border where the line was going no where because of these guys. Whether they understood my English or not, they knew what was going on. And it worked. They laughed (I hate that kind of laugh) but it worked, and it worked for the rest of my trip. I would tell people no and point them to the back or tell the person I was in line, “no, me” or however I could get the point across. I hated doing it, but it worked. I