the sun is just about to climb up over there.
" -The Innocence Mission
On Boyfriends:
Teenagers, and humans alike, but teenagers more so do this funny “I don’t want to look like I’m trying to get your attention, but I want your attention.” Or “look at me, but don’t notice that it’s my fault you’re looking at me.” It cracks me up. There was this one specific incident, when teenager A had gotten wet in the ocean with her clothes on, bathing suit underneath. Instead of discreetly going behind the car, ten feet from me, she made a big deal about how she was going to stand behind me, while she fought to get her wet clothes off, so that no one would watch the “embarrassing struggle”. Right.
Anyways…Teenager B was telling us about how she was “going to ask this guy out, because he’s totally cute!” to which the Teenager A said, “I thought it was the guys job to ask the girl? I don’t chase guys. I’m not like YOU, that’s not how you get a boyfriend.” But while Teenager A said this, she had on a lacy tank top, enough make up to make my grandma look 30, (or since I’m having so much fun with metaphors) enough make up to preserve the face of a Pharaoh for 2000 years, and bling bling. Some girls chase boys with words, others with their appearance- two methods, similar result.
On Mexico/cultural celebrations:
So yesterday I aptly avoided attacks of eggs filled full of flour. It was an independence day celebration, replete with parades and parties. They were specific enough to distinguish that the first half was the civic celebration (nat’l anthem, history reading, marching) and the second half was the social celebration (tamales, ice cream, flour eggs, milk cake, fruit). All these kids are running around looking like my grandma (they weren’t wearing Teenager B’s makeup) because white flour in black hair results in gray hair. I learned how to fill eggs with flour/confetti in HS Spanish class! I was so pleased that I already had experience egg filling and decorating.
Mexico often does things that don’t make sense- like provide a head table and chairs for the “dignitaries” attending the event, even though they had to stand the whole time out of respect for the flag, etc. The little kids had flags and balloons, but the big kids had nothing AND didn’t march in step/time. The little “marching band geek” inside of me came out today, and I marched in step/time while I followed the kids around the neighborhood. But what I didn’t understand was that they would march 3 or 4 steps, then stop, make sure everybody was an arm’s length away from their neighbors, then start again. They took an hour and a half to go through the neighborhood. I quit after 20 minutes, went to the park, bought myself a tamal, and relaxed. One of the guys there said, “there are so many Americans here” except I was the only one I saw, and I looked hard! The rest of my family was at the big parade in the center of town, which had more participants, but somehow was over faster. My hometown is about the same size as this town and it’s surrounding area, yet my hometown only has one parade for each big event, where as this town has two that happen at the same time?!?
On healthy eating:
I drove past a fish taco stand, and it reminded me that a few weeks ago a friend and I stopped by to indulge in the friedy fried goodness that is a fish taco. Except that we were disappointed, because they changed their preparation technique. They used to be pure friedness, almost unrecognizable as fish. While I enjoy the TASTE of fish, I CERTAINLY don’t expect it when I’m eating a fish taco. Their new meat is only crispy on the very outside edge, warm, flaky, and fishy on the inside. It almost tasted, gasp, healthier. This may be the first time I’ve been disappointed in food that seemed healthy.
On borrowing:
I borrow another person’s books and dvds quite often down here, and I try to be a good, since they aren’t mine, but somehow, I don’t succeed. For example, I was keeping his dvd on my shelf to protect it, when one of my daughters C—comes in and starts taking all the dvds OFF my shelf. She opens that one, and takes the booklet out, it looks more intriguing than the excersize dvds or the Francis Shaffer How then shall we live?dvds. I immediately ask her to not touch things that aren’t hers without asking first, take the booklet from her, and DON”T put it back in it’s case, but on top of the case. Dur. A couple weeks later, I get the opportunity to watch the dvd, but the booklet is NOWHERE. In my attempt to save it from sure destruction, I somehow guaranteed destruction. I think the mouse took it and hid in between my walls. He is so gracious. I recently tried my best with a book, but somehow it kept getting dog-eared accidentally, especially when I would pick it up carefully, I would bend the front cover, or when I would put it on my shelf, it would fall off and bend the front cover; finally I realized the secret TO SUCCESS! The less time I have his materials, the less worn they get. So this weekend I made it through Traveling Mercies in 3 days, granted I’ve read it before. And it still looks in pristine condition! Yay!
On living together:
I’ve realized that just because you live with someone doesn’t mean you automatically have a relationship with them. You have to work at it, purposefully spend time together, even when I’d rather get some work done, or read quietly. I think I knew this in college but am reminded again. Between everyone’s different school schedules, hmk, and extracurriculars, I’m finding it difficult to have “rest” time AND “hang out” time. Plus, they are teenagers, and when you wanna hang out, they may not be interested, but then when they wanna hang out, you’re busy, or it’s inconvenient.
The girl we had for a few weeks back in June visited us today. It was nice to see she is still doing well even though she was given back to her aunt.
Fall is coming, it smells like campfire smoke more and more often, I’m sleeping with long sleeves on, oh and it rained twice this summer! I know that’s quite the opposite of the past few days in the Midwest…here’s hoping for a rainy winter (for us! Not for you guys. Unless you want it.)
Quotes from Traveling Mercies:
If you have a problem you can solve by throwing money at it, you don’t have a very interesting problem.
I hate being the kind of person who tries to get someone with stage-four metastatic lung cancer to feel sorry for her just because she has a headache.
Music is about as physical as it gets: your essential rhythm is your heartbeat; your essential sound, the breath. We’re walking temples of noise, and when you add tender hearts to this mix, it somehow lets us meet in places we couldn’t get to any other way.
Don't let your old days find you!
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