Cactus Juice? Would mom like some?
OK, my last few posts have been a little blue. No one should be too surprised to learn that it's plainly related to a certain feminine plague. Thanks for the support, and I am glad I have this forum to sort through some of that heavy depressive stuff.
Today is Sunday. I just woke from a nap, and am chilling here with a Mirror Pond and listening to some Sade. I have been surfing the net to find what I should send my mom for her one-month-overdue 50th-birthday gift. I suck. But it's really hard, since I want it be special, but I can't seem to afford special enough. Kid Sis is having a birthday too, and that warrants a gift. we have three babies of friends on the way that need gifts. I owe J a Valentine's gift, and I owe a bunch more. I really am not a selfish person, just painfully non-committal, and eternally broke as a joke these days. I should learn to knit. Or macrame.
So we went to Nogales yesterday. Had dinner with the IN-Laws at our favorite place. It's on the "otherside", meaning just on the other side of the Mexican Border. My father-in-law Luis, knows everyone there. It's an amazing restaurant on a backstreet, next to some grimy strip clubs, but it's built into a cave with amazing decoration and artwork. We just hung out with them and then went to our hotel and chilled. I am reading a very good book, so I must have passed four hours of yesterday asborbed. It's called the Dive from Claussen's Pier. I love it. It's a little sad, but so thought-provoking. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship becuase you care for a person, and not because you are in romantic love would relate. There's so much more to the book, but I love it. I just hope I don't hate the ending.
We went to Mama Lucia's this morning. She rattles on and on to me in Spansih as if I get it. But to assist, she tends to act everything out. Today it was the miracle of cactus water. She was very excitedly telling me that Tia Socorro was having pains. I caught terms like "muy malo" and she was gripping her back and sort of wincing. She stood up and kinda hunched over and took odd little mini-steps, gripping her back. I get it. (I think Mama Lucia would be a good teammate on Amazing Race, since the language barrier is not a challenge to her with her charade skills!) Anyway, she was telling us that she told her to have some "agua de cholla". She said that like forty times. And then, her eyes bright with pleasure, and a huge grin the story wraps up, with her hands in the air and something to the effect of "All better". She brings out these two gross dried out pieces of cactus. Hold them out in her hand. THen goes and gets an old gatorade bottle which looks like a urine sample. She pours me and J cups. There is attempts at saying no. We lose. We drink. Tasted like cactus water.
J filled me in on the gaps. Apparently Tia Socorro does not like to drink water, so her kidneys were aching. Mama Lucia made her drink a gallon of cactus water a day for three days. Tada! Miracle Cure. Not that Tia just needed water and it was the water alone....but I digress.
Mama Lucia is so cute. She's like 4 foot 9, and solid. She wears aprons all the time, and is always cooking. Always. If there is not a pot boiling or tortillas rolling, she is miserable. If and when the end of civilization as we know it comes upon us, I am following Mama Lucia. She'll sort it all out. All she needs is fire, water, and what comes from the earth. I love that she calls me "mija".
Something about going to J's home, makes me feel less homesick and more homesick at the same time. Like, i love knowing I have new family that love and accept me, gringa or not. But also, the family feel, the love, the familiarity that they have, makes me want to go home so bad. I want to be on my dad's couch, or my mom's. I miss my grandmas. My sister. My Lu. Just being. Without thoughts and plans and politeness, just being like you can be when you are home.
By the way, I have a bunch of half-finsihed "real" posts. I just haven't had the privacy to finish them. This book inspired me to write about some stuff. I would love to know if anyone else has read this book and what they thought.
OK, I'm off to get into my bed again with some oreos. They are the cactus juice for cramps! :) Sorry MAHD...and any other male readers who are just not interested in that whole phenom.
Today is Sunday. I just woke from a nap, and am chilling here with a Mirror Pond and listening to some Sade. I have been surfing the net to find what I should send my mom for her one-month-overdue 50th-birthday gift. I suck. But it's really hard, since I want it be special, but I can't seem to afford special enough. Kid Sis is having a birthday too, and that warrants a gift. we have three babies of friends on the way that need gifts. I owe J a Valentine's gift, and I owe a bunch more. I really am not a selfish person, just painfully non-committal, and eternally broke as a joke these days. I should learn to knit. Or macrame.
So we went to Nogales yesterday. Had dinner with the IN-Laws at our favorite place. It's on the "otherside", meaning just on the other side of the Mexican Border. My father-in-law Luis, knows everyone there. It's an amazing restaurant on a backstreet, next to some grimy strip clubs, but it's built into a cave with amazing decoration and artwork. We just hung out with them and then went to our hotel and chilled. I am reading a very good book, so I must have passed four hours of yesterday asborbed. It's called the Dive from Claussen's Pier. I love it. It's a little sad, but so thought-provoking. Anyone who has ever been in a relationship becuase you care for a person, and not because you are in romantic love would relate. There's so much more to the book, but I love it. I just hope I don't hate the ending.
We went to Mama Lucia's this morning. She rattles on and on to me in Spansih as if I get it. But to assist, she tends to act everything out. Today it was the miracle of cactus water. She was very excitedly telling me that Tia Socorro was having pains. I caught terms like "muy malo" and she was gripping her back and sort of wincing. She stood up and kinda hunched over and took odd little mini-steps, gripping her back. I get it. (I think Mama Lucia would be a good teammate on Amazing Race, since the language barrier is not a challenge to her with her charade skills!) Anyway, she was telling us that she told her to have some "agua de cholla". She said that like forty times. And then, her eyes bright with pleasure, and a huge grin the story wraps up, with her hands in the air and something to the effect of "All better". She brings out these two gross dried out pieces of cactus. Hold them out in her hand. THen goes and gets an old gatorade bottle which looks like a urine sample. She pours me and J cups. There is attempts at saying no. We lose. We drink. Tasted like cactus water.
J filled me in on the gaps. Apparently Tia Socorro does not like to drink water, so her kidneys were aching. Mama Lucia made her drink a gallon of cactus water a day for three days. Tada! Miracle Cure. Not that Tia just needed water and it was the water alone....but I digress.
Mama Lucia is so cute. She's like 4 foot 9, and solid. She wears aprons all the time, and is always cooking. Always. If there is not a pot boiling or tortillas rolling, she is miserable. If and when the end of civilization as we know it comes upon us, I am following Mama Lucia. She'll sort it all out. All she needs is fire, water, and what comes from the earth. I love that she calls me "mija".
Something about going to J's home, makes me feel less homesick and more homesick at the same time. Like, i love knowing I have new family that love and accept me, gringa or not. But also, the family feel, the love, the familiarity that they have, makes me want to go home so bad. I want to be on my dad's couch, or my mom's. I miss my grandmas. My sister. My Lu. Just being. Without thoughts and plans and politeness, just being like you can be when you are home.
By the way, I have a bunch of half-finsihed "real" posts. I just haven't had the privacy to finish them. This book inspired me to write about some stuff. I would love to know if anyone else has read this book and what they thought.
OK, I'm off to get into my bed again with some oreos. They are the cactus juice for cramps! :) Sorry MAHD...and any other male readers who are just not interested in that whole phenom.
posted by Knows It All @ 4:23 PM
3 Comments:
At 6:36 AM,
Anonymous said…
Hello! I read the Dive from Claussen's Pier a few years ago, and I loved it. It was so emotional and I thought it was well written. It makes you think a lot about relationships. Hope all is well-- xoxoxo Mandy
At 11:30 PM,
ShooShoo said…
Let me know if you end up liking the ending of the book... Seems even if I like a book or a movie a lot, if I end up hating the ending, it just knocks my opinion of the whole thing down several notches! ;) Sounds good so far though... and I can always use a good book recommendation!
At 6:03 AM,
Knows It All said…
I ended up loving the whole thing. For me, the whole book perfectly captured so many emotions that are natural at that age. I totally related and that allowed me to reflect. I recommend it.
;)
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