From the trenches - Part II
Monday, January 2, 2012
Day two at the beach and things have vastly improved. The Internet connection is working. The air conditioning in the room I share with my niece is capable of freezing it in minutes with an artic blast. The sun is out in all its killer power, especially down here, just below the hole in the ozone layer, but the breeze is strong. It's almost 6 PM and in a little while we will all walk to the beach, covered in sunblock SPF 30.
From the trenches - Part I
So far, I have survived. My stay in Montevideo went as usual, horrifying afternoons watching my mother do nothing squeezed between interesting and fun evenings with a couple of friends and my sister and her family. Long talks gazing into what looks more and more like Sarajevo after the war, paying paranoid attention to my surroundings while listening to all sorts of encouraging tales of home invasions, street beat ups and murder-for-sneakers and pondering absurdly on the wretched life of the horses who pull the carts of those tasteless people who haven chosen the lifestyle of scavengers. I am not kidding, I actually heard heartfelt compassion toward those poor horses and indignation at those children who dare work them hours on end. Day in, day out, a couple of weeks have slowly passed. Christmas was the usual jolly affair highlighted by the recent death of a friend of my mother's whom she had not seen or heard from in decades but whose demise greatly affected her already less than cheerful disposition. My ex was there, invited by my mother but that's not a problem, I am very good in the exes department. My niece was practically buried under all our presents. I had carried almost two suitcases full of clothes. She's very into well thought outfits. She also got plenty of makeup and an electric guitar, among other things. She's 8 years old. I refuse to think of her at 15. NYE was a blast, just my mother, my brother and me. My mother never left the bed, we watched for the fifth time Michael Jackson's last rehearsal before he went kaput, there was no toast and one second after midnight both her and my brother wanted to sleep. I tried unsuccessfully to call a friend but the phone lines were dead. So I went home, poured a glass of wine and did not bother to drink it. Hello 2012. We left Montevideo on January 1: four adults, two dogs, a kid and accompanying luggage and food, in the car, after dropping the turtle at my mother's. So now I am at the house at the beach were the Internet connection that was my one and only, yet absolutely non-negotiable, condition, is not working. Other things are working fine though. Bugs are doing great and displaying a remarkable appetite. I have been urged to slather in OFF!, night and day. So I am writing this now off-line, sprayed with chemicals that so far have not done much against the bugs but have very efficiently killed my wireless keyboard with their amazing stickiness. The background music chosen by my brother is consistently loungy frenchy crap and I have spent a little while cleaning up the communal spaces to my not really exceptional standards. I have also bought green tea candles and arranged stuff in a symmetrical fashion. Yup, that's the situation so far. I hear NY is still there.
In a few more hours
Sunday, January 1, 2012
my brother, my sister, her hubby and their kid will be at this house, a block from the beach. I am looking forward to a severe sunburn.
Sent from my iPad
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