Cake!

Last night I got a birthday cake.

But when I realized I couldn't get all the candles on it,
I just broke down.



And got another cake!

Right about now I am pretty darn content.  Personally, emotionally, if not necessarily professionally.

My heart is lighter after finally resolving a couple of personal issues, long overdue; all my peeps are doing really well; and my oldest friends are moving back to the Emerald City.

Meanwhile you couldn't pay me to be 27 again (maybe 37...) because right now, right here, I could not be happier.

A Few Peru Pix

Why is that man holding a beer AND a machete, and who's the fashion disaster in the baggy pants?  O wait that's me.

Guinea Pigs:  It's What's for Dinner.

The Cathedral of Cajamarca, Plaza de Armas.

More later.  Also - today is my birthday.  Yay me!

Some Good Thoughts

There’s only so long you can sit around in your underwear.

Make an effort for people who make an effort for you.

Accept what can be given; anything else is magical thinking.

If you think it might be racist, it is.

Lesser people than you have done harder things than this.

If you choose to love, love fully, honestly, unbegrudgingly; such love will never bring you regret.

which leads us to:

Be brave enough to break your own heart.

In the end, it will be okay.  If it's not okay, it's not the end.

Another Conversation

Over dinner.

"Finally!  Barney Franks - the queer - is leaving Congress."
"'The queer'?  THE queer?  That's a lot of pressure."
"Since the day he got to Congress he's been trying to destroy everything."
....
"Everything?  Hasn't he been in office like twenty years?  You'd think someone would have caught on earlier."
"First his committee tells banks to make bad loans, NOW he wants people to able to get OUT of bad loans - without any penalty!"
"Wait so...you don't want banks regulated, and you don't want consumers protected?"
"I don't want any of it!  Let the market figure it out and people pay the price."
"So free market, limited government, personal liberty?"
"Of COURSE."
"I think that sounds a little like Libertarianism."
"Those Crazies?  You don't know what you're talking about."

If anyone knows The Crazy, it's me and I have two decades of psychologic med scrips to prove it.

"You're probably right."
"Of course I am."

To Come

Pictures to go up on Flickr today or tomorrow latest, assuming I stay awake long enough.

Not my usual shots as I like to shoot landscapes, animals and birds. Little opportunity for that.  Maybe next time.

Although one thing was interesting - I went to a neighborhood party where the tradition is to cut down a tree festooned with household items topped with a Peruvian flag.  It was fun and everyone was really nice - and by really nice I mean Latin men intrigued by my blonde hair and lack of bilingualism.

Lord have MERCY, Latin American men.

Although I will say my personal rule regarding Latin American men - especially while IN Latin America - look but don't touch.

Where was I.

The interesting bit was at the end of the night my new acquaintance, a young woman named Netchie, asked, "Elle-a, you body muy atractivo, why you wear the clothes no see?"

So now it has been established in two hemispheres - I dress like a 12-year-old boy.

Berens 1, Elle 0.

A Coupla Conversations

So I sez to da wife, I sez....

There is a homeless woman who begs outside the hotel where we stayed.  According to ROWD she's been there for at least the past three years (since he's been going to Cajamarca).

She is very old, filthy, with few teeth and shoeless.  One morning she approached me and I had to say I had no money (which was true - all I had was a cigarette and a lighter on me).

Rather - I tried to say in Spanish, "I'm sorry but I have no money."

But what I think I said was, "I'm sorry but I don't like money."

She laughed and walked away.

At breakfast I told this to ROWD.  He said, "I gave her 50 soles once (about 35 cents) and now she won't leave me alone." 
"ROWD, she's homeless.  This morning around six I was leaning out my window and I saw her peeing in the gutter."
"You know why she doesn't wear shoes?  Makes her look more pitiful.  She can afford shoes!  I could GIVE her shoes and she wouldn't wear them."

 ..............


During another breakfast:
ROWD:  "I'm glad you're here, it's nice to have company and you get to see the company and the mine."
"I've enjoyed it."
"Makes me think about when you were little.  When I would yell at you or punish you, you'd just cry cry cry."
"I guess I didn't want to disappoint my father."
"You were so SENSITIVE.  It was just AWFUL."
"I'm still sensitive, I know that.  I try to be aware of it and not take things too personally - but my friends don't mind and I think it makes me more empathetic than most.  Folks that have a problem with it, I try to avoid."
"But now you're grown up and I never expected you to turn out to be the woman you are now.  You are strong and confident and you've travelled the world."
"What do you mean?  How did you expect me to 'turn out'?"
"Just a housewife like your mom."

Total Travel Time: 20 hrs 52 min

One way.

Much to write about, to come later when I'm sufficiently recovered.

Beautiful little town, friendly folks; the people threatening kidnapping in the clink as of a few months ago so completely safe.

Shots to go up on Flickr in a few days.  If you do not have my Flickr site address let me know.

Glad to be home.

What Never to Say to a Woman.

I'm in DC right now visiting friends.  It's been a good trip.

Sunday I went shopping with my friend Drew and her two bridesmaids.  Lovely women both, I was particularly taken with her friend Meredith who reminds me of my friend Heather back home.

I like shopping as much as the next girl but lately it's been a solitary activity because all my girlfriends work and so I just end up going for whatever I need and then I'm done.

But Sunday was particularly fun.  We were looking for bridesmaids dresses so the four of us are in the dressing room, saying, Yes, No, Maybe, the length is wrong, that one smushes your breasts, etc.  When we were done all four of us spilled out of the dressing room like it was some kind of girl-shopping clown car.

Next up was shopping for Drew's trousseau, first stop was Victoria's Secret (or "Vickie's", as Meredith called it).

We were obviously all together and Drew had picked out several things to try on.

I saw a fantastic black and white bra - white with black lace - which would go perfectly with a black and white dress I have.  I don't what it is about that dress but I am always complimented on it and it's one of my favorites.

I'm thinking how fab that bra will look, and how sexy it would be to pull that dress off to reveal that bra to all the men that get to see me undress.  And when I say "all the men" I mean none, but anyway.

I go up to the chick who has been helping us and I ask for the bra in my size.

She says to me....She says, in front of God and everybody:

"So are you the mother of the bride?"

OH. MY. GOD.

I closed my eyes because the room started to spin.

When I opened them, I was immediately 10 years older and 20 pounds heavier.

I was no longer the curvy sexy tart I've always considered myself to be, but a frumpy 40-something with saggy tits and my grandmother's flat butt.

Afterwards I told the story and Meredith gave me the biggest hug and an, "OH MY GOD I AM SO. SO. SORRY!"

Drew piped up with, "Hey you know, my face is breaking out and I look really young for my age...."

I appreciated their words, but the damage was done.  DONE I SAY.

"So are you the mother of the bride?"

Never, EVER, say that to a woman.