Again, I realize it has only been a week or so of upping and downing with my sleep, but last night I slept eight hours (without Ambien), and I feel great this morning.
I met Natalie Kelly for breakfast yesterday morning. We planned to meet at the Boquete Sandwich Shop at 9:30. I arrived a bit early and discovered that they were closed until 12/31. I sat on the steps and sent a text to Natalie, but, for some reason, my phone would not send the message. I figured she would show up eventually. After waiting a bit, I stood up and was planning to go into the Tigo store next door to the restaurant to ask if they could figure out what was wrong with my phone. I heard my name called. Apparently Natalie had been waiting about as long as I, but on the other side of the restaurant and couldn’t see me because of the bushes. So…we went to Sugar ‘N Spice instead. Always great.
Natalie and her husband, Mike, are from Chicago. They moved here a couple of years ago. We met during the volunteer training for Boquete Health and Hospice. I love our conversations.. Natalie has a lovely, intelligent, positive energy about her.
After breakfast I went to the library and picked up a couple of books: Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now by Maya Angelou and The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver.
I finished Angelou’s book last night. It is a collection of bits of wisdom and then a surprising account of her experience in a bar one night. She was sitting alone at the bar (emphasis on alone) drank five martinis and then commenced to sit down at a table with five journalists where she lamented the fact that she was a single woman at 41, and made a complete fool of herself. In hindsight she reflected, “I sat and looked at each man for a long time, and then I began a performance which now, more than twenty years later, can still cause me to seriously consider changing my name and my country of residence. “
May Angelou?!?! I was so shocked by this revelation, but I was also grateful for her candor and transparency. Becoming is a challenge for all of us.
I read the Kingsolver book many years ago. I can’t remember the entire story, but I do remember how much I loved it.
I just finished The Story of a Goat by Indian author Perumal Murugan. It’s a book written in the genre similar to Charlotte’s Web. Not sure what that is called, but Murugan anthropormorphyzes the goats in order to tell the story of the struggles of the goatherds of India: the government tyranny, drought, famine. I realize that the political story is an important one, but I found his sharing of the goat’s thoughts and behaviors to be very sweet and touching. Poonachi is the main goat in the story. She eventually meets Poovan. This is one of my favorite excerpts:
“…But it was only because they had travelled that she had got to explore the forest and spend at least a few happy days with Poovan. The moonlit tableau of the wild boars cavorting in the pond was etched in her mind. Every time she closed her eyes, the scene would unfold. What a miracle, she thought to herself. The two kisses planted by Poovan lingered on her mouth. She thought about it all the time, and her happiness playing with Poovan. She imagined him flying through the air and leaping over her. There were so many moments she could recall with pleasure. Why then did the mind always blow up and despair over sad events? Each time she thought of the happy times, her mind would be filled with joy. To everyone’s surprise, she would jump and run around in the pasture. “
Betty was not very happy with me yesterday. She messaged me last week to meet her at the bottom of El Salto (my road) at 1:00 pm yesterday afternoon, and we would go to Bulk Organics. I had it in my head that I was supposed to meet her at the bottom of Volcancito (her road). Wrong. She was trying to find me and was calling and texting me, but because my phone wasn’t working, I just waited. I was a bit concerned because Betty is never late. I thought something must have happened to her. Then at about 1:20 she came by…not smiling. I reviewed our texts and saw that I had confirmed it, but erroneously said Volcancito. Betty didn’t pay much attention because she assumed I had it right. Looking back farther in the thread, I saw that she did, indeed, say El Salto. Then, to top it off, they didn’t have what she wanted at Bulk Organics. Not a good day for Betty, but today, as we gather at her place for a holiday lunch, I will console her with the fact that her memory is better than mine.
So, today is a party day. Lunch with the gang at Betty’s and then dinner here with my landlords, Jerry and Linda. My contribution for Betty’s is vrasta fasolakia (Greek green beans with mint and fennel). Jerry asked me to bring wine. Sure!
