Vacationing on Both Sides of the Border

This will be a quick one - just gotta get something down as the end of vacation creeps up on me. What a wonderful end to this - my special year - i.e. the year I was born coinciding with the age I was. Now it's a new year and I'm a new age and this year could be special too since the age I am now is the same as the year I was almost born! (If anyone can figure out the mathematics of that, they'll know how old I am, but hopefully you won't be able to, cause it could scare ya!)

But anyway, this year I got to split my winter vacation half and half; I spent the first week as my United Statesean self (After living 30 + years in Mexico, I can't get back into the thinking that people born in the US have the exclusive right to be called American), with my family in SAT, and 3 of my kids, while C, my partner, spent it on this side of the border with the other two kids - and we each did our own thing. It was nice. I loved getting to be my old gringa self, as opposed to my Mexicanized self - for awhile! I saw family I haven't seen in so long, and got to have a night out with one of my oldest friends, where we sat up talking into the pre-dawn hours as we used to way back when...

I felt surrounded by the most loving, caring people, and I felt so loving and caring myself! For once, I didn't let myself or my kids cater to the consumerism thing - as we usually do when going up over the border between Mexico and US - doesn't matter where you cross, as soon as you're on the other side you can't resist the urge to stop and shop! But this time we did resist that urge. Partly, probably, because we had just seen http://www.storyofstuff.com/index.html which is an incredible video about that - the story of stuff! Once you see it, you seriously start to re-examine your compulsive buying habits. At any rate, we did go around looking at stuff and buying here and there (notably much-needed clothes and shoes), but this year, I found that my book and movie lists were so short, I figured I might as well wait till next trip. As for the two younger kids, they had to tread carefully as they each had limited funds.

So this trip up north was more concentrated on just being with people, taking zillions of pictures, and storing up lots of memories. Unfortunately, my poor, simple little digital camera kept dying out on me (batteries), so I hope other people (as in fned, mimi and stacy) will send me some of their snapshots!

We crossed back over to Mexico 3 days before the end of the year. Getting back to this side really sobered us up - you can't imagine the difference until you've crossed over and kept on going. You get deeper into Mexico and you know you're in for an adventure of some sort. Nothing is predictable here. Everything is just out there and you don't know what will happen next or how it will present itself. So you just keep driving south and fall into whatever.

Traveling like that, we finally got to Puebla and home at 1:00 a.m. As a delightful surprise, C was up and so were L (number 1 son) and A (number 2 son), who had recently returned from trips themselves. They welcomed us in with pulpos en su tinta and wine and we told stories and they told stories and it was cold in the house, so L lit the pot-bellied wood-burning stove in the corner of the dining room and we toasted up nicely.

Then the days started to rush by... with C's brother arriving the next day and bringing music and tequila into our midst, and the whole family battling daily with faulty plumbing and billions of dishes to wash (you have to realize that we are a family that RARELY - as in ALMOST NEVER - eats out and considering that we were ALL HOME, well you can imagine)... and with our 3 dogs plus a temporary boarding dog to feed and care for... so mornings were lazy with lots of coffee and good talk over bagels, tamales, or torta de papa or whatever; afternoons brought on lots of wine and good talk over delicacies like pescado zarandeado y ensalada verde con aguacate, or arroz con plátanos fritos y dobladas con salsa verde; and finally, night would fall amidst tequila and pizzas (NYE), and good talk, accompanied by guitar and percussion and singing. Throughout it all, we were periodically blasted away by S (number 3 son) practicing on his new (used) saxophone...

So P (number 1 daughter) is gone now, and C's brother has returned to his own family, and I'm going to watch a movie that P and I started but never finished watching, but before I go, I'll just add that CLo (number 2 daughter) doesn't agree with my one-word description of her (didn't I tell you she had a driving personality?) and C doesn't agree with my one-word definition of myself! He says I don't adapt to Everything, and of course he's right, which is only logical as that's part of being adaptable too - adapting to the fact that when you can't adapt to something the way it is, you change it! Seems to me you should have a healthy balance between the two, but whether I do or not is a whole nother story.