CR 092509 Friday, 1:48pm First Week of School

CR 092509 Friday, 1:48pm




“Enjoy yourself. These are the ‘good old days’ you’re going to miss years ahead. We can never go back again, that much is certain.” – B.J. Marshall



SYNOPSIS: My hair was not made for humidity; day to day routine; Kassidy’s first week at school; waiting for the muse,



THE POWER OF DELILAH IN MY SAMSON HAIR



Samson’s power was in his hair. Delilah’s power was seduction. My power of seduction is in my hair. Perhaps it’s an imaginary power, but my self-esteem is strongly rooted in my follicles. My hair is thick and big and because of the power of Mike, who turns my hair into a decorative feast that can only be replicated with mountains of product I am then convinced to buy, I have gotten away with carrying my 80’s hair for two more decades. Mike scrunches me upside down, hanging off the chair with contraptions and extensions. He sprays and gels and fluffs until I have been transformed into a regular person with magnificent hair. I then spend the next 2 months trying to duplicate his results without duplicating his efforts --- a task I am unwilling to take. One of the advantages of this hair cut is that I threw away my hair dryer and curling iron. A dollop of product and a comb, and I am out the door, with my sunglasses unattractively perched upon my head like a head band. Low maintenance. Great results. Like Samson, though, I have been stripped of my strength. My Delilah is the majesty of the ocean that called me here… and turned out to just be humidity.



No amount of or combination of product will tame what has become again what it probably always truly was --- 80s hair. This haircut is not appropriate for humidity. It broadens into a thick, shapeless form I have seen on some witches and once it has expanded to unreasonable proportions, begins to gather the moisture from the air until it is pasted to the back of my neck.



I am considering pig tails. I mentioned the possibility of responding to this situation the way men who are losing their hair do --- just shave it off. “No. You wouldn’t be pretty anymore.” Well, duh. That’s exactly what happened to Samson. You know… if Samson had been a woman. My wily feminine, seductive ways would be no more. I know you’re all worried about that.



My list of things to bring back from the states is growing: sunscreen, more non-DHT insect repellant, hummus powder from the health food store, energy bars, my ingredients for Grandma’s homemade soup, books.



DAY TO DAY ROUTINE



Our days go like this now: We get up at 6 and get ready for school. At 7 we walk down the monstrous hill to the school bus. We do not kiss goodbye in order to safeguard Kassidy’s reputation. It takes me 15 minutes to walk to the gym and another 5 to get the security guard to unlock the door. There is an old elliptical machine that doesn’t turn on, but works. There is a treadmill that stutters, causing the user to lurch forward in panic at odd intervals. There is a stationary bike. There are three sets of weight machines I haven’t entirely figured out how to use yet and there are two sets of free weights. I arrive in time to watch a season of Ally McBeal I somehow never saw. At 9 I walk back home, and then climb the monstrous hill back to the house. I think, “It can’t be worse than the incline. It can’t be worse than the incline.” It is a cobblestone paved mountain, and I am shuffling up it, tilting forward at an angle that is building valuable muscle in my ankles.



It is a little known fact that making coffee is not like riding a bicycle. You can forget how. Yesterday’s coffee was thick and sludgy. I offered it to my neighbor while he pointed out routes on a map of Costa Rica. He accepted the coffee and took a bite.



Today the coffee is watery and light brown. I think I’ve over-compensated.



I have a to do list of things that need to be done every day, like checking orders, and then I tackle the formidable to-do list. When I finish, I set aside time to write. I may need to flip those things so that writing gets to come first. Right now the formidable to do list has priority.



When Kassidy gets home from school, we strip and get into the pool as quickly as we can. We have about 90 minutes between when she gets home and sun set, and we don’t want to waste it.



The first week of school has been rocky. This was exam week, so she sat in on classes, but only took the exams in English. Maria hates Spanish and only wants to speak in English. She has read two of the Twilight books in English. She sits with Kassidy and translates for the other girls and Kassidy teaches them bad words in English. All of the 6th grade girls sit together at a long table every day, so she is saved from ostracization. But Thursday two other girls pull her away from Maria and warn Kassidy that she shouldn’t be friends with Maria. They court her into their own clique. She comes home worried about what to do. She is so focused on this that she forgets that she is mad at me and this morning threatened to run away. She had 200 colones (about 40 cents). She is furious with me because she was grounded the night before. She tells me about the boys fighting and the couple kissing on the bus. This is the first day I haven’t driven her 40 minutes into Liberia at 7am and 40 minutes back at 3pm. On those days we spoke in Spanish all the way to school so that she would be warmed up.



We spent Thursday night swimming in the pool and having dinner at the home of our new friends from Littleton, Colorado. The constant activity distracts her until she goes to bed. We watch the rest of the House premiere we have downloaded on Itunes and fast forward through the scene that catches us off guard and then we read A Separate Peace .before she goes to bed. She is worried about what to do about the girls, but for the first time since we arrived, she is not melancholy on her way to bed and I resolve to keep her busy from now on. This coming week is a week of vacation before the next term begins. The neighbor who drank the sludge has given us directions to the two active volcanoes. This is our plan for this week. We will see them on the way to San Jose where we will stay with friends who are living just outside of the city. Those same friends are coming to visit here this weekend.



Kassidy wants to go on a Horseback Riding tour which sounds vaguely amusing … if you like riding a horse, which I don’t really. Then she wants to go on a Canopy Tour. I have been trying to talk myself into it, but zip lining over 500 foot drops only sounds fun if you aren’t afraid of heights. As those who were present when I was pushed out of a plane at 10,000 feet can attest…I am not so good with heights. I am willing to do just about anything, though, to sell Kassidy on this place.



On the phone with her dad the other night she was telling him how much she couldn’t wait to show him things when he got here… monkeys and arroz con pollo… There must be things she loves if she thinks he will love them, right?



STREET ANIMALS



There is a big problem here with street dogs. On Saturday mornings there is a spay and neuter clinic in Playa del Coco that volunteers are needed for. We have agreed to go in in the morning and volunteer. I do have a plan.



Down by the gate at the security guard’s post, there are two mama cats. One mama, who is barely more than a kitten herself, lost her litter. The other mama has two left in her litter. The mamas are both nursing and caring for the babies. When they finish nursing we will take them all into the clinic to have them spayed.



There appears to be only one difference here between stray dogs and dogs with owners.: collars. Many dogs wander the streets with collars. They are owned, but still scavenge for food. Without exception they are gentle and disregard all human passerbyers. Myopic. I don’t think they even see us. In Liberia we saw several nursing or pregnant mamas. Funny that it didn’t occur to me that this would be as much a problem here as it was in Guanajuato.



IDEAS FOR BOOKS



Other than that I am spending my time brainstorming.



There are two book series – one for beginning adults --- and one for beginning children.



A young woman begins her first day of teaching. She is standing in the hall greeting the students, when one closes the door behind him. She reaches for the handle, but it is locked. Her keys are sitting on her desk. She has been locked out of her classroom by her students before even teaching her first period. She knocks. They do not answer. She walks across the hall to where her colleague has already started his first hour class and gestures for him to come outside. She wants to borrow his key. Don’t you have a key? Yes, but I’ve left them on my desk. Aren’t there kids in your classroom who could open the door? Yes. He looks over her shoulder assessing the situation and looks at her disapprovingly and condescendingly. He unlocks the door and stands looking at her students until they all take their seats under his gaze. She is humiliated and embarrassed. After school she walks to the faculty meeting and hears two older teachers talking about some rookie teacher who got locked out of her classroom.





A story from the point of view of one of the young boys who goes to the escuela here in Playa Hermosa. There are only 14 students. They are the sons and nephews of fishermen and fish from the boat most afternoons. Their grandparents used to own all this land, but sold it off piece by piece.



Romance in Spanish would be fun to write. =) But then… they say only to write what you know. ;-)



While I wait to gather enough ideas for the muse to strike, I am working on the last book, which is in its editing phase. Oddly enough, it’s about a boy who goes to Mexico and rescues stray dogs.



THE JOKER



Somehow in the last few days this has stopped feeling like an extraordinarily bad idea and we are falling into a routine.



Walking back from the gym today I spun the Ipod to “The Joker” and sang it on the way up the hill. At our going away party, Eric and Matt played it and Chad sang along and Stephanie was singing, “Do da do da do da do da dun dun da da dun dun da da dun dun” … and I recorded it. I have both of their blessing to release the video to the general public.



Today… I was that happy.