Wallflower

TJ

Crossing the border at nine am on a Friday and it's sweltering hot in the shade. Priceless.

I saw a bus that said "No soliciting, no singing, no begging" in Spanish. How utterly un-TJ. Half of the fun of the buses is the singing guys with the battered guitars.

My taxi driver from downtown to Teco looked oddly familiar. May have been a student at the Bosco 10 years ago when I was there,, maybe not. He had those silver coatings on his teeth that I saw a lot in Texas.. A few years a go I saw a special report on a texas dentist who was in trouble for putting tons of silver on kids' teeth when they didn't need it. I think he went to jail.

Market day in Teco. I saw a new stall that I'd never seen: house plants. Then I saw a houseplant store downtown and it occurred to me, Is this a sign of greater financial stability in Tijuana? Plants are a kind of luxury item, at least decorative plants are.

I saw lots of Laurel Sumac on the drive to Teco. It's at its prettiest with cream colored lilac shaped blossoms. I also saw some dust covered horehound in Teco. Pretty scraggly. Lots of basket brush.

When I got to the Bosco there were 40-ish kids, ready to craft. That's a lot of kids. We made books and decorated the cover (la pasta?) with tissue paper dipped in water, which leaves a kind of watercolor effect.

after crafts I watched a small group of girls rehearse dancing. The teacher was great--commanding and encouraging. One little girl in particular was funny: kind of terrible, didn't remember the steps, sort of got winded. I just kept watching her and laughing, she was so endearing somehow. I realized that, during the craft, she kept hovwering at my elbow. Distracted by the million other kids who asked me things, i never did figure out what she wanted.

Walked to Dona Elvira's tiendita and had a coke in a bottle. Lord, it was hot. Scorching.

walking back to get a taxi I nearly stepped in a writhing pile of MAGGOTS.
I really loathe maggots. They creep me out. I'm sure I looked like a crazy woman because I hustled away muttering to myself "Don't look at them! Don't look!" and shaking my whole body. Ew.

Crossing the border (almost no line! yay! and no bastard security guard!) a blonde surfer man came up behind me and said "You sure are a fast walker. My legs are twice as long as your and I have trouble keeping up."
That's right, bro. Look out!

enneagram, revisited

Enneagram Institute

This weekend, aside from being fabulously hot in Anza Borrgo (115! degrees!) and in the presence of great company by an amazing pool that marilyn monroe once swam in, I got all excited talking to heather and Marie about the enneagram and trying to figure out their numbers. I am just so intrigued by this stuff.