The Scattered Thoughts of Me

1. I am excited to officially welcome into the group of "faithful readers" a long-time hero of mine in Mexico. Welcome, Greta! One of these days I'll read your blog!
2. I saw one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time yesterday. Sorry, Greta, I'm not talking about you anymore. Although you are one of the coolest people I've seen in a long time. Yesterday I was on the metro going to Xochimilco (my favorite place in the city), and inside one of the dark tunnels some company has placed all these signs that, when the train is moving, work together to make a movie. I marveled as I watched two Chrysler Voyagers drive into the picture while staring at the normally dark tunnel walls. It was one of the coolest things I've seen in a long time. What genius!
3. It took two hours to get to Xochimilco on public transportation. It took three hours to get home in private transportation. Xochimilco is about 25 miles from my house.
4. How confusing is the English language to people who aren't native speakers? Why do we "get on" public transportation but "get in" private transportation? How many times have I heard non-native speakers talking about getting on the car? Okay, not that many. But it does give me a funny mental image.
5. I was looking into other cars while stuck in traffic on the way home last night. One reason is that I wasn't driving, so I didn't have to watch the road. Another reason is that I was riding in a big van, so I was up high enough to see into most cars. I was looking into this fancy Audi, noticing the fancy navigation and entertainment systems and stuff. It reminded me of the little personal entertainment system on the plane I flew on to Korea last year. It had games, music, movies, news, and stuff like that. I watched a few movies and listened to some music. Honestly though, how much J-pop can a person listen to before it all starts sounding the same?

I have many vague memories. Here's one of them. When my brothers and I were kids, we were eating at Taco Bell, and my little brother went up to the register by himself to get something (for dessert, or maybe another taco or something). I remember either my older brother or I telling him to make lots of noise and bang the coins on the counter so the person working the register wouldn't ignore him.

We don't have to do that anymore. We've gotten older. I thought of that vague memory when thinking about the latest thing that happened to me and told me that I'm continually getting older.

Mexico is full of street vendors, sidewalk vendors, church vendors, and vendors in just about any place where you can find people to buy things. One of the lines they've been using ever since I got to Mexico (especially the ones selling flowers and cruddy jewelry) is, "For your girlfriend." I was in Xochimilco two weeks ago, and a canal vendor was selling some junk (I don't even remember what it was), and when I said I didn't want anything, he came back with, "For your wife." Arrrgh!! I'm getting old!!