April 14
Flu
Down with the flu – stomach flu. Thought I’d drunk some water (purified) that wasn’t right, from the garaphon (5 gal water bottle) at the Lending Library, but by the time I came home I had aches and fever as well as nausea. No fun! Drank water but ate nothing all day yesterday besides my morning oatmeal. “Feed a cold and starve a fever…” Maybe I’ll lose a couple of pounds.
Fell asleep at 8:30pm and got up about 7am feeling more human but still with a low fever. My gata Molly/Mole/Molita depending on my mood (or maybe hers), curled up with me quietly the whole time. They know. Usually, she will paw at my face or pounce on my hand or feet under the sheet to wake me but last night she was sweet and quiet and purry as can be the entire time. Every time I woke in the night, she was there, curled by my side or my neck. Thank you Molly!
More to be Grateful for /Musing about Moving and Homing
I put a deposit down on the apartment in Xochimilco this week and will be able to move in there to the just fixed up front apartment in May. In June, however, when the rear apartment is available, I’ll move there. I know, I know, it’s a lot of moving. But this is more like changing hotel rooms. They are all furnished apartments, and my stuff hasn’t been shipped from Tucson yet. It’s a matter of moving me, Molly, 3 suitcases, and the cat stuff and kitchen stuff I’ve accumulated. I’ll be glad to be there.
This feels right to me. And the universe seems to agree with me. I potentially had to pay May’s rent in the casita I’m living in now, but someone is moving here in May for a year, so I don’t have that expense. And the owner of the act-my-age-apartment emailed me and said “don’t worry, she will return my deposit.” So my craziness about finding a home isn’t going to cost me any extra money this time. Thank you!
And I just got a Tucson, AZ phone number through Skype that has voicemail and everything, so my Tucson and other US friends and family can call me without paying international rates.
Little by little, I’m starting to feel like I really live here.
April 15
This is the beginning of Semana Santa (Holy week). I wish I felt better, I’d wander the city, enjoy the festivities, and take photographs. But my energy is still low and my throat now is getting scratchy.
I walked down to the mercado to buy juice and fruit a little while ago, and music was pouring out of the building. A lovely altar, sprouting with grasses and flowers, was in the center of the space, just as altars are set up all over the city for La Dolorosa, the sad Virgin, Our Lady of Sorrows – in homage both to the Virgin and to Spring. On the altars and all over, chia seeds sprout out of clay animals and grasses sprout in small flower pots, symbolizing the Resurrection of Christ and the coming of Spring.
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| La Dolorosa Photo by Rudolfo de Guadalupe |
As I waited for my juice and fruit to be made, I watched young children moving to the music. Life is so much more sensual here – as in engaged with the senses. Sounds of music, birds, fireworks, the recorded announcements of the trucks delivering gas, colors! Smells both good and bad… tastes… and always bands and dancing.
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| Basilica de Solidad April 11 Dance Competition |
Life here is more intense on all levels – more openly joyous, closer to grief, more opening adoring of children, more irresponsible fathers: close to the light and close to shadow. Walking back from the Mercado and the music and the dancing children I pass the pile of garbage on the corner waiting to be picked up and see the paws of a dead cat poking out from between the bags
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