so i get this weekly update from higheredjobs.com (anyone considering future teaching employment, i highly recommend it, although really, i teach in mexico, not the usa, so why would my recommendation mean anything) and i realize that i could be making like 50,000 or more my first year in some community colleges around the country. the money is really good when you consider i make less than 10,000 a year down here. some of these community college jobs top out over 72,000 a year. no joke. that is pretty sweet. i guess if i fail down here i can always be a comm college teacher and wear sweater vests from 20 years ago and a patchy grey beard trimmed below the jaw line and large boxy glasses. not sure why i associate that image with comm col teachers, but if you have read any of the rest of my posts, you probably wonder why i think most of the things that i do. ¿quien sabe? who knows?

cuba, you are killing me with your comments. i am totally stealing your pipe point line and using it in the future. if anyone is ever foolish enough to publish some of my writing, i am going to figure out a way to work that in somewhere. i will reference you, of course, but damn, i literally had to stop what i was doing i was laughing so hard. i get an entire visual image of you with a pipe, pulling it out of your mouth, pointing it at someone and saying, hmph. anyone remember the pencils, pens, combs and other office items i liked to store in the old beard? well, i imagine the action with cuba pulling the pipe out of his mouth as something similar to that. well, kind of. i might just miss my beard.

i showed some beard pics to my friends down here. their first reaction was that they thought i was really fat when i lived in the states, this did nothing to credit my story that i am poor, and then they asked how many years it took to grow. years! i told them i could grow a mighty big beard in two or three months and they refused to believe me. if it were not so damn hot, i might just prove them wrong.

well, i have an amigo to travel to guatemala with me in december. he has never been out of the country either, and as his wife will be taking care of their baby (she is due in two weeks, the exact time that he and i will be going to puebla to explore and tour for the weekend. exactly how she is letting him get away with partying with me while she is over a 1000km away in acapulco giving birth, i am not quite clear on yet) with her family in acapulco, he has time to get away and explore. plus, one of his grad profs has a home in guatemala so we can stay for free and get some free guiding info in at least one place along the way. i am glad i will be traveling with someone else, and a native speaker on top of it who also has connections just makes it about perfect.

well, i am going to take it easy this weekend i think and do some shopping in juchitan. i am extremely disappointed that my handy ucsf alarm clock has finally crapped out. i doubt they sell the batteries for it anywhere but san francisco and hong kong, so i will probably have to buy another one. also, francisco and i are scoping out a new apt. this weekend that is a bit cheaper and far away from mr. moody, aka victor my other roomie. he has just grown more and more weird as the weeks progress and everyone else is noticing it as well. i think it might be time to cut that tie and drift to another port. we shall see what evolves.

have a wonderful weekend up there, wherever you are. it is interesting to think that i am further south than anyone i know. and each week my spanish gets better and better so i think that in another few months i am going to be living easy. ok, i really already am considering i can communicate just about anything i want to at this point. it will be nicer to undesrtand everything people say the first time, but right now i realize beggars can´t be choosers. yeehaw y´all and giddy-up.