updates from el centro de nada (the center of nothing)

it is hot. really hot. this is not really news but somehow everyone still talks about it. there are (as so many profs keep leaving) new teachers from other parts of mexico (the mountains mostly) who are having a hard time adjusting. surprise surprise.

i still have no new job for next fall but i am definitely out of here.

i wrote a long entry over the weekend and then never copied it off my computer at home. my compy at home is still jacked but it functions well enough some of the time. niether of these pieces of information are that shocking either.

my sister amy reminded me that i did not ever update my old roomie, victor. or viki as i later came to call him. he left about 1.5 months ago. not sure where he went but then i never cared to ask. he was crazy as the day is long and as there are enough weirdos down here, i let him drift. or cut him off. either way, he is on to bigger and better things. or not. but he is gone. one less person to ignore as i walk by them on a tiny campus where people you dont like you still have to see everyday (ah boarding school memories). a lesson is patience perhaps. he was an odd one, clearly, but there are odd people everywhere, right? i am sure you know a few. or are odd yourself (peaches, i am thinking of you here).

actually that last shot was only a hope that peaches would throw out another hint as to his or her identity. could you give me a gender to go from at least?

there are lots of clicks on campus. students, of course, have their own, but the prof clicks are funnier. there is a group of female profs we call the viejas (this literally means old women but has a much stronger negative connotation in spanish- you would never actually say that to a woman where calling a man viejo is not only not offensive but kind of like saying, ¨dude¨ or or something similar- especially as none of them are really old). actually, we add a qualifier to that noun but i shall not give it here. let´s just say it is not flattering. they are weird, shocker, and i avoid them like the plague. other smaller groups, including my current roomie who i see twice a day but rarely pass more than a gretting with now. works out better this way. all in all, the town is small, the uni is smaller and i ready to get the hell out of dodge. two months until vacation and then i think i am out starting in august. my group of friends is quite small, but this is actually ok. the gossip is ridiculous. i try to pass on as many rumors as i can just while away the time.

my best friend down here leaves on monday. another really good new friend leaves on sunday. nothing more to say about that i guess. things change. the new recruits are separated from me and i do not really get to know them too well. that might change when i have absolutely no friends left. with the way people are jumping ship around here, and mid-semester to boot, that time may come sooner than i think.

if this were mid-winter i would say that with the cold has come a cooling of relationships and the doldrums have set in. as it is pretty much summer and hot as can be, i must revise my descriptors when it comes to seasons. we have two seasons here: hot and hotter. it is now early ¨hotter.¨ cant wait for mid-hotter!

as my buddy oscar has advised me, numerous, numerous times, i have considered bailing on this job. like now. but i shant. meh. too hot to move. too hot to be much more than lazy really.

i read a book in english the other day. the all true adventures of lydie newton by jane smiley. really entertaining book.

it is odd bc this is only the second book in english i have read in over 8 months. each time i get into one i finish it in two days because i spend all my time reading it. after reading a foreign language for so long, english is really, really easy. and fun. 50 pages in spanish takes me close to two hours sometimes. in english, 30-40 minutes or so. it is like swimming in a pool for an hour and then someone gives you fins. suddenly, you are cruising, and what was a task is now fun and enjoyable. i like reading in spanish, but you get the idea. also, i have been reading of lot of essays and philosophical works in spanish, so pure fiction, where i do not have to analyze each sentence, is a pleasure. kind of like last summer when i finished my ma degree and suddenly began reading a book or two a week. this also had to do with taking my morning coffee in a chair in the sun with one of said books. and being in flag. and knowing that a trip to the library or throwing disk or going to campus to look for teaching jobs on the internet would probably be the most i might do that day. life was good.

in other words, cuban b, enjoy the start of your summer. you are no longer a prof at nau. congratulations. good luck in phd land, iowa city.

anyone have big plans for the summer? j-felony is getting married. that is pretty big. el coco-roco (ricky doo) is getting married also. but he does not have this blog addy, that i know of, so cant really say anything to him. still crazy. two of my old college roomies are getting hitched. wild. joel jerrius jeremiah jackson is next i guess. like sands in the hour glass, so are the days of our lives.

i will at some point be unemployed. that does not seem so big as it probably wont be for more than a few days while i relocate to wherever it is that i am going.

even as i ask a questions and comment about other people, it all comes back to me in the end. i am the center of my own attention most of the time (all of the time), something that apparently getting older has not improved upon. i also write a description of what i do and think once or twice a week to which few people respond to and thus seems to beg me to talk more about myself. in that way, i miss having a cell phone and being able to call friends all over the states for free. they could at least interrupt me at times (these opportunities were rare, granted). ok, i do have a cell phone, but i dont call anyone on it, not even here in mex, bc it is too expensive. and i am cheap. lets not forget that part.

i am probably forgetting something. when i remember it, i will let you know.