sweet action. now we are getting somewhere. catholic eh? from the frosty north as well (canada)? i dont think so; we dont trust canadians. jokes. we love canadians. in fact, when in a large crowd of people here i always say i am canadian. takes the tension off being from the states.

catholic. never expect a beard. two names come to mind, but i rule out the second, cuban b, because the first comment mentioned just finding the blog and that would not be the cuban. also, 30 is older than him. now, the other person, would probably be about 30. the catholic part i have no idea.

as i am a registered minister of the universal life church, i often hear people telling me that i can marry them one day (knowing full well that the wife, or husband as is the case, that has yet to be met would never, ever, allow such a thing. i still enjoy the offer, however, and take it as a compliment (deserved or not misses the point). the tasks of men of the cloth are never done.


another phrase struck me as odd. ¨i am as catholic as i am hindu.¨ quite possibly this is leading in the completely wrong direction, and i am pretty sure about that, but that comment makes me think the fiancée is hindu.

also, the clear reference to ween is not one to be missed. lovers of ween are not everywhere in this world. in fact, we are probably the minority.

i just thought of another person while writing all of this that makes more sense than my original idea. time to throw out the hindu wife idea.

do you like my chief inspector morse/ hercule poirot method of detection? i am rather impressed with myself. the hindu thing had me at first. but i am going to go with mr. clean. no hair and a beard? probably a good look. am i right timmay?

if not, i will keep guessing, but another clue or hint would be good.

i will be honest. i have no idea who that last commenter might be. any help?
it was someone who last saw me with long hair. which does not really narrow it down that much as almost anyone who has ever known me has known me with long hair. also, the person is a year older than me and apparently knows me well enough to know that i am having a bday soon. that does narrow it down some, but not enough. then, the person has a job (stop laughing) and a fiancé. now i am lost. my initial reaction was someone from arizona, and that still might be the case. i do like guessing games (although this peaches person never materialized and frustrated me to no end), so if you choose not to reveal your identity, at least give me another hint.

sick. sucks. i hate not being able to breathe through my nose. i decided to come in and give classes today because there is one class i absolutely cannot cancel and it starts at 130, so, i pretty much had little choice. i have been giving a quiz and writing assignment and letting them go after 25 minutes or so. good choice i think. at the very least i give the appearance of them doing something as opposed to just putting a sign on the door that says no class (which apparently also reads: Drop everything in your hands and begin to run screaming through the halls that English class is canceled and you have a free hour). so i opted out of that choice.

boring weekend because i was sick. boo.

i watched ¨breakfast at tiffany´s¨ with my friend this weekend. now, i did not dislike the movie, i will say that. but, my friend liked it much more than me and as she was near tears at the end i was simply hoping Fred (Paul) had truly given up on miss golightly and that he would go find the cat and resume his previous life. no such luck. my favorite part was the library scene where fred and holly are constantly told to be quiet and on the way out holly says that ¨this place isn´t half as much as Tiffany´s¨. i might have to agree, although i have never been to Tiffany´s. libraries are rarely the scene of something exciting (although i used to go the library when i was in grad school in arizona just to sleep in their comfy chairs for a few hours in between classes).

so i now i have seen a movie oft referenced. it is easy to see some of its influence on other films as well. indeed, it is rare to see a strong female character who lives as she pleases during that era (on film at least). paul annoyed me more than anything with his goody twoshoes attitude, but i digress. on the whole, it was not a bad movie (i thought it might be), but only once was there a reference to bernard shaw´s play ¨pygmalion¨(the part where holly´s agent mentioned that it took him an entire year to teach her to speak english properly and he only managed it by first teaching her french) and i thought there would be more than that.

i know. if you wanted movie reviews you would go read something else on the internet. i am done. i blame the cold medicine. and waking up every two hours while trying to sleep. evil children. i told my students it was their fault i was sick. they did not like the idea but were quickly silenced as i told them that any dissent on their part would mean a lower grade on their quizzes. we read a story, ¨the lady or the tiger¨ which has an interesting brand of justice in it so they were writing about justice. i proffered the idea that my getting sick was justice because my students were sick first and so i deserved to share their fate. one rather bright student replied that my version of justice was punishing them because i had to suffer with being sick. while earning her no extra points on the quiz, it did make me feel good to know that someone understands me just a little.

here is to hoping your monday is sicky-free, unlike mine.

rather amazing now that i think about it: i have completed two years in mexico. when i arrived two years ago, things were very different in my life. i imagined spending maybe one year here and then moving on to another country. strange that now i am very happy where i am and in the school (what an incredible difference there is where i live and work now compared to my first year) where i teach and that i am considering being here for a few more years, possibly 3 or more (depending on a phd program here).

two years ago i never would have considered teaching high school again. now, i love the school where i work and actually enjoy teaching high school students. most of this is due to the high academic standards the school has and that most of my students are motivated to learn, but overall i cannot believe i enjoy teaching people this age. strange.

i celebrated my two year anniversary by going to the pharmacy and buying cold medicine and then coming home and going to bed at 9pm because once again i have gotten sick. i would like to blame the 2500 students at the high school where i work for this. things might be different if i worked in an office with only 30 other people. oh well. tough shit. i made my bed.

last night i proctored a toefl exam and i am back again this morning doing the same. sometimes i get frustrated working so much, but knowing i have a lot of debt from grad school to pay off helps motivate me. plus, while giving the exam i can do other things like grade exams and quizzes, plan lessons and write on this bloggy.

i have no idea who reads this thing anymore. i am guessing the cuban b is still around because one of the comments, though nameless, sounded like him referring to bikes and brews. if you are still out there, cheers cuban b. hope your second year in the phd program at iowa goes well for you. jimza is still around also. and my sisters and pops.

this might now be a blog for 6 people. oh well. not like i add very much to it with any frequency anymore. i might compare this to a relationship. in the beginning, when you are still getting to know each other, you want to spend all your time with the other person. find out as much about them as you can and think that there is never enough time in the day or night to fit it all in. just being together for ten minutes (writing 2 sentences in this case) is enough and yet painful in that you know it is not enough.

as the weeks turn into months and then a year or more, you start to slow down. instead of looking to do everything together, you just do it that way. there is no more excitement and you let down your defenses (rambling, boring posts that say nothing but are there to show that i am still here and have some allegiance to the blog) to an extent. but mainly you become more judgmental and find yourself more rude than anything else with the other. you find excuses not hang out (i am too busy to write, i have a life now, etc.), but in those moments when you are doing nothing or waiting for the next thing to begin, you realize that it was all pretext and that the free exists but the inclination does not.

yet we continue in this manner. waiting for the other person to give up (blogger to fail) becomes the new pass time. droll, mundane, time actually seems to slow down because there is no more anticipation and nothing ¨new¨ to come of anything.

or maybe it is just me.

i have never held a job for more than 21 months consecutively. of course i have a long way to go before i break that record, but these are strange things about me. i have now lived in my apartment here in mexico city for almost 12 months. the last time i lived in one apt for 12 months was when i lived with my girlfriend in san francisco. before that was in blacksburg 3 years earlier. is everyone else like this? i have an idea what this says about me but i choose to see the positive side: i like change and avoid the routine for any extended period of time. i will be 29 soon; am i getting too old to be like this? if so, i guess it is too damn bad because i dont see these traits disappearing overnight.

those are my thoughts on this sunny morning here in one of the biggest cities of the world resting in a valley at over 8000ft. i wonder if my 3 year anniversary will show me that i have found a routine. will i be in the same city at the same school? will i be in a phd program? will i be in another country?

i love that these questions will not be answered until i am ready to answer them. there is no predetermined timetable. the plane leaves when i want it to. or i just find another one.

here is yet another foto of the poliforo siqueiros. in the background is the world trade center. the black cylinder on top is a restaurant called felinis. the cool thing is that it slowly rotates in a circle giving a decent view of the city. they have really good cosmopolitans and martinis. i dont drink those, but my friends tell me they are amazing. the negative is that it is super pricey, hence i dont frequent it.

this was taken last week at an event where the 3 on the left were dj´s. iván is from mexico city, ellie and neill, from under the aqueduct fame, are from north carolina, billy is from madison mills, and karla, on my right, is from mexico city. the even was really cool in that they were playing a horror movie upstairs in a huge auditorium and outside there was music and free food (catered by an outstanding seafood restaurant in the city called contramar) and inside downstairs was artwork, mainly photos. the forum itself was designed by an architect whose name escapes me, and the artwork done by one of mexicos most famous artists, siqueiros. a picture of the poliforo siqueiros is above to the left (obviously not the one with the people in it).