>Today at school we had to learn to use various Spanish phrases to express incredulity or surprise. The teacher, Gabriela, made us all write a ‘title’ of an embarrassing event in our lives and everyone in the class had to guess whose embarrassing event it was. Then the person whose moment it was had to tell the story in front of the class. Scott and Cyndi, can you guess what mine was? had to do with email at Balmur. eeeeeeeeeeeeeek. and Foghorn Leghorn, so to speak. anyhoo, when i got home from school today, Selene was hanging over the terrace, and she spoke to me while I was walking down the street. I went up to visit with her and use the restroom. She was playing with a crayon as if it was a cigarette, and she had her little doll in a stroller. I asked her if she was smoking and told her she never should. She informed me that she was playing and that even if she was smoking they make cigarettes that make smoke but don’t have nicotine. good lord. So i sat down with her and she asked me if i wanted to play. So i said, ‘sure’. She told me that I was her friend and that I had two kids, whom I could give personalities and names. I have a nine year old son and a two year old daughter. My name is Lucía. She took over and I never got to name my kids. I surprised her (as my play character, Lucía) and told her that I was ‘expecting’. Her story. She was Melaní, and she has two kids too. Daughters. Diana and Alicia. She is thirty years old,and her husband has been coming in late. Like at 3 and 5 in the morning. She doesn´t have to live that way, and she believes that he has been messing around with his secretary. So she confronts him one day, andshe tells him that she is unhappy and that she knows that she does not have to live this way anymore. If her kids want to visit him on the weekends that is fine. If she needs money to do something, she will ask him, but she is throwing him out. She is happily single now, and she is going on with her life. When I asked Melaní if she didn´t have thoughts about finding a boyfriend or perhaps marrying again, she stated vehemently, ‘No!’ And followed with, ‘Well, there is this guy that hangs out at the bar on the corner who kind of likes me, but I am not looking for anything like that. I am content with my life just the way it is. I do what I want, when I want. I maintain my home, take care of my children and I have a job. That is all I need.’ I am not even lying to you that this really happened with Selene the ten year old. She was BLOWING my mind. And she said it all so fast…like it was really the truth. Met annoying girl from Los Angeles today named ‘Summer’. She annoyed me from the first day, but we wound up in a small mob together by the espresso machine, and I soon found myself involved in a big conversation about how fast Southerners talk with some strikingly handsome gentleman from Germany whose name I can say but not spell. I was the first person he ever met from Texas. That is because I don’t think most of us ever leave there. Wouldn’t you know that one day after writing about how loud it is here, one of my teachers assigned us toread a newspaper article about a study done about noise and how much our bodies can healthily tolerate? Japan is the loudest country and Spain is a close second. Madrid being the loudest city. Which I think I can vouch for. This keyboard has been dipped in caramel candy I think. Sorry if i have missed any sticky finger mistakes so far. But i am not going back to check now. BUY the new Sheryl Crow CD. probably a frivolous way to spend money when living on a fixed income, but I will pass on some coffees to make up for it. i Love it. Love. Some groovy vocal guests, including one of my all time favorites, Doyle Bramhall II, on several. Listen with good headphones because there is some really interesting stuff going on in those mixes. I am such a geek. Am going to the fair tonight with Betina from Austria. Neither of us have deemed ourselves able to stay up all night and drink, so we figured we would do well together. That is at 8:30 pm. So I won’t have to be there to not get fed tonight. I hope this is just a special week of no dinner because of the fair. I would rather not have my buttered untoasted bread in the mornings in exchange for supper. Cheaper to subsist on juice-coffee-donuts than to fake your way through dinner. Actually have not eaten an evening meal except once since I got here. Whoosh. Boobs disappearing.If anyone knows anybody whose name should be added to this list…I did some strange importation of a semi-accurate address book…please let me know, orhave them e-mail me. Off to explore the public transit system. The bus is my friend. And it is cheaaaaaaaaaaaaaap. I will be out late tonight, so if you want to call me when you get home from work, you can. (Ref: Unca Jeff, you can buy me a beepah if you really want to)