Hats off to Hurricane John

First, apologies for not posting in quite awhile. And thanks, Liz, for calling me back to the blogging world. It feels good to know people are reading along...

Cabo is still here, and so are we, for those of you who heard about Hurricane John. I was planning to post on Sept 1 about the hurricane; the draft that´s still sitting there along with all my other finished posts was titled, "Waiting for a Hurricane." I never ended up finishing that post. And fortunately, after lots of waiting, hanging out, taping of windows, and buying up of food, water, and candles, Hurricane John took a turn towards La Paz and didn't even show up in Cabo. All he left in his wake were strom clouds and days of rain. So for now the town alternates between cool, rainy days in which the main streets of the town are transformed into rivers of "agua negra." Then the rainy days are followed by cloudy humid days, and then by unbearably hot, sunny, humid days in which I don't even leave the house as the whole town turns into a literal dust bowl.

But really, despite the crappy weather, life hasn't gotten this good for me in Cabo for quite some time. And I give credit to Hurricane John. Hats off to you, John. You see, if it hadn't been for his predicted arrival, I surely would have put off cleaning the house, which I ended up doing out of fear of not having running water for days. And if it hadn't been for good ol' John, I wouldn't have made cookies to weather the storm that we shared with our friends and neighbors. (It's amazing how people materialize when the smell of sweet baked goods is in the air.) And if it hadn't been for Hurricane John, we wouldn't have made the fun pre-storm shopping trip to Aramburo with Paco to buy up water, fruit, canned foods, candles and more cookies, of course. The same trip of the famous Oliver photo shoot in the shopping cart. And the same trip in which we all drank coffees near the downtown supermarket sliding doors as we enjoyed looking out into the rain and the oncoming storm.

And if it hadn't been for Hurricane John, we may not have spent quite so much time hanging out with our really cool neighbors, that consequently, I am really going to miss. There are three small apartments in our mini "apartment complex." Our apartment is the family apartment, and the other two are inhabited by young couples, one couple is Mexican--they're from Mazatlan, and the other couple is Israeli--they're both from a small village near Tel Aviv. It wasn't long before the supposed Hurricane that I had a good chat with the two women, Ana and Karen. And then after the storm, I've chatted a lot more with Karen. She's a really neat person. And oh, how I have missed having good conversations with women friends. There's nothing like it, yet somehow, I have such a damn hard time finding new women that I can be comfortable with and open up to. But, I feel so at ease with Karen. The conversation just flows. I see such major friend potential in Karen that it makes me sad to leave.

Oh, yes.

That brings me to something else... I suppose this is why I should post more often!!

We are moving back to Guadalajara!! SURPRISE. We will head to Guadalajara by the 15th at the latest. The 16th is independence day, and things are a bit crazy in Mexico with the PRD planning a big protest in Mexico City the same day as the annual independence military parade. Sound like a recipe for violence? (I'll try to post more on Mexican politcs later... Or better, yet, are you all interested in a post on Mexican politics?) Well anyway, Jaime mentioned the idea of moving back to Guadalajara while I was still visiting the folks in Kansas, and I liked it, so we're doing it! Moving that is. It will most likely take another six months or more till he can come to the states, so we decided to make the most of Oliver's babyhood by sharing these precious moments with Jaime's family. Plus we've got a rent-free 3 bedroom apartment waiting for us at his uncle's. Plus Jaime's got photography connections and a possible photo shoot lined up, and I am planning to go back to teaching at my old school. So, there's a lot a cookin' in the oven, so to speak. Another reason, I haven't posted. I have been extremely busy tying up loose ends, organizing our stuff, trying to do a little day by day so as to hopefully not stress out as departure day nears.

Phew! That was a long post. Hopefully, you'll hear more from me soon, but if you don't, you'll know that I am really busy until we arrive in Guadalajara.