What are people thinking?

During all this time, the past months in Tijuana; I have been reluctant to discuss the violence and all the bad things happening here. Not only because I believe that people tends to magnify the stories and they love to take a protagonic role in the story ("I saw with my own eyes!") creating in the process a "negative spiral" of panic and fear. I believe that if you try to see things in a better light they become better.

But then, last Friday night, we had our close encounter with the bad side of Tijuana. My mother in law was mugged when arriving to her apartment.

Whoever did this were small thieves; not really trying to be violent or to injure her. It was supposed to be a "clean" robbery; push her out of the way, grab her handbag and run. Then her arm got tangled with the handbag and they dragged her for a couple of meters on the ground; she ended with her knee and her mouth scrapped against the floor and a semi-deep cut in her hand. Lost the bag (with a small amount of money on it), her car keys (she was driving Bonita's car but they did not make a move for it), her apartment keys, driver license, voting card, eyeglasses; minor things. Everything could be replaced easily, we replaced the locks in her apartment and cancelled bank cards that same night and yesterday my brothers in law took care of the IDs, eyeglasses and car keys. But not the tranquility.

Anyway, life has to go on; she refuses to stay at our place (or any other place) and she really thinks she got scared, but that was it; just a scare. Of course Inge (the youngest son) was at the apartment with Mediana and panicked when her mom arrived at the apartment being carried by a couple of neighbors; Bonita had to talk to Mediana to give her instructions about how to calm down her grandma (and her uncle!). Five minutes later (we were at a new bookstore that just opened when they called us with the news) everybody was there; Polaco, Flor, Vicky and us were pouring over there and trying to keep things cool to avoid more people running around as headless chickens. Pinka said hello (she was with us) and went to watch TV; I just sat there and made some comic suggestions and serious proposals about the locks and who should sleep there and everything. It ended all OK; yesterday we got all together at my house and played cards and talked. Everybody is calmed and my mother in law is looking better.

By the way, Pinka's basketball team made the playoffs and won their semifinal game; so now they are in the finals; except... there was a development after the game. They were originally in 5th place; only 1st through 4th were supposed to be in the playoffs. The 1st place team noticed but accepted to play and they got their butts kicked by Pinka's team (parity, lovely thing; anybody can beat anybody!). The parents protested after that and call the other team to complain; so the final game that was supposed to be this morning got cancelled until further notice (I think they will try to clean up the mess they created). So I will keep you posted.

Finally, I am a little hangover this morning; I drank some beers when my in-laws were here yesterday, and after they left we had Maria and Will visiting; as usual with them, we had a great time, conversation, drinks and the only change was the order of us falling asleep (usually Bonita falls asleep, then me for 5 minutes, then Will, and Maria neves does). This time I could not keep up, so they left early (1:30 am instead of the standard of 2:00 am). Great time.

Today we will meet with the family again (Polaco's birthday is on Tuesday, but since Arqui is here today, is a good idea to celebrate now). Before that we want to go and tour the bookstore we could not on Friday; let's see how it goes.

See you around.

So, what's up doc?

Finally; holiday in US, means no phone calls, emails or contact from customer and/or corporate people. Just us working today in TJ (where today is "Turkey Day" and we are grateful for that!).


Do you care about today? Most of people I know (in California) do not care much for the meaning of Thanksgiving Day; just take advantage of the long weekend to take vacation or start Christmas shopping.

In Tijuana is kind of similar; "Dia del Pavo" (Turkey Day) is the beginning of the shopping season; many people will be crossing the border at midnight or Friday ealy morning (3:00 am?) to get in line in order to buy something they might not need but has a good price. Or maybe not, considering the stressful economy we are living. In my case I have never done any Black Friday shopping; it tires me just to be in line to pay something that costed 5 instead of 10. I believe my time is more valuable and shopping is not really my thing.

Anyhoo; getting back to the Thanks part of Thanksgiving; and taking a page of a tradition we do not really share I would like to thank life for so many good things that have happened to me; specially lately where I have rediscovered the love of my wife and family and the tranquility of living without hiding things from Bonita. I love her.

As a departing comment I would like to share the following text from Armando Fuentes Aguirre (in a free translation by me):

"I am preparing to sue "Fortune" magazine; because they made a mistake that makes no sense to me. It happened that they published the list of the richest people in the world and I am not listed. The Sultan of Brunei, Bill Gates, Sam Walton's family and Takichiro Mori's family are there. Queen Elizabeth of England, Stavros Niarkos and Mexicans Carlos Slim and Emilio Azcárraga. However, I am not listed.

And I am a rich man; extremely rich. If you think I am not, allow me to explain: I have life, which I receive I do not know why and health, which I keep I do not know how. I have a family: my adorable wife who gave me her life and that made my life the best; wonderful sons and daughters from whom I have received only the best; grandchildren on who I express my paternity again in a happily manner. I have brothers and sisters that are like friends and friends that are like brothers and sisters. I have people who love me sincerily in spite of my defects and whom I love sincerely even with my defects. I got four readers that I thank every day because they read well what I write badly. I have a home and inside many books (my wife would say I have many books and around them a home). I have a small piece of the world in the form of a small orchard that every year gives me apples that would had made shorter the stay of Adan and Eve in Paradise. I have a dog that waits for me to arrive before going to sleep and that greets me as I was the master of heaven and earth.

I have eyes that see and ears that hear; legs that walk and hands that caress; a brain that thinks things that somebody else thought but that I never before did. I own the standard heritage of men: Happy moments to enjoy and sad moments to be a brother of the suffering people. And I have my faith in a good God that has infinite love for me. Could it be higher riches than mine?

Why then Forture magazine did not list me as one of the richest people in Earth?"

See you around.

And then...

... I realize that I still have many things to tell.

The story has not ended, we left when I had talked to some of my classmates (from the distant past when I was in college) and they told me the debt situation was a "normal" one (in the most ethimological sense); and that I have to find some other options to solve it and then live with it. Those other options have been reduced to one; stop paying the credit cards. The reason behind it is that in Mexico the law will protect the customer (not the bank); so the only consequence of doing that is that you will not be subject of credit for 5 to 10 years. Hopefully I will not need that.

Anyway; after I returned home (yes! I returned in October 23rd) Vicky moved out; or I should say, we threw her out? It was a combination of both; in any case things have calmed and everybody is doing better now; yes, we miss her a lot and she misses us a lot, but she is living 5 minutes walking from this house, so it is just OK.

Mediana still is in her ballet/jazz/flamenco dancing lessons and Pinka is in her basketball tournament (they are not doing so well, but they are improving each game) and Bonita is taking some lessons at a local college (like a certificate degree, I do not know how to call it).

I have been very busy (they are making me work!?!?!?) but it has been really satisfactory; I've never done it before! (you may think this is a joke... but maybe it isn't!). I have been staying at work for a couple of hours more than my usual time.

In other words, life is going on; the world has not stopped (as anybody can attest) and history is in the making (Obama is president of the USA!). Many things to talk about; but the one I want to share is the following:

I enjoy reading Gregg Easterbrook's column in ESPN every Tuesday; he writes about American football. But he also writes about common sense (in a very funny way). This week's column contains a couple of comments about two things: hidden calories restaurants give you without telling you; and how the financial bailout does not have any control over the companies about how they use the money American goverment is giving them. Both really amusing and with a lot of sense. By the way, do not get distracted by the picture that appears in the second link ;^).

It's getting late and I need my quality time with the family; see you around.