Siestas, Sonrisas, and No Sun

A dense gray fog hangs over the high volcanic valley of Mexico City. Street cleaners and street corner cooks, shuffle about in the dimly lit morning haze. The sun is struggling out of bed, and somewhere, down some street, a million alarm clocks fire all at once.

The taxi ride is the same: Jane from North Carolina, in her nasal Southern draw, asks elongated questions, which eat up the 20 minutes to work. Sarah responds to all inquiries, with another story about ASF and its true seedy underbelly. The taxi driver drives, and I sit and dream--will napping ever become a sport?

I arrive to school before 7am. Today the guards have decided to let me pass without my plastic pass; some days they make me write down my name and receive a visitor's pass. Much like most things in Mexico, there seems to be no regularity in their thought process.

My classroom smells of spilt cleaning supplies. I stumble to my desk as the "smart lights" automatically turn on. I throw my bag on the floor, pull my laptop from the bottom drawer of my desk, and I begin to waste the early morning with the internet.

The school has placed thousands of dollars worth of programs onto my computer--namely, the entire Adobe Creative Suite 4. I consider it my job to transfer said material to another computer, my computer. I attempted to use my new tech savvy storgage/synching device, Dropbox. However, the service agreement does not allow the transfer of program files. So it goes, I shall succeed, one flashdrive at a time.

Highlight from yesterday's workday: At the end of the day, I have a free period. Towards the end of the period, before the final school bell, I decided to take a siesta (nap just sounds more selfish), on the back table in my room. I have a method: I lock my door, I turn the lights off, I close the blinds, and I fill a rectangular plastic bag with air, tie it off, use it as a pillow, and I lay down; the back corner of my room is an inpenatrable nexus for observation. What was supposed to be a 10 minute power nap...siesta, turned out to be a 30 minute snore-fest. I would have kept on going, if it weren't for the trusty cleaning lady, entering and hoping to tend to her tasks. I awoke in a flury of confusion and then remembered the meeting I had at 2:45...it was 3:10. I stormed over, slipped in, made my presence known with a few choice comments, and aplogized at the close of the meeting for being tardy. The good thing was, I wasn't the only one late, and hence the blunder was mildly deblunderfied.

Last night, I had intentions of meeting up with Pablo Z, to play a little music, but events occurred. My neighbor, Sarah and her daughter Bella, were being interviewed by the local news. The news was conducting a human interest story about the pubic school system in DF, and a foriegner's perspective. In any event, their deaf dog, Buster, was going nuts with the cameras and stuff, and Sarah sent him up to my house. Lucio and him had similar playing styles--swift, nuerotic, and relentless. Lucio attempted to hump the poor dog for over an hour. Sarah's other kid Olie, was also a little out of hand, and he got sent up with the dogs--he fell in line with Lucio and Buster's playing style. Watching them negated music playing, and I called in my resignation. Olie left after 40mins, and I left Lucio and Buster to their devices, and I took Flow and Chops on a short walk. Once again, as previously stated, my dogs are proving themseleves time and time again--I am very happy that my dogs have an off button, and can enjoy the company of others, while simply laying down.

After the dogs and kids, I made dinner. A dry rub of chiles on some pork, was the order for the night. I made some Mexican Gringo Rice, and I cooked a sweet little feast for myself. I watched some of The Office Season 3. I have watched season 5 and 1, and I am working on downloading seasons 2 and 4. The Office is addictive, and I truly love every character on the show. Dwight Shrute is a hero!

I pulled myself away from The Office, and I made my jump into painting. The night before I had augmented some pictures in Photoshop, and I had attempted to freehand an outline on one of the canvases I bought. I pushed myself to free hand. Then, holding the canvas above my head, placing a printed picture on the back, I corrected my deviations in proportion. From an outside perspective, I must have looked a little off, walking around under a light, canvas raised above me, one eye closed, lip pinched between my teeth, while I spun under a 40watt fixture. In any event, last night I hunkered down to cover it in paint. I had eliminated black from the image, and the result was a very colorful face abstracted in space. I was determined to really find the correct colors for each layer of the paint. I painted for three hours straight, and at the end, I stepped back, and I could not have been more pleased.

The painting is a picture I took of my friend Julia outside El Califa; we went there the other night when Gloria was in town--she loves al pastor. I also have pictures of Pablo and Ana, and I have a game plan for a large scale production.

That is that. I should get to the grading I have yet to do. Seeing how I have today's class planned, and it doesn't start until 1pm, I think I have plenty of time...but, I do always find away to consume that void in a less than work related way. Perhaps a brief morning siesta is in order?