November in Retrospect

I don't know if it is possiable to squeeze the intire month of November into one post but I am going try. It has been requested that I edit and make the posts shorter. That is most likely not going to happen so I thought I might attempt chapters for this November and see if that works. Though a Chapter may break up a tyrannical rant in which case you might just have to deal. This is my only vent people so bear with me. My blog is my best friend here and it's been MIA for the entire month of November. So here goes.

Cerritos Beach
We all know how the month began which was marked by my most recent post at the beach with Betty's family. Well Betty and I enjoyed our day at the beach so much that we decided to make every Sunday beach day. So the next week we planned on Cerritos beach which is about half way to Todos Santos just past the "Art and Beer". I borrowed my mom's Suburban which hadn't quite made it to the storage unit yet to haul Ophelia, Betty, Beto and his two amigos Emilo and Juncas on up to the playa. I had three 13 year old boys in my car. Not a scenario I am used to, but they were super fun. I really do love teen agers espcially at the angsty ages between 13 and 15. Its just so entertaining...though I am pretty sure I might not be saying that when I have an angsty teen of my own, but from a distance I love to watch the awkward little train wrecks waiting to happen try to fumble their way to their identity. These boys were great fun and so enthusiastic. Beto practiced his English while giving me directions and I practiced my Spanish taking the directions verbatum. Good practice and we even made it to the beach. We had met Victor and his family, Anna his wife, Fabrizio and Danella his son and daughter who are just the sweetest kids. Fabrizio loves to give me the "hello kiss" and will do so numerous times in a row. It is really cute. Cerritos is a surf beach. I thought I had been there once before when my friend Lindy and I were here about 10 years ago and we met the guys on the beach who said that they would teach us how to surf and the best place was up near Todos Santos. So of course Lindy and I were all excited to learn and hang out with Surf dudes that we hop in their car don't tell anybody where we are going, haven't a clue where we are going, are only wearing our swimsuits, we might have towels and head up to what turned out to Cerritos to learn how to surf. Well when we get there the waves are like 13 feet tall and one of the guys is like you ready????? And I'm like, I may have gotten into your car, driven to God knows where with out telling anyone or decent clothes to wear but I'm not stupid!!! There is no way! I am getting in there. So instead we watched this guy surf while Lindy and I froze our buns off watching the sun set, on a deserted beach with the other surf dude. It was a pretty amazing adventure and we even made it home safe and sound. These were pretty nice guys in fact. I digress I know but as we are driving with Betty and the crew I am pretty excited to see if that is the beach that Lindy and I were at 10 years ago, I had always wanted to go back. And as we roll in I see that it is indeed the same place but the only way I would know it is the cliff on the northside, everything else is different. Development is on the way, a half built house is on top of the cliff that I had once stood a top to watch the sun sink into the pacific. The place is packed. Full of families and lots of surfers a little bar with live music has now arrived and in full swing, people are playing volleyball, tourism has made it to Cerrito's not for the worse or the better but just for the different. We arrive ready for the day. I am now saying that we come to the beach to eat. I brought just a few left overs for Tostadas so that we wouldn't starve and the others brought a feast. Sopa seco (which if you are paying attention is pasta), Torta's, beer and a mass of other things. Betty and Anna keep watch over the feast and feed the crew as we drop the sand out of our trousers and come if from the surf for a refuel. Cerritos is a play in the surf kind of beach and you've got surfers far out, boogie boarders closer in and babies playing in the little waves. Ophelia was in heaven. She even found some English speaking friends her age and played her heart out. Beto, Juncas, Emelio and I played football catch and Ophelia would tackle them and try to get the ball, the boys were awesome with her. I did about a 100 squats in the waves with my 32 pound weight, Ophelia, saving her from getting pounded. Which was so much fun but my buns made contact with an underwater stingy thing and we both had to race out of the water. Luckily O didn't get hit but I spent about an hour icing my butt trying to get the sting out, not bad less than a bee sting, but I'm sure the beach enjoyed watching as Betty inspected my left cheek to see what might have gotten me. I think I've already mentioned what a good friend. At Sundown we pile back into the car and head home. I am loving this new tradition.

Semana de Luna llena (The week of the Full Moon)
On our way up to Cerritos I filled the tank of my mom's suburban, obviously we didn't use all of the gas from the 60 gallon tank of her black beast so I decided to give the ole 68 (my jeep) a rest and drive the big dog around. I really hate driving this car. Especially here in Cabo. Its too big, the mirrors are crap, I had just had an incident where the power steering failed while I was in the middle of a u-turn on the highway, which had been fixed but I still hold animosty towards it for almost killing us. But of course I've got gas in the tank and I'm too cheap to let it just sit there so I drive the bastard around. So one morning I wake up and I am just off. My whole body hurts, I've got the aches and shivers and I am feeling lousy. I gather myself up out of bed try to get O off to school and everything is a chore, I feel like I am looking through a hazy cloud and just want to go to bed. The plan is to drive O to school and come home and sleep until 2:00 when I have to pick her up again. I get her there, drop her off and of course as I'm backing up I hit a car parked behind me. The woman and I exchange numbers. I agree to not contact insurence and just pay her off. She complains that this is her bad week and I think "yah yah tell me about it, this week has started out crappy for me, I'm all alone, and now I feel like shit, I just hit your car and am sure to pay you a hefty sum to make it better, all the cliquey school moms just saw the gringa lady just smack into your car, I'm sure your life is really rough. Later that day she calls me and we agree to meet the next day in the parking lot of the CCC (grocery store) at
8:30. I'm still feeling shitty. Totally out of whack when I arrive to the CCC with $350.00 in cash, mind you I have no proof that this is indeed how much the damage cost to repair, I don't care lets just get it over with please so I can go back to bed and sleep off my flu. She arrives and I can see her husband in the car with a pair of crutches and I think, ohhh, well maybe she really is having a rough week or maybe it's just for affect. I bring out the cash apologize another thousand times, she explains her week was so shitty her husband got into an accident and her son was hit at school. Ok she might have me have one upped me in the shitty week division but she still has my $350.00. We make nice, after all she is the first parent I have met at school though under less than ideal circumstances I have got to suck it up feign compassion but really I want to do is get in my car and escape. As I do and in my unbalanced haste I open my car door right into my face and split open my left eye brow. While I'm stumbling around in the parking lot of the CCC trying to get my bearings as I've nearly knocked my self out, the people that I have just payed off see me and pull over. I am now bleeding all over the place and we parents, none of us has a tissue in sight. The woman runs into the CCC to find some, her husband is trying to help from the confines of his passenger seat and I am coming too and I start to cry. I now have tears, blood, mascara and snot running down my face. Trying unsuccessfully to keep it together, The husband who doesn't speak english but for some reason I understand completely, the blow to my head must've triggered some sort of underlying knowledge of Spanish first aid, he insists on putting honey onto my quarter inch open wound. Now I've added honey to the mess running down my face, still no tissue and I have hit my limit. The stress of the last two months comes crashing and I am exhausted and humiliated, I move into total melt down. I mumble so sort of I'm fine yes I can drive please leave me alone, I'm about to lose it goodbye. I turn my back and proceed to bawl my face off. The enormity of all that I have taken on in these past few months begins to swallow me up in a sea of self pitying tears. Who wins the shitty week competition now huh? Finally I've stopped bleeding, relize that a good cry had to happen at some point and now could not have been a better excuse and try to march on with my day. With the car door blow I seemed to have knocked the flu right out of me and decide instead of bed to find a little bit of compassion from friends. I head to the office. Looking like totally shit, with a massive headache setting in hoping Betty hasn't gone out to breakfast yet. She was there and her sister too (who now whenever she sees my tells me to cuidado, which means be careful, um yah thanks I know). We ice me up, take some ibprophen and attempt breakfast, because that is what we do. I am not really able to eat anything as the flu is still in me but I manage to suck down an entire chocolate banana milkshake, I tell Victor, "This is to take away the sad". He agrees its the perfect solution and points to his belly. I come to realize that this was a fucker of a week for many and not just me. Everyone on facebook was complaining and just begging for that week to be over. Then I find out my step mother had broken her ankle and needed surgury to fix it. What is going on???? Then I noticed or I think it was brought to my attention that a full moon was in affect. It must've been a strong one and all of our little human bodies just couldn't take it. I pay heed to this theory, I figure if our bodies are over 70% water and the moon effects the ocean so greatly I can only imagine it's effect on our water laden bodies. We haven't a chance. And we didn't, we were all screwed, at least I wasn't the only one. I am still hearing about the affects of that week, but the beauty is the week is over, my humiliation and self pity is gone and hey I met my first school parents. So I guess there's that.

Jen and Michael.
That same week some friends of friends that I had met quite a few times at parties and like a whole lot were coming into town. I had been soooooo excited to actually have some party people in town. When I had asked Gretch about them she informed me that the would totally go out with me. Good cuz thats what I needed a little blow off steam out on the town perhaps some dancing at Squid Row time. We planned to meet on Friday, the day after I split my face open. I was still kind of feeling shitty but I feel the best remedy for any illness is to ignore it and it will go away, sort of like a lame date, eventually it'll get the message your not interested. So I got pretty. Put on the "go out" outfit and went to pick them up at the Westin. Ahhh so nice to see some sweet Minnsotan blood. They were up for anything so we started at one of my fave places, Sangria's. Its a little whole in the wall belly up divey kind of place but the bar tender remembered me and she has really cute hair so you can see why I like it there...plus they have 2 beers 2 tequila shots for $6 or 3 beers for $3. Or something, we know I don't pay attention to that kind of thing. Who cares just give me beer and tequila. Thats what we had. Then Jen and Michael some how were persuaded to do the whole timeshare bit and got a bunch of perks out of the deal, including some dinner certificates. Sushi at "Art and Sushi" were one of our options, I like that place, it's got a fun atmosphere, and sits on the harbor. We went there. So fun to talk to them and get to know them, turns out they are not even Minnesota blood but from the East Coast and just both ended up in MN for work. The night was just beginning so I took them to another favorite haunt, The Nowhere Bar, where the dancing starts early and the people watching is second to none. The bartenders are the same ones who have been working there since I first was there at the ripe age of 19, I won't discuss how they've aged if they don't say anything about me. We got drinks watched the party around us, but illness much like bad dates don't always get the message so loud and clear and try as I may to ignore my overall feeling of shittyness, I just couldn't go on. Jen and Michael were ready for so much more. They were ready to see my next place, they actually asked where else I like to go and like that little depressed donkey on Winnie the Pooh, I was like, "oh I dunno, there is no other place really". A total lie but I just wanted to go to bed. LAME we all know that is not me. So I requested a cab said they didn't have to come home with me pointed out the Squid Row and said they should go. But they rode home with me instead. I felt bad. My firsts guest this year to show the town and I am not living up to my promises. The next day I call Jen and she tells me that we missed some famous skaters at Squid Row that night, she tells me their names and I can't place them. Skaters, Skaters, like figure skaters? or like hockey?. No! She says, "like skateboarder skaters" OMG, I'm kind of horrified, considering I used to be in love with anything kick flipping an olie and now my head goes straight towards the tripple soucow, WHAT DOES THAT MEAN!!???!! Home early, don't know the famous skaters I'm losing my edge. But Sunday came around. I was able to really eat for the first day in about a week and I was feeling the party in me. I called Jen to see if they were up for going out and they were. Yayyyy. I met her for a cocktail in the Westin "fancy" bar and waited for Michael to appear, who was taking some time and moving slow due to tummy trouble. He never made it, the chorrito got him and he was down for the count. Jen and I still were up for some fun. I suggested the Giggling Marlin, or maybe she did. I hadn't been there either since I was 19 but was feeling like it might be time to try it again. I was down for some good ole touristic fun. The GM did not dissappoint, they have a super fun show and I was chosen to have a dirty dance done by two old guys and the husband of a newly married couple that became friends with Jen on the beach and hooked up with us at the GM. Jen got a video of it and if I could I would put it here but I'm lacking that savvy. We even headed over to the Squid, but I was on a 1:00am curfew and had to bolt early, it's ok though there weren't any famous people there. I think on this night, back to myself, I totally would've known the skaters, I blame the other on a hazy brain of illness. I think I will refer to that bout as the Figure Skater Flu and leave it at that.

Thanksgiving Week.
Things just kept getting better after Sunday. I booked my first cooking job down here. I know. I had sworn to a couple of close friends who know me and my dramatic flair that I was never cooking professionally again. After I lopped of the tip of my right index finger two hours before my going away party, I was done, forever! Never again! Yah, well the finger healed, and the thought of bringing in some extra cash was extremely tempting since I don't forsee this little business venture that we have started, taking off until spring at the very least or more realiastically next winter. Cash right about now would be really nice. Really nice. So my mom had forwarded and email from some friends of my uncle Tom's who were coming in for the week. They were looking for a chef and a nanny. I could provide both. Alex my babysitter was up for the job and I thought cooking dinner for a famly of 8 sounded kind of fun. Especially if they were friends of Tom's. I made them dinner on their first night and they loved it so much they had me every night except for Tuesday and Sat that week. I worked my tail off made some really awsome meals. I reinvigorated my creativity and came up with lots of new menus and recipes and even found myself thinking damn I really am pretty good at this. This is my favorite way to cook. Creative for people who like to experiment. Easy. They had kids and let me bring Ophelia over while I was there. She and their four year old son were inseperable. They would invite me to eat with them and a few times I did. One time I think it was during Thanksgiving dinner, or maybe it was fish taco's the little boy, Christopher runs up to me and says, "I can't make her love me." Because he has the cutest way of talking, you know like a little kid, I couldn't understand him, and then I hear it and the whole table does. My heart just went out to him. Oh baby, I'm so sorry. I couldn't help my self. "Well kiddo thats just the way it is, you can't make anybody love you" I really have no good advice in the love category, I am not the expert. Then his dad pipes up. "Play hard to get!" and his mom says, "Yah that's how I got your dad!" We all start to laugh, that really is how it works, it's a cave man thing. Dinner doesn't taste as good unless you've hunted it down I guess. I loved this family though. I fit right in and it was one of the greatest jobs I've taken on. One of my favorite moments was when I was setting the table on one of the first days and the matriarch of the family, Clara, says to me, "Your english is so good. Did you live in the states ever?" Ummmmm, I reply, "I'm from Minnesota." It was too funny, I took it as a totally compliment to even be mistaken, though she would've known better had she heard my shoddy spanish. On my last day I walked on the beach with Ellie, wife of Tom's friend David, and we decided to go for a swim on just a whim in our underware (I'm telling you these were my kind of people) and while treading water we were chatting about the week. She apologized for her mothers lack of filter and that she will just say anything. There was another point in which her mother inquired about my lack of Thanksgiving plans and couldn't belive I'd have nothing else to do. I love it though. I'd rather people just ask rather than assume. Later I find out that her mother had thought that perhaps I was Mexican Aristocracy. We had a good laugh about that! Then I came up with the story Clara may have made up in her mind had she not asked. I was once an aristocrat from Mexico city, but then my family lost everything and I was an orphan and I had to set out to make my way in this cruel world. Landed in Cabo on a wing and a prayer, and that was how I came to be the cook. HA. So cute. I loved them all. And hey, one thing is sure, I have an aristocratic aire about me.... It was a great Thanksgiving week. I guess if I had to sum up November it came in like and Angry Lion and out like a happy well fed Lioness.

I will try to keep in touch. Life is just happening her now. A little more planely I am sure there will be stories but maybe less pictures. I will try to keep up with them both but they might just be a little more random. Like they are here for some reason they won't let me place or even see the pictures before the are published so if the don't make sense, sorry.

A few things I am looking forward to this month are.... Tonight I am going to the Starbucks opening...apparently thats a big deal around here. My Aunt and Uncle on my Stepmoms side are coming into town...we'll do some eating out at fishing, hoping to camp out at their place in Zacatitos for Christmas....And moving along with our Villas in Baja and hope to have the website up and running for you all to see and use!!!! Have a great Holiday!