COUNTDOWN: T-minus 6 days

I'm rocking in a comfy, pink recliner sitting in a Christmas-decorated apartment in a retirement community in southern San Diego--I'm 18 years old.
We're (Tio, Tia, and I) staying with Tio's adorable mother, Elaine (by the way, that's one of my favorite names of which I hope to name a daughter one day), is letting us stay in her apartment with her while Uncle Kent recuperates.
He was in the hospital (and Tia with him) for several bleeding divertics and stomach bleeding.
I was alone for a week and got pretty depressed. I watched kids and stayed in the house--I guess I've just been homesick and on top of that they were gone, so I felt even more lonely. Don't know why since I've made so many friends their. I stuck with Juan and Marbella a little bit, though. They took me last weekend with them to a Christmas parade in downtown Tecate--it was a parade of people dancing on semi-trucks and VW Beetles decorated in lights--super cute!

**Fun Fact: Mexico bought the rights to the design of the original VW Bug and so the original--what we would call the Old Slug Bug--is still produced in Mexico.**

At the parade we saw one of the students from the BI, Silvano, selling his cotton candy on a pole (their were other men selling, too); Silvano has made several cotton candy machines. He's a handy-man, jack-of-all-trades type. He is currently in the process of constructing an outdoor oven for the BI. Anyway, he gave us a free bag of cotton candy at the parade. :)

But yeah, the rest of the week was lonely and lame--my own fault. I could've socialized. Instead I slept through Devotionals everyday, and only went to breakfast for the days they served Chilaquiles. I've lost all motivation it seems. Hopefully going back home for a few weeks will revitalize my motivation and energy.

I CAN'T wait to hug and kiss my mom, and converse with my Pa, and watch movies with my siblings, and spend loads of time with my best friends.

Vegetable juice and appreciation

A solid week of being sick and recuperating. As of now I’ve thrown up 3 times since I’ve been you—before that it had been 6+ years since I’d thrown up… crazy. So, as I was puking and sleeping through Wednesday… wait, wait, wait! Let’s back up to pre-barfing on Wednesday morning:

She opens her eyes to the light already on; sits up quick to find Cheli freshly showered across the room and Jokabed on the bottom bunk, just starting to wake up. A quick glance at her phone and she instantly realizes she is 6 minutes late for the Fiesta de Frijol (the consequence for having deliberately slept through devotions and breakfast on Monday)—if she’s late to the Fiesta she’ll be required to attend the next one it two weeks; and what sane human being wants to clean beans at 4 in the AM. So forget brushing the teeth—or even taking out the retainers, for that matter—or brushing the hair; she jumped out of bed, pushed on her shoes and glided out the door, down the hall, down the ramp, along the sidewalk, down the stairs and through the door to find that everyone else had just arrived as well and were still waiting for the bags of rock-infested beans to be brought in to clean. Alright so she’s a pro-bean cleaner even after the first and only Fiesta she had attended previously—well, somehow that pro title slipped away as she sorted through the beans on a pebble scavenger to find that her eyes would not latch to the open position, and every time she would inhale as a lion would roar, she became more sleepy… more… and more… slee… *yawn*… pyyy. ZzzzzzzzzZzzzzzzzz…. Just kidding! She didn’t crash at the bean table, but she did, however, start to feel an all too familiar feeling of nausea. Then the stomach began to communicate its feelings. “Alright, so I’m definitely, probably, absolutely, more-than-likely going to hurl at some point this morning, but who knows when that might happen; I’ll just stick out the bean cleaning and go lay down during breakfast (not marked to eat, anyway). The stomach continued to communicate its feelings, and its feeling just grew stronger, but she abided. Just in case, though, she asked her Uncle for a trashcan; he gave her permission to go lie down in the house, but she’s a stubborn gal. She sat down with her trashcan and continued cleaning beans. The stomach wasn’t having any of this “stubborn” business—so finally it demanded she go to the house to rest. She submitted to its desire. As she walked the path to the house, she new that she would be relieving the stomach of its unwanted freight quite soon. The moment she hit the pillow, she was out, but the very next moment, it seemed, she was running to the bathroom to puke. This exact sequence continued until about 11 AM; then she just slept until 2 PM due to her fatigue. Her stomach was still a little upset about life, and now she was, too.

It’s probably my favorite way of writing—to take something that occurs to everyday and make it super dramatic and in third person, if it has to do with me.
Anyway, thank you for your patience, now back to the blog. (Haha, it was like a commercial or something)

While I was doing my routine of throwing-up and sleeping all morning, Aunt Lila considerately took the “Mom” role, and researched how to solve this mysterious puking issue I’d been having. Turns out it quite possibly is tied to my current disorder of Ulcerative Colitis. She researched for hours and when I finally woke up after 2, we discussed the juice fast that I’d be taking for the next few days. And so it began: nothing but the juice.

Thursday was Thanksgiving. The BI had a big party of games (chess, janga, dominoes, ping-pong, air hockey) leading up to the traditional Thanksgiving dinner that would feed 60+ people. In the morning I left a little early to head to San Diego to pick up my cousin Kimberly and bring her back to the BI to celebrate with us. Aunt Lila allowed me to eat a little of the Thanksgiving dinner (however I don’t think I understood the concept of “a little bit” and overdid it), but my stomach made sure I had made a mistake later that evening.
After the big turkey dinner, Uncle Kent encouraged an opportunity for open mic where people could come up and say what they were thankful to God for. Almost everyone that came up said something about the Bible Institute being like a family. My hand became the mic stand, so it was inevitable that I would need to say something, so from the start I started brainstorming for something I was thankful for that wasn’t already said, that revealed that I was human, and that I could actually say in Spanish. I came up with this: God having faith in me even when I don’t have faith in Him. SO… when the time came that all the people in the room chanted my name to share my gratitude, I stuttered, “Yo no habla… hablo… mucho Español, pero yo quiero dar gracias a dios porque El tiene fe en yo cuando yo no tengo fe in El.”
Whew! My first time speaking to an audience in Spani-wish; it went alright. And what cracks me up is that as I looked around the room while other people were sharing their gratitude, not many were paying attention—looking at their shoe laces, feeding their baby, whispering to their neighbor, eating seconds—but as soon as the gringa starts talking in her broken Spanish, all eyes are on her with big white grins below them.
For Thursday night service, Uncle Kent showed Facing the Giants instead of giving a sermon, and ice cream and home-made apple cobbler followed. Aunt Lila, Kim, and I left ¼ way through the movie to take Kim home, so we missed the desert (probably a good thing, in my case).

Friday, I watched kids in the morning and then we took Juan, Marbella, and their kids with us to Black Friday shopping for the afternoon (they have passports and cross every day).
On the way out, we stopped at the Post Office, where I picked up my huge box of miscellaneous food items (top ramen, one can of peas, a zuchinni) from my mom. We also stopped by the home of Linda Osborne; Juan and Marbella were house-sitting for her and her husband. Linda is a former member of Tecate Mission International. Her home and property were so lovely—I would have never guessed there’d be such a nice place in such an armpit like Tecate, CA.

In San Diego, went to Fry’s (I always think of Brandon when I go there—there was even a little boy there playing DDR Robot who looked just like a younger Brandon!), Walmart, and the mall and then we did some grocery shopping to finish. I was tired and kind of grumpy the whole time because all I’d consumed that day was vegetable juice—I had a craving for normal food and protein! Aunt Lila even kindly bought me Odwalla carrot juice in Henry’s grocery store, but I refused to drink it that night. What a little turd! :P

Saturday there was an APEN conference at a church here in Tecate. I didn’t go. I slept in until 9 or something and pretty much played the perfect bum the whole day. I showered—I think that was my biggest accomplishment. It was nice to let my body and mind rest, though.

Sunday = church. After church was Keila’s birthday party at her dad’s church that he pastors. I knew ahead of time that they would be serving menudo (an acclaimed cow stomach soup), so I brought my own vegetable soup in a thermos. When we got there, we sat at one of the nicely decorated tables and were very soon after served menudo, so I whipped out my thermos and started pouring it into the Styrofoam bowl, but… the soup wouldn’t come out. The chunks of veggies were too big and were crowding the opening. I tried using a spoon, shaking it, using my finger (yuck), and finally a beat the bottom as I tilted it upside down. I was making quite the scene apparently, because all eyes were on me. Awkwardooo! Finally about half of it trickled out—the other half… was a lost cause.
I wanted cake. SO bad. SO SOOO SOOOO bad. I snuck one bite, but it wasn’t enough, so I snuck another, and I was going to sneak a whole piece, but I decided that self-control shows stronger character. What a hard thing it was for me to do; but what a gal! :)
Uncle Kent slept in the car for most of the party because he was feeling sick and fatigued. He suspected he was getting a cold, but we would later find out it was something else.

Monday Aunt Lila gave me the day off from nursery so that I—and Uncle Kent ended up going with to trade cars with Kim so he could take her car to a mechanic here in Mexico—could do some errands in town. Uncle Kent and I had minor trouble with their car going there, but when we traded for Kim’s car we had way more trouble. “There are so many lights on in this car, it’s like a Christmas tree!” he laughed. Out of gas, out of transmission fluid, leaking radiator, low oil… it went on. We made it back, at least. :) Thank the Lord.
Later that evening, Efren came and got me from the house to go practice the Hillsong songs, I was supposed to have been practicing, with Rigo. Luckily, those four years in choir of learning songs as we sand them paid off—I was able to sing along with Efren okay, but every day since then I’ve been listening to those four worship songs every time I have my laptop out (even right now I’m listening to them).

Tuesday we had the woman’s craft session in the morning. Oh, Aunt Lila had briefly taught me how to crochet on Saturday, but I had forgotten how to start. She showed me again really quick at the woman’s craft session that we had in the student kitchen, and I had it down. I’ve gotten so much faster, now! I’m making a navy blue bufanda (scarf), and have become half-addicted to crocheting. Cheli makes fun of me, “You’re like a little grandma always crocheting!” Haha
Tuesday afternoon Grete and Nohemí never showed up because Aunt Lila had to kick their parents out of the class since they missed and were late for too many classes. I felt kinda bad. The week before, their mom had given me a bracelet (as a thank you).
Uncle Kent had rested in the house all day because he had felt sick and exhausted still.
Aunt Lila and I took Ester (and Hermana Rosanna accompanied her) to the doctor at about 7. It’s so interesting! Here in Tecate, and probably in other parts of Mexico, too, people can go to a doctor at any time of the day and get a consultation for 30 pesos—which is less than 3 dollars—and they can get a doctor’s note or prescription slip for another 30 pesos. And don’t worry, the pharmacy is right next door and is open 24 hours a day, too! So insane!

The next morning I woke up at 4:30 to my phone ringing. It was Aunt Lila, so I answered it, still half-asleep. Apparently Uncle Kent was having internal bleeding that manifested itself in the night, so they left at 3 in the AM for the hospital in San Diego. She asked me to make sure the girls who were supposed to make breakfast that morning, got into the kitchen. I had to wake up poor Ester—she was supposed to have the day off to rest—but she was grateful that I everything for her so she didn’t have to leave her apartment.
Well, I was actually up before 5:30! This is good. I still managed to be 20 minutes late for Devotionals, and since Daniela was giving it that day, it was really short, so I arrived just before the last prayer request was taken. I assumed correctly that someone already asked for prayer for Uncle Kent (I had already told three people, so I figured word had probably gotten around), so I didn’t say anything to avoid repetition.
Made my vegetable juice, like I’ve been every morning, watched the kids, and spent the afternoon having alone-time in my Aunt and Uncle’s. I spent about 3 hours on Facebook while I was uploading pictures onto the BI’s blog—the internet was SO slow. I really to lay off the Fbook, though. I deleted my Facebook account for two days a few weeks ago, but had to get a phone number off of it, so since I was reactivating it anyway, I thought I might as well keep it. What a dummy.
It was going on 8 and I decided I wanted to sleep at my Aunt and Uncles, so I went up to get my stuff and let Cheli or Joka know. Cheli was the only one up there out of the two, and we ended up chatting and being silly for a while. Let’s see, we each sang to eachother out country’s national anthem, I explained to her the concept of “the middle name” (they are very uncommon in Mexico), we threw a yellow ball at one another, and we talked about the characteristics of America’s diversity. Speaking of diversity, what a diverse conversation that was! Haha

Thursday, I again didn’t go to Devotionals. I woke up really late this time. I hopped in the shower at 7:27 and had to be up in our apartment to watch kids by 7:55. Yeah, this is the girl who takes exactly a whole one hour every day to get ready—no matter what the order is that she does her getting-ready, it takes the same amount of time: one hour. Well, I did what I could, made it up in time with wet hair and morning breath, but the nice thing about watching just one baby is you can finish getting ready as long as you keep it occupied and out of trouble. ;) What a goof!
At 2 PM, I cooked a big batch of my vegetable soup and crocheted while I waited. Then I burned APEN CD’s for my aunt up in her office. I was going to go to the ECEN class (even though my aunt and uncle wouldn’t be there), but I was planning on talking to my mom on the phone after 7 (my mom and I have contrasting schedules, it seems), and I didn’t want to go to the service (in case Karla was there, although she hasn’t been there on Sundays, so I hope it’s not my fault because I’ve been avoiding her), so I cleaned the house. It looks nice. But I never got to talk to my mommy… :( she was sick. Hopefully tonight, though. Anyway, after I cleaned the house I went and hung out with Keila and we checked her email on my computer. Her mom and aunt did the same (because I have internet). I had them laughing a lot—half because I have a good sense of humor and half because I don’t understand enough Spanish. Haha Keila and I did the Mana Mana skit from The Muppets, and her mom recorded it, also we were talking about boys. I told Marbella about how Jehu is crushing on me, then she asked if I liked a guy named Sirvando or Silbano (one of the two) because both of those guys are students here, but one is older and married. So because I don’t know the difference (which name is for which guy) when she asked me if I had a crush on whoever she said, I mixed them up and thought she was asking me if I had a crush on Mari-Chuy’s husband. They were rolling!

Today my kids for first block didn’t show up because Uncle Kent’s class was canceled since he is still at the hospital (oh, after two colonoscopy’s and one scope down the mouth, they found that he has a few divertics in his colon—we both have colon issues together, what a bond!). Beti, Rigo’s wife, came up to my room and asked if I could help Rigo find the keys of a few songs on the internet for him; so I did that. It was nice talking with Rigo and getting to know him a little better. I’ve mostly every interacted with him when I’ve invited myself into his house to pray over him. :)
The babies, Abril and Daniela have been crabby lately. I’m wondering if it’s from the weather or what. Daniela’s skin is really drying out from the cold (I always put lotion on her face when she comes in to me—she hates it! I asked her mom if she has lotion to put on her and she said, “Yeah, but I can only put it on her when she’s asleep because she doesn’t like it.” Of course she’s not going to like it, but you still need to keep her skin moisturized at all times otherwise it’s gonna start bleeding. As of now your daughter looks like a cute chipmunk with lizard skin.). Abril is throwing two-year-old kind of tantrums, and she’s not even one yet. I usually ignore it and she’ll stop once she realizes that I won’t pay any attention to her if she’s crying. I think her mom’s babying her, though. And I know, she is a baby, but I believe unnecessary tantrums are inappropriate for all ages. Today she was just screaming for no obvious reason, so I just sat in a chair and crocheted. She stopped after two minutes and calmed herself down and then I picked her up and she was completely fine. It’s ironic how you can learn so much from other peoples’ mistakes. :)
Her mom came and got her early, so I went over to the office to help Ester by burning more APEN CD’s; after lunch, we labeled them together. She’s feeling a lot of stress without my Aunt and Uncle here; she had about 15 people interrupt her eating lunch to have her mark them off on the dinner attendance sheet. You could see her getting super annoyed. I felt bad. Once we went up to the office to label the CD’s, she gained some joy as Alex was telling me the story of how she drove for her second or third time today and almost hit a cop.

Well, I’ve been blogging since. Actually, I’ve been compiling this blog post, piece by piece, this whole week. I’ve been putting it off, and putting it off, and running out of time, and running out of time this every day. But now it’s almost done. And I feel dandy.

Two last things:

1.) I/or Aunt Lila have been making vegetable juice every morning; I’ve been drinking it and it’s giving me so much energy throughout the day and my body feels stronger and more tolerant. I recommend it! Better than coffee (I mean, for you)! We juice: cabbage (purple and green), carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, celery, and apple.

2.) The keyboardist from Keila’s church asked her for my number. He’s only seen me twice. I thought that was kind of awkward for two reasons. a) He’s never said a word to me, so he obviously only wants my number based on my physical attributes b) If you interested in a girl, why wouldn’t you ask her for her number? Why the 11-year-old friend of hers’? Oye.

And a third:

3.) I love fresh oranges off the tree! I’ve already eaten two today! SO good!