Learning to surf 2008: Attempts 3 and 4

I don't have a great urge to write, but I thought I'd just report about my latest surfing ventures. It seems like I'm really getting the hang of the basics--and I should be riding big waves (and staying on the board) in a couple of weeks.

Migraciones

I spent yesterday morning at the Migraciones office on Avenida Espana in Brena. My visa was due to expire next Tuesday, so I went to extend it for a month because I don't plan on leaving the country this weekend. I had offered last weekend to accompany precious's mom so that she could obtain her passport. I was able to witness first hand what a pain in the ass it is for Peruvians to leave their country. First, the office in Av. Espana is the only office in Lima that processes new passports and it couldn't be in a sketchier part of town. Stepping out of the taxi a throng of people comes at you explaining how to get your passport--and like in many places in Peru you don't know who you can listen too. Step 1-make copies of your DNI (and they will charge you double the price of copies anywhere else in Peru). Then Steps 2 through 20 basically consist of waiting in a series of lines, the last of which the estimated waiting time is 2 hours. Then once Peruvians have a passport, they require a visa for a large number of countries so they have that whole bureaucratic cowpile waiting for them once they've obtained their passport.

I on the other hand only had to wait in half as many lines and the process took me a total of 30 minutes and $29, much cheaper than leaving the country.

mouse!

Today I acted a little bit like it was my birthday and I treated myself to a mini optical mouse by GE and new Philips headphones. My mouse is about the size of a real mouse and I already came close to wrecking my new headphones (crisis averted) when I tried to figure out how to take them out of the case. So far I keep forgetting to use my mouse and I just use old faithful on my laptop. My precious will be happy to have the mouse albeit small so he can play Age of Empires III.

Squirrel Adventures

Bad squirrel, sneaking in through the window at 5 am

Good squirrel, awaiting me when I sneak in at 8pm

the nose

I'm super olfactory.

Scents I love:

Garlic
Ají
my precious
Clinique Happy heart
precious's Gilette aftershave
clean clothes
the sky before it's about to rain
Lucky's (my former cat) fur
Joey's (my first cat) paws
Big White's (my sister's cat) head when she'd been drinking from the drain
my shoulders in the sunshine
Pert Plus shampoo
steak
peanut butter cookies
Thai food (with ginger)
sourdough bread
new plastic
baby products
oregano
¡BASIL!


why the theme of smells? well, yesterday I went home from work with a killer headache and nausea. What made my head start to hurt? While helping someone train he felt the need to sit incredibly close to me and shed his musk. Ew. yargle. then that combined with not only cigarette smoke but other toasty smokes made my head ready to explode. On top of that there is a tree outside the office that is in bloom and is really fragrant, which although pleasant was probably sent me over the edge into nausea so--here is the corresponding list to the one above.


fUnKs that make me want to hurl:
men other than my precious
this perfume that my mom uses when traveling
vommit
feet
overload of cigarette smoke
Opium perfume - I forget which designer it's by
the cats outside my window
Callao
most breweries
Hamilton Street, Leominster (though I honestly haven't driven there for years)
the science wing at LHS

Learning to surf 2008: attempt 2

I stood on the board! 2.5 seconds! (11 Jan 08)

I also learned that the water has to be sufficiently deep otherwise when I paddle I touch more sand than water.

Staying on the board is better than stepping on the creatures on the sea floor. Aiee!

When catching a wave--it's paddle paddle paddle, and if in Cerro Azul, paddle to the left rather than straight ahead.

I am going in the water again this afternoon to see what I can accomplish. Ironically my other wrist hurts now, but I'm note going to let that stop me.

Falling behind

So last night I didn't write in my blog for the first time in 2008. I was going to write about my stuffed squirrel, but I guess that will have to wait for another time. On a whim today I decided to come to Cerro Azul tonight, so I could try surfing again tomorrow and be with my precious, who was left all alone in his house. We are having one of my favorite kind of nights--lengthy conversations about nothing, sipping rum and whisky, and chilling on the couch. It reminds me of when we used to live in an apartment in Barranco--when I had no job and it was summer and even though we had a place in Lima, we came to Cerro Azul every weekend.