rainy days and sundays

It's not rainy. But it is Sunday. I am overwhelmed by homesickness. Funny, really, since I'll be home so soon. Maybe it's because I'm alone for the first time in three weeks. Maybe it's because I know that spring has come to Minneapolis. Maybe it's because I need Maggie and she needs me. No matter, I am homesick. So I've begun to get ready to go. I started cleaning out my fridge, all the proof I never needed that the person with organizational difficulties in my family is none other than me. The milk was curdled. The lettuce was brown. Very ugly.

Then I decided to go to the Mall Internacional here in Alajuela. I've never been there, but the locals are quite proud of the food court. So I got all dressed and ready, called the taxi, and can't get through. The best laid plans.....I'll call again in a while and I'm sure I'll be able to have my adventure. I must stop at the grocery store, too (see above) but I don't want to buy too much. No more of those chocolate-covered Macadamia nuts. Oy. I actually bought them as a gift to bring home to someone who shall remain unnamed as I don't want that person to know I ate her present.

I realized that in yesterday's post, saying I ate a package of cookies might confuse (or alarm) people not familiar with Costa Rican packaging. Everything comes in individual packets inside larger ones. So my favorite cookies come in packages of four. The fact is that I can eat at least two packages in one sitting, but no matter. I was pleased that each package only has 80 calories, but I have begun to doubt that I've understood the whole calorie thing correctly because the Macadamia nuts also said one serving (5 nuts) was only 80 calories. Simply not possible.

Last night Daisy, my occasional cat, came in through the hole in the screen door, walked over to the chair, and clawed it for a few minutes. She's not my cat and it's not my chair, so I let her do whatever she wants. She doesn't look well: she's limping a little and moving sort of slowly. But I don't know who she belongs to or if I should try to find her some medical care. Pets are beloved here but not in the way they are in the US--hardly any are fixed, for example, and many seem to live a (human) hand to mouth existence. As she was walking toward my door to leave, she froze. I knew she could see something between the door and the wall, but I couldn't see it. Finally I went over to investigate just as she was getting ready to pounce. A little lizard was hiding there. I yelled, it ran toward us in confusion, I picked up the cat to save the lizard, the lizard ran, the cat jumped down and the rest of the action took place outside, for which I am grateful.

Off to the mall and the food court.

Is anyone out there? Are you still reading? This is an odd form of communication sometimes; I do long for your voices in return.

Ah, soon I will be home. And then, dear friends, we will be in human space, not this odd electronic universe. How I long for that day!