baby steps

Not-Really Morning, Ostinatto
I wake up sleepy, my vision slightly altered. “Que hora es?” I inquire to a lady mopping the floors.

Noon.

My face feels inflated, one eyelid puffed, my upper cheek pink and shiny. If I find this mosquito, I may not feel any remorse once it’s been squashed.

Today’s goals – to begin settling into the unsettled, run small errands, and buy mosquito repellent. Baby Steps.




Café, Avenue Indepedencia
16:22 – that’s what my new watch reads. My pants are damp, hair wet, shirt rain-spotted. Taxis, buses, & Volkswagens criss-cross a wide intersection. A fruit stand protrudes from the side of a building, its oranges a stain of color against the overcast day. From across the street through a large window, I sip an espresso at a small café with wooden chairs, low curtains, and two servers wearing matching red-striped collared shirts. There’s a nostalgic feel in here; it conjures images of a little French café where old men argue Politics around glasses of Pastis 51.

a snapshot - from the hostel to the present...
I hit the Banco on Avenue Belgrano, realize after several attempts that the ATM is rejecting my card, ask a fellow for another Banco, walk a few blocks, rain starts, walk briskly a few blocks, able to extract money at Banco number 2, stop by gas station on Chacabuco, ask if they sell sim cards, am redirected to a phone/electronic shop on Avenue Indepedencia, should have a local number tomorrow, ask where I can buy a watch, walk a few blocks to an eyeglass store, find a watch, old man shows me how to use watch, walk back towards hostel, stop in a Panadaria, buy a powdered sugar cake, eat the powdered sugar cake, get caught in a down-pour of rain, am wiping powdered sugar off my face, find a hardware store, still eating powdered sugar cake, buy a three prong adapter, wonder what the shop dog's name is but too timid to ask, run back outside, still raining, still eating powdered sugar cake, see café across the street, it reminds me of grandma, tell the man with the striped shirt yo quiero café, find myself at the table, still eating powdered sugar cake and now, looking out the window.


...at the moment,
It's 0:51 and I'm feeling grateful for the watch, the three-prong convertor, and the " and @ keys on my laptop. Going to sleep soon, armed with mosquito repellent! :D

Goodnight