I return to Antigua to recharge, remember, rediscover, and to discover. When you leave, a part of you, a real presence remains. A tree seen from distant angles of perspective is my metaphor for my life past and present in Antigua, Guatemala. When I first moved to Antigua, Guatemala in 2008, my view from my…
United Airlines‘ on-hold music is inspiring. Melodic notes dip, then soar. It makes you want to, well, fly all over the world, see the pyramids, and experience the splendor that life has to offer. I’ve spent a lot of time this last year listening to that music, because United has spent much of 2013 screwing…
There comes a point in the relationship of a gaggle of roommates when everyone has each other more or less figured out, so the whole gang can stop getting to know each other and just hang out and enjoy each other’s company. (Obvious exception: those explosives pairings where more acquaintance prompts additional murderous musings [ have…
It’s a bit hypocritical of me to write tonight about the recklessness of others. Should I pretend that I did not just return from participating in a bit of stupidity myself? Yes. The person to blame is the sun. The mother of all life on Earth was in a big hurry to set today. I…
You don’t think about these things until they happen, and having just experienced it, I realize that being holed up in a Guatemalan village eatery while wild rain runs river-ish in the street is greatly enhanced when a mariachi band is holed up in the same joint. Reflecting on it, I would like to change…
I have a mysterious problem with my pants that makes very little sense to me or anyone I question. Other people’s pants seem to degrade in various ways. Holes in the knee, frayed ends, a broken zipper—these are the usual symptoms that takes people’s pants out of commission. During my question of people I discovered…
Are you ready to ADHD with me? There is just not time to put all of these into individual posts. So here we go. Enter the ADHD cruiser with me. The morning started with bloody, violent death. I was downstairs writing and the Guatemalan maid Ariela, who likely believes in omens, heard a crashing upstairs.…
Mountains can teach us plenty. In Morocco, a mountain taught me that I was an idiot for climbing it, since it almost resulted in my falling from it. In Chile’s La Campana Parque National, my friends and I learned after camping on a mountain that we should have packed more water and less wine. Most…
I am playing the best pool of my life. Not once, in four games tonight did I cause the cue ball become airborne and jump over the f-cking rail of the third floor loft of an Assisi bar, falling three stories below into the dinner of an displeased Italian man capable of wild hand gesturing…
Say what anyone will about Guatemala, no one can dispute the fact that the country’s pants are stuffed with avocados. Avocados are to Guatemala what people are to China—they are everywhere in absurd abundance. They are so abundant that people nicknamed Guatemalans living in Antigua green bellies for the inordinate amount of avocados they eat…
