Waking up to sunshine always helps.  I don't like that it is cloudy here so often in the mornings.  I am a child of the sun and I need it shinning through my window as often as possible.  And I guess sometime while I was sleeping it occurred to me that it's sort of funny that my car was stolen again.  I mean it's a huge inconvenience but still sort of amusing.  I am afraid my insurance my dump me after this but what can you do?  At least I'll have another San Antonio story, along with the homeless guy who always challenges me to a race, the phone booth super hero girl, the inter-dimensional portal at the McDonald's, the time that guy mugged me at Main Plaza and I ended up stealing his backpack and so many, many others.  I still love you San Antonio!  If you want me to dislike you you are going to have to try harder than that!  I dare you to try!  I'll only leave here when I'm good and ready!  On a related note, I have decided that my mistake was that I came home too early both times.  If I had closed out the bar and then gone to an after party I would not even have been home for them to steal my car.  So in the future if I go out on a Thursday night I am not coming come until the sun starts to light the sky in the east;)

It must be Friday.  That's when it happened last time too.  I had been out having a drink got home around 12:30 and when I woke up at 8:00 it was gone.  This time I was out got home around 1:30 and when I woke up at 8:00 it was gone.  So when I get it back this time I don't care how busy I am I am driving straight to the car alarm place and getting the deluxe package!  The honor system does not appear to work around here.

So I went to the Red Elvises concert last night and had a very good time, then I drove home and slept like a baby and guess what was not parked in front of my house when I woke up this morning?  That's right, my car!  They stole it again!  And as I was on the phone with the police a police car drives up and I'm thinking that's some fast service. Turns out my car had already been found a few blocks away parked in someone's driveway, sans CD player and with a busted steering column.  Does that sound familiar?  I give up universe!  I know I'm not a great person but this is getting ridiculous.  My karma can't be this bad.  Also, maybe I don't need to have music in my car.  I'm just going to leave the big empty space so they will leave my car alone!

I had a lovely run last night at Woodlawn and as I was rounding the corner and the downtown skyline came into view I suddenly realized how much I have come to love this city.  I have been here three years now and so much has happened.  I know I have ranted on and on about the bad but there has been so many wonderfull times for me here too.  So much of love and happiness, more than I every thought I would find when I moved here. 

Initially, moving here was just a compromise.  I really need a change and I wanted to live in a city again, but Austin was my first choice.  I lived there before and really enjoyed it, but in the end I couldn't afford to buy a house there.  San Antonio was the only other place close enough to the Valley, and I wanted to be close because my sister has been ill the last couple of years, and I wanted to know I could get on a plane and be there in thirty minutes.  So, San Antonio it was.  I looked around and found a great old stone house.  I could afford it and it had character to spare.  My little stone house was so lonely for me at first.  I thought I could hardly bear it but slowly I have grown to enjoy having my own space.  I've never had that before.  Always I have just had a nook in someone else's space. 

When I first got here I found the town rather sleepy.  Not that the Valley is some metropolis, but I have all my family there so not a weekend went by that I didn't have three birthday party's and a quincenera to go to (or at least it seemed that way).  I have a lot of family, but living up to family responsibilities leaves little time for yourself.  Here for the first time in a long time I have been able to go out and rediscover the things I like.  It was very daunting at first since everyone here seems to have known everyone else forever.  I felt like and interloper, and it didn't help that I'm not very social even on a good day, but slowly I have integrated myself into my own little circle.  It's still not a very big one but for me it's an amazing accomplishment. 

I absolutely love my accordion lessons and I'm very fond of my accordion instructor (He hardly asks for anyone to get him a gun anymore when I play!), I have finally got my little house comfortable and to my liking (Okay, except for the paint.  You may be invited to a painting party in early December.), and I have a great group of friends, which is why it pains me to have to think of leaving.  I'm hoping I won't have to, but, like all of us, I am dealing with circumstances beyond my control.  Perhaps, the universe will smile on me and give me more time for myself, more time to make my own life and persue my own interests.  And perhaps, in the end I won't have to make the compromises and sacrificies I keep thinking I will have to make.  At any rate, I refuse to keep living my life as if they are a certainty because nothing is ever certain.  The world does work in mysterious ways and, perhaps, the best is yet to come.



   

Altar, Dia De Los Muertos 09

Michin | MySpace Video 

the spirits tugging at the corners of your memories asking to be brought forth into the sunlight, to revel in this beautiful day, to quench their thirst and hunger, to feel the sweetness, and even the pain, of love once more.  I have been feeling it since last night when I found myself sitting in front of my altar drinking a beer with an old departed friend, but tonight I do not celebrate alone.  I do not think that would be wise.  So I will make up a batch of my green salsa, leave a little on my altar, and take the rest with me when I go honor the day on which the veil between the living and the dead is lifted.  Join me in asking the spirits to carry our troubles away and leave us joy, peace and strength in their place.

~Sweet life and bitter death,
bitter life and sweet death,
the circle is unbroken~

~Mi ofrecistes tu mano
y sin pensar la tome
para bailar una piesa
y recordar lo de ayer

 y en ese baile

con manos besando

pechos tocando

y corazones latiendo

al tiempo del son

todo para nosotros empezo

y con las ultimas notas acabo~

My altar is complete and I have sage and copal with which to call the spirits, but this year I plan to send something away with them as well.

I guess I should have cleaned out my car better before posting my last blog.  Turns out my penguin was stuffed under the pasenger side seat, sans CDs.  You do like my taste in music!  Some of it at least.  He needs a good wash but otherwise he looks okay.  Since we have been through so much together I feel like I should give him a name.  I thought about Lucky, but I'm not sure he's all that lucky and It Could Be Worse is not a very good name.   Hmmmmm.  I'll have to think on it.  Now I'm off to plan my Halloween costume.  I love Halloween!

Did I forget to mention?  I swear if my car gets stolen one more time I am out of this town.  Yeah, that's probably not true but I will be very, very upset!  I picked it up today, and aside from the fact that the locks are not working and the check engine light is on it seems okay. I have a new steering column, CD player, and dashboard and some of my CDs were even still in the car. Which begs the question, did they not like my taste in music? First they steal my car and then they insult me! Sadly, my penguin CD holder was not there. Last time I found him stuffed in the trunk, sans CDs. So allow me to say a few words. He was a great penguin. The only one of his kind (that I ever saw). He was a great listener who loved to be of service and could hold 40 CDs at a time! He accompanied me on many long trips and provided hours of entertainment. He will be missed. He leaves behind an albino gorilla who as I write is sadly playing Amor Eterno on his accordion.

Well, I had a nice couple of days at Neal's Lodge in Concan (not to be confused with Cancun).  I highly recommend it should you ever find yourself in that area, but, a word to the wise, your cell phone will not work, so you might want to read up on smoke signals before you go.  The weather was perfect, although the Frio was looking rather low.  I didn't get in this time.  It was a bit too cold for me.  After dark it was really great because there is no light pollution out there and you can actually see the sky.  I saw my old friend the milky way making it's way across the sky and realized that I have almost completely forgotten my constellations.  I use to know them all.  The first night I had trouble sleeping due to some very loud crickets.  I was sort of reminded of the scene in My Cousin Vinny where he gets thrown in jail and is finally able to sleep.  I guess I have gotten use to the sound of cars hauling ass out of the little store behind my house.  It's not what most people would call restfull but it works for me.  Home sweet home:)