Random Thoughts

Is there a conspiracy afoot to make people buy larger sizes?

I went shopping yesterday to buy some shorts. I used to wear size 36. I could not even close the button on that size. I compared the ones I was looking at to what I was wearing. The size 38 was actually a little smaller than the size 36 I was wearing. The only thing that I could think of was that maybe the shorts I had on had been stretched out by my "Apple on a stick" look. That's how Michele once described me.

Is peace and quiet only for the rich, or is it for no one, because it sure as shit isn't for the poor?

We went to Moca today to visit a friend of Massiel's. She lives in a not great section of Moca. Not really horrible, but not great. The reggaeton music, the car noise and of course the omnipresent noise of roosters started me thinking. I have lived in 5 locations in Santiago in ten years. Nowhere have I ever had peace and quiet. The first Santiago apartment was near a park, a pretty good area and that was reasonably tranquil, sometimes. After that it was one noisy experience after another. As I am writing this I am being forced to listen to a Fernando Villalona concert, thanks to a neighbor. The lack of consideration shown is amazing.

Where can I get one of those.

I always make sure that I have a bunch of coins in the car. I usually empty out my pockets and keep the coins handy. Why? There are so many traffic lights in the area where beggars congregate. This is the sole support of hundreds, maybe thousands, of people. When the light turns read they swarm the cars. Some are flat out beggars, while others offer to perform a service ( for example; to clean your window whether or not it is dirty) or to sell you something that you don't need. Some represent themselves as representatives of people with drug problems who are there to help. Others are people in the most horrible physical condition (twisted bodies, blind,missing limbs, or horribly deformed apparently from birth). Usually these people are assisted by someone as they are incapable of movement on their own. Their condition is so pathetic that it is impossible for me to not give them something. These particularly unfortunate people seem to "do well". I was watching the face of one of the "drug helpers". No one had bought anything from him and he was watching jealously as one of the really needed was getting something from everyone and I couldn't help but think that the only thing he was thinking was, "How do I get one of those"?

I have seen lots of young mothers but I am sure that not all mothers here are 14.

While I was shopping for the shorts yesterday Massiel was looking to buy a couple of Maternity tops. I have gone with her before and amazingly we always face the same problem. Either all the large size women get to the stores before we do, or all the pregnant women of Santiago are a size small. In the three stores to which I have accompanied Massiel there were no (0) size XL tops one or two size Large, a couple of mediums, but as many Small and X-Small tops as you could want. What about normal size people? Do they all wear hand-me-downs?

Where do they get them?

I have worn hats regularly since 1981. I am sure I started a little before that, but I know that I started to actively collect, and wear, caps starting in the early 80's. I had an office with a floor to ceiling window that I could use as a showing area. It was equipped with a grid on two walls for merchandise display, and I used one of them full time to display my hats. Caps have become an important part of men's clothing. I currently have about 50 in my apartment and am sure I would have a lot more if I still lived in the US. I usually buy 4 or 5 on each trip that I make back to New York. I have always prided myself on not being seen in a hat that anyone else has. I wear US caps here and DR caps in the US. I am struck by the way in which younger people wear their hats. I understand it is part of the hiphop fashion to wear your hat in such a distinctive manner, but every so often I will stop someone, if he doesn't seem too menacing, and ask him wear I can buy a hat that has the brim on the side, as his does. After all, I explain, every hat I ever see has the brim in the front.

You will take my call!!!

I can't tell you how many times I have been in the company of someone who receives a phone call, looks at the caller ID and then ignores it. My friend Sal and I are the only two people that we know who will take everyone's call. Want to talk to me? Call me, I will answer if it rings. I always imagine calling someone, them looking to find out that it is me and deciding that for whatever the reason, they won't take the call. Fuck that. If I am making the effort to call, answer it. When someone doesn't take my call that I have made from my cell phone, I will call from the office phone, my house phone, Massiel's phone, a phone that I carry around only for the purpose of disguising my ID or if necessary I will borrow a phone. It's amazing how sometimes people judge themselves too busy to take a call, regardless of who is calling, even if they think it might important, but let the call be from a number that they don't recognize and you are as good as talking to them. You will take my call!!!! I promise.

In all my years of dating women I have never dated one that owned a leopard skin blouse.

Nothing to add to that one.