hay queso alla?

well there you have it, that picture is officially one year and 2 days old. the day i started eating meat again and the proof that i wasnt hiding it in my mouth.

who would have thought that that day would come? and who would thought that the day would come (today) when i would just wish that i could eat some meat?

ive been sick the past few days and i havent been able to eat anything... well i take that back. after the first 18 hours of being sick and my medicine kicking in i though i would get all big and bad and eat some macaroni and cheese... and pizza. ohh the combination and oh my poor poor stomach. well that combo ended up on julton's shirt later.... when we realized that i was sicker than we thought. which led to a night of sonia holding hot cloths on my head to lighten the -worst ive EVER had in my life- migraine, katy putting cold cloths everywhere else to try to get my fever to go down.. and julton on standby ready with the needle to give me an injection of whatever doctors give injections of to make fevers go down. i felt like a little girl, and i ended up with the injection. boo. but it helped my fever.

that next day i had gillian and jamesson get me some won ton soup from our favorite chinese place, where the owners cant speak any spanish and are always yelling at the waiters and the waiters are always rolling their eyes and shaking their heads and probably wishing that the owners would just learn the language. their employees lives have to be pretty stressful, but it is quite entertaining to eat there. especially the day that julton tried to motion to the waiter to bring the check but the owner caught his hand motion and mimickingly did the same as julton right before he aggressively threw his hands in the air for us to come to him instead. if that gives you any idea.

well all i have gotten to eat has been that soup in the past few days so tonight i was pretty dang hungry. i went down to the bodega where i payed 4 soles (a litle more than 1 dollar) for pasta tomatoes onion garlic and cheese to make some pasta back home. i havent been around the bodega much since i came back from christmas...

so of course i just assumed the produce guy weighing the tomatoes was asking me if i went to the us for christmas... but he mumbled (which they always do i dont get it remember the chicken incident?) so after he said "theyre expensive there right?" i assumed he had been asking me if there was cheese in the us. because i forgot that the only conversations we ever have are if there are apples in the united states and i bet they are more expensive. or the cheese. or whatever item im buying (or not buying) that day. i guess our relationship hasnt progressed into him actually answering como estas? and asking it in return. oh well, back to the apples for now.

estrellas

there were more than 25 stars to be seen in the sky tonight in the park behind our house. and i am content to say that i saw them and thoroughly enjoyed looking up at them from a concrete park bench in a grass and concrete park even though amongst many many running anxious children even though it was.... ten oclock at night.

(the kids are on vacation from school... but still... 10?)

i am in love with that moment of enjoying a piece of God's beautiful creation and enjoying it with one of the ones I love

Mighty to Save

marcianos

are technically translated as martians..... buuuut.... here on the streets of trujillo we foundly think of them as fruity popsicley treats. yum. any street corner for fifty cents can get you a pop cicle in plastic wrap that you can bite the end of the plastic off.... spit it in any direction... and drown out the summer heat.

julton told me a story about his first experience with marcianos here in trujillo.... in moyobamba they actually call them chupetes so when julton first came to trujillo and asked the woman for a chupete.. he was well lets say a little surprised to find out that trujillanos actually call them marcianos and a chupete is actually a big ol' wet one. (a kiss). hahahahahaha

appreciations

It has been said that something as small as the flutter of a butterfly's wing

can ultimately cause a typhoon halfway around the world.

- Chaos Theory

i just realized how much i appreciate small things. i think i stopped thinking about how much i appreciate them. but you know? the small things are just as deserving of appreciation and credit as the big things.

i appreciate the girl in greenville sc... who after dealing with me coming back and forth through the dressing room and making her life busy putting unwanted or unfitting clothing back for me... (i had a system though, i felt bad... you know those people that just try on everything in the store? well... at least i only went to the dressing room one rack at a time...that doesnt make sense.? eh) in a store where normally the girls working there are snoooty toootie and not in a fruitie kind of way. (they size up your wardrobe and deam you either worthy or unworthy... can you guess what side i always fell on?) she chose to be super nice to me. she was super sweet and struck up a conversation about my necklace then told me all about her etsy site where she sells her own jewelry. i think we must have been friends in a past life.

i also really appreciate the girl that boosted my self esteem after i sleeply had a conversation ordering coffee and going through the where are you from what are you doing here life story in 3 minutes GO! by telling me that my spanish was good :) she just started out my night better than just a coffee could have done.

i also appreciate that delta decided to start offering more movie options on their planes. i really appreciate that. i watched Adam... a movie i fell in love with, on my plane today.

caffeine highs...

dont matter much when your brain is too tired to function, or even veg out watching tv online. thats when you know you should sleep.

i wish i could... since my plan to spend my 6 hour flight to lima sleeping didnt really work out like i hoped. but i'm thankful for this little corner of a table next to a power outlet and in the company of sweet starbucks employees that tell me i speak spanish well (when i got off the plane a little scared about it... i know it was only a month i know!) confirmation is sweet especially from strangers.

a little...

money, photos, and birth certificates....

thats the stuff passports are made of

my beautiful

when i went to college i told my dad that he had to tell my cat that she was beautiful everyday without fail. think that happen? yeah i dont either.

but she is! as evil evil as she may well be, she's quite beautiful.

a few days ago i was busy on my computer and i wasnt giving her enough attention.... a few minutes later i stood up to walk across the room... she takes a running leap and jumps halfway up my back. i should have given her some attention?

she gets kind of crazy when shes left in the house for very long, she hates you if you put her outside, and she finds ways to get back at you. my mom says that everytime there is a full moon she goes crazy. i believe it.

you havent seen her eyes, and i dont think you want to. one day i was sitting with her and she decided she wanted to start playing. sitting a foot from me... her eyes got all glazed over... and she just stared and stared. then in a second her eyes dilated and she jumped! attacking my arm until i threw her off, its going to take a while for those scratches to heal. its the whole dilated eyes deal thats weird and scary. but shes pretty funny when shes running around the kitchen floor chasing milk jug tops. jeje

she usually avoids and ignores me i think shes sore over me leaving her when i went to college. but this time, she ignored me the first day, loved me and wouldnt leave my side the second... then started the attacks the third... lets see if i survive this visit.

those friends

you know those friends... those friends you can go for years without seeing but in the moment you see each other again its just like no time has passed or been lost. you pick up just where you left off just like it had been yesterday.

those are the ones you don't let go of. and you count how lucky you are to have found them.

i met Jess when I was... 16? mas o menos. and thats characterized our friendship since. shes one of those friends you can wear too much black and dred your hair with glue with then years later pick up just where you left off. i will never forget that night we got dressed up and dreded our hair with glue and glow in the dark gel then headed to the local skating rink to show ourselves off or skate or well whatever is it we did. then there was the other time we duck taped our jeans and wore them to school. (in a small county school in the middle of wv that was a step in a different direction...) we have lots of great memories. im thankful shes a part of my life.

this week we got together and spent 4 hours chatting/sharing pictures/and laughs at the panera bread where the guy taking orders asked me if i had gone home to change clothes and come back for lunch. because wed been there so long. i bittersweetly looked over her wedding photos wishing i could have been there for it, and we laughed at pictures and stories from my time in peru so far. i wish i could box her up and take her back with me. her husband might miss her though. ;) ohhh wv sc and peru.. i wish i could just bottle up a little bit of each of you and put you all together in a safe easily accessible island. where electricity never goes out and food from each place is always available. hot showers and aji de gallina for everyone!

we spent our afternoon in a favorite past time... ice skating! we were just becoming pros.. compared to the baby steps while holding hands at first hour...when it was time to leave. apparently its the season to skate because everyone and their children were there. jess and i were hit on by one shy and one bold ten year olds... one said "well he's afraid to tell ya that he likes one a you girls but i tell you im not afriad and i aint embarrassed i aint to say i like one o ya" to which we looked at each other and said how old DO we look?????