Adamsapple

Rest was very refreshing last night. I think the phrase "I was sleeping before my head hit the pillow" would apply here. We had breakfast with the family - biscuits, eggs and bacon accompanied by either coffee or juice. Emy told Zach "You are a monster!" after his second biscuit. But he ate 4 anyway. We all piled in the car and drove to the church to drop off some boxes and things, and then Jorge went to get automotive things finished and we went with Latisha and Emy to run errands. Our first stop was the ATM. Our first withdrawl in the thousands. We aren't high rollers. Since Jorge was going a separate way, we met up with Laureta and her son Jonathan (who is 6 (and definitely bright enough to be), but is the size of a 3 maybe 4 year old) to go to the market and the grocery and do the things we needed to do. Our first stop was a garage sale by two American couples who are a part of Wycliff Bible Translators. My gift from them was a book "Oaxaca - a Jem" a Oaxaca for dummies! :) The market is like first monday in Canton or the swap meet in Tucson or just a market for tourists. The vendors sell clothes and jewelry mostly. The grocery is a lot like walmart. There were a few fruits that looked like something off of Avatar, and one section of the meat department is not refrigerated but just has all kinds of raw meet out in big cardboard bins. (that isn't the only way to buy it, but many people do) We got produce and Latisha taught me how to wash it with special drops and bleach water. The rest of our purchases were an assortment of yogurt and granola, bread and of course pepsi. oh and marshmellows? After we finished at the grocery we drove to a chicken shop to pick up a roasted (rotisserie) chicken and sides - elbow noodles which are just known by the word for elbow, cactus and chilie peppers, and some steamed veggies. This is where our errands ended and the journey home began. Traffic is a different breed down here. Speed limits, stop signs and seat belts are not in existence. Zach and I were sitting in the back of the car (toyota camry maybe?) with Jonathan and Emy in our laps. Jonathan was scouring over an Eye Spy book, and Emy was playing mario kart on her nintendo D.S. The radio was on, and Latisha asked us "Is that too loud for your ears" Zach's instant reply was "No, but that chicken is too loud for my nose" Laureta thought that was pretty silly...and the giggles began. Some how Jonathan became entranced by Zach - his hair, his beard, his... adam's apple. Jonathan put his fingers on Zach's adam's apple and asked "Como se dice?" "How do you say this" I told him "Adam's apple" he repeated it back "adamssapple" (really fast with emphasis on the ss's - with a slight shrug of his shoulders) Okay, now for the complete picture. Jonathan is miniature but really bright, which is accentuated by the fact that he sports a smart looking pair of glasses - its a mix between completely adorable and hilariously nerdy. Well that was enough to make not only me laugh, but Zach and Emy too. Once he realized it was silly he would say "Otra ves." "again" and I would say it and he would repeat it, each time with a slightly more exaggerated shrug as if he was boasting that he could name this odd protrusion, and say it in such an intelligent way that we all would chuckle. He is quite the character.
We arrived safely at home and prepared for lunch, I filled my plate and asked for more salsa, always more salsa, always more tortillas (that's the best policy for any meal). I cut more chicken and found a rude and amusing projection. I've seen a roasted chicken or two and none of them had a tail of such magnitude, however after further examination and inquiry I had the wrong end of the chicken; the growth was in fact the neck. Nothing weird, just different.
The afternoon settled into blog editing, guitar playing, coffee drinking, and phone chatting interspersed with music listening and day dreaming. We left briefly to meet a neighbor named Judy and her two small kids. Judy goes for walks in the morning up a nearby mountain and has a picture on her phone of the sunrise with clouds filling the valley taken from above. I hope we can make the summit once or twice or many times this trip. We came back home and someone left the front door open. The armed sentry posted there was asleep and has since been court-marshaled, but if a chicken bone is a flag then our flag was captured even though it was cleverly hidden in the kitchen trashcan. The reconnaissance mission was completed by a solo operative: code name Suki. Suki is the family pet though she has been banished to the outdoors and has since been denigrated on charges of promiscuity, however she is an excitable and generally happy little pooch. It was out of the corner of my eye that I caught the mission walk (more of a fast jog) of Suki toward the kitchen. I thought it odd when she spent all of 4 seconds in the kitchen and then departed just as quickly, though on exiting I also noticed the remnants of a proud (and tasty) bird hanging from her yap. This made the rest of us excitable as we ran confused, wondering whether we should detain the culprit or go straight to damage assessment and clean-up (but we determined BP was to big for us). I opted for clean up while la culpable received a vicious verbal assault from 3 angles at ranges of 5, 18, and 33 feet. Undeterred and after a 4 minute respite, the ninja assassin now known as Snuki (Combination Sneaky and Suki) leaped into action and grabbed my neck, running for the door again; I found my voice and in my most authentic Spanish accent, dropped to a rich contra-bass level, I reprimanded the thief who was putting the finishing touches on my first chicken neck. Though it was a great personal loss, in time I will forgive her.
We walked to downtown Tule and found the meat shop and tortilla shop (two places we will frequent). We saw the Great Tree and everyone who was out and about. Menacing clouds begin to sweep through the valley toward us so we headed for home with sliced turkey and quesillo in hand (in a bag, in hand). Now, after a riveting round of Guitar Hero, we sit and eat sincronizadas and sip Mirinda (Pepsi-made orange drink). Everyone is packing, and Kimberly and I are just sitting and wonder what the next month holds.