Taking the Plunge

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I just couldn’t play a used flute, and other revelations

Yeah, I’m down with OPP. That’s Other Peoples Perspectives, you pervometer. Oh the humanity. I pretended to be a misanthrope for so long I had almost forgotten that I mostly think people are actually pretty neat. Oh, to be sure there is some sneering and rolling of eyes when I slump here slurping soup scrolling […]

25Jun2008 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Social Darwinism

In 1858 British naturalist Sir Alfred Russel Wallace, a contemporary of Chuck D, published a paper entitled On the Tendency of Varieties to Depart Indefinitely From the Original Type. But since Wallace was remote and isolated far flung in Indonesia, he is all but forgotten to history. If he had been able […]

17Jun2008 | Jillian | 1 comment | Continued
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The Road Not Taken

What would have become of the Joads if they didn’t flee the dust bowl and travel West to California? What if Jay and Daisy weren’t driving back to West Egg on that fateful night? And how else would pseudo literary high school boys impress alternative girls if Sal and Dean hadn’t been so debauched and […]

12Jun2008 | Jillian | 3 comments | Continued
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Generation X-odus

It’s one of those words like palimpsest that I can never remember the meaning of. Every time there is a museum exhibit entitled something like “African Diaspora: a narrative of humanity” I always enter the hushed space expecting some colorful hand made textiles or a collection of amphorae and earthenware goddesses.
Before we dropped out almost […]

6Jun2008 | Jillian | 4 comments | Continued
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Homesic

Inevitably there are days when an American Living Outside the Continental US (ALOCUS) feels too foreign, too exhausted and frustrated and longs for the familiar flora, fauna and fragrances of home. There are many scenarios, both real and imagined that in my reverie I embellish and elaborate upon.
I am particularly susceptible today to a foreigner’s […]

4Jun2008 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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Photonotes from a 30th Birthday in Cancun

Jillian planned a fantastic mini-vacation from our lives (which, incidentally, look an awful lot like a vacation, anyway) to celebrate my 30th birthday in Cancun. Though we only spent a few days, we had an absolute ball, and I entered my third decade in style. A few quick photo notes:

Pre-check in at the Westin, a lovely hotel […]

29May2008 | Malcolm | 8 comments | Continued
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Jung Americans

“to be free and truly mature we have to separate from culture and society.”
I was well stuck in my Life Before Mexico. And perhaps with perserverence I would have gotten out of that attic apartment and found work that was more meaningful. But honestly I’m not sure.
It was too easy for me to sleep through […]

16May2008 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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I wouldn’t say I’m through with you but I’ll tell you when I’m gone

No, silly, it’s not the clap; it’s a different kind of wanderlust. I have an itch. An urge. A desire to roam if I want to. Maybe because it’s getting so hot you want to lay naked under white sheets all day and alternately sip cucumber juice in the salty, salty ocean or maybe it’s […]

12May2008 | Jillian | 3 comments | Continued
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Consider Your Bouche Amused

After dropping off the Jeep for another round with Jose Ricardo we were hurrying out of town as usual and realized we had no reason to get back to the beach. Malcolm suggested we stop at the new “Asiatic” restarant in the Blockbuster/Makeup Store plaza that I’d noticed at least a month ago. It was […]

8May2008 | Jillian | 5 comments | Continued
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Welcome to the Gringo House

Sometimes I feel a bit as if we are on display in our office. We’re not in here flinging poop and pleasuring ourselves; we’re just working. Sitting at our workstation, Malcolm at his big boy table and me at my trundle desk, we type, we grimace, we laugh ,we head-scratch, we wait under headphones and […]

25Apr2008 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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Expatriation is Freedom (But Not the Way You Think)

During a Jillian-imposed viewing of Lord of the Rings last night, it dawned on me that I am perhaps happier now, living in Yucatan, than I have ever been in my life. And as that bearded dude droned on about the Fellowship, that computer-generated monster said, “my precious,” over and over again, and I drifted off into the […]

14Apr2008 | Malcolm | 8 comments | Continued
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…On a Noontime Plane to Portland

Depart Merida: 12:05
Depart Mexico City: 4: 30
Depart Houston: 9:20
Arrive Portland: 11:59
I hope I’m not misinformed about the time.

26Mar2008 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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