Thursday, February 13th, 2014

Last night I watched the 2006 movie Absolute Zero (3.3) on Netflix “A sudden 90 degree shift in Earth's magnetic pole plunges the equator into the deepest freeze possible - absolute zero. Florida has four hours before becoming an arctic tundra.”  It was, in many ways, ridiculious.

In ChessMagnet School I was promoted to Commodore - the 17^th highest title out of a possible 21.  The puzzles are getting harder and harder.

I went to bed at 11pm, fell asleep rather quickly and woke/got up at 6:45.  Yah!

By the look of the street it obviously rained overnight.  It was still overcast and when I walked outside I could feel it was misting.  I stepped back inside and back in my apartment I realized I had left my fancy umbrella in the Carrefour movie theater last Monday.  This afternoon I’ll try to see if I can reclaim it from their lost & found – I hope they have a lost & found.

I bought a small bag of milk from Salsamentaría Bolivar that I had with my cereal and then walked over to Redd’s.  At 8:10 while I was being handed a full glass of orange juice “guess who” walked past me to the bus stop and immediately stepped on an arriving bus.  She’s drop dead gorgeous.  She must be married but I’ll do my best to find out for sure.  I stopped at Exito and bought a cheap umbrella for 9,900.  It’s just barely sufficient for one person.  When my brother gets here we’ll stop again and I’ll see about purchasing one of their good 2 person umbrellas on sale.

I left the apartment at 10:30 and caught a Circular 302 bus.  Usually I sit towards the front where I’ve found the ride more comfortable and then later move near the back exit so I can easily reach the button to push when it’s time to get off.  Today for some reason I moved to the rear of the bus right away and sat in the next to last seat.  There was a young lady sitting alone in the rear of the bus taking up a couple seats with what looked like large bags of potato chips or something.  Maybe they were large bags of smaller bags like Frito Lay (owned by Pepsi) chips.  I’m not sure how the conversation got started.  I think I saw the word “limón” on the bags and I said I don’t like lemon.  (Limón here, while it means lemon actually for them is lime and there is another word I don’t remember they add to lemon for it to mean what we call lemon.  Got it?)  We started a conversation and I learned (as sure as I can be): her name is Jolima, she’s 33, not married, has a 13 year old son, lives in a house (not an apartment) downtown.  I have 3 questions I’ve prepared to ask ladies I’m interested in knowing further: 1) are you married?  2) do you have a serious boyfriend? 3) do you like gringos?.  I forgot to ask her number 2 but I got the right response for the other two.  You never know when she’s going to be exiting the bus but I did have time to get her cell phone number.  She was wearing a PepsiCo windbreaker so maybe she works for Pepsi.  I did mention that I like Pepsi.  I helped her with her packages as she got off and said “have a nice day” – a new sentence in Spanish I’m trying to learn.

 I didn’t get a good look at her figure as she left but at least she doesn’t appear to have the big Colombian butt.  She has the long black hair I like although it was braided into sort of a pony tail.  She will look prettier when she gets her braces off.  Lol.  She got off just before, and across the street from, the Piccolo’s pizza restaurant and was waiting to cross as the bus pulled away.

I got off at Monterrey and walking up the street I passed a young lady (American?) wearing a t-shirt that read “Life is too short to waste on ugly cowboys or slow horses”.  Very funny.

I was at the FFSS just before 11:30 and I had a BLT and Coke for 10mil.  A very attractive young lady – 20ish - walked by with her little dog and entered the pet shop next door.  Chris, the owner, was sitting at the next table and someone inquired about her.  He said she is the queen of manipulators and he would never introduce her to anyone he considered a friend.

I was at Viscaya Theater by 12:10, 10 minutes early, and bought my general admission ticket to 12 Years a Slave for 5mil and a small popcorn and medium Pepsi for another 10,500.  (Where in the US can you see a movie, and get popcorn and a soda for less than $8?).  For the first time in a while I was the only one in the theater.  Unfortunately, I had to see the short again about the woman who wins a camera in a raffle but I did see an interesting coming attraction for Non-Stop (8.7) a February 28^th US release starring Liam Neeson and Julianne Moore “An air marshal springs into action during a transatlantic flight after receiving a series of text messages that put his fellow passengers at risk unless the airline transfers $150 million into an off-shore account.”  Today I had to make 2 trips to the restroom but at least there was no one there to see me come and go.

Coming out of the theater the sun had finally come out.  I stopped at MBE and they gave me the February edition of Chess Life magazine.

Cutting through Parque Poblado I saw about 10 kids sitting holding some printed papers with a man sitting behind them and he said something in English.  I asked if this was an English class and he said “no, it’s a Spanish class”.  I just smiled and said “ok” as I left.

I stopped for an empanada at the Empanadisimas restaurant on Calle 10.

Walking down the street I saw a t-shirt that read “Vamos a la playa” or “let’s go to the beach”.

I got off the bus across from Home Center and walked over to Jumbo.  I stopped at the movie theater but didn’t make any progess as far as getting my umbrella back.

Back at the apartment I dropped off my umbrella, picked up my sunglasses and walked over to Fresco Pan.  Maria was working alone today and I first had an iced tea to cool down and later a coffee and slice of ham & cheese pizza.  I finally had the opportunity to introduce myself and when she told me her name I mentioned that there is a beautiful song in America about her name but she said she hasn’t heard of Johnny Mathis.  I told her I would play it for her some day soon.  Back at my apartment I confirmed that I have it on my iPad.  When my brother arrives, tomorrow, I’ll put the Sound Bender I ordered on my iPad and it should be much easier to hear.