Last night I watched another episode of Lie to Me.
I went to bed at 11pm and someone very close by
was intermittently shooting off firecrackers – like every 15 to 30 minutes. The last time I heard them was about
1:20am. I was asleep again shortly after
that, woke up once at 5:20am and woke/got up at 7:40am.
I had my usual breakfast at Panaderia Los Mejores just to make sure Damaris was there today –
she was. I plan to be back by 1:30 for
our lunch date. I hope she’ll have a
little more time for me than just lunch but I’ll have to play it by ear. At this point I have no idea how far she
lives or what time she goes to bed.
I took a little money out of my checking account
to cover the next few days. I can make
one more substantial withdrawal without tapping into the little savings I have
in my other account. My main account
should be replenished next Sunday, December 1st.
I bought a banana for 200 pesos on my way back
to my apartment. The potassium in it
should help to avoid another cramp. I
have to remember to buy one at least every week for medicinal purposes only.
The neighborhood girls rang my doorbell to let
me know their candy store is now open for business. They have a little table set up across the
street with about a dozen drawings with a few pieces of candy sitting on each. I chose the most involved looking picture – a
drawing of Frosty the Snowman and the words “El mejor adorno de la Navidad es
una gran sonrisa” or “The best Christmas ornament is a great smile.” I asked them how much and one of them said
500 pesos. I guess I hesitated because
she came around the table, gave me a sly smile and told me it would only be 400
pesos for her friend. I gave her 1 mil but
she had to go to her grandparents because they didn’t have enough change.
I was at Panaderia Los Mejores waiting for Damaris at
1:30. She finally came out about 15
minutes later in jeans, a red blouse, sandals, and I saw her with her hair down
for the first time. I was planning to
take her to Plato Fuente but she led
me south down Ochenta to a mall that I didn’t know was there. After walking only a few minutes I stopped
her and reminded her we need a place with Wi-Fi. We turned around and before we got back to
Calle 35 she turned me into a restaurant named Alberto Lechona. It’s a
typical Colombian restaurant so I ordered the Bandaja Paisa and she ordered
something similar. I found out she lives
in a house in a berrio north of here and she also takes 4 buses to get to
work. She has 18 and 28 year old
sons.
She
goes to bed at 11pm every night and gets up at 3am to be at work on time. She doesn’t have any days off but Sunday is a
day off, but not every Sunday, and yes, I am confused. Anyway she spends her day off with her sons. I had my iPad with me and the
waiter gave me their password but we had great difficulty communicating because
when she wrote she didn’t put spaces between the words. So if I don’t recognize the 2 words I wasn’t
able to fix the situation. Not
good. The bill came to 46mil and I left
a 2mil tip.
From there we walked the 4 blocks or so to Mall
de Laureles and I had a small ice cream cone.
She wanted to spare her figure. I
asked her if she would like to go to a movie with me sometime and she said she
would like that. I showed her a few
things on my iPad and finally I walked her to catch her bus just east of the
mall.
Cutting through Viva Mall I ran into Gloria for
the first time since her no show last week.
She gave me a “what happened” and I gave the same back to her. No matter how much I tried to tell her last
time to meet me at LM she was waiting for me there. When I went to look for her she was upstairs
looking for me. I made another tentative
date to have lunch with her next Friday.
I ran into Bob and Jhon and Pablos at the Tinto
store. Bob tells me that on the last day
of November (next Saturday) everyone shoots off fireworks or at least
firecrackers all night so don’t plan on getting any sleep. The next night the city turns the Christmas
lights on and leaves them on all month or at least until Christmas.
I dropped my iPad and my umbrella off at the
apartment and met the guys again back at the corner store. Of course they were all drinking except me
and Jhon, the philosopher, was telling me that I am a Passive person and Bob is
an Active person and that I will only be happy if I find a Passive woman, etc.
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