Recap: Good Morning, From Here, July 19 – 25
Monday
I have known Kathleen Palmer for at least 15 years. Kathleen is the doyenne of Deja New, the cleverly named, go-to, second-hand, gently used consignment clothing store in Vallarta. She was not the first to open a Value Village-inspired store in Vallarta, but she has lasted longer than all of them put together. She has an excellent staff that allows her the freedom to travel and spend time with her beau in the US, but you will sometimes find her at work in her jammed-to-the-ceiling shop on Venustiano Carranza, surrounded by clothes and accessories.
I even worked for Kathleen for a while when she opened a satellite store down by Woolworth’s so many years ago, before writing the then-weekly column took hold and I was still making things to sell at the local markets.
We met for lunch outside Mi Cafe, but ended up going to Soco’s Place, which is just down the block, because we couldn’t get in to the extremely busy Cafe. Good for them to be packed with a line outside at the end of July!
Newcomer to the block, Soco’s was also busy, but a table was found for us. A pair of citrus salads was delivered, and a long-overdue conversation between two old friends ensued.
What I found so remarkable was how happy we both were. Our combined memories of much past drama were so gone! We have each chosen different paths, of course, but in the middle of it are two aging women doing exactly what we want—having fun and creating things with our hands and brains every single day. Kathleen rediscovered tie-dying and is making fabulous, wearable art pieces.
We talked about our respective upcoming trips. Hers to Southeast Asia in January and mine starting one week from today. It will be curious to not get up at 6 am, make coffee, and go straight to work after I feed Bogie. I am concerned about him, but also know that cats are capable of sleeping 20 hours a day without any side effects. I’m happy to have a lovely friend coming over daily to feed him and make sure my house is okay.
For sure, I will have great company every day I am away with my sister Patrice, who also gets to wear the best-friend hat. We have been fearless explorers together since we were little kids.
Our first adventure without parental guidance took place on Cape Breton Island one time, when we were visiting our mother’s family and staying at Grandma’s house. We had gone out to play, leaving Mom, Dad, grandparents, and a bunch of aunts, uncles, and cousins in the house. I decided we should walk to the ocean where we had been a day or two before, so we did.
It was a couple of kilometers away, but we found it at high tide, which completely threw me for a loop. We were born in landlocked Calgary and had no idea about ocean tides, but the beach we had stood on was gone, and what was a huge cliff from down there looking up was the edge of the ocean! Astounding! And freaking creepy. So we made our way home through abandoned fields with the odd World War II concrete bunkers just sitting there. Also very creepy.
We arrived at Grandma’s full of stories to tell, but had to settle for a spanking instead of cookies. Still doesn’t seem fair, but I was the oldest (at 8) and shouldn’t have taken my baby sister, who was only 4, on such a long, lovely walk From Here.
Tuesday
Another rainless night, which means the humidity and heat this afternoon will be fierce and unrelenting—a good reason to rest under a fan and snooze away a couple of hours.
So, I had an enjoyable and even profitable evening last night. I went to play bingo at Awaysis on the river. I knew a few people who were there having dinner and conversation and waiting for Robert Henry, the ball caller, to finish setting up his electronic board with his laptop. I joined Kateri Brown at her invitation, who helped Tracy Parks, er, rather, Aunt Pearl, with bingo at Incanto for years. She was a godsend, explaining the intricacies of secret bingo playing I had not heard of before. Hey! I am a Scrabble player!
We had a lucky table as it turns out, Kateri and Randy each won a game, and I won two! For money! Woo hoo! The stakes can be high – over 10,000 pesos in one instance, which keeps growing week by week (one of those intricacies!) until it is won. That didn’t happen last night, so next week, Monday at 7 pm, y’all know where you gotta be. I will be in Canada getting ready for Europe.
A good way to keep up with bingo and other fun things to do, like Trivia Nights, is to join Robert Henry’s private Facebook page ‘Puerto Vallarta Fun & Games PVFG.’
One of the nice things about this bingo is the regulars who take a couple of hours a week to get together in a truly chill(y) space, with good food (more on that in a second) and the fact that they are all there for the same purpose, so it’s quiet when numbers are being called and, it’s great to have a big screen so you can double-check the numbers that have been called already.
There’s a new item on Awaysis’s menu – potato chips with French Onion Dip. OMG! The dip is every bit as good as what we made growing up in Canada with Lipton’s (?) dry French onion soup mix (which we still can’t buy in Vallarta!) and sour cream. Good for Gina Hendrix on the addition. Kateri tried them last night, shared with the table, and they were terrific!
Tonight I am having dinner with two very special women in my life; it is rare when just the three of us can get together, just to be the three of us together. I owe so much to these two – Sandra Bradley and Georgia Darehshori, my extraordinary mentors and teachers. They are my soul sisters who have opened my eyes and my heart, saved me in the nick of time from drowning in anger and sorrow, and showed me that life can and should be lived in Peace and that it’s okay not to fight. Rather, to be still, to listen, to breathe, to be about love, and most of all to be grateful for every part of my life. The best part of my life has had those two remarkable women in it, so thank you both, with my love, From Here.
Wednesday
Only the three witches of Eastwich could spend so much time eating and yakking until way past our collective bedtime. Georgia Darehshori, Sandra Bradley, and I huddled over an enormous table at Il Pesce, where we had our last witches’ convention, which was two years ago, after Sandra’s epic venture to Bolivia and Peru, and also held at Il Pesce. This grand occasion was to celebrate Georgia’s return from Scotland, where she had attended her grandson’s graduation from the University of St Andrews, a venerable institution founded in 1413.
We had a delightful new waiter, ‘Henry,’ who discussed alternatives to crème de cassis with Georgia (they don’t carry it in their bar) and mezcals with me and Sandra. With cocktails ordered, our conversations flew around ex-husbands, very grown children, and grandchildren briefly, and then got down to the nitty-gritty of how each of us was in that particular space of time.
We, all three of us, have feet firmly planted, eyes forward, and a good, gentle wind at our backs moving us to… where? Well: there. On a path lined with metaphysics and the air filled with live music and our extraordinary community of Mexican Nationals and expatriates whose souls live in Vallarta, each adding drops of love into our lives every day. We are full of smiles and hugs, and we’re eager to share them with you, so just ask!
The food was up to Il Pesce’s high standards, of course. I had the funghi with truffle oil, as I do every time I eat there, and so did Sandra. It is the most glorious dish of pasta – I would cherish eating it every day of my life. We split an appetizer and dessert, and only Georgia had leftovers to take home.
Derek Carkner came in with Mary Zack holding her darling doggie and sat a couple of tables away for dinner. We are all going to La Catrina Cantina this Friday at 5 for Derek’s “Christmas in July,” a tradition he started years ago at Incanto. He says he has more than 20 guest artists dropping in throughout the evening! So make a reservation and join us for a decidedly non-Silent Night!
Scrabble at Qulture in a couple of hours. We have two newbies coming, for sure, which’ll be great for Sharon, who insists she will miss me while I am on vacation. Our other diehard Scrabblers, Rob and Kevin, are still away but should be back in action in August.
Speaking of vacation, I only have five more sleeps until I fly away. Fortunately, I work better under pressure, and everything will either get done or it won’t. Lots of cleaning to do still, and proactive-putting-stuff-away-in-case-of-hurricanes. It will all boil down to a last-minute flurry.
I am not even thinking about saying goodbye to Bogie. He has made such strides in the past couple of months… I’ve discovered something that has turned him around, and I’ll share it with you tomorrow morning. Enjoy this amazingly lovely day, and be sure to smile at everybody you pass on the street From Here.
Thursday
When I got Humphrey Bogart, aka Bogie, my giant Maine Coon kitty, over a year ago, I knew the first day we had a lot of unlearning to do. I desperately wanted a loving, sweet cat to curl up with at night and had instead brought home a pissed off caged lion shrunk down to house cat-size. He bit (hard, breaking skin) and scratched first and asked questions later. More than once, I considered rehoming him. But, there was something so adorable about him, and stumbling upon a simple remedy by accident that precluded drugs and therapy (for me) and has turned his aggressions around.
I spent lots of time quizzing the few people who were close to Bogie in his eight formative years before he moved in with me, and all but one bore scars from his attacks, and only because he smacked Bogie before he could bite. It wasn’t a path I wanted to walk down, but it worked, and now it’s unnecessary (she said, hopefully!).
The answer is grass, wild, long strands that include roots, spattered with dirt (the key ingredient) and likely dog pee. I have fed all my cats grass occasionally to help with fur balls, but it wasn’t until I watched Bogie dive headfirst into a recently emptied rain bucket to lick the damp dirt that had settled to the bottom of the pail that I began bringing dirt-attached grass into the house. I put the clumps into disposable yoghurt containers or whatever, fill them with water, and watch Bogie enjoy his salad course.
People get the ‘Happy Vitamin’ D from sunshine and dirt, and because we sanitize the bejesus out of everything, and lots of people are afraid of sunshine, they are often more aggressive than they might be if they caught 15 minutes of sun/day and bought ‘papas sucios’ instead of potato chips. I am just sayin’!
I realize all of the above is oversimplified. I also know that in the past couple of weeks, there has been an abrupt (and good!) behavioral change in him. Some people’s houses are full of vases of fresh flowers, but mine is full of carefully curated plastic bins of crab grass!
What a fun day we had at Qulture playing Scrabble yesterday. We had a couple of new players, and Deborah Cole came to observe. Sharon and I welcomed Jonathan Lander back after he had been away in the States for weeks, and we played a couple of games with the three of us. I am not fond of three-ways because the scores are so low!
Deb wrote this to me in the night, which I dedicate to all Scrabble/word lovers out there: “Thank you for the great wordfest today. You guys are incredible. I’m committed to learning to play with the big kids!”
And, we will be committed to helping you do just that. In the meantime, work your way up the ladder in Scrabble Go! It will help you immensely! I can’t wait to learn who will wear the Bingo crown for Scrabble after the tournament on August 06. I want pictures, Sharon, From Here!
Friday
This will be my last ‘From Here’ post (I think) until I get back from Europe. I am juggling so many work-related things in my head, but I did remember to put together the Rearview Mirror yesterday that will be published online in 15 minutes from now – check it out. You can read past issues of Vallarta Mirror in a week-by-week format. https://vallartamirror.com/rearview-mirror-signup/ It’s free, and you can unsubscribe anytime, but why would you? Asking for a friend!
Yesterday I met Jerry Jones at Vallarta Factory for smoothies. Jerry is the owner/editor/publisher of Out & About Puerto Vallarta magazine and is partly responsible for Vallarta Mirror. Because of his kindness a few years ago, he gave me the confidence to think I could actually follow in his footsteps to some degree when I acquired the old PV Mirror publication.
It would take far too long to express my gratitude, but it is undoubtedly there. We talked for over an hour, enjoying our smoothies and each other’s company, when he said something about sweetness while handing me a ‘Have a Great Trip’ white shopping bag from Xocodiva, complete with a gorgeous box of their exquisite Belgian chocolates inside. My sister and I will share this bounty on the overnight flight from Calgary to London. Thank you, Jerry, for everything lovely you do in my life.
These over-the-top, random acts of kindness started with Brian Bott, again at the Vallarta Factory for smoothies. He was heading home to Washington State weeks ago and wanted to get together beforehand to wish me bon voyage. He too had a bag with so many thoughtful and practical items, like a notebook and pen, that would take the place of my laptop. I will think of him every day. Then, out of the blue last week, he asked for my return flight info so he could send his driver to pick me up at the airport when I come back in August. I feel like a princess for god sake! A grateful princess. Thank you, Brian, for everything lovely you do in my life.
Even though I will see her this afternoon at Derek Carkner’s Christmas in July at La Catrina Cantina, Sharon Gerber Scherer, in another extraordinary act of kindness, will be picking me up on Monday, driving me to the airport, guiding me through Immigration, and getting me to Westjet. Thank you, Sharon, for everything lovely you do in my life. She will get my very last possible hug.
That just took my breath away.
To all of you here in Vallarta, take care of yourselves and one another and take care of this city with all the love you can muster. Vallarta is the best place in the world, and I will miss her and all of you as much as I will miss my Bogie. I love you with all my heart. So adiós until Monday, August 25, From Here.
