Wednesday, September 15, 2010

Viva Mexico!

So my guest essay on Rebecca Walker´s blog on the Huffington Post is up! 
Find it here: http://huff.to/bJfd2j
It´s about my psychic teenaged daughter, Carla, whom I´ve written about here. 

Our recent drama with Carla is that she took a giant government test to get a certificate saying she has finished secundaria, or, through ninth grade.  This was necessary because for seventh, eighth and ninth grades she was in private schools that were not part of the Secretaria de Educacion Publica umbrella.  Well, she failed one of the math sections, and as a result, can´t go to high school this year, as technically she is still in middle school.  So she is doing government math tutorials until she takes the test again, and getting used to not going to school. 

While this sounds like a shocking idea to Americans, it is not uncommon here.  I´m not alarmed.  Carla is not a gal to be idle.  She has many jobs riding horses, and then, she has her own horse to take care of.  Plus, this year off gives her time to realize a dream, that of going to high school in the United States of America.  A dream fueled by lots of shows on the Disney channel of kids in US high schools.

My brother Dennis and his lovely wife Margaret in Frederick, Maryland have offered to host Carla for a semester.  So now I have to figure out what kind of red tape I need to cut through to get here registered as a student in the US. 
You know, the ol´ silver lining thing...

Hey, ít´s not only the day that the Mexican Independence celebration starts with the mayor making El Grito at 11 pm in the town´s central square - "Viva Mexico!" it is also the 200th anniversary of Mexico as a free country.  The town of San Miguel de Allende, as well as my fingernails, is awash in red, white and green!

Saturday, September 11, 2010

psychic Carla

Last night, before we went up to the light show on the Parroquia, we had ceviche and Corona at my business - Jasmine Day Spa - and our 15-year old Carla said there was another "entity" in the place.  She saw a little child-like form, no higher than three feet.  

"Ask it to leave," I said.  I´m afraid these beings suck up all the good energy in our place, or scare away business.  Carla went up into the front room and came back.  "I invited it to move on to the next dimension, where it wants to go anyway," Carla said.

Another agent has requested some pages, and Carla feels good about this one.  That´s all I´ll say.  I´m afraid of jinxing things if I blab too much about this agent process. 

Mexican Bicentennial

There are red, white and green flags all over town and a Disney-worthy light show on the face of the Parroquia on weekend nights this month. Welcome to the place to be for the Mexican bicentenial - my home town, San Miguel de Allende.  Last weekend, along with the light show, were a grupero band in their turned-up cowboy hats and some barechested fire jugglers on an opposite stage.  All of this takes place in the Jardin, or town square, accompanied by hamburger sellers, corn-o-the-cob sellers, popcorn vendors.  There are bars on surrounding side streets when the need to have a tequila shot can´t be ignored. 

In the coming week, there will be bullfighting events, equestrian events - my girls will jump in a demonstration competition at Los Senderos - foot races, parades and princesses.  All in all, why would anyone want to be anywhere besides San Miguel de Allende in September?