Vote Now!

Hey all!

First I don´t know why this is centered and not left flush and I can´t correct it.  Next, two possible designs are in for the cover of my memoir, Flirting in Spanish to be released July 1, 2011, and I like them both!  I need help!

If you would kindly comment me your favorite, I´d have an easier time deciding.  Thank you, genuis readers!

Slurp...Ahhhh!

I´m thinking micheladas.  You can have your margaritas, I´ll take a michelada any day of the week.  There are michelada places popping up all over in San Miguel, mirroring how popular the beer drink has become with me!  The Sinola pescado place that just opened up this week by the family of one of my students shouts from its window Micheladas Frias!  Other friends opened up Wakaglu Micheladas and Guacamayas over on the Calzada de Aurora. A guacamaya is a torta, or sandwich on a roll featuring chicharón, or fried, puffed-up pig skin that is so crunchy is crackles, plus some vinegary coleslaw and aguacate (avocado) and salsa - nutty, huh?  My girls love them.  I go for the MICHELADA! 
Anyway I promised myself a michelada today after writing at least one page and I wrote THREE so I guess I have the right to drink 3 micheladas. 
I think I´ll make a couple at home (one for Husband too).  A large jar, preferably big as a kitchen sink.  A caguama (liter) of beer.  (Caguama is not the Spanish word for liter. It means giant turtle actually.)  Worchestershire sauce, tabasco, lime, salted rim, ice.  Michelada!

Student Bloggers!

Here are my students blogging on Thursday of last week, in the outside hall because the internet connection is better than inside.  The walls of the school building are big and old and thick.  That´s (from the left) Abish, my daughter Sean, Farid and Ana around the corner.

You can check out their postings about their trip to Six Flags and about what they'll do for vacation at http://www.siglo21mirror.blogspot.com/

News of border violence has really affected our peaceful little town.  I have a tourist-based business - Jasmine Spa - and our revenues are way down.  I think lots of people in the States think, "Mexico" and just shudder.  But the cartels are not active and not fighting in the central states for the most part.  The trouble is happening about 800 miles away.  Plus they just caught one of the baddies. 

Think of it like this: Would you say, Whoa, they´re rioting in Watts.  Let´s cancel our trip to Chicago!  In other words, come visit San Miguel de Allende!  It´s beautiful and magical and the weather is perfect!

Lost in Internetlandia

Somehow this photo of me disappeared into internetlandia.  I put it on this blog a few days ago to show off my Annette Benning haircut and then couldn´t find it.  Mysterious!  It was taken by my photo-fantastic friend JJ Anderson, who also took the Mexican couch photo.  The above is on my web, which is not entirely finished yet, but check it out anyway: http://www.susanmckinneydeortega.com/

July 1! July 1! July 1!  Release date for Flirting in Spanish!  I´m still struggling with a subtitle.  Soon to be resolved and revealed here...

Mexican Couch

Look at this wacky concrete Mexican couch!  It looks like it´s out in the middle of the wilderness but it´s really in a park in Colonia Mirador, overlooking the dressage arena.  Mirador is down by the lake, and a lot of people in the area have horses.  That´s me watching my daughter, Carla and her friend Melissa ride one day.   Wouldn´t that couch be a great place to stretch out with a book?

Ssh!  There is a famous Mexican actor in town.  I see him a lot.  He picks up his laundry at the dry cleaner near our spa; he drinks coffee at La Ventana on Sollano in the mornings.  I´m told he keeps a very humble apartment and comes to town often.  He walks around town, and nobody fusses, so I´m going to protect his right to enjoy San Miguel undisturbed, and not say his name, but I will tell you that he´s had parts in many acclaimed Mexican films, and he was a baddie as well in the second installment of the Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian. 

Speaking of Famous People, once I modeled for Michelle Pfieffer, back when I was modeling in art classes.  Once my husband gave a massage to the actor who played the father on the TV show Clarissa Knows It All.  And I massaged the actor who played the filmmaker in the movie, Pancho Villa.  I also gave a massage to Salma Hayek´s stunt double when El Mariachi 2 was being filmed in San Miguel!  Yeah, that's me, rubbing shoulders with the hoi polloi (which can be taken to mean the common people or the society set.) 

The Bookstore Baby

Fun News about San Miguel--Xote, the ever-expanding water slide park, has new pools and new bathrooms and a first aid station.  It is a fabulous and well-kept place to spend a Sunday afternoon, which I did with my daughter Carla and her cousins yesterday.

Bad News--Entrance to Xote is up to $100 pesos!  Still, the place was packed yesterday.  If so many Mexican parents can take their whole families to Xote for an afteroon, it seems to speak well for the economy.

Sad News--Libros El Tecolote on Calle Jesus in San Miguel is closing at the end of April after 17 years.  Sad face.  I think, maybe I should go talk to Mary Marsh, the sole owner all these years, about taking on the store myself.  I could do it!  But truthfully, I don´t have a clear idea of how to sell real books in a world where more and more people are buying downloadable books.  What would the future of a small bookstore in a small town in Mexico be? 

I worked at Libros El Tecolote 14 years ago.  I was pregnant during that time and then, a new mother.  Mary in fact was at Sean´s birth, which happened in a small apartment, with a midwife.  And then I had Baby Sean in a cradle in the bookstore for her first couple of months.  Sean is in eighth grade now, and has about 5 inches on me.  Every once in awhile, someone will still ask me about the "bookstore baby".  

Happy to report another incident-free trip from SMA to Laredo. Lots of military convoys and Federales, but smooth-sailing door-to-door.

Hasta proximo enero ...
Rex y Gail

The above is an entry from today´s San Miguel Civil List, a group where SMA residents post notes about everything having to do with living in San Miguel, from where to get your dog groomed, to where to find a US tax attorney to what is the correct wage for your maid. 
Sprinkled in with the posts are a couple of reports a week about people´s travel experiences in Mexico.  About two months ago, a guy reported that he was dogged by two menacing-looking trucks on the road to the Columbia bridge crossing into Texas, and that they veered off after he joined himself up with a tractor-trailer, but lately all posts have looked like the above. 

I´m always happy to see the good news.  Especially now.  Carlos, the girls and I plan to travel to our favorite beach town in the state of Jalisco - La Manzanilla - later this month.