Yep, I'm a writer

These masks caught my eye

Ok, it's so cool to see your name on the title of a magazine article. As I was proofing the articles for the October edition of the REVUE Magazine (Guatemala's biggest English language magazine) I come across not one, but TWO articles I wrote and by golly my name is right there in black and white. Is it ok to say I wet my pants a little? (Just a little.) (Not enough to tie a sweater around my waist.) It was exciting! And it's a little nerve-wracking to know there will be people from Guatemala and visitors from all over the world reading these words (they have a circulation of 20,000). I hope they like me. One article was waaaay more fun and easy to write than the other. See if you can figure out which one when the Oct. edition comes out.   http://revuemag.com/




   

This is not a rescue dog. This is Sabrina, a cat who lives here.

Other than writing and proofing, I've been helping Terry (one of the dog rescue ladies) organize and get a little thrift/resale shop ready for business. Proceeds will benefit the dog rescue group. She said if I work there she will pay me 20% in commission for whatever I sell. And she will install wi-fi there. And provide me with a laptop to use. And it's in the front room of the Puppy Palace, where some of the rescue dogs stay. The Puppy Palace is a house in central Antigua that has been converted to several rooms and an outside courtyard -- houses here are SO different than in the US. Anyway, the front two rooms will be converted into the store. The front room opens up to a very busy street, so we will get a lot of foot traffic. Even better, I will have rescue dogs around me -- meaning I can bring my dear sweet friend Savannah, Rescue Dog Extraordinaire, to the front room to keep me company. She will be great at luring in shoppers. Those brown puppy dogs eyes would snare me if I were walking by. But I'm a sucker for dogs. (Gee, can you tell?)

Fun? Frisky? Oh yeah, that's me!

I got my hair cut. Yeah. I finally accepted the fact that I will never look good with long hair. NEVER. I have stupidly fine, curly hair -- like that of a curly-haired 3-week-old kitten -- and it looks really bad when it's long. I'm not sure what member of my gene pool made me this kitten-haired freak of nature, but I'd like to examine my DNA and figure out who to blame. Plus, parts of it curl "tighter" than other parts so even when it's down, it's all funky and uneven and frazzled (oh my!). Sooooo I'd rather have short, healthy hair than hang on to snaggly long hair. So, short it is. It makes me feel fun and frisky. Reeeowwwwl! Better yet, it only cost me Q20 -- about $2.50. Suck it, Supercuts!

Nice market lady

I'm attaching a picture I took of a really nice indigenous lady we met at the market. I'd say 98% of the people who have booths in the market are indigenous, and as you know, I love the traditional clothes they wear. (I am actually in awe of it -- I want to hug them and tell them how beautiful they look.) She had the tidiest little booth in the whole place and stacked her fruits and veggies into neat little pyramids. Even though she's not smiling in the picture (no one here smiles for pictures -- it's weeeeeird!) she was really nice and let me take pictures of her booth. No kidding -- there are people who act very strange when you photograph their veggies. Again, weeeird. I usually just click away, acting like a completely oblivious tourist. I once had a lady shoo me away and give me the evil eye. We decided we would never buy anything from her booth. She is now known as "Mean Market Lady."

More later! Adios and stay thirsty, my friends!