I'm at the Movies!

1-December-2019, Sunday, 3:14 PM CDT
Cinépolis Plaza Pabellón Campestre
Queretaro, QRO

I woke up at 4:30 this morning and was on the bus by 5. Two bumpy, restless hours later we pulled into CAPU at Puebla. An hour later I was on a double-decker jumbo jet sans wings. It cost me ₱70, about tree-fiddy, and a couple hours for the early morning rumbling tremble to Puebla and ₱825, about 41 bucks, to glide in reclining luxury for six hours to Querétaro. Here we are together again for the first time since August. I can't wait to see everybody and reconnect over all that's happened at site.

I was among the first to check into the hotel and had time to kill. Upon opening the door I discovered that the room wasn't ready. At first I thought maybe Rob had beat me there and already broken in the room. But neither bed was made, and there were no towels. So I found a theater playing Doctor Sleep, told the front desk that the room wasn't ready, and set out on an hour walk to the theater. On the way I stopped at a tiny park with workout equipment and got a quick pump in. There I had a pleasant exchange, albeit one with few words, with Mexican security official passing time on a bench. I also had a wonderful conversation with my Uber driver Brandon on the way to the hotel. My Spanish is getting better every day; I speak quite fluently with certain people, yet stumble through talks with others. This isn't unlike my speaking ability in English.

I'm so excited for Doctor Sleep, for the movie theater experience in general. I wanted to see it in Puebla a few weeks back, but it didn't happen. I almost settled for a different flick at a closer theater, but made the right choice by making the walk down here from el centro. There are no theaters in Tepexi, and I feel deprived of a common US luxury, like Dustin and I felt on the road back in 2015. Going to the movies--our first, Jurassic World in Hutch, KS, my second was Inside Out ;)--sitting in front of the silver screen with an excessive amount of popcorn and soda and being whisked away from your reality, is a "dose of normalcy" that helps me unwind and recharge my batteries. Anyway, the book was amazing, and I'm excited for the movie. Because of the book, I, not as often as I should, "get kneebound" in the morning and asked God for help, then give thanks at night. I sometimes feel more invested in worlds of fiction than I do this reality. Speaking of "other worlds than these..."

You're dying to know about Ignacio the lantern fish, I know. Well, you're going to have to wait because, because maybe you'll read it some day. Send me positive vibes to finish it. It doesn't have to be good, it just needs to be finished. It can be made good later, because, as you know, writing is rewriting. We have a good thing going in our cohort called Writing Corps ✍ Have I mentioned this before? Even so, it's an exchange between a handful of us volunteers in which we share and critique each other's work. It's good for me because I need to be pushed by deadlines when it comes to my fiction. Pretty sure I mentioned that I plan on earning an MFA in creative writing when I get back, right? But let's not get ahead of ourselves.

Fun fact: this is the first blog post I've written on my phone since Kandid Kandor's "My Only San Francisco Piece" wish was among my favorite of the old blog. That was a lot of eavesdropping on nearbyb patrons while Robin fed me drinks for free. I was also told before entering that if I planned on coming back that weekend, I'd better be dressed to meet the standards of Bond Bar's dress code. It was, I guess, about a week after the tour's end, and I was wearing my ratty military green shirt, short black shorts, and a three month beard. Good thing it was Thursday. After that I went for the best tacos in SF next door, Pancho Villa, in Mission District. I had no idea that four years later I'd be eating tacos that good on the reg.

Ok. The concession stand line is long, and it's ten minutes to showtime. This turned out to be a nice little post. Thanks for reading, and I'll see you on the other side of tomorrow!

PS beware of the True Knot...