Las Vegas

Xmas in Las Vegas 2007

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Spent last weekend with son #1 in Las Vegas. (He shines so bright I call him son. Sorry, my mother used to say that to the kids all the time.) Great time with sushi and a Lynard Skynard concert. It was my xmas since the kids are scattered from hell to breakfast….”kids” being 34 (Beijing), 38 (Thailand) and 40 years old (Las Vegas)!

Disneyland For Adults I call it. Many go there to let their freak flag fly. The brand message is “Whatever happens in Las Vegas, stays in Las Vegas.” This includes your money. No other city like it unless it’s Macau China. Unless you live there. Most locals ignore the strip. The morning after is referred to as the double hangover…one for money and the other for alcohol.

It so happened that my visit there overlapped with an Aussie friend that I met and traveled with in Laos and Thailand. Such excitement because we thought we would never see each other again! Greg took me to the hotel she was staying in. As I walked down a hall to the elevators I’ll never forget seeing her running toward me with her arms outstretched!

Christmas Season

Posted on by Laughingnomad

The Christmas season begins with the celebration of Our Lady of Guadalupe on December 12 and continues until January 6…the Day of the Three Kings when presents are opened.

The Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe (Nuestra Señora de Guadalupe or Virgen de Guadalupe) commemorates the traditional account of her appearances to Juan Diego Cuauhtlatoatzin on the hill of Tepeyac near Mexico City from December 9 through December 12, 1531. It is Mexico’s most popular religious and cultural image: Nobel laureate Octavio Paz wrote in 1974 that “the Mexican people, after more than two centuries of experiments, have faith only in the Virgin of Guadalupe and the National Lottery!” On Guadalupe Feast Day people wait in line for hours to enter a church and kiss the foot of the Virgin. Little children are dressed up like the indigenous Indian children to whom the Virgin appeared.

During the Christmas season there is music, dancing and expositions of all kinds in the Zocalo and all around the Centro. One evening there were three music groups going all at once in the Zocalo including a Calenda with traditional indigenous dances in one corner in front of the Cathedral and a stage full of dancers demonstrating modern Mexican dance styles in another corner. A trio of flutes played indigenous folk music in the middle! And that’s not counting the guitarist and singer in one of the cafes and the poor roving singer with long black coat who sings a horrible loud version of “Oaxaca Oaxaca” and then expects you to give him money for your trouble!
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Conversation In The Zocalo

Posted on by Laughingnomad

It is creepy odd…the dirty war at night we don’t see…the bustling life of the Zocalo by day.

Monday was Mike’s last day in Oaxaca. Merilla & Peter, expats from Australia, Mike and Gerardo and I met for coffee at 1:30pm at the Terranova Cafe in the Zocalo. Benito and Jose happened by. Mike mostly entertained the small children who were vending woven wristlets and chiclets…and I was mostly trying to understand the Spanish being spoken at the table.

At 6:30pm, after beer, comida and much conversation, Merilla, Peter, Gerardo and Mike and I retired to the Casa de Mescal for mescal and a cerbeza ultimo. By 9pm we headed home.

Mike left tuesday (this morning) in the dark to catch an 8am plane for Las Vegas. Good-bye house…good-bye friends. Two cents says he will return on November 6 with my son Greg. I truly hope he does. I am ready for down time and Mike can take Greg around.

Driving From Oregon To Oaxaca

Posted on by Laughingnomad

After finally getting the title and registration to the Toyota, I drove down to Klamath Falls Oregon from Salem to see my second family Bea and Sal Florez who are being well-taken care of by a couple in their home. Then took a long boring drive to Las Vegas to see my son Greg. Didn’t wait in Salem for the title to arrive in the mail so my friend Lyn said she would fedex it to Las Vegas while I was there.

When I informed him that the woman who was going to drive down to Oaxaca with me had reneged and that I was driving down alone he had a fit and called his best friend Mike in LA and asked him to please accompany me. We drove to the border at the new shiny Columbia Friendship Crossing 30 minutes north of Loredo Texas. At the crossing I discovered I had a copy of my title and registration but after all the wrangling in Salem I had left the original on the copier glass in the back of the pharmacy in Las Vegas. The friendly border guards mercifully let me through with just the copy! I immediately called Greg and had him go to the pharmacy to see if he could collect my title and registration…maybe somebody had turned them in. Lo and behold, there was the original…after 3 days…still on the glass! So with the help of my iPod and new car speakers we continued down on wide empty expensive toll roads only getting good and lost once after taking a detour through the city of Monterey.

We spent three nice days visiting my friend Patty Gutierrez and her husband Jose in their little casita in San Juan del Rio south of Queretaro…a nice break. We were all invited to dinner in the home of a broiled chicken vendor…their first real contact with American tourists and after being given two clay jars as a gift I was horrified when I dropped one which exploded on the tile floor of the courtyard.

We visited the sacred Rock of Bernal…a UNESCO World Heritage site…the largest North American monolith and the second largest in the world……soaking up the quiet soft vibes. This enormous rock is considered the encounter point between the indigenous communities of the region and the mestizo society that erected the village of Bernal below. Well-known as ‘tonalita’ the volcanic rock, at a height of 288 meters from the base to the peak, became exposed by erosion.
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After ending up on a toll road going the wrong way and finding our way back in Mexico City and driving through beautiful rolling mountains back to Oaxaca I was finally “home.”

Endless Errands In Oregon

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Nothing is ever easy. Came up to pick up my car and found that my name wasn’t on the title and the registration had lapsed. Had to get a new title expedited from a friend in the Governor’s office. Can’t get doc appt till Feb. Won’t bore you with the rest.

Am going to pick those glorious Elberta peaches for canning at my cousin’s house in Waldport and then take off for Las Vegas…the Mexican Columbia Friendship border crossing at Loredo TX…and then Queretaro to see my friend Patty Gutierrez…then Oaxaca.

Am reading alarming reports from Oaxaca. Who really knows what is going on…

If I don’t show up in Oaxaca by the end of the month send out the Green Angels!

Marriage Blessing

Posted on by Laughingnomad

My sons Josh and Greg have flown onto the island of Kauai in the Hawaiian Islands from Beijing and Las Vegas respectively. Josh and Amy will have Malcolm Miner, a close friend and retired Episcopalian minister bless their civil union that took place last September in the Brooklyn courthouse.

Amy drove from New York to Denver where she dropped off her car at her mother’s home and then flew to Hawaii to meet Josh. About 20 of their friends have flown in from all over the U.S. to witness the event and doubtless to party it up.

Josh, as Chef de Cuisine, will open one of the Hilton’s restaurants in Beijing upon arrival back into the city. Good luck with jet lag Josh! Amy will join Josh in Beijing in September after she finishes-out the term teaching history at Rutgers University. Don’t think she realized what she was getting into when she married a Goetz!

CONGRATULATIONS JOSH AND AMY!

Son Douglas and his wife remain at their home on Koh Samui Thailand where yesterday a strong wind caused a palm tree to fall onto some electrical wires and shorted out all their electrical equipment…stereo, washer, fans…everything! “What problem do you have,” I asked Luk, Doug’s wife, when she called me. “Oh, nitnoy” (just a little bit) she says cheerfully! That’s Luk! That’s the Thai attitude!

I remain in Oaxaca Mexico, Bob in Salem Oregon, Amy’s mother in Denver and her father in Florida. Amy’s sister and her husband are taking their young son, Gabe, home to Hemet California today from Loma Linda Children’s Hospital where he has been recovering from a bone marrow transplant to treat leukemia. A miracle in a global family!

House Cats In Las Vegas

Posted on by Laughingnomad

Flew From Thailand to Las Vegas the end of April. Then flew youngest son, Josh, who is between jobs, in from NYC to spend a week with oldest son Greg and I. After Bangkok and NYC, we just wanted peace and quiet. Just hung out in Greg’s new home…didn’t even go down to the strip. I was in my glory with the two progeny.

Then Greg’s friend, Mike, drove in from Phoenix with a car full of all his belongings. Josh returned to NYC and Mike and I hung out some more. House cats, Greg called us.

Back To The West

Posted on by Laughingnomad

In mid-July, a year after leaving the States to travel through Eastern Europe, taking the Trans Siberian Train through Russia, Mongolia and China and then to Thailand Vietnam and Laos, I arrived back in LA on China Air…then Portland on Alaska.

The next day, after picking up one of the cars that had been safe in the garage of a friend, I was back in the Portland airport to meet my son Greg who had flown in from Las Vegas where he had been in his anesthesiology practice for the last year. Over the weekend, Greg would attend his 20th year reunion of his South Salem High School graduating class and I would embark on the “couch tour” since the renters were still occupying our home.

Bob arrived in Portland a couple weeks later and after visiting grandma and other family members and running a hundred errands, we climbed into a Jet Blue airliner for a non-stop flight to Kennedy airport in New York City. We had arranged to sublet the apartment of my son Josh’s Whitman College roommate who had already left for Walla Walla Washington to complete a four month stint as visiting professor in art at his alma mater. We were delighted with the recently refurbished apartment in a gentrified neighborhood of Brooklyn…and relieved to finally be in one place for awhile.