Ahh...the Weekend

My weekend began Friday night with Roarke screaming at me from 8:30 at night until 9:50 pm when he gave up, exhausted, and went to sleep. Saturday Roarke woke up at 6:30 am and proceeded the angry fest from the previous night, "YOU. ARE. SO. MEAN. MOMMY!!!" Dude, I just woke up, I haven´t even had a chance to be mean. Well, we make it through Roarke´s anger gradually, by ignoring him while he tattoo´s his arms with a blood red marker. Now it´s official we are staying in for the day, Roarke refuses to wash off his tattoo´s and I refuse to receive the scorn of Mexican Señoras today because my kid is filthy, he did it , blame him, not me!!

Staying at home in the country with 3 kids can be so damn tedious. There are acres to run and play. Go away and play let me sit here with my Tecate at 2 in the afternoon, sheesh! Finally, I cave in and let them watch one movie, 5 minutes into the movie...boom! The power goes out. Is this a cosmic joke? Is this Rudolph Steiner haunting me and saying "You are a very bad Waldorf Mother, I will punish you now!" because it sure feels like it. What are we going to so now, because no one will go outside and play (what is WRONG with them?!!) Luckily I had just purchased watercolors pencils I set them up and cracked Tecate #2 (now we´re cooking) and we
drew some great pictures for daddy. All of the kids were amazed that this is a painting pencil, oh, the simple joys. Just as we were finishing up, the cows came to graze.

A herd of cows in the yard is an answer to one prayer, namely who will mow the grass while Richard is in the States? Then this herd of 22 loping animals came into the yard to help a sister out, thank goodness. Roarke and I walked among the cattle until Frankie, the dog, decided to go loca on the big white Brahma Bull that also has the largest horns of the group. He lowered his head and made for Frankie and I picked up Roarke and ran for higher ground, no time for painful buttocks while parenting solo! We went and watched the baby cows and were going up the stairs to our other patio when a big bull saw us and started ambling toward us, crikey enough with the bulls! Again I run away and this bull continues toward us. Just as I think he is going to fall down the stairs to the patio and we´ll have filet mignon and hamburgers, for free, for months he stops and just chews while watching us. I´ve had enough of the outdoor animals for a day so I go back inside to the indoor animals. Still no electricity. At 8:00 Saturday night I crank up the generator so I can sleep in my bed with only one kid, keep a hall light on and keep my food frozen.

At 8am on Sunday, the gas ran out of the generator, still no electricity. Called a neighbor, she had electricity so she calls CFE, the Mexican power company but the are unaware of any power outages. Later, Sebastian and Isabel are away, playing with friends so I managed a market date with Roarke. We ate a milanesa de pollo torta and had a giant serving of fresh squeezed orange juice for $30 pesos ($3USD). While eating at the little torta stand Roarke says "Look Mommy a bug!" Yes, it really is a cockroach climbing on my purse. I go to shake it off my purse and instead of landing on the floor, it lands on a little boys pant leg. Well, I can´t leave this kid with a cockroach climbing on him so I gently kick it off of him and try to squash it when it flips to his mothers shoe and disappears. Other Mother is looking at me like, "why the hell are you kicking my kid?" To which I can only say "Lo siento, es uno insecto." And that probably isn´t how you should really say it. When I finally sit down I think, oh, that cockroach came form this stand...hmmm, why are we the only one´s sitting here but all the rest are full? Oh shit, when will the salmonella begin, do I still have medicine...just then two people walk up to order "para llevar" so I feel a little bit better but I´ll let you know for sure in a couple of days if the roach was a foretelling of events to come.

That was enough excitement for me, we came home, filled up our gas can on the way home, which promptly tipped over in the back of the Land Rover when we went across the train tracks. Great now I have a stinking car, but, Roarke is asleep!! Now I feel like a rock star, but smell like a gas station attendant. We get home, no power. This is nuts, over 24 hours and no electricity!!!!! Some little voice in my head said, check the fuses. I am no DIY Queen, that would be my friend Kelly, but I check the fuses and discover why I have no electricity, burned out fuse. Well, I am certainly feeling proud of myself now, I still reek of gasoline and now I´ve fixed our electricity! This weekend I feel like I´ve graduated up to a new me, that doesn´t freak out over the inconsequential, well, except the roach and the bulls. When I step up to the plate I´m going to fix it and make it better, amazing what changing a fuse can do for my soul!