Another new home -

So much for my beautiful lake view. Now we're in a proper park,
where we can hook up to water and 30-amp power, and where there's a pool (though Robin says it's cold, so I haven't braved it yet). The park is attached to the Hotel Tepetapan, which I write here because I'll never remember it otherwise.
Which brings me to my good news: I have clothes! Woo-hoo! Yesterday, while we were staying at the restaurant, I took a taxi to a laundry and left my clothes there, to be picked up at 5:00 this afternoon. Then I took the taxi home. However, there were a few little problems: I didn't get a receipt for my clothes, so I had no idea what the name of the laundry was, or its address; and worse still, I had no idea how we got there, or how we got back to the restaurant. For a tiny town, this place has a very confusing layout.

Never mind, I thought, it will be obvious when I'm coming from our new location, because we're just off the main street. No. It wasn't. About an hour ago, I walked out of the park and up to the corner. I looked around and thought, I haven't the faintest idea which direction to go to get to the laundry. Oh, dear. So of course I flagged down a taxi and told the driver my sad tale of woe. I said "It's the laundry that's near the rodeo." That didn't get a reaction. "Some lady told me it's the one by the rodeo. I don't know what the rodeo is." (by the way, it isn't the obvious! I think it's maybe the middle of town.) "Do you know where the laundries are?" Yes, he did, and we embarked on the same sort of cat's cradle trip that I took last night. I decided to consider that a good sign.

The first laundry we tried wasn't the right one. I knew that from half a block away. "Is it on a different street?" the driver asked. Yes, I knew that much. So we twisted and turned a bit more, and there it was. Great sighs of relief. I picked up my laundry and came home in the same cab, and even though I tried to watch where we were going, I know that I couldn't find my way to the laundry again. Never mind. I am not naked in Mexico.

But there's more good news - our friends Kristin and TJ have resurfaced, and they're way ahead of us - probably in Cancun by now. I'm so glad. I was beginning to go all maternal.

I've spent most of the afternoon cleaning out and defrosting the refrigerator, but I did take time to clean up my blog a little, too. Do you like it? I ditched my beach photo and replaced it with the same one I use over at The Red Room. I also did away with some messy stuff and replaced it with a new widget that Blogger just introduced (I think). It's a list of some of my favourite songs, of which you can play snippets, if it pleases you. Of course, I'm now thinking Oh No, I forgot Alison Crowe's version of Leonard Cohen's Hallelujah! But never mind. I'll just refer you to You Tube for that.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIMOdVXAPJ0

Oh, and one more thing. This day is just full of good news. Remember the poem I was trying to find? An online friend of mine found it for me. She's a much better internet sleuth than I am. So here it is, in its entirety and its correctity*!:

Vertigo by Adrienne Rich

As for me, I distrust the commonplace;
Demand and am receiving marvels, signs,
Miracles wrought in air, acted in space
After imagination's own designs.
The lion and the tiger pace this way
As often as I call; the flight of wings
Surprises empty air, while out of clay
The golden-gourded vine unwatered springs.
I have inhaled impossibility,
and walk at such an angle, all the stars
Have hung their carnival chains of light for me:
There is a streetcar runs from here to Mars.
I shall be seeing you, my darling, there,
Or at the burning bush in Harvard Square.

I followed my friend's instructions to find the poem on Google (type in "I distrust the commonplace" Adrienne) and guess what I got? My own blog. I got the post in which I asked for help finding the poem. Aaaargh. I also got a couple of sites in Spanish. I guess I have to wait until I get home to search again and get the source book. Meanwhile, though, I have the right words. That's plenty to be going on with. One line that I'm always forgetting is "the flight of wings surprises empty air". After last night, I should have no trouble remembering that.

*my word.

photos from http://www.gaudis.com/