Vivo para la vida por lo tanto nunca me moriré
I think I've decided to write a book. I’m not really sure if I absolutely want to or not. I guess that’s because I’m not really sure what this book of mine would be about. When we first moved here I thought that maybe I’d write a teen’s guide to becoming an ex-pat in the middle of high school, but then I sort of realized that all you need to do is do it. It’s not really a question of how to cope or any of those things, you just sort of live in a new place and that’s all. I’m reading a book right now, Caramelo, by the woman who wrote House on Mango Street and it makes me want to write a screenplay for it. I can see all the scenes in my head. I think that the real problem with me writing a screenplay based on a book is that I would be heartbroken at the thought of cutting even a single scene out. Then again I feel that I could do a much better job than the complete butchery that some of the novel-turned-films are going through now. I just remembered that I actually took a summer course on writing screenplays based on books at Rice. Qué extraño. Know what else is extraño? That Microsoft word says that “Qué extraño” is misspelled but it also says that it’s fragment and that I should consider revising it. I think it’s odd that while it doesn’t recognize the words it says that it’s not a real sentence. It’s a real sentence in English. Anyway, estoy cansado and I’m not really sure why. I keep meaning to ask daddy to buy me the book “Fragrant Rice” but I can never seem to remember that I want it at the right times. I think I mentioned somewhere about having heard her talk but I’m not sure. By her I mean the author. She droned a little bit, but in an entertaining way. I think mostly it was just that I had to get to an exam and she was making me cut it dangerously close. This morning daddy and I went to Ro King’s house and talked about lots of stuff with Ro and Sue Potter. Sue is one of my favorite people, she’s so interesting and…maybe effusive is the word I’m looking for. The Microsoft Word synonyms aren’t all positive but when I think effusive I think bubbly Dr. Pepper on a hot day…a good thing. For some reason Jaritos just popped into my head, and Miguel’s surprise that I drink them. How could I not when they’re so bright and colorful in the long necked glass bottles. Plus more than half my life was spent in an Hispanic neighborhood, we had Jaritos at the corner store. Jaritos and Lucas, although I wasn’t supposed to eat the Lucas because basically it’s salt and lime. Somehow I feel like if I wrote a memoir of my life, my 18 year life, it would involve food more than anything else. Maybe that’s because I love food, food tells you about people and culture and beliefs and personalities and styles and lives. Just today I was talking about food with Sue, how the corn bread casserole recipe is so good, but so different to what they normally eat. She grew up all over the world, she called herself a professional ex-pat. They eat food from everywhere, but not really anything traditionally American or “down home cookin’”. The fact that she’d never really had the cornbread casserole type dish before says lots about how she’d lived. And also that she’d never had the Marshmallow goo fudge before. I gave her some after she got back from Singapore (she’d had dengue). The Sweet Potato Queens say that food solves all problems. I tend to agree. There really isn’t anything a fattening bowl of something can’t solve. Except maybe cholesterol problems. The air conditioner is making a funny noise. I hope it doesn’t spit ice at me. All of the sudden I don’t feel so well, I think I’m going to go lie down.