Tea time for me time

Am back in the great state of Veracruz. Coming home today to my apartment in Xalapa, after a three-week absence, was muy satisfying. When I opened the door, I took a quick inventory: everything still here, nothing carried away by thieves or ants. Yes! I then threw down my suitcases, which have become my new Least Favorite Possessions, and ran to the kitchen to relocate my new Most Favorite Possession, which I immediately set to work on making a long-awaited cup of tea.

While enjoying this moment of zen, I started looking back on my pictures from the last few weeks. They reminded me that there were plenty of equally lovely moments on the road, too (see below), so perhaps I owe my suitcases an apology.

(A weathervane and rain cloud in Guanajuato, Mexico; set to the tune of Bésame en la Boca)

National treasures

It's Friday, so time to pack another oversized suitcase. Am going back to Chicago in the morning, sadly without my new Christmas toy. It will remain in my basement, in swaddling bubble wrap, until I move back to the U. S. in the summer. 

While saying goodbye to my Hamilton Beach PrepStar™ food processor this morning, I felt that no item could better symbolize my frustration with the distance between Michigan and Mexico. Only in Mexico can I buy five bell peppers of varying colors, a jalapeño, an deceptively spicy habanero (it looks like an apricot!), a head of garlic, and bouquets of pumpkin blossoms and fresh cilantro, still clung with the dirt from which they were yanked, for under the cost of a Happy Meal. But only in Michigan do I have the tools to transform all that into a gazpacho in under 30 seconds.