The adventure begins...

My arm hurts. Well more specifically my shoulder. You see, I've got this one shoulder that I fucked up when I was like 12 (pretty sure I tore the rotator cuff but never "fixed" it), and from time to time I'll do something that tweaks it, and then it hurts forever.

Well, yesterday I joined a Mexican softball team. I'm the first baseman, apparently. And because I didn't have cleats, during my first at-bat, I totally biffed it coming out of the batters' box and ganked the hell out of said shoulder. It hurts to type this... but I know that you crave that which only I can give you, so I press on... I don't really "speak" spanish, but I can almost get by... Rafael, our token fat pitcher was pretty kind in trying to speak english, and understand my broken spanish. Everyone clowned me and Matt when we fell (cleats will definitely be in order). I guess they're buying us jerseys...

Lemme break Mexico down thus far: Best tacos of my entire existence right around the corner from Matt's place. Just truly incredible. We also hit up a mariscos (fish) joint near him. I ate raw pulo (octopus), raw and cooked camarones (shrimp), and raw ostras (oysters) all in an amazing lime sauce with veggies, served in a hollowed out coconut. Fuck yeah. That shit was so bomb. Why am I talking about food so much? Because it's super cheap here, and I love to eat, ok? Back off... Had dinner for 3 the other night for 10 dollars. That was killer.

We had our first quintet rehearsal Friday, after my bloody-fingered bitch ass traveled 14 hours on Thursday. Matt and I play really well together, and the group will actually sound pretty good once we get it going. Orchestra goes on tour to Mazatlan this week, and apparently stays at a 4-star hotel on the beach. That sounds like a pretty great idea. Apparently we're going to take a ferry out to some island where you just sit under a canopy on the beach and drink piña coladas till you are sufficiently colada-ed. So that sounds pretty gooooooooooood...

All the people I've met from the orchestra so far have been super nice. Everyone is VERY laid back here. I mean, it IS Mexico, after all... But no REALLY sketchy stories to relate... yet... although I've only been here 2 days... gimme a chance, folks... OK, well there IS this tidbit:

As soon as I dropped my stuff off (my bags didn't make the trip until the next day, presumably so someone in Mexico City could look through them and try to find electronics or something), Matt and some of the boys wanted to take me out drinking to begin the festivities. Brian was driving, and as we just cruised down a normal street, we were stopped by Tranistos— tranist cops. Down here there are 4 types of cops. Transitos are the low men on the totem pole. Poorly paid. Next up is the city cops, then the State Police, then the Federales. Apparently only the Federales are incorruptible, as they are paid very well, and are sort of above all of the bribery at the local level. Transitos pull people over regularly just looking for a way to make some extra cash. City cops and State Police may or may not be owned by the big drug-lords in Mexico. I mean, yeah.

So the Transito flags us down. Now this was more of a checkpoint, with three or four transit cop cruisers. The guy walks up to the car, and smells Brian for alcohol. He smells booze, because the other three of us have been drinking. So the dance begins, with the cop telling Brian he has to leave the car to get impounded, and that Brian can show up tomorrow and retrieve it. Brian asks if there's any way he can pay the transito the fine directly. The guy does a whole song and dance, as though the thought never occurred to him. He pulls a completely blank sheet of paper from his notepad (not a ticket or summons or anything, just an 8.5x11) and begins to SLOWLY write down Brian's information. After five minutes of this, his buddy starts walking over to the car. He says, "My commander is coming... quick, quick... gimme the cash". Brian forks over about 20 bucks, and we're off. "Welcome to Mexico"...

In other news, did you hear about THIS?



Now, I have a SERIOUS problem with people being weasel-y. And it seems like Bush&Co. manage to screw us over about once a day... here, he's actually trying to force a provision through congress that will give him and his administration retro-active immunity for all the torturing he has sanctioned. And the republicans in the House and Senate don't see a problem there. Now maybe I'm just cynical (I am), but I thought that the President was supposed to be the moral beacon for the country. After all, they all run on being a "man of faith" (even Hillary—AWWWW SNAP!). And yet, Bush clearly sees that he's going to get fucked for breaking the Geneva Convention, and is looking to protect his ass. Fight the power folks... don't sit idly by and watch more criminals/cronies get away with everything (I'm looking at you, Enron...). Remember when Haliburton misappropriated 9 billion dollars of your hard earned funds? Shouldn't that have lead to an investigation or something? Maybe us at least canceling their no-bid contracts in Iraq? Nah...

More to come...