Arrival

I am here, safe and sound in Mexico City. I arrived last night around 10 PM, but unfortunately my suitcase spent the night in Washington DC. In my life my luggage has been lost only twice before now, and in both of those cases it was only a matter of a few hours before I got it back. Believe it or not, with all the travelling I´ve done in my life, this is the first time I´ve had to wait overnight for a suitcase. I guess I was due. Luckily my toothbrush and toothpaste were in my carryon.

I have no major observations about Mexico City so far, except that those in the know--I´ve been here almost one day, so I count--call it DF (Distrito Federal). Seen from the air at night, it is absolutely huge and sprawling, which is no real revelation since it´s the largest city in the world. I´m staying with Marco, who lives about two blocks from the office. This seems like a miracle to me in such a big city. Today I´ve jumped right back into work, and have been trying to remind myself the ins and outs of the business I worked in for four years. I arrived in perfect time: Marco´s only colleague in the office here gave her notice yesterday, effective immediately, so there´s plenty of work for me to do.

The Wandering Begins Again (subtitle: You're Not Going To Believe This)

So I've been sitting here, minding my own business, looking for a job, and getting used to being back in the U.S. and more specifically, my hometown. And it's going well: I've met some people, have found a non-profit to volunteer with once a week, and am generally keeping busy. Sunday I saw a friend's band play at a local bar, and yesterday my mom, her boyfriend Dan and i took three of his young grandkids to see Curious George. Life is pretty good. Then, out of the blue I got a phone call from my old employer, and they want me to go to Mexico for three weeks. Turns out, our man in Mexico City (who happens to be my friend Marco, who I visited in Costa Rica) has been sick with salmonella for a while and although he is recovering, busy season is starting up at full speed and he now finds himself swamped with work. They need someone (me) to come down there and pick up whatever needs to be done and do it.

The call came yesterday (Monday) and the original offer was to leave tomorrow (Wednesday). But I've got a few commitments this weekend that I can't break. So it looks like I'm likely to leave on Sunday or Monday and stay until mid-to-late March. It'll be fun to be in Mexico again, although I'm a little apprehensive about Mexico City. And it'll be fun to work with Marco again; we used to work together in Lucerne. It's definitely going to be an adventure--stay tuned for more updates and news once I get down there.

That good, huh?

........ .........

So I got down to work, writing a cover letter to apply for a job I found online. The annoying paper clip popped up, saying "Looks like you're writing a letter!" in its perky little way, but I was too preoccupied to close it down all the way and just left it there in the corner. I struggled for a long time to write the letter (those things are no fun) and somewhere along the line I looked over and the paper clip's eyes had started drooping. I swear I caught it yawning a couple of times. Before I knew it, it had curled up into a little ball, all the while staring at me with its beady, suspicious little eyes. It would occasionally perk up again and stand up with a smirk on its face as if mocking me in my repeated deletions and re-phrasings, before starting the process over and over again. Then for one period so brief I didn't have time to snap a picture, it curled into a contorted position so twisted it would be impossible to achieve in a real paper clip without the help of a pair of needle-nose pliers. In my frustration, it seemed to me that it had actually died of boredom, or perhaps horror. I fear this does not bode well for my chances of getting the job.

A little help?

EDIT: Thanks to Chris, this problem is no longer a problem! Now I can stop worrying about my music and devote my full attention to Olympics coverage.

My iPod kind of broke today. The screen seems to be stuck on the song you see here. (At least it wasn't something embarassing). The insides still work; I can play other songs, I just can't see the menus, so it's nearly possible for me to play something specific. I managed to turn on the clicker after a lot of trial and error, so that might help a little, and my next step will be to try to turn on Shuffle Songs so at least I can set it up to play at random. I've tried all the buttons to fix it, I tried plugging it into its docking station/speakers, and I tried connecting it to my computer and loading on some new songs. These things all worked, but the whole time it just shows this same screen.

Has anyone experienced this problem? Does anyone have any thoughts about this?