Navel gazing

A few observations from our day:

When asking to buy a comb, pronunciation is key or you appear to be saying "I'd like to buy a penis, please." And this is apparently not so funny to the middle-aged woman behind the register, and in fact causes some alarm.

When your child leaps into the arms of a beautiful brown stranger and refuses to come back to you, you feel queasy and anxious inside as if it is proof that you have stolen this child as is often the suspicion and rumor in Guatemala. You vow to never return to this store again.

When one meets someone actually named Don Juan, it is inevitably a disappointment.

Guatemalans and their children are generally not fat, unless they spend too much time in the United States. Those who reside here are fit, and those kids who you see returning from the States on your overnight flight often have large bags of McDonald's "food" grasped in their greasy, plump little hands. It makes you hate that dark side of capitalism even more.

An afternoon spent in bed watching Cinderella Man and then That 70s Show dubbed into Spanish is actually an excusable experience when one is helpless and pinned down by 21lbs of sleeping love and drool.

Annie's Mac and Cheese, microwable version, does not a meal make. It's even less filling than the soup at Mindy's.

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Apologies to those who don't get the literary, language or pop cultural references above. But hey, that's what navel gazing is all about - only those things interesting to the gazer.