Monday, August 26, 2013

Desayuno Dos

I awoke with a thought that made me laugh so much I could not fall back asleep. The hour was 5:00am. I decided to start the day instead of laying in bed awake.

I worked on sorting what has become an overwhelming pile of paperwork that needed to be filed and certain action items taken (phone calls and decisions made). I had stacks of papers covering the floor of my new apartment as I categorized, pondered, and filed. By 8am I had finished, and had a list of more things to be accomplished throughout the day. Errand time - my favorite thing to have energy to do.

I was a little tired when I left and when I got done shopping at Target and the Dollar Tree, the smell of food got to me. Hmm....it might be time for Second Breakfast, I thought. There was a McDonald's nearby but I felt the guilt instantly. I heard Jim Gaffigan's voice in my head shaming the decision I was about to make. No, I thought, Must Resist. Must Eat Healthy Food. Will Wait Until I am Home and can make tacos myself. But the thought of convenience drew me, urged me on - "A cheap protein snack, available now - instant gratification." The only thing that stopped me was seeing a line of cars in both of McDonalds' drive-thru. No convenience to be found in waiting.

So I decided to make the better decision for my health and nutrition and wait until I got home to make my own breakfast tacos.

Then I got to the Texas Thrift. A taco truck stood across 51st street and beckoned me with the promise of fresh ingredients in a taco for only $1.50 - real food, or at least something that didn't taste like it had been squished out of a tube.

It was a truly multicultural experience - the humid August clouds brooding above me, Latin music promenading over the sound of honking cars threatening to take my life as I attempted to cross busy traffic. I ordered my taco in Spanish and, though the lady wasn't impressed with me and knew I was just another plain old white girl, she spoke to me in Spanglish back, and I considered it a part of the verisimilitude. I waited and smelled the standing water on the concrete. I looked through a window in the universe. My transformation through time and space and across borders into a world of jungle tribes assimilating with the cultures that had invaded them long ago in the central and now Latin American Isthmus separating worlds like a portal. All I needed was drink of freshly squeezed fruit and the ambiance would have been beyond recognizing as just a daydream. Alas, one cannot have it all (at least not at once).



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