On top of the rock

On top of the rock
Our Cliff

Monday, April 19, 2010

My sister

Barbara arrived here a couple of days ago for an adventure. I invited her to go to Guadalajara with me so we could shop for Arriba de la Roca. I was thrilled when she said “yes” and she arrived on Wednesday, just in time for pizza night at the Sand Bar. As my friend Megan can tell you, Gabe, the bartender at the Sand Bar, makes a killer margarita. AND to make it worse, or better, depending upon your perspective, they have 2 for 1 if you arrive before the sun sets, which we did. During 2 for 1 you can have 2, or you can have 4, or I guess 6 or 8 as well. We had 4, each. Yummy margaritas with lots of fresh lime.

Day one of Barbara’s adventure began with a rather large headache. Nausea also was part of her morning experience. She is a trooper though. Even with the terrible cold she arrived in Mexico with, she did not complain. Here she is...sneezing, coughing, headachy, heartburn from the limes and...vertigo. She discovered she had vertigo when we walked up to the top of Arriba de la Roca and she had to walk on some rather precarious planks to get into the casitas. We held on to each other for stability. I, too, was a little “foggy”. After the tour of our project we had to walk down again. The problem is that the “road” we were to walk on had been traveled so many times by Senor Backhoe Retro, in his retro, that the sand was very soft, dusty and slippery. We tried to work our way down a path that had not been traveled by our Senor, but eventually we had to cross onto the “road”. The first foot that Barbara placed on the sand slid out from under her and she fell; Twisting her ankle. After a few minutes of her saying “I am O.K.” and her not moving, a couple of the workers came down to help her. She was limping and in pain.

So now not only has she a cold, she has a headache. She has heartburn. She has vertigo, and she has sprained her ankle. We did not know if it was sprained or not, but when it started swelling and turning black and blue we figured there was some sort of major damage done.

It is now 9am on her first day.

Our plan was to walk to the beach. Since she really had wanted to do this, in spite of the fall, we decided we would start out and see how far she could get. We had iced her foot and she did great and made it to the water. There we sat, on the sand (since we did not really think we would make it that far and brought no chairs) for a couple of hours. We watched her foot swell with the rise and fall of the tide. We watched her nose get sun burned, without sunscreen. When we decided to head back I told her I would go ahead and get the truck. At least this way she would only have to walk through the beach, and not all the way back to the bodega. I walked ahead, knowing I could get back before she made it to where I would pick here up; She was slow and limping, favoring her good foot. All of a sudden I hear her moaning screams as she is trying to get through the hot sand that is burning her feet. I turn to see her limping, screaming and not knowing whether to continue or bury herself in the sand. Nice sister that I am I start laughing so hard that I have to cross my legs for security. The whole thing struck me so humorously that even now I am laughing when I write it. I was trying to tell her to get past the black sand and it would not be hot. I was laughing too hard and could not get the words out.

We now add burnt feet to the list.

The evening comes. She still is coughing and sneezing. I think her headache had waned, but the heartburn is still going strong. She is icing her swollen ankle and complaining about her burnt feet and saying I must have "leather soles" to be able to walk in the sand.

Thank heavens it is finally time for this day to end! We make her little nest on our sofa. I bought her special Egyptian cotton sheets, new pillows and a comfy down comforter. We get her bed all made, and she is so excited. She can finally go to sleep and put this day behind her. She is thrilled with her sheets and she is rubbing them, telling me how comfortable the bed is. When we awake in the morning all will be good. AHHHHHCHOO!....Well maybe not “all”.

Now ready for bed I go to bring in Retro’s dog house. He sleeps in it in the living room at night. During the day it stays open, outside and he comes and goes as he pleases. He loves the cage. It must give him a sense of security. So I bring it in the house and like always open the door for him. He always runs right in the cage, all happy, knowing he will get a treat. This particular time he comes in, spies the freshly made bed and he runs and jumps on it! I start freaking out, knowing Barbara is not a huge “dog fan”. I am yelling “RETRO GET DOWN!!! DOWN RETRO!!!!” The frightened little guy gets down but not before leaking urine all over the comforter, the sheets, the rug and onto the floor as he ran into his cage.


The coupe de gras??? Our dog pees on Barbara’s bed. OMG!!! Could this day get any worse?? Yes, we have no extra sheets. All our stuff is still in storage. I knew we had another blanket but no sheets. She tells me that is "O.K." in the saddest little voice on earth. We strip the sheets and blanket (pillows still good) and I go on a search. I remembered we had a bottom sheet somewhere. I just had to find it. After lots of searching I found the old, not Egyptian cotton sheet, and we re-made her bed, sans top sheet.

Can I tell you Retro was a much better dog the first week we had him than he is now!!!

So right now we are at the airport heading to Guadalajara on our shopping trip. Her ankle is wrapped. She even made it up the cliff one last time yesterday, using Maurice as a crutch. She is a trooper!! Now she is sipping a cup of vanilla chai tea and even her sneezing is better. I think she will be limping through the streets of Guadalajara but at least she will not be hung-over with vertigo. Well, unless we can find a great restaurant for dinner that makes yummy margaritas during happy hour!

3 comments:

  1. Oh, Shel!! I laughed so hard I cried! Poor Barbara!!!Tequila must be the answer...give her more tequila......
    Jennifer

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  2. Tell her I said she looks very thin in the photo above. That should make her ankle and headache go away. ;-)

    I hope Diego's suggestions are good ones and that Guadalajara is amazing. Can't wait for more updates!

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  3. Too funny Shelby! I can so see it happening.
    My sister and I would have laughed too!

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