Thursday, May 31, 2007

passport renewal

so we survived san pedro sula.

no mean feat.

people staring at us malevolently. (not since my divorce has that happened.)

tension in the air.

even speaking spanish was a lot more difficult than in la ceiba.

oh well what do you expect in a city where the only noticeable signage in the mountains is a hollywood style coca cola sign. from miles away.

we started by getting our passport photos taken at a place around the corner from the consulate.

then celebrated that by eating at a burger king in the mall.

it was so bad that i have officially sworn off burger kings the world round.

found the consuls office and stood in line.

filled out a form given us by the honduran security guard (what!? no u.s. marines!?).

30 minutes later at the desk of the aforementioned consul was informed that it was, indeed, the wrong form.

filled out the correct form, surrendered passport.

20 minutes later on the way down stairs to the bank to pay the renewal fee.

informed by the bank teller that the transaction could not be processed without seeing my passport.

after another thirty minutes of begging , crying, and pleading (highly reminiscent of my junior prom) back to the consul with receipts in hand.

informed by (now smirking openly) consul that the passport photos were unacceptable. (the backgrounds were white. they are supposed to be off white.)

after a walk of one block down and a half block over, found the recommended photo shop and had the proper photos taken.

i didn`t have to wear a blue blazer or wear makeup for my first passport photo.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

reading material

ok.

i need something to read, i'm out of books.

no problem, at least one of the dive shops on this island should have at least
one literate person on premises, right?

at least there's a decent chance.

one would think.

one should think again.

there appears to be a veritable cornucopia of romance novels. even those set in the wild west.

(Longarm? wtf??)

why would you bring a romance novel to an island in the caribbean?

new york i could understand, but an island?

you want romance?

open your eyes!

and bring decent books!!!

Saturday, May 26, 2007

san pedro sula

so...

i'm finally getting around to making the trip to the big city of san pedro sula
for that pesky (and possibly adventerous) task of making an application for
the renewal of my passport.

my heart is all aflutter just thinking about the two (count 'em) trips on the
vomit comet...the 2.5 plus hour bus trip one way from ceiba...gawking at the
big cement buildings...and general aimless wandering in store for me.

i just hope the rat in my room doesn't rearrange things too drastically while i'm away.

Monday, May 21, 2007

chili dog

just when i thought there was one thing i could be sure of...

i've been informed that i really have no clue what a chili dog is...

what a ball park hot dog is...

nor, in fact, what the difference between my asshole and a hole in the ground is.

and i work (worked?) in a restaurant!

man, a guys world sure can crumble fast!

sorry about all the ... i seem to have saved up a plethora of them...

and...

can't use them fast enough...

Thursday, May 10, 2007

1st rat

this morning i saw the first rat in my new room.

(not sure why this is significant)

i had just come back from the shower and was gathering my dirty
clothes for a trip to laundry world.

although i have lived in a latin american country for more than ten years
i have still not learned those terms of endearment a spanish speaking woman uses to warn her "husband" that the chances random objects will soon be launching themselves toward his head are somewhat better than 90%.

soooo...i missed the warning (i try not to listen but these walls are pretty thin) and was startled when something smacked the other side of my wall.

hard.

the rat was apparently startled as well.

so there i am, bending over like a sailor getting ready for a fitness evaluation when said rat rockets between my feet into the pile of aforementioned dirty t-shirts and stuff leaving a not insignificant trail of surprise behind him.

my brain gets a message..."jungle; your 7:15 diarrhea event is now one minute 46 seconds in arrears; download is immanent."

off to laundry world.

Monday, May 07, 2007

posting

these days i don't have a lot of time for posting to the blog.

mondays are pretty much the only opportunity i have.

as it turns out, monday is the least creative day of my week.

therefore the quality of my posts really suffers.

do i care? no, not really.

i fully intend to keep blathering on about shit that doesn't matter to anyone else
in this particular universe. judging from my bloginspace account at least.

til next week, then.