| Domingo, 24 Agosto |
| Tijuana, Baja California |
| by Daniel Charles Thomas |
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| email: tijuanagringo@yahoo.com |
| Copyright 2003 Daniel Charles Thomas |
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| A |
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| in Teotijuanacan where the gods were made. |
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| Okay, okay, I'm better now. |
| Okay, okay, I'm better now. I better be better. After madness, anger, grief and guilt, then another lightning bolt hit me. The contest I won almost three years ago, remember? The Pellicer Frost Binational Border Poetry Competition #5 (December 2000) out of Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua? Well, they were supposed to print the winning manuscripts as an anthology book in December of 2001. Well, that date came and went, and then another December (2002) passed by last winter, and now, guess what? Yep. Almost two years later, almost three years after winning the award, the finally did it. Published the book. My parents called last week in the midst of my recovery from shoving my plagiarized foot down my throat, and gave me the good news: a package of ten copies -- my author's copies -- had finally arrived at their house in La Jolla, San Diego. There, at least, was good news for this little self-imposed exile seeking the beloved other. There, at least, was his work, my work, in paper. Too bad the book is full of typographical errors. Mmmmm every silver lining has a gray cloud, it seemmmmmmmsssssss... yesssss. |
| I went up to see the parents Thursday and just came back to Tijauan today. Sat out on their deck overlooking the Pacific Ocean, watching the golden orange sun sink toward the west, and then glancing over my shoulder at the hillside lit up in brilliant yellow light, and looked back at the page to wince in pain at another and another typo. Sheeeeet. Looks really unprofessional to put out a book full of errors like that. The worst is reading the poems by other winners, poetry I have waited almost three years to read, and not knowing if it is printed exactly the way the poets wrote their work... either in Spanish from the Mexican winners or in English from the U.S. winners, and not knowing, not knowing if, not knowing if it was really what they wanted to say, since practically every page has one obvious error, and others that might be, or might not be, correct or not. Ugh. It is always something, it seems. Now I know how much work our little Charlotte has cut out for her, searching for and correctin our typos. Heh. They should have hired her for that book! |
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| Had a reallllllyyyy fun time coming back to Tijuana today. Ran into three tourists from Mississippi and Maine who were riding on the trolley down from San Diego to visit Tijuana. Ended up chatting and then walking with them downtown from the border. They said hey let's have a beer so we went to the Turistico on Plaza Santa Cecilia and then they said hey we're hungry, you hungry? Our treat. Where can we go? We went up to Ricardo's on 7th and Madero and they had fish fillet and fajitas and a cheesburger and I had a torta de lomo. They also wanted to buy some earrings for the lady of the three, and so I suggested Jorge Espinoza's store and they oooohhhed and aahhhhed over all his work -- he makes his own jewelry, custom design and all, and they were happy and I was happy and then we said goodbye and wished each other well and thank you for the good time and thank you for lunch. I also had the great pleasure of showing them my book, which in spite of typos really does look good, and... coincidence of coincidences they work in civil service in Mississippi and were intrigued that I had worked twenty some years in that in San Diego before leaving to live and write in Tijuana, Mexico. If you're reading this, my friends from M., thanks again and God bless you. |
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