October 5 - Enid

It’s hard for me to think about anything but Enid.  She’s been in the hospital for the past 6 weeks.  This is her THIRD cancer battle and she had a preventative double mastectomy on top of that a year or so ago, because she carried the gene!  She had leukemia twice and now this is some form of aggressive lymphoma.  This week she had to have surgery on a leg blood clot and now she’s got problems with her kidney.  No one should have to go through this once, much less 3 times.  She’s one of the strongest people I know but there’s a limit.  Think positive thoughts. And I received an email from one of my friends at Curves.  Judy, the owner, who must still be in her 30s and obviously in great physical condition, was found early morning unconscious behind her desk.  Someone saw her parking her car in the garage but then when that person knocked on the locked door a few minutes later, there was no answer.  Police and paramedics were called and Judy’s in the hospital. A possible stroke?  Everything else for me is trivial.  I just got an email from the rental agency, advising me that the owner of Casa Pilar has changed her plans and isn’t coming to Granada for the Thanksgiving holiday.  I was starting to look at rentals because there were 9 nights I would’ve had to get out.  Every time I looked at my packed-to-the-gills refrigerator and toiletries in the bathroom, I imagined re-packing everything and then unpacking when the owner left again.  I’m so relieved that I can relax. The last 2 times I was here I got a Brazilian blowout before I left LA, against the wishes of my hair stylist.  She claims it’s bad for your hair.  I don’t have enough left to attest to that.  So I skipped the blowout this time.  At my new office table, I’ve got fans pointed at me from both sides.  It’s like sitting in a wind tunnel.  As long as it’s not blowing in my mouth, I can’t worry about my hair. Daniel worked the entire weekend and I didn’t see him until briefly this morning when he and his “announcer” car arrived in Granada to start the local publicity.  My local manicurist, Luz Marie, and her husband visited me last night.  She had picked a flat iron from of the Amazon site; I ordered it and brought it to her as well as a couple of bottles of Biotin.  I had one suitcase for me and one full of stuff for other people. This is the last circus performance in Managua tonight and then tomorrow they move to Granada.  I hope they’ll be here for a while.  They don’t seem to tell Daniel much.  They haven’t even been paying him extra for his night work, and he doesn’t want to rock the job boat by asking for it. He hasn’t arrived at the house early enough to make his fabled rice so I tried couscous to go with the barbecued beef (made by Melissa, my food girl).  Daniel acted as if I had cooked the yellow ants and piled them on his plate.  He thinks my food is totally strange.  He won’t try mushrooms or olives.  He picked the cheese out of the salad.  He pushes the onions to the side of the plate.  All the man wants is rice and beans.  I HATE beans.  Compatibility?  Not so much.