seagull

March 1, 2024

• plot

  What an interesting 24 hours. The plot's been twisted.

• telenovela

  This has been a telenovela after all. Not a movie. A movie wouldn't be enough to tell all the little, BIG stories in this tiny TALL town.

• set

  A movie is over and done with after the last cut and the credits roll. A telenovela keeps rolling. When each episode ends, the characters walk off set and back on. Set is home.

• setting

  The setting is a magical mountain town where rainbows pop out of the lush valley, citrus explodes, cats get it on constantly, dogs roam for food, old ladies walk with wooden "palos” while expats walk their ritual route in on and off branded outdoor gear, the rooster calls at irregular times and intervals, while the deaf flamenco singer sings at irregular times and intervals, but unlike the roosters, he’s on key.

• judging birds

  The birds are chirping, not singing. Maybe they know I'm writing about them and keeping their tunes quiet so as to not be judged.

• neon collars

  I can hear the blue or, rather, neon green/yellow collared workers cackling already.

• dogs

  Jesus — not the Christ kind, but the Hey, Zeus guy’s name kind — the fucking dogs are having a holler.

• throw 'em back

  Suddenly I'm hearing every living soul’s soul. It's soulful here. Not the R&B kind, but the clickity-clack, throw-em-back-Jack chaos kind.

• page turner

  Well, these Morning Pages took a turn (no pun intended) just like the plot of this episode.

• voice

  Something about his voice gets me. And I think more than anything it’s this little big thing called connection.

• meld

  Our sense of humors meld like marmalade. Does marmalade meld? Does it even melt? I don't care, I wanted to go for alliteration and that was the first thing that came to mind.

• real people

  These actors of whom are soon to be famosa from this indie soap op are not actors at all but real fucking people living their weird fucking lives that are not weird at all, but completely, very fucking normal.

• another movie

  If only these people would be plucked and put in a city center to figure out life, now that's a movie for another day.

• no normal

  And the thing about normal is nothing is. No one is.

• pobrecito

  And I say poor in that I mean “probrecito” extending empathy and compassion because I know he's not happy here, which is why he’s sad.

• focus

  We spent almost three hours walking, talking through his land. My head was ready to explode because I haven't heard that much Spanish or had to focus that closely/intently in a long while.

• my language

  Bar talk is easy. It’s small talk. Borocho talk. Simple vocab, often vulgar. My kind of language.

• green gold

  It is so satisfying plucking and snipping those green warty easter eggs off their umbilical cords. You have to leave a little nub or else they ripen too fast.

• photog

  I took some pretty sexy GQ shots. I love being behind the camera.

• dumping dad

  I brought Dad to the sea. It was cold! Kind of wavy. There's a good chance I swam through his ashes because after I dumped him in, I set the jar back on the beach and cold plunged.

• seagull

  A seagull flew up above. Like Dad was there. Well, he was and is and now always close when I’m here in my happy place.