Mala Suerte

When I was little, we went on a family hiking trip up to the Adirondacks. The goal was to hike Mt. Joe with my mom, my brother, my grandmother (Big Grace), and our little dog Daisy. When we got up there, we stopped at the Adirondack lodge and went to admire Heart Lake before we took off on our accent... This is where all the trouble began.

I don't know if it was Karma or just plain bad luck, but for whatever reason I experienced a series of unfortunate mishaps all within about a 30 minute period. First, while admiring the beauty of Heart Lake on that crisp fall morning, I somehow managed to trip and fall into the lake. I landed on my hands and knees in about a foot of cold, muddy water, and managed to get all of my clothes wet. We then headed into the ladies room at the lodge so that I could put on some dry clothes and upon entering into the restroom, my thumb somehow found its way into the door hinge and was smooshed as the door swung open. I burst into tears and cradled my stupid bruised, wandering thumb... I successfully got changed and the last thing we all needed before our hike was our jackets because those fall mornings can be quite chilly. So we went back to the car and we all got our jackets on. I remember mine was purple with flowers. I don't remember who did the zipping but I do know that the jacket was zipped, high above my chin and with this zip, it caught my lip and soon I was crying again and blood dripped down from my mouth.

None of these were very serious injuries and while it was a miserable time for me in that moment, I can look back and laugh at it now. One person who always got a good laugh out of it was Big Grace. In fact, she thought it was sooooo funny that she even wrote a little poem about it entitled:

Lake Placid Outing

Columbus Day -hooray, hooray!

How we've enjoyed Lake Placid today!

Adirondack Lodge, with the orange foliage around,

Looked so bright and gay, we found.

We set out to climb rocky Mt. Joe,

At Heart Lake's edge, Gracie stubbed her toe;

With a great splash -she had a nice dip.

When she put on her jacket she zipped her lip;

To the ladies room she ran at a very fast clip.

But soon her thumb was oh -so sore,

From being shut in the ladies room door.

To Gracie's wails, Helen said, "Shush."

Soon we were climbing through mud, rocks, and slush.

Straight up the mountain through foliage so lush.

And up to the top for the most magnificent view-

Of Sugar Loaf, White Face, and Marcy too.

Down again we descended down the slope-

Happy Daisy running free of her rope,

-was badly in need of some perfumed soap.

Helen tossed her in the lake where a big trout lay,

But Daisy just smiled and he swam away...

Dirty, but happy we're having dinner at "Jimmy's..."

What a feast! To the fudge cake, the children shout-

"Gimme!"

So this day was brought to mind again by my experience on Monday, which seemed to be a day of rather bad luck...

*Side note: I now have a new companion, -a puppy that someone left at one of my schools. Her name is Chula and she travels with me everywhere...

Chula

At 4pm on Monday I headed to the bus with Chula which would take us back to the Aldea from San Martin. The bus didn't actually leave until nearly 5 and during this waiting period the puppy was particularly antsy and I took her off the bus a number of times to try to get her to pee but to no avail. The bus is parked on a rather unsafe corner and she kept trying to run off under the bus which made me nervous. Let me just be clear in saying that this dog had 2 rather long windows of opportunity to relieve herself before the bus took off...

So FINALLY at about 5pm the bus rolled away and I noticed that we were taking the long way home which is a good 1 hour and 20 minute ride.

My sitemate Mary and I with Chula.

About 30 mins into the ride the puppy started getting really whiny and was trying to crawl out of my arms. I tried to contain her but since the bus wasn't too crowded and there was no one next to me I decide to set  her on the seat next to me. As soon as I did this, she immediately started to pee. The bus banked a turn and all the pee ran down the vinyl seat onto my side, and my pants soaked it up like a sponge. I was actually relieved by this, because I thought at least  no one else would see that the dog had just pissed on the seat... I sat dumbly in my soaked pants believing that the worst of it was over.

About 2 minutes later a guys got on the bus and decided to sit right next to me (even though there were other empty seats). I tried to send him telepathic messages that this was not a good idea but he didn't seem to get it. The pee on the seat had mostly dried up next to me but I still felt uneasy about having a seatmate... I thought he might smell the urine and figure us out.

At this point I expected the puppy to hunker down and take a nap but instead she began squirming and lunging out of my arms towards my seatmate. This is a bad sign, I thought... 

I knew she had to poop and I had no idea what to do. Since we were taking the long way home, if I got off the bus right away, I would likely never have found a ride to Estancia and we were too far from San Martín to make it back by foot. So I tried to comfort her until we got a little closer to home... She started to calm down a little and I thought we might make it but then she started up again and I knew I had to do something. Peeing on the bus was one thing... and I was lucky we had gotten away with it. But if she took a dump, I was done for. Everyone on the bus, who were all my neighbors to begin with, would know what had happened. The bus driver would probably never let Chula ride the bus again and that would be the end of my attempt to bring a positive light to "chuchos de la calle" (street dogs).

I tried to judge just how much time I had... We definitely needed to wait a little longer before getting off, so we could at least make the walk home before dark. I just pictured standing up with the puppy in my arms, and walking to the front of the bus as turds fell to the floor, leaving a trail on our way out. I can't let that happen, I thought.

 Finally I scooped up my belongings and motioned for the bus to stop and the bus driver looked confused because he knew I was getting off well before my stop and I had also paid the fare for the entire trip...
We got off the bus and the puppy immediately squatted and peed for a solid 30 seconds. I couldn't believe how much pee she had stored up and I wanted to scream at her for not peeing in all that time I tried to make her go before getting on the bus! She then took a huge dump and we began our 30 minute walk to Estancia.

My pants were soaked in dog piss and I was in a bad mood but I glanced down at the puppy and she was bounding around my feet full of joy and energy. Suddenly I lost my footing and fell on my ass, catching myself on one hand which got cut up by the gravel. The wet pee pants caused the dirt to stick to my ass like glue and as I got up and brushed myself off I tried not to cry because I knew this was one of those things that would be really funny later. At this point I also realized that I had left ALL of my groceries and ALL of my food from the market, at my friend's house in San Martín and that now I would have no food for the week and no crucial items such as toilet paper and avocados...

Well, at least I have dog food, I thought. I could always eat that.
To make matters worse, due to my early evacuation from the bus, and the long walk that ensued, I completely missed an english class that I had scheduled and as I got closer to my house I saw a group of my students walking back home. They had obviously been waiting for me and in their polite way they asked me, "Seño, you didn't have english class today?"
"No," I said. "I had a bit of bad luck today. I'm very sorry." 

This made me feel terrible because I hate not coming through on commitments.

Finally I got home and vented to Yolanda about my stupid day, changed into some clean clothes, and ate some stale chips and beans for dinner before hopping into bed for some relaxation time.

I'm certain that Big Grace would have gotten a good chuckle out of my Maddening Monday and with this in mind, I feel the urge to shake it all off and laugh right along with her.