Addendum to Vicky and Sexy Lawyer

Sexy mayor of Tijuana from Showtime program, "Weeds" lets Nancy know who's boss (uploaded on Flickr by Luckypup)

I went out for margaritas and tacos yesterday with my friend Kristie, a fabulous videographer and writer of surf and sand stories for Foam magazine.

Anyway, she asked me about the sexy lawyer I wrote about in a previous post (August 27th) about the film Vicky Christina Barcelona. She asked why I didn't go to Mexico with him after we shared that absolute life changing night in that swanky hotel off the square in the town of Puebla in the summer of 1990.

In an effort to explain my decision making process, let me first describe what Saul looked like and his manner. The mayor of Tijuana that Nancy is sleeping with in the Showtime program, Weeds, is my Saul. One exception, Saul had wavy hair. The way Saul moved and his way in general is exactly like that mayor. Of course Saul was no drug dealer. I think?

We were both 31 at the time we met. I wanted to finish my degree at UCLA. He was already established in his career. Saul told me I could go to school at any one of the excellent universities in Mexico City or Vera Cruz. He owned houses in both cities.

It would have been too difficult for me to try to write research papers on Karl Marx, who I was studying at the time, in Spanish. No way Jose. That was one reason.

Plus to be perfectly honest, I think he was a possible player. He was just too good looking and on fire not to be one.

We did discuss that when I finished school a possible move to Mexico. However, in that two years so many things of course changed. I moved to Tucson after I graduated from UCLA for a couple of years.

The last time I called Saul was to tell him I was leaving Arizona and moving back to Los Angeles. A woman in a very sexy voice answered the phone, "Bueno." I hung up quickly and never called again.

Photo of Rafael Nadal posted on Flickr by a1y53 210

So end of story. Every decision we make in life changes are destiny. I do believe I am where I am supposed to be. Or maybe I am supposed to be in Mallorca right now, with Rafael Nadal, in a villa with an ocean view, infinity pool, drinking mojitos, naked.

Fierce People and a Book

Photo by Alin Boeana (Flickr, downloaded by Baliwww.com) The Dani people are a people from the central highlands of Western New Guinea, the Indonesian province of Papua.

I saw Fierce People with Diane Lane and Donald Sutherland on cable the other night. I caught the film at about the midway point. I just loved this film. The last two lines of the film were so good, in my humble opinion, I quickly wrote it down:

"We are the sum of all the people we have met. The tribe changes you and you change the tribe."

So true, so true. Especially true to those of my friends who have lived in foreign lands. Living in a different land than your own is usually a life changing experience.

I am not saying that you can't have a "tribe change" if the farthest move you make is to Bakersfield, I am just saying living in a different country than your own is always so enlightening and a great learning experience to say the least.

If you live and die in the city where you were born this quote can still apply. Every single day our interchanges with people change the way we look at life and the world. We have an impact on every person we have an interchange. Even a glance or a smile can change the day someone is having.

The tribe changes you and you change the tribe.

I hope you get my meaning and love the two lines as much as I did. I most certainly do not mean that if you visit a faraway land that you impose our customs and way of life. Only that our presence and how we interact changes us and those we encounter.
Guernsey's South Coast, Posted by There and Back (Flickr)

I just finished the book by Mary Ann Schaffer and Annie Barrows titled, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society. I loved this book!!! It is fiction, but written in letter form. I swear I felt like these people were real while reading it.

It takes place in London and on the Channel Island off the UK called Guernsey. Guernsey was occupied by the Germans during the war. The letters date about a year after the war ends. I guarantee you will fall in love with all of the characters. Really.

I heard about it on NPR and then saw that it is #3 on the L.A. Times bestseller list. It made me miss the art of letter writing. A good book to read on a plane, the beach, the tub, anywhere.