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February 2003- Joey Comes Home, Mexico
Calls
The doctors had promised that if he got better soon that there
was a chance he could be shipped to SanDiego. He did, and this
is some of the last email from Baghdad -
HEY BRO HEY BRO HEY BRO.
GUESS WHAT, I AM LEAVING FER THE US IN 10 HRS. I DONT WRITE AFORE
ACUSE I WAS GOING FROM THE HOPSPITAL AT NIGHT CAUSE WE DONT DO
MOVEMENT DURING THE DAY. I CAN BE HOME SOON OK, I WILL CALL YOU
WHEN I GIT THAR.
(personal stuff followed)
YERGOINHOMEJDUSMCPUPNOTCRUSTYYETBUTSOONT0- BEJDUSMC...........URAHHHHHHHH
!!!!!!!!!
" Round, like a circle in a spiral, like a wheel within
a wheel"
All the good wishes so many of you sent Joey could have worked
magic and helped him recover fast and get home. He's still in
the military, so there's no way of knowing what's to happen next,
but so far so good.
Now, circle back. Last year I was bumped on a flight and got
a free ticket Anywhere NorthWest flies. Mexico City surfaced as
the place I most wanted to see, now that I was speaking and understanding
the language. I was there the first two weeks in October and the
trip worked out just great. Just before I left Paul emailed me
with info about a hotel a friend of his used- the Consul Hotel,
Insurgentes 133. The rooms are $15.00 a day, so clean, the water
so hot, and linen changed daily. You gotta speak spanish though
- I think I was the only American there. It was no problem when
a guy came up to the room with me and it was located in a place
it was no trouble getting around.
I'd taken a list of gay places I'd found on the internet and
10 minutes after checking in I was out to check out the Bano San
Juan, metro Salto d'Agua. I'd been in Mexico city in 96 on a Carlos
Castaneda seminar, but didn't speak much Spanish then and was
afraid to venture out of the tourist Zona Rosa. This time I figured
if I could explore in Rio that Mexico City should be no problem.
And it wasn't. The subway is easy to navigate and safe, and with
a city map anyone can get along fine with public transportation
- anywhere you want to go one way for 20 cents. I found the bath,
it was $6 to enter the 'general' area. You get a little room with
a little light thin towel and then go into the shower/steam/sauna
areas. It's discrete, but so gay, and sometimes with the right
combinations and timing not even discrete. A massage was $4, except
they tricked me for awhile into thinking it was $8 and I paid
$10. They were the best I'd ever had. Three sexy masseurs, three
marble slabs in the middle of the place, wide open, first buckets
of hot water, then soap then strong hands working all over. No
shyness about nudity or touching genitals, totally cool. First
on the stomach, then a shampoo/head massage, then on the back.
Just great. Banos Finisterre at San Cosme was said to be sexier
cause you could have a 'guest' in your room, so if you were into
being private it was, but the masseurs there were much older and
didn't try as hard to make you feel good. But at both places you
could maybe hook with some really nice guys.
Franciso showed me the water gardens at Xochimilco and Aldo took
me on a Sunday trip to Puebla (a couple of hours away on a nice
bus). Javier was the sexiest guy in the baths that day and left
in a suit looking like a banker, but over dinner I found out he
was a manager at Walmart. In fact the restaurant VIPS where we
ate, one of hundreds of VIPS in the city and where the meal is
Mexican but credit cards are accepted, is owned by Walmart. It's
not enough for CocaCola, Pepsi and Walmart to strip american cities
of their tax base, they're cleaning out Latin and South America
too. So we lamented the fact together while sharing all we could
in the time we had. Luis, my very special macho Azteca guerrero,
gave me more than one magical night, first at a cantina in Garibaldi
Square on a Monday night that didn't end until Tuesday morning,
and then made sure I got to the stone pyramids at Teotihuacan.
The more time I spent with him, the more I wanted to spend. There's
something very special about having a tweny-something guy making
fun of me while at the same time wrapped all around me and tattooing/branding
me" on my thigh in Spanish with a magic marker the morning
of my departure :-). It was so so nice the way he was and if I
were to move there I'd
..:-)
The food is delicious. No stomach problems and I ate in different
restaurants and on the street, the only caution being bottled
water. The sky was blue and sunny most of the time, October is
an ideal time there. To tell you the truth I couldn't believe
how good a time I was having. I saw lots of art, did the tourist
stuff sure, but I just liked being there in a mental way too.
Those guys were special. The resenting
looks I expected to receive as an American abroad I never saw.
It's humbling to receive such courtesies when my government never
concedes them anything. With little help from us, they've built
and have an incredibly vibrant, clean, energetic, hardworking,
people-friendly city, one of the world's largest , only behind
Tokyo and NYC and 3 million more than Los Angeles. Smog? The coast
of Texas was worse from the plane on the way home. Having been
in both cities larger than Mexico City, I can state that unequivocably
Mexico is my favorite of the three. If you can, go there and spend
your money in the Mexican owned places if you can.
Learn just a little Spanish and you'll want to learn more. Listen
to some latin music and find somewhere more authentic thanTacoBell.
But even more importantly realize how intimately Mexico has been
in our history and how welcoming we should be of them and the
good things they've held onto. Ok, off my soap box and to the
drawing board:-)
P.S.you'll maybe smile to know I've made arrangements
to
be back there during the holidays. Yep, the crazy plans we made
in fun just might come true. He says we'll go to Acapulco together,
and if that happens it will be the turn of another wheel.
You see, after I got out of school way back when, I didn't have
a clue as to what I wanted to do. No clue after 6 years of a parent
supported college education!. You can imagine the reaction to
my big announce-ment "I'm thumbing to Acapulco!" Hahahaha...
But Mom, ever the trooper, took me in my stylish Panama hat, a
shoulder bag and suitcase, to Interstate 85 and dropped me off,
both of us choking back the tears. Two days and two thousand miles
later I knocked on Uncle's door in New Mexico. He had other ideas
and 'derouted' me to LosAngeles. To cut it short I never got to
Acapulco, but never lost the dream.
It's possible that after the month in Mexico I'll go on to Rio,
so it may be awhile before any more painting.meanwhile best wishes
for the holidays! (click
here for christmas card)
MUCHO MUCHO AMOR,
tom
p.p.s. entitle this little story 'reality check!'
knowing that when joey was writing from the hospital that maybe
they'd ship him to California cause his knee was too weak to fight,
i was thinking about how to help. one of the guys on this list, who i consider 'family', offered joey
a place to stay for R&R. i mailed joey and told him about
it. joey wrote back-
... IM REAL TIRED AND GOT LEG THERAPY TOMORROW IT HURTS, WAAAAAA.
ANYWAYS IM GONNA SLEEPY, YA THAT DUDE IN CALIF SEEMS COOL BUT
DUNNO HIM, HONSET KINDA SCARED I GET IN A PLACE WHAR I MABIE GIT
KILLED
my first reaction was 'are u crazy?!!! but now i realize he's
maybe sharper than me. bad stuff can happen anywhere. so guys,
if we can, let's do our duty, act smart, think lucky, play safe,
have fun and be a friend.
that Kenny Rogers Gambler song comes to mind
...if you're gonna play the game boy, you gotta learn to play
it right. you got to know when to hold up, know when to fold up,
know when to walk away , know when to run. you never count your
money when your sittin at the table, there'll be time enough for
countin when the dealing's done. now every gambler knows the secret
to surviving is knowing what to throw away and knowing what to
keep, cause every hand's a winner and every hand's a loser and
the best you can hope for is to die in your sleep...
NOW, GOT ANY TIME LEFT TO LOOK AT ART?
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