the touristas ate my Wednesday
a fun and funny novel, a tool for when to include description and backstory in your writing, + a spring risotto
hola! qué tal?
I’m writing from a terrific café in the Condesa neighborhood in Ciudad Mexico. We’re here for 10 days to celebrate 35 years of marriage and to make some new memories.
Remember when I wrote about being happy with your life rather than in your life. Happy with your life is sort of slow-happiness, it’s the long view. In your life happiness is relishing the bright moments. Certainly we need both. One of the best ways to be happy with your life is by exposing yourself to new experiences… hence Ciudad Mexico, hence a walking food tour in Roma Norte, hence a CBD massage, and a hot air ballon ride over Teotihuacan!
…
Not going to lie, I was a little nervous about traveling out of the country due to the current political shitshow in the U.S. and the bad feelings we might engender just by virtue of our passports. It’s embarrassing.
We apologized up and down. We sang the praises of Claudia Sheinbaum. When we found ourselves on the food tour my intuition said “Don’t eat the lukewarm raw tuna!” The polite guest in me said, “Don’t be the obnoxious U.S. tourist!” Dear Reader, I ate the tuna and then spent the entire next day in bed, close to the bathroom. I don’t know… a happy with your life moment?
It wasn’t optimal. But, I did escape into a novel as I languished. When does one get the opportunity to do that? I’ll tell you about the book in the read section below. When I’d rallied enough to go out to dinner, I adhered to the brat diet (not brat summer), and had the very best risotto, which you’ll learn about in the eat section. And for the write section I’ll explore how tricks for breaking up with your cell phone are also great tricks to use when you’re writing. Onward!
If you’ve been following along with The Right to Folly, the harrowing diary of my mother’s stubborn resistance to accept help, I’ve got two new distressing posts. It’s my hope that the posts will make people struggling with aging parents feel less alone!
If you’re a paid subscriber, I thank you for supporting me! Keep on keeping on. If you would like to upgrade to paid, I also thank you, and here’s a little incentive: