All That and a Bag of Chips. So Many Chips. And One Pendejo.

The election happened. Boy howdy did it happen.

..which leads me to this. A little Antigua, Guatemalan bar called Cafe No Se, perhaps you've heard of it, began a little booze operation that involves smuggling and whatnot called  Ilegal Mezcal. One day, John Rexer, the bar's owner, had his Mexican waiter in New York tell him him, "Donald eres un Pendejo."

Rexer took the sentiment and ran with it. You can now find tees and whatnot on their website and it was on the sides of buildings in New York. Anyway, it's a thing. You can read the whole cool story here. "Pendejo" is "asshole"in Spanish, if you didn't know.

So anyway, speaking of the asshole getting elected, I'm now in something of a predicament. On the one hand, I like it here. I think I
will grow to love it here. I need to find the right apartment (this one is fine, but sometimes you just know that a place is not your permanent digs and that is the case), and something to do with my time (I have a cool little gig at a NGO, but they don't need me that much) besides hang out with my dog and drink cheap beers at bars. No seriously, you have no idea how cheap this town is, but that's a story for another day.

On the other hand, I feel like this election was a call to arms for libtards like me. [Aside: folks call me "liberal," I tend to think I'm just pragmatic. But yeah, I'm not a fan of racism, sexism and I do think that government can improve people's lives sometimes. If that makes me a liberal, well, Roll Tide.] I don't think I can sit on the sidelines anymore; the consequences of this election made that crystal clear. With the midterm elections coming in 2018, and the House of Representatives being within reach for Democrats, I want to be involved, and that would necessarily involve my leaving here.

So I don't know. Right now, it's early and I'm keeping my options open. But if you know any competitive HOR races where the Democrat needs help, holler. Must like dogs.

What else? Tiendas. Let's talk about tiendas. They're these little convenience stores, hundreds of them all over town, often 2 to a block. The idea sounds great, right? Yeah, it is if your shopping list involves picking up 200 different kinds of chips.

Guatemalans are really, really into snacks. But if you want a bag of dog food, milk and bread, you have to haul ass halfway across town to the Bodegona, the supermarket. There's only one. A town of 40,000 people and only one supermarket. Imagine how pleasantly crowded that is. Now triple it. That's the Bodegona. So, I toss around the idea of opening my own tienda. There isn't one on my end of town, and the south end of Antigua contains alot of expats, who probably also would like a convenient place to buy dog food, milk and bread. So it's an idea. Who knows.

The other idea that I'm sort of serious about is beer/liquor delivery service. Sometimes I don't want to go out, but I would like a couple beers or maybe a bottle of wine. Being lazy and only driving a scooter, I don't want to schlep to a tienda to grab beers. There have to be other partners in lazy who would like their booze delivered to them. In addition, we're very touristy so there's a ton of  hotels & AirBnB type places in town. You'd think those folks would like to pre-order their booze so it will be at their place when they arrive. If you've ever been through the Guatemala City airport, you know that everyone needs a drink as soon as possible after that calamity. Finally, alot of folks seem to think Antigua isn't safe at night (it's completely safe), so they stay in. I'm sure they'd be into having a delivery service. And if you think I'm above preying on folks' fears to make a buck, then you don't know me at all.

So, I'm basically abuzz with business ideas.

Spanish class: I can talk fine but I can't understand. So basically, I have alot of conversations in Spanish with myself, and I tell Steve to "vamos" alot. I've watched alot of Spanish CNN, and they speak slower than regular Joes, or Joses I guess, and it's starting to click. U.S. Football broadcasts help too. I can understand what they are saying most of the time from the action on the field. I've also enrolled in an online Immigration Law class through George Washington Univ. If I ever return to the U.S. it would be put to good use under the current pendejo administration. And if I don't, there are a few organizations down here that deal with human trafficking and refugees that I'd like to get more involved with, and U.S. Immigration law plays an important role there.

Reminder that Semana Santa, Holy Week (Easter), is apparently a madhouse here, and so far the guest room is empty. I'd love to see your smiling face. Unless you're a weirdo. Don't come if you're a weirdo. You know who you are.

Adios, mis amigos. Hasta luego.