Ups and Downs

Today's a Saturday. I've been looking forward to this day since, well, last Sunday. Here it is. And it's been a source of some irritation. First, I had a vision of myself reading the newspaper and drinking a cup of coffee at a sidewalk cafe on the zocalo. A vision is a dangerous thing. I spent a good hour trying without success to find an English-language newspaper. The hotel manager thought it would be easy, and said she'd call me back in five minutes. She didn't call. I set out myself, went to a half-dozen newstands. Some vendors looked at me like I was crazy, as though it had never occurred to them that someone might read a newspaper in English. One said no, she didn't have the IHT, but carried other English-language papers. Great, I replied. What do you have? Well, nothing today, she said. I found a vendor who said he carried the IHT Monday-Friday, but not on week-ends. I went back to the hotel, and reported the results to the hotel manager. "Why don't you just read it on your laptop?"she suggested. "Did you know you can read newspapers on-line?" I felt my left eye begin to twitch, and retreated back to the lobby. I couldn't see myself sitting in a cafe and doing nothing, like old men do. I decided to go back to the room and work for several hours.

At 1:30, I headed off to the bouldering gym. No one was there. Strange. But the door to the weight room was open, and I set up my laptop so that I could do my P90X workout. About 15 minutes in, a young man came in and wanted to say something to me in Spanish. I thought he was asking where everyone was. Maybe it was his first visit. I took him down to the bouldering area. But he then made clear that he was a man on a mission. The mission was to throw me out. The gym closed at 2:00 on Saturdays. It was now 2:10. I had been told "10 a.m. to 10 p.m." These were the posted hours, also. "Can't you just let me finish my workout?"I asked? He left. In about five minutes he returned. The "patron" had told him that I had to leave. It was not permitted to me to stay.

I slowly packed up my things, turned out the lights, and headed down the stairs. "Excuse me. Excuse me." he called out. I turned back, thinking maybe he had had a moment of remorse. Then he said, in Spanish, "Desculpame." "Excuse me" was his English translation. He was just saying, Sorry. I wandered back to the hotel, thwarted a second time.

After lunch, and a few more hours work, I decided I could at least do the yoga workout in my room. I popped the DVD into the external DVD player. Nothing. Whining and grinding. Starting and stopping. I put in a DVD I had played before. Nothing. The DVD player was broken. I'd bought it at Target in Tyler, the day before I left. Targus brand. Piece of crap.

Now it's 8 p.m. on a Saturday night, and I really haven't accomplished much today in the way of either work or relaxation. These things happen. Tomorrow, I'll go on a quest to buy a new DVD-ROM player. And I'll go back to the gym. I hope there are no more surprises, and that nothing else breaks. It's nice to have something you can count on when you are on the road. But, in fact, that is precisely what is elusive.

Tomorrow, in an equally whiny vein, but I hope funnier, I'll post my Top Ten Travel Peeves.