Girls Night In

I took a break from writing this evening and went next door. Julian and his friend and his friend's girlfriend were hanging on the front doorstep. "Are you looking for my family?" Julian inquired.

"I was coming to talk to your mom."

"They're all at Marisa's with the new baby." I thought he meant his new cousin. I hung out with them for a while. Yup-yup was just being really loud, running around hollering. "We have a rooster on the block," I said. Julian's buddy Santiago cracked up.

"Be safe," Julian warned as I was about to walk down the block.

"Don't worry," I said, "I'll yell 'Yup-yup' real loud if I get in trouble."

Over at Marisa's it was girls' night in with the wee ones. Marisa has a buddy, Yadith, who has a little teeny girl, probably younger than Julian's baby brother, who was there with Dawn and her mom.

Marisa's daughter Diana is three and always has a lot to say to me. "Hi, Maritza!"
"Hi, Diana."

This can go on for about a dozen times. Diana spent her first year of life with her English-speaking auntie, so she speaks much more English than the average three-year-old. But she switches back and forth in ways I don't always expect, so sometimes we just talk past each other. She's a total ham--she was dancing for us and doing quite a few theatrical moves, looking especially tragic when I said I was leaving, etc.

Dawn's mom, Adriana, is game to go get a San Miguel application on Friday morning. She said the school hasn't called her about Julian. Some scary stuff happened on Monday, but I'll save it for another post.

Probably the funniest moment was when Adriana asked Marisa and Yadith how old they are. Yadith is 19 and Marisa is 22. Then we were talking about birthdays and when is everybody's. I suppose I'll have to throw my could-be-annual Memorial/Birth Day BBQ. I know Adriana is in her late 30s, so I couldn't resist pointing out:

"Voy a tener quarenta anos. Soy la vieja en este grupo"/"I'm going to be forty. I'm the old lady in this group," I said, which got a big laugh out of all of them.

Adriana, holding her youngest son on her lap, pointed to Marisa and Yadith with their girls. "Senora, senora," she said, then pointed to herself. "Senora."

More laughing as she and I pointed to Dawn and myself and said in the same breath, "Muchachas, muchachas." I heard somebody say, "Muchachitas" (little girls).

It's a trip being a spinster down here. But I forget if I said this before--a while back Dawn was over here and told me she and her mom were talking about me. "We were talking about the fact that you have your own house and you are out on your own. That is amazing!" she said. Dawn has said she'd like to have her own house and travel, like me. That's also amazing.