Day 2 started sluggish. I couldn’t fall asleep last night. Puerto Rico is one hour ahead of New York and my mama (grandma) averages a 9pm bedtime. Therefore it was lights out in the house around 8pm New York time. I stayed up in my room doing my daily hour of prayer, then working on my blog and working on maintaining a sound Internet connection. See, before I left for PR I purchased a Tether app for my Blackberry. This app gives me free Internet access when I plug my phone into my computer. As long as I have phone service, I have Internet service. Pretty cool right? Yep, it would be a piece of cake if it weren’t for the fact that I have like ½ a bar of service in my bedroom! So, I am consistently re-maneuvering myself in an effort to speed up or even receive any type of service. Still, I pushed through and by 2am PR time I was completely done with my post. I turned out the light and thought for sure I was 10 seconds away from a deep sleep. NOPE. I tossed, I turned. 5,000 things were running through my head at once and I couldn’t turn it off. Finally I reached for my iPod but the earphones quickly became annoying...eventually I fell out, but I’m guessing it wasn’t until 3am or later. Needless to say, when my alarm rang at 7am I hit snooze and didn’t spring up until well after 9. I had a date with Tio Edwin and my mama had been up for quite a few hours already, so I dragged myself into the shower and started my day with heavy eyes and a half rested body.
Once I was dressed, mama asked me about breakfast but I knew I didn’t have time to eat there. I felt bad because my schedule was supposed to include breakfast and lunch with her this morning. Instead, I had to tell her I’d eat something at Titi’s because I was running late and that this afternoon I planned on being back in time to eat with her (mama doesn’t eat dinner, she eats lunch at around 3pm and that is her last meal for the day). Luckily, she had plans of her own to head out to Kmart with her neighbor and agreed that it would be nice to meet up for lunch after my car hunt. So, I headed out.
After a tasty breakfast of avena and tea again at Titi’s, Tio Edwin and I hit the road. Can I just say that this man is like a car hawk?! He was spotting vehicles left and right…pulling over, making phone calls, talking to car salesmen, practically sitting on cars to check their shocks. He was amazing and I am so grateful for him. He did cheat and speak to me in English a bit, but overall he spoke to me all day in Spanish. I must admit that the English was comforting for the times that I really didn’t have the vocabulary to ask a question or understand the answer. The road trip was also a time for the two of us to chat. I have never spent time alone with him and it was a valuable time, one for us to feel each other out. After seven hours and one lunch (BBQ chicken with mini green bananas and yucca), here’s what I have so far:
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| Lunch at Matos BBQ. Yep, rice is in those pots... |
Tio Edwin is my grandfather’s brother (on my mother’s side). This is key because the first time I saw my grandfather, unfortunately, was at his funeral. So, this Tio Edwin could help fill in some blanks from his perspective and in a small way maybe serve as the maternal grandfather that I never had. It’s a little too early in the game though to delve into those ‘who is my grandpa?’ questions, but days like today are helping to lay the groundwork. Tio Edwin has lived in New York, Texas, Armenia and Puerto Rico. I know what you’re thinking…Armenia? Yeah, I said the same thing. He was in the Army and married a German woman who wasn’t in the Army but worked on the base. He says he lived in Armenia for about 5 years. He speaks a little bit of German and says he really enjoyed living there. His ex-wife spoke German, English, Spanish and Italian. I don’t know her but I think she’s awesome for that. His current wife is Carmen. She is a ‘good woman’. He says it, I say it, my aunt says it. If you were to ever meet her, you’ll know what we mean. She is so welcoming, warm and sincere. He says he was with Carmen when he was a young man living in New York (he moved to NY from PR when he was like 16) and that they were together for about 12 years. Then, at the age of 27 he joined the Army and I guess they went their separate ways. Carmen had three children while Tio Edwin has two (one live in Georgia while the other is here in PR). They never had children together, but he returned to PR in the late 80’s and they reunited. They have been together ever since and currently have two dogs and sometimes share custody over my aunt’s yorkie Sandy. Tio has visited Italy, Greece and Spain. He says Greece is gorgeous (I told him I can’t wait to visit) and that he doesn’t care too much for Italy. When I asked him why he didn’t like Italy he said “It’s like how I feel about California, I just don’t like it.”
Back to the car report…well, there are some interesting vehicles that go for the $1500 to $2,000 range and some even more interesting people that sell them. The hunt continues and I might have to seriously think about increasing my budget. I just really don’t want to put myself in a financial bind. My aunt says if I look in the $4k range, I should come up with something good…that’s double my budget though. We’ll see what happens.
Needless to say, I never made it for lunch with mama but I am determined to have breakfast with her and spend some much needed down time in the house with her tomorrow. Until then...¡Hasta mañana!
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