time after time...

Today´s Jer´s birthday (be sure to send him a b-day greeting if you haven´t already!!!) We´re laying low, as we were out kind of late last night. Jer´s co-workers had a "suprise" party for him...but it wasn´t much of a surprise since we were the first ones at the pizza place... (incidentally, the same exact place we had eaten at TWICE this week... because we were trying to catch the tribe game via their wireless internet.) Well, ALL of his co-workers showed up late, including Jer´s co-worker who organized it. She showed up over an hour late. Surprise!!! Happy Birthday! Despite this, it was a good time. I told them all about my stories from my recent trip adentro. My spanish was rolling (I have long found that several beers often helps).

I went to play basketball this morning, and we scrambled to get 5 people with uniforms (my counterpart said she lost hers). The other team didn´t show up. Actually, they really DID show up, but 40 minutes late, so had to forfeit. Yeah, we win again!!! They were ticked, because it turns out they were coming from some event adentro and their plane was late. They kept talking trash trying to challenge us to a game anyway. No one on my team wanted to play however. They knew we´d get our tails kicked. I would have liked to play some pickup ball, but there was three huge puddles on the court. Uh...yeah, no thanks.

So, my team was supposed to play "indoor" right after our basketball game. "Indoor" is basically soccer, but with a tiny ball, played with only 5 players on a small, dirt field...outside, not indoors, of course. Logical, right?) One of my teammates who "lost" her uniform wanted to borrow my jersey (which I don´t even think is legal) to play indoor. So I sprinted home (almost peeing my pants en route), changed my clothes, threw my uniform in a bag, then bussed it back to the sports complex. Well, after waiting around a while, it turns out that THAT team didn´t show up either. Perfect.

The whole timeliness/showing up at all issue is one that can really wear on your last nerve. Habitual late-ness is a definite cultural difference here. It is sooo cliché. Actually, I think it is a serious national disease. I am generally pretty patient and have found that I can wait for long periods of time with little to do and I am ok. But, the events of the last few weeks have really driven me crazy. Some of them aren´t worth re-telling. Some of them are almost too crazy to believe. Some day I will tell you all about them...