Ma Dukes is currently moving at 600 mph above the Gulf of Mexico or possibly the sad, stringent plains of central Texas. Touchdown in 2 hrs. and 30 mins. at L.A.X. Panda and I definitely more psyched about this than 'Linnsters. The last two weeks a sort of marathon of stressed breaths and clenched invectives since we were counting on her being here two weeks earlier.
New Sunday chore: buying a harness for 'Linnsters so Ma Dukes can keep up with our fidgety midget. If we're lucky there will be a sale on toddler harnesses and we can gladiator with other parents about which designer toddler harness is ergonomically more appropriate for our child, while said children hoist poop kibble out of their pampers. What does one wear to a harness fitting at Toys R' Us.
On Friday when I called to buy her ticket, I gave the agent the birthday we celebrate and not the birthday registered on her license. So, there I am buying her ticket and I'm about as salty as Tom Hanks at a desolate Sandals and the operator asks me my mother's birthday. Naturally, I hesitate because I remember a similar fiasco the last time I was relegated to travel agent cum son. And despite all my best intentions, I gave her incorrect name and incorrect date and birth, and the agent totally laughed at me for not knowing my mother's date of birth.
Naturally, this slight is not taken for granted. I tear into the agent and explain that my poor old ma' was born at a time when it took sometimes two months to plan and travel to the nearest civil registry. Since it was a purely clerical procedure, most people planned accordingly and did not enter the orbit of this obligation for some time, sometimes months. The way it stood with my moms, she was born born on the __ of _________ember but was not registered at the civil registry until a good two days after the year had turned in 19__.
She's has always been Estela to my sisters and I, middle name Rosa. And, we have always thought Rosa to be like a champion carrot for a slow horse: nice, but also very cliche and groncho. So, we always knew Ma Dukes as Estela Rosa, but Rosa Estela is that second skin hanging in her bureau of bones; and, there is no way that you can get rid of that coat once you've decided to lug it around your life, like paperbacks you've grown out of, etc.
Spicaresque:
A Spanglish blog dedicated to the works, ruminations, and mongrel pyrotechnics of Yago S. Cura, an Argentine-American poet, translator, publisher & futbol cretin. Yago publishes Hinchas de Poesia, an online literary journal, & is the sole proprietor of Hinchas Press.
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