There is a little cafe here in Grecia where all the Gringos hang out called Cafe Delicias. I mean, every time you go by it is full of people, at least half of them Gringos. Son and I were downtown doing some errands today, so I thought we'd stop in and see what they had for lunch. He saw they had milkshakes, and even though he's somewhat lactose-intolerant, like me, he insisted on having one, so okay, I gave in. I had a big frozen mocha that was like half whipped cream, and not all that much cafe mocha. Ugh. From the menu, they truly had not one vegan thing to order. Since son was really hungry, and I was too, we got a salad (hold the ham!), a croissant (hold the ham!), a mini pizza (hold the ham!), and a cinnamon bun (no ham!). Even the salad was loaded with cheese, but that I could pick off. The croissant, not so much. It was okay, but I felt awful about eating all that cheese in the first place, mainly because 1) I'm committed to being a vegan, 2) I don't like cheese, and 3) it made me feel like crap afterwards. In fact, we took most of the salad and the whole cinnamon bun (loaded with a sugary, buttery "topping") to go. The only high point of the lunch was a nice woman named Linda who came over and introduced herself to us; I thought that was extremely nice and something Ticos just would never, ever do. Walk up to a complete stranger and make them feel welcome? No. Highly unlikely.
I think it goes without saying we won't be going back there any time soon. Not when there is the awesome and cheap Chinese vegetarian lunch counter in the central market and true delicias to be found at La Casa de Miguel down the street. (Side note: We went to Miguel's House for lunch with a friend and her son yesterday, and they totally loved it.)
After lunch, we went over to the church of metal (no, there is no Whitesnake worshipping going on there, it's just a church made out of metal, though I do like to say "church of metal" in that gravelly voice metal singers have after years of smoking and drinking and singing like they do, and also you need to make the devil sign and stick out your tongue to create the whole "church of metal" effect). They have a nice little fish pond in the back that son likes, and I was surprised, actually, to see how much garbage was strewn in and around the pond. Isn't Grecia supposed to be one of the cleanest cities in Central America or something? Maybe that's Atenas... Anyway, a lot of Catholic churches have these racks where you can light a candle for someone you love for a small donation. Even though I am neither Catholic nor religious, I do consider myself a spiritual person and I like paying homage to someone I care about in that way. I always light candles for my grandparents, Lucy, May-May, Buggie, Venus, a guy named Jason, my friend's mother, cats and dogs I had growing up, and basically everyone else I've lost in my life and never want to forget, and I can fill up a whole rack of candles all on my own. So I wanted to light a candle for Boo, but the church of metal didn't have the candles, sad to say. Instead, I said a little prayer for Boo and asked God to take care of him until I get there.
P.S. I don't know if this happens to you, but sometimes when I lose someone I worry that I will forget all of the little things that made them special. Tonight I made corn on the cob with our dinner, and after I finished I remembered that Boo was one of those cats who loved to eat corn on the cob. It was weird to throw away the corn cob when normally I would let Boo munch on it. Those are the things you miss, you know? Even when you know it was their time -- and surely it was Boo's time, no doubt about it -- their absence always leaves a hole.
No comments:
Post a Comment