Mexico City

Our bookshelves are installed! I think every bibliophile in the world has a dream of real bookshelves, floor to ceiling, made of oak or walnut or maple. So did we. And now we have them. They take up most of the longest wall in our living room, a medium golden oak (to match our furniture), adjustable shelves, a little ornamental strip along the top. The workmen arrived as we were packing to go on vacation, so we didn’t have time to load the shelves before we left, but oh, what a pleasure it will be to come back home and see them! The only thing better would be to have a whole room lined with bookshelves, a for-real library. But this will do, it will do.

We are in Mexico City, one of the biggest cities in the world. We were picked up at the airport by local friends who were to be our guides during this five-day stay (technically six, but since we arrived after nine p.m. on Friday, I don’t think the first day counts. Saturday we went to Teotehuacan, a very ancient pyramid complex, older than the Aztecs (it was overgrown and abandoned when they came into the area, the name is Aztec for City of the Gods). The builders left no written record of themselves so we know almost nothing about them, yet the complex is enormous, tens of thousands of people once lived here and they built two gigantic pyramids -- the larger has about the same circumference as the Great Pyramid in Egypt!

We visited the little museum on the site and found they had uncovered some more items from when I was there last. There was this set of six or eight braziers made of pottery, for example, very strange and exotic and I'd adore to see them with burning coals. There is a round base about the size of a medium-size flower pot, set on three short legs. On top of the pot is an elaborate arrangement of deeply carved flat pieces – think Aztec style feathers or scrolls – with open spaces, and peering out from near the bottom of them is a pale face. Just the part from the eyebrows to mouth is visible. Now imagine that brazier in the evening, a little before dark, when the shape of it can be seen, and the glowing, gleaming, flickering coals dance over that mysterious face. Wouldn't that be very, very cool in Leona's garden? (Leona is the Wiccan I am going to write about in Blackwork.)

I'm thinking, since I'm establishing that Leona's into herbalism, that she might be experimenting with that very extensive "book" left by the Aztecs, describing the use of herbs in healing. And, in honor of her experimentation, she bought (or made) a copy of the brazier. Perhaps she also wears around her neck on occasion the twisted rope with a bead (small or elaborate) that marks the "bruja," or witch or sorceress or shaman in Aztec mythology. Perhaps she picks a bead shaped like a bat in honor of the piece of Aztec pottery that depicts a bruja who has taken on the shape of a bat still wearing the rope and bead.

Maybe I’m learning too much Aztec lore.

The next day, Sunday, we went to the Museum of Anthropology, a huge, magnificent complex full of statues and other artifacts of the several cultures that grew up in Mexico, Central America, and northern South America. One thing that struck me forcibly on this visit (this is my second to this Museum) were the very tiny figures (two and three inches high) of individual Mayans. And “individual” is the word, each has its own face, different from all the others. It was like looking at real people at a distance of a thousand years – which is just what I was doing, of course.

Monday we went to a market. In this one many, many, MANY booths were joined and then the aisles were roofed to make a single building in which pottery replicas of pottery gods, silver and abalone earrings, copper vases and pots and pans (miniatures to washtub size), wool serapes, wooden toys and pipes and drums, baskets, paintings, nativity sets, silver crucifixes and an incredible variety of Our Lady of Guadalupe replicas were sold. And yes, we bought some stuff.

Oh, and a young man who works behind the desk at our hotel is going to be the model for Godwin's new boyfriend. Strangely, I had decided to name him Rafael -- and that is this young man's name! He seemed flattered, and I hope he is. He's also incredibly handsome. Goddy will be pleased.

Today, Tuesday, we went to a museum of science and technology. Tonight we are packing for home, and since we have to be at the airport early in the morning, I am posting my Wednesday blog entry now.

Knit Out!

I apologize for posting this so late. It was written last night, and I generally post before I hustle off to the Courage Center pool for water aerobics. I haven't been going lately because I have this "cold thing." It's like a bad cold except it won't go away. I decided that I really have to get back into the real outside world so I went this morning, but forgot to post this before I left.

This past weekend the Mall of America had its second annual Knit Out & Crochet, sponsored by Craft Yarn Council of America, which I had never heard of before. Literally tens of thousands of women turned out for this. The parking ramps were packed full, the corridors of the mall were mobbed. Booths were set up, mostly by manufacturers who were giving product, magazines and patterns away. Lion Yarn was giving away the most enormous black canvas tote I have ever seen. It was about a yard high, it’s in my office right now, taking up valuable space. I had heard the people running this event had free knit and crochet lessons – and they did, even better than I thought: it was virtually one-on-one. I already know how to knit, at least the basics, so I sat down on a folding chair and was taught how to single and double crochet by a patient and enthusiastic young woman. I walked away with a page of instructions – and a skein of yarn and a crochet hook!

They also had panel discussions and even a world’s fastest kniter competition. I could possibly win a competition for world’s slowest.

There are more charities centered on knit and crochet than you possibly think. I paid eighteen dollars for a kit of three yarns, a pair of knitting needles, and a pattern. I’m supposed to knit a teddy bear (the pattern is dead simple), and send it to a local woman who ships the bears to sub-Saharan Africa to be distributed to AIDS orphans. If you save the red yarn the kit is closed with, you can stitch a heart on the bear to let the recipient know someone, somewhere, seriously cares about him or her. I’ve only got one leg finished and the second about two-thirds done, but what I’m doing is working it like a prayer shawl, thinking prayerfully of the child who will one day hold the little bear, wishing him or her well, hoping he or she has a long and happy life.

I invite you to visit the Craft Yarn Council’s web site; www.knitandcrochet.com.

On Friday we are flying to Mexico City. We have a very good friend down there who speaks excellent English – which is a good thing, as we speak virtually no Spanish. We will start for home on the 27th after a very busy visit. There is a lot to see and do in the capitol, and we’re going to take a big bite of that city. There is a big Aztec temple complex very nearby, there is the historic downtown, the world-famous Museum of Anthropology, fabulous restaurants, and lots of shopping. My friend’s husband plays flamenco guitar (when he’s not being a banker), and she has two very fine children, one of whom will celebrate a birthday while we’re there. The weather is in the mid-seventies and usually sunny. I think we’re going to have a great time.