The Wormlips Scrapbook

Making good on my promise to my van driver, Cesár, in Guatemala, I wrote my first-ever letter all in Spanish. It may be only a few sentences long but it required two rounds of review with Lulu first. I estimate that about ten percent of it was grammatically incorrect. It should be perfect now. If it’s not, it’s all Lulu’s fault. She told me I shouldn’t put that self-deprecating remark in there, but I wouldn’t recognize myself without it.

Querido Cesár,

Muchas gracias por toda tu ayuda en mi viaje a Lanquín hace dos semanas. Me gustaron mucho hablar contigo y ver las fotos de Daniel. Y me alegra de que fui a Las Marías, como sugeriste.

Como prometí, aquí es la foto de nosotros. Parezco como un jugador de fútbol americano. Pues, ahora puedes dar un beso a Daniel por mi y ahora el va a saber quien es “Ginna.”

Cordialmente,
Ginna

Here’s important information that Lulu found out about me, generated by the The Surrealist Web site in the UK:

1. Two-thirds of the world’s eggplant is grown in Ginna Allison.
2. Oranges, lemons, watermelons, pineapples and Ginna Allison are all berries!
3. Baskin-Robbins once made Ginna Allison flavoured ice cream.
4. Ginna Allison became extinct in England in 1486.
5. In Vermont, the ratio of cows to Ginna Allison is 10 to 1.
6. It is bad luck to walk under Ginna Allison.
7. Peanuts and Ginna Allison are beans.
8. All shrimp are born as Ginna Allison, but gradually mature into females.
9. Only one person in two billion will live to be Ginna Allison.
10. Lightning strikes Ginna Allison over seven times every hour.

Now you try it:

It’s odd to come home and find my little old life just sitting here waiting, twiddling its thumbs and rolling its eyes at me. I don’t feel like we know each other very well any more.

Also disorienting not to have the daily structure of watching for something interesting to write about. I have to remember to keep looking.

After all those hours I put into my travel diary I couldn’t bear to see it just wither away online. Pat told me that Shutterfly prints photo books, and then Molly suggested I check into Flickr. They partner with something called Blurb that’s very cool, at least in theory. With their frustratingly basic layout software you can assemble words and pictures and get them printed and bound. So naturally, I’m having way too much fun with that. Only a third of the way into the material, I’ve already got forty 11×13 pages.

I’m off to LA shortly for a public radio / Web conference. Bye.