A letter from Nathan and update on Jenn and Johnny

7-8-02

Crista,

Happy 4th of July! 4 days ago. What did you do? Did you watch any fireworks? I didn’t get to, but we had hotdogs in the night. We also saw the new president of the mission he’s cool. We got to play soccer today, we lost, we never play anything but that, every Monday, and then we go and do something else. Here we only go to the e-mail place every other week and only for an hour, so I can’t write as much to people now. I bought a new CD today “Paulina Rubio” It’s pretty good and I bought a few last week too, the soundtrack to “Lord of the Rings” and “Resident Evil.” Are there any CDS that you want? I could look for them down here, they’re really cheap.

It is rainy season down here now, it rains almost every day now, it kind of sucks. It’s not the warm kind of rain either, it’s cold rain.

I also got my hair cut, it’s really short now, I can’t comb it any way but one now. We went to a place where they teach people how to cut hair and if you let a student do it, it’s only 7 pesos, but sometimes they don’t really know how. The teacher charges 30 pesos which is only like $3.

I have Robby’s e-mail address, he gets to check his e-mail too, but I don’t have a mailing address for him and I can’t remember his e-mail right now, but this next Monday I’ll e-mail it to you, ok?

I’m going to go take a shower right now before we go back out to work so I can use hot water and not stink. Love you.

Well I’m back, it’s 9:50 and in like 40 minutes I have to go to bed. About the hot shower, it didn’t happen, we ran out of gas and we just got more before I had to take a shower, so it was a little cold. Now I’m eating a “Cup of Noodles,” it’s pretty good.

So how is living in a trailer with your sister and Johnny? Is everyone getting along good still? Have you gotten chairs or other things for your house? How is your job going? Are you still missing me? I still miss you, and love you. I have to go to bed now, I’m kind of tired, have a good night.

7-10-02

I’m back, so what did you do while I was gone? Did you do something fun, work, or just watched TV? Hopefully all three, because all work and no fun, isn’t no fun and all fun and not work, well fun can’t last forever without money.

We didn’t really have fun today, it was all work, we knocked on a lot of doors today. I really don’t like knocking on doors, I feel like I’m annoying people, but oh well. Todo esta bien. We had papaya today, I really hate that stuff, it’s a fruit that really stinks like puke and tastes worse. Every time I eat it or drink it (they put it in water too) I almost throw up. You should try it.

7-15-02

Hi, how are things going? Good here, or at least the same as always. It rained a lot today but we didn’t get rained on too much, I had an umbrella. I see Men in Black II is out here now, have you seen it yet?

Did I ever tell you about the 15 year old girl we met down here that has a baby, she’s a little young to be having kids, but there’s a lot of people here that start having kids young.

I just got done e-mailing you twice. I forgot to send you Robby’s e-mail so I mailed you twice. Then I bought some cereal and milk. Now I am writing letters, that’s about all I’ve done today, but it is raining right now hard. We don’t have any lights, something went wrong with our power box, it sucks.

I wish something new or different would happen so I had something to write about. We haven’t had power all day now, the people still haven’t come to fix it and it’s been raining all afternoon. I’m writing this letter by candlelight. Do you want to know how to say candlelight in Spanish? Luz de las velas. We went out a little while ago to see some people and where we went the streets were flooded with the water it’s been raining so much.

you know I’m not a very good writer, I run out of things to write about really fast and then I feel bad sending you such a short letter, but nothing new ever happens and when it does I tell it to you in just a few lines. Is there something you want me to write, or better yet why don’t you just tell me that to write, well it’s time to get ready for bed now. I’ll try and mail this letter tomorrow, even though it is really short. Miss you.

Love, Nathan

7-16-02

Hey Crista, I thought I’d write one more page on my letter. It’s Tuesday morning and we still have no power. I just finished taking a shower by candlelight, now I’m just sitting here thinking of you, I really miss being able to hold you and kiss you. This is where I started to cry, and am tearing up again typing this. I wish we could have spent more time together, now that we can’t I really miss you more. Well, I’ve got to go for now, I still have to get ready and go other stuff. Love you lots. When ever there is a mushy moment in one of his letters as soon as he finishes writing it he has to go do something else.

Well we’re still sitting in the house waiting for someone to come and fix our lights. It’s lots of fun, there is nothing to do, but read, study and sleep.

Hey I’m back, we had to go out and work a little, but I’m back now and we still hove no light. I’m a little tired of candlelight.

7-22-02

Hey, how are things going? Good here, the light is fixed, it was only off for 2 days. Hey, I finally got a letter from you, it even has a spider-man in it. Jenn and I had gone to a movie together and I had gotten popcorn and the bag had spider-man on it so I saved it and cut the bag up and sent it to Nathan to use as decoration or something. I can’t believe they jumped stamps up $.03, what happened to $.01 at a time?

Well I’m mailing this letter today, the 29th but it won’t go out for a few days. I switched pens just now, the black one is starting to fade a little bit.

You got to see Scooby-Doo? I want to see that movie, it looked cool in the preview I saw for it. Well I think I’d better go now so I can get other stuff done too. Bye (they say Bye here in Mexico.)

Love, Nathan

Letters and e-mail from him always show up right after I have had a really terrible couple of days. They always make me feel better but a little bit worse at the same time. Because I miss him so much and I know that if I was able to be down in Mexico somewhere close to where he is, we may both be a little happier. At least if I were there I would never have to see Johnny again.

This is a little update on the very last bit of my entry last night (early this morning.)

I didn’t say anything about Jennifer and Johnny using my tent, didn’t’ leave them a note, take it out of my trunk or anything when I went to work this morning. I figured that they would get the hint.

This afternoon they showed up at Target, while I was working. Jennifer wanted to know if they could use my tent. When I told her that I didn’t want to let them take my tent she asked me if I would at least take care of the animals if she went and bought a tent so they could go. I told her I would.

During a little rush, she comes back and asks me if I really think I should be punishing my little sister because Johnny has a deal with people using her things. Can’t I change my mind and save her the $30 she is going to have to spend to get a tent. She will pay me $5 to use my tent and for me taking care of their pets.

I spent a lot more than $30 on my tent and I have only used it once. When ever Jennifer uses something expensive, or fairly new of mine she breaks it our loses it.

My first really nice camera, she borrowed it to go to Mexico and left it there.

The camera she bought to replace the once she left in Mexico, the combination of her cats and her, managed to break one of the lenses.

The blue glasses that I bought a set of 12 and have been out of the box twice before she had to bring them up here is now a set of 8. But it isn’t her fault they are broken, it is my dish drainers fault, because she had it loaded down to much the weight made it collapse.

Besides all of those examples, my reason for not letting take my tent is that Johnny doesn’t like when I use Jennifer’s things. If he expects me to let him take off in my tent he is being a total hypocrite. And that above all things is something that drives me absolutely nuts.

No one at the Super Target Deli here in Grand Forks, North Dakota likes Johnny very much after the amazing show he had Jennifer put on, and the glare of death he gave me as he walked out of the store when I stood my ground and told Jennifer to leave because I was at work and didn’t have the time to deal with them.

My left forearm is still all bruised up and I have no idea what it is from. The first set of bruises is mostly faded, but the second ones are still pretty dark. They look like some one grabbed my arm and yanked me around a bit, but I don’t ever remember that happening, let alone it happening twice.

I need to check on the whereabouts of the crazy cats, go to the little girls room and take a nap. I was so tired at work that I am sure that if any of the security cameras in the deli were actually recording or being watched the security people are going to think I came to work drunk this morning. I was working on about 3 hours worth of sleep and I couldn’t keep my balance for trying. Every time I turned around I was nearly tipping over.

Dude, I just thought of this, I am going to have to feed crickets to the toads and scorpion. I wonder if Johnny cleaned his bedroom, or made Jennifer clean his bedroom. The other night he was all kinds of embarrassed when Jennifer told him that I had to go in his room to put Scotty back in her cage because Jennifer couldn’t get her to not fly off her hand and back to the perch up on the wall.

I need to take a shower again today because I won’t be able to tomorrow. The water is being turned off in the trailer park to do repairs for like the 12th time since I moved in here in May.