Matamoras, Monterrey, and...South Padre?

For some reason, I've been planning several different road trips to take place this weekend, for the past month. It's not like this is a particularly special weekend; in fact, no time from work is being taken at all (not like when I go to New Mexico next month).

The thing is, the after-lull of my whirlwind last six months (school, work, boyfriend, breakup, band, quitting band, Niagara, West Seneca, Chicago, lovely Strep throat, 2 Texas road trips, Norway, and Barb and both Rachels visiting)...things have finally slowed to a point where the weekend has become to me a series of hours to be filled. Yes, I just said HOURS TO BE FILLED.

What? No one should feel that way, least of all me. I mean, do I look like Dilbert to you? It's pretty sad when I find myself looking forward to work on Monday morning because I'm so bored and lonely on the weekends.

Now don't get me wrong, I've been DOING stuff...shopping, exercising, going out to eat, going out, having fun relaxing at home, playing guitar, reading, going to movies...but for the most part, I've been doing all of these things by myself. All weekend. Every weekend.

I'm more introverted than I used to be, but after a while, well...I get tired of me. Also compounded by the fact that I live alone (which I usually love).


Originally I was thinking of driving up to Joplin, MO for the HAMB drag races. There I could meet Rachel and see Kurt again after all these years. Instinct told me to put this one to bed, so I did...plus it was a 9+ hour drive. Then I remembered that Seth had talked about the Tumbleweed Festival in Garden City, KS. After researching that and talking about it with them, I debated on it.

The inevitable conclusion was that if I'm really going to take a road trip this weekend, it had better be someplace NOT in Kansas or Missouri.

And so...beach sounded good, Mexico sounded good, so I combined the two by finding on Travelocity.com a decently priced hotel room on South Padre Island. Using this as a homebase, I can enjoy some sun and sand and seawater on BOTH sides of the border.

I figure Matamoros is a must; then perhaps Chad and I and whoever else comes with us can take a little sojourn down to Monterrey, which to me looks fascinating despite Steve's nay-saying. And Chad, a Chicago boy, has actually never been to Mexico so all of this will be a new experience for him.

The experience being: he'll probably look around at the town of Matamoros and say..."Isn't this just a dirtier version of South Congress and Stassney?" Heh.

I wish sometimes that I weren't a woman. It's difficult to do some of the things I fantasize about. My fantasy is to do them alone, for the most part...which can be tricky if not downright stupid in Mexico these days. The Mexico of my imagination is not to be trusted.

Nevertheless, here's one: I walk into the La Moreliana Meat Market at Alpine and Congress (where I used to be the most regular you ever saw)...buy a ticket and catch one of those buses that head deep into interior Mexico. From some bus stop that I will only determine based on instinct and whim, I would get off the bus. From there there I'd rent or "borrow" a Mexi-hoopty and drive to Teotihuacan . And of course on this trip I'd also explore many, MANY places in the country that have been extolled in literature since the age of the Spanish Conquest. Ever read Bernal Diaz' "The Conquest of New Spain", written in 1585? You should. And of course the haunts of Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera, William S. Burroughs, and Leon Trotsky...and the glorious jungle. And San Miguel and Zacatecas and Veracruz and Cuernavaca and Campeche and Morelia and...well, you get the picture.

But for now? Matamoros. Monterrey. Baby steps.