Sunday 10 August 2008

Like Candy for Pesos

Because I was a big lame-o yesterday and stayed in to watch Sex, Lies, and Videotape (which was excellent, and I can't believe I'd never seen it), I went out with a bunch of people from the guest house and ended up at Tia Maria's. While there, I somehow developed a crush on every vocalist in the cover band, including a gorgeous singer in red Daisy Dukes, a cute probably gay singer with a square jaw and dyed red hair, and a super-butch singer who had everyone guessing her gender until she spoke halfway through the set. That crush was the strongest. She had sideburns.

But after dancing with this married woman for a couple minutes, I excused myself to go outside and buy cigarettes. There was a little girl selling packs of cigarettes and individually wrapped candies from a wooden tray down the street, so I wandered over and crouched to see what she had. She shyly pointed to different packs as I tried to figure out what I wanted, and eventually, we picked out a pack of Marlboro Lights.

"45 pesos," she said.

I dug in my pocket and pulled out a crumpled 50 peso bill.

She peeked into her box and got a panicked look on her face, because all she had was a 10 peso coin. I was about to say that it was fine and she should keep the change, and her face lit up and counted out five candies and pushed them into my fist.

I could totally get used to this city.

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