2009 ¡A la Fregada!

The artist J.C. Leyendecker is credited with inventing the tradition of depicting the New Year as a baby with his Saturday Evening Post cover of December 28th, 1907 , a little over one hundred years ago. Before this 2010 New Year Baby has taken a few steps I decided that it was time to send the ghost of the old year "a la fregada" or "the hell out of here" in order to make room for the new one. Yesterday I was watching some talking heads on the telly and they were discussing different ways to leave the emotional baggage of 2009 behind. There were a number of steps involved and it seemed a bit complicated. I have found a much easier way to erase the slate and I have been practicing it for a number of years. Sunday, Gina and I went to our favorite place to bathe in hot spring water at "Los Baños de Aguas Buenas" which is about halfway up Mount Cubilete near Silao. There is nothing like a hot soak in a big tub to wash away your troubles and wipe the slate clean. We brought along a big pink bar of "Zote" soap and had a good scrub down. We emptied and filled the big tub three times and each time we lathered up with mountains of suds until we looked like the NewYear Baby (only in my case it was an enormous baby). We scrubbed and scrubbed until every bit of 2009 was gone. When we were done our skin was so clean that when we rubbed it we got the same "ee-oo, ee-oo" sound that you get when rubbing a window pane with warm water, vinegar, and a paper towel. When we finished our bath we sallied forth like new people and we felt so light that we walked with a small bounce to each step like the astronauts did when they walked on the moon. Right outside the front gate there was a lady selling "elotes" (corn on the cob) that had been steamed over a mesquite fire so we each bought one for lunch. They were covered with the traditional mayonnaise, chile powder and grated cheese and the smell of the elote combined with the smell of the burning mesquite was like special incense made in Heaven. The taste was heavenly too.

While we were relaxing in our new found squeaky cleanness I did a sketch of the of old ex-hacienda chapel there which you can see below. I decided that this year I am going to learn how to make sketch drawings. I have always wanted to do that and sketches are so much less intrusive than taking pictures with a camera. It isn't as easy as I thought, however. It is like learning a new language. At first one must take small steps and learn the rules and in this case there is a lot to learn about perspective as you can see from my very humble beginning. As time goes on I will present more sketches in this blog as a record of my progress. It looks like I have a long way to go, doesn't it?. That's okay, as long as I'm having fun. I challenge all my blogger friends to do the same. Buy yourself a new box of crayolas and let's get some action going here!