Yesterday was spent in frantic search of togs that will A) enable me to go swimming in our hotel's rooftop pool B) Cover the requisite body parts without exposing and/or enlarging any of them and C) Be so cool that I am willing to overlook the fact that wearing them is essentially walking about in my underwear in front of strangers.
So even though Southern California is warm year round it's apparently not swimsuit warm at the moment and so nowhere sold them. Probably didn't help that every time we went into a store, Ruben would ask the sales assistant if they had togs and the young tanned Americans would look at us quizzically and say "Uggs..Logs..Hogs?" before we clarified that the gawky emo New Zealander that is my brother meant swimwear.
I eventually found a pair in American Apparel that looked fine. They were on for about 0.25 of a second before the florescent lighting and gaping curtains in the fitting room made me rip them off and hastily put my layers of clothes back on.
Getting Ruben into revealing clothing was even more of a struggle. He hasn't worn shorts since 2007 and you could see him squirming and trying to hide his legs when we forced our way into the fitting room. He is practically translucent the poor thing.
Once we had conquered the swimsuit situation we had some dinner while it continued to pour down with rain for like the 6th day straight. Once we had eaten and failed to finish our appetizer sized meals (portion sizes are enormous here, you basically have to share your meal with someone or leave it half eaten) came home where I proceeded to have a number of unexplainable, bizarre panic attacks that leave me stiff and freaking out as I try to fall asleep. So that was fun.
Today I had the minor realisation that Christmas is in like 3 days and I hadn't yet bought my brother a gift. Christmas will be so unconventional this year I'd almost forgotten it was still happening. Because we are both determined to spend as much of our money on ourselves as possible we set a $US15 limit and so I spent 2 hours and 3 blisters trudging up and down State Street trying to find something to get him and ended up with the most unsatisfying and mediocre gift, hopefully Mexico will overshadow crappy gifts.
There were a lot of homeless people on State Street which meant that I swiftly ran out of dollar bills and didn't have lunch. I realise complaining about this is ridiculous of me, considering I will probably never be as hungry as the people who have had the misfortune to end up homeless. It's really sad to see, especially somewhere like Santa Barbara where there is so so much wealth, people driving expensive cars and then swanning around town spending hundreds and hundreds of dollars and walking right past people who have nothing. Tugs at my heart strings big time and I know it's going to be a million times worse in Mexico, homeless children just make me want to cry.
After my barely successful shopping trip I bused home and walked the 20minutes from the bus stop down our street just as the sun was setting. It was rather picturesque.
Next time I write I will either be in Mexico or will have just returned, Happy Holidays!
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