little things

It might be because I have so little time left here, but a lot of moments have been extra sweet over the past week. Here are a few:

1. Being stopped in traffic on a major thoroughfare and growing increasingly impatient, only to have my frustration disappear immediately when I saw the cause of the back-up. Christmas decorations being hung over the street! The moment gets extra points because the tinsel swag had the word "Gallo" in the middle. Guatemala's national beer is never far away.

2. Birthday goodness. This was less of a moment and more of a whole day that felt very right. Phone calls and emails from my family, meals at all my favorite places with my favorite people, Guatemala-version Monopoly (get ready to play when I get back) and a general sense of being loved. Thanks to all of you who made the day so lovely.

3. I found Big Red gum for sale at a gas station for the first time. I love that cinnamon-sugar explosion in your mouth at first chew: the whole pack was gone in about 10 minutes.

4. Yesterday for work I got to put on my lawyer costume (which almost included flip-flops, until I remembered I had left a pair of shoes in Roscoe) and go to the reading of a sentence and pick a copy up. That was cool enough, but what really got me excited was reading through the first couple of pages sitting in traffic on my way home and finding my name and information in the act. I know this is the silliest thing ever but I, foreign assistant allowed at the prosecutor's table with the express purpose of taking notes without any intervention, live on in Guatemala criminal court. And that's kind of sweet.