fleeing the US like rats from a sinking ship

blah... so approximatly five minutes after i finished writing that last post, i realized that the nicaraguan presidential elections aren't until 2006. fuck those foreigners and their five year election cycle. you'd think someone might have pointed that out to me in one of the many meetings i had about that project, but no... apparently it slipped their minds too. although, to my credit, a lot of people are calling for early elections in nica, so there may well be presidential elections in november.

i have, nonetheless, bought a ticket to mexico. a one way ticket even (ooohh....). not that i don't have plans for returning, but it gives me the freedom to fly back from managua if i want to, or stay longer if something comes up. i don't really have an established plan, other than flying down on sept. 6th and eventually making my way to managua, but i think it should be cool. I'm an awful tourist, and i mostly hate backpackers, so i will probably be moving off of the beaten path, trying to do some recording for radio programs as i go, visiting grassroots groups in guatemala with my friend Yakira for her work with Seva, hanging out in san cris for a while doing peace house stuff. it should be nice. i'll be there for a minimum of a month, maybe longer. at the very latest, i should be back in the US by next year (and that's only if i hook up with an amazing and compelling project, or nicaragua does call early elections and reforms their constitution).

but first i have to finish up in dc (i work through the second week of august), move all of my stuff to chicago, stopping off on the way to visit with my mom and her parents, and then fly to florida en route to mexico and visit my other grandparents. it will be a terrible and stressfull month.

but i'm glad i'm leaving for a bit. i applied to a really nice job with a radical urban garden project in chicago, and seem to have come really close to getting it, but didn't. and i was liked, i worked a ton of shitty jobs this year and didn't spend money on anything hoping to save enough to be able to take off for a while. i don't just want to move to a new city and start that all over again. i need a little time off to re energize before i can face that schedule again. plus rents are cheap enough in chicago that alex can handle both of our rents while i'm gone (it'll prolly just be about $50 more than what he's spending here).

ooh, also i got my tattoo. you can see a really bloody picture of it taken about 5 minutes after i got it, on my friendster page. it's much lighter and less greasy now. i'm planning on taking a nicer picture of it to put up. all in all, it was a really good experience.

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