I Don't Change, I Improve

I don’t exist, not the way I did before.  I’m a different me.---Samantha Lucero, LET THE DEIVL WEAR BLACK, a novel

Strangely enough, a postcard that Alan mailed to me from ISREAL was lost in transit for a while and I just received it.  It depicted Tiberias, a general view from the south.  Alan labeled LAKE KINNERET and a KIBBUTZ location.  Alan wrote:
7/5/1993 
9:15AMI’m writing you from the KIBBUTZ (on left or top of this postcard).  The lake is beautiful.  The stars are out.  The moon is visible and clear.  It’s waiting for you to be here with me.  It’s not the same without you. I’m within minutes of SYRIA.  We’ll be in the Golan Heights with the Army tomorrow.  I lost another pound today.Love, A
I’m still in envy when I think of ISRAEL.  It’s a place I want to visit one day.  Sometimes when I visit a different place I sense a new feeling.  My brain is reactivated and I feel a small part of me becomes new.  I change with time.  I change with every person I meet.  I change with every new book I read.  I shouldn’t say I change.  I don’t change…I improve.
I had chosen some cards from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC that I sent to Paloma at her home in the South of France (while in New York last week, I wonder if she’s received them yet):
9-1-93 Dear Paloma,
Here in NYC again.  I had a lot of fun in New Mexico.  We were in Albuquerque, Santa Fe and Taos.  Does your brother still live in the Albuquerque area?   We went to the Albuquerque Museum of Natural History.  It’s definitely worth going there…especially for Jonathan—if you decide to go.  It was HOT, but nice.  I’m in progress of putting a scrapbook together of that recent NM trip.  Someday I’ll share it with you (I hope). 

Well, it is time for a nap.  I’ll fill you in more on the happenings in NYC later.Love, Michael

9-4-93Dear Paloma,
I’ve seen a couple of plays already and two films (one French Film called UN COUER DE HIVER (A Heart In Winter).  It was ok; not great.  The young actress (Emmanuelle Beart) was gorgeous.  I loved the violin playing.  It soothes me. 

How is Residence Cap de la Corniche?  The photos you sent before sure are beautiful but it looks like such a large place to manage.Alan’s showering.  Then we will go for a famous slice of New York style pizza and probably see another play.  There are so many tourists here (and a lot of SOPAIN residents stay here at the NY Hilton where I am.  I know because I always hear them in the elevator.

On Wednesday, September 7th it’s back to work.  My mom’s 58th Birthday is tomorrow, September 6th, so I have to find her something.
Regards to Alexandrea and Jonathan.Love You Always,
Michael J Armijo

Coincidentally, as I was writing her in New York she was writing me.  I just received her latest letter:

le 6/09/93Hello Michael,

As usual I haven’t been able to write much lately.   Summers are very busy with our job and with the visits.  I think the last visitors I told you about were Unmi and Duane (the Chef and the painter/artist from San Francisco).  Then, my dad came again as he was coming back from Madrid.  Then Coco arrived with her mom and her two children for ten days.  And ZonZon came to visit them for a weekend.  Then a surprise visit from my brother Edouard (from Albuquerque).  He had enough mileage to get a free ticket (or almost free, I think), so my mom came from Benidorm to see him.  Then, about two days later, everybody left.  Sophie (Regi’s wife) called me.  They came to visit with her two boys for a week.
Now we are expecting my brother, Louis, tomorrow.  And I’m not even talking about Alexandre’s parents and his sister, husband and kids who were staying at the house for most of the summer (and who, of course, come to visit us pretty often). 
I am really happy to see all of them, but I am really exhausted.  After all the work we have we should rest.  It’s kind of hard to do when you have people over.  They are on holidays and they want to party!  It’s been nice for Jonathan to have company for almost all of the summer.  I’ve had some nice presents.
Right now, we are planning to close the hotel at the end of October (the 31st).  We would still work but with no customers around.  This place is so big that it is very expensive to heat.  It’s not worth having just a few customers.  We would just open it if we have a group larger than one-hundred people.

We were kind of planning to go to New Mexico and to California at the end of October or the beginning of November.  I don’t think it will be possible with Jonathan’s holidays.  They start too early (around the 20th of October).  He only has two weeks and he can’t miss school anymore.  It’s getting serious now.  This year he is going to learn to write and read.  So, we don’t know yet what we will do.  Maybe we’ll go for Christmas or in February.I hope I get to see you. 
How was your trip to Albuquerque?  What happened?  How come I didn’t get a card?  I’m sure New York is very nice in September (probably not too cold yet).  That’s what bothers me about going to NM for Christmas or February.  It’s going to be freezing.  Oh well…we’ll see!
Miss You.  Love,
Paloma

And this week has me back on the work bandwagon at Charles Schwab and Co. at the Westwood Branch.  I have all of these existing customers who only want to work with me now.  I’m their savior so-to-speak.  It must be my charm.  I really like helping people.  So many do not have a clue about how to invest their money.  And the ones that think they do make some horrible mistakes.  Never buy a stock under five dollars  a share unless you have some firsthand insight about the business.   I don’t even like a stock that doesn’t pay a dividend (with a few exceptions, of course).    I enjoy it when I leave work.  A get-together with Alan and I do a good job at erasing my busy day.  It’s not like New York City though.  We go to a Café here in Los Angeles and the staff do not recognize us even if we were visiting a day or two before.  At a New York City Café they remember us.  What gives?
He liked to get to know a street, and a café, and a restaurant, and be called by name by the waiters, and owners, and coat-check girl, so that when he left, he could think of it fondly as another home.-Andrew Sean Greet, LESS, a novel