Saturday

We returned last night, but since it was already several seconds after midnight I decided to put this resumption of update stuff off until today. Coming back was overshadowed by the fact that we'll be leaving town, for good, in less than a month. Driving into Monterrey felt very much like a homecoming as we navigated the familiar, empty, shortly-before-midnight roads. I've talked about this before, I know, but it never ceases to amaze me how quickly familiarity managed to set in here. How this ugly, no-nonsense city became imbued with a sense of place, or safety, or whatever, that has made returning here a similar sort of relief as coming home. This time, we knew, was the last time: when we next drive over the city limits it'll be the afternoon we return to the US. It is fairly unlikely that we will ever return to Monterrey. How long does it take a sense of safety place, grown over eighteen months, to evaporate again? I don't know. Last night, out the cab windows, orangey city lights fanned out in all the familiar patterns over the Macroplaza, Parque Fundidora, Barrio Antiguo, Loma Larga, and Obispado. The radio towers twinkled atop la Silla, Mirador and las Mitras, high above houselights in the valley below. Merry Christmas lights have appeared since last week, garishly filling in whatever spaces remain. Cruising in the cab, I realized the city had grown beyond familiar, safe, and homey: it had also, at some point, become pretty. So I did what I always have to do: looked out the windows trying to remember everything. Usually I do this because everything is so new I feel like I need an edge. This time it was different. What I don't remember will be lost so very soon. [Cavin]