October 30, 2007

We went to Panama City on the bus on Sunday, primarily to get set for the chemo on Monday. However, we had some fun along the way. We saw the movie, "Michael Clayton"; our first movie in a cinema in Panama! So, because we are "juliblados" (i.e., old geeks), our tickets were half-priced: $2.00 each. Hard to beat! With our coke, water and popcorn, the whole experience was less than $10! The cinema house was a standard multi-plex item in the mall, with clean, comfortable seats and a huge screen (it was hard to get far enough away from it so we didn't get dizzy). Good film, too.

Later that evening we went over to the casino nearest our hotel (Veneto Casino). We had a snacky dinner while we watched the Red Sox womp up on the Rockies on the big screen in the sports bar area. We thought one of our table neighbors was a real Rockie fan until we realized that he was betting every couple of innings. He didn't do too well that night.

The casino was completely decorated for Halloween, although this is not a holiday celebrated here in Panama. The decorations were great: lots of balloons, huge spiders and webs everywhere and pumpkins all over. Great atmosphere!

While Tommy was having chemo, I went from store to store, getting stuff we can't get up here: decent light bulbs (note: one only buys name brand light bulbs here; the others are made in China and either don't work immediately, quit after 10 minutes, and/or twist off from the metal bottom when one tries to unscrew it...on this we happen to agree with Lou Dobbs!); shelf standards (had to visit two different stores to get 12 brackets to match!); English muffins; you get the idea. We were both exhausted, for different reasons.

Tommy wanted to sleep in this morning, so I took an earlier bus home. When I got off at our street, I was carrying my purse, two curtain rods, and two heavy, large bags. Three kids, who were walking home from school, stopped me and took my packages to help me home. Even though we went past their house, they insisted on walking me all the way home. Ah me, what a great feeling!