Enjoying Frankie & Carnaval!

What a great time I had on Saturday!

Seriously, Saturday was an amazing time for me.

I decided to go pick Frankie up in the morning and take him to the mall. We went for breakfast at McDonald's, I had an Egg McMuffin, while Frankie had Hotcakes with strawberry syrup on them.

Then we went shopping for a couple of toys that I had promised him. He inevitably picks the same toys, so I had to convince him to buy something different. He ended up buying a Spider-Man web shooter glove, and a figure of the Green Goblin. His face was such a wonderful thing to see. Happy and full of joy :D

I asked him at that point what he wanted to do, and he said "Papa let's go see a movie". I was all for that, so I took him to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. What an amazing movie!

The story itself is much more for a young adult audience, than a 3 and a half year old child, but Frankie followed the movie perfectly, enjoying it every step of the way. I highly recommend this movie to adults and children alike.

After the movie, Frankie was getting tired, so I took him back home, and he went to take a nap.

I went back to my grandparent's place (couldn't move to a new place that I had found for several foolish and annoying reasons, so I'm still looking) and decided to take a nap myself. I wasn't in bed for more than 10 minutes when the telephone rang. It was Betty (my gf, so to speak, although we haven't defined our relationship in the least).

She called to invite me to a Tablado. Some of you might be wondering, what the heck is that? Well let me give you a breakdown.

During the end of summer season, here in Uruguay, there is a festivity called Carnaval which is the second largest carnival celebration in the world after the Brazilian celebration. The celebration takes place for nearly the entire month before the period of Lent in Uruguay. There are parades, bands, comedians, and costumes consuming the streets at all hours.

There are many different theories of when and where the celebration Carnival originated. The most well known was in Iraq. Iraq had a five-day ritual for the Momo king. The roles of society were switched and one of the lowest members of society would become king for five days. He would then be killed and the people were liberated from all evil. Christian culture has since adapted rituals that occurred before Lent and all of Europe celebrated some type of Carnival big or small. Carnaval in Uruguay is a very important part of the black population, which is very significant. Around the early 1900’s Candombe music, which was created by black slaves in Uruguay became part of the celebration.

Today Carnaval in Uruguay specifically Montevideo month long party. This party is initiated by 2 parades, 1 called El Desfile de Carnaval (The Carnaval Parade) and another called El Desfile de las Llamadas (The Calling Parade). The entire city shuts down for the entire week before the forty days of Lent. Almost 300,000 citizens of Uruguay flock to the capital city to become a part of the tradition every year.

After these 2 parades, there are daily presentations of groups and bands that have performed in each of the parades. These daily presentations are called Tablados (literally meaning Stages, which is where the groups and bands perform). There are several of these groups, these being: Murgas, Comparsas, Lubolos, Humoristas, Parodistas, and Revistas. What you find most at these Tablados are Murgas and Comparsas.

Normally both are musical groups, with strong social and political criticism in their songs. As well as incredible humour. This is not slapstick humour where a pie in the face will make you laugh your ass off, this is political, social, parodist humour.

Saturday night was the first time I had gone to one of these in 20 years. And to be honest, I barely remember the last time.

I quite literally laughed all night, until 3 am, when the show ended. It was absolutely amazing, and I am definitely going to repeat the experience.

After the show, I went to Betty's place, where we talked for a while, and then we went to bed. Literally.

I still don't really know what to think of this woman. I'm attracted to her, but not amazingly attracted, like I am to Veronica. Is it wrong of me to have sex with her when I'm more attracted to another woman?

Am I cheating on Betty just by being attracted to Veronica?

I really don't know. But at least I had fun this weekend :)