Third Trip to Tijuana and a Setback

Mary and I decided to drive to the homeopathic doctor in Tijuana. We left in plenty of time and got to the office fifteen minutes early. Two hours later, we paid the guard who was watching my car. I was $185 dollars poorer and a dozen new formulas richer. The doctor asked if I was better, and I told him "poquito". I have only had one really bad headache since I started taking the medicines and all my migraines seem to be less frequent. I actually can control most of them with naproxen (Aleve) now.

It took an hour to crawl up to the border. Mary, my old van and I were practically waved through. I called my sister Shanti and we met her for lunch in City Heights, a nice lower-budget trendy neighborhood. Ethnic restaurants, coffee houses, second hand clothing stores and small cafes made the old neighborhood enticing. We had lunch at El Zarape, a hole in the wall popular Mexican cafe that serves wholesome food on paper plates. While eating our burritos, we talked about what a nice neighborhood this was. Mary said she missed living in one like this, instead of suburbia where malls and chain stores with huge parking lots are the only places to shop and eat.

After we ate, we said goodbye to Shanti and walked a block back to my van. We were shocked to discover that the side window of the back right door was busted. I looked in and discovered that the cloth bag with my formulas was stolen! Nothing else was taken, not Mary's two bags, the glove box was not touched and the CDs were still there. The only thing that was stolen was my medicines that I had just bought from the doctor. I was so upset. I couldn't believe that someone would do that. They must have thought that the brightly colored cloth bag was a purse. Mary and I scoured the alleys and streets, looking in every dumpster and garbage can and every yard thinking the thieves would look in the bag and just toss it since there was nothing valuable in it. But we had no luck. It was gone. I had been so good at taking the drops every evening, setting the timer every five minutes for an hour. Now the routine is broken. I'm not sure thatI think I have to go back to Tijuana tomorrow after work.

I called the police and filed a police report. Of course they wouldn't come out to see the crime. Just small potatoes. It is just an incident for them. For me, it ruined my day, busted my medicine routine, will cost me hundreds of dollars to fix the window and replace the medicines and is a huge inconvenience.

Now I am a little more careful about locking my car, although my car was locked. I feel a little more paranoid. It was an invasion not only of my personal property, but of my psyche.

But overall, it is mostly a huge annoyance. Mary and I weren't hurt. Once I get the window fixed and a refill on my medicines, I can put it all behind me. Hopefully the paranoia, too.