do NOT tell my mother

i learned years ago,

from my mother, that passion fruit anything lowers blood pressure. Don’t know if it’s true. It came up because after consuming ridiculous amounts of everything passion fruit for days, I felt like I was going to pass out for days. My blood pressure is so low I “shouldn’t be able to walk,” a doctor once said.

she asked if i have low blood pressure

before she told me about the passion fruit. It was a big mistake on my part to tell her the truth, but a) I don’t lie, and b) I had no idea what was coming.

So, my mom forbade me from drinking the juice. HA! I consumed it when she wasn’t around so that the wrath would not fall upon me — I was in my late 30s when that happened, but wrath is wrath, or as we say in Spanish, cantaleta*. And it continues to this day. Once in a while, I have something passion fruit while I am with her, and she looks at me over her eyes, shrugs her shoulders, and says something melodramatic, like “Go ahead, when you drop on the sidewalk, and people walk all over you, you’ll see.”

i miss fresh passion fruit anything

Juice, ice cream, sorbet … anything and everything. Truly miss it. I made passion fruit baby food for my son when he was a baby, and even adults ate it. Yes, it is that yum!

Hope to visit Puerto Rico before this year’s end. My youngest sister is planning a girl’s shindig in PR and included me.

Oooo boy =)

My husband may join me after. And yes, I am very aware that I am drinking from a coconut in the photograph, and double-yes, it was a lethal coconut drink, but it made me quite happy, as you can see. It was not only the drink — it was the atmosphere, the place, the food. The photo is to throw my mom off. =) I cannot believe it is nine years old! Where, I mean, where does the time go?

shindig: shin·​dig | ˈshin-dig

1 a: a social gathering with dancing | b: a usually large or lavish party

2: SHINDY sense 2
 
I had no idea there was such a thing as a shindy. I mean the word.
 *cantaleta:

a repetitive nagging or litany 🙄