ok, puerto rico, i get it: you're every where

I have been really good about not obsessing about Juan. But I have to say, living in a very Puerto Rican or New Yorican neighborhood serves as a constant reminder of Juan. It's not like I'm so racist and sheltered to have only one person to reference when it comes to Puerto Rico. But my relationship with Juan is the most recent Rican relationship (that includes friends, not just amigos y más)

For reals, some of my best friends are Puerto Rican. I often say this as a joke, but in this case, the truth is I do have lot of friends who are Puerto Rican . But, sadly, Juan, has eclipsed all my other Puerto Rican associations. And now whenever I think Of Puerto Rico, I think of Juan, who talked about la isla constantly, went there for his grandmother's funeral early in our "relationship" (for lack of a better word) and wants to move back there. Oh, yeah, I dunno if I dropped this Juan bomb yet, but apparently he wants to go back to Puerto Rico and the only reason he left was because a hit was taken out on his head. Anyhoo...

So, yeah, nothing makes a Puerto Rican barrio come to life like, say, a Puerto Rican Day parade, which I got to enjoy Sunday. I can't count the number of Puerto Rican flags I saw hanging out of windows, out of cars, pants, wrapped around heads etc. I really need to reclaim Puerto Rican culture. I mean, no, not like that. I mean I need to take it away from Juan and give it back to the nice Puerto Ricans. If I let him take away the Puerto Rican day parade from me, I'm letting him win. (Geraldo Rivera was there this year. Damn.) That's a little dishonest. I was never really into the parade and was certainly never self righteous and deluded enough to march in it myself, but I didn't watch it either.

Still, I should be able to associate it with good things like traffic and noise and attacks on women-- not with Juan. And no, that's not racist. I don't associate Puerto Ricans with that attack. The guys weren't even Puerto Rican. It just happened to have happened during the parade.

It's not fair. There's no secular Jewish parade to force Juan to think about be. Oh well.