by Jeff"Sir. What is your purpose in Mexico?"

"US. Um...I mean tacos."

The agent raises half his brow and gives me a cockeyed stare.

"Sorry, thought you asked my citizenship. I was having some tacos and beers with my friend." I throw a thumb over to where he and I were standing a minute ago.

He's not there anymore. Makes me look a little nuts, but the agent doesn't even look over so my mistake is lost.

"Citizenship?"

"US." I almost said San Diego. That's the problem with memorizing canned answers. You can mix them up.

"Are you bringing anything with you today?"

I fumble pulling the bottle of scotch out of its Duty Free bag and almost drop it. He gives it a glance and hands my ID back. Waves his hand and looks away from me like I'm the biggest inconvenience in the world, eying the next guy suspiciously and I'm already forgotten.

Outside my tour guide is waiting for me. "See, piece of cake, right."

I grinned. It was. He was right. I'd like to say that I was dreading my return trip in a couple of weeks, but I wasn't. I didn't care. It really was that easy.

I wouldn't start my cycle for another week. The needles I had ordered through a pet supply company took their sweet time arriving. When they eventually did show up I pulled out the vials and pills that had been stowed since my trip. It was quite a little pile. Several tiny vials of oily liquid. A couple bottles of round yellow buttons that looked looked like they were pressed in someone's garage.

Each package was labeled with names that were close to the ones I had written on my shopping list. They were all cognates, Spanish words that varied from their English counterparts by only a couple letters and an accent. If the names of my medication being in Spanish wasn't enough to bother me the fact that they each had a picture of a horse or dog on them was plenty. I had first noticed this detail when I bought them but the novelty had yet to wear off.

So this was it. A pile of vials and pills and needles that would only be the first stage of anabolic steroids being fired into my body. I gave everything one last look and soaked it all in. Then I put it all back into a small nylon bag-- my 'roid bag as I was affectionately calling it-- and stuffed the package into the back of my sock drawer.

Tomorrow would be day one and hopefully within a few months I'd be done with the needles and have a fully functioning shoulder. Hopefully.

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Posted by Jeff at 3:24 PM

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