Blogos Aires Day 4

During the call with the client yesterday, Wanda asked about mosquitoes. Not the tropical minty drink (ha! See what I did there?) but the blood sucking insects. We assured her that, despite the heat, there were no mosquitoes as far as we could tell. That night, Liz started scratching a bit and joked that it was probably payback for saying there were no mosquitoes.

Cut to this morning. Liz’s leg looks diseased. A picture of it looks like it belongs in a medical journal with a caption under it. So we sent out a quick e-mail to Wanda warning her about the infestation. All we need is a client angry about a bunch of mosquito bites.

I think I’m being gassed. I’m sitting in the lobby and all of a sudden, I get a strong whiff of men’s cologne. But there’s no one around me. No one just walked by me. The only people in the lobby right now are the two security guards who seem to think they work for the Secret Service or something.

I forgot to mention another sighting of the crazy-looking lady…or lack thereof. The one time I’m the last one at the sign of the cow, Topher and Liz tell me that she swept through the lobby wearing some dress with a meshy top over it. This morning, Liz was able to snap a photo of her by pretending she was taking a picture of me but focusing on our tourist friend instead.

I also forgot to mention the security at the restaurant last night. I guess purse snatching is reaching the popularity of an Olympic sport down here. Since we’re sitting outside and right along the river, all women have their bags locked to their chairs with these plastic cable ties to deter people running by and grabbing the purse off the back of the chair. Ingenious!

Back to today. Our new driver is Carlos Eduardo Xavier. I think. You know those hack licenses in NYC cabs where you can’t tell which is the first name and which is the last? That’s what we have here. It turns out he’s from Jersey City. Regardless, I still can’t understand a word he says.

Topher is sunburned. He already has white teeth and ice-blue eyes but these are augmented by his newly red face. It’s not a really even burn either. His legs are a bit blotchy. Liz and I? Still bright white.

Today is wardrobe day, which, for a copywriter, can be dull to begin with. But Liz has an amazing sense of style. I wear jeans all the time. So I’d always defer to her judgment when it comes to this stuff. I’m tired and it’s pretty hot in here so I find myself dozing off. The benefit of being a writer while Liz is wardrobing is that I can catch up on some z’s. A bit later on, the Playtex crew whooshes in. Suddenly our quiet little session turns into the Ziegfield Follies (look it up). We hear about their day and they insult our shopping location. They’ve also all brought guests from the States.

Liz is tired, too, and she gets some Coke Light for a quick caffeine jolt. She said she was willing to risk the gas baby for it. This is a reference to the bloated feeling everyone got from chugging too much Coke Light. I never got it. I don’t think Robert did either. Must be a girl thing. The tiredness (?) is making us punchy and making the odd comment Topher just made about corporate mergers even more odd. He noticed a billboard for BankBoston, which he knew was bought by Fleet and then by Bank of America. So why is there a BankBoston down here? We come up with some theories about the billboard being old and all of a sudden, we see a BankBoston branch! Weird! Or maybe we have the power to conjure up images merely by speaking about them. More on that in a moment.

So why would there be a BankBoston way down here in Buenos Aires when the brand no longer exists? I come up with some crackpot theory of not wanting to have a Bank of America in Argentina because maybe they hate America. Topher says that Boston is just as American and I accuse him of changing the subject. Liz says it would also be weird to see an HSBC. No sooner does she say that when we see an HSBC out the window. This is nuts! There was a third thing, too, but I forgot to write it down.

After dinner, we crack ourselves up over a restaurant we see. It’s called “Kansas” and Liz wonders aloud if it was named for the state or the band (she was kidding, or so she wants us to believe). This, at the time, was a riot. I tried to imagine a bunch of entrepreneurs down here deciding to open up a real American restaurant and naming it after some hot American band. But they don’t realize they’re 30 years behind the times. So they sell Carry On Wayward Sonion Rings and stuff. This leads us to believe that BankBoston was founded by the band Boston.

It was funny at the time.

More useful Spanish from American TV: Es genial (that's cool), Lo jure (I swear), en serio (really).

Today’s make out count: 1 ½ (there was a couple squeezing each other’s asses so we counted that as ½).