{"id":22,"date":"2008-10-14T16:31:00","date_gmt":"2008-10-14T20:31:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/?p=22"},"modified":"2016-05-16T23:57:28","modified_gmt":"2016-05-17T03:57:28","slug":"sweat-you-ass-off-mijo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/2008\/10\/sweat-you-ass-off-mijo\/","title":{"rendered":"Sweat You Ass Off, Mi’jo"},"content":{"rendered":"

Joe came over today. He has a really bad cold – coughing like crazy – and his voice hoarse and scratchy. I think it’s at the verge of being a pneumonia, but he disagrees.<\/p>\n

After being in the house for only 5 minutes, mom yells at Joe. “What are you doing out in the cold with that pneumonia? Oh my God! your voice is ready to go!!”<\/p>\n

“It’s not a pneumonia! It’s only a cold. Don’t worry” Joe replies.<\/p>\n

But he does not know my mom. She left the room and we went back to hanging out. We’re watching TV and just talking but we are having a good time hanging out with Joe.<\/p>\n

I don’t know why all the neighbors don’t like Joe. He is a good guy with a bad reputation – no matter that it’s unearned. My dad does not like him, but my mom does. She says that she sees the kindness in his heart.<\/p>\n

“Knock, Knock” my mother says as she opens the door of my room. “Take your shirt off!” She demands of Joe, in her broken English.<\/p>\n

“What?” Joe replies with a puzzled look.<\/p>\n

“Don’t even try to stop her Joe. When she has her mind set, nothing will stop her.” Danny tells Joe. “Just surrender, It’ll be easier!”
\n\"MentholMY mom showed up with a container of ‘Mentol Chino<\/em>‘ & a stack of newspapers. She rubs the mentol chino<\/em> on his chest and on his back. She lays it on thick so that the newspaper will be able to stick to it.<\/p>\n

The room has a strong Menthol smell and Joe is complaining of the smell and that the fumes are stinging his eyes.<\/p>\n

“Dile que no joda!” My mom yells out.<\/p>\n

“What did she say?” Joe asks.<\/p>\n

“Stop complaining and let her continue…” Danny replies, leaving out the curse word.<\/p>\n

Now my mother grabs the newspaper. She plasters it on his chest like if she was hanging wallpaper. She rubs it in – almost as if she was trying to rub the newsprint off onto his chest.<\/p>\n

She continues with more of the same on his back.<\/p>\n

“Now put your shit back on!” She instructs Joe.<\/p>\n

Sure enough, Joe is now doing whatever my mother instructs.<\/p>\n

She now leaves the room & Joe is just standing there like an overstuffed scarecrow. He has newspaper spilling out the neck & arms of the T-shirt.<\/p>\n

\"WoolMy mother walks back in, this time with a thick wool blanket that we brought over from Ecuador. This blanket is made of Llama wool and is made by the local Indians. I have many memories of how it kept me warm during those cold winter nights in the Bronx. We used to have nights when the heat would not work & this blanket was the only thing that kept us from freezing our ass of. The whole family would sit under this blanket to stay warm & watch TV.<\/p>\n

My mother wraps the blanket tightly around Joe. The only thing hanging out the side is his hands and off the top is his head. Joe is now stiff as a scarecrow.<\/p>\n

“Now leave!” My mother instructs Joe! “Mi’jo, Go home & sleep wrapped in the blanket. Don’t take the blanket off no matter how hot you get.”<\/p>\n

My mother treated Joe just like she would her sons. She was truly concerned for him. Joe does not question nor says anything but gives Danny a look, as if to ask “What should I do now!?”<\/p>\n

My Brother replies “GO & sweat your ass off!<\/p>\n

The next morning Joe returns the wool blanket & thanks my mother for taking care of him. He does not have a mother & mom has made him feel as if she was his mother.<\/p>\n

“Thank you” is all he says – his voice no longer hoarse or broken. “I feel much better.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joe came over today. He has a really bad cold – coughing like crazy – and his voice hoarse and scratchy. I think it’s at the verge of being a pneumonia, but he disagrees. After being in the house for only 5 minutes, mom yells at Joe. “What are you doing out in the cold … Continue reading “Sweat You Ass Off, Mi’jo”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,24,29],"tags":[32,15,33],"class_list":["post-22","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-family","category-hood","category-new-jersey","tag-family","tag-joe","tag-musing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":649,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22\/revisions\/649"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/psolis.com\/thepoint\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}