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Spontaneity for Sanity

There’s a gringa on the garage sale site who lives on the beach who always has great stuff for sale. The few times I’ve posted a wanted ad and gotten a response, it was from her. Sadly, I rarely have time to drive to the beach to buy things she sells. But as I’ve made more purchases, she’s begun to trust that I will buy the item even if it’s only the next time she comes into town. Last week, I saw two things that have been on my kitchen want list for a while and she said she’d be in touch this week as she was coming to MĂ©rida.

Monday, she messaged me to say she was “in town” for a few days. I made tentative plans to go meet her in Centro at about 7PM, but her assurance that there was no rush and that she was even willing to drop off the items made me cancel so I could work an extra couple of hours. Good thing I did because Tuesday wound up being hell and I would not have made my deadlines had I not worked the extra time on Monday.

Today, the mad rush finished around 3:00 and I was done. I’d scheduled tomorrow off so I don’t have to rush home from immigration and I decided to give myself Saturday too. I am exhausted! But I also had ants in my skirt, so I contacted the seller to see if she’d be home this evening. I was told to drop by any time.

The water guys were here early, so at 4:00PM, I realised I was freeeeeee! I dressed for town, hopped on a bus and got off at 55 and 62 to walk the block and a half to Pita for linner. It had poured as I got ready for town, during my bus ride, and it started again as I got into the restaurant. So I hoped it would ease off once I was ready to walk to my meeting!

I ordered a beer to go with my falafel sandwich (but of course) and texted the seller to let her know I was near and giving the rain time to let up a bit. She said that if it didn’t, she’d come meet me.

Even though I really was in no rush, I was having a hard time relaxing. That’s how it is when you’ve been going at it hard. As I finished my meal, the rain continued to beat down so I did something I haven’t done in so long I can’t remember the last time I did it: I ordered another beer.

By the time I’d enjoyed it, it was just shy of 6:00 and the rain had stopped! I headed off into an improbably beautiful evening with a sun shining so brightly that my sunglasses weren’t enough to spare me from the intense glare. I love tropical storms!

I vaguely remembered that if I took Calle 59, I’d pass an HSBC so I took that route rather than what Google suggests.

I wasn’t hard up for cash, but figured it’d be nice to make a withdrawal before I am for one rare time! There was indeed a HSBC, so that worked out quite nicely. 🙂

This sign I passed on the way made me laugh:

Never trust a skinny cook!!!

I made it to my destination and got the pizza stone I’ve wanted for years. Of course, now that I have one I have access to amazing restaurant pizza and little desire to make my own!

And I also got a grater for hard cheese! These are great for, well, grating Parmesan! I’ve been buying decent pre-grated Parmesan at Costco, but now I can get likely more affordable chunks and grate it myself. This style does a much better job on hard cheese than does a traditional hand shredder.

I had thought to Uber home, but the pizza stone wasn’t nearly as heavy as expected, so I schlepped all the way to Parque Santa Ana to grab a bus. Buses weren’t eager to stop tonight and I was getting rather frustrated when one finally stopped for me. It was then a quick trip north to a dog who was very happy to see me. 🙂

So tomorrow, fingerprints at last! Who knows how much longer it will take after that to get my new card, but it’ll be some more movement towards a resolution. I have so much left to deal with after this — a final trip to aduana, a trip to SAT to beg for some progress on my refund, a jaunt to CancĂşn to deal with my passport… But once all of this is settled, I promised to myself that starting in the fall, I’m going to start saying no to work a bit more often now that I’ll be able to afford it so that I can truly start enjoying my life here. And as a reminder, I was supposed to arrive in MĂ©rida this fall, so I’m still way ahead of where I expected to be at this time.

I leave you with a translation of a poem by Mario Benedetti that was shared on the MĂ©rida es cultura page this morning. You can read the original here. Translate did a decent job, but I’ve cleaned it up slightly. Some lines just do not translate well into English even though they do in French.

Do not give up, you’re still on time

to reach and start again,

accept your shadows,

bury your fears,

release the ballast,

resume the flight.

do not give up that life is that,

continue the trip,

follow your dreams,

unlock time,

run the debris,

and uncover the sky.

Do not give up, please do not give up,

although the cold burns,

Although fear bites,

Even if the sun is hiding,

and the wind is silent,

There is still fire in your soul

There is still life in your dreams.

Because life is yours and yours also desire

because you’ve wanted it and because I love you

Because there is wine and love, it is true.

Because there are not wounds that time cannot heal.

Open doors,

remove the bolts,

abandon the walls that protected you,

Live life and accept the challenge,

recover the laugh,

rehearse a song,

lower your guard and extend your hands

unfold the wings

and try again,

Celebrate life and take back the heavens.

Do not give up, please do not give up,

although the cold burns,

Although fear bites,

Even if the sun goes down and the wind is silent,

There is still fire in your soul,

There is still life in your dreams

Because every day is a new beginning,

Because this is the time and the best time.

Because you are not alone, because I love you.

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Once Upon a Time in Mexico

I collapsed on the couch with Bonita when I got off work around four. It was much too late for a nap and too far to bedtime to stay there. I decided I had enough on my Bodega Aurrera list to make it worth trying to get there and back on the bus. What a success that was! I had no wait time worth mentioning at either end and it was practically door-to-door service — much less effort than wrestling the truck out of the parking bay!

On the way home, I remembered that it’s Monday and that La 21 would be closed, so there went my supper plans. I had a nice German sausage at home to convert into a hot dog, but nothing even remotely bread-like to use for that purpose and not even any flour on hand to whip up a flat bread. I dropped the groceries off at home, told Bonita I’d be right back, and headed into the growing darkness to get what I needed for dinner.

My destination was not a store. This is Mexico, after all, where the best treasures are rarely found in stores. Sometimes, they roam in the dark streets of your neighbourhood, ringing a bell to warn you they are coming. And sometimes like tonight, they are found under a lamp post and surrounded by a bunch of men chatting.

The cart they were leaning against was promising. I sized up the group and called out to the man at the head of the cart, “You selling bread?”
“Sorry, ma’am. All out of French. Got some pan dulce and a croissant left, though.”
“The croissant would be perfect, thanks!”

He bagged up the croissant, I passed over 5 pesos, and then I walked the few blocks home in inky darkness. Not the supper I’d planned, but a sweet bready Mexican reinvention of the croissant plus some wurst plus some mustard wound up being the quick and easy supper I needed after a long day.

“French” (frances) is what passes for a baguette around here and seems to be at least as if not more popular than tortillas! You can get them fresh at almost any little convenience store, race out into the night to catch a cart when you hear its bell in the distance, or you can sometimes stumble onto a scene that feels like a euphemism for a drug deal — as it should, because that carby goodness is addictive! 🙂

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Sunday Surprises

Yesterday, an ad on the local garage sale site caught my eye. As an avid walker, I have strong opinions on footwear and one of the best types of sandals out there are made by Teva, which are not readily available in MĂ©rida. A gal I’d bought from before had a brand new pair in my size for sale! I contacted her to ask where I could meet her to pick them up. She said she was downtown but would be at the Chuburná de Hidalgo market most of Sunday. So if I couldn’t meet her there, then I’d have to go downtown on Monday. I don’t know who was more surprised, me that she was going to be at the market I was planning to go today, or her that an expat lives close enough to that market to go there weekly!

We met up at 9:00 and I tried the sandals on to make sure they fit. Yup!

They’re definitely not a model that I’m keen on for daily wearing (much too casual), but I’ll be so glad to have them if I’m only running errands.

As the seller and I had met up a few times before, she kind of knew me and said that she also had a skirt for me to look that she was sure I’d love and that she wanted $150 for. She was so right that I’d love it! I am going to live in that skirt from now on — it’s so pretty! 🙂 And only $150! Similar styles of skirts go for $600-$700 in the shops! That was so nice of her!

Sunday at the Chuburná market gets better and better. When I went last week, I was sad that there were no taco stands open. Well, today they were back, but in a really nice food court area. Of course, I didn’t have my phone, so I’ll have to remember to snap a pic next week!

I got in and placed my Mother’s Day call. I’d barely hung up when the doorbell rang. Who could that be? Oh, the courier company that is not FedEx delivers on Sunday???!!! Last I checked tracking on that package, it was still in Texas and I didn’t expect it until the end of the week!

The item was something I’ve wanted since I moved in, a spray mop, which makes so much sense in Mexico due to the vast expanses of tile floors, but which is absurdly hard to find here unless you want to pay very big bucks to import from the U.S.

Amazon finally had a cheap one with reasonable shipping to Mexico so I decided it was worth taking a chance on. I’m pleased with the quality even though I know that the name brand my hosts at the beach had is better. This will make it so much easier to clean my showers and do a daily pass on the kitchen floors, although the mop and bucket will be best for the rest of the house.

Eep, it’s 1PM and I haven’t even started on my very full day of work. It’s going to be a late night again!