Got internet- lost tv ha ha. Ok not really lost tv, but lost all the English channels. Thursday nite I was so happy to get internet & phone back, then woke up Friday morning to missing channels. Ha ha this is Mexico. But what actually happened is that when you first get Sky tv they give you all the channels the first month. Maybe they said that at the place but nobody translated it to me so I just thought those were our channels. Well apparently Friday a new month started. It's funny I thought I chose the packages that included the most channels in English but I did not. So we worked it out with them but it hasn't started yet. The guy said maybe today (Friday), or maybe tomorrow, and if not Sunday, then come back on Monday! Well we have a couple of stations and we don't watch that much tv anyway, mostly at nite while online...much more whole we had no online access or phone haha. One is Fox News- yeah I know- how can it be actual news when it's Fox? Well the weather is probably true, and maybe traffic...it kinda bothers me that there's CNN int'l, BBC World, and for US news only- Fox. I mean really doesn't everyone know that Fox is bullshit! That you know they're lying because their lips are moving??? But anyway I have those 3 news stations and one other station that's just movies, last nite the 2 movies were awful, a good one just ended with Robert Dinero whom I love.

So Monday is a new adventure- going to Morelia to visit Everardo's very sick very elderly aunt. It's about an 8 hour drive and we are not taking Sam. Leaving him home alone for the first tome for more than just 3-4 hours. But Eriika and Polo are going to sleep here at nite with him, feed him and walk him. The funny thing is it might be cold in Morelia, like needing a jacket!! Wow that would be the first time in almost 2 months! Let's see, this is the end of week 6 living here, and a week to get here (a hot long drive every day week). I'm dying to shave my head...not like I haven't done it before. And actually I met my husband when I was bald ha ha. Well not actually met cause he knew me, but I didn't really know him. He said "you always had this posse of women around you- I couldn't get close to you"...but he wanted to  ...
Maybe when we get back our furniture will be ready. We went over there Friday morning and 2 of 3 pieces were done, but we said no pressure, see you in a week. But I'm excited cause I liked the 2 dressers. They are narrow, 5 drawers each and in between we'll put a pole for my hanging clothes. Yeah the houses here have no closets.And we'll paint too if the big rains still haven't appeared. Tonite the sky was amazing! ha amazing has become my favorite word, I guess because I am continually amazed- and that's a good thing. I need to google to see how close to the equator we are. I mean I know the sun is closer to the earth here, but the clouds are so different here, they seem to be in layers, and the shapes! It's like an art show every evening as the clouds are different colors, the sky is different colors, and the waves come in different directions & sizes. Tonite they had this spray on top that you could see thru...never seen anything like it. And the tide was coming way way in. A guy down the beach told me that next month I'll see the water all the way up to our wall around the property. He said the sea was angry today (the huge waves and the water coming up so far). I found that interesting because Everardo called the sea angry earlier. Maybe it's a Mexican thing. Angry was a good word a few weeks ago after the storm and it was so windy- there was so much debris coming in, and tree trunks! The beach is changing shape too. Gotta get my clothes off the line- too bad I thought of it after it got dark but it looks like rain, and since I've been washing the clothes by hand the last couple of weeks..arrgghh. But now that I've used the shower next to the kitchen and seen how good the water comes out, I think I'll rinse the soap out of them in there next time.

We bought some material for curtains for the 2 windows that look towards the ocean in the living room (sala)- but I'm just gonna hang it over the wood poles hubby bought cause we both decided we like the window where we put a blue Mexican blanket with a pattern of a peacock, so we're gonna try to buy 2 more blankets with the same idea, colorful and some pattern..yippe means I don't have to sew anything....oops the clothes!

OK!! Just got internet AND telephone!! Yipee! I'm chatting with my daughter who's on a trip with friends in Europe for 17 days and talking on the phone to my other daughter! Just this morning Telmex said there was nothing they could do, that someone would have to come out and climb poles. We gave up sitting home every day and so we left...ha ha! We're back up and running! uh oh ok knock on wood!
Monday was our anniversary, it was a wonderful day. Woke up to some lovin' then he made my favorite breakfast (potatoes and eggs over easy), a walk & a swim on the beach, nap in the hammock, and finally a great dinner at out friend's restaurant, I had shrimp and he had something really spicy. How great is life???

I love that I'm overcoming my fear of the ocean. I mean a healthy fear is good- and to be so shocked at the power of the water, well it's a good thing and I'm just thankful it worked out ok. But now I want to go back to loving being in the sea...ha ha afraid only of sharks! So each day I walk a little closer to the rocks, and playing in the water not near the rocks is a gas. The first time was the other day, and altho' I loved it, I stayed close to Everardo. Then yesterday I took Sam for a walk down to Chela's but she wasn't there so I started back. Then this young woman, Carol ran up to me. She's here for a month, then back in Dec with her kids. Her husband is from here and is working on a house or a hotel they're building. They came from Fort Bragg! Less than 100 miles (I think) from Petaluma. They also drove down but thru Tijuana, Sonora, Sinaloa, etc. We went to Texas and crossed next to Juarez. But she said it was uneventful. The US does a really good job scaring people away from Mexico trying to keep the dollars spent in the US. But I have been about 4 times now to Acapulco, and seen nothing dangerous, and the news was just showing record crowds at the beaches there.

Anyway she and I started chatting and then decided to go in the water. It was great, and funny thing is, after it gets about waist deep then it gets shallow again for about 200 yards. The waves are amazing, they start to go back out and run into the new ones and make a big crash, it's fun to get caught in that. I've never seen this before, maybe it has to do with the currents & the rocks. It's funny if you go in one area, the waves pull you one way, and a few feet away they pull you the other. The waves cross each other and go in different directions.
So today we went swimming again with Tony, 3 yrs old and fearless. And I was pretty fearless too. I hope I go swimming every morning. Altho ha ha afterwards it feels like naptime! The only bad part was that Everardo lost his wedding ring in the ocean while we were playing. And to add absurdity...we looked for it! ha ha! He noticed after we got out and walked up the beach. So we went back into the water to look! Hmmm maybe somebody in Hawaii will find it with a metal detector!! Totally sucks- it matched mine...but oh well what can you do.

Maybe tomorrow our furniture will be done. It was supposed to be Tuesday...but this is Mexico...but anyway having furniture "made" is pretty cool, just saying, well we want three drawers across the top, and cabinets underneath....we gave width length and height, and that's it. Of course there's a chance I won't be ecstatically happy...ok knock on wood again. 

 I haven't had telephone or internet for a week. The entire town. Maybe tomorrow...anyway we came to another town and I'm at my first cyber cafe ha ha!
This morning was amazing!! There was a town election for a new Commissioner- kinda like the Sheriff...anyway it was an "open vote" so everyone could see how each person voted. There's only about a thousand people in the town and most of them were there. Lots of yelling, arguing, jostling of people trying to get up to the front. Then when it's your turn you are given a marker and you mark a 1 on the side of this huge whiteboard for your choice (between two candidates). I couldn't understand most of what was being said but it was VERY lively! It was very exciting to be a part of it! After everyone voted they counted up the tick marks and the difference was 1 vote! Very cool. A huge argument ensued when my friend Chela took me by the hand up to the front to vote! She and Rosa were arguing that I was a land/homeowner and was entitled to vote. I had to show my residency card and then was handed the marker to vote. Of course that all took some time and lots of "lively" discussion between several people but it's funny my husband was able to just walk up and vote. He left Mexico when he was 16 and so never voted here before, and never in the US. It was my first Mexico vote too. This is a small town and so elections are held in the manner decided by...I guess the equivalent of the town council, I was told they are not usually "open", but sometimes they are. Ha ha Chela yelled at me "Tu errres Mexicana!!"

I wish I would have kept track of things while we had no internet all week. We went to Acapulco yesterday and brought Chela's daughter Eriika with us, 16 yr old. We bought a fridge! yippee! Since the one we had was apartment size and built in about 1950! We also bought paint for the inside of the house, but not the upstairs yet. I am very excited about it; to see it when it's done. Lavender, oranges, yellows, and one red. Also, Everardo built 2 tall bookshelves that we put on each side of a window and they look great! He also made shelves for towels and sheets for the bedroom.  ha ha too bad I didn't see how good he is at this before we went to a guy and bought some furniture. Well it's pretty inexpensive for wood, and we got to choose what we want it to look like and it will be ready next Tue (well in 3 days now). We ordered a "chest" for the kitchen; 3 drawers across the top, the shelves below with sliding doors- and the top will also be a work space. Then two 5 drawer dressers for the bedroom. Then we bought a small table and a taller one with 2 drawers and a shelf low underneath that we put the tv on...these are the 2 pieces I saw last week when we decided we wanted this guy to build some for us. And it's all good. Hubby is gonna build another shelf below the window in between the 2 bookcases and also a cabinet to put next to the bathroom in our bedroom and put the small one we brought with us in the upstairs bathroom for guests. Both Rosa and Chela really liked what he built and were asking for pieces for their houses- he said sure- you buy the wood, so we'll see. 

English classes are going slowly, the kids don't always show up & to be fair, last Monday I was stuck at the bank...but another mom asked me for her daughter so I expect 6-8 kids tomorrow...And I have 2 teens now. I'm thinking tonite I'm gonna try to make them something about regular and irregular verbs...then try to give them homework like writing sentences using verbs, present & past tense and the personal pronouns...

I find myself struggling sometimes with my own language issues. I know it takes time and I've only been here 5 weeks. But it's hard to sit inside my pea brain, alone, isolated. So last week with no internet or fun was especially sucky. With the phone I can call the US for free, and with internet, well I can do this, or Skype, or online AA- all of which are really good for me, I need outside stimulation ha ha and it's not fair to my husband to expect all of it from him. But my Spanish is getting a tiny bit better every day, so I need to concentrate on my intent (learn the language) and practice some humility..it's hard for me not to be in the middle of things- but I am JUST NOT, so need to get over it. Acceptance, humility....hmmm well good, just writing this stuff down helps...alot. ha ha I guess that's why people keep a diary! duh! 

I went swimming again in the ocean. I saw the cutest goat ever! (not in the sea). All white with a black head and one black leg. Oh and found out something else interesting! If you hit a cow (or any livestock) on the road with your car- the owner has to pay to fix your car! Maybe you can work out a deal with him and keep the meat...or some of each...it's like HAVE YOUR COW AND EAT IT TOO!