I'd like to say that I slept all day yesterday because I had so much fun all nite at the Virgin of Guadalupe celebration. Not. We missed it by 24 hours, exactly. Apparently the midnite mass starts on the morning of the day, not the end of the day. So the huge fiesta we heard going on with the streets blocked off was the party! We went down there about 11pm and there was food and some music, but it was winding down, the mass had been at 10pm. Everardo asked a lady and she told us the big celebration was the nite before. ooops- well ok there's always next year. We see processions every day, and the local parks have lights and Christmas displays, and lots of houses have Christmas trees in their windows.  

All morning this morning I have been trying to get my bedroom organized, namely my personal stuff, make up, jewerly, lotions, etc. I don't even wear makeup but...ya never know. However, the news has been on for the last 3 hours in the next room and I have to say here that my heart is broken for the families of the kids hurt/killed in this Conn school. And for all the kids, who survived but will forever be affected, changed by this horrible tragedy. I can't imagine what all the parents are going thru. My babies who are 19 & 27 will always be my babies. ok an now my anger..WHAT THE FUCK?? An elementary school? The shooter had connections? again...what the fuck? These are children...little children. I cannot, I do not, understand how something like this happens. And i'm not talking about the school or how the guy walked in there, I am talking about him. WTF! And how does nobody know anything's wrong? Ok ok enough from me on this.

Ok I'm back. The house is sooo close to being done. Pictures up on the shelves hubby made for me. Not all on the walls yet, though. And 2 wall candidates have broken glass that I want to get repaired as soon as possible; I know how it goes, they get put aside and....well. One is my painting of the 3 girls on bicycles- I probly already said this, but I bought it at a consignment store for $5 when Drewy was 1. It went center stage in our tiny living room in the apartment she and I had when we first left the sperm bank (my pet name for the jackass I was married to; probly enough said) It has been with me for 26 years, I always think of myself as the one in the middle- the 2 on the outsides have dark hair, but she is a blonde like me. She looks happy and carefree, ready to take on the world. I needed that back then, and need to be reminded of it now and again. The other is one of those frames where I put a bunch of family pictures in a frame; it;s rectangular, and I've had it hanging in my bedroom for about 6 years, and I want it too. Well maybe this wknd since the clutter is starting to disapate...but I must say this place feel like home.

In a way, more than the Playa Ventura house. I had all my stuff up, and it did feel like home. But never,...well I think "cozy" is the word. I guess because it's always hot, so you never really "curl up", except of course in the hammock...but no snuggling in bed or on the couch- it's too hot to be too close. I'm sure given time I would have assimilated to the heat, maybe. But I never really liked my bedroom. We were planning on moving out a wall, even three feet would have worked. Cause our bed was only an inch from the wall on three sides, so you had to crawl in and out at the end of the bed. Now we both have room on our own side of the bed, for putting on shoes, ease of getting up at 4am to pee, even making the bed- which I detested every single morning. So if we moved out the wall if would have been perfect; we were thinking of making it a big picture window cause that wall faced the sea. It would have been relatively inexpensive and looked great. That's one thing about that area, maybe all of Mexico I don't know, but Guerrero construction is really cheap. So it would have been a good idea. I'm just glad we didn't jump into it; we looked at a few things, like changing the window frames to wood, changing the doors, but luckily we decided to wait for everything until we lived there thru all the seasons...ha! Good decision since we were bleeding money down there on things we HAD to do vs "good ideas".

Have to say, I love putting on socks! I love putting on lotion! I haven't taken the Autan out of the plastic bag I put it in! Yipee. I like pajamas, and blankets. So this morning early, before I started the bedroom task, while I was having coffee, I googled the temperatures here. December is the coldest month of the year, and it's in the 60's. Not bad I say. And although it rained last nite, there is zero rain in the forecast until next summer! You know, 60's is cold, but totally bearable with levis, socks, and sweatshirt or jacket. Ha ha last nite I was wearing my sweatshirt that says "Do it sober" and we went to a Spanish meeting and I noticed nobody said anything about my cool sweatshirt...hmmmm did I say Spanish meeting? Big DUH! for me...these guys speak zero English so I'm sure they don't read it ha ha. AA is for anonymous, bt about others, I can "out" myself, and I don't care who knows I'm an alcoholic,, AA saved my life and helped me to be a much better person. I love being present for all the things that happen in my life..ha ha I'm sure my kids appreciate it! But I digress (as usual). So anyway the website I found for the temps showed 60's for Dec, then low 70's for Jan, mid/high 70's for Feb, then 80's in March. I didn't look any farther but I am happy. I realized living in Guerrero that saying hot all the time was good- was a mistake- for me. I like it to be cold sometimes, you know, the whole socks thing? And 60's is definitely cold enough for me. Then I read that the rainy season is July August and the average rainfall is 2 inches...(I think I need to re-check that one). I did see though, that it said not commonly, but can happen is 122 degrees in the summer!! 122 degrees???? Ok that might call for a small vacation ha ha.

Well Everardo finally hit a wall and after breakfast, and a little work outside, he came in and turned on his computer, and then said to me, why do I feel like sleeping? I said baby you have been in high gear for 2 weeks getting us settled, helping our neighbor/landlord, finding old friends, unpacking all the boxes you just packed up and drove for 3 days 12+ hours a day....you do get to take a break! So he has been snoring on the couch for about 3 hours. I'm glad. he works hard. He takes care of us. This place does make me feel less isolated and I'm not afraid to drive or go take care of business, but he still takes on alot. So sleep baby- all day if you want...I love you!

Ok time to take Sam for a walk. It's too cold for the hammock yet, but next month.....yeah we gotta a place for it...

I'm so happy...I have internet! I am not sitting next to the open door trying to connect to my neighbors internet- I am actually sitting on the couch and the door is closed. Well the neighbor who is also our landlord...and our real estate person ha ha, told us today she is going to try to leave (move) for Phoneix this weekend! She sold her car and so she's ready to go. She wasn't able to rent her little place out so her plan is to offer it for wknds or longer vacation. She asked us to help out by monitoring the people, and keeping the property nice- which we would have done anyway since this is our home. So we said yes and she lowered our rent. Yipee. So this is going to be all ours. We are both so happy. The yard is all ours! I empited more boxes today- having the extra shelves really helps, altho basically I empited boxes onto shelves and it still has to be arranged. The big thing is that the clothes are done! In drawers or hung up; and a few things are in bins, sweats and stuff.

So today is the Day of Virgin of Guadalupe and I think we're going to a mass at midnite, then there are other things, like singing to her? It has a name but I forget what it was. I really like hearing all the church bells. I missed that in Playa Ventura, the church had only a traveling priest and I only heard the church bells for a funeral. Here I think I will hear them on Sundays like in Sam Miguel Allende where it seems like I heard them all day. I know I heard some this past Sunday but I wasn't paying attention- they were ringing and I had it in the back of my mind.

I did not get out the Christmas decorations yet. But it feels close. I saw on Facebook a picture of my daughter's house, really just the stairs with Christmas lights winding around the banister, and at the first landing was a little table with a Santa Claus painted onto a gourd. I reconized it and started to get that Christmasy feeling...so yeah, maybe tomorrow.

Oh and we just finished eating these huge shrimps, I swear they taste like lobster. We went down to the boats and bought them off a guy so they were soooooo fresh. A purely simple meal; shrimp sauteed in garlic and onions and butter. ha ha and we ate Ritz cracker with them. It may have been the best meal I ever had.....ok well at least rivals the lobster we ate in Playa Ventura that was caught while Everardo was with the guys fishing. I took photos right before we ate, and after writing this post I'll put the pics on my Facebook.

It's cold in here. It's cold in the house when it's warm outside and so as nite approaches, it gets really cold in here. But yesterday we bought really soft snuggly comforters, one for each of us. Light brown on one side and they look like sheepskin on the other. Really soft and purrrrfect for being cozy on the couch, for internet, a good book, or just plain old watchin' tv. I think when the weather starts to change and be hot, I will love the coolness of this house. I find I'm comfy in sweat pants and tshirt, or pajama pants & a sweat shirt. Yeah, brings me back to my thoughts about redefining paradise ha ha. I think paradise is where I feel good at any given moment. Kinda like home is where the heart is. I do know that I won't ever say again I want to live somewhere that's never cold...ha ha cause it was always always hot hot hot. Sweaty push you down into the ground hot. I went to sleep and woke up sweaty, sometimes putting on anything I had to pull over my head or had elastic (or my bra) was such a drag, I sweat even more. And forget long pants or socks. you know what? I like socks, my feet like socks and shoes. Unfortunately for me a get that plantar fascitis so I need to wear shoes with arch support. All my tennis shoes have an insert, and I also wear Dansko's that are already made that way. But in Playa Ventura I only wore flipflops, and finally, after a few months I started to get it again. It can take a YEAR to get rid of it. But I started wearing the brace I bought to stretch the muscle and tennis shoes when I could. But it's just so hot, I mostly wore slip flops.

I also LOVE shoes, so now i have them all lined up in my closet ha ha after 6 months of sitting in a suitcase. But I also loved Playa Ventura. I loved the beach, my house sitting on the beach. Laying in the hammock and reading my book. Walking down to chat with my amiga. Walking to the store on the corner and getting an ice cream. The sound of the ocean. I could watch the ocean for literally hours on end. The pelicans, other birds, the iguanas sunning themselves on the rocks near me. The sun. The wonderful sun.....

Oh I saw a guy selling little parrots on the side of the road today. Then I saw his partner on the other side of the street. I'd love to have a little parrot. The people across the street have 2 birds who sign and make noise all day- I like it very much. We had talked about before we came to Mexico but it was never the right time. It's not the right time now, but, when we went back out together we saw them again so Everardo pulled over to talk about the price. We want to get one, but maybe in a few weeks, we need to be a little more settled. And we want to build a big cage, a really big cage, like a chicken coop for it. Ha ha and teach it to say "Sam- get the cat, get the cat!" That will drive Sam nuts ha ha. I heard or read once if you get one bird you can get very personal with it, but if you get more than one, they will only have interest in each other, I'll try to google it....

Well Poppi is napping on the couch and I should too cause going out at midnite it late for me--very late!  Yeah that's another thing- it's safe to go out at nite here! Last nite we went to the Spanish meeting which starts at 8pm and we drove across town and I said- wow there's life at nite! Stores and resturants were open and people had Christmas decorations lit up in their yards. Not too say there wasn't activity in the neighboring towns at nite in Guerrero; it just wasn't always safe to drive to them after dark, and we didn't know which were the safe nites, so after a while we just didn't go anywhere after dark unless it was in walking distance ha ha. People keep being surprised that we lived in Guerrero, close to Acapulco, and I'm talking about Mexicans. I keep saying we were fine, we were safe, but a guy the other day said, no- maybe you were fine, but you were not safe. You look very normal and family like, so you would have probly always been fine, but you were not safe. hmmmm, well we talked about it and Everardo agreed with the guy, I mean after all like I just wrote above, we didn't go anywhere at nite. And right before we left someone got kidnapped. Not in Playa Ventura, but close by. We drove up to Acapulco alot for things and were usually just in shopping areas; but we went much more than anybody else who lived around us. Well anyway we were fine. We never saw anything bad or scary or illegal.One time only we saw the federales with their ski masks on going into a building but we looked away like everybody else....So maybe this is better- like I said we can go out at nite ha ha!! Ok nap time...

It's getting kinda Christmasy around here. People are putting up decorations and at nite their houses are all lit up. Not all the houses by any means, but here and there. It's nice. I have unpacked so much stuff, and Everardo built a couple of shelves today, and then we bought a brand new dresser on the side of the road for the equivalent of about $46 USD, that I might, just might, put up some decorations here in the house.

Yeah him making those shelves helps alot! I can't keep unpacking with no place toput stuff and I have alot of knicky knacks. Actually one bookshelf he built this morning was supposed to be for my clothes, and I bought a couple of plasic boxes for the top shelf for underwear and socks, but then we spotted the dresser on the way home from Chinese food, after dark. But we got home and it actually goes with the room. So the chinese food sucked- big time. The red stuff they give you with the appetizer, kinda sweet, on the won tons, or whatever crispy thing they give you, or eggrolls. Anyway it was red...ha ha it was ketchup. I'm guessing there's a better Chinese food place here in Pto Penasco, but we'll have to look for it. We were driving home for the store after getting more hangers for clothes, a couple of comforters for watching tv and the middle of the nite when it is really cold, the aforementioned plastic boxes, some super glue fot a couple of items that had a bumpy ride up here from Playa Ventura, and some candy for a pinanta for a posada tomorrow nite, ....and we drove a couple of new roads just for grins and to have a  look, when we spotted a Chines food place. So we said what the hell, lets give it a try, laughing because after o on the way home from there- and HEY! I just realized we didn't get fortune cookies!- anyway we saw some furniture on the sidewalk, so we slowed down.

Now furniture on the sidewalk is not a novel site. This town is king of the garage sales & flea markets. People just hang clothes on their gates & fences, put stuff in their driveways and the sidewalks every day, all the time. And you can literally find anything. Not sure if I already said this, but a guy offered Everardo a house for sale at a flea market! $40K I think it was...We bought a fridge the other day from the sidewalk, but actually ended up geting it from a woman who wanted the sidewalk guy to buy it, a couch from a second hand store along with a toaster, and now a dresser. The thing is, wood os more expensive up here than down in Guerrero, and it's much drier, not as good. He spit a couple of pices today that made them unusable. So we spent less on the dresser than we did on the wood, and I wanted more shelves built. He did build a tall one and a shorter long one with the wood he had, so both of those will hold knick knacks and photos...It's nice to have a truck, we just pulled up, had a conversation with the guy, and threw the dresser in the back. Poof done.

So yesterday was my birthday. We ate the octopus for lunch, Poppi made a kind of cerviche at first, then changed it up to a soup. I was not nuts about it. Too rubbery. I think maybe cut in strips and dipped in egg and cracker crumbs and fried? Not sure, gotta google it for next time. Later we went out to get me a birthday cake and ice cream- ooh the ice cream I fogot, gotta get a bowl right now. Ok back, so we went out and decided to try the sushi place. Ha ha sounds wonderful? And oh yeah the Sky tv guy came and yipee we have tv...ha ha of course small issue. The cable box thinks we are still in Guerrero so the time is an hour ahead. That would be fine- so what right? But the shows are also on an hour early, kinda weird. We called this morning, and wow- yes wow- 2 guys actually showed up at our house!! But they were stymied- they had no idea why it was doing that...same as both people on the phone we talked to. But they decided it was because the box hadn't been "actualized", and said they initiate that process as soon as they got back to the office. ha ha ha ha so in 3 or 4 days when it isn't fixed we'll call again. Maybe they'll just switch out the box, or maybe someone who works there will actually know what to do cause it's not new- when you change locations you take the box with you...

Ok so we sent to sushi...it was horrible terrible ok laughable. It came out on these huge hamburger patty size blobs of rice, with the thinnest piece of salmon you ever saw. And somehow the server said, si, si, si,si, si,.....but only the first and last si were actual acknowledged. Cause I ordered 2 orders of about 5 things, and then a roll.  We got 2 pieces of sushi, salmon and maybe halibut, and the roll. As it turns out, that was fine since the huge rice patties would have stacked up and we would have gone home hungry. We went home hungry but not broke...We stopped at a place called Candy Cake and looked for a birthday cake, but the truth is Everardo doesn't really like cake and if we bought a regular cake, I would eat the whole thing in a couple of days....so I got a tiny oreo cookie cake, and some chocolate and vanilla ice cream.  I love to have any flavor, and vanilla on the bottom so that;s what I finish with. I got tons of birthday wishes on facebook and talked with both my daughters. My brother and sister both wrote nice emails that I haven't replied to yet, so it was a nice day all around.

So lastly I'll tell about the huge Christmas thing going on down the street at the big church. Lots of fireworks and music, the street is blocked off and I suspect there's lots of food and I know there's dancing. The big celebration is tomorrow, the 12th, for the Virgin of Guadalupe so we'll probly go down there. I'm happy to say that Sam was not freaking out from the fireworks booming and that's a good thing, he must be finally getting used to it and understand it won't hurt him. In Playa Ventura he really got scared, poor baby. But he and I went for a small walk tonite and they were going off really loudly and he was fine. Our road is a nice wide road, and not busy at all; I'm starting to explore a little, and am actually recognizing routes. Ha ha yippee cause in a couple of months when this town starts filling up I'll be able to use all the side streets.....

Ok now I am current! Today was nice. Went to a meeting at 9am and it was a guy's 13 year sobriety birthday so there was cake....mmmm chocolate cake with whip cream and a cup of coffee. I was in my own fantasy and missed much of what was said ha ha. On the way home stopped for a taco breakfast at one of the many many stands. Some are only open at nite from like 6-8pm, some only in the morning like this one. He said see these people, they're regulars, and when I said well we could become regulars, I like this place...he said we have lots of places to check out and see which ones we want for our "regular" places...anyway I really like this place- the tacos were so good, and he had some kind of thing in a bowl with tortillas on the side- I kinda thought it tasted the same as mine...

Then in the afternoon, after some unpacking, it's getting down there, but until Everardo is able to make the 3 bookcases, our clothes are kinda stuffed everywhere. I want 2 bookcases for our bedroom and we'll put our clothes on the shevles, and I'll use small plastic boxes on the top shelf for socks and underwear. It's crazy to but dressers when we won't take them back to the states in a couple of years or whenever we decide to go. And here it's ok that they sit in the air, not like Playa Ventura ha ha where literally everything has to be covered up all the time or it will be rusty or rotted or just grimy from the salt. The bookcases he built in Playa Ventura were great; I used them for books, but I had one in the bedroom for all the bathroom stuff...Anyway he's very good at building things but I do NOT want him being the project guy again, except on stuff he chooses to do. So he's going to try to get wood tomorrow, but we also have to wait for the Sky tv guy and hopefully get to Telmex for internet, so vamos a ver.

Yeah we waited all day Friday and all day Saturday for the Sky tv guy, and after saying on Sat he'd be herein the morning, then 1pm then 4pm, we left a liitke after 5pm cause we had this dinner thing, and the guy called at 6:30...and wanted to meet us...and it was already dark..Poppi said no way so we begin again tomorrow..and we don't want to go to Telmex and miss him, so we have to do one thing at a time. We're still using the neighbor's internet with her permission but we need to get our own this week.

So the dinner...well not sure what I was thinking, but it was a disappointment to say the least. ha ha yeah what WAS I thinking. We get there and it says something like weekend ministries. These people are renovating this old abandoned hotel, and I thought it was for housing for the poor... well it's for people to come down from the states- mostly Arizona I think and do community service for a weekend. It costs like $39 to stay all weekend including food. You have church-y stuff, then out to do your service. And this is where- for me- I had a problem with it. Their "service" was building churches! HA! Churches? I don't think Mexico, and Pto Penasco in particular need anymore churches. There are people who need shelter, need food, need fresh water. So I was kind of uncomfortable. I mean I guess the weekenders had/have good intentions, but to me, misguided. I did hear about the kids getting involved in learning craft making and there are these craft fairs for tourists every couple of weeks and they can make some pretty good money. But, the kids were learning this stiff while their parents were...building churches..and maybe there's pieces I don't see or understand, altho' I totally understand somebody is making some serious money and it's not poor Mexican....get my drift? But like I said maybe I'm missing something. We went as guests of this couple I really like and I like their enthusiasm and commitment to the community. The guy, Richard was telling us about bringing water out to this area that is nicknamed "the invasion" or something like that. (in fact hearing about this, bringing fresh water out to this place is why I was interested i the first place but apprently that's either not connected to this or- well I'm just not sure). So this area (invasion) is a place that is inhabited by all these workers from other states like Chiappas, Michocan, Durango, etc, who came up for all the jobs building hotel, condos, etc. There was tons of work. Then the US economy tanked, and so did Puerto Penasco's. These people were suddenly out of work, and nothing to go home to, so they simply stayed. I'm hearing this area has no water and no electricity (and I had the arrogance to complain I have to wait a few days for internet and tv- just a little humbling eh?), anyway Richard was hauling fresh water out there and then something about giving kids a ride to school- THIS is what I was interested in, but I remain unclear of who he was involved with during this and I plan to ask him. I'd like to contribute my time/help in my community and I think here there is a lot of need and a lot of opportunity....so we'll see.

So.....after we ate, we left, we did not stay for the Christian music program or anything else. BUt it was an experience, and although I am not interested in joining anything with that group, I did hear a few things that I am interested in so again, vamos a ver...

There are so many building here that are unfinished, in all stages; some almost done, some barley started. Tons of places for rent and/or sale, both commercial and residential. And I hear different things about whether it's starting to recover, to pick up, so it will be interesting going forward. I guess I'm happy we got here while it's quiet, well relatively quiet ha ha, lots of Christmasy stuff going on, streets blocked every day with one march or parade or another. There's a big church down the road that has been very busy and in a couple of day (Dec 12 ) is the day of the Virgin of Guadalupe, which apparently is a huge festival, so we may wander down that way for that one.

Ok we finished off today taking Sam to the beach to run around. It was low tide again and so you can walk on these rocks, or maybe it's coral, and there's tide pools all around, pretty cool, and the water is shallow way out. There were thousands of birds all diving down in this one spot so there must of been a huge school of fish, and there weren't any waves, It's not open ocean so the water sort of laps in...You could see the birds grabbing fish! Then some boats came thru, a fishing boat and the a sail boat just as the sun was setting. I am very happy to report that there are very beautiful sunsets here just like in Playa Ventura where the sunsets would take my breath away...every single day! So Poppi bought some octopus from an old man on the beach and we brought them home live...gonna have a feast. We posted pics of them on facebook; I need to figure out how to add pictures to this blog! Now the evening is cool, we'll sleep with a blanket (very nice after 6 months of sweating all nite and tossing and turning). It's nice to roll over and snuggle with Poppin in my sleep or barely awake, I miised that when it was so hot all nite every nite. I am sleeping so much better just in the last week.

I loved Playa Ventura, but again, it should have stayed a vacation spot. It's like if you love chocolate cake with chocolate frosting...if you eat the whole cake, it's just not that great!! I feel like I have found myself again, I know it's lots of things...being in a bigger place, hearing English at least a little bit, not sweating ALL the time, getting to go to AA, ha ha not being afraid to drive here...not feeling isolated...
So time will tell. I really like this house even though it is falling apart ha ha, but not our job to fix it since we are only renters...I like the layout, I like the kitchen in the house, not across the patio when I want a snack in my pjs ha ha. Oh and I like that we can go out at nite! In Playa Ventura once the sun goes down you need to be home' well you can go to your neighbors, but not to the store which is in the next town, or to a meeting. Here it's safe. I heard there's some guy (low profile cartel type) who has laid down the law, leave tourists, visitors and the general public alone or deal with him. hmmm sounds good to me...Of course in Guerrero all the killings and stuff was happening between the bad guys, and if police got killed it was usually (maybe always?) because they were in bed with the bad guys. Unfortunately there are alot of corrupt police, both federales and state police. But I do know there were also some kidnappings...and also some vigilantes who chopped off the heads of some kidnappers right near where we lived, so the bottom line was we were careful and stayed home at nite. And I not sure if up here it's safe to travel at nite between cities, out on the highways, but Pto Penasco is big enough that whatever we need should be right here...like ice cream...I am craving ice cream...