Day in the Life

I thought some people might find a day in the life interesting. I only thought about this after Ellen woke, so you missed me getting up at 6am (first time I wasn’t roached when I did it), stumbling around, making enough noise to wake the dead (and Ellen, some 15 minutes later), bathroom, futz with one contact lens and wonder if I simply shouldn’t throw it out and go with the disposables I got in the US, tell Ellen 1754 times to go back to sleep, get in bed with her at 7am finally so she will go back to sleep and work on the computer the entire time. Wonder WHY the signal strength is “Very Low” on the Wifi adapter, when the router is only some 10feet (or less; the whole trailer is only 30ft long) away and WHY, when I’m Right Smack Dab Next to the damn thing it is only “Low”. Stop working at 8:15 and get Ellen Coconut Lala yogurt (Lala yogurt is hands down, The Best Eatin Yogurt In The Free World). The 0% grasa (fat free) version is as creamy and rich as the whole fat version. I don’t understand it, but I’m LOVING it. Get garlic together for after breakfast treat. Ellen and I have been plagued with tummy trouble, so before a doctor run, we’ll do a week of raw garlic and see if that helps. Long ago, I ran out of pure maple syrup (that we brought from the US) so I got Miel de Zanahoria (carrot honey) at the local super. I put her garlic in the Miel and she swallows it along with water. The kids LOVE the miel de zanahoria but the local Mexican kids I’ve let try it hate it. They are used to much sweeter stuff, but my poor deprived kids think this stuff is quite the sinful treat.

On tap for today; a trip to the super, another 3 hours of work, beach, dumping black and grey (oh, the fun we’ll have today!) and cleaning fan and A/C filters. We’ve been running the A/C a lot so it is time to clean the filters. I need to go to the mercado municipal for fresh chicken (instead of the crap Bachoco you get at the super) and fresh manteca (lard) instead of the chemical laden and not-fresh stuff you get at the super. I also need to go to another super for cheaper pasta sauce (30 pesos less a can) and good granola. Oh damn. I also need to get Yoga in somewhere.  I’ve only been able to practice that one time (and was sore as hell afterwards so I know I’m way out of practice)…

freakishly hot

I usually get up between 5:30 and 6am. It has taken about a week to get used to this; I’ve never been an early bird, but being out of bed before the sun even rises is really pushing the envelope for me. As long as I’m in bed by 10pm, it is starting to work out and I am not the daily walking dead by 3pm. I detangle myself from Ellen and try my damnedest not to wake her (though the past 2 days have not been successful in this goal) and wake the computer. I will try to work for 2 hours before the kids wake, but sometimes the last hour is spent in bed with Ellen telling her to go back to sleep. The boys are rarely out of bed before 9am, so Ellen and I spend an hour reading books or eating breakfast (and this is when the coffee is brewed) or sometimes she entertains herself and I work more. Once the boys are up, it is breakfast and more, cleaning and straightening and then back to work for me while I multi-task; playing Go Fish with Ellen and working on the computer. The radio is tuned to either NPR (the boys know the intro to “Guy Noir, Private Eye” on PHC and will chime in with the announcer at “This is N P R, National Public Radio”, or Jazz. Sirius has about 10,000 Jazz stations and we’re working our way through them. By 1pm I’m getting the kids channeled towards getting ready for the beach, and somewhere between 2 and 3pm we’re there. We usually are there for sunset and then back to the trailer for dinner. It is a nice routine.

Tonight it is hot and humid enough to warrant the AC so everyone will be able to sleep. Luckilly, most everyone has left the campground (there are 2 other RV’s here) so we have the juice to do so. I took the kids for a rare treat today; the pulmonas (open air taxis) that they are constantly begging me to take them on. We took a truck on the way there and the pulmona pictured above to come home. The kids spent much of the day today playing with a Mazatlan family; 3 kids right around their age range who spoke not one word of English. I sure would like more days like this; we’re here to soak up the culture and language, but sequestered in the RV park, opportunities are hard to come by. Ellen and their 6yo boy hit it off; he would speak Spanish and she English and somehow they understood each other.

Aclimatizing

Today the planets aligned or the Gods were smiling or whatever miracle took place that needed to take place and I got 4 hours of work, a trip to the store (with the kids, natch), Y O G A practice and updating the blog done and it is only 3pm. Ellen protested heartily that I would actually do something for MYSELF and not dedicate my every waking hour to her whims, but Pike offered to help and while she said she was miserable the whole time (I was 5 feet away, outside the trailer while they were inside), I’m going to try to do this every other day and then work up to daily. We’ll see how it goes. Tomorrow I might not be able to work at all. So I guess I need to recognize that attachment to practice isn’t necessarily a good thing. Ah well.

Yesterday the boys and I had a long talk about chores (and their lack of doing them). They’ve never had chores before, but with me working and Jamie having a difficult time picking up the slack, something needed to happen. A couple weeks before he and Sissy left, we instituted chores; everyone agreed with the specific chores and the need for them. For two days they did them. The cooperation then came to a grinding halt. The boys have done nothing since Jamie left and I was getting really frustrated and stressed with the workload, AND getting nothing for myself. So, we’ve decided to somewhat tie allowance to chores. They get a set amount whether or not chores are done (10 pesos) and 1 peso a day when all chores are done. If chores are done each day for a week, they get 3 extra, so they can get 20 pesos/week. We’ll see. They were QUITE motivated today. Next to work on is the incredible entitlement they feel to have pan dulce each time we go to the store.

I think we’re starting to fall into a groove and the heat is coming on. March was a very mild month in Mexico but April is starting to show the heat that it should. I sure hope we’re out of Mazatlan by May; we need to be in the midwest by July, so it is looking like Oaxaca will be a very short time if at all.

Yesterday afternoon we had a lovely walk down the beach and spent an enormous amount (70 pesos) on two raspados (see Pike and Ellen in the recent photos) and two ceviche ala sierras. It was one of the ‘fast food’ stands you see all over Mexico and the snow cones were made by shaving ice off a huge covered block. Sure hope it was agua purificada. Will we EVER learn??? I’ve uploaded a tonne of photos to Flickr and am forever grateful to Dad for dumping the contents of my “bad” harddrive so nothing was lost afterall. Nothing like having a computer-savvy Daddy.

colors of Mexico

I joined a new group at Flickr and have been concentrating on color. So, check out the photos in Flickr and let me know what you think.

We’re getting used to the absence of Jamie and Sissy, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. Last night Ellen told me, “sometimes I think of Daddy and I cry”. Sob. My father managed to get all my spreadsheets off my “bad” hard drive and I’m dancing with happiness. He also managed to get the thousands of pictures I never uploaded to said Flickr and, well, basically saved my sanity. I’ve updated our expenses and am happy that even with the outlay we’ve made to get M down here so far, our expenses haven’t taken a huge hit. Course, the fact that the kids and I are averaging $25/day in expenses down here doesn’t hurt. We’ve really been frugal and it is making a huge difference. I’m sure I had something to say, but either it has escaped me or I simply wanted to point to the pretty pictures…

the mind of Ellen

So we’re making sand castles or forts as we do daily, and Ellen, feeling not so hot, remarks that they probably won’t last 100,000 years. “No”, I agree, “they won’t”. “How about our family?” “No, we won’t last 100,000 years either.” “Even this city?” “Well, probably not.” “Not even this world, or this universe?” “Hmm…not sure; maybe not.” “Not even CANADA???”

Apparently, Canada ranks pretty high with this 4 year old.

The other day she asked me who would die first. Papa, Tata, her or our family. Golly, what a hard question. She really wanted an answer too; she wouldn’t be swayed with what I’d like or anything. Sorry, Mom. I went with age. 

I’ll try to post more frequently, even if it is nothing, but regularly update Flickr even when I don’t post.

Stuck in Margaritaville

Jamie and Sissy safely arrived in Reno, spent at least one night in Crazytown, picked up M and his stuff and are now safely surrounded by my family in the Bay Area. It is looking to be a long trip. He took my computer to CompUSA and they reported the hard drive is bad. It left here with a very functional hard drive; simply a broken display and CD/DVD drive. It never occurred to me to copy my data to the Internet (I tried to copy to a CD/DVD but couldn’t) as I had no problems with the hard drive. It now appears all my data is gone as CompUSA has removed the drive. Ugh, argh and sigh. All my budget spreadsheets, financial information and pictures are gone. I’m trying not to think about it.

The kids are doing fine; it is actually somewhat easier to take care of 3 kids instead of 4+Jamie. I’ve been getting up at 6 each morning to work and every morning I find I’m getting less and less work done before Ellen awakes and demands attention. I might have to start getting up at 5.
Really, there is absolutely NOTHING going on other than laundry, grocery shopping, cleaning, cooking, working, taking kids to the beach. I rarely get a chance to email or update as I promise the boys that if I can get 5 hours of work in before I put Ellen to bed, they get the computer to play Runescape. Everyone is so sluggish (until we’re at the beach) and I’ve found it is taking them 2 hours to get ready to go to the beach. I can’t imagine where I can fit Yoga in and haven’t had an opportunity to practice since we left Celestino.

So here is the nothing update; nothing happening and nothing worth noting. Sigh.

fly away little birdie

Jamie and Sissy are on their great adventure to pick up our friend M.  The trailer is terribly empty and it feels like we’re all missing an appendage.  Ellen seems fine but the boys and I are quite lonely.  I never imagined we’d all feel so empty without those two.  Jamie’s been gone before, but without he and Sissy, here in Mexico, it feels like an impossibility that we’ll see them again.  We travel so very slowly that it is hard to imagine that they’re in Los Angeles right now, going through customs and changing planes.