Christmas And Observations

Alex, our daughter, turned to me on the morning of Christmas Eve and asked if I was going to be working on Christmas.  I told her "no" and that we were going to have a family day for the holiday.  She said that it really wouldn't be a "family" day since mommy wasn't home.  Ashley, like 1000's of other flight attendants, were working hard to get other families to their destinations for the holidays.  Little did Alex know that Ashley's schedule was rearranged last minute.  She had a 30 hour window to be able to come home for the evening on Christmas Eve from Atlanta and be here for Christmas presents in the morning and fly out again mid day Christmas to resume her schedule later that night.  Ashley was able to get a ride from the airport with our neighbors who were on the same flight and arrive to surprise the kids Christmas Eve afternoon.  Tired and sick she still made it here to share the holiday with the family and make the day very special for the kids.

As quickly as she arrived she was off again for Atlanta and the next time she saw sleep time was in Santiago, Chile.  So, yes, after getting into Atlanta from a long trip she hopped on a plane to Puerto Vallarta.  The next day she went from Puerto Vallarta back to Atlanta and then from Atlanta to Santiago, Chile.  A bit crazy if you asked me but she wanted to be home for the holiday and she pulled it off.  Everything worked out and the kids were thrilled.

Our 2.5 foot fake tree.

Observations.  This time of year the marketing for gift giving on TV etc is unbelievable.  The commercial push for buying more, more, more is unrelentless.  Even as a kid I remember the toy commercials during Saturday morning cartoons and looking endlessly through the back of the Sears catalog where the toy pages were looking for ways to pad my Christmas list.  The kids knew that Christmas was coming and were excited but not crawling out of their skin like I was at their age.  We had a small tree and when the lights went out on Christmas Eve the few presents were laid out for them.   When they woke up and unwrapped their presents they were totally content and happy and went about playing with some of their gifts.  What happened?  We don't have the exposure to marketing here that we would have in the States.  No TV or radio that we listen to.  The kids spend some time on the computer but that is about it and few of their friend's families have the means or desire for excess.  Take away the avenues for the "marketing machine" to influence and what happens?  Grateful and content children on Christmas morning and in general?  Hmmm, interesting.

Happy Holidays From Our Family To Yours From Sayulita!

Photo by Kirsten Wardman

Mexicuted, Part II

So, where to start.  If you follow the blog, I wrote about our summer travels and had to take the kids to my sisters because I had to work and Ozzy had a huge project that must be completed by the end of August and he couldn't watch the kids.  Well,  that project is still not complete, not because of Ozzy, but because the whole project continues to be behind schedule.  Yes, it's construction but every week since August it has been hurry up and wait.  EVERY SINGLE WEEK!  There is always a time crunch to get the project done that honestly is a mess on all fronts.  Problem solving in our lives needs to be accomplished in a certain time frame because the problems I am solving need to be taken care of in a certain amount of time before I have to get back to the States to work. I (we) depend on information, the right information, not up in the air information or information that we aren't being told. Ozzy can do it, but as I have mentioned he cannot lose hours in the shop working and because the project that "HAD" to be done in August now "HAS" to be done this week, no wait, next week, no, today, no, last week, no, ???.  The kitchen is still not ready for installation, but the pieces need to be in last week, but what needs to be done for the pieces to fit that I told you last week needed to be done are still not figured out therefore the pieces cannot go in today but I have a truck and 9 guys here to carry this 800 pound piece that you told me HAD to go in last week but the area is not ready for it to go in so just set them off to the side and bring the 9 guys back again(paid) when we might be ready yesterday.  Oh yeah, after you get it in place we need you to move it because we are actually not ready for it to go in even though we insisted it go in last week.  And once it is finished, and sealed and glued down we need you to cut holes in it because there are brackets for windows that we did not tell you about when you built it.  When you cut the concrete don't damage it or you will have to replace it. We want perfect cuts with no chips.  Oh wait,  where we told you to cut for the brackets it is not actually where we want you to cut it.  Good thing you didn't cut it yet.  SIGH!!   Sorry, I got off on a tangent.  This has been our hour by hour lives here, our sighs, our, "What the F@#%s".   More Ozzy than me, but when he is a mess it makes me a mess.  I make sure he has plenty of Pacifico and Don Julio.

So, tangent done, the main point is that we are living our lives around this project. I am bidding my work schedule around this project, and our getting things done before I leave so Ozzy doesn't have to spend time doing what I could do because he needs to be here for this project. The problem is that  all of this is being done around the "project peoples" schedules.  Read the above paragraph again if you didn't understand their schedule the first time.  EXACTLY!!

Okay, enough about the "project".  But it is a constant in our lives and has much to do with how the other aspects of our lives fall into place.  This is not necessarily a "Mexico" issue but a reality in our lives at the moment.

It has been our experience in Mexico is what has to be done now takes at least a month because of all of the extra paperwork, the mañanas, the siestas, the communication between chiefs, or lack there of, or when someone is NOT telling you what you can do do help get this moving somewhat efficiently.  Not fast but "efficiently".  We have had so many, "That would have been great information to know back when we..." moments.  Information that would save weeks, if not months, of time.  It would also save us money, mileage, tons of stress, frustrations and questions.  It is just crazy and so F#$%ing annoying.  This is where I want to loose it and go postal and question myself and my strength to live here. But, oh, it is cultural.  I understand that, but it is hard when the culture in which you have lived all but 2 years of your life is slower than what you are used to.  It is hard to understand that it is not at all important to the person with whom you are paying and depending on, the person whose job it is, (meaning, this is their job, the job that they get paid to do to make a living) to get this done today, tomorrow, next week, or next month.

 I am only speaking of our experiences as of late.  We understand things are not the same here and we have to live with that.  We have had incredible experiences with locals helping us ASAP, having all of the information we need, going overboard.  But as we all know it is those shitty experiences that we seem to remember the most.

Stay with me.  I told you I was all over the place,  there is a story here.

But not until Part III.  But that will not be until January because I have to run off to work and miss yet another Christmas with my kids.  So Happy Holidays, Happy New Year, Happy skiing and Happy surfing.

Stay tuned O and A readers.

We have been Mexicuted, Part I

I really don't know where to start and this may be all over the place because that is how our lives have been here for the past four months and I don't think it is possible to organize, especially on paper unless I were a professional writer.   This has also been a reason for the blog post lapse.  Because,  where do you start when you are still in the middle of it, when it is still kicking your ass, when you have made progress but do not want to revisit what happened to get you to the point of only still being in the middle of it.  And then there is the whole thinking of, I don't even want to write this because so many more people are going through so much more and I feel like a total shit for thinking that this is a hard time.  So, let me say, I know I don't have it bad, but this country has been showing us the difficulties, culture, language barriers like we have not experienced before.  And all of this is because we are digging deeper into living here, buying a car, owning a business, being members of this country.  It makes me question myself, am I a wimp, do I not like difficulity?  No, I do not like difficulity. What have I done?  Can I handle this?  I am a strong person, I have been through shit, but why is THIS kicking my ass?   I do know that I like simplicity, peace, knowledge, communication, when it means taking care of business and getting things done.  When people ask me if I like living here right now my answer is no.  They all say, it must be wonderful, and I am thinking, you have no idea.  This could turn into a whole psychology piece of the whys and hows of who you are and what life is teaching you.  Whatever, I am 43 I have been through that ten fold.  After thinking about it, this is nothing more than living in a foreign country not knowing the language and working and living in that country as if you lived their all your life.  A friend once told me that if it were easy living here, then everybody would be doing it.

One thing I know for sure is that Ozzy and I could not do this without each other.  We each have our own battles to fight, him much more than me. We are constantly looking at each other  with a, "what the f#$k?" look, a look of fear, disgust, complete humor, who cares anymore look, we have sighs and knoding of the head in disbelief on an almost hourly basis.

So, about those battles.  Wait a minute, why do I have battles?  Where is Ozzy?  He has taken care of all of that since we moved here.  All I do is go to work and and come home and eat bon bons.  Well not anymore.  Daddy is busy working and cannot get away to take care of business in the home.  There is no more yelling "Ozzy" and telling him what needs to be done or fixed.  I have now become the fix it girl, the bus driver, communicator, and I use that term lightly, for the most part in a world that I know nothing about because my wonderful husband used to do it all.

The View From Casa Estrella

OK, we'd be lying if we said we didn't have a kick-ass view from the house we rent here in Sayulita.  Our landlord's apartment, upstairs, has one of the best views in the whole town.  Add the fact that he is a fantastic photographer and "Wah-lah"... award winning photo taken just a few steps from our rental!  Sayulita Life had a photo contest and this photo won the best "Scenic" photo of those submitted.  Keep this one on your screen saver as the temps up north keep coming down and think warm thoughts as you sip your cocoa.

Photo by Vadja