My One Way Ticket

A one way ticket...for anybody, can feel threatening when it is purchased without the intent of a return.

I have finally purchased my one way ticket and things are starting to feel FINAL. 

This move to Nayarit has been almost two years in the making and to be honest I have often felt that it would never arrive.

My situation has always felt somewhat like a dream that I wasn't really living.  It was hard to be married for one year and then have to be separated for two.  This was a hard and long journey for both my husband and I am so glad and thankful that it has all come to an end - the separation, not the marriage.

So much change lies ahead for me and I know I will be struggling to adapt.  It is true what is said about change and the unknown.  Both are not usually welcomed with open arms.  I believe to truly be successful in my transition I will have to embrace both with my eyes wide open.  Does that make sense?

Back when I started this blog, I had no idea I would be meeting such wonderful, intelligent people.  Thank you for your comments and posts, they have helped me to see this experience in a new positive light.

On Sunday Oct. 2nd I will make the title of this blog a reality and not just a dream.

Oh and did I mention I'm very excited? 

Because I am, even if it is to delve into those dreadful things in life like change and the unknown.

My $5 Coffees

Ok, so I am guilty of enjoying the rediculousness of Peet's $5 coffees.  I can't help it, lately I've gotten much better at taking my own coffee to work and staying away from the coffee mania of Peet's in the morning but not today. 

I woke up rather early to take a family member to the bart station, 6am to be exact, and thus had a ton of time to spare before getting to work.  My solution...I headed to Peet's coffee shop near my work and orded myself a large white mocha with whole milk and whip cream.  Mmmmm. 

Since I've been back, between the bagels with cream cheese and coffees I think I've gained about 10-15 pounds.  YIKES! It's ok because I am 99% sure I will lose it all once I move down to Nayarit. 

As I passed the time in the coffee shop with the much older crowd (which is why I like going to Peet's) I wrote my nephew in boot camp a 5 page letter.  After finishing, I sat outside on one of the benches and longed for some company.  I got to thinking after about 20 minutes how much better I would be enjoying myself sitting on my new patio in good 'ol 5 de Mayo drinking a 5 cent coffee instead of a 5 dollar coffee.

My mother-in-law and I often bond over coffee, it is something we have in common if not anything else we always manage to agree when it's time for café.

Sitting outside that coffee shop made me realize this as everybody walked by me with not so much as a single "hello" much less a "good morning." A realization that my $5 coffees are just that and nothing more. 

All in due time.... for now I wish you all a good morning.

Still Here!

After receiving a concerned email from a dear friend, I decided to write this post to let everybody know I am still alive and kickin'!

I have been a terrible blogger and do apologize. 

I have encountered a couple of obstacles to blogging.  One, my home computer is dying on me.  It is a fight to get my laptop booted up and am in the process of getting it replaced as I have had it for over 7 years and wouldn't mind seeing something new.  However I have yet to take the plunge at getting a new one.

Also, I have been working 7 days a week.  Crazy right? I know.  I figure that I don't have kids or a husband at home that need tending to and so I should be able to manage the schedule.  My last day of work is Sept. 30th and until then I will be working every day except for the Monday holiday in September.

I am on very good terms with my employers and we have a mutual care for one another.  I am on a mission to complete a project at work before I leave plus I don't mind the extra cash.  I will sometimes get online at work but most of the time my project takes me away from my office and thus away from my computer.

Don't give up on me as I should be getting a working laptop soon.  Also, I have recently found out that a new "cyber" has opened up in Nayarit where I will be moving.  So keeping the blog functioning shouldn't be too difficult even though I believe the connection is via satelite.  We'll see how that goes as I hear they are not very reliable.

Tootlz for now, I will be checking in soon!

Credencial del Elector

On this last trip to Nayarit we made but one trip to Tepic and I convinced B that we should go get our "Credencial del Elector" which is one of the most important Mexican ID's in Mexico as it is the one used to vote.  I have been itching to get some sort of identification in Mexico so that I could open my own bank account and do other things.

I had tried several other times to get this identification and was told I needed this and that to go here and there when all the time all I needed to get the Credencial del Elector is the following:

1. My Birth Ceriticate (the two originals issued by the Mexican Consulate in San Francisco)
2. 2 witnesses that know you with valid Credenciales del Elector (1 of the witnesses IDs had to be from the county of Tepic)
3. A proof of residence - ie an electricity bill

I have noticed that anytime you try to do most any kind of paperwork you are always asked for a "recibo de luz" or light bill.  So now I am always armed with an electric bill when conducting business.

It turned out we had perfect timing for getting these IDs because as soon as B went into the bank they told him that he needed to get a new one because his was now expired.  In Mexico I believe they use a series number noted on the ID.  Once your series number is retired you have to get the ID renewed.

For item #2 I wasn't able to use B because he didn't have a valid ID so I only had my mother-in-law who could sign as a witness.  On the street in front of a Bancomer Bank she asked an innocent bystander if they would sign as a witness for me even though they didn't know me.  The first person she asked consented, all I remember about her is that her name was Rosario and she was from the San Blas area.  After the agent took her information she was on her way and I heartily thanked her.

The agent filled out all of my paperwork and took my photo.  At the very end of the process I was asked to sign my name and not thinking I signed my name as I normally would in the states.  I forgot that the name I would be using in Mexico would be the name on my Mexican birth certificate not my husbands name that I had taken in the states.  Hmmm I caught it after reviewing the paperwork and asked the agent to change it.  His response was that it didn't matter if my signature didn't match the printed name on the ID but that I had to sign my name exactly as I had signed it on the ID.

I was like really? How weired is that going to be? He insisted that I need not worry about it, but I know this is going to really bother me everytime I take it out for something.  I also wonder if I will have any problems.  Well I guess only time will tell.  The ID was ready for pick up on August 3rd and will remain at that office until I go in person to pick it up.  They will hold it for 2 years and then it will be recycled if it is not picked up. 

Even though my name is wrong on the ID I was happy I existed on paper in Mexico.  I guess I felt like I was officially moving.  Now all I need to work on is getting an address.  I joke and call our house number 3 1/2, but that's another story for another time. 

Tootlz for now.

My Dual Citizenship

An article came out in our local paper which mentioned resident parents wanting to get dual citizenship for their kids so that they could reap of one of the benefits of easy travel to and from Mexico.  I must say that being able to go around the long line of tourists flying into Puerto Vallarta would be a definite plus for me.

When I was 17 years old, my father told me he wanted me to get dual citizenship so that later on when he was gone I could inherit his properties (without having to jump through hoops) in Zacatecas.  Even though now I think this most likely will not happen (a whole other story), I am glad we took the time to get my dual citizenship.

Getting the dual citizenship proved to be somewhat cumbersome in that it took many phone calls to the Mexican consulate in San Francisco to get an appointment.  If I remember correctly, we made one visit to the Consulate but trying to get that appointment took almost a year. 

When my application was submitted I was 17 and by the time I got an appointment to process all the documentation, I was 18.  The woman we spoke to on the phone said that I was passed the age to claim my right to dual citizenship. 

Apparently the children of a Mexican citizen have to be under 18 years of age for their parents to claim the dual citizenship for their kids.  We explained to the woman that the paperwork was submitted before I turned 18 and it was their fault we didn't get an appointment for so long.

Finally we were given an appointment where we had to bring copies of my parents and two witnesses' birth certificates and identification cards.  Also I had to be accompanied to my appointment by my parents and the two witnesses.  Trying to arrange for this was a little difficult in that everybody we knew worked and the appointment was during the day plus we had to travel to the city. 

After the appointment the Mexican Consulate provided me with a temporary "Mexican birth certificate" until the originals arrived in the mail.  I paid for two originals and sure enough within a matter of two weeks I had them in my hands.

I am happy we made the effort to get it done because now I am finally reaping the benefits.  Mind you I never thought it would be because I would be living in Mexico.

After 10 long years of being tucked away in a filing cabinet, I will finally be putting those Mexican birth certificates to use.

Casita Update

B and I have decided that the first order of business once I move down to Nayarit is installing the electricity.

We would really like to paint the bedrooms and the walls that do not have exposed brick.  However, we plan on changing all of the electricity outlets in the bedrooms and should really wait until we can seal all of the holes where the old outlets are now.  The color in my bedroom reminds of Thousand Island dressing and does not complement the bobeda cielings at all!  The picture below is from my February visit. You can see how we closed the exsisting doorways when we added on to the house and opened up new a doorway behind where I took this picture.  Also, you can see the existing electrical wires that run up on top.  I don't know why but for some reason in Mexico they run the wires right smack in the middle of the walls and have outlets really high up.  My piano is now the new construction of the house as is the sofa and TV.  On this last visit I took curtain rods and switched out the tree branches that were being used as curtain rods ha ha.

B bought this paint at a really cheap price and thought he made out like a bandit, until he painted the walls with the paint.  The paint was so cheap that you could still see the cement underneath and after a while the paint began to peel off.  He was so mad!

You see that gap under the door?

After many reminders to B that I wanted to hang up all the stuff I had brought down to Mexico, we got to work on figuring out where we wanted everything as I didn't want them to get ruined on the floor while I was away.  It took so much work to get those things up on the walls because the walls aren't like those here in the states, they are made out of solid concete, brick and block.  Making a hole meant pulling out the drill (special for making holes in concrete), then using a dowel, and finally inserting the screw.  After all was said and done I had little piles of dust everywhere.  No wonder why B wasn't looking forward to the task.

I havn't told  B yet but I think we erred on how high to hang everything.  Looking at it now, they seem a little too high.  I also thought that maybe they look high because we don't have that much furniture in the house.  I don't know but I don't think I like where they are hmmm. 

The black frame on the wall is actually for several pictures
the cardboard inside just needs to be turned over; a task I will
tackle when I go down for good.

This is where the dining table is going to be...
I know the bathroom is not in the greatest place but we did what we could

The bathroom - still not quite finished but getting there

And last but not least.  Do you remember my Garage Sale Find?  Yep, I ended up painting the mirror a silver color, I wanted to do more with the color but didn't have time.  The cabinet I bought online was cheap and darling but the we were unable to screw it to the wall because the back of the cabinet is a cheap particle board.  I guess you get what you pay for.  I also think the cabinet ended up really high too but no chance I'm changing it now, I think I'm going to opt for a basket to put all my toilet paper in on top of the toilet.  Maybe that will make the gap look less ugly, not to mention hide those braces.  Oh well, I guess it doesn't look all bad.  I'm really liking the glass shelf I picked up at Ross, it comes in handy for the toothpaste. 

After going through my photos I realized that I didn't even take pictures of the sidewalk and patio B poured for the side and back of the house.  Right now he is working on covering the patio so we can sit outside when it rains.

All in all it's coming along little by little. 

 

Rats v. Iguanas

During my last stay in Nayarit, I had several unwanted visitors in my home.

Everyday I would sweep the house. As many of you already know, when you live in the country the floor gets full of dirt and dust very quickly.  About every other day I would find what looked to me like droppings, but I could not figure out what animal the droppings were from.

I ended up picking one up to start analyzing it and honestly it just looked like a doo doo about half an inch in size.  So I mosied on over to my mother-in-law's which is a jump and a skip away to see if she could tell me what it was.

"Es de Rana" was here response.  What? De Rana?

She said it was frog poop.  Hmm until now I never thought frogs had excrement that big.  I thought it was from a rat.  I always complain to B that the doors are way too high and that little critters can easily get under the door but he swears that once we put the tile down in the house the gap will get significantly smaller.  Until then however, I have big gaps under my doors.

It's rainy season in Nayarit and when it rains it pours.  It always seems so dramatic when it rains because it comes down so hard, not to mention the lightening and thunder sounds like it hits right beside you.  I think the rain is what brings the animals out of their homes. 

This is not the case for the family dog Muñeca.  She is terrified of any big noises and scampers into the house to hide under a bed.  She doesn't like to be anywhere else other than under a bed.  The only thing is she is not allowed in the house and so we always have to take her outside.  There are several other rooms she can go into but I think she just likes that the bed is right on top of her head so it feels safer.

She is a very good girl in that she can be inside the house for a whole night and morning and she will not use the bathroom.  We often don't know when Muñeca is under the bed because she is so quiet so she ends up spending the night with us.  One time she scared the heck out of me as I woke up to the bed moving up and down with nobody in the room other than me.  I finally got the guts to look under the bed, it was Muñeca wagging her tail like crazy which was making the bed move like crazy.

One day not long after a storm hit, I saw my sister-in-law with a broom looking on at our dog Muñeca.  I walked over to see what was going on only to see she had a present.  An iguana.  Apparently La Muñeca was in the house and my neice told her mom that she had gotten inside but that it was ok because she was trying to get an iguana.  Funny as it may seem my in-laws are scared of the things and La Muñeca knows this, so she went in the house to take care of the situation.

Muñeca was so proud of her kill that she woulnd't let me take it from her right away.  Finally I was able to get the iguana to dispose of it.  My in-laws looked at me in horror as I picked it up by the tail.  It's funny how iguanas, snakes, mice and frogs don't bother me much but put a cockaroach in front of me and I am gone. 

So what's the conclusion to this story.  I will take iguanas over mice anyday, even though they both stink.  Why?  Because I know La Muñeca will take 'em out should one just happen to get in the house!