Gran Opening

For the past year or so, they've been flattening the land, closing my exit lane, bringing trucks of cement and asphalt, building up this huge thing, flattening some more, bringing more trucks ...
All of this for what? To build another Wal-Mart 4 minutes away (by car) from my house. AND to add to the fun, a mall around it of course! With my favorite store in town renting a local there: The Bookstore. Woo-freaking-hoo!

Every single day for the past 12 months, i passed in front of the building site each morning on my way to work and each afternoon on my way back home. I had the feeling it was not going really fast. But i mean, how long does it take to build from scratch a supermarket and a mall around?
Towards the end though, it just goes crazy. One morning, i passed in front of it and there was the traditional dozen cars parked on the street, trucks coming in and out of the site, this big flat piece of land where the parking lot was to stand one day ... And that very same day, the parking lot is done, there are palm trees planted on it, lines drawn on the floor and a massive huge banner saying proudly: OPENING SOON.
And then you see this line of people waiting to be interviewed, and another big banner saying "hiring now" ... We're getting closer!

And then this very morning, on my way to work, surprise, no car on the street. Not a single one. I thought, mmm, weird. But i realized it was still pretty early and oh well, there'll be cars all over the place this afternoon. Well i was wrong ... There were cars all over the place, yes, but all over the parking lot! Cars coming in and out of the parking lot, people coming in and out of the damn supermarket. Damn it why didn't they SAY it? Why didn't they say that TODAY was THE day, the opening day.

Of course I'm not gonna go today. I never go to Gran Openings. Come on! It's a supermarket. Not a "one-of-a-kind" shop that's nowhere else to be found. It is a Wal-Mart supermarket, exactly the same one that i see everyday from the pier i work onto. The very same one that people from the cruise ships are so eager to visit when they come out of their boat. So no, i wasn't gonna go today... Of course not! It is JUST another supermarket.




Tomorrow's pay day i am so going.

No Need To Argue

I have always said, sometimes songs say it better. Things don't always come out the way they should or the way you'd like them to ... Life goes on ... Some people really should remember that!

There's no need to argue anymore
I gave all I could
But it left me so sore
And the thing that makes me mad
Is the one thing that I had

I knew, I knew, I'd lose you
You'll always be special to me

And I remember all the things we once shared
Watching tv movies on the living room armchair

But they say it will work out fine
Was it all a waste of time
Cause I knew, I knew, I'd lose you

You'll always be special to me

Will I forget in time
You said I was on your mind
There's no need to argue
No need to argue anymore
There's no need to argue anymore


No, it's not always JUST about me ... personally, i am fine. Really. But thanks for worrying.

What Goes Around Comes Around

This is not gonna be a fun post. This is not gonna be a long post either. I have just realized that life is way too short to fuck around. I mean i just read in the news that Roman Polansky was arrested for pedophilia 32 years AFTER the facts. THIRTY TWO YEARS. You think you can get away with it all. Well no. Not anymore. This is the best era EVER for world wide instant communications, this is also the worse era EVER to nurture the illusion you'll get away with your crimes or with your wrong doing. Be nasty, violent, rude whatever, eventually, you'll get it right back in your face.

Just saying ...

Wii-Fit and Me

My friend Ivonne's daughter has a Wii. I first thought it was like a PlayStation or a Nintendo but no. Not really. OK not at all. OK maybe a bit.

I love video games, always did, even bought a Nintendo NES, waaaaaay back, loved to play Mario Bros, screamed like a nutcase when i finally managed to deliver the princess and was very much in love with 2D. I even remember the big "competition" between the Mario's fans and the Sony the Hedgehog's fans ... Making you feel old? Haha.
Then came some more elaborated stuff and along with it, the dreadful 3D. I was fine with the shoot'em up games and the platform ones. When Mario could suddenly go deeper inside my TV, that was just too much for me. With the tri-dimensional video-games came my complete loss of interest. Or maybe was it because of my age? Hmm.

As you probably already know, i don't own a TV let alone a games console. But i have heard about the Wii and was slightly intrigued. So when Ivonne told me that she had played Mario Kart on her daughter's Wii, i told her that i NEEDED to play too!

Talking about 3D ... Holy crap. Wii really is something different. And even though i must say i didn't lose all my abilities at video-games, there was some serious ass-kicking going on that day. All done by an 8 years old ... I am getting old what can i say?

What i didn't know, is that Wii is also a little more than just games. They now have the Wii-Fit. Just the name should have made me wince. And when i got offered to make my Wii-Fit profile, i really should have just said no. A plain flat no. But no. You don't offend an 8 years old who's created your Wii character cuz you're mom's friend. You should see the digital wii-me. Hilariously resembling. Short hair, in a mohawk (haha), blue eyes, white pants and purple shirt. How more like me can it be? Incredible.

So yeah, i hopped on the wii-stepper to get my wii-fit profile made. Which means that, on top of telling me how much i weight (we made sure we all did that BEFORE we stuffed ourselves with my chocolate birthday cake!) and what's the percentage of fat i'm carrying around, i'm also gonna know my wii-fit age. What's that? Well, you put in the wii-computer that you are 32 years old and then you do balance tests, and reaction tests, and reflex tests, and coordination tests to determine what is your wii-fit age.

Calculating ...

You're wii-fit age is 33. Uuuuuuuffffff thank god. Not too bad. One year difference.
When Ivonne's got evaluated 39 years old (she's 32 in reality), her sister 65 (she's 35) and her brother in law 45 (he's 36), i realized that, on top of being the youngest, i was also the fittest! And just to make sure it stays this way, i shovelled down half of the chocolate cake and a huge Big Mac Meal tonight. Hahaha.

But may this blog be my witness. Today, Sept 24th, 2009 was my LAST McDonald's meal and my LAST glass of soda of the year. I know it's a bit radical but i have some serious ass-kicking to do next time i hop on the wii-fit. And we shall all see the return of Digital Me ...

Overwhelming But Exciting Experience

08-09-09

I have always been concerned about taking my dog to the beach. Not that i'm worried she can't swim, but she is a bit impressive when she runs towards people, she tends to jump on people which would make more than one freak out completely and let's be honest, she has not a freaking clue of how strong she is thus when i'm talking about jumping on people, she more throws herself at people. So imagine 20 kilos, full speed, throwing itself at you ...

a) it's impressive ... very
b) it hurts ... big time
c) it knocks you down ... no matter what.

Add to this the fact that she is a 9.5 months old female pitbull in heat and that is quite something.

Taking advantage of Bart being here and excited about the idea of doing something new with my dog, we took her to the river ... For that, there are several options around PV and we started with the closest one: RIO AMECA.

Rio Ameca is a big bad ass river that is the natural border of Jalisco and Nayarit. Well, apart from the fact that to ACCESS the river, you need to go through the Federal Police Station's parking lot, we quickly realized this was NOT a good idea:
I think no translation is needed here ;-)

So we then headed further south, to RIO PITILLAL, a shallow crocodile-free river. And he surely didnt take Niki long to figure out that river=water=cool=fun=i want to stay here all day.

I must say, things got a bit overwhelming at first, water in her eyes, in her ears, she has to swim cuz water is a tad too deep, she has to hop to go against the current, she has to jump to get back on the bank ...
But it didnt take long for her to truly enjoy it, and jump in the water from the bank ... Oh she was soooo cute doing so.

But then again ... my dog is still a puppy ... and like any puppy, she gets tired after such streneous exercise and excitement. The face speaks louder than words ...
She slept half of the way back home and was such a quiet sleeping beauty after that ... I will surely repeat the experience ... Especially when we have to deal with such umberable heat ...

The Animal Instinct

08-09-09

Animal have instincts. I am not saying that us human beings don't but ours is crap. We have no clue anymore on how to be in touch with our environment. No clue whatsoever. It is not a critic, it's a fact.

Sometimes, but only sometimes, we get back in touch with it but it is so sporadically that i wouldn't say it really counts.

So here i was, sitting at my dining table when i noticed that Niki (my dog ... fff ... come on you guys, i talk about her all the time) was sniffing and scratching quite intensely at my bedroom door. Since she does that with every bug that gets in my house (and god knows how many make their way inside!), i didn't really pay her much attention.
But since she generally loses interest pretty quickly cuz she's catching them pretty fast, after a few minutes of her going back and forth, i started to look at her with some more interest. And that's the moment she chose to jump back big time. But i mean JUMP backward, like a scared cautious animal would do.

I really got intrigued. Dogs normally don't behave like that in front of a toad, a cockroach or a spider. And since she wasn't giving up but remained at a fair distance of my door, i had to check.

It's funny the way you unconsciously start talking to your dog like she could understand what i was saying. Like she didn't know what was going on. Like i'm the one on top of it all, move on, don't worry, everything's gonna be fine. Like i know it's some spider behind my door, or nothing at all but no big deal whatsoever.

Well ... i was wrong. I was so very wrong ...

I went to my bedroom, turned on the light and checked behind my door only to find this:

A BOA CONSTRICTOR!!! In my BEDROOM !! O_o

It is not that i am scared of snakes but i surely wasn't expected to find one in my bedroom. I really don't want to think about how i would have reacted if i founded it in my bed. Gloomy. Let's not think about it ...
So, not shit scared about snakes but i don't know how to recognize them let alone how to handle them.

My good fortune was that Bart was there. He was definitely the man of the situation. Breeding snakes himself, he knew right away what kind of fellow he was dealing with, how to get him out of the room and back where he belongs ... in the wild (= in the lot of unused land across the street from my house!!)
When he came back, it was to see Niki jumping up again. First thing that cross my mind was: this has got to be joke, this is not happening again, i have a nest in my house, a SNAKE NEST in my house, please tell me this isn't happening.

Well no, it wasn't a boa constrictor this time ... JUST a wormsnake - i got pictures but it looks so miserably tiny after the boa that really putting it up here would be embarassing.

But as Bart put it, what are the odds of seeing, in MY house, within an HOUR, the smallest AND the biggest snakes that can be found in Mexico?

How lucky was i ?

Nachooooooo

06-09-09

I went to the lucha. Yes, me, a white French girl, went to the lucha libre in Guadalajara. Just saying it sounds funny. People were like, what? you're going where? to the lucha? you? I mean i have no clue about lucha. I have been living here for a while now but i would never have THOUGHT about going to see masked fat mexican in stupid outfits wrestle on a ring.

Now with that said ... i was wrong. Very very wrong. Lucha libre is something that you can't understand unless you actually GO there.
We arrived a bit late, the first fight had already started (because of my tattoo session taking forever). But the ambiance was already at its hottest. People screaming and shouting and cheering and booing and whistling and clapping. The noise there was in the Arena Coliseo of Guadalajara was deafening. We were brought to our seats, the old fashion way. Lead by an old man guiding us through this tide of people. It's only when we finally sat that i realized the popularity and intensity of it all.

Do people care that 2 white people stepped in within the crowd? Not the slightest in the world. Awesome, i love it already. But the most amazing sight for me, was to look at the crowd around us. Here in the public, you'll find it all: men, women, children, young, old, every society class gathering together to cheer their favorite super-hero. And jeez do they cheer! Hearing a 6 years old little girl shouting on top of her lungs "picale los ojos" or "matalo!" is ... how can i put it ... quite special. Hahaha.

And then it happens. You get caught up in this old fashioned entertainment craziness and start cheering up as well! And you check on every single of those guys stepping on the stage and god, they are NOT fat. Well, ok, some of them are, a little, but most of them are those tall super strong, super fit and super flexible guys that women go crazy for. And they hit each other and make drama on the ring, and climb on top of the strings around the ring to throw themselves at the other luchador and strangle each other and lift each other up, and knock them down and you're in awe that such an old guy (cuz some of them really are not that young anymore) can still be THAT fit, THAT strong and THAT amazingly over-confident that he's NOT gonna get hurt. It is just amazing. A-MA-ZING.

That night i saw Averno being challenged by Blue Panther (who lost his mask some time back) and defeating him, thus keeping his title for a little longer. It was an intense and long fight. I came out with no voice left. Yes, i cheered for Blue Panther. I mean come on, the man is 49 years old. FORTY NINE (we have the same birthday date - September 18th - woohoo). This is not a sport for 49 years old men. He was gonna hurt himself damn it. I mean Averno is only 32. That is quite a difference for a sport that physical. So yeah. I was doing quite some cheering for Blue Panther. Woohoo. And men, do i love the lucha now. I know they're doing some lucha events here in PV and I'm surely gonna look up for it. Maybe I'll get the chance to see some big ass names like Mistico. And then I'll do what every groupie MUST do: take a picture with their hero.

I mean come on, if you had the chance to take a picture with your super-hero, wouldn't you?




PS: this is NOT the poster of the lucha i went to ... If someone ever finds it, it was Lucha Libre at Arena Coliseo in Guadalajara on September 6th.

Pimp My Ride

05-09-09

I went to the Guadalajara's 15th Tattoo Convention. It was my very first time in such an event and jeez, i don't think ANYTHING can prepare you to this. It happened over 2 days and i went both days - day one to observe, day 2 to get tattooed myself. Had set up the appointment a few weeks prior with Indio Reyes, a tattoo artist from Reno / Guadalajara (long story).

I have seen tattooed people. A lot. And having tattoos myself, thus hanged out in tattoo studios, obviously, met quite a fair amount of them. But what was expecting me in GDL went beyond words. I felt like a 5 years old in a candy store. But in a foreign country candy store. A place where everything i know is absent, a place where everything is appealing and strange and new and weird and creepy and awesome.

We arrived early, just at the opening. Most of the artists present were still setting up their stands. It's only after a couple of more hours that you started hearing the buzzing of the tattoo machines. That's also when you start noticing all the unusual things going on.

I saw this picture of this bad-ass scary looking guy on one of the posters - with facial tattoos and piercings and ear plugs and stuff - and i remember the first thing i thought when i looked at the picture was like: holy shit, i really hope i won't bumped into this guy, he scares the crap out of me. I should have shut up. Even though i didn't SAY it, i really should learn not to THINK that loud. Not even a minute later, some guy asked me very nicely and politely if i could move aside so he could pass with whatever he was carrying and OH MY GOD that was HIM. That very same guy on the picture, all baldy and tattooed and scary looking.
This is NOT this guy i saw. But you get the idea. A bad ass looking guy. I told you that already. And i know it's gonna sound stupid and stuff but i had this idea that all covered-in-tattoos guys were bad to the bone and groaning. So hearing this guy with such a not-matching-the-face voice was equally disturbing and unexpected.

But there are other "attractions" in a tattoo convention too. That includes loud music, spray painting, freak show (this guy eating glass and clothe-hangers like if it was my grandmother's homemade cookies), amateur lucha libre and people hanging on hooks. PEOPLE HANGING ON HOOKS. Oh yes. What is it? Just what i said. People hanging on hooks. Like the same hooks your local butcher uses to hang his half cows or pigs or whatever. You get a guy "hooking" you up, putting those bad ass massive gigantic hooks in your skin, wherever you want to hang from and off you go, off the hook (so to speak).
And you can either try to break the record like this "i'm-bleeding-all-over-the-place-and-enjoy-it" guy who got suspended for 3 hours with hooks all over, or you can chose just one spot on your body (top of the back, knees, shoulders, arms, elbows ...), hang there for a few minutes and swing like a piñata. Whatever you chose, i will think that you are a complete freak and i was so very glad i had a light lunch that day otherwise i would have pucked it all over. So very glad i didn't have to take the pictures myself ... But now that i am posting one here, i won't be able to look at my blog anymore :s

On the second day we went, i was a nervous wreck, just like before every single tattoo i have done in my life. This one being the 8th, i know the feeling. Moreover, this would be quite something for me since i was going public. Tattooing the top of your leg at a tattoo convention is quite something. Half of your butt is hanging out. So hell yeah, i did get a lot of attention. And a lot of pictures were taken. Of my butt. And when people were asking Indio "how long do you think it's gonna take?", i was hoping NOT to hear the answer ... So when he said 5 to 6 hours, i was like, oh sweet lord what did i get myself into?

Well, it lasted just under 5 hours. The last 10 minutes of white touch were the icing on the pain. I think i now know what my pain-limit is ... Just as i was about to tell him, i can't deal with it anymore, he said "you're done" ...

But oh yeah it was worth it ... Look at that! And since my legs are my everyday transportation at work ... i can now say it ...

I have officially been pimped ;-)

Interlude

It has been quite a while since my last post ... holy shit, almost a month! I've been away for most of this time thus TONS have happened to me :-)
Since blogging it all in one day would be not only stupid but also crazy, i will put a date on which i should have published it ...

Enjoy the craziness!