This below, is the reason i've been unable to write anything for so long. I went on a trip called Mexico Grande to check on it since i've been remotedly operating it for a year and a half already. I couldnt keep this blog updated cuz ...
i shopped in Morelia's candy store ...
horse-back rode in Zihuatanejo ...
saw the cliff divers of la Quebrada in Acapulco ...
enjoyed lunch on the pier of 100% natural restaurant (in Acapulco again) ...
bought silver in Taxco ...
sailed on a Trajinera in the floating gardens of Xochimilco ...
went to the Lucha Libre in Arena Mexico ...
visited the A-MA-ZING Metropolitan Cathedral in Mexico City ...
climbed the Sun Pyramid in Teotihuacan ...
discovered beautiful Merida ...
visited Chichen Itza ...
took a dip in Cenote Ik-kil
met with friends in Playa del Carmen (sorry Timo, i still dont have a picture of us 2!)
For those of you who were wondering what the heck is happening in my life since i haven't been posting for exactly a month now, please rest assured that i am still alive and that crazy stuff still happens to me on a regular basis. The reason behind my silence is that i have been traveling for work for 26 days over a month and a half period and didn't get the chance (or time) to write anything.
So stay put ... the good stuff is coming back very soon :)
So i called my mom this morning since it's Mother's Day. Well, no, it's Mother's Day in the States, in Mexico and who knows where else but not in France it's not. In France, Mother's Day is the last Sunday of May.
I called her anyway, and i told her: happy mother's day!!!!! you know with that joyful voice you use when you wish someone a happy birthday, anniversary, new job, or a happy whatever.
And she answered this:
What? Emm, OK then.
O_o
FAIL
EPIC FAIL
I have a mom.
She's kinda dead inside.
So now i feel like an idiot for wishing her a happy mother's day cuz it's not mother's day where i'm from and i will most likely completely forget about it when it's actually it in a couple of more weeks.
I know the title doesn't sound too good but i couldn't find any other expression to describe the feelings. I swore to myself i wouldn't brag about my feelings on Facebook, nor will i bother my friends (real and virtual) with pictures and videos of the kids i might have one day. I think it's annoying to a point i'll block you if you do that. True story. It happened to a friend of mine (whom i don't think he knows why we're not friends on FB any longer). Every 2 hours, he was bragging about his love for his girlfriend (who became his wife eventually) and she was bragging back and it was a constant incessant vomit of PDA. For the entire virtual world to see. And it bothered me. I mean they're both people i consider friends in real life but i don't need them to convince me they love each other. She loves you, you love her, good for you, now let's do something more interesting with your life. Who are you trying to convince? Me? Yourself?
OSH. So it's very rare i actually brag about having the most amazing boyfriend on planet earth even if i believe i do.
Having the opportunity to write whatever i want on this blog is the opportunity for me to brag about my love for Dear Beloved. End of it all, if you're reading these lines, it's because you want to, not because they're in your face on your FB's wall.
I've thought about writing this post for some time now. I just never found the moment to do so. But today is the day.
This is a post for my boyfriend, for Dear Beloved as i call him within these pages, for you Babe.
We've been together for just under a year and a half now. It's not a lot but it's still long enough to make it count. We got together against all odds and made it last against all odds too. You're very different to the type of guys I've dated in the past. You're not the kind of man i would have noticed at first, or i would have hit on, but this is most likely what made it, what made "us" work.
In my previous relationships, even the ones that have last for years, I've always found the flaw that would break us eventually.
Every
Single
Time
This little something you know someday, you wont be able to look pass it anymore. That little irritating thing he's doing, that way he has to say something, his way of life, his youth, his education, whatever it is, you know it's there. You know you don't like it and you know that one day, it will irritate the hell out of you. In my case, i know about it, work hard on putting it aside thinking my intuition might be wrong this time, this will not break us up, i will get used to it, i will like it eventually, and all the crap you can put yourself in your own head to convince yourself you didn't make a mistake.
IT DOESN'T WORK
Not for me anyway. But maybe because i'm a crazy impulsive head who tends to say "sod it, fuck it all, i'm outta here" easily. Or maybe it's because i can only take crap for so long. Love is blind and it makes you do stuff you wouldn't normally do but if you're down miserable, why the flying fuck do you stay??
Well the situation here is new.
I haven't found that thing in Dear Beloved. I just cant find the flaw. I'm sure he has plenty but none of them has triggered that "get the hell out of here now" bell. And that kinda bell generally starts ringing pretty early in the relationship. Not 1.5 yrs later.
So why the negative title? Because i cant describe it any other way. When i look at him, i feel so much love it kinda hurt my guts. It's love beyond words. It's Love with a capital L. It's THE person you want to meet in your life, he's the one who makes you feel alive, who makes you feel beautiful and loved, he who means the world to you. The person you think about every single second of the day. He's that person you feel your heart crumbling down a little when you say goodbye in the morning while departing to work, that person you miss like crazy when he's late from work or out with friends. That person you feel you can never give enough to make it up to your feelings and the fact that he's part of your life.
He's all that.
And more.
So much more.
I didn't even know it was possible to love that much. So much that there'll never be enough words or for sure, not the right ones to honor it and do the feeling justice. It's so gigantic my heart might explode! Since that'd be pretty messy, i'll leave you with this Nat King Cole sing that sums it all up nicely:
L is for the way you look at me O is for the only one I see V is very, very extraordinary E is even more than anyone that you adore can
Love is all that I can give to you Love is more than just a game for two Two in love can make it Take my heart and please don't break it Love was made for me and you
L is for the way you look at me O is for the only one I see V is very, very extraordinary E is even more than anyone that you adore can
Love is all that I can give to you Love is more than just a game for two Two in love can make it Take my heart and please don't break it Love was made for me and you Love was made for me and you Love was made for me and you
A few years back, when i was working as operations manager on the pier, receiving cruise ship guests, i was working with a very good friend of mine named David. David was that kind of happy-go-lucky people who's always pumped up even after a 2 hours night sleep. I've known him pretty much since the first month I've been living and working here in PV. On the pier, he was helping me with the check-ins and reporting to me.
One day, it was almost time for a tour to depart and he told me that he was still 2 people short. To which i asked him: what about the 2 folks lining up behind you??
He turned around, look at the couple standing up behind him and asked them:
- can i help you?
- we're with you, said the gentleman smiling.
That's when David told him this exact sentence:
- sir, speaking is the key to success, if you don't tell me you're with me, how can i know? You're the 2 i'm waiting for, now let's go!
I told him in the aftermaths that he shouldn't talk to people like this because even if he was cordial, it wasn't very nice of him. But i couldn't help thinking, damn, that is so true.
I even saw a sign with the same sentence (kinda) in a local bus here. It was saying: not because you're standing in front of the door means that you want to get off. Please request your stop on time!
All throughout my life, I've heard people telling me how lucky i am. Truth is, i don't believe in luck. I believe in getting on your feet and go out there MAKE your luck. If you don't speak out about what you want for yourself or in your life, it is not going to fall in front of you by divine intervention. People are not psychics. They don't know what you want and more to the point, they don't care enough to find out. So SPEAK UP!.
Last week, i got to the point that i was about to explode at work. I am was in charge of the operations of all the bookings we're dealing with and to get more specific, making sure that all the clients we have on the field are getting what they paid for. Our clients are picky ones. They're the type of people that will complaint because the vehicle they're travelling with is grey and not white. Because the guide doesn't have all his teeth or because they want to do Tequila testing in Yucatan even though it's not the place at all. And part of my job is to make sure they get what they want. The other part of my job was supervising set departure groups. And let's be honest, it's a different job but one i connect to a lot more. More in sync with what i like to do and with who i am.
So last week, on the verge of exploding, i went to talk to my boss and told her: i'm not happy with my job, it makes me feel miserable and this is why i don't think i'm the right person for it. However, i really like the company i work for and i would like to ask for the opportunity of getting the management of the groups part only and maybe find someone else for the other part of my job.
One week later, we had our corporate retreat week, we had personal evaluations, we had meetings and chats, and today, it's been officially announced: i am the new operation manager for groups.
JUST
ONE
WEEK
LATER
If i hadn't spoken my mind, would that have happened? I don't think so. Or maybe not that fast anyway! I'm so excited, a huge weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I'm happier than a pig in shit!
Now move over you losers, i'm gonna be queen of the world!
As some of you might know, this past week was our Corporate Retreat. And as part of it, we did an activity all together, outside of the office. And that activity was none other than the Canopy tour of Vallarta Adventures.
Since Dear Beloved is one of the guides there and that all my colleagues know him, we asked for him to be part of our guiding team. So it was pretty awesome to spend a few hours having fun with my colleagues and my man!
I've done the canopy trip more times than i can remember and even though i have a blast every time i go, i always feel like a million years old in the aftermath. Let's be honest, the tour is a blast. But how the people working there can do it up to 4 times a day without passing out is a complete mystery to me.
Everybody at work has that erroneous idea that i am super fit just because i bike to work every day. Biking is not like zip lining, biking is not like climbing either.
On the tour, the zip lining itself is super fun. The rappelling as well. But the bridges and the ladder, not so much. Oh my the ladder. I normally take the other way around the ladder cuz i had done it once before and almost passed out. But i was like, OK, i'm fitter than i used to be, let's give it a shot. That was a big mistake. It's a 20 meters ladder that feels like a mile long. After a few minutes, i was like, yeah i must have passed the half of it. I looked up and damn, i wasn't even one third through!
I had taken a shot of Ventolin prior to getting up the ladder and that surely helped me. But even though my lungs were up to it, none of my body muscles were. I mean 3 days later and i'm still in pain. Pain that comes from places i didn't even know had muscles in!
The good thing is, out of the 17 people that are part of Journey Mexico's team, i'm the 6th oldest but definitely not the stiffest!
It was an accident! We didn't expected it AT ALL! We had no idea"
This is what a dumb ass actress from Hollywood said in an interview when asked about her recently discovered pregnancy.
Seriously?
Are you fucking KIDDING ME??
You're 30+, have obviously unprotected sex with your husband/boyfriend and act surprised cuz you're PREGNANT?
JA JA JA JA JA. Oh my god, you're such an idiot.
Out in the middle of nowhere, when you're 10 years old, a century ago, ok, maybe, i'd give you the "i have no idea how this works" but in the 21st century. Dude, you're a celebrity. Everything you say will be printed and taken as an example. People will listen to your words like you're the messiah. And you come out with something THIS hugely stupid.
Oh dear god. And i thought "teen mom" was one of the most stupid shows ever produced on TV (that and a whole bunch of others i'll spare here (for now) that show how sick a world we live in (and sad and pathetic). You don't need no reality show to laugh at stupid people. You just have to watch live interviews of celebrities.
I'm not saying all are stupid, far from this. But some should really be nominated for the dumb-ass Oscar. And knowing that they're reproducing themselves on top of that, without evident clue on how on earth did that even happen to them? Oh dear, where is this world going??
THIS is what my boss told me at work the other day!
O_o
As you should know if you read my previous post, i love to sing on top of my lungs when i'm alone, especially if it's in my car. And since i don't have a car anymore, i listen to my old USB key with a pair of gigantic headset at work. It helps me focusing on the stuff i'm doing without being interrupted or distracted by my colleagues.
Obviously, i cant sing on top of my lungs sitting at my desk. I mean how about that as a distraction for the rest of them! I DO sing however, but silently. And even though i articulate every single lyrics i know and like with every song i listen to, i do so without a sound coming out of my mouth.
The other day was no exception except that my boss "caught" me in the action of pretending to be America's next singing sensation and he asked me (hence interrupting me while i was listening to a very cool song by Nicki Minaj - which, by the way, i hate (being interrupted i mean)): are you singing what you're listening to? No dumb ass i'm rehearsing the play i'll be presenting tonight at the Theater (i also used to do that in my car, rehearsing scenarios over and over until i was 100% happy and then repeating it again and again because it made me happy - long story, might write about it! stay tuned!).
To his question, i just said yes i am.
And that's when he said : come on, sing out loud then!
AJA
SURE
ERMMMM
NO
a) he himself would most likely shut me up in a pretty nasty way if i'd ever dare to sing out loud on a regular basis
and b) you really don't want me to sing out loud the songs i'm listening to!!!
At that specific moment, i was listening to Nicki Minaj (as i said) "starships" and it was that moment in the sing when she says: we're higher than a motherfucker", immediately followed (i had the USB on shuffle) by "move bitch, get out the way, get out the way bitch get out the way" by Ludacris (which is the most awesome song to sing in the car when you're overtaking some idiot driving 2 an hour: cuz "if you do the speed limit get the fuck out of my way" ...) Chanson pleine de finesse!!!
And then after that, i had the "here's to us" song by Halestorm which is also very refined in the lyrics: " Here's to us, Here's to love! All the times that we messed up, Here's to you, fill the glass
Cause the last few nights have kicked my ass. If they give you hell, tell em to go fuck themselves ...
So NO, i wont sing out loud, boss! I'll keep it for myself!
Let's be honest here. It's been 8 months almost since we crashed the car and just about 7 that i bike to work pretty much every day. Don't take me wrong, i love the biking and the exercise i'm doing thanks to it, but i miss the me-time i used to spend in my car.
It was my car, my space, my bubble and more important: I COULD SING MY LUNGS OUT when i was in it. And that was pretty much happening every single time.
I could listen to the same song 10 times in a row without anybody saying anything, i could sing on top of my lungs without worrying about being out of key or galaxies away from the high pitched keys i was listening to and it was a great lung related exercise to keep the asthma away (what? singing doesnt prevent astham attack? whatever! what do you know about asthma anyway?)
I believe i have a pretty good ear when it comes to music and i can sing a lot of songs without being out of key. I just lack the lung power. I'd love to be able to sing a Christina Aguilera song as well as she does but let's be honest, i have more of a P!nk voice! Which is OK when you sing rock'n roll songs but not quite it when you sing slow emocional songs. And even P!ink can go pretty high as well (damn her).
But in the car, without an audience, WHO CARES?
I can still sing while i'm biking but it's not quite the same you know. You get outta breath in a split second and you cant really isolate yourself from the people you're passing by. And even though i dont really care what people think about me, i can't sing along with the radio on. And wearing headphone while biking is kinda suicidal. So not so good.
I still have the USB i used to listen to in the car. I have it plugged on my laptop at work. Reminds me of the good old times in the matymobil.
There'll be a new one some time in my future.
And there'll be some more singing.
Oh YEAH!
Now sing along the only song i was singing in my head all along the writing of this post (paying tribute to P!nk :-)
"So raise your glass if you are wrong, in all the right ways, all my underdogs, we will never be, never be, anything be loud, and nitty gritty, dirty little freaks, wont you come on and come on, raise your glass ... "
I said it before and i will repeat it again and again: happiness kills inspiration. I have tons of pending posts to write, just can't find the will to do it ...
"We" as in my dad and i. It was totally unexpected, i didnt even know my dad would be remotedly interested in such a thing but we did go to a charreada.
A Charreada is a competive event similiar to a rodeo which consists of 9 events for men and 1 for women, all of which involve horses, cattle or both. And it's also the official national sport of Mexico. I know, who would have thought that i'd go there ever. I'm not fond of horses and i'm not comfortable at all with cows.
As i said, it was unexpected. Dear beloved was late to leave for work, had to take a cab, hence passed in front of the Lienzo Charro where he saw the big poster for the national Charro final. He called us right away and as soon as i asked my dad, he said, yes, let's do this today. The things you get to do when you dont have a plan!!
If we dont like it or get borred, it's 10 minutes away by bus from my house, we could always go back. Except that we didnt!
It all began at noon. The #4, 5 and 6 teams competing to see who would win the "other" final. And it was honestly a lot fun. See, you dont see a hundred riders doing the same trick over and over again. You see these 3 teams competing over a serie of 9 tasks.
So we got to see the horse galloping full speed and having to stop over a limited amount of lenght, the rider catching a calf with a lasso, then catching a foal, a rider riding a wild horse, than riding a wild bull, the rider catching the calf from his horse, then on the ground, the rider changing horse while already riding one, etc etc.
The entire ordeal took 4 hours. We were most likely the only white people there but did we enjoy it. My dad is awesome when it comes to being in places like that. He drank beers like everybody else, ate tacos al pastor and birria, like everybody else, we even rent a cushion to seat comfortably and took many pictures that i yet have to download on my computer.
We saw people wistling, applauding, sending their hats and boots in the arena, children dressed like mini Charros and mini Escaramuzas (lady riders) and we had a total blast.
We didnt stay for the big finale. We already had 4 hours of it, we were both sunburnt and even though we did had a great time, we were just tired of the noise and the dust. But we did celebrate in style: my dad bought himself a pair of boots! Leather boots with leather sole, 100% mexican made. How much i'd pay to see him showing off his boots back in France!
PS: check the link of the Charreada if you're not familiar with it to see what tasks are all about!
I could have said biking is the shit but it doesnt sound quite as right as in spanish. After quite some time without biking (again) because it was too cold to do so (i know, i know, 15° is not "too cold" for some, but it is for us leaving here in southern Mexico), i'm enjoying one more time, the pleasure of biking.
My legs are killing me, my ass is killing me, every time i get to my office's building and i have to pick up my bike and climb up two floors to get to my desk, i want to cry but the feeling of self satisfaction and the good it does to my body is worth all the pain in the world.
I sweat my ass off every single morning anf every single afternoon and it feels so good.
And let's be honest, with such a static job as mine is currently, i NEED the exercise. So my 9 hours sitting in front of a computer gets by a lot smoother. And faster. And easier.
It's also good to see my fellow sport-people waving at me as i bike by. Even the people of the bike shop wave every morning :)
The funny thing is that every time i get to the office, there's always someone in the office saying something about the bike and/or the biking. One of my colleague is even regularly wondering how the hell can i find the will to hop on my back every morning.
Biking is cool.
Biking is great.
And that's the perfect excuse to eat cookies at work ... i'll burn the calories on the way home! (or so i like to believe!)
And having my dad biking back home with me was as precious as when Dear Beloved did it some time back!
BARF means Bones And Raw Food. It's the new diet my pets are on. All 5 of them.
We heard about BARF diet some time ago, investigated through and thought: why not?
BARF diet is about feeding your cats and dogs only raw food, including bones. It means feeding them raw chicken, raw beef, raw hearts and gizzards, raw fruits and vegs, raw eggs, raw fish and pretty much any raw meat you can come across.
I know it might sound gross to some people but i mean, think about it for a minute. Your dog, before being a pet, before being a name, even before being a dog, is an ANIMAL. And a carnivorous one. What is natural for him/her to eat? Do you think if your dog was in the wild he'd eat cooked processed grinded canned food? Hell no he wouldnt. He would hunt some prey and eat it down the to the last bite.
Just like Lola did when one of the neighbor's chicken flew in my garden. Just like she did with a gigantic iguana, a crow and a rat. Just like my cats did with baby chickens, mice and even a pigeon. It's not gross, it's nature at work.
Cats and dogs are MADE to eat smaller animals. They're predators. Their jaws can crush bones. Their body can process and digest them to. They're DESIGNED for it.
We've investigated quite a fair bit about it. When i ended up finding out what kibbles are made of, my stomach lurched. Sorry for the light hearted but if you have a pet, you might want to read the following. Factories that make pet food such as kibble, gather all the meat they can from anywhere they can. Which means it's the meat that is not suitable for men consumption, meat that has gone to waste, euthanized animals, sick animals and god only knows what else. In other words, your dog or cat eats dead or sick animals leftovers, along with all the lethal products that were used to kill them, along with the plastic bags they're dumped out with, the foam tray they come into and the collars or tags they wore when alive still. Then all that garbage is grinded, cooked to the point where the few nutrients left are gone and processed to become the dry disgusting food you feed your pet.
Would YOU eat this?
Damn right you wouldnt.
Then why would you make your pet eat that?
I now go to the butcher and to the fish merchant once a week. The food i'm feeding my pets costs me 3 times less than processed pet food. None of my 5 pets have had health issue over the transition to raw food. Even my cats are eating bones without any problem.
I'm not here to preach or try to convince you to change your ways. I'm just here to mention how much sense it makes to feed your beloved pets raw food if you think about it for 2 minutes. I'm also here to ask you one simple question:
163 litres is the AVERAGE amount of Coke that an average Mexican drinks during a year. Which is, when you make the maths, about half a litre a day.
And i think that's scary.
It's scary in the sense that it's not only the Coke that's damaging of your health but everything you actually ingest with it: crisps, cookies, freid stuff, greasy stuff and a lot of wakala stuff.
But i'm not here to talk about this. Mexican people are generally fat and about (if they havent already) to surpass the American people for the sad record of obese people within the population. I've been living here 10 years and i'm not fat. Why? Because i exercise and dont drink soda over meals. There is no big secret. I also dont like greasy fried food (which helps too!!)
What i wanted to say, is that even though i havent been biking during 4 weeks, the second i started again, i bumped into the same people doing exercise in the morning (i bike through a pedestrian avenue where people go to run, bike, walk their dogs or just hang out).
There is this young mother pushing her baby cart energically with weights on her ankle, this old lady walking super slowly but with that intense pain in her facial expression, this young dude who runs with a coat on and sweats like a pig, the housewives in their zumba classes, the girl with the pug wearing a cruz azul sweater (cruz azul that's a mexican soccer team), an old lady walking two gigantic dogs she can barely control, a show off dude doing push ups right in the middle of the path and a whole bunch of other people exercising that i see every single morning.
During pretty much the entire month of December, i've been sick. My usual bronchitis/pneumonia/asthma crap that i tend to get every year around Christmas. But when you cough so hard and so much that you dont sleep anymore, you obviously dont let your better half sleep either, your entire body is like a gigantic pain and you have to get up at night to throw your gutts up, you know something is not right and that you need to get to the doc asap.
And that's what i did.
So i got my share of drugs, felt better after a week, worse 2 days after i stopped taking the drugs, went back to the doc, got another round of drugs to take, felt better again and then worse again. I was constantly feeling like i was drowning, i was out of breath, couldnt get up a 20 steps stairs without coughing my lungs out. I truly felt like a terminaly ill lung cancer patient.
So i decided it was high time to check it out with someone who's specialty is the lungs and i went to see my hot lung doctor.
And he listened to what i told him and he told me one simple sentence: it's asthma. And i was like shit, then why the hell is my inhalor doesnt do its miraculous thing?
I'll spare you the medical details but bottom line is, being an asthmatic, when i get a lung infection such as a cough, it triggers my asthma in a more or less intense way and that mini asthma attack can last up to 8 weeks. And no medicine but the asthma kind can so me any good.
So here i am on steroids again and finally getting back on my bike to go to work. I had spent an entire 4 weeks going to work by bus cuz i couldnt even walk to the bus stop without coughing my lungs out, so there would have been no way i'd have make it to my office with a 25 minutes bike ride.
It felt so good breathing again normally that i actually RUN up the stairs with my bike on my shoulder. How bad ass is that??
January 29th, Happy New Year to you all. I'm a month late but there is not way the first post i'd write this year would be anything else but a happy new year one. So there, you have it.
