Livingthedreamwithdiana.com

Ten years ago, more, or less, I went to “try out” at Augustana College, to be part of the Messiah Choir. I was accepted, as most volunteers are, and started going to practices once a week. Best time ever.

Unfortunately, as the evening of the program came upon us, we had a family crisis. I was unable to perform with the choir, something I had been looking forward to for quite some time.

I mention this because I know that several of you love to sing as well, and I encourage you to go, try out for the choir. I cannot remember when they started practice, I believe it was in October, actually, so this year is too late. But, it is an amazing experience, one that I will cherish forever, and never forget.

It was probably just as well that I was unable to go because, more often than not, I was unable to even finish the score without tears in my eyes. On that night, I would have been the alto, in the middle of the section, blowing her nose, sniffling, with tears running down her cheeks.

I am that way any time I am in the presence of greatness. You should have seen me watching any Olympic challenges! I had to stop watching. Music, especially, makes me cry when it is done well. This was no exception.

I memorized all of the music, the words, even took notes on things that were important to remember, about such things as having to abruptly sing softer at this certain place, etc. It was great.

Please, if you enjoy singing, and there are many of you that do, next year, consider trying Handel’s Messiah. It gave me a whole different meaning to the holiday season. One I will never forget. Happy Holidays everyone.

I have mentioned the Liverpool malls in several posts now, but one of the many things I have not told you about it is that many of them have colored lights that shine on the building, after dark, which change the color of the exterior of the building. The buildings are all white during the day, but change color after dark.

Mind you, these are three, or four stories tall, enclosed malls. I have not discovered if each exterior is a different color, or if they change for the season, or what. But, the two malls that I have been to, lately, both turn purple at night. And, wow, it is beautiful to see.

The first one I went to was pretty far from the house, and it changed to multiple colors. Gorgeous. The one we went to the other night was only this intense purple color. Do not get me wrong- intense purple is beautiful. Made even prettier with the huge Christmas tree out front.

As we are sitting here, listening to our two favorite musicians play the accordion, and the bass, I am reminded how much we enjoy coming here.

Here, it is very much like “Cheers” where everybody knows your name, and, remembers what you had to drink, for the last three months that you have been coming here.

For us, this helps relieve some of the stress of having to impose ourselves on our family. They make us feel no guilt at having to be here so long, in their home, and, as family, we feel no guilt- we would do the same for them. (In fact, we did so for our family, in the states, a few years ago). Nonetheless, the stress increases weekly.

Of course, here, the botanas (hors d’oeuvres) are plentiful, (a bowl of soup, then a meat dish) are free, so no one needs to remember those. Also, there are two shots to every order, not one. They are about one hundred pesos per”order “, which is about five dollars. So, what is not to like.

PLUS, (bonus) on the third Friday of every month, they have a buffet of the most mouthwatering food imagined. It is by “propina”, or, tip/donation, so you pay what you want. We have yet to be disappointed. Well, I must be honest- I am not a fan of “manitas”, pigs feet, cut in half, and cooked in a red sauce. Or any sauce, actually. That has, thus far, been my only “give it to Ivan” dish.

Tonight, Chef made “caldo de verdolagas”, vegetable soup, and “cochinita pibil”, pork, slow cooked, in an amazing red sauce. Down here, to cook a decent pibil, or, more importantly, tortillas de harina, is the key to getting married. If you are not able to make tortillas de harina, no go, no marriage.

Ok, slight license taken there; of course you can marry without knowing how to make those. However, your in laws will look at you with the stink eye until you are able to do so. Learn now, and avoid any embarrassment. 😂

At Liverpool, they have put up some of the most beautiful decorations of any I have seen. Ever.

Going up the escalators, there are multiple strands of tiny white lights, with thin, transparent white leaves just next to the light bulb itself. It reminds me, so much, of scenes from The Lord of the Rings, the elven folk, specifically. They are nothing short of magical.

There are almost a dozen shallow bowls, low to the ground, and about a foot and a half in diameter, filled with white, and pink, and red poinsettias set about at all of the major entrances to the stores in the Liverpool mall.

There are huge Christmas ornaments hanging in obvious places, but not so many as to be gauche. Above the bridges, which are two stories up, hang huge, round ornaments that have lights on either side of them. Mind you, the ornaments, themselves, are strung from the ceiling, which is one third tiles, in the middle of the ceiling, with glass on each side of the tiles. When the sun shines down through the ceiling windows, it shines on the ornaments, and is breathtaking.

I keep wishing that I could upload the photos, but, actually, without them, it makes me describe all of the details I get to see. I hope you are able to see these things through my words.

The kitchen is almost completed. The cupboards are all up, the granite countertops are in, and as beautiful as we had hoped. The contrasting black counters, with the white tiled walls, is, I must say, quite striking. Only a few things need to be done – glass cabinet fronts, pull handles for everything, and, for Luis, and Martín, to decide on the proper size for our garbage “drawer”.

If you can find a photo of the kitchen, there is a large “drawer” that, when you open it, it looks like they put the bottom of the drawer on top- upside down. I sent the photo to Luis yesterday, to inquire about its validity. He assured us that this would be a drawer you pull out and has two recepticals in it- one for organic materials, and the other for non-organic materials.

You know me well enough to realize that this, along with that extra “spice drawer”, next to the oven, was enough to send me over the edge. They have laid out the kitchen just as we wanted, without even asking for the extras. Unbelievable.

Luis is here, as I type this, going over the new beds, what they will look like, and the cost of them. To have all of this finished, it will be a miracle come true. When I am able to update these posts with photos, believe me, I will. So much to do.

Black Friday here was two weeks ago. It, like up North, lasted four long days. Bumper to bumper traffic in, and around, all of the shopping centers- most importantly, our beloved Sam’s Club, and Costco.

Normally we would have stayed home during that time, but, we decided, on the Monday, day four, to take a chance, and venture forth. We went to Sam’s Club.

What we saw, I do not recall ever seeing before, in my entire life. There were lines, at the twenty, or more, registers, going towards the back of the store, with, easily, eighteen to twenty people deep, maybe more. All with carts loaded to overflowing with televisions, clothes, toys, food- anything, and everything. Everything was on sale.

We should have left when we reached the parking lot at Sam’s Club, and saw that it was almost completely packed. But, no! We bravely made our way into the store. Then we turned around, and made our way back out of the store.

Now, me, being the rather frugal person I am, realized, in mere seconds, that, as we had not purchased anything, we would have to pay twenty four pesos for the parking lot. Thinking, ever-so-quickly, on the fly, I fished out an old Sam’s Club receipt, from my purse, gave it to my co-conspirator, Ivan, who took it to get the discount ticket, so we could leave, paying only the usual five pesos. Since there were hundreds of others trying to leave at the same time, we went unnoticed.

I can hear someone thinking that that was not really the right thing to do. Too bad, says I. We have to pay every place we park. Consider it as ingenuity at its best.

Happy Black Friday everyone. I hope you get some really awesome deals on all of the presents you are buying, and, at such great discounts. BFN.

I just want to say Happy Thanksgiving to all of you up North. It is not a holiday celebrated here, obviously, but there are lots of turkeys for sale at Sam’s and Costco. There are probably enough expats living in Mexico to make it worth their while selling them.

I will keep this short because I am sure you are all getting ready for your family get togethers, getting your food prepared, and, some of you are stressing, (and have been for days), about the aforementioned food prep. You know who you are, and you know you stress about it every holiday season. Give yourself a break, and go to some other family members house this season and let them do the stressing. Life is too short. Enjoy it. God bless you all.

Last night there was a small gathering at the house here- the two Juan’s, Pepe and Paty, Paty’s brother, Dr. Arturo Lara and his wife, Tere, Ivan, and me. (You may remember Arturo, because he was the guy that had on the bloody butchers apron, and a saw going through his head, in Día de los Muertos).

We all sat around tables, kitchen, and dining room, talking, laughing, and getting to know one another. Things broke up a bit after midnight, just before the rain. But, a good time was had by all.

We went to our first meeting for the occupants in the condo in which we are going to be living. I will save all of that for another day.

Prior to the meeting, Ivan, and I, went upstairs to check on any advances in the condo. I will try to upload the few photos I got.

Things are coming along nicely. Should not be much longer before we can move in. I will have more photos and will upload as I can. The internet here is very sad.

I keep telling Ivan, and Enrique, when we venture forth, and it is my turn to drive, that I cannot do this, or, I cannot do that. I cannot drive there! I cannot park this vehicle in that space. So I have not.

This morning, for example, since we had the car fixed, I feel more comfortable about driving it. So I did.

We stopped at the condo, dropped off a few things, picked up Enrique, then I drove to the café, which is close to all of us.

Well, all the while I was driving us over there, I was whispering to Ivan that he would have to park the car, because, around the café, there is nothing but parallel parking!!! Around the entire city, there is nothing but parallel parking!!!

I repeat myself when I say that it has been twenty, or more, years since I have had to parallel park. Think about it. When was the last time you had to park between two vehicles, with only enough room to sneeze?

Fortunately, for me, anyway, this morning, there was a spot open in which the rear end opened to someone’s garage, so I could pull up to the vehicle already there, and park very comfortably.

In this town, it does not matter in which direction your vehicle faces when you park it, so, if there is a spot open on the left side of the street, you can pull right in. Mind you, however, most streets in this city are one way.

So, I am taking it upon myself to get myself right with my attitude, and start doing the things that I have convinced myself I cannot. I can parallel park , I (probably) can even drive down the extremely narrow drive into our underground parking garage. We shall see. I am going to start convincing myself that yes, I CAN.