today was a local kind of day

The longer we live in one place, we gradually come to feel more like locals and less like foreigners. Actually I said that wrong. We come to feel less foreign than when we first arrived.

Over the course of a 2-year assignment, you always end up finding a car repair shop because inevitably something goes wrong with the car that can't be fixed at the corner gas station. And nothing makes you feel more local than becoming a regular at the local car repair shop!

A couple weeks ago, the dashboard light in our car just died. We don't do a lot of nighttime driving here and it's impossible to speed so it hasn't been a huge hindrance not to see the numbers on the speedometer, but it's very disconcerting to be totally in the dark with no ambient light radiating from the dashhboard. The interior overhead light still worked so I turned that on as necessary, but even our parking garage is nearly pitch-black-dark, so it's just annoying to not see if the car's in Drive or Neutral.

Today I was at the embassy and asked one of the drivers in Jimmy's office what he thought was the problem and where I should get it fixed. He did not believe that there was a blown-out lightbulb as I suggested and he adamantly vetoed my suggestion to go to the Toyota dealership. Instead, he sent me to the mechanic who services the office cars and he actually offered to take me there when he got off work this afternoon. But I was determined to get it done earlier and on my own (that's part of becoming "local", right?) so I set off with my trusty GPS.

I found the place on a street full of mechanic shops which was a teensy bit overwhelming. The guys were super-nice and helpful, but clearly they don't get many Americans nor do I think they get many women in there. Most people probably send their cars with their drivers who wait for the repairs. I don't think they really knew what to do with me. I stood around for a little while before they offered me a chair in the office. They gave me the newspaper to read and then the old owner offered me a cup of coffee to warm up (it was chilly in the garage). I took the newspaper but declined the coffee because I could only imagine the last time the coffee maker was cleaned with soap and water (seeing as there were no women working there to ensure such "high" hygienic standards). The owner kept me company by talking about narcotrafficking in Colombia and Mexico (and the resulting crime and violence), why we drove a Japanese car and not an American car (inheritance = no car payment, my friend), and when was President Obama coming to Colombia (no idea).

Less than an hour later, I had a new fuse - the driver was right and I was wrong and it wasn't a lightbulb! - and functioning dashboard lights, and they even topped off my AC coolant. All for $25. Including labor. I feel so local.

NYR 3-8-11

Tennis class is really nearly killing me. I am serious. This is not an exaggeration. For surviving yet another tennis class, I am truly thankful.

NYR 3-7-11 - on the occasion of our 13th wedding anniversary

Some days, I'm pretty sure I stepped into my mother's grown-up life.

How can I be almost 40 with an 8 year-old, celebrating my 13th wedding anniversary today when I still feel like a 20-something year-old?

Sometimes I feel like I have no idea how that happened, but I can tell you that it's gone by in the blink of an eye.

13 years?

POOF!

And it's been bigger and better and more fun than anything I could have ever imagined for my life.

For the charmed life that I live with my love and my son, I am so eternally and truly and profoundly grateful. Happy Anniversary, Babe!

NYR 3-6-11 restructuring my poker face

Yesterday afternoon we had some friends over for delicious Beaufort Stew on a dreary, rainy Bogotano Sunday afternoon. After we ate, we played a little more poker and guess what? I doubled my buy-in!!

For great food, great friends, and great fun, I am truly thankful.

NYR 3-5-11 - poker face

For a fun girls' night out AND for realizing that poker isn't my strong suit (thankfully with just a $10 buy-in), I am truly thankful.

and then there was one...

Today, on Nick's 5th week anniversary in residence, he joined the ranks of his fellow pet fish the world over. He died.

Mac was doing some school research on birds on my laptop which was set up next to the aquarium. All of a sudden, Jimmy and I heard him scream that there was a dead fish. Upon shaking the aquarium to see if he "playing dead" down there on the rocks (he wasn't floating after all which is what I thought dead fish did), we determined that Nick was, indeed, deceased.

So I fished him out with the net and gave him a little autopsy inspection. Interestingly, all his fins were gone. He looked kind of naked with nothing on top and nothing on bottom. What happened to his fins? When a fish dies, do the fins just fall off?

I have my own theory about what transpired.

Mike turned into a cannibal.

The other day when I fed the fish, I noticed that Nick was just happily doing his thing, minding his own business and eating the food. There was plenty of food for both of them, but I watched as Mike, the bigger fish, picked a little at the food and then turned into a bully with Nick. He was nipping at him as Nick tried to eat his food. I tapped on the tank to get him to leave Nick alone and that probably just turned the volume up on his bully tendencies and made him more aggressive when I wasn't looking.

I am sure that they were both alive yesterday when I fed them, so something catastrophic happened in 24 hours. Maybe there really was carbon monoxide poisoning in the apartment yesterday like Jimmy questioned when he witnessed Mac's and my lethargy last night. Or maybe that bully Mike just pecked at poor little Nick's fins until he couldn't swim anymore and then he just laid down and died.

We've had an unceremonious burial for Nick in the trash can - we would have flushed him but we've had issues with the toilets flushing everything down and I just couldn't bear the thought of poor dead Nick re-surfacing after every flush.

In any event, Mac seems to be over the trauma of the death. Within 30 seconds of discovering the death, he renamed the cannibalistic Mike "Nick" which seems terribly traitorous given my autopsy report. Seeing as how nobody in this family except me has interacted with the fish (or fed, or cleaned the tank and the fake tree and the rocks -just for public record) in the last 5 weeks, I guess his attachment disorder could be considered normal.

And since I'm solely responsible for the care and feeding of Nick #2, he better hope that I quickly forgive him. One thing's for sure: we will not be introducing another fish into the aquarium with that bully fish.

NYR 3-4-11

I was soooooo tired after my group tennis lesson today. I think because it was for an hour at noon, and I was starving, it just sapped all my energy. I came home, ate, showered, and fell into a hole. When Mac got home from school, I let him build a fort and watch as much tv as he wanted from inside the fort while I sprawled out in the chair with a good book. Jimmy got home and asked if there was a carbon monoxide leak in the house because we appeared so out of it.

For a lazy afternoon, I am truly thankful