The ventana The window

I’m shacking up for a month with KJ from New Zealand. She’s here to teach English to the locals and enjoy the life of a Argentine. We got on ok though I’ve not lived with anyone in awhile, she doesn’t rinse the dishes after she soaps them up. She grew up on a farm and has a brother.

This morning around 9 came a big crash and I went downstairs to see if my roommate was ok or what? She was peering over the french balcony, a window had come crashing down and broke. A man was down there, not smiling. So later I heard heavy pounding and banging, this is the land of ceaseless construction btw. There are folks across the street finishing up the facade of a building, the walking street has been torn up more than once in the last couple weeks, to the right we have a building on the corner with some kind of improvement happening and now the street is being repaved. Well this pounding was new so I went to the window and a happy smiling guy says “hola”. I respond “hola”, so far so good. He wants to talk and he starts going in a flurry of spanish and i start to laugh. Crap, he asked me to hold on and before I know it he’s knocked on our front door. KJ of course is like what did you say to him?

We’ve got this great little peep window that I open and he’s telling me something about the water in the kitchen, he wants to turn it off? We dont know how to do that. He asks to come inside and I fumble unlocking the front door with the keys. We are always locked in and it can be a chore to get out. He goes in the kitchen and runs the water for like 20 seconds and then is like thats it. Great, ok. Gracias and ciao.

He returns downstairs and continues to bang.

Its Sunday, its ok

Tonight KJ and I, Karen, are enjoying a wonderful warm evening in our new home. The day started at about 10 with us going in search of the atm which gives 1500 pesos or about $500 american. While she was able to get ooodles out, I was still stuck at the 600 peso limit, which is only $200, hardly enough to pay cash for a months rent plus deposit. So we tried, individually, to pay via paypal and that was totally fruitless, I was unable to pay with a credit card, any credit card. Sooooo, we emailed her back to say we’ll be there at 12:30 with cash. Oh yeah, after trying to find a telephone place open on Sunday and then a phone booth, I decided to try going into a posh hotel to ask to use their phone, its a local call afterall. And Paz at one time offered we could use her phone but we needed to get a card, to pay for it. What??? Local calls are FREE…. *My patience for Paz, a long story of many small things, was running very thin at this point*

I asked her to call a cab since we had A LOT of luggage and the cars in general are small. She said its 50 pesos for a car to come here, when its only about 10 if you pick a cab up on the street. I said if he is to come here with a bigger car we will pay. 12:15

Now we’re to meet Nacho at 12:30 and ordered the cab for 12:15. It’s 12:19 and I say where is he, well Paz ordered it for 12:30, WHAT????? you know we’re meeting him at 12:30. So I said lets just catch a cab on the street then. So 12:30 they show up in a small tiny taxi. I’m upset and its not acceptable. I wont pay 50 pesos, and I tell him this quite passionately in Spanish I didnt know I had, he talked to Paz, meanwhile I hail a taxi, the same as his and say to KJ let’s go. He says I’m going to call the police, KJ laughs at him I hear.

So I learned that when I am upset about something I will find a way to speak Spanish quite profienctly. Our fare was 10 pesos, about $3 and we were squished in with all our luggage.

Something has clicked as I have gotten bolder. Tonight, after buying groceries for our new home, we had oodles of bags that I didnt want to carry up the street, Tres Sargiento. It’s a pedestrian street, just doors down from the Thai restaurant but we’ve seen a couple cars pull up and drop people off. He said I cant go down the street, no cars as we all look at the sign that says no cars. I immediately say, with confidence, Es Domingo, es ok. He backs up and off we go, delivered to our doorstep, literally. We had a good laugh

We’ve settled into our rooms just right. She’s taken the downstairs non private room where the big closet and main bathroom are. I’ve gotten the upstairs tiny attic room with a small bathroom and french balcony. It has a single bed and she’s been sleeping on a single. It’s a little bit of funky as you hike up these wooden box steps with handrails, have to be a bit of a monkey to manuever. We’ll swap half way, or not. I’m so grateful for having space and my own key and no smoking in the house. And its gorgeous really. Check out my trap door and the secret attic room, where we keep the dead bodies.

In New Zealand when one gets a chill, they say “somebody’s walked over your grave”… just so you know

Mt Shasta

I managed to get away for a couple days to Mt Shasta, it was marvelous, so beautiful. I captured some water from the mouth or “headwaters” of the Mt, making the Sacramento River. I’ve never tasted water so alive! The bed and breakfast was divine and I relaxed entirely. I was able to hike on the mountain 2 days and even befriended the Inn Keepers dog, Kailua, the love beagle. She proved to be the ambassador to Panther Meadows and as we sat in the shade, eager to greet the guests, I took in the amazing vivid green trees and blue sky.

Headwaters

Black Butte from Lookout

Shastina

Kailua the Love Beagle at your service

Curious

Yesterdays job, tomorrows headset

lipstick cool with Super B headset retails for $20 OR grab the rubber band off your broccoli

Yesterday was my last day at wrk, bittersweet as I have enjoyed the office and patients so much. Ciao and muchos gracias MT T!

Onward.

Heather “Lipstick” J. (to the left) is the particular kind of crazy fun I adore and we were able to squeeze in a MAJOR photoshoot during my last hours at the office.

As I promised in a previous post, the pics of the trendiest headsets are hot off the press. Enjoy!

Look out Plantronics! These high tech gadgets are gonna make your stock cry.

hmmm, where did i put my cell phone? this headset is so smooth you wont even know you are wearing it!

Heather goes big with this look, flaunting her natural talent for fashion. The sheer mass of the band makes this ideal for the active lifestyle. Also extremely useful to help hold it together after a frontal lobotomy! Retail $25

Who’s that Italien in my bed?

this is Romeo, my italien greyhound buddy. he broke into my yard tonight and barked at me until i opened the door for him. he’s often found lurking around my front door. he’s a real cutie.

Now I know what you we’re thinking…

no, i didnt see who pooped in your yard, i was in bed waiting for you

Another Alanis Spoof

I watched this video last night and thought it was great. THEN i saw the original done by the Black Eyed Peas Fergie or whatever and then I laughed so hard. I watched Alanis’ version 3 more times and I am still chuckling about it today. This is so classic Alanis. Enjoy!