what a wonderful world this would be

Happy New Year!

2012-01-27T18:08:00.001-08:00

I’m back in Albuquerque but you might have thought I never left. I was in California for 5 weeks living the high life. The life where you mention that there are no more English muffins and the next morning the cupboard is full of them. I got to see lots of cool people and was reminded why certain people are my friends. Or more why I’m friends with people, I’m not quite sure why they’re friends with me. Other people are much nicer than me. Besides the time it took to make that discovery I was back at Dowd and Guild being an ambassador of goodwill. I considered my work schedule “fulltime” but evidently 9ish to 4ish 3-4 days a week isn’t officially fulltime.

Now that I’m back in New Mexico my life is full of enchantment. I’m taking 4 classes again and I think this semester will be much more gradschoolish than last semester. We only have 1 week off and I think in general I’ll need to put in more effort. Probably the most challenging is “Strategic Leadership and Development,” so far there is a lot of talk of feelings and life goals. By Tuesday I’m supposed to make a list of 27 things I want to do before I die. I’m confident that if I died tomorrow I’d be totally satisfied so I’m having a hard time thinking of things to write. So far it is like make cookies and do my laundry. But I have a feeling I’m supposed to be thinking “bigger.”

I’ve been working here too, still for D&G just with some projects I can do on my computer requiring no brain activity. What that means practically is I’ve been watching too much daytime TV. We only get like 12 channels so the variety is seriously limited. I did learn about trophy husbands that stay at home while their wives have high-powered jobs and, on the other end of the employment spectrum, real people have the 12-month job driving the Oscar Meyer Weiner Mobile. Maybe that can be on my bucket list.

I started a new blog http://whatjoyeats.blogspot.com/ chronicling my eating habits. I guess if I keep working regularly I can probably afford more assortment but I like the challenge of thriftiness.

Novembrrrr

2011-11-30T15:40:00.000-08:00

You should definitely turn on Christmas music to read this because Christmas is amazing and less than a month away.

I can’t believe how quickly November has flown by. It’s been full for me but you wouldn’t know that because I haven’t written for super long. I hope my absence hasn’t caused you to fall into depression.

The first weekend in November I learned how to compost and make Chilean food and got food poisoning. I hadn’t really eaten out so evidently I poisoned myself, but I learned one of two lessons either that pasta sauce doesn’t keep forever in the fridge or don’t buy meat at WalMart. It only took me a day and a half to work my way up to saltine crackers and I went on a walk with my friend down by the Rio Grande, I took some pictures because Albuquerque makes a beautiful fall.

The second weekend I got to go on a surprise trip home to meet my newest niece, Stella, and see the rest of my family too. It was grand. Because grad school is like a legitimized extended vacation I was able to be home for almost an entire week with no academic repercussions.

The third weekend I pretended to do homework. Which means I did anything I could think of other than homework. I did get a free meal at Sizzler on Sunday after church, O the memories.

The fourth weekend started early in honor of Thanksgiving. My roommate’s family was staying with us so we were fed constantly and it really did feel like a holiday. One day we took the longest aerial tram ride in the world to the top of Albuquerque’s Sandia Mountains. It rises almost 4,000 feet but we didn’t die. I got invited to like six Thanksgiving dinners and I opted for one Thanksgiving breakfast with the group I usually have a Thursday night Bible study with and a dinner cooked by my roommate’s mom at our house.

That covers the weekends but there has been all sorts of other excitement too:

I’m really New Mexican now, I got one of their really cool turquoise license plates for my car. It is strange to no longer be a Californian but the plate was voted best in America by “The Automobile License Plate Collectors Association (we take what we can get).
My friend Morgan discovered this super cheap Goodwill reject store. We went last week and I got books, clothes, a board game and a cool wall hanging for $3.60. You fight through mobs of people and fill your cart and then they weigh your stuff and you pay $.40/pound. Except for heavy stuff they price cheaper.
Along those lines of me being super cheap I’ve decided to stop grocery shopping. This actually doesn’t have to do as much with being poor as me trying to be less wasteful. Since I’m leaving for Christmas on the 9^th I figured I could probably get by with just what is in my cupboards. It’s been excellent. Last week I got like 11 free meals and mostly from legitimate sources. This week has been progressing nicely as well, tonight I’m going to eat free salmon and mystery squash (thank you Morgan). I have some things lined up for next week too. I volunteered to wrap presents for the Rescue Mission’s Christmas party three days next week and they’ll feed me lunch. Some people might think it’s weird I eat lunch at the homeless shelter but I did it once before and it was pretty good. The only problem that has arisen is I’m out of eggs and I’m supposed to bring cookies to a thing on Saturday night, maybe I’ll meet someone with chickens.
I have my first final tomorrow and I think I’m getting more or less into the swing of school. Evidently I’m not all the way accustomed, last night I didn’t have a pen and had to take notes with a blue highlighter. I borrowed a pen before the quiz portion of the night; I thought the professor might appreciate it. I should be all the way done with finals by next Thursday! And am flying back to California next Friday for five weeks.
I got a job. Evidently Dowd and Guild has really been lacking in the ambassador of goodwill department so they hired me back. I don’t know what that actually means, but I figured since I am an expert procrastinator already I might as well get paid for it.
It might SNOW this weekend.

Happy Fall

2011-10-30T20:05:00.001-07:00

Wow it’s been a while since I’ve written and I’ve been getting more and more immersed in New Mexican life. I’ve been making friends and really enjoying fellowship with a few groups of believers here. Here is a list of some of the things I’ve done since my last update.

New Mexico State Fair – The fairgrounds are about a 10 minute walk from my house and the night we went I saw a New Mexican band (very similar to Mexican music) and a Navajo comedy act. So very cultural of me.
Greek Festival – I think New Mexican’s should stick to New Mexican cultural events. I’m just a little spoiled because the last one I went to at home was super fancy and pricy, this one was just pricy
Replaced My Ashtray Recliner - With a free one I found on the road, it is WAY better
Balloon Fiesta – The balloon fiesta is a huge deal here. Ten’s of thousands of people come just for it. It was pretty inspirational. Next year I’m hoping to go to more of the events there.
Philadelphia – I got to go visit one of my college roommates, Katharine, and her husband and see a real city with trees and tall buildings.
Lancaster County – One day Katharine and I went to Amish country. It’s so cool. She’s been a lot so knew the good places for fresh baked pretzels with crusty butter shells and ice cream. I’m considering converting.
New York – After Philly I went to New York and stayed with some friends Joe and Carrie and their 2 girls. I do love that city but it’s expensive, theoretically, Joe and Carrie paid for everything so I don’t really know. I had some good food and a great time with them.
Midterms – Yup, I’m in school so I have midterms. I got A’s on those I got back. I did write a paper but the professor is overcommitted this semester so he said we’ll get it back by Thanksgiving.
New Mexican Food – Like New Mexican music, NM food is very similar to Mexican food, except EVERYTHING has red and green chilies. When people from church take me out to lunch they take me to New Mexican food so I’ve had some good stuff (and on my own some not so good stuff). They also serve sopapillas for free with the meals. Sopapillas are fried poofy breads that you eat with honey. Highly recommended.
Roller Derby – Last weekend I went to the roller derby finals. I haven’t processed that yet, but it was great to get to know some girls from a small group Bible study I’ve been going to.
Ladies Barbershop Quartet Costume Party – I’m not sure how this one happened on Friday. I was invited and I try to say yes to new things to gain exposure. It was fun. My dollar tree tiara and wand didn’t win me any prizes.
No on Genetically Modified Seeds Lecture – The ungraded paper I wrote was on this topic and yesterday I went to a lecture on campus. It is an interesting environment when the least hippy person there is from Berkeley.
Pie Making Contest – Tonight I went to a pie-making contest at the little brethren church I’ve been going to. There were 17 entries and now I feel a little sick (but my typing is a little faster).
Got Shoes – There is a church by my house that has a rummage sale every weekend and I stop in there every few weeks. Last weekend I saw this older gentleman (80ish) I know there so now every Sunday he wants to talk to me about the rummage sale. This morning we were taking about prices and I told him I bought a pair of shoes (cowboy boots, to be exact) for $1. He took that as me saying I’m poor and in need of shoes so he asked me the very personal question of what size my feet are and got really excited because they are the same size as his deceased wife. So tonight he brought me a huge box of his wife’s shoes for me to look thorough. I now own 5 pairs of pumps. I don’t know when she passed but he is still very emotional about it and has all of her stuff. Evidently we are a similar size so he said he’ll start bringing me her clothes because she would be happy that it is going to a good home.

My new Mexican life

2011-09-21T13:40:00.000-07:00

I’ve been in New Mexico just over a month now and you may be wondering if I’m alive, I am.

I’m a fairly adaptable person and tend to forget that my life wasn’t always what it is now. But, on analysis, I can see some differences and will share them with you.

In my past life I had a job, that job required me to get up daily, get dressed and commute. Now I am a full time student. Once a week I have to get to campus by 12:30, and that is my early day. Wednesdays and Fridays I have absolutely no agenda. To combat this I try to make plans to force myself out of the house. Today I am at a coffee shop. I would have gotten a fancy coffee drink but they have a minimum price to use a debt card and I only had $2 cash. I settled for an iced tea. Within this outing my goals are to write this email and read though a packet on how to preserve my 401K. Usually on Wednesdays I do my laundry. One load with all the colors together, maybe I’ll do that later.

Also in my past life I ate more normal meals, either at my parents’ house or my sister’s house. Sometimes I would cook, using groceries that someone else purchased. When I talk to my sister on the phone she usually asks me what I am planning on eating for the week. Cereal was on sale so yesterday I bought 8 boxes. Does that count? It’s not that I don’t know how to cook, I just can’t stay motivated. I’m really welcome to your suggestions.

I used to only socialize with my family, now I have friends. The problem with making friends is usually some level of small talk is involved. I don’t do well with small talk. I am so miserable answering the questions about myself that I really don’t think it is fair to turn them around onto the other person. Unfortunately, this makes me seem uninterested and one-sided. But don’t worry I have a trick. Say someone asks me what my hobbies are, I respond that I don’t have any with a sarcastic tone. See I honestly don’t have any but if I said that normally people would find out right away that I am a dork. But when the sarcasm is added they assume I am kidding and there is really something mysteriously cool about me. I know this sounds ridiculous but it totally works. I have the social life to prove it.

Last weekend I went with my roommate, April, to the town of Las Cruces in southern New Mexico. She’s from there and one of her nieces was having a 5^th birthday party. I keep forgetting New Mexico is legitimately part of the US and that staying at someone’s house is not going to be like the crazy chicken house Luz and I visited in Mexico. I honestly considered bringing my own toilet paper, I’m glad I didn’t because that probably would have been offensive. Well the house was totally normal and the drive down and back was really pretty. New Mexico has tons of amazing rock formations and I took a picture.

I’m also adding a picture of my bedroom. It is huge and white. I made some flags to add some color and bought the chair. The chair was only $15 because it is peppered with burn holes and mystery animal hair and smells like an ashtray. Boy do I know how to barging hunt.

Now onto what you really care about…the weather. It’s really nice. The days are sunny and warm (between 80 and 90) and every night it cools off an average of 20 degrees. Last night I rode my bike home from class at 9:30 and it was perfect out. When I first moved here it was pretty humid out, you could tell because the doors in the house wouldn’t shut. Now it is dry out, I can tell because a) the doors in my house shut and b) my lips are constantly peeling.

That’s it for me.

Love, Joy

Life Thus Far

2011-08-28T16:55:00.001-07:00

I am now a New Mexican. Once I get my drivers license in the mail I can prove it to you. Everything is just great here. And I’m not really joking. Here are some ABC’s on my new life

A – So when I visited in April I thought ALBUQUERQUE consisted of Central Avenue, and that’s all. When Julie and I went to every thrift store and garage sale in the city we learned that it is much bigger, but for the most part everything I need is very close to where I live. This week I only drove 50 miles total, that is about what I was driving every day in my other life.

B – To get to school I’ve been taking the public BUS. It is free for students and I’ve gotten to talk to all sorts of people. Usually the seats next to the more questionable characters are empty so I sit there and have had some great conversations/counseling sessions. On Monday I thought I would try my luck on the #5 bus and see if it took me close to where I live. It didn’t take me very close at all but an hour and a half later I made it home.

C – I’ve gone running with my roommate twice and only ran into a CACTUS once. She pulled out the spike for me but it still itches some.

D – At one of those Albuquerque garage sales I got a really nice DRESSER, and the old owners were from Concord, small world. I have most of my furniture now and my house in general is very homey.

E – Since I’m here for an EDUCATION I guess I should mention that. I started school last Monday and now have had all four of my classes. We have to do a lot of group projects so that should be interesting. So far school is way less time consuming than working full time but that might change eventually, as of now I feel like I’m on vacation.

F – I should probably make some FRIENDS. I know a few people and my roommates are great but probably riding the bus isn’t the best way to fulfill my need for social interaction.

G – This morning I went to church at a place called GARFIELD GOSPEL HALL (can you guess the denomination?) Anyways it was nice and I met lots of old men. My favorite was George, he gave me his information on a paper from his nursing home that also lists his allergies. I’m a little confused because under likes it says “lemons and tangerines” but he is allergic to citrus. Rough life. I also met Robert(?) and his niece Daisy, she’s 65 so he’s no young chicken.

H- HOW are you?

here comes adventure

2011-08-15T16:59:00.000-07:00

I’m moving on Wednesday. I have today and tomorrow to pack and am not thrilled about the prospect. Additionally I have a cold, I took Nyquil last night at 6:50 and slept for over 12 hours. Since I am currently avoiding packing I will tell you what other stuff I have been doing.

2 weekends ago I went to a Giants game with Jenn. They won so that was exciting.

This weekend was Katie Rystom’s wedding extravaganza. I should attach a picture from that but I didn’t take any and am relying on others to send them out eventually. It was great getting to see my college roommates, I don’t remember the last time I’ve laughed that consistently. There aren’t too many people who think it is a great idea to make nun habits out of plastic garbage bags and wear them in public while singing personalized renditions of Sound of Music songs.

Last Wednesday I finished my career as Dowd and Guild’s ambassador of goodwill. So far I’ve decided retired life is quite lovely. Except for the paycheck factor. Once I get settled in Albuquerque I’ll be looking for a job.

Here are some fun facts about my upcoming move:

I’m moving to Albuquerque to get my MBA at UNM.

It is a 2 year program and I start next Monday.

I’m going to live in a 3 bedroom duplex with 2 other girls, I’ll meet them on Thursday.

I got a bed on Craigslist, $50 including delivery. Some might think that is sketchy but I think it is a provision from God. Everything else either is fitting in my car or I’ll be buying it when I get there.

I’m leaving bright and early Wednesday with my loaded up Honda and my sister Julie (sans children).

I have a new address let me know if you want it and then you can mail me something. Maybe you’ll get some New Mexican artwork in return.

Happy Birthday America!

2011-07-04T17:41:00.001-07:00

It has been quite long enough since I've over-informed you of my life so I'd thought I'd give you another thing to celebrate this 4th of July.

Work:
I'm still working full time and today is a paid holiday, so was paid for the nap I just took. I'm planning on working until August 10th or 11th, that will be my 2 year mark. Crazy how time flies. I hosted a big event a few weekends ago, it went really well until my boss and I debriefed and I discovered we were on completely different pages. He apologized, paid me more money, and promised not to volunteer me to drive strange men to the BART station again. It worked out fine but some people are a little too honest about their criminal records. And needs for a wife.

Even after 2 years I am still completely fascinated by my coworkers. Last week I decided to clean out the common fridge to make space for our 4th of July potluck food. I found plenty of expired food and then, in the freezer, a pork shoulder, a pork loin and a steak all purchased in April. I sent out an email assuming someone bought it during a lunch break and then forgot to take it home at the end of day. Is that what happened? No. This lady bought it because it was on sale (along with 5 frozen meals) and knew she didn't have any space in her freezer at home so has just been storing at work.

School:
I start the University of New Mexico MBA program on August 22nd. I registered for 4 classes and sometime before August 21st I fully intend on finding out what those classes are. I am all up for moving but I was getting annoyed not knowing where I was actually going to live. I wasn't really worried for the obvious reasons but mainly because I need to establish residency and need an address to do that I have been praying for God's provision and "knew" that He would meet my needs, and He has (as of this morning)! I had a few leads but nothing worked out then a few weeks ago I saw an ad on Craig's List and felt prompted to respond to it. They were interested so Morgan hung out with them last week and gave the initial OK then we talked on Skype Saturday and they asked for a few days to decide between me and another girl. This morning they said it was mine. Sheesh, I don't know how those Bachelorete's do all that waiting for the rose ceremony. It seems PERFECT, they are both active Christians, we have a lot in common, rent and utilities is less than I'm paying my parents currently (although I doubt one of them is going to volunteer to do my laundry), and it is a short bus or bike ride to campus.

Library:
A few weeks ago I saw a made for TV movie based on a book so I wanted to read the book. I decided to try my hand at checking out from the library. I know I used to run a library but I haven't had a Contra Costa Library card in a long time. So it took me one day to get a card then I wanted the book, I saw they had it at the library by my sister's house so I put it on hold there. Then the next day I went to pick it up and they said it was "in transit." What? Does it take that long to transport a book downstairs and put it on the hold shelf? They say they don't necessarily pull holds from the library you're picking up at, they just pull them from the first library that comes up on the computer. I was definitely a little frustrated by this, especially since I wanted to take it on the family camping trip. Oh well, it came the next week. Last week I went to the library by my office to check out another book someone recommended. I checked on-line ahead of time and saw they had it. I did not put it on hold. Then I went and couldn't find it in the fiction section. So I went to the computer and saw they had it but it was in the paperback fiction section. How am I supposed to know if they have a hardback or paperback copy. So I sound ranting but you know what, the library is FREE, and that is amazing. In conclusion, in spite of these minor annoyances it is definitely a great value.

Other:
Last month I joined my family in the annual camping trip. I hadn't gone in 6 years and it is much better than I remember.
Last July I made salted peanut butter ice cream sandwiches and they were a complete disaster. I did a variation yesterday and they were much better. Sometimes recipes are helpful, although not as adventurous.

Name that State

2011-04-22T12:00:00.000-07:00

I went on a trip last week. Can you guess where? Here are some pictorial clues:

Other hints:
It is super windy, has a total population of less than 2,000,000 and is where I am moving in the fall.
New Mexico! I know exciting right? I mean is it Mexico or not, I’m still not sure. All I know is it is the place to go to be saved from all those tribes and tongues.
My friend Morgan (with the donkey) moved to Albuquerque a bit ago and said I should too. So then I started looking into UNM’s MBA program and it’s not bad. And, did you know that across the board New Mexico is much cheaper than the Bay Area?
School starts on August 22nd so unless something big comes up before then (which could happen) hola mexico/usa.
On other news I’m enjoying my new job (same company, much more relaxed desk). Yesterday I was assigned another manager to assist. He’s one of my favorite people in the company so it really doesn’t bother me when I have to pick up his lunch and dry cleaning -- he paid me back. May should be exciting, Cinco de Mayo again and spring exercise challenge, double points if you walk with someone from work. Oh and for Good Friday find the egg the pre-Easter Bunny hid in your desk.
Speaking of the Easter Bunny. He may not be real but Easter is and that is pretty amazing that because of Christ’s death and resurrection I, and you, can have eternal life.
Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now he has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in his sight, without blemish and free from accusation— Colossians 1:21-22

Spring Newness

2011-03-24T12:34:00.000-07:00

Those winter days I sat outside and typed this in the sunshine are gone. They have been replaced by spring torrential downpours. My free umbrella did not take well to the wind and, in efforts to fix it, I’m sure I got more wet than if I would have left it closed and made a mad dash for my car.

I got a new job. Or at least I got rid of my old job. I started training my replacement on Monday and she’s already comfortable enough to make personal calls from her desk so I guess that is a good sign? I didn’t get fired or quit or anything I just requested a demotion and it was approved. Starting next week well see what that actually looks like but I foresee a lot of carwashes in the future.

There are lots of benefits that come with this demotion but the main reasoning behind it is to make the transition easier for the company when I go back to school in the fall. Already people are getting a little teary eyed that I’m leaving but I personally think 5 months is plenty of warning. I still don’t know where I’m going.

Last night we went bowling as an office. I am a terrible bowler, really. Fortunately we weren’t keeping team scores so I wasn’t taking anyone down with me. After we finished bowling there was the option of sticking around in the bar/cocktail lounge. I passed. There’s a little too much family history wrapped up in bowling alley bars. And I don’t drink.

I discovered that you can use sick time to go to doctors appointments so I’m all up on my vaccinations and teeth cleaning now. I caught a glimpse of my dental bill before I gave it to the HR lady at work. After my cleaning with the hygienist, I sat in the dentist’s chair to make small talk with him while he counted(?) my teeth (they’re all there), that took less than 5 minutes was $43! Yikes maybe I’ll become a dentist instead of getting my MBA. Except teeth are gross.

What’s new with you?

my trip to England

2011-03-02T21:06:00.000-08:00

Now that I’ve been back from my English holiday for a whole week I possibly can just sort out highlights instead of you hearing every detail. But maybe you’re just wondering how the weather was. It was cold and damp but didn’t rain. So if that’s all you want to know you can stop reading.
I flew to London on a redeye after work one Thursday. I was equipped with my aunt’s Kindle

and a really good chocolate bar from my chocolatier (long story). There was no one sitting right next to me and the guy on the aisle shared his coconut M&M’s with me. Did you even know there was such a thing? I didn’t but I just Googled it and you can buy them on Amazon. Altogether it was a pretty great flight.
When I landed Keiz (one of my college roommates) and Aaron were there to meet me. Right when I got in the car my alarm started going off telling me to wake up for work. But guess what…I didn’t have to go to work! We drove around for a while with the aim of seeing Stonehenge. It was closed by the time we got there but fortunately it is right on the side of the freeway so we still got some pictures. Here is a bit of conversation leading up to the excitement known as Stonehenge…
“Oh I think that’s it”
“No, maybe that’s some trees”
“Wait, yes, it’s Stonehenge.”

We still don’t know what Stonehenge is but at least we know it is in England (news to me)
After Stonehenge we took the scenic route, passing lots of “tank crossing” signs and went to Winnersh to spend the night at Salena and Joel’s. Salena, Joel, Keiz and Aaron all went to high school together and somehow all ended up in England. Us girls all went to college together so it was fun to catch up.
On Saturday morning Keiz, Aaron and I took the train from Winnersh to London. We went on a walking tour and saw the palace…and Big Ben…and Westminster Abbey…and lots of other British looking things.

That night Salena and Joel met us and we went to see the queen. Or at least the musical based on Queen’s music, “We Will Rock You.” My boss recommended it and now I can’t quite look at him the same way.

Sunday we went to see the changing of the guard. We couldn’t actually see much so we left and went to Harrod’s department store, we spent most of our time in the food section. I will refrain from showing you 100 pictures of their food displays but I will tell you that you can buy lemonade with 24 karat gold flakes and that is cool.

We also went to the Victoria and Albert museum. I think we spent more time looking at Harrod’s food than this whole museum. After the museum we headed back to Keiz and Aaron’s house in Harrogate.
I love Harrogate. There are lots of surrounding farms but the town itself is metropolitan. From Keiz’s house you can walk to the downtown and I could have spent my whole vacation and savings account wandering in and out of the shops. I limited myself but I did get in one English tea and a few shirts.

At one of the used shops we bought the movie “Relative Values,” it was pretty hilarious. And although it’s in British the accents were manageable and the humor was actually funny. Overall I think my Spanish is better than British.
Tuesday we went to Fountains Abbey. It was freezing but beautiful.

Monks used to live there back in the day and when the monks got the boot it became a public garden, which it still is. In theory it would be a great place to spend the day and have a picnic. But like I said, it was freezing, so we kept moving. That night we went to Ripon. Every night at 9PM since 866 the town crier has gone to the town square to blow his horn and say that all is well in the town. Then he goes and finds the mayor and blows his horn some more and passes the message on to him. Since 866! Wow, that’s a long time.

Wednesday we went to York. We walked around, got some food, saw a local production of To Kill a Mockingbird and went to Minster Abbey. I liked York. We got to walk on top of the original town wall. The Abbey was having an auction selling off old stonework.

We didn’t get any. To Kill a Mockingbird was interesting. It was well done but you could see the struggle the actors were having trying to mask their accents and sound southern.
Thursday we went to a castle. It was cool but I don’t remember what it was called. We couldn’t go in because it was closed for the season.

The good thing about that is we saved $20 entrance and parking and were able to walk around the gardens for free. Then we drove to a dairy to meet the cows that made our ice cream.

Friday was my sad day of departure. We left the house at 4AM England time and I got home at 11PM California time. So yeah it was a long day and no one had coconut M&M ‘s to share with me.
Altogether it was brilliant. Now I am back at work which is less brilliant but change is in the air.

February Facts

2011-02-01T22:36:00.000-08:00

Welcome Back! I missed you in January, but here is a little about what is going on.
I hear in parts of the US there are blizzards going on. San Ramon is not one of those parts. I’m sitting outside in short sleeves right now and not one bit chilly.
My newest nephew was born last week, Raymond Joel. He’s not a small baby I guess I wasn’t either. I think bigger babies are more human-like anyways. Here is our picture.

Another thing that was born was my salt and pepper shakers. I think the gestation period was about the same.

I’m going on holiday next week to England. I’m excited. Why?
1) I get to see Keiz
2) I get to see England
3) I get to take time off work

Work is fine. We’re having a Super Bowl celebration on Friday. Last year I won $25 so I hope that happens again.

This morning I was decorating the bulletin board for February.

While performing research I discovered something fascinating about conversation hearts. Every year they have add them with a theme. Like one year was “A menu for love” so they added things like “Table 4 Two” and “Honey Bun.” And another year was “Animal Attraction” so they had “Take a Walk” and “UR A Tiger.” When they first stated they said longer things like “Please send a lock of your hair by return mail.” I think I’ve found my calling.
Evidently you didn’t miss much in January

Merry New Year

2010-12-28T21:34:00.000-08:00

I failed at sending out Christmas cards so I’m attaching pictures of what you could have received in a Christmas card from me.

And in that card I would talk about the kindness and love of God appearing to us by Him sending His Son to us. If you want you can print this all out and put it where you would have put a Christmas card. If you store your Christmas cards in the garbage you can save some paper and just read and delete. That said this is not going to be a summary of my year because you get those all the time.

I took today off of work. I thought I was going to die last night so I didn’t sleep well. This morning I woke up feeling better but realized that I did have a pretty valid excuse to take a sick day I didn’t actually have any work to do. Today was grand, the office only called in once and I didn’t have to wear heals. Actually not having to get dressed was one of the turning points in my decision to stay home. You know, I could get used to spending my day in bed reading and talking on G-Chat.

But instead of becoming a full-time loaf I have a new plan…getting my MBA! I was keeping this plan on the down low in case I fail miserably but oh well, now you know. I took my GMAT a few weeks ago and now I have to figure out where to apply. Writing application essays is kind of a pain, especially when I am supposed to clearly define my goals. For the most part I try to never set goals but I don’t think that is what they want to hear. If I ever call upon you to write a reference letter, please don’t mention that, or anything else I write.

Christmas was good. Poetry hasn’t been really been happening much because cooking has taken over. The girls still lost but Cristina did break into the winners bracket. The overall highlight of Christmas Eve was my grandpa presenting my parents host gifts. My dad got comic books and a car waxer and my mom got a broom with a mouse cover. Like my mom needs a new broom when I bought her a steam mop. Oh it was also cool when he pulled all the boys into his room one-by-one and gave them each a cowboy hat, except Billy who got some really nice white boots. Somewhere there are some amazing photos of that event floating around.

I hope your holiday season has been going well and that it gets even better.
Love, Joy

A...B...Christmastime

2010-12-07T12:15:00.001-08:00

I really like Christmastime, it is only the first week of December but I’m already in love. Here are almost 26 things that are great about it. I mean the other letters are SO obvious you can fill them in yourself.
Amy Grant. I think I’ve mentioned this before but her “A Christmas Album” is my favorite.
Birth of Jesus, I know it seems kind of cliché but really everything in my life revolves around this.
Costumes. My sister has a costume party every year. Last year I, Peace on Earth, won. Also last year to work I wore an outfit that I thought was normal but got lots of elf comparisons. How can you not love a time of year when it is acceptable to wear red and green and, my personal favorite, GOLD all together?
Decorations. I think I just really like themes because they give order to life. And Christmas is a great theme to decorate around.
Egg Nog. The lattes or straight from carton.
Family Cook-Off. Last year we started a new competitive tradition on Christmas Eve. There is nothing like a little family competition to bring out Christmas Spirit.
Gifts. I’m not ashamed to admit it I like getting gifts (giving is great too)
Hot Chocolate. I petitioned that at my office we have hot chocolate available in the kitchen every Tuesday in December. Offering it on Wednesday was approved I think we will see a noticeable rise in office cheerfulness tomorrow.
I
Joy. That’s my name and the name of the holiday tea at Starbucks and an emotion.
K
Lights! I should be annoyed when people put out Christmas lights the first week of November. But once the time changes, and it starts getting dark early, I’m ready.
Music. I try to not overdo this one because I hear carols will lose their splendor but I’ve been sneaking them in since Halloween and now that is all I listen to.
N
O
Poetry Competition. I hate competing in it because there is just so much talent in my family and I don’t like losing year after year but for some magic reason it is worth it.
Q
Rain. Usually I’m not a big fan but add a roaring fire and a Christmas tree and I’m sold.
Sandwiches. Growing up every Christmas Eve we had a sandwich bar for dinner. To this day sandwiches are one of my favorite foods.
Trees. I just bought 35 of the little live glittered ones from Trader Joe’s for my boss to pass out instead of the classic poinsettia.
U
Vacation. Well I used to like this about December. Now I get one day off which is still better than nothing. More time off is one of the big drawing points of me going back to school.
We Three Kings. Last year this became one of my favorite songs and I still am into it.
X
Y
Z

Spring Hats and Headstones

2010-11-13T08:35:00.000-08:00

Every once in a while some people connected to my work go serve breakfast at a community center in Oakland. I don’t really think the food service industry is for me and I’m not good at mingling so I decided to bring supplies to make fall wreaths with the kids. As I was recruiting I showed my example to this girl Diamond, and she asked if it was a hat. I explained it was a wreath to hang on the wall. Then I pointed to a tree that was turning colors and told her we’re using leaves to look like that tree. She said, “I know the trees change color because it’s spring!” Later on she put her wreath on her head while it was still dripping with glue. My helper said it was fine because glue dries clear.

Yesterday my cousin Anne (and her dog and her friend) and I went to Piedmont to visit the family gravesite. I took a picture of her next to my favorite headstone.

It was a gorgeous day and from the family plot you could see the Golden Gate. Then we went to Fenton’s for ice cream. Since I took a half-day off work and my office is nosey, there were some very awkward conversations. I mean we’re not an overly sensitive family, but how are you supposed to respond when people excitedly ask, “So are you doing something fun with your afternoon off?” My answer, “I’m going with my cousin to make sure our last name is spelled correctly on her dad’s headstone.” It was.

While I was there I picked up a postcard for my dad, they are expanding and you can start pre-ordering plots now.
I still haven’t taken the strengths quiz from the book by boss gave me. He’s been out of town the last few weeks but is coming back this weekend so I should take it soon before I see him again. Plus maybe defining my strengths will give me some ideas on what to do with my life.

Life begins when you do

2010-10-28T18:38:00.001-07:00

After my recent boredom crisis at work I told my boss, Tom, that I am getting restless in my position and would like to have more responsibility at least while I’m figuring out something better to do with my life. We met yesterday and so far he has given me the books Motivational Quotes (see subject line), The Success Principles and Now, Discover Your Strengths. He’s really excited about the strengths one, there is a quiz at the end and then we can discuss my scores and figure out what to do with me. He said, “Joy, the most important knowledge is self-knowledge, true or false?” He thinks it’s true and I didn’t want to come right out and tell him I think that is bologna and depressing so I told him I‘d think about it.

The Giants are in the World Series playing the Rangers. You probably knew that because you don’t live under a rock. My company donated money for a pool that I am in charge of organizing. After this morning when one of the winners asked me who won and where the Rangers are from, I decided that before collecting their money the winners need to tell me

What 2 teams are playing?
What inning did you win, with what score?
What was the final score?

Wow, people do not like those rules. I’m not even saying they need to watch the game but spend less than 2 minutes researching on-line or ask a stranger on the side of the road and I will give them money. Still some people opted out of participating. One of the other quotes from that book "I don't know the key to success, but the key to failure is trying to please everybody." --Bill Cosby.

In other news I am Grandma Phyllis sitting this week. For those of you that don’t know Grandma Phyllis, she is my brother-in-law’s grandma. So far she is still alive so things are looking good.

Every work morning I make myself a cup of tea for the road, this has been my habit for the last year. Yesterday I forgot, what does that say about me?

What's going on with you? I really do care and feel lame about being so one sided.

love, joy

Happy Friday

2010-10-15T12:30:00.000-07:00

It’s been a while since you’ve gotten an post full of pure nonsense from me and I hope you haven’t fallen into a bout of depression. But really, the last one was annoyingly long.
Last weekend we had a family outing to look for tarantulas on Mt. Diablo. We found many, and a coyote, and a lizard. That is way more wildlife than I saw in Nicaragua and Mt. Diablo is only 15 minutes from home. Later we had dinner and I was in charge of dessert. I made this cake…

Yes I am quite proud of myself.

For the last few weeks my job has been terribly boring, last night I was almost in tears (literally) from boredom. So I’m sure I should keep attempting to be a cheerful worker but I don’t know how much longer I am supposed to stay around D&G. I don’t have any idea of what else I would do but I don’t want to be unnecessarily stuck if that isn’t where God wants me. Fortunately today I actually have work to do so I’ve been granted a little reprieve.

There are still some fun things I get to plan for the office, but even with those my creativity isn’t always appreciated. On October 1st we had pretzels, cider, and bottles of root beer in honor of Oktoberfest. I wanted hot dogs but that idea was rejected. Next Tuesday we’re having peanuts and Cracker Jacks for the Giants’ return to SF. We also can wear Giants’ colors to compliment our normal business attire. We cannot dress like Lou Seal, that suggestion was rejected. Yesterday we just started a project to make blankets for foster kids. That idea was received with concern but I was able to slip it past the powers that be. I also had the opportunity to post this really cool sign on the microwave.

Doesn't it seem a little China Town to you? If it is disregarded we will lose microwave privileges altogether. I don’t really understand that threat because I have very limited ideas of what non-food items people cook in the microwave.

I picked up saltshaker making again. I still have quite a ways to go but I have been learning to accept that sometimes it is probably healthy to take my time.

This all seems a little down, non-work life is going just swell, that just isn't as note worthy.

What’s going on with you?

Survivor Nicaragua

2010-09-28T21:10:00.000-07:00

I’ve been back a week and am going to attempt to not bore you with my stories from the land of lakes, volcanoes, flooding and this season’s Survivor.
I think I’ll go day by day and just pretend you know who I’m talking about.

Saturday day-1. I landed in a lot of rain, enough rain to ensure my bags were wet before I got them from baggage. My old roommate Aimee picked me up but Matthew was there too picking up some Koreans. He tipped my bag boy for me. I think that it should be noted that in the morning when I needed to tip someone at SFO my own dad made me pay for myself.

Sunday day-2. I went to American church, lunch, coffee, and dominated at Ticket-to-Ride.

Monday day-3. I went out to lunch with Lori and then we stopped by the mechanic. They recently took dents out of her door and now the door was filling up with water. They decided they would keep the car and found us a reputable taxi driver to take us home. They ended up finding us someone with a car, but he got bored waiting for us and decided we weren’t worth his time so he drove away – down the block and parked his car there.

Tuesday day-4. I ran errands with Jessica, something very reminiscent of my time living in Nicaragua. She is pregnant so we went to McDonalds for breakfast. The power went off in the afternoon. A now rare occurrence.

Wednesday day-5. I went to the Ferrrer’s for lunch, I think that was the only time I got fresh Gallo Pinto. After lunch I rode Aimee’s bike to the library. I don’t know why I didn’t do that before. Bike riding takes a lot less time than walking. The library was great – here is an in-depth look at it.
The library has been going strong since May of 2008. Rosmery became the librarian when I was leaving and it was wonderful to get caught up with her. She works Monday to Friday from 1-6 (and sometimes on Saturdays) and gets paid $95/month (if anyone wants to pay her salary let me know). She is an amazing Christian girl who loves the kids and knows them well. She has a schedule on the wall with designated craft times, reading out-loud times, times for people over 15 and everything is very orderly. A few afternoons I helped with crafts, one day I played a Shoots and Ladders, and one day I pulled kids aside and had them one-on-one pick a story to read to me. I was very encouraged that two brothers who could barely read when I left now are reading with confidence. It was great to see tangible results in response to the long-term work being done. Earlier this year a second room was added on to the library. The goal is for the current library to be kept for younger kids and the additional room to be set up for teens, adults, classes and study groups. Right now the space is empty but as money comes in they will be getting more books, shelves, and furniture. This summer a group came and painted both parts of the library. And guess where that group came from…Maranatha High School. They did an excellent job. Small world, yes?

Thursday day-6. Matthew sent a driver, Harold, to pick me up. Matthew has opened a clinic since I left and I got to see that. It is nice, and people come to it (not like his old clinic). Most patients pay to go to it, except for those that don’t. After the clinic we went to the feeding program, not much has changed there. Still over 200 people come everyday. In the past Matthew has had AA type groups come to do meetings but they never lasted long. Now someone comes daily to preach from the Bible and amazing enough people (around 30 each day) sit and listen.

After the feeding program we went out to lunch – Korean food. It was me, Matthew, 2 Korean men (one that didn’t speak English), Harold, and this other Nicaraguan that works for Matthew. Odd group, we split between Korean speakers and Spanish speakers. I was with the Spanish. In the afternoon I went back to the library. At night we went to the movies, it was 2 for 1 night. And since 1 is only $4 regularly, it was very affordable.

Friday day-7. Nicaragua Christian Academy had their Independence Day celebrations. Since 2005 last year was the only one of these celebrations I’ve missed. I also got to go to Sampson’s in the morning to get their version of the frappachino and some churros de queso (a very amazing combination). I started to get a sore throat, I thought it was just bad air but it turned into a cold. A note o air quality - normally in the States I drive with my ac on recycled air, not since I’ve been back. After 2 weeks in Nicaragua I could drive past the slaughterhouses on I-5 behind a smoker, driving diesel with my windows down and not have any problems.

Wow this is getting long.

Saturday day-8. In the morning I went to the market then in the afternoon I was feeling a cold coming on and it was raining so I laid on the couch and watched TV. Later on I went to coffee with Chema. Now in California going to coffee means Starbucks, or Peets or some hip local place. In Nicaragua there is El Coche but the El Coche on our side of town closed so what is left is Café Latino. How to describe Café Latino…their sign is neon orange and yellow. I tried to order an iced latte, they were out of ice. I switched my order to the brown liquid that is dispensed from the icee machines. They got a cup, took the lid off the machine, and scooped me out a cup. This would be gross except for it is really experiences like that that make Nicaragua.

Sunday day-9. I went to church with the Ferrrer’s it was great seeing the people from there, then we went to El Eskimo for lunch. In the 2-years of going to church with the Ferrrer’s I think we went to El Eskimo 95% of the time, the food is American but I don’t think you can find any restaurant in the US that is broken up into 4-distict sections like that place. In the front you can sit at the counter and order ice cream and then by the time you get to the back it is linen tablecloths and crystal. Sunday afternoon I left with 4 other girls for a pineapple farm. That night we were supposed to go on a hike to see some of the 56 mammals that live in the national forest – Chocoyero. It was pouring down rain, we saw one mouse. Most mammals are smart enough to find shelter in the rain, humans are not most mammals.

Monday day-10. I was sick but people were going on a hike and you know me, never one to pass on a good hike. Oh wait that isn’t me at all but it was hike or sit by myself for up to five hours and I still wanted to see an armadillo. I didn’t have proper hiking gear so I used Kate’s beach bag and crossed the straps to make a bag to carry my water bottle, very classy. I don’t know if I have the mastery of the English language required to adequately describe the events that took place on this hike. The incline was an hour of huffing and puffing but there was a good view at the top. But that only took one hour then we had to decide how to get back to bottom, either on a normal path or the more adventurous path of La Ventana. La Ventana just had one little part where a rope was required and we’d need to hop down some rocks. So we went the way of the La Ventana. After not too much time we got to the part requiring a rope and hopping, it was very easy but we were quite proud of our adventurousness. After this obstacle the path pretty much ended. The guide was clearing a path for us with a machete. I was getting eaten by some non-mammals. We went along still with our adventurous spirits then the path really ended. And by ended I mean it narrowed down to mountains going up on both sides of us and a 20 foot drop down. So here the options were turning around or going down the cliff, by a minority vote the cliff was chosen. The rope was tied to a tree again and we were asked questions like “can support your weight with just your arms?” No. Fortunately the part of my brain that recognizes dangerous situations stopped working a while ago so I wasn’t nervous at all. I’m ready to meet my Maker. So about half way down this wall there was a tree to rest at, bad news is that is as far as the rope would go. Now I’ve never been rock climbing but I’m pretty sure only Tarzan thinks that vine is just as good as rope. But the rope ended and I was instructed to complete the climb holding onto a vine instead. Did you know vines don’t have knots like rope? I ended up sliding down the rest of the way. I have the road rash on my stomach to prove it. But actually the most painful was the chunk of my palm that stayed on that vine. On a more upbeat note I was the quickest one down that mountain and it has been fascinating watching the different layers of my skin heal. The adventure mellowed out after that, when I got back to our camp I slept for the rest of the day. Then we got S’mores.

Tuesday day-11. After reading in a hammock and drinking a variety of coconut milks the Pineapple farm was over and we were back to bustling Managua life. But not too bustling because it was a national holiday. My cell phone was out of minutes.

Wednesday day-12. Maybe the most typical of Nicaragua days. It was day two of the national holiday. We tried to get bakery breakfast – it was closed. I was going to go to the beach with the Ferrers and the church – their car broke down. I decided to ride my bike to the library – it was closed and started pouring down rain. (highlight, I got to talk to this girl Dariana for a while, she’s around my age and in a very typical position for girls in that community, not in school, not working, boy crazy). That night Survivor Nicaragua started – we laughed. I mean did you read my adventure from day 10?

Thursday day-13. Matthew again. Sort of. He had Harold pick me up and drop me off at the feeding program. I think I am getting faster at serving slop. One of the men asked for my eyes. I said no. He asked why. I told him they were mine. He offered to trade me. I declined.

Friday day-14. I was going to go to the school I used to teach at but when I called they were closed for the holiday week. I went shopping instead and bought bags of refried beans to give to people at work as a souvenir. Nicaragua has amazing refried red beans. Then I went to Michelle’s work (the center for kids with disabilities and their families). None of the kids were there, or their families but Michelle and I got to catch up. Then I went to the library. Some of the kids wrote me very sweet cards. Then I went to a baby shower. Somehow I volunteered to organize that candy bar/memory game. It was a bilingual party and I think all of my cleverness (and I am clever) was lost in translation. My cell phone ran out of minutes.

Saturday day-15. Matthew also has been doing some community development stuff since I’ve been gone. I got to go with him to a tent-town El Paraiso that he has been working in. When he first went and asked the local leaders what they wanted, they chose electricity and water. He was able to put in 4 wells and then more people came so the government recognized it as a place to put electricity. There are 1200 homes there, probably 50 are made with brick the rest are made from whatever scraps people came up with. He has started a church, feeding program, and plant nursery there. Can you imagine wanting water? Even seeing it I can’t fathom how people live. So why do people start a new town in a place without a water source? Because the government promoted it as a place you could get land for cheap. So people sold what they had in the city and bought land and then couldn’t afford to develop the land so essentially have nothing now. After I was home and was telling my parents this, my dad asked me how much land I was talking about. I looked up from my chair, looked around the room and said, “Oh, I guess about the size of our living room.” That realization is still haunting me.

Saturday night we went to quesillos. To make a quesillo you wrap a tortilla around some cheese (like string cheese) and pickled onions and put it in a bag then you pour in some creamy substance. Somehow it ends up being wonderful. My cell phone ran out of minutes.

Sunday day-16. I was supposed to go to church with the Ferrrers but their car was still broken so this guy from church was going to pick them and then me up. His clock was off by about 10 minutes so he stopped waiting when I was 5 minutes late (AKA 5 minutes early). Lori loaned me her car so I got to see people again. After the service one of the ladies was selling pupusas for 50 cents as a fundraiser. A few weekends ago I bought 2 pupusas from a street cart in Oakland for $5. What a steal. On the way home it started storming again. I like the flash floods but Aimee reminded me that while we are dry inside other people are losing everything they own. After the storm the side of the road to Lori’s house was totally washed away and a bunch of people were standing around looking at something. At first we thought someone was hurt but no one seemed upset. We drove past an hour later and people were still there so we got out to find out what happened. Evidentially they found some bones so kept digging around. Then upon further investigation they found some big pottery that had bones in it. I guess her street was some ancient burial ground or something.

Monday day-17. I had an early flight with two layovers but things went really smoothly. I got through customs in record time even with the 50 lbs of beans I was bringing. Constantly in Nicaragua I was running out of minutes on my Nica phone. One afternoon I put in $2.50, sent 3 text messages, and made 2 phone calls totaling 6 minutes and it was gone. So what happens when I land in Texas and try to turn on my phone? The battery is dead. I didn’t have any quarters and pay phones are hard to come by anyways so I was just as lacking as in Nicaragua. And just like in Nicaragua everything turned out ok. My mom guestimated the time it would take me to get from SFO to Concord BART and was waiting when I got there. That night I counted 40 mosquito bites on my legs.

That is all from that trip. I am now back at work and this weekend injured myself at the beach way worse than I did falling down that cliff. Matthew offered me a job, I turned him down but am starting to rethink things.

Adios August, hola rest of the year

2010-08-31T23:06:00.000-07:00

Once like two years ago my brother Jeremy told me that I shouldn’t hide important information in the end of these things. Really, define important. You’ll have to search REALLY hard to find any important information here so don’t get your hopes up.
On Saturday I’m going to Nicaragua until the 20th. I thought as I got closer I would have fabulous details to fill you in on. This is what I have instead a plane ticket (round-trip), the equivalent of $6 US in Nicaraguan currency, about 6 packages people have shipped to me to bring down, a weather report of thunder showers. There are a few holes in my plans but I’m sure but the time I fly home they will all be filled in.
Other news I went to an A’s game with my office a few Friday’s ago. I learned about all the behaviors that my roommates and I skipped out on in college and discovered that 60 is not to old to party hard. I attached a picture of me eating the worst churro of my life, $4. I didn’t have an A’s shirt to wear so I wore my chlorophyll shirt, it is green and we sell chemicals.

My sister Julie made some comment about me working on my hope chest. My recent addition to it is this lovely ceramic tray that I painted at Color-Me-Mine. It will get stashed with my salt and pepper shakers if they ever are finished. I did my painting with my friend Keri, she made a tile in honor of her snake. Lucky you get to view both of these.

good news about bad weather

2010-08-12T12:30:00.000-07:00

This summer the weather has been unseasonably cold. I’m not a huge fan of the cold but I heard on the radio West Nile Virus has trouble spreading in these temperatures so locally fewer birds (maybe 10 total) and no people had died from that this summer. And think, I never even knew that was something that I could potentially worry about.
Last Thursday my dad decided to put down our 14.5 year-old family dog. Or as my ever-gracious sister put it, “he murdered my roommate.” I didn’t cry about that either but I considered that if I were prone to crying it would have been an acceptable reason.
Friday was my one-year anniversary at Dowd & Guild. I didn’t cry.
Over the weekend someone asked me if I was an introvert or an extrovert. Firstly, if you’ve met my parents you can see why I am completely torn between these two sides. Secondly, who am I supposed to be extroverted with?
On that note some ‘friends’ wanted to go see the meteor shower last night. We camped out in the middle of some private road for 3 hours and I think I saw about 15 total. Not the one a minute I was hoping for but it was still nice and we only had to clear off the road 3 times. Did I mention you can’t see meteors during the day? Actually you have to wait until it gets dark. Anyhow I didn’t get home until 1am, so I’m thinking of going back to my friendless life where at least I can go to bed at a decent hour.
Last summer I went over to the Bonnington’s a few times to learn how to do things with wood. Rich did teach me how to tie my shoes so this is a natural progression. After a year long hiatus (humm, I wonder if there is a correlation between that length of time and the length of time I’ve had my job?) I started up on the lathe again last week. I am going to make a set of salt and pepper shakers. Working with my hands is very gratifying. I think by the time I own my own house they will be completed.
I’m not planning on moving back to Nicaragua, I’m just going for a visit. I bought my ticket for $100 so it seems I’m set to go. I saw the name Sampson on some report I was reading yesterday and it reminded me of Sampson’s in Nicaragua. Whoever is organizing my time there should make sure we go there.

Goodbye July

2010-07-30T12:02:00.000-07:00

That super clever rhyme of a title just made me think that I haven’t written you any poems recently. But don’t get your hopes too high, it isn’t going to happen today either.
July has been an inspirational month for me in the world of ice cream sandwiches. It also served as a reminder than not all inspiration is good. Ginger cookies with lemon ice cream = good, chocolate chip cookies with coffee ice cream = good, peanut butter cookies with chocolate chip ice cream = good, peanut butter cookies rolled in salt with chocolate chip ice cream = I’m still believing that this had the potential of being wonderful.
At work my position is changing, unfortunately no one has clued me in to what it is changing to. I do know that I’m still the Ambassador of Goodwill. In that role I run a scholarship program for students that are serving in their communities. We are supposed to award one a month but we were on hold for 2009 and the first half of 2010 so we’re playing catch-up and in July we gave four. My boss and I screen all the applicants first and then call in the winners for interviews with some of our staff. It’s a pretty neat program and since my boss and I are very like-minded on some things we are able to help out some very cool people. I really like the interviews, they are a great way for people in the office to be exposed to those in need and many candidates have a strong Christian testimony. Another great part of my job is yesterday I re-organized my boss’s files. They are now color coordinated; I forgot how gratifying it is to organize files.
Upcoming events:
From September 4th to 20th I’ll be back in Nicaragua. I’m excited to take the time off work and to see people and things. I’m sure more details will follow about that.
Tomorrow night the Roller Derby is in Richmond. My friend Keri invited me to go with her, she probably just wants to use me for my un-fancy car and those cardio-kick boxing classes I took at Davis.
Today is casual day and afternoon snack day at work.
August plans are up in the air, maybe I’ll hear from you.

life unexpected

2010-07-15T13:30:00.000-07:00

I, surprisingly enough, don’t have a lot to say right now. But today is the designated day to send out an update so I will fill you in on two anecdotes from my week.
On Monday I was reminded why I never want to be a homeowner. I live at my parents’ currently and I have very little home responsibility. Well my parents were gone for a few days and my dad told me to make sure I turn off the sprinklers if I was going to park in the driveway because we have well water and if it dries on your car it is a mini-disaster. Well, you see, I remembered on my way home. But then when I pulled up to the house I had to bring in the garbage cans and bring in the mail and bring in the 6 burritos that my cousin was getting rid of and I got distracted. Tuesday morning at 6:40 I heard the sprinklers outside my window so I jumped out of my bed and threw on some sandals and turned them off. They had already thoroughly drenched my car s then I had to wash off the well water with city water. I guess I am the crazy person on the block that washes her car in her pajamas before 7am.
Last week I was off work. I saw quite a few people that get this little piece of spam. You are great. Now I am back to work. Yesterday I had a meeting with one of my bosses to keep him updated on the projects we have pending. He is very intense. I’ve been working for the company for almost a year and about 3 months ago he decided we should work more together. I am pretty good now at not being caught off guard and answering him confidently. Yesterday he asked me how many people I go to church with and if I know the pastor, I stammered out some answer and most likely he now thinks I’m in a cult. He wanted to know if I wanted to head up a service project at my church based on a book he recently had me read that I enjoyed. I said I’d think about it, I didn’t want to tell him what the likelihood is of a semi-inspirational service project getting approved. To some people this paragraph will make perfect sense, and you’ll understand my predicament. Others of you will have no idea what I’m talking about and that’s OK.
Lunch is over.
What’s going on with you?

welcome to july!

2010-07-01T22:03:00.000-07:00

I like July. Tomorrow at work we’re having a BBQ for the 4th and I’m taking next week off. Today I get to redecorate the bulletin board in the kitchen. I like doing that; it puts my years of high school leadership to good use.

June on the other hand was a little rough work-wise. I think on a scale of 1 to 10, with 1 meaning nothing goes how it is supposed to and 10 being everything going according to plan it would be about a 6. The problem with making mistakes constantly is I have to go back and fix them. Doing everything twice takes a lot more time than doing things correctly the first time. At first the mistakes really could be blamed on other people but looking back (especially the past two weeks) quite a few were completely my fault. Really I can’t blame anyone for me missing the big red warning on the Hilton website that said my credit card was about to be charged and the reservations are unchangeable. Thankfully God is gracious (and so are the people in hotel and airline customer service).

Last time I wrote about bringing in snacks to work and people not understanding the snacks were soccer mom classics. The next week there was another World Cup game (USA vs. Algeria) so I made rice krispie treats. My boss asked me what they were. I told him and his reaction very clearly gave away the fact that he had never heard of them. Actually I’d put money on the fact that he hasn’t heard of the cereal either. Another lady asked me if they were those things people make with marshmallow fluff. I guess rice krispie treat isn’t in her vocabulary either.

Other life news.

I think things are going well. My life is becoming more balanced. I enjoy doing un-work related things but they are less entertaining to write about.

The girl from work that ignored me last time I asked if she wanted to hang out after work changed her mind so we hung out on Monday and it was really good. I can add her to my list of new friends, I’m up to 4.

My lunch break is almost over I’d better be on my way.

Go Team USA

2010-06-18T15:52:00.000-07:00

My new way to keep entertained at work is by giving rewards and treats. The rewards have the potential of costing the company a lot of money but usually people don’t participate in my challenges so they are pretty pointless.
Here are some recent ones:
I put a suggestion box in the kitchen any suggestion and I give the person a $5 gift card. Do people write down their suggestions? Rarely, mostly they just complain.
We’re thinking if switching the coffee in the kitchen, it has been a very dramatic process. Since I don’t drink coffee I told people to try my 4 samples and give feed back and they would get participation prizes. I gave $5 gift cards to each person that turned in at least one response. Only 7 people got them.
We have a new girl Kayla, with new people I like to put a fun fact and their favorite ice cream on the board in the kitchen. She told me that she is boring and couldn’t think of one. I told the office that they have until today to ask her one question each and whoever gets the most interesting response wins a $5 gift card. So far I’ve only received 4 facts and one of them is that she has “a brown dog that is kind of large.”
Today when the World Cup game (which I really have no interest in) ended at 9 I set up snacks: orange slices, Capri Suns, and Quaker granola bars. People really liked it but only about 5 people understood the correlation between the foods I brought and soccer.
I’m going to keep doing these things for the remnant (and for myself).
The other day when I was proofing BBQ invitations for my boss I caught that it asked people to bring appetizers and hors D’vours. I had to double check fist that they were in fact the same thing (I never know about rich people rules) then I told him. He and his wife both separately expressed their gratitude, maybe I’ll get a raise.
I’ve been continuing to pursue being social…
I’ve been talking on the phone more lately, and not just to my sister.
Last night I went to dinner with one of my Davis roommates she only lives an hour away and we hadn’t talked since December.
Last week I emailed this girl from work to see if she wanted to go out to coffee when we got off. She never responded.
Last Saturday I went to a wedding by myself and actually stayed for the reception. I was talking to this girl (white like me) and this black man asked if we were sisters, that is the second time that I have been asked that this month.

On hair and taxes and other things unrelated

2010-06-07T20:53:00.000-07:00

As you may remember, a few years ago I stopped brushing/combing my hair, then some time after that I stopped conditioning too. I picked backed up the conditioner thing after a five-year hiatus because when people give me shampoo it often comes with the matching conditioner and I don’t like it when one bottle gets finished before the other. Last weekend my friend Amaris encouraged me to give the brush another chance. As I discovered my hair does look a little smoother when it gets brushed with a brush instead of my fingers. I don’t want to become vain so I wasn’t sure if actually buying one would be a good use of my money but then my aunt was just giving one away so I took it as a sign and snatched it up. Now in the past week I have used it at least three times. Literally I think that is more times than in the last probably 8 years combined. Amaris assures me that now the boys will swoon. I personally am excited that if I brush out my hair maybe I’ll find less of it on my clothes, in my car, in my sheets, etc. (it works for my dog). We’ll see how long it lasts, old habits die hard and all that.

Here is a picture of me at my friend Lora’s wedding with brushed hair.

Recently my car did not pass smog. I was quite a bit bummed but the lovely people told me about a government assistance program to subsidize the cost of smog related repairs. To qualify you either have to be poor (which I guess I’m not anymore) or have a car that they expect to fail. Me and my ‘92 Accord fell into the latter category. So thank you tax payers! I got $540 worth of repairs for $108.

And speaking of ’92 Accords, do you have one? Because I swear every person that I have driven lately either has one, or had one, or their mom has one, or their brother has one. So when I’m driving people from work that now drive 7-series BMWs I give them an opportunity to reminisce about the years they spent in a boxy Hondas. It is very equalizing.

Now some other fun facts.
-Memorial Day I was in San Diego, it was great.
-I switched up the coffee at work today, I expect there will be a strong reaction tomorrow morning.
-I’ve made a few non-related friends recently – it only took 17 months.
-Today is my oldest brother’s birthday – Happy birthday Jeremy, this is your gift.
-Is summer here? – I think it is getting closer
-I think you’re great!

Good Works

2010-05-20T21:40:00.000-07:00

The weekend getaway was lots of fun. We wandered around and looked at hippies, ate and solved life’s problems. I’ve attached a picture of my view on the ride up there.

One of my bosses is really into philanthropy so I get opportunities to be into that too. Just last week I went to a super nice wine and food festival sponsored by the Rotary club. I went with my cousin and sister-in-law, we were way underdressed but got to eat some fancy “hamburgers” (note the attire of the man the background)

and some amazing bunt cake.

Also along with the philanthropy we got to paint doors at the San Francisco Rescue Mission. I think about 1,000 pictures we taken so everyone will see how good we are. On that note my doorframe got very high marks.

This weekend we’re going to feed the homeless in Oakland. It is recommended to go to these things so that we feel good about ourselves. Fortunately last weekend on the way to painting I read this in John 6,“Then they said to Him, ‘What shall we do, that we may work the works of God?’ Jesus answered and said to them, ‘This is the work of God, that you believe in Him whom I sent.’” It is fine for me to go around doing good works but I can’t confuse that with what God is asking me to do.
D&G also recognizes my neediness, sometime soon I need to make an appointment at a day spa by my work and put it on my boss’s tab.

What’s going on contigo?

Seis de Mayo

2010-05-06T22:00:00.000-07:00

I know some of you have been concerned that my Spanish is not being practiced in my new lifestyle. But don’t you worry, I used it THREE times in the past week:

1) My boss’s wife called because her gardener just had a son, Mateo, she wanted to know if that had one T or two.

2) Different gardener, my dad needed help with a word, completely unrelated to gardening – no surprise there, he likes to talk to people.

3) I was inspired to throw a Cinco de Mayo party at work. I labeled all of the foods with their names in Español and English.

Speaking of Cinco de Mayo…a few weeks ago my boss asked me what the next office celebration should be and I picked Cinco de Mayo (or pretzel day). On Friday I got the go ahead and I went ahead. Instead of getting it catered, like every other employee would have done, I decided to cater it myself. I think the best part of my job is no one really knows what I’m supposed to be doing so I get to make things up as I go along. Thus the catering…much more exciting than whatever the last person at the front desk used to do. I did a classic taco bar with this amazing vegetable tray…

I don’t think people really got it, they aren’t as clever as you. They did really like the fiesta and the shredded sweet and spicy crock-pot chicken. People can’t stop talking about it; it’s very awkward.

I think there will be many more of these parties to come because it was announced last week that we got our “mojo” back. What that translates to in the chemical sales field is we just signed the biggest contract of D&G’s history. What that means for me is:

a) More mailings (I worked an hour late today compiling addresses)

b) More perks (I recently earned $25 for Starbucks and $25 for Jamba Juice)

c) More decision making (should we stick with Folgers or switch back to Starbucks in the kitchen)

Tomorrow I am going away for the night with my sister (Julie) and sister-in-law (Cristina) for the 2nd annual mothers-day-weekend-girls-trip. My payment for catering is getting off work 3 hours early tomorrow. Julie’s goal is to eat a lot and Cristina’s is to stay up late and watch movies. It’s bound to be a blast even if we have no clue what there is to do in Sebastopol. More on that next update, for now I’m going to get ready for bed.

Happy Earth Day!

2010-04-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

In effort to be less work-oriented I went to Davis the last two Saturdays. The first time I was able to eat at my favorite deli, Zia’s. The second Saturday I went to Picnic Day. I’ll attach a picture of Katie H and me in front of a helicopter.

After Picnic Day I took Amtrak home. I like riding trains. Not driving is so relaxing.

I think 2010 has been a good year for chemical sales so far. I partially know this from preparing YTD comparative 2009-2010 reports. The other reason I know it is because we get a lot more spontaneous (between typing those 2 words I just spit coffee all over myself) treats that I get to exercise discretion in buying. To celebrate Christ’s death and resurrection everyone got Starbucks and candy filled plastic eggs. Last Friday we got lunch from this café by the office. I really like picking up lunch there for everyone because they have those frequent buyer punch cards and so far I’ve earned 3 free meals. On Monday instead of having our quarterly luncheon at the pizza place that we have to bring our own plates, straws, lemon wedges and trashcans, we get to have it at a real restaurant.

I also like ordering lunch for people because you learn a lot about them. The more I learn about the people I work with the more I am convinced that I am normal and there is such a thing as being abnormal. I will now tell you my favorite order. Tuna Salad (a salad with tuna on top with blue cheese) w/out the tuna or cheese. And why didn’t she want the tuna? Because she brought her own from home.

I guess some people might think I’m weird too. At least 3 lunches a week I sit in my car and eat instant oatmeal. Today I added pecans for a little excitement/protein. But I have really good justifications.
Now to follow-up on things from my last update:

I did not go on that weekend trip

After some heated debate with Barns &Nobel’s automated customer service desk the majority of my books shipped.

I ended up failing at the coupon thing and buying deodorant at Safeway one night at like 9:30

Happy Thursday!

2010-04-08T20:15:00.000-07:00

Welcome to my update.

Work recently has been particularly busy. For the most part I don’t believe in getting stressed but this week (Monday especially) that belief was not particularly evident. On the bright side I’ve been getting paid overtime. And again I’m learning more and more what it means to pray continually.

One of the projects I’ve been working on is sending out a letter to promote these All Plastic paint cans we distribute. I wrote the letters, assembled a mailing list, stuffed envelopes (at home), and then finally on Monday I mailed them. Yesterday I got my first call from someone who got the letter and is interested in buying the product. It was very exciting to see that what I did will actually bring money.

A lady just asked me where I got the shoes I am wearing. She loves them. I am not a huge fan but I had to throw away my favorite shoes yesterday so these are backup. I guess when you buy shoes at Payless in Nicaragua you can’t expect them to last more than 2 years.

Speaking of shopping, I really don’t like shopping online. I’ve been trying to order some books from Barnes and Nobel and even though I consider myself fairly computer savvy it definitely would have been quicker for me to just go to the store. The order status is saying that my books will be shipped August 24th. I’m a little bitter. I don’t want to talk about it.

A few weeks ago I was bored so I went to this class on how to use coupons. It was very fascinating learning how much money you can save when using coupons. On the other hand it was a quite a bit overwhelming. For example I really need to buy some deodorant but the lady was insisting that deodorant is one of the things you should never pay full price for. So now I feel like I can’t buy any until it is on super sale so I’m stuck using this stuff I don’t like until I can get it for “practically free.”

I’ve been going to this Bible study bi-monthly for the very spiritual reason of having a social outlet and making new friends. I think that it has been working and possibly I could call these people “friends!” Here is my problem whenever they invite me to do things I say no. My intention isn’t to play hard-to-get but I usually have really good excuses. Like going to an 8:30 movie on a Wednesday night would keep me up past my bed-time. They also asked me if I wanted to go on a weekend trip they are planning. Woah that is moving a little too fast, don’t you think?

Ok on a more upbeat note. My cousin Eric and his wife Jamie had a baby girl yesterday – that’s exciting. I stopped by to say hi today after work and stayed for dinner. Normally it probably isn’t kosher to mooch a free dinner off of people that just had a baby but I did bring over a really good cake.

How are you?

Happy Springtime!

2010-03-23T12:49:00.000-07:00

Are you enjoying spring? I love it. It is finally warm enough to sleep with my window open – now maybe my room won’t smell like dying dog. Literally my dog is dying and I feel bad for her and let her sleep on the floor in my room she smells and likes to pace my room in the middle of the night.
Work is fine. I got a top-secret raise. It came the same paycheck as my 401k started being taken out so my take-hope dropped, but that is life. I’m still waiting for my performance review but I think my job is safe.
Yesterday someone came to me because the printer was broken. I told her that since it was only 8:05 it was probably still in sleep mode. She assured me that wasn’t the problem. I walked over to it pressed the on button, and miracle of miracles it worked.
On that note I am not a very internally kind person. Some of you may not think I’m kind externally either but I try really hard to suppress outward expressions of my distain in the work place. Working with people is hard! It is amazing how quickly I get annoyed by people. It is really good I have a 40-minute commute so at least I have time to wake up before I get bombarded with conversations that I have no desire participate in. Anyways that was my venting – don’t hate me. I’m waiting for the internal transformation but am learning self-control in the meantime.
On Saturday I went shopping. I bought 9 items 5 of them were cardigans.
Saturday night I went to the drive-ins with my friend Keri. We saw Diary of a Wimpy Kid and Alice in Wonderland. The first one was pretty hilarious we were going to leave during Alice but we couldn’t figure out how to get out of the parking lot. Over all, the drive-in experience was better than I was expecting. The bathrooms were closed so I had to use the port-a-potty. I just coached myself though it by reminding my self that people all over the world use grosser bathrooms that those all the time.
I’ve been watching “The Celebrity Apprentice.” Reality TV is totally addicting so I usually avoid it but this is job research. My goal is to be the receptionist on that show. Sending people in to meet with Donald Trump. Maybe God has me at D&G to prepare me for that position.
Well lunch is almost over and now it’s time to go to the store to restock my boss’s supply of Pepsi.
Love, Joy

enjoy!

2010-03-04T18:03:00.001-08:00

There was such friendly feedback after my last update that I’ve been inspired.
I am writing this during my lunch break at Peet’s coffee. I had big plans of going to Starbucks because it is a little closer to my work but after I ordered my hot chocolate I asked for internet access and realized it is a very complicated process. When the girl was explaining it to me I cut her off to say that all I needed was to get on my computer. I guess she had been telling me that process the whole time; something about buying a gift card and then buying 5 packs of gum and then scratching off a code and some more stuff. I cancelled my order and left, very graciously and am now sipping a kind of burnt tasting decaf latte.
Now that I only have 30 minutes left I’m going to share some highlights.
One day last week traffic was stopped on the freeway because there was a turkey in the road. I realize for those of you from the Midwest that may not seem like a huge deal but it made me smile for the rest of my commute.
Last Thursday I was throwing an after-work baby shower for a girl in the office that is going to have a baby. People were really good at giving money for the group gift but then when the day of the party came people started throwing out excuses. Here are my top 3 favorites (yes I’m being serious) – I’m getting my hair done, I’m moving my furniture, my dog might be sick. Really it was their loss because I throw an excellent baby shower.
So the girl having a baby is an Administrative Assistant (like me) so they decided that while she is on maternity leave all of her tasks can just be passed to me. We were working a few hours a day on training for her expected departure date of March 18th. Last Tuesday night her doctor put her on modified bed rest AKA go along life as normal except for going to work. The phrase that comes to mind, “out of the frying pan, into the fire.” You see the problem is I have a full time job and she had a full time job and there isn’t a whole lot of overlap. I still haven’t quite figured out A: what I’m supposed to be doing B: how I’m supposed to get it all done and C: who will be the most angry if I’m not assisting them speedily enough. The good thing is I’m learning a little more how to pray and so far this week a lot of grace has been shown.
I got an email at work yesterday that they are going to give performance reviews (not a normal practice). I don’t really know what that means because this is my first real job. I’m a little nervous, what if they tell me I need to start brushing my hair or that rain boots aren’t acceptable office footwear? I guess in theory they could critique my quality of work but they can’t be too harsh on that since I’m doing way more work than they hired me to do. And that whole dog portrait thing.
Tonight I’m flying to LA to spend some time with college roommates. I’m very excited to see them and to take tomorrow off. My boss told me that this is my last day off until Kimmi gets back from maternity leave (sometime mid-June). But mostly to see them. Maybe my next update I’ll tell you about my social life – it will be a short one.
Okey Dokey back to work I go.
What’s going on with you? And what’s the deal with retirement plans? I’m supposed to meet with our HR rep before the pay period ends to decide on a saving plan but it all sounds terrible to me.

Here I am

2010-02-18T12:30:00.001-08:00

Summary: I am an administrative assistant at a chemical sales firm.

You may have noticed (or not) that I haven’t been writing much lately. If I were prone to making excuses, I would place all of the blame on having a job. Don’t get me wrong, jobs are great for some things, like making money, but this particular job has the unfortunate side effect of stripping me of creative energies. For that reason, and my own particular laziness this update will be but a shadow of the former glory you were accustomed to.

I was talking to this lady today, she can’t believe that she has been at D&G for 9 years, I experienced a little bit of the same panic when I realized I have been here for 7 months. It isn’t that I don’t like and appreciate my job but the concept of working full-time is boring. And now I am being redefined as this boring person and that is discouraging. Please don’t try to encourage me by saying that in 40 years I can retire. I am fully not planning on this as lifetime commitment. I have many offers to be a full time nanny and one of my bosses thinks I should become a professional artist.

Now I will be positive. Work gets me out of the house everyday at 7:20 (AM!!) that is probably healthy. The average age in the company is close to 58 so I haven’t made any new BFF’s but it does provide a source of interaction with the outside world – and oh the stories I could tell about that interaction (more on that later). Approximately once a week I get to take my boss’s car to the car wash, if I am working I might as well have a job that requires me to leave the office and sit outside reading in the sunshine. In 2008 I had an Adjusted Gross Income of $450. 2009 I made more than that. The office has very good drinking water.

Now here are some top stories of the month:

Monday I took off. I saw people and sun.

Tuesday someone brought her dog into the office, is that OK?

Also Tuesday I got to hear about this lady getting skin cancer removed from her face. It made me want to throw-up, and thanks to the placement of my desk I got to hear her repeat it to everyone else in the office.

I won $25 in the Super Bowl pool.

I did a portrait of my boss’s golden retriever (now deceased) and his wife said it was the best gift any one has ever given her. So good that she had it turned into prints to send out as cards. In the business world a little creativity goes a long way. I have now permanently secured my position at D&G – if that is what I was going for

I was informed that in the spring snow melts in the mountains and this provides water for the farmers to grow their crops.

Those are the only ones I can remember. About 3 times a week I come home with major issues to vent. I try to get over them quickly and then usually by 6pm all I have left of my workday is anecdotes to share with people when they ask me how my life is – because the reality is I am only awake and not at work for 6 hours a day and nothing very noteworthy happens in that time.

Any Questions?

So this is Christmas...

2009-12-14T21:45:00.000-08:00

In lieu of a Christmas letter this year I am sending out this one-of-a-kind Christmas/4th quarter update. I’m not exactly sure where I left off on my 3rd quarter update and I’m guessing that probably means you’re not exactly sure either. So you’re getting a year-long summary.

December 19th, 2008 I stepped out of Managua and back into what I thought would be considered “normal life.”

By August I had been on sixteen trips. I got to see a lot of you and felt I was doing pretty well on the transition. God provided quite a few very odd jobs and I was able to take eight nice months of schedule-less life.

And then...

BAM!!!

The real world hit. Or what I thought was pretty close to “adult-life.” I got a permanent job. 9-1 EVERY DAY. I had to switch from waking up at 10 (or later, I can’t lie especially if you were one of the people I stayed with on one of my trips) to 7:30. I also had to start getting dressed EVERY DAY. And these outfits could not include shorts, denim, flip-flops or Converse.

That job lasted until October 19th then believe it or not, I started working full-time. 8-5. Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday & Friday. That is my life now (plus or minus a few family birthday parties and Bible studies), so that is what the rest of this e-mail will be about. I’ll try to keep it brief.

Who: Joy Eklund

What: Receptionist aka Administrative Assistant aka Personal Assistant aka Car Washer aka Travel Agent aka Ambassador of Goodwill (no joke that is what my boss told me my main job title is, my parents think he’s a prophet).

Where: Dowd and Guild, Inc. – “We sell chemicals…and that’s all” actually that isn’t true we also sell chemical containers but you get 1,000 bonus points if you sing the above quoted line and know what movie it’s from. D&G is in San Ramon, it is exactly 20 miles from my parents’ (where I live). It takes exactly 35 to 60 minutes to get there.

When: 8-5. 5 days a week.

Why: First of all, it is a job. Second of all, I get to do really cool things like watch videos entitled “The History of Paint.” Third of all, it probably the most un-green job possible so I get to be countercultural. Fourthly, they at least pretend to understand that if I had life-goals they would not be in the chemical sales field and they don’t hold that against me.

Overall I like what I am doing and I’m good at it. Everyday is completely different and I work independently, two things that fit well with me. Plus I work with a very “special” group of people that keep me entertained all day long. I could tell you about the day the bathroom key went missing or about a lovely conversation that began with the question, “So, Joy, what do you think of my son?” or about the backlash received when a customer wanted to take my picture or about a billion other things. But this is already getting too long and I wanted to share with you today’s Christmas lesson.

I like Christmas music, I listen to it on the way to and from my job. Today I was listening to “We Three Kings of Orient Are.” I realize that the concept of three kings is not biblical, but this song is pretty tight, and not just for Christmas. That said I am going to put in the lyrics (you can skip the first verse if you can’t handle it):

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar
Field and fountain, moor and mountain
Following yonder star

O Star of wonder, star of night
Star with royal beauty bright
Westward leading, still proceeding
Guide us to thy Perfect Light

Born a King on Bethlehem's plain
Gold I bring to crown Him again
King forever, ceasing never
Over us all to rein

Frankincense to offer have I
Incense owns a Deity nigh
Pray'r and praising, all men raising
Worship Him, God most high

Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume
Breathes of life of gathering gloom
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb

Glorious now behold Him arise
King and God and Sacrifice
Alleluia, Alleluia
Earth to heav'n replies

-Rev. John Henry Hopkins 1857

I hope that this Christmas you drawn to the perfect Light not just of Baby Jesus but of the King and God and Sacrifice.

some perspective

2009-11-23T22:05:00.000-08:00

The past few months my life has completely flipped around. Mostly all I do is work, participate in church related functions and celebrate family things. Sometimes I feel that all of my time is scheduled and can't really believe the drastic change that my life went through since August. A change that really doesn't cater to creative expression.
This week I have been staying at my boss's house taking care of his dog. So far I have seen three deer and two shooting stars. Tonight I actually had to wait for a deer to cross before I could pull into the driveway.
I was going to write more but it is now 10pm and part my lifestyle change is that I go to bed before 11. Plus tomorrow I have to wake up in time to prepare Maddie's breakfast before work.

Joy's 3rd Quarter Report

2009-10-01T17:15:00.000-07:00

October has begun and now you get the chance to catch up on my life, what a glorious day.

Does anyone out there remember where I left off in the saga of my life? I don’t.

I think around August 6^th I started working for Dowd and Guild Inc. that means I’m almost celebrating two months of waking up (and getting dressed) five days a week. For some of you this may not seem like a big accomplishment but it is something I haven’t done regularly since high school. I like my job. Lots of people ask me if working in an office is like the TV show. I think I could easily write a 23-minute bit every workday (and I only work 4 hour days), there would be none of the romantic tension.

More specifically, what do I do? I am the receptionist i.e. the face of the company. I sign for a lot of UPS packages. Today I spent close to an hour and a half decorating the bulletins board for October. Where do people come up with clever things to read while you’re waiting for the coffee to brew? I made a list of daily things to celebrate in October. The 9^th is moldy cheese day. And October is Pickled Pepper month. The rest of my job consists of answering and routing phone calls, updating things, running reports, filing papers, mailing things and extracting data from excel spreadsheets.

Soon I might start working full time. My possible change in schedule has been the drama of the week. Some people may think that me taking on a job fulltime would make me a sellout. I figure it is either sellout in that area or sellout to socialized healthcare. I have expressed my desire to have a modified vacation schedule. You can pray that they will think that is a great idea so that I can still be open to travel for philanthropic reasons (they’re really into philanthropy).

I was also working on getting that restaurant started. That kind of fizzled out the end of August but then last week they mailed me a bonus check.

A few weeks ago I decided to get a new bed. My parents voted for a full because it would still be a change but wouldn’t take up less of my room than a queen. So for a whole week I was on craigslist trying to find a bed and finally on Saturday morning (the day my dad could go with me to get something) I found one. I got to the house, they lowered the price, I brought it home, rearranged my furniture, went and bought sheets, and then figured out it was a queen. Why the people didn’t know that, I don’t know, I guess because the nanny was in charge of selling it. Oh well, it fits fine in my room and I got a great deal. Now, during the process of rearranging my furniture I moved all of my excess stuff (lots still un-organized from moving home) into the spare bedroom. Now I am in the early stages of getting rid of stuff. During this process I have learned that I am, in fact, a hoarder, I just store things well hidden.

That is mostly what is going on with me, now go enjoy some homemade cookies and get ready to name your car tomorrow and let me know what’s going on with you.

Love, Joy

PS Yes! You can still buy my book!

grandpa vermon

2009-09-13T21:42:00.000-07:00

I have a grandpa Vern. He looks nothing like this:

He lives in South Lake Tahoe, the previous owner ran the local brothels. I guess the house attracts "characters." Anyhoo this weekend he wanted to host a garage sale so I went up with my aunt and mom to help out. If you saw the pictures I posted in March you may have started to understand that he has more junk than any other person on the planet (hopefully). Here are some of my favorite pieces:

I sold the hats, $3 for 2 (he wanted $3 each or for me to take them myself) and the picture for $20 (he wanted $25) even better, I sold them to the same person. I hope they display them they same way I did.

This African CD stand we didn't sell until day 2 so he dropped the price from $20 to $12, another thing I wish I needed.

But it wasn't all awe at finding amazing things, here are some other emotions I dealt with...

Bitterness: My grandpa challenged my pricing one too many times. Trust me -- there is no way he paid $10 for the tacky umbrella I sold for $1.

Shock: So a lot of the garage sale patrons were my grandpa's biggest fans. He was selling his paintings for $100 and people were walking away bragging that they got an "original" and telling me how lucky I am to have such an amazing grandpa. I kept thinking of The Emperor's New Clothes. I could expand but either you understand the analogy or you don't. Another shocking thing was that he made over $4,000.

Disgust: The first night on the way in we met him, Ethel (his ex-girlfriend) and two of their friends for dinner at the Lakeside Inn. I really don't like the Lakeside Inn, or the Smokeside Inn as my aunt likes to call it. I don't every know what to order there, I think I need to start going with the prime rib special because that is what the old people get and the restaurant definitely caters to old people. Instead I got what I thought was going to be seafood with a white wine sauce over linguine. What came out was this flavorless soup with chunks of fish and a side of spaghetti. It did not go over well with my stomach. After dinner when we stood up to leave I realized that the lady that I was sitting across from was like 4 feet tall, I mean she stood up and was the same height as she was sitting down.

Awe: This morning I walked down to the lake. Some of the houses in his neighborhood are beyond massive and gorgeous. But then I got to the lake and it is much more massive and much gorgeous than any 5 million dollar home. A little perspective is good every once in a while.

Now I will share 3 completely unrelated things:

1) Even though I've been back now for 9-months, my body has not adjusted to the climite. Henceforth I have really bad dandruff, I feel like I have that gross cradle cap disease that my sister's kids get.

2) This week I am working full time. 8 to 5. That means I have to leave before I usually wake up.

3) It is raining right now. Very odd for September. I head there were thunder storms yesterday, I missed out, I hope they come back, those are something I miss from my former life.

Survivor

2009-09-03T18:36:00.000-07:00

Yesterday at work I had a very Survivor like experience. I've only seen about four episodes of Survivor, all on my NYC trip to the Congdons, but it seems like everyone is making alliances all the time, behind people's backs. So this lady literally cornered me in the copy room to ask me what I think about this other lady in the office. I said I liked her and that for the most part I try to live liking people, a very unexciting response,. She shared her undermined opinion of the lady in question and then we moved onto a more neutral topic. Do I look like I want my life to be filled with middle-aged drama?
On a brighter note, yesterday I got to deep-clean some cabinets, a break from the spreadsheets I've been spending my time with.
Another thing I get to do is sign for UPS packages. The UPS guy scares me, I guess he is just really friendly. I don't know how to deal with it so it is always a very awkward time.
Today I was informed that I am not supposed to just transfer every call to customer service because they are very busy. Good to know because unless someone calls and asks for a specific name I transfer them to customer service, because I don't have a clue what the rest of the people do.
In honor of the three day weekend, tomorrow is casual Friday. I now know how students feel when they usually have wear uniforms then get a free day. A lot of pressure.
Speaking of students, my commute is no longer exactly 30 minutes. It has been taking at least 35; 45 today because of an accident.
Last weekend my friend Morgan came to visit. She's from Iowa and been living in New Mexico, but we know each other from Nicaragua. It was great to get to spend time with her and lucky her, she got to house sit with me one night. To follow tradition, we played Boggle and Speed Scrabble. We probably played 10 rounds of Boggle and all but 3 rounds her score was double mine -- exactly. We also went to pick fruits and vegetables from my neighbor's house. He has something like 30 fruit trees and 50 tomato plants. He carried what we picked home for us down the road on his riding lawn-mower. He is 82 so I guess he can ride a lawn-mower down suburban city streets wearing a cowboy hat.

more on jobs

2009-08-28T16:14:00.000-07:00

I still like my primary job. I think the number of stupid mistakes I am making is decreasing, that is good.
The other day the head boss walked in, it was the first time I'd seen him in the office this course of employment
He said: I heard you were were working here again.
I said: Yeah, and I heard you were in charge.
He made no further comment and walked away.
I know almost everyone's names now, except for Carol, I don't know who she is. Well, I guess she is the one I see whose name I never know.
Today I was thinking about the people I work with, as Bob Grieco would say, some of them have high IQ and not so high of EQ, I don't know about SQ.
A lady asked me if I am a "plant person" I didn't know what she was talking about but I guess it was just her transition into asking me if I like sprouts. I do. The next day she brought me in a zip-lock of mixed sprouts. I have been enjoying them.
This week my secondary job is dog-sitting Dani Girl and Buddy Boy. Before bed I am supposed to say, "Poo poos for night night" and supposedly, "They know exactly what that means." I personally do not think they know what that means.

wedding and work

2009-08-21T15:11:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I went to San Diego to participate in the wedding festivities that correspond with the the previous post's faux wedding. It was super wonderful to spend so much concentrated time with my college roommates.

Here we are: The groom is in the suit and the bride in the white dress and veil

I drove down (with the two girls on the right) in my little Honda and discovered I can get 400mi/tank with freeway driving, that is very exciting since I won't be getting a hybrid anytime soon.

I've hit a dead end at the restaurant job for now. I've turned in all of my initial reports and am waiting for him to assign me something else to do.

I haven't gone to my office job all that many times yet but so far I really like it. 9 to 1 is a really great schedule, someone asked me if I have kids because I guess if I did that would be the perfect hours to work. The HR lady told me to not just have kids because of the schedule, I agree. So what do I actually do...
1) I drive to work, it takes me exactly 30 minutes.
2) I answer the phone and transfer calls.
3) I listen to people tell me about their lives.
4) I file papers.
5) I run reports (I don't really know what that means but it encompasses a variety of things and takes a lot of time)
6) I mail things.
7) I book reservations.
8) On Mondays I open Saturday's mail.
9) I do anything that THT tells me.

Right now I am at a coffee shop drinking iced tea, waiting for my college roommate Katie (on the right) we are going to motivate one another to do projects. My project it putting together a photo album from the last 3 years of my life.

Time slipping away

2009-08-11T20:35:00.000-07:00

I'm not very good at remembering to write here but I am into turning over new leafs so I'm going to try to be more faithful.

Dowd and Guild has been going well. I've now learned how to say "Good morning, Dowd and Guild, this is Joy." Hopefully after I say that they introduce themselves and then I know who to transfer them to. When people call and ask like they are my best friend and don't tell me their name I get really frustrated but today I decided that no matter how embarrassing it may be I am always going to ask who it is, because that is my job.
On Thursday something very dramatic happened. It was Rachel's birthday so someone brought this caramel dip thing and apples, some people didn't realize it was the equivalent of a birthday cake and started eating it. When we went to get it to surprise Rachel, there was a big wedge missing. Gale used the apple slices to fill in the gap. Crises averted.
Friday, yesterday and today I was supposed to work from 8-5 to get a feel for a full day. I went in at 9 instead of 8 because the girl I am working with, Christie, said that nothing happens before 8. I wasn't disappointed that I got to sleep an hour later. Today I started this excel project around 3:30 for Guild, of Dowd and Guild. It was nowhere near finished at 5 so he asked if I could stay and finish it. I think on your 4th day of work when you're about to take a week's vacation and the head guy asks you to stay and finish, you stay and finish. I was there until 6:30. On the way home I found out my sister and cousins were eating fro yo so I met them.

I haven't had a lot of time to work on the restaurant job but last night I stayed up late and finished the sandwich part. Now onto soups, 5 vegetarian and 5 non. I don't like soup.

This weekend I went to Davis, (and to Evan's show in San Francisco). I like Davis. On Sunday I went to Elk Grove (or as I like to call it, Fair Oaks) for my college roommate's faux wedding. I didn't really know what to expect of a faux wedding but was pleasantly surprised.

Being given away by her faux dad

The Faux Bridesmaids

Some Delicious Fauxcakes

Tomorrow I am leaving to go to San Diego for the real wedding, I'll be back on Monday. I need to pack now. I'm not unpacked from this weekend yet. I can't imagine how crazy my life would be if my mom didn't do my laundry for me.

jobs

2009-08-05T21:49:00.000-07:00

I now have not one but TWO jobs (three if you count watching "Oprah" with Mrs. Johnson). Both of them are paid and one of them is not a joke, neither of them are full time. You may wonder where this step into stable adulthood came from, good question. They were previously closed doors and then within the week they opened. I clearly believe that these opportunities (with virtually no effort on my part) are God's way of telling me that it's time for me to be here for a while, so I will.

Job 1: Hello again Dowd and Guild. Last Jan/Feb I found my self as assistant to a personal assistant at the lovely chemical sales firm, Dowd and Guild. I went in twice a week for four or five hours, probably a total of 9 times, to run errands and order pictures at costco.com. All that effort paid off (and the aptitude test I took last week) because starting tomorrow I will be working there Monday to Friday 9-1. There is the opportunity to go full-time but I let them know that I am not sure if I'm really ready to do the full-time thing. We'll see. Oh yes, I'll be an office manager aka receptionist. I'm really excited, the job seems to offer adequate diversity of tasks and I really like the company. I'll have to come up with five business casual outfits every week, except the week of the 12th -18th because I'm taking those as vacation days.

Job 2: S3Technologies, Inc commonly known as "Little Caesar's Guy" For some reason I really hit it off with Indian men, first thousands of free books in Nicaragua and now a job. In March I got this job interviewing Little Caesar's customers. This venture capitalist owns a few Little Caesar's and was interested in opening another one so I had to find out where people we coming from so they could decide on a good future location. Now he has hired me again but for something completely different. He wants to open a new salad restaurant, I guess they are all the rage right now. From what I understand I am in charge of the menu. So I've gone to eat at our future competitors to discover all their secrets and have been making lists and charts of crucial salad toppings and popular recipes. We'll also be offering some sandwiches so now I need to do the same research but for those. When we nail down what is on the menu I get to decide how to display it and then work on marketing (I guess at the women's gyms in the area). I don't really know what I'm doing but I'm taking things one step at a time.

So there you go folks, I hope that clears up some miscommunication about me becoming a Mexican citizen (at least for now). Now it's time to find something to wear.

Love, Joy

A farewell of pictures

2009-07-15T13:41:00.000-07:00

I’m not in Mexico anymore; actually I’ve been back since last Tuesday. Some of you I have seen since then, mostly if you are of the Southern California persuasion because that is where I am. I flew into LA on the 7th, did some laundry in Huntington Beach, went to a church conference, and now I am back in Huntington for a wedding on Saturday and then I’ll fly home on Sunday.

Yesterday I rode my bike to the post office and it was quite the dramatic experience. Just trying to pump the bike tire wore me out then when I got to the post office my water bottle had condensated on my mail so I couldn’t send it. Tragic.

Basically my real life has little entertainment value so I was planning on retreating back to Mexican life even though it is now a little out dated. However, this afternoon I can’t think of any witty anecdotes to share so instead I’m going to attach three pictures.

A man riding through the town on a donkey. No that is not a usual occurrence.

Seven girls that go to Luz’s house on Saturdays for breakfast and Bible class. I could write pages on their family stories but instead I’ll just try to remember all their names. The two on the left are sisters, Lola in the back and Meme in the front. The three in the middle are sisters too, Melissa, Dariana and I’m totally drawing a blank. The last two are Denise and Daniela.

This is of my two best Mascotan friends, Dahlia and Deisey. This picture was taken at the walk around the square thing. Dahlia actually met her husband at one of them so she was giving Deisey and me pointers. When I saw her again the next day she was quite disappointed that I was still single. I was very blessed to get to know these girls during my trips to Mexico and I pray for them frequently that they don’t get caught up in the crazy immorality of those around them.

Well that is all I have to say. Thank you.

Good-bye first half of 2009

2009-07-01T09:55:00.000-07:00

At first I was thinking thinking that I really don't have that much to say, but then I made an outline and realized I have plenty to share. Keep in mind that my outline is like my Spanish, a little hard to follow but if you really try you can figure it out, and every once in a while it is worth the effort.

We're still going to these nightly prayer meeting things. I pretty sure the guy can see now but they are to embarrassed to tell us to stop coming so we keep coming. There is this relative there with her 3-year-old that is still nursing. Julie, thinks it is "progressive." Last night the mom opened a bag and handed the girl something that looked to me like chocolate chips. Someone asked what it was, it was cat food, dry at least. The mom said that she eats fish food too.
Mascota is not a quiet place. For the past week they have been celebrating all sorts of sacred things: hearts, blood, people, etc. They celebrate with fire crackers, today they started before 5am. Along with this there are church bells, not on the hour or evenly spaced out. I'm pretty sure that anyone can ring the bells at any time for any length of time. Elections are July 5th, that is loud too. This morning a truck was driving around announcing that for the 4th and 5th it is illegal to drink. A few days a witch doctor was in town announcing all of the things mental and physical that you could get healed from. There is also a circus in town. The houses here all have propane tanks and 5 gallon purified drinking water. All day every day trucks drive around playing their water or gas jingles ("Zeta, zeta, zeta gas!" and "agua purificada! running water sounds") then you go out side and wave them down if you need anything. It is very convenient, but once again, noisy.
On Thursdays Luz and I go to the town jail for a Bible study. They really have nothing better to do and are a very respectful bunch. One guy has been in there for close to a year for stealing a chicken. Last week while we were there some one new got locked up, he seemed quite familiar with all of the procedures and I'm thinking it wasn't his first time. The week before last we took a break because someone was coming to deliver cigarettes.
I really like Fridays, there are three Bible studies so I don't get bored. Last friday I decided to do my laundry, by hand. I'm sure I used more water than necessary but city water is a standard $80/year. In spite of all that water it is very easy to tell which of my clothes I washed because they smell like soap. Any tips?
Last week I mentioned that the water heater wasn't working. Now it is. Some old man came on his bike and fixed two water heaters for $5, one of them had been broken for over two years.
Sundays are very boring. On Sunday we went out to breakfast, there was a dead fly in my sandwich. Every Sunday night there is a big party/mating ritual in the town square. I wasn't planning on going because it isn't something you go to by yourself. However, it was 9:30 and I was bored and they sell fresh churros. So I put a few pesos in my pocket and headed downtown in my overly casual attire, smiling to myself about the patheticness of my situation (however, not as pathetic as that Friday night in Concord when I took my dog to get her nails cut). And when I got there, what did I find? No churros! So I left where the churros are supposed to be and went to see if they were are in another place, and what did I find? Still no churros, BUT "Joy, why are you here by yourself? come to dinner with us." It was one of the girls that I've been getting to know on Friday mornings and her husband and their son. So no churros but a friend.
I finished my first art project last night and for some reason I started a second one even though I only have one more session. The class has been a huge blessing because it gives me something to do with my excess of free time. If you want to purchase on of my works of art, I think I'll start auctioning them at $500

Yesterday we were hanging out with my favorite 90-year-old lady so I took my picture with her and will attach it. She still cooks all the food for her and her husband and is appalled that people buy canned food. Her husband is like 94 and still rides his horse.

There are some rumors going around about me moving down here more permanently. I don't want to completely refute them because I want to be open to where God wants me. However, He hasn't told me yet if/when I'm supposed to come back and for how long so I personally am not making any plans.

Pictures!

2009-06-27T09:50:00.000-07:00

Here are some lovely pictures that you have been much anticipating.

a bug, i don´t know what kind

family making good use of their lack of front porch

my bff old lady feeding chickens

my mad poster making skills

self portrait in front of a house when luz and i were on a field trip to find things to draw in art class

More from Mexico

2009-06-24T13:36:00.000-07:00

I'm still in Mexico and will be here for another 2 weeks. Last Friday/Saturday I hit the 10 day point and that I have discovered is my personal limit of living the transitional lifestyle in a foreign country. This realization was compacted by a lot of rain, sometimes I like rain, sometimes it makes me claustrophobic. The good thing about hitting the point where I end is that I have to rely on God instead, and fortunately He is sufficient.
On Sunday I decided I needed to take a shower, the water heater wasn't working well so, it runs out about 7 minutes in. I take quick showers but still some of the water was wasted because we were testing it, I was a little nervous (I don't know why, I've taken plenty of cold showers before), so I prayed that there would be enough to wash my hair, and their was. Now, I probably could have shaved my legs too, but didn't have enough faith to bring my razor, lesson learned.
Saturday morning a group of girls come over for breakfast and a sunday school type of thing. This week we made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, and for most of this girls this was a first. I have to say, there were mixed reactions, some girls did the whole save it in the napkin for later trick that I would do with nasty Nica birthday cake. The lesson was on God's generosity towards us and how our desire for being like Him should be our motivation behind giving.
Sunday was father's day. I made a really cool sign and a bunch of Luz's family came over for dinner. I sat at the kid's table with some bratty 6-year-olds.
Monday Luz and I went on an adventure. First at 6am (I was told to be ready at 5) we left with her brother in a 2-passenger pick-up truck heading towards Guadalajara. About 2.5 hours later he dropped us off on the side of the road which I guess was a bus stop. There we waited for around an hour until a bus came that was heading North-ish. The bus was surprisingly nice and I was settling down for a nice nap when they put in the movie, "Danny the Dog." Have you seen it? It is definitely as good as it sounds and is not about a dog but switches between crazy excessive violence and piano playing. Unfortunately we got off the bus before it ended so I have no idea if Danny had to go back to being a "dog." When we got off the bus no one else did because we were in fact not at a bus stop but on the expressway. We then started walking towards an exit and then got picked up by another bus heading towards our destination of Santa Maria Del Oro, Nayarit.
Luz has a friend in the States whose in-laws live in this town and I guess she visited them ten years ago and has been meaning to go back, so we went. They live a much humbler life-style than I am accustomed to but were very hospitable. We slept in their room that is dedicated for guests. This may seem normal except for the fact that their 50-year-old daughter and 15-year-old grand-daughter sleep on a mattress in the very open living room, even when there aren't visitors. The house main house doesn't have running water so I got a pan in case I needed to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, I didn't.
I got a lot of strange looks from the family matriarch in my 18-hour visit. Here I will summarize our most frequent conversation:
Her:do you want beans?
Me: No, thank you.
Her: What you don't like beans?
Me: No, I like them but am not hungry.
Her: huph(dirty look).
That was repeated a lot and not during meal times but just when we were sitting in the backyard and no one was eating, it soon became the family joke.
This is second favorite:
Her: Do you eat cactus in el otro lado?
Me: No.
Her: What your mom doesn't know how to cook cactus? hump (dirty look)
Anyways, eventually I'll attach two pictures from there. One of her feeding the chickens (did you know that chickens sleep in trees?) and another of us sitting in front of the house (luz, my empty chair, rosario (the great-grand-daughter), an aunt that lives there, and the patriarch). The patriarch's name is Marco and when his wife would be calling for him, "Marco! Marco! Marco!" I kept wanting to yell, "Polo," I restrained myself.
We only stayed there Monday night and left early Tuesday morning to get back in time for art class. We took all buses back, no movies but yes we did walk some more on the express way.
Ok there are more things that happened this week but this is probably already more than you need to know.
love, joy

Vida in Mexico

2009-06-17T16:28:00.000-07:00

I came down to Mascota last Wednesday and it may have caught some of you off guard (I know it did me) so I figured I'd let you know what is going on. Some of this may be repetitive so you can read at your own discretion.

There is this lady Luz, she lives in this town, Mascota but she used to live in San Diego, that is why I know her. She is originally from here, and three years ago moved back to share the gospel. Some of the churches that support her try to send down people to help her out with whatever and to encourage her. I first came down with a group in '06 and then in '08 and earlier this year. Since my visit in February she has been encouraging me to come stay here for longer than just a week. I love it here but I also am quite fond of my life in the US so I wasn't sure what I should do. So I prayed and sought council and looked at my calendar and I'm here.

Now onto what I've been doing. My sister, Julie and her husband, Dylan flew down with me on the 10th and were here until Monday. It was great traveling with them, they flew down in first class and sneaked food to me to go with the salt and pretzels the coach passengers get. Mostly what Luz does is lead Bible studies and visit people, so that is what we did (and what I'll continue doing). You can probably check mi hermana's blog to read about Mascota from my her perspective some time soon.

That is the overview, now I'll go onto some specifics.

Every night around 10 Luz goes to a house for a prayer meeting. This guy, Ramon...I think, had a blood vessel pop in his brain and temporarily lost his vision. Now I guess he sees but with double vision. The family invited Luz and another lady to come and pray for them. So every night she goes and reads the Bible a little and prays. She is the only one that participates so you'd think they were bored but they keep inviting her back and usually about ten family members are there.
The food here is great, and I think I'm getting used to two meals a day thing. Today it was a little rough because we had toast and a smoothie at 10 and then at 4 we still hadn't eaten again. Then we stopped by someone's house to visit and got this huge lunch of super spicy soup and gorditos.
When Julie and Dylan were here it was really hot but now the rain is here and it is a lot cooler. Probably not cool enough to justify the wool socks that I am wearing but I am too lazy to take them off.
Last night I started an art class. I am not an artist but supposedly that isn't important. We'll see.

Public Service Announcement
You can still buy my book by clicking on the link on my last post.If I sell 1,000 copies I can go to Ireland in the fall.

my year; half-full or half-empty

2009-06-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Introduction
For the past 3 months I have been planning on sending out an update on June 19th because that is 6 months from when I moved back from Nicaragua. I’m going to be busy on June 19th so instead you’re getting this on June 5th, two weeks early. So much for planning. And now I am not in a writing mood, I have too many thoughts in my head and it is hard to get them on to paper.
Travels
The last three months have been pretty busy considering my lack of schedule or responsibilities. In March I worked then in April I travelled and I guess in May I travelled some more. It has been really nice visiting people; it’s much better than sporadic e-mails and phone calls. When in Concord, it’s been good participating in family life: dinners and coffee shops and toddlers.
Mexico
On Wednesday I’m leaving for Mascota, Jalisco, Mexico for a month. It has been in the back of my mind for a while but recently I’ve been receiving lots of confirmation so Monday I bought my tickets. This will be my fourth trip there to visit Luz, a national missionary there. I’ll be there from June 10th to July 7th; much longer than I’ve stayed in the past but still quite a bit shorter than the year that she thought I should come for. I don’t really know what I am thinking/feeling about going so I think I’ll break some things down for you
• I love Mascota and am extra excited because my sister and brother-in-law are coming for the first five days I’ll be there. You should come down too, swine flu and drug wars make flights cheep.
• Yesterday I bought bug spray and was annoyed. I had plenty of bug spray that I left in Nicaragua because I wasn’t planning on needing it anymore. Yet here I am going back to hot humid bug ridden Latin America. Same goes with shorts.
• Once I am in a place I easily adapt but that makes leaving places harder, I’m accustomed to my life here now and a month is kind of a long time. Even typing that is a reminder how susceptible I am to getting attached to this world when I am made for another.
• As I said earlier there has been lots of confirmation that I should go. That makes things easier but there are still practical things that I start worrying about. Fortunately God has a plan that doesn’t rely on my plans.
Book
I wrote a book. Nicaragua, Nicaraguita: 91 letters from the land of lakes and volcanoes. If you have read my e-mail updates than essentially you have read the book. Now, you may be thinking, “Joy, if I’ve already read it for free why would I now buy it for $12 + S/H?” My response, “Just think of all those great books that came out first in magazine or newspaper installments in and then were later published in their entirety, (ex. The Bible) plus it has a pretty cover.” Other than that, you are right, there is no reason but it was very cathartic (and a little embarrassing) for me to read through 2.25 years of my life. If you are thinking that this is the perfect gift for every occasion you can buy as many copies as you wish here
Love, joy

permanent vacation

2009-05-18T13:42:00.000-07:00

I haven't been working so I've had time to do other things instead. Every once in a while I wake up thinking that I should actively pursue getting a job but usually that thought dies fast. Instead of working mostly I've been going on trips (13 since December), somehow I've worked a system so that I can do this with minimal expense.
Here is a brief summary of my most recent

#1 Sequoia National Forest with Morgan.
You may be familiar with my dislike of camping, but did you know that it is possible to camp in a place with running water? It is.

We played a lot of speed scrabble, here you can see the word DIN is used.

If you filled General Serman with water, it would be enough water to take one bath a day for 27 years.

Here I am very awkwarly with a tree, it was March but there was a lot of snow.

#2 Southern California with all sorts of people
My college roommate, Katharine, is getting married in August and had a bridal shower in March. 5 out of the 6 of us that lived together got to go celebrate with her and sample wedding cakes.

Katharine is the one with all the flowers in her hair.

After her shower in San Diego I stayed in Huntington Beach with my aunt and cousin for a few days and hung out some more with Katie H and Keiz in LA. It was great.

#3 Chippawa Township, Pennsylvania with the Griecos
I guess that Pennsylvania is a commonwealth and that means it has townships. The Chippawa Township butts up to Ohio and Pittsburgh. People there kept asking me if I was suffering from culture shock. I didn't really know how to respond to that. It was a mostly rainy while i was there but I got to see cool things like two Frank Lloyd houses and a state park and the Giant Eagle grocery store.

Here I am with Nancy looking at Pittsburgh on the one sunny day we had during my week.

#4 Phila, PA with Katharine
I went to go visit Katharine (and Ted) in Philadelphia for a long weekend. It wasn't rainy. We got to walk around a lot and it was great to see her life and Ben Franklyn (he was everywhere!). One day there I did my laundry and the dryer didn't dry my clothes all the way so I had to hang them around the house, then the power went out, it was a very Nica experience. Another Nica thing there was that one day when we were waiting for the bus a girl I know from Nicaragua walked by, very strange.

Here we are at some very cool (little creepy) mosaic house.

And again with the beautiful cherry blossoms.

#5 New York City, NY with some people
I went from Philly to NY on the China Bus Express for $12. I stayed with Dana and Julia but mostly hung out with Eunice. We walked a lot and ate a lot and sweated a lot. We hadn't talked for about five years so it was really good to catch up. One day we went to see her husband give his closing arguments in this case is was prosecuting in the Bronx. I don't think I'll ever be able to watch Law and Order again.

Here we are in front of Alice in Central Park

#6 Richmond, Virgina
In Richmond I again I got to spend time with some people that I hadn't seen in over 5 years. I'm all into keeping up with people by e-mail but it is still way better to actually talk in person. I stayed with my East Coast parents took a lot of naps on their couch. I also slept a lot in my room there because the bed was amazingly comfortable and there were blackout curtians. I don't know how people ever wake-up when it is constantly dark.

I love the South because you can buy things like tobacco plants

Here I am with Mama Stella on some bridge over to some prison island conservatory

#7 Lake Tahoe, Nevada with the girls.
Grandpa Vern won two nights in a two room suite at the Ridge resort in Tahoe we decided to use it. For two nights my sister, Julie, cousin, Bryana and sister-in-law, Cristina had a girls weekend. We got to watch movies, gamble our life savings away, play speed scrabble and ticket-to-ride, sleep (another place with blackout curtians), window shop, get pedicures and eat. It was great fun.

Here we are all rested before our drive home, good looking out grandpa vern

Now I'm home until Thursday when I'm going on another little trip, but then really I might get a job.

Quarterly Report

2009-03-19T12:30:00.000-07:00

Today marks the end of my third month back in California and in honor of that anniversary I thought I would come out of e-mail silence and tell you what I’ve been doing and thinking.

DECEMBER:

Christmas time! I’m a big fan of Christmas, even if it marked another year losing the poetry contest.
I sat goals to get a job by March 1st, clean my room, and buy a pair of boots.
New Years! I went to Tennessee for almost a week. It was great seeing friends that I hadn’t seen in a few years but a challenge explaining my lack of future plans (this seems to be a reoccurring theme).
Cleaned my room

JANUARY:

Took first big step into permanency of life in the USA by getting my car insured. To save $7 a month a paid all at once and said good-bye to some more of my savings account.
Had a fabulous reunion in Davis with my five college roommates.
Started working on writing a resume.
Got a flu shot.
Cleaned my room.

FEBRUARY:

Went to Mexico with my mom for ten days to visit a friend, Luz. I thought my time in Davis was introspective but take away English, internet, clocks, TV, radio, newspaper, and phone and a whole new level is reached.
Went to Santa Cruz with my church.
Read lots of Craig’s list job postings found by my sister.
Started compiling memories from Nicaragua, both pictorial and written. Hopefully these will be available for the smaller public soon.
Continued reconnecting with various US citizens.
Cleaned my room (I guess that goal was too vague).

MARCH:

Now if someone asked my on March 1st if I had found a job yet I would shyly say, “No,” and say my goal was really for some time in the month, not necessarily the beginning (there are some things I mentally block out). Last night when I was contemplating my month so far, I realize that I do have a job and God completed this goal for me in His timing and in the way He wanted. And as added assurance I did have it by March 1st, it was just disguised.

The last few days in February, ending March 1st I dog sat for some new friends in San Francisco, not only did they pay me for living in a gorgeous neighborhood and walking their dog but I was able to make more money doing some extra data entry work for them. This money came just in time to pay health insurance.

The morning after I returned from their house I left for Lake Tahoe with my mom where I got paid to help clean my grandpa’s house, and shovel his snow. Although that was not the most ideal job and the furnace in my room was broken it was still God’s provision for me, and who am I to discredit that. The week I got back from Tahoe I baby-sat twice and got my tax return.

On Monday night my sister sent me a listing for a 20-60 hour, total, market research job. I applied Monday, interviewed Wednesday, and start today. I’ll be asking people as they leave Little Caesar's Pizza what their nearest cross street is and putting the data in an Excel spreadsheet so they can determine where to open a new franchise. I’m not sure who my actual employer is but the pay isn’t bad and he thinks they’ll have other work for me too, if I’m interested.

Not only have these jobs been a blessing financially but they have amazingly coincided with what God has been showing me about who He is as my Guide just as He guided the Israelites.

MORE ON MARCH

I turned 25 this week.
I got a new stereo for my car.
I am very concerned about the state of crepe restaurants in Walnut Creek.
I’m planning some trips for next month (now that I have money).
It is almost the beginning of Spring and I’m getting a farmer’s tan right now to prove it.

Walking

2009-03-10T21:34:00.000-07:00

A few months ago I read that the average American walks 1.4 miles a week. Although I was appalled by this statistic I didn't do much to counter it, especially in the frigged rain. Now however, the days are sunny so I need to get over my laziness. I enjoy walking and have been trying to incorporate it more into my schedule (that I don't have).
On Saturday I was talking to my neighbor and she invited me to go walking with her and a friend at 5am for an hour and a half 3 times a week. For some reason while she was talking this sounded like a good idea, walking partners are a good motivation and walking in the mornings gets you energized for the day. I told her to let me know when their next day was and that I'd come. She texted me on Sunday night and I was still all in and excited. As soon as I set my alarm for 4:45 I started feeling a little sick. I knew I would be a little out of it in the morning so I picked out my multiple layers that I could quickly throw on in the morning (it is about 40 deg in the morning). I tried to fall asleep at a normal time but I kept staring at the clock and counting down the lack of hours I had left in the night, and then subtracting one because of the time change. Finally at 2am (t-2hours 45minutes) I came to my senses and saved a bail out text message in my phone to send to her at 4:30. I was then, able to fall asleep but was exhausted all of Monday, just the thought of waking up that early robbed me from sleep. This morning when I couldn't drag myself out of bed at 7:30 and could still see my breath outside at 8:30 I finally conceeded that that kind of walking plan wasn't suited for me and tonight I let her know that 5am walking wasn't going to be a reality in my life any time soon. She was very understanding and I did make plans with my sister-in-law to walk at 9. Baby steps.

Day four in Tahoe

2009-03-05T16:42:00.000-08:00

Today we drove home and I think the cleaning trip was a success although we didn't get to the garage...

Here is grandpa freeing the windshield wipers from excess ice...

The drive home was beautiful...

Day three in Tahoe

2009-03-04T16:26:00.000-08:00

Guess what, more snow. Not much during the day but I overnight there was over a foot. You know how I know this? My mom and I got to shovel it in order to get out to the early bird special at the gross Lakeside Inn and Casino. To rebel against back-breaking labor I didn’t order off of the early bird special menu but got a dry turkey sandwich instead. Don't worry we still got our money's worth, my mom ordered a tea and they brought her a basket of tea bags to choose from, she took one and then grandpa stuffed eight more in his pocket.

Here are some pictures of me and mom shoveling (grandpa started and then decided he would help by warming up the car). Normally grandpa hires someone to do it but when the guy came by to offer to grandpa declined because “his girls were here to do it.”

Before the whole snow shoveling adventure we cleaned his “studio”. Which meant putting the 600 bottles of acrylics together.

I threw away a lot of his stuff while he was taking a nap. So far I’ve only been caught once when he pulled this

out of the garbage yesterday (I guess I didn’t hide it good enough). I did find a real treasure of a glasses case in a bag of eye-glasses and accessories so the trip isn't a complete waste.

Day two in Tahoe

2009-03-03T16:18:00.000-08:00

It snowed a lot but we were able to get out to stock up on some necessities (garbage bags) and hit Taco Bell for lunch (it was that or the Senior Center). Good thing I am strong willed because my mother was completely content never leaving that house, just working all day.
Besides that exciting outing there was lots of shifting junk from one place to another, one of my tasks was putting all of his picture mats together. Hopefully that will make it easier for him when he sells them at his art classes.

We were supposed to go out to dinner with ex-almost-grandma Ethal but she canceled because it was snowing to much. No prime rib special for us.

Lake Tahoe Day One

2009-03-02T16:00:00.000-08:00

It is snowing outside and I would like to say that I am nice and cozy inside but the thermostat in my room is broken so I am freezing. This afternoon I took a nap with my down vest and scarf on. Fortunately I’ve taken to stealing my dad’s wool socks so at least my toes are ok.

Besides the cold here are some points for the day:
1. I like the snow, it makes me happy.

2. I hope the snow doesn’t turn into a blizzard because I had the task of cleaning out grandpa’s fridge of expired food – now we have no food. There was one thing I found that I honestly had no idea how to classify – animal? Vegetable? Mineral? It is in the trash now along with lots of pickles that expired in 06.

3. I also got to clean out some of vernon’s closets. He stood there and decided which of his 200 shirts were keepers as I pulled them out. Pretty much all that were “really something” or “stellar” that he could wear to the art league he kept and all the normal ones he got rid of. I found an old bowling shirt of his with these 250 pins. I told him that I went bowling last week and told him my scores, he quickly changed the subject (I think out of embarrassment).

4. After chores I sat down to watch TV with him. We watched Kull the Conquer with Spanish sub-tittles and no sound. Surprsingly little language is needed to really understand the movie.

5. During a Penny’s commercial he pointed out that Mexican girls always dress up nice, not like the trashy American girls always wearing levi’s and t-shirts. Yes, I was wearing jeans and a t-shirt when he said that.

6. From Thursday to Sunday of last week I dog and fish sat at a really cool place in SF.

Mascota, and surrounding territories

2009-02-18T19:18:00.000-08:00

I'm writing this while sitting in my car in my parent's driveway listening to Christmas carols because my niece, Callie, fell asleep and now I don't want to wake her up. This wouldn't have been a problem but I left my sister's house later than intended because Grady stole and hid my keys (we found them in the bathroom trash). So yes, yesterday and today I've been baby-sitting but before that I went to Mexico and that is the purpose of this post.

From January 30th to February 9th I was in Mexico with my mom and family friend, Luz. This was my third trip to visit Luz in Mascota, Jalisco. It was my mom's first time. I love Mascota and when I am there I always think it would be a great place to live, or at least question why I didn't live there instead of Nicaragua for the past two years.

This trip was very different than the last two, partly because I was with my mom and partly because I'm personally in a different place in my life than I was the past two visits. Overall it was extremely relaxing and clarifying. For 11 days I had no internet, phone, watch, TV, newspaper, or radio. So basically I just read and talked to my mom and Luz and went to Bible studies and slept. I also decoupaged a chair and baked bread and made chili relleno.

I think I would be a much better person if I always lived that simple of a life. But that is not the life that God has given me, so I need to learn to apply the same disciplines in my life here. That is not easy for me to do, maybe I should take Luz up on her offer to move there permanently I'm sure that running away is the best way to solve problems. Or maybe not.

One funny story. On Sunday nights the whole town goes to the town square to hang out. Luz asked this girl Deisi to take me so that I could experience it (I had gone once but on my first trip). It is a pretty important event and I had to borrow a sweater since my grubby clothes weren't appropriate. So Deisi and I walked to the square and then for and hour and a half walked around it smiling and nodding at the boys walking around in the opposite direction. Quite the cultural experience and it was great getting to know Deisi better even though I didn't get a husband or anything. Luz thinks I would have had better luck if I went both Sundays not just the second one. Or maybe I would have had better luck if I wore heals instead of flip-flops (heals and cobblestone don't really mix in my mind)

That sums up about none of my trip but oh well. Tomorrow marks me living here for 2 months, I'm still scared of getting a job but it isn't quite March yet.

love, joy

reunions and taxes and more

2009-01-22T14:41:00.000-08:00

Reunited
Just about 7 years ago, like many highschool Seniors, I was deciding where to go to college. I very adamantly didn't want to go to UC Davis, however my desire to be a weather girl out-weighed my dislike for Davis so that is where I went (to later graduate as an organizational studies major). Not long into my stint there I fell in love with the town, its people and its sandwiches. A few weekends ago I went back to meet up with some of my favorite people and eat some of my favorite sandwiches. It was fabulous bonding with my college roommates, those are 5 of the people that know me best in the world and I had forgotten how refreshing it is to spend time with them. The weather that weekend was perfect and we got to spend a lot of time outside walking around the town and campus. I was excited to see some changes to the town like 3 frozen yogurt shops and a new Peet's, there were changes to the campus too but who really cares about those. I started writing this a while ago and I think it used to have more of a point, but I've since forgotten what that was. I guess you should just know that I had a great time.

Then (+1)

Now (I think we are more happy)

Etcetera

I am going to Mexico with my mom on Friday for 10 days.
I filled out my tax returns the other day, hopefully I get my returns before the federal economy crashes more. I'm letting California keep the $4 they took from me this year, it was that or an IOU.
I put away laundry today and filled papers so there are only 4 boxes I still need to unpack before my bedroom will be settled.
I finished writing my resume. It is good, full of euphemisms. Now I have to decide where to apply, boo.
I am not ready to be a parent, fortunately I'm not in the position to become one any time soon.

in the land of the living

2009-01-12T14:10:00.000-08:00

In my mind I am constantly writing but sometimes the sitting down and making my fingers move takes a little too much effort.

I now have been back for almost one month and people keep asking me if I’ve found a job yet, no I haven’t and I’m not looking, remember I have until March. I am taking steps towards the whole job thing, I am about 1/3 of the way through writing a resume and my sister e-mails me about ten job postings a day.

I finally realized this weekend that one of the reasons that I have been so unmotivated to do anything is that it is cold and dark. Every time I walk in my bedroom I get depressed and have to return to the living room where there is light and a fire. Now that I have come to this realization I can modify my behavior some, by taking steps to turn on the heater and open my blinds. The transformation is incredible.

Even though I’m not working I’m still coming up with things to do. I went to Memphis over New Year’s, that was nice. I don’t really have any friends so they don’t take up much of my time. I’ve mostly just been baby-sitting, or hanging out with people that share my last name.

My car is insured now so potentially I can leave the house. Unfortunately the mostly likely thing to do is go shopping and that is highly overwhelming, first of all there are too many options and desirable things, second of all, contrary to popular belief, I don’t actually have money to spend. Even when I attempt to simplify my life people like Danny and the Verizon store are so pushy that I crack under pressure and end up buying things much more deluxe than necessary.

Last week I went to the optometrist to get my eyes checked and get new reading glasses because I lost mine. I don’t like it when people put their perceptions of my generation onto me. After he told me that I’d better not answer my phone and try to set up any hot lunch dates during my appointment he told me that I must have lost my glasses at a drunken party. Really, who loses their reading glasses at a drunken party.

Well, this might sound more depressing than I intended, sorry about that I really do like being back and Trader Joe’s Greek Style Yogurt.

missive of misses

2008-12-20T12:38:00.000-08:00

Well, friend, I’m back. Now that I am officially living in California you are no longer obligated to care about my life so I might just have to stop telling you about it in the blog form (I have this thing called a cell phone now). But I’m not ready for that change yet, are you? I think now I will start my series (of at least one) transition updates. This one will focus on things I will miss and things I will not miss about life in Nicaragua.
I will miss December’s warm weather. I will not miss March-June’s miserably humid weather.
I will miss El Coche Café’s cheap lattes. I will not miss the girls who work there and think that is appropriate to pluck their eyebrows while waiting for the milk to steam.
I will miss my Spanish improving. I will not miss sounding like an idiot whenever talking (here that should happen a little less frequently).
I will miss my friends that live there. I will not miss living far away from my family and friends here.
I will miss the cheap restaurants. I will not miss lettuce being a hit or miss item at the grocery stores and cereal never being on sale.
I will miss my job. I will not miss not getting paid for work.
I will miss having a maid. I will not miss not having a dishwasher or trying to dry clothes outside in the 3 solid months of rain.
I will miss walking to work. I will not miss not having a car.
I will miss stoplights being optional. I will not miss potholes that take over the road.
I will miss the excitement of Nicaraguan politics. I will not miss being a communist.
I will miss not being electronically tied to people by having a cell phone. I will not miss cell phone calls costing 10-30 cents a minute.
I will miss the laid back pace of life. I will not miss Nica-Time, everything starting late and ending late.
I will miss living in the land of lakes and volcanoes. I will not miss living in the land of dirty water and burning trash.

Parties and Plumbing and Purisima and Preparation

2008-12-11T12:23:00.000-08:00

Parties.

This weekend we had a Christmas party at my house it was fine and dandy. We decided to wrap up presents and put them under the tree so that everyone could get a really cool gift. The gifts in themselves were quite fantastic but then their fantasticness grew when they were taped to firecrackers and lit on fire. I think that also improved our relationship with our neighbors and the digestive track of our dogs. Boxers don’t really know what to do when they find themselves chewing on silly putty.We had some swell decorations

Plumbing.
While my dear brother Jeremy was here our house started to have some plumbing problems. I would go into details but the details are disgusting so I’ll let you use your imagination (or not). The end result is that they are replacing all of our sewage lines, I guess they were concrete cylinders and now they are putting in PVC. This is not an easy process and involves ripping up the floor in 2 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, and hallway and a lot of dust. So during the day we are isolated into my bedroom, bathroom, and the kitchen. My bathroom doesn’t drain properly either (like we’re pretty sure nothing makes it to the septic tank) but it is considered less urgent than the other half of the house. Supposedly they are finishing up soon but last I checked there is a pile of dirt in the hallway so I think it is safe to say there is a fair amount left to be done.

And this was just the beginning

Purisima.
Bonus points if you remember what Purisima is. It is when Mary, mother of Jesus, was immaculately conceived, A.K.A. Dec 8th. It is celebrated by a whole bunch of firecrackers and alcohol, which I’m sure Mary appreciates. Purisma is officially just the 8th but it is celebrated beforehand and really the firecrackers are around all month. I like firecrackers as much as the next person but really enough is enough. And enough was when I was walking across the street on the night of Dec. 1st and one hit me in the leg. It hurt but didn’t leave a hole, which was fortunate since I was on the way to a Church service and didn’t have a change of pants on me.
Preparation.
I am leaving Managua a week from tomorrow morning so I am trying to prepare for that. I sent some stuff home with my recent houseguests and now am bequeathing things to my friends here. I mean most things I’ll just leave to the maid or my roommates or the trash but some things really need to be passed on to specific people so I am trying to make those tough decisions. I am also still working in the biblioteca. Things are progressing well with my replacement Rosmery but obviously we still have some things work out. Today I am going to a baby shower so she is completely on her own. It will be interesting to discuss that with her tomorrow. I still think life would be easier if everyone thought like I did, but I realize that isn’t a realistic solution. My other step in preparing to leave is meeting with people to say one final adios. The good thing with this is people are guilted into taking me to nice restaurants the bad thing is it is depressing. Half the things people say make me think I’m at my own memorial service, but at least I know I’ll be appreciated after my passing.

not much longer now

2008-12-01T10:51:00.000-08:00

I haven’t written in a while mostly because I am going crazy but right now I am at the coffee shop relaxing with an iced latte and things are looking up.
From last Sunday until this morning my brother Jeremy, his wife Cristina and their two kids, Elijah and Arielle, were visiting. Two of my roommates were in the states so the whole family got to stay with me very comfortably. It was tons of fun and very exhausting. I am very blessed to not have biological children coming into my life any time soon.
Since I have less than three weeks left here I figured I can get by with fewer than twenty pairs of shoes and I was able to send home two bags worth of stuff with them. That means I should have more space to buy you gifts.
In order to keep the excitement going for my last 18 days here, tonight two of my college friends, Keiz and Salena, are coming. They will be here until next Monday and Keiz made an itinerary so I’m sure it will be an adventure.
Last week I hired my replacement for the library, her name is Rosemery and her training officially started last Thursday. She is very nice and very talkative, lots of her talking is unrelated to the task on hand so I think I need to work on channeling her enthusiasm into more relevant topics. Today we are going to buy books together.
I think things are more stable here politically now. And by that I mean that democracy is losing so the socialists stopped burning tires in the streets.
I hope you are all enjoying listening to Christmas carols, I am.
Love, Joy

Brought to you by the letter L

2008-11-11T20:10:00.000-08:00

Library
OK this week I actually have some pictures of the library.

For Some Reason I Only Have Boys

Some Completed Work

Our Fall Tree

Today we made turkeys in honor of American Thanksgiving. I explained that in a few weeks there is a holiday called Thanksgiving in the United States and we eat turkey. They got to use scissors and glue so even if the activity had no significance to them it wasn’t a waste.
This week people are supposed to be turning in applications for librarian. So far I have two, but neither are looking very promising. It is hard when you know the people applying aren’t very qualified but you also know they are desperate for work because their families don’t have food. I don’t know how to resolve this discrepancy.

Literacy
Last week I took a class on how to teach Spanish literacy and ESL. The classes were from 8-4 Monday to Friday and the knowledge I gained could have been condensed into 45 minutes tops. But it did open my eyes to what I might be facing in the states in five weeks if I get a job. Eight hours every day, shoot me now. Jobs aren’t all terrible, are they? Besides that reality check, I also worked on my ability to write with my left hand. It is a slow process but I am confident that if I lose my right hand I won’t be completely debilitated.

Liberty
Sunday were nation-wide mayoral elections. Friday, Saturday and Monday were last minute legal holidays in honor of voting. Actually I have no idea why Friday and Saturday were off and Monday was off because it is unsafe to leave your house the day after elections because of rioting. During Monday’s riots two people were killed but that wasn’t going to keep me home, I went to Quiznos. I think people riot either because they are upset at how unfair the election process is or they are overly excited that their team won. In Managua the Sandinista party won, this wasn’t a big surprise since the president gave away stoves with propane tanks and 400 new houses in exchange for votes. There was also some suspicious behavior the day of voting. A friend of mine went to the poles at 5pm to vote and they told him that he was too late even though they were supposed to be open until 6, he is from the liberal party. He also told me that his cousin is Sandinista and her husband is liberal so his cousin took her husband’s ID so that he couldn’t vote. And I have a strong hunch that these were not isolated incidents.

Get ready, it's a poem

2008-11-03T17:56:00.000-08:00

Happy November 3, there are 58 days remaining this year, 46 of those I am planning on spending in Nicaragua. After December 19th I am planning on staying in the United States for an indefinite amount of time. But enough of plans and scary future talk, I will now tell you about the library and anything else that I think of, I’ll try to keep it short and entertaining and I’ll add some pictures.

At the library I have about 30 members a day,
And for the most part I like it that way.
A normal day visitors read, color, return and check out books, or play a game.
Other days I’ll read out loud or plan a special craft, I try to mix it up so it’s not all the same.
Although in Nicaragua fall is not marked by harvest or colorful trees,
In October we still painted pumpkins and decorated leaves.
Sometimes I get a little annoyed with “Cristina! Cristina!” repeatedly,
But I guess it is good to know that they need me.
There are a few people that come over the age of fourteen,
They like to bring me CD’s to teach me about the Nicaraguan music scene
Now that my time in Nicaragua is almost at the fin,
I’m supposed to be finding a replacement to be the new librarian.
This week we’re passing out the applications,
And by the 24th I am supposed to be training someone in the details of my position.
That will give me three weeks to catch them up to speed,
To make sure everything is in order before I am freed.
I don’t think I’m ready to pass it of physically or emotionally quite yet,
But I can always come finish after Christmas if not all my goals are met.
Other things are going on in my life too.
This weekend we had a Halloween party, boo.
I am taking a literacy training class, all week from eight to four,
Just one day and I am reminded why I am glad I’m not is school anymore.
I am super exhausted and maybe I can go to bed soon,
It is really early but there is a waxing crescent moon.

So I attached one picture but I can't find the rest,
I think posting library pictures on Wednesday will be best.

On elections and electricity

2008-10-20T09:37:00.000-07:00

As you probably know the United States presidential elections are coming up, what you may not know is that Managua’s mayoral elections are next month as well.

I don’t claim to very politically minded but I’ve really been trying this election. I might not have watched any of the debates but I did see SNL Weekend Thursday update last week. I wonder what candidate they support. I also have spent some time looking at the propositions that are up in California. Good thing, because now I know that my vote could count towards farmers putting their animals in larger cages before the slaughter them. I still don’t know if I will actually be able to vote because my absentee ballot has yet to arrive, but at least I’ll know how I’m supposed to feel when the results start coming in.

Nicaraguan politics, on the other hand, are a completely different ball game. Technically there are two candidates running, Alexis Arguello and Eduardo Montealegre. Both of them have a star studded past, Montealegre was the runner up for Nicaraguan presidency in 2006 and Alexis is three-time boxing world champion. Alexis is running on the Sandinista ticket and thus is backed by the current president, Ortega, and Socialist leaders worldwide. Montealegre is running the opposition so his slogan, used on billboards, is Todos contra Ortega (All against Ortega).

Last week I asked two Nicaraguan friends who would win and they both said Alexis. They also clarified that his win wouldn’t be because he had more votes but just because of the corrupt power of his political party. So it will be interesting to see how that plays out, I suspect it will involve lots of firecrackers and red and black flags.

Enough of politics, the weather has been loco lately. Thursday and Friday it rained constantly and with constant rain comes power outages, nationally and more specifically in our house. On Friday I think everyone lost power for at least a little bit but then ours never came back on. Finally Saturday morning it did, and then Sunday an electrician spent the day at our house trying to make that not happen again. I guess with a lot of rain our wires would get wet and stop working and then they needed sun to dry out. Is that a normal problem?

A new maid, Claudia, started working last week at our house and she is amazing. Chilo, who worked for Jeremy and Cristina when they lived here, recommended her to us. She has only been here three days and already our house is cleaner than it ever was before. She only works for us part time and for her other job she is a cook, so we are reaping the benefits of that as well. We now get hot lunches the days she is here, usually some form of beans and rice and fresh juice.

I could write about the library but that will be next time.

Love, Joy

PS I’m moving home in two months (or so the calendar says, things could change)

Happy Finnish Literature Day

2008-10-10T12:37:00.000-07:00

Last weekend I participated in a 11km “fun run” in the mountainous region of Matagalpa. The gringo group from Mangua pre-race
I tied my friend Amira for last place. We obviously had a different opinion of what a “fun run” was than the other participants. Regardless of us losing it was still an enjoyable time. Matagalpa is a higher altitude than Managua which made the running temperature nice, and the trail led us through coffee plantations so it was gorgeous. Since we were going at a slower pace than everyone else I really got to take in the beauty of the surroundings and we got to know red-cross van well.

Amira and me post-race

Group post-race

Post robbery life has still continued to be an inconvenience. We had to establish what I call “the house arrest schedule,” not just for security but because workers are in and out of the house all day fixing things. Yesterday, this morning, and Monday are my assigned days. It basically means I have to stay at home in case someone comes over to do something. This morning welders are here putting in a new, more secure back door. They are very nice but their work is extremely noisy.

During my house arrest time this week I’ve been trying to do my own laundry. The washing part has been pretty basic but drying is quite annoying. Nicaragua is extremely humid and it is the rainy season and we don’t have a dryer and our dogs like to attack the laundry line. So this is the chain of frustration, first you find moldy clothes in your closet that you decide you should wash. Then you realize you need to dry it somewhere (hopefully thoroughly so that it doesn’t just mold right away again). Then you can’t hang it outside because it is rainy, so you hang it in the garage for 15 hours, then the next morning you have to lock the dogs in the garage so people can go in the yard but it is still raining so you drape it over all the furniture in the house for another 15 hours. Then you see a little sun so you hang it outside to kill that last bit of mold and you get ready to move it inside as soon as you see the dark clouds moving closer. I am writing this at 11:30 am and it has been sunny all morning so I think the clothes from yesterday’s wash are going to be genuinely dry (and they’ve only been moved 3 times).

I’ve been trying to just schedule my house arrests for the morning so that I can still open the library in the afternoon and that has been working out well but I haven’t been able to do follow-up cleaning from when my mom was here. And also I had to take the week off from Matthew’s school. This morning we had a house meeting to set up a schedule for next week so that we can be more prepared for the inconveniences that may come our way.

And on a more upbeat final note, thank you so much for your prayers, encouragement, and generosity this past week (and 2 years). I am blown away, once again by God’s grace and provision in all ways. So thank you for being available to be used by Him to show and pour His (and your) love to me. Really I don’t deserve it but do appreciate it.

good bye mom and some other things

2008-10-02T12:45:00.000-07:00

As I start this blog there is so much that I have to say, some of which I don't want to say because I know, in part, what your response will be. But I can't keep secrets (as you probably have figured out) so here it comes.

On Monday of this week my mom left after coming down with my aunt and our neighbor for ten days. I can't even begin to express how wonderful it was to have them here but it was a busy ten days. Besides one day trip we spent most of the time working in Managua especially in the library. It is now organized and all of the books are in a database. Not only did they help out physically it was encouraging to have tangible moral support that I haven't been feeling with this job. I know by admitting that I appreciate moral support may totally alter your perspective of me but that's a risk I'm willing to take. Also since they came prepared to survive in the jungle for about a year I am now well stocked with snack foods, toothpaste, oil of olay face wipes, DVD's and all sorts of other things that I didn't know I was missing. Side note on the snacks, Trader Joe's makes some amazing gorgonzola flavored oven crisp crackers, you should check them out. If you want to know more about this trip I'm sure all of the participants would be willing to give you a very detailed account of the happenings from three very different perspectives.

Yesterday morning I went to the dentist, I was extremely nervous because dental problems freak me out and I haven't had a cleaning since December of 06. But have no fear, I am cavity free and the lady was really nice and it only cost $10. She made me chew a red pill for first graders to highlight my problematic plaque areas and she thinks it is very cute that I still have baby teeth (dientes de leche). She also answered her cell phone twice during the cleaning, but that's Nicaragua for you.

Now the part I don't want to write. When we got home from our appointments we couldn't find our little dog then when we went into our house we saw that our back door had been opened and our house robbed. So finally came the advantage of me living in the maid's room, they didn't even glance in my room where they would have seen my laptop and iPod. Unfortunately the rest of the house, especially Lori's room, was picked clean of all things electronic and cash. Needless to say, Wednesday was a rough day with concerned friends and neighbors and unconcerned police. Now we can ask the Lord to give back what was taken, not only the tangible things that were lost but also the peace of mind and sense of security. The timing of it is all so overwhelming, I hear of so much falling apart finically in the states and am very removed, but this hit close to home and made me realize how real this global economic crisis is. And how futile our security measures are and how important it is to invest in the things that rust and moths can't destroy and thieves can't steal.

Really the whole robbery thing is just a huge inconvenience so now I'm at my old apartment using their interntet (ours was stolen) and talking with the maid that I trust like my mother. And on top of all that I missed another training day for the run this weekend so I'm off to do that now.

Happy Independence Days

2008-09-15T17:29:00.000-07:00

The 14^th and 15^th of September are Nicaraguan independence days. My school has Tuesday and Wednesday off (neither the 14^th or 15^th) which is pretty exciting since usually holidays don’t fall on Tuesdays. Unfortunately it also means that our maid isn’t coming until Thursday. To support my patriotism I had kids in the library and at school make Nicaraguan flags last week. I feel less pressure doing crafts at the library than at school because I don’t have to pretend there is an English lesson they should be learning.

Also to celebrate, on Saturday I went to the beach. I didn’t actually go near the water or sand but I could see the ocean from my hammock.

I signed up for a 15km “fun run” on October 5^th. I didn’t realize that 15km is equivalent to 9.3 miles, now this run doesn’t sound as “fun.” Someone already sponsored me for the $15 entry fee so now I can’t back down and officially had to start training. There are two things I have to train for, one the distance and the other waking up at 6am. I have a long way to go in both these departments. I feel like I run fairly regularly, but this morning I realized that I don’t. I now understand how those people that are fine one day and then the next they have to get a crane to get them out of their house because they weigh two tons.

If you are bummed that you didn’t get to sponsor me for my first (and probably only) 1/3 marathon, don’t worry. I am still looking for someone to sponsor my hotel for the night and meals.

My house has two dogs, a Boxer and a Rottweiler. I am not their biggest fan. Last week when I was opening the gate to let my roommate leave they both ran away. I had to run around our street trying to catch them and bring them back before a neighbor loaned me a rope to tie up the little one and helped me drag her home. Then on Saturday night I got home at 10:30 and they ran away on me again. In the dark. I was going to leave them but I think the Rottweiler scares our neighbors so I felt bad. Fortunately, the night guard from across the street helped me bring them back. On Sunday morning I locked up the house and was reading on the porch while waiting for my ride to pick me up. Then when they came I left my book on a little table we have and locked up the gate. When I came back my book was chewed up. I think I can still read it, just the corners are missing. I guess they miss their mom Lori, she is the only one who doesn’t think they are gross. She is coming back tonight.

Thursday my mom, Aunt Mana, and Becky Tobin are coming to visit for ten days. I am really looking forward to that adventure.

TTFN

Joy

Trocitos of information

2008-09-05T12:28:00.001-07:00

Today I have officially lived in Nicaragua for two years. I had big plans to write a 2 year anniversary poem for you but it is not coming along very well so I quit. Instead you can write one for me (prizes will be awarded)...

For the past two years I've lived in Nicaragua

The land of volcanoes and lakes of dirty agua

I slept wearing thick socks last night (sorry jenny). I stole them from my dad last time he was here. What can you deduce from these two statements. Firstly, you should have me do your laundry, and secondly it is cold. Yesterday when I was walking home it was drizzling, usually that just means it is really humid but no, I wasn't even sweating. Then I got picked up by a man who has a horse camp, he was nice.

Yesterday morning I went to the sports center again with Michelle. Because of the cold weather, only five students came with their moms. Since this caused a surplus of adults we got to play volleyball. I know I am usually not one to judge other's athletic abilities and all in to having uncompetitive sports, but look at my team.

Two pregnant ladies and a lady in purple heels. I would say that we lost but I don't think what we were playing was close enough to the real game to even attempt to keep score.

At the library I've been lending out books and they have been coming back, that's a good thing.

(proof)

Right now they take them home in zip-lock bags but I just commissioned some ladies to make canvas books bags. I was going to start making them myself but I have better things to do with my time (in theory) and the ladies need to make money (a fact).

Also at the library I've started opening up early to give reading help ten and eleven year old brothers in second grade, Jose and Luis. They are extremely sweet and always filthy and are good at doing puzzles and playing games. They just can't read. If you know the spanish alphabet, in theory you can pretty much sound out any word, but for them it is still a struggle. And then there is the next step after sounding out syllable by syllable, repeating what you read with confidence and understanding. The older of the two can do this sometimes, the younger one can't. So in summary, in this country you can get to second grade with no ability to read.

Today I am substituting for Basic Art at the NCA. They finished their assignment and it is a Friday. In college they would be sent home but this is middle school, I have to make sure they don't hurt themselves. One kid was just doing one-armed pushups, that could have been dangerous. I have another class after lunch and I don't know where the paper is that says what class it is. Rumor has it that it is Advanced Art. Even if I don't have a lesson plan that should be easy. I can just use the time to demonstrate my advanced art skills.

Speaking of lunch, we have no bread at my house. I found some bagels but they were rock hard so had to be thrown away. I did find crackers and cheese so I will be having a very Jackie Eklund road trip meal. If only I had Trader Joe's yogurt.

I've taken up playing Ticket to Ride again. I've played three nights this week. I haven't played speed Scrabble all month.

As for my future, who knows what it holds,

I'm here until December and then my plan folds.

Schedule

2008-08-28T10:57:00.000-07:00

Sometimes people ask me what I do down here. Obviously for the most part I just sit around all day but this past week I’ve actually been on the productive side so I’ll write about that and then you can have a completely skewed perspective of what I do. I’ll start with last Thursday and leave out reading, taking showers, brushing teeth, and such.

Thursday: Wake up sick. Call Amanda to get the names of the schools that are reached by our library. Give list of names to Lori to type. Go to bookstore. Spend $400 out of $5000 on new library books. Go home. Take nap. Walk to library. Get picked up and driven the rest of the way. Open library. Check out books. Ride home on motorcycle. Make enchiladas for dinner. Set alarm to sleep while oven is preheating and again while cooking. Have dinner with two roommates. Watch a movie. Go to sleep.

Friday: Wake up early again. Go to NCA at 8:30 to help organize and price books for Book Fair. Come home. Eat lunch. Change. Walk to library. Walk home. Talk to roommates. Take a nap. Wake up. Finish setting up for party. Have Mexican Taco party.

Saturday: Sleep late. Bake a cake for church on Sunday. Clean leaves off of pool. Go Swimming. Friend comes over. Go to coffee to work on computer. Go to American church’s Bunco night.

Sunday: Church. Lunch. Nap. Dinner and closing Olympic ceremonies at old apartment.

Monday: Help Michelle with her school for kids with disabilities. Plan on working at library but take four-hour nap instead. Take dog to vet. Eat dinner. Help Lori pack for the States. Watch “West Wing.” Go to bed.

Tuesday: Teach English using colored chalk. Come home. Eat lunch. Work at library. Have a visit from a snake. Come home. Cut fabric for new library curtains. Eat dinner. Start sewing curtains. Watch movie. Go to bed.

Wednesday: Sleep in. Finish Curtains. Talk to sister on phone. Go to lunch. Go to library. Come home. Bible Study. Watch “Everybody Loves Raymond.” Go to bed.

Thursday: Wake up. Go to grocery store. Look at possible hotel for my mom and crew to stay. Have maid cut pineapple. Write E-mail. TBD.

Greetings from Nicaragua

2008-08-18T16:47:00.001-07:00

It has been quite a while since my last update and I’m not sure how to get back into the groove of things.
N – This week the beginning of the first NORMAL week I’ve had since, I don’t know, the beginning of June. I am settled into my new room and am not planning on leaving anytime soon. I spent a solid four hours organizing things at the library today and there were no people helping.
I – We finally INVESTED the $2000 to get more books for the library. This week a few of us are going to the bookstore to start the shopping process. I’ve been realizing that our selection is skewed towards younger kids and then pretty much drops off once we hit chapter books. Give or take six copies of Charlotte’s Web.
C – On Saturday night Lori and I went to the CIRCUS. It is visiting here from Guatamala and a lot more professional than I was expecting but still no Cirque Du Soleil.
A – The end of July beginning of August Jeff Bishop was here visiting. That was quite an ADVENTURE. I could say more but I won’t.
R – Don’t worry I’ve still been READING a ton. I just got a new bookshelf yesterday for my room and it is packed full of books. I’ve been reading more than normal since my new house doesn’t have cable, so I’m probably at two or three books a week.
A – Last week for a few days I went to Los Angeles for a wedding and family time. I had a really good trip but it made me not want to come back here. I just got back last Tuesday and now I am feeling more ADJUSTED but still want to sleep until 11 every day. It isn’t that I don’t like living here but most things are much more convenient in the States, and I kind of miss that.
G – I’m still teaching English one day a week. That is another thing that will go back to my normal schedule starting tomorrow. I think we are going to review the colors and do an activity involving chalk. I still need to put in the extra effort to make the difficulty levels different for the different GRADES, maybe with questions and answers and grammar with the older kids.
U - I really don’t want to fill this with USELESS information but I really can’t think of anything to say.
A – I hope you have an AMAZING week.

F.A.Q. #2

2008-07-28T13:06:00.000-07:00

Hola to all! I made it back from California on Thursday and am getting back into the groove of things in Nicaragua. My trip home was very short and busy but wonderful. Since I’ve now been living here for almost two years and things are always changing I decided to clear up some misconceptions by providing you with F.A.Q. #2, F.A.Q #1 was posted February 1, 2007 if you’re interested.

Where do you live? I live in Managua, the capital of Nicaragua. I live in house at Km. 12 ¾ the old road to Leon. You go down to the Km. 13 market and turn right where the labritorios sign is, I’m in the last house on the right. Yes, this a change from where I was living before. I now have my own bedroom, it is the maid’s quarters but I have fixed it up quite nicely.

Who do you live with? Although we have only all been home one night since I moved in, I technically live with three North American girls, Carey, Lori, and Mary. We also have two dogs, Chaco and Maya.

When was the last time you took a shower? Well, we haven’t had water since Saturday…you do the math. I think it is about time to go swimming.

What do you mean by having no water? Yesterday there was at least some coming out slowly and pressureless from our tank but today it is down to a drizzle. Purell and baby wipes are quickly becoming my best friends.

Why no water? I don’t know for sure but I think the huge hole in the middle of the road by us may have something to do with it.

Besides not bathing, what do you do down there? Since February my main task has been starting a community library about one mile from where I live. Currently we are open three afternoons a week, I am there for those times and then extra time still getting organized. I started teaching English again on Tuesday mornings. I teach two first grade classes, one huge second grade class, and one third grade class. So schedule-wise I don’t have a ton of work but unscheduled things are always coming up.

Who are you working for? I am technically down here independently. The financial responsibility for the library is shared between Manna Project International and Alongside Ministries en Nicaragua. For my job at the school, I consider Matthew Jun my boss, he laughs when I call him that.

How’s the library? I think it’s going well, we have more books than shelves and there are lots of kids that come every day, those things are both very encouraging. We leant our first batch of books and are waiting for them to be returned. I still have a lot of work to do.

So, you like it there? It’s life. And I guess for the most part I like life. I don’t think I am enjoying it more than I would enjoy living in the states, but I don’t really know how to compare the two. I do know that for now I am where I am supposed to be and doing what I am supposed to be doing. At least for the big things, there are still plenty of disciplines that I have yet to master.

When are you coming back? Short term, August 6^th for a wedding in LA, then possibly longer term in December. Hopefully by November I will know whether or not my December trip is for Christmas or for my foreseen future.

After Nicaragua, then what? Ahhhhhh. I don’t know. Get some type of job doing something. I’m not really worried about it, God has clearly guided and provided this far I don’t think He’s just going to quit on me now.

And your Spanish, it’s fluent now? This answer is conditional. If you speak Spanish, no, it is not fluent. If you don’t speak Spanish, yes, it is.

Is it safe there? Really, what is “safe”? I don’t feel that my safety has ever been jeopardized. But a lot more precautions are taken here then in the states. We lock our doors.

What is your favorite Nicaraguan food? Fried cheese with pretty much anything, especially fried plantains. Yes, they eat healthy here. But for the most part I just eat normal food like peanut butter and jelly

god bless america

2008-07-08T16:33:00.000-07:00

Hello All! How are you? I am writing this from somewhere between Managua and Houston, I see water so that narrows things down. I am on my way to California for two weeks and am really excited.

Yesterday I finished moving and organizing my new bedroom. It looks surprisingly large now that there is furniture in it and I really like it. I’ll attach a picture but it was hard to really get the whole room. If we hang out while I’m home I can give you an amazing virtual tour or you can just come visit me in Nicaragua and see it for yourself. Lori pointed out that there is still plenty of room for dancing, something very important.

On Saturday night we had a birthday party/fundraiser with all proceeds going to the library. I don’t know yet how much money we raised but I think somewhere between $500 and $1000. There is a picture of me standing next to a picture of myself.

The party itself was very interesting, quite different from the normal 4 options of things to do in Managua. Lori and I were the ones collecting money and my job was swiping the credit cards if people didn’t bring cash. This is a seemingly easy task and I have previous experience thanks to my days at the Candy Bouquet. The only difficulty was that we had to hook up the machine down a hallway where there was a phone line, so I had to keep walking back in forth in my new gold heels, I’m sure I looked like a natural. It did get less awkward once I realized that it wasn’t necessary for the credit card holder walk down the hallway with me.

Friday was the forth of July. Not a big holiday in Managua but I still was able to pull out my patriotic wear.

The rest of the week was just wrapping up loose ends, cleaning the library, going to the beach, playing speed scrabble, seeing “Kung Fu Panda,” cleaning battery acid using Coca Cola, packing, etc.

I’ll back until the 24^th and starting tomorrow I can probably steal my cell phone number back from my mom so give me a call. I hope to see you soon.

Love, joy

PS Now I’m in Houston, my layover was supposed to be just enough time to walk to my terminal but my connection was delayed. Sad, but it will give me some time to adjust to things in the US of A like it being OK to flush toilet paper. Maybe I’ll buy myself a coffee soon.

7 more days

2008-07-01T11:59:00.000-07:00

I was fairly confident that this summer I was going to be basking in my free time and boredom but somehow my time has been filling up.

Yesterday was my last day of house sitting, so now I am back in my apartment packing both for my visit to the states and for moving to my new house. I am really excited about both of these things, coming to the states I get to see people that I have been missing a lot lately, and my new house has a newly painted bedroom. Thanks to my distaste for painting second coats, and the quality of local paint we have named it “the aquarium.” It’s turquoise and fades in and out a lot but I love it and it’s all mine.

Working for Matthew again has been great. I am just teaching one day a week but he has been in the states so has given me extra responsibility. Three girls were here from Florida and for two days I got to chaperone their visits to the school and the feeding program. Also last week there were two men from Colorado that I met with at the feeding program to show the work that is being done currently and our goals of expansion. Right now I like the variety of things he is having me do, plus I get a driver that is really nice about running errands with me.

Things at the library are progressing quite nicely as well. Today I am establishing new rules, such as a minimum age limit. No more 2 year olds coming in unsupervised and peeing in my chairs.

This morning I met with a representative from the organization Trees For Life. If we have two thousand dollars to pay they will pay an additional $3,000 towards purchasing more books and will give us two computers and two printers. Isn’t that exciting. I’m excited.

But don’t worry in spite of all this work I’ve gotten to play some too. When deciding what to do here on a normal weekend night there are four options: make dinner in, go out to dinner, watch a movie in, watch a movie out. Friday night I went out to dinner and watched a movie in. Saturday night I ate dinner at home and then went to the movies. Sunday night I ate dinner in and watched a movie in. Sometimes there is a fifth option of Game Night. That is usually paired with eating in unless you chose to eat out at a place that is casual enough to play a game at. We haven’t had game night in a few weeks, I like to play speed scrabble during them because card games stress me out.

During the days there is more variety of things to do but they usually require more preparation. Often these activities involve volcanoes, the Saturday before last I went to Volcan Mombacho for canopy tours. Canopy tours are when you strap into a harness and then have someone push you off of a platform and you glide from tree to tree on wire.

normal

supermujer.

See a lot of you next week, Joy

life.

2008-06-19T19:14:00.001-07:00

"We should all aspire to live like bananas. They are on permanent vacation, living in lush, tropical rainforests. From high above, a canopy of trees provides the perfect balance of sun and shade" -Banana Nut Crunch

I can’t remember where I left off in telling this saga, but frequently I have thought of things I would like to share with you over the past few weeks. Now finally I am taking a breath and sitting down to write.

I started teaching again, just Tuesdays. Classes are from 8:30 to 12:30 and include two 1^st grade classes, one 2^nd grade, and one 3^rd grade. The first day we learned a little song “my name is joy, my name is joy, what’s your name, what’s your name?” Catchy and original. Then I had them draw a picture of them meeting a friend and introducing themselves. This week we talked about fruit. In preparation I made fruits out of colored paper: Watermelon, apple, orange, strawberry, grapes, pineapple, and banana. After we went over names I walked around with a marker and asked each kid what their favorite fruit was, I drew it for them and then they had to color it. This worked well for first grade and for third grade I just gave them paper and they had to draw it themselves. In second grade I ran into a slight problem. The problem is that our two 1^st grade classes fed into one 2^nd grade class, which means there are 40 students in one room. It is hard to give attention to 40 kids in 45 minutes and teach anything. I need to learn how to be more prepared for that. Overall I am really enjoying being back at the school, kids are really funny, and one day a week is about all I want to prep for.

Things at the library are going well too, yesterday we got air conditioning! It really cools things off. Today was the last day of the current set of volunteers working with me. Now I know more what I need to establish before new volunteers come. It is so much easier to communicate with co-workers when you work by yourself.

Another good thing at the library is that really feel that I am starting to connect and get to know the regulars. Today I read with a little boy for about an hour. He is ten years old and can only read by sounding words out. Fortunately Spanish is very phonetic so we were able to go through four books together. Our first three books were very basic picture books with labels, and then Brown Bear, Brown Bear to finish it off. It was exciting to see how after every book we finished he wanted to go pick off another one from the shelf. A teenage boy, Moises, also comes in the library a lot to do puzzles, his homework, or read. Since most of our patrons are younger he has just been choosing children’s books to flip through. Today I gave him Bridge to Terabithia and a bookmark so that he can come in everyday and continue where he left off.

I have been house sitting for two weeks now. For about half that time my friend Morgan was here staying with me. We played a lot of Boggle and both enjoyed reading 4^th grade books. I’m reading The Twenty-one Balloons right now. The house is nice and a change of scenery. The first weekend here we had a fruit party, “bring a fruit and dress like a fruit.” I was a kiwi. This weekend we grilled hamburgers and played Bible trivia, I think my fourth grade Bible knowledge would make you more proud than my Boggle skills, however, I am better at both of those things than cooking Nica food, which Morgan I attempted on Monday.

One bad thing about house sitting is that things are different. One night last week I slept with my keys dangling in the lock. Nappy was confused by the jingling and shared that by barking, which I ignored. Also here I don’t have a maid, this shouldn’t really be a problem but I am terrible at mopping. I attempted this morning and maybe things look a little better, but not much. I think before the Ferrer’s come home I going to have to get Leo to come help me.

Just a few things more to say…This weekend I re-hiked that volcano Cerro Negro, it was one of the first things I did when I came to Nicargua but last time I quit half way through. This time we went on the trail and discovered that it is very easy and relaxing if you do it the standard way.

It was windy.

Last week I got hit in the face with a soccer ball. It was fuerte and direct, but caused minimal bleeding and my sunglasses didn’t break. I’m coming home in less than three weeks. I love you.

lots of information you've been dying to know

2008-06-05T08:53:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I wish I could figure out a new way to write these. I feel that I’ve used up all of my creative writing styles and you’re probably sick of reading. But, pay attention! I have a lot to say.

Ay, Ay, Ay un gran tormenta…

Last week there was some type of hurricane/tropical storm. If I wasn’t an atmospheric science dropout I might have been able to give you a more technical description of what happened but I am; so, I’ll just tell you that it rained a lot. I do remember something about the length of time between thunder and lightening mattering. I think if there is no time it means you were just struck by lightening, that has happened a lot lately. On Thursday I was walking home and when I left school it was just a little misty, things change fast in a hurricane. By the time I got home, fifteen minutes later, I was completely soaked with my jeans plastered to my legs and my shoes ruined. At least I wasn’t sweating and I’m pretty sure I saw a partial smile on our guard Hector, and he never smiles.

Besides tearing apart my most rain-worthy shoes, the storm didn’t really have a negative effect on my life, I even got a day less of Domestic Arts out of it. But, really why would rain matter? The dirt roads may have turned into rivers but that just makes them more exciting to run in, and I can come home and take a warm shower and then put on clean dry clothes and drink tea. I have walls, and floors, and a roof, and even a dryer. Unfortunately many (maybe even most) Nicaraguans do not live in such weather resistant conditions. The river roads aren’t much fun to walk to work or school in. And it is really hard for people to dry their clothes even inside, because the houses are always damp since they aren’t built quite up to code. And then there is this family I know who’s outhouse caved in during the storm. Yes, their outhouse. Poor me with my broken shoes.

El fin/mi retiro

Last Thursday night we had our Domestic Arts’ banquet. Here is a picture of me directing to prove that I actually do something.

I think the event was a success.

On Monday I gave my class their final exam. School policy is that seniors with over a 90% are exempt and other students need above a 93%. I gave the exam to three students, all boys. So, as of 12:30 on Monday I am retired from teaching, or so I think.

Un otra vez

A few months ago I told my faithful Korean ex-boss that maybe in June I would consider helping him out again. On Saturday May 30^th, he called me to ask what I had been thinking. I told him that I could see myself helping out one day a week, he asked me if I had a ride to school on Monday. Hold up, Monday! I guess he took that beginning of June thing seriously. I had to give my exam on Monday so he said he would come get me at 7:30 Tuesday morning, I had to clarify whether Tuesday morning he expected me to work or just to see things, he said the latter. So Tuesday he sent me into the office to set my schedule with the directora. Can we rewind to September 11, 2006 my first day on the job? Similarly, on this day in history, Matthew threw me into the work world with little direction. Fortunately, my relationship with the directora and with the Spanish language has greatly improved in the past 21 months. Back to present day, I told her I could come one day week, she picked Tuesdays. So next Tuesday I am starting again with my 1^st, 2^nd, and 3^rd graders. Maybe the third time is a charm and someone will actually learn something. Oddly enough, I am really excited. I missed the school (not so much the teaching), and am looking forward to being there again. I’ve been feeling very bubbled in lately so I think this is away to pop out and regain some perspective. By saying that I guess now I have to let you hold me accountable.

Mateo and I also went to see his ministry center at the Oriental Market. It has grown a lot since I’ve been here and within the next week he’ll be opening a clinic. In a few weeks he is going back to the states and I’ll be the on-call tour guide of the market if supporters come down during his absence. That’s me, great at making up facts on the fly.

Los grupos y mi sello nuevo

I got my stamp. I know, you’re excited, me too.

I’m trying to get the books all labeled quickly because lately it has become increasingly difficult to keep finished and unfinished books separate. You may wonder why. I’ll tell you. It’s because there are a lot of people helping lately. But today I’m going to lay down the law: put things back where you found them, don’t sit on the arms of the chairs, don’t ask me to take your picture, clean up after yourselves and encourage students to do likewise. You know, basics. But short-term, it is great having people entertain the kids, and recently there have been a lot of them.

Vigilancia

Tomorrow I am starting to housesit for Grant and Kandy Ferrer. They will be gone for a month and have a dog named nappy that they are leaving behind. They live a housing complex right next to where I live. I think I’ll still be spending a lot of time in my apartment because I don’t want to be bored out of my mind. Yay for summer.

Nine things about my life, written, but not posted, Tuesday night

2008-05-28T08:46:00.000-07:00

I am completely exhausted. I should go to bed soon, maybe I will. I am fighting change-in-weather-sickness, yes that is the official name. Then there is the level of tiredness that comes with exhaustion but is more mental. Like “I’m sick and tired of…” Right now those three little dots can be applied to a lot of things.
I just made muffins because I had two mealy apples that I couldn’t just throw away because apples are expensive. The muffins are good.
It has been raining a lot lately and actually cool out most of the time. Except in the mornings and early afternoons when it is mostly humid. Yesterday I was tricked into wearing jeans by the massive rain on Sunday. I finally caught on at 1 when I was walking home from school and all my clothes were sticking to my body.
This is my last week with domestic arts, they are completing their two final projects. For one project we broke the class up into three groups and then they had to prepare us a meal outside of class. It was a great assignment; we got three well-prepared meals. Thursday is their other final project. They are throwing a semi-formal banquet for selected classmates and teachers. The food should be good there too but a lot more work overall and I have to dress up.
I’ve decided to move. I don’t know when but I do know where. Three friends just moved into a house with an unused maid’s quarters. It is a nice size but doesn’t have a closet, I guess maids never change out of their baby blue and white checkered dresses and white aprons. I still need to work out a solution for that dilemma.
Living in a maid’s quarters does not necessarily make me the maid.
I designed a stamp so that we can mark all of our library books as ours. I ordered it today and get to pick it up tomorrow. So stay tuned for next week’s update with a picture of that.
Today I also went to the market and bought 29 plastic boxes to organize our storage cabinets with. Then, a summer volunteer group came and did the organizing for me.
This same group is coming in all month to do activities with the kids and help the program get established overall. Right now we are open for two hours, three days a week and it has been (except for today) quite the popular hang out. Hopefully with this new group we’ll be able to get more structured activities.

Animals, rain and liquid assets

2008-05-15T12:12:00.001-07:00

Animals:

There are these little beetle/grasshopper things here that sound like helicopters. I never remember what they are called but for the most part we have a fine relationship. Last Thursday in the library a kid was sitting down on the mats and pulled some out of his pocket, alive, to show me. He was really excited but I can’t really encourage that, right. He then left them in a little hole in the dirt outside of the door.

On Friday morning I was waiting in the library for furniture to get delivered and I had opened the property’s main gate so the delivery truck could pull in. Finally the truck showed up (I won’t get into how long that took) and as I was directing the men where to put the things, five cows that were grazing on the street decided that the grass was looking greener on the other side. And but the other side I mean the inside. So then I found myself chasing cows back out of the gate. All in the duty of me as a librarian I guess.

Rain:

On Saturday night the long awaited rain came. It was paired with no electricity, but there was a lot of lightening so it wasn’t that dark. Monday morning around 2am the rain came back, I was immensely happy that I didn’t have any thing to do early so I could just lie in my bed listening to the sky pour out all it had been storing for the last five months. When it is actually raining it is cooler, but the rest of the day is still miserably hot, but things will probably be green soon and green is pretty.

Liquid Assets:

On Tuesday I didn’t have time to walk to the library so I decided to take one of these three-wheeled taxi things. I have a little change purse in my backpack and I know they are cheep so I figured I’d be fine. I got one right away and told him where I needed to go then counted my change and asked him how much it would be. He said it would be 30 Cords, since I only had 7 Cords I thanked him and asked him politely to let me off where we were, I could walk the rest of the way. He was very nice I drove me the whole way. I was trying to think of what else I could offer him to make up at least part of the difference but although I had my laptop, ipod, digital camera, cell phone, and lunch there wasn’t really anything I could give. I considered the lunch but I get a little testy if I don’t have food. I think this story signifies it is time for me to go to the bank.

oh, how i've missed you

2008-05-07T21:58:00.000-07:00

So it’s been a little stretch since my last update. You can deduce that I have a lot to say but right now I am really just thinking about how the power is out. Since my return in February the power has been on very faithfully (just out a few hours here or there) but I was just informed that today is the start of rationing again. So we’re on the blackout from 5pm to 10pm, or so it seems. I’m writing this at 7:45 so I’m right about in the middle. Normally on Wednesday nights I have Bible study but that was cancelled because of the darkness, all of my roommates had a meeting to go to. So this power outage is hitting me hard. On the other hand, this is part of the adventure of being down here. What is the point of living in the third world if there aren’t any inconveniences.

There is another energy crisis going on here too, with gasoline/diesel. This week public transportation (that used by the masses) went on strike demanding the government help subsidize their fuel costs. Because of the multi-step conversion rate I often over look the fact that fuel is expensive, what does 23 cords a liter really mean? Well cords to dollar is 19 so that takes us to $1.20 a liter and then liter to gallon is 3.79 so that brings us up to 4.59 a gallon. When I used to get paid I made $95 a month, if fuel was my only cost for the month I would only be able to buy 20 gallons worth. So yes, the busses and taxis are legitimately distressed.

But enough on things I don’t understand. Out of the past five weekends I have been traveling four of them. This is fun but draining, and leaves me feeling a little disconnected. I am a homebody, or at least wish I were.

This past weekend I went to a women’s retreat for the English speaking church here in Managua (ICF). It went from Friday morning to Sunday afternoon and was a great time of fellowship, and learning, and lying by the pool, and playing speed scrabble, and getting beat up by the waves. Now I have a nice tan and am better equipped to be a “strong woman of God.”

One side story, in our folders for the week there was a list of all the names of the women and something quirky or embarrassing about them. My fact was that I don’t own a comb or brush (no surprise there). My friend Morgan was also there and she has dread-locks so this lady walked up to her and asked if she was Joy and offered her a comb from the gift table. Morgan clarified that no that wasn’t her fact, and then pointed me out as the scrub, once she was redirected she gifted me the comb. Someone else gave me conditioner (another thing I don’t use).

The weekend before that I went with my co-workers Lori and Amanda (and Amanda’s seven-month-old, Samantha) to San Juan del Sur to check out the library system they have. Our meetings with the founder, Jane, were extremely informative and encouraging. We were able to see how she has things running and ask a lot of questions about processes she has previously tested. Also we bought a “library in a box” from her that had lots of stuff like books and registration cards so that I no longer feel as if I’m starting from scratch. Another good thing on the trip is that we were able to stay at the good hotel both nights, and we got a 20% discount. The actual beaches in San Juan are not very clean but the hotel is up on a hotel with gorgeous pools overlooking the bay there. And you know what they say about how things look “from a distance.”

Now I think my traveling schedule has calmed down and that is exciting and also it is exciting to see progress in my work here. Today the library was officially opened. We’re not having our grand opening yet and still have quite a bit of preparation before kids can actually check out books but today was a start. We wanted kids to get used to the idea of having a educational place to hang out so today I put out books to read at one table, puzzles at another, and coloring books at a third. It is fun to finally have my job require interaction with others (even though they are dirty kids) and I am looking forward to the library developing more.

The coloring table

Lori reading to some smaller kids

Seeing the kids in action really just reaffirmed to me the need this country has for libraries or places to supplement their educational journey. Wow that came out cheesy. After a little bit of time a two of the boys that were inside we starting to get bored with the books so I decided to get out a puzzle for them to do. They were both around ten years old so I brought out a really simple maybe thirty-piece puzzle. They were completely lost as to what to do. They didn’t know how to separate out the edges or corners, or to match colors, or even the whole in/out concept. After about twenty minuets together we got the border put together, I told them to come back tomorrow and we can fill in the middle. Then there were other boys about six and eight that I gave a wooden board puzzle to, the kind where the design of the puzzle is painted onto the base, even that was taking them a substantial amount of time. In how many other areas are they lacking from what we consider basic skills? For now I am going to be open Tuesday-Thursday from 2:30 to 4:30 and we’ll see how to expand later

And other news...

-One of my friends is moving back to the states tomorrow so today we went to coffee and on a picnic.

-It has been grossly hot this week so just the six-minute walk to the picnic location left me literally dripping with sweat, or glistening.

-My roommates are thinking of moving, my rent is extremely cheap right now and I can only commit to living with them until December so I don’t really have a say in the matter. There is a chance that in June I’ll be homeless, but not really because the library is pretty big and has wi-fi and I semi-own my own bed.

-I took the plunge and bought a ticket to come to California in July from the 8^th to 24^th. I am already looking forward to it.

-It’s 9:14 and the power is back on, why was I complaining.

My trip to the ranch, and some other things...

2008-04-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

The Ranch

Location: Chontales, Nicaragua, about three hours away from Managua in the mountains. It is known for its rivers being of milk and rocks of cheese, figuratively.

Accommodations: We stayed at a clean hotel that was only $9 a night for a double room. The price was good but the location was right off the main road so very loud and morning showers were virtually impossible because of the frigidness of the water.

Food: Although we slept in a hotel, a family that some of my roommates know hosted us. They fed us amazing meals prepared by their household staff. There was good cheese involved.

Activities: Friday eight of us drove there, that was an activity in and of itself. Friday night we had a bonfire on our host family’s ranch. I, oddly enough, was cold. We had s’mores and hotdogs. Saturday we went to the ranch and alternated between the activities of riding horses and napping in hammocks. I was a little nervous about the horse riding but my equestrian skills didn’t fail me.

Me with a borrowed hat sitting on Angel

I just had one mishap with a tree but with the help of a Swiss Army knife damage was easily undone. The napping in a hammock didn’t cause any problems. On Saturday night we went to a rodeo, which was probably one of the most boring things ever. My favorite act was this father son pair riding their horses in matching outfits while reciting poetry. I learned that the whole rodeo thing is just an excuse to get dressed up, hang out, and drink. Since my cowboy hat is in California I wasn’t able to fully participate.

Sitting on our hosts' porch, waiting to leave for the rodeo (thus my pigtail braids)

Sunday we spent picking tics off of ourselves and eating amazing food until it was time to drive home.

Home Again

Monday I went to work at the library my scanner came in but I didn’t have batteries so I wasn’t able to use it. Then it took me two days to figure out the software I was supposed to have downloaded but now it works and sometime soon I can start using it. I know that you are really excited to hear this, but honestly what type of updates do you expect to hear from a librarian. This week I also finished putting all of the books on the shelves, not really in any order but there are no more suitcases full.

Speaking of suitcases and libraries I am leaving again today to go to check out the library system in San Juan. Actually as I was typing that sentence the lady, Jane that we are meeting with called. Crazy. (And while I got up to answer the phone our maid started changing the sheets on my bed.) More good news on San Juan, we were able to get one room tonight at the nice hotel that wasn’t ridiculously expensive.

I guess I should mention my Domestic Arts job as well. We are sewing now, which is a slow process. We are finishing up making pillowcases, in theory not that difficult. Then we are starting on blankets, also not really that hard. I guess back in the Domestic Arts day, they used to make whole outfits. I told my students that they should appreciate the fact that I am not having them do that.

Progression

2008-04-17T19:22:00.000-07:00

Happy mid-April! How are you doing? The quality of my week has been steadily increasing, and it is Thursday so I am doing quite fine.

Things have actually been happening in the library and I figured I’d fill you in on the progress. A few weeks ago all the data I had entered in our library database was magically erased. Since I had entered, by hand, 500 books, I was a little discouraged, but in the way where I just tried not to think about it. Next week we have a barcode scanner coming in and that should make the process exponentially easier, I am holding out on that aspect of librarianism. But, there are more things to do. I met with the three ladies that are involved with the library (Kathy, Amanda, and Lori) on Monday and we discussed what practical things we should be doing. It is a little hard balancing responsibility when there is a lack of communication so this was a good step.

Our goal now is to open the library the week of the 28^th for in-house reading (no borrowing yet), we want to get the kids re-accustomed to being on the property in a educational setting (there used to be reading/activity times). In order to get to this step the building itself needs a lot of work. Yesterday Lori and I went and invested a large sum of money into furniture for the library: tables, desks, chairs, and storage cabinets. They will all be delivered next week. We also met with a man that makes bookshelves to get a price quote. His finished work is very good and highly recommended but he is a little on the shady side business-wise, so we need to ponder that one for a while.

Through some connections at a bookstore here in Managua we were finally able to get a hold of a lady that has set up the only lending library system in the country. We are making plans to meet with her next week and see her system. Her library happens to be at the nicest beach town in the country so we are making it a two-night trip. We were hoping to stay at the super nice hotel there but I just got an e-mail saying they are full except for there $200/night houses. That includes breakfast but is still a little out of our price range.

This morning I spent a few hours getting books onto the shelves we have in some sort of organized manner. I am shocked by how full our empty shelves are getting. And by how many geckos like to hide out in boxes.

Also this week I got my own set of keys for the library and got business cards made. Now I am way official.

Now for the non-library related news, except in the manner that it is related to the librarian, tomorrow I am going to a farm or something until Sunday. I have no details except that we are leaving at three and it will be cold and I should bring $25. I don’t even know who the “we” is but I’m sure it will be fine.

For your viewing pleasure here is a picture of me taken on my computer while writing this, I know, exciting...

and a picture of my business card. I realize that my middle name is misspelled but it is less confusing for my client-base that way...

Much love, Joy

Panama Road Trip Debrief

2008-04-10T13:18:00.000-07:00

In attempts to write this update I discovered that I am not good at editing down what I have written. I obviously think that everything I write is valuable and worth your time to read. I, however, do know that uncontrollable events may arise in your life that could prevent you from reading everything I’ve written. If this is the case, you can just read the first paragraph and look at the pictures (more at http://picasaweb.google.com/yojchristina/PanamaRoadtrip) If that whets your appetite feel free to continue reading.

Sunday March 30, I left with two of my friends, Lori and Morgan, on a road trip down to Panama in a 96 Buick sedan.

You can only imagine how many stories I could tell about this adventure. So now I’m here trying to summarize 180 hours and 405 pictures in a way that will take less than 180 hours of your time (hopefully a lot less). But maybe you want to go on a trip like this for yourself, so in that case I will try to give you some important tips. My desire in sharing these tips is that on your trip you can have just as much fun with a little less stress.

Preparation and Packing: I would strongly recommend bringing a large vehicle with lots of storage on this trip, even if only 3 people are going. It is important that you pack things like: trail mix, tortillas, water, frijoles molidos, hammocks, sheets, blankets, matches, CD’s, money, books, towels, pillows, cameras, and bathing suits. Some other things that were over looked by us that would have been useful include: non-expired drivers licenses, a map, and maybe a travel book that is less than 7 years old and that has more than 20 pages on the destination country.

Departure: In many ways leaving at 5am is a good idea. If this is what you want to do you should try to go to be early the night before. Complete exhaustion is not the best way to start a trip. Fortunately the initial route is easy, turn left out of the apartment complex, drive 2 km, turn right. In theory after this one right turn you can keep driving straight for 900 km or so.

Boarder crossing #1, Nicaragua/Costa Rica: This is where they are going to expect you to have a recent license if you want Costa Rican drivers insurance. Even if it is just recently expired they won’t accept it. Another confusion to avoid is the cost to leave Nicaragua. It is $2 a person or 40 cordobas. You should try to remember to bring money.

Costa Rican Driving: Although Km-wise Costa Rica is not very long do not get excited thinking you are going to drive through it faster than all your predecessors. There are lots of winding mountain roads, big trucks, rain, darkness, and San Jose. Maybe if you bring an accurate map, passing through San Jose won’t be a stressful disaster. Or you can not see it as a disaster and waste of time but an opportunity to see a broader perspective of Central American cities. They have Denny’s.

Costa Rican Lodging: There are a few methods of finding a hotel to stay at in Costa Rica. I will touch on one method here and an alternative during our return North. The first step is picking a town. We chose Neily for its size and proximity to the Panamanian boarder. When you get off the main road you may get pulled over for having suspicious Nicaraguan license plates (there is a little animosity between the two countries). Maybe here the cops will see that the driver is uninsured and try to give you a $500 fine for this. At this point in time one person should talk two cops out of the ticket and explain the confusion of foreign road rules. Another person can ask the third officer to recommend a place to stay for the night and make other various small talks. He may recommend Hotel Andrea, a fine place to rest your head and eat the beans, cream cheese, and tortilla dinner and watch some Chinese TV.

Boarder Crossing #2, Costa Rica/Panama: Not to much to say here. The people are friendly and it is free. The police station shares a building with a barber shop and there is a really big Zona Libre. They don’t check expiration dates on licenses when giving permission to drive.

Panamanian Driving: The first large town after crossing the boarder is David. They have a mall and the pharmacy sells phone chips to activate your cell phone in the country. Being able to call home makes the parents happy. The next large town is Santiago, they have a McDonalds with a large play area and a $.85 menu.

In Panama the left lane is for passing, not driving. If you get pulled over for this and they notice your license is expired they will threaten to fine you $150 and take away your car. But they are friendly and don’t want to hurt tourism so after 10 minutes or so they might let you go. In all interactions with the police it is best to play dumb. Once driving again you should keep your eyes open for signs that say “Ciudad Central” and follow them. Don’t be deceived by “Autopista” signs they don’t go where you want to go.

Panama City: If you ever make it to Panama City, congratulations! If you aren’t sure if you’re in the right big city, it is the one with all the really tall buildings and tons of traffic. If you are still confused you can roll down the window and ask someone, “What city is this?” They will answer while your traveling companions who made you ask laugh.

Walking through the city is a great leisure activity, you aren't confined by the one way streets that aren’t labeled on maps. The canal is pretty cool, and the Miraflores locks. There are also some ‘botanical gardens’ and a zoo you can visit for just one dollar. You might want to pay a little extra to encourage them to water the gardens and get a few more lively/alive animals.

Panama city also has great shopping, right now I am wearing shoes I bought for $1.99, I also got a cool gold watch and some shirts. In the Panama bay there are a string of islands connected by a bridge called the Causeway. There are lots of nice restaurants on it and probably a pretty sweet view. In order to see the view it is important to allot at least one hour of driving time to get there. Those inaccurate maps, unlabeled streets, one-way streets, and sketchy neighborhoods take up more time than you’d expect

Panamanian driving – return trip: It is good to give extra time on the way home so you can stop as much as you want. Not just the city has good shopping, and the Buick has a big trunk that can fit lots of bags.

Central Panamanian Accommodations and the Internet: If you spend more time shopping than intended you may have to stop overnight somewhere in central Panama. It is best to not veer off of the main road and not really necessary because there are plenty of fine establishments right on the Pan American Highway. One hotel was only $15/night and could probably sleep five but we saw cockroaches crawling on the sheets so decided to pass. Hotel David was in the guidebook listed as the best option in the area, but the cheapest room we could find didn’t have enough beds. So for $21 I recommend staying at Hotel Hong, they’ll bring you a fan.

I am sure there were cockroaches here too but at least we couldn’t see them. The following day we decided to do some checking up on the internet, it was $.25 an hour and that included printing. I spent a little time printing a copy of a non-expired license and then Morgan and I took advantage of the tables outside and played speed Scrabble. This is fun and works the brain but may cause a scene and draw a small crowd.

Isla Brava: For our last two nights in Panama we went to an island off the Pacific Coast. Beware that the road out to the docks is a little rough. The problem with rough roads is that you can tell if you have a flat tire and you may continue driving on it in your ignorance and then when you finally do realize it your tire will destroyed beyond repair. The island itself is pretty, you can hear monkeys, and other creatures all night long. The downside is that there isn’t a whole lot of sand on the island itself. But for $15 you can take a boat to a nearby deserted island and do deserted island activities.

Back on the main island there is one hotel with rooms varying in prices. If you are planning on spending time in the room itself or like to have a bathroom go for the more expensive room. If you are quickly running out of money go for the cheaper rooms. In theory you could save money and sleep in your hammocks but that may be hard if you brought 3 suitcases, 3 backpacks, and two cardboard boxes with you. Panamanians offer special bread called hojaldras, it is fried and wonderful and $.20 for two pieces, I highly recommend it.

Exiting Panama: If your goal is to get back to Managua at a reasonable hour on Sunday I recommend starting the journey back on Saturday morning. Now, remember, if you are driving on the spare tire you need to go super slow. But don’t be too worried, there is a nice taxi driver, Cesar, who wanders the roads and will offer to be your escort in case of emergency, and you won’t even have to pay him (we didn’t have any money). He’ll show you the way to Auto Centro where you can replace the demolished tire and they might suggest replacing the other one with a bulge so that it doesn’t explode in route.

After getting new tires, ease away your stress by shopping again, you’re already in David and they have that mall where you bought the phone trip on day one. This mall also offers toilets with no seats and some 50% off sales. After a few hours of trying on clothes, get back on the road again. The boarder is close and full of tax-free shopping. Tax-free means stressful, especially if you know exactly what you want and all they have is not what you want. Eventually you’ll find OK substitutes for the souvenirs that you have put off buying and make it past the horse parade back into Costa Rica.

Costa Rica Again: If you didn’t like the first way of finding a hotel in Costa Rica the other option is picking an area on the map and driving towards it. One such area that you may want to stay in is the mountains so you can wake up to the coolness and the sunrise. On the way to this mystical place you should stop by the town with the burnt down roller rink. You might miss it if you have a recent guidebook but it is called Rancho Azteca if you’re interested. Even if it is 10pm when you find the roller rink you will probably be so pumped up that you want to keep driving to find the mountain paradise. The main problem with this is there aren’t a whole lot of cheap hotels/cabins in the Costa Rican mountains. You may try out a few places to see that they are already closed (because it is 1am) or they want $70. If and when this happens you can break into Hotel/Bar Abierto.

Abierto may mean open but it doesn’t mean that the place is actually open. But you can still try to sleep in their parking lot in the freezing cold car, using a dress from one of your recent shopping trips as a blanket. Closing your eyes and attempting to sleep even if just between 1:30 and 4am, does help some. At this time get up open the gate again and keep on trekking. There are lots of towns after San Jose that have parks you can sleep in. The problem is that you may look a little out of place and then people will want to ask you questions thus hindering your nap. When this is thoroughly annoying, get back in the car, go to a gas station bathroom to clean yourself up, stop at some souvenir shops and find a bakery where you can have a nice breakfast of Coca Cola and chocolate cake.

Lord willing, this breakfast of champions will give you the strength to drive the 6 more hours to Managua with few glitches.

Home Sweet Home: In Managua, drag out the road trip some more by getting an iced coffee. Maybe this will help steady the internal shaking you have from the combination of driving, not sleeping, and being dehydrated. Or maybe it won’t help but at least you won’t have to end the trip, because honestly who wants to end a road trip?

A little bit on some things

2008-03-28T14:08:00.000-07:00

Happy Friday! This time I really don’t have a lot to say but sometimes (always?) that is better. I think for ease of use I will go with the trusty bullet points.
• I’ve been spending some time in the library this week; this is good since I’m the librarian.
• In order to get to the library I walk about 25 minutes. Sometimes this walk is filled with people who think it is appropriate to park their car and start walking with me so they can practice their English. I think the word for that is stalking.
• This week started my three-week block of not having to teach domestic arts this week. Hallelujah!
• The next unit I am teaching is sewing and I bought fabric on Tuesday so I could do some sample projects.
• Shopping for fabric in this country quickly became one of my least favorite past-times. Why is everything either a nasty polyester blend or Winnie the Pooh?
• Because of this, and various other frustrating things about living here, Tuesday is what I like to call a “bad day.”
• Most of the things that were driving me crazy on Tuesday got resolved on Wednesday. Like I even had a car for part of the day so I could go shopping without being on someone else’s schedule. So God is faithful even in the small things, imagine that.
• Wednesday Lori and I spent running around town getting the papers in order so that her car can leave the country. She picked me up at 7:30am to get started and we didn’t make it back until 6pm.
• We got these papers because on Sunday the two of us are driving to Panama! We’re planning on getting to Panama City Monday afternoon and spending a few days there before we start heading North to hit some beaches on the way back to Nicaragua where we hope to arrive some time the following Sunday.
• Tomorrow we’ll finish collecting food and music for the car and making photocopies of important papers and maybe getting the oil checked somewhere in there.
• I am really excited about this trip and you should be excited about the update you’ll get when it’s over.
• I was just sitting in my friend’s backyard and the neighbors were burning something. My hair was already greasy but now it smells like smoke too.
• Shouldn’t there be regulations against having outdoor fires on windy days during the dry season?
• Well it seems like I still found plenty of things to say, I’m guessing you’re not surprised.
Love, Joy