Got Sick

Stop the tape, this kid needs to be locked away!
 

Dr. Dre, don't just stand there, operate!

I'm not ready to leave, it's too scary to die.

I'll have to be carried inside the cemetery and buried alive.

As you can tell from my quote of Eminem's 'My Name is' lyrics...I've been sick.

If you can get through my personal life blather I explain how I dealt with this while in Mexico.

I had fevers, chills, night sweats, racing heartbeat, and several other symptoms I can't describe here because my brother reads this blog.

I thought it was my Graves Disease because I'm a dumb slut when it comes to taking my medication.  It's like this, okay?  When I hit the proper baseline I'm supposed to take half a pill every other day to stay there.  I'm EXTREMELY sensitive to the pills so I have to go easy on them, because being sent from hyperthyroidism (metabolism too fast) to hypothyroidism (metabolism too slow) is a hellish nightmare of fatigue, brain fog, and gaining literal pounds every day when you barely eat anything. 

Who the fuck can remember to take a pill EVERY OTHER DAY.  I don't have a brain that powerful.  Just ask my staff.  They have to remind me of who I hate all the time so I don't accidentally work with them again.

Anyway, racing heart is a major symptom so I started treating with my medication and thought I was getting better.  Thought I could do a workout today.  Thought wrong.

I could barely drag my ass out of bed, and the chills were gone but the fever was drowning me in sweat.  I figured I'd at least take a shower.

Note:  Hot water in Mexico is a privilege, not a right.  And I demanded it because I can't take cold showers.  I can't even deal with tepid showers.  I just won't stay under the water.

We made sure this place had hot water on demand after staying at many hotels and an Air BnB that did not provide it.  The Air BnB said they had hot water when we asked.  Then when I complained he said to shower in the afternoon and it should be warm enough.  Huh?  "The tank is on the roof and it's black.  That's how you get hot water."

😑

Anyway, this place legit had hot water so long as we keep the propane tank full.  And it's $400 pesos every few months to fill it.  ($20).  So yeah.

I found that one handle of the tap didn't turn at all and the other could be turned.  This had a big C on it.  So I knew it would be caliente.  First few showers, fine.  

Then the mineral build up hid the letters and I turned the other handle with ease.  So I thought that was caliente.  But it never got hot.  I thought our propane was out, so I tested on the stove and we still had some.  My mom said she had used up all the hot water to do laundry.

Oh.  Okay.  I barely cleaned myself in icicle water and moved on with my life.

Next shower:  Ice fucking cold.  'Oh, I took a shower this morning.'  😐

Okay, I could not deal with another cold shower so I tested the water every day.  It never warmed up.  There was always a reason.  But now I'm sick, I smell because my Graves Disease is acting up and massive amounts of sweat will eventually become unpleasant.  I told my mom the day before:  I NEED TO SHOWER IN HOT WATER.  I'M SICK.  DO NOT USE ANY HOT WATER!

"Oh, you can just come down and use my shower.  I always have hot water."  Yeah, like I want to haul my sick slippery naked ass up and down 26 stairs when I'm just trying to recover.

Well she didn't use any hot water.  I HAVE to have hot water, right?  Wrong.  I let it run for ten minutes.  So I figured I needed to tell the landlord something got disconnected or some shit.  I took my brutal icicle shower then when I shut it off it finally occurred to me to try the other tap.  

Yeah.  I'm really that stupid.  Don't laugh at me.  I'm sick.

I finally got clean enough to leave the house and I told my mom to come to the pharmacy with me so I can get UTI test strips, because this is more than Graves Disease at this point.  The pharmacy is around the corner from us.

They didn't have the strips I wanted.  They wouldn't prescribe Cipro without a prescription.  I thought antibiotics were given freely here, but either that's just for the gringos doing border crossings, or they changed the rule to prevent the antibiotic resistance crisis that was on the horizon.  

I pleaded, I don't have a doctor.  I don't know how I can get a prescription.  They said to go next door.  ?

Yeah, so there's a doctor's office attached to the pharmacy and she took down my symptoms as translated by my mom and gave me a more appropriate script than my shot in the dark after some Web MD search.

The consultation was $70 pesos.  $3.50  😵

I started my prescription and I'm pretty sure the lack of proper showers for so long really did give me a UTI because my symptoms matched.  

I'm dead on my feet, but I need to try to do my work.  I'll take all the pills and hopefully get better.  If not...then it might be that the aggressive uterine cancer that runs in the family has decided to get me out of the way early (my mom is literally the only woman in the family to ever survive it).  I'm confident enough that it's not that not to worry.

Sams Club in Mexico

 Sometimes you want a really good beef roast or an American-style sheet cake for your eminent 50th birthday (mine is coming next month).  And...the best place to get stuff like this is a gringo store, populated by other gringos and wealthy Mexicans (mostly the latter, Mexico is doing just fine, thank you).  

Sams Club in Mexico very much has 'not quite but close enough' American prices.  And I balk at how few products I got for $2400 ($120usd) pesos.  

• $172 ($9usd) for crunchy perfect 'just like you remember them back home' green grapes.  
• $40 ($2usd) for 7 organic platanos (aka bananas) 
• $180 ($9usd) for 12 botellas (remember to pronounce the ll as a y sound) of sparkling water
• $155 ($8usd) for 32 botellas of agua
• $40 ($2usd) for 6 grande botellas of agua (Easier for me to fill my kettle upstairs with than the liter bottles)
• $214 ($11usd) for .646 kilos (1.4 pounds) of Strip Steak
• $275 ($14usd) for 24 packages of toallitas aka butt wipes for my mom
• $142 ($7.30usd) for boxes of Kleenex...which aren't made by Kleenex, but all blow your nose tissues are just called Kleenex here.
• $281 ($14.50) for a big thing of toilet paper...Cottonelle.  It's slightly worse than USA Cottonelle, and has a bigger tube making the rolls go a lot faster.
• $408 ($21usd) for 2 boxes filled with catfood sachets.  Cat food in cans are rare.  You get little pouches here.  
• $604 ($30usd) for 8 boxes of trident gum.  They each have little packets with four pieces each, matching the chicklet style of gum that's so popular here.

All together $2,406 or $123.  Which is exorbitant for Mexico.  But we knew that walking in.  

We also bought a bag of oranges and a box of dates from a woman who set up shop in the parking lot.  I also gave someone $20 pesos who tried to sell me cold drinks of red or brown.  But I know the brown is sweet tamarind juice and the red is koolaid of some variety, both loaded with sugar, so I said no, but gave him a gringo tax.

Before we shopped we went to a seafood restaurant under a hut made of palm fronds.  Open to the outdoors.  They had posted such glorious seafood pictures and had enormous oysters...I mean, two bites to get them down.  The oysters were literally brought in while we were waiting to order from a vendor with a dripping net bag of them.  They were amazing.

The lunch was $900 pesos $46usd with our $100 peso tip.  I told the waitress no necesita cambio (keep the change) and she presented it to her boss at the counter who was talking to a local.  He said in Spanish:  'Why can't you be like the gringos and leave a tip?'  The man said: 'Tipping is gringo culture! We don't tip here!  They just never learn!'

Excuse me?  There was a big cocktail goblet by the register that had 'propios' (tips) written on it.  They definitely take tips there.  

We came home and my neighbor grabbed my mom to take her to the dentist with her.  She's there now and just sent me a WhatsApp (official communication means of Mexico) so see you later!

 

USA House SOLD!!!

 First off...I committed murder.  Imagine my shock and heartache when I opened my window and saw a poor little creature stuck to it.  😭 I had no idea he had crawled in.  I would have loved to see the little guy alive.  I love lizards!  

May God have mercy on my soul.  😣

In other news, I may have mentioned before:  WE SOLD OUR HOUSE!!!  I'm clearing close to six figures so I'm happy.  That's enough to buy the place we're living in or several other houses available.

We've decided we want to rent for a while.  Maybe for the next 4 years until we get permanent residency, when it will be easier to buy.

Renting is cheap.  The house is nice.  Moving is exhausting.  So...?  Also I'm not going to spend $250k for a fancy American house when I can get a liveable house in the local area for $100k or less.  Y'know?

My therapist said, "I remember last month (I usually only see him once a month) you were worried you made the wrong decision to move to Mexico.  I bet you know you did right now."

I never had a moment where I thought, 'Yep!  I did the right thing!'  I know this is a good life for us, and I don't regret moving here.  I just haven't paid as much attention to the catastrophe going on in the USA.  But for him, living there, having it in his face, he must see that I had the right idea.

All along I was stressed over still having a house to sell in the USA.  Our realtor contract was up in June and I didn't know what we would have to do once that was up.  I worried it could be years until we could sell it.  I worried I'd have to arrange to have it rented out and live through that nightmare a few years.

The amount of stress that lifted off me when we finally sold this place.  It's like a miracle.  I feel that yeah, NOW I know I made the right decision.  Now that I no longer have property in the USA and now have money.  NOW I can relax.  Now I know everything is going to be okay and there's nothing to stop me and my mom from living our best lives here.

And the money will grow.  At least for a year, but probably 4 years until we're permanent residents.  Maybe longer.  Rent is cheap and I can see myself renting until I have to move into assisted living in 25 years.  Who knows.

I do know that it's hard to sell a house in Mexico.  These are not the good investments you find in the USA.  The houses here don't appreciate at the rate of the USA.  It takes a long time to sell.  So...if I bought a house and had to sell it, it would again be a big pain.  And we like our rental.

I told my therapist that we like it here because we're friends with the neighbors and there's so many little shops, restaurants, beauty salons, pharmacies, convenience stores, butcher shops, grocery stores, etc. that are just a short walk away.  We only have to take the car out of the locked gate once or twice a month.  I'm spending a lot less on gas.  

Delivery is dirt cheap here too, just not from Walmart anymore.  It's fine to just order a few things from Didi food.  Yesterday we got bananas, mangos, oranges, potatoes, and soda.  400 pesos or $20 including everything, and the drivers are super fast.  Gotta hustle out here.  

I noticed this sign outside the Oxxo by my house.  Here's what I found out:

Punto de Reunion is a pre-designated, easily accessible location where people should go in the event of an emergency, such as a fire, earthquake, or any situation requiring evacuation. Its main purpose is to facilitate coordination, counting, and ensuring the safety of people during an emergency, avoiding chaos and confusion.

Good to know!

Couple of Things

 Okay, first of all, my neighbors daughter is a budding artist and she's doing the kind of art I'm hiring for.  She's 16, so too young to work for me, but I bought her a manga anatomy book to get her started on more complicated images so she can be ready to go for me once she turns 18.

She was thrilled and was engrossed in the book at once, marking pages of poses she wanted to try.  Literally the book was dog-eared before she left our house.  But the best thing?  It was her birthday!  I had no idea.  Just lucky.

We went out grocery shopping and the bananas at Aurera Bodega looked sad, so I went the the other nearby grocery store, Casa Ley.  While there I realized I was in our old colony (the neighborhoods have 'colony' names that are parts of the addresses here).  So I picked up candy for the little girls who lived next door to our Air BnB to drop them off while I was there.

Okay, we go to our old Air BnB, and the girl comes out of the house in full make-up and a crown (a 10yo).  IT WAS HER BIRTHDAY.  Are you kidding me?  She took the candy and hugged me.

So weird.  Or maybe a lot of kids are born at this time in Mexico?  

At the end of our street is a busy shopping area with lots of stores and restaurants.  There was a beauty parlor there too, but it's always closed.  I went walking around and found another place that was open.  And it did manicures and pedicures!  My mom hadn't had her toenails cut since we left the USA.  I'm forbidden from doing it because I feel a little skin in the clipper is okay.

So, right then and there, my mom got a pedicure.  In the USA there are nail salons with lots of comfy chairs above tubs with faucets and drains.  In Mexico, my mom was put in a chair on a platform.  A large square tub was filled with water.  Then she boiled some water and added it to make it warm.  And when she was done, she dumped the water out.  My mom got a great pedicure with a foot massage and felt great.  It wasn't as fancy as in the USA, but the price is 50% of what we'd pay there, and the service was great!

That's the thing about Mexico.  The prices are circa USA 2005-2015.  Sometimes my mind got stuck in that era in the USA and I was shocked at how expensive things became.  Here, everything seems to be the correct cheap price.  So reasonable, and you're not really giving up anything.  Who cares if she has to fill and dump the water manually?

Anyway, we sold our house in the USA and should be closing in 4 days.  ;0; Hallelujah!!  My realtor said homes are still selling just fine.  That's a bit surprising, but good.  Great.  Whatever.  

Fitting In

Now that we're in Mexico there are a lot of people coming by the house, such as neighbors, vendors, landlords, repair people, delivery people.  Normally I just had delivery people who were gone before the end of the doorbell ring.  So I slummed it most days, confident that no one would ever see my patchy gray hair and dirty shorts.

In Mexico, yeah.  Lots of people get a chance to see and judge me, and I really don't like putting on a wig unless I'm going out.  So, for the first time in a year, I dyed my hair and tried to make a no-wig effort.

I bought dark brown hair dye and let it sit for a long time because I had A LOT of white and gray to cover.  It came out black.

Oh well.  No big deal right?  WRONG.

Now people are talking to me expecting me to speak Spanish.  In the past, they just talked to my mom.  They looked at me and thought, "I bet that gringa doesn't speak a word of Spanish."

With black hair I am now a Mexi-American.  "When did your daughter live in the USA?  She speaks English."

My mom told me that the guys who cleaned our car assumed I'm just a Mexican who lived in the states for a while.  And that's only because they listened to my pathetic attempt at Spanish.  

Today we have repairmen in the house fixing a drippy AC unit.  Again.  He talked to me.  @_@  I said okay.  Something about going to and small.  That's all I got.  Voy a blah blah pequena blah blah.  

This didn't happen to me in my light brown wigs or undyed hair.  So...I guess I fit in more?

And I'm desperate to get my Spanish up to par.  Yes, I'm able to say most of the things I want, though many STILL don't understand me, but also I'm having a hard time understanding when people speak.  :sigh:  I'll get there.