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.