Hopefully is not a train...

... but a light at the end of the tunnel.

Last Wednesday I went to Mission Beach to meet a friend of mine from college; we hadn't met for almost 14 years, we had a great conversation and had a good time together. Kind of the things that you need when you are down.

In the conversation he suggested (without mentioning) that he was having financial problems. He moved from Guadalajara to Dallas,TX because of his job and during the movement he never considered the amount of taxes he was going to have to pay, living in the US. He is making ends meet, fortunately; but got me thinking about how many people and what kind of people is having financial trouble.

Today I had lunch with another of my class mates; this time I mentioned that I was in a financial bind and he recognized he and many others (he mentioned at least 5 more people I know from my time in Guadalajara) are in the same situation (for many different reasons). It is not a relief; except for the advice he gave regarding a negotiation I was about to make with one of the credit cards. He said you can negotiate with the bank a credit card debt in what is call a "personal payment plan"; but once you do that you can not make advance payments (unless you want to cancel whatever is remaining at that moment). So, his recommendation is to have at least two. That way if you can get enough money to cancel one part; all the interest on that part is gone. I think is a wonderful idea; I already started on that.

And that got me thinking about how, for whatever reason, if you do not say you are in trouble, nobody can help you. Just sharing that information can lead you to get a solution or a better deal in your situation.

That was great.

Another thing that was great is that I shared with both of them (because they are sales reps for different companies, non competing) some of the contacts I have made in my time in Tijuana, and now my company got access to some of their customers too; which means more business for the factory where I work and more growth or stability (no need to worry about my job anymore! ;^)). So, seems like this sharing/telling/mentioning things really works.

See you around.

Good times.

Also yesterday we went out with will and maria; 2 months ago I ran by accident into will’s blog and after I made a comment in there and a couple of stressful days (more for him and maria than us) everything was cleared and I started this blog. We finally met maria at the play and after they attended Pinka’s party we decided to meet for dinner.

It did not start right. The French restaurant we loved is closed now. Fortunately, will and maria’s favorite restaurant is 100 meters from it; so we called and redirected ourselves to that place (Italian restaurant). Got there at 7:05 pm; and after the waiter was standing up in front of us for 30 minutes (starting at 11:30 pm) we took the hint and leave the place. I think these were the fastest 5 hours I’ve ever lived (not sleeping).

The food was good, the company and conversation were great. I only noticed today that I almost did not speak. Between Maria and Bonita and Will they took over the conversation and allowed me to do what I do best; listen.

We talked (well, they talked) about friends, personal history, work, blogs, daughters and sons, missed encounters (we had the opportunity to meet Maria some years ago, we worked in the same company and we have a lot of common acquaintances but it never happened) and how life goes around in circles.

Health, parent and parenting styles, future plans, I think we almost talked about everything (that is the impression I got) and then some. But it was cut short because the waiter wanted to go home; how rude of him! We could have stayed in the restaurant until this morning! We will go out again; but I think we better go out for lunch, that way we will have at least 11 hours to talk over!

See you around.

Sundays are good (sometimes)

June 15th is an important date. Flor’s birthday; Salvaje’s birthday; Father’s Day (this year) and it is the anniversary of my graduation from college.

I finished college 18 years ago. Those were really good times for me, I though it was going to be really difficult to feel like that again. Curiously enough, yesterday I was feeling like never before. For some reason I started reading some of Discworld novels again. There is one that the first time I read, did not really liked enough to warrant a second look; but now, for no reason it was calling me. It is “Small Gods”.

The main character is a novice in the church of Om; his name is Brutha. He found himself in the interesting position of being the only one that can hear Om; because people have forgotten about him, Om can only take the shape of a small tortoise. The story is full of irony, satire and all the fun Terry Pratchett pours into his novels. But there was something really surprising for me, since I did not see it the first time. This novel is full of compassion. The hard complete compassion that is required for people lacking… anything. And in this book there are many of those. Especially Bruthat’s antagonist, Vorbis.

Anyway, I read it and reread it several times, trying to get the most of the message written on it and finally I could not read it more. I would start crying when reading. Even now when writing this I feel the need to cry.

This is extremely unusual; not that a book makes me cry (Porthos dying in the last part of “The viscount of Braggalonne” made and makes me cry) but that just by remembering it I want to keep crying… I had to close my office door now.

I tried to tell the story to Bonita yesterday, and started crying, she was surprised, but let it happen (which was really good). I felt so alive… and after that really enjoyed the rest of the afternoon.

Family from both sides visited and stayed for "carne asada" (barbeque); we had some beers (Pacifico, because of the weather) and I got a little tipsy. My wife was bothered by it a little bit, but I think it was OK. We started watching “The Godfather”, but it was late and went to bed.

This morning everything looks great; good weather; Vicky, Mediana and Pinka woke up early and got ready on time for work and school. Bonita and me slept a little more than usual, but got out of the house in time. Good start of a beautiful day.

I got into a discussion with somebody from work on Friday, but he called me just now to patch up things and propose a solution for a problem we have (which is what I wanted since Friday, so I got it!)

Things are moving; and if they are moving we can then steer them. I know this is just a beginning (of many that exist) and we will hit some lows, but with the right attitude everything improves.

See you around.

Read at your own peril...

One of the benefits of having parents that like to read is the number and type of books that were available when I discovered I enjoyed reading.

In that sense, my parents were very open regarding which books I could read. Everything available. There were no hidden books in the house. If it was there, it could be read. At the time, my parents were really fond of Irving Wallace and Taylor Cadwell (I remember reading Wallace with some concerns because of the “sex activity” descripted in those books, now I find it funny).

Then, I moved to Guadalajara with my uncle and aunt (*). My uncle has a HUGE library of Science Fiction. One of his collections was a 40 tome anthology of Science Fiction (Ed. Bruguera by theme; racism, fantasy, humor, fugitives, heroes, etc.). I had the opportunity to read Asimov, Heinlein, Philip K. Dick, Silverberg, Zelazny, Poul Andersen, Gordon R. Dickson, Harlan Ellison, George R. R. Martin, James Tiptree Jr., Ursula K. LeGuin, and many more. I LOVED IT!. My infatuation with Sci-Fi started there.

From it, I developed an interest on fantasy/terror (Fritz Leiber, Edgar Allan Poe, H.P. Lovecraft (**), Robert Bloch, Stephen King, etc.); and then I rediscovered Paco Ignacio Taibo II. I had read “No habra final feliz” (No happy ending); when I was in Jr. High School, somebody lent the book to my dad and I took advantage and read it; I could not stop reading it, and later look for it but did not remember the author, only the character (Hector Belascoaran Shayne); so when in 1987 the FIL (Feria Internacional del Libro; International Book Fair) started in Guadalajara, I started attending. In 1990 Taibo was there to introduce some new books (I think “Cuatro Manos/Four Hands” and "Sueños de Frontera", "Amorosos Fantasmas" and "Desvanecidos Difuntos") and I was there during a conversation when he explained why Belascoaran was an Engineer working in a “maquiladora” before he decided to be a detective (private eye). Getting to know him and starting to buy almost every book he had wrote was the same thing.

From Taibo I got the Mystery/Thriller love going; that got developed when I moved to Tijuana and started buying books in English (I had some from Guadalajara, and I was used to read them in English; but they were really expensive there). I stopped buying books for a while (and stopped attending the FIL from 1996 to 2003) until finally restarted my commitment and started reading Jeffery Deaver, Lee Child, and then (because I bought some books in Spanish that were on sale) Terry Pratchett.

So far I have been enjoying the ride. However these days I have been listing my books I have found more than 100 books I have not read; some of them are in “mint” condition. Shame on me! I will fix this (hopefully), before buying more books.

See you around.

(*) One of the first books that I started to read in Guadalajara was “La clave esta en Rebecca” (Ken Follet); and my uncle told me the book may not be suitable for me (I was 17 at the time) because of the sex written on it. Later on I discovered he had several of Xaviera Hollander’s books. REALLY INTERESTING!!!

(**) My father had this very old book with stories based on H.P. Lovecraft "universe" and one of the stories was called "El Guardallaves"; the book has several missing pages and I never got to finish the story. Even now I do not know the author or the original name of the story; if it rings a bell; please, please help me!!!

P.S. I forgot to mention that during 1991 to 1994 I also bought a lot of books of Erotica; under one collection from Alcor (“La fuente de Jade”). [Maybe I am ashamed of mentioning this].

For starters

If you are coming from the Spanish blog, you saw a thank you note to Will.

Will is a teacher in my daughter's school, and by a very interesting story that I am not going to tell at this moment... well, talking to him encouraged me enough to (finally!!!) start writing.

The original idea was to translate what was posted in Spanish to English (and viceversa). However... "el hombre propone..." (Mexican saying that offers caution against plans made by man).

I have found that it is easier to write in English than Spanish. The reason being that in my profesional career (20 years of it) English is THE "official" language. What can I do? I am already forgetting some of the Spanish words that I am so fond of.

In any case, I will be posting intermittently in both blogs (the Spanish is in here http://sinajuense.blogspot.com/) so feel free to switch between both (or if it bothers you enough, then complain about it in a comment; I will promise nothing at this time but my answers to your comment).

For today, I only wanted to mention that (for those of you that do not know) Sinaloa is a state in Western Mexico, in front of the tip of Baja California, next to the Gulf of Cortes (not of California!!! as many people call it); for years, people from there (and I am one of them) have suffered of having a very bad reputation because of... drug trafficking.

As usual, most of the people there has no relation with that activity, but generalizations are so easy to make...

And considering the current perception of safety in Tijuana... there I go.

See you around.