Shop Cheap, Feast like a King!

There are definetely pros and cons to living in Mexico and let’s all admit it’s not the public bathrooms, toxic water, or the godzilla cockroaches. Despite these minor inconveniences ,Mexico offers only top notch cuisine in the most unexpected locations. Whenever I go back to the States, friends always offer to take me out for tacos, possibly assuming that I am in need of a Mexican fix while I am away from home. And more often than not, except for those wee-hour-of-the-morning taco fixes, I politely decline. While I used to be a fan of Mexican food in the States, I am no more. Instead, this snooty gal prefers the real thing… whether it comes from the lux restaurants, moderate cafeterias, or evening tacos from the stand on the corner…. This country has the best of the best…. provided you don’t ask exactly what is in it.

I’ve never been a great cook. It’s not exactly one of my passions, but I do try hard to vary our meals, try new things, but also give the kids a taste of home. (and by that I mean, spaghetti, mashed potatoes not from a box, and chicken noodle soup!) I remember making my hubby dinner one night here in Mexico and he was so surprised. “This is amazing. When did you learn to cook this?” cabron. I’ve made this for you a bazillion times back home.! While I was a little butt-hurt, it finally made sense. It wasn’t me. Or my cooking. Thank God. It was clean food.

Now hold on a second. You’re prolly thinking,”Clean? No manches! With all the dirt, water, bugs etc…. How can your food be clean?” Don’t get me wrong, if you’re talking cleanliness, I soak all my veggies and fruit in that antibacterial solution before I even put in on the table or in the fridge. I’m talking clean. Free of steroids, free of pesticides and hormones and whatever other crap that American food has in it nowadays. Don’t get your panties in a bunch. It’s true. You can’t tell me when you go shopping in the States, it’s hard as hell to find an apple that isn’t the size of a damn grapefruit!!! Well, maybe my kids are a little picky, but when I try to encourage them to eat fruit, I don’t think they want to make a meal out of it! When we first moved to Mexico, we were in Mega, and passed the meat section. *gag “Babe, I’m gonna puke! What’s that smell?” “Haha,” he chuckled.”That’s the smell of meat. Real meat. Chicken. That hasn’t been stripped of all of it’s flavor, frozen, packaged and processed.” *yippee. Little by little, I began to realize the difference between the fruit/veggies/meat here and back in the States. Tomatoes taste like actual tomatoes. The strawberries taste like strawberries. The snozzberries taste like….

You get the idea.

But, you can’t just go anywhere and find it! It’s getting harder and harder to find normal, natural food. Maybe in the ranchos and small towns, they’re easier to find… but in a fast-growing metropolis, big box chain stores=Walmart=Superama=SamsClub=Vips=whateverelseyoucanthrowinthere, are bringing in what sells…Gi-normous apples, soccerball sized grapefruits and inflated/abnormal chicken boobs. What I love about Mexico is that you can still find the yummy, organic, small stuff… you just have to take the time and look for it. On Sundays, we go to the fruteria or the tianguis (the swap meet) for all of our produce, depending on how early we get up that morning. Following that, the carneceria is up next.
Now Yay for me since the tasteful food here is on my side. The negative to that would be the fact that I have ABSOLUTELY no idea how to order the different cuts. Lucky for me, the one of the butchers now recognizes me and somehow makes sense of my crappy spanish and hand signals. arrachera?!…and no, he will suggest something else/better. Today, in my best spanglish I went for dos piezas de pechuga de pollo en 2 cartones separados….medio kilo de carne molido, sin mucha grasa. (which he corrected  me by suggesting carne limpia) and finally, tocino muy, muy delgada so a girl can make some greasy, CRUNCHY bacon! The meat comes in daily, and everything was ground up in front of me…. came home and made some yummy chipotle burgers!
A little extra time visitng two places, we had bought blueberries, cherry tomatoes, all the meat for the week, fruits/veggies galore for about 600 pesos. Less than 50 bucks. Take that Wild Oats!

Ahhhh….. querido Mexico.

BTW… Anyone got any hints for the next carniceria trip? All I know is Chicken, Carne Molido and Tocino. Help a sista’ out!

Holy Hell….

You’re never gonna believe this… but yes, after almost two years of living here and avoiding it at all costs….

I finally watched a soccer game. And not just any soccer game.

The World Cup, opening game Mexico vs. SudAfrica.

But don’t give me too much credit. I didn’t do it on my own.
It was actually very, very difficult to avoid. Waking up this morning, the kids were allowed to take xtra snacks and drinks (apparently face paint and jerseys, as well.) because Presidente Calderon recommended that all students be able to watch the opening game at school. The kids had no choice.

But I did.

At about 10 am… I could hear the neighbors going at it. The school across the street making noise.
WTH are they fussing about?!?

Fine. I turned it on. In between CNN, of course. Mexico was the favorite. Obviously. And from the little I knew about soccer, they looked like they were doing pretty good.
Of course, until SudAfrica had a whir of the moment chance, took it… and~
GOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAALLLLLLLLL!!!!!!

Hot Damn. I think the neighborhood was under attack. Screaming, hollering. Pinche…. blah blah…..

Damn. That sucked. Time to go to work.

Here’s the crazy part. Usually, there is about a half hour of traffic on the way to work. Hubby had forewarned that during soccer time, especially important games such as this, that nothing is more important.
And then…..
***crickets chirping***
 he was right.

The city was deserted. No one on the streets. The drive took 5 minutes and before you knew it, we parked and walked to the shop…. only to see and hear EVERY POSSIBLE LOCAL THAT COULD BE OPEN AND CRAMMED WITH PEOPLE, was. Everyone had the game on. The farmacia, tienda, cafeteria, rooftop bars that only open at night, were all alive, filled to the door with excited and devoted fans. You could walk down the street and still HEAR the locutor crystal clear.

It was good to hear that Mexico scored.

You could see all the vendors, lining the streets, ready to celebrate a victory.
But no, it didn’t happen.
The game finished 1-1.

The kids’ teachers said that Mexico still won. If they would have been on their home turf, they would have won.

Well, I wouldn’t exactly say that Mexico won this game….

But I wouldn’t mind checking out the next. 😉

A walking paradox.

(not my photo,  but it does the job)

 One big f’in contradiction. Not quite sure where this is coming from…. Maybe the possible offessive Anonymous blogger comment, or feeling lonely here in Guadalajara, but I feel the need to clarify and declare who I am and what I want. I’m heavily tattooed. I’m pierced. I have lived my life outside the norm. I have chosen to raise my family outside the “American Dream”. I come from a conservative, law abiding, middle class family, law student who decided to marry a ex-felon and eventually follow him to Mexico. I chose to raise my children in a third world county. I then chose to throw my children under the gun and force them to learn another language, another culture, another way of life.

 I am a horrible mother.

And with tears in my eyes, I feel the need to justify myself. Maybe this is coming from my hubby confessing a recent depression, and soon after, my daughter. Fuck. What am I supposed to do? Go home? Neither want me to do that. I feel awful. Maybe it’s adolesence. Maybe he need a drink. Maybe I’m lonely.

People here are different. We don’t think the same….. But wait!!! There’s hope!!!  I met another gal from the States, a client of mine, who after, decided to take me out for drinks. 🙂  We went to a fabulous bar, and after a bottle of wine, haha…..it was like I’d known her forever. But alas, she’s given up on Mexico  and heading back to the States with a broken heart at the end of the month. Too bad we hadn’t met sooner. On a positive note, it reassures me that after 20 months of living here, and finding two gals that are pretty cool, there has to be more, right? Patience is a virtue.

And sometimes….. I don’t have it.

I feel different from alot of people here. I know that when you move, especially to another country, it changes you and you SHOULD change with your surroundings… but in reality, I feel that my only “friends” are on blogger/facebook. (Facebook is such a curse!!!) Women, that in some strange circumstance, are supportive and can relate to our current situation…or in general, expats, finding a new life in a foreign country. (And  I’m gonna get even more pitiful here….) but even so, at the same time, I feel like an outsider.

 There is ONE difference between you and I. (besides my horrible grammar.) You put your art on the wall and I put my art on my skin. That’s it. I feel that people assume that because I decided to paint my body, that it automatically catagoriezes me in a pool with lowlifes, crack addicts and narcos. Yes, I “belong” to a subculture,( which you can see HERE) which can be totally rad, but sorry…. according to the “subculture” “subculture”, I don’t belong…. I’m not radically pierced, tattooed,  living on the extreme blah blah blah. I like dinner parties, hanging out, smoking my hookah, massive amounts of wine, family time, travelling, camping, art, getting my hair “did”, scrapbooking, etc….. Need I go on?  

I should put an ad in the newspaper….

  

And while you’re at it, throw it some kids, ages 6-12…. and we’ll make it a date.

Appreciate it,

A new member of the family… Bienvenidos Darren.

We’ve been busy little bees this past month…. and after our Semana Santa visit to the States, we were right back in San Diego two weeks later for my baby sis’ wedding. She was beautiful and new Hubby is a wonderful person and the perfect addition to our family. It was a gorgeous ceremony and we were all really excited to be apart of it…..minus hubby, of course.

But then again, he did make a late night appearance!

Problems with power?

Thank god it wasn’t the electrician!!!

Geez. If it’s not MegaCable, or Tel Mex, what could possibly go wrong?

Oh. I know.

Silly,  CFE.

There are many, MANY things that I took for granted back home, and one of them was, the good ole power company. If your power shut off, there was always an 800, if not a local emergency number that you could call, INSTANTLY make a report, and have a technician out to your home within a few hours. Here, they “offer” you that same service. Except forget to answer the phone.

After visiting the local office in the morning, filing a report, and were guaranteed that it would be serviced that day,  we returned late that evening to find again, no power. The fridge was no longer cold, but cool-ish. It was hotter than hell. And the kids…. smelled horrible.  And there we were, at 9 pm, hungry, hot and smelly.  After repeatedly calling CFE and no one answering. Kiddos and I took off for some good Oscarin’s hot dogs, smothered with bacon, grilled onions, chile and whatever else you could load on that thing…. while hubby came up with a master plan.

And that’s when he became a mexiCAN.

A quick stop over at Home Depot for 15 m of electrical wire and we were on our way to much needed showers and a cool airdry. Yes. My husband did something illegal. Surprised? Back home, he would have checked all the fuses and then waited patiently for the electrical company to arrive. But here? There are no guarantees. And certainly no guarantee that someone is going to come and fix the problem at now 10:00 at night. And with a somewhat pissy wife and two smelly children chirping in his ear, he hooked up the wire to the power box and jumped the fence to the neighbors (who just happened to move out the day before!) and WHOILA!!!! 

Don’t get upset. It was just for the night, to cool the house and save the remnants of our food. And hose off the kids. It was all disconnected by morning, when my hubby took the time and figured out the problem himself. (CFE never showed.) I never thought that we would approve of this radical method, but hey, my neighbor was stealing my internet.

So we’re even.

In case you haven’t noticed….

It’s hot.

Oh mi God.

This heat is becoming unbearable. Yesterday, by the house, was 99 freakin degrees outside and it doesn’t seem like it’s gonna stop anytime soon.

Next weekend we’ll be heading to an expo in Veracruz and I’m afraid I won’t survive. The heat, I will assume, will be unbearable and the humidity? who knows. Nevertheless, Cordoba here we come!

Some good news, for those of you that are interested in travelling and have, e’hem, spouses with less than ideal records…… Hubby recently applied for his passport, slightly nervous that for some odd reason, he would have complications.

Nothing!  He ended up going to the registro who sent him to a separate office nearby. He was there for about 2 hours, took his photos, filled out his app., they took his brand new (within 6 months old) birth certificate and whoila!!!  His 3 year passport will be in the mail in the next two weeks! That was it! ( i think ending cost was a little over 1000 pesos…but don’t quote me on that one.)

You can find out where to get your mexican passport in your area here and how much it will be here.

I’m super excited that all of this worked out since we recently found out that hubby nailed a spot in both the London tattoo show and the Barcelona Tattoo show, this September. Even better, both shows dance around my upcoming dirty-thirty. We’ve been wanting to travel to ANYWHERE in Europe as long as I can remember….and that dream happened to be one of the reasons we filed petitions to rectify hubby’s status in the States… and the denial that thus, resulted in our current, uh…. location. It’s supposed to be one of the most amazing shows out there and we’re really excited to take part in it. We’ll be hanging out with some amazing and inspiring people and have the opportunity to backpack wherever our journey happens to take us.

But until then, we’re gonna have to budget ourselves.

It was great to have some good news after another crappy attempt at moving our sex shop to a better location. We got all the way to contract/deposit/designing proposed changes to a building that seriously needed improvement… only to meet the owner at the very last minute. Ugh! Not only did he talk down to us, but shot down every one of our proposed changes/additions. We modified and kept trying to make the transaction and only to be shot down repeatedly. He didn’t want to change his crappy building and apparently, thought that his generic dirty building was reminiscint of the 50-60s era. Institutionalized windows and cracky paint aren’t a style, man) Sooooo…. we’re still on the hunt for a new local.

Boo.

Other than that….. it’s really f’in hot.

and all I seem to want is a really cold beer.

New beginnings…..

I’m a no longer a blogger-junky.

In fact, it scares me.

and Facebook has become my best friend.

Blogger has so many compromisos….. deadlines….stress……

to much sh*t that has happened to pack into one blog…..

So we’ll just pretend that the last month didn’t happen and start anew.

Let’s get back into the swing of things, bitches!!!

Welcome to my blog site!

How close is too close?

Hubby has been having some bad feelings lately about Moosecake. She’s 11 now and really doesn’t understand what appropriate and what’s not. We’ve had little chats here and there but she keeps us on her toes. Her 5th grade teacher is always calling her “his favorite student”. Great. I’m happy for her. and random crap….  He asked her to borrow/burn  one of her cds. Fine.  He took the kids’ out on a separate field trip for ice cream. Outside of school hours. Hmmmm….. Moosecake took photos of all the kids in her class messing around. He asked her to borrow her MEMORY CHIP. what the fuck? Maybe I’m overreacting a bit, but isn’t that a bit personal???? If the teacher wanted those photos, we can print them…. or better yet, he could bring his OWN f*ing camera!!! Well, Moosecake gave him her memory chip and when we found out about it, we were, well, pissed. She takes pics of her family, her brother, funny faces, our personal life, etc…. all of which I DO NOT find necessary to share with her teacher. Am I blowing this outta proportion? In the fotos, the teacher is hugging each one of the children without a smile on his face. Creepy!!! And then there are all the fotos of the other kids.

I feel that this pushes past the teacher/student boundary. Hubby went in this morning and had a little meeting with him and requested the memory chip. He also made it clear that this was not an appropriate request from a student and in future, if he needs anything, borrowed, copied or whatever, he needs to speak directly to us. period.

Appropriate? Overreaction?

Maybe. But when it’s your kids, is it ever enough?

Bottle Service please.

Bottle 1: Don Julio Blanco
Location: Monterrey Tattoo Expo, 2010

Aaahhhhh…. Don Julio. A wonderful gift from a fellow tattoo artist in Veracruz. And damn…. it was put to use. The Monterrey Expo, again, proved to be well worth the trip. Hubby did quite well, sold quite a few of his shirts/prints and scored 1st in Women’s Color Tattoos. We spent the nights with amazing friends and artists, including Paco Arias (leon, gto.), Chakal (D.f), Cesar (Ritual, Monterrey), Bob Tyrell (USA), Vampira, Stomper (GDL), Tpex (Tribal), Diego y Clarens (Upland, Ca.), Pablo Ash (Spain), Secta (GDL), Chanook (Spain) and many, many others. We also had the opportunity to make some new ones, (Olmo n Crystal from Tulum), Tony Rommel (New York) and party hard in the local, uh….. bulês. 😉  I tattooed for the first time in an expo…. which I loved! ( a little hard to do when tons of people are staring and taking photos) Hubby got down and tattooed a neck piece on Babo from Cartel de Santa. Amazing guy. His crew, his beautiful lady, Miss Mery Dee and Babo himself, partied hard during the expo and made this trip amazing. Thanks to everyone!

 

My first expo tattoo (just the flowers, not the writing)

Hubby getting down….

 

another piece by hubby

 

getting down afterhours….

Babo x Indio

 

Mery Dee x me

 

Tribal Gear Representin

‘ 

Todo el bandon!

Besides this being a perfect expo…. SOMETHING had to fuck up the vibe. I will NEVER and I mean NEVER fly with Viva Aerobus EVER again. Not only did they give us shit checking our luggage with our inks and what not, they reprimanded us for arriving only an hour ahead of time instead of two (flight was at 11am)…. but it didn’t matter since the PLANE WAS “UNABLE TO DEPART” because of freakin “fog” (who the hell ever heard of fog in Monterrey?) and the next plane was at 5 pm. (mind you, all OTHER FLIGHT WERE ABLE TO LEAVE!!!!) And so we sat, bien crudo, for 6 hours in the crappiest airport with the shitiest food, shitiest service and the most uncomfortable chairs until 5 pm… and then arrived in Leon at 7… unable to get to Abuela’s house until 9:30 that night to pick up the kids. Why exactly did the plane not depart on time? I believe it was because they didn’t have enough passengers on board to make the trip worthwhile. This damn airline jacks up the prices, continually changing their rates, and then when they can’t fill the plane, OOPS… “Stand by, I believe we have encountered fog” (but in spanish, of course.)

 

Babo x Bob x Indio x Chakal

Nonetheless, I guess it’s fair. Anything perfect has to have it’s counter to exist… Yin n Yang.

That bottle was worth it. 😉

Be vwery vwery quiet………

*creeeeek…… creeeeek.. .creeeeeeeek*

“Shhhhhhh!  We gotta be quiet…. Don’t you watch the hunting channel?”

*tip toe down the stairs……

Hubby crept down the stairs.

Locked and loaded.

This is what happens went you give an ex-felon a firearm airgun.

Beware pigeons….. Beware…..