The Beginning

I wake up most days now not even knowing what day it is unless I'm travelling somewhere. It feels so good.

I still remember the agony I felt when I was working a structured job. If I think deeply enough I can actually feel the tension in my body (I try to block those thoughts). I hated Sunday afternoons because I started thinking about work; and Monday mornings brought little panic attacks. It always got better as the days wore on heading towards Friday, which was, ofcourse, my favorite day. Most of my jobs were on the lower echelon of the corporate world and I was motivated by making money. I wasn't happy in the work part of my life. I swear my quiet irreverence and sense of humor pulled me through. Then in the mid 90's I started a travel agency with a partner (just as the travel business started bottoming out) and boy was it fun. I loved it a lot and I spent most of my time researching trips for people. I have always loved travel in any form. Ofcourse, the bread and butter was in booking tickets and tours and most of all, cruises. If I counted all of the extensive research I did, I think I made about a dollar an hour. I worked in a wonderful building in Fremont (Seattle) which was filled with artists and musicians. There was even a guy who specialized in making bows for violins and a woman who made exquisite knitted scarves and ponchos and lots of seriously talented artists. It was a really special time; one of those times in life that's just fun and interesting. I loved going to work and my building mates were also good clients. Being close to Starbucks and Hale's Ale was also a big plus.

Bruce and I had just built our house in Mexico during that time and I was secretly yearning to move down full time. I thought about it all the time. I secretly obsessed about it. The house was meant to be a vacation rental and Bruce started the design on a napkin on a flight home from Puerto Vallarta just after we put money down on the lot. We still have the napkin.

In November of 2000 we packed up our little jeep wrangler, our two cats, linens, pots and pans, and drove down to Playa Las Tortugas to spend Thanksgiving and oversee the final touches on our beach house. When we arrived it was a long way from being done (which all of you who live in Mexico can relate to I'm sure). It was really unliveable, but we had to stay there. We had no choice. We did have the essentials; working bathrooms and all of the appliances. Oops, our developer/construction manager forget to tell us the house wasn't ready before we hit the road for the 2,000 mile drive down from Seattle. Still, we had already been through a lot, being so far away during construction, so we just accepted that it was a little behind schedule. We had invited our dear friends, Jake and Sharon, to come down and stay in our new house for Thanksgiving. They arrived just in time to celebrate Sharon's birthday and help us sweep the dirt out of the house so we could stay there. They were and are such good friends and good sports. It seems like they are always there when we are in the midst of a big change or a minor crisis (they don't use the word crisis here). Jake and Sharon didn't even flinch when they arrived and our furniture was in the yard encased in plastic wrap just waiting to be moved into the house (by us). It had been driven down the 9.8 kilometer dirt and gravel road at midnight the previous evening from Guadalajara. I was completely immobile by then (shock), but when Sharon pulled out her box cutter and started cutting the plastic away, I finally sprung into action.

We threw together a delicous Thanksgiving dinner with all of the fixings (there was already a Sam's Club in Puerto Vallarta - two hours south). We had no doors and windows (manana) and put the garbage in a double sealed plastic bag on the back porch. It didn't occur to us that the mapaches (racoons) would have a late night orgy on the porch and there would be garbage and racoon droppings strewn everywhere you can imagine. I don't exactly remember how I felt about that but I think Sharon and I went right back to bed and Jake and Bruce cleaned up the mess. That was kind of how it was back then. We blamed Bruce and Jake for all of the outdoor mishaps (which means everything since we were essentially living outdoors). I was already in the manana mindset even back then. It took Bruce a little longer.

Long, long story short, I didn't go home after Thanksgiving. Bruce flew back to Seattle by himself. I had to be there to oversee the final touches on the house and make numerous trips to Guadalajara to get pots and plants and more stuff. I had the time of my life because everything was so inexpensive....giant terra cotta pots for $120 pesos ($12 USD). Bruce was a really good sport about it. He had installed an incredible sound system and I have the most wonderful memories of listening to the Dixie Chicks and Sarah McLauchlin every single night with a glass of wine and just living in the here and now and loving it.

The doors and windows arrived in February and I went home in early March. My business partner was resigned to the fact that I was on an extended leave of absence and he actually encouraged me because the travel business had by then, officially tanked for us. For me, things were never the same after that. I was captivated and charmed by Mexico and everything about it. I think that's when I realized I could really live here full time. Everything that happened was fun and magical and I felt like I belonged there. I loved the way I was able to shop in Zacualpan, a tiny town nearby. I loved the fresh vegetables and fruits, buying fish from the fisherman right in front of our house. I had a Mexican family who worked on the property and are still family eight years later even though we don't live close by anymore.

We moved to Mexico full time in November 2001. Bruce brought his design business down to the beach. After all, he could communicate with his main client in Hong Kong easily enough and it was the age of telecommution. We got one of the very first Hughes satellite dishes in western Mexico so we could have internet. There were no telephone lines to our house then. That was the beginning. Now we've moved north to San Carlos. I wouldn't trade any of the little inconveniences and that's not really what they were anyway. They were lessons and we're still learning. As I sit here in San Carlos now I feel really fortunate for the way things unfolded for us. I'm still charmed and delighted by Mexico. Our lives are still unfolding and changing and it still feels really right.