Wednesday, September 27, 2017

How many bureaucrats does it take to screw in a light bulb? Wait... do they even do that?

If you were born with US citizenship, you have to know that you are pretty freaking lucky. And if you've only used your passport to travel but not actually live or study abroad, then you've probably been lucky enough to never have applied for a visa because US passports are pretty much allowed anywhere as long as you don't stay more than 90 days. Additionally, while we are used to the standard lines at the DMV, or the passport office, or any other place that involves bureaucracy - we are also used to bureaucrats in the US at least feigning that they care about customer service and that they'll try to avoid have adults melt into a tantrum fit while preparing and/or waiting... those interminable hours of waiting.

However, most other bureaucracies could not give a rat's ass if you lose your shit. They relish it. They thrive on it. They'll make you go to the back of the line and suffer some more. Now, I don't want to give the impression that the Spanish consulate is quite to this level but, that's because I'm not really sure if they are or not, since I did everything possible to avoid losing my shit, having my spouse lose his shit, and most of all making sure the preschooler didn't lose her shit AND looked cute and darling throughout the whole process. I did watch other people at the consulate lose their shit and boy, I wish I could have had some popcorn with me at the time because it was quite the show!

To begin with, the consulate's website is scarce with details on how to go about the whole process but here is what I recommend, because this is what I HAD to do:

Fill out the application and additional paperwork that is included on the website. Take any document that you have ever needed in your life to prove who you are (birth certificate, marriage certificate, US passports, written testimony of the doctor who delivered you), add in documentation that shows that you are on the up and up (FBI and your local state law enforcement agency - in our case CBI background checks, credit reports, bank account statements) and for good measure, make sure to have a medical certificate of good health signed and sealed by your primary care doc. You must also sign up for medical health insurance that will cover you in Spain with an international health insurance company. Have fun staying up until 2 AM and then trying to explain to a man with a thick Scottish brogue what the hell it is you need and why. As part of the completed packet that you'll be giving your consulate officer, you have to show documentation of the purchased health insurance.

Now, take all of your documents to your local Secretary of State to have them notarized and sealed with an apostille from the Hague Convention of 1961, then pay to have everything translated by an official translation agency (don't you dare do this yourself even if you have a Bachelor's Degree in Spanish NOR should you use Google Translate for this even though this would all be free), also have those translations notarized and sealed with an apostille.

Then - make copies! At least 4 of each piece of paper that you will be presenting to your consulate officer. OH!!! Did I forget to tell you that you need to make an appointment before all this? Yes, the appointment and interview process needs to be completed no more than 3 months before departure, and you "need" one for each person that is traveling - we managed to squeeze all three people into the one half-hour that I had been able to schedule online. You need two passport sized pictures of each family member as well. Don't get sassy about it like my spouse did asking "If they're getting copies of our US passports which have our pictures on them, why do they need us to take additional pictures?" - the answer is: I don't know, do as the bureaucrats want, sit down and shut up. Appointments are only offered Monday through Thursdays 9am to noon (at least this is the rule at the consulate we went to). They have a strict policy against answering any emails or phone calls so I don't suggest that you try to communicate with anyone that way.

After all of this, if you get approved, you must leave your US passports at the consulate while they work for up to 2 months on stamping them with your visa. However, when we went in it was only taking them about 2 weeks but just being without my passport for that long was making me breakout in hives. I mean, what if the zombie apocalypse took place and I need to flee to Canada or something....?!?!?! How could I do that without my passport?!?!?!

Overall, they were lovely at the consulate and as accommodating as bureaucrats can be. The cute kid who managed to hold it together until we were in the parking lot definitely helped (all done with the help of a bag full of snacks, water, and a tablet with some movies loaded onto it). If you ever want to go through this process yourself, contact me, I'll be happy to give you all the details that I can. In the end, it was a good preparation process for all the bureaucratic BS that we've had to deal with once we arrived in Spain, for example: You want to rent a place? You can't do that without your Spanish ID. You want your Spanish ID? You can't do that without a permanent Spanish address.

Remember that Wisconsin employer who was recently in the news for having his employees "voluntarily" get micro-chipped? I'm liking that idea more and more. Just micro-chip people with all the information any bureaucracy will ever need and then scan them when you need to go through some approval process. I swear it's like the whole world is conspiring to make my whole head into a shiny and sparkly, gray-haired disco ball well before my time.


Adventure starts with running away from home

Or with getting rid of a lot of junk stuff. At least our adventure does. And when you are married to someone who is great at holding on to junk things because you never know when it might come in handy, well, this process is just a freaking treat. This is when my training of watching many hours of shows on HGTV that entailed some form of purging came in handy.

Things get divided into 5 categories: save in storage, take with, sell, donate, trash. You have to go room by room, even if your house is less than 1000 square feet and has two small storage sheds, you'd be amazed by what pack-rats can stuff inside and want to hold onto. Because then you have to have a whole process of: Really? Do you really want to pay someone to move this for you all the way to another country? OR Do you really want to pay a storage facility to keep these unopened bottles of motor oil for a year or more? Yeah... this process is super fun (NOT).

Then, you hold a couple of yard sales because you live in Colorado and the weather cooperates Friday but not Saturday and then again just for the morning of Sunday, so you still have a bunch of stuff to get rid of and you really want to try and make a buck off of it so you put it all in the carport and then pull it all back out the following Thursday to see who you can sucker into buying this stuff that you no longer want/need/have room for. This was my first experience with a yard sale seeing as how in Costa Rica, yard sales are not a thing in any way, shape or form. They were fun and boring. It was weird to have people come into our yard and peruse our stuff. It was weirder still when a part of me that I never knew existed was actively trying to hawk our things. We made some money and got rid of lots of stuff. Our kiddo, who is 4, had somewhat of a hard time with mom "selling all of her toys" (which of course as with all 4 year olds, that's an exaggeration because we put plenty in storage and brought one and a half suitcases FULL of toys and books) and still brings this up 6 months later. She was also personally affronted when someone would come into the yard, perused and left without buying something. There were a lot of questions, asked multiple times: Why are we selling our stuff? Why doesn't that guy want to buy anything? What are we doing with the money we get? Can you buy me more toys with the money we get? And these are only the questions the 4 year old asks.

While all of this is going on (you know, the packing, putting in storage and getting rid of all the items that fill your home), you also should be taking care of ALL the other details. And you do, except well, some... well, some you just leave hanging in the wind until you can muster the strength and energy to deal with them.

This means details like: What are we doing with the cars? What about the dog and the cat? How do we get our stuff over to wherever we are going? How do we apply for a visa and where do we do this? And... you might have the propensity to have a panic attack or spring some new gray hairs every time your anxiety kicks in (I wouldn't know, anxiety doesn't tend to affect me, HAHAHAHA!!!!), but don't. Once you put the wheels in motion, things start falling into place, as if by magic. We had a lease, our broker called and asked if we were ready to trade it in after two years (so, a year early than what we leased it for), we said yes and it all worked out nicely and inexpensively.

As for the other car? Well, we owned that one outright and since my spouse had a car accident and totaled it 5 weeks before we were moving, well, that took care of that vehicle - yeah, I can tease and laugh about the accident now because he's okay and recovering but it wasn't that way for a few weeks. And let's just say that in this case, that isn't my idea of things working out nicely nor inexpensively... but I keep telling myself there must be a reason why this happened and that although I'm not understanding it at the moment, I hope to look back soon-ish and be able to see it.

The dog.... she's 11 and deaf. She's a ball of anxiety of her best days. Putting her on a plane to fly in cargo for many hours didn't sound like the best of ideas to us. My father-in-law graciously accepted to add her to his pack (he had two dogs already) and she seems to fit right in and be happy with them. He even rigged her up with a cow bell so that he can find her, since she can't hear him and respond when she's called. We do miss her dearly, though.

The cat has been through hell and back. She's a survivor. She came into our home when our child was a little over 2 years old and has put up with everything a toddler can put her through. Multiple lotion baths, carrying her here, there and everywhere, getting a door slammed on her tail and nearly severing it, and finally last December she survived a month out in the rocky mountain wilderness during a very snowy and cold time. This was courtesy of our pet-sitter who didn't heed our instruction that the cat is a daredevil who tries to escape out the door every chance she gets. When we came back from visiting our family in Costa Rica, the pet-sitter told us he was 100% sure she was dead, either because something ate her or because, you know, winter. She wasn't. I was ecstatic when we got the news. Of course we couldn't leave her behind! She's young enough and seems to have gotten over her PTSD from last December so I wasn't worried about having her travel for 22 hours and move to a new environment.

Taking a pet with you somewhere isn't necessarily easy though. First you need to figure out how your pet will travel. Some cargo company that specializes in this or a commercial airline? We traveled with Icelandair. They allow pets as cargo. We had to call them, tell them how much she weighed and the measurements of the travel container she would be in. They charged us $147 for her airfare.

Depending on the country you are traveling to, you need to meet certain requirements. We got lucky that Spain isn't very complicated (they just want health certificates for the animal) and they don't do a quarantine, although Iceland quarantines so we weren't allowed to see her during our layover. Our vet works with the USDA to give her an updated exam that had to be completed no more than 20 days before our flight and they filled out all of the necessary paperwork. Then the USDA vet has to sign the paperwork that your vet has completed and your pet is good to go. All of this paperwork varies in cost but you can plan on spending about $100 to $150 on this piece. More if your pet doesn't already have some things taken care of like an updated rabies vaccine and a universal microchip (both of which she had).

Finally, at the airport, she gets checked in at the check-in counter, but then the pet's carrier gets scanned in a special area of the airport (which is not right next to the check-in counters but a little walk away) and after that she is finally checked in and you don't see her again until your destination, where she arrives at looks at you like What. The. Hell. Feed her some wet food and hopefully she'll forget all about her recent ordeal.

The whole visa thing... that's for another post!

Throughout my research, I kept finding nomadic people giving advice saying you should always have a handful of things that make any place feel like your home. A blanket, a picture in a special picture frame, some book ends or a tchotchke that you've had forever. We brought a blanket with us that Sean and I have had since we met back in 1996. I went to a print shop nearby and printed a bunch of pictures right away at put them all over the place, and while we didn't bring any tchotchkes our kid's toys and books strewn all over the place give the place that homey feel. But what makes our new place feel mostly like home? Our cat. Because "What greater gift than the love of cat?" - Charles Dickens 


Monday, September 18, 2017

We have nothing to lose and a world to see

Okay, okay, so I know that you are just dying to figure out what in the world is going on with us and why oh why we moved to Spain (or, most likely you aren't but let me delude myself with self-importance here, after all, I'm writing a blog - about me, my life, my family - insert eye roll here).

Well, so, here goes. We moved to the Denver Metro Area back in 2003. It has been a great place to live. Denver has SO much going for it. The proximity to many outdoor activities and the mountains, tons of activities for singles, couples and families, a pretty diverse population, an awesome foodie paradise with a thriving medical and recreation marijuana industry - Denverites are spoiled rotten. We've loved being in Denver for (wait for it): four-teen years! We've built our community, our support system, our tribe there. We bought our first home there and had our first -and only- baby there.

We moved to Denver shortly after graduating from college and getting married. We knew a couple of people there and that was it. When we packed our Penske moving truck with all of our earthly possessions, our two cats and a dog and drove off from our apartment in Waukesha, WI, I kept thinking "it's like we are pioneers moving out West, except that it's 2003 and we have a moving truck and not covered wagons". It was, an adventure. I had been in the US for less than 10 years living in a comfy bubble of college life and post-college life in a place that I felt comfortable in and understood. Moving to Denver was a whole new ball game for me. Like all adventures, we had our ups and downs, but we learned so much and grew from it. Can you see where I'm going here....?

I've been itching for the past few years. Looking for jobs around the world. Applying for this and that and praying to the job gods that something comes through.... zip, zilch, nada. And then, I got laid off in the Fall of 2015, started my own business, acquired a kick-ass business partner and focused on that while doing a bunch of side projects and letting my creative juices flow. Slowly but surely, I started floating the idea of selling our house to my spouse and moving somewhere else. A lot of conversations were had, many things discussed and a lot of mulling over took place.

Where would we go? Anywhere. Canada, Costa Rica, and Mexico seemed like good choices because it wouldn't be hard to obtain residency in any of those places. While I love many parts of Canada and do speak some French, I wanted a place where our child would be immersed in Spanish - so that was out. The more research we did on Mexico, the more nervous I got about safety because the very specific part of the country I wanted to move to. It also seemed to familiar. And if Mexico seemed familiar, well, Costa Rica was then clearly out of the question being incredibly familiar - not really an adventure but more an extended stay vacation that would rarely pull us out of our comfort zone. And while the idea of our child being much more knowledgeable about where I grew up and being surrounded by friends and family was extremely appealing, it just didn't feel right.

So now, what? Ecuador? Peru? Argentina? Chile? Colombia? We wanted a place that was new to all of us, that was Spanish-speaking, where I would be happy with the weather most of the time (yeah, humidity and heat are not friends of mine and make me a really cranky person), that would allow us to explore and travel but also be enticing for our friends and family to come visit.... what about.... Spain? Extensive research was done, pros and cons weighed and well - we're in Spain!

Is it totally bonkers to sell your house, pick up and move to a country you have never been too before? Um, you know what the name of this blog is, right?

Don't get me wrong. Our life in Denver was good. It was steady and predictable in the most comforting of ways. I knew what to expect, how to navigate things and where to find anything I needed. And yet, I also had a very high level of anxiety and stress. Our family was in a perpetual state of "fine" and "chugging along". Which, by no means, should be categorized as something negative it just... isn't what we want out of our lives. Life is an amazing journey with so much adventure waiting to happen and we had a choice; we could stay or we could go. We could make things happen or stay complacent.

The poet Seamus Heaney wrote: The way we are living, timorous or bold, will have been our life.
Well, this is us. Being bold.

Wednesday, August 16, 2017

Hello?

Hey!

So, yeah.... it has been 3 and a half years since I last posted anything on my blog - WHAT. THE. HELL? Yeah well, what can I say... things got a little busy. And I've been tired a lot because raising a tiny human isn't as easy as everyone else makes it look, you know you are basically teaching them how to do EVERYTHING. And I don't mean the easy stuff either like how to walk or whatever but how to blow their noses (think about how you learned to blow your nose - it ain't an easy thing to teach nor to learn), saying please and thank you, coughing into your elbow, not putting everything you come into contact with into your mouth, etc. And now that we're finally to the stage where the child can refrain from trying to be a suicidal stunt-person for more than 5 minutes at a time, things seem to be calming down a little and I'm back!

For those parents who manage to raise a kid or kids under 5 AND work on a blog, kudos to you!

Anyhow... so, what have we been up to? Well - all sorts. But I think you'll be most interested in what we've been doing the past few months.

Our family is moving! There has been a lot pushing us in this direction and now we are finally here. We sold our house and moved out late April, waited for the school year to be over mid-May and then headed on a road trip through parts of the west coast. We've spent the rest of the summer in the rural community of Westcliffe, CO right in the Sangre de Cristos Mountain Range (a new post dedicated just to this summer will be coming up soon) and in less than two weeks will be moving to..... Spain!

So, be on the look out for upcoming posts on the move, our travels, etc. I'm super excited to see what happens - hope you join us on this adventure!


Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Gratitude

I have a friend, someone I went to high school with but haven't seen since my freshman year in college. She is very religious and spiritual. At the end/start of every year, she prays until the word for the year comes to her. This is the word, an inspiration or direction, for the entire year. Previous words of the year have included contentment, joy, determination. Every year, I've followed with interest what the word of the year will be, mostly because even though I am not a religious person, I find it an interesting way to deal with whatever God/the universe/life (you pick) brings to you. 

As of yet, I haven't had any revelations for a word to guide me at the start of a year (maybe because I don't pray?) BUT as I review the past year, one word does come to mind, a word I've been feeling in a very present and constant way all year long: gratitude.

While I was pregnant, I often thought about what I wanted out of life for Bundle. My wishes for her were: may she be healthy and loved aplenty. You see, while I was a healthy child overall, as I look back at my childhood what I mostly remember was being loved. Not by throngs of people but by a few select, wonderful people who I could count on no matter what. Did I have a perfect childhood? Far from it. But I knew that I had the unconditional love and support of those few and that allowed me to be independent, self-assured and to be where and who I am today. So, I didn't feel that love from some people that I was supposed to feel/get that from? It turns out, that's okay, it wasn't needed after all and I might be the better for it.

But as for the wishes of a new mother, you might be thinking: If wishes were horses, beggars would ride. And yet - this beggar is definitely riding a horse! Don't get me wrong. We've had a year with many ups and downs but that doesn't rid me of my gratitude. 

One of the most notable downs was the loss of our 12 year old canine soul mate Aggie in January, and yet, even at that time; gratitude. Gratitude that we have an awesome vet who loved our dog almost just as much as we have. A vet who showed deep compassion, understanding and was willing to go along with our madness (feel free to ask me about the madness later on if you wish to know more details). A staff at the vet clinic full of kindness and sensitivity. Sympathetic friends who at a moment's notice took care of Bundle and gave us the opportunity and time to give our dog undivided attention in his last moments with us. In the past year we cried, we lost, we got mad and/or hurt, we were disappointed.

The year brought many ups as well. We grew as people. We were a part of many of Bundle's milestones and most of her daily living. We added new and wonderful people to our lives. We had adventures, improved our living conditions (new carpet!), got healthier, and laughed often. We learned so much, were reminded of things forgotten and we reconnected. We were able to spend lots of time with family (and that includes friends that are considered family), including going to Costa Rica for Christmas for the first time in 14 years! And again, the take-away from all of our ups has been: gratitude. Gratitude that Bundle has a grandmother that will drive two and a half hours each way, in a single day, to spend a few hours with her at the Christmas Market. A Tita who will move earth and water for her and a Tito who although is not biologically related to her adores and loves her like no other. Cousins who I swear are going to wear out her name from saying it so much (to get her attention) but love playing with her, picking her up and sharing their stuff. Aunts who don't hesitate to change diapers, (even the poopy ones!), are always willing to give advice, and lend a helping hand to her parents. Uncles who without even meeting her or uncles who get to hang out with her often, spoil her and make her giggle. Oodles of love, hugs, and kisses from all of our friends and family. Bundle is loved aplenty, from near and far, by many - and by extension, so are her parents. Having my wishes come true for Bundle and being given this past year, find me filled with gratitude, feeling fortunate, and privileged for having gone through it all.

And, thank you - to all of you, for being a part of our lives, enriching and making them better. We love you all! May 2014 be filled with laughter, adventure, love, and peace for all - we can't wait! 

Monday, June 24, 2013

The best egg rolls e-vah! (Yeah I said it)

When I was back in college (it's impolite to ask how long ago that was so: don't), I bought a package of egg roll wraps at the store to try and figure out something to do with them. Coincidently, the package comes with a recipe suggestion which was the foundation for the recipe that I have used over and over again.

Now, first let me tell you that my egg rolls are NOT meant to be eaten as an appetizer, you can have two or even three of these and have it be your meal, period. Secondly, these are not an everyday meal although I will confess that shortly after graduating from college I ate these egg rolls for a whole week straight, breakfast, lunch and dinner... these are the "I'm starting my diet tomorrow and want to pig out" or "I had the bestest, most awesomest day ever and don't want to go drop a huge chunk of change on dinner out" kind of egg rolls, okay? 

So don't go thinking I'm suggesting you incorporate these into your monthly repertoire cause, I'm not.

These are also non-traditional egg rolls - no mushy cabbage/carrot combo here, these get filled with real yummy stuff. First, I cook whatever veggies sound good (or use leftover roasted or grilled veggies from the night before) - in this case I had a bunch of cauliflower, broccoli and snap peas. I roasted the first two and sauted the snap peas.


 Then, I dice up the chicken and coat it in a mixture of cornstarch and soy sauce, trust me on this! If you use 1 TBSP of cornstarch, you need 2 of soy sauce to dissolve it in, I just eyeball it depending on the amount of chicken I'm cooking (for this recipe I had 4 chicken breasts), in this case I had about 3 TBSPs of cornstarch and 6 of the soy sauce.
Chicken - Before, aka Raw
 I decided to add some julienned carrots to the cooked veggie mixture for an extra crunch and flavor.
Let the chicken caramelize in the pan - the cornstarch/soy sauce combo will give it this fantastic end result coating that I have never achieved when using anything else. 
Chicken After, aka Mmmm, Delicious

Heating up the oil
Once you have all of the ingredients ready, you can start to roll the egg rolls. If you don't know how, you can follow the directions that come on the back of the package OR since we live in a much more modern era now, I'm sure you can find a youtube video showing you how to do it. Mine are never the perfect specimen of an egg roll, but I don't care cause they still taste freaking awesome!
Getting the egg rolls filled

Filled and awaiting an oil bath
Cook the egg rolls until they are golden brown - whichever level of golden brown you prefer. Serve two per person with some soy sauce for dipping. I recommend that you cut them in half to let some of the heat out (cause you don't want to burn your mouth) first.
Batch numbers one and two

Batch number three

The cutest sous chef!
This particular recipe yielded 16 egg rolls, meaning I had enough filling for that number. If you happen to have leftovers: for reheating I recommend that you nuke them for a minute and then stick them in your toaster oven or regular oven and bake them for a little bit to get them to crisp up again before you devour them. However, these are best eaten fresh, enjoy!!

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Action expresses priorities

Clearly my inactivity on my blog (nothing since December) explains my priorities... I have to be honest, I can't really rate them in order of importance because I think there is a big mosh pit of priorities all at the top vying for the number one spot and I find that I just have to cycle through them as best as I can - talk about learning to juggle! But this blog has not been a part of the mosh pit, it has stood quietly swaying to the music, in the back row, watching everyone else go at it.

Now, here's my dilema: I have a ton of ideas about what I want to write about but no freaking clue where to start. Things like mommy brain, traveling internationally with a 5 month old, baby adventures/personality/frame-of-mind, yummy recipes, celebrations, my opinion of things like Mother's and Father's days and what happens on Facebook during these and any other "holidays", and much more. If I could just straighten out the jumble in my brain I could get started....

Last year, shortly after I became pregnant I read an article in Newsweek that talked about how a woman's brain goes under "maternal programming" which basically involves memory loss in order to make room for new capacities to be a good mommy. Let me just say that this is an ongoing issue for me, this nagging feeling that I have to take care of something but can't remember what that something is (which often happens at the office). I find myself interrupting people often and my interruption normally begins with "I'm sorry I'm interrupting you but if I don't get this out now it will be gone from my brain for who knows how long and I need you to know this before I forget it AGAIN". Yes, like Sisyphus, my memory issues have become my boulder -although it is yet to be determined if I will have to deal with this for an eternity.

Having read this article and the study linked to it has at least made me feel better about the memory problems. I don't feel as if I'm losing it completely. Every time I have this issue I remind myself that it allowed me to acquire other much needed abilities to better care for my child. But here's the thing... dementia and Alzheimer's Disease run in my family. Since around 10 years of age I have worked constantly on my memory abilities and my memory was a source of pride for me (not so much now). Additionally, since 2004 I've worked at keeping up my language skills, making sure my diet has plenty of omega 3 fatty acids, doing crossword puzzles, reading and any other mental exercise I find to be fun in order to maintain to the most important of muscles in good shape. My brain has for a long time, held more importance to me than my body - I watched my maternal grandmother "live" with Alzheimer's Disease for 10 years, let's just say that the last few years I use the verb living in a very liberal manner.

My brain was also affected by pregnancy in another way. Things I used to "care" about like assigning blame to the correct person most of the time this would have been DH, no longer hold any importance to me. I don't care if you were the last person to use the snow scraper and now I can't find it (so you're going to get yelled at for this infraction) and the windshield needs to be cleaned so that we can make it wherever we are going. What matters is that it's cold, the baby is in the car and I don't want her to be cold so we need to get going to warm up the car faster and in order to get going we need to clean the windshield so we NEED to find the scraper and get the windshield cleaned ASAP. I must admit I'm glad to be rid of this part of my personality, I had tried for many years to not care about petty stuff like that but having Bundle "fixed" my brain and this issue.

I have decided that the blog needs to move closer to the mosh pit and further away from the back row, so hopefully, I'll start posting regularly - no promises though. Now that you have a better glimpse of my "mommy" brain, I hope you understand. And if you just need to know what's going on, email or call - I'd love to hear from you!

XO ~ Jenny