Boxes give me peace. It might be a strange thought, as in the end, I'll be put in a box and stored away six feet under, but yes, boxes make me feel good. I just love boxes. This is how I ended up with several new boxes - which I didn't intended, and quite happy about it.
The plans of the day included our cleaning lady coming in the afternoon for a major cleaning out, which quite limited my day. My boyfriend had work to do, so I had to be home to receive the cleaning lady and give her instructions of what needs to be done. However, since I haven't gone to IKEA, as I had planned to do, I decided to go in the morning. I decided not to postpone it anymore, or I would never get done with it.
I went there early in the day - early for me anyways - and roamed the showroom looking for bargains due to the coming of the new collection. No such luck. Save for a few compliments (some of which we'd need, like the wire drawers for the closet), everything had the same price it normally has. Then, to my absolute disappointment, the spice bottle I had my hopes on turned out to be inadecuate. The lid isn't secured on the top, but only pushed onto it. It may hold your dry dill, but it's not good for collecting the water of the Danube in it. Bugger. Guess I may have to take the ones we've here and which are pretty much "superated" since my spicerack is working and uses other spice bottles.
However I found BOXES. I've been dealing again with my boyfriend's "all over the place" stuff again, and some of my own, as long as with a long existing "CD storage issue", so no sooner thought than done, I was packing storage boxes in my yellow bag. Our "desk" has changed again, got more cluttered - I must admit - but I LOVE the new boxes. Blue for my boyfriend and burgundy for me. Yes, I know, how predictable, but the available selection was black, white, blue and burgundy. White I had for our CDs, and then used burgundy and blue to mark our desk stuff.
The closest IKEA - or the one I can reach with public transportation - isn't close to our apartment, so as I traveled first by tramway and then by metro, I went on reading a book I picked out yesterday. The book is an old one I've bought maybe years ago, but never got around to read it. It's titled "Kissing Kate", and it's about a girl, Lissa, who kissed her best friend, Kate, on a party. I'm not even half way into it, but it's quite good. It's much about teen drama, and Lissa reminds me a lot of Dean Winchester, from Supernatural. An awkward, insecure, girl Dean. It's worked so far very much on the steps of a coming of age type of story with a very interesting twist: her little sister, Beth, is actually being pressured by her classmates to behave like a much older woman. Beth is ten and her friends already talk about make up, fashion, makeovers and desperately wanting to get boobs. I don't know yet where this is going, but this side story has caught my attention.
Really, how many little girls we see who dress and wear make up like adults? Knee high books, mini skirts, bra-shaped tops, uncovered bellies, make up sold in kid sets... One thing is to sneak into Mom's closet and try out her dresses, her high heels, her jewelry and her make up for pretends, and another is not live like that. Won't they be adult long enough to get bored of that stuff (or am I the only woman in the planet tired of high heels, tight mini skirts, silk stockings and make up?)? Not like our media is helping, bombarding our children with messages about growing old fast because all fun exists between the ages of 20 to 29.
Today there's a Celebration also. In Costa Rica today we celebrate the day when our North Western province, Guanacaste, choose by the free will of their inhabitants, to belong to Costa Rica rather than Nicaragua.
Like each of our seven provinces, Guanacaste has a culture of its own, which has made us that much richer. Their handmade tortillas are famous across country (and are my favorite), as well as many other dishes of their typical cuisine, their music and their traditional dresses.
Though I ought to write more about it, I'll keep this one short this time around.
Guanacaste used to be a province of Nicaragua, but since they were closer to Costa Rica and most of their trade relations and political relations were dealt with the Costa Ricans, at one point they decided to belong to us. As expected, Nicaragua didn't take this well, and up to this day they talk about "Costa Rica stealing away Guanacaste". However, up to this day, all the villages of Nicaragua close to the border with Costa Rica, trade and buy their stuff from Costa Rica, get their health services from Costa Rica and even enrole their children into Costa Rican schools.
There are many sides to this story, but I'd like to highlight the following ones:
1. Relationships need to be nurtured. You can't pretend that your family, your friends, your significant other, your job, your club, or your hobbies take care of themselves forever while you say "yes, I' with thus and thus, I work at thus and thus and I have thus and thus hobby". Like Nicaragua lost Guanacaste, so you could lose something you "have" because you get it for granted. Imagine your life as a garden. In there are planted all the things you care about and you love. If you don't care after them, weed them, water them, check them, they'll die on you, or someone might pluck them off your garden and take better care of them.
2. Time to change, time to go, time to accept something new. When your situation isn't working, often you can't expect the other side to make decisions for you. Be Guanacaste. Dare to leave the person who isn't treating you well. Dare to leave your family's house and live for your own, put distance if the situation has gotten asphixiating or if you've realized that you are not growing any more as person. Dare to leave your job when it makes you feel bad, or when it becomes a dead point in your career. No, not all jobs are sucky. Yes, maybe you are the problem, maybe the "suck" is in you, but maybe, just maybe!, you've been tripping into all the sucky jobs in town and you need to continue your search for a normal, regular, decent job that makes you happy.
3. Treat others nice. Be Costa Rica. Just because this person isn't part of your group of friends, it doesn't mean you can't be nice to them. Be nice as long as you are not looking for the benefit in it. Give from the heart and realize how awesome it is to be able to give.
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