My Birthday

My birthday was a couple of days ago, and my schedule was so tight, that I didn't get to celebrate it as I usually do, with my friends. It wasn't so bad, though I do was quite tired, what with work and then the German classes. but my coworkers got me a cake (and eggnog cake!), and then, when I got home I had a galss of wine for myself. Honestly, it was wonderful. I was alone in the kitchen, at night, with a glass of wine and feeling so incredibly self indulging, it was wonderful. Little after, I thought how there's people who get depressed for this very situation. For me, it was beatiful, fantastic and the type of experience I want to have more of. It's not the first birthday I spend celebrating alone, and these both experiences remain in my mind as amazing ones.

Every experience affects you in the way you choose. Maybe you are sad because you choose to see things that way. Maybe. In any case, it's worth thinking about that.

To Get on with Changes

This week I turned 39, on Tuesday. It was quite nice because my coworkers (the ones that work in the same space where I'm located) were so sweet as to get me a cake. And not any cake, but an eggnog cake! Nothing like being older and single and able to enjoy a cake that can get you drunk ^_^. And turning nearly-40 (one more year and I'll be 40!) totally entitles you to get the freaking cake you want and celebrate your birthday exactly as you see it fit. I'm also having today a family-friendly birthday where my nephews pickd up the cake and things are planned around the children, mainly, but given that I already had my real birthday with ethilic cake, sushi and series with my friends, well, I don't mind at all the subdued family-version. It do must be sad for one of my age to only have the family-friendly celebration. I never get tired of thanking my good Fates for making me smart enough to choose the childfree life.

As a new year in my life starts I´m actually feeling motivated to do some changes, live life more fully. I'm already tackling my closet, and thinking that maybe it's about time to downsize the amount of clothes I have (fleeting thought quickly dismissed because, yeah, no!), and rearranging things in it. I just started and there's plenty to do. I aactually had a friend of mine and his girlfriend to take a look at my closet so they redesign it for me, make it more space efficient, so that's on the way, but in the meantime, I have to live my life somehow, don't you think? Then there's this upper part where I keep a freaking lot of stuff. Maybe I could find things there to get rid of, and get myself more space... hmm.

The question of the books is also another that has gotten me thinking quite some. I need to reorder, and some stuff needs to be recycled or something, like the tons of magazines I already read, and need no more. Maybe some files as well. Yeah, maybe that too.

It's kind of amazing how once you've gotten rid of things in your lif, things that really didn't contribute in making your life better you suddenly feel more invigorated, more ready to make your life lighter, more willing to take a closer look to your life and what's in it, what adds to it, what takes from it and what's just taking space.

Well, I gara go now, I've a lot of stuff to organize!

No Time...

The Beautiful, Smart, Sweet and Quirky Penpal Queen and Bloggerine Extraordinaire Julie celebrated her birthday yesterday. She had a simple request, which she placed three weeks ago, and I couldn't honor it. :-( I wanted to but then couldn't: there was simply no time for it, not to mention my current Letter-Jam (okay, more like a letter-deadlock). So I thought to at least send her a little message, an e-mail, a post on her wall or something and guess what? I could hardly even post! It was really upsetting. Add to all of it, yesterday was truly a nightmare and all for what anyone could forsee for the begining: it all got exactly nowhere. It was just like working on a Dilbert cartoon.

So, belated and while I find the time to write, this is for you, my friend:

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, JULIE!!!

... and may we celebrate a million birthdays more ^_^.

Today's Mom's and My Aunt's Birthday!

Today's Mom's and Auntie's birthday! Yes, because they are twins. This in the picture is my Mom. Isn't she beautiful? ^_^ I'm terribly proud of her. My Auntie is just as beautiful with with a slight difference: Mom's more like the damsels from the epic poems with knights in shiny armors, while my Auntie looks more like the pricesses from the fairy tales. They are both very kind and ladylike, and you will never, ever hear them say a bad word. Really. They just don't say bad words. Funny right?

They are both very smart, strong in a quiet way and accomplished women. They both excelled in their careers and are recognized by their peers. Mom is a language teacher at one of the most important univesities of Costa Rica and Auntie works as a librarian at one of the most important libraries of Hungary.

Separated by the Atlantic Ocean, they have both lead quite lives and became loved by everyone who knows them. Really, they are like my boyfriend: it's humanly impossible not to love them!

With age they grow wiser, and stronger, but somehow time doesn't seem to touch their pretty little complexions. They are both so youthful! I guess they have both aged well and gracefully. They are simply young with added experience. ^_^

For what we have planned for them I can tell you, that I've asked my boyfriend to pick up a present for my Auntie at L'Occitane, while in here Mom will get a Lunch with her family, a book from her favorite author - Noam Chomsky - and a facial treatment at L'Occitane. It's early yet and I haven't even showered, so I can't tell you how it went, but I bet you that it will be a great day!

Friday at last! Wait, I should have a topic for today. I did had a topic for today... I just don't remember where did I place it. So let's just ramble again! It's like journaling-day! Let's dump a lot of little daily non-senses and too peculiar and partilular things, from which no major philosophical break through can come. First thing I think about is "I'll go straight home, straight to bed and sleep until tomorrow". Not that I'm sleepy now, mind you, but the sole idea of being able to go home and sleep until I wake up by myself, and not to an alarm clock, makes me want to make the most of this sleeping.

The New Moon is coming as well, and with it the end of a List of 13 and the begining of a new one. Well, this list will come to its end with lots of holes. Not all my plans were achieved, not all the tasks were fulfilled, and as I look at them I can certainly see through these cracks the change in my life, as I settle back into the old Costa Rican and public employee rhythm. Some points were achieved, but many that are fun, many that I specifically love and enjoy couldn't go through. For some "weekly" tasks - and here I'm bitterly pointing at the demure task of "going to the movies once a week", when back in Hungary I had it to "going to the movies AT LEAST twice a week" - things couldn't be managed without them losing their most important component: being fun. I am certainly NOT going to the movies to watch the same movie week after week to comply with a list, while not liking the movie that much. Do I really don't have the time anymore to do these things, or are they not reasonable given the particular conditions of this country? Not like I added "go skying" when I'm in the middle of Hawaii, but ofthen what you take for granted, what you consider to be the basic milestone of civilization (such as regular movie premiers every Thursday) just isn't so.

Others were doable, but I didn't feel in the right state of mind to follow them through. One of these was reading indexed articles. I love them, I really do, but I've realized that I allow my job to engulf me so thoroughly, that any academical material escapes me. I shouldn't let that happen, so I'll have to work out a system to make this work. Now that I'm reaching the end, will I move the unfinished tasks to the next list? That seems like much of an easy move, and this shouldn't be the point of the List of 13, so after I've slept myself to absolute satisfaction, or maybe before, while checking some of the videos I rented to make up for the movie fiasco, I'll think about them, think why they didn't go through and whether I should pursue them, and if I do, what should be the best way to make sure I keep enjoying them while not making my life into a battle between Must and Fun.

Today is my boyfriend's boyfriend. Called him, and found out that I was the first one in calling him up. Dude, that was at nearly 7 pm, Hungarian time! Something must be done about this in the future. I owe him something pretty for his birthday, but I'm sure he will pick something nice and charge it to my card. ^_^ If not, thanks Hyne I'm already looking up for Plan B. I'm just kind of girlfriend. ^_^ And totally love him, by the way! So he better picks something truly fabulous.

Yesterday, on the other hand, was my friend Al's birthday. As gift I thought up a mini-spa experience at L'Occitane, where they made her a facial with Immortelle. I have had a couple of facials in my life, but the one they give you at L'Occitane (available only at one of the stores, to my knowledge, as not all stores are equiped the same) is by far the best. She has had lots of worries for a while now, so what better than giving her a space to clear out her mind and feel pampered? It would have been fabulous to make it a surprise, but since I had to make an appointment for her, I had to tell her about it (and also find out if she objects, as some people might have a skin condition and can't just use anything on their faces). She told me that she's never had one, and so was tremendously excited to lose her facial-spa-virginity. The girls at the mini-spa were simply adorable, fabulous and great, and the products - though admitedly they test on animals (oh riiight! that's what I wanted to blog about! Oh well, some other time) - felt incredible. Al got to experience Immortelle, and when she got off the spa bed, she looked down right luminiscent.

Great product, great experience, good relax... what every woman needs and deserves. As quietly as I could - though I must admit I failed terribly here at making it imperceptible, I still must work on my "passing information spy-mode" skills - I've got her part of her treatment - the bare necessities for daily life - so this wouldn't be a once in a lifetime experience, but one that she can easily and comfortably relive (even if just partly) day after day. She was happy and that made me happy too.

Today, aside from being Kari's birthday, is our pre-Independence day, noted by all sorts of civic activities at the main squares of major cities, with a lantern procession. In it children from local schools walk around a given route around the city center with lots of paper made lanterns lit with candles (or at least in my time they were all lit with candles, which was fun because there was always a couple that set on fire ^_^), after having sang our National Anthem exactly at 6 pm. At this time the Torch of Independence is supposed to arrive to San José - the capital city - which is carried by a high school athlete, who comes running from the previous  city where the Torch has stopped at lit the local Torch, which remains in that city, guarded by an honor guard again composed by high school students.

Tomorrow is Independence day, but that... belongs to another post.

Blessed be All!

Today is My Birthday!

What a fabulous day! and a fabulous day deserves a fabulous colors, wouldn't you agree? So fabulous comes today in this minty, pastel green color. :-) It is my birthday, I'm one year more experienced, one year wiser, one year more beautiful and one year more accomplished. Yes, after all what are birthdays but a moment to remember all the great we have accomplished and all the wonderful that's still to come.

After many days of not jogging (perhaps even weeks!) I woke up and went jogging. Last day jogging in black, for tomorrow I plan on going with my University t-shirt (Go UNA!) and shorts. Ah, the wonders of living in Hungary! I have to take advantage of it while it last, so I'll go exposing more leg than I'd normally would, even if my legs aren't perfect for the rest of the world. :-) They are my legs and they carry me in this fabulous activity. :-)

I opened also my gifts, the fabulous gifts my friends and family has sent me or given to me, and which are AMAZING! ^_^ Got also all of my mandatory greetings - many of them 24 hours ahead, since my friends in Costa Rica don't want to be the lasts in wishing me happy birthday, so they rather do it early, than later!

Present from Vienna. Chocolate!!!

Present from two of my best friends, Lau and Roo. From the States.

My crazy, Hello Kitty maniac friends!

(I'm a Hello Kitty maniac as well ^_^)

Part of the present from my boyfriend.  

A STARBUCKS' THERMAL THUMBLER!!!!!

^_____^

GO COFFEE!!

Guys, really, thank you!!! :-)

The program for the day was to go with my aunt and uncle, mom and dad, and my boyfriend to one of my favorite places in the planet: the Gödöllő Royal Palace. The trip started early and it was simply wonderful. The day was sunny and hot, but inside the castle was cool and just as great as always. We didn't get the audio guides, so I had the chance to explain some things about the castle to my family. I was the little guide! ^_^ Mom was impressed, though if she knew that I've been there around eight times or more, then she would understand how do I know as much as I know, and wonder why on Earth I don't know more. :-)

As you all know by now - from my many mentions of the place and the subject - the Royal Palace of Gödöllő is mainly about Empress Sisi and Emperor Franz Joseph of Austria. My aunt and I are quite big fans of Empress Sisi, so naturally we love this place, as much as we love Schönbrunn Palace and all expositions related to them. I personally collect a lot books and souvenirs about them. I even have ten-point star earrings and a necklace pendant, copied after the stars the Empress wore once in her hair.

The visit was part of the gift from my aunt and my uncle, as well as something from the souvenir shop. I had my eyes set on a DVD with the Austrian movie about the Empress, but it was no longer available, so I've choose instead a book that tries to reconstruct the lost journals of the Empress, and a chocolate with candied violet petals. After a lunch in a  restaurant close by, we discovered yet another mini-museum, arranged at the local train station, where the Royal Waiting Halls were recreated. It was an awesome bonus non of us ever saw coming!

Where I to read into this as a sign, I would say that this following year will be full with the most amazing surprises. ^_^

Thank you to all for being in my life and making it so wonderful.

Scrapbooking!

Today is my brother's birthday. ^_^ Watching him get older each day - and the years he's counting! - makes me remember that I'm not that young anymore. (He's two years my junior.) It's not like I'm delusional, thinking I'm still some snot nosed kid, but my actual age doesn't down on me as much as on the day of my little brother's birthday. Getting him a present is quite hard too - as it usually is for a woman to get a present for a man, because we can't relay on the easy things there are to give to women: jewelry, make up, body creams, splashes, purses... - but in the end we picked up a sort of organizer with many transparent drawers, where you can store screws and nails and tiny things like that. He'll probably use it to store his spare LEGO pieces. Another year solved, 364 days to go for the next one. Oh, sorry, 365 days as 2012 is a ... how do you say in English? Leaping year?

Aside from my brother's birthday, today is Saturday, which is usually a good "errand day" for me. In this particular Errand Day, I've got my first scrapbook album. ^_^ Well, not mine, as the project is going to be for my Mom and my sister-in-law and I are going to asseble it together. (I think I've explained this before, but it goes like this: Lau was making scrapbooks for herself, we decided to make one for Rose, then I decided to make one for Lau, and Mom saw it and she said she would like one for herself too. Then I decided to make it along with Yul, so the scrapbook contains the things of Mom's both kids ^_^.) The idea is to pick 100 pictures (50 mine and 50 Yul's), so I calculated how many sheets we would need to set the 100 pictures, and worked around a ballpark amount for the project. Then, thanks to my trusty datebook, I planned the benchmarking of supplies (album, extra sleeves, pages), and  I decided to make it today the day I would go pick up the supplies we required for it.

Close to my old highschool, there's this tiny house that keeps odd open hours, which is filled with all sorts of scrapbooking supplies that range from the expected to the stranges and most unexpected things I wouldn't even know how to hold on the right side. I though I was going to last a couple of minutes in there as I already had a list of what I needed, but the salesgirl was soon instructing me on the techniques and arts related to scrapbooking. And here I thought it was about pasting the pictures and putting some decoration on it. Oh no.

She explained that two pages one next to the other should always match somehow. Didn't need to be alike, but a certain theme should always carry on. The sheets, which for me were just the base to paste the pictures, are supposed to be layered, often treated with special drawing chalk for an aged effect and nothing that wasn't acid free should go on the pictures. (Holy fucking shit! I must have been assembling Laura's the wrong way! Nothing of my supplies are acid free! They sure as as acid as lemons!)

She took the chance to show me her own "multi-topic" scrapbook album - many with pages I honestly considered down right of poor taste (not offensive, just terribly designed and envisioned) - and was quick talking to me about how wonderful the owner was, and how great her style and vision for arranging pages - and indeed the pages she told me the owner had helped her with were honestly beautiful! - managing the layering of different pages, and how a double sided paper (like all I bought...) were used only as accent as the back was usually plain, one color and build on that with the design.

... My boyfriend was, meanwhile in the car - BLACK CAR! - under the noon sun cooking himself extra crispy.

My eyes fell then on the stamps and I'm crazy for stamps!!! 'Letter decoration' I thought at once - fuck scrapbooks, I need something to eventually grace up my letters, and stop being the only penpal with plain paper... filled to the margings with words. Most of them where phrases and those with pictures were mostly about babies. There was one "October 31st" and what sort of witch (figurative or real-life... depends on how you see it, either as I'm a fun, crazy person, or because I'm observing ancient celebrations - now called Pagan celebration - or because you think I'm a monster who lives only to destroy the poorly done job of others and rip at their throats instead of being benign and let them be in their incompetence) would I be if I didn't jump at the opportunity of having THAT? ^_^

Seeing that I would soon be left with no boyfriend, but a big gooey mess of melted boyfriend in my car, I did my best to make my way out, however I must admit I was caught. I left the store wishing to know more, holding my purchase and a business card with their phone number, promising myself to recruit Lau and Yul to come with me to the shop again for a class. Is this the beginging of yet another, serious hobby?

Man Up To Your Choices

Today is my birthday. Yay!! Friends and family have been ringing me up and sending me e-mails and SMS, or posting on my facebook wall (which you may not be able to access if I don't know you, for I have security levels so high that compete with The Wall from Game of Thrones, and hopefully not even the wildlings and white walkers will be able to pass it). Lots and lots of years ago I was born on this day a baby, grew up and turned up to be the woman tapping on the keyboard you've got today. It is kinda funny that my topic for today is precisely that of Childfree-ness, but it is.

When posting on Facebook about my believe of no children (for me) from time to time I get this selfconscious nag about my sister-in-law, whom I've friended and can read my rantling. Never says a thing - there's not much to be said - but it's still there. The last comment of mine on this topic was about this Malaysian airline that decided to ban babies from first class. Not that I have the means to fly first class, but it warmed my heart. I'm not a frequent flyer, as you all know, but I do fly in average once a year, and in these occasions I seat on a plane for about 7.5 to 12 hours, depending on the airline (KLM takes longer, Air France is faster, but I also love Air France for sooooooo many other wonderful reasons!), and through them, having to suffer whining children and wailing babies has been the one down I can't forgive. Thoughts like "please someone just shoot them down", "ain't a terrorist that can just destroy this plane so we get over with it?" and so on cross my mind. Of course, the valuable aid of my laptop and all the movies and series I can watch is appreciated, but some children are so loud you can hear their crying through your earphones in the middle of an accion scene from "Prince of Persia".

In an airport isn't so terrible (unless you have to crash there because your flight got delayed, cancelled or something), as you can go somewhere else (often smoker booths and bars are the best place to escape the children!), but in a confined place it is a nightmare. So far, in a society that truly beheld family and children as the ultimate goal of marriage and women, adults were all expected to put up with the annoyance of unruly brats. Children crying in the movie theatre, children throwing temper tantrums at stores and restaurants, loud children on airplanes... The excuse was always "they are children", and that should suffice for anyone to suck it up and put away any thing that might get interrupted because of the kid. You could hardly even complain in a public transportation mean when some baby vomited on you or started pulling your  hair, clothes or things. Slapping the child or even looking at them like "stay away from me, you shit-machine" was right next to murder. Is, still, I believe. So, what do we, adults-not-carrying-a-kid expect? (Because believe it or not, not childfree people, like people with older, teen kids, also get annoyed!) Well, we rightfully expect the parent of the child to be responsible and contain the child.

Indeed, to expect a baby to out of the blue understand how it should behave among other people is unreasonable. On that same line, if we would expect the baby to know how to behave just by being put in a situation, we should also expect them to speak the local language and chat with us about the current global politics, maybe toss an idea or two about how to solve the Greek situation. No, lets clear something right now: it's not the child, it's the parent. Yes, we get mad at the child, but isn't automatically the feeling passed onto the parent who proves incompetent in properly parenting the offspring? Do we get mad at the baby pulling our hair or at the parent who hasn't thought the child that such a thing shouldn't be done? Yep, the culprit is the parent.

It is the parent's responsability to educate the child, teach them good from wrong, proper from unproper, and also, yes, to teach them how to behave in different social situations. It is also the parent's responsability to determinate whether the child is ready to be exposed to certain social situations. Just as you wouldn't take your uncontrollable pet (be it a dog, a cat or a reptile... or anything) to a public place (or you are supposed not to), a parent should also consider whether they can expose their children to situations they can't handle. After all - going back to the pets -  you wouldn't take your big, unruly dog to a playground full of kids, and unleash it  knowing it won't listen to you if you call them, and then expect parents and children to put up with your terrorizing dog while excusing the both of you saying "well, it's a dog". However parents often act like they are inmune to those basic social rules. Sadly this irresponsible attitude is learned by their children, who then learn that children can do anything they want and adults with children too.

Pop-question: Are Childfree bitter because we don't have the human shield of a children to get away with annoying others? Well, as a Childfree I'd say, I don't want to get away with annoying others, I want not to be annoyed. I'd love it also if pro-family and fringe parents would stop a second on their tracks and think about what so carelessly they say. They call us immature and selfish. I look back at them. They bring children to this life, act irresponsably about them, regarding others... and we are the immature. They don't do what's requiered to not impose on the rest of society because of a choice they made by themselves... and we are the selfish. Well, being childfree surely is fucking up with my semantics.

However the world goes by and parents rather hide behind their children and "being left out of choices" attitudes, instead of owning up to their decisions and realizing that while the child isn't ready to properly function in society, they must make sure neither them or their children disrupt the social mechanics and impose on other people. This sadly forces people and companies fed up with the gamble of whether a parent is responsible for their kids and if they bring them is because the kids are ready, or not, and take matters to their own hands. This is how children and families get separated, secluded or down right banned from different places. You may say it is unfair, and well, it could be. There are parents who are really responsible, who really educate their children to behave, and there are children who are real angels, quite and undisturbing, but that's not the case of all of them. As a matter of fact, that's more an exception  that the norm, so until parents get through their thick skulls that yes, they are entirely responsible of their children and they shouldn't impose them on the rest of the world, the rest of the world will have to ban them, distrust them and lock them far away where they can let others be in peace.

I'm 34!

Today is The Day! Yep! I'm 34, which is still not a round number, so don't worry if you hear me say I've 35. Either way, I've got greetings and cake and a beautiful gift from one of my penpals... really extraordinaire! Thank You Sonja ♥! She also sent me this utterly hilarious Birthday Card that had me laughing off my chair and making circles on the floor.

My friend Dragonfly-cr, Chuck bless her kind heart, left me a postcard on ther blog, quite awesome, in GREEN, which is my hallmark color, and with a little dragon, my Chinese Horoscope sign. It's so awesome!!!! ^_^

Kari called me at the wee hours of the morning, right when I was rushing and dressing for another day at the office. He was the first one greeting me. ^_^ I'm picky about that, you know? I don't like being greeted or celebrated on a day different than the very day I was born.

... This Post was finished on July 1st. I had waaaay too much stuff to do to finish it. Now, however, I forgot what did I wanted to write. So there.

Beware What You Wish For

In a few days I'll have my Birthday. Yeah, one of my favorite days of the yeah... probably My Favorite Day of the whole year. It's the Day of Me. Birthday, of course means presents and booze, and sometimes someone comes up with some cake or something of the sort, which is really not all that important to me, as I place the weight of the celebration on what really, really, really matters: booze. No Booze, No Birthday. This is one of the perks of being finally over 18, and so I'm living it to the fullest for as long as I have a liver or any other ways, original part, transplanted or artificial to drain my body. What can I say? I'm a lass with her priorities in place. ^_^

I'm usually not the kind of person who asks for gifts or tells people what she wants to get. Nah, that's not me. It has been known to happen - like this year when I asked my folks for a car, but then again, it was now or never - but I usually prefer people to come up with something by themselves, if they feel like they want to give me something. Totally love these surprises, specially because these gifts tell you a lot of what the person who gives it to you thinks about you.

Okay, there's one thing I must admit I ask for, and give specific directions: fanfics. Yep, those I order. Snockhart, NC-17, Wincest NC-17 Third Season Fandom, and so on. But other than that I like to be surprised.

However it has been said that I'm a person quite difficult to please in the gift-sense since I have an expensive taste and, add to it, I always buy myself everything I want, so what could you possibly give me that I haven't already bought for myself? So I have made lists of ideas about what's a good gift idea, and so on. The 3B's are always a good way to go: Books-Booze-Boxes. I love books, I love booze and I have a thing for boxes I can't explain. Oh, BTW, I have no coffins, in case someone would like to come up with something cool and unique. Doesn't have to be a coffin-coffin, since those are expensive and I wouldn't have a place to put it, but coffin shaped boxes could be cool.

So, aside from my folks, who seem to have an exceedingly hard time picking up a gift for me, my dear boyfriend is another clueless litle sheep who needs the help of the sheppard to get on the good road regarding gifts. Then again he's a hopeless case that couldn't pick a gift for himself if he had to. Now, to be honest, his first gift was great: a Montblanc fountain pen. Then, his Christmas gift was less than perfect, so for this year we decided that help was needed. And so I picked a blouse. A traditional blouse. I had already asked my folks (before I went for the car) for a Matyó blouse, but I asked one from him anyway. Since he pointed out that I was going to get one from my folks, I decided to put into the formula an extra profit. You see, I want him to improve his German. To do so he must practice, to practice he must talk with others in German. To do so he must go where people speaks German. For that he could go to Vienna. Since it would take a natural disaster for him to go there, I decided to "nudge" him in the right direction: I asked for a traditional Austrian blouse. He agreed.

Wee!! I was happy! He didn't complain and he would go there and practice German. Thing is that I wanted to know what have I asked for, since I was actually imagining some pretty white blouse with pretty embroidery, kinda like what Kate Beckinsale wears in "Van Helsing"... minus the crippling corset and the coat. You know, some nice, hippie-like flax blouse in some soft color, with monochromatic cross stitched embroidery of undefined forms and so on. Perhaps with fluffly sleeves or lovely short sleeves or something. Either way, the important thing was that I've got away with what I wanted and I would have him speak German, since obviously I wasn't going to be there with him, so he couldn't rely on me doing all the talking... as he usually does, which doesn't please me at all.

However I really, really had no idea excatly what would I get, so I went to the trusty Internet and sought out what the hell had I asked for. Well, sadly, I did found a picture of what I asked for, and it wasn't what I wanted.

Yeah, no wonder he wasn't complaining. Once I found out I called him and told him to forget it. I'm not wearing a low clivage Oktoberfest blouse! Not only because I feel really uncomfortable with low clivage clothes, but also because I have nothing to fill that clivage with! So, since my folks are off the Matyó blouse due to the car, my boyfriend is on the Matyó blouse. Interestingly he did issued a complaint about the gift changing, claiming "it isn't that bad or that low the clivage".

Men.

It's Not "Slacking", It's Busy!

Well, I've finally entered into the mistical 33 year-old period. I'm still inclined to say I'm 35, but 33 it's such a fine number, I guess I'll keep it while it lasts. However, from next year and all the way to 2011 I'll be 35, and then 40 until 2016. Rounding up a few years is so convenient!

Inspite of me really, really wanting to write and write and write, I couldn't. Thanks Hyne I've developped the "Nin complex" a few years ago, and so I've my journal with me for me to delve and write whenever the time is right but the Internet is not available. Inspite of Mr. B behaving as the inssuferable s.o.w. he is, I had a wonderful time. Mr. B, thinking that inspite of me being a real little angel and not complaining about what an amazing, outrageous m.f. he can be 24/7, not to mention loading me with "urgent stuff" such as "make a project file out of this Excel sheet"... sheet which has no activities, btw, only articles from a regulation; decided that "we are too busy" for me to take half a day, even though I offered to work the hours off (an insana amount of 3 hours!), because I, in all honesty, and respecting our new agreement of "transparent conversation", told him that a few friends of mine wanted to celebrate with me, and he said that "there's no way I can give you permission for that because I can't explain it". Well, I thought that's what "personal matters" were for. But then again, a birthday is not explainable, like it is to take a day to take the car to the mechanic.

Of course, then I decided that if we are "so busy" I might as well make myself busy... with a meeting. And a meeting I've got, which turned into a HUGE blessing, because that way I could spend part of my birthday away from the s.o.w. Of course, unhappy because I "managed to escape" the s.o.w. did everything humanly and inhumanly possible to load me up with annoying tasks, such as adjusting over and over and over a project schedule, which his reduced, tiny brain-oide couldn't understand. Yeah, he finds it so hard to understand that tasks take "time", that "time" is "limited" and that ONE human being is able to do only a CERTAIN amount of work during a GIVEN period of time. Yeah, in his puny little brain, the job of twenty dedicated people with an arrange of different special skills can be done by one single person who has other duties too, and has none of the requiered skills or knowledge, within the same period of time, if said person "works hard".

Knowing that I had a meeting in the afternoon in San Pedro, my dear, dear, dear coworkers arranged a lovely celebration in of the offices with a huge, beautiful yellow cake, which looked like a smiling Sun and had scribbled on "Felicidades, Su" (Congratulations, Su). They've got bread, cheese and made this delicious hot, melted cheese sandwiches, brewed coffee and sang "happy birthday" two times for me. ^_^ Then I've got this deluxe "Casillero del Diablo" Historic Vintage 2007 bottle of wine. To say that I was impressed and swept off my feet would be a crass understatement. Really, my coworkers are simply adorable! I broght them some brownies and coke because I thought the wouldn't celebrate my birthday (I'm from a different department), but I wanted to share a little something with them.

I planned to be out by 11 am, since the meeting was at 1 pm, and I had to get my lunch before that (and the trip from Sabana Sur to San Pedro at that time of the day does take 1 hour, at least). I ended up leaving later, since I had to bound some documents, but I still made it in time, and had a wonderful meeting filled with reminiscense, tight, warm hugs, huge smiles and the camaraderie of those who once belonged to the same area and still think of themselves as "us, the Mobile Service area". Dude, those were hard, difficult times, but it was beautiful, the work hard and chellenging. Those were my best years in this company.

The meeting was amazing, not to mention I realized that my boss had lied about several things, have hid information, lied about who sent what and orchestrated a gigamontic chaos. It's only sheer luck that no one respect him, therefore no one followed his crazy ideas and kept working the way that has been done and has worked all this years.

Beauty came when I met with my dear, dear friends and workmates. Smiles, greetings and hugs from my old boss, Manuel Córdoba, and one of his men, Manuel Ramos, then there was Ivannia Conejo, Tavo, Melissa, David, Kenneth, Karol Núňez, Tatiana, Sonia, Pao, Ana Teresa...

I had a small lunch with my dear friend Skylar, who helped me get the meeting so fast. She surprised me with a lovely gift: a leather bound journal (in time, since I'm reaching the last pages of my current one, besides you never have "too many" journals), a bookmark so beautiful I'm afraid of removing it from the case, and the most interesting and funny book ever: a Harry Potter philosophy-like book which has been written assuming Aristotle ran Hogwarts, not Dumbledore. That might prove interesting. My Jetty hasn't changed a bit since we used to work together. She's ever so thoughtful! I gave her her birthday present with MONTHS of delay: brownies, Mozart Kugle, an Oriflame hand cream and Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse 5 in English.

After the meeting I went to see my dear, dear friend Dragonfly, who had written an entry for me yesterday and made me a happy birthday card, God Bless her giving heart! Just as I did with Skylar, we sat and talked and talked about work, boys, stuff going on, and then oogled on the blog of a friend of hers, María Palito, who actually designs jewelry. I tell you, this Mary-girl is one talented person! My Dragonfly is preparing to go to Mexico, and she told me that she got the ticket in such an amazing price, I've been thinking in telling my beloved Kari to forget Panama, and let's go check out Mexico. ^_^ Dragonfly had a present prepared for me too. She gave me a lovely green bag (because green is my absolute favorite color) with a beautiful crocheted green scarf, made by her mom with a technique I have never seen before, a green bead keychain made by here, with a large medal-like bead with a design much like a rose, which is perfect because it's not only my middle name, but also my favorite flower... and in my favorite color! Green! With it was another gift, a prize I won on her blog for suggesting the most popular name for her laptop. It was a white and green mug with a spoon, all in ceramic. It was so surprising that I won and that the mug was precisely green, since she bought it before the poll was started.

My beloved, beloved, beloved boyfriend, God may forever bless his precious heart, called me like three times or so to greet me. He got me an amazing Mont Blanc fountain pen, which I started using yesterday (I never use my birthday presents before my birthday), and I guess it will be the only pen I'll use from now on. I totally adore my fountain pen!


At four or so, I met with my friend Carrie, with whom I usually spend my birthday, for a small celebration of sorts. We went to the Terramall, a land of evil, where we went to our usual bookstorem where there were no worthy books, and add to it, the changed the conditions of the Birthday promotion, which upset me terribly. The Swatch store there had no decent Swatch, and those that were nice, I already had. That was terribly disappointing, but then again, I guess I'll have to extend my "hunt for my Birthday gift" for a few days more. After all, I do deserve a 22dn Swatch. ^_^

Carrie surprised me also with an extremely amazing birthday gift. I almost cried in joy and spent the whole night telling her how much I love her. She got me the Third Season of Supernatural, John Winchester's journal and a tiny, lovely bunny, which she explained to me, is a plot bunny, therefore will be known from now on as Plot.

My friend Jules called me, as usual, and it was lovely to hear his voice. Laura called me, but she had her personal tormentor on her back, so she couldn't say much, but hinted that her personal s.o.b. was driving her up the wall. Roo called me at night, when I was with Carrie, and told me, God bless her heart, that she was sending me the trilogy of the Sleeping Beauty from Anne Rice.

Carrie and I had coke and some foccaccia, but then we had to leave because my folks were waiting for me at home to toast for my birthday. Carrie's sister, Isis, wasn't half as dismissing as she usually is with me, which I found it... strange. Is she... getting to like me? Nahhhhhh....

The traffic from Cartago to Heredia was murderous, and even though we left rather early, I've got home by 10 pm. My mom and dad were waiting for me with an amazing present: a beautiful huge blue cord bag with white mooses, which I started using today, very, very comfortable and cool, really, a dream come true, and two CDs: one of Strauss and one of Baroque Music. Oh my Hyne! It made me remember when I was a child, and an early teen, when all my friends and cousins were crazy for groups as A-Ha, Wham, Menudo, Los Chicos and all the stuff from the eighties and the only thing I listened and the only thing I liked was classical music and my favorite above all was Strauss. Johann Sebastian Strauss. More than Bach, more than Brams, more than Mozart (have never been a big Mozart fan), more than Bethoveen or Franz List.

You know, this has been an AMAZING birthday! ^_^

Guns and Studs

Yesterday I was fangirling, today in the morning I had a mandatory dose of 4x17, where I gathered some info (Dean went to Stanford?), and when I was to quench my thirst with some slash fiction, it turns out that all my regular sources (many of them very, very poor), have been filtered and left out of the Websense prison. Fuck, I feel like locked inside La Bastille, only I don't get freed on July 14th, nor there's a party to celebrate a damned thing. Now, I wouldn't venture to say that "life is unfair", but simply would like to state that Corporations are unfair... and they are.

Yesterday I finally got to see my friend Carrie, who recently turned... ehhh... 20... again. (In the past days she has told me she had been a bit worried because her little sister is now older than she. I told her to chill about that. Now she has two older sisters instead of an older sister and a little sister. No more imoutochan for Carrie! ^_^) I gave her her birthday present, which were two gold stud earrings with screw backs, and then the fic I managed to finish (somehow) in the last minute. We met at Bagelmen's because she brought me some episodes of Supernatural's fourth season, and I needed Nagi to copy them. San José ain't the place where you want to be seen sliding a laptop from your bag, so I asked Carrie to meet at a safer place.

As usual, we talked about life, work, friends and then plunged into SPN hardcore fangirling. From that meeting I learned a few things:

1. In 4x17 Sam and Dean's lastnames are again chosen by gun brands. I had no idea, since my knowledge of firearms is extremely limited. I mean, I know they have a "trigger", which is the thingie you have to squeeze to fire the gun, it has a "barrel" which is the long tube from which the bullet is shot. Then there's the "magazine" which is the thingy where you put the bullets, has a grip, which is where you grab it, and then there's a "cock"... not that kind either. Now, I checked it out and it turns out you call it "hammer", which is like the safety of the gun, but funnily, when you pull it back to remove the safety and fire the gun, you say you've "cocked" the gun. And that's pretty much my knowledge on firearms, oh, and it applies only for English.

However, after yesterday's comment from Carrie, I checked it out, and it happens that Smith&Wesson IS a firearm brand. So, up to this day the brands of firearms I know are:

a. Glock
b. Winchester
c. Remington
d. Beretta
e. Smith&Wesson

From where I know that Winchester, Remington and Smith&Wesson make shotguns. (All my firearm knowledge is exclusively related only to fiction. For certain stories I've to make research, which is why my head fills with this kind of information.)

2. I learned that I hate Hummus, or at least the one that Bagelmen's spreads on their bagels. It is unedible.

3. I realized I'm something of a "Big Bang Theory"-like geek, because I like the series Numb3rs (Numbers) because it's about "maths", though "it's not really about maths, but statistics... probabilistics mostly, which is disapponting at times, but the formulas in it are fascinating! Oh, and sometimes they make allusion to economical formulas!". I should really, really get back to fanfics, shopping, reading fashion magazines, or move ASAP to Hungary and get laid a lot until my brain leaves the "Geek Zone" and starts working normally again.

4. I realized I have seen SNP chapters too much, for I know how many times Maddison was mentioned in the fourth season, in which circumstances.... and I can quote lines, word by word from the top of my head. It's almost as creepy as the day I realized I knew all the lines of "Rosemary's Baby" in Spanish, and I do mean ALL the lines. Know also the books Dean Smith keeps in his office (The Witching Hour by Anne Rice, and The Warlord), know that Dean tends to wink one eye when he's annoyed or uncomfortable, and Sam rather tenses his jaws, make a weird mouth twist and flare a little his nostrils.

5. I learned about a former friend of mine, who's sinking deeper and deeper into a very unhealthy kind of life. I've actually three female acquintances who happen to have a somehow "Peter Pan"-ish complex. They are WELL into their 20's, reaching the 30's fast, and yet their minds are stuck on kinder garden. The woman in question has a son, whom she treats more like a doll. She's addicted to japan animated series, and it is said that all she does, all day is organize events across country, for which she dresses up and forces her toddler son to dress up, often dyeing the poor kid's hair in the process. Sweet Hyne, who puts dye on a three-four year old!?

This made me think about people, and how irresponsible they can be. Some people seem to think that consequences can be escaped, that they can remain forever children if the just refuse to behave like adults and asume responsabilities. They think that having a baby is just making it, carry it and give birth to it, and that once they leave the body of the mother, by some miracle, the kind will be fully able to get all it needs by itself. They think their actions have no consequences, they are independent and don't influence the kid, and if the kid turns out fucked up it's entirely the kid's own fault.

People like this should be nutted and their kids sent to orphanages.

Crafty Gifts

I'm trying, and I'm quite happy with the results. This is a necklace with matching earrings I made for my friend Laura, for her birthday, which was on May 14th.

Yes, I know I gara work more with my timing, but at least I've got it, right? This is, at the same time, the first necklace I do using chain links. I imagined it to be far more complicated, but it turned out to be quite easy. Now I've gara get a new chain and green beads for my mom. ^_^ My mom likes my craft, maybe only because she's my mom, you know, and moms always support their kids.

It's amazin, but working on things like these, making necklaces, knitting and things like that, calm me a great deal. I don't think I'll be able to make a living out of either of them, basically because I suck at selling things like this (but I'm amazing at selling corporative products, which is amazing), but I love doing them and giving them away. At the same time, it makes me think of my friend Drangonfly, to whom I'm grateful, because she was the one giving me the inspiration to start doing my own jewelry, and then she took from her time to teach me.

Then, like she said, it feels so much better to give someone something you made, rather than getting something bought. Of course, when you buy somthing special, something that connects you to someone, it's the best gift ever, but when a gift has that extra kick, that extra thing, that it has not only your thoughts, but also your effort, your work, your time and it's unique, that makes it unvaluable.

Yes, I can think of gifts you can buy that mean the world more than anything, like getting someone you love that watch you know they've been dreaming about, or but them that one book you read once when you were younger, or get that one volume, that one book, that one DVD, as soon as it hits the stores (Supernatural 3rd Season, With Caution, Haru wo Daiteita, Kizuna... you know what I mean), a rare first edition, the best chocolates ever... there are things that you can buy and they are special, but you can also give great gifts without spending a fortune, because the point of a gift is not the money spent on it, but the thought behind it.

The "Day of the Chinese"

I wonder if it happens in other countries. In Costa Rica there are holidays and celebrations that belong only to a specific place. Such is "Saint Joseph's day" which is a holiday only for some districts of the capital city, San José. People hate it because one street can make the difference. If your office is in a street instead of another, that could mean that you'll have to go work when people a street up or a street down has a holiday you don't have. Of course, people in other provinces don't have this holiday.

Today the president of China is coming for a few hours to visit our mock of a president. Sorry, but I can't pretend respect for such a slime bastard. The Government decided to close down all streets around the route the Chinese president will take, reason for which people around the premises have been sent home. Since Friday we received the e-mail telling us that we have the day off. Hurray! Three-day-weekend! Kinda cool, huh? It's so sad, though, that this is all made to kiss the Chinese President's ass because our corrupt Government wants to ask for more money.

Hungarian people think their country is rotting away, but they don't know what's like when the country is REALLY rotting away.

Why do I think there's something seriously fishy going on? Well, first of all, everybody knows it. I mean, look at the papers! Recently a study showed that Costa Rica has slid down in the scale of democracy and popular satisfaction. 80% of the people believes that the Government works for only a small part of the population, that power is concentrated in a few hands, and that 2009 will be worse than 2008. I wonder what the other 20% is thinking or where do they live. Or is it that THAT 20% is the little bit where power concentrates? Numbers couldn't be more "Pareto Theorem correct" even if they tried. Only this 20% is taking more than the 80% of wealth. They are taking all of it.

I hate being here, but what can we do to make it better? Ain't easy, but I think I can have a few ideas about how to get under this monster's skin.

I am in "holiday", taking a break, recovering from a splitting migraine that kept me in bed all day yesterday, and trying to work out some sense from the little useful data I have for our thesis. This is breaking our backs, but I don't loose the faith nor the optimism. I'm happy that this is working and moving forward.

Mom's and aunt Zsuzsa's birthday is tomorrow. I've bought Mom a small basket of bath products, which I hope se likes, I put them together specially for her. I was looking for the pear cream of Victoria's Secret which he loves on me, but it was long off the shelves. I've got her a soft pear cream and shower gel from Moi, a lovely, country-styled store that sells Canadian toilettery. I love their products, specially a line of fruit scented toiletteries, which usually include shower gel, body cream, whipped-cream soap, body splash and so. I was thinking in getting Mom a small put-together of these, but this pear scented new line caught my eye and my nose. The scent is lovely and ever so gentle, I'm sure it won't give Mom a headache. Yes, Mom has migraine and I think I have developed it too... maybe genetics get into this. Anyway, Mom is more sensitive than I do and strong scents can trigger her headaches, which is why I had to pick for her something soft. I'll let you know if she liked it!

Two days ago, on Saturday, I went out with Carrie, Víctor, Kate and a friend of Carrie, Andrey, who was also an acquintance of Víctor. Carrie and I wanted to get "our queers" together, but it seems that Costa Rica's gay-fuck-net beat us to it by far. Hell. I think I'll never again try to introduce two gay guys. It's simply amazing how they live their lives, how they hop beds and asses and cocks ever so fast until they finish up jumping from gay man to gay men through a whole country in less than eight years. Hump, hump, hump, fuck, fuck, fuck... it's almost as if the fiction we write is more conservative and less bold than real life for these men. And funny thing is that they feel ever so lonely. Chronically lonely while they are chronically promiscuous. A piece of advise from a straight woman? If you want to stopbeing lonely, you must pay attention to your partner. Not only women like to be taken care of and paid attention to but also men. So, the next time, before they hop into bed, they should consider learning a bit about the guy, or pick the guy by liking him first as a person, and then as a man.

One thing I have learned by walking down the path of one night stands and choosing to be a loner, is that jumping into sex and cutting off the process of learning from the other person, or letting them learn from you, is the surest way to remain lonely. Sometimes someone tries to stick around, which is when you flip the cruel card of "This was a One Night Thing. Move on and live with it". However, if you don't want to reamin lonely, do not take that path. Do not jump in bed without knowing who is the one you are inviting between the sheets.

Happy Birthday To Me

This is some way to celebrate my birthday. It's been a whole week-n-some drinking EVERYDAY. And when I say everyday, I mean EVERYDAY. Beer, beer, beer, beer, Smirnoff ICE, beer, beer, Shota Draco, beer... I have a new beer glass too. Went out on Saturday with Shimmy Gin and we went to this super cool place at this mall we always go (elitists of us, we only go to VIP movies, you mind, where I can drink more beer), and we were looking at this incredible collection of designer glasses, all of them imported from--------

Shit, this entry got trunkated. so sorry, I can't continue it.