Friday, November 30, Armando & Alba Lucía joined us in the afternoon for another shopping jaunt. We went to another mall (Unicentro) and Javier bought several CD's and a medical dictionary that he's wanted for the past couple years to help him in his interpretation work. Before we left he bought me a pair of dressy brown leather boots and a matching belt. All of the prices were good, cheaper than what we would pay in the US.

Javier wanted to shop for more leather goods in this area of Bogotá known as Siete de Agosto (August 7th). There are different areas of the city devoted to specific industries, for example car parts, home repair, motorcycles, and this one for leather goods. Javier was looking for a nice jacket for himself.

We hit paydirt at the second shop we visited. He special ordered a jacket with wool lining for himself that will only take a week to finish. While he was working with the saleslady, I was trying on jackets and found one to match my new boots and belt. I wasn't necessarily set on the jacket but when Javier and Alba Lucía saw it, their eyes popped out of their heads with appreciation so I knew I had to have it. I guess in the end I figured that I have a black leather jacket, so why not a brown one, too? Especially when the price was so reasonable.

After that sale I considered my shopping for the trip over, except for some things for people back home like typical Colombian snack foods and some craft items that we won't shop for until later in the trip. As soon as we saw him our nephew Carlos said that we had to go to at least one of the artesaníal shops that sell Colombian handicrafts. Since we've been here I've also seen several impromptu "shops" set up on blankets on the streets, as well as in tents/booths in a plaza area of the central business district "downtown."

Well, just then we walked by a shop that sold sexy women's jeans, something I'd considered buying since seeing all these beautiful women on the street wearing similar clothing. So we went in and the salesgirl brought me some pairs I liked in my size, which I'd told her was US size 6 or 8. She said that was a 14 in Colombian sizes, which I'll admit caught me a little off-guard.

It caught me a lot off-guard when I couldn't get the pants on properly! They fit tightly over my thighs but I couldn't pull them up any higher than extremely low-waisted styles in the US, which meant the crotch was not where it should be. It was so embarrassing that I wouldn't even let Javier see me try them on. Of course they didn't have Colombian size 16, which I suppose would have been a US size 8. I left there determined to try the proper size the next time I looked at pants.

We continued to walk around the area and we actually came to a building that used to be the home of Javier & Armando's grandmother. It was being converted into a garage for car repairs or something similar. And later while waiting for a taxi on the main street we came across the church where Javier had his first communion. A priest was saying the evening mass for a crowd of about 30 people so I couldn't take any photos.

Finally we all drove back to the hotel and had our hotel's front desk clerk make reservations for dinner at a steak-type restaurant a block from our hotel. Or so we thought. When we got there (on foot since it was so close) the restaurant had no reservations in our name (?) so we walked across the street and ate dinner at Tony Roma's. OK, so it wasn't authentic Colombian food but we enjoyed it and we enjoyed the company of Armando & Alba Lucía. Nice day.

Saturday Javier's cousin María Eugenia called to take us on a drive to one of the city's public libraries. I'm not sure why she thought of us to take to a library, but we enjoyed the drive and we enjoyed the impromptu tour one of the librarians gave us after she found out that I used to work at the Rockford Public Library for 9 years. It was an enjoyable experience and a nice building with many public spaces for arts and performance, but the book collection looked thin.

María Eugenia then took us to lunch at Crepes & Waffles, another recommendation from Carlos. The restaurant serves a large variety of main course and dessert crepes as well as delicious ice creams. I had an interesting salad with purple lettuce, a mushroom crepe, and a fancy ice cream sundae that featured arequipe (love the stuff).

The funniest part about lunch was when the waitress brought Javier's dessert. He'd ordered something called Festival that had several fruit flavored ice creams and sorbets. His eyes just about fell out of his head when he saw the size of the sundae. The rest of us just laughed. It was huge, and he kept saying, "It didn't look this big in the photo!" Of course we all shared it so it was gone quickly.

After such a big meal all I wanted to do was return to the hotel for an early night, so that's what we did.

Sunday morning I thought we were going to church with Patricia, something she had suggested during her visit with Guillermo on Wednesday. But since she hadn't contacted us to confirm we didn't go. Instead we enjoyed a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then leisurely prepared for the day, which was mainly to be spent with one of Javier's cousins and his family.

We left our hotel around 1:30pm and got mired in traffic on the main route to Josefe's apartment in an exclusive area of Bogotá. On Sundays this particular thoroughfare is partially blocked to allow bicyclists, walkers, and bladers access to the street. It was interesting watching the human parade, including a number of streetsellers of all things Colombian, while sitting in traffic. Eventually we got to the apartment complex and climbed the steep access roads which curved around the mountain that the complex is built into. Beautiful view, beautiful complex, beautiful apartment.

Josefe and his wife Claudia are both architects. They have a 12-year old daughter, Natalia. Josefe's father Humberto is the brother of Javier & Armando's mother Cristina, and also the brother of Alba Lucía's mother. 

Josefe's parents and sisters and their children arrived after we did and we enjoyed a delicious Colombian lunch of roasted chicken, potatoes, rice, plaintains, and the typical accompaniments to such a meal. Much laughter, too. Not a lot of English, but I tried to keep up.

Well, until I started to fall asleep in the middle of the conversation. Then Josefe allowed me to take a nap in the guest room ... for an hour and a half. I guess I was tired.

Eventually the party broke up with promises that everyone would gather again Friday evening at our hotel room. That should be one rockin' time because these people were a loving party that liked to laugh and have a good time.

Javier & I took a taxi back to our hotel. Our driver was named Alex. He talked to Javier about Colombia the entire ride and gave him his direct phone number in case we needed a taxi anytime during the night for the rest of our stay. Nice guy.

Despite the fact that both of us were tired, Javier suggested a drive around the city to see the Christmas lights, many of which had been illuminated the night before. Since he had Alex's number we called him to drive us around.

That was an excellent decision. We spent more than 2 hours driving around the city and looking at all of the different lights displays in various areas of town. The park on Calle 93 was the best, with decorations designed by a beer company. Alex told us that a lot of the city's lights hadn't even been lit yet since they didn't have to be up until December 7. That's when we'll have to do this little drive again.

Some other highlights of the trip were driving up one of the large mountains that shelters Bogotá (La Caldera). There are a lot of stonecutters' houses built on the mountain, as well as some rundown establishments that Alex called clubs which he says are packed on Fridays and Saturdays. We even saw some cows grazing along the side of the road!

Alex also took us through La Candelaria, the oldest section of Bogotá in the downtown business district. Lots of graffiti and bad streets through there, which I found surprising since it's a major tourist area. He even drove us by President Uribe's residence, guarded by army soldiers who were hesitant to allow us to take pictures of the place. They were finally convinced that we were tourists and let us take a couple shots. Funny story.

On the way back to our hotel Alex took us to a Cuban sandwich shop and Javier bought food for all of us, which we ate while parked on the city street out front, with late-night buses driving by. A really satisfying evening.

Next up: Part 3

It's been ages since I've last posted to this blog. Too much has happened in the last month.

Including the fact that my cat, Nina, has disappeared. Since I let her out the patio door as usual the morning of Sunday, October 21, my beautiful 5 year old black and white baby has been gone.

I'm devastated. Which is saying a lot, because before we inherited Nina a couple years ago I could not have cared less about cats.

But she was the best cat I've ever known. She was extremely quiet, only occasionally letting out a "mwa" in a gentle screechy cat sound. Maybe her meow-er was broken.

She'd sit on my lap when I parked myself on the couch, not expecting me to pet her or anything, just wanting to be there. Of course I'd let her, and I'd actually feel bad if I needed to get up for something and had to displace her.

When I'd go to bed at night she'd actually follow me into the bedroom and wait for me to crawl into bed and settle myself before she'd settle herself right on top of me. Sometime during the night she'd move to laying either right beside me or between my legs, but always keeping very close to me. And again, if I had to move I'd try to do it as little as possible so as not to disturb her.

And this was in my bed!

But probably the funniest thing about Nina I'll never forget is when she would jump on my lap as I was going to the bathroom, and plop herself down as if she knew we were going to be there a while so she had plenty of time to get comfortable. Well, when she did that I suppose I did extend my bathroom visits just so, again, I wouldn't disturb her.

It's been 41 days that she's been gone, but I have not stopped looking for her or expecting her to return to the patio door, pawing at it to be let in. Right after she disappeared we placed ads and got a few leads which turned out to be false.

Now that it's cold I worry about her more, even though I know she's probably never going to show up at my door again. That makes me sad, but for her sake I hope she's safe and warm somewhere, planning how or when to come back to us.

So wherever you are, Bean (my favorite pet name for her), know that you are loved by me and that I miss you very much.

Goodness, Andrew, I don't know what you've gotten me into. I guess we'll all find out together. Hope you enjoy the ramblings I'm likely to post here. Because any of you who've spent HOURS in conversation with me would probably agree that I occasionally ramble. I hope it's only occasionally anyway. If not you've all been good to me and not told me I'm a goofy nutcase. See, I think I'm already rambling. (I must get it from my mother. Love you, Mom.)

Here's a little update on where I am in my life right now ...

I celebrated my 43rd bday this past July. Sounds old but I don't feel it. Probably because I've never looked better. Well, at least in my humble opinion, and I'm the one who has to look myself in the mirror every morning. I'm sure some days are better than others (hello, curly hair with high or no humidity). 

I try to do my best with what God, through my parents, has given me. He must have given me a 20+ year subscription to Glamour magazine, too, because that's my go-to for fashion and beauty. Well, maybe not the fashion part so much. I suppose my husband has done more for me there in the last 6 years. Thanks, Javier, for pushing me to try new styles. I'm much more comfortable making my own choices now.

And I know my body confidence got a huge boost from losing 35 pounds on Weight Watchers over the last year or so. That's still a struggle, of course, and I'm sure we'll address it occasionally here. If that's not a problem for you, God bless you, because most people I know (women especially) face the dilemma of food choices on a daily basis. And exercise isn't always my morning routine, although I truly would like it to be. But sometimes, especially this time of year when it's still dark when the alarm goes off, it's so much more comfortable to just hit the snooze button and roll over for another 10 minutes.

Geez, enough about looks already. This year on July 1 I reached an employment milestone of sorts. I had my 5-year anniversary with the Rockford Park District as a full-time employee. I worked there an additional 6 months as a temporary and as a seasonal employee before starting full-time. Five years at one place really does seem like an accomplishment to me, since the 5 years before that I had 3 different jobs. It's nice to look back on a job history of my own.

Right now I'm the Office Manager for the Sportscore Complexes. Great place to work with great coworkers. My office is at the Indoor Sports Center, and we just started the indoor sports season so the next 6 months will be somewhat insane. I already work long hours, but hopefully I'll be able to keep that under control. And I can say that even though I worked 12 hours yesterday (and that was with 2 3-hour breaks thrown in). We started the men's indoor soccer league last night and I stay all the way through the finish at 1:15am.

I'm sure I'll discuss work a lot here. We just got a new boss who we'll all meet on Monday. I met him yesterday and he seems like a nice guy, so we'll see how things work out. I'll fill you in later.

Personal stuff?

Well, I've been married to Javier Saavedra for 6 years. He just became a US citizen a week ago. We're taking a long vacation to his birthplace of Bogotá, Colombia, just after Thanksgiving. We're both excited. For me it will definitely be a new place, and maybe for him, too, since he hasn't been back for 10 years. We don't have children but we do have a dog (golden retriever named Paco) and a cat (Nina). I never thought I'd like cats but she's the best. Maybe it's the age thing, but I have felt the maternal urge the last few years. I'm sure I'll discuss that, too.

I think that's enough for now. You're probably asking yourself, When is she going to stop? I told you I'm a rambler.