29 January 2010

 

Headphones: $50

Sometimes, while trying to concentrate at an English school while some particularly rambunctious kids classes are being taught, headphones are necessary. And sometimes, when you have tiny ears like I do, you can only work the earbuds for so long before you start to feel phantom earbuds in your tiny ears all day long. So I think a big fatty gangsta pair would be ideal.

28 January 2010

 

Lucky Kitty: $1 - $200

I've always been intrigued by Lucky Kitty. He graces my wall in a no-longer-functioning clock form, and I used to have a wee gold version of him blocking the check engine light my old car. I had a bobble-headed version of him from Hawaii, too, but he jumped off the bookshelf a few months back. I'm not sure how that effects my overall luck, but would really like a new one just to be on the safe side.

27 January 2010

Natural Crunchy Peanut Butter: $4.50

This is another product that falls into the "Not Buying Because It Costs Too Much To Fly It Down To Mexico" category. Mexicans: not so big on the peanut butter. The first time Luis ate a PBJ that I made for him, he was all "Eh. I'd maybe eat that for dessert." Which is to say that the peanut butter selection down by us leaves a bit to be desired. Especially if you're not into Skippy creamy. But I take what I can get here (hey, a girl has got to make spicy peanut sauce with something), and think wistful thoughts about mixing the oil and nut strata together with a big knife.

26 January 2010

Volleyball: $25

I had an old and slightly crusty volleyball that I dutifully took with me to my rec league matches in Chicago, but it didn't manage to make the move with me down here. And for being a smallish rural Mexican town, Zacoalco has a fair amount of pretty good pick-up volleyball. With old and slightly crusty volleyballs. I think a new one would be a big hit.

25 January 2010

Prismacolor Markers: $3.99/ea.

These are some nice markers that I've used for programs I've taught before, but I'm not so excited about the exchange of my first-born child for one of their 144-marker sets.

24 January 2010

Huichol Yarn Painting: $20

This is one of those things that I have a really hard time not buying. I start thinking "Come on, twenty dollars? Can you imagine what that would go for in the states?!", and soon enough, I'm all in my head in my quaint little import store/cafe, trotting around the globe in search of more tastefully crafted artesenias to sell while spinning yarns over cups of steaming hot chocolate, and then the screeching kindergarteners show up again.

23 January 2010

Vans slip-ons: $32

So I'm imagining that in normal peoples' adult lives, one develops some sort of self-censorship that keeps one from really wanting to buy slip-on tennies adorned with multi-colored wee robots clearly designed for the under-12 crowd (as evidenced by the fact that I found them in the "Vans' Girls" section of the website). I, on the other hand, need to rely on the fact that women's shoes simply do not exist in my size at the markets here to keep me from owning and proudly wearing a pair of these.

22 January 2010

Slurpee: $1.79

I remember when I first got to Guadalajara, I was overjoyed to see 7-11s gracing the downtown corners, purely at the prospect of having a Slurpee source in a then-sweltering foreign land. Slurpees have always been a source of instant joy for me, and I still haven't found anything quite as refreshing as drinking a cold slurpee in a hot shower after a few sweaty hours at a volleyball tournament. Imagine my horror, then, when I first whooshed through the swinging doors, heading towards where my instincts told me would be the beverage corner, and found nothing. Not a Big Gulp, not a spoon straw to be found. How, HOW, do you have 7-11s but no Slurpees? Ah, Mexico, how much you have yet to learn.

21 January 2010

Bag of Ricola: $3

My throat has been angry for the last few weeks, and it hasn't been helped by the fact that I have a daily hour-long session of, shall we call them, very enthusiastic kindergarteners, and also the antibiotics I've been taking have been thwarted by periodic indulgence in red wine.

20 January 2010

 

Hot Shoes: $65

Most of the dudes I know have told me that these are hideous, and they're somewhat ominously named "Hobbit", but I still think that these are some rockin bootie-thingies. I would wear them with pride. Take that, men folk.

19 January 2010

A Dozen Hot Donuts Now: $6

Mmmmmm....... Donuts. As many of my friends and family have heard, when I die I'd like to be cremated, and have my ashes scattered in the glazing machine at the local Krispy Kreme.

18 January 2010

Donation to Doctors Without Borders

It's strange to me that one of the more poignant feelings of wanting came to me not while salivating over the thought of a tasty beer, or imagining myself in a cozy new sweater, but while listening to a podcast about relief workers pulling the wounded out of collapsed buildings in Port-au-Prince. I want to go and help, to be of use, but short of that, I want to whip out my checkbook and send one of the dozen worthy causes a big chunk of money to help somebody out. And I just don't have it. So instead I'm spending time with the idea, thinking how to raise some money here at the English school, and sending all the good and hopeful thoughts I can in Haiti's direction. And appreciating the life I've still got.

17 January 2010

Replacement Sock Monkey Slippers: $15

I bought these the first time around last winter at Target, and wore them so much so quickly, that I've worn big holes in the heels, where the sad little foam inside is sticking out, and I feel any tiny pebble I might be unfortunate enough to step on. Need! New! Monkey! Slippers!  But not happening soon.

16 January 2010

Subscription: $19.99/year 

(+ shipping to Mexico: ?)

I like this magazine. A lot. They show you all kinds of fun projects, how to make old stuff into new, cooler stuff, like record albums into fruit bowls, and old sweaters into blankets. I'm still kicking myself for not making the magazine myself first, but what can you do? Besides not buy a subscription.

15 January 2010

Tom's Toothpaste: $4.50

My mom first introduced me to Tom's of Maine when I was an awkward middle-schooler, and she bought me their natural deodorant. Not antiperspirant, mind you.  Just deodorant. I don't know how many middle-schoolers you've spent a lot of time with, but in general, you want something a little more powerful than flax seed and lingonberries to control their scent. And you also really need something to neutralize the sweat coming out of them. I also blame Tom's for the bees that seemed to loyally follow my armpits around campus.

Still, I forgave Tom, and now I really dig his toothpaste.

14 January 2010

 

Cute Sweater: around $60?

Two summers ago, I was driving solo from the midwest to the Mexican border, and I put out feelers with all my friends for any friends or family who might live between Detroit and Laredo and would like to put my butt up for a night. Jen hooked me up with family friends Kyla and Kenny in Hot Springs, Arkansas, who are about the sweetest people ever,  slathering on the southern hospitality via home-cooked black-eyed peas, magical spring water, and a guided tour of Hot Springs (which is very cute). And Kat sent me to stay with her friend Sally in Louisville. Sally gets the credit for introducing me to the glory that is Mad Men, and way more cute clothes than one girl can handle wanting. She has a store called Dot Fox that I didn't get to see in person, but I get tantalized by long-distance by way of her photo uploads on facebook. It's probably for the best that a couple thousand miles separate me and all that cuteness.

13 January 2010

Costco Membership: $400 (pesos)/year

There are some places around the globe, that no matter where you're actually geographically located, when you step through the door - whoosh! - you're magically transported back to the good ole' US of A, (for better or worse, depending on where you currently register on the Expat Sliding Scale of Hate/Love For the Motherland). Costco is one of those places. I spent a pleasant, if not slightly confusing few hours there during winter break, making repeat visits to the goat cheese sample lady, running giddily through the aisles hoisting gallons jars of sun-dried tomatoes above my head in victory, and accidentally slipping into English with the besmocked employees. There's only one buzzkill, and it's that all of the products from back home that are so gloriously familiar are kind of expensive. Like the idea of paying the membership price in the States is that then you have access to lots of well-priced stuff, right? Well, paying for the membership here is just really paying admission to the one joint in town that has products that make me go all nostalgic for cuisine, as well as the  salaries, of home.

It might be worth it for monthly lunches of free samples, though.

12 January 2010

Ben and Jerry's Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream: $11

The only place I've been able to find Ben and Jerry's here is Walmart, which is evil and I hate hate hate to buy anything from, except under extreme duress. Whose definition just might be stretched to include seriously needing some Ben and Jerry's that I can't find anywhere else, except for the part where they charge eleven dollars for a quart. Fuckers.

11 January 2010

Pint of Newcastle: $5

There's an upside and a downside to beer consumption in Mexico, as there is with everything, I suppose. On the plus side, it's really cheap, around a buck a beer, even at bars, and there's a magical service here in town called Bucket Express (which I think would be a mad success in the Midwest).  You call a phone number, and about 20 minutes later a kid on a moped shows up with a 5 gallon plastic bucket, filled with 20 beers and ice, with a little bottle opener stuck to the side. And then he comes back the next day for the empties. Magical, no?

The downside: 90 percent of the beer you'll find is Corona. Two types, Corona Clara (Light Corona) and Corona Obscura (Dark Corona). Don't let that obscura fool you, as much as people assure me otherwise, it's Corona Clara in a brown bottle. It tastes exactly the same as the light, which isn't that great to begin with. What I'm saying is that although the beer is plentiful and cheap, it's not exactly a dark beer fan's paradise. And when one has a hankering for a Newcastle, one is kinda stuck with it.

10 January 2010

LILLHOLMEN Accessories stand: $19.99

When I was traveling around Europe, I had a great self-imposed souvenir rule to keep myself from buying a bunch of exciting foreign crap, thereby filling up my already ginormous backpack and using up my limited shoestring travel funds. That rule: only buy floaty pens and postcards. Compact, cheap, it worked like a charm.

Living in Mexico, I have a less formalized rule (as our walls and bookcases filled with handicrafts can attest), but it turns out that jewelry is the thing I usually can't talk myself out of buying. "Look! It's so small! I'll actually use it! Sparkly!" And my jewelry box/dish/other box overfloweth. Still, at my most recent visit to IKEA, I couldn't convince myself to dish out twenty dollars for this lovely stainless steel jewelry dish. I still covet it.

And as an artistic side note: shiny metal dishes + crosshatching = ahhh! Still trying to figure out how to show various shades of gray using only black markers.

9 January 2010

Grande Chai Latte: $4

I know, I know, Starbucks is an evil globalizer, driving mom and pop coffee shops out of business and blandifying (a word?) the american landscape, but, man, they make a fine cup of chai (see 4 January re: Mexico's shitty tea assortment).

8 January 2010

Wii Remote + Nunchuk: $50

So we are now the proud owners of a Wii. Sort of. While delivering his brother-in-law to parts north, Luis picked up a Wii he found on Craig's List. However, there are some catches, the first and most troublesome being that he plans on selling it. That fact alone causes my gaming-addicted little brother to start twitching and whimpering involuntarily. Add to it the fact that the model he bought only came with one controller (wiimote?), so you can't actually play against anyone, just the computer, and also the one sad, non-Mario Kart sports game that we have to play on it, and I'm just sadly nonplussed by the svelte white box of technological wonder glowing silently under our television. Add another controller and Mario Kart, however, and you'd never hear from me again.

7 January 2010

Book: $30

Books are pricey here in Mexico. Crazy pricey. For starters, they cost more than they do in the US. Springing 30 bones for the paperback above seemed a bit offensive to me. But when you add to that the fact that the minimum wage here is $5 A DAY, you start to understand why there's not much of a culture of reading, outside of the richie riches. Whereas in other lands, people connect over favorite authors or their favorite books, I've bonded with the hot dog stand guy (mysteriously called "The Antennas") based solely on the fact that we like to read. "You like books? I like books, too. Have another hot dog."

So although this is a book I've been meaning to read for years, I had to take a pass. Even though it was defying the odds just by existing in the always minuscule books-in-English section at the book store (which inevitably includes a combination of the following: books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, Isabel Allende and Paul Cohello, a biography of Obama and/or The Audacity of Hope, the Twilight series, and not much else). History will just have to keep on waiting for me to catch up.

6 January 2010

New MacBook: $1199

I bought my first computer at the Mac store in Chicago, when I took my big shiny white box (and free scanner/printer!), and jumped into a cab back to my one-bedroom in Logan Square, not trusting my fellow Chicagoans to leave me and my purchase intact on the bus and subway ride home. That was back in 2005, and my little old G4 is still chugging gloriously along. I have stuffed it full of all of the hard drive and RAM that it can hold, and now I'm continuing blindly on with it, fingers crossed and hoping to hell not to hear its death rattle. It the great scheme of things, $1500 for 5 years of computing isn't such a bad deal, but it's also what a house in Detroit is running these days. I'm gunning for the house first.

5 January 2010

Perfume: $45

My grandma and I wear the same perfume, and I am without shame. That is all.

4 January 2010

Genmaicha Tea: $3.29

Everman (aka Greatest Roommate Ever) first introduced me to this toasted-brown-rice-with-green-tea tea, serving it all right and proper by letting it steep in its own wee tea pot before pouring me a wee nutty cup. Everything is wee at Everman's house. I hadn't had any for a while (Mexico is not known for its stellar tea assortment), until I spotted a bag while purchasing sushi-making provisions with my mom in Detroit last summer. I asked her to spot me for it, and let me tell you, people, nothing makes a mother more nervous for the financial well-being of her grown-ass 30 year old daughter than having her ask to be spotted for a three dollar bag of green tea. No, I assured her, post-intervention, I just didn't have cash, I didn't want to put a mere three dollars on my debit card, I can buy like two bags of tea for every hour of classes I give, depending on how the peso is doing, really, working like hell to start your own business and earning small amounts of a poorly-valued foreign currency is super-cool, now PLEASE JUST BUY ME SOME SOOTHING GENMAICHA TEA AND STOP MAKING ME FEEL LIKE SUCH A FUCK-UP.

And now that bag is almost empty.

3 January 2010

Plane Ticket to Chicago for next weekend: a lot of dollars

Not a whole lot to say about this one. Missing the annual Papa Cold party with my looney tune friends that I love and miss. Boo.

2 January 2010

Kick-Ass Converse: $95.00

I saw these in the Gran Plaza Fashion Mall (really) last week in the window of the Converse store, right before my wallet got stolen, making their purchase even less likely. I asked as to whether the shoes are men's or women's, and learned that they're unisex, which means they exist in my size, which is a small miracle in itself. Then I asked the price, which made my jaw drop a little. Apparently, they're a special edition by fancy-pants designer John Varvatos. Also apparently, I have expensive taste in sneakers. Ah well.

1 January 2010

Franklin Covey Planner refill pages: $21.95

My dad got me hooked on this planner in middle school when he and I went and bought our empty leather binders and picked out all of the page tabs and pockets and dividers we deemed applicable to our respective lives. I've bought the refill pages to put in that same black leather binder, at more or less the beginning of each year up until 2007, when my expat life got in the way. This year I've got a smaller, non-refillable planner that Luis went all the way to San Francisco to get for me for x-mas.