Hey y’all! I’m making time to write more, and it feels great. This morning, I responded to a writing prompt by Susannah Rigg, an author/ blogger I follow. She recently shared 20 facts about herself, including that she now lives in Mexico. I saw that we had a lot in common, so I responded with the following 20 facts about myself. It was originally just for Susannah, but I figured y’all would enjoy reading this as well. And if you’d like to respond with 20 Things About You…go for it! I’d love to read it.

1. I have lived in Mexico for six months — this time around. The first time, my family moved to Guadalajara when I was 16. My dad is Brazilian and he worked in sales, and he had an amazing opportunity to become the general manager of the Mexican branch of the company. He didn’t know Spanish, but they decided Portuguese was close enough. My family was used to moving across the country due to previous job transfers, so moving across the border was not a huge stretch for us. It was quite an adventure and I loved my year in Guad, but when I turned 18 I couldn’t wait to move back to Texas and attend a university. I have not missed the irony that, over 30 years later, I couldn’t wait to move back to Mexico. Every time I would visit my parents (they stayed!), I realized more and more how much I loved it here, and how much of a stranger the United States had become.

2. I have visited 22 out of 31 Mexican states, 12 out of 35 Mexican UNESCO World Heritage sites, and lived in two of those Mexican states (Jalisco and Nayarit).

3. Because of my Brazilian heritage, I “pass” for Latina often, and people often spoke to me in Spanish right away, even when I lived in the States. Here in my tiny pueblita of Higuera Blanca, Lurko and I stick out a little more. We are obviously not from around here.

4. I graduated with a bachelor’s in journalism, but I chickened out because I worried there wouldn’t be any money in it. I tried public relations (which was awful), and education (which was wonderful). And now I am returning to writing as a career. I seem to be making a theme of returning to things.

5. As a child and young adult, I would habitually lose myself in bookstores. The section would depend on what I was obsessed with at the time. Interests included nature, the occult, horror, gaming, travel, education, antiques, home improvement, self-improvement, sustainable living, and many more. As I grew older and more “busy,” I turned away from reading, thinking I didn’t have the time for it. I now realize what a tragic mistake that has been, and I am returning to that as well.

6. I have a small scar on my left shin from falling out of an inflatable raft. It flipped over in the Salmon River in Idaho during a family reunion in 1999. (“We know you’re afraid of the water, but come with us, it’s perfectly safe!”) I have two more scars, one on my right forearm and one under my right breast, that mark my escapes from skin cancer and breast cancer. 

7. I never finished my Ph.D. I got about halfway through my program in Special Education when I realized I was simply not that interested in what my instructors wanted me to research. Also, a puppy had come into my life and he was so much more interesting and fulfilling. It was no contest. Twelve years later, I still have my sweet Auggie.

8. I spent a lot of time recovering from being a people pleaser. I credit a lot to self-administered cognitive behavioral therapy, a little to a good traditional therapist, and a big chunk to quitting drinking and drugs six years ago.

9. Physically and spiritually, I find that I most enjoy hiking outdoors with my two dogs. I feel so fortunate that I live less than a mile from the beach in one direction, and Monkey Mountain in the other. I also love birding, so I get to incorporate that as well.

10. My clothes habits are a mix of Amazon and secondhand stores. Years of inline skating and a year of bunion surgery showed me that I tend to pronate, so I am very careful about wearing good shoes. These days I am a big fan of Skechers. They make shoes with insoles that compensate for my pronation, and they are so, so comfortable. (Still learning about affiliate marketing but I smell a future link here.)

11. I am a big fan of sci fi shows and superhero comics. Last month was a good month for streaming, as we got new episodes of Doctor Who, The Boys, Star Wars’ The Acolyte, and Star Trek’s Prodigy. I am most excited about Deadpool and Wolverine coming out this month.

12. My astro sign is Cancer, and Lurko is also a Cancer. (My ex-husband was an Aries, and I should have known right then that it wasn’t going to stick.) Lurko is exactly one year and one day older than me, and we celebrate our birthdays together. We were long distance for five years, and six months ago we moved in together … in Mexico. It’s been an interesting journey and now you are reading a blog about it, because I think other people might be interested in reading about us too.

13. Thirteen is my lucky number. I was born on July 13, and I have a 13 tattooed on my wrist. I love black cats, and I enjoy turning other superstitions like these on their heads.

14. I don’t have children. I joke that taking care of other people’s kids was enough, but the truth is I never wanted them. When I was a child I worried about overpopulation destroying the planet, and I didn’t want to add to that. When I was a teenager I was taught that getting pregnant was the worst thing that could possibly happen to me and having children would ruin my life. As an adult, I helped a good friend through her pregnancy, and hers went well, but watching it sort of cemented that motherhood really wasn’t a thing that I wanted. People kept telling me, “oh you’ll change your mind once you get older,” but I’m about to be 52 and no, I have not changed my mind. I love kids but I don’t need to create little carbon copies of myself to be fulfilled.

15. I don’t worry too much about sleep. Some nights I sleep great and some nights I don’t. I’m usually in bed by 9, like an old person, and I wake up around 4-5am and read before my dogs get me up at 6.

16. I suppose I would be considered an introvert in both English and Spanish — unless you get me going on a topic I’m passionate about, then I won’t shut up. Higuera Blanca, where I live, is already pretty remote, and I live on the side of a hill just outside of town. My nearest neighbors are horses. I love it, but Lurko is more of a social creature and he has been having a tough time. I recognize that as humans we need to have social connections, so I do want to make more of an effort to make friends. It’s hard to do here, though, in our tiny little pueblita where we don’t have a lot in common with its inhabitants. They all know my parents and are nice enough to me and Lurko. Most of them are kind, hard-working people, but we haven’t made many connections yet. My one Higuera friend is Canadian, and she only lives here from November to April. We have a few friends in Sayulita and La Cruz, but it’s not easy to find time to get together. But we’re trying. 

17. On rituals and magic: I have my connections with nature, and sometimes I see or hear a bird that is significant to me depending on where I am at that day. I also love art, and putting these things together, it is easy to see why I am so very fascinated by the Huichol people. I love their art and their love of nature, and how two things are so intertwined with their spirituality. The more I learn the more I love it. At some point I am going to paint Huichol symbols on the side of my house– maybe a gecko on the East side and a hummingbird on the North side. I am collecting ideas for inspiration on my Pinterest, and hope to one day visit the Huichol town near Tepic called Zitákua.

18: At home, I really enjoy sitting on my covered patio with my chai latte and looking at the view of the mountains. On a clear day, I can also see a sliver of the ocean. Today it has been particularly buggy, so I am currently enjoying the view from behind the 20mm mesh screens we brought from the States to keep the biting jejenes out. A lot of concessions are made to peacefully co-exist with the jungle.

19. I’m not sure I have a single favorite city. In the States I love Chicago, New York, San Francisco, and Seattle, and could visit all four a million times. I loved Istanbul, Krakow, and Cape Town, and would go back to those in a heartbeat. I will always have a special place in my heart for Moscow and Saint Petersburg, but due to the current climate I don’t think I’ll be able to return for a while. Same with São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro — I haven’t been to Brazil since 2005. I do love Mexico City, and I plan to visit as often as possible because there’s still so much to see there. Guadalajara is still fun to visit, but we’ve been gone so long it doesn’t feel like home anymore. I loved Puebla, Guanajuato, Querétaro, and Oaxaca cities. And I have a long list of cities yet to visit. London and Montreal are in the top 5. In Mexico I’d love to see Morelia, Mérida, Campeche, and Tepic. And of course, every single Pueblo Magico. I’ve seen only eight out of 177, so I need to get crackin’ on that!

20. Ok last fact, and thanks for sticking with me for so long. I also have a long and convoluted relationship with music. My mom plays the piano so my siblings and I grew up hearing classical, but my grandpa was a bandleader in the 40s so we listened to a lot of Big Band as well. On my dad’s side, we had an uncle who was a semi-famous bossa nova musician, so we heard a lot of Brazilian music. My dad himself enjoyed 50s and 60s rock n’ roll, so we know the lyrics to all those old songs. And now the songs we loved from the 70s, 80s, and 90s are considered “oldies” –ugh!! Here in Mexico I enjoy a little cumbia, a little banda (happy tuba music), a little reggaeton, some classic Maná that reminds me of Guadalajara in the 90s, and an odd little genre that Lurko and I call “Mexican ska.” I can’t name a single artist, but it’s always on the radio and it’s starting to grow on me. It seems very appropriate for the beach, or road trips.