Day 60: When time slips through your fingers

How difficult it has been to reach this 60th post. I do hate it when the job becomes so overwhelming there's no time left for the little pleasures of life.

Right now, I'm cheating on my working shift, given the fact I'm suppossed to be collecting a certain information for my boss and I'm ditching instead, but my poor blog has been so abandoned that most of the people I get in contact with must be thinking I'm dead.

I usually keep my happy toughts for "The Usual Stuff", but I've been under so much pressure recently that I don't think I have enough left. Maybe it's just because it's monday, and I, like Garfield, happen to hate mondays, or maybe it's this heritage of adulthood that makes you feel that every second doesn't last enough when it comes to pleasent things.

That's what I think about when I explain Einstein's Relativity theory to my younger students:

when we are enjoyin the moment, time flies, but when we're bored or annoyed, it drags like a snail.

The one good thing is that I'm also using this time to continue looking for a job. If you happen to know about an English teacher or Trainer position where you live, would you be so kind as to let me know? I'd give everything to get out of this rat hole.

Day 59: The Animals and Me

As I said before, I'm comenting on some of my most recent experiences, and one of them was the opportunity to enter "Toca-Mascota" ('Touch-a-pet'), in Plaza Polanco mall.

I'm not going to extend on the bad things I got to see there (that's what 'Planeta Quejas' stands for), but on the facts that I found most relevant or amusing.

First of all, I found it kind of touching that my 6-year-old niece, who usually behaves like a brat (and don't mean the dolls by any chance), was so enthusiastic about inviting me in. I had already been planning to ask her for that favor, since adults are not allowed in without invitation, but the idea came totally from her. I guess it's because I'm the only one in the family as crazy for pets as she is, and she knows it.

When you enter the facility, which reminds me of a gigantic fishbowl with a bench in it, you are told to rub your hands with some sort of disinfectant, to prevent animals from getting any disease. But I guess it must contain a certain amount of alcohol because, when I was holding a ferret, it started enthusiastically to lick my hands. Funny thing was it didn't stop there, 'cause it climbed up my arm, made itself comfortable at my shoulder and started licking my chin. Some people will say this is disgusting, but I was having a very good time.

Later on, I had the chance to hold a phyton boa. It felt like a plastic hose full of cool oil, and its skin was very soft and smooth. Contrary to their usual behavior, this one was rather lively, slithering its way up my arms and, when I hold it in front of my face to take a good look at its head, it touched the tip of my nose with its tongue, which I found really surprising, because it was really soft and delicate.

Finally, they lent me a chinchilla, which is some sort of super-sized mouse. I've never touched anything that soft ever in my life. It's almost impossible to describe. Like fluffy velvet, I think. Unfortunately, the chinchilla wasn't having as good a time as me, 'cause it was pretty frightened and nervous, especially after my niece tried to put it on its back. But since I have a little experience dealing with scaredy cats, I was able to calm it a little bit down and enjoy the pleasure of its amazingly soft fur.

I wish this kind of experiences were available to adults as well. The ability to wonder is not exclusive of children, for me at least, and I would love to have more chances to experience the unknown. I really enjoyed this experience, and my inner child had good chance to share a good moment with my niece.

Day 58: A special weekend

These was a happy weekend, full of events, ‘cause I was finally able to accomplish three things I had been looking forward to doing for a long time.

1. WII: Finally, at last, after such a long wait, I was able to purchase my Wii console. It didn’t come cheap, tough, since I had to buy it at “Liverpool” department store, but I was lucky enough to find a sale with 18 months installments, interest free. WEEEEEEE!!.

2. Bowling set: I also purchased my first (and hopefully not the last) bowling set, with ball, shoes, bag and wristband. This was possible ‘cause both my bosses are pro bowlers, and when they learned about my interest on this sport, they helped me by paying the equipment with their supplier and discounting it from my paycheck in 10 comfortable installments. Al last I’m getting something good out of my company!

3. Toca Mascota: I was able to sneak my way into “Toca-mascota” (“Touch-a-pet”). This is a facility sponsored by “Mascota” pet shop, where kids can go and lay their hands on different animals. My 6-year-old niece renewed her membership and suddenly decided she wanted to share her obsession with pets with her favorite auntie (the only one that goes along with that), and invited me in, which was very fortunate, since adults are not allowed in there without a kid (=P). So I had the chance to hold different animals in my hands: a ferret, a python boa, a parrot, a tortoise and a chinchilla, which happens to have the softest fur I have ever touched, and get a kiss from the ferret and the snake, but I'll talk about that later.

And at last, I'm able to say at least one good thing about my job, since the rest remains as crappy as usual. Thank God, next weekend I'll be able to go bowling, and the poor pins will have to pay for it. Muahjahjahjah!

Day 57: TEEN LOVE

I recently heard on a cartoon that teen love never lasts. The passion, commitment and even obsession we are able to feel when we are between 13 and 18 years old eventually wears off as we grow old into grumpy, hurt and paranoid adults. I am fortunate to say that is not my case.

I met this classmate when I was 15. We happened to be together in the first year of high school. He was handsome, sportive, intelligent and cultivated and he managed to become popular almost at once, while I was naïve, overweight, nerdy and nothing more than a wall-paper flower at most. Of course, I fell for the guy immediately. For months, I fought to catch his attention, unsuccessfully, of course, and only managing to embarrass myself each time in front of him and the whole class at the same time.

After a while, he became boyfriend with my best friend. Well, that wasn’t an easy-to-take blow, but I survived through it because I was truly in love with this guy, and by that I don’t mean this obsession about “getting the guy”. It was mainly because I had been able to evolve from the teenage infatuation into a real interest for the person itself. I remembered (and still do) the words from a former junior-high teacher, may God bless him forever, who had told me that you stopped being in love with love when you managed to still love a person even after finding out about his defects. Now that was something that put things into a more realistic perspective, and indeed helped me not to lose my head completely. I was lucky enough to become some sort of ‘best friend’ to him, and get to observe all his defects closely. I found out about his arrogance, his insecurity, his boasting and his family problems. And still I knew I liked him.

For seven years (seven years! Can you believe that?) I clinged on the hope that we eventually would end up together. And finally I succeeded. We spent 3 weeks as an official couple before realizing we were loaded with a heavy burden of past events and too many different points of view on life to carry on. We broke up,obvously, without tears nor regrets, but promising to be friends forever.

And so it has been for the last 10 years. Although our sentimental relationships are all settled, we still get to see each other and find that special person we are able to share everything with. Things that we don’t tell our significant others are easily discussed among us. Any sort of problem can be analyzed and solved, while receiving the most neutral, loving and objective support one may wish for. Not even a professional counselor could provide such variety of angles from which take a view into situations. And,the most important, we never, ever, get to judge each other. Whatever mess the other gets into, we refrain from pronouncing a final judgment on the person, which is something not even the family is able to do, and you know what I mean. Even our closest relatives can’t refrain themselves from uttering such horrible phrases such as “Oh, how could you be so stupid?”, “For God’s sake, couldn’t you foresee this was coming?”, “Well, when you screw it, you always do it big time, don’t you?”, or, even worse, help you out with this humiliating look of pity and hidden superiority in their eyes.

But that has never happened between my friend and I. We have reached that rare level of relation where two adults get to understand a person’s individual decisions. We know that sometimes our best friends are there to see us take some stupid leaps, and fall flat on our faces, and throw a blanket on the pavement before we scratch it with our teeth; friends are there to share their time when they have to work early next morning, their money at the end of the fortnight, their food when they only have one piece of bread, their cars when they have a tight agenda, and their support when there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. And so we have done.

After so many years (come on; who’s been able to keep a friendship for 17 years?), I do keep a special place in my heart for this guy. And that doesn’t mean I am a cheater. I have been living happily with my significant other for two years, after dating for seven (a total record, ain’t it?), and he is about to settle down with his girlfriend after a three-year romance, which makes me really happy, after knowing how much trouble he used to have to maintain a serious relationship. It means that, in this world of loners, we have been blessed with a friendship that goes beyond brotherhood, a bond even thicker than blood itself. A friendship that is willing to commit from the moneybag to the blood, and a kind of love most people never find, not even among their relatives.

Day 56: Hell Unleashed, Retribution Day

I think this must be unbelievable and unthinkable in developed countries. Working on holidays? Without payment? Well, that happens in Mexico, my friends. Bad thing is, IT HAPPENS TO ME.

I have been assigned a radio-locator in the office, the most devilish device ever created by men to prey on men. In my company, that means you "officially" become available 24/7.

As you know, last Tuesday was a Holiday. I knew what was coming: my boss dared to ask me to report for work, and I plainly said no, 'cause my chore schedule is very tight. He was ok at the moment, but today, it is time to pay.

I've been working my ass off for 16 hours... YES, 16 HOURS IN A ROW, working on this goddammed project that was twisted from the very beginning. It's 11 pm, CT, and there's no hope of goin home. Of course, The Boss is making me pay for skivving off work, and I knew it was comming.

Ah, but there are other ways to get even, rest assured. As you can see, while I'm supposed to be working on a translation, I've been catching up with my blogger friends and posting. I've been drinking as many free sodas as I can (by now, my bladder is about to explode) and I swear I'm gonna have as many snacks as I can smuggle home, and the manager who has been teasing me the whole fu**ing day has had to stay too. MUAHAHAHAHAH!!

Of course, this abusive behavior is everyday's bread. Day in, day out, we have to do our master's bidding, or suffer the consequences. AND I'M SICK AND TIRED OF IT!. I refused to come on a holiday because, if I let them step on my back once, I will become a doormat for the rest of my life.

I'm already looking for a way out of this hellhole, but the market for English teachers is way downpaid. Anyway, be sure, my dear readers, that I'll do my best to take advantage of this situation. I won't steal, as many people do here. That's not my style. But I give myself my honor word that I'll find a way to get retribution out this. Justice must be served.