I have decided...

..my old picture was a little too revealing, and not appropriate for intended blog audience (My family). I don't really like this one very much as I am taking very posed picture of myself in front of my own facebook page which makes me look very vain, but it will have to do for now.

More of My Neighborhood

Dear Readers:

I am on a high due to my new neighborhood/house. It is all so beautiful. I bet all of you are jealous of my ideal living situation.

I have a house

Dear Very Few Loyal Readers:

This is my new house and street. As you can see, I will be living a life of luxury and opulence a la J-LO/Florida Keys. Except I will be more like Maria of the Sound of Music (minus blonde hair, singing talent, nanny-title, nun status and handsome love interest) because I will be living in Austrian household and will be taking romantic bike rides through the dew-misted forests of Clayton.

I will wake up to the warmth of the magnificent Panamanian sun and the sounds of birds chirping. After a filling breakfast, I will spend my mornings painting idyllic nature scapes, channeling Vincent Van Gogh's Arles phase (sans self-mutilating tendencies and depressive episodes), and I will think about how nice a garden would look but decide to envision it rather than make it happen. However, I will vow to hire a gardener when my finances improve. My hands are too dainty and delicate for gardening.

In the evenings, I will drink inexpensive yet drinkable Chilean red wine from my cozy patio and have stimulating conversations with my plentiful, newfound 20/30 something friends who will naturally find me charming and delightful and enjoy my refined, European sensibilities. There will be Edith Piaf or Fado playing lightly in the background, and they will all compliment my musical taste and first-rate hostess skills.

Yes, at last, I will find true happiness.

The only problem is that I will have to maintain this new found happiness with $250 in disposable income a month not including transportation and food. I will have to become familiar with the lonely old rich white guy crowd -- preferably recently widowed so I don't have to be a home wrecker -- and see if any of the more generous among them are interested in late-in-life/May-December romance/companionship.

Good News and Bad News

So the lady who sells chontaduros in front of El Rey is back after a long break and three are only 25 cents! I've been getting three a day for the last few days because I have an irresistable attraction and love for them. Well, I decided today to do a little research about them because I've been eating so many...and I discovered that while nutritionally rich, they each have about 200 calories. They are smaller than a lemon!!!

I think it's time to cut back from three a day to three a week. If only they weren't so delicious.

VIP THEATER

I forgot to mention one exciting weekend discovery: The Cinepolis VIP theater. For the price of a regular price U.S. movie ticket, you get fully reclining leather seats and waiter service. So if you feel like you need popcorn half way through the movie, you just press a little button, a light comes on, and a waiter is at your seat in a couple minutes to take your order! Also, at this very fancy theater, a large popcorn is only $2.60!!! Tati and I went to see Ghosts of Girlfriends past at the VIP theater this past weekend and it was a horrible, horrible movie that leaves you wondering how something so terrible can even make it to theaters...but because we'd paid for the VIP experience, we stayed. That is when you think to yourself, "Well, at least the seats are comfortable....

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When we got in the taxi to go to the movies, we told the driver we were going to the VIP theater in Multiplaza. And he said to Tati and I, "I have an idea, how about I go with you guys and shower you with kisses, except I won't obstruct your view, don't worry." He then went on to ask us if we'd ever "done it in a theater." I need some good taxi driver responses -- I always seem to get overly forward drivers. Despite telling him that we were 14 and he was too old to be saying such things, he didn't seem disuaded. We ran out of his car as fast as possible and didn't even argue when he overcharged us. Some of the things taxi drivers say in this country -- they'd be arrested in the U.S.