Friday 5/27- A few weeks ago one evening from our house we could hear live music coming from one of the restaurants nearby. It was good ol’ American rock & roll, and something that Ramie and I could see ourselves enjoying on a night out- not that we ever go out to listen to live music now, nor did we back in the US. Even when we were invited to friend's gigs, we always said we should go- but we just never did, we just preferred to stay at home I guess, and moving to CR hasn’t changed anything about that part of us.
The following Monday when Ramie went to work at the animal sanctuary the group of regular local volunteers was standing around talking about their weeks prior to starting work and Ramie mentioned the music that we had heard. This when he found out that the music we could hear was being played by a band that the husband of one of the ladies that he works with is in. She then went on to tell the group a bit about the band, the type of music they play, some of the bands and songs that are part of their sets, and that they would be having one more show here in town before one of the band members was heading back to the US for a while. A couple of the girls that he works with at the sanctuary were all going to be there and were trying really hard to convince Ramie to go. Of course, because of the way we have always been, he wouldn’t commit to it, but he did agree that it sounded like it would be a lot of fun.
That last show is tonight.
I can literally count the number of times on my hands that we have been out past 6pm here, and there have been even fewer times that we have left from our house after 4pm. Tonight, I think we set a record late time for ourselves by leaving the house at about 5:50. The bar/restaurant that was hosting tonight’s gig wasn’t far from us at all, and they were scheduled to start at 6, so we got ourselves dressed up for a “date night” and we went to grab a drink and have a good time. When we got there it didn’t take long for Jo, the wife of the lead singer, the lady that Ramie works with, to find us and say hi. She introduced us to her husband Mark while the rest of the band was warming up, and before long, we found a table and sat down to enjoy the evening. A while later another one of the girls Ramie knew from the animal sanctuary showed up and came to introduce herself to me as well. While talking to her and her husband we met a few of their other friends and chatted with them while still enjoying the music.
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This is fun! Why dont we do this more often? Oh ya, its past our bedtime! Haha
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We were having so much fun that when the band was finished (just after 9pm), we decided to keep the night going and head to the Beer Garden because we knew that they had some live musing going on tonight as well. When we saw these music nights advertised we have always been interested to check them out but of course we just had never done it yet. We knew that it was going to be a different type of music than the Live American Rock that we were just listening to, but that was ok with us. When we got there we found a table, ordered a drink, and sat back to relax. Man- this music was REALLY different, and not quite what we expected. We knew it was a DJ playing, but didn’t realize it was going to be trippy/trance club type music. Rave on! (Unfortunately I didn't even think of taking any pictures here at this party scene).
Out of the blue a guy walked up and started chatting with Ramie. When Ramie introduced me to him, it turned out that it was Chris, the new renter at our old rental house. We chatted for a bit, finished our drink and decided that was enough, and headed back home from our date night. It’s fun to do things that are out of our ordinary once in a while, and tonight was one of those fun things!
Saturday 5/28 & Sunday 5/29- For those of you that have followed our blog from the beginning, if you think back to our December & January posts, you’ll remember that is about the time we started working with the cabinet maker to order all of the custom wood furniture and fixtures that we needed in our house. Then, in March right around the time we moved into the house, we ordered a few more things including shelving for our dry room/walk-in closet, shelving for our laundry room, a pantry & 2 dressers. We are now nearly at the end of May, and there are still parts of our orders (including the original January order) that have not been finished and delivered. I have been mostly patient up to this point, but I’m tired of having my groceries in a Rubbermaid bin on the floor instead of on pantry shelves, I’m tired of my things just stacked in piles on the floor in our dry room, and I’m tired of excuse after excuse for why he hasn’t been able to finish. About a week ago we were venting to Geiner about how long it is taking Jose to finish the last of our order and how we were really hoping to be able to put our things away before our next guests came down. Hearing about this must have upset him and he told us that Jose’s “reasons” for not getting it finished yet are terrible excuses that Geiner is fairly certain weren’t the whole truth. Being the fantastic friend that he is, Geiner took matters into his own hands. He called up Jose and put the hammer down. We don’t know exactly what was said, but I’m guessing it was something along the lines of “finish their stuff or I won’t send you any more work”. Well, that kind of kicked things into gear. This weekend we were finally getting the rest of our things installed. Let me tell you- I have never been so excited to finally be able to put my groceries or my laundry away! I’m very glad that this is finally finished!
It’s May 28! What is so special about May 28th you may ask….. It is 1 our one year anniversary of selling our house and leaving MN. It is so hard to believe that it’s already been a year! Looking back, it doesn’t feel like it has been a long time, but it DOES feel like we have accomplished a ton. Learning how to get through all of the non-tourist, day-to-day life things (like banking, residency, etc.) was a huge learning experience, but we made it. We bought a car, bought land, and built a house. Ramie started to learn Spanish and while he understands it way better than he can speak it, he is doing great. He can even go take care of day to day tasks around town without me interpreting for him! My Spanish, while still not great, is getting better too. I have started several new jobs, we’ve made new friends, and so many more things that I could add to this list. It is just crazy to think of all of the changes that we’ve made in the last year, and we are still loving it! We do, however, miss all of our friends and family back home. We hope that one day you consider a nice vacation and come visit us. We want to thank you all for your support this past year! It really does mean a lot to us!
Thursday 6/2- Tomorrow our 2nd set of guests arrive, and since they won’t be here as long as Taylor and Dylan were, we won’t be bringing them to San Isidro for the farmers market and grocery shopping. Instead, we are doing some pre-shopping, picking up some fruit and veggies from the farmers market and some pantry staples from Walmart. We also had a few other stops to make for other items that we needed around the house, but today we had to hurry. This is my first San Isidro Thursday where I have to get back home in time to work for a few hours this afternoon. It’s a good thing that we don’t have house things to search for any more or we would have run out of time! Fortunately we were able to get through all of our shopping and made it back on the road to home at a decent time. We made it home with enough time to put away about half of the groceries before I had to start up my computer and get working. I wanted to put in a few hours this afternoon so I could have all of my hours for the week finished before Ramie has to go pick up our guests tomorrow. If I had all of my hours in and then I would be able to ride along to welcome the next guests to Casa Costa Breeze!
Pura Vida!
Edie and I think that you are having to much fun and you should do more work to support our SS income. Enjoy life to the fullest, you deserve it!
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