Thursday, December 28, 2017

Last night I only took 1 sleeping pill, fell asleep quickly but woke up at 2am.  It was raining lightly but I don’t know if that’s what woke me.  I’m not sure I ever fell back asleep – seems like I didn’t.  I finally got up at 8am, took an Excedrin Migraine and was soon feeling better.

I left the apt at 9am, didn’t wait for a bus and was at the metro station after a 15 minute walk.  Herman was there and I talked briefly with him.  He said he had the flu for a while so maybe that’s why I hadn’t seen him in some time.

I arrived at the chess league just before 10am.  Jose was there and we played a game of chess which he won. 

Then we walked over to El Chapparal.  I talked about how their menu had changed and he showed me where my filet and pepper steak were still on the menu.  I ordered the filet – pink but no blood and he ordered the baby beef.  My filet didn’t look like what I expected but it was tasty – after I removed the bacon and mushrooms.  I think the pepper steak is still my favorite.  Our meal cost us each about 45mil - $15.

After we paid, Jose asked if they would mind if we played chess on a back table.  They agreed and we sat down and we both ordered Cokes.  I won the next game with the Black pieces and he won the rubber match with Black.  He said he could tell that I was rusty.

He told me how he had a heart attack last August 31^st and had a triple bypass.  He says he’s still walking a little slowly but I didn’t notice it much.

We decided we would meet like this every Tuesday to play chess – and hopefully have a nice steak for lunch.  If for some reason we can’t make Tuesday we probably can reschedule for Thursday.

At 3:30 it was feeling a little chilly and I looked on my cellphone and it was only 73 degrees.

I left about 4pm, he took a taxi back to his apt and I took the metro back to Envigado.

I stopped at the bakery but no blueberry muffins today.  I stopped at the other bakery where I had a café con leche.

Back at the apt Teresa and I watched one of the DVDs I bought last Thursday.  It was Stalked by my Neighbor (5.2) and Teresa really liked it.  I only watched the action scenes as it was only in Spanish with no way to change the settings.  The DVD had FULL SPANISH printed on the DVD itself although the packaging stated that the audio and video were available in English and Spanish.

Then we started watching another FULL SPANISH DVD named Mother (6.8).  I was able to set it for English with Spanish subtitles.  I bought this movie mainly because it starred Jennifer Lawrence, Javier Bardem, Ed Harris, and Michelle Pfeiffer.  It turned out to be one of the most ridiculous movies I’ve seen in my life.  We didn’t finish it and after I ejected it from my laptop I was so offended with the movie I broke the DVD into pieces.

Teresa was listening to Laura talking to someone using her laptop in her bedroom.  She motioned me over but indicated I should stand to the side of the doorway.  I couldn’t hear much but I did hear Laura say a few words in English.  Teresa told me she’s interviewing for a child care job with a Chinese man and an American woman.  It was only later I learned that unbeknowst (now there’s an interesting word – fancy?  rare?) to me she had applied for an au pair job with Au pair World.com and they live in Texas.  Afterwards Laura shared that the couple have a 3 year old son and are expecting twin boys at the end of February.

Laura forwarded me an email that the couple sent her.  They live in Austin, Texas, read hundreds of au pair profiles, reviewed 200 applications and chose Laura.  I understand she won’t need to drive but we may need to work on her English a bit.  She will receive $400 a week in addition to room and board.  She will have weekends off but might want to join the family in their activities.

At this point we still have a lot of questions.  Does the family initiate the visa process or do we?  Does the family pay for the airfare?  We hope this works out for Laura and we’ll nail some of these things down over time.

Teresa will have to go to San Andres to her Laura’s birth certificate and then Laura will need to get a Colombian passport.

To be continued…

I wasn’t taking any chances so I took 2 sleeping pills and went to bed and was soon asleep.

T-shirt of the day: More than just a pretty face.