Mexico… Isla Mujeres… haven for healing and mourning
I had big plans for Mexico this year. The goal was to get to Isla with useful equipment this time so that I could start making stuff immediately or at least soon after arrival.
The best laid plans.
To begin with, by the time I got to Isla I was in sorry shape. I worked till the beginning of the month and then was trying to take care of stuff… health stuff and dead people stuff and going through ten thousand boxes stuff and still trying to make stuff outside my apartment in Norwalk. My landlord had allowed me to set up a table to do some welding by the side of his house and I really wanted to complete something… anything but let's face it, fall in New England is fucking cold and dark and ungenerous for such endeavors. I did make a couple of things though. (pic here)
Additionally, I had a shitload of anxiety trying to find a machine I could take and something I could take it in. I was convinced that TSA or the airline was going to mess with me. I had read on the American Airlines site that said that during the holiday season boxes were not allowed as checked bags. I guess a lot of Mexican or central/south american folks try to bring home televisions and other electronic stuff to their families because the taxes on them – at least in Mexico – is crazy expensive.
This lead to a lot of searching for the right “bag” box and wondering if the Mexicans would try to nail me with taxes and fear that somehow I wouldn't get the welder to Mexico at all. In the end I settled for a rolling suitcase packed with foam and hoped. This was also one of the first times that I realized (later) that all my worrying was totally for naught. No one even blinked and I didn't get stopped by customs in Mexico either. Sadly, this lesson has not stuck with me and I still worry… but I'm getting better.
I was supposed to spend New Year's Eve with my friend Katy in Brooklyn.. relaxing.
What actually happened was that I was still moving stuff to my storage space 45 minutes in the opposite direction in the morning, then cleaning my apartment till 7pm. During my frenzy to get the hell out of the apartment I had a moment where I couldn't find one of my hearing aids and then… total utter meltdown. I called Katy breathing so hard and fast that I could barely speak and then started choking/crying. She talked me down. I finally found it and finally got out of the apartment but ended up having to hire a car to take me to Brooklyn because I was so late and I still had to repack and organize a bunch of documents to leave with Katy for emergency purposes.... till 4am.
New Years sucked ass.
My hands were swollen and infected from cleaning and being outside and stress
My ears were totally blocked up
I was exhausted and pissed and depressed.
and that's the state in which I flew to Isla.
I had big plans for Mexico this year. The goal was to get to Isla with useful equipment this time so that I could start making stuff immediately or at least soon after arrival.
The best laid plans.
To begin with, by the time I got to Isla I was in sorry shape. I worked till the beginning of the month and then was trying to take care of stuff… health stuff and dead people stuff and going through ten thousand boxes stuff and still trying to make stuff outside my apartment in Norwalk. My landlord had allowed me to set up a table to do some welding by the side of his house and I really wanted to complete something… anything but let's face it, fall in New England is fucking cold and dark and ungenerous for such endeavors. I did make a couple of things though. (pic here)
Additionally, I had a shitload of anxiety trying to find a machine I could take and something I could take it in. I was convinced that TSA or the airline was going to mess with me. I had read on the American Airlines site that said that during the holiday season boxes were not allowed as checked bags. I guess a lot of Mexican or central/south american folks try to bring home televisions and other electronic stuff to their families because the taxes on them – at least in Mexico – is crazy expensive.
This lead to a lot of searching for the right “bag” box and wondering if the Mexicans would try to nail me with taxes and fear that somehow I wouldn't get the welder to Mexico at all. In the end I settled for a rolling suitcase packed with foam and hoped. This was also one of the first times that I realized (later) that all my worrying was totally for naught. No one even blinked and I didn't get stopped by customs in Mexico either. Sadly, this lesson has not stuck with me and I still worry… but I'm getting better.
I was supposed to spend New Year's Eve with my friend Katy in Brooklyn.. relaxing.
What actually happened was that I was still moving stuff to my storage space 45 minutes in the opposite direction in the morning, then cleaning my apartment till 7pm. During my frenzy to get the hell out of the apartment I had a moment where I couldn't find one of my hearing aids and then… total utter meltdown. I called Katy breathing so hard and fast that I could barely speak and then started choking/crying. She talked me down. I finally found it and finally got out of the apartment but ended up having to hire a car to take me to Brooklyn because I was so late and I still had to repack and organize a bunch of documents to leave with Katy for emergency purposes.... till 4am.
New Years sucked ass.
My hands were swollen and infected from cleaning and being outside and stress
My ears were totally blocked up
I was exhausted and pissed and depressed.
and that's the state in which I flew to Isla.