Boricua en la Lima

Another 13 hours binge-watching a new series on Netflix.  This time, The 100 .  If you are into Hunger Games type of drama, then watch this and prepare with wine, chocolate and whatever else tickles your fancy for a 13-hour binge session! My only wish is that I had read the book before starting Season 1.  I'm sure I would've enjoyed the experience a lot more and for hopefully longer than 13 hours! I also really need to know when Season 2 will be added to Netflix! Anyone know? It's on Hulu but only episodes 12-16 of season 2. :( I'm not even going to talk about who got killed and who survived because: a) I'm still in shock (and frankly a bit incredulous) and b) don't want to spoil in case anyone wants to watch. Now back to reading about Elon Musk ...

Well, not really. But as one of the few people who has stuck with Grey's Anatomy through thick and thin, especially after last season, I struggle to find meaning in spending those 40 minutes catching up with the show on Hulu.  And with last Thursday's episode I found plenty of reasons!  And as usual those lessons came in the form of Webber and Bailey. First Bailey makes a huge mess of her first day as Chief being what I used to call (because I was called that) a STEAMROLLER.  She barked orders and asked for the impossible and didn't bother to listen. And of course things went horribly wrong and people were talking behind her back and hating her. Just like they did with me. And then the A-HA moments start to happen in rapid succession.  First when someone makes her understand she's being doing things all wrong.  And when they make her realize that she has it in her to make things right, she just needs to change perspectives. https://www.facebook.com/Grey...

It's that time of year again! The time where I visit the center of Lima multiple times per week and scream at government workers for not clearly explaining the process to renew my residence yearly.  The time where I scream at my husband every time I walk out of the Immigration Office and tell him I hate this country and that I want to leave! The time of year I make so many excuses for arriving late to work that no one actually believes I'm doing the same thing related to my residence permit. Except it isn't. I went at my allotted time of 8 am this morning and somehow, miraculously, I was out by 8:45 am with residence permit in hand, LEGAL for another year in Peru! Yes of course I had pre-work, some of it which is totally stupid. Like every year I have to go print out a NEW marriage certificate that shows I'm still married.  And every year I need my husband to notarize a letter that says he's responsible for me (so demeaning!), and every year I have to stand i...

Creativity, Inc. by Ed Catmull In between the lull of catching up on Hulu on the last bit of summer shows and the beginning of the Fall line up (alas it came too quick!) I have been catching up on Kindle and iBooks reading.  Last week I finished Creativity Inc ., which is honestly the best non-fiction book I've read in a long time.  As a parent (and Disney and Pixar enthusiast) I loved reading about the creative process that went into all these famous kids' movies. As a business person and marketer I loved the author's perspective about management, leadership and strategy development. Key learning for me was giving people the freedom to excel at what they're really good at in order to achieve excellence.  And finally as a Steve Jobs junkie I loved getting additional glimpses into his life and mind. The chapter specifically dedicated to Steve made me cry, I felt it rang more true than all of Walter Isaacson's biography. If you're looking for a great read I...

Yesterday was a rough day for me. Probably because I'm too sensitive and if there is such a thing, too empathetic.  One of my dear friend´s 20 month old daughter was undergoing planned open heart surgery.  She was born with a heart murmur and they waited all this time to see if it would shrink, which it did, but not enough for her to be able to live a healthy life without the risk of problems later down the road. So they made the tough choice of having the 5-6 hour open heart surgery.  At the same time as I was sending positive vibes her way I start finding out that in one of my previous jobs everyone except for 5 people are getting fired.  So my heart starts breaking little by little. The fact that my friends were getting fired was tough enough, but waiting 5-6 hours without hearing news about my friend's daughter was heart breaking to say the least.  I couldn't even imagine how my friend must have been feeling.  My dear Sebas had surgery when he was ab...

I am spending a lot of time in traffic these days so I take that as an opportunity to catch up on podcasts. What's on my listening queue (which is getting too long by the way thanks to NPR!)? The EntreLeadership podcast (not quite sure I will stick with this one long term) HBR IdeaCast Fresh Air Slice of MIT Hay House Meditations Latino USA (love love love!) This American Life (can I love anymore?!!?) The Moth (ditto) TEDTalks (who doesn't love?) Another Mother Runner (#bamr) Tara Brach Coffee Break French (gotta practice in case I ever move back to Europe!) This one podcast on Pope Francis' policies and how they have changed the Catholic church is soooo interesting. I am really intrigued by the balance he's trying to strike between being a Catholic (and inherently Conservative) and being a "Liberal" in several aspects.  I guess any topic lately which illustrates this struggle to strike a balance between two seemingly opposite themes is rea...

In my new line of work everyone is always telling me (well not just me, everyone!) "you have to write all the time", "you have to produce online content, not just share content", "you have to build your online professional presence", etc.  Well, I got kind of tired of hearing it and decided today was the day to get back into the good old forgotten blog. I’ve got a few topics I’m going to write over the next few weeks (time permitting which is scary!) but I’m going to start with an update on where I’m working, why I’m working here, and why it might be the place that just might stick... Well, here's the update. After working in Asia Sur for about 1.5-2 years (cannot remember time anymore now that I'm 41, ouch!) I left the magazine at the end of March and decided I would re-group and try to find a job that would be a much better fit with my skills and my need to balance personal and professional life. After almost 3 years of living in Peru I f...

It seems like the only time I can write a meaningful update on my life is when I’m on an airplane scared for my life.  The scared for my life part doesn’t play into the equation (although it does interrupt my writing quite a bit) but the fact that it doesn’t seem I can get any writing done otherwise is likely due to technology’s constant intrusion in my life. If there’s a wifi connection wherever I’m at I’m probably too focused on social media and other distractions to actually get any writing done. But alas, I’m siting on the plane without any interruptions (other than the occasional bump) and temporarily job-less, which leaves lots of time for writing. A better use of my time would be sleeping, but due to said fear of airplanes it’s sort of impossible for me to fly and sleep.  Anyhoo, as I said before, I’m temporarily unemployed and therefore with some free time on my hands I decided to move up my trip to Miami a few days so that I could see a good friend one last t...

Well I can't say I'm very happy about the opening paragraph but once I read through the predictions fully a lot of these things make sense.  I think I just expected 2015 to be a year for radical changes (at least compared to 2014) and it seems like it's gonna be a year for hunkering down and biding my time.  I'm not crazy about the idea of that especially given my tiger-like lack of patience, but I hope somehow it all works out for the best. We'll see in a year what actually happened looking back... I think also heard in there that I'm not supposed to work out quite as much next year.  And let's not talk about the spending less money part :) Overview Can't say that this year is anything to cheer about. Then again, you do have three good months, and there should be some opportunities in another two. With the Horse in charge, last year was probably a great one for you! But did you charge full speed ahead, trying to keep up with that Horse? You may no...

This is the time of year where I'm actually glad I live in Lima. Photo from my sister from this morning -- Branford, Connecticut. Photo from MY view last weekend. 1 hour drive south of Lima. Life is good this time of year... However, after being away from Europe for 2+ years my body is absolutely craving travel. Hopefully 2015 will bring lots of travel! And not the business kind. :)

Gabi turned 9 last week. This year I decided to forego the huge birthday party production in favor of one of those places you pay to go to for a few hours, but it still ended up being a massive party-filled week. On Monday (the day before her birthday) I was literally sick to my stomach and could barely get out of bed the whole day. I attempted to go to work around noon just so I could get her a little something to open up on Tuesday morning (her big gift was an iPod which she had already gotten a month before) but I could barely stand up. That night she looked so sad that I was sick and kept asking me "Mom, are you going to be OK tomorrow for my birthday?".  She had already said weeks ago she wanted breakfast in bed (pancakes) so damnit if I wasn't going to get better by Tuesday morning so I could make her breakfast in bed (Jose had to help some cause I was weak and woozy but we did it).  It took me basically all week to recover my energy and appetite after being sick ...

Silliness uncontrolled Acts of goofiness filmed Friendship rekindled Connections reestablished Mindfulness restored Mind quieted Thoughts scattered Honesty unobstructed Problems forgotten Conversations sparked Jokes shared Gossip amplified Heart overjoyed Energy spent and re-gained Life purpose re-thought Happiness re-analyzed Plans re-worked Dreams re-ignited Livelihood found Advice shared Music unplugged Binge-eating accepted Binge-drinking encouraged Exercise postponed Babies missed Caffeine injected  ALS challenges avoided Goodbyes un-welcomed Memories created Friendship reaffirmed Girlfriends missed

When Lima is so quiet I cannot sleep When the kids are neatly tucked in bed Waiting for the tooth fairy to brighten their day And my husband's breathing is even and stead And the sky's pinkish hue overpowers the gray That will cover the sun come the next day When no car, bird or dog makes their maddening noise When runners find that perfect peace, out on the streets with just their feet And it's only me in my bed and my running thoughts And Lima's my lover and we get along But then I'm jolted out of bed by the sound of an alarm that rings too soon Thrown into the chaos of traffic lights and honking cars And Lima and I are enemies for the day Each one struggling in the crowd of unproductive people trying to look busy So take me back to that morning glory When everything is quiet except for my head And Lima once again becomes my lover, though I cannot wed When Lima is so quiet I cannot sleep I need the chaos to fall asleep Yet I cannot stand it duri...

It has been a whirlwind of a month! First Mom came to visit for about a month and that usually coincides with one of our kid´s birthdays (this time it was Sebas´ turn). So there was a lot of running around in the beginning of April to create the most magical of Star Wars birthday parties! Except if you´re a girl or a boy under the age of 6 and then you pretty much hated the party because Darth Vader and Darth Maul were the scariest things you had ever seen in your life. Then Mom left right after the birthday party and Dad came with his wife about 2 days later to spend Easter weekend with us. It was a great visit, we did a lot of touristy things that I don´t normally get to do with Mom.   We went to the Ballesta Isles in Paracas to see the wildlife, we went to pisco tours to learn about that whole process, and we went to do the sand buggies in the Ica dessert, something I had never done before which was really cool and highly recommended, except a little scary much like this...

Recently I got the iPad mini as a Xmas present, so I gave my two kids the older Gen 2 iPad for them to play with.  Last night my daughter says can I open an instagram account for her. Well, she didn't exactly say instagram.  She goes "can you sign me up for that thing where you follow people and see their pictures"? Since I have already told her a million times she's not getting on Facebook anytime soon I assumed that she meant instagram (she did). This one friend from her classroom has an iPad mini HERSELF and likely every social media app loaded on it (I won't even comment on this, I still have to argue with my daughter every day about the fact that she's not getting a cell phone until she's at least 10).  But of course since my daughter's friend has instagram then it follows that my daughter wants to follow her friend.  So I download the app on "their" iPad, register her, and start following just a few folks (mostly family and myself of co...

I am always amazed at the Chinese Zodiac´s accuracy in predicting what will happen in a given year. I am Tiger who had a rough go at it in 2013 and is definitely hoping for a much better 2014.  Given there´s been some excitement around the office on this particular topic I thought I would post my predictions for 2014 here so I can come back in 2015 and see what happened.  I am actually copying and pasting (giving credits to the source right HERE ) because last year I posted a link to the actual web site and then the link disappeared to give way for the following year´s horoscope.  And I don´t want to miss the chance to come back next year and reflect on my horoscope for this year.  So here goes...I think I may need to especially heed the call about staying away from social networks.  Maybe blog more as an introspective way of reflecting on my life, but stay off Twitter and Facebook.  Wonder if that´s possible.  Other than that the Year of the Horse de...

...for end of year parties and Christmas productions and most importantly Christmas and Summer! Here´s Sebas´ Christmas show from school this morning...

I’m sitting here on the airplane coming back from New York to Lima wondering how all the events that transpired to my being here right now came about. I just ran (and finished), my first marathon, the NYC Marathon 2013, which was especially meaningful for the city of New York given Hurricane Sandy last year and the bombings in the Boston Marathon this year.  As I sat in the seemingly endless waiting pattern to begin the race I wondered “Why this one? Why now?”… See, last year I basically trained for a whole marathon without actually doing it.  Some family members were training for the Chicago marathon and while I couldn’t make it because I had a trip to Puerto Rico previously planned I decided I would do the training as a way to keep them company while they trained and getting some good workouts in after having moved to Lima.  While I didn’t do the middle of the week runs I ran almost every long run with them and felt like I was in good physical shape from all the wor...

A lot has been happening which is taking up a lot of time and not letting me write much! Not to mention not inspiring me much either. First, work continues to be a lot more time than I initially bargained for. I think I am getting more used to it by now but it´s still not at a level I want it to be at long term. But either I´ve learned a lot and I´m starting to do things a bit faster, or we haven´t had enough high pressure visits or I don´t know what, but now I get home around 7:00 pm or 7:30 pm at night instead of midnight almost every night.  Watch me say that this week and jinx it for next week. But the good thing is that because of the better recent work schedule I´ve been able to do my week runs around 8 pm or so once the kids are tucking in for the night.  It hasn´t been easy because most days I just want to get in bed and watch some TV before zonking out for the night, but I think I am somewhat on track to run this marathon on November 3 rd .  But basically betwee...