A New Set of Wheels

Relax! It's only a new set of two wheels, not four. My car is still in the shop.

In my new quest for fitness, sports, and most of all, independent local travel, I purchased a "new to me" bicycle! It is frustrating that I have bikes in the USA, but when I drove down over a year ago, the car was packed and I chose to wait to bring one until I returned a few months later for the remaining orchestra gigs I had contracted. But then covid came and the borders closed and the gigs cancelled and I was unable to return to the USA to retrieve it. Now that I "could" return, my car is unable to make the trip and the border has become a haven of bandits looking to rob incoming cars regardless of driver nationality or luxury car model (so I could theoretically leave Mexico safely, but who could say regarding the return). New-to-me bike it is then, after impatiently complaining for over a year that I miss my bike. 

Ironically, the new-to-me bike is the same one I have at home. That wasn't at all intentional, but is kind of funny in after sight. It's a different color with slightly different components, but it's the same brand and the same model and some of the same components. Luckily for me, I paid less than half of what I paid so many years ago, which I see as only befitting since the bike is now that much older. It's still a fantastic beginner bike. 

Technically I'm no beginner. I've logged many many hours on that bike, crashing and burning, nearly dying, and always leaving with exciting stories to tell, or at the very least, extremely muddy, sometimes bloody, and very dirty. There was a period of time I spent 3-4 hours a day on that bike hacking away at various technical difficulties on the Austin Greenbelt. But hey, I still like the bike even if I have outgrown it's capabilities and I'm happy to keep riding another one vs not riding a bike at all or riding a poorly constructed one.

Considering the old bike has withstood the test of time (i.e. it is Ronda proof-thank you Trek!), I'm looking forward to battering this one hard and reselling it in a few years when my visa expires. I'm very happy with the deal I got so hopefully I will recoup much of what I just paid for it.

I'm also very excited to now have the freedom to go much further, must faster and spend less of my day walking. Not that I don't enjoy walking, but I'd like the option to choose whether I spend hours walking to the store or not, or have the ability to be gone for hours and go to many stores vs just one.

The next weekend is the Easter celebration weekend. In Mexico it starts the Thursday before Easter Sunday, so I'm praying that brother Murphy goes on vacation early so I can get my car back in good working order and go mountain biking!

Here's to getting back in the saddle soon!

Meet my new Trek 4500

Sitting pretty in the sunshine.

Of course 😂 Denny Crane got to ride along. I finally used my Timbuk 2 San Fransisco backpack for it's actual bike-riding purpose!
Don't worry, Denny Crane was safely secured inside and as far as I know, he didn't cause any rubbernecking accidents!

Down the Car Repair Rabbit Hole

I've been postponing writing more about my car repair progress until I had more news. It took me this long to get more news. (Mexican time lol)

I missed the phone call from the mechanic yesterday. Tried calling him back twice to no avail and texted saying to call me anytime. 

Didn't hear anything this morning, so I finally tried again at noon. 

Funny thing: I apparently want to get my car back bad because my phone dialed the mechanic after I went to bed! He told me his wife was really mad that I called so late and so I looked on my phone records because I was confused how that could have happened, but indeed, there it was. I had "called" the mechanic after midnight. Oops!

Luckily he wasn't too mad at me today when we chatted and he told me there is a new problem. Down the rabbit hole I'm falling.

The intake manifold from Mexico City arrived, in worse condition than described, but in better condition than mine, so it's hooked up and running.

But now...now there's something wrong with my ac compressor and pulley that is making a terrible racket. 

I was supposed to hear back today as to how much it would cost to fix or if I just want to bypass the whole thing, but, Mexico time....I never heard back. 

So now it's continuing the waiting game for yet another part in my car (You guessed it. The part is hard to find here...). Who knows if I'll ever get my car back. In that thought, I've started aggressively bike shopping HAH!

On a happier note, I've been making great progress with my back pain. There is rarely a time I feel it now so I'm taking more risks lifting heavier items. Also started running again. Boy am I out of shape. Hoping in a month I can get the extra weight from the previous months back off and get my bikini body ready for a covid summer indoors....hip hip hooray...

But I'm very happy that my back is not talking back every other thing I try to do these days so I can get back to being me. And who knows, if I can actually find a decent bike, maybe I'll be able to go out and hit some trails this summer. Boy wouldn't that be grand?!

Denny Crane is always happy when I get back. It's nice to always have a welcoming committee!

La Pasarela (aka The Mexican Catwalk)

Today and yesterday were busy busy busy days.

Why? You ask.

Well, I'm assuming my "brother" Murphy took a much needed vacation and I had a moment of good luck. Amazing luck actually!

Today was my first "job" in over a year. It was only an hour and half with a day and hours of prep beforehand, but I have made the first steps to becoming a model in Mexico.

I woke up this morning at 3:00am, 5:00am, 5:30am, 6:00am, 6:10am, 6:20am, and at 6:30am I finally got up and got ready to leave. Yes, I was slightly paranoid that I wouldn't wake up to my two alarms so I never really slept, but that's what coffee's for right?!

Super crazy lucky for me, the event took place only a 5 minute walk from home, so I didn't need my car and could actually take the job. What amazing luck in such a big city!

I showed up on time at 7:00am and walked around waiting for everyone to arrive and trying to take in the situation that:

• I was at my first job in over year. 
• I was at my first catwalk in Mexico.
• I was at my first modeling gig in Mexico.
• I was at work!

The picture above is the "catwalk". With covid, they had fewer people, spread out with extra space, and only 3 models instead of a standard dozen or more. Usually the department store would have a giant production in a commercial space, but because of covid, they're doing small private productions. This was the first event. I can only pray that I get to do all the rest of them!

At around 7:10am, everyone (but one model) was there so we began hair and makeup. I'm not a very girly girl, but I do enjoy having my hair and makeup done and with covid for the past year, I've not gone to a salon of any kind. It was a real treat to be pampered as such. The girls that did our hair and makeup weren't very professional imo, as I told them my hair doesn't hold a curl, and they tried, and tried, and tried again, and by the end I had a few waves at the bottom. Oh well. 

The girl that did my makeup also mistook my paler skin tone for a pink-based European canvas. I do admit that it's rare when I find a makeup artist that actually figures out my native American roots and does everything in peach shades instead of pink. So my makeup looked more hooker in my opinion than natural classy woman, but hey, whatever they're happy with. I'm there to get painted, primped, and sell clothes off my body (ok, that sounds very hooker, but you know what I mean!).

After hair and makeup were through, one of the directors took the 3 models to show us a triangle formation walk. We practiced it and he gave me directions on what he wanted for the brand (slow, casual, no crossed feet). We left the runway to head back for clothes prep and to meet our dressers. (Dressers are people who help you dress and undress very fast because you have to run between walks.) We got dressed for the first walk and the 2nd director tried to explain a whole new walk to me. I was so confused. He tried to explain several times and still I had to ask the other girls and even after that, I felt like I was winging it. I understood all the words in Spanish, but together, they meant nothing in English. How frustrating!

I did my thing and walked the walk and even had audience members applauding and nodding approval. 

My head was all awhirl with trying to remember the specific walk patterns, the specific walk notes, the specific walk poses and especially, trying to listen to the host talk in Spanish and respond appropriately in my walk. Whew! I need to study Spanish more, that's for sure! But it was all a whirl of live performance and I loved being back in the pressure of the spotlight, to be back on a stage. I wasn't performing music (and I miss that terribly), but I was back in my element; an element of being watched, being the performer, being the part of a whole, being an artist.

This was the first look I modeled. I didn't have time to take more pictures once the show started sadly.

If you've followed my blog for a while, you'll already know I've modeled in the US for years, but this is the first time I was contracted to model in Mexico. 

Posing at home.

I sincerely hope it's not the last!!

After the event, selfie shot :)

Loving me some Denny Crane after the show. He was happy to see me come home!

Alive & Dreams

 The title won't make any sense probably, if you didn't see my last post, but I'm going to make the crazy assumption you're here because you enjoy catching up on my strange life, even though I haven't been good at posting for a long long time.

Truth is, I'm not inspired to post when I'm not really happy so it hasn't been a writing season for quite some time. And even less so during the fun newish, now oldish pandemic.

Trying to find a new me and learn a new life and all of that has shown me: 

• I need to sleep until at least 9am no matter how many hours of sleep that actually is.
• I am now a coffee drinker more than a yerba mate drinker even though I don't like the taste better.
• I need in-person/live people-watching to survive a quarantine.
• Shaunt T is still the man for exercise inspiration!
• I am able to learn a lot about relationships and communication by watching The Amazing Race.
• Lamps are amazing things. You never know what you will miss until you don't have it anymore.
• I've never been unemployed for so long in my life since high school.
• Wearing makeup during a pandemic doesn't help you feel more alive; more like silly.
• I hate cooking. This is not something new. Just something verified by pandemic cooking 3x/day.
• Video calls are more stressful than helpful. I'm old school and still prefer voice calls.

Ok, I think that is enough sharing for now. You get the idea. 

In the process of trying to find the new Ronda while not completely losing the old Ronda so that I can find work again one day (Who knew that violinists aren't commodities in the 'real' world and businesses aren't interested in the skill set of dedication, perseverance, focus, accurate and precise work, responsible autonomously, and fast learning required to be a professional violinist.), I'm hoping, yes hoping, to write more in the blog.

I can't guarantee the future and I'm big on not making promises I can't keep, so I will do my best to write a whole lot more :)

When I traveled the world for a living (yes, that was an awesome job), I had so much material I couldn't get it all written down. With life seemingly the same, churning out a mundane existence moving from one couch to the other, I'm not so inspired with fantastic tales of adventure. But, I do live in Mexico with a Dachshund of unparalleled personality, so I'm sure I can find something worth writing about once in a while, right? Well, that's the goal. 

I aim to write much more often here on this blog and if you feel so inclined, responding to me (respond to the blog email if you're a subscriber, comment on my blog, message me on fb, etc.) would be a wonderful way to inspire me to keep writing right now.

Hopefully I will have continuing reasons to keep writing and blogging and reimagining Ronda!

How is he so photogenic? I mean, he steals the shot every time! I am obsessed with my new watch band however.
Who knew 12mm quality watch bands were so hard to come by in Mexico?!