A Day in the Life of Aidan and Al

Today Joan and Dave took a day-long tour of the city sponsored by the embassy. So I've been on Aidan duty for 6 hours now. He normally goes to school from 8 until noon, and I was supposed to walk him to school and pick him up, but today he decided that he didn't want to go to school, and rather than make a big showdown of it, Joan and Dave decided that if he wanted to stay home he could. It was actually a good idea on Aidan's part, since there was a deluge at around 7:50 - right at the time I would have been walking home from dropping him off. Don't get me wrong, Aidan and I still got soaked playing in it, but at least we were having fun together and it wasn't just me getting drenched on my lonely walk home.

So Aidan stayed home and we took a walk, then played in the rain, then built a castle, then made peach and mango cobbler, then I cleaned up dog barf (my least favorite activity of the day thus far), then watched Pingu, then played with Aidan's remote controlled car in the driveway. And now we are watching more Pingu.

The Watchmen

I realized that I haven't yet told you about The Watchmen. And no, I am not making this name up, they really ARE called The Watchmen.

So there is a lot of crime in Santo Domingo, and those with the right resources, i.e. money, you can pay to have men come to your house several times a day to make sure things are okay. The American government pays for my sister to have this security, so about 4 or 5 times a day a guy with keys to the house will let himself in through the servant's quarters, access the back patio, take a walk around the back of the house, and then turn around and go back out the way he came. The "backyard" is really just a small pathway leading around the house, and the back of the house is pretty much all windows, so they basically have a close up and personal view of the goings-on of the Cossitt/Pernal household. I can't really tell what I think of it. It's kind of neat in a way, and most of them are really friendly and will wave to you. And yet it is a little unnerving never knowing when you'll look up to see some guy outside.

Rock out with your lock out

So today I managed to get myself locked out of the house for the third time since I've been here. But only the first was my fault!!!

See, my sister's house is extremely well protected, there are high walls on all sides, bars on all the windows, and locks everywhere. So the first time I got locked out, Joan and I were putting Aidan to bed and he had left something on the back porch, so Joan asked me to go down and get it. The french doors that lead to the back porch were already locked up, so I went out the door from the maid's quarters (really, the house is not quite as lavish as this makes it sound). What I didn't realize is that there's no way to open the door to the maid's quarters from the outside, so without thinking, I pulled it closed behind me when I went outside, I grabbed whatever it was that Aidan wanted, turned around and stared dumbfounded at the door. I spent about 5 minutes trying to come up with a plan to get back in before I realized that the whole point of the house is to keep people who don't have key OUT of the house. So I sat and waited until the housekeeper noticed I was out there and let me in.

The second time I locked myself out was a few days ago. The french doors hadn't been opened in the morning, so I went out again through the maid's quarters, this time remembering to leave the door opened slightly so as to be able to get back inside. Well while I was chilling on the back porch, the housekeeper must have seen it open and shut it. So when I decided to come back in the house I was once again met with the odious un-openable door. This time, rather than being my savior, the housekeeper was my downfall. Finally I saw Dave moving around inside and knocked on the window and he let me in.

Well this morning takes the cake. I woke up and came downstairs to find my sister playing with Aidan out front. The front door is broken so we usually use the side garage door to go in and out. My sister asked if I would watch Aidan for a few minutes while she carried out some natural human function duties and I said sure. So I was hanging with Aidan for maybe a total of 1 full minute when he got up and started walking to the door, I called out to him and asked him to stay outside playing with me and not to go upstairs and see mama. He stopped in the doorway long enough to look at me and tell me that he'd be right back, before closing the door. I, of course, got up to pursue him, but when I got to the door found that he had locked me out. Make no mistake, this was not him accidentally pushing the locking mechanism, he knows about locks and what they're for and this was 100 percent malicious aunt lockout scheme. The cheeky little monkey. So I was out there for about 20 minutes until the housekeeper (her again!) came out to throw out the trash. I couldn't even go ring the doorbell as it's on the outside of the walls surrounding the house. I knocked and knocked but the door is so big and heavy that no one could hear poor little Al Pal.

It's okay though, I'm making up for a harrowing morning with overeating. Against my better judgment, I let Aidan convince me to make sugar cookies (the boy is obsessed with sifting) and have eaten a quarter of them so far today. Plus there was the full plate of nachos. Mmmmm, cookies and nachos...

Downpours and power outages

So an amazing thing here is how the city is so surprisingly ill equipped to deal with the frequent downpours here. Almost every time it rains, not only do the streets flood, but many of the signal lights short out, either blacking out completely or flashing patterns of the various green, red, and yellow lights. Yes, the already "impressive" traffic of everyday Santo Domingo becomes even more spectacular in the rain.

Another wonder is how frequent power outages are here. In a given day the power goes out anywhere from once a day to 5 or 6 times a day. Luckily my sister is Una Gringa Importante, and the embassy provides her house with a back-up generator that kicks in about 5 seconds after the power has gone out, then senses when power is restored and shuts off. The generator works amazingly well, and I've blessed it numerous times. The only bummer is that you never get fun "blackout" times where everyone sits around without the comforts of modern day and candles are lit and magic happens.

It's so much better on holiday

The lyrics to a Franz Ferdinand song that keeps running through my head...

It's always better on holiday
It's so much better on holiday
That's why we only when
We need the money

Si, life is better on holiday, and while I am missing my cohorts from the great green city of Seattle, I do rather enjoy having virtually no obligations other than blogging, the occasional diaper change, and general personal hygiene control.

I looked in the paper today and there was an ad for avocados at $.12 each. I took a moment to indulge in a guacamole/bathtub fantasy.

This weekend is a Dominican holiday weekend, and we had hoped to spend the time at a swanky seaside funplace, but have to stay at home because no one is available to watch the dogs. Reason number 1,205 that rats are the best pets. Just throw a wad of food in the cage, make sure there's enough water, and boom, yer good to go.

Due to the nixing of the seaside splendor, we will probably do a series of day trips instead. One idea in the works is to visit a coffee plantation. Whilst I am not a crazy coffee junkie like so many I know back in Seattle (and being a barista I know a lot), I'd still be interested to see how the magic of the legal drug I've been pushing for the past several years comes into being. I have actually discovered that the coffee that is the most prevalent here is actually quite tasty to me. When I do drink coffee, I like it to be just a bold no-nonsense cup, and that's precisely what is delivered. Plus a pound of it here is like $2. If only I could live off coffee, avocados, bananas and rum I could retire here with one more year of work.

Down in a Blaze of Glory

I'm always so grateful when something happens in my life that I never, ever expected. Today I played a softball game, representing the US Embassy, in Santo Domingo. Yes. Another amazing story to add to the list of lifetime achievements. Nevermind that we lost something like 20 - 3, let's just concentrate on the fact that I can add one more "wow" boast to my credentials. Plus, on the happy side of things, it was really good just to get out and move around a bit, and my endeavors were rewarded with the biggest bottle of beer I have ever seen, much less drank. I had to use both hands. Life is good.

Life in the slow lane

Here I am again, saddling up to the blog post. Today my belly is extra happy because I finally found some walnuts to put in my oatmeal. I've been searching every store with no luck, and at long last, yesterday I found some a the megamart shopping gargantuan complex (not actual name). The only problem was they were still in their shells, and the house has no nut cracker. No worries, I just took them home and spent about a hour happily SMASHing them with a meat mallet and picking out the good bits. Brown sugar is another foodstuff item they don't have easily accessible here either. I set about to make chocolate chip cookies, but hit a snag with the brown sugar. That was easily fixed with a good hit of molasses. The other problem with the cookies though came about through purely human error. I neglected to have Dave pick up baking soda at the store. Without the baking soda the cookies would have just smooshed out all flat. So the solution to that? I threw in some instant oatmeal and put the whole concoction into a cake pan so as to contain the batter. Honestly, I was not expecting it all to work, but huzzah! It actually worked out quite deliciously. I suppose the only other difficultly I have with the food here is that I live in Seattle, which is the Kingdom of Wholegrain, and I've definitely fallen off the wagon of my healthy eating lifestyle. Before coming here I don't think I'd had a single sugary soda for upwards of about a year. Then Dave handed me a rum and coke, and hot damn it was tasty! The coke down here is made with cane sugar rather than high fructose corn syrup, and the difference is phenomenal. And when mixed with rum, Shoot that's mighty fine. Then there's the corn chips and the butter and cookies and Dave's cooking, which can only be labeled as a Decadent Meatstravaganza. Damn you saturated fats and cheap carbohydrates! Why are you so good!

Let's see, what can I write about that doesn't revolve around food? Um, well there's power outages all the time. Seriously, like usually at least once a day, sometimes as many as 5 or 6. Luckily my sister is an important gringa and the government provides the house with a back up generator. So the power goes off, but then 5 seconds later the generator jumps to life and helps keep the party going.

The traffic here is insane. And having been in traffic all around the world I can tell you that Asia has crazy drivers, but the traffic itself more or less flows. Here, it's every man for himself. The most dominant car wins. Never in my life have I seen such a stunning example of the term cluster fuck. And it doesn't help that every time it rains many of the traffic lights short out. Plus, most people don't seem to bother with their turn signals, they just gesture out of the car window to indicate where they want to go. It's something to behold. I have been thus far, and so shall I ever be, a mere passenger in this monstrous spectacle. I strap myself securely into my seat, put my life in Dave's capable hands, and try to enjoy the ride.

Bueno!

Hello again one and all! I've finally been snatched back into the technological age and I once again have internet access.

Things have been probably a little more low key than most of you expected. By and large I've just been hanging with my family, playing my gee-tar and drinking rum. Oh, and eating. Dave is way too good of a chef. It's just not fair. How can I control my portion sizes when the stuff is just so darn good?

We all took a vacation - well, I took a vacation from my vacation - last weekend. We went up north to a place called Cabarete. It was lovely and I had heaps of fun playing in the ocean. I also got heaps of bruises from getting dashed on the rocks several times. The water was pretty choppy and unpredictable. (In Al's world, that translates as fun, in spite of being slightly owie.) And there was much rum.

Aidan is a hoot. He's mostly really well behaved, though like every 2 year old, he has his moments. He's currently going through his OCD period, and certain things he needs to have exactly just so or he loses it. He's also going through the endless queries of "why" period. Sometimes we play together or he curls up with his mama and I my maternal urges kick in, and then he breaks down sobbing because I cut his toast in two pieces or on the 29hundreth "why" for the day, and I'm grateful that my rats don't talk and can be put in a cage.

Well there's a quick update, maybe I'll share some more stories with you when I get the chance.

All good - no internet!

Hey friends! All is good, there is just no internet at my sister's house! I'm not ignoring you, I swear! Should have internet within the next week, will fill you all in then!

Smooches!