Long in the tooth

I'm back from a month in the US and almost recovered. As a multiple sclerosis patient I try to minimize processed foods and do my own cooking.. Most of the people around me were eating processed foods. "We are in the minority," my house guest Kathryn said.
 We like to cook up dried beans or quinoa salads and don't generally use dressings out of the bottle. Why, when we have limes and great oils?
 So this is a backward way to reintroduce my self: I am a 58-year-old woman living in Isla Mujeres, Mexico, a ferry ride from Cancun. I have two rental apartments I provide some extras for so people can enjoy life in a Mexican neighborhood.
 I grow my own greens to supplement the grocery's spotty availability. I put some in the dog food I often make for my dog Punta. At 30 pesos, close to three dollars, canned Pedigree isn't a real option. She likes chicken livers, gizzards and veggies and rice. Sometimes, when the batch is fresh, I'll share a bowl with her!
 So now that I have figured on how to sign on,  going to move along.
 I have lots to write about, from the lazy life here to my 25 years living with multiple sclerosis. I have opinions about the delivery of health care, on immigration, tax codes, Stuff I never covered before. But  it's time to reveal the real me. Hasta pronto!

Best friends forever BFF

All these years, and that's a lot of then, I thought BFF mean best female friend. My BFF corrected me last week when she cane to Isla Mujeres for five days. Best friends forever, now 35 years since we were roommates  in  Columbus, Ohio, in our early 20s. We used to joke then that we were one Eastern European heritage person named Zina Pacyna, munching sauerkraut and potatoes. Deb worked as a reporter and newscaster for WTVN radio while I did the same for WCOL.
 The day I moved into her apartment in the first ring suburb of Grandview  (We were Grandview Girls before the song!) one of my cats went into her bedroom and took a dump on her pillow. Yikes! Later, one of use was boiling eggs while  talking on the phone.  The water boiled out and the eggs exploded all over the kitchen. We were leaning up pieces of them a year later from a curio shelf and behind the stove.
 I was there when she started dating her husband Tom Cooper  and when they married in Pittsburgh's North Hills. After a stint at Dayton's WOIO-TV statehouse news bureau. she moved to take a job at Channel 11 in Pittsburgh to take care of her mother who had cancer. We were costume masters during Halloween in both Columbus and Pittsburgh. My favorite was when Tom, a detective,  borrowed a street snitch's pimp suit and Deb and I went to Goodwill for skirts that were too tight, too short - perfect! and went as his girls. The look on the wine store clerk's face was priceless as we entered to buy a bottle to take to an OSU criminology professor's party. We looked good!

 I landed  at WTOV-TV (Steubenville-Wheeling), so we'd see each other in Pittsburgh on weekends or at my mom's place at Lake Mohawk in East Central Ohio.
 When I was working at Cleveland  Public Radio, she and Tom stopped for a couple nights in my Lakewood apartment, on their way to Sacramento, where Deb had taken a job as a Statehouse reporter and anchor and Tom continued to study criminology  waiting out  the residence requirement to become the oldest rookie in Sacramento's history.
 Before I started my job at The Plain Dealer, I took a cross country train trip that included visiting Deb and Tom when baby bump Kenny was about to break out. She, as big as a house, met me at the Sacramento train station. We went to shower parties and swimming, hoping Ken would be born while I was still there. The next time I went, Kenny was a toddler and Kelly was a baby bump and we went skiing at Tahoe and gambled at night.
 So that is how it began for us. Now, the best friends forever will have to wait at least another year. But time doesn't matter, Everything is like it was yesterday.  Except a little more like the Edna birthday cards we sent each other our whole lives. Soon, we'll be the old ladies on a park bench, hitting people with our purses.
 In the  meantime, we stay connected on Facebook, where Ken and Kelly are also my Facebook friends. Would that be FFF?

Migracion for that visa

There I am Friday, getting fingerprinted by Migracion in Cancun. Finally! Because I was 2 days late applying for my visa renweal, it inexplicably took 5 months to get the visa!
 Maurico Mendoza, my lawyer, is picking up today (no telling why they couldn't give it to me then and there) and I will go to his house tomorrow afternoon and pay him for his service.
 Getting this FM document took the original letter Mauricio wrote, which included an apolgy, another letter with an apology asking about the status of my renewal,  an interview  in which two Mexican nationals who've known me a long time to sign, another requested letter of apology, which Mauricio produced promptly, but that meant another trip to Cancun. So, this is about a 5 trip renewal process and I might actually be starting over at the higher level of being here.
 I logged on last night and noticed my accountant, Leidy Sosa was filing my annual tax declaration (digitally). And it's due today.
 I spoke to the Migracian agent in Spanish and answered all her questions in Spanish.Still, she wrote that I speak only English. Why I asked? She whispered as she fingerprinted: "If there is every any trouble. you don't have to say a thing until Mexico produces an English speaking official to help you."
 No hablo Espanol! Thank you.