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Technomads

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A Case of the Fridays

Unlike Garfield, Peter Gibbons, and this one girl from high school I’m Facebook friends with, I don’t really hate Mondays. In our little world, which has its particular pleasures and problems, the first morning of a fresh week is A-OK with me. I don’t have to wake up early. There is no mania-inducing commute by [...]

19Apr2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Expattitude

Imagine the coolest person you’ve ever seen. Dial that back about 26%. Drop this beautiful badass into a daytime street scene in a busy Mexican port. That’s me. Imagine me walking. Up the sidewalk on April 1st. The sky is blue, the sidewalk packed with vendors and vacationers. I found a parking space. This alone [...]

1Apr2010 | Jillian | 4 comments | Continued
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Crossing Over

When I was four I took a cross country road trip with my mother, aunt, uncle and his dog, Nathan, a nasty Cocker Spaniel. The newlyweds had moved out West to Arizona and my mom was checking up on her little sister’s new life; I was just along for the ride. I learned to spell [...]

31Mar2010 | Jillian | 1 comment | Continued
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My Sign Is A Love Song

Have you ever looked for a sign? Not knowing what to do turned to stars or tea leaves or the pattern of a flock of birds for some semblance of order in the universe and your place in it? Me neither. Except I am always doing that. Who wants to take responsibility for a decision [...]

31Mar2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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New York Magazine Affirms My Life Choices

In this week’s (online) New York Magazine the weekend travel section recommends both Merida and Mid-Coast Maine. And, as far as I know from my own experience, their assessment is pretty spot on.
Hacienda Xcanatun is a lovely place for a decent meal, but it’s the surrounding grounds that truly invite escape. The endorsement of Urbano [...]

25Mar2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Caveat Empty or Let The Buyer Be Where?

In case we haven’t mentioned it lately, our house is friggin’ awesome. That’s why we named it Casa de Awesome, duh. Maybe it’s snowing where you live but here it’s a lovely 77 degrees with a light breeze, lots of bright sunshine and a true blue sky. Our living room windows and sliding glass doors [...]

24Mar2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Signed, Mellow in Mexico

Confession: I don’t have health insurance, haven’t since college. I would like it, don’t know how I’m going to get it, know nothing little about how it works, or doesn’t. The words health care reform don’t send me screaming socialism, raving that abortions will become a government-funded pass-time for lazy, blaspheming skanks.  The basics of [...]

23Mar2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Gone, Gone, Gone

Unlike a 19th Century explorer-poet I have not sailed over the unfathomable ocean out of contact, but out of sight is certainly out of mind. We’re unbelievably connected, with a US phone number, mailing address and the immediate internet. And yet, I seemed to have lost my friends and relations. They never write, they never [...]

15Mar2010 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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Ramblings

When Mexico is adorable it is wonderfully so. Children chasing chickens in the yard, festivals of colors and lights and saints, spontaneous parades, palm trees, colonial architecture and cheap delicious street food are all undeniably very good things. But when Mexico is awful*, it is terribly so. We’ve discussed how there is not really anything [...]

1Mar2010 | Jillian | 5 comments | Continued
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That’s Debatable: A Person of Interest

This house maintains that living abroad makes you a more interesting person.
Pro
To live abroad successfully you have to be adaptable and open to new ways of thinking. Your worldview is cracked wide open, if not totally destroyed and forced into a new configuaration. It’s a symbolic death, such as one experienced by the hero. Out [...]

19Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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Waiting For My Man

We’ve had one norte after the next blowing through our port, the skies are opaque gray and all the Yucatecans and casi Yucatecans are bundled up and battened down. We drove into Progreso to run errands while the help leveled rubble and planted and washed our pots and pans. I picked up our laundry and was waiting for [...]

17Feb2010 | Jillian | 0 comments | Continued
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The Misfits

What if I’ve become too strange to go back?
strangerinastrangelandyoucantgohomeagainpeoplearestrangewhenyoureastrangertheresnoplacelikehome
These are the fleet streaming thoughts that pluck me out of sleep at four am.
itsabanditsthatarthurmillermarilynmonroemoviehesthemaniaccharacterinagoodmanishardtofind
But I wouldn’t say I’m too terribly anxious.
Not like the months leading up to leaving. I was a wreck, all panic attacks and acting out. Going home is both easier and more frought. [...]

16Feb2010 | Jillian | 2 comments | Continued
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