Todd’s Life

Back to work.  Back to the grind.  That is about all I can say about Monday.  Mondays always are one of the worst days of the week.  The only bright spot of the day was that I got to see Karla today and she was so cute.  We went for a walk during lunch and then found a nice spot on the grass to talk and relax together for about .5 hour.  After work, we road the bus together back into town.  She gets claustrophic around tons of people and the metro.  We went into the metro together and it just stunk to high heaven.  There were so many people.  So I suggested that we just walk the two metro stops to her bus stop and she agreed.  It was nice.  Santiago is so nice at night when it is cool.  She really is a dynamite woman.  I know I keep saying this, but it is nice to be around a woman with such a good heart and mind.

Today was a really quiet day.  I actually did my last long run before the marathon today because I didn’t feel that good yesterday.  My body hurt so bad today after it.  I suppose that I am ready for the marathon.  We’ll find out.  The marathon is run next Sunday and the silly thing about the marathon here is that they don’t begin it until 8 am which means we will finish in the heat of the day.  That is lame.  Hopefully, there will be a cool win.  Anyway, today Karla and I made my favorite casserole together and it was so good, then we just hung around and talked.

Talk about a wasted day.  Because we were up so late on Friday at the dance club, I did not feel good one bit on Saturday.  I was tired the whole day.  Karla went to a 5 hour concert on Saturday with her aunt.  It was a concert with her favorite group AHA and also Rick Astley and Blondie.  A funny thing about Chile is that they are stuck in the 80s musically.  But she just loves the lead singer of AHA.  It is kind of funny.  I guess woman always have their men that they fantasize about.  We did get together for a few hours during the day before the concert, then I road the Metro with her to the concert stadium where she met her aunt.  She had a great time at the concert because she was pretty much in the front row with her aunt.  She took lots of pictures and couldn’t stop talking about Morton, the lead singer of AHA.  I guess that she actually interacted with him in the concert.  She yelled that she wanted to kiss him and he turned to her and said “Me”.  I just enjoyed a quiet time at home.

Today was a busy and long day.  I worked at home in the morning and then met Karla in the afternoon for lunch.  She really is a cute woman.  She really loves me.  She loves to kiss me.  It is cute.  Today we both got to leave work about 3:30 because of some holiday.  We went to the mall to look for a few things after work.  Karla had to buy some pijamas.  I guess that Chileans don’t usually use pijamas until it gets cold.  At least that is what Karla says.  Then we came back to my place and hung out and talked for a while.  We had to meet some friends at about 11 in the evening.  They wanted to go to this fajita restaurant and then go dancing at the Subterranean where they played music from the 90s.  I felt like I was back in the University days.  It was fun though.  Karla sure can move.  Unfortunately I didn’t get back home until 3, so that pretty much shot my Saturday because I was so tired.

Let’s see.  Today was just another day at work.  I worked at home until about 12, then went to work until 7.  It is so nice to see Karla everyday when I walk into work and give her a kiss.  Unfortunately, this will be ending soon because she is moving to the other office.  Her boss requested that she go over there for a couple of months.  Bummer, huh?   But it is better for her because it is closer to her house and she won’t have to travel as much.  After work, we hopped the bus together and rode it into town, where I said goodbye to her.  We ended up chatting later that night via IM like we usually do.

Well, when I leave work at 7 pm every night, the sun is already down.  It is time to get ready for the dark, dark winter.  I think that this is the time that I start missing Hawaii more and more because the exact opposite is happening there right now.   Work is still pretty slow.  I did get my bonus however so that was nice to finally get into the bank.  I’m the global economic screwup or crisis caused by the incessant government intervention over the past several decades has somewhat of an effect down here in Chile, but not as much as it does in the US.  I’m pretty sure that my job is somewhat safe, but only time will tell with that.  It seems like much of the work week is filled with work which is more than I could say in Hawaii.  I think I had much more time to fool around in Hawaii.  I think that most Americans don’t realize that there are other countries out in the world that work harder than they do and that some of what they enjoy is due to the fact that the US dollar is the currency of the world right now, but that can change really quickly.  I am also going to be buying a car this week.  I think it is about time.  It makes life a little easier to be able to have a car.  I’m thinking of either a Toyota or Honda, but I haven’t decided just yet.  I want to be able to take road trips on the weekends and things like that, plus it will make getting to work much easier.  Karla came over again last night.  We just enjoy being able to relax together.  I still can’t believe sometimes that I have met a woman like Karla here in Chile.  She amazes me with her knowledge and interest in things political, historical, and economical.  It really is amazing.  Not only is she beautiful.  She is smart, intelligent, funny, nerdy, etc.  I always tell her that she is such a unique combination of woman.  In many ways, she is a perfect compliment to me and I to her.  We are good at supporting each other.  I wish I had more biting political commentary, but I just don’t have it in me anymore.  We all know that the government is full of a bunch of self-serving morons who for reasons of egoism or just plain stupidity do what best serves their interests instead of the people.  The only thing that could serve the interests of the people as a whole would be the abolition of the federal reserve, a flat tax, and the destruction of about 70% or more of the federal government.  How likely will that be to happen?  Hell will freeze over before those morons give up power.

Today was just a boring work day.  It is starting to get chillier here in the morning.  I read today that they expect the unemployment rate to hit over 10% or more this year and the real GDP to contract like 10% in 2009.  I guess that I got pretty lucky with finding work here in Chile.  Call it divine providence or whatever, I got lucky.  Do I miss the US sometimes?  Of course I do, but Chile is a nice country as well.  Today at work, we had one of those silly all staff meetings where they bore you to death with powerpoint slide after powerpoint slide of information that you really don’t care about and it was all in Spanish.  It lasted for about 1.5 hours.  After that, Karla came over to spend a little time with me.  She really is a dynamite woman, so smart, caring, and just fun to be with.  When I think about her, it gives me a smile and makes me laugh sometimes at the funny things she does.  At her core, she is a nerd, but she is a beautiful nerd which makes for an interesting combination.

Well, I finally got back into running this week.  That soccer game I played in last week really killed me and so I didn’t run much after it.  And my legs were so tired.  So today was an interesting day at work.  There were lots of issues, so it kept me busy.  After work, Karla and I went to the mall to do some shopping and to just hang out for a little bit.  We really don’t have a lot of time during the week to do that because her schedule is much busier or structured than mine.  Hopefully in the next week, I will have bought a car and that will make our dating lives a little easier.  It is interesting here in that they have different brand names that they like.  For example, Puma is big here.  I’ve bought a few Puma shirts here that are really nice.  And of course, Adidas is big here as well.  Karla has had a cold for a few days now.  Thankfully, I brought a bunch of Tylenol Severe cold medicine and she’s been using it.  She says it works way better than anything here in Chile, but the interesting thing is that you can’t find Tylenol products here.

Today was a typical Sunday.  I went to church today.  I wasn’t really too interested in it today.  Today was a little weird.  We actually had tv cameras in church this week for some kind of chorus competition that was going on in Chile.  A bunch of different churchs and other groups have this big choir competition once a year, so I guess the producers from this show were looking for some back stories for the show.  Anyway, after church, Karla came over to spend some time and watch a movie with me.  She really is dynamite.

Today, I rented a car in the morning so that Karla and I could go to Cajon de Maipo which is a nice park area about an hour from Santiago.  It is this beautiful canyon.   We drove down there in the afternoon and just relaxed next to this river until the evening, then we headed back into town to visit some of her family.  She has a ton of family in Santiago.  I’ve met her immediate family now and now a bunch of her aunts and uncles.  They are all great people and every time I meet her family I fall a little bit more in love with her.  Karla really is a great woman.  She is a lot of fun, nerdy, pretty, and just plain fun.   Her family is so quirky and funny and nice.