Todd’s Life

Well, let me just summarize what has transpired in the last few days.  This tonsilitis thing sure takes a long time to beat.  I was basically at home most of last week.  It leaves you with a splitting headache as well.  I’ve never had a headache that basically lasts for days.  Now I know what migraines feel like kind of.  You just don’t want to move.  Luckily, Karla is very good about taking care of me and she came over and made me dinner most of the evenings.

I also saw my first live soccer match in Chile pitting the 2 bitterest rivals against each other.  Jared would have appreciated the amount of swearing in Spanish that was going on.  I’ve never heard so many chants and cheers with mother in them and other words that can’t be reproduced here.  Basically, the stadium was filled with one set of fans on one side and the other on the other side and we were in the middle, right where it was divided.  I will never forget the father-daughter in front of us flipping off the other fans and they were swearing something in Spanish.  It was loud the whole time.  If you ever get a chance, you really should go to one of these.

Also, last night, I officially asked Karla’s parents for her hand in marriage and they welcomed me into the family.  They have never seen Karla this way.  She has had boyfriends, but for whatever reason, I am something different.  I am sure it is because of the values that I have.  She has the same ones as me.  She is a good woman.  So it looks like the date is June 20.  We have a lot of work to do between now and then and it will be stressful and we all know how I react to stress, but in the end it will be worth it.  I will be with a good woman and she will be with a good man.  Don’t buy tickets just yet.  We need to firm up that date with the venue today or tomorrow and then we’ll let you all know.  You will love Chile when you come down here.

Ok, so it has been a really long time since I have written.  I don’t know why.  I guess you could say because my life is busy and I didn’t write.  I have my first major illness here in Chile.  It is tonsillitis.   Yikes.  I am getting better.  I’ve kind of been out of commission for a few days now.  Other than that, I’m sure that most of you have heard the news, I am going to get married on June 20 here in Chile.  I know that some of you are wondering why, but I’m not.  I’ve met a wonderful, good, kind woman here in Chile.

Poor Karla.  She’s had this cold all weekend, so I’ve been trying to take care of her.  Thank heavens I brought some of that Tylenol stuff down with me.  It sure has helped her a lot.  I think she ended up using all of it.  So on Friday, she came over and watched Last of the Mohicans with me, but she wasn’t feeling too well so she ended up sleeping through most of it.

Then Saturday, she came over and cooked for me.  I picked up my new car yesterday which means I should probably take a picture of it and send it to you all.  It has been so convenient now to get around and to date.  She loves my new car.  She says it is almost as cool and me.  After lunch, we headed out to go to this mall that is dedicated to just sporting stuff.  Chile is a nation that loves the outdoors.  I can’t ever remember seeing or hearing about a mall dedicated to just sports stuff.  Santiago is a huge city.  I took her home early because I had to get up early for the marathon and she was sick with a cold and she needed some good sleep.  She is so dang cute.  She is so in love with me and I am in love with her.

On Sunday, I got up early and caught the subway to the start line of the marathon.  It started a 8 am and was a perfectly sunny, hot day.  I don’t know why they start their marathon so late.  I can only imagine how hot it was when the stragglers ran the race.  It was a very well organized race.  I think there were 22,000 people who ran 42K, 21K, or 10K.  The shirts they gave us were very pretty.  I felt really good in the race until about the 33K when I kind of ran out of steam or I should say that my legs started screaming, but I gutted it out and finished it in 3 hours 51 minutes.  It was nice to be done.  Karla was there at the finish line along with Jeruen.  It was nice of them both to support me.  And it was doubly nice to see Karla at the end.  My legs were tired as they always are after a marathon.  Karla came over and cooked me lunch and massaged my legs a little bit because they needed it.  She really is a dynamite woman.  Then we just relaxed at my house, watched some tv, slept a little bit, and that was the weekend.  I spent most of my time with Karla which is just how I like it.

I didn’t realize that I hadn’t written in a few days.  Time just flies down here.  What with starting work at 9 or so and working until 7 and then getting home around 8 and dating Karla, I don’t seem to have a ton of time in between to do much else.  Plus I’m preparing for the marathon which is this weekend.  So, in all honesty, my life is rather boring and there isn’t much to write about.  About the only new thing that I can think of is that I bought a car, a Toyota Auris Sport which is basically a version of the Matrix down here in Chile.  It is nice.  One interesting fact about Chile is that car loans run between 12% and 25% a year for interest.  That is crazy.  The banks control so much down here.  It almost seems like the system is rigged in their favor, but then again they are making money unlike our loser banks back in the states.  I’ll pick up my car on Friday, then Karla and I will be travelling to Vina del Mar for the day on Saturday and I have the marathon on Sunday in Santiago.  I’m looking forward to finally having wheels as I am sure Karla is as well.  We can easily travel places outside of Santiago and just get around much easier.  Let’s see, what else has happened.  Karla will be moving to a different work location starting next week.  That is sad for both of us, but good for her because I think that her travel schedule will be easier.  It will be shorter because she is closer to town.  It will be weird not seeing her beautiful, smiling, bright face every morning and not being able to go on our afternoon walks during lunch.  But I guess in life there are always changes and you just gotta roll with the punches.  Karla is such a kind, nice woman.  It is amazing to me that we met in Chile.  Sometimes, I gotta slap myself or pinch myself or whatever because I’m actually living and working in a foreign country.  It is still warm here and sunny.  They are predicting the warm weather to last for a few more months.  I still have only experienced one day with a little light rain.  Other than that, it has been just dry and hot for the most part.

Chile played Uruguay the other day in soccer here in Chile.  They got a red card in the first couple of minutes and somehow escaped with 1 point and 0 - 0 tie. 

Sorry all for the lack of blogging, but there really isn’t much to tell.  I will try to be better about my blogging in the future, so thanks for reminding me to blog.

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.