Apparently it is October

Well September just flew by!  Not that I'm upset about that, I'm on the home stretch and tending to focus more and more on returning home. 

So on Wednesday night, Mari and Robert had everyone over for some food and drinks.  I made a caprese salad and Mari made amazing Focaccia bread from scratch!!  It was an enjoyable evening with yummy food! 

The spread at the beginning of the evening

Early arrivals

Robert eating the caprese salad

Ozumy, Mari and I

Also, that evening Bart received my anniversary gift in the mail - a photo album of our first year together!  So I ran back to my apartment for a while so that I could chat with him quickly to get his reaction, and then headed back to the party.  After I had returned, David announced to the entire group that he was moving out of our apartment the next day.  I was a bit shocked, since while I had known of his intensions to look for another place, I had no idea it was going to happen so soon.  This stresses me out a lot since with him gone, my rent increases.  I already have to be careful with my money and it is not that I can't afford the increased rent, it's just that it stresses me out a lot when I have to purposely eat for cheap and buy lesser quality (and non-imported) food, for example.  That's something I don't believe in cheaping out on.  No more asparagus or pre-washed lettuce for me!  Nope, my last splurge will be today: truffle oil.  Which I think is an okay splurge since it will for sure last me the rest of my time here and most likely will end up coming home with me!  Now I just have to learn to make popcorn on the stove.

It has been raining a lot this week so its actually quite cool outside.  Still warm, but a more comfortable temperature.  On Thursday, work was quite slow.  Lunch was with Mari, like usual.  In the afternoon, I got a call that someone was downstairs to see me.  I had a pretty good idea of what it was about.  Sure enough, Bart had sent me a lovely bouquet of roses for our anniversary.  All of the ladies at the office were extremely jealous!  I ended up having to take a taxi home just so I could transport them properly.  I once saw a lady taking flowers in the carrito and the end result was water spillage and flowers on the road. Even though I was (and still am) incredibly tired, I dragged myself to pilates.  I'm so glad I did though!  I have always had a lot of trouble with the flexibility of my hamstrings.  Pilates is great because it forces me to work on that particular flexibility a lot.  One stretch that I have particular problems with is sitting, and bending towards my feet  - especially when my legs are in the V position.  But last night, Rina (our instructor) told me to push harder, so I gave it a try, and magically I was able to grab my foot.  Wow, that sounds really pathetic.  But like I said, this is something I have struggled with for a while.  I still have memories of "Fitness Tests" in junior high and when we had to measure how far we could bend like that.  I always felt so inadequate.  It's amazing how good you feel when you notice that you've made progress with something like that.  Anyway, after pilates, Sylvia took Mari and I home, Mari gave me some guacamole and chips (mmmmm) and I spoke to Bart for a bit on Skype before heading to bed.

Rose Closeup

Gorgeous Bouquet

Today has been a decent day so far.  "Watchieman" (our "security" guard) was already at the apartment so I was able to get out without having to get Mari out of bed.  On my way to catch a carrito, I came across an adorable homeless puppy.  When I walked by him, he got quite scared and kind of skittish.  I told him that he didn't have to worry (although I'm sure he doesn't understand English) and that I wasn't going to hurt him.  He had a little bone that had a tiny bit of meat on.  While I stood and waited for a carrito, I watched the little guy and my heart just melted.  I've thought about that puppy all day today.  I just want to take him home and feed him well, love him and spoil him, take him for walks to the ocean and teach him some fun tricks.  Sigh. 

Can I keep him?

Once I arrived at the office, I walked into the area where my desk is and was hit with a blast of freezing cold air.  That's right, the air conditioning was fixed!  The maintenance guy (who looks a bit crazy and is always really excited) stopped by and asked if I could leave my area while he checked on some things with the A/C.  I figured this was going to be quick so I just wandered over to J's desk and did some reading on my BB.  Well, it wasn't a quick thing, so once I found out that Robert didn't have time to meet at Sweet Bakery, I headed on over by myself to get some coffee and breakfast.  When I returned, they were still checking it out.  The three of us, O, J and myself, were all so pleased that we no longer had to work in the sweaty, smelly environment of the past couple of months.

Gerardo and Paula came to pick me up at lunch.  They wanted to check out Sweet Bakery, so we went there so they could try it out and we could wait for Mari.  Once Mari arrived, the four of us went to IKEA for lunch.  I was kind of surprised by how busy IKEA was.  On our way out, they had given us some free brewed Swedish coffee.  We were joking about where Swedish coffee actually comes from, so when Mari was paying for a couple things she grabbed on the way out, I went into the food store to find out the origin of their coffee.  While there, I saw a wall of Absolut Vodka.  Alcohol in IKEA never gets old. 

Absolut in IKEA

Tonight is officially girls night.  Unfortunately, my body will probably kill me if I went out, so I'm going to stay in and get to bed early.  This week has been brutal because of my lack of sleep.  Mmm sleep...