Random Thoughts

There are so many things that we take for granted every day. I don’t mean the things that we take for granted like food, a warm shower, and a roof over your head. I am not homeless in the least, and I do not take it for granted that if not for the grace of God, I could be homeless and dirty and hungry. But I have taken some of our normal luxuries for granted.

A microwave oven: Juan and I went shopping last week in PA for the home essentials. We spent so many hours in Target, Wal-Mart, and K-Mart that I wanted to kill myself and Juan. By Thursday night, we had everything except a microwave oven and pots and pans. But we figured 1) we did have a frying pan and a pot that Juan’s grandmother gave us, 2) we could get the microwave in the city, and 3) the car was full to capacity anyway. So we headed home.

When we got home we had leftovers and they were cold. No biggie, right? Wrong, the frying pan we currently own has a bump in the center of the pan and the sides go down. So it cooks only in the center of the pan but when you put butter or oil in the pan it goes off to the side where food doesn’t cook. But we were diligent and we warmed up our Arroz con Gandules and Pernil.

On Saturday we bought extra pot that fit our little vegetable steamer/strainer. Now in order to warm up food we put everything in the steamer and steam the food until it is warm. Don’t get me wrong, this is probably a much healthier way to eat and warm up food, but it takes more than 10 minutes to do it. Honestly, I can whip up a meal in that time. But you can’t let food go bad in the fridge or Juan starts to complain about wasted money.

However, I am proud to say, that I ordered a microwave online and it came today. I am not even hungry right now but I kind of want to warm something up just to show my appreciation to that wonderful machine.

Mirrors: There is one mirror in my apartment. Yes I said one. It is in the bathroom under a light fixture that would be perfect for applying makeup with my “daylight” light bulbs—if it worked. But I don’t care about that. I have actually gotten very good at applying my makeup in the bathroom then taking my purse mirror to the window in our bedroom to check out the evenness of my application. What has begun to drive me crazy is that the outlets in the bathroom don’t work very well. They power up whatever you plug in, but not to the correct power level because of a wiring issue that causes the hall light outside the bathroom to come on when you plug something in.

So in order to do the things that I must do at times like flat iron or blow dry my hair, I have to do it in my bedroom. Currently, the only mirror I have available to me there is the one I carry in my purse. But I am a woman who will not be held back by a little thing like not having a mirror. I have taken to using the built in web cam on my computer as a mirror to do my hair. It works, except that the image is inverted and sometimes that confuses me.

Unlike the microwave though, I have not found just the right mirror online, and Juan doesn’t see the urgency in my need for a mirror, so I have not gotten one yet. Don’t be alarmed though. On Friday, when Juan does not have class and we have to move the car for street sweeping anyway, I will be making a trip to Ikea.

Now there are other things like not having internet or cable yet that I won’t even go into right now, but that is not to say that I am not happy. This is an experience unlike anything I could ever have imagined and I would not trade it for anything in the world. One day I will have serious “hardship” stories to tell my children and grandchildren. And they won’t believe me and I will point them to my blog and my pictures and video from the early days of Juan and I.