It’s 3:26 a.m. and I’m ready to roll — two hours early!
Today is the day my status changes from turista to residency applicant!
I will get some sort of card or form or statement that allows me to stay past the 180-day limit for turistas while my application wends its way through the system, which can take from six to eight months or more if there are snags along the way (or even if there aren’t).
My application docs are all clean and green. I have no FBI record or other law violations, my three required documents all have apostilles to ensure they’re legit, and all the required paperwork and fees (to date) are paid with receipts to prove it all. My fingerprints have been taken on this end and my mug shot taken, I have two recent passport pix to submit… all the i’s are dotted and all the t’s crossed. I’m registered with the Dept of State as required, too. I’m ready to roll!
And because I have to step out the door before the sun rises this morning, I am already sprayed with insect repellent in case any female mosquitoes are looking for a place to drill for oil — excuse me — I mean sangre (blood), of course.
This is what’s known in psychology vernacular as being “anal”. But the tendency has gotten me this far, so far be it from me to stop doing what has always worked so well before! Even here in Tranquilo Land! LOL!
After this day’s task in San Jose, I will have two days to veg OR to Uber to Grecia to get my INR checked. I will probably do that this afternoon or tomorrow if we get back here before 10 a.m. I can’t imagine sitting on my butt for two days and doing absolutely nothing until I go rental shopping on Saturday — not while there’s still a single “to do” on my list. And I do want to make sure my INR level has ascended from where it was on August 27th, when it was still a tad low…
I met another expat (and editor!) at Compre Bien yesterday. Her name is Marilyn and she lives in the El Cajon area, where I was originally expecting to rent. But everything changed when Jon found me another option for the same price and with most utilities paid in San Ramon. That has become my #1 location. It’s close to Dani Hicks and her wife and child and close to Rainbow Refuge II, where Laurie and Mel want to end up eventually. So, that’s where my CR “family” is or will be in the future. It’s farther from persnickety Volcan Poas, too, so I won’t have to worry about wearing N95 masks on the days it decides to fart… which happens pretty frequently these days! Charli wouldn’t be amenable to wearing a mask, so I’d worry more about her in El Cajon than in San Ramon, too!
San Ramon is very near the cloud forest. In fact, RR II is in the cloud forest. And that has always appealed to me. It’s a verdant, green, sometimes misty area with countless forms of flora and fauna. It’s paradise on steroids, in a single sound byte!
My laptop is still registering Daylight Saving Time in Seattle WA. I have to figure out how to change that. Right now I have to keep remembering that this time zone is an hour later than this handy dandy tool shows me. Especially today when I have to meet Adilio at the gate at 5:30 sharp!
Good News
I’m happy to see that Charlie Kirk is no longer in the gene pool or spouting his anti-trans nonsense. It’s a pity that it had to take an assassination to shut down his particular brand of pathetic odiousness, but he has inspired and fomented such fear and hatred of the LGBTQIA+ community that I am far from unhappy to have him go to hell in a handbasket.
The Orange Cheetoh is extolling his virtues, of course, so that pretty much tells you everything you need to know, if you aren’t already familiar with the recently departed/dispatched. If you aren’t familiar, good for you. But to those of us who are, this is cause for muted celebration, even though very few of us (including myself) are proponents of violence against free speech! Too many of my favorite politicians have been the victim of assassinations for me to feel kindly toward the practice :Abraham Lincoln, JFK, RFK Senior, MLK Jr, Medgar Evers, Harvey Milk, Malcom X… the list goes on and on, sadly!
And hopefully this is the last time I will mention U.S. politics here unless something equally good-newsy occurs to force me to celebrate the end of someone else’s diabolically wicked political life. (I eagerly long for that blog post! Naughty, naughty me!!!)