Juan of Words

Cricket’s Local Global Number Connects Across Borders

¡En el Chisme!

So a couple of months ago the folks at Cricket contacted me with a proposal. They were ready to roll out their new Global Local Number feature and were wondering if I’d be interested in trialing this new service for the final quarter of 2011. Naturally, I said yes!

For one, I remember growing up my mom used to have to wait months in between calls to her family in Mexico because it was just way too expensive to place those llamadas any more frequently. Later, when those handy little calling cards came out it was always hit or miss trying to figure out which ones actually worked, and then keeping up with how many minutes they had left. I can’t tell you how many emergency runs to the local corner store we had to make to purchase another calling card. And then only certain ones would actually connect us to Cerritos, San Luis Potosi. Up until a couple of years ago there was literally one phone in the entire rancho! If you wanted to use it you had to pay Doña Leonor cinco pesos for every couple of minutes. Now, I think there are about four or five people with phones in El Sauz (our actual ranch in Cerritos), but you still have to pay to talk. Cell phone service only works in the loma at certain altitudes and directions.

Anyhow, at first I was a little confused about how this Global Local Number thing would work. Would they have to install new software on my phone? Would I have to carry a second phone around with me everywhere? I did not want to do either and it’s been years since we disconnected our land line. We never even had one at our current house. As it turns out, though, it was all very simple and I didn’t have to do anything besides tell them which city and state in Mexico I wanted a local phone number for. They did the rest. Somehow across their network they assigned my local Houston cell (the same one I’ve always used) a local number for San Luis Potosi. Now all I had to do was give that number to my relatives in San Luis and wait for them to call me. I was pretty impressed they could give me a local number en mi rancho, jaja!

The only thing I couldn’t do was call them directly myself because my phone after all was still a Houston phone. In essence I guess, they were forwarding the calls to the local San Luis Potosi number assigned to me to my Houston cell. That’s just me guessing, so don’t take my word for it.

So then it was time to chismear. A quick side note here, I actually did not have that many calls because, as I’ve discovered, most of my family is now here and there really weren’t that many people over there to call me. The few calls I did get, however, were pretty clear and non-problematic. They lasted longer than usual because there wasn’t the typical concern about how expensive the call might turn out for either party. I filled up my morral with puro chisme and really found the Global Local Number pretty useful. The only thing I wish I would have been able to do was make some calls to San Luis Potosi myself, using this same feature.

All in all, it was a great experience. Not too mention a lot of fun hearing all of the chisme from the rancho so easily.

For more information about Cricket’s Global Local Number visit mycricket.com.

Disclosure: Cricket’s Global Local Number was made available for me to use for review purposes. All opinions are my own.

Top 10 Dichos for New Year’s Eve

New Year's Eve in Times Square

If you believe in 2012 time will truly be of the essence, considering the end of the world and all according to the Mayan calendar, then let’s just pretend this Bucket List is sort of a how to guide for putting your best foot forward in the next and final 12 months of life on earth. Think of it as all of the best advice your momma gave you growing up on how one should lead a good life! And hey, if we do live to see another year, this advice might just enrich your life anyway.

1. Haz Bien Sin Mirar A Quien – Do good for the sake of doing it, regardless of who might be on the receiving end of your good deeds. You don’t need to be thanked. You don’t need to be acknowledged. It will all be returned to you in the end. Read More About This Dicho Here.
2. Amor Con Amor Se Paga – Love is paid with Love. There’s no other way around it. If you really want to experience true love you have to learn how to love. How to love others, how to accept love, and most importantly, how to love yourself. Read More About This Dicho Here.
3. Mientras Hay Vida Hay Esperanza – So long as there is life there is hope. The last thing we should ever let go off is hope. There are going to be horribly painful moments in your life, when you probably won’t be able to see the light at the end of the tunnel, when life might not even seem like it’s worth living. It is these moments when our faith is truly tested. No matter what the odds, know that tomorrow is another day and that things will inevitably get better.  Read More About This Dicho Here.
4.  No Hay Peor Ciego Que El Que No Quiere Ver – There is no one more blind than the one who chooses not to see. Or loosely translated could also be “you can’t help someone who doesn’t want to help themselves.” Regardless of how hard you attempt to deny your own truths, or those of others, life always has a way of bringing them to light and making you deal with them whether you want to or not. Remember that age old rule, honesty is the best policy. Read More About This Dicho Here.
5. En Boca Cerrada No Entran Moscas – If you don’t want drama, keep your mouth shut. Nobody likes a chismoso, especially if your gossip is intended to offend and hurt others. Of course life without a little harmless gossip just wouldn’t be as much fun. The key is in keeping it respectful and not humiliating anyone. Read More About This Dicho Here.
6. La Muerte Es Lo Único Seguro Que Tenemos En Esta Vida – The only sure thing in life is death. Sorry, but your momma was right. It doesn’t matter how much money you make, how much fame you might achieve, how luxurious of a life you might lead, at the end of it all you’re still headed towards the final truth we all share: death. Concentrate not on how much you can attain, but on how much you can affect the lives of others and how you will be remembered. Read More About This Dicho Here.
7. Dios Aprieta, Pero No Ahoga – God squeezes, but doesn’t choke (sort of a literal translation). Or if you prefer a less religious interpretation, what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. When you’re at the brink of desperation, right about ready to just give up, always remember that life is precious and ALWAYS worth living because you never know what tomorrow could bring. Okay, so this dicho is very similar to number three, but it’s just such great advice! Read More About This Dicho Here.
8. Quien Bien Te Quiere Te Hará Llorar – You are going to cry and that’s okay! Sometimes letting go and just letting it all out is the best thing you can do for yourself. I’m telling you from personal experience, the more you have been holding in, the more relieved you are going to feel when you just stop and allow yourself to feel what you need to feel. It might be a little embarrassing,sure. Then again what’s more important? Peace in your heart and soul or saving face? Besides, it’s not like you can’t go lock yourself up in the restroom and cry your eyes out. Read More About This Dicho Here.
9. Más Vale Tarde Que Nunca – Better late than never. It truly never is too late to right a wrong, or make a change, especially if it means you will be happier. So often we are held back by our own insecurities and excuses, preferring to live with the consequences of our actions and decisions, that when we finally decide to accept that apology or offer our forgiveness we can’t help to wonder why we waited so long in the first place. Challenge yourself. Ask yourself what is holding you back. Read More About This Dicho Here.
10. De Noche Todos Los Gatos Son Pardos – Certainly we’re different. In so many ways. There wouldn’t be enough space on my poor little server to go through all of our differences, and the truth is they don’t even really matter. We are much more similar than we are different. Remember that when someone approaches you for help, when they are too scared and weak to speak up for themselves, when they are hopeless and helpless, when you yourself are under any of these distresses, that on a human level we are all the same. Read More About This Dicho Here.

Want even more Dichos? Click Here.

Write The Caption: Botas Picudas – Mexican Pointy Boots

This post is entirely gratuitous and just for fun!  Me encontre esta foto online and thought it would be perfect for you guys to write a caption about.  Obviously están bien entraditos into whatever it is they are doing… but what exactly that is I don’t know.  So how ’bout you take a jab at filling me in?  Leave me your most creative caption below.

Mexican Pointy Boots - You Write the Caption

As an aside, this video does a pretty good job of explaining what the whole Botas Picudas movement is all about.  And now, time for a little confession – I secretly want a pair of these boots!  Seriously!!

The Gift of Forgiveness for Christmas

Forgiveness is the economy of the heart… forgiveness saves the expense of anger, the cost of hatred, the waste of spirits.  - Hannah More

Tearful reunion.

There’s a reason it’s so difficult to write about forgiveness.  It’s not an easy action to tackle. It incites the most vulnerable of our emotions and requires us to accept and acknowledge occurrences that are often so hurtful we would rather not think about them at all.  Though often this single action, the act of forgiveness, can be so cathartic for us that it can provide the means to discover new things about ourselves and the life we’ve been holding ourselves back from.

This Christmas, the idea was to write a very heartfelt and emotional post on forgiveness.  A personal account about how learning to forgive has enriched my own life.  Only no matter how many times the words have been typed, retyped and then deleted, none of them seemed quite right.  Which in the end only led to the conclusion that maybe forgiveness is one of those things that I have yet to truly understand, something that still needs to take place within my own heart before I can write about it with any true sincerity and insight.  The truth is this is the most honest about the subject matter I can be.  I don’t understand it.  It scares me.  It makes me uncomfortable and still confuses me.  Though, for the first time in my life, I also think I am at the place where I am ready to learn how to forgive.

Instead of a tearjerker about learning how to forgive then, my challenge to you this Christmas is to consider your own feelings towards forgiveness and maybe even think about if you are ready to let go of some of the bent up frustrations and emotions you’ve been holding onto yourselves.  There really is no pressure if you choose not to.  It just occurred to me the other day that maybe learning how to forgive could be the greatest gift I could give myself esta Navidad…  if for no other reason than to simply enrich my own life.

I hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas with all of your loved ones!  ¡Los Quiero!

Pan-Tuflas: Comfort Shoes

Pantufla – zapatilla sin orejas ni talón para andar por casa.  Or house shoes in English, pa los que no entiendan.  After a long day’s work there’s nothing better than getting home, kicking off your shoes, and throwing on a pair of pantuflas, especially if it’s cold!  My own have mysteriously disappeared, which I think only means I’ve forgotten where I’ve placed them.  Yet another reminder of how old I’m actually getting.

Literally - Pantuflas!

Aren’t the canas in my hair enough!  I swear every day I look in the mirror in the morning there are more white hairs on my head… y afortunadamente, still hair there too.  So I guess I should not complain too, too much.

Well since it is finally supposed to get cold enough here to actually merit a pair of pantuflas – four days before Christmas Eve at that! – the only thing on my mind now is where my house shoes might have ended up.  That, and according to this picture, also bolillo bread – I came across this image online and thought it was hilarious.  How awesome would a pair of these shoes be?  How soft must they feel?  And then the all too telling personal question, could I resist eating them once I got hungry and didn’t feel like getting up to cook something?  No sé.  Maybe some things ARE better off unsaid, or in our imaginations.

If you want to know the truth, I think I probably would eat my own pantuflas …doused in Valentina sauce of course!

Ask Juan: How to tell if you’re at a Pachanga?

¡Charanga, Pachanga, Charanga, Pachanga!

It should be pretty simple to tell.  I mean you can’t pass off a tamal or a torta for an hors d’oeuvre, much less frijoles pintos or asado… though in all fairness, word around the street is that these new gourmet food trucks are doing wonderful things with our comida.  But for this question I figured (well Anjelica pointed it out to me) that it would be better to let Los Metiches answer for all of us.  Check it out!