bonus
Light Fixtures
Two weeks into Mexico City and I'm getting by — mostly. A woman at the market walked me across the entire building to find a spatula I didn't need, I took my first all-Spanish yoga class and spent most of it thinking about bolster hygiene, I upgraded the shower head, I still haven't taken my garbage out, I had one real wave of expat loneliness, and I ended up at a Walmart Express surrounded by Americans asking each other if they should get the feta. Also, my ceiling lights are nautical-themed for no reason.
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Transcript
It's Saturday night.
Speaker:It's about two weeks.
Speaker:I've lived here in Mexico City
Speaker:and I would say it has been 80.
Speaker:Percent to 85%.
Speaker:Great, good, great, whatever.
Speaker:But today, today, today, I felt lonely.
Speaker:I felt a deep expat loneliness
Speaker:that.
Speaker:One can only really feel when one is
Speaker:a relatively long away, away from, most people that you know,
Speaker:I don't remember feeling this in Korea I don't remember feeling that intense.
Speaker:A level of expat loneliness that I felt tonight or today rather in Korea,
Speaker:but maybe I did and I just forgot it because we always, you know, nostalgia
Speaker:is just like memory without the details.
Speaker:I really do love this place, this city, and I am always struck by the
Speaker:friendliness of the people that I meet,
Speaker:and my cynicism is like, oh, they just want me to come back to their
Speaker:restaurant, or they want me to come back to their bar or whatever.
Speaker:It's, but everybody in America or in the United States rather, I keep doing that.
Speaker:Everybody in the United States, all bars in the United States
Speaker:want, they want me to come back.
Speaker:The restaurants, they want you to come back
Speaker:in Mexico though.
Speaker:They really make you feel like you.
Speaker:Want to come back.
Speaker:And I don't think it's insincere.
Speaker:Maybe it is, I don't know.
Speaker:But it's a real friendliness that I really can't get enough of.
Speaker:And if, you know, I live here now, so when I tell PE, I mean people
Speaker:at the barn, they're expats.
Speaker:And then I tell 'em, I live here now.
Speaker:And they're like, whoa.
Speaker:And I wonder if part of.
Speaker:The niceness is because I'm an, they think I'm a tourist.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:This is my cynicism talking.
Speaker:Right.
Speaker:But yesterday I needed a new spatula and I went to the market near me.
Speaker:This big market, I think it's Mein Market, I forget the name of it.
Speaker:I think it's Mein and.
Speaker:I had lunch at a place I was starving.
Speaker:Had lunch at a place in the middle of the market.
Speaker:Very nice woman works there and was basically like, you should
Speaker:have this and this and this.
Speaker:And I was like, alright, I trust you.
Speaker:And she was right.
Speaker:There was some taco that was, had a pepper.
Speaker:I mean, it was, it was legit.
Speaker:But while I'm eating, she comes over and checks on me.
Speaker:I don't speak Spanish very well at all.
Speaker:And I told her that, and she knows that, but she's still speaking in Spanish to
Speaker:me just because she, she's doing it.
Speaker:I appreciated that and I understood some of it, but at one point I was
Speaker:like, I needed a spatula 'cause I know spatula in the house for some reason.
Speaker:I have eggs, I have tortillas, and how do I turn these
Speaker:things over without a spatula?
Speaker:So.
Speaker:I asked her, how do I get a spatula
Speaker:I said, is there a spatula salesman in this market?
Speaker:And she's like, see, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:I don't know what else you said.
Speaker:And so I finished eating and I paid my, bill and I start walking away and the
Speaker:woman comes up and she's like, I don't know what she said, hello or whatever,
Speaker:again, I really need to learn Spanish, but she said whatever it was, and I
Speaker:turned around and she's like, come, come.
Speaker:And so she takes me all the way across the market, a five minute
Speaker:walk, maybe 10 to show me where the special the sales are happening.
Speaker:I don't know, man.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:You tell me.
Speaker:You tell me.
Speaker:And then I bought a spatula with, it was for like a barbecue grill it
Speaker:was not a spatula of four inside.
Speaker:It was a spatula for outside.
Speaker:And I bought it anyway because I felt obligated, because I
Speaker:had been walked all the way.
Speaker:She was gone.
Speaker:But whatever I felt obligated.
Speaker:So now I have the spatula that I have to literally stand like a foot and a
Speaker:half from the stove to, to flip over the, like it's, but the memories that it
Speaker:brings up are really what's important.
Speaker:I think it's not so much the difficulty in using the spatula,
Speaker:it's the memories that the spatula brings up in you that are important.
Speaker:And this spatula,
Speaker:this bachelor brings up solid.
Speaker:Solid memories of kindness of Mexican
Speaker:kindness.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I went to a yoga class this morning, my second yoga class here in Mexico City,
Speaker:and the first class was taught half in English, which was, and it was good.
Speaker:It was a good.
Speaker:You know, gentle sliding into the yoga world here, but this one was
Speaker:not, and I knew it wouldn't be.
Speaker:And that was okay.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:This class was entirely in Spanish and it was interesting because you have, like,
Speaker:I've done a lot of yoga, so you know, basically what's gonna happen, you know?
Speaker:But there's some differences.
Speaker:Those of you who know me and yoga know that I am not a fan of the bolster.
Speaker:I find the bolsters to be disgusting.
Speaker:I know they don't wash those covers very often at all, and I know people
Speaker:are laying there, sweaty bodies all over those things, and I resist that.
Speaker:I do, I resist it.
Speaker:And if anybody disagrees with this, you're wrong.
Speaker:It's gross.
Speaker:I've talked to somebody who works at Yoga Studio and says that the covers don't
Speaker:get washed very often of those BOLs.
Speaker:So I'm right.
Speaker:I'm right.
Speaker:people do weird things with bolsters.
Speaker:There's all sorts of weird moves straddling, bolsters, like,
Speaker:what are we getting into here?
Speaker:If that's not being cleaned, like I'm not a germaphobe, but that's gross.
Speaker:That's gross.
Speaker:I'm sure there's, you know, bacterial scientists out there who would be
Speaker:like, well, this isn't even the worst.
Speaker:You shouldn't just, I mean, look at the handle of this thing you
Speaker:just touched, but I don't care.
Speaker:I don't wanna know your school learning stuff.
Speaker:I just wanna know what I feel and what I feel is that a bolster is disgusting.
Speaker:If you're gonna have a thing like a bolster in any kind of a thing, like
Speaker:yoga, even basketball, baseball, whatever, a bolster adjacent thing,
Speaker:you need to clean that cover.
Speaker:Like all the time for me to be okay with that.
Speaker:But again, call me a prude.
Speaker:I haven't washed the sheets that I've gotten here.
Speaker:I've been here two weeks.
Speaker:I haven't washed them once.
Speaker:I'm gonna do it tomorrow.
Speaker:I will, when I was in Columbus, did it every week, clockwork.
Speaker:It was like every weekend, changing the sheets.
Speaker:Now I'm just like, I don't fucking care.
Speaker:I don't care.
Speaker:They're not that dirty.
Speaker:Then you read some article on the internet that's like, how often
Speaker:should you really wash your sheets?
Speaker:And it's almost always like once a week I think this is part of the reason
Speaker:I moved to Mexico City is because.
Speaker:I wanted to be out of the realm of articles that are like, how
Speaker:often should you wash your sheets?
Speaker:I almost clicked on an article a couple, was it yesterday in the New York Times?
Speaker:It was like the wire cutters picks for best products of the year, and I'm just
Speaker:like almost clicked on it instinctually.
Speaker:'cause I like the wire cutter.
Speaker:I trust it, but I didn't because I'm like, what am I doing?
Speaker:You just got rid of.
Speaker:So much stuff and you're like, oh, but what's the best
Speaker:new stuff that I could have?
Speaker:Uh, I did buy a new shower head today because the shower head here
Speaker:in this apartment is untenable, and it was, it's like $20.
Speaker:So.
Speaker:You know what?
Speaker:I'll leave it here.
Speaker:I'm like, uh, Johnny Apples sea of shower heads.
Speaker:You know, I, everywhere I go, I upgrade shower heads.
Speaker:I've upgraded many girlfriends shower heads, and, and I've
Speaker:upgraded several apartment and house shower heads just left them.
Speaker:I'm not Who's gonna bring a shower head with them?
Speaker:They're not expensive.
Speaker:A shower head is an upgrade in your life that most people don't realize is.
Speaker:A solid, solid upgrade.
Speaker:I remember I was dating this one woman and I, the first time
Speaker:I took a shower at her house.
Speaker:I was like, like thinking like, what on earth?
Speaker:This is not even a shower head.
Speaker:I don't even know how to describe it.
Speaker:It was not a spray even, it was just like a, like a. Strangely
Speaker:shaped jet of water at my person.
Speaker:So I got her a new shower head.
Speaker:And I mean, women, I don't think care about Showerheads because, or maybe it's
Speaker:just me that cares about Showerheads.
Speaker:But another girlfriend got her a new shower head, changed her life,
Speaker:got her daughters under shower head, changed their life, one that
Speaker:could be used to clean their dog.
Speaker:Look at me.
Speaker:So anyway, I bought a new shower head for this place.
Speaker:The only issue that I'm gonna have is like, I don't have a wrench,
Speaker:so I don't know how I'm gonna install that, so I might have to
Speaker:buy a wrench too, but whatever.
Speaker:It's worth it.
Speaker:Like a bidet, a shower head is an upgrade that most people don't realize they
Speaker:wanted or needed until they have it.
Speaker:And then they're like, how did I ever live without this?
Speaker:All right.
Speaker:I think that's all for now.
Speaker:It is.
Speaker:It is all for now.
Speaker:it's Sunday night, and it's been a bit of a tricky weekend.
Speaker:It's been like the weekend of, of, inevitable
Speaker:feelings of isolation and, and loneliness and like.
Speaker:Honestly, like shock in a way of like, what, what, what am I doing?
Speaker:Or what have I done?
Speaker:Which is inevitable, you know?
Speaker:it's part of the, part of the path, right?
Speaker:It's part of getting outta that comfort zone.
Speaker:It's the discomfort, you know?
Speaker:But I have only been here two weeks and I do have people here, you know?
Speaker:so it's not as if I'm completely on my own out here as I was in
Speaker:Korea, and I don't know, looking back, I'm like, how did I do that?
Speaker:How did I have the tenacity at 29 years old to go to Korea by myself?
Speaker:Not knowing a single person there
Speaker:to teach English for two years, but I did and I made a lot of friends there.
Speaker:And by the time I left, I had a really good social life.
Speaker:So, so there it is.
Speaker:Um,
Speaker:Interestingly, the internet does not like me spelling my
Speaker:name with one F here in Mexico.
Speaker:I think perhaps because JEF means.
Speaker:Boss.
Speaker:Well, JEFE means boss.
Speaker:El Jefe.
Speaker:That's the only reason I can think of that
Speaker:it would do it.
Speaker:'cause on Amazon it's, I mean, I've noticed it on several websites,
Speaker:like it's adding an F to my name and I've changed nothing.
Speaker:It's kind of puzzling, to be honest, this has never happened
Speaker:before in my entire life.
Speaker:It's like Mexico doesn't like m e spelling my name with one F. Maybe
Speaker:it's confusing their systems or something, but it comes and goes too.
Speaker:Like sometimes I'll go onto Amazon or whatever site.
Speaker:It'll be like two F Jeff and sometimes it'll be one F. So
Speaker:anyway, an interesting little, I don't know, thing that I noticed.
Speaker:And another thing, you know, people talk about, I think the
Speaker:dogs in Mexico City, Los Perros.
Speaker:And it really is a thing.
Speaker:There are lots of dogs in Mexico City, and I like dogs, but in my
Speaker:building in which they're, I think five apartments, I think maybe six,
Speaker:two of them I believe have dogs.
Speaker:And sometimes they're great.
Speaker:But sometimes they bark a lot.
Speaker:They bark a lot.
Speaker:And, You know, it's pretty sturdy, thick wall apartment
Speaker:building, so it's not terrible.
Speaker:But sometimes it is and it's really annoying.
Speaker:But
Speaker:yeah, there's a lot of dogs here.
Speaker:There's a park, where there's just like a whole dog park there.
Speaker:A huge dog park and you can go there and watch the dogs play for hours.
Speaker:Super fun.
Speaker:That's a magical park.
Speaker:It's the park in Condesa, the, the park in Condesa with the art
Speaker:deco and the meditation areas.
Speaker:Anyway, great Park.
Speaker:I'll wrap up with this.
Speaker:The way my hot water works, and I think a lot of people's hot
Speaker:water works in Mexico is puzzling.
Speaker:there's water heaters, of course, but they're different than the ones in the
Speaker:US and I'm not entirely sure how or why they're different, but when I stayed
Speaker:at Patricia's, hers was definitely.
Speaker:Strange.
Speaker:You could like hear it making a noise when it was on, but it was always kind of
Speaker:haphazard to whether you would necessarily get very hot water in her shower.
Speaker:Here, I'll get hot water in the shower.
Speaker:The knobs reversed.
Speaker:In fact, every one of my faucets, it's kind of a crapshoot.
Speaker:I should put letters because some, like, I think the kitchen one has
Speaker:the wrong side is hot and whatever.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:The hot water for some reason comes from this courtyard that's like in, you
Speaker:know, it's more like a shaft, right?
Speaker:That's in the area.
Speaker:Like my bathroom overlooks it and it goes all the way down to the
Speaker:bottom of the apartment building.
Speaker:But when I turn my hot water off, it makes this giant slamming sound
Speaker:like two or three stories down in this little chasm or whatever.
Speaker:And it's loud.
Speaker:Like at first I didn't know what it was, but then I think the owner of
Speaker:this place came and told me, or his son said that that's the hot water.
Speaker:And I don't know if that's how it's supposed to sound, but the other night.
Speaker:I went in to wash my face before I went to bed, and I turned the
Speaker:hot water on to wash my face and it was, I don't know, 1130 or 12.
Speaker:And you know, I turned it off and there was a, you know, the giant banging sound.
Speaker:And then I heard something, somebody stirring in one of the apartments below
Speaker:me and I thought, oh, did I just wake this person up because I turned off that water?
Speaker:That's weird, right?
Speaker:And when I moved into this place the hot water tap in the
Speaker:bathroom sink was turned off.
Speaker:And I'm wondering if it was because it was disturbing the people below.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But they turned it back on.
Speaker:And then I started thinking, was this person below me hate me?
Speaker:'cause I'm always using the hot water and it's making the slamming sound.
Speaker:I don't think anybody else's hot water makes a slamming sound like this.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know what the story is there.
Speaker:Very strange.
Speaker:One more thing actually.
Speaker:I still have yet to take my garbage out.
Speaker:The landlord took it out once, I think, 'cause I couldn't possibly.
Speaker:But yeah, I've got like a bag of garbage I've gotta take out.
Speaker:And the way the garbage works is, I think I said, is you hear this dinging
Speaker:bell and then you go out and take your garbage out and give them money.
Speaker:But like I've heard this dinging bell so many times.
Speaker:And then I look out the window, which looks out to the street, and I
Speaker:don't see any garbage truck anywhere.
Speaker:And I don't want to go out with a bag of garbage, just wandering around like
Speaker:an idiot looking for a garbage truck.
Speaker:Like it's confusing, and I think it was Saturday all day I heard bells and
Speaker:I'm like, where is the garbage truck?
Speaker:So I never, I never threw it away that yesterday.
Speaker:Today though.
Speaker:I heard it again and then I look out and there is the garbage truck like
Speaker:flying by, like not even slowing down.
Speaker:Like how is a person supposed to get out there fast enough to like, I don't know.
Speaker:I'm sure there's a system to this.
Speaker:I don't quite understand it yet, but it's weird and once I get the hang
Speaker:of it, I'm sure I'll love it because you know, there's no garbage cans in
Speaker:the streets and that's great, but.
Speaker:Right now I gotta get this garbage out and like I'm in my place to send for ringing
Speaker:bells all the time and looking around like a, like a paranoid schizophrenic.
Speaker:Like, oh, there's the bells.
Speaker:The bells.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Like c chalk that up under, like, one of the things I did not expect to, be
Speaker:different or difficult when I came to Mexico City, but you know, you never know.
Speaker:Also food goes bad much quicker because there's not as many preservatives in it.
Speaker:Sleep tight American, sleep tight.
Speaker:United States have a good time.
Speaker:Enjoy your mega processed foods.
Speaker:Seriously, the bananas go like, there's nothing in bananas, but the bananas
Speaker:here even, even go right faster.
Speaker:So maybe 'cause it's closer, I don't know what they do.
Speaker:Maybe they do something to American Bananas or United States bananas,
Speaker:which is a whole nother thing.
Speaker:What do I call myself?
Speaker:American.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:I gotta go to bed or no.
Speaker:What I need to do is I need to prepare to go to bed.
Speaker:It's interesting when you move to another country, the people who you
Speaker:least expect to hear from, like you least expect to get a phone call or
Speaker:FaceTime from are the people that you end up like, and it's not a bad thing.
Speaker:It's actually kind of wonderful because it's like, oh,
Speaker:I'm so glad that this person, I did not have any expectation.
Speaker:Like some people you expect right?
Speaker:Then oftentimes, not oftentimes, but sometimes they will
Speaker:let you down in that way.
Speaker:Like the people that you most expect to keep in touch with are the ones
Speaker:that often don't, but then the ones that you don't expect to even hear
Speaker:from again, are the ones that you,
Speaker:and that's beautiful, really.
Speaker:In a way.
Speaker:There's something lovely about it.
Speaker:There's also something to be said for like, you never know
Speaker:who really cares about you.
Speaker:I went to Walmart today.
Speaker:Walmart Express is what they call these smaller Walmarts that
Speaker:they have here in Mexico City.
Speaker:I hate Walmart.
Speaker:I hate the concept of it.
Speaker:I hate everything about it.
Speaker:Everybody does, right?
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:The last time I was in a Walmart was in the United States of America,
Speaker:and this was Christmas circa,
Speaker:I don't know, 2002, 2003, and it was a last minute.
Speaker:Walmart was open till midnight or 24 hours, so it was like
Speaker:a last minute gift, like.
Speaker:Scramble and it was like Calcutta in there.
Speaker:No offense to Calcutta, of course I've never been, but I've
Speaker:heard and I've seen the videos.
Speaker:It seems very, you know, crowded and frantic.
Speaker:That's my comparison there.
Speaker:That's all.
Speaker:It was like Calcutta in that Walmart and, uh, but Calcutta with, rural white
Speaker:people, you know, like, you know, and me.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:Walmart in Mexico City.
Speaker:It's somewhat similar, it's mostly Americans because Americans are like,
Speaker:oh, I recognize the name of Walmart.
Speaker:You know, it's like people who go to, uh, Applebee's in Times Square.
Speaker:Right?
Speaker:It's the same phenomenon, I think.
Speaker:Anyway, Walmart and it's overpriced.
Speaker:There was a tub of Faye yogurt, plain Faye yogurt, the larger tub.
Speaker:I think it was 2% or 5%, whatever it was, like $15.
Speaker:So I didn't buy that.
Speaker:Chobani was like a third of the price, but we can all be honest
Speaker:about Greek yogurt quality and say
Speaker:Chobani fucking sucks, there's a reason it's cheap.
Speaker:It's a low end Greek yogurt.
Speaker:I am not trying to get sponsorship from you.
Speaker:Chobani trying to get Faye money.
Speaker:Faye, I'm here for you if you need me to help you promote your product.
Speaker:I'm a big fan, not a big fan, but a fan Enough to, you know, my mom also,
Speaker:she loves your blueberry yogurt.
Speaker:She loves the, you know, the side by side thing.
Speaker:Big fan.
Speaker:So there's two family members who enjoy your yogurt and one has a podcast.
Speaker:So you tell me what we should do next.
Speaker:Faye.
Speaker:Or is it Fge?
Speaker:Or is it faggy?
Speaker:Oof.
Speaker:I think it's Faye.
Speaker:It's gotta be, I think it says in the container, doesn't it?
Speaker:It's pronounced Faye.
Speaker:Because I bet they had like a PR problem.
Speaker:People would be like, gimme some of that Faggy yogurt.
Speaker:And they're like, uh, we should put a little, you know, somebody in marketing.
Speaker:It's like, what if we put a little bitty note that says how to
Speaker:pronounce the name of the yogurt?
Speaker:'cause it is a confusing word, sir. CEO, whatever.
Speaker:Anyway.
Speaker:Walmart, I did buy yogurt.
Speaker:Chobani, the cheap shit.
Speaker:What else did I get?
Speaker:Oh, fabric softener.
Speaker:But I dunno if I'm gonna use that.
Speaker:I don't know if I'll use that.
Speaker:I don't really understand.
Speaker:Liquid fabric softener, to be honest, I don't get it.
Speaker:I've never used it in my life, but I feel like the circumstance that
Speaker:I'm in with no dryers, I think this is what it's for, isn't it?
Speaker:I guess we'll find out.
Speaker:'cause I got a big bottle of fabric softener now, liquid fabric
Speaker:softener, and I cannot wait to.
Speaker:Put in the compartment on the washing machine.
Speaker:On the roof of my apartment building.
Speaker:And yes, I'll be honest, I did feel somewhat dirty and disgusting
Speaker:shopping at Walmart in Mexico City.
Speaker:There's a lot of Walmarts in Mexico City is the thing.
Speaker:But in this Walmart, it was not a big Walmart.
Speaker:It was a Walmart Express.
Speaker:It was smaller and there were definitely like, it was half Americans
Speaker:or, well, no, I'll say Americans.
Speaker:Should we get the feta cheese?
Speaker:Should we get the feta?
Speaker:Did you get the feta cheese?
Speaker:Oh, there's not a lot of salads here.
Speaker:Mm. Look at all the tortillas.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:Do you wanna get some salsa?
Speaker:Let's get some salsa.
Speaker:Uh, oh my God.
Speaker:The yogurt's $15.
Speaker:Oh my God.
Speaker:Oh, they sell tequila Here.
Speaker:Look, honey, let's get some tequila.
Speaker:Okay.
Speaker:That's all.
Speaker:But I was there.
Speaker:I was amidst it.
Speaker:I just didn't speak.
Speaker:I just remained silent throughout the experience until the very end when I
Speaker:said, you know, grass, yes, for the guy to bag my groceries or whatever.
Speaker:It's difficult moving to a country that you don't really speak the language.
Speaker:And I am going to, I mean, I have to find a language teacher.
Speaker:It's just, there's so many options.
Speaker:Number one, and I don't wanna do virtual, but it seems like
Speaker:that's probably the way to do it.
Speaker:Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker:Who cares?
Speaker:Nobody cares what you're talking about.
Speaker:Jeff.
Speaker:This is stupid.
Speaker:Talk about Mexico City.
Speaker:Don't talk about your dumb language lessons.
Speaker:Well, I'll talk about the fact that it's 1130 and I have to go to
Speaker:bed because I have to get up early because I've got a cleaning person
Speaker:coming tomorrow, and I thought,
Speaker:when I've gotten cleaning people in the United States, they bring all their own
Speaker:stuff, the vacuum cleaner, all the things they bring, all that, all that crap.
Speaker:But apparently here they do not.
Speaker:They rely on you to have all the stuff, which I suppose
Speaker:is why it's so inexpensive.
Speaker:But I don't have all that stuff.
Speaker:Like I don't, I don't have a mop, I don't think, you know, I
Speaker:don't have a broom or anything.
Speaker:There's some spray bottles under the sink that are just unlabeled,
Speaker:so I don't know what that is.
Speaker:Who knows?
Speaker:Maybe you can tell by the color.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:But.
Speaker:When I found out that I needed to have all this stuff, I kind of panicked this
Speaker:afternoon and I was like, what do I do?
Speaker:So I like messaged patric.
Speaker:I was messaging the, cleaning lady.
Speaker:I'm like, do I need to have this stuff?
Speaker:Like, how do I get this stuff?
Speaker:I'm having trouble getting rid of my garbage at this point.
Speaker:So like trying to get all this stuff is like a lot, it's a lift because I
Speaker:still haven't gotten rid of the garbage.
Speaker:I'm hoping that.
Speaker:The cleaning people will get rid of the garbage, some magic of some sort.
Speaker:They'll just be like, boom, it'll be gone.
Speaker:That would be amazing to me I had to buy new garbage bags because one of
Speaker:the garbage bags that's been in the hallway for about a week and a half now.
Speaker:I picked it up and it had been leaking, so there's like a leak on the floor.
Speaker:So that's gotta be cleaned up by the cleaning people tomorrow.
Speaker:Of course.
Speaker:Am I right?
Speaker:At least I got something to do, but again, I have no mop.
Speaker:So how are they gonna do that on their hands and knees?
Speaker:No, they're not gonna do anyway.
Speaker:Uh, it was leaking, so I thought, well, I have to get new bags, but I had
Speaker:bought garbage bags already, but I had bought the wrong size, you know, small.
Speaker:Garbage bag black in Mexico City is much smaller than small in Amer United States.
Speaker:So I got large and the large garbage bags are about the size of the mediums.
Speaker:I guess this is a thing, you know, like a large drink in Mexico City is
Speaker:like a small in America, and that's why everybody in America is so obese.
Speaker:Because portion sizes are so large.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:I don't know.
Speaker:Anyway, here I am in Mexico City.
Speaker:I've been here for 15 or 16 days and I'm doing well.
Speaker:All things considered.
Speaker:I'm doing better than I thought I would be doing at this point.
Speaker:So that's good.
Speaker:And that's the end of this dispatch.
Speaker:I ran the name by AI and AI said that dispatch was a
Speaker:bad word for the name of it.
Speaker:I was like, fuck you ai.
Speaker:Fuck you, Claude.
Speaker:Claude was like, your name is too boring.
Speaker:I don't know what the word was.
Speaker:It used, but basically it was like boring.
Speaker:And then it was like, call it Mexico City Notes.
Speaker:And I'm like, you think that's not boring?
Speaker:That's the lamest name I've ever heard in my life.
Speaker:So that was a good time.
Speaker:That was a good time.
Speaker:Why do I get so angry at artificial intelligence?
Speaker:I'm not the only one.
Speaker:You know who you are.
Speaker:You know, you've all gotten pissed off at it and gotten in
Speaker:a dumb argument with a computer.
Speaker:You're lying.
Speaker:You have, you have,
Speaker:I try to catch my AI in lies and I'm like, what am I doing with my life?
Speaker:What am I doing this for?
Speaker:There's no winner here at all.
Speaker:There's only a big, big, big fat loser.
Speaker:And that loser is me.
Speaker:That loser is Jef Taylor living in Roma, sir, here in Mexico City.
Speaker:He's in Mexico City and he's inside his apartment arguing
Speaker:with an artificial intelligence.
Speaker:What are you doing, Jef?
Speaker:What on earth are you doing
Speaker:is an adjustment period.
Speaker:It's adjustment.
Speaker:And before I go, I really wanna tell you, I'll put a picture in the Patreon of
Speaker:this, the ceiling light fixtures in the bedrooms of my apartment are so bizarre.
Speaker:They're very out of place.
Speaker:There was a joke I had years ago with a friend of mine about having like
Speaker:a person who was totally into like nautical theme, like had a whole house.
Speaker:It was nautical theme with like, you know, fucking anchors and big old steering
Speaker:wheels and whatever else, and rope.
Speaker:Anyway, these ceiling lights in this apartment are a nautical theme for sure.
Speaker:It's rope, it's like, you know, big, thick rope with bulbs, but nothing else.
Speaker:The entire apartment is nautical, adjacent even.
Speaker:And that's all.
Speaker:That's all I'm gonna say this week.
Speaker:Uh, what an ending though.
Speaker:Talking about the old light fixtures.
Speaker:Good stuff.
Speaker:Good stuff.
Speaker:Jef.
Speaker:This episode's called Light Fixtures.
Speaker:And if there's a light fixture company that would like me to sponsor, I'd
Speaker:be happy to help you, especially if your name is Light Fixtures.
Speaker:If there's a company out there called Light Fixtures that actually sells
Speaker:light fixtures, absolutely reach out.
Speaker:My phone number is in the show notes.
Speaker:There's also an email, onefjefpod@gmail.com.
Speaker:Light fixtures.
Speaker:I'm a big fan.
Speaker:I gotta go.
Speaker:I gotta go see if lightfixtures.com is taken.
Speaker:I'll see you next week.
