The Fresh Pence of Bel-Air
The election and its aftermath have generated a lot of new interest in Read Between the Bars lately. Unfortunately most of that interest seems to be from people who want to volunteer for us--or donate books. What we really need is money, though. But my hope is that we can steer some of the new volunteers away from helping us pack books and toward helping us do fundraising events. I'm starting to get tired of having a work space so full of book-packers that it's hard to even move around.
I think I'll try to give some of my own money to various advocacy and service organizations every month or so. It won't be much for now--especially since I've been spending too much on travel lately. Next month I'm in Vancouver. In March I'm in Seattle, Hermosillo, and San Carlos. In June I'll be fulfilling that plan I developed back in September to add a short visit to Costa Rica to my annual family trip to Oklahoma City. I got lucky in that San José and Liberia traded places in terms of which one was cheaper to fly to. San José sounds much better to me. The weather is nicer (not as hot and windy), and almost all of the urban adventures it offers are within walking distance of each other. It also has a lot of vegan, vegetarian, and vegetarian-friendly restaurants for a Central American city. (My experiences in Belize and Mexico have definitely left a lot to be desired in the food department.)
Prices in San José aren't quite as good as they are in the rest of Central America. I had some mild sticker shock when I was looking at hotel prices, but I found a reasonable alernative ($34 a night in a great location, but without air conditioning) on Airbnb.
I was out on a date on Friday with someone who is much better traveled than I am, and she told me about a trip to El Salvador that she'd taken. I was searching my memory bank, trying to remember if I had checked what flights to and from El Salvador were like. She implied that the trip had been very affordable, but if flights weren't outrageous, why didn't it end up on my mental list of places to visit? My guess is that after having some sticker shock from looking at round-trip air fare to places like Tegucigalpa and Guatemala City, I just gave up and didn't even look at El Salvador, resigning to the conclusion that Costa Rica, Belize, and Mexico were the only Central American countries I could fly in and out of for somewhere around $500. As it turns out, air travel to El Salvador isn't bad, and I think if I timed my travel just right I could get some pretty reasonable tickets. I think it might be my next Central American destination after Costa Rica. (But I also want to keep an eye on destinations across the Atlantic; I heard a Norwegian airline was going to start offering more flights to Europe--and at good prices.)
Aside from the useful travel information, the date on Friday went well. It was one of those rare first dates I walked away from without any lingering questions about our compatibility. We both seem to appreciate the other's interests in the world beyond our borders. And it helps that we're both vegetarians. We seem to be equally excited about our second date, too.
I was a bit exhausted on Saturday after a date that didn't end until around 11:45 the night before, but I still made it to Tucson's Sister March to the Women's March on Washington. I went with alsoname and flw. It was one of the biggest protests I've ever seen in Tucson--possibly the biggest. The only one I can think of that might have been larger was one of the 2003 anti-war marches. Crowd estimates were between 10,000 and 15,000 people. It felt good to be a part of it.
I think I'll try to give some of my own money to various advocacy and service organizations every month or so. It won't be much for now--especially since I've been spending too much on travel lately. Next month I'm in Vancouver. In March I'm in Seattle, Hermosillo, and San Carlos. In June I'll be fulfilling that plan I developed back in September to add a short visit to Costa Rica to my annual family trip to Oklahoma City. I got lucky in that San José and Liberia traded places in terms of which one was cheaper to fly to. San José sounds much better to me. The weather is nicer (not as hot and windy), and almost all of the urban adventures it offers are within walking distance of each other. It also has a lot of vegan, vegetarian, and vegetarian-friendly restaurants for a Central American city. (My experiences in Belize and Mexico have definitely left a lot to be desired in the food department.)
Prices in San José aren't quite as good as they are in the rest of Central America. I had some mild sticker shock when I was looking at hotel prices, but I found a reasonable alernative ($34 a night in a great location, but without air conditioning) on Airbnb.
I was out on a date on Friday with someone who is much better traveled than I am, and she told me about a trip to El Salvador that she'd taken. I was searching my memory bank, trying to remember if I had checked what flights to and from El Salvador were like. She implied that the trip had been very affordable, but if flights weren't outrageous, why didn't it end up on my mental list of places to visit? My guess is that after having some sticker shock from looking at round-trip air fare to places like Tegucigalpa and Guatemala City, I just gave up and didn't even look at El Salvador, resigning to the conclusion that Costa Rica, Belize, and Mexico were the only Central American countries I could fly in and out of for somewhere around $500. As it turns out, air travel to El Salvador isn't bad, and I think if I timed my travel just right I could get some pretty reasonable tickets. I think it might be my next Central American destination after Costa Rica. (But I also want to keep an eye on destinations across the Atlantic; I heard a Norwegian airline was going to start offering more flights to Europe--and at good prices.)
Aside from the useful travel information, the date on Friday went well. It was one of those rare first dates I walked away from without any lingering questions about our compatibility. We both seem to appreciate the other's interests in the world beyond our borders. And it helps that we're both vegetarians. We seem to be equally excited about our second date, too.
I was a bit exhausted on Saturday after a date that didn't end until around 11:45 the night before, but I still made it to Tucson's Sister March to the Women's March on Washington. I went with alsoname and flw. It was one of the biggest protests I've ever seen in Tucson--possibly the biggest. The only one I can think of that might have been larger was one of the 2003 anti-war marches. Crowd estimates were between 10,000 and 15,000 people. It felt good to be a part of it.