My Theme for the A to Z Challenge

My theme for the Challenge this year is The Expat Life. I will post every day but Sunday in April about living as an American Expat in (mostly) Mexico.

If you're interested in signing up for the A to Z Challenge, please go here, to the official website. Sign up begins March 23. The Theme Reveal is an optional Blog Hop for participants to reveal their themes.

Having lived out of my home country off and on for twelve years, I'm excited about this theme because I have so much to share. It shouldn't be too hard to come up with 26 blog posts from A to Z. I like writing them in advance to take the pressure off. Then I can spend time visiting other blogs in the Challenge and discovering new ones.

What are we reading?

 My pattern is to read two books consecutively, one non-fiction and one light fiction. Which one gets picked up depends on my mood and energy level. 

My current light fiction is the Nero Wolfe detective series by Rex Stout. I find them enjoyable, despite usually knowing the endings half-way through. 

The setting is 1940s through 1960s Manhattan. Its streets, restaurants and fancy apartments are featured prominently in the plot and action. Nero Wolfe is a 300 lb., fancy-beer-drinking agoraphobe who stays within the confines of his office, his dining room, and the extensive orchid garden on the roof. 

His assistant, Archie Goodwin, does the detective legwork and narrates the stories.

Rex Stout, like Agatha Christie, having found the formula that made them rich, kept churning out their books one after another for our reading pleasure. Stout wrote 47 Nero Wolfe books, including novellas and short stories. Christie wrote about twice that many, although not with the same characters. And her endings are not easy to guess.

The non-fiction book I just finished is How to Fail at Almost Everything and Still Win Big by Scott Adams. The Dilbert creator recently died of prostate cancer at age 68, and because of my son's cancer, I am interested in all things related to this terrible scourge. So, I picked up this one, wondering "What was his life ten years before the cancer?"

The book is memoir-ish, giving it an edge for me over the generic how to succeed book. I appreciated Scott's sardonic humor: "Why would anyone take advice from a cartoonist?" 

I didn't agree with all his theories but found plenty to make it worth the read, such as his distinction between setting goals and establishing systems. (Systems are more effective at achieving success than goals, he claims convincingly. I have since addressed my chronic, goal-setting addiction by rewording them as systems.)

Having finished this, I'm ready for another intelligent non-fiction. 

I have several Nero Wolfe books waiting on my Kindle. I'm not yet bored with Nero Wolfe and Archie Goodwin. I like getting transported to 1950s Manhattan.

A Week in Mexico City

Hello again, Mexico! I flew back in January and spent a week in Mexico City at this amazing hotel from the early 1920s, in a bustling, upscale area of the city. Not fancy, not luxury, not expensive, but very nice and well-maintained. A tiny apartment with a tiny kitchen on the 9th floor. Most importantly, within my budget, as I'm a careful and frugal traveler. 

I spend hours searching and researching locales, hotels, Airbnbs, and neighborhoods to make sure of what I'm getting. Especially since my stays are often a month or longer. I don't want to get stuck, and so far my research has paid off, with only a couple lemons out of twelve years of traveling around Central and South America. And even then, I didn't die. Just chalked it up to Adventure and an Interesting Story. This is not bragging. Simply reassuring people (especially friends and family) that the expat life is working out well. So far so good.

As much as I've been in Mexico, I had not spent any time in the City, layovers notwithstanding. I had resisted it; too expensive, too big, how will I know what areas are safe and interesting? 

But this year, I overcame the hurdles, mostly mental, and went for it. I kept the stay short just in case, but despite the cold, unheated room, it was fine. There were plenty of blankets on the bed, I had brought layers, and during the day when the sun came out, I went out to explore the neighborhood and keep warm in the high 60, low 70s weather.

Below are a few pictures from the area. The first one is the roof of my building, the "laundry room." They allow guests to use the washer and dryer for free laundry services, a nice bonus.

So finally, I broke the wall of resistance that was big, scary Mexico City. Like many others who have discovered this amazing city, I look forward to returning. In fact, I've already got my next stay booked.

From AOL to Substack

 Substack is to Blogger like Tik Tok is to writing letters. Modern, trendy, culturally relative. I follow a few interesting Substacks and thought I'd try setting up my own. I lasted about five minutes before deleting the whole thing, including the app on my phone. It was more a matter of curiosity rather than seriously trying out a new blogging format. I found the site confusing and difficult to navigate.

My very first blog was created on AOL around the year 2000. It was when the term "online log" or "blog" entered the vocabulary. AOL had a site where you could start your own blog. I got excited about the idea of writing an online journal for our older kids leaving home. They weren't the slightest bit interested. They couldn't wait to leave the nest and focus on their own lives. "No time, Mom, sorry, I've been too busy to read it."

My husband was my biggest fan. He actually printed each entry. I have no idea where those hard copies ended up. Probably in a file or a box somewhere that disappeared during a move. Eventually, AOL got sold or otherwise lost the prominence of those early Internet days. Their blogging service disappeared as did my entries, despite what people say about once online, always online. 

I must be an ancient relic, one of the first bloggers on perhaps the first blogging service. AOL, folks! That's the modern equivalent to the Dinosaur Age.

And now there's Substack, popular and successful, earning some folks quite a nice living. Anything where talented and thoughtful writers can earn a living from their craft has my vote. 

Have any of you explored Substack, or set up an account? Probably even more unusual, did any of you start a blog on AOL? I think it might have been called AOL Journal.