An Otto be Grateful Thanksgiving

Yesterday was Thanksgiving, a day to be grateful. Robert and I have a lot to be grateful for, and we celebrated our way, just the two of us. Our Thanksgiving plans included over-eating, watching movies, and eating more food...all without being affected by Hurricane Otto. To a wonderful surprise, it happened.

This past week was very reminiscent of Fall for me as we had a lot of drizzly rain, steady winds, and a lot of cloudy weather. Egrets could be seen from our balcony cruising the wind. I loved it! Come Tuesday I realized the weather was due to the tropical storm/possible hurricane, Otto. Panama is below the hurricane belt and there has not been a hurricane on record, to my knowledge. It was expected to hit Nicaragua and Costa Rica Thursday. Despite this, I was keeping a watchful eye on it, making sure history was not in the making.

While we were enjoying the cool weather, other parts of Panama got hit pretty hard with flooding and landslides. It was expected that areas near Costa Rica would see heavy flooding and upwards of 12 inches of rain. Areas of Panama City were flooded and there were three deaths in the country. The last news reports I read stated that Panama was the only country that had deaths and that hit made landfall in Nicaragua as a category 2 hurricane.

The most interesting thing about this experience, for me at least, is that it seemed like the news in North America had not mentioned anything about Otto. Robert and I both called our parents Tuesday in order to reassure them we were okay in the event they heard about it. Neither of them had and we were bringing the news to them. The after thought was that if they heard about it, our emails and phones would have been exploding.

Thanksgiving came and we had calm weather. It was the first day the weather was not windy, rainy, or cloudy. We were making phone calls/Skype calls to our parents and siblings while food was in the oven. Robert made turkey for himself and a great tasting pumpkin pie to share. I had a black bean lentil loaf that purposed as my main dish.

Black Bean Lentil Loaf

Cranberry Stuffing

Robert's awesome pumpkin pie!

Late lunch was awesome and the dogs seemed to agree. Both kept trying to dig in the garbage for drippings.

Turkey coma!

Our little dog was not fond of being told no and started a growling match with Robert.

It was hard not to laugh

Movies we watched included Die Hard (it is a holiday movie, right?) and It's a Wonderful Life. The power went out during the second half of It's a Wonderful Life. We decided to walk down the stairs and walk the beach. The sunset was inspiring offering an array of pinks, oranges, and blues. We tried to wait out the power outage, but it was starting to get dark and we thought it would be best to climb the stairs while we still could. Have you ever climbed 11 flights of stairs on a full stomach? It is not something I recommend. The power eventually came back on and we were able to finish the movie.

Christmas is coming up in a month and today marks the official kickoff of that. Did you go shopping on Black Friday? Thanksgiving was a nice, relaxing day. We could not have asked for anything more.

As a side note, since I have been asked, Panama does not celebrate Thanksgiving. However, Canada does in October. 

Laptop Down and The Election.

A lot is going on lately. Not just in my life personally, but from a global perspective as well. I have been absent from the blog for about a month (despite not wanting to be) due to the fact that my laptop is currently down and I have to share a laptop. The election also just happened. I have to be honest, I am glad it is over. Because of the election, I am going to talk some politics, despite being raised otherwise. Sorry Mom.

My laptop died last week. I called Mac support to see if they could do anything. The only thing that can be done is to send it in for repair. Buying a Mac is awesome in the fact that it is still under warranty, which means that any time something goes wrong, I can send it in and get it fixed, no charge; however, it has to be with an authorized Mac repair store. My warranty does not extend to Latin America, so I would have to do it in the US. Friends of ours graciously took my laptop back to the US, since I would not be able to do it. We are sharing a laptop for the next six weeks. 

Now, with the election. The reaction within the US and worldwide is pretty intense. People kept asking me my opinion. There is one person I have openly spoken about the election with outside of Robert. I needed time to process my feelings about the election. So my fellow inquisitor(s), here is my opinion about the whole thing. 

Disclaimer: These are my opinions that I feel strongly about. I try to be as objective as I can about a subjective topic, in the respect that I try my best to back up my reasons when I deem appropriate. I welcome free speech. Any hateful rhetoric will not be tolerated, if I see any in the comments.

People I know had mixed emotions about the election. Some people were enthused about the news, while others are planning on moving out of the country. People that are not from the US also had mixed emotions. Some were excited about the results; however, many seemed distraught. 

Why do I bring up non Americans? Because a lot of countries are affected by our politics. Panama for example, has it's own currency, but their economy is 1:1 with the US Dollar and we use Balboas (Panamanian currency) interchangeably with US currency. One expat I know said the following quote:

I am slowly starting to see and understand this.

Personally, I did not find either candidate to be without flaws. My reaction to Trump winning, I imagine, would have been similar to if Clinton won: unsure of what the future holds for the US and the world. This election, for many, was not about the best candidate, rather the lesser evil of the candidates.

Protesters are going crazy, especially in Portland. People on both sides are upset on social media. Opposition against the protesters are calling these protesters babies. To those people who say that, please keep in mind that Trump supporters were already preparing for protests, including the Milwaukee sheriff that said it is "pitchforks and torches time" if Clinton were elected. While I do not agree with the riots, protests were bound to happen regardless of who got elected. 

It astounds me how people hope that Trump fails. If he fails, we fail. Regardless of whether we like it, Trump is going to be our next president. If he gets impeached (based off various news articles stating this could happen) then Pence will be president. Those who are anti-Trump will be dealing with somebody with a very conservative tract record. 

I have some hopes over the next four years. I hope that Trump is a successful president; his success is our success. I hope that Trump is able to bring the US together. I hope now that the Republicans control the three major governments things will get done without blaming the Democrats. You guys have no excuse, so get it together and walk the talk you've been talking.

I hope that people realize how important voting is. I read that this year was a "good" voter turn out with 57% of  people voting. The US may not be perfect, but we are able to have an opinion and put our opinions into action by voting. Not everyone gets that right.  Regardless of which candidate you vote for, VOTE!

So, that is my take on the whole election. That is what is going on in my life right now. I will try to do another post in about two weeks, around Thanksgiving. On that note, I hope everyone has a safe and festive holiday and that nobody has to work.