So when you feel like hope is gone, look inside you and be strong!

Moving to a foreign country requires months of preparation. In my case, this meant sorting through box after box of stored artifacts and forcing myself to part with the relics. It was absurd, some of the things I'd held onto because I never took the time to sort through them (like, did I really need to save my grandmother's tacky tablecloth?!). At one point my bedroom floor became a mountain of rejected photos because in 2010, it's hard to justify storing anything that doesn't fit on a hard drive, let alone photos from the "frump" period. But why oh why had I stored music tapes from yesterdecade??!! The Best of Blondie, Jody Watley, Tesla, Aerosmith, Debbie Gibson (hey, I never claimed to have good music taste in my teens; I blame it on my Temecula/Anza upbringing). Who in the heck would ever need tapes circa 1990 in this age of technology?! No idea why I'd held on to them, but there they were - yet another pre-Costa Rica errand I needed to run. But I was preparing, sorting, purging, planning. Goodwill Jackpot, that was me.

But no matter how good of a planner you might be, something will always manage to weasel away from your preparatory powers. In my case, I forgot that buying a Geo Tracker from the 90's meant that said Tracker would most likely be stocked with, yes, that is correct...a tape deck. And so what happens? I'll tell you what happens. You end up driving home from meeting, with the windows down and the Huacas wind blowing your hair around as you belt out lyrics to Mariah Carey's 'There's a Hero' because the local station actually plays music that is worse than your High School collection. Phil Collins, Rod Stewart, Gerry Rafferty, Heart, Journey, and perhaps worst of all, The Jets. A band I saw at Knott's Berry Farm as a fourteen year old is still getting airtime on Costa Rica's Rrrrrrradio Dos! Oh, and Coldplay, because apparently they are the only band in modern history worthy of being played besides these aforementioned *legends*.

Now that I didn't forsee. And how embarrassing that I still remember the words to many of these songs! So just remember: the lord knows that dreams are hard to follow, but don't let anyone tear them away! Sing on, Mariah!!