Success!

My Dallas trip was a success, but not like you would think.

The plan was to get up early Wednesday morning and go to the Social Security office and complete my application process. However, before I got out of bed, my phone rang. Would you believe it was the US Embassy in Mexico City?

Yep. I spent $1500 to get a phone call! Geez. That said, however, there was some additional good news: Because of having been married previously for more than 10 years, I am entitled to a larger monthly benefit than I would normally be — about $300 a month more. Down here, that is a lot of money! Can you do the happy dance?

Other business:

While I was in Dallas I had a couple of other things to do, such as pick up my AdvoCare products — I can’t live without my Spark! — and complete setting up a direct transfer from my US bank to my Mexico bank.

In addition, I was able to reconnect with my friends Mike and Emily Biddler, who are the parents of my good friend Jeane Brown. The timing couldn’t have been better. Not only did we have a lovely dinner, but the Biddlers drove me to pick up my Spark.

By Wednesday night I had successfully completed two of the three goals I had for the trip.

Unfortunately, I also visited the bank that afternoon. That part didn’t go as planned. Turns out that the banker in Boise didn’t complete the process on his end, which meant I couldn’t do what I needed to do to get the system working. The alternative was to start over. That wasn’t going to work, though, because I would have to come back in a week to send the first transfer. It MUST be done in a branch. That was the initial problem when I set it up in Boise (or so I thought) in the fall.

It took a second trip to the bank on Thursday to confirm all this, which left me with an entire day to myself in beautiful Dallas. Not that I did anything fun. I just went back to the hotel and rested.

Speaking of the hotel, it was the Hotel Lorenzo. A very cool, modern and funky little hotel with a great happy hour bar/restaurant. I was able to get my meals there without breaking the bank.

The carpet in the room made me a little crazy. Basically, it was a black carpet with white text on it — quotes from Shakespeare! The text was fuzzy, so you couldn’t actually read it, but I did my damnedest! “To be or not to be, that is the question….” Finding the sentences that went together made me absolutely insane, but, hey — English major! I couldn’t rest until I found them!

In the lobby restaurant, each wall had photos of different artists — Dali, Picasso and Warhol, were some of them. In the main part of the lobby, there was a hallway with TVs that each showed one eye blinking. On the other side was a mirror. Weird, but interesting.

Best part? The bed was super comfy and I slept really well.

The last thing I did was to purchase some items in the CVS pharmacy that we can’t get here — Zicam spray, ear plugs for Lyn, and moleskin for my tender toes!

Overall, mission accomplished, I think. We’ll see when the first check arrives!