Strange Behavior

I was at a Parque where a lot of people hang out and drink beer and smoke weed listen to music and sometimes play music. Adjacent to the park are a few stores and restaurants. I went into the store to buy an empanada. As I waited in line a guy cut in front of me to buy his beer. Oh well, this happens a lot in Colombia. I tapped him on the sholder and said something like, “Hey.” “Do you have priority?” I said it seriously and he looked at me and said, “Yes”. I was impressed with the frankness and I laughed. I think he was surprised that I wasn’t mad.  I let it go and didn’t protest. 

To New Pastures

I’m moving out of the apartment where I live up in the hills. I’ve been there for a few months and I’m dying to move into the city. It’s a pain in the butt to have to ride home every night. Up the mountain along a windy narrow, extremely steep road. I’ve had a few mishaps along this stretch of road. I got sideswiped by a car coming down as I was riding up in the rain. Another time I was going uphill on this steep road and a car was coming down. I quickly got out of his way and went into a rocky ditch and up my finger got cut from the brute force. Hurt  like the dickens and it took long to heal . I had to go to the hospital and they gave me stitches.    

The Youtuber from Miami

A friend of mine who I went to college with at Miami Dade College, Robert Piñon, contacted me out of the blue and said he was here in Medellin. He has a Youtube channel on Youtube where he does pranks and comedy things and it’s got a lot of followers. I’m sure he’s making money from all the views that he has. He’s traveling the world and making videos. 

He asked me to film him doing these comedy pranks. Also, he does street interviews asking pretty girls questions dealing with relationships. It’s been so fun, and inspiring. We did a bunch of interviews on Calle 70 where there’s tons of nightlife. It’s inspired me to be more social. We also filmed at a night-life spot called Parque Lleras. It’s known to have a lot of prostitutes intermixed with locals and tourists. His idea was to approach prostitutes and he’d ask them funny questions like. “How much?…….For you to clean my kitchen?”  Well I’d film from afar so the prostitutes didn’t know they were being filmed. Suddenly a  couple of them saw me and came at me yelling demanding that I erase the footage. And she threw a beer on me. It was a little hair-raising but also kinda funny. We told them over and over that it’s legal, which it is. But I admit it bugs the hell out of people. 

On another day, we interviewed a couple of women. Once of them was cute, a Venezuelan, and owns a little pizza stand. Her name is Karelin. I went back to see her again, bought a slice of pizza and we talked for a bit. I went back another time and asked her out on a date. She said maybe but then she stopped communication. I don’t know what’s up with her. I think I just won’t talk to her for a couple of days, but eventually I’ll go back and say hello.  

The Sales Job

My job is difficult. It’s difficult to make sales but I THINK I’m getting better. Part of the learning that I’m doing takes place in the background of the mind. It’s not detected by my consciousness, but I feel it. I think that even though I’m not making big strides right now, I will have a break-through and my sales will jump up. BTW, I lost two customers. I told them the truth and gave them honest, accurate quotes. Then they were given lower unrealistic quotes by other brokers. I told them that the other brokers were doing a bait and switch on them and then I showed them proof that the other brokers were giving them fake low prices and at the same were posting their vehicles for higher prices on the Central Dispatch board. They still got sucked in with the other brokers and ended up paying more. On one level I don’t understand why people are letting themselves be fooled. But on the other hand I understand how people want to believe those low prices are real. People don’t want the truth, they want fantasy.