Give and Take

Have I told you yet about my new friend Candice? I met her a scant three days after her initial email to me on February 2nd. The subject line on her email was "Incoming Goddess". She was only in Vallarta for a few days so we agreed to meet at CCs on Saturday February 5th. She plied me with gifts of Kit Kat Chunky chocolate bars and a magic Goddess wand. We spent the evening together with some mutual friends and since the next day was my day off, I took her on one of my famous "walking tours" of Vallarta. After a long hard day of seeing the "real" Vallarta, we enjoyed a wonderful dinner at Coco Tropical before she left early the next morning for Talpa and beyond.

I knew she was returning to Vallarta with her husband for one night before flying back to Seattle. I thought it was last Friday so I was more than a little disappointed when the day came and went, but no Candice. :( Well, silly me had the day wrong! They were in town last night and showed up at my Spanish class (after receiving directions from someone at Viva) and invited me out for drinks. Drinks turned into dinner and they insisted on buying and then walking me part way home. Dick wanted to smoke his cigar and we were all loathe to let the evening end, so I offered to take them for a nightcap at La Palapa.

We walked into the bar and found Alberto, the owner, playing live music as he does every Monday and Tuesday night. I haven't been there this year so it was a real treat to hear Alberto, Memo and Bobbie playing together. Dick and Candice were utterly delighted with the bar, with the restaurant and with the music ... Candice was particularly transfixed by Alberto. If you haven't seen him before, you won't understand what I'm talking about but trust me, a photo is coming! Anyway, it was the perfect ending to a perfect evening with wonderful new friends. It was an unforgettable way for them to spend their last night in Vallarta.

Today I was super busy at work. I have a kazillion pieces of merchandise to mark in preparation for a huge trunk show Mary Sue is planning at Viva next Tuesday night. So when Liliana called me on the in-house phone to tell me I had a "visitor", I was less than thrilled to go downstairs, looking for someone who told Lily, "Juliana doesn't know me". Imagine my surprise when I was approached by an attractive woman, around my age, who introduced herself as Annette, a lurker on JR's board (http://vallartascene.com/forum/phpBB2/) and also a big fan of my blog. She and her husband, Richard, are from Illinois and as we started chatting, she handed me a shopping bag and said, "This is for you."

Lately, I've been receiving many thoughtful gifts from old friends and new friends but none as amazing as this. Inside the shopping bag were TWO velvet bags with the word "GODDESS" inscribed on the outside in Swarovski crystals -- one in black and one in red. I couldn't believe my eyes so I laughed and enveloped Annette in a huge hug! How could someone who has never met me before pick out such a perfect gift? Also enclosed was a Goddess bumper sticker that matched my uniform. I made them promise to meet me for drinks on Saturday night so I could introduce them to some other board members and thank them for their generosity.

So I've been asking myself lately what I'm giving back as a result of all this generosity and the answer is probably not enough. Hopefully, when time permits and as my work slows down, I will be able to find some way to give something back to this wonderful cyber community. If you have any ideas, I would love to hear them!