We Moved to Costa Rica

I'm celebrating my 33rd birthday in Costa Rica! How did I do that? That sure wasn't where I thought I'd be at 33. When I was a kid, growing up in West Virginia, I was under the impression I'd be there my whole life. I had goals and aspirations of traveling and seeing the world, but I never thought I'd actually do it. Over the years I'd spent birthdays in places like, Nashville, Anaheim and Myrtle Beach. I traveled to Canada once with my family, but we only spent a couple hours there. My sister, Amber, traveled abroad to Paris once for school. I remember being super envious of her, I still am. I remember watching movies where people backpack to places like Alaska and Mexico. I thought, "That's something I'd like to do", but again, I never did. When my Dad said his job was relocating him to Kansas City, even then I didn't want to go. I'd only ever traveled outside of West Virginia, I'd never actually moved somewhere else, I didn't...

So before we left Kansas we called all of the companies we had utilities through. We called Cox, Evergy, Water/trash and Gas. We dropped off our router back to Cox, Evergy sent us a refund check, I guess because they over charged us somewhere, no surprise there. Water/Trash sent us a final bill and so did Gas. Now let's flash forward a couple weeks. We left Kansas for Missouri, and then Missouri for Costa Rica. On day 3 Evergy charges us $56, we think, eh whatever, that's probably for something we don't know about, that'll be the end of that. Then, this morning, Evergy again, charges us $13. We check our account, someone dropped the ball, it was never closed. At some point today we'll have to call and see what's up. Also, we have a pending gas bill for something that's supposed to come out in July, guess we'll be making another phone call for that too.  Automated systems are a good idea in theory, until the people running the systems don't hit the bu...

I took the day off yesterday and unplugged for a bit. Even here in Costa Rica where you wouldn't think you can still get hooked on technology, you absolutely can. I realized this morning that my birthday is next week! 33 years old, wow, my knees tell me I'm older, but what do they know. Today I spent the better part of the morning adjusting, and fixing my website. I was unable to sleep for most of last night because of something my sister had said the day before. She said, "I think if you merged your Blog with your sticker website it would be more beneficial for you", or something to that affect. I took those words and added a link from my Blog to my website and left it at that. Then, last night, as I laid my head down, it hit me all at once. No you idiot, the website should be where people go to find your blog! When I woke up this morning, that's exactly what I did. Thank you Canva, I don't know if anyone at the company will read this, but you are a lifesaver...

     Today I walked to the nearest grocery store. I'd walked there already a couple times before, but today I actually purchased something. On my way there, I ran into some locals on bikes attempting to ask me how far the nearest chicken farm was. After a couple fumbled attempts at explaining it was only about half a kilometer up the road, I broke out Google translate on my phone. Everybody we've met so far has been super nice and welcoming. I wave at cars as they pass me, and about 60% of the time they wave back. I attempt to say Hola more than Hello, but Hello just comes out naturally. Eventually I will catch on, but it is certainly not this day. Anyway, back to my grocery store journey.     The nice man who runs the local store, La Casa, recognized me from a couple days ago. He had asked me if I spoke Spanish. I said, "Not very well, but I'm learning". He just smiled and looked away. I could tell he had no idea what I had just said, and I certainly couldn't...

We had laptop issues a couple days after arriving that finally got resolved as of this morning. Laptop was working fine for the first couple days, and then the camera stopped working. We took it in to a local computer repair store, but they said the camera was "beyond repair". They were able to get the laptop past the lockscreen, which was farther than we were able to do. We got the laptop back, but then Microsoft decided it didn't like Ryah's password. We left the computer alone for a couple days, because if we hadn't we would have chucked it into the field behind our Airbnb. Now was arrive to this morning. We attempted to call Microsoft, but there automated machine kindly told us to go away. After doing some sleuthing on the internet, and finding similar issues, we were able to log in to Microsoft again! Hallelujah! 

Today we took an Uber to Grecia. Cost $9 to get there and $7 to get back. We ate at Rejn Asian Fusion. The food was delicious! We got 2 entres, 2 boba drinks and 2 entres to go. Our meal was $80 so we definitely can't be doing that all the time. We've come to an agreement of going back once a month. We told our waiter that we are coming back so now we have to. We can't have someone out there in the world thinking we are liars right? In other news it's raining again here. It held off for most of the day at least. The rain here isn't bad. It's been mostly at night. It's great for vegetation and introverts who don't go out a whole lot. Today was another good day. 

Haven't had anyone take me up on any sticker ideas yet. Just shoot me an email from my website https://matthewbarron.my.canva.site/customstickerwonderland with a short description and I'll send you back what I come up with. Everything is FREE right now just so I can get the word out. The first person to send me an email description will get 10 free stickers!  Anyway, back to Costa Rica news. I decided to go on a walk today while Ryah took a nap. I made it all the way to the local grocery store, La Casa, when I got a call that Ryah had discovered a Wolf Spider in the Airbnb. I spirited back up the hill, completely winded. We first were going to trap it in a cup and release it, but that didn't work out. Unfortunately, we were left with no choice, but to evict the spider violently with my sandals. We apologized to the spider goddess, I took a shower, and we both collapsed for a nap.  How's every else's morning going? In other news the view is magnificent ag...

Gonna be another rainy day again. That tends to happen during the rainy season 😂 I hope my friends who are protesting today are safe. You are all in my thoughts today. My parents are flying to Alaska today for an Alaskan cruise! Everyone's being very adventurous lately. My sister was recently in Branson having fun at a wax museum. The sky is getting darker, but it's only heavy rain. If the sky gets dark in Kansas you never know what might happen 😂  I started an on-demand sticker website this morning. https://matthewbarron.my.canva.site/customstickerwonderland It's just a test to see if there is any interest. I figure I'll leave it up for a couple months, promote it and see what happens. If nothing comes of it, at least I had fun doing it. 

I created another link website using Canva. Currently I'm doing everything from my phone, which is convenient for now, until I find remote work. I haven't stumbled across anything yet. I'm trying to keep my social media presence up. Doing a lot more writing than I ever have before. Trying to blog at least 2-3 times a day. Eventually I know I'll have to step my game up and actually find something, but for now I'm just living in the moment and hope that something finds me with all this energy I'm putting out. I look out at the sky a lot. Never thought I'd be here in Costa Rica. I figure we'll be here for as long as we can. Then the next thing will come along and we'll try and do that. That's what life is. It's a journey. There's no roadmap or how-to book. It's one day at a time. Don't plan your days or even weeks out. Just let it happen. Whatever happens happens. I mean we're only here once. Ryah and I plan to come back as trees...

I can't tell if I'm late to the AI game or right on time. Canvas AI tools are pretty good at generating an anime style Costa Rican landscape. 

The Serendipitous Journey of Finding Love and Purpose ___ By Matthew Barron Part 1: The Weight of Expectation (The "Before") Chapter 1: The Seven-Day Grind The moment customers stepped through the doors of Vintage Stock, they were hit square in the face with nostalgia. It wasn't just a store; it was a time machine. Eyes would light up—whether it was a parent spotting a long-lost VHS tape from their childhood or a kid, wide-eyed, taking in the latest Mario, Sonic, or Star Wars game. They’d needlessly beg their parents for it, exactly as I would have done when I was their age. For me, Matthew Barron, Vintage Stock in Kansas City was nerd heaven, and I was its happy gatekeeper. I'd moved to Kansas City in 2016 from West Virginia, a place where choices for an introverted kid who loved movies, video games, and comic books were pretty thin. Getting a job at Vintage Stock, and climbing the ladder to management, felt like hitting the jackpot. I got to spend my days surrounded...

Today we planted a Star Fruit tree on our friends property here in Costa Rica. We planted the tree as a memorial for my wife's friend Phoenix who passed away.  Today is also my little sister's 25th Birthday! Hard to believe it's been 25 years. Hard to believe I'll be turning 33 this year. Now I'm going to go listen to Cher for a while. Do you believe in life after love? Also, this is Rocky in his Strawberry outfit. He is a very good, and very photogenic boy. I love him!

I asked Canvas AI tools to turn the top picture into two muppets in a tropical paradise and this was what it did. A couple days into being here in Costa Rica we traveled to Alajuela to check out a health food store called Villa Natura. We bought a random assortment of items, but most notably we bought these Cinnamon Rolls. Reheated in a toaster oven on a setting made for Bagels, they came out absolutely delicious. 

Put together all the links I could think of that are connected to me in one place today. Trying to get the creative juices flowing while I have all this time on my hands now. I think everyone would benefit from a little time away. Some self reflection, inner peace, some time to breathe. If I may be so kind to ask whoever is reading this to comment on Facebook with the phrase, "I See You". I'd like to know who all is actually reading what I'm putting out. I'd also like feedback, positives, negatives, thoughts, opinions. 

Another day in Pura vida. Still navigating the differences we've encountered since being here. Having to continually remind myself to look outside or even go outside and look at where I am to ground myself. We're out in the country, which is what we wanted, but we are quite a ways away from town. Makes it a little difficult if you get hungry and don't see anything you want in the fridge. Today marks a week since landing here. Things take time to adjust. I read somewhere where the average person takes 3 months to settle in to a new environment. I guess I'll update this in 3 months and let you know how it went. 

Wondered outside today. Went on a trek to see how far the nearest market was. Took about 20 minutes to get there. Sandals probably aren't the best shoes to walk in on a trek like that, but I'm getting used to the idea of not wearing socks. Built up a sweat tho so now it's time for a nap. 

Google's new AI features turned me into a muppet today, and I'm not upset about it. Another wet day here in Costa Rica. The cloud coverage outside our AirBnB was about 100%, but again, not upset about it. Got more stuff done today. Definitely getting used to these relaxing Mondays 😂 

Things we've learned about Costa Rica since we've been here.  1. Sometimes Geckos wonder into your house. 2. Toilet paper is not meant to be flushed. 3. The people in town are very friendly. 4. Prices are reasonable, depending on where you go. 5. The views are different everywhere you go. 6. The birds will wake you up in the morning, but we're not mad about it.

Pretty chill morning became a pretty wet afternoon. The perfect day to veg out, eat good food, listen to podcasts and watch the rain fall. Absolutely loving the tropical storms here. 10/10

We were greeted by our dog friends this morning. We've decided to name the all black one Stryder. We haven't decided a name for the black and white dog yet. Pippin is doing a lot better now. I think she is steadily adjusting. Ryah and I did a pilates workout this morning to start our day!