'i do NOT buy' list - to be updated

• gold jewelry
• famous, expensive brands (except if it's second hand or if there's no other option)
• in big, chain stores (except when can't find small, local, reasonably-priced alternative or when out of town visitors drag me there)
• electronic gadgets
• in big supermarkets (except when we run out of milk late at night)
• clothes to exercise (I use old clothes or hand-me downs)
• most politicians speeches

This list will be updated. Now I need to hear from you. What's on your 'i do NOT buy list'?

P.s: The fact that I do NOT buy these things does not mean you do or should do the same. First rule of a simple life: don't judge others.

simple encounters

Today I was thinking I need to tell you about Williston. This is quite a town and it isn't actually that SIMPLE to explain. Depending on where you are from, you will have a different concept of Williston.

• If you are from out of this country you might not think anything except where the heck is that. Ok, Williston is a town in Vermont, a state of the United States of America, about 35 minutes away from the Canadian border. North baby north.
• If you are from this country, you might think Williston is just one one more rural and bucolic Vermont town. You are right, in part.
• If you are from Vermont, you might think Williston is the town of the big boxes and chain stores. You are right, in part, too.
• If you are from Williston you should know the truth: Williston is that rural and picturesque Vermont town AND the commercial hub people know so well. Indeed, Williston has about 80 percent of its land categorized as rural and about 20 percent categorized as commercial/industrial.

Williston is where I've lived for the past three years. This morning, as I drove home after covering a story for the newspaper and getting veggies from the garden, I decided to stop in one of my favorite spots in town to take photos for you, for this blog. I wanted to get a nice shot of the white steeple of the Williston Federated Church, which in the summer is all surrounded by green. And it was then that I had one of those simple encounters that make you think about the complex things.

I was coming down Oak Hill Road as if returning from Lake Iroquois to the village and I stopped the car on the side of the intersection with South St. It's a pretty hight point and the views of the Green Mountains in the back and the Interstate to the southeast are amazing. See:

Suddenly, I've heard a bike approaching so I quickly moved to the side realizing I was kind of in the middle of the street. "Hey girl," the biker said slowing down. It was Amy! You know those persons you don't befriend directly but you know through other friends? Well, that's Amy for me. I always bump into her in different times and places, God only knows why. She's so cool.

I couldn't believe my eyes. Last time I've seen Amy, a few months ago in a park, she was very pregnant and there she was today, her perfectly back-in-shape and healthy being on her bike hitting the roads of Williston (she lives in Essex). First thing we talked about was of course her baby, who was 8 weeks old, she said, and then continued talking about the two babies our friends in common had over the summer. I told her I had not been in touch with them since before they had their babies because I was waiting to tell them some sad news. My dad had passed away in between the births of the babies of our friends.

I explained to Amy that my dad passing had been very special for me, not only because we got closer during the last 6 months of his life but also because he died on the day of my birthday, July 7. Her eyes got suddenly big. That was the day her boy had born. I got the chills. I knew then why we keep on bumping into each other.

Amy is a devoted believer and she belongs to a church. I am one of those 'undecided voters,' as I believe in God but not that much in churches or organized religion. But we both agreed that her baby and my dad crossed paths and that they were part of a perfect equilibrium. All of a sudden I felt it was time to tell my friends the news. Life and death are happenings of an instant and parts of an eternity that we are unable to comprehend but of which somehow, through simple encounters, we feel some piece.

Here is Amy, continuing her bike ride after our brief encounter

of how i did NOT buy my bike

Last night I went to bed way too excited about this blog and of course I woke up circa 5 a.m. That was the end of my night. I have so many cool ideas during the dark hours of the night but for some reason unknown to me, they do not come down so clear when I sit in the computer in the morning. Who will ever read this? That is certainly a big question, too. Worst case scenario is that nobody reads. At least writing is cheaper than going to the therapist. And simpler.

So, one thing I wanted to tell you is about the bike i did NOT buy. Here it's:

This is my bike. It does not have a name yet, any ideas? I found my bike on the street, more specifically, on one of the lawns of our condominium (I forgot to mention: We live in a condo close to Taft Corners).

My bike appeared about a year ago. It was September - I think - when I spotted it on the lawn, just lying there, abandoned. I was walking with my son on the bike path, back from school. It was not alone. She - I think this bike is a girl, look at those curves - was abandoned with a friend, another bike a little smaller than her. When I saw them I thought some local kids were riding in the area and they had left their bikes there for a moment. Maybe they went inside to get a glass of water? Maybe they went playing with something else before riding back home?

The next morning, in our walk to school, I saw the two bikes in the very same spot. That's strange, I thought. Why in the world would someone leave a bike out there the whole night? To my surprise, it was not a whole night. At least a whole week passed by with the two poor little bikes there, nobody caring for their wheels, pedals, seats and other important parts.

Where I come from, this would have never happened. Two reasons:

1 - Nobody would abandoned precious means of transportation on the street

2 - The first person to spot them would have taken them away

But here we are, in Williston, Vermont, United States of America, far away from my beloved Buenos Aires. And those two bikes were calling my name! On Sunday, I gave up. I told my sister in law - an eager biker, back then commuting everyday from Williston to Burlington - about the bikes and she said the obvious: Let's go get them.

We did, as you can see. But I was hard to convince that I was getting two - not only one - new bikes - new for me - that easily. So I began an investigation to return those bikes to the irresponsible owner/s who left them there. I not only wanted to honor my journalism career but I also wanted to make sure I was not stealing property!

This is what I did, in this order:

1 - I called Skirack in Burlington, both bikes had stickers as if they were rented or bought there, to see if they had misplaced two bikes. Nothing.

2 - I put an ad in the local newspaper, The Williston Observer, to see if someone would call to get them back. Nothing.

3 - I talked to my neighbor, a Williston police officer, and asked him what was the right thing to do in this case. He said I should probably take them to the police department and leave them there as abandoned property, but nothing was going to be done with them. He said I would

certainly not get in trouble to keep them. After all, the bikes were left on my property.

So, finally, I decided to keep the bigger bike and donate the smaller one. I thought it was a fair decision. I called Bike Recycle Vermont and my sister in law carried it to Burlington to drop it there. BRV usually asks you for a $10 donation when you take a bike so that it can be repaired it and sold to people who need it, but they said it was in such great condition that they could not ask for a single dollar. Yes, that was one of the bikes abandoned in my lawn.

After a while I began to think it was all intentional. There is someone out there who knew someone in here would take those bikes. Interestingly, they lawn they chose was just across the street from the bike path on the way out of the elementary school. Who ever you were, thank you. After all, if it was meant as a gift, that's how it was taken. I love my bike and I recently had a well-respected friend visiting who said: "I have the same bike!"

One last thing: my neighbor Megan just gave me this great seat (close up below) that I attached to my bike. Another free gift thanks to the community! I plan to take my daughter to preschool in my bike for as a long as the weather allows. We'll see how it goes. I'll tell you more about it later.

simple beginning

This is the very first post of a very new blog. Oh yes, I know, there's way too many cool blogs out there but I couldn't help it. Writing became a need as strong as eating the morning breakfast.

I am creating this blog to share my every day adventures in trying to live a simpler, yet more rewarding, life. I have been writing a blog in Spanish - Charla Simple - for about two years and since then I felt I owed something to my English-speaking side. If you are there, reading, thank you. It's a pleasure to have you on board. I am not sure what can you expect of this blog, but I'll let you know as soon as I figure it out.

What do I mean by a simpler life? Is my life complicated? In a way it is and yours might be as well. Here the not-so-recent discovery: We are deeply inserted in a very materialist society driven by the most powerful, market-driven economy of the world. Welcome to America! We are surrounded by and we depend on things all the time during our lifetime, since day one until the very last breath. No recess.

And you guessed my friend, it's a lot of work. We have no remedy but to know, name, organize, clean, buy, sell, like, understand, save, put on, take off, play with, ride on, build - and the list goes on for ever- these above-mentioned things.

And wait, there's more. We also have to deal with the non-tangible stuff: Emotions, pains, politics, relationships, spirituality, love, sex, education and the many other big questions/issues inherent to being a human being.

It's way too much. Something's gotta give, like the good old comedy would indicate. And I have not even started with the sustainability speech. Oh boy. I better leave that one for the second post. Let's keep this first one simple, so you come back.