Author Archives: Claire Murray

My $624 Necklace!!!

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I love Mexico for a lot of reasons—its people, the music, the food and its beautiful silver jewelry. This November my husband and I took a seven day Princess Cruise from Los Angeles down to Mexico. There were two days at sea and then we turned around stopping in Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlán, Cabo San Lucas, another day at sea and back to L.A.

It was a lot of fun and one of the best things was my $624 silver necklace from Mazatlán. After the ship docked there, we had breakfast and took a tour to see the place. The first stop was a jewelry store. The guide told us on the way that we could buy whatever we wanted with confidence that it was the real thing because all their silver jewelry was 95% pure. Princess Cruises had vetted the store because they didn’t want any passengers coming back to the ship and complaining that they’d been cheated.

So while I felt confident we wouldn’t be cheated, I also realized we probably wouldn’t be buying anything. Why? Because, in a situation like this, the jewelry is real and very beautiful, frequently gorgeous, but also very, very expensive.

The guide then passed out round yellow stickers with “Juan Carlos” written on them in black letters. He said all the sales people spoke English and if we showed the stickers, they would lower the price by 30%.

When Michael and I heard that, our faces lit up. That meant we could bargain. We always had a good time bargaining in Mexico even if, in the end, we couldn’t get the price down enough to actually buy anything.

The way we do it is, I wander around until I find something I’m interested in. Then Michael plays the straight man and I negotiate.

“Michael, why don’t we just go in and look around but not plan to buy anything?” I said.

“Well, I would like to get you something.” He responded.

“If Princess Cruises stands behind their jewelry, it’s probably going to be really beautiful and very expensive. How about we agree now on how much to spend? If we get our price, fine. But if not, let’s just walk away?”

“O.k.”

We walked into the store and to the very back where they were serving complimentary Margaritas at 10:00 in the morning. The Margaritas were good, probably the best ones we had on the whole trip!

We both started walking around the store, drinks in hand. The walls were floor to ceiling mirrors with clear glass shelves and waist high glass counters running along the sides and down the center. Every inch of glass was covered with silver: silver necklaces, earrings, watches, pendants, etc. I don’t think I’ve seen so much silver in one place since the last time I came to Mexico. And it was beautiful, artistic, gorgeous! I felt swept away as I knew I would.

I immediately found a necklace I did want so I tried it on as well as two or three others so that I didn’t appear too interested in the first one. Within a few seconds, a sales woman approached. I sensed that I wouldn’t do too well negotiating with her so I told her the jewelry was lovely but I was just looking.

I went looking for Michael and told him I had found something but was pretty sure it was going to be too expensive. None of the jewelry had prices which was a big sign that you could bargain and it was expensive.

I tried on several necklaces but told him it was the first one that I really wanted. A salesman approached. He seemed friendly and wanted to talk.

“Your jewelry is lovely,” I said.

“Yes,” he responded. “It’s 95% pure. You don’t have to polish it.”

“Really? Even if you put it in a drawer,” I said.

“No, never. Which one are you interested in?” he asked.

I showed him and asked how much it was. He looked at it, raised it to the light, looked at it again, “624”.

Now the exchange rate is 18 pesos to $1.00 U.S. That would make it around $35.00 dollars U.S., very affordable.

“Oh, 624 pesos?” I said.

“No, no! U.S. dollars. $624.”

“Oh. By the way, Juan Carlos, the Tour Guide, said to show you this.” I opened my hand so he could see the yellow sticker in my palm. “He said that would bring the price down by 30%.”

Out of the corner of my eye I could see Juan Carlos approaching us. He quietly joined our group.

“Yes! Yes.” He took his calculator out. “436.80.”

“Pesos?” I smiled.

“No! no. U.S. dollars.”

“Demasiado! Demasiado (too much).” I responded and tried to look sad. “Can you give us a better price?”

“I am giving you a better price. I just took 30% off the top.”

“I know. And the necklace is very beautiful. But it’s too expensive. Demasiado. Thank you,” and we started wandering around the store followed by the salesman and Juan Carlos.

“How much do you want to pay?” the salesman asked.

“Hmmmm,” I said, trying to gain time to think of what to say. Michael and I looked at each other. “Well, mmmmmm, what if we paid you 100 U.S. dollars cash, no credit card?”

“Hmmmmm,” he said. “100 U.S. dollars from you.” He pointed to Michael. “And, 100 U.S. dollars from you.” He pointed to me.

“No, no. Too much! Demasiado! 100 U.S. dollars solamente (only).” I said.

He paused to take a breath.

Juan Carlos spoke up, “Tomorrow we go to Cabo San Lucas. The jewelry there will be much more expensive. He’s really giving you a good price.”

The salesman smiled.

“Yes, you’re right, “I responded. “The jewelry is more expensive in Cabo. But, I have beautiful jewelry at home. I don’t need any more. We just stopped in here to look and the necklace caught my eye. But I don’t really need it. Actually, if we don’t buy this, we won’t be buying any jewelry on this trip.”

Juan Carlos said nothing but I noticed a few seconds later that he had wandered off.

That’s when the straight man came in. Michael said, “You know if you sell the necklace for 100 U.S. dollars, it’s sold. And, you have the money. But, if you don’t sell it, it stays on the counter, just sitting there, and who knows how long before you find another buyer?”

“Wait here.” The salesman said. He walked over to another counter, stopped and appeared deep in thought. He punched some numbers into his calculator. He paused. Finally he returned.

“O.k.” he said, 100 U.S. dollars cash.”

Celia Cruz, Afro-Cuban Star!

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I’ve always liked Cuban, Mexican and Latin American music. There’s something about the beat and melody that I connect to.

One night, years ago, in Grant Park in Chicago, I heard Celia Cruz sing. It was Labor Day Weekend and the Latin Music Festival went from Sunday, September 5, through Labor Day on Monday, September 6, 1993.

Celia sang on Monday night with the very popular Afro-Cuban band, La Sonora Mantancera. The night was hot and there was a warm breeze coming in from Lake Michigan.

Celia was 68 by that time and her looks had started to fade. But once she began to sing, time stood still. It was magical for me to hear her voice floating out over the crowd.

A few months ago I started watching the telenovela “Celia” on Netflix. It was produced in 2015 by Fox Telecolumbia for RNC Television and Telemundo. The actors spoke in Spanish. There were English subtitles so it was easy to follow.

My main reason for watching the series was to hear Celia sing. I was thrilled at all the times the director dubbed in recordings of the real Celia’s voice when the actress who played Celia began to sing. It was wonderful. And, even better, in almost every episode “Celia” sang my favorite pieces: “Como Fue”, “La Negra Tiene Tumbao”, “Guantanamera” and many more of her greatest hits.

There was a downside to this series. “Celia” is a telenovela after all. In some episodes, there were tears and more tears. Sometimes there were hysterics. And there was Celia’s sister, Noris. She was so evil… I don’t think she had a kind bone in her body. Neither did Simon, her father, who appeared to be as flawed a character as you could find. And, to make things more crazy, there was Lola and all her problems as well as Mario and Raquel.

To top it off, when I went on Wikipedia to check things out, I found that many of these characters didn’t exist in real life. Or, if they did, were actually very nice people. But that didn’t stop the writers from writing Celia’s story their way.

So, if you like Afro-Cuban music and a tear-jerker of a story, “Celia” is the series for you–all 80 episodes!!!

How Are Your Bones?

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Do you think a lot about your bones? In fact, have you ever thought about them? I’ve started to think about mine recently, ever since I started reading Strong Women, Strong Bones*.

I was surprised to learn that we have two different types of bone in our bodies. I always thought all our bones were all the same: hard, solid and not easily broken. Well, the truth is a little more complicated. Some of our bones are like this. They are called Cortical Bone. These are the long bones we can easily feel in our arms and legs. They are difficult to break because they are so dense.

But we have another type of bone also. This one is very different. It looks a lot like the inside of a kitchen sponge. This type of is called Trabecular Bone. These bones have a “porous inner layer, are light and have a lattice structure.”**

Our Trabecular Bone are located at the end of some of our long, solid bones, for example in our wrists. That’s why our wrists are not as strong as our arms and break easier if we fall on them. As we get older, the empty spaces in our Trabecular Bones become larger. This makes them weaker so they can break more easily.

I also learned that our bones are constantly remodeling themselves. That means they are being broken down and rebuilt throughout our lives. The bones we have today are not the ones we were born with or grew up with! They are just the latest version of our ongoing remodeling project.

The cells responsible for tearing down our bones are called osteoclasts and the ones who do the reconstruction are called osteoblasts. They are not in balance. At the beginning of our lives, the osteoblasts are winning because they are building more bone than is being torn down. But, and there is always a but, as we mature and grow older, the osteoclast take the lead because they are tearing down more bone than is being replaced. That is why someone who starts out in life with very strong bones can end up with very fragile and weak ones.

When we’re young, especially until we’re 25, we’re growing bone, much more than is being torn down. In our thirties, most of us are in balance. We’re gaining as much bone as we’re losing. But in our forties, this balance starts to shift and not in a good direction. We begin to lose a little more bone than we’re gaining and after 50 this process speeds up as we lose bone much faster than it is being replaced. This is especially true for women.

This may all sound depressing but don’t give up just yet. Keep reading! There are things we can do to make our bones stronger and so less likely to break. Strong Women, Strong Bones talks about how important eating right is, especially getting enough calcium. It also talks about the importance of Vitamin D, whether you get it from the sun or a pill. Most importantly, it gives exercises we can do to improve our situations.

We can relearn how to stand taller, strengthen our bones and improve our balance. Yes, it does take hard work and setting aside some time each day to work on this. But, if we want to improve our situations, we can.

You may not have thought about your bones before reading this but maybe now is the time to start!

*Strong Women, Strong Bones by Miriam E. Nelson, Ph.D. with Sarah Wernick, Ph.D., A Perigee Book, 2000.

**Strong Women, Strong Bones, Page 18.

Havana, A Subtropical Delirium

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Have you ever thought of a city as a person, as someone who is alive and waiting to make your acquaintance? This is a new idea for me. It came after I started reading Havana* by Mark Kurlansky.

He begins by saying in the Prologue, “If I were ever to make an old-fashioned film noir…I would shoot it in Havana.”** He goes on to talk about other writers and poets who have found Havana fascinating. It seems you have a very different impression of Havana if you first see it from the sea, rather than from land.

Mr. Kurlansky tells how Habana Vieja (Old Havana), the original city, developed. The streets in this section were, and still are, very narrow and dark. The sidewalks are narrower still, all because the sun is so hot. So, when people put awnings up, they tie them to the building across the street. That way everyone passing below gets the shade.

One of the more interesting things I learned is that the city was founded three times in three different places. And Mr. Kurlansky has lots of interesting anecdotes to tell about how each settlement was founded.

Havana was invaded many times, always from the sea. There were the French pirates in 1538 and 1555 and different ones came again many times after that. Each time the townspeople paid a ransom and those that were still alive rebuilt. They built one fortress and then another and, over time, they added to each. It didn’t seem to make much difference. There seemed to be no shortage of pirates coming from the sea, and so, there would be another raid.

Havana grew and became an important commercial port in the 1700s. African slaves were brought in around this time to do the work.

Mr. Kurlansky says, “It has at times been suggested that the impact of slavery on modern Cuba is exaggerated, but so profound and fundamental is slavery to the identity of both Havana and Cuba that it would be almost impossible to overstate it.”***

He goes on to say that there were people alive in 1980 who had known their grandparents who had been born in Africa. Imagine that!

I’m going to stop here because I don’t want to give too much away. I hope I’ve inspired you to read Havana. It’s an exciting, fascinating book that reads like a novel and the city of Havana is the main character!

*Havana by Mark Kurlansky, Bloomsbury USA, March 17, 2017.

**Location 71

***Location 493

Everything We Keep by Kerry Lonsdale

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Everything We Keep is Kerry Lonsdale’s first novel. It came out in 2016. It tells the story of Aimee Tierney who lives in a small town in California and works in her parents’ restaurant. She’s expecting to marry James, who she’s known since elementary school, and eventually have a restaurant of her own.

Then life intervenes. On what would have been her wedding day, she buries her fiancé who died on what was supposed to be a business trip. Aimee’s waiting to leave after the church service and funeral when a woman approaches her. She says, “I’m here about James… I have information about his accident… James is alive.”

 

Aimee doesn’t believe her. And the story takes off from here. She meets Ian, a photographer in town, opens a restaurant, travels to Mexico and meets Carlos. Then, one day, Carlos wakes up and reads the letter that concludes, “I am you.”

This story has a lot of secrets that Aimee learns about along the way: who Phil Donato really is; whose family the business actually belonged to; why James really went to Mexico; who paid Aimee’s lease while she was fixing up the restaurant and before she could open; why Imelda, who owns the hotel in Mexico, sent Lacy to find Aimee and why Thomas, James’ brother, did what he did.

There are a lot of themes in this book. You’ll have to read it to see which one resonates the most with you—letting go, healing, forgiveness and love.

Everything We Keep was a top Amazon bestseller of 2016, a Wall Street Journal bestseller and Barnes & Noble begins their review by saying “A luminous debut with unexpected twists…” Goodreads says 62,592 people rated “Everything We Keep” and 3,319 people wrote reviews. That’s a lot of readers!

This was a very nice reception for a debut novel!