Why I Feel Like Doing This

Rodrigo called.....They gave me back my points....I get to use my R$100......Yeah!  I have until April 10th, but Alan says we're going to the store tonight before Francisca da Souza hears about it.

Truth be told...I feel like doing a cartwheel, but probably the best I could come up with is a somersault, and that might be a little off to one side. 

72 Hours and Counting

In case you are wondering what took me so long at the grocery store the other day, I'll tell you.  This may need a little background.


It all started shortly after we got here.  Every time I went to the grocery store the checkout clerk asked me if I had a Cartao Mais.  I always answered, "Nao." At first I didn't know what the clerks were talking about, which was not surprising because the reality of it was that I didn't know what anyone was talking about.  But soon I sensed that a Cartao Mais was something desirable. Maybe it was the pitiful way the clerk and the people in line looked at me when I said I didn't have one.  It made me feel like a kid in Junior High in the 80's that didn't have a Trapper Keeper.


I started to desire a Cartao Mais.

  Since I couldn't find a picture of a Cartao Mais, I thought this would do.  It is from Brasil and written in Portuguese at least.

So I asked the elders in the office about it and they filled me in.  Cartao Mais was a card for shoppers so they could collect bonus points that would be worth X amount of $ in groceries when you collected a certain amount.  Being the sucker savvy shopper that I am, I knew I had to have one.  What would my sister Lucy, the undisputed queen of Bon Bucks, think of me if I did not sign up for a card and try to get free stuff.  

So I did.

At first it was great.  I quickly earned points because you have to buy a lot of food when you are feeding missionaries. Before I knew it I had earned 5,000 points; enough to get R$50 worth of food for free.  I was thrilled when I cashed in my points.  I almost called Lucy.

Then they changed the program.  Instead of getting R$50 at 5,000 points, it took 6,000 points to get R$50.  BUT if I waited to cash in my points until I earned 9,000 points, I could get R$100.  When they changed the program, I no longer needed the actual card.  All I had to do was register my CPF number.  It's equivalent to our SS number.  Every time I went to buy stuff, the clerk punched in the numbers and before long I was racking up points again.  I decided I was in no hurry and I might as well go for the R$100.

Late in January, I finally had 9,000 points.  It was redemption time.  

The next time I went to the store, I presented the clerk my receipt that showed my points and said I would like to use them.  She told me I needed to call their headquarters in Sao Paulo first so that I could redeem them.  

Can I just say here, that I love Brazil and all, but if there is a hard or complicated way to do retail business, they will choose it every time.  But when in Brazil, I do as the Brazilians do.

So a few days later I called the 1-800 number the clerk at the store had given me to get permission to redeem my points.  The lady on the phone said I had 30 days to spend the R$100.  Thirty days?  That should be easy.

Next trip to the store, I gathered up the things on my list and headed for the nearest cashier.  My total was R$46.73.  I told her I wanted to use my points.  I was secretly hoping the person behind me in line would see that I was going to get my groceries for free and think I was a little bit awesome.   

My delusions of grandeur were crushed when the cashier told me that I needed to use all R$100 in one transaction.  The eager smile on my face disappeared and I stood there in stunned silence.  I was informed that I could go ahead and use the points on the groceries I had that day, but I would lose the rest of the R$100 credit.  

No way was that going to happen.  

So I paid  the R$46.73 and went home.  I knew we had  two dinners back to back coming up before the 30 days was up and I would use my R$100 then.

Last Saturday morning I went in armed with the list of groceries I needed for the dinners. I filled my cart,  adding things up in my head so I would know I had reached the R$100 mark, and headed for the cashier. The total was R$128.78.  I told the cashier I would like to use my credit today.  She punched in a few numbers and said, "You don't have any credits to use.  My computer screen says the points were used yesterday."  

Now, I am usually a mild-mannered person, and under the circumstances I think I acted in accordance with that image, or delusion, whatever it is, that I have of myself.  However, had I been drawn as a cartoon at that moment, there definitely would have been steam and or smoke coming out of my head.  I wasn't giving in on this one.  

The cashier turned me over to his manager who got on the telephone and called store headquarters in Sao Paulo and turned me over to someone there.  The woman on the other end of the line had a lot of questions.  She was a pretty tough cookie herself, but I  insisted that I had not used the credit, and that I was not accepting this as a final answer. She finally said they would investigate and call me back within 72 hours. 

72 hours = 3 days, right? 

After 5 days and still no phone call, I went to the store again and found the manager on duty.  His name was Anderson and he was very nice.  I, too, was nice.  He called their headquarters again.  They said that a certain Francisca da Souza had used my credit and they had the receipt she had signed.  They asked if I knew her.  I told them that I did not, and of course, I don't.  BUT... I would like to be introduced.  Though I probably wouldn't have a sufficient vocabulary in Portuguese to tell her everything I would like to, I'm pretty sure she would get my drift.

So as of today, this still isn't resolved. Rodrigo from the store headquarters in Sao Paulo is investigating a little further and he will call me in 72 hours.

I'll be waiting.

You Know It's Time to Buy a New Sand Turtle When...

Your old one can't even hold his head up, his shell is dusty and faded and he loses sand every time you move him.  

I've been on the lookout for a replacement and Lady Luck was with me today.  

I know, I know.  I swore I wouldn't by stuff off the street again after this sad incident, but today when I stopped at a stoplight, I looked over and saw a row of fabric sand turtles looking back at me.  Their glued-on sequin eyes caught my eyes.  It was meant to be.

Luckily I had some cash with me and I purchased 4 of these beauties on the spot.  The transaction was swift and nobody even honked at me.  (That was really lucky.)

I promise I haven't lost touch with my Mini Bazaar senses.  I know these are not cute or fashionable for the home, but they are very functional.  We always have the windows and sliding door open so we can get a little breeze through the apartment.  When the breeze catches the bedroom doors just right, they SLAM shut with an amazing force.  Remember this other sad incident?

Anyway, to prevent the doors from slamming or from having to use canned goods as door stops, I bought 4 little sand turtle buddies today and I'm pretty excited about my purchases. 

 Door stop turtles rock! 

(That's especially for you, Becca, since you are the one that thought the cans of peaches and pumpkin as door stops were a little tacky and weird.) 

P. S.  

I just noticed the my new turtle has lost his sequin eye.  I'll have to see if I can find it, and in case you are wondering, yes, that is a fabric yo-yo on the top on its head for a hat.  I guess the little fella has style after all.

Another P. S.  

These little guys are a little too heavy to be packing home on a plane, so you can all relax.  I won't be bringing you any for souvenirs or gifts.

One More P. S. 

 Maybe I should have titled this post "You Know You've Been Away from Mini Bazaar Too Long When You Buy A Turtle Door Stop." 

 That's kind of a long title though.

Wrapping up Christmas 2010

I realize these are not the best pictures, but they are the best I have so I am going to post them.  I also realize that Christmas 2010 is sooooo over, but I did start this post just after Christmas if that is worth anything. 

The picture above is of a choir from our stake that performed at a local mall.  They positioned themselves between the up and down escalators and sang beautifully.  It really sounded nice in the open space and put us in a Christmas mood just a few days before Christmas.

They put up a big fabric tree every year in a little park in the center of a roundabout that is on our beaten path.  Every year it is a slightly different style.  They have been quite impressive. 

Hiper was way into creating trees out of their products this year.  Here is a tree created from boxes of candy.

Here is one created out of bottles of green olives.

Here is the Coca Cola tree in progress.  This tree building looked like risky business to me, but in an all out effort to celebrate the season and sell more Coke, it had to be done.

The Quaker oatmeal tree, 

the wine or champagne or some other alcoholic beverage tree,

and last, but not least, the tree of canned corn and peas.

My favorite tree this year was one they had outside one of the malls.  It was covered with lighted toy trains, wreaths and stockings all on a huge metal frame.  We thought the rope light-wrapped palm tree was cool too.  

Apologies again for photography that is on the minus side of the scale of good photography. I think I either need to take better pictures or quit blogging.  

You Put Your Right Foot In

When we took the missionaries to the beach it was the perfect opportunity to take a picture of some of the sisters' feet.  You can tell who has been here for a while and who arrived recently.  If you look closely, you can also tell who has served in Baturite, where the mosquitos seem to be especially aggressive.  

Maybe I should remind the sisters to use sunscreen on their feet.  I don't know that they would though.  Their  tan lines are sort of a badge of honor. 

Christmas Mystery II

You know how some people have Christmas miracles?  Well, we seem to have Christmas mysteries.

Last year we had Christmas Mystery I when we received a lot of gifts from an unknown giver.  This year our mystery involves an unknown taker.

We have a hall tree just outside our door in the hall of our apartment building.  Each floor of the apartment building only has two apartments and most people put some sort of furniture or mirror or decorations outside their door.

This year I decided to hang our Christmas stockings on the hooks of the hat rack/umbrella stand thing in the entry.  When we left for church yesterday morning it looked like this:

When we got back from church, it looked like this:

I asked Alan, "Hey, what did you do with your stocking?  Did you move it?"  (Up to that point, we hadn't really decided which stocking was his and which was mine, but since the red one was missing, I decided the green one was mine.)

I thought he might have taken the red one and hidden it in one of the drawers in the hall tree or something to tease me, but he said he didn't.  Of course I checked all the drawers anyway and looked around in the hall and elevator.  It wasn't to be found.  When we came back from a fireside last night, it was still missing.

We were bugged.

 Who would have taken it and why? 

 Why take one and not both?  

Who wants an empty Christmas stocking?

We couldn't think who would have taken it because we get along fine with the other people that live on our floor. Well, pretty fine. There has been a little coolness between us since their dog left poodle puddles in front of  both our front and back doors and I told them about it, in a nice way, because I didn't think I should have to clean it up.  I'm not the one with the stupid, yappy, hyperactive pet  fluffy, white, poodle.

So, after my shower this morning, I thought I would go check and see if elves had returned it in the night and sure enough, they had.  We have no idea who took it, where they took it or why they took it.  We only know that now we're back to this:

And we hope it stays that way.

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY !

True, but Sad Story

I bumped in to What Not to Wear on the television the other day and decided to watch it.  I don't know why, but I like that show.  Anyway, as I am watching the part where they secretly film the unsuspecting victim and describe her fashion faux pas what do I see?

My blouse; my sort of special blouse.  The girl with no fashion sense was wearing a blouse just like one I have that I think is kind of special.

I've got to tell you that it hurt quite a bit when they got to the part of the show where they picked it up off that rack of clothes, made a snarky comment about it, and tossed it into that big metal garbage can.

CLUNK!

I've been trying not to let it damage my self-esteem, telling myself that it's okay because I am a lot older than the girl on the show and I am wearing especially conservative clothes right now so it's okay for me.  
                                                                    

AND

What do Stacy and Clinton really know anyway?  I personally think that a person can have too many argyle sweaters or vests and maybe someone ought to mention that to Clinton.  (Though Stacy is the one wearing the argyle in the picture above.) And even though that white streak in Stacy's hair is natural and she feels it's part of her identity, it can be a little too Cruella  deVil "ish" at times, don't you think?

AND

While we're talking dogs, I may have a pathetic wardrobe, but at least I don't have a dog that I dress up in ridiculous clothes like the girl on the show did. 

But still....it will never be the same .  I'll never be able to wear that blouse again without feeling extra frumpy.  I'll be looking over my shoulder for a hidden camera or to see if Stacy and Clinton are sneaking up behind me.

I really had no idea about all the insecurities that come with growing older.

It sort of bites.