Life Updates

No More Free Labor For Meta

Do you ever feel that creeping feeling of shame after posting something on social media? I used to think that it was a classic internal misogynist gaze judging myself for wanting to be cute. Then maybe I thought it was the dopamine addiction to scrolling that we all know it gives you. But then I finally figured it out: it is just so embarrassing to work for a pointless corporation like Meta for free.

Now some of the best work is done for free. Labors of love, you know? But I draw the line when a corporation can derive direct profit in the form of advertising dollars.

And I also did not think it was good for my processing of the world we live in to see images of war-torn communities alongside nostalgic odes to dad and what skincare brand an acquaintance just switched to. Maybe future brains will adapt to process this context switching better, but for me it is a recipe for compassion fatigue.

And now they want to continue to build products on the backs of our creative endeavors (and yes, I am counting the drunk night photo albums of the late 2000´s as a creative endeavor.) Sure, you can opt out, but they make it so hard that you have smart writers like Deborah Copaken writing “11 steps to keep Meta from stealing your data to train AI.”

As JLo says multiple times in the modern classic, Marry Me, “They say if you want something different, you have to do something different.” And spoiler alert she marries the love of her life. Solid advice.

So you can catch up on the life updates here. Maybe find an occasional short video or photo essay. Who knows?

I think it will be a good time.

New Job

Some of you may recall that I left a job in state advocacy for reproductive rights in 2019. I worked with my ex-husband under less than ideal circumstances on a project to build a small boutique hotel. With the divorce, so went that weird career pivot. (More on my grappling with tourism later).

But the job search was wild and demoralizing. I vacillated between creative ideas to attract freelance contracts and the hustle it takes to apply for jobs. I had to make this work. I wanted to stay in Mexico and explore the blossoming of a new love, but I grew increasingly willing to move anywhere and do anything. Thankfully, the right opportunity finally presented and after a lengthy process to ensure the right fit, I accepted a position with the Florida Immigrant Coalition (FLIC) Votes as their Director of Policy and Politics.

And that means: I am moving to Miami! Well, most of the time I will be in Miami. I do not know how to live in one place while your heart lives in another (along with the house you own, your dog, and your man), but I am open to exploring it.

Pro’s of Miami are, of course, good food, lots of sun, proximity to flying to the Yucatán to fill my cup back up, and the opportunity to continue to improve my ability to speak in Spanish.

I haven’t been a Florida voter since 2008, but I have to say, I am looking forward to casting my vote there in 2024.

New House

I have craved having a place of my own for so long, even when it did not feel possible. When I started looking for a little property to call home in the Yucatán, I was imagining a quiet village where I would have bananas and mangos growing in my yard. I knew the prices had gotten a bit steep in the town of Valladolid and surrounding areas. After four years of watching the buying frenzy here, I wasn’t naively thinking I would find a constructed home for cheap.

But then one day in a heat wave with rolling power outages, I looked at my fiancé and said that I couldn’t take it anymore. We needed to go to the beach that day and refresh ourselves with the sea breeze. The Caribbean coast is too costly for the underemployed so we headed north to Río Lagartos on the Gulf Coast. “There is a house for sale we should go look at up there,” my partner mentioned as he packed up our red 2011 Toyota Corolla with a cooler and our hammocks.

After spending a wonderful evening at the Hotel Río Lagartos, grateful for our temporary reprieve from the heat, we went to see the house that he had seen posted on Facebook Marketplace (ok, Meta, you can have the Yellow Pages).

Maybe it was because Río Lagartos had been our cool sanctuary during the hottest and dryest time of year. Or maybe because I grew up on the northern part of the Gulf of Mexico. Or maybe it all conspired to shape our fate in a little fishing village in a nature preserve. Or maybe I do not need to know why it happened, just that it happened.

All I know is that when they accepted the offer and we went to sign documents for the sale the next week, I felt so much peace to finally have a place in this world to land.

More to come on all fronts, but here are a few more pictures of Río Lagartos for now.