A Little Costa Rica Sunshine in Linden, New Jersey

 

The Happier House

Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Wireless Internet—From $52/month to $330/month for download speeds ranging from 1M to 6M

I love libraries, the feeling of walking through the stacks looking for a book, checking out the new releases in the front, or just chatting with another book lover. I wrote my first resume on a computer at a library because I couldn’t afford one of my own. I remember being confused by the program, and a librarian came over to help, as did others sitting around me. It meant a lot back then and still does now.

Costa Rica does not have many libraries. It was one thing that disappointed me when moving here. Even though I didn’t know how to read Spanish, I wanted to learn and thought a library could be the perfect place to start. I could be that weird gringo in the corner reading a Spanish version of Dr. Seuss, but that was never going to happen.

However, there were dialup internet cafes and I stopped at many to email my parents and let them know that I was alive and well. I was not the weird gringo in the corner because there was already some strange guy back there, all by himself, who never looked up. I stayed clear of him, confident he was not reading Green Eggs and Ham.

Libraries are on my mind today because Dawn Beviano, my hometown librarian, contacted me. She is featuring my books for a week since she considers me a notable Lindenite. That surprised me since I’ve never been notable at anything before.

Linden Library

When my husband and I dated, he drove me through his hometown Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. He stopped by his high school and said Tony Danza was also a past graduate. A picture honoring him hung in the hallowed halls. Rob appeared proud of this, and who wouldn’t be? Everyone loves Tony Danza. My husband actually sounds like Tony Danza. Of course, he does, they had the same English teacher. But Rob’s school suffered from, as per their Wikipedia page, “experienced criminal activity,” and not even the notable Tony Danza could tap dance this institution back into good standing. The high school ultimately closed.

Linden Library emailed me questions to answer, but I thought it would be fun to ask Dawn some of my own. 1988 was the last time I stepped foot in the building where I used their microfiche machine and scoured their card catalog. That was back when everyone used The Dewey Decimal System, which I have since learned from a not too exhausting Google search, is named after a real guy, Melvil Dewey.

Melvil was smart, demanding, and known to have made powerful enemies. This is ironic since he made powerful enemies out of every kid who found his classification system difficult to understand. “I just want to find the Mad Lib section,” little Timmy bemoaned in 1982. He was last seen between Social Sciences 300-399 and Fine Arts and Recreation 700-799.

Although Melvil was intelligent, he was also a misogynist who demanded that women applying for a library position include pictures of themselves. “You can’t polish a pumpkin,” he was known to say. That’s right Melvin, you can’t polish a pumpkin. But do you know what I can do? Write about how much of a jerk you were to those ladies. Polish that pumpkin, pal. Who knew a guy named Melvil could be such a creepo. You, sir, are no Tony Danza.

Tony Danza

“Card catalogs, as you knew them, no longer exist,” Dawn said. “Everything is now computerized. Every item in the library’s inventory has a barcode and is scanned in and out. No more cards in the pockets, with the date stamps. When I tell my children that we used to have to thumb through index cards by author, title, or subject matter to find what we were looking for, their eyes glaze over. Now patrons go to a computer and search for what they want.

“The microfiche machine still exists but is being phased out. We are in the process of having our microfilm collection digitized. The film has begun to deteriorate over time, and we want to preserve those newspapers from the early 1900s. It will be a long process that will take several years.”

I was surprised to learn that the Linden Library offers so much more to the community than they did many years ago. “Lending museum passes is something new that many libraries are now utilizing!” Dawn explains. “It allows patrons to visit museums at no cost to them. Most libraries have a non-profit organization called The Friends of (insert library name). They fundraise and procure many of the “extra” items that a library has like the museum passes. Ebooks are pretty much standard now as are online audio books.

“Since we have so many children’s programs, they LOVE being here! From Lego club, chess club, game nights, movies, S.T.E.M, Girls who C.O.D.E, animal programs, trivia nights, story time, or arts & crafts – we keep them busy! There are also two computers in the children’s room that the children use when they want. They are downloaded with educational games and programs.”

I asked Dawn if people still get excited over reading. “Books will always be the heart of any library, ever since Benjamin Franklin began the first lending library, back in 1731. There’s excitement when a favorite author has a new release, finding that favorite book you loved growing up, or browsing the stacks until something catches your eye. There is something about the smell of the book, holding it, and turning the pages that allow you to live in the book…you can’t do that with an ebook… or that could just be me.”

Thank you, Dawn, and to all your colleagues for sharing my books and including me on your notable list. I’m hoping to do an author event there, and I plan on wowing the crowds. I’ll start with my 200-010 story of swimming in subterranean lakes with lazy crocodiles and end with the 862-222 tale of how I opened a bed and breakfast in a foreign land.

Then I will tell Dawn that I’m looking for a book, but I can’t remember the name, but it has a blue cover, with a horse on it. She says librarians love it when patrons do that.

Take a look at the cool Linden Library! www.facebook.com/Lindenpubliclibrary

Click here to check out my bed and breakfast, The Happier House. I would love to host more people from my hometown!

The Happier House

 

By | 2019-02-06T09:54:54-05:00 February 6th, 2019|Categories: Press|Tags: , , |3 Comments

Thanks to My Readers & Inspirational Sunsets

 Nadine Hays Pisani

Costa Rica Costa Of Living Update: The Costa Rica Escape Manual 2019— Kindle $9.99, Paperback $15.99

KINDLE      PAPERBACK

I’m up at 3 a.m. It’s the time I start writing, and I thought today would be different because I finally finished the 2019 edition of The Costa Rica Escape Manual. “I’ll sleep in!” I said to myself. But here I am, wanting to write, again, to all of you.

I wanted to tell you about these crazy swirly sunsets. Each night, the sky isn’t a colored layered cake, but more like someone finger painting across the horizon in slow motion. If you can imagine taking orange and yellow paint, swirling it into turquoise, then dripping lavender across the sky before blending it into the entire canvas… that’s what’s happening in Costa Rica.

sunsetI loved finger painting as a kid, and we rarely got to do it in art class because we eventually finger painted all over ourselves— and our friends— by the end of the hour. I think nothing makes kids happier than that kind of freedom. Dipping their fingers in random colors and creating something so unique. It’s why you can’t help but smile as a child shows you their creation.

When you watch these Costa Rican sunsets unravel, your body relaxes and your mind stops racing. You start to believe in all sorts of things. You’re convinced of the goodness in this world.  You swear that you can be a nicer person, more patient and loving. And you believe that you can forgive others, even the ones that hurt you the most.

But most importantly, you believe the thing you want to do more than anything else in life is possible. It’s as if these sunsets are giving you a key to a secret door, to a party where you’re always invited.

Flamingo BeachCosta Rica changed my life. But you already know that story, I’ve written enough books on the subject. But what I didn’t realize was how many small increments of happiness have piggybacked onto each other. Little hitchhikers of laughter that I carry and drop off, before taking on more passengers. And all of you, those who have read my books or just follow us on social media, have been important pieces of happiness in my life.

Thank you for making my dream of becoming a writer come true, and for years of supporting this whacky journey my husband and I are on. It hasn’t been a smooth ride, but neither was my life back in that office. There are many types of potholes in life, and my head was full of them at that old job. If given a choice, I’ll always choose the literal potholed road as opposed to the metaphorical one. Both rattle your brain, but one takes you to the ocean’s edge where you can build sandcastles.

And I’ve been building them ever since I landed in this beautiful country. When I started, I never imagined how big they’d become. But Rob knew. He always knew. He started building our castle the moment we met.

Palms SunsetThe sun is finally coming up; it casts a rosy glow across the mountaintops and a pink-hued blanket of light across my home. I’m glad I’m awake to see it, doing what I love more than anything in the world: finger painting across my keyboard, typing words of color across the pages. Hoping they melt together like a first grader’s art project.  Hoping people will read them. Hoping it’s all not just a pink-hued dream.

With love, Nadine

If you can’t make it to Costa Rica right away, for your own inspiration you may enjoy reading my books! Click this link: https://amzn.to/2TW4Xee

The Costa Rica Escape Manual 201

Amazon Kindle

Paperback

 

Turn the Car Around Pineapple Topping

Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Pineapple — $1.50

Did you ever feel like you missed a left turn in your life? That you went straight when you should have taken the off ramp? If so, I know how you feel. And in memory of that left turn Rob and I took, which resulted in us moving to Costa Rica, I made a delicious pineapple topping for ice cream. It’s been an amazing adventure so far, and I thank all of you for reading and watching it unfold.

Ingredients:

2 1/2 cups crushed pineapple

3 tablespoons unsalted butter

2 tablespoons brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

Melt the butter in a pan over medium heat. Add brown sugar, and stir.  Don’t mix, just stir.
Once this is dissolved, take the 2 1/2 cups of pineapple, and pour into pan.
And you’re just going to stir and coat both sides of pineapple.
Put 1/2 tsp vanilla in.
Cook off a lot of the moisture, until it’s chewy and sticky, and it gets even chewier and stickier when you put it on top of vanilla ice cream.

By | 2018-08-13T13:19:05-04:00 August 13th, 2018|Categories: Recipes|Tags: , , |3 Comments

One Gardener’s Holy Grail

Bougainvillea

Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Beef Casado at a local Soda (rice, plantains, salad, beef, and beans) — Six Dollars

“This is gross,” I say while opening a Zip Loc bag.

“Why are you messing with that? It’s a germinating mango seed. Did you touch it?” my husband asks.

“No,” I reply, while clearly holding the evidence in my hand. It would seem I have the same half-witted mind of a thief who falls asleep at the crime scene.

“Give me that. It likes carbon dioxide for development!” Rob proceeds to blow into the pouch. I hope that if I’m ever in need of resuscitation, he’s as ambitious with me as he is with this freezer grade sandwich bag.

“Please, leave this alone,” he scolds.

“What about this one?” I ask, holding up another bag filled with gooey mush.

Rob glances before sadly turning away. “That one didn’t make it.”

There is no resuscitation.

I used to think gardening was an amicable hobby, with responsible folks wearing knee pads and suede gloves planting petunias around their mailboxes. They look happy and well adjusted. They take their families to Disneyworld on vacation. They may even buy two boxes of Thin Mint cookies from the Girl Scout troop stationed in front of the Jiffy Lube.

But not Rob. He is not a well-adjusted gardener. He doesn’t plant anything around our mailbox. Okay, we don’t have a mailbox, so instead, he decides to recreate the gardens of Versailles using banana peels and a leaky hose. (more…)

By | 2018-06-08T16:16:15-04:00 June 8th, 2018|Categories: Garden, The Happier House|Tags: , , , |2 Comments

Letters from Guests

Costa Rica Cost of Living Update: Flowers for our guests—Free from Rob’s Garden

Running The Happier House has definitely been a rewarding experience. I think I may have found the perfect job for two reasons…

One: Everyone who stays with us is looking to have a great time. They have zip lining on their mind instead of taxes, corporate meetings, or deadlines. This surely beats working at The Department of Motor Vehicles where no one is ever there to book a sunset cruise. Although a cabana serving fruity drinks would certainly lighten the mood while renewing my expired registration. Someone get on that.

Two: Most of our guests have already read my books, so they know I blabber a lot and Rob will be duct taping something, possibly himself, but hopefully not one of you, in the near future. It’s like we’ve been friends for years.

We’ve met people from all over the world and are honored when they share their Costa Rican experiences with us. I hope one day we will get the chance to host you too at The Happier House.

Here are just a few quotes from our guests:

“What can we say? This really has been the trip of a lifetime! You two are amazing, and we appreciate so much all the advice, maps, recommendations, reservations, and on and on! Not to mention Rob’s comedy show.”

“This house is so beautiful, the view, the pool! You two were so welcoming and truly did make us feel right at home. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”

“The views the views!” This note came with a Canadian flag and maple syrup!

I love that Canadians always have authentic maple syrup on hand. I want to believe they always have some in their purse for waffle emergencies.

If you’d like to see our accommodations, check out our website: www.happierthanabilionaire.com/happier-house.

If you would like to read all about our adventures in creating The Happier House, here is a link to my latest book Happier Than A Billionaire: An Acre in Paradise.

Or just say hello and drop me an email! puravida@happierthanabillionaire.

By | 2018-04-15T18:19:06-04:00 April 13th, 2018|Categories: The Happier House|Tags: , , |2 Comments

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