I lost my Aunt Eva last week. As a kid I remember spending summers in Pomona with her, Uncle Ted, Joe, Jeff, and Julie. I remember my aunt spoiling me because she didn’t have grandkids yet, so I was the one she referred to as “the baby.” Everytime I’d go somewhere with my cousins I remember Aunt Eva telling them “be careful with the baby,” "watch the baby,” I loved it because I was the baby and they’d be in big trouble if anything happened to me lol. 

How lucky am I to have had this sweet pup in my life for 13 incredible years! Bolt has been with me through so many milestones in my life, through losses and gains, through celebrations and recoveries. So it only felt right that this year, since we had the space and were able to do so, that we honor this sweet fluffin soul with a birthday party to celebrate him. 

Being a Mexican American, who is now a Mexican Citizen I want to learn about my culture. I want to learn the traditions. I want to learn about the things that make my people who they are, for example delicious food, loud music, celebrating all night, and of course futbol! I already knew Mexicans love futbol, so with the World Cup happening this year I was excited to watch some games and hopefully learn a lil bit about futbol. What I didn’t expect was the excitement of the entire country for the game. About a month before the games even started green jerseys started showing up everywhere. Every day I would see at least 2-3 people wearing Mexico jerseys around town, and as the games started I just started seeing it everywhere. So naturally we also got caught up in this wide spread futbol fever! 

Bolty is pushing 13 and other than slowing down with age has been doing very well. Recently we noticed he has been walking a lil different and assumed it was his hips since that happens with large dogs when they get older. Our vet sent us for x-rays (which were only 35 USD) so he could see where the exact problem was and what needed to be treated. To everyone's surprise his hips are actually in great condition and it's his spine that is causing him pain. Several areas of his lower spine have fused together and become painful for him. Dr Rhoy has recommended a monthly pain shot for Bolt that we will start next month and for now he will be taking pain pills. It breaks my heart to know my best friend is in pain like this, but I'm glad we are able to offer him something to help relieve it. I wish we could fix it but surgery is not an option for him at his age. Bolt has always been there for me. I'm gonna do my best to be there for him now. Whatever you need buddy, I got you. - Nolan

So I'm pretty sure I got discriminated against today. I was applying to get my Mexican passport and my application was rejected. I hired an immigration lawyer ahead of time to help me, so I could be sure I was doing it all correctly. So I know I had everything required. They said I needed an additional document, and that I needed to say phrases in Spanish that they didn't think I could say. Yes, her exact words were "you need to say phrases that I don't think you can say." They never even told me what the phrases were, I didn't even get to try, they just rejected my application. I've got my lawyer back on it to figure out what went wrong. I didn't even need to say phrases in Spanish to get my Mexican citizenship, so it just doesn't make sense. It's really tough being a No Sabo Mexican American in Mexico sometimes. They see that I'm brown and expect more from me. The lesson here is to be kind to people struggling with language. And lesson 2 is I need to work harder at learning Spanish. Anyhoo it was a disappointing day to say the least. - Nolan

I was given a $500 USD grant from Drop Dead Generous to spread small moments of unexpected kindness across the city. I shared this on Facebook and asked my friends to double it, and they did. My plan is simple: wherever I go, I want to surprise people by covering the cost of what they’re buying. That could mean paying for someone’s groceries, bus fare, coffee for everyone in a café, a round of beers for strangers, buying all the mangos from a beach vendor, and more. Easy right? Yeah I thought so too. But my lack of fluency and desire to help, not treat, is making this what was meant to be a fun kindness experiment not fun at all. So far I've covered a round of drinks, covered 10 entry fees for women to go dancing at the club, gave a few big tips to music artists, and a  grocery bagger, gave money to a lady walking through traffic asking for donations for her son's hospital bills, and donated money to cover a chemo therapy treatment for a sick dog. And with that being said we have arrived at my internal struggle. How can I be throwing money around for beers, and treats when there are people in need, serious need?Puerto Vallarta is very much a tourist town / expat destination. There is a lot of money to be made here off the people who aren't from here. But not everyone is in a place to make that money, and wages don't stretch as far here as they do in the US. To put it simply this is a place of the haves and have nots. You will see beautiful homes and condos here, owned by people with equally awesome cars. But you will also find homes without proper plumbing, dirt floors, no ac, and no screens on the windows here. The haves and have nots. When I asked for this grant my proposal was that I'd use the money to treat the people of Puerto Vallarta. I submitted my request shortly after the situation with the cartel lighting the city on fire and wanted to do this a just a lil something special for the people. But here I am in the middle of it, I see so much need around me, and suddenly buying beers and mangos seems like a misuse of the money. Even though the money was granted to me for just that, it feels like wrong to be treating people when others are struggling and those few pesos for a beer would really help them a lot just to get by. Drop Dead Generous has a WhatsApp group with the founders for grantees to chat about their projects and how things are going. I think I'll take this to the group and get their thoughts. Because I still have about half the money, I feel like I'm using it sparingly out of guilt. I'd love to just finish it up and be done with this. This was suppose to be fun, instead I'm living with the weight of it. - Nolan