Transa

Transa is the Mexican slang word for "transaction." It usually implies something shady and under the table and/or morally ambiguous. Transas are very common in Mexico, because the government is corrupt and is controlled by a corrupt church. Honest people have no chance of survival in the long run, so even very honest people often have to do under-the-table business, because to do everything legally often means to do things that are morally corrupt. It's kind of a catch 22.
Anyway, I had to preface today's post with that little explanation so you have some cultural context for the story I'm about to tell you. My husband is the king of Transas. When I say this, I do not mean to imply that he is dishonest or corrupt- just that, like most Mexicans, he is extremely adept at finding ways to do little deals on the side. We are ALWAYS making money off of the MOST bizarre scenarios. Yesterday is my case in point.
It started off like a normal, yet productive Saturday. We woke up, had a nice breakfast, mowed the grass, got the boy dressed and helped him do his chores (taking care of the dogs and cleaning his room, etc.). We packed up in the Ranger (because I love my truck!!!) and ran off to go to get the boys hair cut and to pick up some Salad from Sams Club for the ward Mother's Day party, which for some bizarre reason we always have the Saturday AFTER M's Day. On our way to the barber shop, we got a call from our renters- the family living in our little 800 sq. ft. house by the hospital that we bought on our 2nd anniversary. They asked us to come by and help them set up the sprinklers. While there, we had a nice talk about weed control and why they need to get on top of that, and they reminded us that the previous renters had left some stuff in the shed out back that we needed to get rid of.
It turns out that the cargo in question was about 80 sets of little league football pads, jerseys, and pants. We had already asked the previous renters several times to move the stuff out and they said they'd do it, but just hadn't gotten around to it. We have also asked the guy whom the renters got the equipment from if he could come get it and he said he didn't really care if we just gave it all away. We made sure that he (second guy) didn't want it b/c he is Luis's cousin's wife's sister's husband, which in Latin culture means he's family and thus we didn't want to get into a whole big thing with him. (By this point, you should start catching on to the Transa element of this story). We had Andrei and his best friend Esteban (2nd guy's kid) load the stuff into the back of the Ranger and we headed out. I thought we were just going to dump it all at D.I., because where else are you going to take that much junk?
Answer: Play it Again Sports in North Orem. Used sports equipment consignment and 2nd hand store. Luis knows about the place from back when he worked at the Pawn Shop when we were dating and first married. When people brought in sports stuff they couldn't buy they'd always refer them. We were hoping to get like a buck a piece for the pads since they are kind of old and whatever. Turns out they sell the things for like $50 each and were willing to pay us $7 cash for each set of pads OR give us $9 each in-store-credit.
One thing lead to another and we walked out of there with like $100 cash and almost $300 in sports equipment as well as 42 more sets of pads that they want but can't afford to pay us for until next week.
Transa!
I would feel like it is dishonest, except that the guy who originally had the stuff told us we could do whatever with it and that he didn't care.
Anyway, as bizarre as this seems, this is really common place for us- weird things just falling into our laps that end up cashing out. Sometimes I wonder what it would be like to be married to someone "normal," (usually when I'm sitting in some random parking lot while my husband does some sort of business dealings with a random stranger) but when it comes down to it, I wouldn't trade Luis for anything. He's so cool.