for all the good wishes you’ve sent my way! it’s been a pleasure working with you and the copy team and i’m sure we’ll cross paths in the professional world again (it isn’t that big you know?). stumbling across your entry was a pleasant surprise that really touched me dearly (made me all teary eyed!) and definitely made my day-thanks! and btw have fun in france-i’ll be checking out our your updates of the ‘tour de france’* (-;

*said in a french accent

or at least it will be, this morning when i get into work. remember a while back i mentioned something about a secret? well yesterday i officially resigned from my current job and i accepted a new job at an agency in boston. i’m very excited for this new opportunity, especially since it’s so close to home. i’m finally going to be able to experience what it’s like to live and work in the city (as opposed to living in boston and working in new hampshire).

i have to say that turning in that letter was a bit emotional. i’ve been at my current job for a little over two years, and i really do like it, however the drive was really eating up so much time in my life. i leaves me little time to wake up and work out before work, or even come home to make a decent meal. at the same time the thought that i won’t be driving up there and seeing all the familiar faces will be weird and might need tome time to getting used to-but i do look forward to riding the T to work and seeing new friendly faces!

so i’ve been meaning to back track and talk about my trip to miami-i have so many pictures to share and stories to tell. all of which i did try to update on a daily basis, but it was so hard! so instead, i think i’ll do a little recap sometime this week. it’s my second day in boston, and i’m on my own. camilo stayed behind in miami till next monday when he leaves for colombia. so yesterday on my way home i stopped by the supermarket to buy some thin chicken breasts, some fresh strawberries, & some lettuce for me to cook for the week. once home, i ended up just having some strawberries accompanied by few martini’s. lisa came over with lina, jackson played for a little while. i had one too many martini’s (two to be exact-note to self: one’s enough) and crashed early-the earliest i’ve crashed in a long time-how’s 10 for a bed time…now i’m up super early and i’m ready for the day. good morning wednesday!

8:58am update

ok-so it’s been announced. no fireworks or anything. lol. seems like it was kinda expected, but then again it’s not like i did a good job of hiding how i felt about my drive. i’m happy everyone is happy for me. i’m happy for me. on my way to work this morning i sang at the top of my lungs, text messaged all my friends to have a wonderful day, and wore a smile on my face from cheek to cheek. i can’t wait to get home today-hopefully my friends are up for hanging out tonight…

11:49am update

in case you’re wondering… i currently commute 55 miles (each way) to work now… the new place i’ll be working at is only 3.9 miles aways from home. yay!

11:10pm update

what a day. it’s getting late. i’ve been in bed for about and hour now and i can’t fall asleep. i’m kinda tired, i really really want to fall asleep-but i can’t. so here i am. update of the work day was that it ended pretty well. i’m feeling really good about my decision to accept this new position. on my way home, i was looking forward to hanging out with kristina since she said she was going to be in the neighborhood-at the last minute i thought that the milkyway had 80s aquanet dance night tonight, so tried calling up a few other girls to see if they were interested-anyway, they all ended up having plans already. then kristina ended up canceling her stopping by. now that i check out milkyway site-i find that it wasn’t 80s aquanet night after all… it was ’sick pleasure’ monthy punk, skate, hardcore and thrash night-which i actually wouldn’t of minded checking out. maybe lisa would have been interested? had i known i probably would have asked her! not that i would have wanted to be there all night-but i would be down to check it out. anyway-it’s 11:28 now, and i think i should call it a night (try to anyway)… later!

this morning, i sprung out of bed with an extra “boing!” since today was my trip to miami. i was very much looking forward to this since i hadn’t been there in a year. there was a lot of family i hadn’t seen and that i missed very much. speaking on the phone isn’t quite the same sometimes. so ready to go i was, all packed up, organized the house a bit (there’s nothing worse than coming home to a messy place) and off to work i was. the plan was to work till about 3:30 or so and then head off to the airport. so i went to work, did my deed, and looked forward for 3:30 to come around…which seemed forever!!

finally the time came when it was time for me to leave, so i did. but instead of taking off to the airport, i decided last minute to head home and leave my car at the apt and get a ride from lisa to the airport. the plan would have worked great, except that traffic was unexpectedly bad-so the possibility of her getting home at her usual time was not possible. so by the time i got home (i too encountered traffic) i had two options, one: take the T; or two: call a cab. i decided to call a cab since getting to the T alone was going to take me about 10 minutes-and i was stressed out out enough as it was. calling the cab meant, i had to take the stuff out of my car, leave it inside the apartment hallway, run over to the bank for some cash and return before the cab got there. things were going ok-up until i thought i lost my apt keys. at this point, i thought i was going to have a heart attack. i raided my car, my bags, everything. i knew it was somewhere obvious, but because i was in a hurry, it wasn’t going to come up easy.

finally my keys turned up (they were in my bag, that i had searched twice) and ran my ass down to the bank, took out some cab money and ran back to find the cab there waiting for me. lucky for me the cab lady was very nice. this made me think, i’ve never had a lady for a cab driver-but i’m glad that today was the day i got one, that she was very nice, and that she got me to the airport in about fifteen minutes. this was a good thing since it was already 5:45 and my flight was scheduled to leave at 7:10.

at the airport, everything was going smooth. that’s until i was standing in line for the security check point where you’re supposed to have everything that’s liquid (including lipstick) in a zip lock quart bag. i made a conscious effort to place all my ‘liquid’ things in the check in luggage, but in my hurry of looking for my keys, i emptied out my daily use bag and dumped it in my backpack-this included a lipstick that i never use, chap stick, and a lip gloss. while holding the three items in my hand, i looked around and wondered if they were going to make me dump it because i didn’t have a freakin’ quart bag to put it in. lucky for me there was a nice girl standing behind me in line that was nice enough to place my things in her bag for the check point. when talking to her further, it turns out that she’s from miami too. not only that, but she went to the same elementary and middle school that i went to…we had a lot to talk about. complete stranger one minute, a lot in common the next. this is such a small world. although we didn’t graduate the same year, she’s six years younger, we shared a lot of the same teachers. after chatting for a while and exchanging emails, we went our separate ways to our gates. the flight itself was ok-i was pretty tired of sitting by the time we got to miami. i sat between two nice individuals and read my book by david sedaris.

once we arrived, i had to pick up my luggage from baggage claim. that felt like it took forever…i think i waited for my luggage for about 45 minutes. by the time i got home (my parents came to pick me up) it was 1:45, and i still hadn’t had anything to eat for dinner. lucky for me, my mom had just made croquettas de pollo the night before, so she fried some up for me to eat. yummy! before bed, i hung out with my cats and parents for a little. meet picaso, manchita, and negrita.

a last minute ’shing ding’ turned into lots of fun. its the weekend before camilo lease for miami/colombia for a month, and there is one friend in particular that will not be around when he comes back-kristina. she’s moving to austin for grad school (boooo!). so we had a reunion of the picnic crew, along with a few others. drank some beers and ate some cookies and cheese. made out for a nice evening. we opened my bottle of absinthe to try it out-we were all scared, so it made for a great time figuring out how exactly was it that you’re supposed to drink it. a few sips of that were more than enough-at 72% alcohol volume, it tasted like turpentine (at least we thought that’s what turp. would taste like). later we ended up hooking up the laptop to the tv to see the picnic pics and ordering pizza. at the end of the night when almost everyone was gone-and only four were left-irina suggested we take a picture for our friend luis, who’d left for miami for the summer. so i set up the tripod, arraigned the shot, and at the last minute, grabbed jackson so he could be in the pic…what? jackson misses him too!

it’s crazy how fast time goes by. just about a few days over a year ago, alicia and malvin came up to visit from miami. i realized this when i was going through my old pictures looking for a shot of me with short hair. around this time last year we took a road trip to canada’s niagara falls for a three day weekend. for anyone who’s never been-it’s definitely worth checking out-once in a lifetime. and take the boat tour that drives right up to the falls…the view from the bottom, and the thunder of the water falls is just amazing to experience. however, i don’t see myself going back there again. the city itself felt a lot more like orlando fl.-all touristy and gimmicky.

on another note: 6 more days till i go home to see my family down in the 305 (miami). as the days go by, the more anxious i get and excited all at the same time. excited because i haven’t seen most of my family in a year-and anxoius because there’s so much i need to get done in my apartment before i go. but first, i need to get through this week at work (two more days to go).

shirts in 365 days!? last week a friend of mine sent me the link to this site called 365 shirts in 365 days where this guy mike does exactly that-wear a different shirt every day for the next year and post a pic of it on his blog. what a fun and clever idea. i’m hooked! everyday, i go on there to see what shirt he’s wearing today… so far my favorite is the old school orioles shirt with their old cartoon logo of a bird that looks like a frog head.

another nice thing about this blog is that it’s dedicated to raise money for alzheimer’s research. (click on the cool looking circle with the exclamation mark on it-top right of site)  even more of a reason for me to like it. it so happens that my great grandmother was affected by alzheimer’s as well. so i felt a personal connection to the site. i think i was about 11 or so when she passed, but the memories i have of her are as vivid and fond as they can get, considering how long ago it’s been since she’s passed. i remember her being a very loving and caring woman-who had an adoration for me (and i adored her as well). i remember her chasing me around their apartment so i can wash my feet in this ‘palangana’ (spanish for bucket) full of water. this was because i loved being barefoot and she apparently tought it was unsanitary. haha-i also used to lock myself up in their huge bathroom and run the toilet paper from the holder across to the sink and then to the tub-like a floating walkway. then i’d fill the sink with water and play with this set of wooden carved varnished wales (i played with those so much-i would recognize them if i saw them today). one was about 5 inches long and the other about 3. i’m not sure exactly what game i was playing-but i do remember leaving a big water mess. lol. i loved mamama (that was her nick name) she was awesome. thinking of her and the time i got to spend with her always makes me feel happy and lucky to have been able to share a little of my life with her (i was her first great grandchild).

unfortunately, as she got older, she started forgetting things little by little. i don’t remember exactly when her alzheimer’s started because my family didn’t make a big deal about it. in fact, they tried their best to keep the situation as light as possible, and cherish the moments that she did recall the best we could. there were a few of us that she still recognized by name, sporadically-and she swore that don fransisco, host of a spanish saturday night show called ’sabado gigante’, was her boyfriend! (which we all though was funny).

anyway, it’s getting late for me-even though i can go on forever with stories about mamama. in the mean time, i’ll be looking forward to what shirt mike’s going to be wearing tomorrow.

what a long-but fun day it was today (sunday-i do realize that i’m writing this the day after, but does it matter?). i have to say that it’s been a while since camilo and i get together with the gang for friends from mass art & misc…i mean ever since i got a cat, i haven’t seen claire…and surrendra has been busy working, kristina…has dave (well, you know what i mean)…chris & rachel, well they live nearby-i’m not sure why we don’t get together more often?…irina, just finished school-so she’s all wrapped up in wrapping that up…and well frankly with camilo’s operationa and my work schedule, we haven’t had much time to hang out much either…oh well.

(note: word of advice for anyone who might consider going to berry pond, if you’re looking to hang out, have a few beers, jump in the pond and toss a ball around-DON’T GO THERE! and i’ll tell you why in a minute.)

anyway, back to sunday. the plan was to meet at the pond by 1pm, and i had already arraigned to give kristina, dave, and surrendra a ride-so after picking up some beer and veggie burgers, we headed to the south end to get kristina and dave, and then to somerville to get surrendra. from there to the pond it turned out to be about a 30 minute drive so it wasn’t so bad. so we’re the first to get there. claire and the second group were right behind-so we went ahead and got a picnic table with a grill stand and settled in. so while the boys settled, i took a little trip to the restroom, and when i get back, i noticed that the guys were putting their beer away. it turns out that while i was gone, a life guard (i think they were high school kids) told them that alcohol was prohibited at the park and that they had to take it back to the car. ok-fine, and that they did. in the mean time, while they walked back to the car, i decided to check out the scene by the pond beach. while i;m there, i overhear these ‘life guards’ walkie-talking that “there were some people with open alcoholic beverages in the park and we don’t know if they disposed of them already”. what jerks! i swear, i felt like in day care and we were being told on or something. overhearing that conversation, i couldn’t help but to ask them if they were referring to the people sitting over there (and i pointed to our picnic table) and proceeded to tell them that we’ve already taken care of it. everything was back in the car and that they d nothing worry about…whatever. this was as much action these kids have had all day. same goes for the park ranger-for all that matters. once he got there-he made sure to “lay down the law about alcohol”. he looked like he was about to draw his walkie-talkie the way he kept his hand hovered over it-whatever. eventually some of us inconspicuously poured beer into empty schweppes cans-so that took care of that.

eventually the grill got fired up, some of us jumped in the pond, some flew a kite, some threw a frisbee around. at around 4 or 5 irina got there with some ice cream-perfect timing. we hung out some more. took some group pictures. played some kick ball till the sun started setting and headed home.

more pics to come… or should i say, a link to more pics to come…

what a shitty day. i might of known this when i didn’t want to get up this morning, but i did anyway. see, camilo has been on a cleaning binge lately-which is awesome (it’s easy to accumulate a lot of shit in a tiny apartment over the span of 3 years)-but at the same time, we both have different ideas on what should be kept, and what needs to be given away. so what, if i want to keep three smoothie making books and a few french books-even if i haven’t made a smoothie or read a french book since we moved in here? if you ask me, it’s my call weather or not it’s time for the books to go. after all, they are my books… i felt like i was crazy for wanting to keep these things. what made me even crazier was having to give an explanation for each thing i wanted to hold on to (that he didn’t feel worth keeping). wtf? anyway, saturday has come and gone-sunday will be a different day. i’m just going to pretend it never happened…sorry, just had to vent.

a friend asked me yesterday if i read-i said yes. but in the back of my head i didn’t feel like it was an honest answer. i mean, don’t get me wrong, i like to read. but i don’t read as often as i’d like. whenever i pick up a book, i usually can’t stop until i’m done with it. so i don’t read as much because sort of interrupts my daily routine a little (i end up staying up late, ignore chores, etc).

then she also asked me if i knew who david sedaris was-i said “no-i don’t think so-but maybe”. i left feeling a little embarrassed for not knowing (i do have a horrible time remembering names anyway). she said he was a funny writer and that i should check him out.

so today for lunch, i jumped at the opportunity to go to the bookstore with my coworker (he needed to get a book). when we got there, i asked him about this writer and he recommended me talk pretty one day. i picked up holidays on ice along with it because it seemed like an easy quick read and also grabbed these little kitty magnetic page clips. can’t wait.

i later learn that he’s one of the story tellers on “this american life” on npr (i love “this american life”)… turns out i know who he is afterall.

so after an uneventful day at work, i left early for a doctors appointment in boston. the nice thing about that was that i ended up at home at a time when i would normaly be driving back from work. it was so nice to walk around my neighborhood and just enjoy my surroundings-and to top it off, it was a beautiful day.

later in the evening i went over to lisa’s for some grillin-n-chilling on her porch. i brought over some green peppers to grill, grapes to munch on, and a tomato and she had some burgers and cheese (mmm cheese) to toss on the grill. it was a nice-impromptu evening.

grilling green peppers reminded me of this one time when i used to have dinner at abuela berta’s house after school/work throughout college. there was this one time when she was grilling them in her little oven and they were cut into thin strips with olive oil poured over them. then my grandma had to fight my uncle off of eating them b/c she was saving them for my mom. apparently my mom loves grilled green peppers and she hadn’t had them in a while…tangent story-i know, but for some reason i remember this day like it was yesterday.

well, i tried to take a nice shot of the peppers on the grill, but as you will see below, it was an unsucessfull attempt. i’m noticing that i like to take a lot of close-up pictures. i think i might just invest in a macro lens…