9/11/01

I had just made it up the elevator and was approaching our team's block of offices when I first heard of the events of September 11, 2001. A co-worker was listening to the news in her portable radio; the second plane hit the South Tower right around that time and it was evident this was not a freak accident, but some kind of a terrorist attack. People were terrified about our city being the next target.

Years later, people have questioned why I did not rush out of the office right away to pick up my child and go home, like other people did. I really do not know why. I guess I just did not think it was necessary. I did not feel in any immediate danger. It all felt so far away, almost unreal. Rather than fearing for my life, I obsessed about the doomed passengers of the hijacked planes, or the people who jumped from the towers. I wondered what I would have done had I been in their shoes, powerless in the face of an inevitable demise.

Not much work got done as we spent hours listening to the radio and checking the Internet for news about the attacks. Sometime that afternoon, an Argentinian colleague expressed his annoyance at our American coworkers "making such a big deal" out of what had happened. I was at a loss for words. I have an appreciation for the fact that there are countries ravaged by political instability and terrorist attacks on a regular basis. When the threat of violence is part of everyday life, you definitely develop a tough skin. But it was insensitive of my colleague to not realize that life in this country was forever changed that day. For the first time an outside enemy had successfully executed a large-scale attack on Continental US soil; worse yet, it was done from the inside, turning our own transportation systems against us. If people were scared and freaking out, it was totally understandable.

Expat

On March 31st I hit a milestone. I have now lived in Houston for 10 years. Roughly a fourth of my time on this earth has been spent in good ol' Texas. It blows my mind.

Fort Worth Zoo

We spent MLK day at the Fort Worth Zoo.

Chance of snow

The weather forecast for today says:

Winter Storm Warning in effect from 10 am this morning to 8 PM CST this evening...
Freeze warning in effect from noon today to 9 am CST Saturday...

A chance of snow early in the morning. Rain likely in the morning. Snow in the late morning and afternoon. Snow accumulation of 1 to 3 inches. Colder. Highs 42 to 44 this morning with temperatures falling into the upper 30s by noon then steady or slowly falling in the afternoon. North winds 10 to 20 mph. Chance of precipitation 60 percent in the morning increasing to near 100 percent in the afternoon.

Yikes! SNOW, f-ing snow! Gabe and the girls are excited, I am dreading it.

Immigrant Tales

Two days ago I had a meeting with a colleague at work. He is someone I have worked with before, who is moving to a new position where he will have more contact with me during the planning cycle. So he paid me a visit at my cubicle, and we both struggled to fit an extra chair into close quarters so I could explain to him my main duties and show him my menagerie of charts and reports.

My coworker is from India, but has been living in the US for 25 years. He went to high school and college here. He has a son whom he has taken back to India to visit. He asked me where I was from and how long I had been here. I explained to him that, even though I was spared from dealing with INS when I moved here nine years ago on account of being born a US citizen, in reality I was very much a first generation immigrant. He had no problem understanding or accepting that. We talked about English language education in India and Puerto Rico. I told him my oldest daughter spends the summer on the island. He said his son doesn't like going to California to spend time with his aunts. It was a pleasant conversation and I think we both felt a sort of kinship forming.

I have been told by people that since Texas has such large numbers of Hispanics, that I should feel right at home here. How do I explain to them (if they do not get it already) that it is not quite the same, that Latin Americans are not some sort of homogeneous mass, that Mexicans, people from Central America and people from the Caribbean are not interchangeable?

When Gabe and I planned to get married, the wife of one of his friends warned him that I may just be marrying him to get a green card. Naturally I was pissed, not just at the assumption of dishonesty on my part, but at the woman's sheer ignorance about Puerto Rico. I teased Gabe that I was ready to walk down the aisle on our wedding day with my US passport pinned to my dress, so everybody would know my intentions were pure. I was only half joking.

Gaviota en Galveston

Gaviota en Galveston, originally uploaded by boricuaintexas.

Gliding

Gliding, originally uploaded by boricuaintexas.

Houston

I always have a hard time shooting the Houston skyline. It's difficult to try to snap a picture while you are driving 70 mph on I-45. But Gabe was doing the driving yesterday, so I got to snap some pics.

Monday morning

Suburban morning

Yucky weather, 3:10 PM

Bird of prey

A couple of days ago I was getting the girls in the car to take them to school, when we noticed a bunch of feathers on the lawn. Maybe a neighborhood cat caught a bird. I did not give it much thought.

At that moment, my next door neighbor came out to tell me that the day before she had seen a hawk on our front lawn, with a bloody, dead dove in its claws. When it saw her, the hawk quickly took flight, leaving behind the feathers I had seen, evidence of its carnage. It was quite a large bird and my neighbor was shocked to see it in our neighborhood.

I was surprised too, but upon further thought I should not be. There are patches of undeveloped land in our area. Just as there are deer grazing across the street from my daughter's school and in the patch of trees next to my youngest's daycare center, there are hawks preying on the denizens of our front yard birdfeeder.

My oldest daughter was upset that a dove had been killed. Stupid hawk! - she said.

Circle of life - is all I said. Circle of life indeed. When we put a bird feeder out there, the idea of our front lawn being turned into a buffet for the local bird of prey was far from our minds. But you can't hold it against the poor hawk. He needs to eat too.

Houston Zoo

I had the day off from work and decided to visit the zoo to take some pictures.

The view from my front window

This is why I like to work from home. Today, my friend the Cardinal came back, and brought friends with him.

A touch of red

I am working from home today, and there was a Cardinal right outside my window just a few minutes ago. The cats were fascinated by it. I managed to quickly grab my camera and take a few pictures. Enjoy!

Random Photography: Almost Winter in Spring, Texas

Snow flurries!

It NEVER snows where I live, so when we had wispy flurries falling upon us this afternoon, I could not resist taking a few pictures. Click on the pics to better see the flurries.

Adventures in Food

As readers of this blog might recall, a few months ago for health-related reasons I started changing my eating habits and started being more discerning about the kind of food I put in my mouth. Besides eating more vegetables and fruit, and buying organic whenever we can, we try to eat better quality meats, purchasing grass-fed beef, pastured birds and their eggs. So far we have been fortunate enough to be able to afford the higher prices, and appreciate our food more.

Today I picked up my Thanksgiving pastured turkey, which I purchased from David & Lori Crank at Oaks of Mamre Farm. I have purchased chickens and eggs from them in the past, and I definitely recommend them to anyone who is interested in eating better quality food. I am really looking forward to my family's Thanksgiving turkey meal.

Last Saturday I was at Houston's Bayou City Farmer's Market, and while there I found these amazing, delicious gingersnaps. They are sweet, but not overly so. They are delightfully crunchy. And they have quite a spicy kick! My husband fell in love with them, and declared them his favorite cookies ever.

The gingersnaps are sold by a non-profit organization called The Center Serving Persons with Mental Retardation. The organization has been around since the 1950's, and run several programs that provide assitance to people with developmental disabilities. One of them, Willow River Farms, is an organic farm and artisan community. Residents of the farm make the pretty handmade paper ornaments that decorate the tin cans that the gingersnaps are packaged in.

I highly recommend these cookies. They are delicious and by purchasing them you make a contribution to a good cause. If you are interested, their website is www.gingersnapsetc.org

I am not getting any kind of incentive for writing about the farm or the non-profit, so take these as endorsements as made from the heart, based on my happy experiences with both.

Early Voting

We went to vote tonight. We wanted to avoid the long lines and craziness of election day. We ended up waiting in line for half an hour. But now we are done. Now we wait.

Fun at the Festival