In the clouds

I am back in Houston. It's foggy this morning.

Tuesday

Autumn Leaves, by koalie

I am in California, and will be here in meetings until Thursday. On my way to campus this morning I saw beautiful fall leaves on the trees lining the streets. The morning was nice and crisp and the meeting has been very productive this morning. So I am in a good mood right now.

Bad timing

Fenómeno, by Remedios Varo

Lately my stress levels are off the charts. There is too much to do, too little time. We finally closed on the home improvement loan, but do not get a first payment until Wednesday. The contractor did order the wood and we will not be charged until then. We are nowhere near done with the packing, and we need to figure out where to get the money to rent a storage facility and possibly a U-Haul. We have next weekend to move everything out. And we have not figured out where are we all staying (including my parents) while they do the floors.

I leave for California today. The timing of this trip is so bad for my personal life. And it is not so great for my work life either. I also am in the middle of projects at work that I will have to work on while I am in meetings. I get back Thursday night and Friday in the morning I meet with our Senior VP to review the results of a project. It just sucks.

I also feel bad about leaving the girls. I had nightmares last night, about bad things happening to them, or to me. I haven't even left and already I can't wait to be back home. And that is what sucks the most. I do not travel much for work, and every trip is usually something highly anticipated, a rare treat to be savored. And unfortunately, the stress and hectic pace of work/home have robbed me of that enjoyment.

Sunday Scribblings- Youth

Sunday Scribblings topic for today was "mis-spent youth." They asked the following questions:

Did you "mis-spend" your youth? What kind of kid were you? Worrisome to your folks? Mature beyond your years? Wild? Shy? How did you spend you time? Out of curiosity, how many of you knew "what you wanted to be when you grew up" and accomplished it? How many times did you change your mind? Do you think your kid self would approve of you now?

I have an issue with the concept of mis-spent youth. What does that even mean? Are we supposed to be on a fast track to adulthood from the day we were born? Was my youth mis-spent because I was not taking part of myriad extra-curricular activities?

Our youth is a time of formation, of experimentation. It's a stage of life. The labels, the expectations, the timelines of youth are, just like those of adulthood, artificial constructs. There is not a recipe or template of how the perfect youth should be. Of course, there would probably be a consensus that a kid who breaks the law, gets mixed up in dangerous situations and/or ends up in juvie may be taking their life down the wrong path. But even instances like that can be learning experiences, and people can definitely rise above them.

Housecleaning

As you could see by yesterday's posted photo, while we clear the rooms for the floors to be installed, we are also painting. The living room is halfway done. As I pack rooms today, do laundry and prepare for tomorrow's trip, Gabe will be painting.

Thursday Morning

I always wake up early on Thanksgiving Day. I enjoy my private time.

It's 6:30 AM. The turkey is out of the refrigerator to thaw for 1.5 hrs before putting it in the oven at 8:00 AM. It will cook 5 hours in an oven bag and be ready around 1:00 PM. Yesterday morning I seasoned the turkey and it has had close to 24 hours marinating so it can get that nice, garlicky, pork-like flavor I like. This is what I used for seasoning it:

1 small head of garlic, peeled and crushed with a mortar and pestle

lemon juice
olive oil
oregano
cumin
thyme
black pepper
adobo
sazón with coriander and annato

The turkey will be stuffed with meat. I browned a mix of ground sirloin, pork and sausage, threw in some sliced olives and cubed potatoes, seasoned it with sofrito and a touch of adobo.

My mother-in-law is making green bean casserole and mashed potatoes. She is also bringing pumpkin pie for dessert. Since Gabriel likes stuffing (yuck) I will be making some for him. I will also make my arroz con gandules, and a little bit of mashed cauliflower and steamed brocoli. I am trying to keep the portions small, but I am sure it will still be a ridiculous amount of food, and we will be eating through the weekend.

Blast from the past

Boricua on the island, circa 1995, with las Tetas de Cayey in the background.

Maybe Olga, the Traveling Bra would like to make a stop in Puerto Rico on her next visit to the Caribbean...

Junk Mail from an e-mail account I have given up as lost

My very first e-mail account was with Yahoo, back in 1997 when I first started surfing the Internet. Back then I was naive and made the mistake of giving out my e-mail on some website where I was signing up for some information newsletter or other. My address was sold and sold and sold and I started getting spam in alarmingly large numbers.

These days I don't use that e-mail address anymore, but every once in a while I log into my account to check the 2,500 or so spam messages I get every month. Here are two of my most recent messages. Does this crap work on anybody? Who replies to these messages?

1- Tremendous Sav-ings Generous Selections Pharmacology. Acquire a humungous reduction on your pillstrustworthy characters, uppermost quality.monumental variety, including Hard to find drugs No RX due.

2- Alert: can't keep up with horny women family. Lenghten yer pen1s up to 3 supplementary cm!!

Blogger's Choice Awards

I am curious. How many of you are aware of the Blogger's Choice Awards? Have you ever nominated any blogs? Have you ever voted for any blogs? Has your blog ever been nominated?

Today I nominated a bunch of my favorite blogs. I have never done so before, and I did not ask the bloggers if it was OK to nominate them. I hope they do not mind. I figured as a fan it was my prerrogative to celebrate the blogs I enjoy reading, so others can enjoy them too. Here are my nominees:

1- Momma Mia Mea Culpa

2- Greg's Brain

3- Just eat your cupcake

4- Murketing

5- El Ñame

6- Legión Miope

My first boyfriend

I just discovered Soap Opera Sunday though Patois' blog, and I want to play too, so I don't care that it's not Sunday.

When I was in seventh grade my parents enrolled me in a new school. This school was bigger than my old, tiny school where there were maybe 20-25 kids in my whole class. There were probably 20 to 25 kids in each of the 5 groups that comprised our seventh grade class. I did not know anybody. I rode the bus, and there was this boy who sat in front of me and whom I found pretentious and annoying, but kinda liked at the same time, in that "I'm bored and have nothing better to do" kind of way.

One day he asked me, through someone else, if I wanted to be his girlfriend. I remember the tingle I felt inside. He likes me! I was thrilled and sent back reply that yes, I wanted to be his girlfriend.

We spent one lunch break together as boyfriend and girlfriend. We went around the school grounds, chatted with some of our schoolmates, briefly held hands. I felt all self-conscious and awkward. I was a tall girl, taller than him and than many of my schoolmates. I had never before had a boyfriend, and I really hardly knew these kids. He had the advantage over me on that; he had been at the school longer. I desperately wanted to fit in.

The next day, he sent word with the same envoy that our relationship was over. He was sorry, but we could not be together. It never occurred to me to question why he did not communicate these things to me directly if we sat so close together in the bus. I was so naïve, so ignorant of the evil that boys do. I don't think I talked to him about it either.

I forget how I found out it was all a ruse. Someone must have told me, surely to revel in my humiliation. It turned out that he had made a money bet with some other boys that he could make me his girlfriend. After parading me through school to make sure his buddies saw, he dropped me like a hot potato, and did not even bother to do the deed himself. Shortly after that he started dating a girl. They lasted for months.

I do not know why this still bothers me so profoundly. The guy was a second-tier weasel, and I did not even like him that much. But I made the mistake of opening up to him, and he trampled on me. Never again did I give someone at school that kind of power over me.