madrina

If you are not a godparent, you should really be one. It’s an amazing experience.

I just put my goddaughter to bed. And she asked me not to leave the bed after she fell asleep. I told her not to worry because I would never leave her. Even when she had her own babies, I would be there.

And she asked, “You’ll always be my heart?” And I replied, “Always.”

My goddaughter and I have a special relationship. I’m not sure if other godmothers have that type of relationship with their goddaughters, but hearing that is absolute music to my ears. And that is what makes life pretty worth it.

I cannot wait to be a parent.

février

February: INSANE

Next possible day where I have nothing scheduled: February 26! Crazy!!!!!

excited, anxious, worried, motivated, grateful, and exhausted.

10 hour shift tomorrow + megan’s birthday bash + sunday morning shift = my crazy weekend.

just think: march 15 – 20 you will be in montego bay, jamaica.

graduate school: overwhelmed! but boy is it a wonderful journey. one day, i will write about dr. brene brown. she is a shame researcher. and she is my professor. pure. genius!

her website: www.brenebrown.com

check her out. you won’t be disappointed.

My current favorite photograph. Taken by Jackie Burquez. Me and Lilly eating ice cream from Disneyworld and my mom’s totally jealous.

J.D. Salinger

It is so easy to publish your thoughts, thanks to the world wide web. It’s almost hard to pick out things that are worth reading.

There were a couple of posts that I’ve been meaning to post before this. I find that when I save a draft, I end up never publishing it. It’s like a now or never scenario.

An earlier post would have been an observation of me people watching at Starbucks.

“Eww, please don’t come in here with a bucket of chicken. So obnoxious.”

“A couple in front of me is breaking up. Why on Earth would they do it at Starbucks? Maybe they’re not breaking up. Why is she crying? I’m going to move closer.”

“My coffee needs sugar. Never mind. Too far.”

Those are a few of the many pointless thoughts that go through my mind. Besides the internet, many books are published on a daily basis, and it’s hard to sift through those. Through all the riff raff in the bookstores, the classics will always stick out. One of my lifelong favorites, is J.D. Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye. The classics will always be classic because publishing in the past was such an elongated process.

I think that the lengthy process of publishing was a wonderful thing. To refine and polish the text and to edit the book to perfection is a procedure that is no longer practiced. With so many books published on a daily basis, it is hard to peruse bookstores at the new releases section and say that they will all be classics that will be read by patrons in the next three centuries.

With that, the world lost a literary master. J.D. Salinger will be greatly missed. His books will be read for the next three centuries.

As for my personal life, graduate school is crazy. I am enjoying every ounce of it. With God’s grace, I really and truly believe that I am where I need to be. Social Work is such an amazing field and I am so excited to be a part of it.

Members of my chosen family are going through hard times. Please pray for them or keep them in your thoughts. Names need not be mentioned. God will know what to do with your prayers.

Pat Robertson

Pat Robertson made certain comments about the earthquakes in Haiti that are baffling to me. He basically stated that the Haitians made a deal with the devil two centuries ago to free themselves from slavery from the French.

My first reaction to this was fury. It is statements such as these that give Christians such a bad image. And the liberal Democrat Christian blood in me started to boil about how the conservative Republicans give Christians such a bad rap.

Then I realized, I wasn’t any better by thinking these thoughts. Though I don’t agree with what Reverend Robertson is saying, having that division between the conservative and the liberal is still hate. And if Christianity has taught me anything, it is that hate is not what we’re promoting.

Instead of feeling mad, I’ve chosen to feel sorry for Reverend Robertson. It’s sad that those are his opinions. Being infuriated will not do anything, but praying for him will.

And as a person who was a non-praying type to a person who is now a defender of the faith, may I make a plea. If, by chance, you are not Christian, please don’t let this occurrence determine your opinion about Christians. Believe it or not, many of us do not feel this way.

I’m not sure why I have made this plea, because judgements will be made, regardless of whether they’re good or bad, but I just thought I’d put the idea out there into a world plagued with pessimism and negativity.

Haiti Earthquake

I was going to write about how tough this week has been and then I found out about the earthquakes in Haiti, which makes the things that have happened in my life so trivial. My heart, thoughts, and prayers go out to everyone involved. I can’t imagine the anticipation of trying to see if your family is ok and not knowing anything.

I was watching The View this morning and a couple of years ago, there was a school that collapsed in Port au Prince, I believe. It took them 3 days to get the bodies out of the school. Imagine the situation they have now.

Here is a before and after picture of a building in Haiti. Courtesy of http://twitpic.com/xw8ee

This is devastating. If you’d like to help with international efforts, here are some easy ways:

For Earthquake relief for Haiti, please text YELE to 501501 to donate $5.00. It’s $5.00 you guys! We spend just us much money for a cup of coffee! Any little bit helps, please. Or visit  http://www.yele.org

Another organization is Oxfam America. You can click either here or here to donate.

One more organization is American Red Cross. Here is the direct link where you can donate for their International Response Fund. Or you can text HAITI to 90999 to donate $10 for the relief efforts in Haiti.

Right now there are people who are just wandering around, not knowing what to do because their houses are gone and they have nowhere to go. No water, no food. They need the simplest resources. The people who are there to help with situations such as these are victims of the earthquake as well. So please, donate. If you can’t, take the time to spread news on how to donate.

If there’s one thing I’ve learned from my amazing social work professors, it is this: there is only one race in this world, and that is the human race. We are all brothers and sisters that need to help each other in our short time in this world.

Thanks for your time.

meu amor

I  just made ravioli for dinner! This is a great accomplishment for someone who care barely boil eggs.

After a couple of weeks of bliss, it is time to gather my bearings and go back to my internship. I am going tomorrow and Wednesday. I have a lot of things to catch up on. I want to see my middle school kids and see how they’ve been doing.

The past couple of weeks have been really great and relaxing. Two of my great friends got engaged. I’m ecstatically happy for them. Both couples are so deserving of the upcoming happiness they are about to  come across.

Regardless of my happiness for them, it always makes me question my path in life. Why do I feel so far behind in the road of life. Scholastically, I am where I need to be. But the ultimate goal in life is not to have a graduate degree, but to have a family. Every engagement just reminds me of the fact that I’m nowhere near that milestone and it’s never a good feeling.

Those feelings do get pushed to the side when I see how much love my friends have for each other.

So, to Kerrick and Kim (I call them K squared) and to Candelario and Andrea (I call them Candrea)may you both have long and beautiful marriages. I’m so excited about your union. Your engagements have given me so much optimism for the future and have solidified my belief on one of the purposes of life. And it is to love.

The purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.
-Kurt Vonnegut

happy new year!!!

Whoops, I’m supposed to meet some girls for Dim Sum in less than an hour!!

I hope that everyone is having a fantastic new year! Mine has been great so far. No room for complaint. My voice is in and out, but I can talk, which is great. I can’t sing, though. Today is Priscilla’s birthday and as I was singing happy birthday to her, I realized that no voice was coming out.

Anyway, I should get ready for dim sum with my faves. HAPPY 2010!

disneyworld wrap up

This commercial sums up how I felt about going to Disneyworld.

I felt like a total kid. I was my goddaughter’s peer as we both squealed when Sleeping Beauty and Snow White would come have breakfast with us. Pictures will be up soon.

This has been a lazy week. I’ve been able to see many friends and just hang out. I actually need to get my butt into gear and clean!! I need to clean the living room, the kitchen, and my dreaded bedroom.

Not without watching reruns of The O.C. first. Procrastinator’s worst enemy: television. more specifically, reruns of soaps.

two of my favorite things:

Glee and Flashmobs

orlando trick?

The original plan was that my family spend a week in Florida with a day trip to Miami. I’ve had LMFAO’s “I’m in Miami” song stuck in my head all week long. Was a bit too excited.

So we drive the long and arduous 18 hours to Orlando. Stop to sleep at Biloxi, Mississippi, which I didn’t know had GORGEOUS beaches. Wake up 3 hours later and keep on trucking to Orlando. Plan was to drop off our things then head to Miami for the night.

Well, my goddaughter got sick. She got a fever. As soon as we got to Kissimmee, we went to a clinic and she had an eye and ear infection. Wonderful. Trip to Miami gets cancelled. My parents have a time share, so we go to check in and there’s a problem with the reservation. It took about an hour to resolve.

Today, I thought we would be able to sleep in, but in order to get free breakfast, we had to talk to a representative about some new opportunity for the condo owners. To make a ridiculously long story short, my parents are now owners of a condo in Las Vegas. It’s still in construction, but they own property in the new Planet Hollywood Las Vegas resort.

I thought it was ridiculous, but it’s pretty bad ass. I’m happy for them.

Tomorrow: ANIMAL KINGDOM!