Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Life. Show all posts
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Saturday, December 1, 2012
My first
Illness thanks to my students. Happens during the last three weeks of the semester, and during the weekend rather than the week.
Well played, children, well played.
Well played, children, well played.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Selling Out
And so, I've purchased an iPhone. It's an old, old generation, and refurbished, and somewhat that makes me feel a little bit better. I still feel like I'm selling out. Oh, bother.
Regardless: here's dinner at grandma's. Brown rice, chicken, greens and veggies salad, and sweet plantains. Yay abuela!
Regardless: here's dinner at grandma's. Brown rice, chicken, greens and veggies salad, and sweet plantains. Yay abuela!
Tuesday, August 28, 2012
Hands Clean
Four years ago, Steph and I got the chance to see Alanis Morissette perform in an intimate setting FREE! Steph won the tickets and since Ida wasn't in town, I got lucky.
Now that Alanis has a new album, Steph and I considered getting tickets to an intimate performance outside of New York City - but the tickets ran at $100 a pop. Since there was no way of that happening, I figured I'd try my luck this time and I entered several "come see Alanis!" contests online. I had even forgotten about the contests and the possibility of Alanis when I received an email while on my way to school: "Alanis Morissette show TONIGHT!"
At first I thought it would be advertising tickets, and I almost deleted it unread - but then I thought about the improbability of an Alanis performance not being completely sold out, so I read it, and found out that I had just won two tickets to an intimate Alanis mini performance!
Talk about going full circle and what crap. I immediately texted Steph, secured her attendance, and hoped that my afternoon class would end on time so that at 6 on the dot we could drive downtown to see Alanis rock the shit out of a microphone.
It wasn't a very long performance - which I was okay with - since the songs were all perfect. Didn't know her new ones very well yet, but they sounded great, and she played all the classics that I loved. Totally awesome. You have to love an artist whose songs are able to mean something different if you listen to them at different moments in life - do you know what I mean? The way that "Hands Clean" was haunting and meant something very specific to me when her "Under Rug Swept" album came out all the way back in 2002, and how it kept changing meaning to the point that listening to it tonight, it held all of those old meanings, and new one's, too. This doesn't happen with every artist - more often than not, their songs mean what I thought of or was going through the first time I heard them.
And she finished the set playing "Thank U," and I was 18, and 22, and 25, 27, 31, still growing, still thankful.
Thank you, Alanis.
Now that Alanis has a new album, Steph and I considered getting tickets to an intimate performance outside of New York City - but the tickets ran at $100 a pop. Since there was no way of that happening, I figured I'd try my luck this time and I entered several "come see Alanis!" contests online. I had even forgotten about the contests and the possibility of Alanis when I received an email while on my way to school: "Alanis Morissette show TONIGHT!"
At first I thought it would be advertising tickets, and I almost deleted it unread - but then I thought about the improbability of an Alanis performance not being completely sold out, so I read it, and found out that I had just won two tickets to an intimate Alanis mini performance!
Talk about going full circle and what crap. I immediately texted Steph, secured her attendance, and hoped that my afternoon class would end on time so that at 6 on the dot we could drive downtown to see Alanis rock the shit out of a microphone.
It wasn't a very long performance - which I was okay with - since the songs were all perfect. Didn't know her new ones very well yet, but they sounded great, and she played all the classics that I loved. Totally awesome. You have to love an artist whose songs are able to mean something different if you listen to them at different moments in life - do you know what I mean? The way that "Hands Clean" was haunting and meant something very specific to me when her "Under Rug Swept" album came out all the way back in 2002, and how it kept changing meaning to the point that listening to it tonight, it held all of those old meanings, and new one's, too. This doesn't happen with every artist - more often than not, their songs mean what I thought of or was going through the first time I heard them.
And she finished the set playing "Thank U," and I was 18, and 22, and 25, 27, 31, still growing, still thankful.
Thank you, Alanis.
Saturday, June 23, 2012
I don't wanna wait...
So, I'm cleaning this weekend.
Really, I'm just purging. Throwing things out. I had pre-orientation at school last Tuesday, and I'm as ready as I can be for the possibility of going to school again. It's not a sure thing. The one sure thing going on though, is that I hope to be all moved in with Mi Cariño by the end of the year. To do that, I need to start choosing what's coming with me.
It's very cathartic, this clearing of stuff. The Hard part has been trying to decide what to do with my comics - they're not super valuable, but it took me years and what I consider to be a lot of money to amass this number of issues. What to do with them? Right now I'm making a list.
The fun part is finding things from my teenage years. Like the scrapbook I made of Dawson's Creek stuff. Yup, you read that right: a scrapbook of Dawson's Creek stuff.
My love for Joey Potter knew no bounds. I think everyone should have the opportunity to find, when in their 30's, things that they did or thought about in their teens. Puts stuff in perspective, you know what I mean?
Really, I'm just purging. Throwing things out. I had pre-orientation at school last Tuesday, and I'm as ready as I can be for the possibility of going to school again. It's not a sure thing. The one sure thing going on though, is that I hope to be all moved in with Mi Cariño by the end of the year. To do that, I need to start choosing what's coming with me.
It's very cathartic, this clearing of stuff. The Hard part has been trying to decide what to do with my comics - they're not super valuable, but it took me years and what I consider to be a lot of money to amass this number of issues. What to do with them? Right now I'm making a list.
The fun part is finding things from my teenage years. Like the scrapbook I made of Dawson's Creek stuff. Yup, you read that right: a scrapbook of Dawson's Creek stuff.
My love for Joey Potter knew no bounds. I think everyone should have the opportunity to find, when in their 30's, things that they did or thought about in their teens. Puts stuff in perspective, you know what I mean?
Sunday, July 3, 2011
Harry Potter and The Order of the Phoenix
I can't believe months have passed since I last posted. May and June flew by, for sure, and here I am in the wee hours of July 3rd, not able to sleep. Since I just lent my niece Abigail my copy of The Half Blood Prince, I figured I might as well come here and talk about its predecessor, Order of the Phoenix.
A lot of people don't like that book. I love it, because it's exactly what Harry at 15 should be - an unlikeable little git. He's moody, thinks he knows it all, yells at people for no reason, is impulsive and severely unhappy when things don't go his way. He also has his eyes opened to the fact that there's more to life than just Hogwarts, and it enters the book into new territory.
This book is humongous, which is hella nice, as it lets you really submerge yourself in the Potter world. Also, since a lot of the book is just being in Harry's feelings and thoughts, it reads slower, but I like and enjoy that part. I like the ominous feeling all throughout the book that danger is coming, that it is imminent, that things will happen that will hurt Harry's world.
I was thinking a lot about this book today I guess mostly because I spent a lot of today remembering what it was like to be 15. How funny it is that a lot of the little things that I know I've left behind can resurface quickly, but also, to realize that something that I cared about so much then (God) still has such a presence in my life. I kept wondering about Harry himself and how in his selfishness and self-centered he was able to learn to be the calm and more likable Harry from the next books. I was amazed to realize during today's Sermon that I would not be the person that I am today if I hadn't been the little Jesus Freak I was at 15. I hope that I am giving, and loving, and accepting of others - something I learned to be during those years at that Church. And although by the end of the Sermon I was also arguing in my head (it was the "The Lord loved you so much, lost lamb, that He left behind 99 lambs to go get you, and the angels rejoice more over that found lost lamb than over the 99 that do not need finding" Sermon. I get it, God loves the lambs, but I always wonder about the 99 well behaved one's that are left without someone taking care of them,) I was also aware of how present He is in my life, how entrenched this is in my family. It's like part of our culture, almost, in a way even a family tradition. I've written poems about this, but never have been able to properly portray how... hurt I can be, when explaining this to friends and their eyes glaze over, because I'm talking God and Family, and all they're thinking is hate-mongering religion, and don't realize that this is as much a part of my personal culture as listening to Merengue and speaking Spanish is.
But I've veered off. I meant to talk about how Harry's belief system is developed in Book 5, how he slowly becomes the man that will only have himself (and Ron and Hermione) to depend on, because he's been stripped away of those that are authority figures for him. And most importantly, this book, starts the race to the end.
A lot of people don't like that book. I love it, because it's exactly what Harry at 15 should be - an unlikeable little git. He's moody, thinks he knows it all, yells at people for no reason, is impulsive and severely unhappy when things don't go his way. He also has his eyes opened to the fact that there's more to life than just Hogwarts, and it enters the book into new territory.
This book is humongous, which is hella nice, as it lets you really submerge yourself in the Potter world. Also, since a lot of the book is just being in Harry's feelings and thoughts, it reads slower, but I like and enjoy that part. I like the ominous feeling all throughout the book that danger is coming, that it is imminent, that things will happen that will hurt Harry's world.
I was thinking a lot about this book today I guess mostly because I spent a lot of today remembering what it was like to be 15. How funny it is that a lot of the little things that I know I've left behind can resurface quickly, but also, to realize that something that I cared about so much then (God) still has such a presence in my life. I kept wondering about Harry himself and how in his selfishness and self-centered he was able to learn to be the calm and more likable Harry from the next books. I was amazed to realize during today's Sermon that I would not be the person that I am today if I hadn't been the little Jesus Freak I was at 15. I hope that I am giving, and loving, and accepting of others - something I learned to be during those years at that Church. And although by the end of the Sermon I was also arguing in my head (it was the "The Lord loved you so much, lost lamb, that He left behind 99 lambs to go get you, and the angels rejoice more over that found lost lamb than over the 99 that do not need finding" Sermon. I get it, God loves the lambs, but I always wonder about the 99 well behaved one's that are left without someone taking care of them,) I was also aware of how present He is in my life, how entrenched this is in my family. It's like part of our culture, almost, in a way even a family tradition. I've written poems about this, but never have been able to properly portray how... hurt I can be, when explaining this to friends and their eyes glaze over, because I'm talking God and Family, and all they're thinking is hate-mongering religion, and don't realize that this is as much a part of my personal culture as listening to Merengue and speaking Spanish is.
But I've veered off. I meant to talk about how Harry's belief system is developed in Book 5, how he slowly becomes the man that will only have himself (and Ron and Hermione) to depend on, because he's been stripped away of those that are authority figures for him. And most importantly, this book, starts the race to the end.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)