What's your New Year's Resolution?

It's almost New Year's Eve and 2007 is coming to a close!  Thank God!  It was one hell of a year!  In my case, there were some ups but mostly downs...my mom was in the hospital three times this year and it was very difficult.  I can't wait for 2007 to be over and I can start fresh for 2008!

I have decided to go ahead and announce my New Year's resolution!

Every year since I was a child my resolution was the same...this is the year that I lose wieght.

Well, I finally did it.  So when I sat down to think about my New Year's resolution I said "Damn!  What do I do now?" 

I've decided to do the responsible thing.  I hate to admit it but its true, I'm one of those Americans in "trouble."  I don't save.  I charge.  I live paycheck to paycheck. 

I'm done.  I don't want to live like this anymore.  So I am going to take a good hard look at how I spend my money.  I'm going to see where I can trim the fat.

This is the year I am going to pay off my credit cards.  And it won't be much at first, I'm going to start saving.  It's time to be a grown up with my money.  I have problems managing my money and now I'm going to fix that.  Damn!  It felt good to say that!!

So if anyone has some great money saving tips!  Please send them my way!

Now it's your turn!  What's your New Year's Resolution?

Thank God Egg Nog Comes Once a Year!!

My God Sister usually has Christmas dinner at her home.  However, Superwoman landed herself in the hospital with Pneumonia and Christmas dinner was cancelled. 

It's been a rough year and my mom has been ill too.  So I had her come over here for Christmas.  Just me and my mom, the cat and the dog.  My daughter was spending Christmas Eve with her dad.

I soon realized that I had NOTHING in my fridge. So off I run to the supermarket so as not to feel so indigent on Christmas eve.  As I made my way through the dairy section I saw my Christmas weakness!

HOOD GOLDEN EGG NOG!!

Just a half gallon...that's all I bought.  Seriously, it's liquid heart disease!  WHY GOD!?  WHY DOES IT HAVE TO BE SO DELICIOUS!?!

I came home with Ma, made dinner, and served up some egg nog as the night went on.  She found some overly dramatic movie on Univision about the birth of Christ and was as happy as a clam.  Lucky for me...I found a bottle of Captain Morgan's Spiced Rum under the sink.  I completely forgot it was there!  But I found booze!!  IT WAS A CHRISTMAS MIRACLE!!!  So a Merry Christmas was had by all!

Christmas is almost over...and my stomach feels wierd.  I think a steady diet of alcoholic rum and candy canes may not have been such a good idea.  Thank God egg nog and giant candy canes come only once a year!

Buy! Buy!! Buy!!!

I am sooo done!  I can even say that I am sickened.  I've had it.

Christmas is two days away.

Everywhere I go, it's crowded.  People are on edge.  We're pulling out our plastic and whatever cash we have and we are buying stuff.  Lots of stuff.  Mountains of stuff.  And every time I turn on the TV there are more commercials about discounts and one day sales!  TVs!  Computers!! Cars!! Clothes!! Gadgets!!  Buy it now!!  Time is running out!  Christmas is almost here!

Spend! Spend!! Spend!!!

This is not what Christmas is about.

Again, I would like to remind everyone that I am not part of a particular church.

Chistmas is about the birth of a special child.  Its about rejoicing!  It's about getting together with family and friends and celebrating this birth that heralds a new era!  It's about new beginings!

Not stuff!  Not X-Boxes or Ipods!  Not about "christmas lists" and financing!  We buy all this stuff and we're missing the point.

So while we're pulling our hair out over who gets what and who we may have forgotten to get stuff for, we have forgotten what it all means.

Let's recap.  A child was born in a manger.  Angels appeared to shepards.  A child was born in the most meager way.  And these angels appeared to people who were not regarded as very important to the society of those particular times.  By today's equivalent, if this special child was born today, he would have been born in a garage, maybe a lobby, and the angels would have appeared to cashiers at 7-11.  This little boy was a new born king for EVERYONE even those of us who are not part of the upper eschelon of society.

How do we celebrate this birth, by spending and spending and driving ourselves nuts.  (And on top of that, we can't even say Merry Christmas without the fear of offending someone.)  So instead of celebrating a miracle, it has been reduced to an expressway to debt, materialism and neurosis!

I can't wait for the Christmas season to be over because of what it has become.  This makes me very sad.  Again, I'm not a bible beater, I'm just a lowly sinner.  I should be happy, but I'm not.  Instead I'm going to wrap some presents and wonder what happened to Christmas.

I LOVE THIS!!!!

I sang my high school choir but we sounded NOTHING like this! ! A lot of people look at choirs and roll their eyes, but there is something incredible about singing in a choir!  All your voices become one big voice.  And it's not easy! You have to listen to each other, you have to know the songs inside and out, frontwards and backwards.  And you have to train!  You have to train you voice like you were training for the Boston Marathon.  I am happy to say that I was a soprano.  Nothing against altos, but I really wanted to be a soprano. I trained my voice and did all the exercises I could until I finally moved on up!  And when your voice is trained, you protect it!  And don't even think about having something with milk in it before a performance.  I remember one performance, I was sooo proud!  I sang as loudly as I could and I could not hear my own voice because it became part of the bigger voice and it was incredible to know you have become part of something bigger. I saw this performance on Clash of the Choirs.  It sent chills up and down my spine!  I have never heard anything so big and grand and beautiful!  I have to say, that if I was in a choir and my new choir director walked in and it turned out to be Patti Labelle, I would be scared!  Because Miss Patti does not mess around!When I find some spare time, I'm going to join a choir!

This makes me smile...

I've caught this on TV from time to time and I always love to see it!  So since it makes me happy, I thought I'd share it with all of you!  Patti Labelle...such an incredible voice!  The Sesame Street gang...need I say more?  But can someone tell me why Rosita, the only Latina muppet, has a moustache.  That's messed up.

TODAY WAS THE WORST DAY!!!!

As I'm sure many of you know, Boston got clobbered today by a major storm! 

I received a call that my daughter's school was being released early because of the storm.  Luckily her after school program was still going to pick up the kids.  After all, those are kids who's parents have to work.  They said they would stay open until the last kid got picked up, they only asked that parents leave work early.  Not a problem...we got early release from work! (Sounds like prison, huh?)

So I leave work to pick my daughter up.  I take 20 minutes to stop by the supermarket and pick up dog food, cat food and a few other things and I'm on my way.

TRAFFIC FUCKING SUCKED ASS!!!  IT WAS SOOOO BAD THAT IT SUCKED A WHOLE BUNCH OF OTHER THINGS TOO!!!!

I'm not exaggerating...I was on the road sooo long that I got sooo incredibly thirsty.  I resorted to eating snow!!

At one point I got so frazzled I thought I was going to snap!  I had to talk MYSELF off the ledge.

Finally, finally, finally I got my daughter and took her home.

Now let's recap...I left work at 1:00pm.  By the time I walked in through my front door it was 6:00pm!  It took me 5 hours to get home!!  It took me 5 fucking hours to drive 20 miles!!

AAARRRGGGHHH!!

I NEED A DRINK!!!

O Christmas Tree.....

Today I finally put up my Christmas tree. 

My daughter really, really wanted to put it up, so I gave in and pulled it out of my storage space, put it together and plugged it in.

Yes, it's true.  I have a fake tree.

I guess as a child I always wanted a real tree, but my mom had a fake one.  And now that I'm a mom, I can see why she got a fake tree.

1.  You buy it once and enjoy it for years!

2.  No vacuuming pine needles for months!

3.  No stray chipmumks or squirrels that may have entered my house via the tree.  (I don't know if that has ever happened, just another one of my irrational fears, kind of like my distrust of mayonaise.)

4.  And I don't fear my house will burn down because my plastic tree bursts into flames.

It's a small tree.  Kind of reminds me of Charlie Brown's tree.  One of the reasons I chose it was that it was small...my apartment is small, no sense having a huge tree.  And it comes with lights already on it.  Just plug in my tree and go!

This year, my daughter insisted on decorating it herself.  It's so sad.  The tree fell over twice.  One side is overloaded with ornaments, the other side is naked.  The garland is choking the tree like a noose.  I'll wait for her to fall asleep and then fix it.

The other thing that bothers me about the tree is that it is covered in colored lights.  I hate colored lights.  Maybe its because my mom had those old fashioned big, bulbous colored lites.  They were almost two inches tall and looked like they had been dipped in acrylic paint.  I like a very clean looking, dignified, sharp tree.

My tree looks like it should be in Vegas.

Last year I had such great little ornaments.  They were little angels.  But here's the thing, the angels were of all different ethnicities.  I was so thrilled to see these angels that I didn't hesitate when I saw them.  I remember growing up, whenever I saw a picture of an angel, they were always blond and blue eyed.  I can actually remember feeling sad wondering why God wouldn't want me to be an angel if I found myself in heaven, just because I wasn't blond.  When I saw these angels I was overjoyed.  Well, my daughter broke a couple, gave the asian angels to a neighbor, and finally, the dog ate the rest. 

I'm going to keep my eyes open!  Maybe some diverse angels will redeem my Charlie Brown Christmas tree!

Shout Merry Christmas not Happy Holidays!!!

Ok everyone...I found this on my friends page and I have to say I liked it.  If you asked me about my particular faith, I would identify myself as a Christian*.  I believe in the teachings of Christ, not particularly the teachings of a specific church. 

Since the Christmas season is upon us, I feel I must speak.  We are celebrating the birth of Christ...not Santa Clause and Frosty the Snowman.  It's about love and faith...not x-boxes and iPods!  And it boggles my mind when someone gets offended when I say Merry Christmas.
When I say "Merry Christmas" I am not saying "I'm a Christian and I'm better than you are and you should believe what I believe because your beleifs are bullshit to me."  What I am saying is that "I am wishing you peace and love."  I am offering to share the peace and love that I feel with you regardless of whether or not you are a Christian. Just because you are another human being.

 I believe that as a Christian I should share love with those around me.  However, not everyone sees it that way. And if you are not a Christian I would be thrilled if you offered my your particular holiday greeting. Hey, if someone wishes me a Happy Haunukah...great! Thank you!  If you wish me a Happy Kwanza...thank you for including me!  Ramadan...Fantastic! Thank you! 

So to all of you...Christians or not...I wish you a Merry Christmas from one human being to another!

So if I offended you, I am sorry, but suck it up and know that I love you!

************************************************************************************

*Twas the month before Christmas*
*When all through our land,*
*Not a Christian was praying*
*Nor taking a stand.*
*The "politically correct" police had taken away,*
*The reason for Christmas - no one could say.*
*The children were told by their schools not to sing,*
*About Shepherds and Wise Men and Angels and things.*
*It might hurt people's feelings, the teachers would say*
*December 25th is just a "Holiday".*

*Yet the shoppers were ready with cash, checks and credit*
*Pushing folks down to the floor just to get it!*
*CDs from Madonna, an X BOX, an I-pod*
*Something was changing, something quite odd! *
*Retailers promoted Ramadan and Kwanzaa*
*In hopes to sell books by Franken & Fonda.*
*As Targets were hanging their trees upside down*
*At Lowe's the word Christmas - was no where to be found.*
*At K-Mart and Staples and Penny's and Sears*
*You won't hear the word Christmas; it won't touch your ears.*

*Inclusive, sensitive, Diversity*
*Are words that were used to intimidate me.*
*Now Daschle, Now Darden, Now Sharpton, Wolf Blitzen*
*On Boxer, on Rather, on Kerry, on Clinton!*
*At the top of the Senate, there arose such a clatter*
*To eliminate Jesus, in all public matter.*
*And we spoke not a word, as they took away our faith*
*Forbidden to speak of salvation and grace*

*The true Gift of Christmas was exchanged and discarded*
*The reason for the season, stopped before it started.*
*So as you celebrate "Winter Break" under your "Dream Tree"*
*Sipping your Starbucks, listen to me.*
*Choose your words carefully, choose what you say*

*Shout "MERRY CHRISTMAS", not Happy Holiday!*

The Phone Tree...Next Generation

Today I realized I was truely an adult.  Period.  Not because I paid a bill or because I accomplished something with a great deal of tact.  I realized I was an adult because I got a phone call from my sister.

I got a phone call from my sister to tell me that my uncle in El Salvador passed away.  I never
met him but he was a good man. 

My sister told me the news and then it was my job to notify my cousins to pass the news along.

While talking to my cousin I made the realization that we were now the adults.

Every family has a phone tree.  Something happens and the phone calls start trickling through the family spreading the news.

When I was growing up, my mom got these calls and then had to break whatever news it was to my dad and her child...me.

Now I'm the one getting the phone call, not my mom.  I'm the one who had to tell her, not the other way around.  I'm the one who had to console her telling her he was in a better place now.

Being an adult sucks. 

Face Painting!

Here are some examples of things I've done

And the Award Goes to....

Sonia's Sweet Potato Pie!!!

Happy Post Thanksgiving to everyone!  Yesterday I ate way too much at my Godmother's house!  Being a good guest, I did not show up empty handed....I hate it when people show up empty handed...bottom line, it's ghetto!!  But I digress....I came with my famous Sweet Potato Pie.

My family...being the good latin family that they are sit back and watch the women duke it out for top reviews through their food.  My Godmother as always made the most beautiful turkey.  Miss Gina bought her stuffing, which contains kidney beans, sausage and diced apples....soooo very good!  And I brough my pie...which usually ends up competing with Christina's pumpkin flan.

No flan this year....I was disappointed.

However, an new guest at our yearly Turkey fest brought pies too....sweet potato pie.  As she laid out her pie next to mine all I could thing was "What the $@#@ is this!!!"

Luckily...my pie blew hers out of the water.

That's really what the holidays are about....shaming each other through the flaws in our foods.  Well in my family anyway.  And of course...all that family bonding stuff too!

People in my Life!

awwww! So precious!





These are some of the people I love!

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Silly Farm Supplies Inc. - face and body paints and face and body painting

http://www.sillyfarm.com
Ok people, I do some face painting on the side...I little extra money for the single mom and her kid never hurt. Here is where I get my supplies. Its a cool little sight...you can see some designs from some of the best face painters in the country.

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