Eve: I know you have created me, given me this beautiful garden, wonderful animals and a snake with whom I can laugh my ass out... but I am not entirely happy. I am alone and I'm sick and tired of eating apples all day long.
God: Eve, in that case, I have a solution for you. I will create you a Man.
Eve: A man? what's that?
God: A man is an imperfect creature, with many glitches, that sometimes cheats, conceited... he will sure give you trouble. But he will be faster and stronger and he will like to hunt and kill stuff. He will have a simple aspect, but since you are complaining I will make sure he satisfies your needs. He will excel in childish stuff like kick a ball and he will need your constant advice to act accordingly.
Eve: sounds good (raising her eyebrow ironically). What's the catch?
God: you will have one condition. As he will be arrogant and narcicist, you will must make him think, I created him first.
They say no son/daughter comes with a instructions manual under the arm when they are born, they don't even come with bread, so you can't expect much... however it is true that when that baby is born, you automatically change your cassette, turn it to side B, rewind it to your childhood memories and BOOM! you have become a father... your own father... or someone elses... or sometimes the cassette is blank... because there is no real fatherhood memory to portray.
As your kids grow you start to wonder how is even remotely possible that child is still alive, specially when you caught them climbing a tall staircase with absolutely no protection, or how many time they have been bitten by mosquitoes, flees or any other weird insect... and when you have a daughter like mine... that can't stand still for 5 minutes (unless of course Barney is on TV) you really wonder... either mother nature loves jokes or she is making me pay for all the mischief I did during my life to my own parents.
No wonder my mom says that grandsons/granddaughters are "the revengers" because they make you pay all those little itsy bitsy things you thought you would get out with!
My cassette is somewhere in between... but I am starting to feel like my mom... hehehe I surprised myself telling Ana Paola the other day:
- "Young girl... do not talk to me like that because I am your mother and you must respect me!" (Manuel started laughing his ass out...) Ana Paola looked at me and said back: - "Do you agree?"
SONKAJARVI, Finland (Reuters) - Finishing upside down clinging to a man's back may not be the most graceful way of winning gold, but it sure helped Sandra Kullas and Margo Uusorg to the world wife-carrying crown on Saturday.
Men raced along a 250-meter track, complete with pools and hurdles, with the men running or walking and carrying the women on their backs.
The winning Estonians received laptop computers and Kullas' weight, 49 kg, in beer. (Reuters)
For some reason... I read this article and the only idea that crossed my mind at the time was "Devrim... Devrim... screwed up Devrim..." hehe I wonder why...
Geese, dear geese thank you very much for your feathers, their softness for being so delicious to touch...
Geese, dear geese thanks for my pillow for making it comfortable and make me sleep like a willow
Geese, dear geese I will thank you once more this time for my underbed matress that I won because of the score.
I won a geese feathered underbed cover for my bed. Thanks to all the geese for making it... and thanks Portugal for making me win it! I love betting when I win it!
I grew up as a very relaxed kid, teenager, etc... at some point I am not sure if I missed a part of my feminine life... or if I just decided not to pursue it because it would take just too much effort and I prefered to go to sleep.
However, in the life of every young woman (specially growing in latin america) there are many things you need to take into consideration before going out of your house... things such as: - did I shave my legs? - did I shave my underarms? - are my earrings matching what I wear? - are my shoes matching my pants or my shirt? - am I wearing enough make up? - did I cover that huge zit in my cheek with makeup? - are my nails well done? - should I wear polish or color? - does this pant my make ass look big? do I want my ass to look big? - are boobs looking even? should I accomodate them better? - do I have facial hair? - should I remove my facial hair? - is my bikini line "in line"? - razor, wax or laser? - am I fat? does this clothes make me look fat? - is it a bad hair day? - loose or pony tail? blow dried or messy look? - I STILL LOOK UGLY!!!!
Well, for some reason... 90% of this problems were not part of my life... took life as it came, wore makeup only for going out at night on weekends, shaved if I was going to wear skirts, and the rest... it just didn't exist.
10 years, 20 pounds and $500 dollars later... here I am... trying to "improve" my life style... I just spent half of my salary in an entire laser treatment to permanently remove unwanted body hair throughout my body... YEAY no more shaving or waxing!!!!! (you are welcomed to ask...) pedicure, manicure and an entire set of hypoallergenic make up to complete it, together with a full month of massages to compliment all this grooming...
And guess what... life is exactly as it used to be... only a little bit more complicated... I believe I did need some grooming... oh women!
My favorite choice for coffee. -When? Thursday afternoon - Time? 3:30 pm - Place? the office - Mood? "get me out of here" - Solution? Sit down in a coffee shop with a good friends, chat our lives out or just stare out the windows making random suggestions for amusement.
Yes... even in my wildest daydreams this could be possible. Found Suzanne in Available status on MSN and decided to chat for a while... while Hopster let me be online and not disconnect itself every 10 minutes or so. Amazingly... and as it usually happens with people that are so alike... she was in the same mood I was... so we decided to go for some coffee... a virtually coffee meeting...
It just took two cups of coffee, a couple of strangers (probably tourists) thinking "why is she taking pictures with an empty chair... crazy new yorkers", a 30 minute phone call to a US 1800 number (yeah... I have a direct US 1800 number hehe) and lots and lots of random stuff to talk about... plenty....
After that... there was no chance I was going back to work... grabbed my stuff and off I went.
Thanks girl for having such a random afternoon with me
I'm engaged.I knew this day would come someday and now that it has come, it has been hard to adapt to the new idea and to all the consequences this decision implies.It was not a perfect day. Mother's day in El Salvador is celebrated on May 10th, it was a day full of celebration to my different mothers and a hasty day at work as well. Not a gift, nor a congratulations card... nothing. I felt a little gloomy and sad about it... at the end of the day, my boyfriend and I went to my mother's place to put Ana Paola to sleep, he noticed I was not feeling myself and so he decided to “talk about it”.
We sat down at the living room and when he turned to face me and started “talking” I saw in his face a smile I had rarely seen on him, and his face was glowing. He said: “you are sad because I didn’t give you anything on mother’s day, however I do have a gift for you” and then he kneeled down… I don’t know what kind of face I made when I saw him doing that because he just started laughing and so he started:
“I want to give you my life, which is my present for you today, I want you to take it and take care of it. I want us to be together forever because you make me a better man, because I am happy with you and I want to know if you want to do this with me; Will you marry me!?”
He then popped out from his pocket a key holder and took the keys out and gave me the steel ring attached to it, my temporary engagement ring… “take care of it, save it and remember the first ring I ever gave you”
BUAAAAAHHHHH!!! I can’t recall the exact moment when I started crying… I just know I cried. I couldn’t believe it… I even got to think he was joking… I think I even asked “are you serious?”
So I’m engaged… wow… that means a lot. Funny how the world works…really funny!
I am not sure how many times I have tried to write... and not to write about this.
Finally decided to do so. However... the tone in which the writing goes keeps changing according to the moon, stars and PMS...
For the last couple of months, I've been hesitating trying to find out what was my purpose on earth... besides populating the world and earning money. (well money is always part of it). For some random reason... I was expecting to find the moment that would take me out of the quarter life existencial crisis I was in... that bright start that would hit earth, enter my room and my fairy godmother saying: "welcome to your real life"
It may sound kind of stupid... but I really was expecting the transition stage of life to end... at some point... how? I don't know... I just wanted to have peace of mind once again.
So here I am... no lightning struck... no supernatural signal coming back to earth to tell me the crisis is over... but still... I woke up today and said... cool, let's go to work again... besides... easter week and the beach is only one week away... so what the hell.
There goes my quarter life crisis... until next PMS arrives.
I want to thank Brodie and Oriana (and any other that could have influenced this decision) for the opportunity of chairing AXLDS. It was definitely tough... and I would never chair again (realized I like faci roles much more!) however I got out of that conference a great deal of lessons in life... which made me realize how happy I am with the current life I have... and how thankful I should be for having this life and the people in it.
I believe my AIESEC life was abruptly ended by some inevitable facts of life.
Still my RAM memory kept sending random messages of "what would have happened if"? - What would have happened if I applied to AI? - What would have happened if I applied to a traineeship? - What would have happened if I lived abroad? This kind of questions were constantly represented in my subconscience.
almost 2 years after quitting AIESEC... I got offered the opportunity to chair Americas (now SSGN) EXPRO and LDS. I thought: "wow! my answers prayed, a time to get back all that AIESEC spirit and find my path in life" (I swear I thought that)
I didn't care if I missed 4 important family events... or if those 10 days abroad meant 10 actual vacation days I wouldn't be able to recover. All that mattered was the chance of a lifetime to re-gain the passion for doing something that excited me.
AXLDS came and went off. And I didn't find a solution to my life. But I realized... I was so glad AIESEC was over!
Something like: "you want to dance another roll call? during plenaries, breaks, lunch and even during parties?!??" "...jeeze"
The best part of all was on the last party, a random delegate approaches me and says: - "so... chair... it's our last night at this conference... are you ready to "enjoy" it? I can help you with that if you don't know how to" - "aaahhhh my young foolish padawan... buy me a beer and go back to play"
Background music: Barbara Streisand - "Memory all alone in the moonlight... I can smile happy your days..." It was finally over. Thankfully!
- Hop into a plane for 2 and a half hours... then wait for 2 hours more... and hop into a plane for 1 more hour. - Destination: Monterrey - Where the f$%&?: a city with the highest income per capita in Latin America, along with the most vivid night life, an active student life with one of the most prominent mexican universities along with the same proportion of neuron-less population...
- Result: definitely worth to experience.
Sunday February 12th:
Remember my list of 10 things I had to do before dying?
It only took... $150 and 48 hours... the rest was... the sweetest thing.
No no... not christmas... any season is a season to be Jolly...
1 Month and 13 days since my last posting...
A brief "let's catch up" update.
- "Mexico lindo y querido" Part 4: meet the parents.
Did you watch the movie "Family Jewel" with Sarah Jessica Parker (I know Digs pukes to listen this name) I am pretty sure that was the vivid example of my "meet the parents" saga... well thankfully... it was nothing like that...
We had a pretty cool Christmas... a pretty relaxing / hectic / tiring christmas... traveling with children that can't sleep past 8 am is not good. I needed vacations from my vacations.
Thankfully the in law relations were great... so things seem to be moving on pretty smoothly.
- "Happy Anniversary"
January 9th... celebrated the first year together with my boyfriend... 1 year and counting.
- "We want you to be our slave..."
No more money, but a great deal of responsibility... I have been semi-promoted at TACA... my boss word's when communicating changes to the relevant parts of the organization: "Due to the great job she has realized in the last 2 years, we are making her our official slave" (or something like this) the thing is I was taken away from everything that involved day to day basic functions (monitoring fares and all) to a more strategic position (a.k.a the power point factory) that will enable me to grow inside this organization and gain better skills for future managerial positions ... (this is how they sold me out) Yeaaayyy!!
- "However I will give you extra holidays"
After this... he asked me to send him the number of days I would be going for holidays this year. I started writing down all the weddings, concerts, events and all I had to attend... with the result that... from the 17 days I have a year... hehehe I summed up to 21 days of vacations... (and that was only until august)... oops. My boss grinned as in "you smart ass" and said nothing... which meant: "just because you are my only slave... but don' t tell the others"
Which means this year looks pretty nice in terms of traveling:
1. February 10-13th: U2 concert in Monterrey Mexico... I have down at the field tickets. 2. March 24-26th: Wedding in Mexico of some of Manuel's friends 3. April 11-17th: easter week in Argentina 4. April 28-30th: Another wedding in Mexico 5. May 19-25th: Egypt 2006 - MCPs & AI 01/02 reunion 6. August 14-21st: My cousin's wedding in Germany + small tour through the french wine countryside.
Cool huh??
- "We want to invite you to an international conference"
After almost 6 months of my posting "Can someone send me to an international conference" and given the great nomadlife community members... I received an email from AI 2 weeks ago, inviting me to chair Americas Expro and LDS in Colombia...
YUUUUUPIIII..... I am going to an international conference... wooww woooww wooww... and I am chairing... which its much better... (won't tell you yet why... in case any delegate reads this before the conference and realizes my readon to say it).
Talking to Suzanne... I said... "finally I have what I need to close the AIESEC chapter in my life..." and she said... "or... you will realize you will never be able to close it" - damn.
But I am going to an international conference... I will miss my eternal roommate , some back massages offered long long time ago , WACK... , and of course... "Mientras sigo viendo tu cara..." but I will certainly have stories to tell all that bunch or weird AIESEC delegates :)
So... adjusting my travel plans:
2. (March 24-26th: Wedding in Mexico of some of Manuel's friends) NOT 2. March 22nd - April 1st: AXLDS in Colombia.
- "Once a year we celebrate..."
Tomorrowwwwww tomorroooowwwww.... tomorroowww is one day aheadddddd.... Tomorrow... is my birthday... 2 dozens worth birthday... The 24th... wow...
When I was 13... I thought by the time I was 24 I would already have children... (oops... I already do) Ok... when I was 13... I thought by the time I was 24 I would be a housewife... (not happening... not even by the time I turn 30)
So wish me luck... another year of life to come... am excited...
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So as you see... in 1 month 13 days... a lot can happen... hope to keep you more updated and put out some pictures of my birthday (even if its just family and a cake).
While this happens... "Carpe Diem" it's way much easier!
Second year in a row I organize my VPs Christmas Party. Votes approved a beach venue... for second year in a row... so I was mandated to get the most at the best value possible.
“Two Wings... Who could have two wings for me to fly!.This afternoon, in the summit, almost I have had them.From here I see the sea, so blue so sleepy,that if it is not a sea, might as well be another sky!. Summits, divine summits, excel viewpoints.How small mankind! The murmurs don't reachFrom there below, from the mud; neither the harrowing screamwith which the desire howls, neither the overflowing clamorfrom bad passions .The despicable won’t rise:this summit is the Kingdom of the bird and the cloud…” (Alfredo Espino) October winds are here, and with them the smell of summer. When in school, it was time to close another year, final exams, goodbye to the books, to classmates, teachers and hello to mornings starting at 8 am!
October winds… no more rain clouds blurring the sight of San Salvador volcano, from the balcony of my apartment you can now see not the entire city, but almost half of the country. The high mountains of the east… the blue beaches of the west… the lakes and volcanoes of the south… and up north… San Salvador volcano standing tall and wide!
Well I am not. I have 21 reasons why!. I started this week my first ever real fitness / nutrition program. I need to lose the extra pounds stuck in there... tone my muscles and start living a healthy life.
Its simple. Good nutritious stuff 6 days a week. 1 hour of excercising every day. 1 day of moderated special cravings.
The deadline: December 22nd. The goal: Will keep you updated! 21 to go!!
As I have kept going around inside my mind, planning next steps, dreaming dreams I haven't dream yet... and all through my life, I have kept daydreaming about going places, meeting people, discovering a sense of adventure and letting my soul rest free... one day, all of a sudden, and without even noticing it, I stopped doing it.
I had a meaningful conversation with my friend of freedom the other day, he has managed to make me see how I must always think what I want to do, and then address the barriers to get there.
I stopped planning. Captured all the dreams wondering around my pillow and set them all in front of me.
I decided it was time to stop dreaming, and time to make those dreams finally come true.
Where will this lead me? I am not sure. But its time. Its time to unfold the map of opportunities and lose myself in it. I still don't have the answers, not a single answer... but they are there, waiting for me to put my mind, heart and soul into them.
I believe my country can now achieve the world's Guiness record for reported natural disasters in less time.
I had never heard in global history so many events happening in a week.
My little tiny country has been exposed for having in 1 week: - Volcano eruption - 5 days tropical storm with unstop rain - Flooding all over the country because of the storm...
And to close this week with a golden knot...
- a 5.8 Richter earthquake
Really niceeee!!! who said 20,000 square kms was too small? hahah well guess where has it all happened.
Fortunately, yes, everyone I know is ok. 54,000 people lost their houses for the floodings though... but it seems we are used to calamities... its just time to wait until the sun shines one more time and make it time to rebuild it back again.
I believe it was more than 1 year ago I wrote about the first investment of my life. An apartment... not sure if it was a sudden urge of independence or just knowing I had an option... to do whatever I wanted.
I signed papers on the 4th of May of this year... I picked up a set of keys and opened the door for my future home. Unbelievable... I'm stuck the next 30 years of my life paying for it... but worth it... absolutely worth it.
After staring at the open door for 5 minutes to a completely empty apartment I saw the inevitable coming, furniture, cable, telephone, electricity, water, maintenance, paint... and food.
Better idea... let's rent it. Screw the independence. Money decides. Suddenly, Manuel needs an apartment, he is staying in El Salvador and needs to move out from the apartment his old company was renting for him... guess what! I HAVE AN APARTMENT TO RENT!
The deal: he buys the furniture that is left (I already have a living room, kitchen, laundry) and I rent it to him at a very conveniente price! So that was the best deal... now I am sitting in the living room of the apartment I rent to my boyfriend, watching the amazing view to San Salvador while waiting for him to cook me dinner.... Ahhhh this is life!
