My Summer Vacation, by Cristina

For my Summer Vacation, I went to Puerto Rico.
Immediately upon my arrival, I was handed a Pimp Cup, and some pate.

I decided to watch La Comay, just to catch up on some gossip,
but was quickly distracted by the horrible finding that I don't hate children after all,

and that fruit isn't so bad when it's 100 degrees out.

My mother got crazy. But it was her birthday, after all [picture retracted - I have some will NOT to die by the hands of an angry Mirza].
Meanwhile, I scared everyone at the party with my crazy pool eyes and sunburn.

The sky was crying for my last 2 days on Paradise, so we decided to make an event out of it,

and I discovered why I was destined to go to Puerto Rico in the first place.

THE END.

but i'm sixteen!

we interrupt this vacation again for a very important message.

i have been asked to be a maid of honor.
when did it happen that i suddenly don't just know people who are married, but have heart sisters and chosen family that are all tying it?

who the fuck am i to be a maid of honor?
who loves me that much to keep me in their life legally forever?

when did we stop being next-door neighbors and start becoming the people our children will know as "my mother's friend for 20 years."

when did my friends start having children?
when did we stop being the children in the pool?

when did i become an adult?
because i didn't get the memo.

snoop matos

we interrupt this Puerto Rican vacation to announce that...
wait for it...

my mother walks around the house with a chalice, a pimp cup if you will, in her hand.
in case you're wondering, there's usually red wine or champagne in it.

yes, i do have pictures. but no camera cable. so it'll have to wait till i'm back.

it's worth the wait.

i'm going going back back to 'rado 'rado

i'm off to Puerto Rico.
before i go, a few thoughts.
1. ever since i got my watch fixed (3 hours ago), i feel less chilled. i think i'm going to take it off.
2. elie weisel on oprah changed my life.
3. yes, i AM that lame.
4. the sky always cries when i leave Santiago at a kennel.
5. i will come back from my vacation a new (and fatter) woman.
6. reading American Idol through the eyes of OhNoTheyDidn't really did change my life.

jump

last summer it was Champions of Norrath. we played and played and played and tried so hard to reach the end. we came close, but it wasn't until we separated that i conquered that fucking game.
this summer it is much, much bigger. after a couple of failed attempts, i have managed to succesfully reconnect my Super Nintendo. and i plan on finishing every fucking SNES game i will come across.
first up, Super Mario World. a new game, i'm starting from scratch.
after this, we will conquer Mario Kart, Paper Boy, and even fucking Aladdin.
this is it.
it's the beginning. it's the end.
it's Nintendo.

i think it's really fucked up that on a night where my family's situation reached it's peak of horrificness, the one person i managed to talk to was matt.

hmm

i just put on my old glasses for the first time since i replaced them. i quickly realized that no matter how much i love my new red pairs, these will probably never be surpassed.
i don't know why my glasses are so important to me. i feel highly uncomfortable without them on, and usually end up throwing out my contacts before the end of the day. i guess maybe i hide my face behind my glasses.
which is fine by me, since these things fucking rock.

needle

i'm tired. it's a general theme in my life right now.
i'm excited, excitable, happy.
but i'm fucking exhausted.
go go go go go go

current things i'm obsessed with:
1. paul auster
2. therapy thursdays (formerly known as "we used to get drunk at Temple Bar but now we just double fist it at Art Bar cause we're poor and dirty")
3. that time at tavern on jane
4. negril
5. finding an apt that will fit both our dogs, the piano, our egos, and that's near Christie's cause i need instant access to Ting and beef patties in coco bread.
6. my ipod diet and how much it's helping me to lose the constant radio in my head.
7. The Rooster. (every kiss begins with kay? thought so.)
8. my upcoming trip to PR and the consequential reenactment of that scene in Say Anything.

and finally, keeping in my random theme tonight, i was trying to perfect my interpretation of "You May Know Him" on the gui-tar, and somehow my mind wandered over to a pic i saw of my best friend yesterday, and how happy she looks, and how i really wish we were all together because sometimes it's just too much without her here.

grace

my financial status is disgusting, and i just took on a massive loan, BUT i will put this all out of my head, because tonight, TONIGHT, i see Goldfrapp again. and i may pass out in the process.
i have recently spent my entire salary on concert tickets and shoes, which is horrific, but i will get to see so many people i wanted to. except for The Roots and Erykah, because i had to get rid of those tickets. i realized i needed the money for groceries. BAH.
my favorite part will be when she brings out the horses. oh god, there is no one hotter.

shaking paper?

i am so exhausted, i can barely move. and yet i went out after work today to celebrate my new scholarly status.
my beautiful friend k. says i'm overexerting myself, over planning. i think she may be right. tonight, i sleep. tomorrow, pigfest at b.brewery? maybe.
holy shit, i'm too tired to even sing along to "he war" right now.
i think this is it.
i retire! (scarface, anyone? ANYONE??). ugh.

money cash WHA?

after an ordeal that has lasted 7 hours and involved one trip to the hospital for immunization records releasing, trying to access registration through multiple browser windows and through friends' computers (FOR 7 HOURS STRAIGHT), i am now officially registered for Fall 2006, pre-med style.

granted, i have a shit-ass schedule, BUT i got into every class i needed.
below, my greatest achievement of the day (cause i aint dont nothin' else, fool!):
1. bio 100(again) 4.5 credits
2. chem 102 3 credits
3. chem 103 lab 1.5 credits
4. calc 150 4 credits

and now? now i wait to get out of work. and i DRINK.

ya.

i just found out that one of my favorite singers in high school, Soraya, passed away from breast cancer today. i found out through an old friend who i had HUGE drama with in high school but who i now keep in touch with, who saw the news and instantly thought of me.

normally i'm not really obsessed with celebrity, particularly since i haven't followed Soraya's more recent career. but when i heard this news i immediately burst into tears.

in her first album she had a song called "En Esta Noche." it's about the death of her mother, who also died of breast cancer, and it was a song that meant the world to me when i was younger. after the death of my father, and during the beginning of my mother's battle with breast cancer, i would listen to this song, cry, and wonder what it would be like to lose the only parent i had (have) left.

that album was not just an album of Latin Pop Ballads for me. it was the album that meant everything to me when i felt i was losing everything i had. i related to her, somehow. she'd lost a parent. she wondered about her own life. and i got this all through her songs. it helped me. it was therapeutic.

i can't believe Soraya passed away. i can't believe breast cancer claimed her life, as well as her mom's. i can't believe how someone who meant so much to me in those years, and yet who i never met (but did see perform right after her first chemo ended), has been taken by the fate i fear the most. because the second thing i thought when i heard of her death, right after i realized how crushed i was, was the thought that this can happen to me too.

FREEDOM!

this is what i like to call "Santiago's Flight of Death."
it occurs 3-4 times a week (i'm being generous), when i cook something that sets off the smoke detector, and need to open my door to air out the shoebox.
i believe this is what goes through his head:
"ohh. i smell a little steak smoke. this bitch is gonna burn. come on, smoke detector, don't let me down."
"COME ON. COME ONNNNNN!!!"
finally the detector goes off and i begin by opening up a window.
"you know that never works, dumbass. go for the door. GO FOR THE DOOR, YOU STUPID CONTROLLING BITCH!"
i go for the door.
"here we go here we go. i'll catch her off guard when she inevitably goes back to the 'kitchen' to nibble on raw steak."
i prop the door and go nibble on steak.
"YESSSS!!!! I'M FREE!!! I"M FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!!!!!!!"
2 minutes later i have trapped him and brought him back inside.
"you stupid bitch, i'll get you next time. your beef addiction WILL bring you down!! WUAHAHAHAHA."

nausea

i can't believe i got sick after cheese class tonight.
i had been looking forward to it for months. last summer i missed out for a variety of reasons, so when this season came around, i made sure i had the cash and registered early.
and i got sick.
i no longer deserve the Cheese Queen title.

girls write letters cause they miss me

Yesterday. Nothing better. So I write a post to "Never Forget." 5/5/06. Forever.

the day started with plans to work a little, walk a little, eat a little, drink a little, and prepare for the little monthly event that's made for people like me and Tina.

after a lovely work experience, we started walking the streets of manhattan, hungry for some, well, steak and ass. we agreed to go do Tia Pol, my version of Disneyland (now with more cheese!), but first we needed to make the trek there on our vehicle, what Zai used to call "dodge [patitas]."

in the middle of our walk, we encountered a fair. it was not just any fair, but a fundraiser for a local church (on 27th! amazing.). and it had rides. RIDES.

first, we agreed to jump on the "Berry go Round," or some other just as deadly name. we ended up getting so nauseasted that i nearly puked on the kids waiting to get on as i was exiting the giant apple.

later, i tried to convince tina to go on "el martillo" with me. a ride that instilled so much fear in me as a child (and by child i mean 16-year-old) that i needed to confront it again.

after a big "NAH! NAH!" from tina, we agreed that the ferris wheel would be just as terrifying. i have a video on my camera that is pitch black, but has audio of tina giving her last will and testament to the camera should we die at the top of that wheel (where we were at the time). the kids in the car in front of us wouldn't stop making fun of us, so i quickly stopped yelling out "WE'RE GONNA DIE!" and just closed my eyes and meditated.

cut to post-tia pol relaxedness. we're ready to take the stage. except "Juicy" is taken. every song i want to do (and know) is taken. tina is so terrified at this point, i don't even think she'd rock "Grinding" with me. so i did the only thing i thought would get her to get onstage. we did "Shoop."

for our first time among these hardcore hip-hop lovers (this shit was no joke.), we did great. next month i take on Biggie at last, and Tina rocks Luccini.
we also had a third friend/coworker there who was the last person to sing (at 3, when i was beyond the point of ginned up), and let me just say that for a person known for not saying more than 2 words a day, she ROCKED it. and i have many pictures to prove it. which i'll post on our network at work.

tom cruise is amazing

i think i just shit my pants.

Tommy goes Ethnic

direct effect

this morning i woke up to the sound of fresh direct arriving at my front door.
and i STILL haven't unpacked it cause i know i have to clean out my fridge before i do. i also have to give the dachshund a bath, take some headache pills, and get ready for the hospital and work.

i can't seem to do any of this, though, because i am so FREAKING exhausted, that apparently my head has decided to only speak in freestyle today. for the past 45 minutes, i've been trying to figure out how to post in rhyme, how i'm going to memorize the words to "juicy" by hiphop karaoke day, and how i can show up to the hospital quoting "murder was tha case."

well. at least i got out of bed.

delay to my workday

after a long day of work/union square action (see entry below)/dinner/conversations with my brother and oh so much more, it was hard for me to go to bed when i wanted to.
santiago stayed up with me, and together, we enjoyed the best corner of my apartment.

what's a cracker without some queso?

today i left work earlier than usual and went to the protest (walkout, boycott, family reunion, immigration nation) in union square.
there is so much turmoil, so much SHIT going on right now.
people are angry. they feel left out, exploited.
the puertorican government is shut down. my island is done.
people are afraid of minorities and it's unimaginable. this country was built by immigrants.
today i walked into a market, and commented to a friend about how lovely it is that italian products and culture are now a great part of our life, and how the treats of her childhood are easily accessible.
i look forward to a day when i can see tidbits of my culture EVERWHERE, not just at the essex market, or in east harlem.
i want to see export sodas at whole foods and i want to hear everyone talk about the young lords. and albizu. and about someone other than daddy yankee.
rey barreto, betances, julia de burgos. it's not just about puerto rico. it's about accepting latinos as americans. as intellectuals. as something other than poverty-stricken illegals. or minimum-wage welfare babies.
we're here. and we're everything. we're students, doctors, and lawyers, and we're teachers and we're postal workers, and we're everything. we're everything everyone else is.