Let’s go… Slaho!

I’m in the process of putting in a new microwave in my house. Somehow or another the handle of my other one came off and the paint started peeling off of my last one. It has been in pretty bad shape for a long time, but I never seemed to find the time to take it down and replace it with the new one we bought some 5 months ago (It’s one of those over the stove ones). It also made it easy to put off the job because despite its decrepit appearance the microwave seemed to still work pretty well.

Well I took down the microwave only to find out that I have to make three new holes in the kitchen cabinet above my stove to install it because the new microwave attachments lie in different locations than my other one even though they’re from the same manufacturer!! How retarded! And I don’t have the tool necessary to make one of the necessary holes, the one for the power chord. So, since I need to get the proper attachment to my drill to make the hole, I have failed to finish the project. And for the time being we are without a microwave. And that soooooo sucks… and at the same time it doesn’t.
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It is hard for me to fathom because I just don’t feel old, but it has now been 21 years since I graduated from high school. I could have been born on my graduation day and been legally drinking a mojito today as I wrote this, which by the way would be nice, but I just don’t have any peppermint available at the moment. When I graduated from high school most of my current students’ older siblings hadn’t been born yet! And they themselves weren’t going to be brought into this world for another four or five years! Much time has passed since I walked the halls of my high school… as a student anyway, seeing as I walk those hallways every work day of my life, but that’s another story.

High school was a great time and I have a lot of great memories from that time in my life. I learned a lot, I grew a lot - physically (almost a foot in the four years) and spiritually - and I met a bunch of wonderful people during that time. It was great last year being able to get together with a bunch of my old mates to celebrate those four years that I shared with them in what seems like a whole lifetime ago, and at the same time like just yesterday.

The truth is, though, that I have found that for myself what truly defined who I am was my experiences in elementary school… my good old days at St. Brendan Elementary. I would dare say that most people would say this about high school, and though I can honestly say that I definitely enjoyed high school more, it was elementary school that dictated how my life was going to turn out. I think that this is why five years ago I went through such a great effort to find everyone from my elementary graduating class to have our 20 year reunion from St. B. And after a lot of effort it turns out that I was able to in one way or another to locate every single living member of that class (the one classmate not living being Liana Hidalgo, may she rest in peace in the presence of our Lord). I was excited about the prospects of bringing everyone back so we could all relive these all so important and formative years, and for some reason or another I REALLY believed that I coerce EVERYBODY to attend. Silly me.
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It’s amazing how I’m in summer vacation and yet I can’t seem to find the time to write. Every time it looks like I have a second to get in front of the computer and write, something else comes up that I either have to do, or that I planned on doing…

Case in point today… First get up and clean the house. Then go to mass. Then come back home and prepare for my Godson’s pool party in our place (which by the way was a great time for the family, though I ate so much pizza that I still think I have some coming out of my ears!) After the party it’s clean up time. Then get the kids bathed and ready for sleep. After that I have to make a grocery run because we are out of milk and bananas, two staples in our house. Of course it becomes an actual grocery run not just a minor one. Come back and shower to remove all the chlorine of course… don’t want to sleep in that stuff. Finally, go online and print a bunch of stuff for a planning meeting regarding the relay I’ll be running in November. That gets me to now.

Sure I could just get to writing now, but you all know how long winded I am. But if you notice I didn’t run today, which means I’ll be running tomorrow morning at 6:30, before I take the boys to camp. I can’t write until two in the morning (which I find myself doing as my writing goes on and on and on while my brain wanders in infinite numbers of directions) today and then sleep a measly four hours. So I get on and just do this to make sure I don’t lose the habit of at LEAST writing something.

I already know what I want to write about this week. Let’s hope I get to my two main topics plus the ones that pop into my head as the week progresses… #1. Class Reunions, #2. The Humanity of Jesus Christ, #3. Who knows but I’m sure it’ll have my head spinning with ideas by the time I write it… I just hope that I can keep all my thoughts on the two topics I’ve been going over in my head for days now organized so that my blogs will be true to the feelings I first felt when they popped into my head. We’ll see what happens. By the way, if anybody wants to know my thoughts on any of a number of other topics (not to learn from me, I’m not doing this to teach, but maybe just to start conversations, or possibly, and even more fun, arguments) feel free to make suggestions. It’ll stimulate my brain and challenge me to think, something that I think that many of us are afraid to do sometimes, because the truth is that thinking may be dangerous. And sometimes sharing those thoughts may actually make us something we don’t like to be… vulnerable. So throw me whatever you got, and let’s see where it goes.

UGGH! It’s already 12:15 am! Gotta sleep! Well, good night all! I’m a gonna read some Sherlock Holmes until my eyes can’t stay open no more…

NOT QUITE DONE
I know that I like to dream big
There are so many things I want to do in life
But you think my dreams are folly
That’s because you don’t see them from where I lie

Stop trying to shoot me down
I’m flying much higher than you can aim
Keep your eyes on your own goals
I promise you that I’ll do the same

You said I wasn’t strong
I couldn’t tackle the obstacles in front of me
You say I don’t belong
But I’m exactly where I am meant to be
I have taken my first step
And that’s one more step than you’d ever take
Which means I’ve already won,
I know that I have won
But that doesn’t mean I’m done

You always tell me there are limits
That the things I want can not be attained
That I should fear the worst
But to me it seems it’s you that’s afraid

Don’t you want to see me shine?
Or is it too much to have to share the spotlight?
Has jealousy consumed your soul?
It seems your envy has messed up your sight

You said that I was crazy
That I was too reckless to get through this trial
You say I can be lazy
Yet it’s me whose gone that extra mile
I’m the one whose put the right foot first
While you’ve stayed standing there flatfooted
Which means that I’ve already won
I know that I have won
But that doesn’t mean I’m done

I have so many goals ahead
I’ll fight for them ’til I’m dead
And though I know I’ve already won
I’m still not finished… No, I’m not done

I love to BBQ. It’s quick and easy and when there are paper plates available it means minimal cleaning afterwards. So when I can find a moment to BBQ, I do. Such was the case today. On Monday, it was my youngest’s second birthday, so we invited the family over and we made some burgers, hot dogs and italian sausages on the grill while taking the opportunity to jump in the pool (only men of course, for those wondering, along with ALL the kids, about 15 in total, and for the last half hour I was alone! Not fair). I always get ragged on for trying to be exact with the food I make, but the truth is I hate seeing good food go to waste, so my count allowed for leftover uncooked burgers. That meant that today we could have burgers. SWEET!

So, I BBQ’ed the burgers and I brought them out to eat. It was then that I realized that we only had ONE hamburger bun left. We had plenty of OTHER bread (a loaf of whole wheat bread, another of honey wheat, and about a dozen hot dog buns plus half a dozen English muffins), but we were down to the LAST hamburger bun. This is a problem under normal circumstances. You see, two of my kids refuse to eat burgers unless they are in HAMBURGER buns. Fortunately, today one of those kids was eating something else, having chosen to make chicken nuggets, so the remaining child had the hamburger bun. One of my other kids, who doesn’t really care what kind of bread is on the burger and I each had a burger on 100% whole wheat, and my wife chose to eat the burger without bread (she does this from time to time… it wasn’t a bread issue).
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Most of you, if your Cuban, are probably wondering if maybe I meant to write Ño! It is something we so ordinarily use and for any reason whatsoever, that I’m sure that it at least crossed your mind. Well, it’s not. But maybe in the near future I will choose to write a blog entitled “Ño!” so that you won’t feel so bad for entering to read a blog clearly far from what you’d expect it to be… whatever your expectations would be of course because I’m not even sure what a blog with that title would be about! Now back to my original topic.

NO. A fabulous word. It means the same thing in three languages, and can be understood easily in a number of other languages because it sounds quite a bit like THEIR no (i.e. “non” in French). It’s one of the first words out of a child’s mouth. It definitely comes MUCH before any version of yes regardless of primary language. With my three boys NO came before PAPI, and in one case months before. Kids learn it quickly because we’re always using it when they’re going to do something that we’d rather not have them do. This happens often. And they hear it very clearly when we catch them doing something dangerous, after they somehow sneaked away from our sight when we could have sworn we were watching them carefully… like picking up something made of glass, or moving to touch something boiling, or trying to stick a metal object into a light socket (none of these things have ever happened to me… but I could just imagine. OK maybe one of these happened but only once and I won’t say which kid or which of the previous cases), and usually in these cases it sounds more like NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!! (Insert slow motion footage here)
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Sometimes my mind’s in a fog
Those days I don’t want to blog
Sometimes my mind’s in a haze
I don’t want to blog those days
Sometimes my mind is asleep
I can’t seem to write something deep
So those days my mind is in bed
I choose to write a poem instead

This is going to be a short blog… I just wanted to share what came to me today while watching TV with my kids. I actually enjoy some of the shows my kids watch more than the stuff on the networks.

My kids lately have gotten into shows like iCarly and Wizards of Waverly Place. Both of these shows have cheesy production and below average acting, but they have one thing in common. They make me laugh. They are downright silly, and I can’t help not only enjoy them, but to think back to a time when TV shows could be watched by kids without having to worry about what was being discussed in the show. The humor in these shows is more along the lines of shows like The Three Stooges with some great physical humor or like a Welcome Back Kotter where each kid fits a particular stereotype and does his best to personify that particular stereotype for laughs. The good news is that there don’t seem to be negative stereotypes in general such as Blacks or Hispanics or Asians or Christians or Jews depicted in a certain light for laughs. The stereotypes are the ones we find in are families and friends… the one who has no common sense, the one who likes to pig out, the nerd who studies incessantly, the computer geek, etc. They are characters that to this day I can relate to (maybe b/c I’m a high school teacher), but that my kids also can relate to. I can’t help but chuckle (and wince when in iCarly the character of Gibby takes off his shirt to dance, well because he likes “to dance… with my shirt off”, and proceeds to start doing the same silly moves that I remember ragging on kids for doing back when I was a kid. And I can so relate to the conversations between Justin and Alex in Wizards where the classic bookworm who knows it all but has no common sense keeps getting outsmarted by his underachieving yet streetwise younger sister time after time. And their dialogue is just plain funny.
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Blind faith stinks. No, don’t misinterpret what I’m saying here… it is good to have faith, and blind faith is its purest form. But being in a position where you must have faith blindly is REALLY difficult, almost impossible, and unfortunately can really test a person. So HAVING blind faith is a great thing (particularly if its in someone that deserves it like, I don’t know, GOD, maybe?) but finding a way to achieve it really stinks.

I am currently in a situation that calls for blind faith. We are reaching a crossroads in our life (Dania and I are) and we know that some tough decisions have to be made. We have taken the first steps, and now are waiting for God to step in and lead us in the right direction. We know that trusting in him will allow us to get through this particular hardship, but how and when this situation passes or is resolved is beyond us. Now don’t start worrying about us too much… this is not something that is tearing us apart, nor is it something related to our health, or bringing another child into our lives (please, God, four is enough… don’t get any ideas here, OK?). This just has to do with decisions that will help shape the future for our family. We’re just not sure what the best decision is right now.
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Here are some of the quotes made by or to friends of mine over the years that have made me laugh the most. A large majority of these you, the reader may not even find amusing. But to me they gave me priceless memories… you had to be there type of memories. I’m putting them here more than anything so that I make sure I NEVER forget them. I am putting them in no particular order… just as they come to me. I will also do my best to give a point of reference for each quote so that the reader will at least get a gist of the context. And thanks to all my friends for these great laughs!!

“Those ducks are CRA-zy” : Enrique Montoya
This quote was said as we were driving to North Carolina back in 1988 to go skiing. Enrique saw some ducks swimming in a partially frozen pond…

“Pretty sad if you ask me!” : Adriana Suarez
Adri said this during a New Year’s Eve party at Susie Rivero’s house circa 1989… she was a bit tipsy and was pointing at the Christmas tree (with her thumb and over her shoulder) that was up in the house. Actually the funniest part of this quote was the thumb over her shoulder… and the expression on her face.
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