2007\2008

It's strange, I thought that when I didn't have to work anymore that I would blog a lot. But I seem to have nothing on my mind lately. So, I'll just say a few little things.

My husband's mother has recovered well enough to be moved out of the hospital. Any American who complains about the US needs to take a trip to Mexico. They may not feel the same when they come back. There is not heat in the hospital. Apparently, the hospital was freezing. So, they brought her home so that she could be warmer. She still isn't well and will have to rest a lot. They want to move her to her daughters house, which is in Culiacan, Mexico but she isn't well enough for the trip. It would be better for her there, it is very warm in Culiacan. Tiajuana in the winter is not a good place for her to be with a lung condition.

My husband will probably be upset when he comes home because I know that he would like to be there taking care of his mother, but he just can't stay any longer.

My son came home for the holidays. He lives in Arizona. It made Christmas nice. Isn't it funny how when people in a family get together, they just seem to have a rapport that can't usually quite be found outside of family? In my family, we all have a very distinct sense-of-humor. Me and my sister have noticed that each kid in the family, once they get old enough to crack jokes starts to exhibit it. It's fun watching kids grow up.

I'm looking forward to 2008. Everything changed during 2007 but left me in a limbo. In 2008, I will get to find out what is going to happen. I have a good feeling about it! I think 2008 is going to be good! Hope yours is too!

Punk!!

 

See the nice new punk style my younger daughter gave herself? I was thrilled you can be sure. I figured out that if I put both sides in pigtails that you can't see it, so I guess she'll be wearing pigtails for the next year.

A Blue Christmas

My husband left for Mexico last night. His mother is sick and they are very worried about her so he went. He won't be back until 2 days after Christmas and it is all very unexpected and I feel strange to not have him here. I'll be okay, it's just taking my mind a little bit of time to adjust.

But of course, it isn't really about me, it's about her. I don't really have a good idea of how she is yet. I will hear more in the next few days. I'm hoping that they are all just being really careful and that it isn't as bad as it sounds, but I just don't know yet. Unfortunately, it sounds like it could be CHF.

Funny antecdote:

The word for Grandmother in spanish is Abuela (Ah-bway-lah). When my older daughter was small she used to call her Grandmother Umbrella (Oom-bray-lah).

Quietude!!

Well, it's so nice to be off of work and have time to just be, I have had no time for this in such a long time. I am thinking about a lot of things that I plan to share but in the meantime, I would like to leave you with a poem that I discovered.
I hope that you enjoy it!! (Hope it isn't too sappy!)

Famous

The river is famous to the fish.

The loud voice is famous to the silence,
which knew it would inherit the earth before anyone said so.

The cat sleeping on the ledge is famous to the birds
watching him from the birdhouse.

The tear is famous, briefly, to the cheek.

The idea you carry close to your bosom
is famous to your bosom.

The boot is famous to the earth,
more famous than the dress shoe,
which is famous only to the floors.

The bent photograph is famous to the one who carries it
and not famous at all to the one who is pictured.

I want to be famous to the shuffling men
who smile while crossing streets,
sticky children in grocery lines,
famous as the one who smiled back.

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous, or a buttonhole,
not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgets what it could do.

Namoi Shihab Nye
in Hugging the Jukebox

and also

"The man who is often thinking that it is better to be somewhere other than where he is excommunicates himself."

Henry David Thoreau

Blah blah blah di blah

Food

I used to love to cook. But with a full-time job and 2 little kids, it got to be too much of a pain. First of all, I worked in the evening and I had to get supper ready before I went to work....no mean feat, I assure you. Second, 'gourmet cooking' involves lots of fresh ingredients and it's hard to go to the grocery store all the time when you are working. Thirdly, my kids turn up their noses at things that are too exotic.

So, I became very uninspired and I threw together whatever was easiest. My family really didn't care but there were lots of nights that I brought what I had made to work and couldn't choke it down.

I'm not working right now and have been trying to find things to do with myself and I have rediscovered cooking. Since I have been off, I finally made Tamales. I've only been saying that I was going to learn to make them for about 7 years now! Tamales take an entire day to make. Or two mornings if you want to cook the meat one day and assemble them the next. They turned out to be pretty good for a gringo or a garbacha as my husband calls me, but next time I need to flavor the masa harina a little bit better...definitely needed salt!

I also finally managed to make pozole and have it turn out good. I've tried pozole lots of times and didn't have a good recipe so it didn't turn out right. It's hard to learn to cook things that use ingredients and cooking methods that you are not familiar with. So, as well as renewing my hobby of cooking, I have been traveling via my senses.

I visited India last week! I made chicken tandori! And it turned out pretty good! I couldn't put cardamon in it because it was $12 for a little bottle, but you know what? I may spring for it someday (or not)! I love Indian spices!

I also made a trip to Italy! I made steak brachiolli (please forgive my spelling errors, I don't feel like running and looking up the spelling.) And I made arborio rice to go with it. I told my husband that when the guys at work talk about what they had for supper that night, he could tell them that he had Steak Brachiolli, Arborio Milanese and a salad of crisp greens in a tangy vinaigrette dressing. He said that if he told them that he would never hear the end of it. I guess its one of those Real Men don't eat Quiche things or something.

I have also taken several nice trips to the French countryside and this week we are going to New Orleans to eat some Jambalaya. Anyone who wants to come over and eat...let me know. Give me a little bit of advance notice if you don't mind though.

Johnny Cash

EOTR often talks about Johnny Cash on her blog. I have never been a country music fan. I hate to say this about myself but I have been very close-minded about it. When I was younger, I just didn't think it was very cool! But since EOTR, whose opinion I respect, recommends him so highly, I've finally started listening. And I watched I Walk the Line the other night as well. And I have become transfixed! Not just with him, but with that entire era. I sat and watched videos last night. Hank Williams, Loretta Lynn, Jerry Lee Louis, Elvis and Patsy Cline. What have I been missing out on all of these years because of my small mind?

Why do I like them? Because were authentic I suppose. There's nothing that I can add to that, you either understand what I mean or you don't.

If you like this genre there is someone I would like to recommend. Her name is Maria Muldaur and the 2 cds that I would recommend are Waitress in a Doughnut Shop and Louisiana Love Song. There are not many like her. She's been around since the late 60's, and she has never gone commercial, that's why you may not have heard of her.

Also, while I am mentioning this I will also say that because of X-dell...I love Prairie Home Companion as well. I was also close-minded about that. I didn't really know what it was, I just didn't like the way it sounded. Silly huh!!! Listen to it sometime if you haven't. There is nothing else like it and it will make you laugh. But always with, never at. How rare is that? If you turn it on and it sounds weird at first, just keep listening. You'll get it!

Christmas

I don't care what anyone says about Christmas. I love buying my kids presents. I don't care if anyone thinks I'm shallow! I try to be careful about what I buy though, I want it to be useful. I'm almost done shopping, but I still have to wrap! Yuck! I hate wrapping presents!

Bellydance

I've decided, I don't think I will ever perform bellydance. Why? I don't like people to look at me. Why learn bellydance only to not ever let anyone see you dance. It doesn't make much sense, does it? And I really don't care. I just want to know how.

This was sort of fun!! I couldn't think of a post topic so I just blathered for awhile. I've sort of had writers block or something so this got me going again. Hope you all are well. I may do this again! (I thought of doing this after I read BBC's blog!!)

INFP

Sorry I haven't been around for awhile. I've been.....doing absolutely nothing, just sort of fretting about what I am going to do with myself now. Frankly, I hate to say it but I've been a little self-obsessed, I really need to quit. Trying to figure things out and is like beating your head against a wall....the future is unknown we just have to make a choice, don't we?

Last night, I went with a woman to a sign language interpreter class so that I could get some sort of idea of what was involved with that. They all had to bring an object in and describe it to the class and the class had to guess what it was. One woman made a triangle shape and the teacher told her that she had actually made the sign for Vagina.

I talked to the teacher after the class and she said that roughly 1 out of 3 people can pick up sign language well enough to be interpreters and that graduating from the program was no guarantee that you would actually be able to be one. She said that she has seen people who wanted it very badly and just couldn't get it. She said that she has also seen people who seemed to just....have it inside of them and it just burst out.

I don't know how I know this but I know that I am one of the second, I just have no doubt that I could do this. I'm not being arrogant, it's just something that I know. I am worried about money of course, she said that it is possible to earn money doing this, that you can earn enough to live on. So, my mind is filled with this right now....is it a good idea?

Well, according to the tests that I've been taking online it is. I am an INFP!!! Introverted, intuitive, feeling percieving....about as right-brained as you can get. So, obviously something like sign language would be something that I would be suited for. And it was also listed as one of the jobs for my type! Wierd! And I thought I was so unique! It is a fun test to take, it is called the Meyers-Brigg personality test! Look it up online, you will be amazed at how completely accurate it is.

I sorta think that this may be my calling. So why do I keep trying to talk myself out of it? I know I would like it, I know I could do it....so why do I keep trying to get out of it? I guess it's the commitment. It's so hard to make a commitment, isn't it?

I forsee that if I were going to do something like this, I would have to start becoming a lot more involved with people than I am now. I am sort of a loner. I'm not really outgoing. I can talk to people but a lot of the time I am stand-offish. In order to do something like this, I would have to force myself to be more outward focused, which I think would be good for me but its scary I suppose because it is the opposite of how I am.

Interestingly, the Myers-Briggs said that around middle age, people start changing and feeling a need to develop the undeveloped parts of themselves. People who are introverted find the need for more connection, extroverted people find the need for more self-reflection etc... Jung said that we were all on a journey to become whole, the journey continues for all of our lives and that it is a need that we have, if we don't develop the undeveloped parts of ourselves, we become stagnant and stop growing. So that's some stuff to think about.

So anyway, I know this isn't much of a post but this is what's going on with me right now. Like a soap opera, I hate it!