Happily Hungover

:) Enough said.

Okay, well I'm not hungover, and realistically it's not that fun to be clammy, sick... etc.

Although if I had to summarize how I feel about Puerto Rico - that about sums it up. I mean that in the most figurative sense of the word. The territory - common wealth - what-have-you - reeks of life. So why compare the place with being hungover? Well, I think it's because when you're hungover you realize you are still alive and kicking - and your body makes you know it every breath you exhale. I found PR to be very similar - full of life. Living life to the fullest capacity possible.



Naturally, this is something that we do not practice in the north. No, instead of partying all day and night before elections - we're working our butts off, putting in the extra hours so we can stand in a poll line for 1+ hours and not have to take vacation for it.

Did I mention that election day is a holiday? Brilliant. That way there is no excuse for not voting. I was also extremely impressed on how crazy, but respectful folks are about non-supporters of their party.

Here you see a photo of what people do to express their support of candidates. Yes, hang out the window with flags and yell. The best, however, is they may be from different political parties. Together - making noise and being ridiculous. Wouldn't it be great if Dems and Reps did the same thing here?

Anyway.... stuff to do and places to go. I am going to try to write again sooner than later.

paz.

Shame on me

Yes, shame on me. It has been nearly 4 long months without me writing a damn thing on my blog. What a shame. I have thought of many of thing to write in all this time. The only problem has been my lack of time and then energy.

Since June what has happened...
1) the in-laws came to visit.
2) we went camping
3) peds graduated
4) my work got absolutely crazy!
5) we made a few trips to mke and shytown
6) we started home brewing. (on our third, of which we bottled today. it's a cider!)
7) we've met more and more friends
8) we've drunk more (see why in #7)
9) i have no free time because work is crazy!

Yeah. I guess most of the posts I have wanted to write about more recently have been more political. Therefore I have resisted the urge. I am not one to offend. In fact, all the yard signs, bumper stickers are getting on my nerves. When can this thing just be over? My ballot goes in tomorrow. I can't take it anymore - there are more important newsy things to cover versus the election crap.

Yeah.... smiling widely that I do not have a 401K at the moment to even had lost. :)

I am still alive and breathing. This post was to confirm that.

I will try to write again soon. Promise!

Gas. Gas. Bad gas...

Yeah, it's all the rage - if you can't talk about the elections, then why not complain about gas prices. Yes, they are out of the roof. It happens. Get over it.

I say this, of course, because now I have the ability to walk, bus and bike everywhere. In fact, I have not been in a car since Saturday morning :). Even so, I think we get so used to our comfortable lives, that once something goes up in price, we freak out. How about learning how to make the most of the situation. Buy better, more fuel efficient cars; carpool... etc. Bigger is not always better, and having personal space isn't what always makes the most sense.

[Note: After my 700 miles trip ahead of me this weekend, I may be singing to another tune come Sunday night. Until that happens, I still do want to complain about people complaining].

So food costs more. Well, then stop buying crap, grow a garden or give up alcohol. (The latter should only be done in the most severe instances ;)).

I don't know - I understand the panic, but things to get more expensive over time. It happens.

There is no point to this post, other than sharing this link. Thought it was hilarious ;).

http://www.theonion.com/content/infograph/soaring_oil_prices_alter

The life of a young professional

Maybe it's just me, but I'd like to not be a 'young' professional anymore. I'd like to be young still, goodness yes, but not in the professional realm of the world.

Allow me to explain myself as to why not:

1) We live in a college town. On the street I look like everyone else. In fact, some of these students come from money and most certainly look more 'professionally' dressed than me. I guess I should just break down and start wearing high heels more often. I just so much more prefer my Spanish flats. (More comfortable and better for walking).

2) I am the youngest, by a good 10 years in the office. On good days, I give it 10 years. More comfortably it is almost 20. Since people don't seem to be able to establish the difference between "young professional" and intern, you can understand my frustration.

3) I bunk with the interns. Not literally, but we cohab in the same office. So yes, hence forth I feel like I am looked at the same way. (P.S. I have total respect for the students that are doing the internship, but I've been there, done that. My coffee duties are over..........or not........)

4) Being on the brink of what is considered "entry level" and "mid level." The crap of being stuck in a 3-5 years of experience, when all the good jobs ask for 7-10. Not that I am actively looking for an escape, but I do find this quite frustrating.

5) Being asked 'tech questions' just because I am from Gen Y. (I think I am at least? :)). Just because I look young and no wrinkles are visible yet, I am have been around in my professional career. I can play with the big boys and can handle constructive criticism. At the beginning of my career, this was most certainly not the case.

Yeah... so there are more things too, but lately I have really found it frustrating to be a younger professional. Professionally I want to be in my 30s already, and get respected and recognized for work that I do. Physically, I'm fine being the age I am ;). No wrinkles, sore joints... etc.

Couldn't resist...

I wanted to wait before I posted about this topic again, but the blast from the past topic is really just too good. While this may not be what initially prompted this post, this is a perfect detour.

Love it or hate it? I have my theories on the whole Web 2.0, social networking platforms that exist in today technological world. Being of the generation who has grown up with this technological gizmos, I admit, I should be more tech savvy. Especially after living in Europe and still not mastering the text message. I am embarrassed on how long it takes me to type 2 sentences. ;)

Anyway, I resisted myspace when it first came out. In fact, I had thought I had resisted it completely, until I got some email about my account being inactive for too long. I must have created an account, never used the thing and gave up during my european tour thinking it would be a way to stay in touch with the homelanders. I tried to resist facebook, but it just seemed more professional and clean than myspace. It wasn't screaming stalker / sex scandal.

I've heard the notion of computer natives and immigrants. Okay, so I am a native, but often I feel like an immigrant. I often wonder what is so damn important about all of this social networking stuff. Yes, it is a great way to reach younger audiences, but does it cheapen the way conversations and social interactions are made between people?

The answer to that question, according to moi is YES! How many of us really have over 250 friends? Friends who we let see our bar crawl photos, relationship status and personal wall messages. Frankly, I'm glad I don't have 250, or 150 for that matter - I wouldn't remember all their names, birthdays and my cell phone surely could not store all those numbers (It would take me a year to just type their names into my address book ;) - I kid, I kid, I'm not that bad).

So one thing that irks me is this sense of false social being. I block the person who isn't my friend but I accidentally accepted. You block one of my contacts because they kissed your boyfriend once in high school. He says he's in an open relationship when you think you are being exclusive. What is this bull shit anyway? Last time I checked - I wasn't in middle school anymore. I don't thrive off of drama how I once used to (or maybe used to).

On the up side, I really do enjoy being reconnected with long-lost friends. It's nice to know you can find people online, send them an email or just know where they are and what they are doing. That aspect is cool. What takes it over the edge is when a crazy ex finds you through the platform and all of sudden wants to know you again. Hello, when it's over it's over. You don't try to find ex's over the internet just to "catch up." (Well, at least not in my opinion. Doesn't matter if you never got closure, had a 'nice break up', ya de ya da...).

I just sometimes do not buy getting back in touch with some people from our yesteryears. So you sat behind me in middle school algebra. Want a cookie? By the way, my grade on that quiz would still be better than yours, even if you cheated off mine. You were a friend of a friend of a friend at some summer camp. Yipee!

Am I cynical? Yes and no. I do enjoy walking down memory-lane. I love surprise letters, emails and phone calls from friends who I haven't heard from in awhile. What I don't enjoy is having to filter through layers of memories trying to remember where I know someone from. And, I especially don't like the drama of online social sites.

This post has been a tangent, and to think it all started because someone I know was freaking out about a picture she saw of a future grad classmate on Facebook. Yes, there are people who wear mini shirts and high, high heels out there. And, yes some of those people post those pictures to the internet. Do normal people do that? Well, maybe. Does it give you a memorable first impression with a headful of ideas of how the person will be in real-life? Hell yeah. I'll be curious to see how this one works out...

P.D. Alvito, me alegro k eres mi amigo por facebook ;)

Blast from the past

Every so often it's nice to be reconnected with the past. Whether it be from a friend from yesteryears, an old photograph from your youth or getting a waft of grandma's cooking. It's always nice to look back at the happy times.

I have a selective memory. Somehow or another, I push all the not so happy moments of my life completely out of mind. This, of course is not something I am going to complain about. Once I finally do get around to burning all my old journals, then it will really be all out of mind. The sad thing is that my selective memory is flawed. Not only have I pushed out all the not so pleasant moments, I seem to do that with the monumental times of my life. That means graduations, baptisms, details of family trips... (Note to reader: I do remember my wedding day, thank you very much!). It is a very odd thing. I can remember the small, mundane details of things, but not the "big picture" moments. Thank god we invented cameras, it sure helps jog the memory.

Who knows. It's like the "outlier" happy and bad moments get lost in the shuffle. *Sigh*

There was something in particular I really had wanted to write about, but I don't quite think the timing is right. It will come soon enough - and has to do with reconnecting. Until then...

Caramba!

Ole ole - hace demasiado tiempo sin escribir por aqui. No me ha dado tiempo, y si he tenido bastantes cosas para contaros. (O contarte Alvito ;)).

1. He ido a Florida el finde pasado. Que maravilla. He ido para visitar a mi amiga y era la fiesta de soltera. Hemos pasado genial. (Y tambien nos hemos portado muy bien)
2. Estaba de viaje con mi empresa. Siempre es divertido estar con un grupo de gente que puede ser mis padres. Ojala que muy pronto encuentro gente de mi edad en el trabajo...
3. Estamos de mudanza! No puedo esperar para estar mas cerca del centro y estar en un lugar que es mas seguro. Ahora os cuento (en ingles) ;)

I never thought I could be scared to live somewhere; and truthfully I am not scared to this day, just much more aware. On Monday, after coming back from the sunny south from a weekend trip and forcing myself out of bed - I walked to the bus stop.

In route, I noticed that the apartment complex by ours was "caution taped" and surrounded by cop cars. There were three I saw as I passed, and another 2 in route. I had no idea as to what would have happened. I guess having that many cars around was abnormal, but I walked on.

Turns out -- there was a martial dispute in one of the apartments and someone was murdered! Yes, murdered. (Or as the note we got from the complex says "a domestic dispute that resulted in a homicide". SCARY! It is scary to live somewhere where someone got killed.

We are not in a bad area, and I guess these things happen often. I just never thought it would happen by us. So yeah... interesting times.

Needless to say - I'm happy we are moving :)!

Not too much else is going on. (That is the biggest lie imaginable. There is a TON going on. I am crazy busy, as usual. Not only am I knee deep in work, but I'm over my head with consulting work! Oh well, our rent goes up and we need the extra moolah.)

Peace & love :)