I woke up this morning with a song from the Mama’s and the Papa’s dancing around in my head “all the leaves are brown and the skies are gray…California Dreamin’ on such a winters day…” but no do not worry, I would tell him and I am not leaving tomorrow.
It just got so cold from on day to the next here in Boston that it just shocks a Southern California girl to the core. Just last month we had the A/C on and all of a sudden one day we woke up a few weeks ago and we had to turn on the heater and it has been on ever since. It has all been so new and amazing though, to experience the turning of the leaves just last week on a windy afternoon as I was walking to my local CVS I was blessed with the yellow, red, and brown leaves as they where dancing around in the wind like a very well choreographed ballet, that Mikhail Baryshnikov would be jealous. It was like a smörgåsbord for my eyes, I had never seen such colors and such beauty in any of my previous falls, it’s like a dream…but not a California Dreamin’ dream.
As a young women I would tell people that I had to experience it all. I had to experience the bad to appreciate the good, I had to feel the pain to be able to recognize the pleasure and people would look at me like if I was mad. But I would not be able to know what it was to be California Dreamin’ if I had never left. It’s an amazing feeling to know that you are part of something that you belong somewhere and that it brings hope and clarity and just plain old kick-ass warm and fussy feelings so much so that I am already feel “safe and warm” even in the Boston cold…beside was LA ever safe. I am firm to my belief that you have to experience all the feelings just to know you are alive and appreciate what you have.
Wow, its been a long time since I last blogged and you would think that with all my new found free time that I would be blogging on a daily bases. Truth is that I have been in some what of a culture shock funk. Not due to the fact that I am now in the East Coast but more due to the fact that I am home 24/7 playing housewife. Kudos to all you ladies that do this and love it, but for me honestly I am depressed most of the day then relaxed. The truth is that I have been working since I was 16 and I like the feeling of making my own money and being independent. I never liked to ask for money not even my dad…and he is my dad and never said no. So to now have no income of my own is freak’n traumatic to say the least. Matt is great and he gives me everything I want but it’s such a strange feeling and even at my age I still do not like to ask for money and his Matt and never says no.
It’s been far more difficult to find a job then I anticipated, it had never taken me this long to find a job…but then again I had never looked during such a bad rescission. To add more fault to injury there are more HR peeps in Boston then lawyers in California and they are all looking. So wish me luck and hopefully soon I am back making my own moola and blogging more frequently. In the mean time I will try to stay dry and warm inside my cute little house…without going crazy that is.
Every time I saw this on billboards or will see or hear an ad about this I would say , “are these people stupid”. Kids in 3rd world countries want clean water, food, medication for illnesses such as malaria or small pox. Shut some just want to be able to read and write what the hell will a laptop do for them if they don’t even have electricity. Well Celia, ignorance is no excuse and I’m taking about my own ignorance here, especial for someone that lives in the most powerful country in the world. Once I visited the website for One Laptop Per Child at laptop.org I was enlightened and convinced that every child has the right to know and obtain the tools necessary for the acquisition of knowledge. Yes some of the countries where children are getting these laptops do not have the best nutrition, hygiene, or decent living conditions, but these children are learning ways via cyberspace to change this for themselves and their families. I once heard that the printing press was the best invention and due to it, it brought on the age of enlightenment. So now imagine what a laptop can do. These children will become the leaders of their countries, they will change their lives via education and knowledge. Chat with other children form other foreign lands and see that they are all the same, with the same desires, fears, and dreams. Past generations have done a great job of polluting and endangering our world and now its these children that will save it one laptop at a time.
I urge you to donate to this amazing cause.
Ahhhh. Oh how I would love to have the Star Trek “beam me up Scotti” technology. Being in a commercial plain in a small crappy ass seat is definitely the least favorite part of traveling. I feel all confined to the damn 2×3 foot space and I’m petite, I can see how some of you 6 footers are willing to pay more for prim real estate of 2 more feet of space on this metal bird. But I guess you can not have the good without the bad. Our only other choose is to have our own plain. One day…one day soon. Ahhhhhhhhhhh
I’m going to miss you San Fran. I remember the first time I meet you, it was magical. Matt had driven down from Sacramento and I flew up from San Diego just to see you. We wanted to see you in all your spleanded glory with your tall buildings, your curvy streets, and your colorful people. We wanted to go out with you in the day, we wanted to go out with you in the rain, we want to go out in your cold foggy nights. We wanted to know all about you and know every wounder that you could share with us before we became your permanent resident for what would end up being 2 1/2 wounderful years. You where so majestic, despite your weathering facades and your amazing history you where so new and fresh to us. I remember that it was cloudy and raininy and I loved it all. Ever since that first encounter you have been so kind to me you have embraced me, protected me, you took me around and gave me a fantastic job, and you introduced me to people that I know will be in my life for many many years to come, you made me feel like as one of your own. Its been 2 1/2 years since you took me under you wing and I am so greatful for your warmth and all the experiances I have gained. My fairwell is a bitter sweet event beacuse I leave with great memories of great dinners with Matt at all your trendy and some not so trendy but fabulous none the less resturants, nights out with the girls my L’BEL sisters at Harry’s Bar, Americano, and of course the best night ever at the SupperClub jumping on the beds like a true 5 year old.Thank you San Francisco for your love and warmth despite having had experianced “the coldest winter I have ever had was a summer in San Francisco”.I will not say good-by just until we meet again, because I too have left my heart in San Francisco.
This morning I came accross the same homeless couple from last week, the ones walking in no clear direction. Well today they had ditched the shopping cart and where pulling a pair of suitcases in the same direction as last Thursday. For some reason they still looked lost.
Don’t be lost…take control of your life!
Yesterday morning I was walking north bound on Market Street in downtown San Francisco. I had stayed the night over at the Palomar Hotel on 4th and Market and I was head towards work at 101 California St. As I was walking I came across a homeless couple walking in the opposite direction, “were where they going” I thought to myself. Life was dictating my direction on this sunny San Francisco morning and it seemed that life was also dictating this couple to wander aimlessly. This is where I started to think that most people allow life to dictate their direction (romantics call it destine), yet we have the power to change that and it seems that people forget how powerful humans really are. Matt and I are looked at and judged by others for our nomadic lifestyle and people cannot comprehend why we decide from one day to the next to just quite our jobs and move to another city without a job, without a house, and without knowing anyone. Yet I think that we are the only ones that are making a conscious choose to dictate our direction to create our own destinies. On a daily bases life does tell us which direction to walk in, in fact yesterday morning I would have preferred to walk south towards the beach instead of north towards work, but I have decided to be a productive member of society so I have a job and responsibilities.
We both love our families and our friends that we have back in our hometowns, but we also love to meet new people, explore different cultures, be stimulated by new things. The world is so large and it has so much to offer that it’s a crime to stay in one place your entire life. Life is there for you to do with it as you please, be whom you want, when you want, and where you want it. To see people at least in the U.S. strapped to their dead end jobs, miserable quality of life, and a sense of hopelessness is beyond Matt and I. Life is not the boss you, you are the boss of your life.
One thing is damn right clear life may dictate which direction I walk in today, but I decide in what city I walk in tomorrow.
What are you letting life decide for you?
I’m not one to tell people what they can and cannot do. Heck if they want to consume drugs go right ahead, go all out for all I care. I’m not against the consumption, people have the god given right to think and to make a choice. I’m against the industry of drugs, the industry that has been created due to the lack of legalization. An industry that is destroying families and entire countries with corruption and death like Mexico and Columbia, this industry is violent, corrupt, and ruthlessly savage.
As some of you know, I grew up in Tijuana, BC and as a child I would play out on the street as late as 11pm during the summer months. It was a quite city back then. Native Tijuanenses are nice hospitable, noble, hardworking Mexicans just as you would have found in other small cities and towns throughout Mexico in the 70’s and even till this day. Yet in the late 80’s there started to be a change not only in Tijuana but in the whole country. DRUGS started to be a big business and a few business people with connections started to see how easy and lucrative this industry was. By the early 90’s Tijuana was not as safe as it was but as long as you did not go looking for trouble you where fine, trouble stayed away. The first time there was a public act of violence the whole city was in shock. In the past people had gotten gun down in front of their homes, on an empty road, or taken to an isolated area and got shot down execution style. Although this time a drug runner pulled out his gun and shot a guy while inside a crowed trendy club in Pueblo Amigo a highly trafficked shopping mall and a place that I frequented just about every weekend during the summer months with my sister Julieta and all my college friends. This was an isolated incident but it scared people enough that the place closed down because people stopped going. Saturday night was suppose to be a day that you hung out with your friends, drink a few wine coolers, and flirted a little with the cute boys, it was defiantly not suppose to be a day where you had to worry but who is carrying a gun. By the late 90’s there where shootings between drug lords and their rival gangs fighting for the control of the market. See Tijuana is the largest port of entry in the world he whom controls Tijuana controls a very large part of the U.S. sales.
In 2000, my family as so many other fortunate families had to relocate to San Diego, CA due to the unsafe and dangerous environment that was on the rise. I say fortunate because so many others are unable to immigrate or relocate and take their families out of harm’s way. They are force to live among the increasing violence and corruption. For my family and I, the scariest part and the breaking point of our move was that we lived right next a drug lord, whose home was a corner house, the same color, the same street number, and he had three daughters…way to close for comfort especially when revenge killers just kidnap, rap, mutilate, and they do not ask for ids. Oops we hit the wrong faee from mily. So my parents packed up their bags, put their home up for rent and over the boarder they went. A rent sign went up, because we still have hope that that wonderful city that saw my siblings and I grow up into hard working productive members to socity will once again be free one day. Free from the violance, free from the murders, free as it once was noble and welcoming to all that wanted to call it home.
Now in 2009, people don’t even flinch when they hear gun fire or hear that there was a 3 hour shootout between police and drug gangs. It’s the inevitable truth of the daily thread of life in Tijuana. There are beheadings on a daily bases and the saddest thing is that its only going to get worse before it gets any better. Unless drugs such as marijuana (the major drug being sold and grown from Mexico) becomes legalized. With legalization comes better control, it would be an industry protected by anti monopoly laws. The same thing that happened with the left on the band of alcohol would happen with drugs.
Currently there are towns in Mexico where farmers are forced by the drug cartels to grow marijuana. Farmers are not able to grow corn and beans to feed their families anymore. They are being exploited by the drug cartels and getting paid very little or nothing at all. For others their lands are being taken away and the lucky ones are killed while the others are being put into modern day slavery. All this because it’s an illegal substance and because someone wants to light up. Simple supply and demand, and there will always be a demand.
The band on mariguana and other drugs is a big busness for both the drug cartels saling it and the governments preventing the sale. It’s a win/win for all the people on the top. Presidents look good, politicians make money, cartels make money, and the people are let with the aftermath and an inhumane quality of life.
If you want to stop the spread of rabies you don’t kill the bitten, you kill the dog.
Don’t turn your back on the problem…speak up!!!!
Will its official, we are moving to the East Coast. A native California girl in New York…wow does the term “Culture Shock” come to mind. I’m scared because it’s the biggest move I have done, but I’m so excited because its a new beginning. A new city, new people, and eventually a new job…its all going to be so exciting and new. Matt and I are living our dream of traveling the world, there are so many places and so little time. Granted we have not lived outside the U.S. yet, but we are making our way closer and closer to Spain, England, and Tokyo. From New York only a short 6 hours plain ride will take us to Madrid. Just a skip, hop, and a jump we are there…soon very soon.
During Matt last week in San Francisco we went to go celebrate and make sure that he gave his proper good-by. On Friday night we had dinner at Mezes a great restaurant on Chestnut St in the Marina that serves the best Lamb Shank ever its to die for but unfortunately they had sold out and Matt never got to taste it. Which in retrospect its better for me, or else he would want me to make it just as amazing, Matt culinary standard have definitely risen in the time he spend in San Fran.
The cool celebration was on Saturday we went to the geekiest event ever, the Robogames which are one of the worlds biggest geek convention. During the Robogames teams from all over the world complete to see which robot can kick ass the best. Mass and total destruction is the key, whom ever said that geeks are sissies is so wrong I have not seen so much adrenaline and testosterone since the last UFC flight I witnessed. Robots smashing into each other worst then rush hour in Los Angels, these guys had flame throwers and steal wheels with hooks all with the purpose to mutilate their opponent. Mad Max meets Conan.
This event was so worth it for so many reasons, but mainly because it was the perfect closure to Matt’s move to San Francisco 2 1/2 years earlier. The whole reason we moved here was because it was his dream as the Technology Mecca of the World, the whole essence of Silicon Valley the invention of the microchip and fiber optics was captured at the Robogames and the Ora of super geekiness that made it so cool.
