Friday, September 30, 2005

i'm all caught up!!!!

Well it's the end of the month and a whole bunch of paperwork is due today. AND i have done all of it before 12:00 p.m. YAAAY!!! for me!!! End of the month reports are a drag. I mean seriously why must we do them?!?! o.k. i understand why we do them, i just really really don't like paperwork. i constantly tell my supervisor that i love my job...and i really do...but i can do without the paperwork involved!!! His response "sonrisa we have to do all this paperwork if we want to continue to get funded" i understand all of that but sometimes i get overwhelmed with my clients and then to have to deal with these reports!! ok. i'm done venting, thanks :-)

so i'm going apple picking with my family this weekend. we usually have a family outing that last the entire weekend but this year due to my sister going through so much we decided not to have one. Instead we wil be going apple picking for one day. i'm not sure where we are going, i was told somewhere in michigan and to be at the parents at 8:00 in morning because it's supposed to be a 2 hour drive. To be honest with you, i'm kind of glad it's only a one day thing because i get so stressed out when the entire family goes. someone always ends up getting their feelings hurt or someone says something about someobody else's kid. it's always the same thing every year "este es el ultimo ano que hago esto con toda la familia!!!!" next year comes and there we go again. gotta love la familia!!!

Well i hope all you have a good weekend!!! :-)

Thursday, September 29, 2005

en la vida de kachito...

before i write about kachito let me tell you that i LOVE him sooooo much!!! thanks H for giving him to me!!!

So last night was good weather to stay at home and just snuggle under the blanket and read or watch t.v. So i grabbed my blanket, went to the living room and layed on the couch to watch a movie ("story of women" french movie, AWSOME movie). Kachito was in the kitchen but soon came over to sit next to me. I noticed he was being extra affection it so I grabbed him and i layed him on my stomach. He fell asleep throughout the entire movie, which was fine with me because he kept me warm. So once the movie was over i grabbed my blanket and headed back to my bedroom to do some reading (Caramelo by Sandra Cisneros, I'm loving it so far!!) As i get ready to read my book, i noticed that Kachito is just sitting there looking at me with a look of "no you didn't!!". So i ask him "Kachi's what's wrong?"...by the way i realized that i only speak to him in English but that's a whole different blog. Anyway, i didn't know what was wrong so i just ignored him. he on the other hand made sure that i didn't do that. he kept meowing and sitting at the same spot and looking at me with that same cute little face of his. i get up to put him on my bed but would just jump off and sit at the same spot. once i again i decided to ignore him and he kept meowing!!! "kachito? you're scaring me, what's wrong?" so i look over at where he usually lays down when he sleeps in my bedroom and notice that Ms. J's clothes (the recylced jeans) were there. "oooooh, i'm soooo sorry baby!!! that's lola (ms. J's kitty) that you smell there don't you?" so i took the jeans put them in the closet and put one of my dirty shirts on "his spot" and he went to lay on it. "damn boy!! you be one jealous little kitty!!! you know there will only be ONE Kachito for me!!" is what i told him. i grabbed him and kissed him. He slept next to me the entire night!!! i don't know much about cats...this is my first cat ever...but he was acting very much like a jealous boyfriend, to be honest it kind of creeped me out. is that normal? anywho, i got over it ...like one second later after i realized what was going on...and all is well. he was being his usual playful self again this morning. i love kachito and i think everybody in the whole world should have a kachito!! oh yeah i also taught him how to give me a kiss. he is just too cute!!! is this what brand new mommies sound like...cause sometimes i get annoyed by them. i don't want to be annoying...am i being annoying?

Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Iron Poet

IRON POET
Thursday October 6, 2005
7-10pm
Around the Coyote Gallery
1935 1/2 W. North Ave.

Tickets: $30 in advance; $35 at the door including dinner and wine
$60 VIP tickets including exclusive seating and wine tasting

Tickets can be purchased at shop.guildcomplex.org or at 773-227-6117.
more information on tickets below

What is Iron Poet?
· A challenging, exciting, and sometimes hysterical live poetry competition
· A one-day opening of Iron Poet Art including live art creation and body art
· An evening of music, drinks, and the opportunity to sample specialties from some of Wicker Park's best restaurants
· A silent auction featuring art, parties, theatre tickets, and more

Tickets:
$3o ($35 at the door) including heavy appetizers and desserts, wine and beverages. Also includes opportunities to win door prizes

$60 VIP tickets also include:
· access to the VIP area with premium seating near the Iron Poet stage
· opportunities to win theater tickets and other VIP door prizes
· high end wine tasting with the guidance of an educated pourer

Tickets can be purchased at shop.guildcomplex.org or at 773-227-6117.

Sponsored by:
The Kerryman Bar and Restaurant Chicago
Lillie Jernigan of Lillie's Cakes

recycling...

I've always had issues with my weight. I've always been considered be overweight...accept for the two years that i worked out for four hours a day. I have been trying to loose weight ever since i can remember and at times have been successful. However, i loose the weight and gain it back!!! DAMN it's freakin' hard to keep it off, especially when i go visit the parents!! so anyway, i've been as small as a size7...the two years that i worked out for four hours a day... and as big as a size, hmm? yeah not going to tell you. Everybody in my family is skinny accept for my younger sister and myself, well actually now it's only me because my sister has lost alot of weight. A few weeks ago my sister came over to visit me and was looking through my closet. "hmmm? this is really nice, do you still wear it?" She knew damn well that i didn't fit in that thing...it was a dress...anymore!!! "take it and take whatever else you like" "are you serious?" "giirrrl, you and me both know that i will NEVER fit in those clothes again!!" so she took a whole bunch of dresses, skirts, slacks, and shirts. "are you sure you don't want these anymore?", she kept asking me. "NO!! just take them!!" and she happily did. However, when it came to the jeans i said "you can take those but do not give those away or throw them out because i really do plan on loosing weight to fit in those". for some reason i've always believed that i will loose just enough weight to fit in my jeans...i've got jeans of all sizes, ranging from size 7 to, hmmm? not going to tell you. It would be a miracle if i could fit in my size 7 jeans but i know i can still make it to my size 9 jeans if i try really really hard. i keep telling myself "sonrisa, if you did it once you can do it again!! SI SE PUEDE!!! SI SE PUEDE!!!" ...not sure how true that is but si no me lo digo yo nadie me lo va a decir. My sister thanked me and left my place in a very good mood. "enjoy the clothes sister" i told her and i really meant it because those clothes would have just sat in my closet under the "to be worn once i loose weight" catogory. which to be honest those clothes would have been in the closet forever. I've discovered that it has become more difficult to loose the weight the older i get.

anyway, so last night i went over for dinner at ms. j's and she had a bag in her room with a whole bunch of clothes. "what's this for?" i asked. "oh those are clothes i don't fit in anymore" said ms. j. Hmmm? i went through the bag and found some stuff that i liked and i asked ms. j if i could keep them. her response "yeah but just don't give away or throw away the jeans because i want them back, i plan to fit in those again" ha? what? que? como?!!! i couldn't stop laughing!!! I told ms. j about how i had told my sister the same thing. We both started laughing so hard. Something about jeans that makes us feel we must fit in them. We both came to the conclusion that it was because they are the most expensive item that we wear and also the most difficult to find that will look good on us. I mean there are alot of jeans to choose from now a days but seriously (another seriously moment) we have to really shop around for those perfect jeans. you know the one's that will make us look good, no matter what we wear them with. yeah THOSE jeans...as i smile when i look at myself in the mirror because i'm feeling hot!! hot damn it!!

Tuesday, September 27, 2005

no internet?!?!?!?!

i'm soooo going crazy!!!! i can't live without my phone or the internet!!! ok i'm being a bit dramatica. However, the internet is how i communicate with alot of my friends that live out of town. I need to catch up on their drama!!! oh what will i ever do without their drama!?!?! ok it's not really about their drama, it's more like them hearing about mine..hehehe, just kidding. no, really i am!!! i hope the we get internet soon!!

Monday, September 26, 2005

the whole world does not need to know!!!!

On Saturday morning i woke up thinking "i think i'm going down town to treat myself to something expensive". So i got up, took a shower, said my goodbyes to kachis and was on my way down town. I got on the bus and sat on one of the front seats. I was looking out the window thinking about what i was going to wear to the party that evening when a young looking lady and her son get on the bus. The young lady was talking on the cell phone with her husband. How do i know this? because young lady let everybody on that bus know her business!!! She sits on the front seats as well and starts yeppin' away..."tell me how i'm supposed to trust you again!!! what kind of a married man sleeps with a nineteen year old!!!! you have not kept your promise! how could you?!?!?! i've taken you back twice already!!" then she hangs up. Talks to her friend and her son...her son keeps asking her "mommy are we almost there?" and her friend is just listening. at one point the friend looked around the bus and then looked at young lady again. The phone rings again, young lady says "hello, no!!! you said THAT when you were shipped to cuba and iraq!!! now this happens in New Orleans!!! tell me why would you sleep with a nineteen year old!!! you promised me!!!! you have two kids and one on the way!!! how could you that with me being 5 weeks pregnant!!!! You get an F!!! yes an F as in FAIL!! if you can accept an F from work you can accept F from me!!!" young lady hangs up again and looks at her son, who continues to ask "are we there yet?" The phone rings again, "hello, i don't want to talk anymore!!! you tell me this all the time so why can't i say it!!!" i didn't know how this ended because my stop was coming. oh my lord!!!...ok so that was not what i was thinking as i was getting off the bus. now, was it REALLY necessary for this girl to have that conversation on the bus?!?!? HELL NO!!!! everything that she was saying only made HER look stupid!!! i don't mean to judge but when you are having these kind of conversations in public well i think that person may be asking for it. So anyway, the analyzing person that i am, i started to look into the what young girl was saying. By the way it was only a 15 minute ride but it seemed like it was 3 freakin' hours long!!! anyway, I started thinking, giiirrrl you need to get your life straightened out if not for your sake than for your kids!!! This man is obviously not going to change!!! he has been with three women, that you know of, and you still continue taking him back!!! you deserve better, at least your kids deserve better. i wanted to tell her all of this but of course i didn't, i think that would have made me look just as stupid. i got a feeling that she was trying to impress the people on the bus with the cuba and iraq comments but really she was making herself out to be this very insecure individual. i was soooo glad when i finally got off the bus. that was one of my seriously moments...SERIOUSLY PEOPLE THE WHOLE WORLD DOES NEED TO KNOW YOUR BUSINESS!!!

Friday, September 23, 2005

oh how i cried...

when i finished reading "Bless me, Ultima". I cry easily when i see other people crying in movies and on the news or those reunion shows (i know, i've said once and i'll say again, I'm pathetic) but when it comes to books it is very difficult for me to shed a tear...don't know why that is. i cry when i read articles or postings...like Cracked Chancla's on the animals of New Orleans and DCNational's calling home...but with books i really don't cry. So anyway, last night i finished reading "Bless me, Ultima" and i cried for a good 15 minutes. I couldn't stop!!! The last time i had done this was with "She's Come Undone". I was in spain when i finished reading that book. I actually didn't think i was going to do any reading while i was out there...i meant to ONLY read it on the plane but i got started and couldn't stop. It was late at night when i finished reading it and i was crying uncontrollably...i knew exactly what the main character in that book must have been going through!!! With both books i got so caught up with the main characters emotions that i just couldn't help but feel for them. I can't believe it took me this long to read "Bless me, Ultima", i mean the book is as old as me!!! i've had it on my bookshelf for quite some time already but i have so many books on my "books i want to read" list that it was finally "Bless me, Ultima's" turn. damn me!! for not reading earlier, damn me!! i say!!! It is such a great book. The next book on my list is "Caramelo" by Sandra Cisneros...only one of the greatest writers in my book!!! I love her writing!!!! Anyway, i recommend "Bless me, Ultima". If anybody out there has anymore recommendations i would love to know them. My list of "books i want to read" is not short at all but ALWAYS willing to add some more books. My list is going down to the americano writers after "Caramelo". Cracked Chancla can't wait for you to open your bookstore!!!

Thursday, September 22, 2005

mr. motorcycle's visit...

so last night i had planned on doing nothing!!! i was going to be a bum...cook something to eat and watch t.v. i didn't want to be bothered with anything or anybody!!! i wasn't angry or sad or feeling anything for that matter..i just wanted to be a bum on a wednesday evening. So anyway, i started making some caldo de pollo and heat up some mole that my mom gave me. then my phone rings. "que onda sonrisa? que haces?" "aqui nomas" was my response. "hey voy para haya, is it ok?". IS IT OK?!?!?!?!?IS IT OK?!?!?! "sure!! come on over". so he did and we had the best time ever!!! we didn't do anything exciting but it was nice to spend some time with mr. motorcycle. We use to hangout alot before when we both lived in the hood but then i moved to the northside and he moved further south so that stopped because we were SSSSSOOOO far from each other..hehheehe. we went by the lake and walked down lakeshore drive. it was really nice, we talked about everything and anything. I love mr. motorcycle...to be honest with you he is one those friends that i would do anything for. I don't know what i would do if i didn't have him. i mean the dude is so good at giving advice and he talks to me straight forward. no beating around the bush, says it how he sees it...i could go on but i won't. I just wanted to thank mr. motorcycle for ALWAYS being there for me and brightening up my day or evening ;-) THANKS

Tuesday, September 20, 2005

the parents...

I was contemplating on this a few days ago when i was visiting the parents. I wrote this to my sisters when i returned back home...

If you have ever wondered where we get our strengths and weakness from, I think I have figured it out. I was with mommy and daddy last night and it was just really weird. Maybe it's the personal space I am finding myself in but it was just a really nice experience. Anyway, I was talking to mommy...I love having these type of conversations with her because she vents and I learn so much about her...and she was telling me that she has been worried about her sisters, tia N and tia M, mostly their mental status. She was talking about how THEY were doing and blah blah blah. So then I asked her "mommy, y usted como se siente mentalmente?" her answer was "yo me siento bien, no me dan ganas de llorar, los tengo a todos conmigo, tu papa me hace enojar pero eso se pasa" at that point i gave her a hug and told her "se siente haci porque sabe que la queremos mucho?" and she just smiled and hugged me back. Where am I going with all of this? Yesterday I learned that we are strong women because of my mother. I know that you probably already knew this but I also realized that we get our sensativitiness from daddy. He is the most sensitive man I have ever met. It is weird because ALL of us grew up being afraid of the man and yet he is waaaay more sensitive than mommy. Our brothers are not the strong men they (think they) are because daddy was their male role model but rather they are strong because of mommy. I've ALWAYS known mommy was a strong woman but after our conversation yesterday, I've realized how strong she is. Not only because she took so much abuse from daddy or from some of her daughters and sons but because mentally she has ALWAYS dealt with things. The most awesome part of all this is that she didn't have to go to school or see a therapist for her to realize what was going on with her or the one's she loves. so the next time you find yourselves in a jam and come out of it o.k. know that you came out of it o.k. because of mommy. and when you find yourself crying and overwhelmed know that that is daddy crying and feeling overwhelmed and EVERYTHING will be o.k. because we are fortunate enough to have the best of both worlds...MOMMY AND DADDY

me :-)

some venting...

i hope all is well in your worlds...

well i've had about 4 suicidal clients in the past few weeks...very stressful to see grown men cry like babies, literally. telling me they don't want to live anymore, telling me their plan on how they will end their lives. it is one thing to hear them tell me "i don't want to live anymore" but when they go into detail on how they will end their lives well that's a whole different story. I come in this morning to see my client waiting for me in the lobby...he looked really bad. i started talking to him and he tells me, "our safety plan was that i wait to talk to you before i do anything else so here i am, please tell me what to do because i know what i want to do but i promised you i would talk to you first"...my heart went out to him. it was a sad thing to see. i took him to the closest office i could find and started talking to him. i asked him the usual questions...did something in particular happen this weekend to bring up these feelings again? (i've been working with him since last week), please don't get insulted but have you been drinking, using? tell me what you need me to do? tell me what YOU want to do?(of course i knew the answer to this question)..well after being with this man all morning i finally convinced him that he needed to be admitted. let me tell you that these are the moments in which i know i'm doing this type of work for a reason...he began to cry, con unos llantos, he couldn't even talk. once he calmed down, he tells me "Sonrisa, i will do anything you want me to do but please just tell me what to do because i can't go on!!! i will do anything you tell me to do!!!" i took his hand and i told him, "we need you to go to the hospital, you need mental health services, once we work on your mental health we can work on the rest, but i can't help you out with anything if you don't want to help yourself, now you have ruled out me calling the ambulance to come and pick you up but if i call a cab, can i trust that you will go to the hospital?" he cried and said "if that's what you want me to do" i said "yes that's what i want you do but is it something that YOU want to do, i can't do this without you" well i won't make this any longer, i waited with him until the cab came, saw him get in the cab and just hoped for the best. this afternoon i got a phone call from the social worker from illinois masonic to let me know that my client had made it and that he was being admitted. i just really want to go home sit with kachito for awhile, hug him and kiss him. i'm so exhausted!!! i don't even want imagine how exhausted my client must be by now....at least i know he is a "safe" place.
me

Monday, September 19, 2005

a weekend confession...

This weekend i had a breakdown. On Friday i went to a party...it was a great party too. there was food, drinks and a mariachi. I was having a great time until i saw someone whom i thought was my ex-boyfriend...the one i can't seem to get over even though he treated me like crap. This relationship has been over for over 5 years!!! 5 YEARS!!!. I'm so pathetic!!! so anyway, i was at this party when i saw this guy come in. My heart started beating like there was no tomorrow and i tried getting up to leave but i couldn't. My legs got really weak and my knees were shaking. My friends, mr. motorcylce and pokey reese, just looked at me because they thought it was the ex-boyfriend too. As he kept walking towards us i realized that it wasn't him. The three of us just smiled at each other with disbelief. I mean the resemblence was unbelievable!!! so i calmed down, so i thought. I was having alot of fun. The mariachi was there for most of the night so we were singing all night. At one point i had to use the bathroom so i went upstairs. There was a line so i went into the living to sit while i waited for the bathroom. It was then that i completely lost it. i started to think about a whole bunch of things. You see his birthday was last week and i had decided to leave that relationship on his birthday. I was feeling so guilty on that day because i couldn't believe i was doing this on HIS birthday. But i was in the space in my life that i had also started thinking about me...to care and love myself. I said to myself "if i don't leave today i know will never leave!!" so i did it!!! it has been the most difficult and scariest thing i have ever done but i had done it. So anyway, i started to think about all of this as i waited for the bathroom. i began to cry...UNCONTROLLABLY. I called pokey reese to let him know that i needed to leave and that i had already called another friend of mine to pick me up. i didn't want to ruin mr. motorcycles' and pokey reese's night. They were having fun, why should their fun stop, just because i was going through some crap that should have stopped a long time ago!!! Sometimes i wish i could do what clementine kept doing in the movie "eternal sunshine of a spotless mind"...GREAT MOVIE!!. but then i start thinking about how i wouldn't be the person i am today had i never ever met this person... but then i start thinking, do i really want to be like this though. paranoid, not being able to trust any man, always wondering if they will end huring me the way he did!!! never giving anybody a chance because i'm too scared!! yeah i really wish somebody could erase that part of my life!! i spent the rest of my weekend with my parents...where i felt safe again.

Thursday, September 15, 2005

it looks like it's going to pour!!!

AND i rode my bike!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

i thought i had seen it all...

Last night before i started reading my book,Bless me Ultima, i decided to see what the Oprah Show was about. I'm not really an Oprah fan but lets be honest the woman does have interesting and fun shows at times. Yesterday's show was about BDD, Body Disfigurement Disorder, and let me tell you that i just did not understand it. I found this disorder to be particularly disturbing and unbelievable. A beautiful woman and a gorgeous man claiming to be "monstrouse." Seriously, these two individuals don't like to go out in public because they believe they are hideous. They claim that the disorder has ruined their lives because they are so preoccupied in hiding themselves to the world. I didn't understand it but it's real. Oprah claimed that Michael Jackson might have this disorders, hence all the plastic surgery. It's not vanity, someone claimed, they just don't feel pretty so they keep looking in the mirror to keep perfecting themselves. It takes them 5 hours to get ready, the lady had to be escorted to school by mom at times because she was so afraid of people looking at her. This is woman whom i believe to be gorgeous!! i was so baffled and tired that i just turned the t.v. off and went to bed to read. I know i should have kept watching to learn more about it considering the population i work for but i was not in the mood....i have my own body image issues :-(

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

por batir la masa?!?!?!

At the end of every summer my family usually makes corundas. They are tamales de michoacan and they are sooo yummy. They are one of the most difficult tamales to make, in my opinion, but all that work is worth it. Instead of using the usual dried corn husk to wrap la masa we use the long fresh green corn leaves. Once the milpa gives off the elotes we use the leaves for the tamales, which is why we have to wait until the end of the summer to make these tamales. Unlike the usual tamales that we see in mexican restuarants, corundas don't have anything in the middle. It's just the masa. You would figure that because it's only the masa that we wrap the process would go alot faster, right? WRONG!! it's actually a unique crafty process to wrap the tamales in that long green corn leaf. You have to wash the leaf, crack it so that it is bendable to wrap the masa and then make sure you put la masa on the right side. You take the wider end of the leaf and slap a small amount of masa, once you have the masa in the leaf you fold the leaf over it and then again but on an angle this time and keep doing this until you come to the tip of the leaf, once you get to tip of the leaf, if you did it right, the tip gets neatly tucked under of those folds and VWALA!!! you have a corunda...did you get that? the tamal should end up looking like a diamond shape tamal...I told you it was difficult.

Anyway those are corundas and we do them every summer around mexican independence day to celebrate my sisters b-day...she was born on the 16th. She says that my mom hecho el grito de la independencia esa noche, no por lo orgullosa de ser mexicana pero por los labor pains. I know we still have a week before mexican independence pero "las hojas ya no van servir si nos esperamos hasta la otra semana"...so mom says. So hay voy para el southside on the weekend of the parade on 26th street...jeesh i should have stayed over starting friday evening because 26th street's traffic gets 10 times worse around these days!!! When i got to the parents house, my mommy was already making el caldo de pollo para empazar hacer el mole...las corundas se comen con mole o con costillas de puerco en salsa verde. "who else is coming to help out?" i asked my mom. "nadie" HA?!?WHAT?!?!?! QUE?!?!? COMO?!?!?! oh well that means it will be a small amount of tamales then. As i was thinking that my dad comes in with 15 pounds of masa!!! oh hell no!!! my ghetto side started to come out. "mommy we can't do all that by ourselves!!" "eso vamos a ver". My mom's job was to take care of doing el mole and las costillas. My job was to batir la masa and wrap los tamales...do you not remember the process of wrapping these things!?!?!? dona mama, i call her that de carino y respeto, was putting all "las brujerias" in the masa as i was batiendola. the masa was in this big tina as i knelt down kneating, como los gringos dicen, the dough...hehhehehe. God that's work, i've never done this by myself. it's usually me and my older sister that do the kneating. I had to wrap a hankerchief around my head because i was sweating so much...i didn't want anything going into the masa that wasn't supposed be in there. Once i finished batiendo la masa, we started wrapping the tamales. Two of my sisters had arrived and began helping out too. I was sooo tired while wrapping the tamales that i just grabbed the leaves and the masa and didn't care that the tamales weren't coming out diamond shaped. "nadamas con que la masa este tapada verdad mommy?" my mom gave me this look of "si dices tu?". The tamales ended up being delicious...i've heard que los tamales salen buenos porque la masa esta bien batida..hehehe.

After eating las corundas con mole at the parents I went back to my place.
i sat down to watch some t.v. with little kachito next to me. After a few minutes of watching t.v. i started to not feel well. i started sweating and my head began to hurt as well as the rest of my body. I decided to go to bed but it only got worse...i had a fever and i wanted to throw up. What was going on with me?!?!? Then i got really cold so i got underneath the covers, Kachito was looking at me like "are you crazy?!?!?! it's too hot to be underneath the cover!!!" i finally fell asleep and when i woke up in the morning i was feeling alot better. I called my mom to tell her what had happened to me, "eso fue por batir la masa". Ha!?!?! what?!?!? que!?!?! como!?!?!? That has never happened to me before, why now? "ya no estas tan joven" my mom responded. Gee, thanks mom!!!

Tuesday, September 06, 2005

el capitulo final...

Yeap..el capitulo final de "La Madrastra" was yesterday. How do i know? because my family is mexican!!!!!...i know this sounds pretty bad but that is totally not the way i mean it. hellooo? i'm mexican myself. so anyway, i went to celebrate Labor Day...the americans that we are, cuando nos conviene, hehehehee...with my family on the southside. We celebrated it Mexican style of course...arrachera, salsa rojo y verde, tortillas en la parrilla, quezadillas con flor de calabaza, arroz y para que no se nos olvide que estamos en los united states aventamos unos hotdogs y hamburgers tambein. After eating all this yummy food i went upstairs to watch some spanish videos...reason number two on why i love to visit my parents...they have that dish cable thingy and so i get to see spanish videos and not only the spanish mtv videos, they get these other two channels. anyway, i went upstairs layed on the couch, big mistake after eating so much because i fell asleep. when i woke up my sister had changed the channel to telemundo. she was watching a novela...not sure which one but there was an older woman telling a younger man that she was pregnant with his child. apparently the older woman was lying because right before the commercial she says to herself "este me salio mas gallito de lo que pense!" toda dramatica. Yeah, i'm not much of a novela person, ni en ingles ni en espanol. I never got what the big deal was, to me is has been the same thing over and over again, so it seems. a poor girl inheriting some money, or someobody is pregnant but lies about who the father is or some old geezard getting married to a younger lady...yeah i never got them. so i decided to get up from the couch to go to my parents room to watch something else. my little niece was watching another novela in there!!! "i've told you before you are waaay to young to watch these things!!!" hmm, se le metio por un oido y se le salio por el otro. i walk out frustrated...not because i couldn't watch t.v. but because i truelly believe that she is too young to watch these kind of novelas. frustrated i go to another room...yeah every room in my parents house has a t.v... but to my surprise the t.v. was gone!!!ha?!?what?!que?!?como?!?! oh well, i thought to myself, i'll see what the familia is doing outside after all i do need some fresh air after taking a nap. what i'm about to describe has been the funniest thing i have ever experienced with my family this summer....i said this summer because there have been other things this year but not enough time to write about all of them. so as i'm going downstairs, i hear a lady speaking...toda muy dramatica...i begin wondering "what the hell?!?!?" i walk out to the back yard and it's like a theatre back there!!!! the missing t.v. was outside!!!...a todo volumen. my family was sitting in front of it watching victoria rufo being nostalgic. "quitate!!! no nos dejas ver!!!" everybody screamed out at me. at that point i said "well if you can't beat them join them!!" so i sat down and watched as "la madrastra" was about to be murdered!!! well as you may imagined, she wasn't murdered and she was reunited with her children after being in jail for 20 years....i got all of that in only the first minutes of sitting down. i kept getting yelled it because i kept making little comments "hah!!! uuueeeeeh!! no porfavor!!! piensa en tu hijo!!!" and when they were thanking La Virgen de Guadalupe i kept pretending that i was crying along con la madrastra, los hijos, la hija, los vecinos, el padre...did i forget somebody? oh yeah el perro y el gato...hehehehhehe. if it sounds like i'm making fun of all this i'm not...ok maybe i am but in a good way, seriously. i have my,como se dice? misas tambien. I NEVER EVER miss "Smallville" even if it's a repeat. AND seriously, Smallville is waaay more unrealistic and dramatic than las novelas!!...at least there aren't any flying people en las novelas...well unless somebody throws them out the window para "vengar la muerta de mi padre!!!" . Anyway, i just thought the whole incident was funny. Which to be honest, considering what my family has been going through, was very much needed.