House, need I say more?

Traditions

Today I made tamales with my family. I sat in a chair and for about three hours straight helped my mom spread the flour mixture on the wet corn husk leaves. Funny thing is that every year she says she will never make them again because it is too much hard work. But today while she and I sat there working diligently, she told me we were making them to keep with tradition. She said she remembered making tamales in Mexico when she was a little girl and told me how they had to pick their own leaves, instead of buying the bagged ones we did, and they had to grind their own flour.

That got me to thinking about traditions and how many we let slip away when we come to the US. I know there is a larger Latin community now then there ever was, especially that of Mexicans but sometimes I feel we are giving up our traditions to try to fit in with the people of this country. Sometimes I feel we try too hard and no matter what we do they still see us as those Mexicans that don't belong here.

So I just looked at my mother and kept on spreading the mixture on the corn leaves until my hands hurt from holding the leaves up and until my right middle finger hurt from holding the spoon and thought about sitting there one day with my niece and doing the exact same thing....

Rest and Relaxation

Tomorrow is the last day I work before my vacation and I'm so excited about it. I can't wait to just sit back and relax for a while. Some of you may not think that working at a bank is stressful but it is. You have to deal with money and trying not too lose it by cashing a bad check and you have to deal with the customers that don't agree with your policies.

But all of my ten days are going to be spent relaxing and playing with my niece and my cat Luna and maybe a little shopping in between. I really wanted to go to Mexico to visit my aunts but it will not be possible. My parents are going in February but I can't take a vacation so soon next year after I'm taking this one now.

Maybe during my vacation I'll finally finish the short story I've been working on and I'll write more poetry. I've written a few these past weeks but lately I've been blocked. I think this vacation is just what I need to get the creative juices flowing....

I'm almost there...just a bit to go

If You Please

It was a rough day today at work. It seems like every rude person in the world showed up to the bank and that about 60% came to me. I just don't know what's wrong with people these days. I recently posted about rude America, but now it's far more then that. I think some of these people need etiquette lessons.

The way they act and express themselves is not right. But I guess that's just my opinion. And I'm not saying that certain people, like rich people, are more mannered. A lot of the rude people we get are people that have some money. They think they can do and say what they want because they have a few bills. Well let me tell you that money does not buy respect, it just rents it for a while.

You have to be respectful to others if you want respect. It doesn't matter what industry they work in, we should treat each other like human beings. Some people believe that if you work in the service industry they can treat you like crap. That is not right. I don't have to kiss your ass because I work at a bank that depends on your business. I will do my job but that's it.

About four months ago I was working and we closed the drive-thru at five after. A little late, then I was putting my work up when I hear a honking, and my associate who was helping someone that the personal banker had been helping told me someone was at the commercial window. Well I went to see what was going on and it was a lady that said she wanted to get a check cashed and I told her we were closed. Well she said she needed it because she was going on vacation, I said OK that I would do it and to put her stuff in the tray. Well I did her transaction and after she took her stuff she threw a ten in the tray and said "This is for the overtime."

That was a very rude comment. I don't need her money. And my job with the customers ends at 5:00 pm when the open sign turns to off. So I just put her money back into her account. That was a total slap in the face and she knew it. People like that think that money solves everything. Well it doesn't and I'm not saying all people that have money, just some.

Well I try to treat everyone as I want to be treated and I always always stay calm when an issue arises at a restaurant or anywhere like that because I know how it is and I don't want to be yelled at for something that is beyond my control.

Here's to everyone walking a mile in someone else's shoes.....
It also doesn't hurt to say please or thank you....

Rain

I love the smell of rain. I don't know why but I just love the smell of rain hitting the earth. It smells so alive, so fresh, so earthy. I wish I could bottle that smell and keep it with me. But I think if I were to try to do that it would take away from its freshness.

This weekend was a pretty gloomy day here in the Sunshine State. It was cloudy almost all weekend and on Saturday it rained almost all day. But I loved it. I loved to look out my window and see the rain coming down. I loved to watch the trees gently sway back and forth as the wind passed through their leaves. It all seemed like a dance. Sometimes on days like that I just lay on my bed and stare out my window into the sky and the trees.

On days like those I get the urge to run out and dance in the rain with my hands stretched up high...but such fanciful thoughts are for children...well maybe. Maybe one day I will do just that. I will go out and let the cool rain fall on my face and I will smell it's freshness. And for just a moment I will be a part of that magical dance that we so often watch through a window....

I love the rain....

Lights

Yesterday after my niece woke up from a very long nap my mom and I decided to take her around the neighborhoods to see the Christmas lights. Now that she is two she can enjoy them more then last year. So we started taking her around some houses that my mom knows have great decorations.

We took her to a few houses and at one they had some reindeer and a train..well she really liked the reindeer display. She wanted to get off and play with them but we told her those were the lady's lights and could only look. Then we started showing her other houses but she kept asking about the reindeer. Well some of the houses didn't have them, they just had lights or snowmen, which she calls penguins, and some Santa clause figures.

Well we pull up to this house that has some really pretty lights and she doesn't see the Santa so she says, oh he's in the bathroom and I say yes. Then she says, where are the reindeer? I tell her, oh they went to sleep. And suddenly I hear this cry...she had started crying..and saying " no they didn't go to sleep no they didn't go to sleep." I was so surprised, I said no they didn't and we pulled into a house that had some reindeer. After that she said let's go home...so we came back home....

She liked the lights and love the reindeer but now I know never to tell her that they went to sleep...kids really are the cutest things....

Back to my Roots

I don't know if anyone has seen the movie Real Women Have Curves starring America Ferrera from Ugly Betty. If you haven't I recommend it. It is a good movie. But it makes me think about Mexico.

I haven't been in such a long time, since I was going to my senior year at high school and that was in 2001, so it's been almost six years since I've gone. But that movie makes me want to go. I want to go experience the sights and the smells. I love the way the food tastes, I love the way everyone acts and there's a sense of home coming when I go.

Sometimes I think I act to American, and I feel like I'm forgetting my roots. I need to do more to remember where I come from and follow the traditions of my Mexican roots. I want to go again, but I think it will be a while yet before I get to go.

Honestly, sometimes I wish my family had never come to the US but that we had stayed in Mexico, I can only imagine how different I would be, how different my life would be if I hadn't come to the US when I was six. Its amazing how someone else's decision can affect your whole life.

There's no place like home......

Vacation Countdown!!

I am soooo excited....I go on a ten day vacation starting 12/22/2006 and it's going to be great. I'm going to lay around and do nothing. I'm going to go out and party and I'm going to play with my little niece and my Luna.

The best thing is that it's during the Christmas and New Years rush at the bank...I can't believe they gave me those holidays off...they must have been crazy...but oh well like JoJo says...it's just to little too late...I can't wait and let me tell you I need a break from the crazy customers and some of my crazy fellow employees.

I can't wait.....woooo hooooo I don't know if you guys can tell I'm excited but I am....yay

The Final Frontier

I've always wanted to go to outer space. I love watching space movies like Red Planet or Lost in Space. I love to see the planets and the vastness of it all. My mom says she hates it because it makes her feel like she's insignificant and that she's in a dark abyss.

Well we do some a bit insignificant compared to the large planets that surround us. But we are not. I just love it. I love the whole idea of the universe. Moving and existing all in a sort of magical dance where planets move on their own orbits around the sun and that all exists in a galaxy called the Milky Way in a large universe.

I just can't wrap my mind around how big the whole universe is. I don't believe in aliens...and some people think that is too conceited, too arrogant to think that we are the only intelligent life in the whole universe, but I believe in God. And I believe he created this for us and if there were other beings he would have told us....but I still love the universe and I love to watch all those PBS specials about anything dealing with space...it totally rocks....

One day I hope to go where no woman has gone before....

Young At Heart or Never Grew Up?

I always loved Peter Pan. The idea of a magical place where you could use your imagination to make things happen and you never had to grow up always appealed to me. Life is always so much easier when you're young and all you have to worry about is school and playing.

When you start middle school and especially high school everything changes. We start growing up and taking on more responsibilities and with that more worries and stress. When things in my life aren't going as good as I want then to be I long for the freedom of my childhood. But then I start to think that I want to have my cake and eat it too. I want to have the freedom of responsibility of a child but still be able to do everything a grown up can do and I'm not sure that's possible.

I know people always talk about staying young at heart and I think that's what I want to be, young at heart. I want to always enjoy the things that children enjoy and never let life jade me too much. But I don't want to get stuck, and never be able to grow up.

I don't want to be one of those people that don't want to get older and try to be young and hold on to their youth. I don't mean by getting botox or anything but I mean people who can't be mature or work to take care of their families.

I always did love that Sinatra song, "Young at Heart" and I hope to live a long time....but there's always a chance that I'll get a knock on my window and Peter Pan will take my hand, telling me to think happy thoughts and say " The third start to the right, and straight on 'til morning."

"I Turn to You"

I turn to you,
you turn away.
Your eyes say things I cannot take.
You want to go
but yet you stay,
you cannot seem to cut away.

You know my love is strong and sure
you wish your love could be as pure,
but all you long for is the end
you hope I won't take long to mend.

I see the pain my love has caused
therefore I leave you without pause.
You turn to me
I turn away.
I say the words you hoped I'd say.

I walk away.
You watch me go.
Our hearts will ache for love no more.

Is Love Enough?

My sister recently separated from her husband of three years and I must say I think it was for the better. Their relationship was very rocky and had many ups and downs. The best thing that came out of their relationship from my point of view is my niece Isabel.

Seeing my sister go through this as well as other couples and being aware that the divorce rate in the US is 50% makes me wonder if love is enough. She tells me that she does love him but she realized that she couldn't be with him. That together they just didn't make sense. She told me it was hard for her to just forget him but that she was going to try because she knew he was no good for her.

So love was not enough for her. And I think sometimes it's not. Since we are children, especially us girls, we are taught that love makes the world go round, that love conquers all and that all you need is love. But that isn't true. You also need commitment, understanding, dedication, devotion, compromise, trust, loyalty, and many other elements to make a marriage work. And some people may argue that if you love someone those things should be there too but I don't believe that.

I think that someone can love you without being able to trust you or to be willing to compromise. That's just the truth. I'm not being a pessimist I'm being a realist.

Happily Ever after doesn't just happen...you have to work for it and keep on working as long as it takes....

My Sunshine

Isabel at three days old.

I have a two year old niece and she is so beautiful. I live with my parents and my sister and my niece live with us too. My sister is in the process of separating with her husband, it's sad but nothing else could be done.

My niece's name is Isabel, and I'm very proud to say that I helped pick her name out. She also looks a lot like me. We have the same high forehead, same big brown eyes and my Mom says she looks just like me when I was a baby.

When we go out to the store, everyone thinks she's my daughter. I think it's cute. I tell my Mom that I had my daughter without having to suffer through the painful childbirth. Now I will admit Isabel is a bit spoiled. She is the only daughter so the only niece for both sides of the family as well as the only granddaughter. It's hilarious the things she gets....well sometimes.

Anyways now that she is bigger, she keeps trying to use my make-up and my perfume. She's even walking around in my shoes and tries to copy everything I do. She always goes to my room to watch TV with me or sits with me while I'm on the computer and we play games together and although she does try my patience sometimes, I really really love her and there's nothing that I love more then to hear her laughter and see her smiling eyes.

She is my ray of sunshine...I hope everyone can find theirs.

Woo Hoo It's Friday!!

I think that Friday is the best day of the week by far. I mean don't get me wrong, I like all of the other days and I do love Lazy Sundays but Friday beats them all hands down. I think it's because it brings to an end a long week of work, for most people, and it usually comes with a little reward. I mean a pay check.

Friday's are also nights when people go out to dinner, the movies and sometimes to clubs and I think it's great. You guys might think I'm a freak but I just love Fridays. And they are all the sweeter if your Friday work day goes great.

Today was an ok day at work. It dragged on a little bit and some people really annoyed me. We had a lot of "special" customers too, which always make the day so fun...not....anyways we got cake and nothing is better then a Friday with cake.

Hope everyone enjoyed their Friday as much as I did....