my kiddies

happy
Originally uploaded by florajasmine

they're coming to visit on friday! yay!

def looking forward to this weekend.

p.s. i have an apt in boston again. so ppl can come over and visit and we can have fun.

must attend

don't care who hates him. i love it.

http://www.artcal.net/event/view/1/5990

gotta go to this show.... somehow. :p

so many reasons i love my little brother

AIM convo this morning... after he gave me a progress update on the status of the robot costume he is building for his art teacher's house party...

baby bro: how's work?
baby bro: 'work sucks'
baby bro: i know
me: yeah
baby bro: she left me roses by the stairs
me: hahaha
baby bro: surprises let me knoe she cares
baby bro: SAY IT AINT SO
baby bro: I WILL NOT GO
baby bro: KEEP YOUR HEAD STILL
baby bro: ILL BE YOUR THRILL
baby bro: THE NIGHT WILL GO ON
baby bro: my little windmill

sappy addiction

i heard this song while listening to a random podcast on my flight yesterday: http://hypem.com/search/spektor%20real%20love/1/

i don't even like her (regina spektor) that much. during her show at ACL this year i was laying in the sand on the sidelines while all the other kids were swaying and screaming for her. it was just ehh. yet, for some reason, i'm in love with her cover of real love. as soon as i heard it i was like, ahh! who sings this, i need to get it! i'm a nerd that way.

maybe cos it flows nicely with my kate nash's nicest thing obsession. i LOVE that song. i can literally listen to it over and over.

sappy love songs for fall 2007.

i go through phases where i listen to one artist over and over. i know it annoys people, and yet i just cant help myself.

spring was full of bluesy winehouse, summer was a return to lily and amy and lots of top40 hip hop. kate is definitely my fall favorite i keep on repeat. and with the cold creeping in - i'm really in love w/ alicia key's new album. its perfect winter music. there's also a lot of electronic-tinged indie that i'm loving right now- very good for winter months as well. kinda spiky.

----

i'm back in boston for a few weeks. it's supposed to snow this weekend. it'll be my first of the season. i'm ready for it.

still a san antonio girl

silent birdsong
Originally uploaded by florajasmine

visited this building on friday. and by visited, i mean i took pictures from outside the fence.

it's an abandoned peanut factory on the southwest side of san anto.

i'd love to jump the fence and wander around inside. i'm sure there's cool stuff in there. i also wish i had some dough laying around so that i could buy the place and turn it in to studios and a gallery. and keep (most of) the graffiti.

ahhh. that sums up my life. i want to go do something slightly illegal and right after i want to invest in my community and buy up property. mmm.

i need to take risks and somehow save up $$$.

my dad suggested i find out who the realtor is for this place and just ask for a tour. ahhh, the legit and feasible way to do things... boring. :P

---

thanksgiving break here at home has been nice. time with the fam. food beyond what i can handle. city wanderings... it's all good. i just wish it wasn't so cold! and not just for myself. san antonians with and without roofs over their heads really are not meant to have temperatures this cold. i worry.

back to the great white north on tuesday. it'll definitely be colder there. but i'll be seeing lots of old friends in the next few weeks so it'll be ok. :)

pink planet

space cadets are cool. who knew they made little grey astronaut ones just like the green soldiers?



nifty.

ridiculous

this morning it was grey and dark out. wet and a hint of a chill. i was happy to be able to turn on my computer and work from under the covers.

now in the late afternoon i'm sitting on my porch with my laptop open and the breeze blowing the leaves off the trees. it's 75 degrees out and there's pretty much a perfect blue sky with a few puffy clouds. i've been able to whip out powerpoint decks, tracking spreadsheets, and lots of emails with a "birds chirping and dogs barking" soundtrack.

if it wasn't for the ant bites i got 20 minutes ago while opening my car door, i'd say it was a great and productive afternoon.

definitely a great time for my company to send out a survey asking about my work life balance. definitely on a positive note right now.

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and. cos it's happened to everyone: http://www.mitchclem.com/nothingnice/397/

baby animals

IMG_2418
Originally uploaded by florajasmine

these are the freaking cutest little boogers i've seen in a while.

all baby animals are cute. obvs.

finding these three little tiny, multicolored baby ducklings all huddled together and napping alongside the san antonio river was like striking the cute jackpot. i had to stop and gawk. take in the cuteness.

man. i love nature. cos it makes baby animals. like these.

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my little walk yesterday (accompanied by ma and pa) in brackenridge park also turned up kids throwing pecans, attack geese, screeching monkeys, a vintage car show, a duck that looked like elvis, 4 bouncy castles, and zero armadillos.

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they're native to texas and apparently live everywhere... but i swear i haven't seen one alive EVER. so. my search for a living armadillo continues...

i need to go into the desert at night i think. maybe.

i miss my girls

saw this shirt this weekend. i want it. only in black.

hope they still have one in my size when i go back... in a few weeks.

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i had lots of good convos this weekend. and all sorts of random fun. with a ton of laziness and couch laying thrown in - of course.

based on some of my discussions, i realize i'm missing out on a lot of things i used to love. the boston i encountered in college is somewhat different from the boston i encounter today. i don't go to a lot of the places i used to love, don't do all the things that made me appreciate this city in spite of the frozen-ness. i still have fun and do things with people that make me happy, but i'm missing out on some of the things i used to do.

i used to make posters. hang out at the mfa for hours. go to rock concerts and hiphop clubs and no-name bars. watch movies in coolidge and browse in booksmith. lay on the grass in the commons and just people watch (ok. that one's definitely not happening any time soon. unless it snows. then i have to go watch the park explode in snowboots.)

i still shop in downtown crossing and nosh in chinatown... and i definitely take more picture walks now. but its not all the same.

i think a big reason i'm missing out on all this stuff is that all my partners in crime have moved away. nyc, dc, la. connecticut. anna took off to freaking scotland and diane is practicing her french in switzerland. girls! you were my bestest buddies and we had so much random boston fun! i miss yall. i miss our adventures. our inside jokes and our mod motto, "not everyone can be happy all the time."

i know its against our motto and how we roll, but i want to be happy! come play with me! lets do fun stuff again!!! i know everyone lives far away. i'm just going to have to make my boston friends do my nerdy activities. and make new san antonio friends to do projects with. and also. i need to visit everyone in your far off locales. i def need to start pulling a schedule together for the coming months. who i get to see, where, and when.

for now- i think i'm going to work on some of my solitary exploits. of course i always have my own sharpie and some paper laying around to make a rad poster. maybe a little thanksgiving decoration for the folks. cheer me up and get my hands dirty on some newsprint or phonebook pages. it'll be good.

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f.y.i. nerd explosion below. but its classic and its me, so there.
----

re-reading this post, i kept thinking of my beloved blink182 lyrics:
But everybody's gone
And I've been here for too long
To face this on my own
Well I guess this is growing up

10 years on and i still sing this song in my head way too often. i'm old, and still sooo 14 years old sometimes. ugh. oh well.

mitch clem cracks me up

most recent: i love you, but i've chosen darkness














earlier in the week: wash me.

i'm a loser #43543

i burned my neck the other day with a flatiron. apparently i'm not coordinated enough to watch tv and straighten my hair at the same time. it hurt for a second and i got over it. forgot it happened mostly.

it's freezing cold in my office, so i've been wearing my scarf 24/7.

today i took it off, and while looking at my reflection while washing my hands i realized- that burn left a mark. a mildly scandalous looking mark. on my neck.

ugh.

so. my scarf is back on and my neck is adequately covered. hope it heals soon. it's embarrassing.

lots of words and not much sense.

beer. facebook. myspace. sillyyyy. too much time spent in hotels sucks.

plans. for the weekend. JW and scorpions. maybe some coffee.

looking for some aerobics. missing out.

early night today. tomorrow will be late. and adventurous. for sure. for boston, for boston.

-------------------------

please don't think i'm weird. even tho i am. oh well.

all right, all right.

http://www.mcsweeneys.net/links/monologues/18matthewmcconaughey.html

this is an oldish piece from mcsweeneys. which today, i dont know why, i just found SO funny.

it's kinda long and boring in parts. and really only funny if you read it in matthew mcC's voice. then. it's awesome. w/o the voice, it sucks.

so if u have a few minutes and think the matthewmcconaughey persona is silly-ridic, read it.

texas oh texas.

-----------------------

recent revelation about my current self. i think i'm bi-coastal right now, and i'm ok w/ it. eastcoast / thirdcoast. only not really local to anywhere. the part time san antonio, part time boston living thing is good. see the fam, see the friends, stay employed, hang out in lots of airports (blech!).

weekdays are spent in the burbs, going back and forth between work mainly- not much else. then each weekend i either travel to my house in san antonio or my friends' place in boston. both places are just temporary, intermittent places where i hang out for a bit and visit with people. i guess this is just kind of stressful because i never sleep in the same place for more than 4 nights in a row. that's a lot of moving around.

maybe if i get a permanent place to stay in boston, life will calm down some. then it will be like 10 days in one place, and 4 in another. some continuity. still have the majority of my life in boston, but that's ok for now. i can be bi-coastal.

just looking ahead, i know. it's going to be cold in boston. very soon. every year it happens and every year i'm not very happy about it. the first snow is fun, the fresh crisp air feels healthy. then there's a wicked nor'easter and i get scared of freezing to death in a snow bank off the mass pike.

at least i have all my south texas escapes to look forward to this year.

all right, all right.

inconvenient breakdowns

today is my travel day. time for me to fly back to the bean from sweet and sunny south texas.

most travel days are icky and rushed, despite whatever advanced planning i do. today was no exception. in between conference calls and messing around in excel, i ran around my house feeding the pets and throwing a few last things into my suitcase.

when feeding my dogs i noticed the bag was almost empty. i know it sucks for my mom to have to get a giant bag from the store, so i thought i'd be helpful by running out and getting a bag before i left today. the grocery store is 2 minutes away and i could be there and back in no time.

unfortch, once i loaded the bag into my car and tried to turn my car on - i hit a problem. my car would not start. it would not even fake start. nothing! all those weeks of letting it sit there doing nothing... yeah, not a good plan.

i called my mom and grandma. usually its daddy that attends to my car issues but he's not in town... so. my mom called my uncle and he came to the rescue with jumper cables and some quality time.

i never see my uncle, even now that i am in texas more often. so even though it was annoying circumstances, it was great to see him and hang out. got to chat about him and my cousins, traveling, and our jobs. i probably never would have made a lunch date with him on my own but because i needed help, he was there and we did get to have some fun over miso soup at a sushi bar. family. i love it. if this had happened in boston, i would have just called AAA, gotten a jump and been on my way. since it happened in san antonio i got some family time and sushi for lunch. having family around is really great.

also i highly doubt any shaws employee would ever help jump a customer's car while in san antonio i had h.e.b. guys helping me with no problem. so nice.

a new thing

so the other day (at work. i admit. my mind wanders.) i came up with this thing i'd like to work on. something i have no real direct experience with... but a lot of tangential experience and tons of interest. so i think it could work.

i ran the idea by my family. dad said "ehhh? how long do u think it will take to get started?" mom said "ehh? won't that cost a ton to start with?". and my brother- he was like "yeah! that'd be awesome! can i help?"

since the kid is really more my target audience as well as a key person in helping me get it off the ground, i think his reaction is good- what i was looking for. of course, parental concerns are valid. i do need to detail my plan out better and get the right people involved early on.

ok. so i have a ton of work to do. lots of thinking and writing and planning. i'll give all the news once i have a better plan in place and i'm sure that i'm actually going to go through with it. make sure this isn't a fleeting whim...

bad drivers

i'm a pretty angry driver. i yell at people a lot from my car. but there are just so many bad drivers out there, getting in my way all the time!

today though- i was the bad driver.

i had to drop something off at my mom's school. but i'm also working today and constantly checking my email. so i took my laptop with me in the car. (broadband is great that way). then while i was driving my brother IMed me. so while at a stoplight i answered back.

then my dad called. he needed some direction on how to use a digital camera that is similar to my own. i tried to walk him through the steps but i myself wasn't completely clear. luckily i had my camera with me. so i popped my camera open and walked through the steps with my dad over the phone. while still keeping one eye on traffic and half an eye on my laptop.

seriously. i'm an idiot. even if it was wicked slow moving construction traffic.

people should not do 5 things at once. especially not when one of those things is driving.

that was dumb. i really need to aim for no more dumb driving. seriously.

the wall in cambridge

time to start stealing
Originally uploaded by florajasmine

here's a shot from my visit to the wall in cambridge, right off of mass ave. over the past few weeks a ton of local and non-local artists have come by and put up their work courtesy of an art guy (www.not-rocket-science.com/) and a restaurant guy (www.enormous.tv). awesome move to take street art and make it accessible, legal, and collaborative.

i only found that this event was even occurring due to my random contacts on flickr. other street artist and street art fans all collecting and sharing their work over there. i saw a flyer for it listed on someone else's page. coincidence that i was even in boston this weekend. after a weekend of eagles, celtics and sox games, i finally got my butt in gear and made it over to the location. i could not convince any of my friends to go with me. so sad. why are none of my friends into graffiti? i need to find a few street art friendly friends.

so yeah. it was kinda chilly but the sun was shining brightly. i got to spend a while taking it all in, cos it was definitely overwhelming at first. the work of over 20 artists all piled on top of each other. the alley where the art was is under a canopy of colored plates which added a different layer onto the already brightly decorated wall.

while i was there some of the artists were hanging out, adding some finishing touches and pasting up a few more layers. of course, because i'm a loser, i didn't talk to anyone. i just walked around taking pictures and soaking it up. it was fun to have the work of all these guys and girls that i spot around boston all showing up in a single place. the city does really need to have more installations like this. san antonio too. i think san antonio does a big show every couple years whereas boston is definitely lacking, but this was a good step forward. if i ever get my act together i'd definitely love to help organize something like this. of course, then i'd really have a reason to talk to the artists and say something more intelligent than, 'awesome piece, dude!'

because the alley is a main walkway in central square, lots of people encountered the work on there way to somewhere else. retired couples, families, businessmen and street kids all walked through the alley while i was there. and at least half of them stopped to take a closer look or snap a picture with their cellphone. beyond satisfying street art junkies like me, this is why i love exhibitions- it helps other people encounter and appreciate street art that they might otherwise not stop to pay attention to. i saw a little boy staring with his mouth wide open and then tracing his finger along one stencil. an older woman walking with her husband stopped to rub her hand over a pasteup, getting a real 'feel' for the art as it was hung. it all made me happy.

many thanks to the organizers and artists who participated in this exhibition. it was totally awesome and definitely a highlight to my weekend. even though time wise, much of my weekend was spent hanging out with great friends watching sporting events, the 30 minutes or less i spent alone in an alley staring at paint dry - that was probably my favorite. i'm just weird that way.

UPDATE: ok. so the boston red sox winning the world series around midnight. also a favorite part of my weekend. for sure. yay sox!!! my fan-dom has definitely increased since the last one back in my college days. phenomenal.

how i roll

how i roll
Originally uploaded by florajasmine

a little pic from this past weekend. it's a self portrait, if you will. a little pic can tell you a lot. if u know how to read it...

chucks always. and i was trying a new thing with my already skinny jeans that day.

the fold over and roll technique. i definitely used to rock this in like 3rd grade. it's awesome. i'm going to working on bring it back.

who needs sexyback when you can have jeanrollback?

ok. that's not funny. i'll stop now...

how they do it down south

so. while i still spend my work days in boston, i am officially part of the austin office.

today was a training session for people from the dallas and austin offices of my company. it was my first time meeting any one from texas offices. i was nervous about the whole 'walk into a giant room where you know no one' thing. but i've done it before. and of course, all these people were texans, so it was easy to sit down and find people to talk to right off the bat. i know that i work for a huge, global company and everytime i meet people from different places i'm amazed at how similar our work experiences are. and the whole 'it's a small world' piece of it also. it's awesome when i meet someone who knows someone else i know.

so anyways. we went over a series of situations that can come up at work, on the client site, and how to approach them. the seminar's faculty gave advice on how to take ownership of our careers and make sure we continue to develop our skill sets. so you know... some good stuff. general people and client management stuff that can definitely yield results going forward.

but the one thing that stuck out to me the most today- which is not particularly career focused but is definitely related - was the percentage of married people in attendance. this company function was focused on people at my level, who for the most part are mid to late twenties. and i would say that at least 90% were wearing wedding rings.

obviously, i'm used to senior level people in my company being married. but seeing people my age - all married off, it's weird. things just aren't like that in boston. yes, there are definitely young people in boston that are married. i friends with a few. and a few engaged people here and there. but it's definitely not the majority.

i ate lunch with three women and a large part of our conversation involved, 'my husband this...' or 'my in-laws that...' then they turned to me, "flora- are you married?" um. no! boyfriend? still no... cue awkward silence.

it's weird feeling so out of place due to my marital status. my non-existent marital status.

yes, of course i would like to find a nice guy to date. that'd be awesome. i'm generally open to meeting new people and i'd love to find a boy.

but come on now. seriously? i could not possibly see marriage in my near future. at all. i'm such a kid. focused on me, myself and i. and sometimes the world as a whole. but mostly- me.

these texans. already all married off by the age of 25. i don't get it. i'm not fitting in. also every single person i met today besides the two foreigners (UK and France) went to college in texas and lived here for most of their adult lives. UT, TAMU, baylor, SMU, texas state, UNT. also, so not me. i was the only weirdo who'd wandered off for college, and then was crazy/smart/dumb enough to return to the homeland. at least people had heard of boston college. of course, i know our recent success in football is a factor in my school's brand recognition.

however. they did all say, y'all regularly. and there was almost an aggie/horn throwdown which was thouroughly entertaining. and they all know where grapevine mills is and the awesomeness of chick-fil-a and have visited san antonio beyond the rivewalk. texans. i love them. i am them. kind of.

novel distribution

i've downloaded the new radiohead album, in rainbows. i've only been able to listen to a bit of it so far on borrowed headphones because i left my own back at the hotel.

a dinner with the work crew tonight which means i wont get to listen to it then either...

so it seems that the big in rainbows listening experience will be postponed until tomorrow.

no big deal, i suppose. i'm not even the hugest of radiohead fans. really, the only reason i have these tracks on their release date is because i wanted to take part in the great economic experiment that is going on at inrainbows.com. pay what you want for the download. it's interesting. yes, there is the boxed set at a standard price which you can purchase which is very like the old system. and i see how some could say this 10.10 release is just an opportunity for the band to make a few bucks and a lot of marketing ground off an advance leak that silly patrons pay for instead of downloading.

but really- letting the market set their price- it's cool. it's new. it's different.

all the economist and marketers (and i'm betting record labels) are eager to get their arms around all sorts of data like how many people bought and how much did they actually pay when there was no bar and no supervision. 1 pence or 100 pounds, whatever you like, even nothing. people are paying at different rates based on their individual valuation of the goods. i'd love to see this data and analysis as well. i'm a nerd. i know. but it could be the start of a change in music distribution. i mean, I paid for it... where usually i'd just download it or copy from a friend. so they got my pound-forty-five, which is 100% more than i would have normally given to thom and crew...

now. if only i could listen to all that i paid for... though i can confess from the first few tracks- i'm digging it. and i've heard its a grower.

so... i'm still alive and other things

wow. i haven't written here in a bit, eh? considering i go some periods with 1 or more updates each day... having nothing to say to the internet for a whole 2 weeks. like, whoa dude. :p

probably havent posted lately due to the fact that most of my waking hours are spent: at the office, in a car, at the airport, eating unhealthy foods, outside with my family, inside with my friends, or laid out with eyes half open trying to watch the new season of some show on the tele...

yeah. living la vida loca, that's me.

um. no. not quite.

work is still ok-ish. might be getting better, hopefully wont take a turn for the worse. i'm actually interested in what i'm starting on now and i think this is definitely related to something i can work with long term. more than developer code and data tables. only, weird thing is... that stuff is still sometimes cool to me. i'm so strange.

traveling sucks. straight up. the back and forth is long and i get delays and missed flights and random nights spent not where i'd prefer... during the next month i'm cutting my flights down to every other week so it'll be alot better for my sanity and a little better for the earth. i really feel so bad about all the flights i'm taking and all the trees i'm killing. (yes. environmental guilt. i'm full of it.)

however. seeing the family every weekend has been fantastic. i love it. i love them all and this is why i asked for the transfer and why i am ok with the delays and long hours spent in airports. cos at the end of it i get to see the most important people a lot more often. so cutting back on the flights is going to kinda suck cos it means i'm cutting back on this texas family time i'm just sinking my teeth into... hmm. boo.

but. i am saving money. which now... two years into the working world i'm actually putting an effort towards. mostly cos i have a goal of buying a house asap. i feel like i need a big investment. and real estate property is it. living with my mommy lets me save money at a faster rate then when i flushed it down the toilet every month living in boston, aka paid rent.

living at home with the fam is good. i know a lot of kids my age say they couldn't handle being en casa with their parentals again after leaving the nest only a few years ago. maybe i'm different since i havent really lived home-home full time since i was 16. dunno. i like it. they're nice to me, they love me, they feed me, they let me take naps when i want- it's a good arrangement for now. we do have our squabbles where we yell or cry or i pinch them to show my displeasure. but then we get over it and make up. it's all very normal i think. only apparently this child/parent relationship i've got going on is abnormal compared to the scenes of my peers... hmm. don't get it.

so yeah.

i'm in boston or san antonio or somewhere in between 100% of my time. looks to be the ongoing plan for the next few months. i can handle it. i can make it fun. i can make it enjoyable. i can.

tomorrow night: san antonio heat and southtown's first friday with my bro. we have to do some surveying of the scene/ market research for my other big goal i'm working on/saving for... to be announced.

knows me to well

i have been carrying around a borders gift card for a while and i finally decided to use it to make a little musical purchase or two last night. i bought two new cds.

on the drive back to my hotel i called my brother. 'guess what new cd i'm listening to?' he guessed m.i.a - which was wrong. only cos that is the cd that was still unopened on my passenger seat. 'young love' was his second guess. totally right. took two guesses, but he guessed correctly and knew exactly what i'd bought. i'm so predictable and he knows me so well. and out of all the bands this weekend, i think those were the two favorites for which i did not already own the cds or mp3s for.

and now. purchased and on repeat in my car. excellent. this weekend the baby will have his own copy of each.

we came to rock

so, ACL was this past weekend. austin city limits festival 2007.

my brother and i went. he's turning 20 in a week... this is an early gift. and the weekend guaranteed i got to spend some q.t. with my baby during his last bit as a teenager.

3 days spent in the company of david as well as assorted UT kids, old tamster friends, a couple of cousins and 60k other people. and you know... some rock bands.

for posterity's sake and in case anyone cares, below is who i saw. i sat for sets ranging between 20 minutes from far away in a field for pete yorn on friday afternoon to the full MUSE show, packed tightly about a hundred feet from the stage near a mosh pit on saturday night. my favorites are star'd. overall, friday was my favorite day - possibly because it ended with blueberry pancakes... but muse was my favorite show. for sure.

friday:
pete yorn
peter bjorn and john*
joss stone**
m.i.a.**
spoon*
gotan project
kaiser chiefs
the killers
bjork

saturday:
kevin devine*
young love**
dax riggs
paolo nutini*
cold war kids*
stephen marley
artic monkeys*
muse***

sunday:
yo la tengo*
the national*
ben kweller
grace potter
common*
bloc party
rose hill drive
regina spektor
wilco*
ghostland observatory*
bob dylan


so my dad picked us up on barton springs, drove me home to san antonio by 12am and i got back in the car at 430am to drive to the airport. and now i'm in boston. clean of any lingering sweat or zilker park dirt, but still bearing my acl mark in the huge amount of sunburn across my back and down my arms.

ah. it was a very good weekend. and now i am pooped.

i heart interpol

went to interpol concert tonight. it was fantastic. (sidenote- agganis sells beer. bc's conte forum does not. this was so strange/great to me.)

anyways.

interpol. i love them. i LOVE daniel's dancing. i LOVE pauls voice. and carlos. kills me. KILLS me. i dont know why.

seeing them rock makes me happy and dance-y. i just bop around, smiling while they sing about stabbing necks and 200 couches and how the subway- she is a porno. I LOVE IT/THEM/TONIGHT. 'twas great. i called at least 4 ppl to let them listen in. if i could dial annatudor in scotland without spending a million dollars in phone bills- i would have called her too, to share in my poppy boppy rocky joy.

stella was the final song. nyc before that. perfect ending. really.

--

this is a great kickoff for my musical week. interpol was the one band that from the announcement of the initial ACL lineup that i was really sad about not being on the list. and now i got to see them anyways. a few extra bucks but a musical thirst has been quenched. i've gotten my interpol fix for now. now i can focus on the other bands.

which i am so excited about.

3 days of possibly rainy rocking out in zilker park. i have rainboots and a poncho. i can deal - for sure.

and now i may have tix to a few after-shows.

grizzly bear. YAY.

and some highschool reunions with old friends. and some quality brother time. and hopefully even a cousin sighting or two. (i have a lot of cousins).

it will be grand. good old austin city limits. here i come. posi thoughts from here on forward.

good times ahead.

interpol tonight at bu. i've seen interpol only in boston, mostly on landsdowne. it's been a few years, but the tradition continues.

i'm kinda sad that miss AT will not be here with me. i'm pretty sure i've only ever been to interpol shows with her. from bill's bar to avalon.

and now the nyc boys in agganis. cool too see how the size of venues has increased... in the past 6 years. i have a feeling i will not get to stand back to back with daniel kessler this time around. dangit.

--

then i fly down to SAT on thursday night. rest and then drive up to ATX on friday morning. a little picnic at UT and then ACLLLLLLLL time. finally. 3 or 4 months of buildup and now it's finally time. 3 days of music and the company of my baby brother and the texas sun.

unfortch, two of my fave acts will not be there due to basically nervous break downs and drug addictions. amy and meg. winehouse and whitestripes are off the lineup. sucks. a lot.

obvs i still have a lot to look forward to... muse, arcade fire, artic monkeys, spoon etc BJORK etc BOB DYLAN, etc etc... and all the other bands i've never heard of and soon might love. but still. i have weird addiction to music probs and amy winehouse has basically been on repeat for quite a while for me. then all the drama. but i was like, that's ok. it'll be the WHITE STRIPES. who are so rocking. raconteurs were one of my favs of last year and jack is back for more! this time w/ meg! only. eh. nope. i wish raconteurs would replace the white stripes place on the billing. then at least i could have jack and brendan. hmmph.

ACL!! in 2 days!!

really. i am excited. in case you couldn't tell.

PAUL BANKS! TONIGHT! PROBABLY IN A SUIT! yeah. i'm excited for interpol too. good times ahead indeed

09.11.01

6th anniversary of 9/11. america's greatest single tragedy of modern times. and an important piece in the way america stands today.

iraq. partisan divide. country divide.

just the way the day is named and referenced - "nine eleven" - is so intrinsically american. only we report the days that way. it is our 'event', something that crosses the divides and everyone can feel sadness for, its just that the sadness has been transformed into different things - which has in turn initiated and ignited subsequent problems in our country.

fear. desire for vengeance. surprise. remorse. regret. anger. disillusionment.

all kinds of things for all sorts of americans. but mostly, especially on the anniversary, it's the sadness that has stuck.

and back again

i was in san antonio for less than 12 hours. but i got to have some of my grandma's fresh tortillas and meet bunny, my family's newest pet. also got to hang with momma and gram.

great to see them, if only for a few hours.

the flight back sucked but eh, what can u do. i signed up for this.

sleeping in a hotel tonight. no roomates to chat with and make fun of dumb tv with and no yoshi to pet and chase around the house. boo. miss that roommate life already.

almost home

my dad and i have been on the road since early saturday morning. we're a little over 2/3 of the way home. crossing the texas border soon. yay!

my dad said he's not tired of riding in the car with me, but he is tired of riding in the car with my stuff.

i am too.

almost home!!

the road home

my week ahead is scaring me. again, a list:

my dad gets into boston tonight.

tomorrow my car gets fixed and it's my last day in the office as a 'local'.

thursday and friday will be spent packing and cleaning.

friday night or sat morning we'll take off, headed south to texas.

drive for 3 days and land at home by monday.

kiss my momma and grams and rest for 10 minutes.

tuesday morning i have to get up at 4am and head to the airport to fly back to boston.

ugh.

sweaty and salty

packing and moving is one of the most annoying things in life.

i know this is exactly what i asked for. what i've been working towards.

but ughhhh.

trying to organize a 2000 mile move plus keep things under control at work... it just is a lot going on.

plus it's toasty and humid here in boston. which i know is exactly what i'm moving back to in san antonio... but ughhh. i just dont want it now. i'm not in the mood...

oh man- big conflict

working out my acl schedule. and at first glance i have a big conflict. muse (who put on an awesome! live show) and artic monkeys (who i've never seen, but i like to jump around to) are playing at the same time on Saturday afternoon. yikes.

decision time.

i know my brother's vote w/o even asking him. (muse.) not sure of mine yet... eek.

‘Kid Nation’ - new show on cbs.

“Kid Nation,” a new reality show coming to CBS next month, is about a group of 40 children, ages 8 to 15, who built a sort of idealistic society in a New Mexico ghost town, free of adults. For 40 days the children cooked their own meals, cleaned their own outhouses, formed a government and ran their own businesses, all without adult intervention.

read more | digg story

excited

now that it has come to fruition, i am so excited to make the move down to texas.

yes, i'll still be in boston for ~60% of my time. but to know that 40% of my time every week can be spent at home in texas is huge.

i can eat regular dinners with my family. i can reconnect with friends i haven't seen regularly since 10th grade. i can watch my littlest cousins grow up. i can hike with my dad, shop with my mom and tell secrets with my brother with regular frequency. i don't have to plan out my trips home to the minute, squishing in as many people as possible into a short 3 or 4 day visit every 4 months. now i can hang with my gram or my grandpa without worrying that i'm neglecting the other by not seeing them on this visit down.

ah. i really hope this works out as well as i am planning on.

yeehaw.

got the final approval today.

i get to move to texas.

and by move i mean fly there on the weekends and then back to boston every monday morning... yeah.

more family time for sure. that's whats important.

yay!

moving on and on and on

moving out of my place in 12 days. i've been packing on and off for the past two weeks and it still looks as if i haven't even started.

this is not going to be fun.

i didn't even go out today except to go to mass and the grocery store. i actually did spend the day packing. and still... so much stuff all over the place.

i hate moving.

beyond the accumulation of 'stuff' on such a grand scale is the somewhat significant issue of figuring out where i will be 'living' per se come sept1. i can only last on the couch of ex-roomies for so long i think.

so stressful.

and i have amigos that are planning on visiting in the coming months. visiting 'me'. of course, when visiting me, it's important that they have an actual placeee to visit. a physical location where i live and they can stay for a night or two. i don't know where that is. eek. i need a place. soon.

this sucks.

----

went to a concert yesterday. the day was pretty beautiful out, feeling like fall in new england (though it's still bloody summer!), with sunny skies and nice breezes. only once the sun set it was freezing cold and my fingers began to turn blue.

musical highlights of the concert were band of horses, yeah yeah yeahs and modest mouse. my first time seeing each and they were fantastic. seeing karen o. in person in her total rockstar persona with crazy dancing and theatrical makeup and was so awesome.

seeing guster again was also great, only cos it took me back to bc days. i remember sitting on the windowsill of our mod on the last day of classes to watch them perform in the mod lot. ahh. bc memories. :p

----

my mom/bro are on the phone giving me update on people from my elementary school that she sees around town. two more girls are engaged/married. seriously. i cannot move to texas under these conditions. all other girls my age are married or engaged. all decent boys are already taken. there will be no girls for me to hang out with and no boys for me to date. fantastic.

not.

so depressing.

i'm so old school

while on vacation in miami last month i bought a nkotb shirt at urban outfitters. it was on clearance for 9.99 and was a black replica of a (white) shirt i had in elementary school.

i have loved nkotb for a long time. like since i was 5. i remember coming home from kindergarten (1989, what- what!) and going over to my cousin valerie's house to watch nkotb music videos. forreal. nkotb was my first cassette tape. (michael jackson and smurfs were on lp). such a baby of the 80s, i know.

today while thinking back i realized/recalled these fun facts. 19 years ago i loved 5 boys from boston. 19 years later i realized i've lived in their hometown for almost 6 years. freaky, huh? coincidence? tangential relation?

i'm a loser.

i did meet jordan knight once. in logan airport actually. on my very first visit to boston, my senior year at tams. aww. maybe that's what really sold me on this place. tricky tricky jordan knight. so cute. (i had the j. knight barbie when i was 5 or 6. picked it out myself. rat-tail and all. wow. ok. done for the night.)

good bye.

nyc graffiti and flickr and moving

i went to nyc this past weekend to hang with my girlies, maria and kel, and just wander around manhattan. and we went to the bronx and astoria. lots of traveling. walked a lot, did some minor shopping, and mostly just hung with the girls. we were all kind of tired and poopy but just laying around maria's place petting sphinx is fun. almost like the mod... only not.

anyways. during my wanderings i took some pictures of nice graf in soho. and now they're on flickr...


i've been digging graffiti for a quite a while and my interest has increased significantly in the past few years. i now constantly scope the streets for new pieces and point them out to my family and friends.

walking down a city street (and even driving down a country road) can always be interesting and art filled. for me graffiti is a great modern art form. i'm sure people have been tagging up walls for ages, scratching their names in trees and under desks. since the 1980s tagging and wall art has flourished across the US, both legally and illegally.

i appreciate it every day. each morning on my drive to work through allston, ma i'm able to graffiti-spot for a couple of blocks before i get on the highway. on trips away i spend time wandering around neighborhoods just looking for something different. graf is totally public art in its rawest form.

when i find these interesting pieces and i take pictures of them. i have gigs worth of pictures of street art. pasteups, tags and stencils. if i see it, i like it and my camera's handy i like to catch a pic before it gets painted over or washed away. another great thing about street art is it's limited lifespan. because these pieces are thrown up on walls allover the cities, they come and go at the will of the people. so communal. even if the community police try to wipe them out... all part of the circle. by taking a picture i have that piece captured on my hard drive even if someone else eventually/inevitably paints over it.

so anyways.

i take a lot of pictures and i like to show them to people. so i've turned to flickr as my website of choice for sharing my pictures with people i know and people i don't. opening up my graffiti archives for the world wide web to see.

flickr is a great place for tagging and searching pictures. through this foto-friendly community i've found pages of some of my favorite artists. the fact that i can take photos of these seemingly anonymous pieces, put them up on the site, and then have artists wander around and claim them as their own is fantastic. another benefit is that i'm able to wander around the collections of my fellow graf-lovers and see where they've been and what has caught their eyes.

it's like a team effort to photo and id all these artist around the world. a giant easter egg hunt, if you will, on the streets and on the sites. surprises around every corner, and yet sometimes, nothing interesting at all.

now i'm rambling.

whoops.

anyways. i love graffiti. flickr is a great site for fotos. and my new camera add-on's are in the mail. yay! new filters and a hood by the weekend - woohoo! i'll be back on the streets and snapping away asap.

right after i pack up my house. my tons and tons of crap.

our move date is 3 weeks away and my room/house is a dirty disaster. i need to get my booty in gear and packing. really. cos i'm moving. out of this house on aug 31. and to texas... sometime... semi-homeless for that middle part but no worries. no worries, no worries, it'll be ok.

---

i packed 3 boxes worth of books today. actually, rach packed one for me and cracked the whip to make me pack the other two. dang. 3 boxes of books packed up and still SO much stuff to go. this sucks.

mmm... tasty

i just got a couple slices of pizza from the caf at work. i never eat pizza here but today i wanted something different.

mushroom pizza. the mushrooms are most definitely from a can.

i like that.

the pizza tasted just like what i used to eat at pistol pete's when i was a kid. ahhh, pistol pete's. i think i had a birthday party there in 6th or 7th grade. obvs way too old for that kind of thing but i didn't care. greasy pizza andddd skeeball!

man. pistol pete's was awesome.

now its a bingo place. lame.

Someone’s Watching Your House - New York Times

haha, just what i was talking about last night... online house stalking... it's a national sickness.

read more | digg story

homesick

i'm looking at houses online. cos e-shopping for homes is great. between zillow, realtor and craigslist dot-coms there are a ton of places to just wander around the virtual realty market.

today while shopping i took a sattelite-swing over to check out my own house in dear san antonio. the satellite picture shows my dad's van in the driveway that is trimmed with rocks my mom and bro laid out. i see the shed in the back and our giant tree in the front yard.

seeing a place so familiar makes me so homesick. so.

i may not be in san antonio on september 1, but i'm working on getting there AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. forreal. i hate being so far away. especially when my family needs me.

have passport, will travel.

last night i finally found my passport after it's been MIA for about 1.5 months. pretty much since i got back from mexico at the end of may. i was getting kinda of nervous. i don't actually have any international flights planned right now, but i like to know that if someone offers up a spur of the moment trip to italy or australia or brazil- i'd be able to partake. so yeah. now i'm free to fly. or you know, drive across the border into canada-land if i so desire.

anyways. my passport had fallen behind my cable box. i'd put it on top of said cable box for "safe keeping". i'm such a mess. i've packed up the equivalent of 6 suitcases of clothes and bags and things, and my room is still overflowing with stuff.

oh dear. moving is going to be such a mess.

facebookin'

the news feed updates on facebook really crack me up. all kinds of random updates on people you may or may not be actual friends with. knowing the latest relationship status of someone i haven't talked to in 4 years, finding out a college roomate's new favorite movie... and today's best:

XXXXXX added "My Chemical Romance" to his favorite music.

HAHA. anyone over the age of 14 declaring for all to see that 'my chemical romance' is your favorite music is kinda random. the fact that the person who just made this update is a slightly nerdy kid from college makes this update even funnier. he is totally NOT being ironic with this pick.

truth be told, i make embarrassing and dorky updates to my facebook profile as well. but usually, i at least try to hide them - i always click the little 'x' to remove my actions from showing up in the news feed. no one really needs to know that i added girl talk to my favorite music or removed signs from my favorite movies. really. if they cared, they'll stalk my profile, right? haha.

oh web 2.0, how fun you are.

this whole post is dorky and exposes my ongoing love of facebook. apologies. instead of announcing my nerdy tendencies on facebook i like to expose them here. whatevs, right?

weekends

weekends around the house are great. just wandering around harvard, hanging out in the house, napping and reading.

its weird that we've lived here for almost a year now. and i'm moving out and south in a little over a month. i like this place when it's warm. it's just so far from home-home.

big changes, they are a'coming.

blogging on and on and on

today at lunch we were talking about this kid who is socially awkward. he sends mass emails and talks to strangers. and he has a website. which people at work have checked out. i feel like i saw it once but i don't remember what was on it. don't know if it was a blog... then someone mentioned another work-dude who had a blog and talked about work people using vaguely disguised nicknames. also strange/awkward. people at work reading a blog that talked about them...always turns into a weird joke.

so yeah. i have a blog. obviously. which could be found easily enough. it's cross listed with a ton of websites i frequent (cos i'm a dork that way). no big. pretty much everything i say on here i'd say to anyone i talk to in real life. i think my dad is my number one reader. and if you can say it in front of your parents and the rest of the internet, i really don't feel that worried about 'work people' reading what's here. i'm a dork, i have weird obsessions, and this is one of my hobbies. writing little diary entries and life observations on the internet for friends, family and myself. i talk and write a lot. i feel like most people know that about me anyways. i'm pretty open about stuff, so whatevs.

i know some people from work read this. most don't know it exists. not like i advertise. maybe as i progress in my career i'll talk less. i know how to censor myself. i don't really want to be a topic of lunch conversation. but i am a rockstar so maybe i am super interesting and worthy of lunchtime convos... heh. anyways. the blog will continue with my self-centeredness... read on friends...

there's always so much interestingness going on... :p

i stopped at newbury comics on the way home. went on a cd buying binge. that is why i work, right? to buy things i want. so i took that list i made last week and invested in a few pop artists. interpol, spoon, white stripes and girl talk to be exact. 4 new cds. so old fashioned, i know! but since i'm anti-itunes and sometimes have weird modern-luddite leanings, i still rock the plastic cases from time to time... anyways, i listened to interpol on the way home. fantastic. of course i have heard this album before online. but listening to a new cd for the first time while driving with the windows down is just extra special. tomorrow's drive to work will probably be some thump-y goodness cos i have to be awake so early. yay. new music is great.

also i bought a new phone today. shipped this afternoon and will probably get in on thursday. how exciting.

wow. reading the last two paragraphs reminds me that i am such an environment killing consumer. and it bothers me and i need to stop... working on it...

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The questions on the following pages will ask you about where you live, your health, lifestyle, and how you feel about life. The answers you give are used to calculate your own personal score on the Happy Planet Index. How happy are you... and at what price to the environment?!

read more | digg story

sand and aliens

on saturday the roomies and i ventured out to revere beach to see the sandcastle competition. there were some crazy ones out there. the main event was a pirate ship inspired by pirates of the carribean including the octopus one and captain jack sparrow. we didn't get to see them blow up the losers at the end but it was still very cool.

after wandering around the sand exhibit we took in some sun on the beach. it wasn't as sketchy as everyone warned us it would be. just full of boston people. who are... boston-y. however, adjacent to us was also a group of what we determined to be brazillian. in this group were 4 boys wearing little tiny, very tight swim trunks. playing some kind of volleyball-soccer game. that was pretty much what entertained us girls for quite a while. eye candy for the girls. we're weirdos, oh well.

after a quick shower ellen and i ventured out to see transformers at fenway. ahem. yeah. the transformers were totally awesome. love them. shia, cute girl, hot soldier boy and the dialogue - yeah, not so impressive. sadly. the cartoon totally rocked my socks as a kid and now the robots still do but the movie was eh just due to all the human talking. tres annoying. oh well, still glad i saw it in the theater cos the autobots were REALLY cool.

---

and now its sunday night and as usual i am not in the mood to return to work in the morning. sometimes it feels like i'm in 7th grade again, dreading sitting in class after a free weekend. only i'm an adult now and its the cube life i'm not digging. oh well. so it goes...

maybe siren festival next weekend... we shall see...

the arts i want

when people tell me they don't have a favorite type of music or only
listen to top40 i judge them. harshly. i know, not all people care
about these things, but i do cos i'm a nerd. and tele- i love tele,
ask anyone i've ever lived with. good tv provides contemporary
commentaries on life in little 30 or 60 minute segments. lastly,
movies are great story tellers and tho i get to the theater so rarely,
catching a film with 200 other people really is a great experience.

below are things i'm liking right now. experienced or not. these are
picks i'm willing to pay to experience, cos i know i do or will like
them that much. usually i dont like paying for things. which is why
the internet is great. anyways...

cd's i want to buy and not download:
icky thump
our love to admire
ga ga ga ga ga

movies i want to see and not watch online:
spiderman3
transformers
paris, je t'aime

shows i'm loving right now:
online- skins, e4
on tv- flight of the conchords, hbo

i suggest you watch/listen to these sometime. they are good. forreal.

also there are a few art shows i really want to see this summer.
mostly in nyc. i think a roadtrip is in order... brookline to soho in
4 hours or less...

adios a miami

so, i'm back from the sunny side...

my week in miami was great. no computers and no work the whole time. just fun, sun and my travel buddy ellen. with a little family time thrown in to mix it up.

we got in on tuesday and wandered around til it started raining. then we had dinner at puerto sagua (which turned out to be the best restaurant on our trip) and passed out in the room. wednesday was spent sunning and sweating on the beach, a little shopping and then dinner and fireworks on the beach. closed out the night with some latin-tinged jam band jazz at jazid (which coincidentally is right next to miami ink, whose show i love).

thursday morning we rented a car and drove down to visit my family near key largo. two aunts, my gram, and some family friends were all at my aunt's house for the week. had my most delicious salad of the week there during a spanglish lunch and then ellen and i hung out in the pool and napping on the porch until dinner. gram and i had some quality time on the porch in the pitch black watching the lighting bugs flutter around. friday morning we had a caravan of cars drive up north to the largest flea market in america. i got a cool shell windchime and ellen got some jewelry. aunts and gram got purses. a successful trip for all. after filling up on gas we split up. ellen and i drove back down to miami and visited little havana. we took a look around a cigar factory and got some yum yums at a cuban bakery. the cuban coffee with lots of sugar was delicious.

back in miami we went to the beach, took a nap, had dinner at the cuban place again, and went to bed which is a bar/restaurant/lounge/club place with beds for seating. like the one in nyc. only this one was really small and empty. it was kind of like a frat party. weird. but fun cos they're open late. cos its not boston.

saturday morning we sunned ourselves on the beach again and then had lunch and slushies at wet willies. greasy burgers and deliciously crispy fries. after some showers and an a/c refresher we wandered down collins to lincoln ave and checked out all the cool shops and a whole artist studio complex which was one of my favorite places on the visit. it was SO hot the whole time but we did some quality shopping (real and window) and scored super end of season deals. after a detox-dinner of green green salads(we'd been eating fried and greasy food since tuesday) it started to rain. i had some tiramisu gelato while we skipped around back to the hotel- it was delish (the gelato, not the rain). after our long walk home both ellen and i passed out at like 10 and didn't wake up til 3am so there was no out on the streets that night.

sunday morning we woke up early only to find the skies cloudy and all the shops closed (duh- sunday). we wandered around, got rained on, napped, and then once it was sunny we did more shopping and beaching. took a shower, then we went out for a late dinner on ocean drive and people watched. ocean drive is awesome for people watching and car gawking. lots of fun cars around- lambos, ferraris and a lotus- oh my! closed out the night at mansion cos it's the thing to do in southbeach. weirdest part was the stripper pole. and the girls dancing on it. really. maybe i' just a prude, but better for it... anyways, best part of the night was seeing chris nunez from miami ink near the bar. i wish it was ami cos i love him (so does my aunt) but alas, just chris. still cool. i love that show. and i want a tattoo. badly. we stayed out so late and took advantage of the whole south beach thing. it's funny what can make ellen and i so proud. staying up late into the early morning. we're nerds.

sunday we got up late, had a last lunch at our cuban place and hit the road to the airport. the flight was delayed and my luggage was heavy. a guy on the train made fun of me. we made it home around midnight. a good, long trip. pictures on flickr/facebook/picasa if you're interested.

southbeach living is what i want. how could you not?

favorite observations:

• wearing bathing suits as streetwear is great. knowing that if you're hot you can just take off your shirt and walk around in a swimsuit is awesome. and so not kosher for boston.
• cuban black beans, rice and platanos all mixed together is a most delicious icky looking mixture. i could eat it every day.
• conversations that occur in spanish and english are more fun. and challenging to my little brain. in a good way.
  
• being able to take disco naps until 11 or 12 at night and knowing that restaurants and bar will still be open for hours and hours works really well with my love of nappy naps and being ready to go out after midnight.
• boys everywhere hit on you. which is sketchy yes, but also a great confidence booster. that's so anti-feminist but still so true.
  
• flip flops and shorts and tube tops. everyday. who needs pants? and real shoes? pshh. no.
• they have way better radio djs. they actually dj and dont just press play. how novel! and the mixed singles they have are cooler than what we've got in this pop-music backwater of boston.
  

now i'm back in boston. a little browner and a lot more relaxed. and wishing i could go back to the vacation life right now. forreal.

the latest

i always stay up wicked late before a long trip. between packing and nerves and my generally masterful skills of procrastination, i can spend well into 3am wandering around my room throwing things into my luggage.

and so it goes this time.

ellen and i are leaving for a little vacay in south beach. yes, it's summer everywhere and who spends july in south florida... whatever. it's a break from boston and work and general responsibilities. i'm looking forward to it. sitting on the beach reading or strolling through the streets shopping - i'm sure it will all be great.

my gram and aunt will be down in the area as well so it will be nice to squeeze in some family time. haven't seen either since april. ahhh. long distance families can come together sometime.

back to tonight. i've spent the majority of my afternoon and evening wasting time. i packed and unpacked my suitcase at least three times, consulting my roomates on what to take and what to leave, giving and watching mini fashion shows throughout. i watched an episode of skins, transferred my latest downloads to my mp3 player, showered, stared at the tele for a while, listened to some music while staring at the ceiling, and overall doing nothing productive.

i'm itching to watch the final episode of series one of skins because i've gotten this far and its gotten so weird... but i really should be sleeping instead. so i will. ep9 will just have to wait until next week... i'm such a loser.

but tomorrow- i'll be a loser on the beach!

a little older, not much wiser

i turned 24 today. that's pretty gross, eh?

worked up until 8p last night then went out for some drinks and yummies at sunset to ring in the passage of time with my brookline family. we had a good time laughing at poop and penis jokes cos we're all so mature. good to know i can be in my twenties and still laugh at 7th grade jokes with my friends. only now we can drink beer too. :)

after a late night marathon of chris rock standup, reading about amy winehouse and watching the boys play wii i passed out.

i woke up to calls from my family wishing and singing me happy birthday. i love my mommy, daddy and baby. sucks that i'm so far away all the time... but not for much longer!!!

this afternoon the girls and i went shopping for vacation clothes. picked up some yum yums at the asian bakery and came home to have fashion shows. finished up the day with mass at BC and now ellen and i are watching grease and planning for miami.

not the craziest birthday ever, but chill and fun doing some of my favorite things- eating, shopping, and singing along with grease!


miami in two days!! woohoo!!

these times, they are a changing

i'm moving back to texas. woohoo! 6 years later...

i've asked for an office transfer. to austin, texas. in september.

wow. should be fun.

really gotta make the most of my last few months up here. operation rock boston will start today!

im a loser. the end.

"ughh.... i wanna get marrieddddddd!"

my roomate and i in unison while watching the opening scene in "you, me and dupree". we are such losers. this might be related to the fact that we went to the draft at 530 to get a late lunch special of $3 burgers and $9 pitchers.

so sad.

but woohoo! its summer.

the end.

i said no, no, no.

a bar i was at last night played amy winehouse's entire "back to
black" from start to finish. we left the second time rehab started
playing. i love that song. i loved that bar not only for their
martinis, but for their music choice. very wise. great lounge music.
:p

so today i've spent a lot of time listening to amy again. ellen thinks
i'm crazy. i know. sometimes i get into things and listen to them far
more than any normal person could stand. good thing i have headphones.

posi thoughts for june

2 weeks ago i was feeling pretty poopy. here i am, just a few days
later and feeling much better. there are a lot of positives floating
around. here are some of my little highlights.

+ ACLfest schedule was announced. i now have 3 months to plan out my
show-hopping, hour by hour.
+ i bought cute shoes on super sale. not only do i like them, but
other people do too!
+ i've made a decision regarding my life come september. now i just
have to tell people.
+ someone put up cups in the fence along cambridge st to read 'you are
beautiful.' it totally made my morning yesterday.
+ going "out" in providence made me realize it maybe wasn't so lame a town.
+ it's really, officially summer. and it's actually pretty out in
boston (for now).
+ i managed to convince myself there is a silver lining to the fact
that i have to work on my birthday-eve, which is a saturday.
+ my mom and bro's visit was really great and helped cement decision
for september.
+ i'm getting over the angst of turning 24. very important since that
age is quickly approaching.

+ i'm trying to do a mini-earth-lent project for a week or two. kinda
like easter lent in that you give something up. but instead of for
your faith it's for the earth. i've given up disposable drinking
containers. obviously it's not a big sacrifice, but in one day i can
go through 3 or 4 paper cups between breakfast, lunch, and tea breaks.
and if i do buy a drink out that involves a plastic or glass or metal
bottle. so no more disposable containers for a while. not so bad at
lunchtime- i always have my water bottle with me, but i do really wish
i'd brought a cup for tea, the a/c is on full blast today and it'd
help to warm up...

focusing on the posi parts of life. it's sunny out and my ankle's not
broken, how can i not be happier?

i'm a baby and i like my mommy

i've been alone for the last two nights. my mommy and baby bro were up for about a week visiting me. it was a slumber party every night. then they left on monday.

when most people talk about their mothers coming to town it's usually accompanied by a grimace or a groan. not me. i love my mommy. she's great and fun and helpful, even her craziness is part of her charm. i was excited to have her visiting. and i enjoyed the time she was here.

same with my bro. he's pretty much one of my most favorite people on the planet and i don't even know why. i usually call him 'baby' instead of his name. this has to do with my attachment to the kid. he's like my baby that i always try to mold and direct. it's even better when he listens. having him hanging around, even if it's just to complain, is still great. baby.

we didn't do much activity-wise while they were here. went to some dinners, arts festival in coolidge corner, shopping on newbury. my favorite part of their visit was just the part where we hung out in my room watching tv and telling jokes.

i love my family.

which brings me to my next thought which is somewhat tangentially related.

today at work my boss brought up the fortune magazine article he read about generation y. he talked about how gen y-ers were needy and overly confident. we tried to prove that gen y was better than gen x. then, the convo ended with my boss telling me that when he read the article he said it described me to a T. needy and overconfident- was he insulting me? should i be offended? he said no...

http://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/2007/05/28/100033934/

then i read the article. it says other things about gen y-ers besides being needy. the article mentioned the importance of parents in our lives- true. talked about the gen y's generally high expectations in the workplace- yep. "self-absorbed, gregarious, multitasking, loud, optimistic, pierced" i'm not all that, but yeah, some of it for sure.

i'm less offended now. i can accept that. i can agree that i do fit into this stereotype quite a bit. it's true. it's partly how i was raised- my parents, society and the environment. i think another part of the current stereotype is due to my age- i'll admit that i'm immature, ignorant and naive in some ways. it would be ridiculous to say i'm a true adult. i still depend on my parents for advice. and some times i'm probably overly naive in my optimistic view of mankind and various individuals. hopefully these things will pass with time and experience. i can't be a baby forever.

that's my brother's job.

p.s. the spurs won the championship in a 4 game sweep of the cavs. i'm so glad that my mom and disinterested brother were here to watch the game with me. having 2.5 spurs fans in boston was super exciting compared to previous games where it was me yelling at the tv and clapping alone in my bedroom. wooooo!! spurs '07. duncan dynasty fo sho.

the poop continues to flow

casey reyes-jimenez
(1996-2007)

one more time i've hated myself for being thousands of miles from home.

my dog was put to sleep today. my mom called me yesterday afternoon to say he was acting weird and sloppy yesterday and at the vet today they said it was cancer. it would have been lots of pain and lots of money to even try to help him through this. and it might not have even helped.

so today i told my mom to go ahead and let him go while standing on the street trying not to cry in the middle of coolidge corner. i was laying in my bed face down when she called crying to say she, daddy and baby had all said goodbye to my casey. i was on the steps of st.ignatius when i asked my mom to bury him in the backyard by my bedroom window.

i feel horrible. most of casey's life i was living in dallas or boston. when i was home in san antonio i never spent enough time with my ornery, fluffy, little puppy. last month while i was in town my mom mentioned he was acting weird but he had seemed fine when i played with him so i didn't take him to the vet. i don't know, but it might have helped.

i hate being so far away.

icky poop

today's been a poopy day.

first this morning, i was almost in a car accident. people braking too quickly and not quick enough.

then i went to lunch at a seafood place and ate lots of clam strips and fries. 10 minutes later i felt like puking.

got home to work kinda early so rach and i decided to go play basketball at the park. and by "play" i mean have shooting practice. anyways. while i was bending over to pick up the ball once, i stepped on a curb and totally twisted my ankle. sprained it. hopefully no fractures or anything. dunno. it hurts.

dang it.

so poopy.

kel's almost to my house so maybe tonight/this weekend will get better. hopefully. ugh.

(yay spurs!)

its the finals

i love my spurs.

went to dinner at white horse. the pre-game show started while i was there. abc was doing a profile of tim duncan and had a video of him just sitting there. a guy at the next table wondered aloud, 'i wonder what duncan looks like when he's excited..." his friend answered, "that is duncan excited."

yeah. i love him. i love them. also, i love when the camera pans over to david robinson. cos i LOVE david. so much. since i was like 10. i remember being in 5th grade and declaring my love for david robinson.

spurs pride runs deep. it's times like these that i really wish i was home in san antonio. besides my family there's just that city pride that i miss during times like these (aka spurs in the finals). boston during basketball season sux mostly. people here only care about sox. and bruins and pats. no bball love. all they know is larry bird. lame. east coast poopers.

girly note: cavs player pavlovic is hot. and made a hot basket. thats nice. still...

go spurs go. forreal. i originally said spurs take the series 4-2, but i'd rather 4-0 at this point. safer.

also i like how they keep mentioning how the spurs are the winningest sports franchise in the last decade. oh yeah. still no respect. lame-o.

cumpleanos

today is my mommy's birthday. HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOMMY!!! XOXOXOXOX!!!

she's one year older, wiser and more experienced. she's always got too many more years on me. dang it. mommy's are like that. older/wiser.

i'm sad i'm not with her this year. unfortch. however, she is coming to visit me very very soon. YAY. baby's coming too. he's cute.

momma's birthday today. roomie's birthday on monday. mine is coming up in less than a month. that just hit me today. birthdays = passage of time.

turning 24. which means 25 is a blink away. 24 is so old. (in my teenie kid mind) and 25! that's adult age! where did that come from? so soon?!?! i'm such a baby in so many ways, how can i have accumulated all those years? where'd they go?

*quarter life crisis will now commence*

No Impact Man: Why I make environmental action personal…

“Public opinion polls show a significant increase in the number of Americans who support strong climate action. Deeper digging shows this support is superficial, too thin to drive the rapid sociopolitical change now required…”polar bears make everyone want to be more eco-friendly...



read more | digg story

the debates

watching the republican debates on cnn. they were talking about the bilingual question. i was about to throw something at the television it was making me so mad. we do NOT need to be an english only country. period. muchas gracias.

mccain saved it. i know these are politicians trying to sell themselves to voters. still. after my upset at the other guys, it was marginally better.

blabbers. talkers. politicians.

what does it take to be an american? answer - "cut ties with your past..." are you f-ing kidding me? that is stupid. if everyone who is 'american' cut their ties from the heritage country we'd all be celebrating native american traditions and that's it. ha! like that would've ever happened. no. how many of these white republican candidates regularly celebrate their scottish, english, irish roots? what bad americans. yes. listening to the party line on the 'immigration' issue is so upsetting.

sidenote: mitt romney is a tool. invoking the 'greatness' of reagan from his way too orange-tan face and his gelled hair bobbing around. that whole romney memo about his hair looking 'too nice' to convince voters- yeah, they were right. he looks like a ken doll fo' sho! and he REALLY loves reagan. i feel like mitt read reagan's bio last night and wants to recite all the fun facts he just learned!

should've watched the dem debates. could've ragged on them too. :)

/rant

international superstar

it's only 10:30 am and i've already spoken with people in 5 continents
and 8 countries: australia, india, ireland, uk, us, brazil, argentina,
mexico.

that makes my job kind of cool... sort of. if only i could travel to
allllll of those places. that'd be actually cool.

morning call from my brother:

*ring*ring*

me: hello.
baby: helloooo.
*silence*
me: what are you doing?
baby: i'm walking the bunny.
me: in a harness?
baby: yes, but she keeps slipping out.
*silence*
me: why do you sound so low? are you sad?
baby: kind of.
me: why?
baby: i have to get a haircut...
me: and that's why you're sad?
baby: yes. well, i'm sad and excited.
...

i love that weird little boy.

the fan is really loud

i'm back in boston after my quick visit south of the border.

i really do like mexico city. my last night there i wandered around zona rosa doing some shopping, taking in the sights, and being overwhelmed and eventually lost for a bit.

no worries. i found my way home with the help of my pops who gave directions over the phone. from texas. yeah...

i REALLY want to go back there for vacay and when its not the rainy season. for sure.

back in the bean. it's been toasty warm and i bought a new camera. so taking pictures outside is now even more fun. love it. its big and has super zoom and image stabilization. fun. not really for 'party pics'. more for graffiti and flowers. cos i'm in to that.

after being in mexico for a week and then enjoying a 3 day vacation i am SO not in the mood to return to work tomorrow. like, at all. ugh. work is so blahhh after hanging out for 3 days straight doing nothing. oh well. gotta make the $$ to pay off my credit cards from all this shopping. eek!

spurs playing game 3. 2-1 series. eek! go spurs go!!!

John Mayer @ Comedy Cellar In New York

everyone knows how love him.

cos he's funny. and plays a mean guitar.

soy embarasada (NOT)... i do know what that means...

i'm not embarasada but i am embarrassed. i'm such a loser.

this morning on the way to the office i went to starbucks. got a coffee and fruit cup. only the girl didn't give me a fork. so i was about to leave and was like, oh crap! and for the life of me, i could NOT remember the spanish word for fork.

executive decision time: did i really need that fork and was i willing to ask in spanish? or should i just go up to the office and eat the fruit with my fingers?

fork... fork... spanish? argh.

i decided to ask in english, as embarassing as it was. embarassing cos my last name is mexican and i'm very brown and i'm sure i looked like a loser asking in english.

so i ask one of the coffee dudes, 'can i have a fork please?' too bad he didn't understand english. neither did anyone else behind the bar. i tried to mime eating my fruit. crap, crap, crap. getting more embarassing. i'm now holding up the line. crap. finally some guy in the coffee line was like, "tenedor! ella quiere un tenedor." si, si! that's what i need. so they handed me one. grrreat. GRACIAS!

i then ran out of starbucks and towards the elevators. ugh. i really wish i was fluent. or at least competent. you learn tenedor in like sixth grade spanish. tenedor, cuchara, cuchillo. ugh. so dumb.

also, coming in to the building today, which is the largest office building/tower in latin america, there was a line of police in riot gear. awesome. i wasn't really scared, mostly i was thinking, 'man, i hope they let me in on some other dude's badge i'm using.' i think the fact that i was not scared or worried about a line of armed police in riot gear in front of the building i am entering signals something very wrong about the world we live in. (and the audio for this thought would be 'mad world' by gary jules)

according to the viri, the girl i'm working with, the police are there because there was some threat of a big protest or something. so really, no big. (and i can call her a girl cos she's only 22 and i'm older. wow. i'm so old.)

p.s. THE SPURS WON. YAY! 2-0 against the jazz. i predict a sweep. then, spurs/cavs final with spurs getting a ring after a 4-2 series. what do you think?

ok, that's the end of this morning's mexico city brief.  it says 1245p but its 1145p in d.f.

necesito que practicar mi espanol

so i'm sitting in my hotel room in mexico city, surfing the net on some wifi i found...

all the websites have been acting normal, no big, but then i loaded blogger. and the site is en espanol. nice. cool touch. except, two things are in english, "draft autosaved at..." and "return to list of posts". those two things are in english. wonder if someone forgot to do the make the switch. i should log a sir... (inside joke. inside my head. i'm lame...)

i'm so tired and probably going to sleep soon. even tho its only 930p. little sleep last night. long day sitting in a conference room. i hate sitting in conference rooms.

i do like mexico city though. i'd really like to come here when i dont have to work all day. i want to explore and wander and visit and shop. now i just work, eat, work, sleep. kinda boring. and it's not even so sunny. dangit.

anyways. the public art scene down paseo de la reforma is great. pretty benches and sculptures all the way down. i like walking to work, even in heels. the honking reminds me of boston but the whistles from the police directing traffic reminds me i'm in mexico.

i really wish i spoke fluent spanish. then i'd definitely be able to explore so much more. maybe next time...

note: i actually did find the spurs/jazz game on television here. the commentators speaking spanish are not as excited about commentating. maybe they wish it was futbol... whatevs, spurs are winning. woohoo. vaya spurs vaya! (is that how you'd say go spurs go! in spanish?) eh. sleep time.

poooooop!

i'm supposed to have landed in sao paulo about 2 minutes ago. instead my boss just called me and woke me up in a hotel room in DC.

i hate united airlines.

i was supposed to fly a single flight from boston to dc then on to sao paulo. same flight number. flight in boston was delayed 1.5 hours. then we land in dc and there's no one there to open the door. they'd gone home for the night. so we were stuck in the hot airplane for an extra 15 minutes. during this time my flight to brazil departed. so did everyone else's connection.

i got to a hotel around 1am and found no one at the front desk. awesome. i yelled down a hallway and finally knocked on a random locked door and this old guy came out and checked me in.

ugh.

now its a dumb idea to fly down to brazil for 12 hours. so i might go to mexico city or nothing. poop.

and the worst part is that yesterday afternoon i totally expected something annoying like this to happen. and yet when it did get ugly, i was still annoyed/surprised at my horrid luck. ugh.

i blame united airlines. poopers.

Castle for Salein Western Mass

my dad and i took a peek from the gate of this castle last september. it's really cool and random in the middle of this quaint little town in western mass. interesting...



read more | digg story

greys anatomy

i'm such a greys junkie. it's lame, i know, whatevs. i hate meredith but all the mcDoctors are so cute. and karev.

i missed the last two weeks and have watched them online yesterday and today. this last one was great, particularly because it featured songs from both amy winehouse AND paolo nutini. i love them. really.

ok. enough online tv for one night.


also. has everyone seen the tonyparker/jared subway commercial? it's so whack. and yet i'm so proud. cos the san antonio spurs neverrrr get national commericals. cos they're sooo un-dynamic and not cool. the whole lot of them. tim duncan is a sick baller, but no onscreen presence. really. i think that's why he's not as famous as michael jordan. definitely. the only reason. obviously. :p

last thing. i am SO excited that rob&big is coming back to mtv. that show cracks me up. and now there's going to be a pony?!?! omigosh, yay!

beanie weenie

back from texas.

flew in to san antonio friday morning. after what-a-burger i logged on and did work. then the first of 3 lyssie events.

bbq at my cousin's house. it was so nice, and yum with food from rudy's. my cousins alec and luc played guitar for alyssa and alec said some stuf. and told bad jokes. my favorite line: people all around the world love cash, but here in texas, we love johnny cash. it had not much to do with anything besides the fact that we were in fact in texas, but still funny and so alec-y.

it was great seeing all my cousins and aunts and uncles i hadn't seen in ages. a mini-family reunion. the addition of 6 kent-kids running around definitely made things livelier.

saturday morning was a b-fast back at the kents, then ma and i ran some errands and went to fetch the boy from austin. i love my brother and his crazy clothes and his crazier hair. really.

made a slightly late entrance to the final lyssa party but did get to see a great slide show of my baby cousing growing up. and i got to laugh at david getting dragged around the room by my gram, earning his place as #1 grandkid.

home to pass out, wake up early, b-fast with ma, pa, gram and baby before heading to the airport and flying back to the bean.

it was a quick and hectic trip but i'm definitely glad i was able to go down. i got to see my lovely family and celebrate alyssa's graduation. and soak up a little more texas sun and love. and even though i didn't get to watch the spurs beat the suns, but knowing i was in the same city as the victory was still good.

so in conclusion, yay family and go spurs go!

banksy tattoo

its just weird. like 8 people in the last day or so have come to this site b/c of google searches for banksy tattoos. i wonder what they were looking for. i wonder if they had tattoos, read an article about banksy, or what... they were linked in cos of that post i wrote a while back of the girl w/ heart stencil that i want. i realllllly do want that. on my skin.

ha. my fam would kill me.

also makes me wonder who out there in the world actually reads these ramblings. i know like 3 or 4 ppl who read semi-regularly. but i also know there are some rando's i havent identified that also come in regularly. i assume i know them... maybe. dunno. whatevers.

anyways.

we got to leave work at 330p today to go to the bar to drink beers. it was kind of awkward but very sunny and warm. good times.

tomorrow i'm going to the brazilians consulate to apply for a visa.
i leave for san antonio on friday morning.
family time all weekend.
back to bean/work on sunday.
kiss concert next saturday.
fly to sao paulo on sunday.
rock latin america thru next saturday.
fly back to beantown the next next sunday.
memorial day holiday (on the cape?)

and then it's june. whoa. june-july(i.turn.24)-aug-then MOVE time. weird. so close. eek. i'm freaked out more than a little, yeah.

the end.

GO SPURS GO. game 2 tonight. tho i love the suns. i LOVELOVELOVE my spurs. of course.

the end end.

oh yeah, i love flickr. end end end. stop.

Dept. of Popular Culture: Banksy Was Here- The New Yorker

new yorker mag has a profile of banksy, one of my heroes...



read more | digg story

Slide Show: In Plain Sight- Banksy: The New Yorker

In the Innovators Issue, Lauren Collins writes about Banksy, the invisible man of graffiti art. Here is a portfolio of his work, including an exclusive image that he e-mailed to Collins, as described at the end of her article.



read more | digg story

may is going to be busy

things i have to look forward to, in date order:

3- red sox vs. mariners game in fenway
5- cinco de mayo cookout, oscar/mayweather fight
11- fly to san antonio
12- alyssa's big grad party
19 - kiss concert feat. gym class heroes and some other ppl
21 - mexico city
23 - sao paolo
26 to 28 - memorial weekend

also- spurs charging thru the playoffs (knock on wood!)

awesome. i'm happy!

ahem. my current feelings:

one of my hobbies

i love to look at graffiti (in case u haven't noticed). it's kind of the most consistent and long-lasting hobby/interest i've ever had. blogging is probably a close second or third.

most people i know, particularly close friends and family, are aware of my love of street art. i periodically have tags and stencils as my desktop wallpaper at work. i take pictures of random graffiti i find while walking to lunch with my roommates. i even spent an evening showing my grandma banksy pictures in a book... and she was interested. getting other people interested or even understanding and less offended by graffiti is enjoyable for me. i also think it makes people be more appreciative and aware of their surroundings. noticing street art makes you look up to see the highest roof edges and low to the bottoms of streetlights which in turn just makes you LOOK. which is huge sometimes...

so while home in san antonio last week, my dad took me around to visit a couple of areas he'd spotted in his travels that he thought i'd be interested in. from a bridge underpass to a huge warehouse on the side of some railroad tracks, and a jogging path in the park- they were all great. after posting some pictures, getting feedback and doing a bit of googling i found out that two of them were "clogged caps" locations. huge organized graffiti showcases. i remember reading about the clogged caps 3 movie a few years ago, probably in the san antonio current, and i was annoyed that i missed the showings they had. so while i still havent seen the movie, i'm glad i got to visit two sites in one day. and i'm glad events like clogged caps exist. (and also makes me think more opportunities like this would cause less need for stringent and annoying graf laws like what they're pushing for in SA right now.) i would love to attend one of these next time around. really. it'd be awesome and so smelly.

here's an article i found about the event last year, for your education and my history: http://www.austinundergroundfilm.com/2006/08/12/clogged-caps-5-aerosol-art-fest/

-- on a different note --

show i love: workout. i started watching it with my mom last summer. last saturday on the plane i watched like 3 hours worth. (oh jetblue and bravo marathons!) brian, one of the trainers, is adorable. he's so country-cute and jock-y. even if he is balding- love it. none of the trainers at my gym are as country as him. if they were, i might go more often. :p

argh

even though i got compliments on it...

my haircut i got last week still feels mullet-like. mostly when i touch my own hair. i guesssss it doesn't really look like a mullet. it just feeeeeels that way. i'm weird. i know.

i'm ok with that.