*&^&%%^$%^$#^%^&^&%$

Santo Domingo turned into a military state and I didn't notice.

Okay so I thought that the whole thing about alcohol consumption was about as far as this riduiculous law was going to go but no. That little law has turned living in this place a nightmare. Let me start by saying that THEY LIED. Obviously when I say "THEY" I mean the authorities. THEY led us to believe that they were going to take away our alcohol so that we don't drink at ungodly hours. I was okay with that. I was willing to respect that because first and foremost I dont' think is such a horrible thing for people to be sober and two, because it's not like I drink that much anyway.

WELL, THEY took away our alcohol but THEY are also taking away our right to hang out. THEY have decided that any and all places that sell alcohol (which is pretty much everywhere)have to not only stop selling alcohol at the given time, but they have to close down entirely! And then, as if that weren't enough, the streets have been flooded with armed men with a license to harass people as THEY see fit. THEY go around stopping people randomly everywhere if for nothing else to tell them that they have no business being in the streets.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Okay Annush. Deep breath.

THEY have decided that we have no civil liberties to speak of. And I say that our "democracy" is in danger. People talk shit about Chavez but I have yet to hear about people in Venezuela being told to go home and stay there or worse, being pulled over at gun point just because.

I realize that life here has become relatively unsafe over the past couple of months. I understand that the President has been so preoccupied with kissing foreign leaders' asses that he has completely neglected domestic policy and that the morons in charge are so busy being corrupt that they didn't notice that the economic instability is driving otherwise normal people into desperation.

WHAT I DON'T UNDERSTAND IS WHY I HAVE TO LIVE IN A PERPETUAL STATE OF PARANOIA BECAUSE OF IT!!!!!!!!!!

This weekend if you were out after 2:01 am you were exposing yourself to the wrath of the uniformed Gods!! why?? all I wanted was to go buy a measely pack of cigarrettes (BIG PICTURE to those of you who are going to lecture me on the evils of smoking), all my brother wanted was to drive his girlfriend home, all my friend wanted was to go to someone's house as long as we can no longer hang out at our favorite place.

I HATE PEOPLE I HATE PEOPLE I HATE PEOPLE.

Y'all know how I always say that this is a nice place to visit but that you dont' want to live here? Well, that's changed. If you can, GO TO MEXICO or wherever else that's not war torn...

I could eat a sandwich :)

Tonight I am taking Yvette "to the underworld", as she likes to call the world that comprises the things I like to do. I am surprised she is so keen on going all things being considered, but I am glad that she is cool enough that she wants to explore something I am in to. Not everyone is like that...

I am very excited about going to check out Benoit Cassar. I've been waiting for him for a while. You can only imagine my surprise Wednesday night when while we were eating Yuri says to me "hey, let's go say hi to XYperson. He is chilling with the DJ" and then an hour later when we were at this bar I turned around and he was standing right next to me trying to order a Presidente. hahahaha

I am amused by little things.

Another interesting thing about tonight is that it is the first Friday after the new alcohol consumption laws went into effect. According to this law, no alcohol is to be sold after 2:00am on weekends and 12:00am on weeknights. I mean, that's what the law says but apparently certain people are trying to execute it by closing down the bars and clubs. I don't know. I don't get it. Dominican reasoning is sometimes unreasonable. Anyway, I want to see what's going to happen after 2:00am. I know that on Wednesday night, I was in a place that just closed the door with the people who were already in and kept on going as if nothing had happened. I appreciated that.

The only thing I have noticed over the past couple of days regarding this ridiculous law is that people just seem to be trying to get drunk quicker and earlier. If before the consumption of a drink took an hour, now it takes 20 minutes and people get just as drunk, if not drunker than they would have been before. Did the law solve the problem? I don't think so. This society isn't made for legislation like that.

Anyway, I've been moody, cranky and above all things quite hungry these past few days. I never realized just how gluten dependant I was and how hard it is to keep a gluten-free diet. I think I may have to rethink my vegetarianism for the sake of simply having some sort of variety in the things I eat because I can't live off fruits, vegetables and ice cream alone.

Back to the underworld...

Get your sexy on...

...

I'm bringing sexy back

Them other fuckers don't know how to act

Come let me make up for the things you lack

Cause your burning up I gotta get it fast

Take em' to the bridge

Dirty babe

You see these shackles

Baby I'm your slave

I'll let you whip me if I misbehave

It's just that no one makes me feel this way

...

(now THIS is poetry...thank you JT!)

Cross your fingers for me...

Today is my group fitness final. I have to take a written test and then I have to teach my very first aerobics class. Yesterday I spent the better part of the day working on my choreography. I didn't realize how hard it is to do that; especially considering how little I like aerobics. In any case, today I am sore, hungry, tired and it's not even 8:00am. I can't wait for all this to be over so that I can start taking my specialty classes :D

Cross your fingers for me!!!

Of course...

"...Cream colored ponies and crisp apple streudels
Doorbells and sleigh bells and schnitzel with noodles
Wild geese that fly with the moon on their wings
These are a few of my favorite things..."
Okay so I don't eat meat and I hate noodles. But I love apple streudels, cookies, biscotti and cake. I love pita, baguettes, bagels and rolls. I love pizza, pasta, croutons and ciabatta bread.

Basically I love stuff made out of wheat, oats, barley, rye and pretty much every other derivation of grain there is.

But now, as if I don't have enough to worry about in my life, I have to worry about gluten. Just when I thought I had merely developed a freak allergy to pizza that would go away once it was forgotten about, it turns out that I am allergic to gluten. Coeliac disease apparently (if you wanna' get technical).

How can I be allergic to gluten?

Why me?

Isn't enough that I am allergic to any and all things that come out of the water?

This sucks. I need a new body. Next thing you know I really will be allergic to air...

Everyone's on vacation...or returning

"I'll call you when I get back. We'll have pita chips!"

"Call me when you get back, we'll DEFINITELY do lunch!"

"We have to get together as soon as I come back! We'll have drinks!"

"I want to see you when you come back. We are so hanging out when you do!"

"I am baaaaaaaaaack! We have to get together! What are you doing tonight?!?!?!"

"I am leaving to xxxx city next week...we need to work on that going away party! "

(Sometimes life is like being stuck in a chapter from Bergdorf Blondes)

Si hablo español...

There is this guy by my shool who sells fruit. He will make you these really great fruit salads with the fruits you pick out from his little cart/stand thing and I love that! Some other fruit guys sometimes cut the fruit too big or too small but this guy's pieces are just perfect bitesize pieces. At least every other day, I buy fruit from him and I always get the same ones: mango, pineapple, canteloupe, banana, and tangerines or oranges.

Anyway, I have been talking to Mr. Fruit guy a lot since I started school, but then two days ago he told someone that I was Puertorican. I was like "whaaaaaaaaaaat?" very politely I told him that I was not in fact Puertorican, but that I was Dominican and hoped that he would leave it at that but he said that it was nice that "I felt Dominican" but that I was really Puertorican.

How did he figure that? My accented Spanish apparently...

Now, no offense to Puertoricans (or Cubans or anybody else), I could speak the worse Spanish in the face of humanity (which I most certainly don't) but there is no way in hell I sound Puertorican; and what's more, if I did, I would just shut my mouth and never speak Spanish again. I am sorry to say it, but it is my belief that Puertorican Spanish is an insult to the Spanish language.

I am not saying that they should go around speaking Castillian but propper pronunciation is beautiful. The "r" is a letter and is not there for decoration: SAY IT. You are speaking not singing and if you think that you are singing pick a better beat because it sounds stupid, especially when you consider that every statement sounds like a question. What is it with all the guttural sounds? There is no sound in the Spanish language that requires you to pronounce it and sound like you are choking! ewwwwwww...

I could bitch and whine about Cuban Spanish but my only complain about that one is the sing- song aspect of it. That's not necesasry. WHY???? But Cuban American Spanish sucks. It's like Spanglish on crack...

I know that I am bitching and that I am going to get 500 emails (because people don't comment anymore, they email) saying that I am being a bitch and that Dominican Spanish is horrible. Well, I believe that Dominican Spanish has plenty of flaws too, but I try to correct myself before I make stupid mistakes like not pronouncing the "s", which a lot of people seem to forget exists. And we do speak horribly fast, and of that, I am guilty myself; but I believe that's because we have a faster thought process, which would make sense scientifically speaking. I know that people from the country, like my housekeeper for example, speak kinda like they are singing and that annoys the living crap out of me, but it's never nearly as bad as the sing-songy Puertorican Spanish I am forced to listen to every day of my life.

So what's my favorite kind of Spanish? The kind that's written down because I realize that every Hispanic culture has made it into their own by giving it a little something to make it sound different. Personally, I kinda like Argentinian Spanish but all that "vos" nonsense would drive me insane after a while. I like "tu"...

I am going to turn anorexic...

...because if I miss another REALLY GOOD phone call because I am eating, I am going to have to kill myself damn it!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!

I celebrate myself...

"The atmosphere is not a perfume--

it has no taste of the distillation--it is odorless;

It is for my mouth forever--I am in love with it..."

-Song of Myself by Walt Whitman

For a few days now I have walked down memory lane. Accidentally, of course, because nobody ever really walks down that path unless there is a reason. Unless there is a trigger. Unless there is something at stake. If they are normal that is.

Yvette led me to a reminder of the way things were, back when things seemed "easy" though I have to ask myself, how easy were they? Upon being reminded of certain situations she wonders if she was insane, she says she (c)would never do any of it now. And I wonder, did we do all those thigns because we were insane, or because it was really that "easy"?

I like who I am. I am a work in progress, sure. But all in all, I like who I have become, even when at time I feel like I've become a cookie cutter version of someone's idea of "wholesome". But despite what I may say, or what people may even think, this wasn't always the case because if my essence hasn't changed, a lot has. And the person I am today is not the person I was before.

There was a time when I should have drank water but I didn't. Should have been eating my veggies, but wasn't. Should have been inhaling oxigen but didn't and should have been in bed by midnight, but wasn't.

I took things I shouldn't have taken, gave things I shouldn't have given. Wanted things I shouldn't have wanted and needed things I shouldn't have needed. I said things that were best kept secret, I did things had best been left undone. I learned things I shouldn't have learned, and I made things I definitely shouldn't have done.

Things have happened to me because I did things I wasn't suposed to do. If I couldn't leave my house through the front door, I always had an available window. I wasn't a stranger to people watching me sleep and my wallet held much more than money and keys.

Oh! the places I went and the things I have seen!

I loved people I shouldn't have loved and justified things that I now see were dead wrong. I was an accomplice to things I wouldn't think of doing now and everything my mom tried so hard to teach me didn't make sense to me up until now.

Dont' get me wrong, we were good kids. I was a good kid. Was I lost? Was I a rebel? Was I simply creating pictures for the scrapbook of my life? hard to say...All I know is that when I think back on these moments I laugh and when I read something like "was I insane?" "I would never do something like that now" I wonder if I could go back in time and be in that same situation, would I do it again?

would it make a difference?

the dark side...

en·vy
n. pl. en·vies
1. a. A feeling of discontent and resentment aroused by and in conjunction with desire for the possessions or qualities of another.
b. The object of such feeling: Their new pool made them the envy of their neighbors.
2. Malevolence.

I like to think that I am a nice person. As far as my friends and family are concerned, and even people I don't really know, I usually share their joy when good things come their way, and even when I don't share their joy, I am in a happy medium: basically, it doesn't affect me either way.

In any case, some time ago I wrote a post about how easy it was to spy on people these days. About how sites such as MySpace, Hi5, A Small World, WAYM, Google earth and even blogs give access to people's lives and allow us to assess them, all the while these same people are the ones inadvertedly giving users permission to do so.

Well, I am guilty of all of the things above: I put my life out there for the world to see but I do that in exchange for access to other people's lives. And I look at them and I flat out spy. I don't know what I am looking for though because 99.9% of the time I just wanna' see a different perspective.

It is the other .1% of the time that is dangerous. Again, I don't know what I'm looking for but I want to find SOMETHING. Anything. And the sad thing is that this .1% of my time is spent in particular profiles.

Today I found something. Nothing major, just a couple of pictures. But for the first time in my life I felt jealousy. I asked myself why was that not me in those pictures? Why did they have access to that and I didn't? Why do I not have the right address?

Why? Why? Why?

and suddenly I felt like I wasn't good enough for humanity. Like the things I have mean nothing because it could be better. I don't know what was going on in that picture, which was incidentally the picture of someone I have never met. All I saw was a situation that I wanted to be a part of and I couldn't because I am here. And I was jealous. And I felt envy. And I don't like myself when I feel those things. Not at all. It makes me wanna puke.

So I think I am done spying. I am too good for that and I don't like myself when I feel like I am less, especially for reasons that in the end are stupid.

I've lost my faith in love...

THEY BROKE UP!!!!

A million ways to say one simple thing...

Back when I used to live in Germany, I started dating this German guy. We had a really nice relationship despite the ocassional misunderstanding brought about by his limitations in the English language and my own in German. I think that was probably my first adult relationship in the sense that it was almost like living together except that we each had our own place.

Anyway, some time into our relationship we were sitting around my apartment going over my German homework one night and at some point during a discussion regarding the difference between the Dativ, Akkusativ, Nominativ and Genitiv cases, I said something stupid and he laughed turned to me and said "Oh Annush I love you".

I understood that as "Oh Annush I love you".

The English language is a very poor language. There are a number of things that can't be expressed because the words simply don't exist. The varying degrees of love is one of them. Because I felt that German boy truly cared for me, I figured that when he said "I love you" he meant I LOVE YOU.

Some months later, when my German was 557 times better than it was when we met, German boy and I took a trip somewhere. On the way to the place we got into an argument. A nasty argument at that. An argument in Gerglish. When we got to the hotel we made up but I was still all kinds of annoyed because I felt like we were lost. So while we were sitting in the lobby he grabbed my face as he often did, gave me a smooch and said "Oh Annush I love you".

To that I responded "Say it in German".

He said "Ich habe dich ganz toll liebe".

"Ich habe dich ganz toll liebe" is not the same thing as "Ich liebe dich" which is the "I love you" I had understood. So I got all teary eyed and walked away. He followed. He asked me if something was wrong, if I didn't love him. I said that I loved him in the only way my English speaking brain knew how. Needless to say, we broke up.

As we all know, in English we either love or we don't.

Spanish is different and though I always knew this it was brought up to my attention the other day. A friend of mine is in an extremely new relationship and the guy said "Te quiero". Mild form of love. I was like "whaaaaaaat?" My brain switch was flipped to English that day. Then she was like "that's not bad, it's not like he said 'te amo' ". Love in all of its romantic glory.

So I thought to myself that in Spanish we can say "te quiero", "te quiero mucho", "te amo", "te adoro" and I'm sure there are a couple more I just don't know. So I was like Uff! then a relieved Uff! because it's clear yet confusing for someone who can't tell the difference. I tell everyone "te amo" though I am sure it's not the case.

I trust body language. The things we don't say but that we express.

I was laying there naping next to him when I felt him him kiss my shoulders, and my eyelids and my forehead and though he didn't say it then, I was certain that, at least at that very moment, er liebt mich...

Back to regular scheduled programming...

I am back from Georgia. Thank God.

Just kidding. But I really am back. That was a very short yet enlightening trip. I had never been to any of the states between Washington D.C. and Florida except for Raleigh so for me this was like visiting a foreign country with the intent to move there.

I must admit that the area of GA I visited was like nothing I had ever seen.

Rewind.

I read in an article somewhere that Atlanta was one of the top ten fastest growing cities in America and a wonderful place for real estate investments. Basically the kind of place I am looking for to settle down: somewhere not nearly as urban as NYC or Miami but somewhere that's not entirely rural. On paper at least, it seemed like a good place to start a life. Again. My cousin Elizabeth who lives in Marietta, suggested that I checked out that area because she simply loves it and as far as she is concerned, that's her version of heaven.

Anyway, this week I packed my bags and went to explore.

A few days before I got there, my mom, en route to NYC, stopped to take a peek and she called to tell me that Marietta was the place I was looking for: a New Jersey meets Germany type of place. I was excited. Very excited.

My general impressions were nothing like what I was expecting. The first two days I was there were spent mostly exploring Marietta. Sure, it has a lot of positives; but that place is far too rural for me. I like trees as much as the next person; however, the thought of having to live in what felt like the middle of nowhere worried me. For every two cars I saw on the road or otherwise, there was at least one pick up truck. The homes seemed very isolated. In terms of the people, I stuck out like a sore thumb. I guess I haven't lost my big city edge. Maybe I am just used to stylishness and over there that appeared to be unexistant. Hard to say. But people in general looked disheveled to me and I think that how you project yourself says a lot about the lifestyle you lead. I may be bummy but always stylish :P

Another thing that worried me about Marietta was some of the things I saw. Some of the homes had confederate flags hanging. For obvious reasons I found that troublesome, which then turned to worrysome when while driving around with Grant we spotted a sign that read “Stop the invasion – secure our borders now!”. I have never had to deal with such an in your face form of racism and ethnocentrism before in my life and I don't intend to go out looking for it now.

Atlanta, on the other hand, was wonderful. To me, downtown Atlanta looked a lot like Greenwich Village. It was a whole lot more urban than I anticipated but far less urban than I am used to. The people seem a little more worldly all the while they seem far more laid back. That I REALLY liked. I actually even saw an area that I really loved where I could totally see myself living. It had everything I love from Tasti D-Lite to IKEA and the city as a whole seemed less racially aware though this was probably because the area is more diverse, even if by diversity I mean mostly African American.

As a whole, I find Southerners to be very charming. I loved the accent, the hospitality, the politeness and am sure I would have loved the food were I a fan of fried stuff, meat, or seafood. I had a difficult time when eating out because they don't seem very accomodating when it comes to food and I am the first to admit that I am a picky eater, especially now that I am allergic to pizza but that's a whole other post.

As I mention before, I met Grant. We had dinner together last night and had a really nice time. Though he was quieter than I anticipated and far more willing to go in the general area of a church as he lets on, he was great company.

In any case, I dont' know if I'll move to GA for sure. There is a lot I need to think about before I do; however, for the time being I think that Atlanta would be a very good fit for me. I guess I have my work cut out for me now...

Oh and these are just so you can see that I survived and that I even enjoyed it...

Off to Georgia I go...

Try not to miss me too terribly much. I'll be back in time for the weekend :)

I just need to go make sure my future really is that of a grit eating Southerner...You know, as long as burger eating New Jerseyite, bagel eating New Yorker and anorexic Miamian didn't work out :P

(I wonder how long it'll take me to get the accent down...)

of dance and sports...

Damn what a weekend!

I think I may have just recovered. Actually, no. I just caught the last of the zzzzs I was missing. I will have just recovered when Ivan brings me that cookie I've been craving all day. I need a cookie! I need a cooie! I need a cookie! and what's more, I DON'T WANNA GO GET IT!!

Okay. Let me think. The weekend recap. Hmmmm...I'll do it in pictures.

Friday:

Princesses night out. Yuri and I, along with the party crew, danced until 5:00am. We left because, well, sooner or later we were going to have to. But of course, not without first spending quality time with Serge. He is a hottie, and thanks to me, now he knows that he is one (if he didn't already know).

Saturday:

No pictures. I can't fall asleep if the sun has already come out so I was walking around all zombie like the entire day. I went to Marocha with Eny and there we ran into Ivan, Lilli, Bianca and Luisana. They tried to talk me into going to Praia to dance to DJ Ravara but that wasn't going to happen (It almost did happen because I am weak but my worn out body said no. So no.)

Sunday:

World Cup Finals. After a very filling vegetable lasagna lunch (yeah...all italian all day long) Eny, Yuri and I head on over to Steakhouse to watch the game. Half of humanity was there. Too much fun. I kept thinking of my dear friend Angie, she who loooooves soccer and I haven't seen in a long time. Distance sucks.

Anyway, by 10:00pm I was home drunk, stuffed (victory pizza!) and in bed. I could try to tell you what happened between 1:00pm and 10:00pm but I can't so if you can read Spanish and feel the need to find out, go here.

At 3:00am I kept hearing strange noises so I was convinced that someone had broken into my house. Then Ivan thought someone had broken into our house. We scared the living hell out of each other and went to bed.

Somehow I woke up today and went to class. But I was still soooooooo tired so I came home and I napped. I should be packing for my trip to atlanta tomorrow but ask me if I have even looked in the general direction of my closet...I'll get to that eventually I guess. All I need is that cookie...

Go Italia!

...perché amo la pasta! ;)

I ain't sayin' she's a gold-digger...

...but she ain't messin' with no broke nigger...

I really don't know who is worse: a girl who goes out with a guy because he has money and can give her a lifestyle she couldn't afford on her own, or a guy who is stupid enough to throw obscene amounts of money around in the general direction of a girl who is not committed to him in any way color shape or form.

As far as I am concerned both are equally bad. One is like prostitution and the other one is the emobodiement of poor self esteem.

It is one thing to buy a girl a drink at a bar, dinner or even bring her ice cream. It is something entirely different to pay for her electric bill, phone bill, and buy her a car. It is one thing to show appreciation for a nice gesture. It is something entirely different to build a relationship solely on being on the receiving end of lavish gestures.

Why a man would put himself through that is beyond me...I mean, no man can be so incredibly blind that he can't see when he is being milked for all he is worth. And I doubt that any man in his right mind would be okay with knowing that the girl holding his hand is someone he is pretty much renting.

"Honey, I am hungry. Let's go have dinner at *insert name of 5 star restaurant here*" is not the same as "honey, I am hungry. Let's go get something to eat".

I understand that love makes people crazy but come on now. Trying to impress somebody by throwing abscene amounts of luxuries in the general direction isn't going to make someone like you any more but simply like you for the wrong reasons. And that's assuming they even like you at all...

I feel bad for guys like that.

It's too bad I know so many chicks like those.

That's what I am talking about.

Princess...

Go Deutschland!

...weil ich Deutsches Bier (und Maenner) liebe...

Of nail polish and friends...

Mine (red) and Yuri's feet

Someone wrote to me to ask me why I don't post as many pictures as I used to. The answer is simple: My camera died and my new one is all kinds of fancy and I don't like it so I don't take nearly as many pictures, which doesn't mean I don't take ANY pictures but the ones I do take are of the more personal variety. You know, the kind that would be a stalker's delight :)

Anyway, I'll try to take/post more pictures. There, happy?

My friends are in trouble. Well, they are not in trouble. Their friendship is and I worry about them because they are best friends. I want to help them but I don't know how because I am closer to one than I am to the other, that same person has felt that I've betrayed her when that wasn't really the case but cada cabeza es un mundo and I couldn't convince her otherwise (well, I never really tried because I think she was being stupid).

I know (I think) that there are a bunch of reasons as to why all of this is going on and it hasn't been brought up (that I know of) but I worry I may be one of them. Before I came along it was always THEM. Now it's not so much THEM as it is WE or US.

I have told them to talk it out before it's too late. To sit down and say whatever they need to say so that they can stay happy. It may seem stupid but talking actually works. When fully honest, words can help prevent misunderstandings...

This reminds me of a situation I was in when I was in High School...I had a friend with whom I was fairly close with. This girl in turn had another friend of whom I was afraid of (the girl looked like such a bully!). Anyway, our friend got a boyfriend (Danny was it?) and one day while hanging out at some stupid teen club in Godknowswhere, NJ bully girl and I became friends. Best friends. So of course, then there was drama. The kind of drama that involved mail and postage stamps (that was before the widespread use of email).

I don't miss that at all. I want things to go back to the way they were...(all of it)

you didn't think I was done dancing, did you?

Madonna!

Okay people so here is the thing...there is this contest being hosted by la x-102. They are looking for "Madonna's Biggest Fan" so they can send them to Miami for 2 days all expenses paid blablabla. Of course, I entered it. I am a sucker for contests. Especially good ones.

Anyway, I was in my Chem lab today when they called me to ask me my trivia. Naturally (or surprisingly) I got it right. So I made it to the finals.

Now all I have to do is go to this bar in front of a panel of judges and prove to humanity that I am Madonna's biggest fan. Hmmmm...now if we consider that I'm neither a gay male, a transexual or even a trasvestite I may have an itty bitty problem doing that. I don't know how I am going to pull that off. But I REALLY wanna win!

I was thinking that I could track down all the other finalists and kidnap them so that only I show up and then win by default. But that probably wouldn't be good. So yeah, I need ideas. The forum is open. GIMME GIMME GIMME GIMME! (and if you are a gay male gimme more!!)

Popcorn and soda...

I have come to the realization that the reason why chick flicks have such a bad reputation is because on the most part, well, they really suck.

I like movies. For the past couple of years though I have found it to be a real pain in the ass to sit through two+ hours of anything. People laugh at me when I say that in the past year I have been to the movies twice (HP4 and The Corpse Bride) but it's true. They laugh even more when they talk about movies that are already out on DVD (or are at the very least downloadable) and I just look up and down because I have no idea of what they are talking about.

This wasn't always the case. There was a time when I used to go to the movies at least twice a week and even then, I would watch 3 and 4 movies. Yes, I snuck into movies without paying for them. I am a badass. Sue me. Anyway, back then movie watching was fun. I would sit there with my popcorn, because I looooooooooooove popcorn (but that was before Supersize Me because with that movie I quit movie theatre popcorn), and I would totally get lost in the whole movie watching experience.

But I can't do that anymore. Maybe it is because these days the movies suck, or because the ever increasing prices of movie tickets are just getting ridiculous and I refuse to subsidize an industry that justifies that an actour earn millions of dollars for a few weeks of work. The fact of the matter is that I simply can't.

Yesterday though I wasn't feeling very well. I am still overtrained and I had a never ending cramp in my abs yesterday (everyday is a different body part I tell you) so I spent the morning reading and the afternoon in Ivan's bed watching movies with him. We watched Rumor Has It and Must Love Dogs.

Rumor Has It I kinda liked because it has an interesting, original premise. I both read and watched The Graduate way back in the day and I really liked it. As a result, the fact that this movie would even exist, amused the heck out of me. I kinda liked it despite the fact that I can't see Jennifer Aniston as anyone other than Rachel Greene and that I don't believe that as long as you are walking straight, beer drunkenness can get you in bed with anyone you don't want to go to bed to begin with. Believe me, though I don't drink beer anymore in my time I've drank A LOT of beer. Oh and that whole mathematical thing threw me off because if Jen's character was suppossed to be 33, that would have made grandma Katherine at least 75 and according to her in the movie she was like 63-64. Whatever.

Must Love Dogs simply sucked. I swear to God, unless she is Under The Tuscan Sun, I HATE Diane Lane. I don't know why she likes so much those roles of depressed, desperate divorcee because they are not that empowering and she makes me want to somehow jump inside of the movie and beat her in the head with a newspaper. Anyway, that movie is one of the things that are wrong with the world and one of the reasons why chick flicks get a bad rep. After I saw it, I felt like 2 hours of my life had been taken from me. I shall mourn their loss.

Anyway, I have to write a few emails so I can finish some very important paperwork I need to take care of so I can get the hell out of here next month so I am out. Have a nice day. And remember, if you can't watch a good movie, THEN READ A BOOK!

and it was all yellow...

...and you know what? I love that the last time I saw you it was an ungodly hour and I was dressed just like this, with that same pony tail, no make up (just gloss), and those too-big-but-I-love-them yellow flip-flops and even so I was still tu niña bella...

Siblings...

I think that this is by far the most important story I have read on Time this year. I have always suspected all of this- maybe because I understand and value the relationship with my siblings, difficult though it may sometimes be.

In any case, go check it out. It may teach you a thing or two about yourself or about your own.