Why does doing the right thing sometimes feels wrong?

I like to think that I’m pretty honest. I’m not very good at lying because my face says it all, all of the time. That’s why when the self checkout machine gave me a hundred dollar bill instead of a twenty, I took it to the girl that oversees them all and traded it in for a twenty. Yeah, I could use the money, but I got nervous since the machine had my debit card info and thought they could somehow trace it all back to me. Since then, I’ve thought so many times, “Que mensa!”

T-shirts

For some reason, I've always been the one that gets quirky t-shirts. Like during the first Gulf War, my bro god me one with a caricature of Sadam that said, "So Damn Insane."

The same brother also got me a shirt of Jesus on the cross trying to push it up and I think it said, "Bench press this!" At the time, I had no idea what that meant, but I wore the shirt. Often times, people would stare and sometimes laugh.

Fast forward about ten years, I started to make my own quirky shirts. I made myself a Frijolera t-shirt after listening to the Molotov song. I also have one that says "Mexican Jumping Beaner" and of course, a "Big Brown Girl" one.

However, in between my "creative creations," I've made some for las mujeres de Juárez. Whatever money we make off them goes to their organization. This week, I was asked to make a couple for an event later today. This time, the creativity kicked in and I decided to make each one different, after all, each one of those young girls was different in her own way. The one in the picture is my favorite.

ESPN vs Univision

In my rancho, these are the only two channels that show the World Cup games. Fortunately, I have access to both of these channels. However, when asked to choose, I prefer watching the games on Univision.

Le ponen mas color. Plus, aren't the commercials awesome? My current favorite is the Coca Cola one where the ice cube jumps out of the cup and is screaming, then he melts and says something like, "Siempre pasa lo mismo."

Any of you guys have a fave?

An aside-I finally figured out how to post a pic, as you can see. Dan the Man says I look funky in that pic because I look disproportioned.

Nervous Energy

Last week, as my sis drove west on I-10, there was this nervous energy about us. We listened to 850 AM until we were out of range. The voices of the soccer commentator only enhanced the energy. When we arrived in San Antonio, the nervous energy only increased. Not only did we get a little lost, there was a lot of traffic near the hotel.

Today, the nervous energy returns. I hope El Tri does its best or I might pull out some of my hair or kick Dan the Man (accidentally of course, can you believe he's still sleeping on such an important day?!)!

Si se puede! Si se puede! Si se puede!

Rain & weekend

Something very bad happened to my computer. I fixed it, but for the time being I don’t have Word and all of my music was deleted. This is yet another instance proving to me that I need to make a switch to Mac.

Anyway, my last couple of days have been good. Class was cancelled today due to the rain. My neighborhood didn’t flood when I went out, but there’s no telling what happened earlier today. There was a truck on the median leaning into the ditch. I tried to take a picture of it, but Dan the Man was being a jerk and erased it. He also put his arm in the way.

Anyway, Thursday was my birthday and it was great. My sis got me a copy of The Adventures of Goat. I think that’s the one of the most thoughtful gifts I’ve ever received. I also got a retro Super Mario Brothers game for the Gameboy which has caused me a bit of frustration. I’m terrible at video games, but I really wanted this game. My mom also rocked my world with the new Julieta Venegas cd. It’s awesome.

On Friday, I went to the big ranch, AKA San Antonio, with my sis and the ex roomie to see Robert Karimi. His show was awesome and I liked hanging out at Bar America, but I could have done without the jackass server at Blue Star. Anyway, if you haven’t heard of Karimi, I highly recommend checking him out.

Well, I’m out. Home duties need to be tended to.

Help Save El Segundo Barrio

I am incensed after reading the plans to wipe out El Segundo Barrio in El Paso. The more I think and read about it, the angrier I get. It makes me think of historical houses on the North side of downtown. Why don’t they wipe them out? What is so special about them that they can stay pero the south side gets wiped out?

Please, please, please help a sister out and sign it and pass along the info.

Hello everyone,

I am writing to let you know that there are efforts here, spearheaded by developers (the Paso del Norte Group) and politicians, to demolish 128 acres of el Segundo Barrio, the second oldest Mexicano barrio in El Paso, an area of critical importance to Chicano history and a living community. For a hundred years or more, el Segundo has served as the port of entry to thousands of Mexicano immigrants. It was in this barrio that Mariano Azuela published the first great novel of the Mexican Revolution, Los de Abajo. It was in this neighborhood that Teresita Urrea, la Santa de Cabora, lived and healed thousands in the 1890s. The barrio is rich with Mexicana/o and Chicana/o history.

As scholars of Chicano studies, our voices are needed to stop the destruction of the barrio. We have seen this type of destruction before, whether it be Olvera Street in the 1930s or Chavez Ravine in the 1950s. We can't let this keep happening.

Please visit the website of Paso del Sur and help save the barrio. Please spread the word.

http://www.pasodelsur.com/

thanks,
Yolanda Leyva

Divisions, yay or nay?

Yesterday, we had a little extra time before I had to be at Quilty's class. Dan the Man was borrowing my car cbecause his does't have a/c. Since he was going to get gifts for a certain Browngirl's upcoming b-day, I decided he could use my car.

Anyway, we'd gone to the library earlier. I was curious to see what the library in the "ghetto" part of town was like. It was actually much better than the one near us. It was pretty big, and had tons of resources like a computer lab, a good size reference section, a good size children's section, a rather large collection of young adult novels, and computers throughout the library. Dan the Man doesn't understand the concept of sitting in the library reading the books you plan to check out, so we left.

We then went to a carniceria because I was looking for the Gamesa pastries with cards of El Tri's team members, but didn't find any. Since we still had time left, we decided to go to Barnes and Noble. Even though I don't like to buy books from them, I like using their facilities to read and write. I think of it as a private library.

Yesterday, their Latino Studies shelves seemed emptier than usual. There were only two shelves with the classics: Richard Rodriguez, Victor Villaseñor, Julia Alvarez, Denise Chaves, Judith Ortiz Cofer, Piri Thomas. After browsing the shelfs, I asked myself: Is it better that the Latino themed titles be seperated or would it be better to put them under their subject area?

I san see the plusses on both sides of the issue, but I still can't answer my question. What do you guys think?

Soccer

Mexico juega hoy. I can’t wait. I don’t know if I should go to the gym and watch the game there. It would give me something to do, but then I might get upset and kick something or worse yet, someone. You should have seem me the day the spelling be was on and the kid from Houston lost. I didn’t hurt anything or anyone, but you were able to hear a “Damn!”

I don’t really follow soccer until these major games. My problem, as with hockey, is that I like so many players, that I just can’t choose one team to follow. Therefore, I like when they have events such as the World Cup, because then they have many of the players that I like. Although, this time they didn’t take Paco Palencia.

Do you guys remember that year that Mexico beat Brazil at La Copa FIFA Confederaciones? Oh man, that was the best year ever. I had an outfit that I wore for the games. It was some mismatched thing: a black t-shirt (I think it was an old Levis t-shirt) and some white shorts with red pinstripes. I used to hide it on the top shelf of my closet in the crate that held my purses. I was convinced that it was because I was wearing that getup that they had made it. I wish I had my little getup today; I’d definitely be sporting it today.

With a Little Help From Your Friends

Necesito ayuda. It seems that no matter what songs I have on my MP3 player while I'm at the gym, I get bored. Thus far, the only songs that seem to keep me moving one of the Selena songs from her live concert and Carnaval by Celia Cruz.

Anyway, since many of you are music connoisseurs, I figured I'd ask for your help. What songs get you moving?

And you said you had nothing to say...

I don’t necesarilly have anything to blog about. I do need to say where I copied and from whom in my last post. I copied from: Spelling with Flicker and from MsABC.

The last couple of days I was engulfed in Dan Brown’s Angels and Demons. I think it would have been cool to see this book as a movie. But like Dan the Man said, “You never know, since The DiVinci Code did so well.”

Of course, like a loving partner, here I am wondering, “Did The DiVinci Code do very well?”

I was stuck in GT (Gifted and Talented) Training all of last week. I doodled, read, and worked on the puzzles they gave us most of the time. It just seems like after the first day, none of the information was new. That’s sort of like that damn Generic Teaching Strategies class I’m taking now.

Everyone that’s had this professor has complained about her. When she gave us our syllabus last week, some people in the class just about fainted because we have something due every day except for two days. Up until now, all of our classes had been a joke. I mean, if graduate classes were as easy as ATCP makes it for us, everyone would have a masters.

Anyway, people were bitching and moaning to no end. I was fine with it. I mean, I have easy street with the other prof and then this one; it’s a pretty good balance. Besides, I’m not working so it makes it easier to get stuff done (unless of course, I’m enthralled in some book at the moment).

However, the thing that drives me crazy is that she makes us print an endless amount of handouts and then goes through them on the overhead in class. I mean, really, why not just add that to the reading material and save us that crap. I can read and comprehend. Plus, I’ve found that all this education stuff, its repetition half the time or it’s something that you already know about, but someone just gave it a name.

So she uses up five hours of my day going over all this crap, telling lame stories, and freaking me out with her voice. It goes from high to low without warning. It’s quite creepy. I am very curious about her as a person. I figure she must be pretty religious since she is working for a Catholic college. Also, I don’t believe she has any kids; but I have a feeling she fills her days with activities such as quilting. She always wears a jacket made out of quilting fabric. Thus far, she’s had a different one each day, but I’ve only seen her twice. I don’t know what else takes up her time, perhaps that’s why she keeps us up until the very last second. Anyway, I better stop; I will learn something from her.

Last thing, I know I said I didn’t have anything to say, but I just thought of this stuff. You know that if you have a Gmail account, you can set up a personalized Google page right? Well, on mine, I have links to NPR stories because thanks to my sister & ex-roomie, I’m addicted to it. But since I don’t have to wake up early, I’m not in the car to listen to Morning Edition or All Things Considered, so I use my Google page to keep up with the news.

I was delighted to see a story on Michelle Serros’ new novel. It’s a young adult novel. I suppose I’ll have to look into adding this to my classroom collection. If you have a chance, check out the story.

Well, I guess since I’m up, I should head out to the gym. Maybe I’ll make it back in time to complain about the Great Day Houston host.