I had a wonderful Valentine’s!!! He gave me this gorgeous heart shaped pendant necklace. It shines soooo brightly. I feel bad because I didn’t get him anything : (

But there is a bun in the oven and I show him my love everyday…

I’ll post some recent pictures of everyone…

Hello Everyone:  I was appointed to Florida International University Alumni Association Board of Directors! I went to the orientation meeting the other day and can’t wait to commence working with a wonderful group of people on some really spectacular projects.

As you know I am deeply committed to community service and am a member of Junior League of Miami. As a Miamian, I believe in helping out those less fortunate.  As a FIU alum, I believe in helping my alma mater grow into an outstanding institution recognized by the entire nation and international community.

Cheers!

I love my new iPhone. It’s not as intuitive as you may think. Yet, with a little bit of childish persistance you can and will get the hang of it. Although for $200 you’d think it could: forward text message to your friends; put your contacts in CORRECT alphabetical order, select/cut&paste.  Okay, so it’s not my Blackberry Pearl but it does do a lot of neat tricks (once you’ve downloaded the application).  Most cool applications are free and really if you download and use a lot of apps – you are just hogging up the little battery – so please don’t go on a downloading spree! Oh, and another thing about downloading apps that is a real headache and heartbreak: YOU HAVE TO LOG INTO YOUR COMPUTER, OPEN ITUNES & REMOVE APPS USING ITUNES.  That is almost as horrible a feature as not being able to forward text message or not being able to select text/cut & paste  it elsewhere…. Oh and there is NO cursor!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Open letter to my friends in Cupertino: Think about my post and develop a solution! Why? Because the iphone is a great toy, I want to see it grow up to be a spectacular toy with grownup adult necessary features.

OK…I’M AN IDIOT! I JUST NEED A GAME PLAN & TO KNOW THAT EVERYONE IS ON BOARD! BECAUSE SOMETIMES HALF MY BRAIN IS ON BOARD AND THE OTHER HALF IS WONDERING AROUND WITHOUT A CLUE!!! UNFORTUNATELY I RECOGNIZE THAT’S THE DOMINANT PART OF MY BRAIN. I’M SORRY! I JUST SUCK AT LIFE.  BUT I WILL GET BETTER WITH AGE. I PROMISE. TRUST ME, I’M A LATE BLOOMER AND I REQUIRE A LOT OF REPITITION.  RINSE. REPEAT. I DON’T GET THINGS ON THE FIRST ROUND, SOMETIMES NOT EVEN ON THE SECOND, BUT MY BRAIN DOES CAPTURE FRAGMENTS WITH EVERY TRIP ROUND THE SUN.

Jejejeje! That was a great little jingle from the perfect season the Dolphins had in the ’70’s and I grew up listening to. It was a great game on Sunday. Hopefully we’ll beat the Pats, this Sunday.  Insider tip: Upper Yellow seating section is the best.

I love Cold Play. The concert was brilliant. Moments before the music began, but after Sneaker Car finished its opening set, my beau and I discussed how many songs we knew and if we might become bored if they sang too many songs we didn’t know.  We had this trepidation because the band has been around for awhile but none of us have bought their cd’s, except for some singles through itunes.  Luckily, we knew pretty much every song! And we sang along!

Sneaker Car isn’t particulary good. They have the one song that keeps being played on xm radio.  That’s it.

Cold Play did an excellent job of playing upbeat sing-a-longs.  While the concert was short – 1 1/2 hours – it wasn’t short on show.  Chris Martin was jumping and dancing. Everyone was playing spectacularly well. You could see them on the stage and on two high definition screens. The director was mashing up live performance with very cool effects.  There were catwalks. There were spinning balls onto which things were projected. Cold Play played on the stage, a stage on the floor section and a mini stage where they performed acoustic in one of the upper sections!

I’ll post some pictures later. Cheers!

“It’s a new dawn
It’s a new day
It’s a new life
For me
And I’m feeling good”

  Nina Simone

I went to sleep last night rather early; 9:30 p.m. to be exact.  Why? I don’t like waiting for things to happen and there was nothing on TV.  Also, I was tired. I haven’t been sleeping too well lately – it’s like my heart and mind are telling me something – deep down inside I want the answer to be that someone really loves me and wants to be with me and wants to start a family with me -

And so, as I slept, Barrack Hussein Obama was elected the 44th President of the United States of America.  I went to sleep with the above lyrics in my head, almost as if they were springing from my subconscious.  I didn’t know who sang it and I don’t recall ever really listening to the song or expressing interest in it.  When I woke up – the song was still in my head and yet I still didn’t know who had been elected.  Nonetheless, I knew from deep within that my candidate was not chosen.  That did not bother me, too much. I have faith that nothing can ever get that bad in the USA that I like my mother will have to leave her country or face persecution for not following the new laws of communism. And I don’t feel that things will get so bad that I would have to leave my country like my father because his country had no opportunities, not even for the educated. Let’s wait and see. Let’s not divide ourselves just yet. 

His proposals are bad for my industry.  But let’s give it some time.   And if it doesn’t work out, heck there’s another election in 4 years!  In the meantime…

As I drove to work those few lyrics were still lingering: it’s a new day, it’s a new dawn.

*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_*_

P.s. Maybe it came to me not because of the election, but as a lullaby to my subconscious.

Faith.

Hope.

Peace.

What happened in September? I can’t recall. It’s like a David Byrne of the Talking Heads song or Peter Gabriel’s lyric “I don’t remember…I don’t recall”. 

Let’s see, what did I do? Fret and worry about General Meeting of Section and Committees meeting in Tampa. Met some nice people.  The meeting was inside the airport at the hotel.  I wanted to stay the entire weekend with my beau and finally check out Busch Gardens, but it didn’t work out. So I took the 5 a.m. flight back home the next morning. I was beat.

So September was a blur and October hasn’t been kind…  My friend’s birthday was mid-week right before a trip to Baltimore for work. She was upset that no one hung out with her on Thursday and ignored her on Friday. I felt really bad, especially because I told her on Friday that we could hang out and she turned down the offer.  However, I feel really bad for her because the next weekend I fell asleep whilst she did not receive my text that I was tired – conclusion: she was outside of a club for about 2 hours waiting for me… Imagine how she felt?

Baltimore was nice.  Yet, I don’t like the place, at all (and it’s my second time visiting). The people at Johns Hopkins were weird. The neighborhoods are scary. Plus, to top it off I don’t know why the people at the seminar I attend are so antisocial.  Nevertheless, the seminar this year was excellent and superbly informative.

Ah, we had a company picnic… Hmm… yeah. Next.

There was a nice little get together amongst friends. The food was amazing! The movie we watched was hysterically funny! The company was magnificent. 

November… let’s see … I feel like the months are flying by. I’m in a holding pattern. Falling more. Fretting more. I want stability. Happiness.

Oh well! Perhaps the Coldplay concert will lift me up some.  In the meantime, November’s dinner party went off splendidly! Loved my beau’s parrillada! The boy can grill!!! I’m also sooo proud of my friends – they brought wonderful foods & made this fantastic chimicurri. Check out the myspace.com webpage dedicated to the Chimicurri’s vs Sofrito!  Okay I was on the losing team – sofrito – but I don’t think we are LOSERS. We played Taboo and it is a hard game, not to mention it was most of our first time playing.

Go Soooooooofrrriitoooooooo!

Wow! I can’t believe I have not written anything in 1 month. Was I having fun? Yes. Was I dedicating my time wisely? Perhaps. I like to think I was in getting to know a friend, whilst possibly juggling other friends and commitments.  So what have I been up to?

Well, for starters – I discovered Cafe Pastis in South Miami. I love it. Try it out.   If you don’t have reservations, try to get their by 6:30 p.m.  Try the rack of lamb with lentils. I LOVE it!!! The lamb falls off the shank. The lentils are not your mother’s lentils (I say this about everyone’s mother except my own – SORRY but she really does make wonderful lentils)… They have many wonderful items on the menu, but unfortunately I’m stuck on the lamb because I so infrequently get to dine on this delicacy.  Beware the cafe is rather small – but it has this wonderful NYC or Paris feel to it because of it’s size & the quality of the food.

Then let’s see what else… Oh, yes – I went to Fairchild Tropical Garden for their free Saturdays (or is it Sundays). Anyhow, it’s really not worth it since they dismantled the Chihuly, Botero and Lichenstien exhibits.  Unless you are 6 years old – you want a little pizzazz in your horticultural learnings… Not to mention, I’ve been to FTG since I WAS 6 so I pretty much have the place memorized. However, where the HELL did those damn IGUANAS come from!!!!!!!!! I believe boys who want reptiles as pets should be “re-educated” as gay men because really if they love reptiles but won’t take care of them – it says a lot – but if you turn them into loving fashion and philanthropy you might have a fully functioning member of society who understands that adopting a “pet” and getting rid of is cruel to the pet and to the environment.  Maybe the gay man will nurture and continue taking care of the pet until either one of them expires…

Oh yes, I was doing much more than that!! I will catch you up later… Cheers!

I really enjoyed both movies. It’s been awhile since I enjoyed a movie and especially a foreign film, rented on Netflix. Caramel came out in 2007 and received good reviews. Persepolis came out earlier this year and also enjoyed good reviews from the film fest circle, including limited commercial distribution.

Caramel is the story of a couple ladies, 3 of whom work in the same beauty salon in Beirut, Lebanon. The women are Christian (as there is a big Catholic presence). But it’s not about there religion, I merely mention that because it’s fun to watch how thoroughly modern these women are (in dress and attitude), coupled with living in a Muslim society, then coupled with how refreshing it is to see some people just praying – not shouting some stupid “in the name of God” b#$s$$t while holding an AK-47…

The movie is funny at times, but it’s not about that either – it’s about how it’s difficult to be a woman in an ultra conservative society, how it is hard to be an aging woman in a world that wants youth and beauty, how hard it is to find a job, how hard it is to be older and wanting to fall in love (but have to take care of your family), being gay/lesbian in an ultraconservative society… Ahh, yes many platitudes – but it doesn’t feel like it because the movie is taking you on along in such a colorful and vibrant way – you don’t really get bogged down with its message until almost at the very end.

I loved how it seems or maybe it’s true (I’d have to fact check this) that they make wax with caramelo (ay que rico!).

Persepolis is about Marjane the Iranian graphic novelist who lives in France. It is autobiographical. I will not pass judgment on it because while misguided as she & her family were or still are about the Shah and what Communism really is – she too became an exile.  And I and my entire family sympathize with the plight of an exile. Go see the movie – it is good.  It’s an animated movie voice by Catherine Deneuve and her daughter Chiara Mastrioanni.  Sorry can’t say much. It would upset me too much.  However, I will write this: just because we are indoctrinated as children by our parents, it does not mean that our parents or ourselves cannot really look at the world and come up with our own ideas and take our own path. Oh and another thing: Life moves forward – move forward  – moving backwards is dangerous to your health.

Cheers!