Oh, So Many Silly Books...

The end of my 2008 was amazing. I worked from home from Dec 23 – Jan 5. That means that as soon as my day was done I went 60 to 0 in the time it took me to log off of my laptop. And straight to relax and read mode, since I was already in my chill out cloths. I read thru 6 ½ books and loved every minute of it!!! I read the Sookie Stackhouse “True Blood” series of books. It was 100% mindless, for the sheer fun of it reading. I have a pile of more “serious” books to read in this New Year. But, I have 0 guilt in my End of Year simply amusing choice in books. What Fun!!!

I Painted my 1/2 Bath

Considering that this might be the smallest batheroom in the world, it took forever. It was sooo much work! But totally worth it.

Emma's Movie Reviews

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button
I love when from the very beginning of a movie you know you’re in for an adventure. I instantly knew it was a movie I would never forget. It was funny, touching, sad and thought provoking. There are scenes that just break your heart and others that touch your soul. Benjamine's eyes throughout the move are piercingly beautiful and are in themselves telling a story. Showing youth when he was old and wisdom when he was young. So amazing!!! I had that “Forest Gump” kind of feeling were you feel like your watching true history from the view point of sheer imagination. I give it a Big WOW!!!

Seven Pounds
OMG!!! It was sooooooooooooo Good. Will Smith is the MAN!!! It truly amazes me how he is completely transformed into this character. I won’t say much; accept it was Powerful, Painful, and Intense. I give it a Huge HOLEY CRAP!!!

On DVD: The Visitor
This movie was simple and beautiful. Touching on post 9/11 racism in the US and the struggle of everyday hardworking immigrant from all over the world. But more then anything it was a beautiful story about kindness and the joy of giving of yourself freely. An amazing story about how one mans life was completely changed when he opened his heart and home. A demonstration of the life altering power of friendship. As if that was not enough, it is also a love story. Titi Evelyn, Jojo and I thought it had the most beautiful love scene ever!!!

On DVD: MalDeAmores
I hadn't laughed that hard in a long time. But, its not a comedy, i guess it was all the references to the familiar that had me rolling. It’s a movie about the ups and downs of love at it's different stages. Produced and directed by Puerto Ricans and filmed on location in Puerto Rico. 100% real Puerto Ricans. It was an honest depiction of love, the anti “Hollywood Love Story” love story. It was pure and honest and very Boricua. I enjoyed it sooooo much. Maybe it’s just being so far from home, but it was great to hear them talk my kind of Spanish. So get a six pack of Heineken and cook up some Mofongo and watch. I give it an enthusiastic WEPA!!!

Has anyone seen these or any others??? Come on Share!!! What about Australia???? That looks good...

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Comments: Vinet's Movie Feedback...

Revolutionary Road with Leonardo Dicaprio, Kate Winslet a couple who struggle with society in the 1950's. I did like the movie it made me think of how we take the freedom we have to do whatever we want with our lives for granted and how we do let unexpected changes in our lives rule out our dreams.

Cousin Gheisha and her Little Family.

Photographed by Allan Zepeda

http://www.allanzepeda.blogspot.com/

Looking Back

I attempt to live everyday looking forward. It’s been my way for as long as I can remember. Much too often I’ve seen those around me fall time after time because their attention is focused on what’s behind them. So what I’m about to say might seem out of character and counter productive. But sometimes when you’re so focuses on the “horizon” it’s hard to see where you are. Sometime it’s important to look back to see how far you’ve come, or maybe to see that you’ve gone nowhere at all and you’ve been going in circles all along.

So today I was thinking back… [It’s a Friday night. I’ve had a long long week. We’re trying to stay above water at the job and Boss Man and I have been treading water all week trying to stir up some business… while I was cooking listening to Salsa, releasing the weeks pressures, I got to thinking w/one Margarita under my belt.]… Thinking back five or six years…

It’s almost incomprehensible when you compare my life now and then. To think how back then my family was such a big part of my life. In many ways they were the MOST important thing in my life. They were part of my every weekend, my daily thoughts and my nightly worries. A family crisis was just a train ride away. Don’t get me wrong I love you my family dearly. But I no longer feel like I’m holding my breath anticipating the next thing. Still I think… I miss… I wonder… but never in a million years would I have believed that one day I would be 100’s of miles ways living my life. A life where I primarily worry about me and my husband. I'm not trying to find a way to fix this one or rescue that one. On the other hand, no escape from my own personal hard times to my Tia’s and mom. No place to run and hide. It’s come to be a, “face it head on” “find your own way” kind of life. It’s quite liberating although at time lonely with all of my favorite people so far away.

I have to tell you Friday nights are always the hardest. More often then not I was on an E train on my way into Queens, to laugh with the ladies or chill on the stairs with the guys. To have drinks with Marisol or Dancing in my living room with family. Now on my drive home on Fridays I pass on my normal News Radio for the Hip Hop station or a good Salsa CD. It makes me feel just a bit closer to home.

As I look back at who I was then I am stunned at how completely different it all is. Looking back now I see how far I’ve come not so much in the progress sense [most of that is just stuff, material things], but in the personal, ME, life altering way. I think back at my relationships then. Relationships I would have staked my life on, now no longer exist, friendships I would have never dreamed of flourished, things I thought would always matter no longer do, and sometimes I look around and wonder how I’ve come to this place or how it is that I never saw the truths I see today.

I look around and find I’m in a place were things are not perfect but I can’t think of any place else I’d rather be. In a place where the small things in life are wonderfully amazing and surprisingly fulfilling. I look around and see that I don’t need perfect, I just need peaceful. That the truest people in my life with time showed themselves in ways I would have never thought. And above all as I look back the one thing that made the most difference is truth and honesty, truth and honestly within myself. Once I found that I no longer needed to hold on to the past, the honesty of that freed me to move into my future. I don’t regret these changes the same way I don’t regret the past. [… moving on to Margarita #3 Happy Friday!!!]

A Sign of The Times

Sorry guys, no more Mendez-Davila-Gonzalez Family Newsletters, at least not in the conventional sense. We all know I’m way too narcissistic to give up the communication completely. In an effort to keep in touch and cut costs, this blog is my solution. So check in occasionally and share your thoughts.

Breaking News!!!!

Finally!!! At Long Last!!! Por Fin!!!
It’s done, the reading room is done. But more importantly I have a place to escape the world. Family, I present to you my reading Chair. My solace, my escape, my comfort, my CHAIR, my DREAM CHAIR!!! Now it truly is perfect. My perfect room; it truly doesn’t get more ME then this room.