Friday Night

I've seen pics like this one taken before, mostly from my very creative photographer brother, but I was glad to have captured this one. Finally, it's Friday, and while I should be happy that fact, I am not. Yes, I get to celebrate my birthday this weekend (since my birthday lands on a Wednesday) but on the last day of my 29th year, I have to face a jury and that scares me. No, nothing serious, I hope. Yes, I'm using a metaphor. It's not a real jury.

Anyway, I took this pic while I was a restaurant and I have to admit I was terribly sleepy. I might just go straight to bed as soon as I post this.

Right, the storm...

So there was a storm a-coming today and sure enough, it came. We were bombarded with wind and sand and clouds. If you have allergies, you surely suffered. So here again, another cloud pic.

Make Your Mark

So the kiddos were watching movies today while others tested and it gave me time to think about making my mark on life. I'm about to be thirty next week and I feel like I haven't done enough. That's when I saw this...I don't know what it is. A wood chip? A rock? I didn't touch it. I just snapped it and I'm glad I did because then all the ideas about making one's mark started whirling in my head and well, I wrote this blog.

The point is that I feel that I haven't made my mark yet and even though I'm not seeking to make it, I feel that one day, people will remember me and say "Yes! I knew her and she was cool..." or "Yes, I remember her and while I couldn't stand her, I know she meant well.

And my rings will show, just like the ones on this...uh, whatever it is!

More clouds

This one seems a bit different. I think it's the density of the clouds. Anyway, it's been a busy day at work and I'm tired. Of standing around and watching the kiddos test. Fun, huh? Anyway, happy clouding I hear it's going to get worse later this week.

Bow wow

This dog is such a baby. He's our neighbor's dog and whenever he sees my dog outside, it whimpers. However, when he sees us out there, he won't stop barking. I saw him in the garage today and he looked so cute staring at me. He's a big baby.

Better than....

I LOVE this salad. Man, I wish I got paid for advertising restaurants, but I don't. However, I will say this: If you go to Macaroni Grill, you have to eat the warm spinach salad. It is absolutely amazing. Try it!! It's spinach leaves with garlic, olive oil, lemon, prosciutto, parmesan cheese, and toasted goat cheese. Amazing. Heavenly. Delicious.

Lost Dog

This dog scared the crap out of me. It was lost and confused and it was about to walk into traffic. Well, not walk, limp. It was so sad. I hope it's somewhere safe tonight.

Bird!

I really like this pic. I was trying to get bird pictures and this one was one I managed to catch. It was so cool. I'll keep trying for a better picture, though.

Lone Tree

I can't believe this tree is on the side of the freeway. In honor of Earth Day, here's a picture of a tree. I hope it gets really big and get in the way of the cars! Haha!

Food Pic Time

Ah, here's my food picture of the moment. Arby's Cheddar Melt.  And... that's all I have to say, pretty much.  Oh, update on the whole 4-20 thing. I had several kids come up to me today and say "Hey, Ms, you were right."

"What do you mean?"

"It was Hitler's birthday yesterday."

"You thought I was lying to you??"

"Well, it seemed a little far-fetched."

Blink, blink. "What?!"

"But you were right!"

Stare. "Have a seat!"

It was funny.

You're Celebrating What?!?

Ah, it's the infamous "zomg, it's 4-20!" day. Being an educator, all I can do is direct the conversations away from that and roll my eyes, but I figured I would do something a little different. When the kiddos came up to me and told me, "Do you know what today is?!" I would reply, "It's Hitler's birthday." I got so many students to stop and wonder if I was lying. "No, Ms! It's the day we get to smo--"

"No, it's Hitler's birthday. Frankly, I don't know why that's so exciting for you today."
"No! Ms! It's weed da--"
"Hitler's birthday. Now, if you want to celebrate Hitler's birthday, then I suggest you get out of my face."
"Wait, Ms! That's not what today is!"
"Oh, I'm pretty sure it us. I can look it up online and prove it."
Blank stare. I win.

It was great!

For the record, I have never in my life smoked the stuff and I don't ever want to, thank you.

Oh, right, the picture of the day. A food truck. Take it as you will. Laters, cookie!

We're Being Watched!

Alright, so that's paranoia, but can you imagine what spaceships could possibly hide behind that cloud? I mean, we could be taken over by giant panda bears who want to eat our brains for dinner, as a side dish to their bamboo main entree. After they eat our brains, they use will use us as sleds and ride down the Rocky Mountains, which they will use to launch themselves back up to their spaceships and ride away, counting down the days before they return for more side dishes!

Or, it could just be a cloud...

...Are Falling On My Head!

Ok, I'm cheating a little. I took this yesterday, but I already had a pic. This is so nice though. It was raining, first time this spring, and I had to take a picture. It was beautiful.

I See A ...

Dragon. Yeah, that's what I see when I look at this cloud picture.

Anyway, after today's extremely sluggish day, I'm hoping that tomorrow is better.

Out of Business

There are times when we find a great thing, such as a restaurant or a food at the store. When we decide that we love this item or place, we intend on going out to find more of or it or provide more money for the location. Then we find out that the place or item is out of commission. My hubs calls it my curse. I call it coincidence.

For example, I loved a certain snack cake from Italy that Target was selling. Loved it so much, I bought several boxes of these cakes. Before I knew it, they were on clearance and we never saw them again. The same went with a certain salad dressing and chips. It seems that the more I like something, the more others don't and they take it off the market. Either that, or I love the experimental.

So we go to this restaurant, El Rehilete. At first, we thought that we've had enough with mexican food restaurants. We're the ones who believe that in a predominantly hispanic city, the best mexican food is at home. However, these restuarants continue to flourish. So we went to this place, which, by the way, used to be an italian restaurant, and we are greeted with quesadillas. Ok, not bad. The food was okay. The bill was ok.

Six months later, this place closes down. Oh well, rest in peace, Rehilete.

 ps. The building used to bright yellow, like the entrance.

Sad Combination

Nature and Technology. One decreases and one advances. We as humans claim that we're advancing, but the more we "advance," the more we miss out on the beauty of nature.

Tree!

With Earth Day around the corner, I want to try and post pictures that show nature or the effects we're having on nature, so, naturally (pun intended) I knew a tree would be great! This follows my "Clouds!" pic and if you notice, there's a bird on top of this tree! Beautiful shot.

Clouds!

I can't get enough of these cloud shots! I think I have too many but they're just beautiful! I think I can take pictures of clouds all the time. I need this serenity, especially these last few weeks. These are the hardest weeks of a teacher's life. I don't care what others say. These last few weeks are the weeks we need to give it our all and at the same time, start winding down.

But man, these clouds!

Passing Storm

My classroom looked darker than usual when I turned the lights off. I looked out the window and saw a giant black cloud over our heads. That was unexpected because I hadn't seen rain in the forecast. Well, either I hadn't, or I didn't pay attention. Either way, as I walked out of the building, the beautiful smell of wet dirt hit me and I wanted to float away. I must have looked ridiculous breathing deeply as I passed the  plaza but it just smelled so delicious, I wanted to become one with the smell.

 I took several shots as I drove (no cell phones, but no one said anything about no cameras! ... I'm kidding) and after saying hi to my hubs, we went out and I noticed the clouds had moved. So I grabbed my camera while he was driving and as we made our left turn, I grabbed this shot. I love how you can see a little bit of sky blue on the right side of the screen versus the ominous dark cloud on the left.

The storm passed. Don't worry, it's still mid-April. They will return once more.

Bunny!...huh?

I got home the other day and saw that the counter was a mess. Dirty dishes, napkins everywhere, and a collection of cups. I roared at my husband and he pointed at the lid.

"Bunny!"

I was astounded that even with my rage, he was still able to be adorable. Yes, baby, it look like a bunny. Although the counter is now clean, the bunny remains. I can't get myself to throw it out! Well, I guess I'll throw it out after I post this.

Beautiful

Notice how I hardly write anything on Saturdays? I'm usually just chillin' on the weekend, so I just post my pic and go. Here's a shot of my dragon charm (from my cell phone) with the sunset in the background. Just beautiful.

Finally!

I did it! I got a tattoo! I had been wanting one for the longest time and I kept going from idea to idea. My hubs said it was subconscious and I was iffy about getting it, but today, I did it. My munchkin inspired me to get it.

Two weeks before he passed away, according to my aunt, his friends and he drew on the wall and depicted each other as animals. My cousin drew a panda. The day he passed away, I saw it and took a picture of the wall. I knew I wanted something with that. After trying to figure it out, I got the idea of using the panda and adding a little collar with the word "munchkin" in  the collar.

I like the way it came out. It's not too big and it's pretty close to the real pic.

Ladies and gentlemen, my first tattoo.

Look, Ma!

I remember when I was younger, I told people I wanted to study English in college. Everyone asked me, "What for? You want to be a teacher?" I replied, "HELL NO!" I'm seven weeks away from the end of my 6th year as a teacher. These past few years, I have grumbled and whined, complained and have sworn I was done teaching! I was never coming back! But I do come back. And when I do leave this place, I will continue to come back to a classroom, where teenage minds are ready to be opened up and absorb literature and how books are a mirror to our society.

I had a student tell me today, "Miss, you get so dramatic when you read these stories." Yes, I do, because a boring book bores me and I will not read it. I have to over-exaggerate what I'm reading to enjoy it. That's the beauty of reading. I can go anywhere and do anything through reading. That's what I love about reading. Not only that, but I can see what the world was like when the writing took place.

I hope that one day, I too can create a book that people can read and over-exaggerate when they're reading to others. Nothing would please me more than to be the trigger that made a young mind or young at heart mind fill up with impossible possibilities!

I will one day. My name will be on the cover of a book. And it will be grand!

In the meantime, I will continue to enjoy teaching literature. But, don't tell anyone I said that. They'll think I like my job. I have a reputation to uphold, teehee.

Down A Difficult Road

It has been five months. Five months that I have been working hard on numbing the pain. This past Saturday, I cried since November. Sometimes I wonder what he would be doing right now if he was alive. I wonder what I would tell him since he was always with his friends in his own world and he rarely came out to see his family. I wonder what he would say if I told him that the story idea I had in 2003, the one he helped me get inspired with his pictures, is still a go and I'm using it as a college application. I wonder what he would look like. The last time I saw him, he was losing weight but he was still a bit husky. When he passed away, he was skinny.

I wonder if we would celebrate another birthday together.

Five months after the loss of my Munchkin, I travelled down the road he last rode on. I saw the monument his friends placed for him. I saw the stretch of road where cars were driving 70 mph instead of the posted 60. For the first time in five months, I was finally on the road that took my cousin's life. I drove around it or avoided it all the time. Today was the day I managed to muster up the courage to face that cruel road.

Slowly, the pain will go away and I will let the grief pass, but for now, I simply cannot. It's been five years since my grandma has passed away and I'm still grieving. My munchkin's loss will be so much harder than that. Twenty years may have to pass. In the meantime, I will continue to live on and reach my dreams and celebrate, just as I would have if my dearest cousin was still around.

I miss you, Munchkin.

Trapped

So I was trapped at work today for parent-teacher conferences. Twelve hour day. It was horrible. This shot is from the second floor. It was a beautiful sunset as I sat behind my desk waiting for parents to arrive.

Dinner...Wut?

So... this was dinner. Gross, huh? But I was so tired from work, I didn't want to cook or eat anything healthy. I'm odd, I know.

Inside Looking Out

Just a pic 'cause I don't know what to take today. Sorry!

Restaurant: La Catrina

One of the worst problems my husband and I have when we're out looking for a place to eat is that we don't know where to go. We've been to almost every restaurant in our area and I have not been amazed. Those restaurants we have absolutely loved are usually gone by the end of the year. I truly hope we don't curse this new place.

We drove up the street and saw a shocking pink building with a skeleton lady on the picture. The place was called La Catrina. Being a fan of skeletons and skulls, I decided that this was the place. A catrin is a very elegant, well dressed man of money and a catrina would be the woman. It definitely caught my attention.

As we walked in, we saw this very cool, chill atmosphere. I bet the nights are awesome here for drinking with friends or a fun dinner. However, it was lunch time and we were hungry. La Catrina met us at the door as well as our server. We were immediately seated since it was somewhat empty.

We sat down and the waitress greeted us in Spanish. In fact, everything she said was in Spanish, but noting that the restaurant was a Mexican theme, it was fine. She took our drink order and quickly brought it out. Then we saw the appetizers. They had quite a selection of appetizers from chips and salsa to Abuelita's Empanadas. Empanadas for an appetizer? We had to try that. We also ordered tampiqueña steaks which came with an enmolada (it's an enchilada but with mole instead of chile sauce), beans and rice. Along with our entrees, we had a choice of soup or salad. We ordered soup. I had the Creamy Poblano Soup and my husband went for the Aztec Soup (which is simply a tortilla soup.) We were AMAZED with the soups. The Creamy Poblano Soup was an symphony in my mouth. The flavors were distinct and unique. I had never had a soup such as this one and I was so glad I had it. It was a bit spicy but definitely worth the try. My husband's Aztec Soup was an excellent example of what tortilla soups should taste like. It was a treat.

Then the meal. It felt as if the restaurant didn't put salt in any of the food and for us, that's a great thing. We don't like salt in our foods because we prefer to taste the natural combination of the food with whatever they put on it, such as the red peppers and onions. The enmolada tasted as if it had been cooked in the microwave, but my husband loved the mole. I, being a huge fan of mole, didn't like it too much, but it wasn't bad. The meat was tender and well seasoned. I added the salsa they had served with the tostadas beforehand to the rice and beans and it was good.

(From top left, clockwise: Agua de Melon, Tampiqueña Steak with the enmolada, Abuelita's Empanadas - chicken, and the Creamy Poblano Soup)

We had dessert: a slice of Tres Leches cake. It was okay, but it tasted as if it had been in the fridge for a long time.

Time came for the bill. It wasn't too expensive, but it wasn't somewhere I would eat at every week. For the price, the food was good. The atmosphere was beautiful. There were paper maché catrinas on the wall which were too beautiful. I wish I could have bought one for my home.  One day!

And so we left and said "This place was awesome!" It wasn't busy, so the food came out quickly. We would love to see it at night and see how the atmosphere is then, but the quality overall of this restaurant was great! The only problem we saw was the parking. Their parking is in the back but it's a hassle, plus the place's location is not ideal, but hopefully it gets quite a fan base that La Catrina remains in town for a long, long while.

__________________________________________________________________________________

La Catrina

Mexican Food

$$

Pros: Beautiful Atmosphere, good service, good food. The Creamy Poblano Soup is a must-have.

Cons: Parking will be a hassle and the location is not ideal.

                                                         

Lent

Alright, so I don't necessarily call myself a Catholic, even though I was raised as one. I broke free from religion when I was seventeen and while I have my own beliefs and I am caught once in a while making the sign of the cross, I don't call any one religion my home.

There are things, however, that occur within the religion that I still like to practice. One of them is the meals at Lent. Lent is a time in the Catholic church that is sets up to repent for one's sins in preparation for the resurrection of Christ (yup, I know my stuff). During this period, every Friday is usually a day of fasting in the old days of tradition, but now, one of the traditions that remains is no eating meat on Friday. This leads to great meals such as fish (done in many, many delicious ways), shrimp, and pretty much anything seafood. One of my favorite Hispanic dishes is Tortas de Camaron. These are dried up pieces of shrimp and placed in an egg batter then fried, to make egg torts with shrimp pieces. This is then covered in chile colorado, or red chile and nopales, or cactus. Absolutely amazing. These are a real treat for me because I hardly eat them.  Then you have dessert which is traditionally capirotada. This extremely sweet dessert is something like a bread pudding. It is made with piloncillo, or brown sugar, bread, raisins, coconut shavings, and topped with cheese and candy sprinkles. Interesting fact that I read from wikipedia:

The basic ingredients carry a rich symbolism to the Passion of Christ, and the dish is viewed by many Mexican and Mexican-American families as a reminder of the suffering of Christ on Good Friday. The bread is for the Body of Christ, the syrup is his blood, the raisins are the nails of the cross, and the whole cinnamon sticks are the wood of the cross. The melted cheese stands for the Holy Shroud.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capirotada


 Fun huh? Anyway, being the last Friday before Easter, I decided that capirotada would be my pic of the day. Enjoy the sight, cookie!

I Wasn't Joking

Didn't I tell you that the city was horrible in March and April? I did! And here's proof of that! It was horribly windy today and I recorded this after work. Unfortunately, I guess I can't record well because the majority is the sky but it's cloudy and dusty! Anyhoo, here's a clip of today at around 4:15 PM.