Generosity

As I alluded in an earlier post, Arnold and I are planning on hitting the Carribean coast on our next sojourn to Locombia later this year. To facilitate this trip we've been trying to buy internal tickets to the coast and the other cities we need to visit, unforutnatley since we are pretending to be richs flying all over Colombia we needed to get a good price on these tickets, which meant, we needed to pay in pesos. For some reason buying something in dollars, doubles the price. Yet again, unfortunately for whatever reasons of security one cannot buy things in pesos with a foreign credit card over the phone. One can do this in Colombia, just not over the phone. So after many attempts to bamboozle various airline respresentatives into accepting our credit card we asked a friend to pay for us and then we would wire them the money... good friends, huh?

In the U.S. this wouldn't be too big of a deal, except that credit is notoriously usurious and difficult to get in Latin America. Honestly I was surprised our friends were even able to get a credit card, I would have assumed that only the filthy rich would have those down there.

So our awesome friends volunteer to do us this favor, but when we call them the next day we found out there was a slight hitch... they didn't have enough credit to buy the tickets, not surprising since the cost of the tickets we are buying is probably equivalent to a couple months salary in Colombia. So, because they knew we would lose our reservation they asked someone else they know to buy the tickets for us and this person AGREED! Somebody in Colombia that we don't know bought us our tickets on their personal credit card on our friends word that we would wire the money later. I can't even imagine doing that for a stranger mostly because I wouldn't. I feel very lucky and maybe a little inspired to be a little more generous myself.

As some might know, there is not just a Dora in my family but a Diego as well. And Diego is of the slow but steady wins the race when it comes to being mischevious as evidenced by this whole running away with the wagon shot you see on the left. Dora, Diego and Rowen, who knows what this family will be producing next? 

Domestic Skills

Well, anybody who knows me, knows that I am not great at most domestic skills. I dislike cleaning(yes I know everybody does, but the difference is that I won't really do it). I can barely iron, and let's just say that my husband sews way better than I do. Today I went over to my friends house, for a "sewing party". Let's just say that even she knew better than to expect that I would actually sew anything, by "party" we both meant, she would sew all my stuff for me, and I would take her out to eat in gratitude afterwards. (Thanks for the curtains Shenagle!)

But I disgress...

there is one thing though that I am halfway competent at and that is cooking. This is not however because I've had recipes passed down in my family. Even though many people in my family are very good cooks, ironers, sewers etc., it seems that no one was interested in inculcating these types of domestic skills. I'm not sure if that was some kind of feminist attempt at impressing upon me the importance of academic rigor or if it was just that everybody was too tired. Regardless, I didn't learn ever and during my sophomore year in college I subsited off of popsicles, fried eggs and spaghetti topped with salsa. I ate this way through most of my college years and then I moved to Portland where I didn't know anybody. The upside of boredom, poverty and loneliness is that I learned a lot of cooking skills and read lots of books. And now that I have the food channel, one of my new goals is to become "known" as a good cook among my peers. I have gathered some fame with this macaroni and cheese I made, but I'm shooting higher people! I want to be QUEEN chef! I'm using a party I'm throwing this Saturday to show off my culinary skills, I'll let you know how it turns out....

Also in other news... we are GOING TO CARTAGENA this Christmas. That's right my friends I am going to be starting off the New Year on the beaches of the Carribean. Rock on!

Last night Arnold and I went to a GREAT party. As you can see I dressed up as a french mime, too bad it wasn't a costume party. Anyways, it got me thinking about what makes a great party. The food?(Last nights party was rocking in the food dept.) The people? (Also good, and I usually don't like hanging out with strangers) The size of your dance floor? Hmmmm.... Quite existential my musings aren't they? I think that I am going to put my still-not-too-developed research skills to work and see if we can improve the fiestas at our little castle in the sky. I'll let you know how it goes. 

Book Club

I've never been in a book club but since the blog gives me a false that I am important like Oprah I'm officially starting Amelie's book club. You can blame Sonia Vega for putting the idea in my head. :) In no particular order here are some books I like...

1) Julie and Julia: My year of dangerous cooking/living - Okay I am not super sure about the second part of that title, but this book was unexpectedly fantastic. Also it's perfect for someone who wants to change jobs/their life. It's sort of non-fiction. This girl decided to blog about cooking every single recipe in Julia Child's Mastering the ARt of French Cooking and blogged about it, and then she somehow got really famous, wrote the book and now they are making a movie about... Guess who then thought she should have her own blog? You know on the off chance that she became insanely famous. Hmmmm.

2) The Namesake - Jhumpa Lahiri: This book is about to come out in the theaters. I'm not going to try to explain the plot, but I'll just suffice it to say the author won a pulitzer prize and I cried,-on a plane reading it- copiously. I"m sure the flight attendands thought I was having some kind of nervous breakdown. SEriously this book is aweseome! Like my friend Yami said of the author "It's not fair, she has a best-selling novel, a pulitzer prize and she' really beautiful"

3) When the Elephants Dance - Tess Uriza Holthe - This is historical fiction about life in the Philippines during WWII. The plot follows a group of neighbors in hiding who take turns telling stories about their life. The end is so captivating that I hid in the bathroom at my first job for two hours to finish reading it. So be careful when you start this book, it could force you in to ethically complicated positions.

4) One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez - I won't lie, this is not easy reading and it's long, but if you read this book, you will undersand everything you need to know about Colombia. I read it in high school and on the way to Colombia my first time there. Trust me, the book tells it like it is.

5) Walking on Water - Madeline L'engle - One of my very favorite authors since I was a child. You can ask my BWM about how I would leave open books all-over the house. Anyways this is a book about faith and the importance of art, which I love.

That's all for now folks! Feel free to leave your own book suggestions in the comments section.

Like any good Christian girl, I understand the power of confession, getting something off your chest, receiving forgiveness, atoning for what you did wrong and processing how to take steps to not sin again. Amen. So my dear readers I must CONFESS that not only did I play hooky from school today, I ENJOYED IT!

Ha! Got you, I know you were all looking for something juicier. Anyways, I did play hooky, hopping a train to Martinez to spend the day lazing around with my Grandma, cousin Sage and baby niece Dora. I have to say living life at the pace of a toddler is bliss. There wass lots of non-sensical play and laughing, ocassional naps and all day snack sessions. What more could one want? The ocassional unwarranted hysteria is a down side, but I would say that Dora was on exceptionally good behavior as I can't remember her screaming at all today. Plus I sucessfully taught her how to make dolphin sounds on command. Sweet!

However I think the most hear-pumping part of the day was re-creating my "Almost missed my flight home from Ontario" fiasco at the Martinez train station by cutting it too close (as usual) causing me to have to run around looking for the train as if I were auditioning for Home Alone Part 3. Seriously it was exactly the same as what happened at the Ontario airport, including getting slightly lost and making a wrong turn just as the terminal came into view. Thanks to my exceptional good luck re: arriving too late and still getting on modes of mass transportation I made it home on time, with one more tale of derring do in my pocket. Rock on! Tomorrow my new piano is coming and tonight What about Brian? is preimiering. I'd have to say it was a good day.

This weekend was Gma's big 85th birthday bash and everybody, I mean EVERYBODY, the whole family was in town. that's five siblings, six grandchildren and their spouses, and three great-grandchilren, plus an assortment of family friends and those lucky enough to marry in. I'm still trying to sort out the memorable quotes and pictures from the weekend, but until then I leave you with a picture of my GAD looking quite happy (Chinese food strokes his tummy and leave him contenteded). Make sure you read the shirt.