We Are Golden!

HI!

WOW, what a week. So, keeping in tradition with the cherished holiday that is Halloween and my birthday, again this year was something kind of wonderful. And drunken. Of course drunken.

The festivities began Thursday on a scorching hot Puerto Rican autumn eve. I must say, Halloween has started to become more and more of a hassle every friggin' year. I no longer have any excitement towards it whatsoever. Also, Z is gone and KA is working all the time, so who am I supposed to go out with? SO anyway, it should come as no surprise then that I had no costume this year. I am also coming to the realization that I really hate holidays that pressure me to go out. Halloween, New Year's...the days that "everyone" is going out, and it would be embarrassing to say you stayed home that night. The pressure to go out, makes me not want to go out.

Anyway, I did go out. on Thursday AND Friday. Both in different costumes. The HWY told me Thursday afternoon he has some friends going as a swarm of bees and that we should join the swarm. Easy enough! So, after my class that night we buzzed around town, which was super duper crowded. (OH, also --- i'm learning i kinda hate crowds. But anyway.) We walked and drank all night and I never even got a buzz. LAME! Drinking + Walking a million miles = No Buzz. Make a note of that.

Friday my friend Lindsey from Denver came to visit with one of her friends, Beth. They didn't have any costumes. WELL, thankfully 'ol Jessica has an extensive collection of animal print in her wardrobe. Zebra print dress + black zebra stripes on face = zebra (me). Leopard dress + black leopard spots on face = cheetah (Beth). safari boots + Black electrical tape + rope = animal tamer boots and whip (lindsey). FULL SUCCESS!

Monday: B-DAY. It was good, and the highlight was when my student said, "Happy Birthday. Can I ask how much?" Um...I'm not for sale. Clearly their English teacher has some work to do still...
Birthday night was super, though the details are hazy. But I do remember it was fun, so that is good.

SATURDAY was the "go big" night the ended in a humongous bar tab and some drunken skinny dipping and the drunken munchie session of gobbling down 2 pieces of pie I don't remember eating (and not bothering to offer anyone else any munchies. Worst friend ever!). All in good fun. OH -- btw -- i say "skinny dipping", but I later found out I was the only one naked. OPPS! I though it was a party, people! Let's get naked!

Anyway, today I shared some Mika tracks with Chellber. A little Friday Fun emailing, you know. She agrees he is Freddie Mercury reincarnated, which makes him Christ resurrected, basically. Hey, if it makes me move then i can't deny my love for it.

Today I was taking a break from my office, because my thesis introduction is due in....25 minutes, and I need finish writing it. So that's what i've been doing this morning. You know, besides passionately professing my new and undying love for the artist known as Mika ("I'm in love and this time it's for real!") via "the web", and drinking cup after large cup of coffee. SO, I was walking to the cafeteria to get another cup 'o joe (40 cents, btw!!!!) and i was walking as slow as possible and imaging the sunlight was giving me energy, solar-power style. AND, I think it totally worked! Now i'm back in the office cave and have to finish the intro, so...BYE!

p.s. pics later

p.p.s.

Stress kills.

...which is why i try to elimiated it from my life as much as possible. Today I woke up at about 9.30AM, and after a tomato and chive mini omelet, I went up to my NEW TERRACE to sunbathe. As I lay there, reading and absorbing the heat of a Puerto Rican summer sun, I realized, "Hey. Why do I even have a bathing suit on?" And then discarded my top and bottoms. There are large plants surrounding the edge of the terrance, making it completely off visable limits to any peeping toms. Goodbye, tan lines! Hello new morning ritual. The greatest part of it all perhaps was that there is a little shower in the corner of the terrace, so when i get hot, I just jump up and cool off. Actually, the greatest part is that that SHOWER HEAD IS A SEASHELL!!!!! (Will get a picture of that soon.) People are always complaining about summers in Puerto Rico, but so far in my experience, it has been fucking excellent!

So, how did I end up with a private terrace, you ask? Well, I was supposed to move into a new plan, but the girls actually never moved out. I had already given up my lease in my apartment, so I desperately saught a new somewhere to live for the next couple of months while I figure things out. A friend of mine said she knew a lady who was in the states for the summer, and would rent me out her 3 BEDROOM HOUSE IN RINCON. Uhhhhh.....Yes, please!!!!! To make matters even more awesome, I got a job at the coolest coffee house in Rincon, Banana Dang (www.bananadang.com). SO, not only am I living in the sweetest place ever, I also got a job for the summer!!!!!!!!!! Woo+ woo+!!!!!

I hope you know what this means. If you are reading this blog, I would like to officially invite you for a FREE STAY in Rincon, Puerto Rico during the months of June and July in one of my 2 spare bedrooms (3 spare beds -- one room has 2 twins:) Come one, come all!!!!!! We can go nude sunbathing on the terrace during the day, and BBQ by night. That is, before we go out for $1 beers. And we can go to the beach, too. It's like 1/4 mile away (I rode bike there yesterday). We can go snorkeling!!! I've been HUGE on snorkeling lately....saw a mothingf*cking STING RAY, as I mentioned a few posts ago. Anyhoo, if any or all of these things might be of interest to you, I suggest a brief stop at Orbtiz.com, airport destination SJU (San Juan). Go now, grasshopper!

What else, what else...lots of beach and downtime the past 2 weeks, as I unemployeed and what not. Back in the game now! I am growing a basil plant, and made a tomato basil pizza tonight, using it's leaving for the first time! It's basically wildly delicious, and I'm somewhat sad I can't eat it all myself. I *could*, but....that would be rude. And, I would lose out on an opportunity to make a culinary pass at a certain someone. It's my best and most effective flirting method thus far.

Uh, that's about all. I'm going for another slice. Will put up some pictures of your potential room and vacation home, if you take the opportunity to utilize my luck this summer :) Also of the nude sunbathing terrace.

48 Hours of Perfection.

Please don't hate me after you see these pictures. I almost hate myself, if that makes sense(if such a thing were possible :) However, this weekend was....basically perfect. I know I have said before that I love Sand's, but...i LOVE Sand's!! The bartender there is maybe the nicest person I've ever met in my life. He told me "mi casa is su casa", so now I know for sure we are friends, and that makes me very happy. When I was there on Friday he only charged me $2.50 total. For everything. And....WATCHED THE YANKEES AND THE SOX! Yeah, that's right. If you happened to miss it, don't worry. The only thing you really missed was the Sox fucking themselves over yet again. How can you be carrying a 5 run lead into the top of the 8th and fucking LOSE THE GAME???!!! HOW, Red Sox? How...? Well, Joey (the bartender) and I were watching the game and the Colombians met me there and I made them wait until the game was over. And this other guy, a newyorkrican, met us there to and he is supercool and hopefully i hang out with him again the future. He took us to the most amazing bar I've ever been too. I can't remember the name, but I felt like...I was in Puerto Rico. They had this 10 piece band playing, which was totally awesome. The puertoricans were dancing in the front, and one girl would wear an apron and dance in the middle. Beautiful dancing, not grindy flithy reggaeton style. And after a while, she would take off the apron and put it on another girl who would dance in the middle. It was truely amazing to watch, and the band themselves really blew my mind. So much talent!!! It's crazy. I don't want to taint the experience by comparing it to this awful, awful movie, but... it felt like Dirty Dancing. There, i said it. *sigh* ONLY in the sense, though, that I was seeing something I have never, ever seen before, like a little gem of puerto rico that I was somehow lucky enough to stumble into.

This is supposed to be a girl dancing:

The band: (sorry Julio, I still can't figure out the rotation thing...)


I got home at 8:15 AM, and needed to meet Manda and Dan at 8:45AM because we were goingto Rincon, to the beach! So...basically, I took a shower and went to meet them. The plan was to go to this hotel "Rincon by the Sea", because I had been there with Jaybo and Laybo, and you can just walk in and use their pool/private beach, etc. SO, that is where we went, and I can't think of a better place to nurse a semi-hangover than at a pool bar, knowing you have a private beach 10 feet away. Seriously.

So, after taking a bloody mary poolside (as seen here), I moved over to the beach....


to take a nap.


See, here i am!


got sunburned. But who cares. It was a wonderful, wonderful weekend and I'm starting to realize it's impossible for me to do work of any kind on the weekends. Oh well. That's what Monday-Thursday's are for.

QUE AVENTURA!!!

AY benditoooo!!! So, Rincon is amazing. On Wed night I went out with Jason and Leilani, and it was such a damn good time. I love going out with those 2, they are a riot...! For sure I am moving to Rincon, asap. Like when i get a car, and my lease in Mayaguez runs out. I did a little "networking", and I am pretty sure I will be able to work at a bar in Rincon over Christmas break, when I can't afford to fly home. SO, that would be fantastic....! Let me start from the beginning:
we go to "the rum shack" to eat and have some drinks. They had the most delicious shrimp I have ever tasted. We became friends with the waitress. We plan to meet her at this other bar (i can't remember the name) after her shift.
Unnamed bar: It was a dive place with pool tables. I clearly remember Jason going to the jukebox, and coming back with his money still because, in his words, "there is nothing I want to spend 25cents to hear...not even something ironic." Puuulleasse. Leilani and I took care of the tunes. Then after a while, we decided to move along to a different bar by the ocean which they said was really cool.
However, once we arrive, it's closed. Luckily, there are 3 puertoricans sitting outside still, and we become friends and tell us about this other bar they are going to and so we all ride there together like old friends. I can't remember their names, but they were super cool and I think we made plans to see them again soon. And I think I it's them who i put in my phone as "rdson", you know, because that almost spells "rincon"...i don't know. then there was this old lady at the bar who we started talking to and she was cool, but then she started crying and telling us this story about her brother...who died. It was very tragic. and then she invited us over to her house for lasanga. Why lasanga??? i don't get it, but it sounds delicious. However, it was like 2:30 in the AM, so it wasn't really the right time for a lasanga party. OH, and they best part: that night. I had my first puertorican fell madly in love with me!!!! Since I'm so charming and all :) jejejeje. He wanted to give me a "tour of the bar" which was like, you know, 20x20 sq. feet, so it's not like there was much to tour. So that was slightly creepy, I can't remember what i did, but i avoided the situation like pro. It was all very strange, becuase the 3 guys from other other bar we also bartending at this bar. it's like, they closed the one bar to come work at this bar or something.
Let's face it, it's all a blur, so i'll stop boring you with trying to piece it together right now.



Jason and Leilani:

This weird surfer bar and Jason's head. I think i was trying to get a pic of the bartender, who was the epitomy of Point Break and all other surfer cliches rolled into one living human being (Jason's description):

The last bar we were at, Tevo's or something....? Where the drunk lady telling stories was.

group shot:

OKAY, i wake up at Jason and Lei's in the morning to this:

...which is why i'm moving to Rincon. And then I skipped my afternoon class and we went to the beach:

And then I went home to Mayagez, took a nap and went to class. And then that night, it was "Yellowpass", which my students have been talking about, but I don't really know what it is, but I found out it's this gigantic music festival party thing, and it's happening right outside my apartment. It was HUGE, people and cars EVERYWHEREEEE...cars were parked on the sidewalks. i wish i would have taken pictures, but i wasn't expecting to drink or stay out. HOWEVER, in the line for the bathroom, i met a girl from Boston, she is teaching surfing lessons in Aguadilla!! So then, I had to stay, because she was so fun!! AND she said she will give me surfing lessons this weekend, which i hope comes true. Umm, and now i am sitting here writing this before i teach in 2o minutes, but i know none of my students are going to be in class today because they will be too hungover from last night.

"i've been distracted by stupidity"

I'll have you know an actual professor of mine at Emerson said that quote, and I've used it ever since because it more or less sums up my life. *sigh*

I know I've been a little weak on the posting situation, but I've had camera issues --- like being too lazy to charge my battery. Hey, that's an "issue"! Totally legit. Don't judge me. It's a shame though, because I walked around a lot this weekend in the midst of this hurricane debacle and found lots of cool new things. My first hurricane scare was this past weekend....!The anticipation, the uncertainty!!! It was all very exciting.

On Wednesday evening, I'm going to Rincon and staying overnight with the professors from Boston and they are going to show me the ropes and all...meaning, we are going out on the town because Rincon supposedly has the best bars on the west coast of PR. I will be the judge of that in due time :) They are telling me it's a surfing/tourist town, so this should be good. I WILL take pictures and I WILL post them. That is a promise!!!

Well, this post was a procrastination device in order to avoid starting/finishing my linguistics assignment due in...1 hour and 50 minutes. Excellent. I should do that now.