Weekly Graditude.

 It's Saturday night and I find myself with the night off of work and indulging in some Medallas...what better time to reflect on the week? Starting this should be easy because...

#1. Thank you, Cervecera India for brewing Medalla so deliciously and then putting it on sale for $11.98 this week at Econo (for a 24 pk of 7 oz. bottles). You are kinda making my week right now. 

2. Thank you to demonoid.me and all of those nerdo people who know how to use torrents, and the HWY for showing me how to use them. I've been on a music spree this week, and should particularity thank the kind lady or gentleman who put every album from Pitchfork's top 200 of the 2000's in one file. You are my friend and a genius.

3. Bex for showing me that "Hello" song. Ummmm it's *kinda* catchy....

4. for Wednesday night because it was fun and hilarious.

5.  Haircuts: I have bangs now. Bangs are nice because they suggest that you actually have a "hairstyle". 

6. Puerto Rico for not really giving a rats ass about the Royal Wedding. Yay!


7. My brother for drunkenly calling me, giving me his credit card info, and insisting we buy a ticket for my mom to come visit me as a Mother's Day gift. MY MOMMA IS COMING TO VISIT MEEEEEEE!!! (Pay ya later, bro....! Much later. )


8. Cold feet for making me realize I am SO gonna miss Puerto Rico!!!!! Now it's starting to feel real, and I am not so excited to be leaving, but going to do it anyway of course :(   I'm leaving June 1st :( :( :(  I am trying to cram as much awesomeness into this last MONTH. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhhhh one monthhhhhhhhh :( :( :( I'm sad. I need another Medalla. Goodnight.

Even after all this time,
The sun never says to the earth,
"You owe me."
Look what happens with
A love like that.
It lights the whole sky.

- Hafiz of Persia

Weekly G's

• Amazon.com. For reals! It has helped me organize and keep a list of things I need to read (even if I don't get them from Amazon) because if I am reading one thing and it references another work, I just go to Amazon and find the book and add it to my "Wishlist" --  all in like 5 seconds! And then I go back later when I am reading and look at all the books I saved and then try and find them for cheaper (or for borrowed or free). It has also been helpful because of that little "you may also be interested in..." part where they list a bunch of other books similar to the one you are viewing. I HAVE been interested, many a times, Amazon. So thank you, for your clever (but helpful, when you are for example trying to find similar theorists or work to something you are already citing) marketing strategies.

• Coffee in the morning. Green tea in the afternoon. Wine in the evening.

• The glorious feeling of finishing something before a self-administered deadline (I finished revising a draft today). Usually when I give myself a "deadline", I end up extending it. You know, because it's not a "real" deadline. Well, this week things just got REAL folks. I needs to finish the motherfuckin' thesis before April 11th!!!!!! Not ONLY finish it, but have it revised and formatted into its COMPLETE form,  and have ALL committee signatures signed off on it. Before April 11th.  Ze pressure es ON.

• So, there's a new bar attached to the bakery up the street from me that hasn't *officially* opened yet. Who opens a bar attached to a bakery, you ask? Only. In. Puerto. Rico. Whoever decorated it is awesome, and apparently there is an Ikea somewhere it Puerto Rico that I don't know about because shit looks like it came straight out of an Ikea ad. I'm cool with that. Modern. Spacious. Simple. Just the BESTEST of BEST environment for me to work in (completely alone w/o Internet distraction), especially since they bakery people let me go in there at 8 in the morning to write. YAY bakery people! Thanks for trusting a girl to hang in there alone among so much unaccounted for booze.

•  Breaking Bad. GREATEST SHOW EVER! (Besides HIMYM, of course). I'm talking tonight off and starting Season 3 tonight, you know since I accomplished my deadline and all :)

My quote this week isn't very uplifting, but holy shit if it isn't BRILLIANT. Also, it reminds me of the world today, like TODAY. Iraq. Afgahnistan. Libya. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. Please everyone let's get over ourselves and stop now, please. Please.

All throwing shapes, every one of them
Convinced he’s in the right, all of them glad
To repeat themselves and their every last mistake,
No matter what.

People so deep into
Their own self-pity, self-pity buoys them up.
People so staunch and true, they’re fixated,
Shining with self-regard like polished stones.
And their whole life spent admiring themselves
For their own long-suffering.

-Seamus Heaney, The Cure at Troy

WG: A Tough Week to Work With.

Late again.

So, I guess I am doubling up since last week I was a little too busy getting sunburned 3 days in a row at the beach ("Howdy, Skin Cancer! See ya in a couple years.") to write anything. Sunscreen is sneaky sometimes: for example when like when it says "waterproof" on the front, but then on the back it also says "reapply after swimming". Ummmm, what?!?!? So basically there is no such thing as waterproof sunscreen, is what this tells me, and that they are all the same damn thing?

Anyway......last week was fun, as Sofia was visiting from Sweden! Yeee hawww for visitors! It's fun to have visitors on vacation, because then I don't feel bad going on a semi-vacation myself. And getting sunburnt 3 times.

The truth is, it's 8:30 PM and I'm EXHAUSTED right now and could probably just close my eyes sitting right here in this chair at the kitchen table and sleep for about 16 hours straight. Right here, right now. Let's do this. That just sounds so comfortable right now (notevenkiddingalittlebit). I just can't wait for this thesis shit to be OVER. Over and done with so I can think (or not think!) about anything else. Anything at all. Or nothing at all (even better)!!!!!!! 

I digress. This is supposed to be a post about all the good crap going on. Meh, I suppose I'll give it a whirl:

• KITTENS! You seriously have to have a heart of stone if you don't think kittens are cute. Does thinking they are cute mean you want a litter of them dropped off at your front door? Negative. But, say, dropped off at your neighbors front door? SURE! What I am trying to say is that a stray cat that hangs around our Apt. had kittens this week -- and thankfully not in our apartment this time! Yay! She had them upstairs, which means via the unspoken code of Apartment Building Stray Cat Ethics, those lucky people now have to feed and take care of the kitten family. Sorry, upstairs people, but we all have our turn in this mess (until someone finally just takes the damn thing to get spayed, that is...). 

• Having something to look forward to. Seriously, you guys. This summer/fall is going to KICK ASS. Now, I need to stop procrastinating and FINISH THIS THESIS so I WILL actually be doing something new this fall! 

• Working at a bar. Two Words: free drinks. I won't complain. 

• Cloudy days in Puerto Rico. I don't feel guilty for staying inside all day.

• Grapefruit juice being on sale at the grocery store this week. Really. That was a major highlight.  

 

Weekly Gratitude

•  National Geographic for being so awesome. I just love this magazine! It inspires me on many different levels, and they always seem to have articles about things I didn't even know I was interested in (which makes them even better than the Internet in that regard...I don't even have to think of something to google! Lazy, much?)

•  Pickles : The Perfect Snack. 

• Having a job in a terrible economy, even if some days they seem like really unbearable jobs (I'm kinda *over the service industry. This time for real.) Tourist tips = good. Strange hours = bad.  
• Having something lined up for when I graduate.

• The chamomile I planted for starting to sprout!!!! I GREW SOMETHING!
• ...Speaking of,  basil is the one plant that i can seem to grow... And I have A LOT of it! I love basil and wine. *see below And I have an abundant supply of both.
• The HWY for teaching me how to grow shit. When I first started, I couldn't figure out why my basil would grow a couple inches, and then stop (because I had it in the tiniest of pots and the roots had nowhere to go...Dur.)

"Karma is a bitch only if you are"  - author unknown

Weekly Be-Gratitudes!

A little joke for all you Catholics out there. So clever...

But seriously. The lovely blog Love, Life, Lace that I frequent in fits of procrastination from thesis writing has a Weekly Gratitude post and dang it if that isn't a good idea. And, it just so happens that this week has been a rather wonderful one, so what better time to begin?!?!

Thankful for...

• Taking afternoon siestas on the hammock  
• major scholarships 
• Rum + Soda Water + Lime
• finding some forgotten pics of my adorbs nephew on my camera (see below)
• my sister for having the kids and letting me be the crazy aunt
• the carrot cupcakes BDang just started getting...YUM. overpriced yet worth it.
• homemade bread/pizza and other delicious carbohydrates
• watching cats take naps. they always seem to fall asleep in the strangest positions.
• the meditative joy I get in peeling a hard boiled egg (it really is the small things, no?)

• having an amazing academic advisor who:
• despite being so busy with her own projects, still finds time to encourage me when I need it
• ...congratulates me when I deserve it
• ...lets me emotional breakdowns in her office when I've had it
• ...and who is a cool and inspiring lady! 

His eyes do the talking for him: "Help!"

he definitely has his mother's eyes!

babies laughing are funny, no?!

"The earth was warm under me, and warm as I crumbled it through my fingers...I kept as still as I could. Nothing happened. I did not expect anything to happen. I was something that lay under the sun and felt it, like the pumpkins, and I did not want to be anything more. I was entirely happy."

-Willa Cather, from My Antonia