Tasteless town and viva Las Vegas!

This Halloween was lame, that's why I won't talk much about it. But it reminded me (among several other things) why i don't like this tasteless town. Don't be fooled. If I'm still here is not because I like it... it's because this is where I need to be right now. Can't get out, but as soon as i can I'm on the bus... or plane, whatever applies.

I have so much to say, so much to tell you and show you... I spent last weekend in Las Vegas. I spent the time with my dear friends Ja and Jo, and I made a few new friends. I have a few photos to show you, and some I won't show you. I got there on Thursday morning... starting with the flight, it was amazing. All my flights and connections were on time, and even though it felt like I was awake for fifteen hundred hours that day, I loved every minute of it. So I'm sure I'll go back as soon as I can... or maybe as soon as I can find a cheap flight from this little airport. Man, I wish sky bus was available here.

My connecting flight on the way to Vegas was at Salt Lake City, Utah. I've never been there, so when I saw the big lake under us and no visible place to land I got a little scare. Thankfully, there was an airport in the middle of the fog. Then I got to Las Vegas that Thursday mid-morning... Man, I was so excited to see Jenn and Jake that I think I still have a little excitement left in the body, cause I am getting excited as I type this. Jake was waiting for me at the luggage pick up and Jenn was driving around the airport, so that she didn't have to pay for parking... classic. And did I mention there were slot machines at the airport?! Those things are everywhere in Vegas.

And well, I had an amazing time. Most of it I won't tell you.... you know what they say about what happens in Vegas. I do have to tell you about the wedding and the (approx) 13 times that Jacob cried that day. He's such a great man, but I didn't know how emotional he could get. I did a questionnaire about him one day (one of those myspace deals) and one of the questions was if I had ever seen him cry... I said no to that question, but that has sure changed now! I got to hear from Josh that night after the wedding a recount of the times Jake cried... it was quite funny, specially the way Josh was telling it. They were really counting. It's not that I didn't cry, cause I did... many times, specially right before and during the ceremony. Oh, it was so emotional, and how could you keep your eyes from tearing up after seeing Jacob's face all red and teary eyes. No fight to those tears!! I mean, EVERYBODY in the bridal party was crying.. And Jenn, she looked SO beautiful in her dress and she was so happy. Couldn't wait to be Jake's wife and she cried too, when she was going down the aisle.... well, was it an aisle? anyway... At least I think she was crying. I couldn't really see, because I didn't wear my glasses for the ceremony.

Everything was just so great, and so... them. The wedding really fit Jenn and Jake. They had a bit of a halloween theme to the party, since they love Halloween so much. The nightmare before Christmas, baby! I loved the cake, their champaign glasses, the earrings Jenn gave me... everything. It was all just so beautiful. And that's the night I said hasta la vista to Jenn and Jake. Because I had to take off the next morning at 5:30 am, because my flight left at 7:30 am. It was until then, when I wished I had booked my flight until Monday and not Sunday. I really needed to sleep. So the next morning, still with perfect curls thanks to all the hairspray on my hair, I took a shower and was able to get the curls down to head to the airport. All the flights were on time, but now it really felt like fifteen hundred hours. I was SO tired by the time I got back.

I made some great new friends... and I will sure watch for cheap flights for Las Vegas in the future... maybe not the near future cause I'm so broke right now. And well, that's about how much I can tell you about the trip, everything else will have to be in pictures (I'm also putting some on flickr). Ciao.

I am 24 hrs away from being ready to leave for Vegas in about 31 hrs

It feels like a big journey that has gotten me to this point of almost-readiness. The biggest obstacle was the dress.... and I'm knocking on wood cause I said WAS, it better be past tense, cause I'm not putting up with more crap from it. Apart from the dress-related drama, everything has gone smoothly. I have to run a couple of errands tomorrow after work, then pack, then I'm ready to go! I cannot even start to imagine how much pressure Ja and Jo are under right now. Like they say in here, bless their little hearts! ...... never mind, I take that back. I don't want to sound from here. It just reminded me of the time when Jo said to me how he could tell I had learned English in this state after I said something starting with "I'm fixing to.." HA! That was the last time I said that.

And about the quote on the last posts. I saw this movie, The Last Kiss, during the weekend and got the quote from there. I thought it was really great, because the main character had just done something really stupid and hurt his girlfriend and the relationship they had up to that point. And while the guy was talking to the girl's dad he was telling her dad how much he loved his daughter and at that point he said what he said (see previous post). And I thought that was very true. How our words, though sometimes they might sound amazing, are really just air if we don't have actions to back them up.

I'll go to bed now. Early. Because it's been dark for a while now and it's cold. I guess we're officially out of Summer and in Autumn. But before I leave I wanted to share with you two things. First, is this blog. It's about this couple in the process of adopting one (or two) little girls from Guatemala. Actually, one of the girls was born in El Salvador. You should look at their blog, and if you pray, pray for them. They seem like they would be great parents. The second thing is very mundane, specially when compared to the first one. It's just that I wanted to show you this album I made on facebook that I really liked. I just wanted to post some photos, but it ended up describing me in a couple of levels. Enjoy.

Sweet dreams. Buenas noches.

from The Last Kiss

"Stop talking about love. Every asshole in the world says he loves somebody. It means nothing. It still doesn't mean anything. What you feel only matters to you. What you do to the people you say you love, that’s what matters. It's the only thing that counts."

do whatever it takes... it's that simple.

"No Suits Required"

So, i just found out the next event of the nwa art directors club is with Vault 49, which is pretty awesome but sucks at the same time....cause it's next friday, and i'll be out and about in Las Vegas, so forget it.

I already told Anna to go and to get me a poster. I love the nwaadc events, and this one is a bad one to miss, but hey... I'll hopefully get the poster.

Las Vegas, baby!

The time is coming... for Ja and Jo to get married, and for me to go and share those few days with them. I am SO excited. Words cannot express. And I'm not just going to the wedding... I'm IN the wedding!!! which just makes it so much more special to me. I love Ja and Jo and I cannot wait to see them. It's been too long since the last time we were all together, before they left me hanging here in Arkansas and took off to Las Vegas. Man, that's going to be one fun bachelorette party. HA! that was a random thought. Can't help it, it's all I can think of, that and everything else. Thank goodness everything has come together nicely. Specially the financial details....Thanks, Up There ;)

The only thing I'm missing is... the gift. (HINT Ja or Jo, if you read this, give me an idea or you will most likely end up with a Target gift card, which I don't want cause it's not memorable, but which I WILL get if my creative juices don't flow before I have to leave for Las Vegas).

I fly out next week on Thursday morning. I got the earliest flight I could get, as always, because I will spend over there the most time I can. Yes, I also got the latest flight I could find for Sunday.

Now, please don't wait for any updates when I come back. You know what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas. So I won't be telling you any stories. The most that you can expect from that trip is a couple of pictures from the wedding (pictures that I will most likely steal from someone else since my camera decided to become a piece of unusable crap this summer... cause, you know there IS usable crap out there... Berthito, my car, is a fine example of it).

Ja and Jo, get excited, and get someone to come get me at the airport on Wednesday, OK?!

Across My Universe

I'm no movie critic, but I have to tell you to go see Across the Universe to the theater. It's one of the most amazing movies I've seen. I fell in love with it yesterday. With each one of its characters, the story line, each scene, the settings, Awww! just amazing. All of it.



You could have guessed that I would love this movie if you knew I also love What Dreams May Come and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind. "Hey Jude..." AWW!!! A piece of art, that's what it is, a masterpiece of film.

look at the website: www.acrosstheuniverse.com

Dear...

dear star,

i have a question and a funny story for you. the question is the same question i've asked myself ever since i can remember the hot nights at the third-floor apartment where i grew up, but i forgot it. i remember questioning and answering with made up lines and stories, but i can't remember now why it was so important to have an answer. sometimes, just seeking that answer is where the meaning of the answer is, not in the actual answer. i think it was in a movie, where i heard that the human heart/mind cannot live without something to strive, something to desire; and if that something is achieved, then the whole meaning of it changes and somehow loses its essence. so i forgot the question, like the woman who thought of the name for her newborn baby and ended up naming the baby something completely different to what she had thought for nine months.
and well, the funny story, wasn't that funny after all. i told the story in my head a few times, and by the last time i told it, i wasn't laughing anymore. not even smiling. i think it lost its flavor in the translation from one language to the other. like that "salty" joke i made today. it only made sense in my head that's why mili didn't get it. or maybe her spanglish is better than mine, even when that's not even a real language.

oh, star, sorry for making you read all this. sometimes i just want to get some words out without a purpose or end. with the end result being lost time. yours and mine. sorry, my star. i think i would be better off getting words in than out.

goodnight.

A ver cuando vuelvo

"Y que voy a hacer con mi despiste selectivo
y con mi sueño frustrado de aprender a cocinar
y que voy a hacer con los domingos
y feriados ningun plan es apropiado
cuando intento no pensar

Que me inventare para decirle al mundo entero
si me ven tumbada al suelo
y sin mas ganas de volar
como escondo este par de alas rotas
y las suelas de mis botas cansadas de caminar

Yo quiero que vuelvas
yo quiero que regreses
ya ves que hasta mis manos
de tanto no tocarte me duelen....me duelen

Y que voy a hacer si mi barbilla lega al piso
y aunque intente la sonrisa no me sale natural
si ya me han visto con la mirada perdida
unas cuantas libras menos
y unas lagrimas de mas

....Yo quiero que regreses
Si sabias que eras para mi
Y siempre quisiste estar aqui
Aun no entiendo como, cuando, donde,
Ni porque te perdi, yo no se vivir asi"

There are times, places, voices, sights, faces, traces, lines, cars, colors, shapes and sounds that make me myself. You see...Although I like flying, there's one flight that took a part of my heart away. A part of my life... and gave me another part, another life. A strange life at the beginning, then familiar, but still foreign to my skin. So when I go over the clouds I look at them and dream of the flight that makes me whole again. The flight that brings me home. Wherever that may be now.
The thing is, I'm afraid I'm living in images stored in my mind, and I'm afraid I'm living in a skin that fell off me long ago. It doesn't matter how much I try to make this home.... four seasons, layered clothing, snow, freezing rain, flowers in the spring....it'll never be home because I'm not welcomed. Home is where you're welcomed....all the time....no conditions.
I'm a Veranera trying to bloom in a four-seasons climate.

Stormy heart

"Sometimes I wish that I was the weather, you'd bring me up in conversation forever. And when it rained, I'd be the talk of the day." --JM

I like it when it rains in the spring, because the rain is no longer freezing and it leaves flowers behind. In the summer, it usually refreshes the air, and it brings some clouds to ease the burning sun over our heads. But in autumn... I think I rather have storms that light rain. The winds bring down the lose leaves from the trees. Trees that change their colors. I love storms and the dark sky in the middle of a day. The clarity that it brings to life. The dust goes down with the water and things are clear and quiet just for a few moments after the storm goes away. I love storms. They make me feel fragile, so human. Thunders are the voice from heaven. Sometimes I wish I was the weather...

Selfportrait

I will, most likely, sleep until very late tomorrow morning... well... this morning. I have been playing with the image of me, because I just hadn't done it in a while. I wish I could say more, but words have left me with nothing but images.... of me. Here's one:
Yes, those are brushes. Free photoshop brushes I got at the design fruit. I might have overdone it. But it's OK, cause it's the first time.

Let me tell you about Stacie

My friend Stacie C. is a missionary. She is one of the coolest girls I know and I just had a great time hanging out with her tonight. I went to see her, because she called me early this week saying she wanted to hang out this week. I called her back today and asked her if she was in town and what was she doing, and after a few minutes talking with her on the phone it casually came up that she's been in town for about 3 weeks now. Yes, that's THREE weeks. Why did I hear from her till this week? Well, that's what I wanted to know.

So I went to see her tonight after getting back from a photo assignment I'm getting ready for the weekend. After finding the place and her, I gave her a big hug. It had been too long since we last saw each other. So we talked about a lot of things, where she's been, what she's been doing, who she's been talking to, the Bible, church, boys, email... and well, you get the idea. She is so great. I looked at some of her photos from her time in my Central America and well, my heart just shrunk a bit. What do I mean by that? I don't know, that's just how it felt, like my heart shrunk a bit. Because I wanted to be there, in those pictures, instead of the other side of the image. She listened about parts of my life I don't talk about that often, at least not here. I even told her about Job 26 and why I love that chapter so much. And of course, we goofed around too... she got this crazy, not so pleasant image in my mind and now I can't get rid of it. I hope, if I one day read this post again, I don't remember what that image was.

I love this girl. Her heart is so focused and her vision is so wonderful. She's what I once dreamed about becoming...some time ago. I'm going to help her out putting up her website. If I can't help her out financially at the moment, then this will be my contribution. I know one day I'll be able to do more.

Stacie's heart is in Latin America. She loves God and she wants, and is, making a difference in this world. I saw the pictures she takes of those she's met and love, there are some many faces stored in those photos. People she might never see again, or whose names she doesn't know, and still she can tell you how she met the person and how that person marked her life. I heard some stories... about the girl who has the cute 2 year old, about the guy with the tribal tattoo who played basketball under the rain and smeared the tattoo away, about the tall French guy, about the Canadian girl, the photographer, and the Tica bus driver that took her through Central America by chance (he happened to be the driver every time she took the bus to the next country) and who ended up exchanging her currencies for dollars at the end of the journey. Pictures of sweet strangers. Amazing stories. She has a story behind each bracelet she wears. And I now there's a story behind each ring she wears... she told me years ago. She wants to make people's lives easier and better and put a bit more love in their lives, and then she wants to tell their stories.

If you pray, pray for Stacie. You'd love her just as much as I do if you got the chance to meet her. Well, actually, maybe you will get the chance to meet her. Only God knows where she'll be next. Really.

I am left singing 3x5

My camera is done.

"I'm writing you to
catch you up on places I've been
And you have this letter
you probably got excited, but there's nothing else inside it
didn't have a camera by my side this time
hoping I would see the world through both my eyes
maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way with words.
Today, skies are painted colors of a cowboy cliche'
And its strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky
are next to mountains anyway.
Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world through both my eyes.
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
in the mood to lose my way
but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
NO more 3x5's
I guess you had to be there
I guess you had to be with me
Today I finally overcame
trying to fit the world inside a picture frame
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to
lose my way but let me say
You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
it brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
no more 3x5's
just no more 3x5's"

Only that with me the part that says " Today I finally overcame trying to fit the world inside a picture frame" isn't true at all. I miss my camera. (youtube video)

Stepping back

Washington DC

Measure on Legal Status for Immigrant Students Blocked

By JULIA PRESTON

Published: September 28, 2007

An effort by Senate Democrats to advance a measure to give legal status to illegal immigrants who are high school graduates failed on Wednesday.

permanent link

I find the falling economy of this country very closely related to the blockage on immigrant workforce, education, and development.