I have a very happy announcement

After six and a half years... I'm going to see my daddy again!!!!!!!!!!!
It's amazing. Here's the story:

I got a call from my brother Juan Carlos this week, I think it was Tuesday. He said my dad was coming, that he had sent him some of the money for the plane ticket and he would send some more the next day to complete the fare price and he would come and hopefully spend about a week in 3 different cities in the States where 3 of the 4 of the kids living in the states are. I couldn't believe it!!! I asking what was going on and if he was sure and what did I need to do and things like that. He said we just have to pay for the plane tickets when he's here, to get him from one place to the other. I started calling Lidia right after I hang up with Juanca and she didn't answer for a bit, so I text her the news. She was more than happy and forgot the time difference between our states and called me later that night. I was half sleep, so I told her we would talk the next day.

Well... that was early in the week. Yesterday, we bought a multi-city ticket for him to spend some time in L.A., here and then in New Mexico with Juanca. Thank God the ticket was about half of what I had seen a few days early when I was looking at flights with some random dates in July.

I AM SO EXCITED!!!!!!!!!!

Quiero un racimo de estrellas!!

Es la cancion de mi verano... Las Flores, Café Tacuba.
No me la puedo sacar de la mente!

Welcome Summer

Yesterday was a very good day. After doing stuff around the house I got my stuff and got to paint in the freshly mowed back yard as the sun set. The wonderful thing about summers here (one of the whole list) is that the sun takes its sweet time when setting. I went out at about 6:30 pm and got a couple of hours of painting. Then I enjoyed the last of the sun laying down on the grass, looking up a tree surrounded by fairy tales and summers. I think I smelled like sunshine after the last ray of sun had touched the highest leave in the tallest tree I could see. And then, out of every corner, fireflies came dancing, close to the ground and by the dozen. It was amazing, the feeling of summer, the dry paint on my hands, the coolness of the ground sending its energy through my back, the few drops of sweat on my forehead... I am in love with this summer.

see this

This is my third entry today. Exactly two weeks ago someone hit my car in a parking lot and just left, leaving a broken tail light and body work needed in my car. Today, my mom and I went to the store to get some groceries and when we came back to the car we noticed the hood was a little bent on one of the edges, it looked weird but I didn't see anything else, so we let it go. When we came back to the house I took some time to look why the edge was a bit bent and noticed one of the lights was pushed in a little and there was an extra scratch on the bumper.

I am so done with these civil offenders. I just had to pay a repair on my car for someone that thought it was fine just to leave the tail light broken and now this? I'm so done with this crap.

Wheeler Family

Please pray for this family, their daughter is very sick in Guatemala and they need all the strength and prayer they can get. Please have them in your thoughts.

This is from their blog:
______________
PRAY FOR A MIRACLE......ELIANA IS VERY, VERY SICK IN THE HOSPITAL IN GUATEMALA CITY!!!!!!!!!
Just got a call.......Eliana almost died last night. We are beyond devastated and are just crying out to God!! PLEASE SHARE THIS WITH EVERYONE YOU KNOW. Her little body is VERY sick!

Love y'all,
Lindsey

P.S. We are trying to find a way to get to Guatemala today or tomorrow to be with her in the hospital!!!!!

thewheelerjourney.blogspot.com

Y como no estoy durmiendo....

Coco had this up, I guess this is a week for these time-killers, verdad?

BOOK TAG

1. Pick up the nearest book.
Love in Idleness by Amanda Craig

2. Open to page 123.
OK... it's just full of text.

3. Find the fifth sentence.
"I've seen a few"

4. Post the next three sentences.
"Uh-huh", said Daniel. "The English vice?"
"For your information, I seduced the matron of my prep school at thirteen."

hehe... that was fun. This was a fun, light-hearted book. I read it last summer.

hello summer

In a couple of days the official start of the summer will be here. Previous years have made summer official with the end of a school year and change... nice change. Change from class to class or from class to free time, or class to work. Summers I remember here have always been that. And I always had a trip to look forward to, as long as I've been in this country. The first time I went out was in 2005 when I got to go to DC with a group of people that are now very good friends of mine, we were representing the UA. The following years I found a way to get to DC myself, still a sponsored trip, but I was the one that made it happen. This year is different, I guess that's the change now. I don't get to go to DC or anywhere else. I might have some in-state visits that I want to do to a very loved family, but that's still in the air.

I am looking forward to more changes. Change is important for me, it has kept me growing strong after I embraced it. Summer has to be my Spring this year.

I want a pineapple shake.

Oh, yes, and a friend told me she has my book... the one I was looking for last night. Facebook status can be helpful.

DONDE ESTA MI LIBRO?!

Where the heck is my Black White & Jewish book by Rebecca Walker?! I've been looking for it in all the places that it could be and it's nowhere to be found. What the heck?! Donde esta? I usually keep good track of my books if I lent them, so I don't think someone else has it. This is a big mystery...I read it exactly 2 years ago. Which tells me time goes by to fast. I'll let you know if I find it.

For the love of fireflies

I love fireflies. They might just be the highlight of summers here. And I just saved one. I walked by the window while the spider was going to eat it or something and I saw something shined so I stopped. I killed the spider in a split second and noticed the poor firefly was all knotted up on spider web, sticky and all, you know.
So I got a couple of exacto knives and got to work. I kept trying to get the web strings off her because she (maybe he) kept shining. It might have been because she (or he) was afraid, but maybe it was just to let me know it was still alive. So I kept at it. First I was able to untie its... hands(?) and then I was able to get the spider stuff off the wings. That's when the little firefly STARTED WALKING!!!

Call me lame, but this just brightened my evening.

Rainy/Not Rainy

It's rained for the last couple of days here, but nothing even close to the midwest of the country. Yesterday, here, the sun even came out after the afternoon rain and we had a beautiful sunset.

5x5

The 5x5 (got this from Coco)

-- What was I doing five years ago? (2003)
a. Learning English
b. Started work at CCOA
c. Getting ready for college
d. Enrolling in orientation and figuring how i'll pay for college
e. Missing home

-- Five Snacks I Enjoy:
a. sweet tea (yea, it's a snack)
b. flan
c. an orange
d. cherries
e. pineapple chunks

-- Five Things I Would Do If I Had A Billion Dollars:
a. travel
b. buy a house
c. travel
d. get some organization in El Salvador
e. travel

-- Five Places I Have Lived:
a. Col Libertad, San Salvador, El Salvador
b. Versalles, San Salvador, El Salvador
c. Santa Tecla, La Libertad, El Salvador
d. Merliot, Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador
e. S'dale, AR, USA

-- Five Jobs I Have Had:
a. mail stuffer
b. clerk
c. babysitter
d. math tutor
e. freelancer
(most of what i've done has been volunteering)

--Five NickNames Family & Friends Call Me:
a. Berthis
b. Betty
c. B
d. Eu
e. Bertita

--Five Things I Have Learned From Experience:
a. life is too damn short
b. is not about the photo, is about the memory it holds
c. life = change
d. change = grow
e. nada es más preciado que la libertad

work, work and photos

This week is going to be full of work (of three types) and play. Office, photo and babysitting. I hope I have some time left to work on my site. I am sleepy now, but will get some Eat Pray Love before some sweet sweet dreams tonight.

JUAN LUIS GUERRA PHOTOS ARE UP!!!

You can see them all here CLICK

That's wrong... and against the law

I had a hit and run today. There is someone that's going to cost me to repair one of the back lights of my car and some body work. God will take care of you... you hit-and-runner!

JUAN LUIS GUERRA!!!

I just went to Juan Luis Guerra y 4.40's concert!! I would have never thought I would see him in concert, but it happened!!!! I AM SO EXCITED, STILL IN THE 5TH HEAVEN!!!!! He's such a talent!!!! I needed him to sing El Costo de la Vida, but that didn't happen, BUT don't get it wrong, the concert was still AMAZING and I had such wonderful time and took amazing photos that I will be posting later! I am so so happy still! Listening to his music on my iTunes now... Now I can say it:

THAT SONG IS SO MUCH BETTER LIVE!

If you don't know who he is THAT'S A SHAME! Hello? FIVE GRAMMY AWARDS IN ONE NIGHT. Ten in total... PURE GOODNESS.

Daddy,

I am so happy and thankful that you got to your 58 years of age yesterday and my soul danced around the room where I was yesterday when I talked to you. I miss you. Sorry I called you after your bedtime, but know I'm so so happy that you took the phone with you to bed because you knew I'd call. I know things are not perfect, and for as much as you tried to keep us close when we were kids, me and my siblings have grown apart. Maybe further apart than our hearts can bear. But your voice and your funny comments remind me of how we can't go far apart enough to be separated. Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy them in the weekends. Sometimes I regret not spending more time together, but things that happened already can't be changed. Now that we're so far I wish I could hug you and maybe draw you. Just a piece of paper and some carboncillo, you know? or just a pen, like you'd use to draw us. Happy birthday daddy. I'm telling the story around, of how you also turned 11 years of survival from that heart attack. You and the doctor sharing birthdays in the operating room. I remember. I was 12.

I pray that I can hug you again soon. And see your face, since you don't love the camera and let the pictures for those, like me, that want to save life in a frame. You save it in your heart and in your stories. Happy birthday daddy. I loved our conversation last night.

Love,
La Mochu