Spring Break

Is coming!!

I really had wanted to go somewhere amazing this year because it might be my last spring break as an undergrad but school got the best of me and I didn't have to to plan anything so I'm going to use these beautiful days off to..

Make these cute felt flowers into headbands/hair clips for my nieces

Maybe some singed flowers

finally start/finish some crocheted bows

and perhaps some fabric bows too

work on projects from this book to make a rad apron

go up to Sedona for a day date in the most couple like thing I've done with Mr. Amazing and my good friend Sara and her beau, Chad

fyi...we are NOT in a relationship just to set things straight. Just two cools people who get together and are umm...cool together(?) yeah that sounds good

But if we all go on this trip I'll try and sneak a photo of him and post it...I don't want to scare him off with my paparazzi moves just yet.

I've decided that I want to be the car DJ and the drive up and back.

I am just so in love right now with

Little Joy

Jack Johnson's In Between Dreams

Muse (always in love)

and Queen (oh It's insane how addicted I am)

Carla Bruni is just fantastic too

Do any of your folks have plans for Spring Break?

oooo...

p.s. My lovely Miss Rasha is having a fantastic surprise giveaway at her blog, and the lovely Justine is doing a 3 prize giveaway at her blog too.

I kinda sorta really want that camera too...Justine?? can I bribe you?? lol

Tu, Solo Tu

The best word I could use to describe my saturday afternoon picnic is vibrant.

I wrote it on my twitter one day of just how vibrant works.

"hmm...that sounded good 'life is vibrant when I'm with him' I'll have to remember that and tell him in the future if it lasts"

The sun shone like I've never seen it shine before. Food has never tasted that good. The wind felt like it was hugging me and playing with my hair. The birds were singing. My nose was loving the smell of the water. The flowers. of him.

part of me wants to build up my wall higher and stronger so I feel safe and know I won't get hurt..

another part of me sees how incredible this all is and wants to let go and let loose and let the way he makes me feel overcome me, overpower me, and wash me in waves of happiness.

at this point... how simply perfect this weekend was is telling me it will be worth it if I get my heart broken in the end...

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn

is to love and be loved in return"

right?

here is to taking chances...

♥

but let me let you in on reality. This is my life right?? so that means it's not sunshine and cupcakes, Disney movies all the time k?? I have to be my stupid, clumsy, mess-it-up self! Saturday afternoon was a dream but my idiot self yet again thought I was Russian and I may have reenacted this photo...

in his bathroom...

yeah I die thinking about the embarrassment

but he rubbed my back, brought me water and aspirin and played his guitar for me after too...

so if that doesn't yell keeper I don't know what does...

Thank you for the great suggestions for my picnic...it really was perfect but I'm thinking now that I could have gone in pjs and with pop tarts and it still would have been vibrant.

I hope you all had a lovely weekend and here is to one week before spring break!

Picnic Time

I live in sunny Arizona and March is pretty much the most magical time of year here. Saturday is forecasted to be a lovely 76 degrees and I'm making the most of how glorious it is outside right now, before it becomes deathly hot and miserable and I then voice my fears about melting.

How am I making the most of my time?? by going on a picnic of course!

♥

Now I need your help! This isn't just any old picnic, this is a a perfect Saturday afternoon picnic with a certain special gentlemen. Since I'm planning this picnic I want it to measure up to how amazing this picnic was.

You can help by answering some questions and giving some good advice!

please and thank you

I'm planning on making

Drinks

Agua Fresca (?)

Wine

Appetizers

Hummus (?) with baguette bread slices

something else

Main Meal

Roasted Veggie and Black Bean Burritos

and/or

Pasta with Eggplant and Mozzarella

Dessert

Oatmeal Cherry White Chocolate Chip Cookies

Cherry Cheesecake Cookies

What do you think of the working menu?

Any meat-free appetizer suggestions?

Any wine suggestions?? something good and inexpensive

Will it be too girly to wear a summer/springy dress?

Any picnic tips and tricks to share??

Thanks so much bloggy loves... hope you all have a wonderful weekend =)

Baby Chicks

A couple weeks back I was sitting at home one day watching The Colbert Report when he had on Jonathan Safran Foer on to talk about his book Eating Animals.

The clips can be viewed here.

It's most memorable soundclip is when Foer talks about how genetically altered turkys are now that they can't naturally reproduce.

That got my attention...but school rolled in and I forgot about it until I saw this article in The Huffington Post by Natalie Portman.

This is from the inside cover of the book

Like many others, Jonathan Safran Foer spent hienage and college years oscillating between omnivore and vegetarian. But on the brink of fatherhood—facing the prospect of having to make dietary choices on a child’s behalf—his casual questioning took on an urgency. This quest ultimately required him to visit factory farms in the middle of the night, dissect the emotional ingredients of meals from his childhood, and probe some of his most primal instincts about right and wrong.

This book is what he found. Brilliantly synthesizing philosophy, literature, science, memoir, and his own detective work, Eating Animals explores the many stories we use to justify our eating habits—folklore and pop culture, family traditions and national myth, apparent facts and inherent fictions—and how such tales can lull us into a brutal forgetting.

Marked by Foer’s moral ferocity and unvarying generosity, as well as the humor and style that made his previous books, Everything Is Illuminated and Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, widely loved, Foer’s latest tour de force informs and delights, challenging us to explore what is too often conveniently brushed aside. A celebration and a reckoning, Eating Animals is a story about the stories we’ve told—and the stories we now need to tell.

After reading all this I couldn't not think about it anymore and I had to get the book and figure

out for myself what I though about eating animals...

I got to page 49 when Foer started talking about male baby chicks who were born from "layer" chickens, or chickens who have been genetically engineered to lay eggs. Since these are the boy chicks, they can't lay eggs so what happens to them since they aren't made for meat? They are destroyed. Destroyed? How?

"Most male layers are destroyed by being sucked through a series of pipes onto an electrified plate. Other layer chicks are destroyed in other ways, and it's impossible to call those animals more or less fortunate. Some are tossed into large plastic containers. The weak are trampled to the bottom, where they suffocate slowly. The strong suffocate slowly at the top. Other are sent fully conscious through macerators (picture a wood chipper filled with chicks)"

Needless to say I don't think I'll be able to bring myself to eat any meat that isn't produced from a family farm... what I'm reading has just showed me how not natural even "natural" meat is.

I said I would document it

Awhile back I said I would write about the stuff off my 101 in 1001 list and while I may not have been blogging regularly these past couple of weeks I have been completing some stuff of my list. My first project was the crocheted beanie I made and this post going to be about # 45

#45- Kiss a Stranger

So this will be short and sweet because a picture is worth a thousand words right? I was about 4 strong screwdrivers in, he spilled some of his drink on my arm (then said it was the guy behind us, but I know it was him) and then used that as an opener to chat me up. A lot of close ear taking (thanks in part to the loud bar) about shared likes in music, movies, and television later...we get this...

and one less item on the list.

I did #50 too so that is crossed off my list. That story involves a long black peacoat and high heels but I don't think this is that kind of blog. So I'll save that one for umm later =)

ps. Thanks Liz for having quick photo fingers ; )

the best date so far

All these crazy mixed up emotions have been great for my blog! I can't help but come here and write just about anything right now. I feel so expressive and open, even if some of the best post are unpublished and labeled "private", I feel so thankful that I have such amazing blog-friends who have helped in providing me this space!

It's love month and I feel like I should come clean about some of the amazing moments I've been having lately. Bananas is right about vague posts and frankly I don't like 'em either! That's why we blog! We do it share all the juicy details- right? What is going on right now is a little too fresh and green for me to be writing about it just yet on the internet- I'm trying real hard not to mess things up because I'm my world, I inevitably goof up and ruin things. I'm just gonna stay really happy and mum about the past couple weeks but I did want to write about the best date I've ever had. Try and give a little of all the mushy gusuy I've been feeling to you folks.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

It all starts here, at Egdefest of 07, a music festival they had about 5 minutes from our place in QC with acts like Flyleaf, The Bravery, Jimmy Eat World, Social Distortion, and Tiger Army. I went with my mole eyes girls, Sara and Sarskie and had a fantastic time just lounging around in the great weather and enjoying stellar music.

edgefest 07

We were all really excited to Jimmy Eat World and they came on just as the sun was setting and we shimmed our way up front- as far as we could. The shimmying up front was probably not the best idea because here I was momma hen, trying to protect my short friends from the mosh pit next door and from us being separated when a rouge crowd surfer suddenly comes crashing into Sara! I'm scared that she's hurt or bleeding and in talking to her, asking her if she's is alright I get a tap on my shoulder. I turn around and see this really handsome tall guy with dark brown hair, green/brown eyes, a Led Zeppelin t-shirt and a friendly smile. Wow. He asks me if my friend is alright, and I of course being astounded by how cute he is gurgle out something incoherent and grin like a fool before turning back to my friends and melting into a giant puddle. After melting, recovering with some small "battle wounds" from the crowd surfer, and some more dancing and jumping around my friend Sarskie points out that "there's this dude staring at you" and I turn around to see smile guy looking directly at me and I grin again like an idiot and re-melt. We did this turn back melt thing about 5 or 6 more times during the concert until Jimmy Eat World finished their amazing set and we hi-tailed it out of mosh pit zone before people started pushing each other again for a better spot for the next band. We're waiting right outside of the circle for some other friends when I see smile guy following me out and I brake apart from my group to talk to him. "Now or never, right?? Got to be brave" I tell myself.

Jimmy Eat World at Edgefest 07

"Hi, I'm Ross"

"Hey, I'm Marisela, nice to meet you"

"Nice to meet you too"

(God only knows what the heck we talked about for the next minute or too, I was trying to pat down my hair, not smell like stanky mosh pit people, and trying oh so hard to be super cool at the same time)

"Here let me give you my number"

"ok" (phone out-grabbing number)

"It was nice meeting you Marisela"

"You too Ross"

and then we walked back to our friends and I super melted one last time.

I didn't text him that night, I practically stuck my phone in the freezer to try and be coy and wait awhile. I lasted until the next evening, Sunday night where I texted him that "Hello" message and our phones just about blew up over the next couple days...

Cut to about four weeks later and about three dates in. It's a Thursday evening and I was living off campus with a family friend whose neighborhood had this huge man made lake in it and we are set to have a moonlit picnic right by it.

He shows up and just about every time I see him my heart feels like it's going to pop out my chest and I'm thanking God I chose not to eat anything because it would surly be coming up right now from how nervous he makes me feel.

We toasted some sourdough bread with a balsamic vinaigrette thing and pack up a picnic basket (that I had scrambled to get earlier that day) with some wine, cheese, the bread and a blanket that matched the picnic basket (that I made earlier that day too) I was so nervous and definitely feeling the butterfly with ever glance we sent each other's way.

We walk together, basket and acoustic guitar in tow, around the lake until we come to a spot where the moon is reflected and looks oh so big in the water and lay everything out. We drink some wine, eat cheese and have some great conversation. After a bit I request some music and he pulls out his guitar and just starts playing and OMG am I in love with how good he is. By far the best guitar playing I've ever heard and after I ask him what he is playing I get a "oh I'm just sort of making it up" response and die a little more at how amazing he is.

Then it hits me. Here we are sitting on nice warm blanket, under the moonlight by this beautiful lake, sipping wine and I'm getting serenaded by the most incredible guitar playing I've ever heard. "How lucky am I to be living in a movie" I think to myself because it was all just so perfect that It could only be a dream.

The rest of the night was equally special and I'd like to save it for me to keep but I'll just say we talked a whole lot more, kissed like crazy and got caught in the sprinklers just like in the movies.

♥

However cute that night was we didn't last. We went on a couple more dates and made it official too soon. We ended up wanting different things; me, this being my first real time dating wanted a relationship and commitment; him, just getting out of a serious relationship wasn't looking for something so concrete so fast. I took it a little bad when things ended because he had been pretty much been everything I was looking for in guy. He's really tall, smart, well read, funny, into great music, sweet, romantic, and original, so I kept my crush on him for a while and we ended up staying friends and keeping in touch over myspace and facebook and the occasional text messages so things turned out pretty well.

About 2 and half years later and still nothing has come close to being as sweet or memorable a night as that Thursday night moonlit picnic...

Well that was until this past Valentine's day, or how I like to call it "The Best February 12th Ever", since I wasn't quite expecting to do anything for Valentine's day.

And here's the funny part the sweet guy who took the time to plan out such a great night as February 12th for me? Yeah his name is Ross.

I guess it pays off when you part relationships amicably and stay in touch. =)

sometimes wish

It's Monday and I am already tired. The weekdays are just too long and I'm really feeling exhausted some days. Is it worth it? yes I know it is but sometimes it gets so hard to just keep going...

I sometimes wish my parents weren't immigrants and that we had more money or knowledge when I was growing up...I would mean I wouldn't have to work so hard now

I sometimes wish I didn't have to work and could go out on Tuesday night like I see plenty of other college kids doing

I sometimes wish I could have gotten to live in the dorms and have more a 'normal' going away to college experience

I sometimes wish I didn't have to help raise my nephew, playing babysitter or handing out discipline or checking homework. I didn't sign up to be a part-time mommy at 20

I sometimes wish I could just let loose and forget my responsibilities, get shitfaced like everyone else...

Then I remember how selfish these things sound when I sometimes wish it and remind myself to be grateful for every single opportunity I get.

I thank my mom and dad for coming here and working sometimes horrible jobs and facing deportation and discrimination because they loved their future babies so much that they would do anything to give us a better life

I thank my job for giving me a chance to do something creative and for employing me and working with my school schedule so I can not be a huge financial burden to my family

I thank my parents, brothers and sister, teachers and friends for supporting me in each and every one of my scholastic endeavors. School can be tough but I am so thankful for every book I read, every lecture I go to, and every assignment I have here at ASU. Going to college has been my biggest dream since I was a little girl.

I'm so thankful I have a family that supports me in everything I do and I'm grateful to get to be there for the next generation. It takes a village to raise a child and now that I'm not a child anymore I relish my place as a villager and helping cousins, nieces, and nephews in any way I can.

I thank my mom for making me into a reason filled young women who realizes that at a party with a couple of strong drinks I can have that one night...but with a good education, strong moral fiber, and deep determination I can reach my goals and have for the rest of my life.

Sometimes I get into that woe is me category and start to bring myself down..

♥

this post is to remind me to be grateful and thankful for everything I've had an opportunity to do and the great things I am blessed with in life.

Nobody can hold you back if you don't let them...

not even yourself.

I hope you have a fantastic Monday and have the strength to do great and big things this week.