Older (and the jury's still out on 'wiser')

I have always loved my birthdays. I think its because I've faced some 'health-drama' in my life... but even before that. It might be because I've always looked forward to being older, to have gone 'round the sun once more. I also like the by-products of being older: I understand myself better, I think I understand others more and I appreciate the people that I love and that love me back more.

Since turning 27 I have realized just how important friends and family are. I have amazing friends that love me, care about me and make me feel like I am not alone in this world. I think this is the year that I finally understood what it is like to be alone and how lucky I am to have so many friends and family around me. I have a great family that always makes me laugh and it is because of them that I can say that I truly like what and who I am.

I still don't know how I feel about being 28. Being 25 was fun, 26 felt very grown-up and 27 turned into a year that showed me that I was reaping the benefists of my past in my efforts in school, my work and life wise.

And while I'm still scared of the future, have insecurities, and fights, and problems, and 'issues' like everyone else, today I kind of feel like its more than OK to have them. So my conclusion is that turning 28 is just like turning 18 but with a little extra bump -and some gray hairs.

'Passport watch' or 'you're always allowed to travel home'

I just finished packing for New York. I'm excited and have been on 'travel mode' for a few days now. This includes constant list-making/checking and the urge to run errands all day.

Travel mode also includes passport watch. Usually, I don't worry that much. One of the advantages of being a double national is that I have two passports... so if I lose one, the other nationality is right there, little booklet in hand and waiting for me. This time, because I'm traveling to the US, I really need my American passport to be nice and keep still. This was making me extra-antsy but then I remembered: you are always allowed to travel home if you lose your passport.

So I guess if the passport is MIA I can always travel 'home' (even though I haven't been to the US since I was eleven!)

Sometimes, life boils down to a game of checkers

I think I was about five years old when my uncle Roberto taught me how to play checkers... and not very long after that, I got good at it. It didn't take that much for almost every adult in my family to lose a game to me (and most of the times, it wasn't intentional!).

Once, my uncle came for a visit and played with me. I won a few times and started to get cocky... and lost miserably. He told me that I lost not because I wasn't prepared or because my technique was not good. I lost because I had too much confidence and hence lost sight of the little slip-ups and I was making and missed opportunities from being oblivious to my opponents mistakes as well.

Throughout my life I've noticed that cockiness will do that to me every time. If you are over-confident in your abilities then you will loose sight of your goal and probably not attain it. This happened with work this week. I thought I was too good for what I was assigned to do and here I am, five days later and still working on the draft.

So I remembered my uncle Roberto and what he said. I told my friend Danny about it and all he had to say is that 'Sometimes, life boils down to a game of checkers'. And he's right, it does.

The nerve!

It has come to be quite a surprise that while our society is opening-up and fighting hard to include women as equals in most aspects of modern life, we have forgotten one important thing that sets us apart from the boys: our period.

Because of this I think that now is the time to take a stand against male bosses around the world... specially that kind that tells you that you're not getting paid for the month 'because you did too much thesis-work' or give you penalties for taking your first vacation in three years. How dare they drop such news on you exactly when you are PMS'ing?

Women of the workforce, nay, of the world: unite against male bosses that only have blatant disregard for your womanly cycle!

There is no justice in the world.

Clouds

I think the world is a harsh place. Its hard, the people are not nice and life never turns out the way you think it will be. Sometimes, we just need a little self-imposed magic, a self-imposed naïve way of thinking that everything will be alright, that there is a rainbow with a big pot of gold at the end of what we are doing.

Maybe I'm doing it wrong, maybe there is no rainbow. Maybe my being naïve is not self imposed at all... but maybe believing or thinking that way that is a good thing. Is that wrong? I know the pitfalls, I know the errors and still I choose to make them, so that I feel happier. Maybe I'm just chasing clouds and are doomed never to catch them.

one, two, three... ok... four will do it -for now

The way I see it, the world in going down the proverbial crapper. Earth has some serious issues (most of which originate directly from humans, but some from the methane that comes from cow-done -love the fundamentalist Christian folk that came up with that one!) like the economy, wars, over population, incurable illnesses and disease, and global warming.

I do believe in global warming, and I do believe its mostly a bad thing. The only thing that keeps it from being a completely bad thing is my selfish and unhealthy attachment to mangoes. It just so happens that when I was a little girl mango season would start around my birthday (March 22) but this year it started in early January... nothing wrong with that...

So its not that I don't feel bad for the poor little polar bears, the sad penguins and the plants that are burned every day in the amazonian region... its that today I sat down with three mangoes and had them for lunch, and then proceeded to get a fourth one. So world, I'm sorry but I refuse to feel guilty for an 8 month mango season.

NYC baby! -and an extra day to boot!

I keep hearing people taking these so-called 'vacations' that apparently involve having 'free time' to 'not work'. Those things sound fan-freaking-tastic, uh? Well,I haven't had one of those since I graduated from college back in the summer of 2004.

In a very impulsive move with my friend, we decided I should take some time off... and go visit said friend to New York. We found a great ticket and it all fell into place so we bought it. All that was left was actually telling my boss that I would not be working for a week. So two weeks after we got the ticket I finally got the nerve to tell him. What did he say? 'Good! its healthy to take time off!'.

So, not only do I have 'free time' to goof around in NYC and upstate, but I just noticed that I got my ticket for a day earlier than I thought... so I gots me an extra day of vacations! (that was a huge mistake and I'm blaming it on Mercury's retrograde... but heck, a great mistake, uh?)