Greetings to you!

During the holidays, I like to send people cards but not the old-fashioned way. I love to use greetings.yahoo.com to send special greetings to my friends and family members. Sometimes they have amazing cards that really connect with the spirit of the holidays. Usually when you buy gifts for people, it's not exactly what they wanted or it isn't the right size. It kind of gets boring and you spend hours and hours trying to figure out what to buy for the perfect gift for your loved ones. However, a card sometimes says it all! My best friend is somebody who I have trusted, loved, and knew for such a long time. I send her a really sweet card that had a valuable lesson written in it and she was grateful. 

I am not saying that we shouldn't buy gifts at all for our loved ones but just on some occasions. If you feel as if you don't have any money or even no option of choosing a gift, an e-card (that's what they are called) is the right kind of gift. Your loved ones will really appreciate it. Plus, it's kind of fun to scroll down looking for "the perfect" card and you come across really hilarious ones. I love opening gifts and finding special treats for myself but I really wouldn't mind a thoughtful card once in a while.

Random comment: there is a lady bug on my window. 

Books and many more...

So, yesterday while I was bored I decided to make a list of all the books I want to read. Well, of course, there is the Twilight Saga and I have decided to read all of them thanks to Marissa. First, I want to read Twilight, In the Shadow of the Ark, finish To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, and this book in my language. I can't really translate it and pronounce it so I will let you know after I have completed reading it. 

Okay, so unto other people's lists of things to do. Today I decided to go to the mall to see what Black Friday was all about. There is this saying that my grandmother uses when she wants to say how busy a place is. She says that it's so busy when you dropped a nickel, it didn't reach the ground. Well, actually she says "when you dropped a needle". Get it? In other words, the amount of people there did not allow the needle to safely hit the ground even though it's really small. Dumbfounded, I dragged my grandfather and mother into going shopping with me to see what was on sale. So, it all began when we were looking for a parking space. Again it was so crowded  and there was no parking place to be found. We spent exactly half an hour trying to exit through the nearest exit but there were so many many cars ahead of us. It was impossible so my mother started to complain and we began to argue. So, there was this guy in a convertible ahead of us. He said something not fit so say but I will use symbols instead of the words but you know what I mean. "You crazy people. What the @#$& are you looking for? You are shopping for nothing. No @#$%! reason at all." I don't know if he was frustrated or something but I kind of understood what you was trying to say other than the swear words. He was trying to say that people are shopping for the wrong reasons and not really thinking about anything worthwhile. I mean I am not saying that it's bad to buy paraphernalia for you loved ones but it's also important to donate a few dollars for those who are less fortunate. There are a lot of frustrated people during the holidays that are not afraid to speak their minds. Literally!!! 

Alone on Thanksgiving

Anybody who knows me knows the fact that I love Los Angeles. All my friends and family members live there. It's not a good place to live, in my opinion, but having fun with friends and family is like the cherry on top of an ice cream. I love my family members and I was hoping to spend Thanksgiving day with them. However, on such short notice I realized on Tuesday that my mother would be working this week. So, she told me that I could go ahead and go but there was this really sad tone to her voice. I decided to ignore the tone even though my heart was racing and I was noncommittal about visiting LA. Just yesterday, I woke up around 6:00 a.m. deciding whether to go to LA or not. We had decided that my aunt would pick me up at 12:00 so we could begin our 4-hour road trip earlier. I had my suitcase packed and took a long look at it until a voice in my head said "don't go". You couldn't believe how much I had waited for Thanksgiving to approach in order to visit my relatives but the sympathy that I shared for my mother was really strong. My mother urged me to go but I just really didn't want to leave her alone on Thanksgiving. So, I bid my aunt and grandmother good-bye and headed off to school. Giving up this perfect opportunity to spend some time with my dear family members did not bother me all that much until this morning. I woke up realizing that I would be alone for Thanksgiving. Just my mother and my grandfather and started to feel really depressed. However, so far it's actually going great. So, alone on Thanksgiving should not develop into a negative connotation because it's not so bad....

Holidays

Holidays are a great time to be with families and spending time with your loved ones. However the holidays are also a great time for those who are struggling and need assistance. These days and especially these days when Thanksgiving is approaching, I see many people who are raising money to help homeless children or those who don't have families and need comfort. I am so glad that people in our society are stepping up to help people in this time of need and just helping out no matter what the circumstances are. A few days ago, I was walking down a street when I saw this little girl carrying a box that said "Please donate money for kids like me and many more." You know, tears just welded up in my eyes and I had no idea what came over me. My mom and I opened our wallets and donated money. The way the girl approached me and the way this big smile came over her face was such an incredible moment. I mean she couldn't have been older than 5 or 6 years of age but managed to help out. As I was walking, I began to think about what Atticus once said. No matter how cruel, greedy, and bitter a person may be, there is still some goodness waiting to jump out of them. This little girl was such an amazing and helpful child who could melt a person's heart. She reminded me of Scout and how she walked up to the mob when they were attacking Atticus. Scout had a responsibility to help her father and this little girl had a responsibility to help children like her. It was a very touching moment. 

Laughing babies!

Okay, so I finally managed to post a video on my blog. It was easier than I thought. So, I got this video off of youtube (obviously) and it's about these six babies that are laughing in unison. It's really funny! Their father is trying to make them laugh and their laughs are so cute. Enjoy!
(It kind of gets freaky at the end)

Deja Vu; What is it?

Have you ever felt like an event in your life has taken place before? You don't know how or why you feel this way but there is this voice that says "it has happened". It's this surge of feelings that overwhelm you when you feel like a deja vu is taking place. The term deja vu, if you look it up in a dictionary, means "a feeling of having already experienced the present situation." It's funny how you try to recreate a scene that has taken place in your life but it doesn't seem to work. Deja Vu takes place in your life when you don't eve know it. Today, my mother was driving me to the library and we began to talk about school, college, and stuff. As I looked through the window, a man carrying a suitcase caught my attention the moment my mother was talking. All of a sudden I felt a feeling of deja vu. It was very interesting how my mother's words, "it's very difficult for you" and the man with the suitcase seemed so so so so familiar to me. Maybe in my "past life" I have gone through this situation and that's why I remember. This leads me to my second definition of deja vu. Some people say that deja vu takes place in your life because of rebirth. In your past life, you must have experienced a familiar state and this is why a sudden surge of feelings come over you. You feel emotional at that instant moment because you can remember the very moment in your past life again in this life. It's very interesting and I will find some more information about deja vu to write in my next blog.

To Kill a Mockingbird

So, this is not my first time reading To Kill a Mockingbird and let me tell you that the second time is better than the first. There were so many minor details that I did not understand in certain chapters that left me confused at the end of the story. Talking about it in class and discussing certain texts helped me connect the different situations that took place in the story. From this chapter on it gets so exciting, I can hardly keep it in; you know the ending of the story and all. I am not going to give anything away but know that Mr. Ewell is going to come back again. This time for a nasty revenge! I absolutely love this book because there are so many messages worth learning about. I always thought that Mr. "Boo" Radley was this mysterious fellow who hated to come out of his house. Living in a neighborhood were everybody knew everything taking place in your life can be annoying. I have lived in a little town for 3 years where everybody walked through open doors without knocking and interfered in your lives. You know, I felt sympathetic for Mr. Radley until Jem uttered something very interesting at the end of Chapter 23. "Scout, I'm beginning to understand why Boo Radley's stayed shut up in the house all this time... it's because he wants to stay inside." Duh, of course that's obvious but there is another reason I came up with. I think it's because he is ashamed of the world; he's ashamed to listen to all this ridicule and segregation taking place around him. He just wants to create a barricade where no body can be heard or felt threatened. Boo is in his own world; a world of joy, equality, and love. A world we are all searching for! Scout and Jem were feeling sorry for him but now they understand the bravery and courage inside his heart. He is locking himself up as to not let words betray him or allow the words coming from his mouth to betray others. He is a very smart man in my opinion.

Old friends!!!

This blog is dedicated to all those who have had best best best friends but were forced to break up because of change. What I mean by the word change is that you either had to move or saw a side to your friends that you have never seen before. I experienced both of these issues in my life. Many of them involved me crying, screaming, or laughing because I would be reacquainted with them again very soon. 

Today while I was walking, I noticed one of my best best best friends from a long time ago. We were very close to each other and were practically sisters because our mothers were like peas in a pod when they were little. So, anyways a few years ago we had a nasty fight and were forced to break up. We were in middle school and she did something very terrible. Not only did she lie to my face, embarrass me in front of the whole school, and also pushed me. This last one wouldn't have hurt me as much if I hadn't fallen and scraped both my knees and elbows. Today, I saw her again! 

What stabbed my heart was that she smiles towards my direction and I vacuously walked up to her. She had a posse around her and I did not care whether or not I would be ashamed in front of her "cool" friends. My heart was practically in my mouth. I mean this was the same girl who made eighth grade the worst year of my life and I was the one who was approaching her. I did not know what I was thinking. So, she looks at me and then all of a sudden turns around and walks the opposite direction. There I was, humiliated, embarrassed, disappointed, betrayed, hurt once again. All the memories and pain came back to me and I started to cry; tears that would not stop. Right then and there all of my pain from this week and many more all came back. I started to cry nonstop and felt like I would throw up. However, I am glad that I approached her and understood what kind of a friend she was deep down. All these years I regretted breaking up with her because of stupid reasons and now I really understood. It wasn't because of stupid reasons, it was because I couldn't believe such a friend or sister would ever treat me this way. I was blinded by the truth but today my tears made it possible to see again.

I mean I am not disappointed or anything but all I want to say is that friends come and go. Just like Friends and Seinfeld, they all had to break up some day soon when the show had its last season. That's how life is! Maybe my friend and I had our "last season".

Maybe??

I was just reading Bridget's blog about the fan accelerating its speed when nobody was in the room. This made me think about an incident in my life when something took place that I couldn't really explain. One day I was home alone in my room doing my homework. I was listening to this boom box. The volume was tuned down really low because I was doing homework and did not want the lyrics to bother me that much. So, anyways, something happened that I did not notice until later. It was as if the volume was tuning up really really slowly. I could not hear any difference nor feel anything wrong with the boom box. After about 12 seconds, I noticed that it was really loud and I could not concentrate. Okay, so nobody was in the room and it wasn't as if I was sitting on any remote control. It was really freaky! 

Another incident took place in the same house but to my mother. Now to any of you who do not know my mother, she is a very very very timid and faint-hearted person. She gets scared of the littlest things. I can never jump out and scare her because she can actually suffer a stroke; I have never tried that. Anyways, again nobody was in the house and my mother was typing this letter to a fellow friend. She went downstairs to get a drink of water and went back upstairs after a couple of minutes. To make myself more clear, nobody was in the house. She sat down to start typing when all of a sudden she noticed a line that she did not type before. My mother pro-fread her letter before she went downstairs. It read "to be taake away not share for all tb taake away not share for all". This is not a typo.

Seriously, I am not kidding; my mother still has the draft saved.  

Kind of awkward.

Today feels kind of weird and uncanny. I woke up at around 6:00 today and went to the bathroom. All of a sudden while I was washing my face, I realized that we don't have school today. So, I went back to sleep but before I could shut my eyes, my mother ordered me to wake up. I told her I didn't have school and there was no more noise. At around 7:00, my grandmother knocks on my door like 50 times ordering me to wake up. "It's late; it's late." I had to remind her again that I did not have school today. This little awkward situation brings me to my next point. To me, 24 hours in a day is like 2 minutes! The hours and minutes go by so quickly, you can't even believe it. Well, you kind of can because when you are having fun hanging out with friends and stuff, the hours fly by so so so pell-mell. Well, I should get back to finishing my homework.

An eye for an eye

This picture is very important to the expression "an eye for an eye". Wow, isn't it true? 

A Very Bad Day

Okay, today had to be, by far, the worst day of my life. After school I get home and my mom informs me that she is going out of town. Okay, that's not so bad but I am the only one who has to take care of my grandmother. I mean I don't mind but I already had made plans. I was really looking forward to going to the movies with some friends. So my plans were cancelled and it was okay. I called my friends and told them about not being able to make it.
So, my mom left the house at around 4:00 and she called me at 5:00 SHARP. She left me a very scary message and I almost died when I heard it. She was crying and I thought that something had happened to her. So, I rush downstairs because I heard the message and almost tripped down the stairs. If I hadn't hold on to the rail, I would have fallen from a countless amount of steps on my face. My mom informed me that she had lost her wallet. Oh my God!!! I had to search the whole house looking for her wallet and then I couldn't find it. My mom, aunt, and grandmother started to freak out on me because I was the last person who saw the wallet. I told them I didn't know what happened and they started to freak out even more. So, we all began to search for her wallet. Now, I don't mind and all but having a family that freaks out even more than you is very stressful. I began to cry uncontrollably because of all the stress taking place. So, anyways, at the end of the day my mother realized that she had lost it at the mall and we went to lost and found to retrieve it. Not only were all my plans ruined for today but I also had an additional dose of stress for a Friday afternoon. Big Whoop!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Words or bullets!

You know sometimes words are like bullets cutting your heart into a million pieces. Words like love, patience, kind, tender-hearted, or even sweet are like chocolate that indulges the heart and makes you want to sing carols or cry. It's nice to hear these compliments once in a while from people who care about you. However, words like abomination, vitriolic, distrust, depression, and even the unspeakable; cancer. As soon as these single bullets enter your heart, they will never ever leave you. When you use the word love, butterflies and a baby with an arrow (cupid) comes to mind. A smile is quickly developed on your face and you feel like a little child inside. Makes you want to reach the sky and scream on top of your lungs. Screams of joy, of course! However, words like abomination brings dark colors to mind and sickness. When I hear this word, I think of a mother sitting in a chair burying her face in her hands and wearing a black dress. Her daughter is standing mighty over her and the mother can't help but ask for forgiveness. As stubborn as the child may be, she leaves the mother in her sorrows. Also, I see a crow perching on a tree screaming songs of joy when one has been betrayed. During the Salem Witch Trials,  the witches would begin to cry when the city was in joy. On other days when war was threatened against the city, witches would begin to brew their potions and lure people into their homes. So, in other words, do not allow words to be bullets. No matter how painful they may be pretend the bullet missed your heart and went right through the empty space. That's what I always do...

What's next?

Okay, so today in Mr. Miclette's class, we were discussing about the elections and how everything is going to be changing in the next few years. You know it's interesting how change cannot come in just a few days or even weeks. It takes years for change to be created and sometimes we are all anxious to see what happens. Why is it that bad change can happen so quickly but good change takes forever? Mr. Miclette mentioned the fact that it's going to take a long time until every mistake that we our economy has drifted in will be completely restored. I don't know about you but I can't wait to see what will happen in the future. Well, we just have to wait and see!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Flowers for Algernon

I finish reading this book that was incredibly sad! One of my pet peeves is that I hate reading depressing books but somehow I just can't seem to stop reading. Okay this book is about Charlie, a man who is seeking intelligence beyond his imagination. In my opinion, I thought that he was a really smart person but he didn't even know it. So, anyways, a scientist is performing an experiment to see whether or not a human can gain knowledge that of Albert Einstein or even Stephen Hawking. At first, they experiment on a mouse, Algernon, who becomes extremely smart. He is fast, strong, and is able to find cheese in a very difficult maze in a matter of seconds. Charlie is quick to have this operation performed on him and can't wait until the procedure takes place. So, the doctors prescribe him to write a diary everyday before his surgery and after the surgery and this is how we come to learn more about him. Okay, so I predicated that the surgery will be performed on Charlie successfully and he will become a smart-aleck. My prediction came true!!!! yay. Charlie becomes so smart that he begins to discover theories that were not being thought of. However, with every success a problem is developed. One day, Charlie goes to the doctor for a check up when he learns a shocking truth. Algernon's brain was deteriorating! He was beginning to act very weird and the doctor's scanned an MRI of his brain and found out the cells in his brain were dying very quickly. Worst of all, he was going to die soon! Doctors feared that the same fate would arrive at Charlie's footsteps and they were, in fact correct. Days later, Charlie began to lose his intelligence and quickly recorded his actions in his diary before it was too late. It's as if words were fallen out of his head and he didn't know where he was, who he was, and what was taking place in his life. He had no memory and worst of all, all the theories that he came up were destroyed because he didn't know what they were. All his success went down the drain and he decided to run away to nowhere until his last few days on earth. Can you believe I have been crying since this morning? At the end of the book, he writes that he was glad this surgery was performed on him because he enjoyed living in the shoes of an intelligent person for a few days. It was worth it?!?