Day 16: Where Would You Go?

Tuesday, Sept. 16: If you could drop everything and get on a plane for a two week vacation right now, where would you go and why?

My answer for this always seems to be Argentina. I just adore the country and even though I’ve been there 7 times I keep wanting to go back to see the things I have yet to see. I want to travel to Ushuaia which is the southernmost tip of any country before reaching Antartica. I would love to go back to Mar del Plata and go swimming in the Atlantics warm(er) waters. I’d love to go to Mendoza and see the vineyards (even if I don’t drink wine). So many options!

But I have been there 7 times and I should check some other parts of the world out.

I would then love going to Europe. My ancestors originate from there and it would be amazing to be in the same streets they were all in. My maiden name, Lacabe, is the name of a town in northern Spain – what people call the Basque Country. It has a long history and I would just love to visit the area. My brother went this past spring with his kids and wife.

My niece and nephew in front of the city sign.

Another branch of my family comes from Lago di Como in northern Italy. You might recognize the name as the lake that George Clooney has a house by.

My mom was able to go 20 years ago and visit the home her grandfather lived in. She also got to spend time with her cousin and his mom (who has since passed away). I have met her cousin, but only while we were both in Argentina.

I think it’s amazing that she got the chance to be there and I would love to do the same. While there I would love to visit Rome and take a picture with the pigeons as my grandfather did many years ago. I’d also take the time to go to Venice and take a Gondola ride with my babe. It would be super romantic, I just know it.

I suppose it would also be nice to visit Paris someday, but it’s not at the top of my list.  The same with London. I would like to visit Germany, since another branch from my family tree comes from there, but I don’t feel the strong connection to it as I do the other countries.

Where would you visit?

My Conversations: Jonathan Style

I’m linking up with my blog bestie Amanda Nicole today to bring you the cutest/funniest/strangest things my nephew has said.

I had just had a text conversation with Amanda and Melissa about this link up Amanda is doing  the day before when my nephew just made laugh out loud.

Jonathan is 6 and has some autistic tendencies (he is being provided services for autism). I was reviewing his homework with him and had him re-write something. He had to write a D but he wrote it backwards, so I asked him about it.

Me: Which direction should that go?

Jonathan:  Knowing what I meant But the small d faces that direction. Why doesn’t it face the other way?

Me: You are right, but if it did then it would be a “b”.

Jonathan: Why did God make the D’s face one way and the B’s face another way?

Me: Trying to not laugh, I tell my mom who was sitting a few feet away. God didn’t create the alphabet.

Nikki; Jonathan’s almost 10 year old sister: The Greeks came up with the alphabet.

Jonathan: Ignoring his sister. Well then who did?  President Clinton? Bob Dole?

Jonathan also, on various occasions at restaurants has said the following to waiters after they take his order:

“Thank you my good man!”

I was going to include a video that I made of Jonathan regarding his new found passion for hot dog making - but I was out of my house for more hours than I was in this weekend and didn't have time to upload it. Come back for it on the 30th! It's worth it! 

Relationship Status: Married But Alone

Sept 13th: Your current relationship status. If dating/married, give us a glimpse of your story! If single, share about this special season.

If you aren’t new around here you know that I am married. Even if you are new, you’ll probably figure it out by the pictures of me kissing my new husband. This post is supposed to be about our relationship status, but since I’ve spoken a lot of about my wedding over the past months, I’m going to talk about something similar.

As of today I’ve been married 4 months, 2 weeks and 4 days. And as of today my husband has been gone for 23 days all together since we got married. And he’ll be gone for the next 5 days as well. Twenty-eight days. That’s basically a whole month out of our 4 ½ month period of being married.

My husband travels for work. Currently he is in the DC area – okay, he’s been in that area the whole 23 days he’s been gone (let me clear up, it’s not 28 consecutive days). We talk just about daily and will Skype video chat when we can, but with the time difference it doesn’t always work out. When I wake up he’s already working, when I’m at lunch he’s working, when I get home he’s eating dinner and/or going to sleep.

While he’s gone I will spend a lot of time with my parents, niece, and nephew. During this last trip I actually spent two nights back in my bed at my parents’ home. But I was uncomfortable. I felt like I didn’t belong there anymore. My niece has taken over the room and changed everything, So it just felt weird. I didn’t sleep well and by the 3^rd night I went back to my place (which by then had a fixed and working A/C! Hello 109* tomorrow!).

At home I miss him. When it’s time go to sleep I miss kissing him good night. Normally he stays up later than I do, but I wake up when he comes to be and gives me a kiss good night. As I lay in bed I miss just knowing he’s across the house from me. I can’t even say that I enjoy having the whole bed to myself, because since we have a California King it’s so big that we barely ever bump into each other at night.

However, I do not miss cooking every night or worrying about him liking what I cook. I don’t miss feeling guilty about spending time with my parents instead of him (he doesn’t make me feel guilty, I just do).

I can’t wait to have him home in a few days!

Now! Before you leave my blog please click on over to Amanda’s Knock On Wood blog and read about her new link-up! It’s all about conversations! The first one is this coming Monday so you still have time to participate! I can’t wait for you to read my conversation with my nephew!!

Have a great rest of your weekend!

My Traditions

I was definitely drawn to this topic.

I love traditions.

That being said I don’t know that our family has many of them. My parents were never big into traditions – everything was done whenever we wanted it done. Everyone made their own meals, no dinners at the table.

A tradition that did have to end was that I spent every Christmas at my sisters’ house. It started in 2000 or 2001 and continued until 2012. Beginning with last year it has become impossible for me to get Christmas Eve or the days after off of work, so I’m unable to make the trip north.

I would like to start traditions though. I am hoping to start a 4^th of July tradition of throwing a BBQ party at our place before heading out to catch some fireworks.

Thomas’ family has their own traditions for Christmas. They spend Christmas Eve at his parents place (with cousins, aunts, uncles, everyone there) and eat a pot luck before exchanging presents via a game. They also spend Christmas day at a different family members’ house.

While I love his traditions, we will have to learn to compromise and split them between both our families. In 2015 Christmas day falls on a Friday, which means that we could either fly up or drive up on Christmas Eve and spend the weekend with my sister and her family.

We will see if I can get him to agree to that.

However, I am sure that once we have children I will want to spend Christmas Eve’s close by and to be home early to open a present of new pajamas and then going to bed so that Santa can come and leave presents for the little ones.

What are your traditions? Or which ones would you like to have?

My 9/11 Memory

I’m deviating from both Blog-Tember activities because I wanted to take today to remember the happenings of September 11^th 2001. I’m pretty sure I wrote about this in previous blogs, but I wanted to document it on this one as well.

On 9/11/01 I had just started my senior year in high school and I was couple of weeks short of turning 17. My mom would always come wake me up at 6am because I had to get to the bus stop by 6:40 (I was quick at getting ready!). This particular morning she came in a few minutes before 6am. I grumbled as I looked at the clock, it wasn’t time to get up yet. Then she told me:

“Un avion choco a un edificio en Nueva York”.  You can imagine what that means.

I got up to get to my computer and turned on the TV. As I was bringing up my e-mail, I looked toward the TV and saw the 2^nd plane fly into the tower. In my sleepy state I still didn’t quite comprehend what was going on until that moment. I think that at that point I rushed to get dressed and ran downstairs to continue watching the news. My mom wouldn’t let me stay home, but I grabbed my walk-man (remember those?) and continued to listen on the radio.

When my (school) bus arrived my driver greeted me with a smile and I knew she hadn’t heard. I usually sat in the back of the bus except the days that either she or I were particularly talkative. I immediately took the very front seat and told her what happened. She immediately (with her long acrylic nails – I mean it, they were like an inch long!) turned to a news station on the bus’ radio.

Once at school the talk was about what was happening. The classrooms all had televisions in them but they told us we couldn’t turn them. I went to a school that had 4^th through 12^th graders in it. The administration was afraid of the younger kids seeing what was going on. I was upset because they kept telling us that soon we would be in the “real world” but they wouldn’t let the older kids see what was happening in that “world”. Regardless, they let us listen to our own personal radios to hear what was going on.

Like many, if not most, Americans I was glued to the TV in the hours, days, weeks, and even months that followed. I wanted to see what was going on. I wanted to know all the updates. I wanted to be informed. I didn’t mind that the TV stations played 9/11 programs or the news on a constant loop. I was drawn to it.

As the anniversary neared this year I still was drawn to it and I’ve set my DVR to record as many shows I could find.  

A month or so later my school set up a blood drive with the American Red Cross where I donated blood for the first time. I now, as I mentioned before, help to organized the blood donations at my office 2 to 3 times a year.

Where were you?

I Love Myself!

Sept 10th: List 10 things that you love about yourself! Let's kick that negative self-talk outta here!

I immediately knew I wanted to do this topic for today. I just wish it was yesterday for Listed Tuesday! 

Although I don’t think I’ve ever been huge on the put myself down department and I never went on diets or felt fat when I was a teenager, I am human and so I do get thoughts of being fat, ugly, flabby, dumb, and whatever else throughout my life. 

Lately it has definitely been the fat thing. I’ve gained 10lbs that I just cannot get myself to shake. I’ve been trying and something always comes up that throws me off my game. With all the holiday’s coming up (as well as the Fair and my birthday!) I know it’s only going to get hard to lose, and might be a struggle to not gain. 

With that in mind, let me tell you all the fabulous things about myself:

1. I have gorgeous brown eyes. I was once told they look like a tree trunk when you cut a tree down – with all the rings. 
2. This one had to be in the top – my chest. I have a large chest (34DDD to be exact) and I love it. I would never want to have a reduction (or bigger). My husband likes this too. 
3. I’m compassionate. I sympathize with people and feel their pain and I try to make them feel better whenever I can. This is sometimes viewed as being emotional, which I’m okay with. Being emotional is not a bad thing. 
4. I don’t usually break out in pimples. I’ll get one here and there (currently there is on right over my right eyebrow). 
5. I’m motherly.  Although I don’t have kids of my own yet, I’ve had 3 nieces and a nephew to practice with and I know that I have the inclination to be a mom. 
6. “You are a thoughtful and considerate person.” That is a fortune that one of my co-workers got and gave to me because she thought it described me. I suppose I am both. Even if not all of the time. 
7. I asked my mom what she loved about me the most, and she said because I look just like my mom. When I was little my mom would ask me what I was and I would say “lila y osa” meaning Linda (pretty) and Hermosa (gorgeous).  She would then ask me why I was lila y osa and I would say “por que me paresco a mi mama!” – Because I look like my mom!
8. I love that I am determined. I don’t give up on something when I believe in it. 
9. My love for reading. I love that I am a reader, even if I go through periods of time in which I do very little of it. I love to read and to get lost in the stories. 
10. I asked my husband to answer the question of what he loves about me and he said "your left eyebrow". I asked him to be more specific, his response "the right most hair of your left eyebrow". Yea, I don't know either. I love him anyway. 

Blog-Tember & Listed Tuesday: Who Am I?

Sept 9th: Let's talk personality types. Introverted? Extroverted? Unsure-troverted? ;)

I'm an introvert. I didn't have to take a test to know it, but I did. My results were:

Introvert(44%)  Sensing(88%)  Feeling(62%)  Judging(56%)

• You have moderate preference of Introversion over Extraversion (44%)
• You have strong preference of Sensing over Intuition (88%)
• You have distinct preference of Feeling over Thinking (62%)
• You have moderate preference of Judging over Perceiving (56%)

Then I started thinking that maybe I'm more of an unsure-troverted - and here is why:

1. I want to be social, so I spend time trying to talk with people and be friends with them. But I usually fail miserably at this. Not long ago I posted about how I tried to fit into with a group of girls at work and how it failed.  
2. At the same time I prefer to spend my breaks and lunches on my own in my cubicle. I'll use the time to read a book or to blog or to read blogs. 
3. However, sometimes I can't take it and just have to talk to someone. That someone is usually my supervisor who sits across from me or from my best work buddy who works just a cubicle over. 
4. Then, there are some co-workers who make me feel uncomfortable and whom I can't really speak in front of. It's like they intimidate me. 
5. Around my husband's family I am particularly an introvert 100% of the time. I am always in fear of them judging me. I don't think that logically they've given me a reason to feel that way, but... I do. And as you can see from the results above... I'm a feeler over a thinker. 

What about you? Are you an introvert? Extrovert - or middler of the road-vert like me?