Venessa's Room

2009-05-16T20:50:00.000-07:00

If I could, I'd upload some pictures to give a photo-update of these past few months. Our camera died a fatal death though- it drowned in the kitchen sink... poor thing.

So, some brief words will have to do.

I got promoted at work. Yea!
We've reserved the wedding reception site. Yea!
Plus we have a place for everyone to stay, double yea!!
A few more of the bridesmaids have their dresses, yea!

That's about all my tired mind can think of for now...

:)

Peace

our doings

2009-02-17T07:28:00.000-08:00

- wedding planning has begun! Floral bouquets- check. Wedding dress pattern- check. Invitations- check.

- yeaaa for healthy teeth! Raul has been in and out of the dentist's office the past couple of weeks. Today is another dentist day. Raul is done with liquid diets!

- he pulled his hamstring about a month ago and he's able to walk ok now but we played soccer two days ago and no, not happening. It still hurts him too bad. Of course, he's never done the exercises the physical trainer gave him to help him recover properly... men.

- I'm currently reading the book Middlesex. I'm almost halfway through and am still waiting for it to get interesting. I was so excited for the book. Maybe my expectations were too high.

- We have our first meeting tomorrow for marriage preparation classes in order to get married in the catholic church. This was a big item to have checked off our list because we have to get all the paperwork sent to Mexico ahead of time...

- That's about all I can think of for now... :)

Sorry poor abandoned blog

2009-01-13T20:33:00.001-08:00

So I got a job and then stopped writing... nice. Which really means that the job and life in general have taken over. Slowly but surely I will stake claim again to my time. Perhaps more slowly though...

Anyway though, a couple free minutes fell into my lap so I figured I'd use them for a quick update:

I am still working. Raul's English classes started up again but now he's at the main campus so has been riding the bike to school, catching rides, or walking to his class. He also has a friend visiting from Maryland so he's been busy entertaining. I took them both up to the mountain last Sunday for their first snowboarding adventure. Raul LOVED it and caught on extremely well!

The holidays were quiet and spent with family. It felt nice to be home. For me anyway. Raul had his first Christmas away from home, poor guy. He does continue to Skype with his mom almost every morning though.

Um....

What else? What else?

We've bought many new bargain dvds lately, gone to the McMenamin theaters to watch their $3 movies, went glo-in-the-dark put put golfing... due to the snowy conditions, I couldn't take Raul to see Portland area holiday classics though like Peacock Lane or the Grotto or the zoo lights... so that wasn't fun but he did make his first snowman. Which actually got turned into a snow woman. And he learned how to drive on snow too!

And it looks like my free minutes have come to an end. Until next time!

(Hopefully before 3 more months sneak past me!)

My choir in Mexico asked me to write an article in their bulletin. This is the first one.

2008-10-13T20:16:00.000-07:00

I am so happy to have such a creative way of keeping connected with my dear choir even though there is so much earth between us. The instructions were quite basic: 1) write about whatever you want, and 2) turn it in whenever you want. How better could this possibly be?

After mind wrenchingly painful brainstorming, I arrived at the idea of bringing back the good old storytelling. I realize many experiences have fallen into my lap, ranging from the hilarious to the quirky and even those not-so-fun experiences. I have even had those ones where all you can utter afterwards is a sincerely confused and amazed, “What the heck was that all about? Why did I need to experience that crazy thing?”

So, instead of hoarding all these wonderful life experiences all to myself, why not share? Why not let others laugh at my life as well, perhaps share some lesson I learned, or even share a bit of tear-shedding too? There will be no order of events as I share these. I am giving myself the freedom to jump, hop, and skip back and forth from stories in the way far back of my closet to the stories that have managed to make this century.

Without further ado, I have named the first story:

Good Apples, Bad Apples
By Venessa L.B.M.

A few weeks ago I met up with an old friend of mine. She had an enormous amount of apples au natural and upon my leaving handed over a generous amount. About half way through, I stopped her to point out that she need not give up so many. After all, she was going to be left with quite few to enjoy herself. Nonetheless, she continued with her generous ways.

When chopping them up later that week to make an attempt at applesauce, I could tell right off some were bad apples from their outer appearance, and others I deemed obvious good apples using that same criteria. So there I am, chop, chop, chopping away. Bad apples to the left, doomed to the trash. Good apples to the right, later to be savored.

It did not take me long to remember the age long saying that you cannot judge an apple by its cover. No visible wormhole on the outside, yet the insides were Yucky with a capital Y! And pretty soon, my bad apple pile was tripling the size of the good apple pile, then quadrupling, then -upling to quantities that I could no longer keep track of!

Before I knew it, I was relating the apples to people in my life, those I have met and others I have perhaps even just briefly encountered. I found myself wondering how many people were in my good pile being savored every time I see them? And how many have I banished away to the bad pile, after either having the hardest time throwing them there (like those unhealthy relationships that you know are bad for you but you just can’t help going back for more), or after the encounter is over, however brief it was, it has been so hard to just let it go and simply move on (like when you run into a jerk at the supermarket). If only moving on were as easy as tossing apples to the left.

And in how many occasions have my actions made me get labeled as a bad apple (again, the old boyfriend reference. And shall I be so bold as to toss in the old friendships even)?

Then it occurred to me that what if my wonderfully generous friend had not been so generous in dishing out apples by the bushel? What if I had succeeded in stopping her generous ways? Would I have had enough good apples to fill a pie, I thought (even though I was making applesauce).

And likewise, if I had denied the encounters and relationships of my past, or perhaps hadn’t been open enough to allow them to touch my life to their full capacity, how great would my chances have been to have all the close, intimate friendships and the one solid relationship I am blessed with now?

At the end of my applesauce experience, I left motivated and refreshed to be open and allow new people into my life. To just leave the bad encounters to the left with less fuss, and to get a good, firm grip on the good apples since they are far and few between.

a lil update

2008-10-10T09:09:00.000-07:00

Things we've been doing lately:

- Raul goes to his English classes in the mornings
- He's been playing on an indoor soccer team
- I just got a job yesterday! Yeaaaa! Finally get to check that one off my To-Do list!!
- I've been starting to dress shop in preparation for our wedding in Mexico next summer
- My friend threw me a lingerie shower a couple weekends back which was a very fun time with the girls!
- I just sent out little pieces of ribbon in the mail to all the bridesmaids so they can start dress shopping too! So exciting!!
- We just got a heater in the basement which is exciting because with the weather being so cold lately, that basement turns into a freezer!
- The Ford Focus which has been sitting at the mechanic's for the past year or so is finally up and running! Yea for having a car!
- I finally found the Steve & Barry's store which is where Sarah Jessica Parker's new line is sold. I was very happy! So many things for only $8.98!!!
- I'm am currently reading the book Beach Music and we've been watching many many tv series via my friend Elisa's vast dvd collection. We are currently in the middle of Sex and the City Season 4 and Grey's Anatomy Season 4 as well. Gotta catch up on what we've been missing out on!
- And on Nov. 1st we're going to the Metallica concert! Raul is a big fan and apparently they only went to Mexico once. And he couldn't go then so we're going now! :)

That's all for now folks!

Picnic Party!

2008-09-02T18:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a few of my favorite pics from our picnic wedding celebration!

Check out some more at this link:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/30189180@N08/sets/72157607066886985/

Way over do catching up

2008-08-18T10:20:00.000-07:00

Here's a slideshow of what Raul and I have been up to since we came to the U.S. Sorry it's taken soooo long! We've just been so busy!

A family away from home

2008-06-05T07:11:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was definitely one of the BEST birthdays ever! It was so special for me, and definitely made me feel loved, and so SO grateful for having such wonderful people in my life :) My choir is so awesome and I love them!!!

I woke up in the morning with birthday emails and messages from very important people in my life.

Then in the afternoon...

... I went to the movies with the choir. It was organized as a choir outting that just happened to be on the birthday so it was fun to get to do something with all of them outside of the choir room on my bday...

...and then we walked back to the choir room where they'd decorated it with flying piggies!! Cause they know I love love love the lil pink guys! :)

...and they got creative! Here's Spiderman Pig, and there was a Harry Potter pig with the glasses and scar and even an obese piggie :P haha

And then they sang Las Mañanitas and Happy Birthday, while I tried to hold myself together but ended up getting a bit (or a lot) emotional :P Got a video of it - with shakey hands and my sniffles in the background - but again having technical difficulties in getting it uploaded...

...and then got hugs from everybody :) so much love!

... and then it was time to cut the cake and take the traditional bite. Knowing my big brother's experiences of getting is face shoved in the cake when he was down here in Mexico on his birthday, I was very careful for the first cake. And then realized they weren't going to shove my face in it :P so I took my time with the yummy chocolate one. :D They did a very good job, definitely making me feel like they're my family away from home (ah, tear)

2008-06-05T06:54:00.000-07:00

The cute poster they put up for me with piglet :)

Raul, Marco and Ericka came for me and enjoyed some cake too...

...before skipping dinner and heading straight to the bar with live music. Here I am with my first martini.

First ever, not just first of the night :P

Marco and Erika...

Venessa and Raul...

Another step forward

2008-05-20T07:50:00.000-07:00

This last weekend Raúl and I received a letter from the US Consulate in Ciudad Juárez, informing us that our case has been cleared and now Raúl can do the interview! There are a few more things to get together, and a few more things that need to be done before he can actually have the interview. But the good news is that once we have all of that together, we can head north to Ciudad Juarez and have the interview any week day we choose. So that flexibility is nice! Hopefully by mid-June we will have everything ready so that we can head to the border with San Jose, Texas and Raúl can take his stab at the interview!

Put these pics up a bit backwards...

2008-05-15T09:34:00.000-07:00

Oops! Since I couldn't load up more than five pics at a time for some reason, I had to take 3 different blog entries to get them all on... and now they're all out of order... so, if you care to do so, start at the third blog down from here and work your way up. :)

Just two more...

2008-05-15T09:27:00.001-07:00

This is Alma and me. Alma joined the choir just a few days after I did, so we got to get used to the whole shindig together and was the second friend I made :)

ps. She's about a whole head shorter than me so I'm crouching way down here! :P

A shot of most of the choir vocalizing before going on stage!

Now a run of self-portraits/pics with some special choir members

2008-05-15T09:18:00.000-07:00

Me and Vianey, a very nice and fun fellow alto!

Everybody calls this guy Pato (duck) so I don't really know his real name :P He is the first Mexican vegetarian I have met and he also does Yoga! I was shocked when I first learned this information!

Me and my first choir friend, Ximena. So nice, so nice!

Adriana and me. She's such a sweet girl.

Miss President and muah

Before the concert pics

2008-05-15T09:07:00.001-07:00

The choir I'm in has a run of Carmina Burana concerts. Last night was the first, and so thought I'd share some of the Before pictures.

This is Armando, the director, doing a face cleanse on Adriana, the alto section leader.
ps. I did her hair :P

On the left is Sandy, the president, and on the right is Fabiola, the secretary.

Alma doing Melissa's make up. Melissa is the girl I consider to be like the little sister I never had- she's 16, also going to study psychology, very innocent-ish and sweet. Plus she sounds so adorable when she speaks English in her little itty bitty voice. :) Just love her!

This is a new friend called Unco. She's somewhat recently joined the choir, and is quite a fun/funny girl. The other day she came up to me and just sniffed my arm...

The boys, helping each other put on their make up. Too adorable to not take a pic!

My favorite mole turned on me

2008-04-22T07:55:00.000-07:00

From my maternal grandpa, I inherited a bountiful amount of moles. Of the many, my favored one lived on my belly, roughly two or three inches above the belly button. It split me in half, separating my Mexican and American halves.
Or so my childhood self liked to think.

Unfortunately, it had to be removed due to an abnormal growth. After having undergone a biopsy, the mole was discovered to not be cancerous. But in following the motto, "Better safe than sorry!" I am now without my favorite mole friend who lived on my belly.

It has been replaced by a hole that will not heal. It must be the mole spirit protesting my rash decision to have it exterminated. After having the stitches removed on Saturday morning and witnessing the new layer of skin that grew in the mole's absence, come Sunday late night the hole reopened, and there I lay in bed in all the bloody glory.

New stitches could not be sewn. And so I left the doctor's office, antiseptic gel in hand.

My poor mole has refused to step quietly into that dark night.

What we woke up to the other morning...

2008-03-28T11:39:00.000-07:00

... nasty ass sewer water in our tubage...

... behold our kitchen sink ...

... the toilet.

Oh, and the day before somebody knifed two pairs of my panties into little shreds while all the laundry was hanging out to dry. Investing in a dryer became all the more enticing...

... buy a dryer? ... buy plane tickets home... buy a dryer? ...

Buy plane tickets home.

Henry Medina

2008-03-25T08:48:00.000-07:00

I have a new nephew!! He was born almost a week ago on March 19th, surprising everyone by arriving three weeks early. He's the son of my older brother Ben and his wife Aly. Here are some pictures! :)

Having technical difficulties so only two can be put up right now...

My ode to the powers of the universe

2008-03-14T09:16:00.000-07:00

A week ago Raúl and I were notified that immigration needs more evidence in regards to how we met, and to verify that the last time we were in each other's presence falls within the last two years. Our first reaction was relief and gratefulness to have heard anything from immigration and to have proof that they're working on our case (as opposed to tumbling around in some garbage dump behind their office building). But we soon were reminded that this just means that it will take that much longer for them to give us the actual Visa. If everything had gone okay the first time round, we probably would be getting the visa within a month or so.

But like a close friend reassured me, there's a time and place for everything.

Just a few days after we got news on the Visa, our friend Marco - the friend who introduced Raúl and I - tipped Raul off on an opening position at his job. It's a great opportunity for Raúl for several reasons: the job deals with chemistry (his major), it'd give him a slightly higher salary, he'd get to work with a good friend of his, and since his school is completely closed down due to a strike that has lasted for almost two months now, he'll be able to get on-the-job training plus continue with his education in a more hands-on way. And so within three days of getting word, Raul was hired, no interview necessary.

One thing we were hoping for didn't work out, possibly in order to make space in our lives for something wonderful that we hadn't set our sights on.

My experience working in one of those terribly underpaid factories that exploits innocent children as their work-slaves

2008-03-06T10:56:00.000-08:00

Forgive Raul for he is handicapped at taking centered pictures (in real life it continues further on to the right). But from this you get the idea of what was labored. This is just one head piece that belongs to just one dress of the twenty that we made.

This is Raul's Mom's business: hand-sewing sequences and beads. Cecilia learned this trade as a young lady and converted it into her main source of income to support her two children single-handedly. It mainly consists of tracing figures onto material and then sewing each sequence on by hand, one by one. You can imagine how much time is devoted to this. Cecilia, her daughter Sandra, and Raul have amazingly swift-moving fingers. I however, am a turtle in comparison. Take the picture for example. While I completed the green figures along the bottom, the gold row beneath it, and started adding the silver sequences on the insides of the green figures, Raul had already finished everything else and came to join me on the silver. And look closely, the big white blobs are indeed individual rows of white sequences, you just can't differentiate one line from another since it's all white.

Despite how time-consuming this sequence sewing craft is, the middle man between Cecilia and the client expected that when he gave Cecilia all of the fabric and patterns on Wednesday, that all twenty dresses would be done the next day. And so because of this ridiculous expectation and pressure, the twenty dresses along with the twenty headpieces were made in five days, with the middle man calling every hour or so to see how much progress had been made... If only I could have taken a picture of one of the dresses... but that would have been a waste of precious sequence-sewing time and every time we finished a set of one piece of a dress (like the front of the shirt, for example), the middle man would come scurry it away to the other women he has working under him to sew all the different pieces together to make a dress. The only reason this picture got taken was because, having finished everything, I collapsed on the bed and thought that I must document this craziness with a photo. And being too exhausted to get up (the previous night having worked until 12:30 am and getting up that morning at 4:00am), I called Raul.

One of these days we will have to wipe out the middle man and buy Cecilia a sewing machine that isn't broken. Then she could be her own boss and we would no longer be glued to our chairs in the living room like forced child laborers with demanding bosses looking over our bleeding fingers.

Mr. Heckles

2008-03-05T08:06:00.000-08:00

Since my return to Mexico, I've been rudely introduced to the neighbor with whom Raul and I share our bedroom wall. I've come to know him as our Mr. Heckles, the deranged psychopathic version. Like the original, our neighbor is an old man who uses some kind of device, possibly a broom stick, to pound on our wall at random hours, usually between 5am and 8am. Mind you, we are most often sleeping during these hours and so, obviously, not making any extraordinarily loud noises.

Because I tend to be a bit jumpy, the first time I got startled awake almost ended with me falling out of bed and onto the floor. Rightly being aggravated since I'm NOT a morning person under normal circumstances, Raul calmly explained that our Mr. Heckles was probably high on some drug and therefore stuck in a ditch within his delusional mind.

After the first few incidences of being rudely awakened, I grumbled to Raul about the need to complain either directly to our drug-addicted Mr. Heckles or to the landlord. Then I realized ours is on a whole other playing field than the original character. A few years ago when Raul and his family first moved to the apartment, Raul went next door to address this problemita. In waiting for someone to let him into the building (since each entrance has a different key and only people whose apartments branch off of that entrance get keys) Raul encountered a woman who lives on the third floor. He explained the reason for needing to enter the building and she warned him to turn around and never come back. Apparently, not only is our Mr. Heckles deranged and delusional but also crazy-out-of-his-mind AND he has a pistol he's not afraid to use, as previous complainers have experienced.

Needless to say, we've dropped the issue. A psychopathic delusional Mr. Heckles loaded with a gun are two things I'd politely like to avoid in this lifetime.

Little Green Peppers

2008-02-27T06:07:00.000-08:00

After having returned from our trip to the Tuesday Market near our house, (where I got to buy lots of vegetables that I like and Raul got to get his meat, a rare purchase in our house where vegetarians are the majority) we hurriedly got busy fixing lunch to put our hungered bellies to ease. Raul got to making the quesadillas con flor de calabaza (rico rico!) and I got started on the salsa, Pico de Gallo. With help from Raul on the onion and tomatoes, I took over for the crucial part- cutting the spicy little green peppers. Being a little green pepper virgin, I hadn't a clue of what I was getting into. But I got a hint soon enough.
Warding off an itch, I oh-so-carefully scratched the sides of my nose, making sure I didn't get anywhere near my eyes. Cause that would've been the stupid thing to do! Within a minute, I got the sensation I'd eaten the hottest little green pepper EVER and that my mouth was flaming uncontrollably. But wait no, not my mouth. It was the surface of my nose skin, feeling like it was starting to bubble and boil and close to disintegration. I had no idea skin could feel spicy hot, having never experienced that sensation outside of my mouth- where I usually taste things.
While finishing the task of dicing those bad boys, Raul and I were coughing up a storm in our teeny kitchen; the spiciness completely intoxicated the air. I even managed some of my cat-hacking-up-a-hair-ball sound alikes.
Having finished all the dicing, I told Raul about my critical mistake since he hadn't realized I was suffering from more than just the suffocating air. I added a demonstration to my description of my nose scratching, of course the more exaggerated version. Oh what a mistake. What a mistake! Within seconds the same sensation returned, but now more fierce due to my horrible exaggeration. I couldn't understand it. Oh but then, haha, silly me. I hadn't yet washed my hands after chopping the spiciest little green peppers ever. Good thing I didn't touch my eyes in my exaggeration stunt.
Finally, we were able to enjoy our meal. I however, laid off the Pico de Gallo.

Oh, but wait, I'm not done yet. My spicy fun didn't stop there.

We decided to take a shower to get all this spiciness off of us once and for all. Mind you, I'd already washed my hands repeatedly with salt and still no sweet relief. So I lathered up the shampoo, scrubbing my hair and scalp in an attempt to also rid my fingers of spiciness. In rinsing, I let the shampoo fall into my face, hoping to get in another wash of the face all in the same bit. Little did I know I was placing myself perfectly into another trap of the scheming little green peppers evilly taking advantage of my virginness.
Having covered my face and eyes in soap and water, I naturally went to wipe my eyes. But wait, thinking I'd learned my lesson, I wisely used the back of my hands instead of using my spicy fingertips. Oh but no, the spiciness had somehow spread like a contagious disease and was now covering both hands entirely! At the sound of my agony, my shaving prince in shining armor came to the rescue, having cut himself in his battle to rapidly cover the great vastness between the bathroom sink and the shower to get to his wailing princess.

Even after all of that fun, I still had the urge to chop and cut more vegetables to make a salad. Using the bigger, supposedly not-so-spicy green peppers that I actually am not a virgin to, I heeded to Raul's pleadings to wear plastic bags over my hands so as not to come in direct contact with the little green peppers' big brother. But no, didn't work. Halfway through the pepper number 1 of 2, I had to hand it over to Raul because all my fingertips were sizzling, yet again! And that didn't go away for a couple hours. Meanwhile I was holding ice, soaking my fingers in cold salt water, and frantically waving my hands in the air as if I'd just seen a mouse run across the kitchen floor.
Finally by the time dinnertime came around (nearing 11pm) I thought I'd finally been relieved. And then I touched my hot coffee mug and it all came back to me. Who knows why? Even this morning thinking that was yesterday, this is today, I must be cured, right? But no, the shower's hot water brought my spicy fingers back to life.

What adventures life abroad brings!

Things I saw today

2008-02-23T16:47:00.000-08:00

1. Aztec pyramids
2. Two Italian guys laughing at Raul when they thought he farted as he bent down to take a seat (it was really me! hee hee)
3. Three speed bumps in a row
4. Four butterflies playing
5. People from Europe speaking their various languages
6. Lots of American guys with their shirts off at the top of the Sun Pyramid
7. Raul accidentally burn his finger hair while cooking eggs
8. Our big van squeeze into a teeny teeny spot!

Hand in hand with Mi Amor

2008-02-21T19:48:00.000-08:00

When returning to Mexico City, I came loaded with fearful anxiety, anticipating the world I'd experienced on my first voyage. Yet, on the ride back from the airport, I noted how at ease my emotions were.
I was looking out the window at everything that is Mexico City from an outsiders view point: barrios, dirty streets, tin roof houses, diseased-looking stray dogs. Traffic. Drugs, hungry kids, packed subways, pot holes, huge semi-trucks cruising neighborhood streets. In taking the moment to assess my tranquility, I was amazed.
Wasn't this supposed to be the source to my anxiety? Why wasn't I stressed, or hostile, or feeling trapped?

And then my gaze was locked;
my confusion evaporated;
my heart warmed.

Stuck in that moment, my mind began to grasp what my being was already feeling.
Hand in hand with Mi Amor, I came to grips with the simple fact that I had finally found my way home.