Hey guys! I have spent the last 3 days making the pieces for my Christmas gifts to be mostly given out at the annual Martinez-Girgis Christmas debacle, to be held on Saturday! I am actually looking forward to it this year! Since the mini stroke, I have figured out that all food does not have to be personally created by me, and my friends will not hate me for buying chicken made by another. One of the best revelations of my golden years so far!
The granddaughter will be here and that makes it special. She is a well-behaved child, which is all I ask for, and I got it, so the blessings are countd.
Now, I know that while my friends are wildly appreciative of my hand made gifts, the same cannot be said of my children. So I guess that means I will be going shopping next week. Secretly, I have been wanting to go, but just haven't gotten there. I pledge to accomplish this next week!
We are going to lots of good places and parties this year, and they all involve various kinds of food, so life is worth living.
If I don't get back to my masterful writing before Christmas, I hope you have the best one ever and that something special and wonderful happens to all of you during this hopeful holiday season!
Love to all of you!
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Friday, November 26, 2010
Thanksgiving is Over!
Well, for those of us on the way to geriatrics, Thanksgiving gets more daunting every year! Now, I am the first one to say that I might get a little more involved with the food process than the average bear, but darn it, they put all those Thanksgiving shows on the food network and it takes a lot of planning to implement all that invalueable knowledge into one meal! It turned out great anyway! We had the granddaughter for the first time and 3 of the 4 boys, and all was well.
So, Nagy and I had this big decision about what to buy early on Black Friday, and at 2am he woke me up and told me we should go. I told him to stick his foot outside of our nice warm covers and if he still wanted to go to let me know. The next thing I knew, it was 9 am and much warmer. I missed getting my hand sliced open like I did in Target last year when that evil person pulled the box out of my hand, but that is for the best. We later tried to go to Target. They were out of what we wanted, but I got some popcorn and soda, and how can that be bad?
When I came home, we got the decorations out of storage. When did I get 11 tubs of Christmas stuff? Of course I will use all of it in my house. Christmas is when God gives we Puerto Ricans permission to be tacky and everyone thinks it's beautiful1! I can't wait! LED lights have given me a new lease on life! Also those three giant snowmen in front of my fireplace! Let it Snow
So now it is time to start planning the annual Christmas Party and debacle. We didn't have it last year because I was pissed off, but I have now bounced back and am perusing caterers!
More blog as the horror that is Christmas continues!
So, Nagy and I had this big decision about what to buy early on Black Friday, and at 2am he woke me up and told me we should go. I told him to stick his foot outside of our nice warm covers and if he still wanted to go to let me know. The next thing I knew, it was 9 am and much warmer. I missed getting my hand sliced open like I did in Target last year when that evil person pulled the box out of my hand, but that is for the best. We later tried to go to Target. They were out of what we wanted, but I got some popcorn and soda, and how can that be bad?
When I came home, we got the decorations out of storage. When did I get 11 tubs of Christmas stuff? Of course I will use all of it in my house. Christmas is when God gives we Puerto Ricans permission to be tacky and everyone thinks it's beautiful1! I can't wait! LED lights have given me a new lease on life! Also those three giant snowmen in front of my fireplace! Let it Snow
So now it is time to start planning the annual Christmas Party and debacle. We didn't have it last year because I was pissed off, but I have now bounced back and am perusing caterers!
More blog as the horror that is Christmas continues!
Thursday, October 21, 2010
Las Vegas and the Little Moments
Well, it was my birthday last week and so Nagy and I decided to leave the pets with Nicklaus (middle son) and go off to Las Vegas. Because it was a last minute trip, the cheap air was all gone so we went on the GOTO bus. It wasn't that bad. You drive downtown, across the street from the flower market, and get on the bus. It makes one stop, in El Monte, and then goes straight to Las Vegas with a 10 minute rest at a gas station with lots of bathrooms. You end up at the Stratosphere. You leave at 7:45 am and get there at 12:30 pm. Cost: $50 roundtrip. Not too bad. We just had one small duffle bag, so we had no problem on the bus and went down to the Monte Carlo. My favorite hotel site is agoda.com. They have the cheapest prices all over the world, include tax and then you can build credit to use in the future. I love it. Our room with tax at the Monte Carlo was $70 a night. It was big and lush and overlooked the pool area. Another thing it has is a train that you can ride for free and it takes you to the Bellagio. The train runs every 3 minutes and it is like being in a futuristic movie. When you get to the Bellagio, you can walk through it and look at all the stuff you can't afford in the beautiful store windows. There is some pretty beautiful art in there, but the most beautiful thing is the cascade of chocolate at the pattisere. How can you deny molton chocolate flowing from one glass lilypad onto another and in milk and white chocolate. It must have been 15 feet tall and it was amazing.
The best thing that happened to me in Las Vegas was at the Monte Carlo. Nagy was off to play poker, and so I took $20 and went off to my place at the penny machines. I was playing one called "Slotsky", which features Donald Duck characters dressed like Cossacks. It makes lots of noise and is really fun. I put in $5 dollars and had spent about half of it when I hit a small jackpot, but something got caught, and it kept going and going and going up to $59! I knew it was stuck because I got paranoid, smacked it, and it stopped immediately. Now, that may not seem like much if you are playing with quarters, but when you put 9 cents in and get that back, you are a happy camper! So, I cashed it out because I thought it might take back what it gave out and went to another machine, featuring Vampires, which we all know hold a special place in my heart. Believe it or not, on the first 9 cent bet, I hit a $35 jackpot and was now wealthy in pennies. I played about 3 more hours, went to bed with $50 and woke up to find that Nagy had a good night, too! We got back on the bus the next day at 10:30, got to L.A. at 3:30, beat the traffic and got home safely. It was a good time. We found the bus great because we didn't have to deal with airport security garbage, the price was right, and we didn't have the stress of driving. It may not be for everyone, but it was kind of fun, and really economical. Have a great weekend
The best thing that happened to me in Las Vegas was at the Monte Carlo. Nagy was off to play poker, and so I took $20 and went off to my place at the penny machines. I was playing one called "Slotsky", which features Donald Duck characters dressed like Cossacks. It makes lots of noise and is really fun. I put in $5 dollars and had spent about half of it when I hit a small jackpot, but something got caught, and it kept going and going and going up to $59! I knew it was stuck because I got paranoid, smacked it, and it stopped immediately. Now, that may not seem like much if you are playing with quarters, but when you put 9 cents in and get that back, you are a happy camper! So, I cashed it out because I thought it might take back what it gave out and went to another machine, featuring Vampires, which we all know hold a special place in my heart. Believe it or not, on the first 9 cent bet, I hit a $35 jackpot and was now wealthy in pennies. I played about 3 more hours, went to bed with $50 and woke up to find that Nagy had a good night, too! We got back on the bus the next day at 10:30, got to L.A. at 3:30, beat the traffic and got home safely. It was a good time. We found the bus great because we didn't have to deal with airport security garbage, the price was right, and we didn't have the stress of driving. It may not be for everyone, but it was kind of fun, and really economical. Have a great weekend
Saturday, October 9, 2010
Happy Birthday John Lennon (do you think he heard me?)
Well, boys and girls, today I participated in the John Lennon 70th birthday party at the Capitol Records Building near Hollywood and Vine in Hollywood. I was with a bunch of the chalk babies, and we drew Lennon inspired murals on the Hollywood walk of fame. Whilst drawing my mural, I had time to reflect and was contemplating several burning questions: 1) Can John Lennon really hear me singing Happy Birthday" to him? 2) Does he care at this point and would his feelings be hurt if I didn't? 3) Should you really celebrate the birthday of a dead person? If they are dead, then you always say "He lived to be... (whatever age he died at). But if you are still celebrating, doesn't that make you in denial of the person being dead? It was just very complicated!
Then there were the other celebrants! Now, the chalk babies and I love the music of the Beatles, we respect their contribution to 20th century music, and think that they were special and unique. We never knew them, so I don't think we can say we LOVE them, but there were many there who would and did!
Quandry: What is the correlation between the Beatles and middle-ageed men in bad shorts? There was a plethora of them there. Also, these people were sooooo serious. I have always been of the opinion that birthday parties were happy celebrations, not this one. I am exhausted from trying to be deep all day. I don't blame Yoko for not coming, I would have avoided it like the plague if I were her! These people were serious and way too dedicated. It was realy a little creepy. I feel guilty for not being depressed.
So, that is the report on the "Happy Birthday". I hope my family and my adopteds don't ever celebrate when I am gone. I would rather they went to the movies!
Then there were the other celebrants! Now, the chalk babies and I love the music of the Beatles, we respect their contribution to 20th century music, and think that they were special and unique. We never knew them, so I don't think we can say we LOVE them, but there were many there who would and did!
Quandry: What is the correlation between the Beatles and middle-ageed men in bad shorts? There was a plethora of them there. Also, these people were sooooo serious. I have always been of the opinion that birthday parties were happy celebrations, not this one. I am exhausted from trying to be deep all day. I don't blame Yoko for not coming, I would have avoided it like the plague if I were her! These people were serious and way too dedicated. It was realy a little creepy. I feel guilty for not being depressed.
So, that is the report on the "Happy Birthday". I hope my family and my adopteds don't ever celebrate when I am gone. I would rather they went to the movies!
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
We begin!
So! I have come to the point where I feel the need to write about something. Please don't expect elequent or earth-shattering depth. That is not me boys and girls. I am just going to write about how I survive a life that I never dreamed I would have, and am tryin to navigate after a very late start in the game.
First of all, I am not proud of the fact that at this point the obvious choice for a role model for me is Grandma Moses! I didn't anticipate that I would finally find success at 52, and that the women who were there for me to choose from with a similar story, actually amounted to one old lady. I guess I should be thankful to be here at all, but I would give anything to have a role model who dressed a little better.
As this begins, I am recovering from a little, tiny, stroke that basically told me to slow down. I am, in reality, grateful for this event, because it let me clean house and eliminate a lot of stuff that I didn't want to do, but somehow felt obligated to do. I can now enjoy the things that are important to me and really focus. I am getting better each day, but get a little frustrated by some residual confusion, and when the wrong words come out of my mouth. I will improve.
As for my work, I am covering furniture with tiles that depict tattoos. I am getting ready for my first show, Novemer 13 at Hollywood Stars Tattoo shop in Westchester. This is hopefully a preview of things to come. I am also starting designs on a mural for the Child Development Institute that is being built here,in Canoga Park. This is great because it is 3 blocks from my house, and 10 blocks from my studio. NO FREEWAY!
There is also the Dia de los Muertos Festival coming NOV 7th, and I am getting my little chalk artists in line to come and spend a happy autumn day drawing in the sunshine.
So that is the beginning. It will get more personal and hopefully entertaining as we go on.
You will hear about the trials and tribulations of Nagy putting up with me as well, and also be kept up to date on the activities of Chubby Lizzie and One-eyed Winky the wonder dogs. Various children and grandchildren will also come into play as they appear!
I will try not to make this like one of those awful Christmas Letters! Need I say more?
So I end until tomorrow. I will let you know what happens.
First of all, I am not proud of the fact that at this point the obvious choice for a role model for me is Grandma Moses! I didn't anticipate that I would finally find success at 52, and that the women who were there for me to choose from with a similar story, actually amounted to one old lady. I guess I should be thankful to be here at all, but I would give anything to have a role model who dressed a little better.
As this begins, I am recovering from a little, tiny, stroke that basically told me to slow down. I am, in reality, grateful for this event, because it let me clean house and eliminate a lot of stuff that I didn't want to do, but somehow felt obligated to do. I can now enjoy the things that are important to me and really focus. I am getting better each day, but get a little frustrated by some residual confusion, and when the wrong words come out of my mouth. I will improve.
As for my work, I am covering furniture with tiles that depict tattoos. I am getting ready for my first show, Novemer 13 at Hollywood Stars Tattoo shop in Westchester. This is hopefully a preview of things to come. I am also starting designs on a mural for the Child Development Institute that is being built here,in Canoga Park. This is great because it is 3 blocks from my house, and 10 blocks from my studio. NO FREEWAY!
There is also the Dia de los Muertos Festival coming NOV 7th, and I am getting my little chalk artists in line to come and spend a happy autumn day drawing in the sunshine.
So that is the beginning. It will get more personal and hopefully entertaining as we go on.
You will hear about the trials and tribulations of Nagy putting up with me as well, and also be kept up to date on the activities of Chubby Lizzie and One-eyed Winky the wonder dogs. Various children and grandchildren will also come into play as they appear!
I will try not to make this like one of those awful Christmas Letters! Need I say more?
So I end until tomorrow. I will let you know what happens.
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