Person of the Month

Name: AJ
Nicknames: Princess Candy, Miss Daisy, Locotiturris
Favorite things to do: taking baths, making her daddy be Morgan Freeman and drive her around while she looks at things and screams whenever he stops moving
Occupation: Baby
Bad Habits: Bulimia
Claim to Fame: freako eyelashes


AJ is a two-month old Mexican-American baby and January's person of the month. She was born in Clovis, California but lives in Queretaro and has already been to her first Casino, though she stayed in her hotel room for most of the trip. She was born at 8:18 on November the 8th of 2008, so now I'm into numerology because of all the 8's. Her doctor is a little old man who moves really slowly and dots his i's with little circles. Because she can't talk yet, CC does her voice for her thereby giving her a personality since she really doesn't have one of her own yet. She can only hold a smile for a good second or two, as Aunt Chaudrey pointed out, and the truth is that she really doesn't do anything remarkable, but this is sure to change as she's growing every day. So far she's an excellent baby and we love her and are very glad to have her around.

Books

I read a lot, so here is a list of all of the fiction books I read in 2008:

The Cat Who Could Read Backwards, by Lillian Jackson Braun
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards

The Book of Ruth by Jane Hamilton
City of Glass by Paul Auster
'Tis by Frank by McCourt
Angela's Ashes by Frank McCourt
The Talented Mr. Ripley
The Power of One by Bryce Courtenay
Beloved by Toni Morrison
The Memory Keeper's Daughter by Kim Edwards
The Liar's Club by Mary Karr
All the Numbers by Judy Merrill
Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert
Giovanni's Room by James Baldwin
Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens
The Wedding by Nicholas Sparks (gag)

King of Torts John Grisham
The Street Lawyer by John Grisham
Trainspotting Irvine Welsh
The Thief Lord Cornelia Funke
Run by Ann Patchett
Running With Scissors by Augustine Burroughs
Heart of a Woman by Maya Angelou
Uncle Tom's Cabin by Harriet Whatever

The Best Old Book of the Year Award goes to: Tie: Angela's Ashes and Giovanni's Room
The Best New Book of the Year Award goes to: tie: Run and Book of Ruth
The Hardest Book to Read but Totally Worth the Effort Award goes to: Trainspotting
The Worst Book of the Year award goes to: ALL THE NUMBERS
The Biggest Waste of Time award goes to: tie: The Cat that could Read Backwards and ALL THE NUMBERS
The Most Fun To Read Award goes to: EAT PRAY LOVE
Honorable Mention for being a cool book: Power of One

Random Big Sister/Little Sister Childhood Conversation Remembered

BS Lisey: Hey, I bet you can't think of a boys' name that ends in A
Me: I bet I can! Let me think!
Lisey: Then think.
Me: Umm..... Ira?
Lisey: No, that doesn't count.
Me: Ummm..... I don't know!
Lisey: God you're so stupid. The answer is Data.

Conversations with Mom and Dad

Dad: Well what am I supposed to do? I can't stick around here with all those ladies
Mom: We'll find something for you to do
Dad: I'm going to leave the city, go somewhere far away
Mom: I'll turn off your On-Star

Total Evidence

During the countless flights back and forth between Mexico City and California over the last four years, I always look forward to the passing over of the crop circles. These circles, which are actually sand circles, not crop circles, are located on the mountain tops in the middle of absolute NOTHINGNESS somewhere between the USA and Mexico. There are no roads within a several hundred mile radius of them, so how did they get there?

Watching Tennis with CC

The US Open finals game between Serena Williams (USA) and Jelena Jankovic (Serbia)


CC: Who is that, her father?
Me: Yeah.
CC: Jankovich's?
Me: No, Serena's.

(Pause.)

CC: HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Me: HAHAHAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA

Speedwalking

During the Olympics I was delighted to watch the Speedwalking event for the very first time. That is because it's one of the few Olympic sports that Mexico has won a gold medal in (in the history of the Olympics, not this year) and competes in regularly. Mexicans have some pretty decent speedwalkers, so it's big news around here and televised as a main event. Here it's called the CAMINATA, which is where the cuteness of the sport begins.

Because it is the cutest sport, ever. For those who haven't watched it before, it is highly entertaining. The swaying of the hips! The hurried little steps!! The rules!! The whole, "is this for real?" factor!





So the other night I had a dream that I was speedwalking.

I was in the middle of a 25K boulder-hold speedwalking race. That is, we had to speedwalk while holding big boulders over our shoulders. I'm doing great but when I'm about 25 meters away from the finish line I trip and fall. I look behind me and see that coming around the bend comes this girl named Beatrice whom I went to high school with and that I haven't seen or thought about in years. I try to get up fast but I can't, so when she gets near enough I grab her leg and try to bring her down with me. She doesn't go down and instead breaks away and crosses the finish line. I cross the finish line finally and find out that I've just won the Bronze medal representing my country (not sure which one) in the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

At first I felt sad that I hadn't known it was the Olympics, because I would have tried harder and maybe could have gotten at least the silver medal, but then I'm suddenly overwhelmed with pride. I'm the third best speedwalker in the WORLD. I kiss my bronze medal, wave at the cheering crowd, and wake up.

Oh, and then there's Pimp Speedwalking, which is pretty much a TTASFICST.