old dog learns new trick

I learned a new knitting stitch today. It is called "drop stitch". It looks very stylish in scarves specially if you combine two yarns, angora and ribbon for example.

excesos

Mucho vino,
poco sueño,
y una maldita gripe
que me va a matar.
El cuerpo no perdona
ahora que ya terminaron los veintes.

awakening in africa

Que me motiva a levantarme cada mañana? La idea de un amancer en Africa. No conozco ninguna parte de ese fascinante continente, pero me lo puedo imaginar asi... con el sol pintando el paisaje en tonos dorados, el ruido de los animales que empiezan a despertar, y un olor a tierra caliente.

Awakening in Africa
Every morning in Africa,
a gazelle wakes up.
It knows it must outrun
the fastest lion
or it will be killed.
Every morning in Africa,
a lion wakes up.
It knows it must run faster
than the slowest gazelle
or it will starve.
It doesn't matter whether
you're a lion or a gazelle
when the sun comes up,
you'd better be running.

let me go

I finished reading the book Let Me Go. Helga Schneider's second encounter with her mother after she abandoned her, her brother and her father more than sixty years ago to join the Nazi SS. Helga's mother became a guard at concentration camps including Auschwitz-Birkenau and Ravensbruck. She is then eighty-seven and living in a nursing home. A daughter's struggle to feel compassion for her mother after the horrors she's done.
When I thought my eyes have read enough about the atrocities that the Nazis committed against the Jews, this book reveals more untold acts of torture.
This story also opened my eyes to the challenging duty of being a mother. When a woman chooses to fulfill her dreams to be successful in the workplace, what comes first: the career-woman or the mother?

sleepless in seattle

My favorite gift this Christmas: a couple of gold fish in a round glass bowl with green rocks to cover the bottom. I decided to name them "Annie" and "Sam" like the couple in the movie Sleepless in Seattle.

Santa's day

Yesterday was Santa's day on the slopes in Whistler. About a hundred people dressed up as Santa for a free lift ticket.

siete dias

Ayer terminaron mis siete dias (siete son los años que luchamos juntas contra el cancer) de honrar la muerte de ella. Una mujer con un corazon grande, tan grande que tenia espacio suficiente para quererme como a una hija. Una mujer que con su ejemplo me enseño a luchar por la vida y a vivir con amor. Con ella aprendi que una mujer puede ser hermosa, a pesar de que su cuerpo este destrozado por los efectos de la quimioterapia, y su cabeza tenga solo unos cuantos cabellos, y su craneo este deforme por los tumores de cancer. Aun asi, ella es bella, bella como los girasoles que cubren los campos de Francia. Y con amor la recuerdo hoy y siempre.

mañana obscura de invierno

Esta mañana sali de mi casa puntual a las 6:15 am para ir a mi clase de yoga. Me dirigia hacia mi coche cuando de pronto escuche voces y pasos que salian de entre la obscuridad. Asustada voltee la mirada hasta que encontre una pareja que caminaba tranquila por la calle. En la mano derecha El tomaba la mano de Ella, y en la izquierda sujetaba la correa de un perro fiel.
Mucha gente en esta ciudad se atormenta durante el invierno porque las noches son largas y los dias cortos. El sol pareciera que se va de vacaciones a otra ciudad, a San Diego tal vez, pues lo vemos poco. Pero dentro de todo, la obscuridad puede ser un regalo maravilloso de la naturaleza. Un telon que oculta aquello que no queremos mostrar al mundo. O un lienzo que espera ansioso pinceladas de luz.
Yo, ya no temo a la obscuridad, pues se que no estoy sola. En la mano izquierda me toma la mano derecha de El.

RHINOCEROS

I saw the last show of Rhinoceros at the Capitol Hill Arts Center. What a brilliant story by the Romanian Eugene Ionesco.

The following is an excerpt from the program written by the director John Farrage ...
Consider Eugene Ionesco, a man who wanted to express to us what it is to see the people around you, your community, change right in front of your eyes into something no longer recognizably human. To warn us that it is possible for our co-workers, neighbors, friends, family, to suddenly transform from individuals into a massive sea of sameness. To tell us what it feels like to question ourselves, our values, our morality, and struggle to find something true, some way to define ourself, our individuality, and to discover that the only tools we have are words, a product of society, which has become ridiculous; absurd. Ionesco's characters never give up, regardless of the insanity of the world around them, they keep going, keep hilariosly, painfully searching, as Eugine did, as do we all.
"I have found language to be an ineffective mode of communication" Eugene Ionesco.

Confesiones

Confieso
que tu ternura
ha tocado lo mas profundo
de mi corazon.

Confieso
que te admiro
por tu paso vagabundo
por los caminos de la vida.

Confieso
que tu sentido del humor
hace que me ria una y otra vez
con solo recordar.

Confieso
que tu forma de hacerme el amor
hace vibrar
todo mi cuerpo.

Confieso
que en este momento
quisiera correr a tus brazos
y robarme tu aliento con un beso.

home sweet home

I am finally home. And I lost my cell phone, my atm card, and my calling card all in less than a week. I also decided to upgrade movable type and got stucked in a stupid error for three days during which I was not able to write new entries. I was thinking about going home tonight and hide inside my closet. But things are finally turning to the bright side again.
It feels good to be back. And to be back online.

Dia de Guadalupe Pilgrimage

Thousands and thousands pilgrimage by foot to the main Cathedral to honor the Virgen de Guadalupe (Virgin Mary) who once, on December 12, appeared to Saint Juan Diego.
These pilgrimages happen every year in all cities across the country. People walk for days and days until they reach the Cathedral closest to the town where they live. Others go as far as Mexico City to the Basilica de Guadalupe. Some make the journey walking on their knees as a sacrifice.

Floods

Matamoros is also known as "muddy-moros". And when it rains, the drainage system clogs causing severe floods.

City of Matamoros

Yesterday I arrived to the city of Matamoros, where my great-grandfather opened the first gas station more than 70 years ago.
This is the Papagayo cafe. Famous for the best rolled flour tortillas with machaca con huevo (steak and eggs), or refried beans, or avocado. It was my great-grandfather's favorite spot for breakfast.