The story behind J… if there is one at all.

I’ve been wondering lately why on all my posts I have nicknamed my husband “J”. I had never called him J until I started blogging. And I have never said it out loud until today. Now I realize I have been calling him by another man’s name – his name is not Jay – and everybody knows that if you called your significant other by another man’s name, you’re dead. Or at least divorced.

I started thinking about a reason of the whole J thing and nothing. There’s not really an answer for it.

I guess I wanted to keep our privacy and not get him mixed up with my new blogging addiction, but then a few posts ago I talked about my girlfriends and I couldn’t think of a reason why I should hide their names. What could happen if I say their names?
I mean, you know my name, my dog’s name, my friends’ names. You even know where I live. If you know J’s real name, it’s not the end of the world.

And getting back to earth, only my mom reads me. So?

I think I’ll be ok. I don’t think I’ll have stalkers or something that could google me and track me down.

Anyway, going back to the main topic, J’s been helping me with my posts anyway, correcting a couple of gramatical errors. (Very few by the way, I think five so far. In all my posts.)

He deserves some credit for helping me out, doesn’t he?

Get your editor cap on, Jeremy.

P.S. If you’re reading this and you’re not my mom, you should drop a line. Come on, you know that it will make my day.

The sweetest smile.

Today we went to visit J’s grandmother.

How could I forget the first time I met her. J and I went to visit her and I was just so nervous. She was the only one in J’s family that I hadn’t met yet. We walked toward her porch and there she was. With the warmest sweetest smile. Fighting against her knees’ will to bend and grabbing her little walker trying to stand up straight.

She opened her screen door and J and I walked inside. She looked up to the 6.3 feet guy standing in front of her and her little face lighted up.

‘My little boy, I’ve missed you so much!’

They hugged and for some reason I felt that knot in my throat like you’re about to cry. She was so happy that it almost looked like she was about to explode of happiness. Roma then turned to look at me. She didn’t have to look up as we both were just about 5.2 feet tall. I was just about to put my hand out to shake hands (because unlike Latin culture, most Americans don’t hug when they first meet, as you may know. Here you simply shake hands) and she showed that amazing smile again, walked up to me with her arms wide open and said ‘Well, come her cutie, you will fit just right.’

She’s the most amazing, inspiring person I have ever met in my life. Every time I see her I cry, either in front of her or as soon as we leave.

You know how sometimes you keep bitching and whining about “important stuff”? And I mean “important” stuff like why you don’t have enough money to buy that cute dress, why you couldn’t find a good parking spot and why it’s so hot outside and now you have to walk all the way to your car, why my job doesn’t pay me enough, why my husband has to work late and/or travel so much. Why, why, why.

And then you meet ‘that’ person. In my case, is grandmother. She has so many reasons to be sad and depressed and all the right to whine and complain.

Her husband had passed away.
Two of her kids have passed away.
She just moved out of the house she lived in forever, where her husband lived and died, where she raised all her kids.
She doesn’t get to see her kids as often as she would like.
She can’t drive or ride a car because it’s too painful for her.
She can’t go for walks because her knees pop if she stands up for too long.

Do you think she has EVER complained about anything?
Not ever. Not one bit.

She chooses not to think about sad memories. She wakes up every morning and chooses to be happy. She chooses to be content with what she does have.

She’s just so admirable. And so smart.

I’ve seen other grandmas that, at her age, can’t put a sentence together. They don’t remember you or they are so sick that it’s really painful to go see them because they have lost a lot of weight and it’s just so sad. But not her. She has the sweetest smile and tells you the best old stories and always has something to say. She doesn’t cry about the sad things going on her life, she just knows how to smile and how to make other people smile. Besides, I do all the crying. Just to imagine my husband dead, my kids away from me and not visiting as much as I wish, I can’t walk too much, I can’t ride a car to get out of my house… it just makes me so sad that I cry. I’m crying right now just to think of her and how brave and strong she is. I don’t know what I would do if I have to go through that much.

I can just hope that I’m like her when I grow old. I hope I could be like her every minute of my life. Right now. Because, even with all the physical and emotional pain she might be going through, she still has the strength to put it all away everyday and give you the sweetest smile and hug you with immense, unconditional love.

Too tired to blog tonight.

I’ve spent most of my evening trying to figure out some widget I wanted to add in my blog.

It still doesn’t work as I wanted it to work.

But I do hope you like my new header… I worked hard for it!

Nite, nite, enjoy the weekend!

To hike or not to hike

So the girls -Jordanna and Johanna – and I decided two months ago that every Monday was going to be the ‘hiking day’. We’d take the kids and the dogs and go to the trails behind my building and spend a few hours together. This was of course, just the theoretical plan. We talked for hours, days and months about how much fun it would be and how good it would be for our bodies to do some exercising and at the same time, take out babies for a nice walk. So let’s see, we were supposed to start the first Monday after we came back from Peru.

First Monday: Something came up. Jordanna had exams at school and homework to do so we postponed it for next Monday.

Second Monday: Something else came up. Johanna was going to go out of town and we postponed it for next Monday.

Third Monday: You would think it was my turn to come up with something right?

No.

I don’t even remember what happened and that was just last week. I think we just kind of didn’t call each other that Monday. Yes, that’s what happened. We forgot it was Monday. (Maybe intentionally on my side)

Fourth Monday: Little Nadia, Johanna’s baby, got a cold.

Sigh.

Johanna thought Nadia would be ok in a few days so we postponed it for Wednesday.

Wednesday: To be honest, I was trying to ignore the fact that it was ‘the chosen day’. I would jump every time my phone rang, thinking it was THEM. The hiking partners. Making me go hike. So 6pm went by and 7pm went by and I started feeling bad and anxious.

Maybe they’re waiting for me to call them both.
Maybe they didn’t call me and left me by myself – well, I was with J but he’s not a girlfriend I can gossip with – … – although I should say he’s pretty good at gossiping when he wants to.
Anyway, so I grabbed my phone and dialed Jordanna.

‘Hello?’
‘What’s going on?’ “Are we going?’ (please tell me you didn’t leave little Melissa behind)
‘Yes, Johanna is coming at 7:30 and then we’ll stop by your place’
‘Ok, see you then!’

Weeesh.

Well, actually… maybe I would have rather been left behind, so I could be hanging out and be a happy couch potato.

Dang it.

Now after Penny and I are back home, I actually thought it was kind of fun.

Pretty fun.

Ok, it was a lot of fun so we will keep going hiking every Wednesday from now on.

Well, not next Wednesday because we’re going to a concert. If it goes as planned, we’ll go hiking the wednesday after.

Or maybe we won’t.

Redesigning time!

Just a quick note to apologize for all the changes going on, and/or links not working, and/or posting random stuff.

I promise it will be worth it.

(I hope.)

100 things about me

1. I’m pretty lazy *
2. I am sometimes selfish and sometimes too generous
3. I am the most stubborn person you’ll ever find
4. I daydream a lot and cannot help it
5. I am a helpless optimist
6. I am too naive
7. I am a good daughter
8. I can’t live without a watch, unless my watch doesn’t match my outfit
9. I don’t like people who burp out loud, but if they’re my friends, I guess I have to live with it
10. I do stupid things like staring at myself in the mirror, push my belly out and see how fat I’m growing
11. I can’t stand people who complain all the time
12. I can’t stand in line for more than 15 minutes
13. I can’t stand snobby people
14. I’m the luckiest girl in the world because I have the best guy on earth as my husband
15. I like the smell of gasoline, a good cup of coffee and fresh cut grass
16. I like waking up very late in my days-off
17. I sometimes think of people older than me getting older and older and dying and just the thought always brings me to tears
18. I’ve made some mistakes that I regret, but I can not change them so what the heck
19. I’ve let some people down and I’m sorry, but even if you don’t believe me, I didn’t mean to
20. I love hugs, kisses and cuddling, although as you can see, Penny doesn’t really enjoy it
21. I love my family; my mom is my best friend, my guide and my confidant
22. I love the fact that I’m always happy and smiling
23. I love people that make me smile… which is not hard
24. I love and enjoy married life and often think that I was born for it
25. I love shoes (all kinds of shoes, especially high heels) and purses
26. I love when something good happens to someone I care about
27. I love learning new things (I’m a fast self-motivated learner)
28. I love meeting new people
29. I love my belly piercing
30. I love reading (lately I’ve been reading lots of blogs)
31. I love finding money in any of my jackets or jeans that I haven’t worn in a long time
32. I love writing; out-of-the-blue writing is the best
33. I love warm clothes fresh out of the dryer (in the winter, of course)
34. I love all kinds of dogs, especially my clumsy, smart little runner, Penny
35. I love star-watching during clear nights
36. I love the ocean and the warm sand between my toes
37. I love the sun and the snow (this latter one just on the slopes, not on my car at 7am)
38. I love waking up and realizing I have a day off
39. I LOVE getting mail!!
40. I love hearing a good song I haven’t heard in a long time
41. I’d like to get a tattoo, but it’s forever and I’m not sure if forever sounds so good
42. I hate the fact that I can’t cook… at all, and I don’t even want to try to learn
43. I hate Geico commercials!
44. I hate hurting someone’s feelings
45. I hate having my family so far away
46. I hate that every single food I love has so many calories
47. I hate not being able to express all my thoughts and feelings… just because English is not my first language, although my English is very good (and fluent, but still… so many things to learn…)
48. I hate not to be able to keep a diet for more than a month week
49. I hate being hurt by someone I love and trust
50. I hate violence
51. I hate when I get sick because then I get homesick too
52. I hate realizing I forgot something in my place and I already locked my door (like my car keys)
53. I hate when somebody in my family gets sick and I can do nothing for them
54. I hate the fact that life’s so easy here and in some other countries like mine people have to work so hard to get in a month what we get in 3 or 4 days… but I guess that makes me appreciate my luck of being here
55. I hate when people can’t believe that my real name is Melissa, not an English translation of ‘my real Spanish name’
56. I hate when I can’t remember what I was about to say
57. I hate losing my internet connection in the middle of something
58. I hate dealing with stupid people
59. I can’t help worrying, obsessing and getting anxious about something I want to happen so bad
60. I hate being hot during summer
61. I hate I could never learn how to play a guitar because my hands are too small and I can’t reach all the cords
62. I hate packing and moving
63. I hate that I roll my eyes too often
64. I sew hems and other stuff, and J crochets
65. My favorite season is fall
66. I’m a big sucker for romantic comedies
67. I’m a packrat, although J is helping me with that little detail
68. I’ve never been a bridesmaid or a maid of honor, the farthest I’ve gotten to in a wedding is a flower girl. That’s of course without counting the bride position. Twice.
69. I’m an angry driver and I would LOVE to honk at every idiot on the road
70. I enjoy people-watching
71. I believe in destiny
72. I have never had any kind of surgery
73. I love J’s profile and secretly hope that our kids get that from him
74. I can’t stand the noise of kids playing loudly
75. If I see bubble wrap laying around, that’s it, I have to pop them all
76. I don’t know what I would be without push-up bras
77. I always do to-do-lists so I can cross things off
78. My favorite movies are Love Actually, Click, 13 going on 30 and all Indiana Jones movies, except for the last one on which the producers didn’t even do a little research about city locations in Peru (so wrong)
79. I love browsing bookstores and buying stationary
80. Shopping is my life
81. Internet is my life
82. I’ve always had this thing that when I see something misspelled my eyes start to ‘hurt’ (it’s starting to work in English now)
83. I’m a big fan of some bloggers out there
84. I have this pact with J that if I see my big first platonic love (Andy from Menudo) (I know, please don’t make fun of me) I can kiss him and if he ever runs into Penelope Cruz he may do the same
85. I HATE HATE when people drive too slow in front of you
86. I also hate when people pass me when driving, I always try to speed up so they can’t go (what is wrong with me?)
87. I’m not very tall (at least not compared to J, or actually compared to everyone, pretty much)
88. I have a good eye for fashion and decoration
89. I always start a fight (unconsciously) when J drives ‘off’ the lane’s lines
90. I’m helplessly devoted to watching ‘Friends’ religiously at 6pm everyday
91. I try really hard to lose my Spanish accent when speaking English, but it just won’t go away, dammit!
92. I hate driving, in general
93. I’m definitely not a morning person
94. This entry is from J: ‘You snore a little bit every once in a while’ HOWEVER I’m 150% sure it wasn’t me
95. I try my best to stay connected to my family although sometimes it’s really hard
96. I’m a very demanding person
97. I hope to have a baby soon
98. I’m a big whiner
99. I’m very forgiving but I don’t forget certain things
100. I’m J’s favorite person, or so says he.

He’s my favorite person, too.
____

Update: I had to edit #1, I’m super lazy.

I don’t know how I could have left that out…

Poor little Penny pooh.

We usually leave the deck door open for Penny. She loves hanging outside, enjoying the sun and people watching. And if she gets tired of the heat, she can always go inside and take a nap. We like to leave the blinds closed so it stays cool inside.

Anyway, so everything has been really good and she hasn’t been barking or causing trouble outside (as the good doggie she is).

Last week, after I got home from work and took her out to go potty, I took my flip flops off (it has been so hot -like hell for me, about 85 degrees) and went outside to the deck to sit on my chair and get some sun. As soon as I stepped on the deck, I felt my feet soaking on something. I looked down and saw a big puddle of some kind of liquid under my foot. I was so grossed out! Penny had for sure peed out on the deck and I was the first one to walk out.

Barefoot.

We didn’t yell at her or anything because we know that if you don’t scold your dogs right after they did something wrong, it’s pointless. We just knew she had lost her privilege of going outside and having the door open for her.

A few days ago, I was folding some laundry in the bedroom – which has a door to the outside – and I heard some water-dripping noise on our deck. I instantly called out for Penny, already showing anger in my voice. She crawled out of her little crate as soon as she heard her name, looking all guilty and sad.

Her crate was in the bedroom with me.

I looked outside and there it went again: the water-dripping noise. But this time I saw where it was coming from.

Upstairs.

‘Something’s dripping down hereeeee…!’ I hollered.

No response. Nothing.

‘Helloooo… neighbor from upstairsssss! Something is dripping on my deck!’

He happened to be watering his plants on his deck but (I guess) not really paying attention if it was a little too much water for that pot or not. It wasn’t a big deal for me, come on just a little (more like a lot) of water on my deck…

wait a minute…

but then… what I stepped on the other day…

was it my neighbor’s watering skills showing off?

Which means that my little Penny pooh was actually being a very good girl!

Hooray!

Needless to say, she got her privileges back and now is welcome to go outside… again.

My Second Wedding.

Yes, you read right.

No, don’t scroll down. There’s no ‘My First Wedding’ post. Although it did happen.

And in case you’re wondering, yes, it was with the same guy, my J.

First wedding in Park City for J’s family and second wedding in Peru, for my family. How lucky are we to get two weddings? And the second one was painless, with no planning, no decisions to make, no nothing. My mom planned it all.

Yes, I know. Don’t be jealous of me, my mom is for me and me only. No brothers or sisters.

Ha ha.

The miracle of Internet.

Dear Internet,

I want to thank you for all the wonderful things you do. I want you to know that if it weren’t for you, my day would be really lame and boring.

You connect me with my family.
You are very useful at work.
You always have anwers for my questions.
You always have the right thing to buy, if I don’t have time to go to the store (so I don’t have to drive).
You’re available 24/7.

And I can shut you off whenever I want.

Skunk or skank?

My loving editor and I, before publishing the previous post:

J – Are you talking about girls or animals?
Me – What do you mean, girls…?
J – Skank with an ‘a’ is different than skunk with a ‘u’…
Me – Oh. (I swallow.) Right. (Blushing.) I forgot about that…
I’ll change it before someone reads it…!

*P.S. I’m glad I married an English speaker or I would have been very embarrassed about this one.