While I was sick for about a week, I was so proud that I weened myself off of caffeine. My goal was to get off caffeine and then ween off the dark soda, then ween off light soda (Sprite or 7-up) for good. I noticed that I had to have a can of Diet Coke every day. I tried to limit myself to 1 can, but at times, at restaurants I would enjoy more than a glass. I just feel like I need to take better care of myself and this is something easy that I can do and have done before. Years ago, all I drank was water, I did it for several years, then I went to grad school and my all nighters were too hard to stay awake…so I returned to Diet Coke.

I was proud because I was now off caffeine, not craving a diet coke. I was drinking Sprite if I wanted something sweet. But then at a restaurant I thought, “oh yeah, I can have root beer!”. So I ordered myself up one and drank. I didn’t check to see if it was A&W or Barq’s. Anyway, since then I have had about 5 root beers…and at work, they only have Barq’s. Well, at my friend Mandy’s house today, she informed me that yes Barq’s has bite (caffeine). I remember arguing with a friend in the past that yes it did, but he swore it did not, and I believed him. Ugh, so yes, looking it up, while it does not have as much caffeine as Coca Cola, it still has some. Now to add to the story, I have had trouble sleeping, hm, perhaps due to the late root beer!

Am I really caffeine free if I didn’t know I was having caffeine? Ugh, so now I have to see if I need to ween myself off this too. It’s frustrating since I felt so proud and I feel I have to start again. Darn you Barq’s Old Tyme Root Beer!!

So Danny is gone for another 4 weeks, just about. I have kept really busy, taking the dog places, working late, trying to hang with friends. But I miss him, and I am sad. I could technically go hang with friends now, but I am pooped. But sort of lonely too. I’ve been taking care of his plants and I think I’ve done pretty well. I picked a large red tomato today. The band did ask if he would be free in August, not sure how long the tour will be, but…meh.
I should paint right now, but I am tired, long day at work and then I met up with Fred and took Nacho to the dog park.

Do you ever want to just move away, make a new life in a whole new country? Like see if you can make it in Ireland, or Buenos Aires, Spain, or Mathis? (I’m just kidding about the last one). I wonder at times what it would be like to live like others do. Like having to wear a scarf and mitts all the time, or being in a jungle. Not forever of course, but just to see and learn about the lives of others. I realize that since I don’t have children, I have the world at my fingertips (reminding myself that it takes cash too), but I should technically go enjoy the world or what I can of it before I get tied down with family. Not that you can’t enjoy it with family, but lets just say Danny and I aren’t in careers where money will be rolling in later. I don’t know, I am rambling now. Just wondering what I should be doing…you know?

I have to learn JavaScript for Monday’s class. Not all of it of course, but just enough to get student’s feet wet and get them coding cool stuff. At times I feel like such a failure to my students, at others I feel wonderful, I know with experience it will get better and my rough days will be less and less. I do enjoy my job and the people I work with though, I am learning so much and well, love it.

So my friend showed me this blog: 8Asians and they had an article about Mr. Sulu (Star Trek). What was funny was when I saw the movie I thought, hey it’s that dude (his name is John Cho of “Harold & Kumar” fame). And I started wondering, well, who else would they get? The number of Asian actors working in American movies is slim, like Latinos. I would actually say slimmer than Latinos. I am sure there are actors/actresses who are part Asian working, but I mean people who have the Asian look.

My mind began to wonder about Asians in the media and who could fill this role now…

William Hung, no. Not really a film star anyway, or is he?

Jackie Chan as Sulu? Probably not…

Pat Morita, well, since he passed away a few years ago, that’s a no too.

Danny reminded me of Chow Yun Fat. But I don’t think he would fit in with the young cast of Star Trek.

Hm…so I thought my list of actors would be longer…I can’t think of any others. Oh yes, of course John Cho who plays the new  Sulu in the Star Trek movie.

Oh and of course, the original Mr. Sulu!

I could throw in more of Asia, like India…but my list would probably only include the cast of Slumdog Millionaire and Kumar (Kutner from House). M. Night S… is a director, but he has starred in his movies…

Hm, my list is so sparse.

Are there any other young Asian actors out there? American films would have us think not. Can you think of other mainstream Asian actors working in American film? Help me think of some!

So I haven’t been posting here in a while. Every time I am on the computer I feel like I should be prepping for my lecture or finding interesting exercises for my students to try. Even right now, I don’t feel fully prepared for tomorrows class so I will be up late.

My parents visited this weekend and it was good. Usually I have more family come at the same time. With so many people in the house it can get really crowded, and that’s because we have 4 bedrooms! But hey, I’m used to it (6 in our family when I was at home). It was just nice to be with my parents though. Just kind of hang out and have fun.
Danny is out of town for some gigs with a guy named Eric Tessmer. It doesn’t look like a permanent thing, but it was a couple of well paying gigs. He’ll be home soon.

I am half half about the neighborhood I live in.
On one hand it is at times called the ghetto. Last week a cop shot a kid (18 yrs old) in the face and riots broke out. Okay, small riots, but that happened about 3 blocks away. Not too long ago, there was a hostage situation and they called my house and a recording said to “stay indoors”. That was 2 blocks away.
But on the other hand…even though stuff has happened nearby, I like our house and our neighborhood. We live in a cul-du-sac and don’t have many problems here. It seems to be “over there” or “those houses” that have issues. I think the neighborhood is changing. We are considered east central Austin which is good, especially since a big development is nearby. Our house value has grown too, so I think it was a good investment.
But today I was pretty annoyed. My mind started pondering the thought of moving out of here. I have found I can’t go walking alone (even with the dog). I get honks and shouts from trucks. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I’m so amazingly hot that they can’t help it, I think if anything with legs and long hair was walking – the low lifes would honk. Today I got the honks and shouts, but then I had someone pull near me and ask if I was “selling”. I did not look up and I ignored him but…grrrr. I went straight home and decided that I can’t go alone anymore. While my neighborhood is changing, it’s still has a way to go.
I do think it’s interesting that our neighborhood is predominately black, yet we have pockets of Mexicans. Like our neighbors who go back and forth from Mexico often. They speak a different Spanish than what I am used to and tend to wear more cowboy clothing. Not sure if being a “cowboy” is a Mexican thing or what. Corpus was like the birthplace of Tejano but I didn’t see nearly as many cowboys as I do here (and that’s because most Tejano bands have matching cowboy shirts!). I know that’s a weird observation but it just stood out to me. To bring this back to my original point, those are the people who I keep getting honks from. *sigh* I was happy moving into our area because there was a mix (and more whites are coming in too). I like the diversity and it reminded me of Taft (my birth town). But today I was reminded why my parents worked so hard to move our family out of Taft. It wasn’t the ghetto they were worried about, it was the barrio. Why am I back when they worked so hard to get us out?
No rash decisions need to be made now, but just something else to think about that we’ll probably need to do before we have children.

Bea Author died

I loved that show, and all the Golden Girls in it!

 

Okay, so now my page has a “theme”. Not sure if I like it though. We’ll give it a whirl and see if it’s for me. Oh and I have to double space so it looks good on my blog (sorry LJers). Hm, I’ll play with the code and see how it looks in my next post.

 

Church bells are ringing, it’s 7pm. There is a Catholic church near my house and every hour the church bells ring. It’s actually really nice. Sometimes they even play a song. For those of you not in ‘the know’ Catholic songs rarely change. Okay, they do change, but I could probably go into any Catholic church (except maybe a Mennonite one) and sing along. So, yes, the word tradition is taken to the extreme. Anyway, that said, they have some really beautiful songs that I remember since my wee years, and the church around the corner plays them. Everything from “How Great Thou Art” to “Eagle’s Wings” to “How Can I Keep from Singing”, it’s pretty and not too loud or annoying. And of course, they don’t chime late or too early, even if they did, they are pretty soft.

 

My mom wishes I would be a Sunday school teacher there. But I think I have way to many questions/doubts, not about the faith (go God!), but about the religion…

 

…yet I still consider myself a Catholic.

No time to update, but I have thought of several things to blog about, but I’m sure once I get to it, I’ll forget.

Topics that I would like to talk about: Teaching, the dog, teaching the dog, kids, movies

Yesterday at the Art Institute we had our “Day of Service”. Students from local organizations and charities came to the school. Organizations like Big Brothers Big Sisters and Texas Baptist Children’s Home were invited. But due to lack of prep time (put together in a week or two), only 6 kids showed up. It was fun though because with a small group, we were able to give more attention. 6 ladies showed up from the home.
The home serves children who typically are placed voluntarily by family members due to a temporary crisis in their home. Some parent(s) aren’t able to care for their children, many are incarcerated. My heart went out to the girls who came. They were all so eager to learn and have fun. They were older, like in high school (a couple in junior high). It was a good day, and hopefully we do it more often.

On a sidenote: After the young ladies had left I went to the faculty area. There an instructor and I chatted about our classes and what we are teaching this quarter. She suggested I get my PhD. While it’s inticing, I do go back and forth on the issue. On one hand I think, “Yeah! I would love to!” but on the other hand, I hate research. Well, mainly quantitative, I don’t like statistics or numbers (or should I say I don’t like reading them and doing them). I don’t mind qualitative so much, I rather gather info and put it together than gather numbers. I did leave really pondering about it. If only I could be so lucky to get another full fellowship like I did for my Masters. Hmmm, just something to think about. Oh and what should I get it in? Instructional Technology (like my Masters), perhaps with a focus on minorites and technology?

I am a big sister in the Big Brothers Big Sisters program here in Austin and I have a wonderful “little”.

I highly recommend mentoring a young person. In San Antonio I worked with Communities in Schools and here in Austin I am with BBBS and it’s just awesome. I know once we have a family it will be difficult to meet with my little as often, but that’s okay, we’ll worry about that when that day comes. Right now it’s where I need to be.

I met up with my “little” today. I hadn’t seen her for a while due to Easter and the new quarter starting up. We got to go shopping (see my previous post) and hang out. I also took her to see Monsters vs Aliens in 3D. It was a pretty cute movie. Not a must see but I enjoyed it and we laughed out loud several times.

She did give me some news. Her 13 year old cousin is pregnant. It’s upsetting, not in a “she should know better” way, but in a “she has a long road ahead of her” way. The fact that she is 13 is sad, they grow up so fast. I had a friend who I went to grad school with, she quit being a nurse and joined our program. She said she saw a 10 year old come in to deliver her baby. A 10 year old! She said she couldn’t deal with it and needed to get into another field. My little did say something under her breath, something like “I want a baby” and had to retort with, “sure they are cute when they are tiny, but then they turn into that” and so be it, God waved her hand and put three screaming children moving past us. My little laughed and said “I know, I am kidding”…but I don’t like “kidding”. Hopefully once the baby is born she can see how much work it is and the amount of time it takes to care for it, there is no “going out” on the weekends with a baby. I can advise and suggest and offer support, but I can’t (and won’t) argue or get angry with her. My role is just to be there to give her an attentive ear, and try to understand her point of view.
Just an FYI, don’t just assume you have a “good kid” because you raised them “right”. They are always good kids, you can be an amazing parent and things can happen. I think parents should do all they can, but know that we all make mistakes. I know my mom put the fear of God in me, and God put the fear of boys in me too!

I worry for my little because there is a lot that has gone on in her life. Her guardians are her grandma and step-grandpa (wait, what would you call the other man her grandma married?). She lost her mom when she was 5 and never knew her dad. I won’t go into much more detail to protect her privacy, but it’s been tough. I want her to know there is so much more world out there than just what she sees right now. We’ve done quite a bit of stuff here in Austin. Taken her to several cool places including the top of the UT tower. She is starting high school next year and I’ll be there for her, and praying she is protected.

You see these dresses?

Those (I think) are called Safari dresses. I like these dresses, they look comfortable and nice on those tall and slender models.
Now, what do I look like in those dresses?

Okay, minus the apron, mopping accessories and the rubber gloves. Um, and is she wearing chanclas to clean? What maid service is this?!
Yeah, I look like a maid. There is nothing wrong with the maid profession, my mom cleaned hotel rooms for a while. But yeah, my idea of looking like a chic fashionista turns into me looking like I should have a name tag and asking if you need towels!

It’s almost like these Empress waist type shirts:

First of all, (with the first image) I have no idea how a curvy girl doesn’t pop out the top of it. I try one on and my husband loves it, but it’s a bit too much skin for me (unless I’m feeling saucy). On some, the Empress waist looks pretty. On me, I look pregnant!
Two styles that I’m sure have come and will probably be gone soon, that I just can’t seem to pull off.

I’m a jeans and t-shirt gal I guess. I try to get cute clothes, show a little more skin, wear heels, girly stuff like that. But man, being girly is exhausting! My twin is very girly, she has the clothes and hair combo down to an art. My curly black hair is usually very natural (that’s my way of saying I just don’t know what to do with it so I spray some curly frizz stuff on it and hope for the best). At times I ponder how it feels like to get up in the morning and just brush your hair. No need to wet it first and put some leave in conditioner. No need to wear a cap when you run to the grocery store for something. I know, I know, not all women can do that and everyone has bad hair days, but it’s almost like someone forgot to put a tag on me. You know, “Care Instructions” or a “See Reverse for Care” tag. There are several curly hair websites I sometimes look at. My favorite so far is NaturallyCurly.com.

As you can tell, I went shopping today. It’s been about several months (my mind is counting six but I could be wrong) since I have shopped. Usually I would return in a foul mood, but I think I found a couple of things that might just work (no Safari or Empress Waist items were purchased).