Lita's 2.0

New Movie "The Ides of March"

2011-10-10T10:04:00.000-07:00

I went to see the The Ides of March hoping to see a political thriller that will tell something better that todays political situation.....Unfortunately I did not get thet.....It was dirty poletics at usual......Leanard Martin said it best when he said "If people are attracted to theaters by their presence (Clooney & Gosling)they're not likely to leave feeling satisfied." and that was what happened to me...I was unable to root for any of the characters....Their acting was supperve because of the fine directorial of Clooney, there were no heros in this film.....They were all bad......It shows how poleticians make deals without regards for the people they are suppose to represent....Just like today in Washington..... They were all bad just looking for themselves and no one else.....

So I will give this movie my two chocolate kisses for the performance of the actors.....

George Clooney, Ryan Gosling, Evan Rachel Woods and Philip Seymour Hoffman....

Long time away from my Blog

2011-09-07T18:40:00.000-07:00

I can believe that is been so long since my last Blog... I have been quite busy...My husband and I are babysitting our second grandchild...Owen is two years old and going through the terrible twos....
This year we did not travel much...Last year we had a ball in Puerto Rico....I did not Blogged about it....Do not know ....Why not...

The school year started and this Friday I am going to a meeting at the Library at Kingston Elementary....That is the school were my other grandchild Mason, goes to school...I have been volunteering for the passed three years... This is going to be Mason last year at that school since he is now in the Fifth grade...If I cannot volunteer at his new school next year then I will look for another place to volunteer.....Ever since I retired from the Library I have been doing volunteer work at different places...I enjoy giving back to my community....
I have seen quite a few movies, but I have not written about any of them....I seem to have lost my Mojo....I have not the desire to write about any of them....Some of them I find them so lame, and others are too raunchy...
I saw the "Help." I like that quite a bit....I give it a three chocolate kisses...
It was an ugly time in our Country...Even though I lived in New York in the sixtys' I remember that I went to Miami, Fl with two friends. We were going to eat at 5 & 10 Woolworth...This place did not let Blacks eat at their counter and they did not hire Blacks...I remember that when we were entering the place we were approached by some of picketers...We stop to listen and when they explain why they were picketing the place...We turn around and did not go in...We picket with them for a little while and then we left feeling better about ourselves....

I have not read a book for a long time, but I have been listening to books on tape....I been listening to a series called "The Bloody Jack Adventure."...by L.K. Meyer....It is about an orphan in England that dresses as a boy and joins a British Warship...They are for teenagers.....I am shocked at the bad words in these books....I guess the author must think that all teens speak that way...I do not know since it has been a long time since I have had teens in my house....My children were not aloud filthy language in our house...Any way I have enjoyed all the books I have listened so far....I recommend it to mature teens....

Wind Beneath My Wings - Israel Kamakawiwo'ole

2011-04-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

SUICIDE MISSION.....FUKUSHIMA'S FIFTY

2011-04-05T10:43:00.000-07:00

(Picture taken from Yahoo)

Hiroyiki Kohno, 44 years old is on a suicide mission......He volunteered to work with some other heroes to save his country Japan...What is happening there is not of his doing, but he knows he must help and he is doing it without regrets....that is a heroic dedication that no one should have to make.....Can you imagine going to work knowing that you will have a death sentence on your head.....No one knows when or how it is going to strike.....They know that it will happen because the place were they are working it is highly contaminated.......The Fukushima Nuclear Plant is unsafe and it is not getting any better.....How much contamination is there only the experts at the plant knows........It is not a pretty picture...... Once this is all over there is going to be lots of praises for these group......I just hope the world do not forget what they did to save their country and the world....These are my kind of hero .... May God bless them....

Alabaster Box ~Blanca Vega ~

2011-03-15T07:26:00.000-07:00

Paseo por Corozal

2011-03-13T17:56:00.000-07:00

Maya Angelou's Phenomenal Woman by Islandbreed 0001

2011-03-08T11:20:00.000-08:00

HOLLYWOOD OBSESS WITH SEX

2011-01-31T19:42:00.000-08:00

I love the movies and I usually go every week.....lately I have notice a trend that makes me sick.....Hollywood have become obsessed with Sex...........The movies made now days are full of raw sex.....Is like going to see a pornographic movie....Here are some examples of terrible movies that I have seen lately... They are either a tangled mess or not real plot just sex, sex, and more sex...............

Love and Other Drugs with Jake Gyllenhaal and Anne Hathaway....They are a beautiful couple with lots chemistry, but the movie was a tangled mess and lots of raw sex...... No String Attached with Nataly Portman and Ashton Kutcher.....Is another dud.....mostly sex no real plot...

The Black Swan a great movie, but the Lesbian sex scene spoiled the movie for me....Really was it necessary or is it to sell tickets.....I was embarrassed at the whole scene....

Annette Bening in the "The Kids Are All Right....Another one that had to have explicit sex......There are very few movies in Hollywood that do not have explicit Sex.............

I went to see The Mechanic with Jason Statham because the movie was an action movie....But by the second scene he goes to a bar and well you know what happened...

I was told that those are R rated movies and of course they have to have sex lots of it.....Well I do not agree that it has to have sex, No wonder there are so many divorces in Hollywood.....I cannot believe that all that is just acting....Acting my foot....I guess I have to read the revues first before I go, and skip it if it has explicit sex...

Think...... why are the highest grossing movies cartoons movies?....and some of them are just great....Can it .......be that they are clean fun......they have a good story line in them.....One of my favorite is Walle, and there was no dialog, but it had a great story.....

I have seen two excellent movies that I recommend to those who have not seen them . They are The King Speech with Colin Firth and The Network........

I guess I will be seeing GP13 from now on.......I am not a prudish person, but enough is enough I do not find these kind of movies funny at all...... Why waste good money on dumb movies.........I can wait for them to come to the library,,,,,,,,,,,,, since they do not last long at the theaters. Then I can see them in the comfort of my home and skip the sex scenes....I guess lots of people like that kind of movies since hollywood keeps on making them.....

Concha Buika - Mi Niña Lola

2011-01-20T12:43:00.000-08:00

I discovered this artist and love the way she sings....Her voice is beautiful......I saw other videos and I really like them; therefore I decided to feature her in my blog.....That way other people that do not know about her will hear will become acquainted with her music....Let me know what you think of her music

Andres Jimenez y Edwin Colon Zayas

2011-01-12T09:13:00.000-08:00

Madre solo hay una

2011-01-12T08:56:00.000-08:00

ANDRES JIMENEZ Mama Borinquen Me Llama.wmv

2011-01-12T08:53:00.000-08:00

I can't believe that I have not posted is so long

2011-01-07T12:35:00.000-08:00

I can not believe I have not written anything in a long time....The real truth is that I lost my moyo (?)....Oh well here I am....The holidays were great...I love Christmas....It gives the heart such a great feeling....not to mention all the treats that one gets.... :0)...I love the way our church is all dress up...I posted the pictures in my Facebook.....The German Village is quite impressive....all the houses and items have been donated to the church....It takes Bro. Tobias some time to set everything....

Since I cannot have poinsettias at home because of my cat...I love how beautiful the church looks with all the trees and poinsettias..

I used to buy a real tree for the house, but for several years now we use an artificial one...I own so many decorations that it looks so busy....I like it that way. The year my mother died I did not decorate the house and it was terrible....Our grandson kept asking me "when I was going to put up the tree."

I decided after that, that I will always have a tree for Christmas........Hope everyone had a marvelous Christmas and until the next ones which the way time flies it will be here before we know it.....

MY DAUGHTER PREGNANCY, LAST YEAR GRAND EVENT

2010-08-07T13:38:00.000-07:00

I cannot believed that I have not posted since I saw the movie Valentine Day on February 20, 2010....

Last year was a busy year....My daughter found out that she was five and a half months pregnant and came to give me the news......Can you imagine....She thought she had a bad case of gasses....very funny since it turned out to be a baby.....Well! what can I do but cry my heart out from happiness...... It was a short pregnancy, I thank God.....I do not think I could have been able to wait for nine months....
I am sure my daughter either...

The beautiful baby was nine pounds and 12 ounces...When they brought him out to weight him....the little tyke looked like he was more than just born...He was the biggest baby to be born that day....We as the proud grand parents were so happy for our daughter and her husband.......All I did was gape and take a lots of pictures.....

He was our second grand-son...Wow!.....But our first from our daughter.......

Then came that we were to be the baby sitters....In today's world grandparents have to be the baby sitters.....We do not trust anyone else with that precious cargo....So Grand-pa (Lolo) and Grand--ma (abuela) do not have any more life for themselves....

Do not get me wrong....We love to do it, but we still want our life back.....Not a chance we can not relinquish our job to anyone else.....Not that we want to...but we can complained about it, since it is our prerogative....jijiji... ;0)

Well guess what? That tiny baby is now a year old.. He started walking...Better said.... running because he cannot stay still for one minute....he tries to run and pop down he goes..... I bendito (the blessed one) the poor thing falls more than stay on his feet....but he stands up and try once again....One thing I must say he just do not give up...Great character to have when he groups up....

MY TAKE ON "VALENTINE'S DAY

2010-02-20T15:08:00.000-08:00

Since I was unable to go to the movies on Valentine's Day , I decided to go yesterday...I needed a brake badly....So I went to see Valentine's Day because I thought it was going to be just a pop-corn movie...In another word an entertaining movie..Nothing to use my brain and in a few days it will be gone from my it.....

I was not disappointed.....The ensemble cast was a who's who in Hollywood and some fairly popular teen faces....It was directed by Gary Marchall...The movie had to do with the commercialism of Valentine's day, and to keep with the theme of the movie there where several love stories that intertwine with each other....Some better than others....And if truth be told the one that I like the best was the little boy love story...It was cute...It had some laughs, but not much and a waste of good talent...All in all it was entertaining and that was what I was looking for...Therefore, I give this movie two chocolate kisses.....

Till I go again to the movies........Too bad that "Crazy Heart" is not playing at Lynnhaven Theatre since that is where I go to see my movies....A little plug for the AMC theatres..... :0)

SHADOW OF THE WIND by CARLOS RUIZ SAFON

2010-02-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

The Shadow of the Wind is that kind of book that one cannot tell for sure what genres it is....It is a multiple genres and it is hard to put it down......There is Mystery, Romance and Gothic novel a little of every thing.....

The book starts when Daniel Sempere, then ten years old cannot remember his mother's face.....To calm him down his father (who is the owner of a rare book store) takes him to the cemetery of forgotten books....His father tells him that he cannot reveal the place to any one.....He makes him promise, and Daniel asked him if he can tell his mother ( who is dead)....His father tells him that he can tell his mother anything because they do not keep secrets from her....

Daniel finds a book among the thousand called "The Shadow of the Wind" by Julian Carax....He reads the book and it is fascinated by the story...He wants to learn all about the author....He ask his father, but his father does not know anything about the man...He tells Daniel that he will take him to another book seller that most know about him.....

That night he takes Daniel to a restaurant to meet Mr. Barcelo..Mr Barcelo is there with his beautiful niece Clara Barcelo....Mr Barcelo tells him that someone had burned all of Carax books and that that is the only copy around....He tries to buy the book from Daniel at a very high price, but Daniel do not want to sell the book....Mr Barcelo tell Daniel that he does not know much about the author, but that his niece does...He goes to another room to take a good look at the book and leaves Daniel with Clara..

Daniel is facinated with Clara..She is beautiful and also blind....She is twenty years his senior.....She tells Daniel that Julian Carax has died in Paris in a duel he had with his best friend Jorge who shot him. Daniel is not satisfied and start searching for the truth....

When he is around sixteen a man calling himself Lain Coubert (the devil) a name taken from the pages of Carax novel approaches him and tells him that a bad thing is going to happen to him if he does not give back the book..Daniel gets scare, because the man has no face... Since he has given the book to Clara he goes to her house and take back the book..He brings it back to the cemetery of forgotten books to hide it...There Isaac (the place keeper) tells him of his daughter, Nuria. was the one that brought the book to the cemetary. Nuria was in love with Carax and that she should know what happen to the man...he gives Daniel Nuria's address.

Daniel meets Fermin Romero de Torres, a beggar and gives him a job at the book store....Daniel goes to meet Nuria and ask questions....She tells him that Carax is dead..Fermin tells Daniel that she must be covering something....Fermin and Daniel start digging more and find out that Julian was once in love with Penelope the sister of his best friend Jorge....The daughter of the man who was paying for his education at a private school....Julian's father made hats and could not afford a private school for Julian, but one day when Jorge's father came to buy a hat, Julian who was fourteen years old, took care of him and while taking the head measurements told him that he had a big head..(unbeknown to Julian,this man was his real father). He asked the hatter to permit him to pay for his education......

Daniel in the mean time falls in love with his best friend sister and his friend Tom tells him that if anything happen to Bea he is going to kill him....You have to read the book to find out what happens to Nuria and Carax, who is going around burning all of Carax books... What happens to Bea and Daniel......There is more, much more to the story....

This novel is two stories in one and both are parallel each other in some way....I love the novel and I recommend it to every one that likes this type of books. He is a new writer for me and I like his style....Enjoy...

SNOW STORMS

2010-02-06T18:47:00.000-08:00

Here we go again...Like the song we are having another snow storm....Our first storm was January 30 2010....This one started last night with high winds and rain which turn into ice and later snow...Not a pretty picture to drive around town, but beautiful to look at.....

Well that did not stop me from going to see the opera at Lynnhaven Mall....I am glad I did because I love the Opera....Simon Boccanegra live from the Metropolitan Opera House in New York and sang by Placido Domingo as Simon a pirate who is called to be a leader in Genoa..

In the first act, Paolo (played by Patrick Carfizzy and who turns out to be the villain,) and his friend convince Simon who used to be a pirate, to become the Doge (the leader) of Genoa.

During first act Simon decides to see Maria the love of his life.. Her father Fiasco, (play by James Morris) has locked her up in the tower to keep her away from Simon. Simon meets Fiasco in the patio and ask to see Maria and he also ask for his forgiveness...Fiasco, who knows that Maria is dead, tells Simon that the only way he will forgive him is if Simon gives him his grandchild ...Simon tells him that he left the little girl, also names Maria with a woman who live by the coast, but that when he went to look for her he found that the woman was dead and Maria had disappeared.. Then Fiasco tells Simon that he will not forgive him..He goes away and Paolo comes back with the people and declares Simon the Doge.

Second act: Twenty five years have passed and we see Fiasco plotting with Gabriele Adorno (play by tenor Marcello Giordani) to take revenge on Simon..Gabriele is in love with Amelia Grimaldi who happens to be Maria, Simon's daughter.... She is play by the Soprano Adrianne Pieczonka.....Who has a beautiful, splendid voice.....The Grimaldis have adopted her and took her for their own... They meet at the court yard and they declared their love...a servant come to tell Amelia that the Doge is coming to see her..Simon is coming because Paolo loves Amelia and wants to marry her....So he asked the Doge to help him...When the Doge meets Amelia/Maria she tells him that she loves another..She tell him that she is not a Grimaldi that she comes from poor family and she tell him her story..He realizes that she is his daughter and tells her that she is his daughter and wants her to come to live with him at the palace.. Then simon tells Paolo that he cannot marry Amelia..Paolo decides to kidnap Amelia, and to kill Simon...The music is brilliantly conducted by James Levine.......

I love the whole Opera...I love the costumes, the scenery, their voices and the trios...I loved everything about it...I am not a critic of movies or music for that matter, but when I like something I go wild about it....So I will give five chocolate kisses from five.......

I do not regret going in this terrible weather to something that left me singing.....and full of joy.....Now that I am home nice and warm I can say let it snow, let it snow, let it snow......

MY TAKE ON "WHEN IN ROME"

2010-01-30T18:13:00.000-08:00

Before the big snow storm that has envelop Virginia Beach and much of Hampton Roads,

I went to see When in Rome.....A romantic comedy with Kristen Bell, Josh Duhamel, Angelica Huston, Danny DeVito......Dan Johnson

The movie is about a young woman that is a workaholic. She is the curator of no other than the Guggenheim Museum. The still beautiful Angelica Huston is her boss....I always wanted to be Angelica Huston because her exotic beauty,,,Oh well back to the story....

She is not very successful in love because she is to attached to her work...Her little sister meets a gorgeous Italian guy, and after two weeks decide to marry him and she wants her to be her Maid of Honor......

She goes to Rome for the wedding and there she meets this handsome ex football player, who is now a reporter, played by Josh Duhamel...They seem to hit it well, but when she goes champagne bottle in hand to look for him......she sees him kissing a beautiful Italian woman.....She goes to the fountain called the "Fountain of Love" and there she drinks the champagne and decides to take some coins from the fountain to punished the Goddess of love....She returns to New York and finds herself followed by the guys that through the coins in the fountain........Including the reporter. Her sister informs her that what she did was wrong and that is the reason for them following her....

I found the movie quite funny, but the real critics like our Mel from our newspaper did not like it...I laughed and that is good enough for me to give it a two and a half chocolate kisses form four......

MY TAKE ON "THE LOVELY BONES"

2010-01-24T13:49:00.000-08:00

My take on the best seller book made into a movie " The Lovely Bones." The book spend several weeks in the best seller list...It was written by Alice Sebolt......

The movie starts with the teenager Susie, telling the audience that her last name is Salmon like the fish and that she is fourteen and she was murdered......

The movie which stars Mark Wahlberg and Rachel Weisz as her parents, Susan Sarandon as her grandmother, Stanley Tucci as the murderer and Saoirse Ronan as Susie, the fourteen years old girl... Directed by Peter Jackson.......

The girl is in the in Between.. A sort of place for those that have not cross over yet..She wants to help her family deal with her death, but she also wants revenge against the man who murdered her...I thought that the weakest link was Wahlberg....My daughter who was with me thought that he was fine.....I was not convinced by his performance....Stanley Tucci in the other hand was perfect on his role of the creepy murderer...He scare the pants out of me....There is a scene that I thought I was going to get a stroke since my heart was running so fast....The scenery was great. The performance by Ronan was excellent and Tucci was fantastic. So I will give this movie three chocolate kisses out of five........

MY PRO-LIFE MARCH IN WASHINGTON, DC

2010-01-24T07:41:00.000-08:00

Three years ago I made a commitment to myself, that as long as I could walk I will march in Washington for the life of a baby.......That year I had retired and I was free to do as I pleased..

This is my third year and I was pleased with the walk. Never mind that my knee after standing for a couple of hours started sort of kicking me, but once we started walking it stated behaving and it no longer pained me.. Another thing was that once I got tired I grave one of the teens and I walked holding to him....He was with his sister, so one was at my right and one at my left...

How could I get lost with them at my side.

We were 58 adults and teens in our group. Once we left the parking lot of Saint Gregory the Great and where on the Highway started to rain in buckets.....I started to pray "Lord, please let this rain stop by the time we get to DC...." I have dress warm, I had my new boots, and I had my raincoat.....When we arrived at DC the rain stop and when we began to march the sun came out......and things brightened up.....I think it is safe to say that God was watching after us.....

I bought my raincoat on sale at Thalhimers (long gone store) and paid $110.00 which even on sale I thought was quite a bit steep for me...But this raincoat has save me in Paris, Italy, Israel, and here...I have gotten my moneys worth.....anyway I am babbling and getting away from the march....

The Politicians love to speak at these rallies because they think only of votes, and there were twenty one of them.......but what I like to hear speak are the women that have had an abortion and are truly sorry for what they did ....My heart goes out to them.....One can tell that they are hurting a lot....many still feel guilty and are looking for absolution which only by repentance and forgiving themselves they can obtain it....I do pray that they will find peace within themselves..

The posters are all the same...Some are very old showing that they have been going for a long time to the marches....This year I saw one that I liked a lot and took a picture of it...The group was from New York......Go New York!

All in all the march was a good way to show our politicians that we are committed to this cause....It is a shame that our Congressman and Senator are not for Pro Life......They do not give us a little time of their schedule to see us....But I will remember when the time comes to vote......

Boy was I lost

2010-01-21T16:21:00.000-08:00

I have been lost....What I mean is that I was lost from my Blog.....I do not know what I was doing wrong, but for sometime I could not get in to write about all the pictures I have seen....

Things like that happens to me all the time....Sometimes I think I must have some kind of ADD....Oh no it is not a senior moment, since this has been happening since I was a teenager.....So it must be that I am missing some screw.....Any way I have not been able to find that screw yet..... I will keep on looking for it though.....before it is too late and senility sets in...God forbid.....

Tomorrow is a big day for me I am joining the relay for life march in Washington, DC.....The weather is not going to be very good, but that is OK. The first year I marched it rain buckets, but at one point the rain stopped and a beautiful rainbow appeared...It was the highlight of the whole trip....Someone shouted it is like a miracle..To me it was because of its beauty....

Last year my boots cracked and I was quite embarrassed....As you can see things like that happened to me all the time....LOL.....This year I have a brand new pair, so I will not encounter any problem in that area...I assured you it will be in some other area....Last year a few people got lost...I am going to hold to someone in my bus (I do not care whom) so that I am sure to be with the group at all times.....This lady is not going to get lost I assure you, unless the person I decide to hold onto is the one that gets lost....Then nothing is going to save us.....Ha Ha Ha....Will tell you Saturday....That is if I do not forget my password or my users name.....

THREE GREAT MOVIES:INVICTUS,PRECIOUS,THE BLIND SIDE

2009-12-20T14:58:00.000-08:00

I have been going to the movies, but this is the first time I am going to write a short criticism about three of my favorites......

Invictus: This is base on a true story which we are all familiar....The story is about how Nelson Mandela (Morgan Freeman) who has been elected as the first black to be president of South Africa.....How to unite his country and his people is one of his biggest problem and he decide that the best way will be with the game of Rugby which everyone loves...So he invites the captain of the team (Matt Damon) to tea so that he can talk about making his team a winner and win the 1995 World Cup......Both Mr. Freeman and Damon are excellent in this film......I gave it three chocolate kisses....Invictus is a poem written by William Ernest Henley that Mandela used to say it to himself when he was in prison.........

INVICTUS

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the Pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds, and shall find, me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll.

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

WILLIAM ERNEST HENLEY

The Blind Side:

This film is also based on a true story.....
A teenager Michael Oher is walking in a cold night with just a tee shirt and short when a wealthy lady who is riding with her family sees him...She ask her daughter if she knows him and the daughter tells her that he is in her class.....They stop the car and ask him were he is going and when she does not like the answer she decides to take him home.....the lady is Leigh Anne Taohy(Sandra Bullock) her husband is played by Tim McGraw.....Miss Leigh Anne takes Michael under her wing and the rest is history like they say......This is another excellent movie that is a must see and I give it another 3 chocolate kisses.......

Precious:

This is a very hard movie to watch.....It took me a long time to go see it....It takes place in Harlem 1987 It is about an African-American teenager Clairisee"Precious" Jones...Sixteen and pregnant with her second child....This girl dream of a better future for herself and for her children....She is in the ninth grade and she does not know how to read and write....She does every thing for her mother (Mo'Nique) who abuses her and hates her....When the school sends her to an alternative school she starts to write how she feels........She tell her Social Worker (Marian Carey) that her children were fathered by her own father....One on the babies has Down Syndrome..After she has the baby and returns home her mother does something to her that Precious takes her baby and runs away.......This movie is excellent, but hard to take...I cried and was very upset....Mo'Nique was fantastic as the abusive mother......I give three chocolate kisses also.....my next movie will be AVATAR.........Love Sci-Fi

ANTONIO'S LIFE & SHANGHAI GIRLS

2009-12-14T19:15:00.000-08:00

Antonio's life by Jose F. Garcia: The story starts in Basque. Antonio was born in Spain, but was not considered Spanish since he was born in Basque region....Basque is a place between Spain and France and neither country wanted them...The crown of Spain kept them poor and ignorant.

The Barradaz brothers Xavier fourteen and Antonio thirteen were sent to Barcelona to live with their uncle because the new wife of their father told him she did not wanted the boys.....Unfortunately the uncle was no were to be found..So the boys had to fend for themselves.
At the docks the boys split to find work....Xavier finds a ship that is sailing for Argentina....The captain hires him to work on his fathers ranch......Xavier is good with animals...So the brothers say good-bye knowing that they will not see each other again.....

Antonio in the mean time meets with a young guy that likes him right away and takes him under his wing.....Miguel is only two years older, but treat him like a son.....Miguel lives in the convent with the nuns..He helps preparing the church for mass. He present Antonio to the nuns and show him the duties that will be required of him....One thing Antonio realizes is that he must learn to read....Fortunately the Mother Superior likes him and they show him how to read and write.....The boys work at the docks and help the nuns with whatever they need...Time passes and Miguel meets a beautiful girl and falls in love. The only problem is that she comes from a wealthy family and when they notice that she is falling for Miguel they decide to send her to Cuba....Miguel promise her that he will go to Cuba and get her some how...

In the mean time the Sister Superior dies and leaves everything to Antonio......So now they decide to make all the preparations and go to Cuba to look for Mercedes.....But they know that they can not stay in Cuba they must go to another Island in the Caribbean......They finally settle on going to Puerto Rico......After a few days in Cuba sitting around the plaza they finally see Mercedes and are able to speak to her. While Antonio is inside the store Miguel and Mercedes make plans to elope.
They succeed and they get married aboard the ship. Once they reach Puerto Rico they start a new life......

Antonio who considers Miguel as a brother plan everything with him...They became very successful in Puerto Rico. Antonio meets a beautiful Puertorrican girl and marries her....
Tragedy strikes when many years later Antonio enters politics and terrible things happened.

In the back of the book it says that "Antonio's Life is based on Jose Garcia's grandfather's life...Also in the back of the jacket it reads: "It tells a story of how a kind man can engage in acts of violence, and the price to be paid as a consequence." I recommend this book as well as Shanghai Girls.....

ANTONIO'S LIFE & SHANGHAI GIRLS

2009-12-14T18:40:00.000-08:00

I have read two wonderful books these past weeks.... they may seem very different, but yet they have a lot in common....the Shanghai Girls by Lisa See is about sisterly love and a different culture......Antonio's Life by Jose F. Garcia is about brotherly love and a different culture also.....

First "Shanghai Girls" is the story of Pearl Chin and her sister May......Pearl is the oldest of the two....She is 21 while May is 18........The time is 1936 Shanghai...The girl are carefree living in a modern City their father is wealthy and they are having the time of their life......They pose for a young man that makes calenders....but one day their father tells them that he has lost his money gambling and in order to pay his debt he has sold them as wives.....to suitors who have traveled from Los Angeles to find Chinese brides......they are two brothers and one is only fourteen....

After the marriage Pearl decides that she and May are not going to travel to California to be with their husband...She throws the tickets away......Unfortunately her father has not told the whole story that he owes the money to the Chinese gang and they come to the house to reprimand the two girls.....They promise to go as soon as they can....Everything seems impossible because the Japanese have invaded China.....How the girls get out of China and are able to get to Los Angeles is quite a trial......All that they suffer and how they succeed is the beauty of the book....but I believe that the author will write a sequel since it was left hanging......
I will write the other novel tomorrow..........

WHAT I THOUGHT I KNEW

2009-11-27T12:32:00.000-08:00

Have you ever read a book you liked, but wanted to hit the author with it....That is what happened to me with this book. "What i Thought i Knew" by Alice Eve Cohen....A Memoir

I liked the book and was really happy that it turned out the way it did....But many times I had to stop and take a breather, because she upset me so much that I wanted to hit her with the book...

The synopsis: After a terrible divorce Alice is happy with her new boyfriend, her adopted daughter, and her job....She start feeling terrible and goes to the doctor who tells her she is going through menopause......So the three of take a trip to Europe that they have planned before she fell ill....There she feels worse. While her nine year old daughter and her boyfriend are having a great time she is sleeping in their hotel room and feeling miserable.

When they get back she goes to see her doctor again. The doctor puts her on hormone therapy and give her an exam...After a lot of proving, her doctor tells her that she has a tumor and send her for a emergency CAT scan........The CAT scan reveled that Alice does not have a tumor, but she is six months pregnant....
Lo and be hold here she is forty-five years old without a pre-natal care and no insurance coverage for a high risk pregnancy....

She tells her boyfriend who so happy he is static....but she does not want this baby...She does not know what to do.....Have a late abortion in Kansas the only state that does that, give it away for adoption or what......She feels overwhelm........It is a great read.......and I recommend it

THINGS THAT HAVE BEEN HAPPENING AROUND HERE

2009-11-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

I have not been posting anything since September....A lot of things have happened before them that I did not posted because I was brain dead.......:0) In May of at the end of April my daughter came to the house with the silly pretest that they were looking at houses in the neighborhood......A big lie....The day before there was a mysterious BOOM that no one had an explanation for it.....Some said that it was a meteorite that fell in the sea....Only the meteor knows for that matter....Anyway that evening they come and it just happened that I had the news on and they were talking about the "big boom"....Then our daughter tells me that she knew what the boom was and she said "it left this"...then she produce a baby picture of a sonogram....

That was a great surprise and I started to cry...Oh well I am a cry baby any way......The big surprise for them and for us was that she was almost six months pregnant and she did not know it... No matter she was pregnant and we were all very happy...It is their first and it was a boy.

Time flew by and on July 24, 2009 she had a baby boy by cesarean...He weighted 9 pounds and 12 ounces....A beautiful child named Owen Flynn Ricketts......We have been taking care of him since our daughter went back to work....

The baby is growing the way he should....He is a joy to all of us....He soon will be four months old

He is beginning to turn and I guess soon he will me sitting too.....

NOR'EASTER

2009-11-20T17:04:00.000-08:00

Last week Thursday November 12 we had a Nor'easter...I thought it was the remnants of Ida...Anyway they called it a Nor'easter and it was bad...There were beach erosion.....It brought lots of rain. Norfolk was underwater.....Other parts of Hampton Roads were hard hit...The Governor declared it a disaster zone....Our neighborhood was underwater...The children did not have school for two days...That made them very happy...Of course the parents where not happy some had to miss work because of it....

Our yard looked like a river...Our street got flooded, but fortunately the water subsided by the afternoon..Our son who lives in Little Neck lost power for a day and a half.... A good thing that he had four huge trees chop down a few days before the storm.....Our daughter street was like a lake and they could not get out the next day.......

We also had another visitor from as far as Puerto Rico....This huge Barge name "La Princesa" got loose and landed on Little Island in Sandbridge.....The Barge was caring hazardous material and the authorities were afraid that it was going to collapse with the fishing pier...Also there are a series of Condos that became in danger of being hit by the barge....The Cost Guard tried for three days to dislodge it with no avail.....Monday morning finally they were able to sent it on its way to New Jersey her destination....... That was the most exiting thing about the Storm....Lots of people went there to see it and take pictures......It was an awesome site.......

They are announcing more rain and wind for this Saturday and Sunday...If that is the case our neighborhood is going to be under water again because the City did not see it fit to collect our bags of leaves and pine needles and chunks of branches fallen from the storm.....The City always leave our area for last...We pay our taxes the same as those neighborhood that are more affluent than ours......Last Friday they announced that the Friday collection was going to be collected on Monday while ours that was supposed to be collected on Thursday was left to be collected this Thursday. A whole week and then they did not collect the bags that are on our curves.....I could not see the sense of it....What is with that...?

SOUTHERN PATIO

2009-09-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

I bought a beautiful 13" Fiberglass Planter made by Southern Patio and Garden Collection....
The Planter has a lifetime warranty.....but when I called to tried to explain that the top rim of the planter has come apart I never really got an answer.....

I must be fair I did get a called left to my answering machine...I returned the called, but again I had to leave a message...Sort of a catch 22....After that they did not called back...So I gave up too...

The planter cost me $9.99 and I was not going to trouble my head with calls that went no where........I bought the planter in May 29, 2009....I should have been more careful since it was made in China and we all know the fantastic quality Chinese items are made of.....Yes I am being sarcastic......I cannot help it.....
I am still using the planter since I had no choice..I had transferred a plant in there and I did not wanted to disturbed the poor thing again......But I cannot hep wondering if the planter is going to continued falling apart or when it will happen...

VERIZON.NET

2009-08-27T07:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I was so upset with Verizon that I Blog what occurred to me with Verizon.....Today I must said that the young man that came to my house was must friendly and courteous...

His name is Chris and when he came I vented all my frustration on him... He took it like a trouper and told me a little information that I was glad he gave me.......I will tell you that Verizon is mostly interested in their new and better(according to them)FIOS.......never mind DSL that is yesterdays and today is FIOS...Get rid of the old and bring in the new.....More money for the pocket...Right?

I have seen their commercial on TV, but their offer is only for six(6) months...With the economy the way it is, and some people living on fixed income I do not think we want something for just 6 months.......

Going beck to our young man Chris.....He cleaned the phone box outside.....It really needed that and then proceeded to fix the cables inside my computer room....In no time I was back on line...
Hurray!
This morning he gave me a call to make sure all was well and still working....That is what I called
good customer service...I thank Chris and I hope that Verizon have more people like him....Verison he is a keeper......

Verizon.net

2009-08-26T19:08:00.000-07:00

Sunday I started to use my computer and I got that dreaded message "unable to connect"....I called my server "Verizon"...As everyone knows a lot a the jobs in the USA has been out-source to India, the Philippines or who knows were else.......

First I got the disk asking me to press one if I was having problem with my computer....So I press one....then she said "You can connect to Verizon by signing to http://www.verizon.net....hello/! I cannot connect.....how am I to connect to your network if I am down.....It does not make sense....Then I have to wait for another fifteen to half hour before I get connected to a person in India........

Finally I get connected to India.......The woman in the other line is very nice and friendly, but I can hardly understand her.....So I try to listen carefully first she ask me for my name and phone number, then she ask me for the problem....I tell her that I cannot connect and she ask me "did you turned off and on the modem" Yes, Madam I did, did you check all the connection, Yes, Madam I did.....then she said to me "it seems that there is a problem on the line because I have done everything and I cannot fix it.. Why do you think I called?......"So I am going to transfer you to another line and you are going to speak to the technician who is going to help"...First I am going to ask you to verify your name and address...I tell her that we did that when we started the conversation....
That is right Madam, but I need to verify it again....

I tell her OK then you tell me that address and I will tell you if it is correct....Oh no Madam I cannot do that because is against our policy for privacy and security reasons..... So I tell her "well for privacy reason and since I already verify with you my name and address I prefer that you give it to me....I realized that it was going to be a catch 22, so I told her my name and address again....Then she said that the technician was going to be at my house on Wednesday with a window between 8:00AM to 7:00 PM four days from the time I called and reported the problem....and I have to wait all day long because they could not give me an exact time.....Again she said Madam I am going to connect you with the line technician and he will explain everything to you...By this time I am pulling my hair when the lineman gets on the line and ask me for my name and address just for verification Madam.....So I give it to him, only to be told that the technician will be at my house on Wednesday........The man just repeated what the girl said and that was all.....Waste of time since by this time I have spent more than an hour.....

Monday I went to the library and decided to check my email since I was there already to get some books ....
I was shock to find out about ten or more Emails from Verizon.....I delete all of them but one, and I answered that one, and told them that the only reason I was able to answer their Emails was because I was visiting the Library and decides to checked my Email otherwise, how in Sam's Hill if my PC was down, was I to read their message.....Dah! Verizon It does not make sense....Get real!.....................

Lately there has been an advertisement from Cox Communication were is telling that customers are switching to Cox because they have a better customer relations......If Verizon wants to keep me as a customer they better do a nicer job and treat their customer with a little more respect...... Or I will switch.......Watch out Verizon.....Customer service is very important to me......

MOVIE OF THE WEEK "ADAM"

2009-08-18T19:12:00.000-07:00

It has been a long time since I have review a movie.....But here I am.....

I had the privilege to be invited to a special advance screening of "Adam" and independent film.....The main actors are Hugh Darcy as Adam and Rose Byrne as Beth.....
The film opens with a funeral of Adams father......We soon realized that there is something different about Adam....He has a good job making electronic toys....The freezer is full of frozen macaroni and cheese....Soon Adam meets Beth a teacher and a children's' book writer...They hit it well and they become friends.....Then he tells her that he suffers from "Asperger Syndrome" something I have never heard off and neither of Beth.... it is something similar to Autism....

The film had quite a few humorous scenes and the romance of Adam and Beth was sweet, but like a coworker tells Beth a person with Asperger Syndrome is not a good relationship material....Adam is brilliant, but he cannot communicate with other people like a person with out this problem.....He had an anxiety melt down that was quite scary.....

I thought that Hugh Darcy as Adam was fantastic......This is the first time I saw Rose Byrne in any movie so I am not familiar with her work.....She did fine also....
This movie made me aware of a syndrome that I was not aware off....It is an important movie so the public can become more knowledgeable of this condition......I will give this movie three chocolate kisses......

STOP CHILD ABUSE....

2009-06-25T17:06:00.000-07:00

I should have written this some time ago, when the story came out in the local newspaper, but I was so upset that I waited to calm down..
On Tuesday June 23, 2009 the story came in our local newspaper for the third time....This time the headline read...."Father was investigated for abuse in other States."

The story: Joshua Sawyer and his wife were charged on June 10Th with murder of Sawyer's five year old daughter Carley Sawyer.....The child, when taken to the hospital had cuts, bruises, burns, and ligature marks on her writs....To punished Carley, the Sawyers' put her in a box with a netting to keep her from getting food; therefore, she was also being starved to death...

To make matters worse this man was investigated in two other States....The Social Service in Georgia and in North Carolina both investigated this man an his second wife(not Carley's mother who had lost custody).... The poor child came to died in Chesapeake Virginia....
What makes it even worse is the fact that because there is no tracking of child abuse from State to State the Social Service in Chesapeake Virginia never knew about it....

As I found out from the article: "There is no system in place to transfer cases from state to state." "even worse there is no national registry of founded cases." said Betty Wade Coyle, executive director of Prevent Child abuse Hampton Roads.....in the newspaper article....

So there is another innocent child that died because the state failed her....

Just like there is a registrar for child molesters, there should be one for parents who abuse their children.......There is no excuse when parents mistreat a child in this manner and called it a form of punishment.....That is no kind of punishment is child abused plain and simple....

My Mom The end

2009-06-13T17:27:00.000-07:00

My Mom continued:

They took one of her kidney out. The doctor said that it was cancer, but that everything was taken out and there were no more cancer cells....Soon she was back on her feet and going to visit my sister and going shopping....Even though my sister did not live too far from her, she had to take two buses to go to her place.....In a car it only took about ten minutes.....

My only sorrow was that the doctor told her that she could not travel in an airplane ever....Her heart was very delicate and it was dangerous for her....That meant that I had to go visit her instead of her coming to Virginia.....It also meant that I could not see her as much as I wanted...My daughter was still a teen and I was working....

The last time she came to Virginia Beach was for Sabrina's High School Graduation in 1995...She was so happy that her only granddaughter was graduating from high school and she was able to come and see her....
As a graduation present, I send Sabrina to Puerto Rico to spend a few weeks with her....

A few years later a lump grew on her neck....When she went to the doctor they found out it was that the cancer had come back......They could not operate because it was too close to her main artery so they decided to give her chemo..........
How she hated the chemo....After the six treatment she refuse to have anymore....The lump had disappeared and the doctor gave her some vitamins in injections...Again after about six or less she refused to have them because she kept saying that they were another type of chemo and she was done with that.....

Then it was April and we had planned a trip to Italy when my sister called me to tell me that Mom had had a stroke....I flew to Puerto Rico right away....When I got there she was out of the hospital because it turned out to be a mild one....
That Monday we took her to the doctor to find out how bad it had been...He found her in good condition.....He said that the stroke was mild, but her heart was too delicate for her to live by herself.....He recommended that she'll be moved out of her apartment because she should not be alone or traveling in the bus like she use to do....

My sister found an assistant living place near her house....The lady was a friend of my Moms, so she knew the place and the people there....She had her own private room....When I left she seemed to be happy. Unfortunately she thought that this was a temporary arrangement...

Then a few months later she wrote to me and told me that she was very unhappy and wanted to go back to her apartment...She asked me to send her a couple of dollars when ever I could because she did not have money and sometimes if she wanted to buy an ice cream .....
I use to send her a five dollars in one dollar bill, that way she could have some money...
The Social Security check that she was receiving was going to payed for the place.....She could not understand why everything had been taken away from her...............We explained to her that since the doctor did not wanted her taking the bus or going any place unless she was with some- one that was why she was at that place.......... the lady there did not let her go out of the house...My sister use to see her every day, but the woman told my sister not to do that because she needed to get use to the place....therefore my sister started going once or twice a week and took her to her home for dinner on Sundays..........

That was making her very very sad....Here was a lady that all her life had been so independent and did what ever she liked....She was liberated before that word became popular. Now she was confined to that place....I could feel her sadness every time we spoke over the phone......

On Friday September 10, 2004 my nephew called me early in the morning and I knew that my Mom had died.....all he said "Tia and I said Mom is dead right" He answered yes......I had spoken to her that Sunday when she was spending the day with my sister....We talked for a little bit, because she told me she was not feeling well...I told her to tell Aida, my sister, to take her to the doctor.....When I spoke to Aida she said that she had taken her to the doctor and the doctor did not find anything wrong with her...
Then that Friday when they went to wake her up for breakfast they found her dead....

I believe in my heart that she died of sadness...She lasted five months and a half from when I saw her after her stroke......My heart broke when I lost my mother and I cry just thinking about her.....

She suffered so much in life and yet she was a happy women. She found every one beautiful...
She adored her grandchildren...She would have died for her children.....She was always helping people ....Everyone that met her loved her....She had so many friends...

When I got to Puerto Rico for her funeral I was surprised to see so many people there.......The day of the funeral she had a police escort just like she were some dignitary...There were so many people that it made my heart feel a little better knowing that she was so loved by so many people.......My Mom how I still miss her and I always will......May she rest in peace.............

My Mom

2009-06-12T18:41:00.000-07:00

My Mom continued:

We came back to live in Virginia Beach, VA...That summer my Mom came to visit me like always...She loved Virginia...She loved that it was a quiet place and she could do what ever she wanted.....I was not working yet, so I took her to many places here..She was very happy..I asked her to stayed with us permanently, but she refused because she said that my sister need her and I did not needed her, besides she did not speak English and that was going to be hard for her, and that she will miss her friends......

She loved my husband and she knew that I had no problems in my marriage. My sister was a different story....Her husband was always running around and my Mom was worried that it was not going to last long..... By this time my sister had three boys......

My Mom came back the following year and brought my thirteen year old nephew...They stay the whole summer with us....When it was time for them to return to PR she asked me If I could keep my nephew here with us because my sister was talking about divorcing her husband and she did not wanted my nephew, Alfredo, to go through the trauma...My husband and I desided to keep him....I called my sister and asked her to send me an affidavit declaring us legal guardians; otherwise we could not place him in school here......

That made my mother very happy and before she left she bought him a sofa-bed to make sure that he had a place to sleep comfortably....He and our son were almost the same age so they share the bedroom....My nephew lived with us for six years....Until he graduated from high school and then returned home to his mother.......

That year my Mome got very sick...At first the doctors said that she had a stone in her kidney and they removed the stones.......

She continued to suffered so I went to Puerto Rico to see how bad she was.....The doctors there said that the damaged was bad and they had to take the kidney out....

to be continued:

My Mom

2009-05-15T17:55:00.000-07:00

We stayed about one more year in Puerto Rico........Then again I left Puerto Rico with my baby to be with my Navy husband....My Mom was devastated. I promise her that she could come to visit us as soon as we were established there....The first year she was unable to come, but the following year she came to be with us.......

We took her to places that she never thought to visit. We travelled to Los Angeles and took her to Disney....We also brought her to Yosemite Park......She stayed with us for a month......

She was still working at the Principado Laundry, but asked for four weeks off...Of course they did not pay her but one week vacation....It was OK she did not care.......She was traveling on vacation for the first time and she felt good....After that trip I told her that from them on she was going to go to see me in every station that Ray was sent to....

Unfortunately our next duty station was Morocco in the North of Africa, and she did not wanted to go there.......

We were in Morocco for only nineteen months and our next duty was Norfolk Virginia......

She was able to visit me once in Norfolk and she loved Virginia....Then again we were transferred and this time it was Maryland....I do not remember if she visited us in Maryland.........

We stayed in Maryland for two years and then Ray was transferred to a ship in Gaeta Italy..

He did not wanted to take us there because by this time we have adopted a baby girl from Norfolk. Our boy Ed, was eight years old and the baby Sabrina, one year and he was looking up to retiring soon.......

We went back home....My Mom went to live with us....every thing seemed to be going all right when one day my Mom came to me and told me that she was moving out......I asked her why and she said that I needed the room for the baby....No matter how much I argued with her she was determine to move out....A few days later a man came to the house to asked me a lot of questions about Mom...He was from a government agency. He wanted to know why my Mom was moving out.....I told him that she had told me that I needed the room for the baby.....He asked me how many rooms my house had and I said three. Then he asked if I have asked my Mom to move out...I told him no..... that I love my Mom and I wanted her near me...Then I asked him why was he asking me all those question. ...He told me that he was from the government, and he represented a new housing complex that was being opened for the elderly and my Mom had applied for an apartment....He wanted to make sure that she was love by her family ......I told him that my Mom was a very independent woman who disliked depending on others.....That she wanted her independence

The Condo for the erderly was close to our house so we could visit all the time. It was close to my aunt Maruca also, and even to my sister that by this time was married and had a little boy.......

to be continued:

My Mom

2009-05-04T18:17:00.000-07:00

continued:
We returned to Puerto Rico.... and went to live in the Navy housing. Our house was divided in two apartments...The bigger apartment was occupied by a Puertorrican woman that had her husband stationed in Korea..They had two young boys.......Our apartment was smaller, but very nice....It was perfect for us since we did not have children yet......I started to work at the English Newspaper "The San Juan Star."

Mother use to come to visit us and sometimes she would bring friends....Her friends were the ones that drove her around....They use to love to visit us because Ray will bring out bottles of rum...I used to be scared that they will drive drunk and they will have an accident....Thank God that never happened......At that time a bottle of rum only costs $1.50 in the base; therefore, the house always had lots of rum......I hate it it...

We were in Puerto Rico for four years.......From San Juan my husband was transferred to Roosevelt Roads.....So we moved and I had to quit my job at the Newspaper...That was fine with me because we had started the proceeding to adopt a baby.........The social worker came to the house and checked everything. We started trying to adopt a baby in the Island since we have met a Filipino couple in Memphis that had adopted a baby from the Island.........We had everything ready by the time we moved to Roosevelt Roads.....Before I quit a coworker had informed me that her brother in law and her sister had adopted a mix baby from Philadelphia and it was very easy....She gave me all the information and I called the orphanage and spoke to one of the sisters....She informed me that they had a candidate that may be right for us....We send them a two way airline ticket to be ready just in case everything went according to plans.

The first baby did not go through, but she told me about another baby. The first one was a girl half Filipino half American, and the second was a boy again mix race half American and half Guamanian.....We did not care we just wanted a Baby...This time the sister called me to tell me the day and time that she was bringing our baby home......
When I told my Mom she was overcome with joy....Finally she said she was going to be a grandmother.....She said that she thought that she was going to die without ever seen a grandchild....

The Baby came in April 25, 1969...He was only five weeks old...So beautiful we felt in love with him right away........We named him Edgar.......
We had put the down payment on a house in a new Subdivision and were waiting for the builders to finish it so we could move in...My mother had promise to move in with us....
My husband got orders to go to the Midway.... A ship that was being commissioned to go to Vietnam...The war was getting worse and we had to prepare for that.....We moved to Carolina in our new house, but a few weeks later Ray left for San Francisco......
My Mom moved in with me.....She assured me that Ray was not going to stay in that ship that he was not going to Vietnam......She was very religious and had a great faith.....Everyone started to pray that he was not sent to Vietnam.
to be continued:

My Mom

2009-05-01T18:44:00.000-07:00

CONTINUE:

My Mom spoke to a Priest friend of hers and he told her that he would officiate the wedding for us......so I went to the Cathedral in San Juan and got my baptismal papers.....Ray has all his papers from the Philippines and I brought them the the church where we were to get married..
Than she asked an old friend of the family if we could celebrate the party at her house and her friend told her yes......She did not wanted to have it in our house because it was too soon after my brothers death......She was still in mourning my brothers' death...

I called my cousin in New York to come to be my maid of honor......My mother rented a beautiful wedding dress and took it to the laundry where she worked and had it dry-cleaned......
She had a friend make the wedding invitations. We only had 50 made because it was going to be a small wedding...A good friend gave us the wedding cake, and my Boss gave us for our honeymoon a weekend paid at one of the Island Hotel....We got married on November 1, 1963.... It was a lovely wedding and my mother did everything , and we did not have to spend a lot of money...I was so grateful how she pull it off in the two and a half weeks we had to prepare for everything.....Everyone pitched in and helped.....

We rented an apartment for the first three months of our married life......then we moved with her and my sister for the last month that Ray was going to spend in the island before we moved to Memphis Tennessee our first tour of duty as a married Navy wife.....
He went first to Memphis.....As soon as he got an apartment in Memphis I left my mother for a second and last time......That was in February of 1964...We where stationed in Memphis for two years then my husband asked to be transferred back to Puerto Rico so that I could be near my Mom again.....
to be continued:

My Mom

2009-04-27T17:45:00.000-07:00

My Sister's birthday is the 18th of December that year in 1962 she was fifteen years old....In Puerto Rico as in all the Latin Countries they celebrate "La quinceañera." Her Sweet Fifteen with a big party and all the trimmings..My brother had come from New York and my Mom was the happiest I have ever seen her...I remember when he left he told her and us not to give his address to anyone....He seem to be scare of something, but he did not elaborate more....He had moved from my aunt's apartment to the house of a good friend of my Mom...She had a couple of young sons like my brothers age... They were Pentecostal and very strict, so my Mom was happy to have him in that environment..

I was still seen the Filipino that I have befriended the previous June....We were just friends....We seem to have different opinions about everything. We went to different places together, but it was all platonic. After Christmas he seem to have meet some one and we did not see each other for some time.......Then Valentine's Day came and he send me a beautiful card telling me about his feeling for me. I showed it to a coworker and she told me to call him...I did not know where to call him since we have never talked about where he worked. Since she knew everything about the Island some how she got him on the phone and we had a short talked and we decided to meet some place and talked some more.

After that meeting everything changed and we started to see each other as sweethearts......

After July 4Th we got a call from NY telling us that my brother had disappeared and we needed to go to NY as soon as possible....Our world was turned up side down.
My mother and I left for New York right away. My Mom friend told my Mom that on the fourth my brother and her two son were washing the car to go to some party and that my brother had told them that he was going for some cigarettes and was coming right back....He was wearing shorts and a T-shirt, ..and he had no identification with him.....since he was coming right back...
He never came back that day.....
Then rumors started to appear all over the housing that he was dead. Killed by a gang...That was when they decides to get in touch with us..
We follow one of the rumors and found my brother in the morgue in the Belviue Hospital in New York City....Some one had brought him to the emergency and left him there to die. Mom and Aunt Mary went inside to identify him I stayed out and waited for them.....When they came back my Mom seem to have aged a hundred years.....I was alarmed when I saw her.....I knew she had found her only son dead......
My only regret was that we did not have money to bring the body to Puerto Rico...We had to bury him there in New York and only God knows where......We had a funeral and my Mom was calm through the whole ordeal.....Only when we got back home that she broke down....My sister was inconsolable and Mom was quiet and I did not know how to help her.....

This went on for a few months and in the middle of October my Filipino asked me to marry him.......He said that we had to marry by the first of November which did not give me much time for preparation.....He wanted a quick wedding because he was being transferred to Memphis Tennessee. He had all the papers ready........He told all his friends, but forgot to tell me.

I was worried because I wanted a church wedding and also it meant that if I got married I was going to have to moved back to the States and leave my Mom now that she needed me the most. When I told her she said to me " do not worry you are going to have a wedding in the Catholic Church ....Do not worry about me I will be all right"......
She forgot her hurt and came to my help.....That was the kind of woman she was.....To her always her children came first......
to be continued:

My Mom

2009-04-25T14:42:00.000-07:00

My aunt Carmela moved from Queens to Islip, Long Island...It took me two hours to go to work at the Metropolitan Life insurance in Madison Avenue.....Soon the winter was coming and I had to walked about two miles to the Railroad Station every day...So I decided to go back home.......My brother had just moved to New York to live with my other aunt Maria...
He was disappointed that I had decided to return to the Island.....It never crossed my mind that I could have rented an apartment with a friend and lived in Manhattan....No I had to run home to my mother....

So I went home....My Mom was living in a small apartment in Barrio Obrero which was close to her work...My sister was in High School near by..My Mother was so happy to have her daughter back home that she was trying to find a job for me, so that I would not return to New York...

I have given myself three months to find a job and settle down....It was hard because in Puerto Rico you need a Godfather to get you a job when you need it....I had no godfather to speak off...I did not know any one in the Island....My Mom went to the office of one of the Political Parties to get me a job...They told her that they could not help me...She was very upset because she said that she had never asked for anything from the political parties and now that she needed them they would not help her at all.
I started selling magazines around the Island....I was hired by a German that was living in Puerto Rico...But I realized that the whole thing was a pack of lies and I only lasted three miserable weeks.....I hated the job....

I got lucky when I went to inquired about an opening that came in the local newspaper and the gentleman told me he did not need me, but he referred me to an Insurance Company where he knew the Manager......I got hire that same day.....You see I needed a godfather................

My Mom was very happy to have me home....She went looking for a bigger place since that one was too small for us three .........
We moved to Villa Palmeras to a nice apartment.....It was a house with two apartments....It had a great balcony where we could sit at night and see the people passed by....I was finally settling in......Everything seems to be going just like my Mom wanted......

One Friday after work my sister and my aunt wanted to go to the park because the San John the Baptist celebrations were going on. So we all went to San Juan....That night we met a bunch of Filipinos enjoying themselves. One of them asked for my name and where I worked and I gave it to him thinking that I was never going to see him again anyway....
to be continued:

My Mother

2009-04-12T14:03:00.000-07:00

My Mom continued:

Since I was blogging about Israel I have not written any thing about my Mom....

My aunt finally sent the money for me to come to New York and live with her...At this time I was 15 years old...I had finished my eighth grade. At that time in PR children use to start school at eight years old. By that time I did not want to go to the US because I was beginning to meet boys and my Mom was beginning to let me go to parties when I was invited.....I hated to have my life interrupted....I also discovered that all the kids in my class were much younger than me... In size I was small, but in age I should have been in High School.....I cried myself to sleep every night...I thought that I would never learned to speak English.....There was no such thing as bilingual teaching at that time...It was think or thwim......:)

So my Mom's life during all those years that I spend in New York was blurry to me....All I wanted was to finished High School and go to work to send money home.......

By that time my Mom started working at a poultry shop....I do not remember how long she stayed there, but she quit because it did not pay her enough.....Then she went to work at a Laundry.... The Principado was the biggest laundry in the Island.....By then my sister was about twelve years old and she has developed to soon.....My Mother did not wanted to leave her alone after school, so she asked a lady that owned a Boutique near their house to keep her at the store until Mom was able to take her home......

She learned a lot from this woman, but the woman also benefited from her work since she did not pay her a dime... She gave her a discount on her cloths and that was it......

I went home every two years for the summer vacation.....One year I got an operation and she came to see me in NY...She looked so thin at that time...I thought that she looked worse than me that had been in the hospital.....She said that she was alright......
That was the first of many of her travels......
to be continue:

MORE PICTURES FROM THE HOLY LAND-ISRAEL

2009-04-08T19:09:00.001-07:00

Pictures from Tom's collection and mine Holy Land,Israel

2009-04-06T17:46:00.001-07:00

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-04-05T18:01:00.000-07:00

CONTINUED:

The day before we went to the Golan Heights. The Golan Heights is a plateau. In 1973 the Egyptians and Syria tried to conquered the area.....The Jews were celebrating "Atonement"and they took advantage of the celebration to strike and take the Israelite by surprise. The Israelites were able to rebound and take the place back........

We stopped at the border of Syria. The UN Peace makers are near the border to mediate between both countries...For example if the Draze (people that live in that area) want to sell their apples or get married....The UN in that place will be the deciding point.....

We have come to the end of our journey......We visited Haifa the primary seaport located on the slopes of Mount Carmel......at the entrance there is a Statue of Elijah.........."And it came to pass after many days the Word of the Lord came to Elijah in the third year, saying. Go forth, shew thyself unto Ahab: and I will send rain upon the earth." 1Kings 18:l

Here Where the prophet Elijah challenged the priests of Baal......"Hear me, O Lord, hear me, that this people may know that thou art the Lord God, and that thou hast turned their heart back again......................l King18:37

According to Orami our guide, Haifa has a lot of different people from other countries working around this place.....One group he said is here are the Filipinos working with the elderly......

We stopped at a McD, but unfortunately it was closed..We then bought our coffee at SBaro.It cost us $2.00 per coffee...

We saw from afar the Bahai Shrine on the slopes of Mount Carmel "The Vineyard of the Lord" Mount Carmel: Only the first garden is open to the public...The Gardens are beautiful, unfortunately there are guards all over the place......The guards are very strict about where a person can go nor not go... We were told that there are nine Persian gardens. At one time there was a German town in that area, but it is gone now.... The Bahai was established 1840 by Bab(door or gate)...Bab said that there were other prophets besides Mohammad....Wow! This was heresy for the Muslims...After Bab who was executed by the Turks, it came another prophet Baha'u'lla'h. He came from a prominent family in Iran. When he became interested in the Baha'i faith he was put in prison, then exiled......He started writing and people listen to him and converted to this religion.. When he died his disciples buried him in a garden room in an old mansion where he was living.......The disciples brought Bab's body to the Bahai Shrine and he is buried under the shrine........We could only see the shrine from the top of the street where our driver had parked the bus.....Here the Bahais are free to worship their religion, but in Iran they are persecuted and killed.....During that period many Bahai's were tortured and killed for their believes.

This is my last writing on the Holy Land, Israel.......We had a great time...Enjoyed ourselves immensely and at no time we had any problems or scares...I will go again anytime....Unfortunately we do not have the money. It will take three years to recuperate from the trip....I mean money wise.......I recommend this trip anytime to every one. We walked were

Jesus walked. When I go to Mass now I am more aware of those places mention in the readings...It is great knowledge and I love it.....

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-04-04T17:37:00.000-07:00

CONTINUED:

We visited Caesarea and its ancient seaport. At one time this place was the center of Roman government....The place is real nice....We all picked shells and a few pebbles. The place is no longer a huge sea port as it was in Jesus time. There was a lot of trade in the big harbor..
Herod discovered a City that was in decay and he rebuilt it. The location was suited for what he wanted to do....He rebuilt the Roman Amphitheater entirely in marble......
Herod died four years before Jesus Christ.........Here is a bit of information from our tour guide....Caesarea is the must expensive place in Israel.....

Caesarea Philippi is located in the base of Mount Herman. Here we went to have lunch "Falofel"

We are close to the Lebanese quarters......Kebuts.......The place is full of mines placed here by the Serians and Lebanon. We are entering the Lebanese Restaurant.. But not to fear, we were never in any danger....

In Mount Herman there are some wonderful ruins and cave that was the Temple of Pen...

In this place it is said that a half man-half goat chased after the nymphs....Here they sacrificed goats..There was a major earth quake and the rocks blocked the water. Now the water floats underneath.

Here Jesus single out Peter and asked "who do people say I am? "He saith unto them, but whom say ye that I am? And Peter answered and said Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God." Matthew 16: 15:16

To be continued:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-04-04T13:21:00.000-07:00

CONTINUED:

The Church or the Transfiguration.. We came here and Father Mario said Mass..//This church is at the Mount Tabor in the Jazreel Valley not far from Nazareth....Once more Father Mario surprised me with his beautiful and inspiring homily..............

"And (He) transfigured before them: and his face did shine as the sun, and his garments was white as the light." Matthew 17:1-13

"And it came to pass about an eight days after these saying. he took Peter and John and James, and went up into a mountain to pray....Luke 9:28

In this church there are six angels in one side, and six angels in the other side. I notice that all the angels had short hair except for two of the angels that their hair was long....The center angel with the lamb had long hair..also the center angel with the baby Jesus also had long hair.....

When we got there we had to wait for our German brothers and sisters to finished their mass....even though I could not understand it was very beautiful because one of the priests officiating the mass had a guitar and he played it and they all sang in German... They were about 35 in their group.......Neat!

Mount Tabor is about 18,000 feet high....Of course it is a sacred Mountain...The church was built about 1921....It has two towers representing Moses and Elijah..Here in this Mountain Jesus was transfigured.......Mt Tabor is the highest mountain in Israel.

TO BE CONTINUE:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-31T18:45:00.000-07:00

Continued:
We continued our journey on Friday we went to Tiberias: The weather was horrendous.....It was cold and raining again....Like I said we were ready for the rain...Some of us were coughing, but I never heard anyone complain about it....We departed through the Judean Hills to the village and Church of Emmaus..Here we heard Mass........
Then to Joppa for a visit to St Pete's Church... I believe that I have a photo of Simon the Tanner's place in another of my Blogs. We did not go to Magiddo because it was too muddy according to Orami...We did not said anything since he is the expert of Israel...We did not need the mud.....

Our Hotel in Tiberius was the Ganei Moriah (formally The Mercury Tiberias)It is a 3 star hotel and it is located on the waterfront of the Sea of Galilee. We walk from the hotel to take the boat for our boat ride on the sea of Galilee.......The truth be told it was not as nice as our first hotel..There was plenty of food, but again not as good as our first hotel....

Tiberias: This city was founded by Herod Antipas...It was a holy Jewish City.

"I say unto thee, Arise and take up thy bed, and go thy way into thine house." Mark2:1-12

Qazrin/Tiberias here is the church of Peter.

Church of St Peter's Primacy of Tabgha. Site where Jesus fed 5000 people with 5 loaves and two fish. Present church constructed in 1934 over the "Mensa Christ rock.. Mosaic of Loves and Fishes at Tabgha..."Feed my lambs, feed my sheep." Dr Bob read from the Gospel of St John 21:9-17

"When they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, Simon son of John, do you love me more than these? He aid to him, Yes, Lord, you know I love you. "He said feed my lambs." He then said a second time, "Simon son of John, Do you love me?" He said to him, Yes Lord, you know that I love you. "He said to him, Tend my Sheep." He said to him for the third time, Simon, son of John, do you love me?" Peter was distressed that he had said to him a third time, "Do you love me?" and he said to him, "Lord, you know everything, you know that I love you."

[Jesus] said to him, "Feed my sheep.".......

The Church is called Church of the Primacy of St Peter Mensa Christi. Right in the center there is a big rock and underneath is the ruins of the Peter's mother-in-law's house.....Here Jesus cured Peter's mother in law......the quarters are big...From here we went to a restaurant called St. Peter's Fish Meal...Of course what did we have?....You guessed Telapia......Actually we shared a meal of fried Telapia, potato and a salad....The fish was excellent, but the salad was so,so and the tea was terrible because it was mint and I do not like mint tea...Ray did not like the coffee either.....
To be continued:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-29T18:34:00.000-07:00

CONTINUED:

Still raining as we continued on our journey and now we are on the Jordan River Baptismal site...This is from our Journal....."The river Jordan winds its way like a serpent form Mount Hermon to the Dead Sea 160 miles to the south. The river is holy to both the Old and New Testament...

"Then came Jesus from Galilee to Jordan unto John, to be baptized by him ....and he saw the Spirit of God descending like a dove and lighting upon him." Matthew 3:13,6

So we visited the area where Jesus was baptized....No one from our group ventured into the river because it was cold and raining, but we did see some men go into the friggid water..

Ray managed to get a couple of little bottles of water from the river....Several friends had asked me to bring them some water and I wanted to complayed with the request... I also gather a couple of rocks for my rock collection.....

to be continued:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-29T16:50:00.000-07:00

As we continued our travel today we are visiting the Church of the Miracle , the scene of Jesus' first miracle when he changed water into wine.........

"This beginning of miracles did Jesus in Cana of Galilee; and manifested forth his glory; and his disciples believed on him." John 2:11

Another rainy day during our trip, but it is all right.....We all know that this country needs the rain, so we did not mind....

We passed by some beautiful galleries, but did not stop for our mission was the church....

Nine couples wanted to renewed their vows of marriage....Father Mario (bless him) was ready for us..

I wanted to renew our vows for a long time because when I got married the ceremony was in Spanish, and I always felt that Ray was drunk and did not know what he was saying....:0)....Now I am happy....I did not have to ask him twice to do it....He wanted to do it.....After all he could have said NO..... :0(

It was beautiful ceremony....There was a photographer taking pictures of all of us to sell them to us later....After the ceremony and the pictures, we walked across from the church to a shop, for..... what else? but more shopping... They gave us wine to celebrate...We bought a set of the wedding wine of Cana.....It is very sweet and I liked it....Ray said that it tasted like grape juice.....He likes his wine dry.....

The dome in Cana's church means the union of a couple...........

The photos were taken by Tom Steffens....

to be continued:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-27T17:15:00.000-07:00

Jesus walks on the water: "It is I, be not afraid." Matthew 14:27

It was still raining, but we were set to go on our boat ride on the Sea of Galilee..

Some time before our boat ride, we have visited the museum to see an ancient boat that may or may not have been Jesus boat found in 1986.....First they showed us a film that told us the way they preserved the boat when they found it...The scientist had to be super careful, so that they did not destroyed the ship while they were digging it....It was fascinating the way they did it....They used some kind of foam to preserved it and to lift it up and bring it to the right place....I am glad that they have people that take good care of not messing up their findings......Every time they start to dig for a new building or construction they discovered an ancient bath of room or what ever.....But new Jerusalem is on top of the old Jerusalem...

I side track from our boat trip to the Sea of Galilee.....The crew were very nice.....There was a lady that kept everyone singing and dancing...The day before Orani had taught us a Jewish Folk song and we were able to sing along with the crew.

Here it is: Hava Nagillah, hava nagillah Hava Nagilla venis'mecha Repeat.....Hava neranena, hava nenarena Hava neranena venis'mecha

Uru,uru achim Uru achim belev same'ach

repeat

English........Let us rejoice & be glad.....Let us sing ......Awaken brethren...With a cheerful heart...

It was a lot of fun.....We also sang in other American songs......

When we started the boat trip they played the American Anthem and raise our flag...I thought that was a very nice welcoming gesture... In no time we were back disembarking the boat..

By that time the sky has cleared a little and we continued on our lovely trip to

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-21T17:14:00.000-07:00

CONTINUE:

This day was a beautiful day since when we got there it was raining and Monday it rained again....We were glad to that the sun came out, because we were going to walk a lot....

We visited The Church of St. Peter in Galicantus.. or Caiaphas house...Here we heard Mass giving by Father Mario.......Our responsorial song "with the Lord there is Mercy and Goodness of Redemption."............

There is a statue of Peter denying Jesus that is very pretty, also we saw the dungeons where Jesus was held before his trial.....Some of us Walked through those dungeons......Then when we went into the church there is a hole (covered by glass) almost in the middle of the church. It was explained to us that through that hole the prisoners were lowered with a rope to the dungeons....Quite scary if you asked me....

"And the Lord turned and looked upon Peter. And Peter remembered the word of the Lord, how he had said unto him. Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And Peter went out and wept bitterly." Luke 22:61-62

Because of the proximity to Caiaphas palace and the continuity of the sacred pit (dungeon), all suggest that the public jail were.... according to traditions, Jesus would have been scorched not only by Pilot , but also by Caiaphas.......

This is another place that if a person goes down into the dungeon it got to feel some kind of pull. I felt terribly sad, yet I could not cry....The only good thing is that the church is quite modern since it was built in 1931...over the traditional site of the high priest Caiaphas' home on the eastern slope of Mount Zion. This church was constructed by the Assumption Fathers..

From there we took a walking tour of Jewish quarter. We saw the Herodian Quarter, a vivid reminder of the Roman conquest and the destruction of the Second Temple.

David's tomb (he is not buried there) but there is a lot of symbolism. His crown and a beautiful rob with his crest.......

We walked to the upper room.......The traditional site of the LAST SUPPER......The present building is of the Crusader origin. There were a couple of altars from different sects.

"and when the day of Pentecost was fully come , they were all with one accord in one place." acts2:1

TO BE CONTINUED:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-19T17:43:00.000-07:00

CONTINUED:

One of the high lights of our trip were the Masses... We heard Mass every day..One time in the evening at the Notre Dame church....We heard mass in the Chapel of the Innocent Babies.....The responsorial Psalm was...."A light will shine this day,,,,,The Lord is born upon us".....I must give lots of credit to Father Mario, our Pastor.......He was super cool through our journey and he was seeing everything for the first time just like the rest of us....It must have been hard for him to say Mass in so many differest places... His Homily were and inspiration and many times I was moved by his words.....Father Mario did a fantastic job and I thank him for it.....Thank you, Padre Mario...I enjoyed all your homilies....

We had Mass on Tuesday 24, in chapel Chaiphas House..... We also had mass at the Church of St. John the Baptist....

One of the places we had mass I remember it was raining quite a bit.....The Church of Emmaus Nicopolis is run by very pretty French nuns.....They place two beautiful baskets of fresh poppies in front of the altar for our Mass........Our responsorial song that day was "Happy the poor in spirit the kingdom of heaven is theirs...".. In that place( like must of the places we visited) are ruins of ancient time.. The next church we had Mass was the Church of Mt. Beatitudes....Here the Sermon of the Mount took place..Then we had Mas at Mt. Tabor and the Church of the Transfiguration.......Our last day Mass was at Mt Carmel. This church is run by the Carmelite monks. Here it is said that Elijah fought against the priests of Ba'al..

Some of the places we had Mass were very small....At one Chapel we had some chair around and most of our group had to sit on the stairs that let to the main church,,,, that was being repaired at that time....Our group was excellent and we behave very well..We had rain must of every day, yet we continue doing what we came out to do and bless the rain because that part of the world needs lots of rain...Water is a comodity....and one that we all need......

To be continued:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL..

2009-03-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

CONTINUE:

I will continue with the trip to the Western Wailing Wall ...... It is where the Jewish people go to pray and leave their petitions in small papers in between the rocks......It is the holiest site of the Jewish people and a symbol of their unity....

We had to enter through separate entrance...Women in the right and the men in the left. Because of the entrance to the Muslim's Dome of the Rock is also in that area (although is covered by a canvas tunnel) the women's side of the wall is much smaller than the men....The first time some of us went I did not know that when one leaves the wall out of respect a person has to walk backwards....I did not do that.....I did it the second time..........

I was moved to tears both times I went there....

After we visited the Wall we went to the Rabbinical Tunnels..This amazing place where we saw this gigantic wall from one stone....We saw a short film on how they must have placed those stones to build the temple before it was destroyed....We had a young woman guide that was very good in her narrations.....There I left another petition.....The walk was long, but we had a Filipina lady seventy eight years old that walked the whole area, and when I asked her if she was tired she said "that she was, but she was not going to miss anything since she knew that she was never to come back"....I really admired that little lady.....

The next day we went to the Wailing Wall again because many in the group missed the night before....So I grab Inang(the Filipina lady) and help her to the wall......This time we left more petitions and Inang and I walked backwards..There was a bride reading her prayers for a long long time.... I guessed her husband was in the other side also praying......Some of the people bow their heads back and forward for a long time......

to be continued:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-18T18:59:00.000-07:00

CONTINUE:

As we continue our travels in Jerusalem we visited the Golden Dome or The Dome of the Rock....It is in the Western part of Jerusalem. It only opens once a day from 12:30 to 1:00 PM...This is Muslim territory so we have to go through metal detectors.....There are Arabs with their gun at the entrance.

Our guide took a few of us that have artificial knees or pacemakers to the guards,

so we could passed behind the metal detector....We were told not to hold hand with our spouses....Pleeeaaassee!.

We are allow in the court yard to look at the two buildings there. In one side is the Al-Aksa Mosque and in the other side is the Dome of the Rock.....We are not allowed to go in either one because we are infidels. Only Muslims can go in, so of course there is a vendor selling his post cards for a $1.00 so we can see the rock that is inside and the other pretty things there....We all bought the set of cards.....

Here it is said that the Lord God made the world and in this mountain the Lord asked Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Gn22 1-14 God put Abraham to the test.* He called to him, "Abraham!" "Ready!" he reply. Then God said: Take your son Isaac, your only one,* whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah. There you shall offer him up as a holocaust on a height that I will point out to you,"

When they came to the place of which God had told him, Abraham built an altar there and arranged the wood on it. Next he tied up his son Isaac, and put him on top of the wood on the altar. Then he reach out and took the knife to slaughter his son.

But the LORD'S messenger called to him from heaven. "Abraham, Abraham!" Yes Lord, he answered, "Do not lay your had on the boy," said the messenger. "Do not do the least thing to him. I know now how devoted you are to God, since you did not withhold from me your own beloved son." As Abraham looked about, he spied a ram caught by the horn in the thicket. So he went a took the ram and offered it up as a holocaust in place of his son..Abraham named the site Yahweh-yireh,* hence people now say , "on the mountain of Lord will see.....

Unfortunately this place is not Christian or Jewish like it should be...The Muslim claimed it for themselves...The story goes that "Mohammad came in his wing horse and stop in that precise spot and he declared it a holy place for the Muslims...The mosque looks toward Mecca......It is a very complicated situation.....

TO BE CONTINUED:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND,ISRAEL

2009-03-16T18:22:00.000-07:00

CONTINUED:

This morning we are visiting the Israel museum...There is a fantastic replica of Jerusalem in the time of Christ...The ancient City of Israel....

We also went to hear mass at the John the Baptist church. Unfortunately the church is being remodel. We were able to see the beautiful blue tiles and mosaics.. the mass was said at the chapel a very small place, but we did fine....Many had to sit at a set of stairs that take you down to the little chapel...this is the place were it is said that John the Baptist was born. The scriptures were pertaining to John the Baptist and the scriptures to Mary's visit to Elizabeth.....The homily was about Mary and Elizabeth both being pregnant and our new convert to the Catholic church Aaron Bunyai who was filled with the Holy Spirit when he received communion for the first time....

This was very emotional for all of us...He was so excited and moved.....

He was happy that he received his first communion in that church because he related to John the Baptist a lot...He liked to walk in the desert, he like to eat some of the food that the Saint like. He said other similarities that I do not remember...

From there we went to Jericho...

TO BE CONTINUE:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-15T16:37:00.000-07:00

CONTINUE;

Old Jericho and the mount of Temptation......Jericho called "The City of the Moon" We arrived at Jericho at 1:00pm and went to have lunch...We shared a big telapia fish and a salad...We did a lot of shopping and some in the group rode a camel.......I did not ride the camel because I remember when we were in Morocco those animals were very nasty....This time they behave quite well....

When we entered Jericho we passed a big sycamore tree similar to the tree that Zacchaeus the tax collector climbed to see Jesus....Luke 19:5,6 "Zacchaeus come down quickly, for today I must stay at your home."And he came down quickly and received him with joy.

After our camel rides we took the cable cars to the Mountain of Temptation. There the cable car left us, and we had to climb so many stairs to the Church of Temptation that left many of us with our tongs hanging out.....the place is run by the Franciscans monks and it is very beautiful.....From up there one can see the old Jericho....

In this place we encountered the same problem that we had in Bethlehem...Our regular guide and chauffeur could not go in...We had to change to an old bus, and a new guide( not a very good one) and passed by the guards and go into Palestinian some are Christians .....Again this place was not kept very nice .....I did not feel good in this place the way I felt in Jerusalem.....

It is believe that is is the oldest city in the world to date........

to be continue:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND,,ISRAEL

2009-03-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

We travel to the desert to visit the Dead Sea and Masada....First the Dead Sea which is a tank of mud.......I am scare of the sea and this was no exception, but I was determine to go in.....So I brought my bathing suit and since I forgot my pool rubber shoes I grave a pair of hospital socks....

The Jewish guide Orami told us to keep our mouth close and to make sure that we did not drink of that water....The water is rich in all kinds of minerals....There are lots of beauty products sold at the store made from that place......Unfortunately the Dead Sea is disappearing.. We were shown places were we could see sink-holes and were the sea is no longer there...Israel is trying to do something to see how they can save it.....

I was lucky that one of our companion "Wilda" help me to go a little deeper....I tried to float to no availed because when one is scare to death the way I am there is no real help....I was able to stay a little and washed myself with the mud and so did a lot of others in our group. The mud is very slippery and there are lots of pebbles in it..After a little while I got out and went and showered and shampooed my hair.....Uff was I glad that was over, but I must say that I did enjoyed the experience......

After that we went to Masada.....If you were lucky to have seen the mini series on TV it is a replica of what happened in Masada, but hollywood style.

As the story goes the Jewish Zealots were determine to stay in Masada or die there.. The Romans had eleven camps determine to crush the Zealots.....They were winning but the Romans build a huge ramp that was going to destroy the fortress door. There was only a small group that were still alive....They drew a lot to kill their families and then one of them was to kill all the men left and then himself.....The history of Masada is of bravery and perseverance...They rather be dead than became slaves to the Roman....."Masada shall not fall again" is the motto of the Jews....

We are brought in a cable car up that Mountain and then we walked around. There is a replica of the City and how it worked..How they collected the water in giant cisterns....It was a very well organize city......In this mountains the dead sea scroll were discovered.....

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-10T16:43:00.000-07:00

ISRAEL CONTINUE:

Our trip continue with our visit to Mount Olive.....This area is very steep and several of our companions had trouble going down......We had a lady (God Bless her) that refused to stay behind. She said that she was not going to miss any thing.....I called her Inang (mother in Tagalog).....We had to walk down to a church were it is said that this was the place were Jesus wept for Jerusalem.....The Chapel is called "Dominus Flevit" It is a very sad place. The chapel is shaped like an upside down teardrop to recall the tears that Jesus shed for Jerusalem... From there we entered the "Horus Gethsemane"which means "olive oil press"

"and he said, Abba, father, all things are possible unto thee; take away this cup from me: nevertheless not what I will, but what thou wilt" Mark 14:36

We saw an olive orchard, but these trees are not ancient...To look at them one might think they are because they look so old......The place is encircle by a fence to protect the trees from people taking branches of the olive trees. One tree was planted by Pope Paul ll. Right next to this place is the church of The agony. We visited this church which is beautiful, but only stayed for about ten minutes......We visited so many churches some left an impression on me in others we had mass....We had mass every day and Father Mario did a marvelous job.....His Homilies were so touching......In many places he was very touched...This was his first time in Jerusalem.....His sister and two other friends from childhood came in this trip...

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-09T14:07:00.000-07:00

After Bethlehem we came back to our regular driver and guide.........Then they drove us to The Chapel of the Ascension located on the summit of Mount of Olives....Here Jesus ascended into heaven........The image above is of a stone found in the place when the church was build that it is said is to be the foot of Jesus.......

"and when he had spoken these things, while they beheld, he was taken up; and a cloud received him out of their sight." Acts 1:9

The chapel is round an it was open in ancient time. When the Muslim took over they build a dome to enclose the place because is looking to the south to Mecca....Next to it there is a tower that it is use for Muslim prayers.....

We saw from the top the Church of Mary Magdalene which is beautiful with is a Russian church constructed by the Czar Alexander lll in 1888 and named after St. Mary Magdalene. It shows that is Russian because it has I think four golden cupolas.....Typical Russian architecture.....We did not go in because lack of time......

TO BE CONTINUED:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND, ISRAEL

2009-03-09T12:55:00.000-07:00

CONTINUED:

The guide told us a funny story about the Notre Dame Monastery......He explained that previously to the 6 day war the city was divided in two sides...The West side was the Jews and the middle they called "no man's land and in the other side were the Jordanians....There was a tremendous tension between both sides.....Shooting could start at any giving time....

There was a nun from the Monastery of the Notre Dame church that was gardening on the top floor.....Lord the poor nun drop her false teeth on the "no man's land" This was a catastrophe for the nun because no one could go to that area........There were soldiers ready to shoot at each other....The bishop from the church had to call a truce with both parties so that he could retrieve the poor nun's teeth.......I did not asked how long it took for the nun to get her teeth back......She must have been eating soup for a while because things do not get done right away......

Today thing are different since the Jews took back the land from the Jordanians after the Six days War..........

Monday, February 23, We were driven to Bethlehem to visit the Church of the Nativity......This is the oldest church in the Holy Land and still in use....

When we got there we had to leave our nice modern bus and go to another bus driving by a Palestinian and our guides name was Auel.....This part of our Journey was a little intimidating because once we were in the bus two Palestinian soldiers entered the bus with their guns and kind of checked us out....then they let us go in... First the guide took us shopping to a Christian Palestinian store.....These people live of the tourist dollars.....They are imprison in that area.....From this place came a lot of Palestinians suicide bombers and the Jewish had no other choice but to put a wall around Bethlehem and since then there have been no more bombings......The Church of the Nativity was destroyed, but build once more......A mosaic floor was discovered when they were doing some excavation..You can see part of the mosaic that is still in place...

It was a pity that we had to go so fast through the church and it was difficult for me to try to touch the star....I did it anyway and shed some tears of joy to see the place that is suppose to be the birth place of Christ...

Bethlehem means "the land of mead/bread......

TO BE CONTINUED:

OUR TRIP TO THE HOLY LAND ISRAEL....

2009-03-09T12:03:00.000-07:00

We arrived at Tel Aviv Ben Gurion at 9:15 AM on February 22, 2009....We left Newark, NJ via Norfolk on February 21, 2009....I did not sleep one bit.....When we arrived the tour buss was waiting for us..Our driver' name was David a very friendly man and our tour guides name was Orami......A young man that is getting married in May.....They were our driver and guide for the nine days we spent there...Our group consisted of 39 people.......By the time the tour was finished we all have become quite friendly with one another......

Our first day we rode around Jerusalem. We stopped at a hotel called Ramat for lunch....We paid $19. 25 for my husband and I...with that we figured that our lunches were going to be around $20.00 every day..

The hotel we stayed in Jerusalem for the first part of the week was called Moriah Classic...The hotel is located in the heart of the City.. The hotel had breakfast and dinner (we paid for it in our package)was buffet style and they serve an assortment of food...The salad bar had so many items, that we could make a meal of it....

At 6:00 Pm we visited Notre Dame of Jerusalem....This place have the church and also a restaurant, a guest house and a monastery....It was build about 125 years ago.....We heard mass there and the Celebrant was a young priest..Dr Bob said to me that lots of priests look younger than what they are.....That seem true for the nuns also...We saw a lot of young beautiful nuns....

Anyway even though the day was cold and rainy, we spend a very nice day......We went to bed early since we were all very tired and we had to be on our way the next day at 8:00AM.....

TO BE CONTINUE.....

My Mom

2009-02-20T12:10:00.000-08:00

CONTINUE:

Another incident that I remember was when my real father's mother came to see me..She brought a package that contain a pair of oxford brown shoes ...They fitted me perfectly......After my grandmother left, my Mom said to me "I bet he send a big package and the only thing that did not fit your cousin were the shoes and that is the reason she brought it to you."...

That was the one and only time that I saw my paternal grandmother.

Another time I remember my aunt Luisa coming to Mom because she was frighten that her husband had threatening to kill her....My mother gave her a cup of tea to calm her and told her not to be afraid that she was going to take care of it.......The man came looking for my aunt and Mom told him that she was not there.....He got angry at Mom and told her that he was going to do something terrible if she did not come out......

My Aunt Luisa came out, and he pulled out a gun, then my Mom jump up and seize the gun and took it from him......She slap him so hard that his head turned.... She tried to calm him down. They all started to talked and they talked for a long time....... when they left every thing seems to be all right..

My Mom kept the gun and I never found out what she did with it.....

There were no more trouble with my aunt Luisa and her husband..... She died from Cancer when she was in her late forties......My Mom and her were like twins only they had different mothers, both born almost at the same time.......My grandfather was and old SOG, but that is another story.......

Many years later she told me that one time my step-father tried to hit her. She was ironing at the time and she grab the iron and burned him with it...She then told him that never to rise his hands to her again, because she was not his daughter, it was not manly, and she was not going to take it.....He told her that he was not going to hit her that it was just a gesture... That she had branded him for life.....She said that he never did that again...........

That is one thing about Mother, she was never scare of anything... Mom was so strong and very brave......We have a family joke among my cousins that we tell each other "do not mess off with the Ortize's women because we do not take any crap from anyone."....

To be continue:

MY MOM

2009-02-19T13:21:00.000-08:00

CONTINUE:

Another incident I remember of the things that happened to my Mom was that after a few years my Mom started to date again.....

She had met a man that was very nice to her. After several months they decided to get married...My brother and I were not very happy, we always thought that she and our father were going to make up....Unfortunately he had moved on and I guess my Mom wanted to do the same....

So they got married in the Pentecostal Church, something that was unusual because we were Catholics.....

I can hardly remember this man, but I do remember him and my mother having a big fight one day and he tried to kill her.....This happened in the yard and our neighbors came to Moms help.

The police was called and took the man away. A few months later I had to testify against the man...

I told the Court that he had tried to kill my Mom with a knife. They showed me a knife that I recognized it from our kitchen.....That was a terrible time......The Man got a couple of years in jail and we never so him again.......

My Mom divorced this man and the same day she swore that she was never going to marry again....With all the hardship she have had she never again married....When I was older I really wished that she would find a man to love her.

to be continued::::

I AM NOT A MOVIE CRITIC,BUT I LOVE THE MOVIES

2009-02-19T12:56:00.000-08:00

I took my grandson age 7 1/2 years old to see Coroline....This one is an animated 3D cartoon. The voice of Coroline is Dakota Fanning...A wonderful if not brilliant child actor.........

The movie is creepy and scary for young children, but I know my grandson and I knew that he was going to do OK....

This little girl moves to a creepy house....There are three other tenants living in that house. In the upstairs apartment lives an acrobat artist.....In the basement apartment lives two eccentric sisters that used to be in the movies....

Coroline discovers a door in one of the rooms and ask her mother for the key...The mother opens the door and there is a brick wall......At night Coroline takes the key and opens the door and discovers a parallel reality of her life. Where there is a mother and a father just like hers, but much better.......Teri Hatchet does the voice of the mother......Soon Coroline finds out that all that she sees in this eerily similar place is evil..........When the movie finished I asked my grandson if he like it.... He told me that he liked it and he gave it five stars....Wow!

This movie reminded me of Tim Burton's movies. I enjoyed it as much as my grandson; therefore I will give 4 chocolate kisses. Too scary for the very young.................

My Mom

2009-02-14T14:30:00.000-08:00

I remember one time when my Mom was not getting the miserly $8.50 from my father, so that she send me to get them...She gave me the two nickels for the bus. One nickel to go and one to come back. I went there and when I asked the woman where my father was she started to yell at me...She said that I was not his daughter; therefore I had no business going to their house to look for my father....

I was in the street and I had called for my father..I was not in the house and had no intention on going in....She was the meanest women I have ever met. When she told me that I was not my fathers daughter that hurts me so much that I turned around and instead of taking the bus I walked all the way home....I was crying and telling the woman off.....Of course she could not hear me. I must have walked about 15 miles...I will have to ask my sister to make sure, but their house was quite far from ours.....

The woman lied to my father. That night my father came looking for me because according to the woman I had insulted and disrespected her......My Mom told him that the woman was lying because I did not do any of the things that she said..She told him that he knew how shy I was and that I would never do such a thing.....He believed my Mom because I was very shy at that time and I would never had open my mouth to say anything to her...

Too bad I never saw that woman again years later, because by then thing would have been different.

The fact was that my brother had to tell my father not to come around our house with his problems, meant that he was miserable with her.....He used to come around and blamed my Mom for throwing him out of the house....He had no intention of marrying that woman, but when Mom throw him out.........he had no choice but to go to her and that is when things got a little bad for him...He died at the age of 53 from a heart attached brought on by a big fight that he had with one of his son from that marriage............Go figure.....

MY MOM

2009-02-04T16:31:00.000-08:00

CONTINUE:

In 1952 my aunt Carmela came to visit us from New York...She brought her young daughter to meet us. My cousin Aurora was seven years old.....She was the only child of my aunt.....She was very pretty...My aunt was married to a Filipino and that was the first time that she had come to see her sisters in Puerto Rico.....She was thirteen when she left the Island to live with one of her brothers in New York........

My aunt Maruka, had told us that our aunt Carmela, was rich in New York....My Mother hardly knew her, so she was glad to see her....Before she came, she found out we did not own a refrigerator, so she send us one from New York. It was second hand, and I bet she paid more to send it than what she paid for it, but we welcome it because now we could at least have cold water in it.....

The first thing she wanted to do was take Mom and all of us to New York....She saw the situation and she did not like it....Our furniture in the living room consisted of apple creates that my Mom had covered with fabric that she bought at the 5 and 10 cent store ...She put a cushion under it and no one could suspect that our little benches were apple crates.....I do not know where she got the apple crates....but she gave it a good use.....Anyway my Mom told her "no she was not uprooting us to a new place where she did not know the language, but she could do her a big favor if she took me her oldest to NY, and gave me an education."

At first I got all exited about going to New York, but I was fourteen and I was beginning to like boys....

I use to go to the movies on Saturday mornings....The movies was 10 cents...My Mom had a bracelet that was made of dimes, but they were like a little vessel...If I was a good girl my Mom use to take a dime from her bracelet and give it to me for the movie...I had to straighten it first with a hammer.......Or sometimes I would collect the bottles around the neighborhood and change it for a few pennies....The bottles sometimes could be exchange for mangoes or oranges from the fruit vendor.....Also it was a nice way to collect money for the movies or save it for a mothers day present....We always save money for presents.....Both my brother and I had an empty tomato can attached to the wall and every time we got any money we would save it in our can....The can was our piggy bank.....By the time Mother's Day came along we would have $2.00 or $3.00 dollars..Our Mom would tell us what she wanted, and if we did not have enough money, then she would complete the rest of the money that we needed....

That taught us to be generous and also how to save money....

Saturday matinee was a lot of fun...I went with a few girl friends....Usually at the movies we would meet a few guys..We used to flirt with them, but it did not go any further....My Mom was very strict with me. If she found out that I was with a boy she would take her belt and give me a few whacks.....Or she would punish me for a few weeks without going to the movies...That was very hard for me..I rather have her whack me than take away my Saturdays matinee.......

Once my mother told my aunt that she could take me.....She started to teach me how to cook....She taught me how to make rice and beans.....How to make the chicken stew......I was being prepared to go to New York and help my aunt with whatever......That was going to be the payment for aunt having me in her home.....

TO BE CONTINUE:

My Mother

2009-02-04T14:30:00.000-08:00

CONTINUE:

My uncle, Jesus, move in with his bride, Ester, into our living room....That meant that we have to have the living room closed to all traffic...If we wanted to go outside we had to go through the kitchen door and also come in through the same door...I was thirteen, my sister was three, and my brother was ten....I was upset that we had moved to the front house only to have us barred from our living room.....No one was happy.....We practically had to do lots of things outside...Our home-work we did it on the steps of the stairs, we ate on the stairs......

My Mom gave my uncle Jesus six month to get his life in order and move out...Our life did not improve much anyway.....His bride, Ester, kept to herself must of the time..I do not remember them eating with us....ever........anyway we did not have a table to sit to have a meal...We sat anywhere we could find a sit...we sat on the bed must of the time......or on the stair way....Since the house where on stills they all had a long stairway...

We were still cutting handkerchiefs and Mom was still washing cloths for the GI's....

My uncle Jesus finally moved out of our living room....He took his bride to a slum in Santurce near the Martin Peña Canal...He had a pal living there and told him about a house... It was a dump, but we were happy that he had moved out.....

My uncle was a City Bus driver and eventually he bought a house in the Urbanizasion de los choferes(urbanization for chauffeurs). By then they had three children and very seldom he brought them to visit us....They have become Pentecostals and we were not;

therefore, he did not think we were a good influence on them...Too bad because we hardly knew them....

to be continue.

My Mom

2009-01-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

Continue:
Well we continue to survived...My brother and I use to bring the cleaned iron cloths to the people my Mom did their cloth for.....She did the uniforms for several soldiers and they pay her well.........
One day a man came to the house and started to remove the wood that was under the house....When my Mom stop him and asked what he was doing...He told him that my father had sold the wood to him therefore they were his and he was taking them....
My Mom went inside the house and started to cry, when my brother saw her crying he went after the man and through stones at him....My Mom never said a bad word about our father, but my brother grew disliking him because of what he was doing to her....
By this time he was living with the woman and rarely visit us...

Another time my mother took Eve, the younger sister of a neighbor, in with us.... One night Eve had some problem with her sister and her sister through her out of the house.........She must have been about 17 years old...My Mom and her generous heart could not leave her out in the street....So in with us she came.........
I use to sleep in a roll away bed in the living room....That night I woke in the middle of the night and found a body laying next to me.......I must have been about thirteen years old then and I thought that there was a ghost in the bed with me.....Oh my God! I started to kick the body, but it would not move...I was desperate, but I did not want to cry out and wake my little sister... So I kept on kicking, I was exhausted, but nothing happened...I finally fell sleep from exhaustion...Next morning I woke up and the body was not there.....I did not mention anything to my Mom for fear that she might laugh at me or that maybe I had imagine it.....
I went to school and when I came back Eve was there......She said to me, Lita, boy you have a terrible sleep....You kept on kicking me all night long.....My whole body hurts from your moving and kicking me....OH oh.... I just looked at her and asked her....."Are you staying with us tonight?"
My Mom said yes and that she will be sleeping with me until things got straighten out with her family. I promise not to kick her, but I did not tell that I thought she was the body of a ghost that was sleeping next to me the night before, and that was the reason I kept on kicking her.....
Eve stayed with us for about a year or more. She left when she got married to one of the soldiers that my Mom washed the uniforms for.
That same year one of the houses in front of the street became vacant and Mom moved us in ..... The rooms were bigger and it had a balcony.. We could have friends in our balcony.....We were moving up.......Well that arrangement did not last long......My mothers brother moved in with us, and brought his new bride with him......Bummer!
TO BE CONTINUED:

I am not a movie Critic, but I love the movies

2009-01-19T14:09:00.000-08:00

I went to the movies today to see "Last Chance Harvey" with Dustin Hoffman and Emma Thompson...

This is about a man going to London for his daughter's wedding.....He is a looser who just may have lost his job.....His daughter have asked her step Dad to give her away in her wedding.....
when he gets off the plain there is this woman who wants to asked him some questions ( I never figured out what worked she did). He is rude and does no want to answer any question.....
Miss Thompson who is a delight (like always) is a lonely woman. Her mother, who tells her she needs a man, is very needy of her and keeps calling her every chance she gets.....Sooner or later this two are going to meet...They meet at the airport restaurant and start a conversation......the rest is the movie.....

This movie is mature and touching...There is a scene that reminded me of "An Affair to Remember," with Gary Grant and Deborah Kerr........I enjoyed it and I recommend this movie and I am going to give it my three chocolate kisses.....
See you next time at the movies......

My Mom

2009-01-19T13:02:00.000-08:00

Continue:
My mom had a baby girl that night.....We could hear all the commotions, I heard the midwife said to my Mom..."Why are you wearing a Bra....for goodness sake that is stopping you from pushing....and it might kill you or the baby....
I could not see anything so I was very scared for my Mother....Finally we heard a baby cry....And Soon after the midwife left my mother......all seems quiet after that, so I guess I must have falling to sleep...

Very early the next morning I heard my Mom in the kitchen and a few minutes later she call the three of us to come and see the baby....I looked at the baby and I told my Mom that she was ugly......I was only jealous because it was a girl. After we have seen the baby my Mom took all of my fathers cloths and through them out in the patio.....She then told my father to get the H... out of her house...I started to cry and my brother started to cry and she told us to keep quiet so not to wake up the baby and then she went back to bed........We rarely saw him those first few years....I remember that when my sister became three years old, he came with a birthday cake for her......

My sister was born in December 18Th and my birthday (my tenth) was in January first......My Mom always said that she did not wanted to have a baby the 24Th which was when my sister was supposed to be born......And of course she didn't.......I do not remember much of our Christmas that year......I do remember getting a Shirley Temple doll and a little wooden crib that my father had made for my doll..... I also remember my Mom telling me that, that was going to be my last Christmas because things were not going to be the same from now on, so to take good care of my last toys........

Unfortunately, that was the beginning of our troubles.....My Mom had three kids to feed and she did not have a job or a career. The times were not that great either....This was in 1948...Just after WW ll and the Island was beginning to find its place in the Caribbean.....But things were not so great......

My Mom decided that all was going to be OK.....She was sure that some how she was going to manage it.....She went around the neighborhood and got some people to give her their cloths for her to wash, and iron..My aunt Maruca who was in NY stared to send her $10.00 a month for the house payment....
On Saturdays she established an illegal bingo game in our house....I do not know how much she made of that.....Those games were quite big at times.....She never got caught doing that because she had a friend who was a policeman and looked the other way.....Also our neighborhood was always looking for each other......Our neighborhood consisted of five houses that made a square....Each house consisted of two families....We were like a large family.....My Mom had name the square "El Condadito." (El Condado is a place near San Juan where the rich people lived...Now days there are a lots of luxurious hotels and Condos in that area.).....
She also brought big bundles of handkerchiefs from a factory near by.....This handkerchiefs were already made and all we had to do was cut them one by one from the sheet of material....There were a dozen per sheet...We all used to cut them....Then she would returned them back to the factory...She was paid a penny per handkerchief....Not much, but she managed.....

My father was not paying any child alimony so she took him to court.......The court made him pay $8.50 for his two children. I was not included because I was not legally his daughter.......

It was funny because she was so proud that she was not receiving "el mantengo" which was the government equivalent to food stamps.....She used to tell us ....." we are blessed because we ate meat every day and we had a roof over our heads...The meat we ate every day were corn beef that came in a can, Vienna sausages, and Spam Ham...She made them in all kinds of different ways....and then served it with white rice and beans......We also had eggs from time to time.....

The year before, when things started to get bad with them, my Mom send me to her home town of Corozal with my uncle for a little while.... One of her aunts gave me two chicks to bring back to the City......This happened before my father left.....So father made me a chicken coup next to the house and there I had my two chicks and with that I started to raise some chickens ... We use to eat the chickens on Sundays.....I had to keep it very clean so that no one would complained about the smell. Any way it was not that big.....
TO BE CONTINUE
.

My Mom

2009-01-17T13:48:00.000-08:00

CONTINUE:
My mom discovered that my Dad was having an affair where he was working.... She was furious...They had a big fight... The first of many that they had through out her pregnancy......I was almost ten years old and I used to cowered outside the house or in any place that I could find.....I did not like that they were fighting so much..... I remember one day that he dared tell my Mom that the child she was carrying was not his.......She swore and told him that that was it....He always wanted a daughter and she said to him "this child is yours and it is a girl and it is going to be your image to remind you of those words that you just said to me.......

One morning in December she got up and decided that it was time that she confronted the other woman....She left when we were at school..... When she was near the house my father saw her wobbling toward the place. He ran and told the other woman not to come out no matter what she heard....Then he went to meet my Mom...I do not know what happened there, but for what she said later he convinced her go back to our house, because the woman was not there...

The whole situation made her so distraught that while she was on the bus coming back.....she started to have contractions....When she got out on the stop, she had to hold on to a drum (for garbage) that was near the stop. When the conductor saw that she almost double over he got out of the bus and asked her if she needed help...She told him no, that she was all right...That what ever it was,,,, it had passed...He then left, and she walked about five blocks to our house... When she got home we were back from school.
She called my brother to go get the midwife, because she was going to have the baby that night....... My dear mother then cooked our dinner and prepared us for bed...Then got ready to have the baby.......
TO BE CONTINUE:

I am not a movie Critic, but I love the movies

2009-01-17T12:39:00.000-08:00

I went to the movies yesterday, Friday 16, after I have taken a test for the Census Bureau....My movie was the Gran Torino by Clint Eastwood...He directed it and stars in the movie.......He said that this is going to be his last staring role...If we can believe that.....

The movie is typical Eastwood....He is Walt Kowalski...... An old Korean War Veteran retired from the Ford Plant.......A super American patriot......The old bigoted bitter man who hates himself and every body else......

The movie starts at his wife funeral....He sees his grand children being disrespectful and specially his grand daughter dressed in today's fashion with a ring on her belly bottom and the midriff showing.........He fumes and growl at them....The priest is a 27 year old man that has promised Walt's wife to look after his spiritual being......Not that that is going to be any good since he tells the priest that "that he is too young to know anything"

The movie is very funny in some parts......He is not happy that a Vietnamese family have moved next to him. But he gets involved when a Vietnamese gang start a fight with the boy next door right on his yard and he grabs his riffle and tells them to get the H.... out of there......The family and neighbors of the boy are so grateful that they shower him with gifts.......He just growl at them.....

Two new comers that are quite good in the picture are Bee Vang, who plays the boy next door and Ahney Her, who plays his smart aleck sister......We are going to see more of these two in the future........

The movie is quite believable and Eastwood is at his best......I will give this picture my full four chocolate kisses.......Eastwood is going to win an Oscar for this one....If this is his last picture,,,, he is going out in grand style.......He is great!

My Mom

2009-01-15T18:04:00.000-08:00

Continue:

After a few months she introduce me to Antonio.......He was very sweet to me and since I did not know my father......He became my father....He got her an apartment and they move in.....I do not recall much of my early youth, but soon there was an addition to the family and my brother Cesar was born.......To me everything was idyllic...but good things do not last long.....

We lived in a poor neighborhood.....The apartment was a wooden house with two apartments....You could hear everything that was happening in either side.....My father had promised my mother that he was going to construct a house for her....
He started to buy wood and place them under the house.....These houses were made on top of concrete posts, so there was lots of room underneath it...The house did not have indoor pluming, so we had to go to a community water and also there were two outhouses.....This was in the 40's and the area where we lived was considered part of San Juan, but not the old San Juan that is the Capital of the Island.....
My mother use to said that we were poor, but we did not live in the arrabales or slums......She was right...I saw the slums and that was much worse than were we lived; never the less I was ashamed of the outhouse.....The good thing was that there were children in the same neighborhood that were worse than us....

I was nine years old and my brother seven when I found out that my mother was going to have a baby...Oh I was very jealous of this creature that was going to take the love of my Mom away from me....So I prayed that it would be a boy....
TO BE CONTINUED.........

My Mom

2009-01-12T13:59:00.000-08:00

To continue
My mom had a miscarriage and lost a set of twin.....But once my father returned from the sea everything seemed to be all right..His mother did not dare mistreat her in front of my father....
She was seventeen then and full of joy and energy.....This went on for a year or two...She got pregnant again, and again he went out to sea.....This time she had me..I was a sickly child and things started to go from bad to worse......She was sick and I was sick and the mother in-law from hell was worse than ever. Her mother in law thought that my mother had tuberculosis because she was so thin and because she had a terrible cough....The reason was that my Mom did not have enough food for her or me......

One of my mother's sister came to see her and discovered how terrible the situation was...So she took charge and decided that she had to go with her.....My mom was happy to go with her sister.... My aunt took her to the doctor and found out that she was malnourished and that she did not have TB, but I was another story because the doctor told my mother that I was going to die and to take me home.....
My aunt reassured my Mom that I was not going to die and proceeded to take care of both of us...

My Mom was a big woman for a Puertorrican....She was five feet six inches tall....With big bones....She was not a beauty, but she was handsome woman......And she had lots of sex appeal....Her name was Marta...She use to tell me that if I had a daughter never to name her Marta, because the Martas where born with bad luck...In reference of the Marta in the bible....

Once my aunt made her well again....She did not see my father again...
She went back to work to support her baby...
Two years later she met her a man that was doing some carpentry work in the house where she was working.....This man was very good to my mother and lavished her with gifts.
TO BE CONTINUE

My Mom

2009-01-10T16:48:00.000-08:00

For a long time I wanted to blog my Mom's life.......It is not a pretty one for the most part....She was born on a farm in the mountain town of Corozal, Puerto Rico...She was the fifteen child of sixteen children....Actually my grandmother had eighteen pregnancy, but only sixteen survived.
My mother was a sickly child having lots of problems with her ears.....She think it came from a blow that someone in the family perpetrated.....
Unfortunately when she was nine years old her mother died , and one of her older sister brought her to San Juan to live with her and her family......At that time my mother was in the third grade and that was the end of her schooling...
She always told me that what she did in San Juan was to be a servant to her older sister...She did everything in the house and also took care of her sister younger children......
She stayed in San Juan going from one sister to the other until she was sixteen years old...
Then she went to work for a rich family as a maid....not much of a prospect, but at least she was getting paid....
One day while walking around San Juan she met a handsome young man and they became friend.

Soon the friendship turned into love and she moved in with him.....Soon after she became pregnant......He was a Merchant Marine and soon he was sent to the sea.... He took her to his mother house......There she suffered terrible humiliation in the hands of her mother in-law....but she was too ashamed to go to her sisters; therefore, her only choice was to stay and wait for her husband to come from the sea......
TO BE CONTINUE

I am not a movie Critic, but I love the movies

2009-01-10T16:28:00.000-08:00

Yesterday, Friday, My daughter and I went to see "Bride Wars" with Kate Hudson and Anne Hathaway....Kate Hudson is the producer of the movie.......this is a story about two good friends that since they were little wanted to have their wedding at the Plaza Hotel in New York City...

When both ladies get engage at the same time they go to Candice Bergen (she is the wedding planner) to plan their wedding.....but low and behold by some terrible mistake both weddings are booked for the same day.

Oh my God......neither wants to give up their day.....The gloves comes off and best friends are no longer speaking...If you have seen the TV program Bridezilla then you know how this brides behave....

For me I must say that a few things that happened in the movie are far fetch....but what do I know......I was married 45 years ago and I have no idea if the modern bride behave that way.....I did have a few laughs and for the must part I enjoyed the movie....So I give this one two and one half chocolate kisses...

I am not a movie Critic, but I love the movies....

2009-01-06T18:34:00.000-08:00

This week I went to see Marley and Me.....Actually I saw it twice because my grandson wanted to see it...so I oblige and took him...I was hopping that the second time around would not make me cry like the first time....guess what.......I cried like a baby the second time around also.
I did not read the book....Actually I got it from the library and started to read it and had to send it back because the time was up and there was a long waiting list...After that I forgot all about it and did not get it again....So I knew how the book started and that was it.....

I used to own a Marley that was a terrible dog....but there is something about an animal that just grab your heart and do not let it go....good or bad you just love them.....

Marley and Me with Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson is a good movie specially for anyone thinking of getting a dog and raising a family......It teaches that it is a difficult task...Here is this couple that gets a dog and the dog turns out to be a very, very bad dog.....It seems to be OK until the lady decides to have a baby...The dog loves the baby, but soon there is another child......and this is too much for the lady...Imagine two small children and a huge dog to take care off......Well that is what happens in this movie....
My grandson was very happy when the dog was in a scene because it was funny and fun, but he got bored when the grown ups were talking too much and doing what grown ups do....
He gave it a three chocolate kisses and I will follow suit and give it three chocolate kisses also....

JETT TRAVOLTA

2009-01-06T18:12:00.000-08:00

The tragedy that has happened to John Travolta and his wife Kelly Preston is so horrific that I was impelled to blog about it...As a mother and a grandmother I cannot imagine out living my children.....No mother or father wants that to happen....The pain these couple, and also the little sister are facing must be over-whelming...
Seeing all the beautiful pictures of the family on TV brings tear to my eyes...
Travolta, has endure lots of tragedies in his life, but he is strong person and with time his pain will ease, even though he will never be the same.....
I have followed his career since he was on TV....He always seemed so friendly and a loving person....I pray that God will give them lots of strength to face this mayor difficulty...God Bless them.....Jett Travolta may you rest in peace.

Valkyrie, Slamdog Millionaire, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button

2008-12-27T13:55:00.000-08:00

I went to see three movies that are fighting for the first place these Holiday weekend.....I have yet to see the fourth one Marley and Me.......We will see who will make the most money as per Hollywood standards......The first movie I saw was the Slumdog Millionaire...the stars are unknown in Hollywood, but maybe not for long.....

The movie is about two brothers that grow up in the worse slums of India. The story line is very simple....

One brother turns to crime while the other one is very good.....There is a love interest that brakes the brothers apart....When they where small they took in a little girl and they call each other the three musketeers...When they grow up the older brother takes the girl away from the younger one brother...Jamil the good brother enters the Millionaire contest similar to the US Who wants to be a millionaire in the hopes of finding the girl...I found this movie quite compelling and I enjoy it...I love the characters. The kid that becomes a millionaire is believable and I give this movie my three and a half chocolate kisses.....

The second movie on my list was Benjamin Button......This is suppose to be based on a short story by F.Scott Fitzgerald......The truth is that they only used the basic story line for the movie......The story is about a baby born very old that the father abandons him at an old peoples home....The baby grows in reverse.......He becomes young and beautiful as everyone else grows old.....Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett are the main characters....Blanchett with her flawless skin is beautiful, but so is Brad.....the movie takes place in New Orleans...I liked it, but I found it too long almost three hours...Boy I do not like movies that long........The problem is that then I start to find lots of faults and for that reason I give this movie......two and a half chocolate kisses....

The last movie I saw today is Valkyrie with Tom Cruise and a strong British cast all speaking with a British accent instead of German........the plot .....A bunch of German Officers plot to assassin Hitler....Tom Cruise being the main leader on the assassination plot.....I thought Cruise did an excellent job, but the critics hate it it....I do not know about that, since I just enjoy the movies and do not look for all the little details that the critics looks for...Who cares? The movie is not a feel good movie because of the subject matter..........I will give this movie two and one half chocolate kisses ......

My next movie will be Marley and Me.....for a feel good movie....I hope, but we all know how the book ends......So until my next movie I will be at my computer reading hundreds of emails.....

I am not a movie Critic, but I love the movies: Australia

2008-12-05T17:45:00.001-08:00

I have not reviewed any movie lately even though I have seen a few....I took my grandson to see Bolt, he gave it a four stars..As for me I slept the first part because I had not a wink of sleep the night before....Really this is the first time I do that, for that reason I will not review it..
I went to see Australia today....I thought it was pretty good, but too long....I think the director did not know how to end his movie......jijij

The movie is seeing through the eyes of an Aborigines boy named Nullah. He is half white and half black. So at that time 1939 the Aborigines where treated like the Native American here in the States.. Like dirt..........non person....
The movie stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman.......and the little boy is Brandon Walter a beautiful child...
Nicole A British noble woman decides to go to Australia to visit her husband and convince him to sell the land there, but when she gets there she finds out that her husband has been murdered...

The bookkeeper tell Nicole that the overseer is robing her blind.........The staff in her house are scare of this man, specially a mother and her son.. When there is a transgression by the child, the man start to hit him and Nicole fires the man.......He then takes the other workers with him..
Not to worry...Here come Hugh Jackman to the rescue....Even though they do not have enough men they all pack up and drive the cattle to Darwin......In between the bad guy tried everything to sabotage the drive........
The scenery of Australia is spectacular.....but the movie was a bit too long......and both Nicole and Hugh looked great...The acting is good, but I could not convince myself that these two had the right chemistry....To me they did not click that great......
I will give this movie three chocolate kisses because the chemestry was not there, but the scenery stole the show.

Women Without A Voice To Defend Themselves....

2008-12-03T17:28:00.000-08:00

I have not written anything for a long time....There was an article in the New York Times that made my blood boiled.......It was written by Nicholas D. Kristof...He wrote about a Pakinstanian woman that was attacked by her husband after they divorced......the woman's twelve year old son is taking care of her.....
The ex husband of Naeema Azar through acid on her face and not only blinded her, but also completely disfigured her beautiful face.........and my dear readers......the worse part of this story is that this beast of a man is completely free......

It seems that this is a way for men in the Asian countries to punish the women that disobey them, or they do not want to marry them....Any excuse for these cowards to mutilate a women....
In Afghanistan a group of men in motorcycles sprayed a group of young school girls for the mere reason that they wanted an education......

I cannot stand this form of cruelty on the Asian/Muslim Women. For that matter on any women in the world....The thought that this young women are mutilated in this fashion for the mere notion that they want to better themselves, or get rid of an abusive spouse is beyond my comprehension..

I do not know if anyone will read this. I do not know what to do about this matter, but I want to do something , because I am angry. Angry that these so call human being can get away with these horrible crimes......That these governments do nothing to bring to justice these perpetrators....In this time of global awareness there should be something that can be done..........

My First HD Opera DR ATOMIC

2008-11-08T17:22:00.000-08:00

Today I went to AMC theatre to see the Metropolitan Opera in HD....I love the opera and I figure this was going to be a treat.....Years back I use to go to the dress rehearsals a couple of times a year and it was lots of fun. Of course nothing last for ever and eventually they stop the sale of reduced tickets for the rehearsals to the general audience...It was mostly for students.....We got them through a friend.......

Getting back to today's performance. I was to wait for my friend at the lobby, but while I was chatting outside my friend came in....I had bought my ticket already....When I bought my ticket I got the shock of my life because I thought I was going to pay the price of a movie which I think is $8.00 after 12:00pm. I usually go before noon so I only pay $5.00 dollars because I am too cheap to pay the higher price...... Oh no you should have heard me when the young man said $22.00 Mam...What? $22.00 dollars no way what about a senior discount...

Sorry, Mam there is no senior discount for the Opera....Thank God I had gone to the bank that morning and I had money....Oh well now I know for the next time....but I nearly had a heart attack....OK... I know that if I go to a live performance at the Met is going to cost me a bundle.......So that was a bargain. Right?

Dr Atomic was the story of J.Robert Oppenheimer the so call father of the Atomic Bomb.....Not a very jolly subject.. but I was curious how they can make an Opera about such a grim subject...The composer John Adams explained that he took all the writings and poetry from the Oppenheimer's writings.....Oppenheimer loved poetry and read it all the time...Gerald Finley played a very troubled Oppenheimer...Quite handsome young men he is....his wife was played by Sasha Cooke......I was not familiar with neither one...but at the end the people at the Met gave them an standing ovation and they took several bows......

So if you are in the mood to see a good Opera not far from home I highly recommend the program at the AMC theatres..Even though they are pricey they are excellent....And remember that if you where to go to NY to the Lincoln Theatre it will cost you a bundle, plus the trip to NY.....Well thinking about it I rather see in person, but with today's economy I cannot afford to go to NY.........

To be or not to be a woman Vice-President

2008-11-07T14:42:00.000-08:00

In 1984 Walter Mondale selected Geraldine Ferraro for the Vice-Presidency for the Democratic Party.........That was a fiasco.......The media had a field day and she suffered quite a humiliating blow......I always wondered if she recovered from all that she went through........

In 2008 Senator John McCain selected Sarah Palin for the Vice-Presidency. She should have said No loud and clear....The woman did not have a chance......The media went after her. The comedians went after her. There were all kinds of impersonators...Even the Republican Campaign Aids when after the woman.....Now all those people that were celebrating her selection are gunning for her....

Sarah Palin, was not at fault that John McCain lost,,,,,, his campaign managers or Aids are at fault......They did a lousy job.....It was like they wanted him to loose the election....
Lets face it Barrack Obama had a better campaign organization....They did a great job with their candidate. They were brilliant and that is why they won....

I must admit I voted for McCain/Palin ticket and I explain why in another Blog.......but I was glad when Obama won because he made people feel good about themselves and that is good.

After the elections I was angry at the McCain camp for going after Sarah Palin and all the negative going against the women...She is not a bimbo like they seem to think..She is not a dumb
beauty contestant...She is an intelligent woman, mother, and wife. She won the governorship of Alaska and that is not a small thing.....She is going to be a source to be reckoned with once she gets over all the nasty things done to her....
I wish her luck and I will be praying for her and her family......She does not deserve all the bull that she got and still getting......Good Luck Governor and above all stay in politics we need more women like you......

I am not a movie Critic, but I love the movies

2008-11-03T19:28:00.000-08:00

This is my take on the Secret life of the Bees......Dakota Fanning, Queen Latifah, Alicia Keys,Jennifer Hudson, and Sophia Okonedo........I read the book and loved it so I was sure that I was going to love the movie also...
This movie takes place in South Carolina in the 1964 during the Civil Rights Movement......The beginning is very disturbing because starts with Lilly Owens telling the story of how at four years old she kills her mother.....Her father is a mean man who makes Lilly kneel on grits when ever she does something wrong...Jennifer Hudson(Rosaleen) is the caretaker in her house...When Rosaleen finds out that if she can write her name she will be able to register to vote....She and Lilly go to town to register.... They encounter a group of white men who beat the crap out of Rosaleen.....That night Lilly decides to rescue Rosaleen and run away from her father...Lilly decide to go to a place that she found in her mothers things.....so they run to North Carolina.....There they meet the sisters....August (Queen Latifah) the matriarch of the family, June, the music teacher and May, the fragile child like sister.
May, carries all the guilt in the world and she has made a wailing wall for every time she finds the need to cry her heart out...

August, is the one who keeps the bees and teaches Lilly all about the bees.....The sisters know that there is something that Lilly is not telling them, but they are waiting for Lilly to tell them in her own time.....
Even though I did not see Queen Latifah as the motherly type I thought that they all did a fantastic job....and Dakota Fanning is one of the best actresses around. I cried my eyes out in this one ....Some critics found it too sugary, but I like sugar, so I will give three chocolate kisses. .....Bring your tissues......

I am not a movie Critic, but I love the movies

2008-11-03T18:39:00.000-08:00

With all the baloney about Madonna and Guy Richie I wanted to see a film directed by Richie.......This is the film that the critic is comparing to "Pulp Fiction"(A film that I did not like and still cannot see all the hoopla)....
So I went to see RocknRolla.........The first thing I notice was that the theater was half full of men only...I was the only lady there.......I was a little uncomfortable to think that I was in a male dominated movie...This movie is "R" for a good reason.......

I like Gerald Butler, Tom Wilkinson so I knew I was going to like the movie....Let me warn you that this movie is not for the faint of heart....It is violent, it has very strong language, and some sexual situation and of course the drug scene......but that is to expect in a gangster movie.....Another warning the Corney accent is quite strong......It is a good thing that I watch a lot of BBC DVDs and I am getting use to the English accent......

Tom Wilkinson plays Lenny Cole a crime boss who thinks he is the it and he is mean as sin...Gerald plays a hood called One-Two.....His little gang has names like Handsome Bob, Mumbles, and Cookie....There is a very funny scene between One-Two and Handsome Bob that I thought it was a hoot.....
Things get ugly when a Russian billionaire needs Lenny Cole to facilitate him with some real estate for a stadium where it is against the law to build....The Russian lends a good luck painting to Lenny Cole and someone steals it.....The Russian is double crossed by his crooked accountant played by Thandie Newton... Who seems to be there because of her looks...She walks through the part like a cold fish.....
I found the movie a guilty pleasure.......Lots of fun.......so I will give this movie two and a half chocolate kisses......

TO STUBBLE OR NOT TO STUBBLE THAT IS THE QUESTION

2008-11-02T15:20:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to write about this for a while now....There is a trend in Hollywood and TV land that to me it is terrible......Ladies do not tell me that you like your man with a day or two stubble... Every time one of this Hollywood hunk kisses you it most leave your face with stubble burned.

I was researching this in the net and I found out that there are designers stubble, and also a Dos and Don'ts on stubble.......How about that....They said that women like the rugged look on a man, but I think it is propaganda.... so that the men who do not want to shave will not shave. and will continue with this trend.....Lets face it ladies these men just look unkempt and dishevelled......

I saw a picture of handsome Jake Gyllenhaal looking like a bum with beautiful Reese Witherspoon.....I guess he never try to cuddle her children because they are going to scream... "ouch! that hurts"

In today's comics I read Luann by Greg Evans and it was a hoot. Luann's father tell his wife that he will stop shaving because he has done it for 30+ years and he was sick of it.......His wife very wise tells him..... that it is a great idea and that she too will stop shaving her legs and underarms......Guess what? Yes, you guess it ....He went and shaved his stubble.....

So to all those rugged, macho men out there ditch the scruffy look.....It is very unbecoming.......Ladies the ball is in your court.....do not be a chicken and tell your man like it is and if I am wrong and you do like the stubble in your face then so be it.......It is your face that suffer not mine.........

Go vote...I did

2008-10-29T16:35:00.000-07:00

I went to vote today.....I got there at 12:10PM and I thought that the line did not seem too long...Boy was I wrong....., We were outside the building and had to wait for an hour before we got inside......The problem was that I chose a very cold day and the wind chill factor must have been in the 30's...

Too cold for my bones...My body has not had a chance to get use to the cold and my blood still thin from the summer weather.....In front of me was an orderly gentleman that had only a cotton shirt (long sleeve) shaking from the cold every other minute....I fell sorry for him......Every time he shook I wanted to run and get him a cup of hot coffee or soup......

I had on sweat velor pants, a sweater and a sweat velor jacket...... When I realized that we were going to wait a long time before we got in, I ask the gentleman to hold my place and went to the car and got a wool scarf that I placed it around my neck......

After an hour of waiting we got our foot inside the warm building and I stopped worrying about the man in front of me.....I am sure he will get a cold from being exposed to the cold wind for so long.

I was prepared with a sample ballot because I went to the library and got a copy and filled it in before I got to the registrars' office.. .......There were too many names on that ballot...I did my homework...

Here in Virginia Beach we not only had to vote for the President, but also for a Congressman and the Mayor, some of the City council and School board members.....Too many names to remember..

It was a big ballot...That was the reason why I wanted to be prepared.

Once inside the voting place there were five (5) voting machines......The registrar people were calling two people at the time and they checked our Id's and the absentee form..... after that we got the electronic card and proceeded to vote.............

Since I had my sample ballot I just press what I had, and finished in no time....I did have a little problem pressing the completed button three time before it took my vote and ejected the electronic card out. Good thing.... because I did not wanted to call on any of the employees there, I did not wished them to see whom I voted for.......It is a secret vote after all.......Right?

Now I do not have to listen to any more political garbage and concentrate in other things.....For you out there go vote early on November 4, because the line is going to be super loooooong........Good luck!

I AM NOT A MOVIE CRITIC, BUT I LOVE THE MOVIES my take on Nights in Rodanthe

2008-10-05T11:46:00.000-07:00

Pink is for romance that is why I chose this color.....Today I am Blogging about "Nights in Rodanthe" which is a novel written by Nicholas Sparks..........All of those people that have read Sparks books are used to his weepy, runny nose novels.....If you need a good cry read one of Sparks novels....You will discover that they are romantic, but also pretty sappy.............

Nights in Rodanthe is a romantic movie with Richard Gere and Diane Lane....Richard Gere still as handsome as ever.......He is a doctor that goes to North Carolina's Outer Banks for a weekend.

He is like a lot of doctors arrogant and of course the best in his field.....Diane Lane is taking care of the Inn where Gere is staying. She is doing this for a friend as a favor. Diane Lane is divorced from her cheating husband, who wants to come back to her....She is thinking about it.....Not too hard though.... A big storm is coming to the Outer Banks and it is not Richard Gere....

Gere is there to see a man that lost his wife because of an operation that the good doctor performed.....The man is suing the doctor, but still wants to meet him and talk to him about what when wrong....Gere and Lane hit it right away and she helps him cope with his visit to the gentleman who lost his wife.....

The most beautiful part is the Outer Banks with the storm coming and the house (Inn) right on the beach...... is just great......I must say, you have to bring a box of tissues because it is a cry me a river...I cried a river. At one point I almost got hysterical, but I had a bottle of water that I kept gulping down to steady myself......I will give two and a half chocolate kisses, because the plot was a bit weak........So till my next movie...do not eat too much chocolate.....Too much of a good think is no good......

UNDECIDED VOTERS

2008-10-05T10:26:00.000-07:00

I guess this is for the undecided voters out there....I was one...I went from one candidate to another constantly....Then I prayed and I am undecided no more...It is very simple...We all know that the Economy will get better no matter who wins...The war will also get better....Well maybe not Afghanistan which is another story...

Then what is there to look for? We have to look for the issue you are passionate about. For example if you are passionate about Pro-Life vote for the candidate that is for life....or if you are for Gay's rights again look for that candidate that is for Gay's right....very simple, therefore; I do not know why there are still people out there undecided....

Choose your passionate issue and decide.....I have and I will not listen to any more garbage thrown out at me...No need to look at the debate coming up....I will just go and vote...
Everyone out there VOTE......

CONTEMPORARY ART CENTER VA BEACH

2008-09-27T18:19:00.000-07:00

I traveled through 22nd street at least three times a week.......I look at the sign of the Contemporary Art Center in Virginia Beach every time...It is big and it is right at ones eye sight, but what it dawned on me is that I have never notice the building before....and I realized it is because that for an Art Center the outside of the building is painted in an unnoticeable color......

Is that building being use at all? I never see any thing happening there.....But if it is a functioning place, then I suggest to the administrator to paint the outside of the building with bright colors, and make it more appealing and inviting for every one.

The top of the building is OK because it is green, but the rest of the place is white. I wonder how many people really looked at that building and wonder about it....

I will like to see it painted with earthen color like terra- cotta and yellow. That will make it real contemporary.....

I AM NOT A MOVIE CRITIC, BUT I LOVE THE MOVIES....

2008-09-25T14:19:00.000-07:00

Last night I was treated to the movies as a guess to a special advance screening of "The Duchess" staring Keira Knightley and Ralph Fieness.....I am not to keen of Keira because to me it seems that some one has pinched her nose so hard that she cannot breath. But the lady is beautiful and all those change of gorgeous gowns and wigs did her good.

Now to the movie.....Lady Spencer is the mother of Georgiana a sixteen year old girl. Lady Spencer makes a contract to marry Georgiana to the Duke of Devonshire, a nasty mean man, and promise him that Georgiana will bear him a son.....but Georgiana gives him only daughters and he is not happy...Georgiana is beautiful and very popular but the poor girl is not happy with her brutish of a husband who treats her horribly...Then she meets Lady Elizabeth (Hayley Atwell) a divorcee that lost her boys to her husband and they become good friends....Unfortunately the Duke has eyes for Bess and she gets in his bed so that she can get her boys back....When Georgiana finds out she wants her out of the house, but the Duke said "no way Jose" Bess is staying in the house....and with that he proceeds to rape Georgiana...Nice husband...Eh...but out of that rape she finally have the hair to the Devonshire house....After that she meets a nice young man that is in politics and the rest is history.....I did like this period piece. The costumes were beautiful, the wigs and the scenery..Everything was nice and I give this one my three chocolate kisses out of four....

Note...The Duchess was the great,great,great,great aunt of the late Dianne, Princess of Whales

The Big one that got Away

2008-09-18T15:25:00.001-07:00

It has been a long time since I had Blog anything....but here I am back in shape.....
Today my husband Ray and I went to Fort Story him to fish, and I to walk. It is my favorite place to walk.

While walking I came across a platoon doing hand to hand combat...I continued walking before they said something to me....like I was not suppose to be there......

The sea was rough, but because the Virginian Pilot had said that there were lots of fish to be found like the big red drum and the puppy drum my husband was eager to go fishing...

By the time I got back he had caught one fish that was not too big, and I told him I wanted to throw the line also.
I caught a smaller fish and he decided to cut it up for bait.....
While he was doing the cutting I was suppose to look after the two poles that where in the water, but instead I was trying to get a piece of wood near to our gear so that I could sit on it. Then I was observing him cut the fish for bait....Lo and be hold!

He look at one of the fishing pole and screamed "Where is my pole?" Oh my God! It must have been a huge fish, but the whole pole was missing....gone kaput........The only thing left was the holder that was laying on the sand....

I started to laugh because he looked so bewildered and he kept saying that he had never lost a fishing pole that way before...

Well honey there is always a first time......hahaha

Now he only has one pole; therefore, he is being careful not to put in the holding tube.....
Then there was another fish in his pole and it was bending so he shouted this one is big honey and the next minute the line broke and the fish was gone......Then he said to me "but that was a 20 pound line how can it brake?"
Another big fish gone....to make him feel better I told him that I owe him a fish pole since I was suppose to watch the pole and I did not....
And that is the true story of the two big fishes that got away.......
Till next time....Watch out for my husband fishing pole.......JIJIJI

I AM NOT A MOVIE CRITIC, BUT I LOVE THE MOVIES....

2008-09-01T17:51:00.000-07:00

I saw two movies this week.......My first movie was the House Bunny..a lame comedy....with Anna Faris as the wash out Playboy Bunny because she turned 27, which in bunny years is somewhere in the fifties....So she is out of Hefner mansion and in the street.....No problem... she finds a job as a House Mother in a sorority house that is being closed because they do not have sponsors...... The girls are geeks and weirdos...She teaches the girls how to be glamorous and how to talk to the guys, so that they can get money for their Sorority......Anne Faris as Shelley Darlington is good and she try hard, but the script is so lame that the movie does not go far....So I will give only two chocolate kisses.....

Hamlet 2 is a irreverent comedy that was fairly good because of the British actor Steve Cooper. with him is Catherine Keener as his wife, David Arquette, who does not have much to said as a tenant....Steve Cooper as Dana with a funny last name is a drama teacher who has been waiting for Hollywood to call......He is told that because of budget cut the drama class will be cancelled next semester...He decides that he needs a good play that will change the mind of the school board...He comes up with a very vulgar political incorrect High School Musical of Hamlet..In this play no one dies and I am sure is going to offend some religious people...This summer is the Summer of "lets offend everybody"....
This comedy I will give my two and a half chocolate kisses.............

GOOD BYE TO THE CHINESE OLYMPICS.....

2008-08-25T13:25:00.000-07:00

The Olympics came to an ending....Like the beginning the ending was spectacular....The end just like the beginning the concluded with the drummers...This time a smaller group with regular drums....dress in red that made a red circle....The dancers were dress in red, gold and silver head piece....they were just beautiful. Two giant drums were floating in the air, and there were two drummers to each giant drum.

There were acrobats floating or flying in the air... They had a big tower where the men in red dance and walk to the top of the tower....
They had a big stair to an imaginary airplane were three actors representing the athletes were pretending to go home....One of the athletes(actor) took out a scroll with the images of the games....

A beautiful Chinese singer sang some Rock song......As a whole everyone was too beautiful, but I notice some not so perfect smiles in the group...I guess they learn a lesson when they were criticized for taking the little Chinese girl from singing their National Anthem because she was not pretty enough and gave it to the pretty one who ad lip the song....Bummer.....

The finale Placido Domingo looking real handsome sang and area with soprano Chinese Opera star Song Zuying.....They were good.....Finally there was every famous Chinese on the stage singing even Jacky Chan was singing....
One of the things I love about the closing ceremonies is that all the athletes get together and just enjoy the whole spectacle.......That is camaraderie and great for all countries coming together as friends.....

Another wonderful thing about this Olympics was that a few of our local athletes did great.....
I like to congratulate Angela Hucles and LaShawn Merrit for their win.......Three cheers for a job well done......

......The Chinese were clever in not giving people permits to demonstrate for their lack of human rights, but the words got out and I am sure that the people of China one day they will get up and do something about it.......These games have to have had an impact in the average Chinese...I hope there will be a change for the better soon......

In 2012 they will be held in London and there will not be any cover ups......Hurray for that......

I AM NOT A MOVIE CRITIC, BUT I LOVE THE MOVIES....

2008-08-23T10:57:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I went to see the new Woody Allen movie....Vicky Cristina Barcelona.........The movie is a comedy....We did laugh a great deal...but I will also called it a tragedy.....because it is tragic....

The story (written by Woody)

Two beautiful American women go to Barcelona for the summer....Vicky is very straight arrow and knows what she wants, which is to get marry and raise a family........Cristina in the other hand is looking for someone, or something but she does not know what it is...She does not care who she sleeps with and she will experiment without guilt...she is a little nutty

They go to an art gallery and there they see this handsome Spaniard artist.....Vicky's aunt tells them who he is and that his ex wife tried to kill him....Cristina is intrigue. That night they go to a restaurant and they meet him again...This time he makes eye contact with Cristina, and comes to their table with a preposition....Would the two American care to accompany him for a weekend in another town and have sex .. Cristina is all for the adventure, but Vicky is more reluctant to hop in a plane with a stranger.....since she is about to get married.....

They go on the weekend and series of things happened......Cristina decides to move in with Bardem....Then his ex wife shows up and all hell brakes loose... It is a joy to hear Penelopy shoot her rapid Spanish...She leaves any one dizzy...I never thought much of Penelopy's acting, but I have to admit that with this movie I have seen two of her movies in Spanish were she is fantastic....But in my opinion the one that steal the show is Vicky(Rebecca Hall) and the Spanish scenery with is breath taking...So I will give 3 chocolate kisses to this one.....because we had a good time.....

THE EDGES OF THE LORD

2008-08-20T13:40:00.000-07:00

I just saw the Edges of the Lord with Haley Joel Osment and William Dafoe.......This movie was produce in 2001 and according from what I read it was never shown in the States. It is now in DVD and I am glad that I was able to get it from our Virginia Beach Public Library......

The story : a Jewish boy is sent to the country to live with a Catholic family while the City is occupied by the Nazis. He is sent to the farm in a gunny sack and it is terrified. The family has two more boys....He is suppose to be the nephew of the farmer......The story is told as lived by the young boy Haley Joel Osment....

The village priest play by William Dafoe coaches the children so they can make their first communion..........He gives them twelve pieces of wood with the names of the Apostles and they have to choose one and study his life....The youngest child wants to be Jesus and he is very serious about his assignment and wants to feel all the pain that Jesus suffered....

The acting is excellent and we all know what a terrific actor Osment is, and Dafoe is also very good....The other children are great too.

The climax of this movie left me so moved that I could not sleep..It reminded me of a YA book I read last year that it was so child like because it was a young 9 years old boy, yet I did not recommend it for children that young...I did recommended to adults and kids over sixteen years of age.....Like that book this movie is profound and deep that leaves one thinking.....Therefore I recommend it and give it my three chocolate kisses....This is not for children because several very strong scenes......It is R rated....

HE DIDN'T MAKE IT

2008-08-19T16:35:00.000-07:00

"He didn't make it" read the caption in the front page of the Hampton Roads section of today Virginian Pilot......This was the end to a story that ran a few weeks back in July about the kitten named Trooper who won the hearts of all who read the article.. The staff of The Chesapeake Veterinary clinic named him Trooper because he was just that a Trooper...........

This kitten was thrown from a moving car into Route 168 South....Michele Laney of Moyock, NC saw the incident and stop and collected the kitten and brought it to a Veterinary office in Chesapeake....The poor creature only weighted 1 and 1/2 pounds at the time.....It was only about four weeks old...

Hampton Roads with its generous heart gave donations so that the veterinary could treat the kitten since the surgery was costing at a tune of $2,000....Unfortunately it was not enough.....The injuries were too much for the poor thing and it died in the operating table...I am broken hearted because it brings back memory of my cat who died in January....But my cat had a great life after my daughter rescue it from a dumpster...Another cruel act that turn out different. Thank goodness for that.......

Now I am wondering how terrific the person who threw Trooper from his car is feeling......Yes, he got rid of the little creature in the cruelest way possible instead of giving it away or bring it to the nearest SPCA...........but God will ask him for an account of his actions one day and then he will be sorry.....

I can only think of this person as cruel and vicious and probably a menace to society ....And I cannot but wish that the person who did this be made to pay for what they did.

JOURNEY CONCERT VIRGINIA BEACH

2008-08-14T18:04:00.000-07:00

Tuesday night I went to the Journey Concert presented by Verizon.......Two other bands opened the show...First we heard Cheap Trick and then Heart.......We were about fifteen minutes late for CT which was OK, I was not that familiar with them...
Then came Heart and I was more familiar with this band songs, even though I did not know their names I new their music...Because my son was a teen in the 1980 and I use to hear that music in my house when he play his records........
I must say we enjoyed them tremendously. those ladies can sing and play wonderful.. The people did not wanted them to get off the stage....When they sang Barracuda the people went wild.....Actually they were wild through the whole show.....It was great.....I love them....Great show...

Now for Journey....I love their music....I love Steve Perry.....Perry's Open Arms makes me cry every time.....Saying that I was willing to received Arnel Pineda with open arms......I saw him in You tube singing Journeys songs and I liked what I heard.....Also I was pleased that he was a Pinoy.....
There is a saying that every one has a double or twin somewhere in this earth and I do believe it....How many times some one has come to you and said "hey you look like so and so....?
So this man sort of look like Perry and sounds like Perry......Perry is of Portuguese descend so there is that exotic look.....I notice some people near me not too happy with Pineda, but I think it was because they can not let go of the fact that Steve Perry is no longer with the band.....and will not come back....They were not open minded...Their lost....
Now back to the concert....
This young man is perfect for the band...They sound like the old band of the 80's and that is great...
The only suggestion I have for Pineda is that he get rid of those yellow trousers...... from where I was his legs looked like chicken legs.......Sorry, but that is my opinion.... Another suggestion is .....please do not run around and jump so much it just did not do.....Oh sure is Rock, but I was exhausted just looking at all his acrobatics.......All in all the show was great and as a Filipino adopted(by marriage) I was very proud of the home boy as I know all the Filipinos in the audience were...
Good luck! And may you sell lots of records, and stay with the band for a long time..........

I AM NOT A MOVIE CRITIC, BUT I LOVE THE MOVIES....

2008-08-10T14:53:00.000-07:00

This weekend I went to see two movies, one was excellent the other one so, so....any way I had fun at the movies.......

Lets start with the so so one....This was Swing Vote with Kevin Costner as a beer drinking looser with a smart little daughter..The daughter was the only bright star in his life, yet he did not appreciate her enough....The real critics out there did not like this movie, but I thought different because there is a message in this election year...The lesson to me is that we should look at the candidates real careful....know what they stand for, and their platform, and then make an intelligent vote....And yes vote because that is your right as an American....So I will give two chocolate kisses for this one....

The next picture was the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants 2....I retired from the VABCH Public Library and while there I read lots of Youth and Young Adult novels (I wanted to be able to recommend and answer their question)and I read a couple of the Sisterhood novels by Ann Brashare.....This second picture I think is much better than the first one..It is summer time and the girls seem to be falling apart from their friendship because each is going to be doing different thing during the summer...There are four different plots for each girl....And there is a pregnancy scare by one of the girls, broken heart and maybe a new romance, but the main thing is will the girls continue to be good friends....

Amber Tamblyn, American Ferrera, Alexis Bledy, and Blake Lively are very good and I like them all....So I will give this coming of age movie three chocolate kisses....Until my next movie...Ciao