junia isabel

My Blog has Moved!

2010-04-29T10:35:00.000-07:00

For the past week I've been curled over the computer and obsessing over creating my very own website. Like a real ".com" website. My husband had been talking about making one for his graphic design, Annie recently made hers, and I wanted one too! I'm finding tons more stuff to blog about and I wanted to create a space for my writing portfolio (finally!).

When I first started this blog, I wanted it to be focused on my short stories. It started out that way. I'd post snippets of short stories, but then, because it was a blog, they were done and gone by the next day's post. I want my stories to live somewhere, so that's what motivated me to create my own website. This way, if people want to read the short stories that make Junia the writer a writer, they can!

I didn't think I'd care about ditching this blog, but as I write this I feel a little sad. It's kind of funny. But I shall move on! I'm married now and the flood of inspiration and motivation to take over the world has finally hit me. So I shall do that by moving over to juniaisabel.com!

Last night, with the help of the awesome Annie Clark (who designed my new banner), I put the final touches and am so excited to share it with you! I hope you'll make the move over with me. It's going to be fun!

See ya!

Junia

Honey Moon

2010-04-22T14:50:00.000-07:00

It's been about 5 days since me and my husband returned from our chilly honeymoon in Banff and I'm still dreaming about the sites we saw, the falls we took learning to snowboard, and the friendliest people we met. It was our first time traveling together and it couldn't have been more fun. We took our Zumi digital camera that we were waiting to use for this exact moment and took so much video. It's the easiest camera to use and the footage comes out exactly how I see things when I'm dreaming. That's how come I love it so!

My husband and I are a bit obsessed with music and creating the soundtrack of our lives, so we didn't want to waste any of this footage without adding a song that played on repeat for much of the duration of our honeymoon. He's currently working in Final Cut Pro and making a full length video with all the footage we took and a much longer soundtrack. But in the meantime, I couldn't wait, so I made this video with one of my new favorite tunes that takes me back to these lovely memories. Enjoy!

Song: You Hid by Toro y Moi

Annie Clark is a Designer

2010-04-22T12:59:00.000-07:00

And likes to take pictures. And is obsessed with Zooey Deschanel. And drinks good coffee and donuts from Four Barrel a lot. And there's other stuff about her that's cool.

Annie was also my maid of honor! But I told myself I wouldn't make this post about my wedding (even though I just had to post a picture of how adorable she looked at the wedding, which I hope she doesn't mind). After years of creating awesome designs and fine tuning who she is as a designer, she's started her own website. It's still in its beginning stages, but I can't wait to see how it grows! You can follow her likes and cool stuff like that on her blog, buy her designs on Minted.com, or follow her little sentences on Twitter.

It's the best thing to be surrounded by people that inspire you, are motivated to create, and have great style. Annie Clark is definitely all of that, plus a really great friend. I look at the designs she pumps out and get totally jealous that I didn't go to school to learn graphic design or have the patience to sit down and teach myself Photoshop. Luckily, my husband, another awesome graphic designer lets me sit behind him to try and learn while he designs (I like to call myself a backseat designer), but who am I kidding. I'll leave the designing to Annie and him. But the neat thing about being around Annie and her designs is that it's brought me to love the tiny details and differences in typefaces, spacing between letters, and the way colors can make a design brilliant or horrific. Although I'm not a graphic designer, I feel I look at the world as half of one because of the things I've learned from both Annie and Andres.

See where Annie Clark creates her designs and hear what she says in this Minted.com interview.

Married!

2010-04-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

Before.

Fifteen years later.

We're married!

Life couldn't get any better. We returned from our beautiful honeymoon in Banff, Canada this past weekend and are living life as if we just stepped into a new universe where anything is possible. We're like two superhero characters that want to fly at lightning speed to anywhere in the world, stretch as far as we need to do anything for each other, and shoot lasers at anything that comes in our way!

The wedding day and the days leading up felt so surreal. I knew there was going to be a moment when it all hit me. And of course that moment had to come as I was getting ready to walk down the aisle to finally see my groom. But what I loved most about that moment was being aware. I was aware of everything going on around me. The processional song "Taken" by Eluvium was playing loud (just how I wanted), I saw everyone stand, it was a dream. It was the perfect 80's movie moment that I dreamt about since I was little. It was epic! And to top it off, our exiting song after we were pronounced Mr. & Mrs. was New Order's "Ceremony"! Seriously, the best day of my life!

There's a lot more to come in the blog posts that follow, but for now I wanted to announce it on my little blog that I'm married!

Father of the Bride

2010-03-26T17:05:00.000-07:00

As it reaches the two week countdown to my wedding day it is time I dive into the hunt of finding the perfect song my dad and I will dance to. So here I am with a compilation of songs I remember my dad playing during my childhood. Listening to them I started to get emotional so what better way to express some of what I'm feeling then through my bloggity blog.

You always hear that a father and daughter share a special bond. I'm not sure if that holds true to everyone else, but it definitely is in my case. I grew up with a dad that came from a life of hard work. There were things to get done, and you did them without complaining about it. You would never see him complain about having to fix things, staying at work late, having to wake up at four in the morning to go to work each day. He would come home from work, his work boots still on and ready to practice field hockey with me in the backyard. He took pride in everything he owned and everything he built. He was often a man of few words, but many laughs. Boys I dated were scared of him until they gained his trust. He was that type of dad to me growing up. It wasn't until I was in my college years that I began to want to know more about him and his past. Our relationship grew. He became my friend. He shared more stories of his childhood and I grew to respect how he chose to raise me.

My parents always like to point out how unique I am compared to other people, and even though I always take it as a compliment, it is thanks to them that I am so unique. That I never settle, always want the best and look for how to get it, will not take for granted everything I have worked for, and enjoy my life with my soon to be husband! If I could only choose one attribute from my dad to take with me into the married life, it would be the love he has for my mom. They are best friends and do everything together. They train for bike races together, travel the world together, act silly with each other and fall asleep on each other's shoulders. As funny as it sounds, they're perfect for each other. Watching their marriage has made me even more excited for mine!

So here I am. Still. Thinking of the perfect song to play as me and my dad dance like we did when I was a little girl and he'd put on these records while my mom got dinner ready in the kitchen.

You'll just have to wait until after the wedding to see what me and my dad picked!

First go with our Zumi Digital

2010-03-19T13:20:00.000-07:00

You may have remembered me blogging about desperately wanting a Zumi digital camera here. Well, we wanted it so bad that we decided to sacrifice something that we were going to include in the wedding to get our hands on this camera!

We got it in the mail last week and quickly started playing with it. It's the tiniest thing, easy to use and there's no excuse for you to not take it everywhere you go because it literally can fit in your pocket it's that small. Let me just remind you that this was our very first time using the camera so excuse the slight fingertip during the beginning of the video. I was just too excited that I had to share how the video quality came out. It's exactly what we were hoping for!

Our experience with the camera: If you're going to use it to take photos make sure there's plenty of light or else it's going to come out very dark and grainy. After taking photos with it, we decided we're most likely going to use it more for the 8mm style video it takes. It's so fun. So sit back, relax, and watch me being a nerd on a bike ride through GG Park. Can't wait to shoot more videos with our new little Zumi.

Zumi-Bike Ride from junia y andres on Vimeo.

The soundtrack to this video is "New Theory" by Washed Out. We're kind of obsessed with him right now and can't imagine how our life would be now if we never heard him. Here's the video that inspired us:

Washed Out - "New Theory" from justin gaar on Vimeo.

Funny TV

2010-03-16T12:24:00.000-07:00

My fiancè asked me the other day if I had watched or heard of the TV show Community. I answered, "Oh, that one that always has people sitting around a table with the guy from Talk Soup? Nah". He told me we should give it a try because it came highly recommended for our sense of humor. Ok, then. We watched the pilot. I'm not even sure how many episodes are out right now, I just know we're behind and look forward to catching up! The show is hilarious and the cast perfect.

Here's a clip that had us cracking up!

It airs Thursday nights on NBC @ 8:00 so watch it!

Etsy Wedding Finds

2010-02-23T19:57:00.000-08:00

I've started to hunt Etsy for little stuffies that can add some charm to the wedding and thought I'd share. It's addicting, time consuming, and inspiring to see all the handmade things people around the world make. Although I'm not going to post what I've actually bought for the wedding because I'm a sneaky little bride, I will post some cute finds that I came across while on the hunt for things I needed. Who knows, they might inspire you. I know they inspired me to want to make stuff and sell it on Etsy!

Oh, and the countdown to the wedding is now just a little over a month. Am I freaking out? A little on the inside, but excited more then anything. I'm so happy we decided to take our honeymoon directly following the wedding. All this planning and stress will all soothe itself away when we jump on that plane and enjoy a week of relaxation and adventure as a married couple! Can't wait!

Esty finds from left to right: Summer Love Bridesmaids Clutch Set/ Dos Palomas Wedding Papel Picado Banners/ Custom Wooden Star House Wedding Toppers/ Love Birds Screen Print/ Billy Ball/ The Three Tenors.

A Home made from Pictures

2010-02-11T11:15:00.000-08:00

I'm going to be getting married in exactly 58 days and I've already begun to daydream and piece out the home that I want to begin to make for me and my soon to be hubbers.

I grew up constantly rearranging my room to suit the season and my mood, so the ideas have started to flood in again. There were days I would surprise my parents when they got home from work with a redecorated living room too. They'd often have me move it back to how it was, but I was convinced I was going to become an interior designer. I never became one, but I'm still obsessed with creating an inviting and stylish home.

Our love for design doesn't come cheap, but that's the beauty of saving up and creating the home of your dreams piece by piece. Someday we'll strike it rich and buy it all at once, but for now I can daydream and put the pieces of my dream home together through pictures, right?

photo creds: Red Set Whistle, Design*Sponge, M&Co, Bohemian Vintage

Sale @ Britex Fabrics in SF!

2010-02-05T10:43:00.000-08:00

Next Monday, February 15 and Tuesday, February 16th, Britex Fabrics is having a 30% off sale on all fabrics, notions, and remnants. This store is amazing and feels like a candy store when you walk in. If you're in SF, you should definitely check out the sale. The fabrics, patterns and remnants they have in that store are amazing, but they often come at a high cost. It's a sale, and I know I'm going to be there to see what I can score!

A Fragmented Novel

2010-02-01T19:32:00.000-08:00

I was in Green Apple Bookstore today falling in love with every book wishing the store had their own credit card so I could spend all the money on books I wanted, when I saw this beautifully designed hardback. I don't want to say it was "written" by Vladimir Nabokov because there's controversy over why this was published when it was never supposed to. Ooo, sounds like literature gossip, doesn't it? It is.

Apparently, Nabokov had never wanted to publish this novel if he had not finished it. When he passed away in 1977, "The Original of Laura" sat unfinished, and it was through direct orders from the writer himself that his wife was to destroy the fragmented novel if it were never completed. Like any other wife with a brilliant writer for a husband would have done, she kept the pieces of unfinished work. She had never published it, but she also hadn't destroyed it.

In 1991 she passed away leaving the fragmented novel to stay with the remaining family, their son, Dmitri. Once the responsibility was left in his hands he considered keeping to his fathers' wishes as well. Until now.

The cover of the book prints "A Novel in Fragments", because it literally is. Nabokov had written his only draft on index cards. And because this was the way the pieces of novel survived, his son decided to publish the unfinished novel with the cards themselves.

When you open the book you see replicated index cards printed on each page with the type printed directly beneath it. You can choose to read the book though the scribbles of Nabokov's handwriting or through the paragraphs printed below the cards. And, if you're really in the mood to become one with Nabokov and attempt to see his writing the way he did, you can punch out each index card (yes, they perforated every card in the book), and arrange them how you'd imagine the story of "The Original of Laura" being told.

Unfortunately, I did not buy the book. I'll just have to return during the week to admire it and read snippets. If any of you read it let me know how it is. I've read articles saying it's not quite the read considering half of the novel is placed in an order that most believe was not the original way Nabokov had intended.

Photo creds: A Look Inside!,

My Little Short Story, "The Shed"

2010-01-11T14:07:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind in posting this, but during last October's APE (Alternative Press Expo), a short story of mine was published in a comic anthology, SIREN. I collaborated with an illustrator and good friend of mine, Bret Hobbs.

Years ago during one of my productive writing periods, I wrote a short story about a young boy who became friends with a shed. Yes, that simple. It was always a story I wanted to return to and luckily for me Bret was in need of such a story. I revised it, handed it over to Bret and only yesterday did I finally see the finished and published product!

The book is beautiful, and I feel so lucky to have "The Shed" in the same book alongside the illustrations of really talented artists:

Frank Lin

Carissa Susilo & Edward Ko

"The Shed" takes place in the small town of Los Arbolitos where a young boy named Tano leaves from school each day to visit a shed. He becomes friends with the shed in the sense that it's a place where his green toy army men can march into battle and rest when wounded, and where he can spend his evenings being the General before he hears the yells of his mother calling for his return. Sadly, the story ends with the collapse of the shed and the isolated death of Tano.

Here are just a few pages from "The Shed" that Bret and I collaborated on. If you want to see the rest and read the story, buy the book!

(Click images to enlarge)

The theme of each comic or short story had to deal with being lured and caught in a different way. "The Shed" was perfect for this theme as there was a definite example of little Tano being lured into going inside a shed that stood like "a viejo, waiting for the desert to collapse him down to his knees".

Again, the book is awesome and recommend anyone that's into comics and great illustration to grab a copy of SIREN. It's available through the website here.

Calaveras, Hearts, and Vinyl

2010-01-08T15:59:00.000-08:00

This Christmas we were a bit tight on money so it was time to get creative. My fiancè, Andres decided to do a large 4' x 6' vinyl installation in his nieces' bedroom (He's kind of a vinyl guru). She recently turned 10 so I did my best to help him figure out what kind of design I would have liked to have if I were a 10 year old girl. He didn't want something too girly and with an edge. He hand drew the design, scanned it, vectorized it, then took it to the vinyl plotting machine to get cut. Once that was done he hand picked the vinyl, taped it up and that's what you see here:

Next came the application of the piece which became a little tricky because of the glossy paint on the walls. So I helped.
The final piece was applied:

And then the final product came out so awesome that we quickly turned it into a photo booth opportunity! Andres and the new recipient of a one of a kind design:

engagement photos

2009-12-17T03:12:00.000-08:00

we went through and picked our top favorite photos from our engagement session to put in a slideshow. photo credits go out to my dad and his assistant, my mom.

our vision for these photos came from wanting a beautiful landscape that is unfortunately getting harder and harder to find in southern california. we took a few props out with us in case we wanted to add to the shots, but in the end we chose the most cinematic photos because we thought we looked cool in them!

enjoy the slideshow! oh, and picking the music that was going to go with these took a while, but in the end we just had to go with "space age love" by a flock of seagulls because it represented how fun our engagement session was and how much in love we've always been with the 80's.

zumi zumi zumi i want you!

2009-12-15T12:45:00.000-08:00

christmas gift or wedding gift found here!

i'm a subscriber to the photojojo newsletter, and am surprised that i haven't blogged about their coolness before. my most recent newsletter informed me of this insanely awesome rad new camera. zumi digitial camera 2.0 it is called, and it's a digital camera that makes your photos look vintage AND takes digital 8mm video (with sound recording capabilities and black & white video mode)! eeek. i'm obsessing over this camera as i write this because it seems like it was made for me.

the fact that it's all digital is lovely! i have a diana f+ and it's awesome and takes the vintage style photos i love, but unfortunately it starts to pull on your pocket because you've got to buy the film, then pay for it to get developed. it's fun taking the photos, but then can't share them as quickly as you'd like because you need to scan them into your computer.

but here comes this little dude that can do it all digitally and record video. genius genius genius!

it's got a 2GB card and fits up to 1600 high-res shots and 2 hours of video. insane i tell you! this should be on everyone's christmas list. i can just imagine all the fun my fiancé and i could have with it on our honeymoon :)

take a look at the video it shoots. i made sure to find you a good video with a good soundtrack!

traveldiary: harinezumi from ethermoon on Vimeo.

so, you want to get your hands on one yet? check out the photojojo store for more info and to see all the other kewlio camera loveliness they have going on.

fun wedding details

2009-12-15T10:54:00.000-08:00

i'm a visual person, so in order to start "seeing" our wedding come to life, i need to start piecing things together! i put this inspiration board together to see how certain elements look with each other while also making sure to keep an eye out for great design and details that will add a fun charm to our day.

i don't know if i could tell you that we're going to have a running theme in the wedding only because we're into so many things that i don't know if we could nail it to a single "theme". i see so many weddings in these blogs with every detail going along with either a rustic, vintage, garden, modern, quirky, etc. theme. but what do you do when you're sort of into all of that?

i'll just start with things that we like. it will all come together somehow, right? uh huh. here are my most recent inspirational picks from various blogs that i'll share with you.

now let me tell you why i chose these (if only for the sake of me jotting down notes) oh, and please click the image for an extreme close up.

1. the first image caught my attention because of the simple and clean design. the way the date was set along the left side is a nice touch to adding graphic design to a small menu card. love it! 2. there was a nice charm to the look of just adding some torn fabric scraps and ribbon as hints of color on those strings that got my mind thinking if that would fit into our wedding. 3. LOVE this! i'm a fan of photo props, but have been trying to think of ways that we can make ours different, more "us", and not cheesy. you'll usually see "just married" in wedding photos, and to be honest that doesn't really feel like us. we both come from large mexican families that speak spanish, so what better way to say we've just been married than with a "novia" and "novio" card! now to pick the font that we would use... 4. just a close up of those fabric scraps. 5. i haven't been to a wedding since i was a little girl, so i'm used to people throwing rice at the couple after the ceremony. do people even do that anymore? it just makes a mess! that's why i thought these sticks with ribbons attached to the end were adorable. guests can keep them as a little souvenir and they'll look great in pictures! 6. we're getting married outside and luckily have a very bob villa-esque dad that can make anything out of anything, so we're volunteering him to make the arch/canopy, or whatever you want to call it. the one in this image was simple, which we'd like it to be considering we'll only be using it for about a half hour. it also has pieces of fabric and ribbon...hmm, it looks like i like the idea of fabric and ribbon, huh? another reason that i love that my dad is going to make our arch is because i have a feeling that they'll want to reuse it in their backyard garden to put plants around it. i know they will! i can already see my parents sitting in the backyard on sunday mornings with the coffee looking at the arch and replaying the wedding to each other. i'm not lying!

photos pulled from these awesome and addictive blogs:
100layercake
greenweddingshoes
oncewed
junebugweddings.com

a perty paper wreath

2009-12-11T11:19:00.000-08:00

bad news for this year's x-mas = no x-mas tree. good news = we got creative! a real x-mas tree wasn't in our budget this year so we decided to make a paper wreath. i've never had a real one growing up, and always kind of thought they were pretty, but then i came across this tutorial when looking up holiday crafty projects. ooo, pretty, i can do that!

so i took a trip to the oh so addictive paper source and spent a total of $7! bought two sheets of decorative paper and the rest of the supplies i already had at home because that's how i role. seriously, come to our place if you ever want to do crafts. we have everything!

it took about an hour or so with the lovely help of my fiance, and plus, it's just more fun to do projects like this together while listening to some good tunes. so we cut out our leaves, taped them onto our chip board circle backing and together created this beauty:

the process:

it's fun feeling like martha stewart every once in a while! it's not too late for you to make one, so check out the red thread blog for a very easy to follow tutorial.

merry christmas!

the man needs cufflinks!

2009-12-07T20:46:00.000-08:00

i know i should probably be looking for wedding shoes to match my dress, earrings, thinking about how i'm going to wear my hair, or all the above, but right now i'm in the mood for some cuffs! my fiance hasn't really done much shopping around for a suit or thought about the little details like the socks, shoes, and cuffs he'll wear so i'm dedicating this post to him and all the other soon to be grooms that are wondering how they're going to bring style to their wedding attire.

since i have my dress picked out, i'm no longer paying attention to the dresses women are wearing in all the wedding blog photos i look at each day. instead, i'm looking at the dudes and how they're pulling off their looks. thank god to these guys for bringing up the par on looking snazzy though. am i right? (see mad men-iclicious below).

i honestly believe dudes everywhere began to take notice that there's more to wear at your wedding than a boring black and white tuxedo since the airing of mad men. guys got to see how their ladies grew giddy over don draper, and women began to wonder if their guys would get the hint and start dressing up a little more. i ain't lying. you know they look good. but in the end, this sexy suited look has been blowing up in weddings, and i'm a fan! if any guys are reading this and don't think that look can be easily pulled off, snap out of it. it isn't that hard, and real people like you and me can pull it off quite stunningly. just take a look at this groom:

the suit could not have fit him better. i'm loving that he didn't go all bright colored and funky with his socks, and that his shoes aren't converse or vans. sorry, i'm kind of hatin' on the look where the groom wears sneakers. just not a fan, when he could look so sharp with a look like the one above. photography props for the adorable couple above go out to another photographer who my fiance and i so respectably admire, max wanger. and to view more photos from that couple and their pertie wedding check out max's blog.

so maybe your guy wants to add more personality to his wedding attire aside from picking a snazzy tie; cufflinks are the perfect way to go. i never put much thought to them myself, but seeing how much is out there now makes me excited to see what my fiance will choose. most of the below cufflinks were found on etsy, but the other more colorful ones were surprisingly from vera bradley. i must say i am quite the vera bradley fan. my fiance actually found the tie that he wore in our save the date card there and it was perfect. just the right amount of color and personality. so why not go with vera for a unique cufflink that can pop?
vintage typewriter keys cufflinks by qa create

bloodwood cufflinks by holcomb's woodworking

king of hearts vintage cufflinks by crimson king

and because these were way too cool to pass up, there are also these sugar skull calavera cufflinks by little angels jewelry

fun!

fotos, fotos, fotos

2009-12-04T18:09:00.000-08:00

the countdown to our wedding is coming up on 4 months. save the dates have been sent out (will post images soon), so now people know that there's something going down for real. we've already started to hear back from friends and family that they love our card and can't wait for the wedding. we can't either, but we also know there's a lot more planning to do to make it the best party we've ever thrown!

before i start creating the really long list of to-do's we have yet to get to, i'm going to tap myself on the back because we've got one of the most important tasks crossed off. yay for us, because we've got one of the best photographers to capture our day. that alone makes me feel like the wedding needs no other planning. i'm serious. she's that awesome!

she is none other than ms. sarah yates. i came across her photography when i was researching the ace hotel in palm springs for a possible bachelorette party. my google search presented me with this lovely arrange of photos taken at the ace. i fell in love with the dream-like 70's essence immediately, and thought, 'i wish i could have pictures of me like that! those are the type of pictures i want to show my kids someday'. coincidentally, i stumbled upon those photos while also searching for the perfect photographer, and thought it wouldn't hurt to contact her. so i did. and it just so happened that her personality reflected the beautiful, artistic and creative photographs she takes. and, boom! just like that we had to have her.

*see sarah's photos from the ace hotel that made me fall in love here.

my fiance and i had the honor of meeting her in person to chat and instantly found a friend in her. knowing that she's going to be there on our wedding day brings a smile and giggle to my face and a sense of ease that she's going to capture the day exactly the way i've always dreamed. my fiance and i have already talked about how we can't wait for her to take our family portraits (once we make cute little babies of course!), but one thing at a time. slow down junia!

if you want to check out more of sarah's photographic awesomeness, she's got a picture a day blog that herself and super talented boyfriend, lou mora have going on: birds of a feather.

books and design

2009-12-03T19:30:00.000-08:00

judge a book by its cover. really. i do.

the cover of a book means a lot to me. it shows me how involved the author was with the publishing and marketing of their own work. you spend all this time writing, editing, revising, etc, you better go through the time of having cover art that can easily be framed in a cute shadow box on my wall. wouldn't you want that?

my obsession for books that i have yet to read but love to have on my shelf is a little out of control. if i could dedicate an entire room to just books, i would. i've recently been paying closer attention to the actual designs on book covers and wanted to share this post with you because i feel good design makes such a difference in everything. good design allows me to be a consumer when i can't afford to. good design makes me feel like i own something of value. and good design looks good on my shelves. so have fun with me as i share just a tiny few of some excellently designed book covers:

1. a novel idea 2. all and sundry uncollected work 2004-2009 3. the journey prize stories 21: the best of canada's new writers 4. this is where i leave you

if i've kept your attention to this point, you might also enjoy this project that a group of designers are undertaking. hopefully you've read at least one of vladimir nabokov's books, if not, go get one and become a fan. fortunately, i took a class that focused primarily on every single piece of literature he wrote (just ask if you want to borrow one), so i've come to treasure his words. this project takes nabokov's fascination with the collection of butterflies and puts a new twist to redesigning the covers to his books. designers were to only use paper and specimen boxes. take a look at the few i'm sharing with you, and then go watch the rest of the nabokov collection slideshow here to see the others and read more about the project.

i'm in LOVE, in LOVE with this

2009-10-12T22:34:00.000-07:00

i feel like screaming right now because i'm so in love with the world right now. ok, maybe not the world, but just in love with graphic design and how in touch it is with everything that makes me happy right now.

so, we've been trying to find ways to incorporate graphic design into the wedding since it's such a huge part of andres' life, and of course the most obvious route is through the save the dates and invitations...which will be awesome btw, but i was just chillin' when all of a sudden TA-DOW, this beauty fell onto my screen while browsing wedding stuffies on etsy. the seller, melangerie calls this a 'Who's Who Wedding Genealogy Chart'.

it lists your entire guest list in color-coated categories based on how they know the bride and groom. it's up to you how you want to categorize them. and just for fun i came up with some categories if we were to do this for our guests: Brides Family, Grooms Family, Hilltop High Schoolers, San Francisco Cool Kids, Buddies Por Vida.

melangerie presents this as a fold out that you can give to all your guests, but i think i'd love to see this blown up as a poster and placed in the cocktail lounge area so guests can walk up to it and chatter about it. plus the color palette that we're working with for our wedding would look so good in this chart! totally am in love with this idea, but also had one of those 'why didn't we think of that!' moments.

just thought i'd share this lovely find because i'm totally digging it right now and want it!

wedding digs

2009-10-12T17:35:00.000-07:00

alright. it's getting down to the 6 month countdown. i've got the wedding dress and now feel like i can conquer the rest of the "to-do" list. there's something very good about this and something bad. the good: we're planning our wedding! that's fun because it's the biggest party we're ever going to throw! the bad: there's so much that we love and i'm afraid it's all going to start clashing.

so here's the thing. almost EVERY wedding i see on the numerous awesome wedding blogs that i've been reading post images of weddings that are very well coordinated with their colors, clothing, decorations, and every tid-bit that goes into a wedding. i love that, don't get me wrong, BUT what do you do when you're into so many cool things (like myself and my man) and want to include it all? ¡no se!

ok here's some stuffies that we like. uno, bikes! we ride them, and we've got the best custom-made bikes (made by my dad) and feel like we want to rock them somehow. hence this picture:

cute, no? so the problem with why i don't think incorporating bikes would work? well, the space we have is super pertie and spanish looking. i don't want to take away from the architectural beauty of the space. ok...that's okay...so what about incorporating them in a way like these people did? Look:

yeah, i like this. it's simply designed and has some character to it, and you know it's not going to be a dull wedding. argh. ¡no se!

let me go find some more stuff that we're contemplating. oh yeah, i don't know where i read it, but i read that it's good to keep a journal while you're planning your wedding so that you don't go mad and can express all the wedding splurts that come to you. i must say, i do feel better already!

*pictures above used from the most recent post on 100 layer cake blog.

wedding inspiration board

2009-09-02T20:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm trying to be a writer, stay focused while at work, finish reading books, and plan a wedding all at the same time, and watch great TV. I always knew planning my wedding was going to be fun, but I didn't know how obsessed I would become with the smallest details. I blame it on the insanely amount of inspiring wedding blogs that wait patiently for me to read each morning in my Google Reader.

So, one thing that these wedding blogs have in common are "Inspiration Boards". People use them all the time. For interior decorating, blah and blah. They're usually based on the colors of your wedding. I've seen some decent ones, but none that get too specific. Because my fiance and I have gone through hundreds of photos online, we decided to clean them out and pick the ones that stood out. We then made our own inspiration board (click for a better view):

I personally LOVE it! It expresses the feeling that we're going for. We both grew up going to the desert a lot so incorporating succulents is a must. We both collect vinyl toys, so there's no way that we're going to have our wedding without having some vinyl toys on display. We already know how we're going to use them, but I'm not going to give away too many of our secrets!

One thing that I haven't seen in any of these inspiration boards is a musical influence! I don't know about you, but music is a HUGE part of our lives and will be at the wedding too. We like to think we listen to the best music, and have been putting together our list since we got together (8 years ago). That's why we threw in that New Order album cover, because we're that cool. Awesome inspiration board for what will soon be an awesome wedding!

really, it's time!

2009-09-01T21:54:00.000-07:00

It's time I take my writing seriously, seriously. It's been 2 years since I had the biggest smile on my face from graduating college with my BA in English: Creative Writing. Right now I'm resting my head on my chin feeling disappointed. Sort of. I use the fact that I write a children's blog for my job to justify that I am doing some kind of writing. It's not bad though. I prefer it to all the writing I do in my head that never makes itself on paper.

Yesterday my thoughts on writing became clear. I was killing time in a bookstore trying to get a feel for which wedding magazine was going to have something inside that I hadn't already seen in the piles of others that I've wasted too much money on, when I decided to move to another part of the bookstore (reference section). Facing me was a fat copy of this book:

I did some reading and immediately thought, "This is what I need! I need to know the market! Once I know who I'm writing for, I can write!". But is my writing novel worthy, I asked myself. Will I ever write anything longer than 10 pages? What kind of book/style of literature do I want my name attached to when I'm published someday? Who do I write for, or want to write for?

Pretty valid and long answered questions I had going on up there. I tried to answer most of them, and concluded that the first part of every answer was I had to write.

I thought back to the writing I've done and realized every short story I've written has been about kids. The books that I remember the most are the ones I read as a kid. So, I should write for kids, no? And luckily to the right of me was the book I really bought:

That's more like it. Now I felt comfortable. So now I have the "Bible" of who to send my "Children's" stories to once they're ready, but because I'm obsessed with buying books I had to look for another. Oh! Nice cover design I thought when I saw this one:

And how perfect that it was titled, How to Become a Famous Writer Before You're Dead.

¡¡¡Let me note one important thing that I hope some soon to be published author reads: Your cover art really does matter, so pick someone that knows how to design a cover, not just blow up an image and add a large font to float above it. And don't use a real photo of a person pointing their finger at the reader. Especially with a title like this. I would have never bought this book, or even opened it had it looked like a self help book (even though it kind of is one). So, Ariel Gore, excellent cover and thank you for writing this book. It's the motivation I needed!!!

Now I write!

read this, and that

2009-07-27T20:58:00.000-07:00

i finally got my copy of The Angel's Game, and am loving every sentence, chapter, and image i read. i've missed feeling like a book nerd, and this is just what i needed to get me going again. if you haven't heard of author, Carlos Ruiz Zafòn, or read The Shadow of the Wind, you're missing a whole other world of literature. this isn't really a book review, because i have yet to finish The Angel's Game, i guess it's more of a, "hey, pick up this book and read it with me, because it's that good!" kind of thing. truth is, if you picked up this book today and started reading it, you'd most likely finish it before me. i'm taking my time with this one. i'm re-reading paragraphs, and immersing myself in every little bit of this story. why? because i've learned that Zafòn's style of writing is beauty. it's character, setting, and plot driven, and it needs to be read more than once. i'm only a few chapters in and i already don't want it to end. lucky for me it's a 531 page book. i'll let you know how it goes, but it would definitely be awesome to hear someone else share in the excitement besides me. you don't need to start with The Shadow of the Wind (the sequel to The Angel's Game), but you should; since that's how he intended for us to read the story.

this chica is going to be hitched!

2009-06-22T18:56:00.000-07:00

es la verdad! and i'm going to do my best to share all that wedding excitement with you!

so, the countdown to the wedding is coming up on 9 months, and i already feel like time is starting to speed up. we got engaged november 23rd (all my co-workers saw it coming!) in upperlake, ca. here i am on the phone with my parents, telling them the news right after the question was popped:

and the engagement story goes a little something like this:

andres pulls me close, sets his hands on my sides and says, 'i'm taking you away this weekend'. i giggle, because the first thought that runs through my mind is, 'he's going to propose!'. but i play it cool, because i don't want to jump to conclusions (it has after all been almost 8 years that i've been waiting for this man to ask me!). i ask him where we're going, but of course, it's a surprise. i ask if i should pack a dress or something nice. he says, 'you don't have to'. so i don't (which i now regret). the day before, i'm at work, and my co-workers ask, 'what are your plans this weekend?'. i tell them, 'andres is taking me away for the weekend'. they shout, 'oh my gosh, he's going to ask you to marry him!'. 'ssshhhhhh!, i tell them, don't jinx it!'. so we're off, driving in our friends car up north a few hours. we finally get to our destination, and i fall in love with the historical, antique designed, Tallman Hotel. the next day roles around and he doesn't pop the question, so i get it through my head that he's not going to ask so i should just enjoy the weekend away from the city. now comes day 2 of the weekend. we decide to have a picnic somewhere near the lake. except this lake is huge, and we're picky about a nice little patch of land to settle at. we end up driving for over 2 hours trying to find a nice spot, stopping several times because i see some that i like. 'no, we can find a better spot. let's keep looking', andres says each time. we finally see a little opening off the road and hike to a small secluded spot near the lake. he ditches me at this point (he's scouting where he's going to pop the question), while i'm sitting and reading. he comes back, takes the book out of my hands and right then, because i feel him shaking, i know what's happening. i don't even let him get two words out before i start crying. but he tells me all the good stuff, which i shall leave just for me and him, and pulls out the little black box. i'm giggling and crying so much at this point because here is my best friend, of 14 years struggling to find the right words, and asking me to marry him. i look at the ring and smile. he did good! no cheesy diamonds, but a custom-designed perfect ring with a smokey quartz in the center and two citrine stones at the sides. the rest of the weekend is us saying to each other every fifteen minutes, 'we're getting married!'.

if you're in northern california area, definitely recommend staying at the Tallman Hotel! it's beautiful.

Zombies Do Exist!

2009-01-29T23:14:00.000-08:00

Texas had some recent zombie scares as someone was witty and smart enough to hack into these road signs and change them to repeat such phrases as the one you see above in the picture, and "The End Is Near!!!". Apparently they stayed up for some time and caused many drivers to slow down or turn around completely to do a double take.

This is pretty hilarious and I can only imagine the look or thoughts running through those people's minds that might have been driving from out of town and had thought that just maybe the sign was telling the truth. Pertie funny!

Saturday Night Movie

2008-11-08T15:28:00.000-08:00

Most everyone that knows me, knows that my time has been consumed by reading and talking about vampires. Thanks to the ever so addicting Twilight saga, and The Historian, I've been on a quest to read, and watch anything related to vampires. Oh yes, and I can't forget the HBO series, True Blood.

Just in case you wanted to know, and just because I feel like bragging, I've already bought my ticket for the midnight showing of Twilight on Nov.20.

But that's not what this post is about. Well sort of. Tonight I'll be watching a Swedish film, "Let the Right One in" (watch trailer below). A very quick synopsis from Wikipedia: "Oskar is a 12-year-old-boy who is being bullied at school. He befriends a mysterious girl, Eli, who moves in next door with her father Håkan. In the course of the film you find out all is not what it seems. Eli is really a vampire and her "father" supplies her with fresh blood by murdering young boys. As Oskar gradually begins to understand who Eli really is, the bond between them grows stronger. Eli teaches him to stand up to his bullies and Oskar grows increasingly fond of her."

Like I said, that was a very quick synopsis. I will most definitely offer a more in depth look into the film tomorrow, after I've seen the film. It's dark, gloomy, and wet here in San Francisco. The perfect weather for a movie like this! Check out the trailer below to see what I'm talking about! (Just click the image to start the trailer)

It's raining, I need a job, and my writing needs to make a comeback!

2008-11-08T14:39:00.000-08:00

I have to look at my blog each day; I've set it up as my home page so that I can't forget that I once wrote on a daily basis. I can't use the excuse that I don't have time to write, because I have more time then ever to write.
My hours at my job got cut by more then half, I'm searching for that perfect job, and I've got the attention and time to spend on what I'm most passionate about. And that's writing.
It's been who knows how long since I've written? Oh yeah, I can just check my last blog entry. Sad.
I made the first step to writing all over again, and that was to buy myself a nice notebook to write in. I carry my nice pen and empty notebook hoping to fill it once again with drafts of what will someday be a decent piece of writing.
It's raining, there's a small heater at my feet, the apartment is clean, and I should be all ready to go!

Tickets

2008-08-17T17:27:00.000-07:00

When they've got no place else to go, they take a trip to the circus. It never leaves their town, and it's the one place their parents allow them to roam without supervision. Because they are twin brothers that can still count their age on two hands, the carnies, now considered residents of the small town, allow them to enter for the special fee of twenty-five cents. It reads "Sullivan-Drew Circus" on their small tickets, and if they were to count up their previous tickets, still sitting on their chest at home, they'd realize this to be their sixteenth visit without ever meeting Sullivan or Drew.

"Maybe today", one boy says to the other.
It's never been as empty as it is today. With word of a new hot dog stand moving into town, residents have been saving their coins for chili dogs and pop.
"We've got chili dogs here too my friends. Don't you worry. Come back when your tummies start calling!", one of the carnies says as the boys pass the concessions.
Their small shoes collect small pebbles as they stroll, hands in their side pockets, making their way towards the haunting sound of the main attraction, Leo the Largest Lion. Hoping to catch a glimpse of the lion feeding, the boys turn a corner to look into its cage.
"Boy's want to feed em?", a deep voice calls from behind them. "He just looks mean that's all. Go on."
"Ya heard the man? Go on. He won't bite if he knows you'll feed em", a woman adds as she stumbles by, holding the longest locks of hair.
The boys pull aside the the cloth and make their way in.
"Come on up boys! We're preparing him for the show. Don't want em to be hungry now do we?"
They get close enough to smell the warm breath on the lion, and are instantly pulled back by the straps on their overalls.
"Thomas, don't you even think about what you were thinking about doing with these boys!", a feminine voice yells from behind them, their straps still firmly grappled in her fists. "Where is your Ma? She would nearly die of a heart attack if she sawl how close y'all were. And Thomas, you stay away from these boys."
The boys had not been tall enough to see past her waist, and were instantly amused when they could see through to her undergarments.
"I'll tell Mama if you look", the boy said to the other.
Once outside, the boys looked up towards the voice that had nearly ripped their clothing off. They'd recognized her as the bearded lady who'd come out to dance for the audience in between attractions.
"I've seen you boys come round here many times", she said."You like the show?"
The boys nodded, making sure to keep their line of sight as close to her eyes as possible.
"You boys aren't scared of a little hair, are you? It's quite soft, unlike a man's, but you're free to touch it."
"No thanks Ma'am. We should be going", the boy said nudging his brother.
"Don't be silly! I sawl you two just walk in. Come, I'll introduce you to the family".

(I keep a large National Geographic photography book on my desk to turn to for inspiration, for when reading doesn't do the trick. I went to it today as a warm up, skimming through the first couple of pages to find something that jumped out to me. This photograph taken in 1929, stopped me, feeling there was a story there, as there always is behind every picture. That's pretty much it! I had the book open to this picture, and this is the writing that came from it.)

nerd alert

2008-08-17T15:02:00.000-07:00

This is totally nerd alert on my part, but I'm tremendously happy to hear that I wont have to wait until December to watch the Twilight movie. I was catching up on reading Stephanie Meyer's blog and it's been announced that the new Harry Potter movie is being pushed back to July of next year, leaving Twilight to take it's place this November! I was tempted to put one of those countdown widgets on my blog, but I couldn't find any that weren't super cheese, and knew I would catch slack if I did. So this is a toned down version of my excitement.

Aside from the fact that there are millions of screaming tweens that are obsessed with the saga, it's really an exciting time to be a reader and a writer. It's great to see that people can still get swept up by literature. It gives me hope! I'm not so hardcore as others are, as I have only just finished the second book. After finishing the second book, I was tempted to head to the nearest bookstore to buy the third, but something stopped me. For one, the third book isn't out on paperback yet, and I have a pet peeve of buying a hardcover in a series if the others I have are paperback. Second, I didn't want to rush the story along. The writing itself isn't beautifully written or spends too much time being detailed; that's not what pulled me in. It's more of the fact that Meyer writes just what needs to be told from the perspective of the main character. If events happen that are not relevant to the present state of the main character, they aren't written about, and I appreciate that. I'm not sitting, and skimming through paragraphs to get to the next 'juicy' spot, because the writing stays constant throughout each chapter, and these are thick books. It's been a really enjoyable experience getting so caught up in her story, and I'd hate to see it come to an end, so that's why I'm hesitant to move towards the final fourth book.

So for now, I'm going to wait for the paperback version of Eclipse, and move on to another book on my list. Oh yeah, there's more about this whole Twilight saga: Meyer has given in to telling that Breaking Dawn is not going to be the end of these characters. She's spilled the beans that she's currently working on writing the first book over through the perspective of Edward! I was pretty excited to hear that Breaking Dawn wasn't going to be the death of these characters and their story. It will instead mark the ending to Bella's perspective. I wonder if this means that she's going to pick up some male readers once Edward's version of the story is told.

popote

2008-08-16T14:12:00.000-07:00

Andres and I have been hard at work creating the foundation to our teeny business, popote. It began with a lot of talk about opening up our own store, then realized we didn't have the moola to get any of that in the works, and went back to the drawing table. It then came to, "What can we make now?" Andres, coming from a print making/graphic design background thought it would be great to design our own line of cards. We walked around different stores, seeing what was out there. It was inspiring to see many creative cards being made, many of which could easily be framed because they were so artistic. To set ourselves apart from everything that we saw out there, we decided to experiment with a different medium, vinyl.

Working with close friend, Annie (also a graphic designer), we came up with some designs, put them through the plotting machine, and began the strenuous, but somehow relaxing job of picking vinyl. Thanks to a good friend, Francois, we were able to book a table at this year's SF Zine Fest. We got our name out there, had some sales, and got motivated to keep the action going. We quickly opened an ETSY shop, and are currently picking more designs and creating new cards that should be posted on ETSY within the next couple days. We're also making home decals that you can place pretty much anywhere around your house (your plain IKEA kitchen table, refrigerator, wall, mirror, laptop, etc). We've been getting a lot of great feedback on what we're doing and it's just making us work that much harder on creating things that we hope everyone else will enjoy. While creating all this is fun, we're also finding out how much it takes to make yourself an actual business. There's a lot of stuff we need to educate ourselves on, but we're so thankful that we are surrounded by creative minds that can lend in really useful tips! Hopefully we will also have a table at Bazaar Bizarre, and APE, so keep an eye out for us! In the meantime check out our popote shop.

next month-treasure island music festival

2008-08-16T13:05:00.000-07:00

It's a good time to be living in San Francisco! I just wrote about the Outside Lands Music Festival going on next week, but forgot to mention next months festivities going on at Treasure Island. The Treasure Island Music Festival is happening September 20 & 21st. I've got my ticket marked for Saturday's line up with Nortec Collective, Foals, Goldfrapp, Amon Tobin, and more. Tickets are lot more affordable, with single day tickets selling for $65.00 (includes a ride from SF to Treasure Island). Anyone living in California should definitely road trip themselves to the Bay Area; it's not often you get the chance to listen to great music on an island with a perfect view of the city just across from you. Think about it, and hopefully see you there.

radiohead in golden gate park

2008-08-16T12:25:00.000-07:00

The Outside Lands Music Festival is next week! Tickets are a bit pricey, but as you can see there's a huge lineup for all three days. Golden Gate Park holds a lot of music festivals (most of which have all been free), but this is the first time anyone is going to perform at night, and Radiohead will be the first to ever do this. How lucky that I live just across the street from where it's all going down! I haven't bought my tickets yet, because I'm curious to see how they will block out people that are just going to squat around the gates to listen. I'm sure half the population of SF is thinking of doing this, so we'll see! But of course I'm in a dilemma because my brother just called me from New York after seeing Radiohead last week saying, "You've got to get up close..amazing". Perhaps I'll have to squeeze out the moola since there's no way I can pass up seeing Radiohead in GG Park.

lunch break writing

2008-06-03T01:29:00.001-07:00

He's the the type of guy that tries to hide his smile. If he knew it made him more attractive, I'm sure he'd hide it that much more. That's the type of guy I like to crack. He looks at you, figuring out whether or not he wants to let you into his circle of friends. You know he'll never introduce you to that circle, but you're okay with that-besides, you don't want to know him on that level. It would break all the mystique the two of you have about each other's lives. For now take what you can get-a hidden smile that you know hides undeniable feelings of being with you. You'll want to hint at him that you accept-that you're now a player of his game-but before you utter a word to him, pull your hair behind one ear and smile. That's his cue to pursue. Next move is on him. Don't worry, you won't have to wait long because, as you already know, he's attracted to you-and his next move will come within the next ten minutes. You wait. After all, you love the cat and mouse chase that's occurring. He's careful not to give you too much attention, after all he's the one that began the game. You're just hoping to get to the finish by the end of the day.

(I'm trying to write any chance I get-which means lunch breaks! This is exactly what I wrote in my notebook, no editing. I was sitting in a little pastry shop staring out the window, people watching. I was forcing myself to write anything. I usually have a tendency to observe people and write about what I'd imagine their life to be like, so I guess you can say this was sparked by an attractive guy that walked by the window I was peeping out of! Whatever the spark, it got me to write, right?)

sunday afternoon tunes

2008-06-01T17:23:00.000-07:00

Besides falling in love with a great book, there's nothing else I love more then finding music that gives me goosebumps. It's been about a month and a half that I got introduced to The Radio Dept. and I haven't been able to stop listening everyday. It seemed so fit to post them on a Sunday as I'm sitting outside in my patio area, on this perfect San Francisco afternoon listening to them. There's something about their music that makes me want to go back and watch all the home video tapes that were ever taken of my life, and attach their songs to them. A sense of sadness comes over me when listening to them that I love. I go back and relive moments in my life through their music and then have to remind myself of all the things that have changed up to the present. The fact that music can have that power over me is amazing, and can't imagine life without it. I couldn't even imagine being a writer without music. It plays such a huge part in how I write; as I'm never able to sit down and write unless I've got headphones on, zoning out everything around me.

I hope you're all able to take something away from music the way I do, and that you all have those playlists on your ipod that you just listen to over and over (that maybe give you goosebumps?).

Enjoy the tunes and the adorable little cloud in this video!

sharing is fun!

2008-05-29T00:21:00.000-07:00

I love to stare at my bookshelf, usually trying to remember when I bought a particular book, and why I liked it so much. I thought it would be fun to share what my favorite books were as a young Junia. These are all books I still own and hope to someday pass down to my kids, if the books haven't fallen apart by then.

Numero Uno:

The classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. This is the edition I own, except the cover and pages are hanging together by librarian tape. I first read this book in the third grade when I checked it out from my school's library. You remember Library Days? They were like mini field trips. Your whole class would walk to the library and be allowed to check out three books. You'd stand at the large wooden desk getting your books checked out while the librarian's assistant would give you a free bookmark. While you waited for the rest of the class to finish picking their books, you'd run over to the bean bags to start reading your book! That was me. I even read as we walked back to our classroom. When I got home, I'd read aloud to my mom as she cooked dinner, then leave it on the table next to my plate when it was time to eat. I never let a book out of my sight, especially this one. I loved this book so much, and continued to check it out so many times that the school librarian just decided to give it to me. I felt I walked into a dream each time I read about an edible chocolate factory, and laughed when Violet turned into a huge blueberry. Then I found out about the movie (the original), and flipped! I began singing every song, and wishing I could be just as lucky as Charlie-but always wondered why the other grandparents would never get out of bed! Lazy!

Numero Dos:

I know this is another Roald Dahl, but I was a fan, ok! I was actually given this book by the school librarian as well because I checked it out so much. I loved this book because it was like nothing I had ever read. It was disgusting, morally wrong, and hilarious! I loved Mr. and Mrs. Twit for all their conniving tricks they played on one another. I always pictured their home to be filled with mud, left over molded food in pots and pans, frogs, and hair from either Mr. Twit's beard, or Mrs. Twit's raggedy head!

Numero Tres:

I'm sure most of you are laughing at this one. That's ok, I laughed too when I decided I was going to share with the world that I read the Girl Talk series. I hope I'm not alone on this one, but these were great! While everyone else was getting into The Babysitters Club, I was sneaking around with these books. They came out at the perfect time when my little body was transforming into the tween years of my life. Boys were beginning to exist in the same world, and something in these stories was calling out my name! More than anything, I think I was fascinated by the fact that once I finished one book, I could go and get another and continue to grow with the story and its characters. I wonder where most of these books are now, or what has replaced them for girls these days???

So come out with it! What were your top three books when you were little?

it's my Birfday!

2008-05-21T01:31:00.000-07:00

I'm 25! I can finally rent a car! Wait. No. I. Can't....I never got my license! How sad. But that's ok, because I got an awesome present from Andres. Check out my new toy! You better believe I'll be posting the snapshots I take with this snazzy camera. After I develop them and get a scanner though!

what i just finished, and what is next on the list

2008-05-12T23:54:00.000-07:00

Not too long ago, during one of my many trips to Stacey's Bookstore, I walked over to the "Teen" section, as I often do (Have you seen the good reads that are coming out for teens these days?), and judging a book by its cover, I noticed Twilight by Stephenie Meyer. I grabbed it off the shelf, weighing the thickness of the novel, and thought, "Do kids really read books this fat?".

So the back cover of the book reads, "Best Book of the Decade....So Far", "HOT LIST" pick, "Best Book of the Year", "A New York Times Editor's Choice"! By now, I'm thinking I'm already a step behind because I haven't read this book! I buy it immediately, and begin my read on the train ride home. When I walk in the door, the first thing I say to my boyfriend Andres is, "I'm in love with someone else." He takes a step back and says, "Huh? Who?". I say, "Edward Cullen".

I continue to read, never letting the book leave my side, finding myself with a giddy smile on my face page after page, and then I realize that little high school girl inside me wanting to come out. Ok, enough with my experience of reading the book, you most likely want to know what it's about, right? Well, I could explain it, but then you would think one, I'm a nerd, two, it's only a book for girls, and three, eh? But I'll try. Very bluntly, it's a present day story about 18 year old Bella falling in love with Edward, a guy who has physically retained his 17 year old physique after turning to a vampire in 1908. Bella temporarily relocates herself to live with dad in small town, Forks, Washington. Walking into the high school, she's treated as that strangely beautiful new girl, admired by all the boys- in particular, Edward, who you later find out cannot resist the smell of her blood. From the moment they lock eyes on each other, it becomes that innocent flirtation that exists without actually conversing. It takes you back to your high school days when you wish you could interact with that one flawless looking guy/girl. The interaction, and sexual tension (on Bella's part) between the two of them becomes so intense that you forget reading a teen book. Because Edward and the rest of his vampire brothers and sisters have been raised not to hunt human flesh, especially those of the people in Forks, he resists the temptation of Bella's scent and decides to vow to forever protect her.

If it sounds all lovey dovey, it is, but in a really good way that keeps you reading. It gets dangerous, and really interesting when another group of vampires travels through Forks and picks up on Bella's scent. That's all I'm saying! Go pick it up and read it if you haven't already! Then come back and let me know what you thought-especially if you are a male. I'm really interested in getting a male's point of view of the story. There is a second and third book following Twilight, but while I wait for the second one, New Moon, to come out on paperback, I've gone ahead and started on Meyer's recently published, The Host (Meyer's first adult novel).

mini art

2008-05-12T21:05:00.000-07:00

I'm sure you all get those light bulb idea moments when you decide you want to start getting into a particular hobby, create a list of things you have to get accomplished, or just decide on something you're going to change in your life-right? This past weekend I decided I was going to start collecting cards. Not baseball cards, not Pokemon cards, but greeting/everyday cards, invitations, etc. These days there are so many small presses that are turning out some really stellar work (which myself and friends will soon be in competition with; more on that another day), some of which I'd even consider framing. To the untrained person, this might sound LAME, and if it does, you are probably someone that looks for cards at Hallmark. Here are just a couple of my favorites from particular presses:

*Card reads "friends forever", by Elum

*This card by Binth is insanely creative.

*Night Owl Paper Goods has an entire collection printed on eco-friendly sustainably harvested yellow birch that are too adorable. This is definitely a new trend that is popping up among cards, but is really so unique and gives a new way of looking at everyday cards, or postcards.

Hopefully these inspire you to want to check out what more is out there! I tend to love smaller versions of things, so I look at them like miniature pieces of affordable art that can be kept for your own pleasure, or given to someone as an everyday reminder that you care about, or just want to make laugh! Neato, huh? Now you see why I am starting this collection? So you want to see the first two cards that began this card collecting frenzy? Here they are!

*Each color on this pinata card by La Familia Green is its own individually cut piece.

*And then there is this one, rightfully titled, Tezcatlipunk! How could it be passed up? Printed in Mexico, by artist Sergio Arau.

Menomena

2008-05-06T00:56:00.000-07:00

So there's this really neat vlog from France titled LaBlogotheque. This guy goes around and films bands playing a track on the fly, and shares it with the rest of us! There are some groups that he has filmed that I don't really care for, but the way it's filmed and the idea behind catching these groups playing without the lights, the crowds of people, and the price of admission, allows these bands to appear relatable. He doesn't edit anything out-it's the pure music, along with any distractions that may come along with it-filming groups playing in a furniture store, an alley, a courtyard, walking down a street, etc. No matter the group, these short films are so addicting to watch-like little pieces of art attached to good tunes. This video ranks as one of my top favorites, not only because I dig the song, but because of the visitors that happen to stop by to listen to the music! You'll see!

art show at 111 minna

2008-04-27T22:36:00.000-07:00

This past friday I headed to 111 Minna to check out the art scene for the night. It wasn't just any ol' art show though- a good friend I grew up with, Travis Gire, had his work up-finally! I'm not being biased-his work was truly the most talented of the bunch-alright, alright, I am being biased! Since I've known Travis he's always sharpied on any surface, and had a talent for interpreting art through a creative unique way that I was always jealous of never attaining. His colors are poppin, his lines are perfectly executed, and there's a sense of humor and personality in each of his works. San Francisco is the prefect place for his work to be seen. I definitely know that we're going to start seeing a lot of his work appear throughout the city (perhaps a series of vinyl toys for KidRobot?)! In the mean time, check out Travis Gire for yourself!

15 minutes of memories

2008-04-27T20:02:00.000-07:00

Machaca burritos rolled in foil paper release steam when taken out of their Ziploc baggies, Joshua Trees on the drive to El Centro remind her that she wants to replant her garden, add some nature to a ship wreck themed pool area, surrounding a double-layered strawberry filled cake with a big “15” the presents sit on the table not by size but by order in which to be opened, Christmas bows hide between her nylon wearing legs and the coffee table, on a carpet covered with ripped wrapping paper, her breath blows into arm floaties faster than my mom so I can run into the water, catch up with my cousins, already fishing for crabs at the water’s edge, she said she would only ride the Ninja rollercoaster, she went on twice. In a family of men, she was content. You could tell she wanted a girl, wanted someone to hand her possessions down to someday. I got two of her gold bracelets, a blazer, a miniature thumb-sized porcelain dog, a leg broken so it doesn’t stand on its own, a Christmas teddy bear pin with ice skates on and a tiny red scarf, and a picture of the two of us together, when we thought she was sick with a cold.

(This was written in 2005, five years after my tia Martha passed of cancer. I had set out to write for 15 minutes straight about any memories that crossed my mind about my life with her. It purely began out of curiosity, to see how my mind worked, and what it wanted to remember. I made sure not to edit the memories that were flowing through my mind at the time because I wanted it to be true and simple to its title. I remember falling in love with this piece after I was done-content that I was able to capture these fragments of her life and hold on to them.

I'm posting this now because I wanted to revisit these memories and attempt to write a second part-to see what memories would have changed if I sat to write for another 15 minutes. I began writing and became irritated with what was being remembered. The latter part of her life, that I refuse to associate with her reappeared. My mind denied me access to any other memory aside from those when she was too ill to smile anymore.

The process of remembering someone that you know should still be around today has proved difficult. You never want to admit to forgetting someone's smell, someone's touch-it's something we all fear. Do you forget how it was to receive a hug, because you're not that small girl that would run into her arms as you got out of the car? The pieces of memory I hold onto have no sound-solely a reel of images caught in an action associated with the younger me. This short piece encompasses those moments as they still present themselves in my memory today.)

foto of the weekend

2008-04-13T23:08:00.000-07:00

This is what happens when Andres doesn't get any sleep. Sadly, this is our kitchen. And sadly, it stayed this way the entire weekend, until just a couple hours ago. Normally, I would have flipped out, and gone OCD on him, but it didn't seem fit considering all his hard work payed off! All this catastrophe was made to show at an awesome event, Yuri's Night, that was put on at the NASA Ames Research Center in Mountain View. The event was in celebration of Yuri Gagarin, the first human to go into space on April 12, 1961. The event was a collaboration of art, science, technology, space, and music. It was quite the event! (click on the photo to see it enlarged)

*Click here and here to view the final pieces that Andres submitted for Yuri's Night!

The Woman That Would Never Approach You

2008-04-08T21:25:00.000-07:00

She wanted to be the woman of many lovers, and you were next on her list. Her hair was always pulled away from her face, insisting she was proud of her looks-features you could only imagine coming from a woman that would never approach you. But she did. While you were sitting in that indoor cafeteria, reading your arts magazine, headphones playing loudly-she was sitting behind you, practicing how she was going to break her routine of keeping her guarded eye. You dropped your napkin just as she was scooting out of her seat to make her way. This made her nervous so she walked in the opposite direction, leaving you no evidence of her presence-except you turned your head quickly, observing a pleasant smell that reminded you of the girlfriend you had in the seventh grade. Upon retrieving the napkin that just cost you the encounter with the woman that would never have approached you, you collected what you could of your memories to recall the name of the girlfriend you had just been reminded of. You remembered-Lilliana. Your music continued to play loudly leaving you clueless to the fact that the woman had returned to pick up the trash she had left on the table. On a normal day, she would have left it-but today, you had chosen to sit at the table nearest her. It threw her off balance, and took it as a sign that today, she was going to talk to you.

(So....I had been working on another piece of writing-which is why I hadn't blogged in a couple days....and really disliked where it was going. So tonight I told myself...self...just write anything! I had recently been thinking about Gabriel Garcia Marquez, and his last short novel on the many women he slept with throughout his life. The very first line of this short was inspired by him and his short novela, Memory of my Melancholy Whores.)

foto of the day

2008-04-02T20:23:00.000-07:00

This photo just made me laugh! Hope it has the same effect on you.

foto of the day

2008-04-01T18:52:00.000-07:00

You never forget your childhood friends. It never matters where they are now. But you can't erase the kid you once were-days that were filled with dirty fingernails, unwashed jeans, and lunch bags. When I saw this picture, I grew a little envious at the childhood bond that occurs between young boys. There is an unspoken relationship that never gets broken between two young friends. They hold no fear, an adventure lies around every corner they see-they don't worry about impressing the opposite sex-that waits for the later years in life-but even then, when they have their friend aside them, they could care less about what anyone else thinks-all they see is the present and how they can push the hours of the day to last forever.

foto of the day

2008-03-31T17:55:00.000-07:00

This photo goes out to my parents. I will always wonder what it would have been like to live in Holtville, but will always thank my parents for choosing to start their life someplace else. Holtville represents a silent innocence of memories I feel are so far away. It is a gathering of childhood photographic memories that play on constant shuffle. You can visit this place once in your life, return twenty years later only to notice a change in the children's play structure in the middle of town. Holtville is like comfort food-you taste it, and feel a rush of your youth flood your veins!

/s/

2008-03-27T00:28:00.001-07:00

Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. Sally sells sea shells by the sea shore. Good. Now hold the tip of your tongue behind your two front teeth and make the /s/ sound. Keep going. Good job.

Junia had a speech impediment growing up, was pulled out of her fourth grade class twice a week to meet in a tiny room to the side of the library, to have a speech therapist take away her lisp. The lisp had developed from the day her big teeth had settled to grow in crooked with a large gap in between. The tip of Junia's tongue would grow sore; she could never stop slipping it in and out of the gap. The space between those two front teeth was wide enough to make her self conscience when smiling, but she did so anyways-she laughed so much.

No one in Junia's family had ever taught her to be embrassed of herself, but she had reason to fear that if the curse of the lisp was not removed, she would forever spit in the face of her company while sounding out the /s/. Junia's family never teased her at home. Junia's friends never teased her at school. Junia did not know why she had to leave while the class had free play. But Junia would walk out, through the halls peeping her head into the doors that had been left open, using up any time she could to prolong her meeting with the speech therapist. Luckily Junia was not alone. She had a companion, with the same problem, except she couldn't pronounce the /r/ sound. Junia and the other girl would take turns hearing each other struggle to make the sound that the other found so easily to do. The therapist would hold a flash card with a picture of a rowboat.

Hold the tip of your tongue to the roof of your mouth and make the /r/ sound. Feel the vibration on the roof of your mouth. Good. Now make a circle with lips. Blow out. Good. Now tell me what this is a picture of.

Junia would try not to look while the other girl would attempt to force her mind to say something her mouth could not sound out. Woahboat, the other girl would say, Woahboat.
Junia would practice sounding out Rowboat in her head while trying to figure out why it was such a hard sound for the other girl to make.

Junia quickly learned that the more she read aloud at home while being aware of the placement of her tongue, the less evil she would find the /s/. Her meetings with the speech therapist went down to once a week. Great times were upon Junia, for she convinced herself that she had been cured. There was just one little problem.

When Junia looked in the mirror, all she could see was the space between her teeth.

(If you laughed or giggled at the end of this little story, then I have succeeded. Tonight, for some odd reason, I found myself placing my tongue behind my two front teeth, and was instantly reminded of the lisp I had growing up. I'd always thought it was funny how I never really talked about it to many people. I began remembering what a sad feeling I would get when I had to leave class to work on a "problem" that I had with the way I talked, and thought I'd share it in a playful way. While writing this, I had it in mind that I wanted to write it as if it were a kids book. I still find myself adjusting my tongue when I know I'm going to pronounce the /s/, and thought it would be interesting to write it using "Junia" as the character. I've actually never used my name in a story when writing in the third person, so I had a lot of fun. Let me remind you, everything I write here is nothing close to a finished piece (unless I tell you). I write whatever comes to me without editing, so don't expect anything great from a little story about my lisp!)

One of the best shows ever created.

2008-03-08T15:18:00.000-08:00

I had told myself that I wasn't going to post any videos on here, but then I figured...what the heck? If I am using this to share everything that I love, and that makes me happy, then I will share it. Es la verdad, o es la verdad? Plus, there are sooo many things on the internet these days, from other peoples blogs, to videos, to art, to everything, that inspire me.......or in this case, just make me smile. So enjoy!

What has been taking up my time?

2008-03-01T16:32:00.000-08:00

For the past month I have stopped writing so that I could concentrate on a book that I have not been able to put down. The book is, The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon. I'm almost to its end, and have found myself reading slowly as not to end it so quickly. I want to say it's one of the best pieces of literature I have read, because it is.

The story takes places in Barcelona during the 1950's when a father takes his son, Daniel, to The Cemetery of Forgotten Books. Daniel is told to choose any book that 'calls to him' from the never-ending shelves of books that have long been awaiting a new reader. His father, a man who knows the place of each book in that room by memory is surprised when Daniel pulls out a book he has never seen, by an author he has never heard of. The book changes Daniel's life, and from that moment, Daniel becomes obsessed with finding any information he can about the author and the whereabouts of his previous novels (that he soon finds out have all been burned). He travels through the small village, a dark shadow of a man following in his tracks, meeting people that withhold details surrounding the true life of the author. As his quest continues, parallels between his own life and the life of the author begin to surface.

I feel lucky to have gotten the chance to read this story, and just had to tell you about it. It must be shared and enjoyed by anyone that still enjoys being taken to another world through language and literature.

Color-Coated Bookshelf

2008-02-03T15:45:00.000-08:00

I've been wanting to organize my books by color since I saw it about a month ago on another blog, but thought it was going to take a long time. So I set out to finally do it today, and well here it is! It only took about half an hour to do, and the result is actually pretty neat to look at. I'm obsessed with books, so it was a lot of fun for me. Before, I had the extra books stacked on each other horizontally to the side. Unfortunately I don't have the room for another bookshelf even though I need one, so I started a makeshift bookshelf to the side, piling books on top of each other vertically. I changed it up, and think it came out better this way. What do you think?

Part One

2008-02-03T11:12:00.000-08:00

The stores had been running out of water since Friday. We were never going to have enough. "We can drink this water", Dad had said, pointing down to the swimming pool,"I'll drain it, refill it with the hose, and put the cover over it". There was a chance this could work if we could all get it out of our minds that there had been chlorine compounds filling the pool's water prior. "Hose water is the same as tap, right? It's ok to drink?", Brother asked, aiming the hose to his mouth. I didn't have any questions going through my mind-I was haunted by the neighbors shadows showing partially through their screened window.

The day we waited for the pool to drain, Mother and I walked to the bookstore. She wanted to make sure I'd have something to read to take my mind off of the hunger she feared would come sooner then later. Fortunately for us, not many people were considering the entertainment that literature would bring them during the days ahead. I had reached to grab one of the thickest books I could see on the shelf when an overpowering woman knocked me out of the way with her knee. "That's MINE!", she yelled, looking around to make sure Mother wasn't nearby. I wanted to let out all the cursing that was going through my head, but all that came out was, "I wanted to read that you BEAST!" Mother found me with a heavy load of books stacked next to me, and a smirk that said, I know we can't afford these, but I want them all! Mother pulled out a large duffle bag from inside her backpack, "Here, throw them in. Quick! People are starting to realize they can use books for fire." Tossing the books into the bag, I glanced around at all the books and wondered which ones would survive to prove that we had once existed.

(I'm ending this here for now, but I will definitely pick it up again. There was something about this piece of writing that was really engaging to write. I'm slowly putting together these characters in my mind as I write this, so check back later for a part two!)

i made some envelopes!

2008-02-01T10:50:00.000-08:00

The inside of each envelope has an embossed image of leaves. Some of the decorative paper that was too thin needed an inside layer, so I put one! These all took about an hour to cut and fold, then about another half hour to emboss. They were a lot of fun to make especially while watching the season premiere of LOST last night! I'm actually giving these out to co-workers today (it's my last day before I start an awesome new job!)

a broken bike

2008-01-27T13:11:00.000-08:00

It was chained to the parking meter in front of my apartment. It had been a week since I'd seen it facing another direction. It had a thick layer of red duct tape around each handle bar, covering its original black color. It had a frame built for a large person, although I suspected a petite teenager rode it.

It was a month ago now-I have yet to see it's owner whom I'd suspected was a teenager, although I'm told otherwise by the upstairs neighbor, "It belong to little man with black beard". It had an owner who was consistent with the way it was chained. It takes precision and time to wrap it the way he does. It must have looked odd the day I sat on my stoop staring at its artful diligence for half the day. It was still there after the new year, streamers haphazardly intertwined throughout its spokes. It wasn't until I heard the upstairs neighbor scramble down the stairs that I knew I should run out and meet her. "It gone away!", she uttered, resting her arm on my shoulder catching breath.

(i sat down with the intention to write a quick story beginning each sentence with the word "It". this was what came to me.)

fun and good read for anyone creative

2008-01-21T16:04:00.000-08:00

it's a bit pricey, but How I Write The Secret Lives of Authors, is awesome and comforting to anyone that knows what it's like to sit down and have everything be just right before you start writing and/or crafting. i always thought of myself of having a bit of obsessive compulsive when it came to writing or doing anything that involved sitting at my desk for a long period of time. everything around me has to be organized. the bed has to be made. i can either have a candle burning or fresh flowers on my desk. i always have a set of books that i will look to when i get writer's block(including this one). and it's nice to have little figurines around. i like a cluttered desk, as long as it looks organized.

things like this are silly to admit to. that is why i found this book so relieving. there is a long list of authors that sent in pictures and a short piece of writing of what their workspace looks like and their routine when it comes down to getting their work done. these are a couple of my favorite pages, just to give you a taste.

skeleton drop spine box

2008-01-21T00:15:00.000-08:00

this is a 4.5x10 inch. drop spine box. the spine and bottom are covered in a charcoal book cloth with a charteuse ribbon accent. the decorative paper on the cover and inside box is a dark gray with a scarlett red dense filigree pattern with a skeleton anatomy chart on the inside cover. the bottom right cover corner has an embossed image of nine skulls.

hometime

2008-01-20T13:04:00.000-08:00

here's a nice little way to spruce up plain ikea furniture! we have a little wooden table & chairs from ikea in our kitchen. andres and i worked on the design, then he went to transferring it onto an off white color piece of vinyl. and of course there's fresh flowers on the table (i try and buy flowers that you don't see often and will last a long time with the proper care!).

2008-01-20T12:52:00.000-08:00

my reading corner. there's a floating bookshelf holding the books that i want to read next. my favorite part of my reading corner is my plant. there is no maintenance involved in it, so i love it! the sticks have an awesome lime green moss and are placed in a cute old shoe shine box. comfy!

Homeboy

2008-01-17T20:10:00.000-08:00

You stay around your home town long enough and you can become an expert at it. Get to know who's moved out, who's pregnant, where to eat, and where the parties are at. Tonight it's dead and no one's informed you that your place is the meeting grounds for sitting around deciding what the plan will be. You can hear your boy's muffler dragging a block away so you take out the left over chips from the quincenera that happened in your backyard the weekend before, and yell, "Ama! There's no more salsa?", because you know you ain't one to pay the bills while Ama still makes you frijolitos at home.
Your boy's are the ones you mess with, drink with and most importantly, give you the confidence to talk to girls with. They hook up with the girls in your town this weekend and hook up with their friends the next. You got game only when you're around them except you act like it's second nature because where you're from, if you ain't playing the field, you're sitting out on the bench like you did when you never got picked for baseball. Always someone hooking up. Always with the girl from school you use to look at and say pobrecita to.

(this was inspired by Junot Diaz' style of writing.)

shadow play on a murakami short story

2008-01-09T00:00:00.001-08:00

I bought a newspaper at the corner market and came across a story about a young boy who had eaten a peanut butter and banana sandwich and died. He was eight years old and lived in one of the cleanest parts of the city-an unusual sort of life, just him and his third grade teacher in a three bedroom apartment. One day, he suddenly collapsed in his teacher’s reading room-an allergic reaction, most likely. Nobody knew how long it had taken for him to die, but they figured he must have fought it for over fifteen minutes. The young boy didn’t have any in-town relatives or friends that he played with regularly, and it was a good six hours before his body was discovered. The windows had all been open half way; that morning, he and his third grade teacher had made omelets with garlic and artichoke sausage. The teacher loved cooking with the young boy, but insisted all the windows stay open until the entire smell of the sausage was out of the apartment. There wasn’t any medicine in the house that he could reach-the Epinephrine injection that would have saved his life was on top of the refrigerator-a place he was not tall enough to reach even with his stepping stool. Granted, there was a dining room chair he could have dragged over, but he had been told when he first moved in that any furniture in the dining room was off limits-it was only to be used during dinner parties and CPS visits. On the verge of boredom, the young boy-after having sat through countless hours of cooking shows with the third grade teacher set off to surprise his guardian with a peanut butter and banana sandwich.
I read this article to ___________, who was sitting across from me. On rainy days, we’d stop at the corner market, buy a copy of The Chronicle, walk to the coffee shop four blocks away, and I’d summarize anything interesting I might come across as ___________read the current graphic design magazine.
“I like it when you read to me,” he explained. “I want to hear what’s going on. You never used to read the newspaper before, it’s cool. I suppose this means you’re going to read me the rest of the paper?”
We had our own little corner in the coffee shop-with a makeshift waterfall next to us. And I took pleasure in reading aloud. When I lived in Mexico City I used to read teenage novels aloud to my mother while she cooked dinner. Reading aloud always made me feel important-like an elementary teacher, so I took every opportunity to bluster about my reading abilities. Something quite unexpected happened whenever I would read a mystery novel, a kind of indefinable resonance between my mother and I- she’d ask me to translate everything into Spanish for her.
Taking the occasional sip of chai tea, I slowly read the article. I’d read over the previous few lines so that I would not lose the pace of the story. A few flies swarmed through the crumbs left on the table from a previous customer. They spent a moment circling the table before they swooped in and lapped up the tiniest of crumbs. After I had finished reading the whole story, __________ sat there, elbows resting on the armrests of the chair. He turned a page of his magazine, peeping his head to look at me-checking to make sure I was reading and not people-watching.
“Then what happened?” he asked.
“That’s it,” I replied, and folded up the paper. I took a napkin and wiped the table from the small spills we had made with our drinks. “At least, that’s all it says. They said they would try and do a follow-up in tomorrow’s paper.”
“But what happened to the third grade teacher?”
I stood up to throw the napkin away. “I have no idea. It doesn’t say.”
___________ put his thumb and middle finger to his temples and gave himself a mini massage, his own little habit. Whenever he was about to give an opinion—he rubbed his temples like that, as if he was stumbling upon a statement that would put together all the missing pieces of the young boy’s sudden isolated death. When I first met him, I found this habit quite annoying.
“The whole point of a newspaper is to state all the facts surrounding a particular event,” he finally announced. “They only tell you so much-like they want to feel important by keeping some of the details to themselves, then leave you thinking no one cares for this poor kid because there’s no mention of what happened to the teacher.”
He took a piece of gum out from the side pocket of his backpack, put it in his mouth, and flicked the wrapper my way. Every other day he’d have to buy a new pack-he chewed it so often.
I didn’t chew gum. Out of fear, I quit. Four years earlier I had been chewing gum when I heard a hard crunch. I spit the gum out into my hand, ran my tongue along my teeth and felt a chunk of tooth missing. Looking down into my palm, all I could think about was the amount of money and pain I was going to have to put myself through to fix what this piece of gum had damaged.
“What I really want to know,” __________ began, the smell of his gum reaching the air between us, “is where the teacher was while all this was happening to the poor kid? Why was an eight-year-old kid alone for over six hours? What do you think?”
“Six hours.” I replied.
“What?”
“He was left there for six hours-no more, no less.”
I gazed at the flies that had now found a sweet sensation in ___________’s shampoo. For a quick moment the flies circling __________’s head and the six hours this young boy lay dead became one in my mind. The milk steamer overlapped the buzz of the flies, and for a split second my consciousness couldn’t make out where I was. What was I doing here? I couldn’t get a grip on the situation, and turned to _________.
“Think about it. That kid was obviously taken from his real family to live with his teacher- who was supposed provide a better environment for him, then just leaves the kid alone to die.”
“I’m pretty sure the teacher didn’t know the kid was going to die.” I said. “Unless he purposely left a jar of peanut butter with a sign that said ‘eat me’.”
_________ didn’t laugh. He reached over to drop his magazine on the table between us. “That story reminds me of this kid I went to private school with. Did I ever tell you I went to private school? Right after eating my lunch, I walked over to the basketball courts to see if I wanted to join anyone’s game. This kid Daniel-kind of chunky, runs by and I pay him attention only because I hear him wheezing-trips smack on his face. But what I remember most—is what he said when I asked him why he was running—“They want to throw me in the grass!” he says to me with desperation through broken glasses.”
“Sounds sad,” I said.
“ ‘I’ll die if I touch grass’, he told me after he looked around making sure he wasn’t being chased. ‘At least that’s what my mom told me. Last year I told her I wanted to join a soccer league; wanted to run around so I could lose some weight—do something else other than come home and watch her crochet. Right away she tells me, ‘No, you’ll die if you touch grass.’ Every year she writes a reminder to the principal and staff that I am not to have any contact with grass of any kind. The physical education teacher has to follow the extracurricular activities she writes in for me—she wants to make sure I am getting the same treatment as everyone else.’ Daniel gave me a saddened look. I felt bad for him. What could possibly be the point of telling your kid he could die from grass? I thought, Man, what kind of life can you live being allergic to grass?”