Se Llama Frieda

Out of the blue, my brother looked at me quizzically and asked, "You're Frieda Falcon, aren't you?"

"How did you know?" I asked. Oh, I got an email that Frieda Falcon visited my profile and I read your description.

This conversation just cracked me up. Online, I just don't join things with my real name. It scares me. But I'm nosey so I gotta join anyway. Thus, I have many aliases. My favorites are bootleglouie and skidmark and now Frieda.

The funny thing is that in my mostly hispanic school, I could totally believe there was a skinny quiet girl in the corner by the name of Frieda Falcon. The loner, the one that everybody forgot about. The one who grew into a great beauty and moved to Europe to run a design firm and marry a Nobel Peace Prize winner. That's our Frieda.

My Planets Are Aligned

I had a great weekend starting with Danielle's 19th birthday dinner on Friday! Her Auntie Barb always does such a nice job on birthdays and because of her generosity, everyone has a great time. Oooh, and birthday cake from "Bamboo Bakery" [Link]? Well, let's just say I'm still thinking about it two days later.

Saturday, I got a call saying there was an extra ticket to a Santana concert. When I talked to my sister earlier, I felt a twinge of the "I wish I could goes," when I found out that not only my sister and husband were going, but my brother and nephews were as well. It passed quickly because, while, I have a casual interest in Santana, I wouldn't buy a concert t-shirt. Then, whaddaya know, I was offered a ticket because someone had had an argument with someone else and someone decided not to go. I was still in my jammies when I got the call but I was concert ready in thirty minutes. I admit I enjoyed it more than I thought I would even though we had to walk home from Cricket Pavilion. Of course, I always do enjoy the familia anyway. Booyah!

Then today, I went to one of the famous "pancake breakfasts without pancakes," which is a fund raiser for a church in Tolleson and won a raffle drawing they held. Later that day, I learned I won the package of golf for two at a local resort! I'm giving that to my brother and brother-in-law.

I'm so excited about my good fortune this weekend. Can you imagine how much more exciting this would be if I had gotten stuff I actually wanted? Since I'm lucky today, I decided to enter some sweepstakes for stuff like a washer and dryer. I'll just say right now, I don't really need a washer and dryer. That said, maybe I'll win.

Most brilliant ideas come at 1:00 AM

If I understood this government bailout thing Bush speaks of, I would say do it but charge interest. They'd do it to Joe Public, right? Ivan added that they should add a clause that says they can change the rules anytime they wanted, just like the financial institutions do. This was what I was thinking at 1:00 AM after dealing with second grade, excuse me, just found out that it is third grade, math earlier that afternoon.

I consider myself a reasonably intelligent person. I can even be above average if I focus. But this math thing is making me feel like, well, not so much. We bought Joaquin a math book this summer to try to keep him busy. There is a section on the guess and check problem-solving method. Word problems. I hate word problems. So I'm looking them over and trying to come up with the answers. I can't. So I look at the back of the book and I become even more confused when I know the freaking answers.

Here is the sample question: "Neptune and Mars have a total of ten moons. Neptune has six more moons than Mars. How many moons does each planet have?" So Joaquin and I are trying work through the question and I say, "We need to find out how many moons Neptune and Mars have." To me, the problem might as well have read, "Blah, blah blah blah blah..."

Joaquin quickly says, "Mars has two moons." I'm still trying to figure out the problem and, already a little exasperated, I tell him to wait before he guesses and I go over the example some more. And he says again that Mars has two moons.

At this point, I'm thinking my kid is brilliant. So I look him square in the eye and ask him, "How did you get that Mars has two moons?"

"I read it in a book at school."

Well, there you go, my friends, that is how you solve math problems. You read about them in a book.

I may not be such an idiot after all.

"I believe it was Plato...

...No, excuse me, I mean Play-Doh..." --Damon Wayans as Oswald Bates from "In Living Color." [link]

This Twitter [link] thing is really wrecking my writing. When I look back at this blog years from now, I'm--or Joaquin, when he's older is--going to think every event in my life only happened in 140 characters or less. (I actually made that sentence 139 characters on Twitter just now).

It is helping me to try to express myself quickly. I do like the big words, big wordy words. I'm just not very good at using them. I'm afraid I'll sound like that Damon Wayans character, Oswald Bates, verbose prisoner, on "In Living Color." [Video link for your convenience, or flatulence, depending on which end is up.]

I truly believe I have the most thoughtful, wonderful little boy. He instinctively seems to know exactly what to say to people to make them feel good. We were talking tacos today and he said he wanted to make them at his birthday party with Marco and Miguel. I suggested that we make his birthday a chef theme and dress in hats and aprons. "Oh, no," he said, "No dress up." After he thought about it though, he said he wanted to be Governor of his party. I asked if he was going to dress up. He said yes. We'll see. Somehow, I kind of think he could be the real Governor sometime in the future if he really wants to be.

Monday, Joaquin saved me another Uncrustable, which, if you're from outer space, is this wonderful little concoction composed of peanut butter and grape jelly encased in soft white bread. Kind of like a p. b. and j. empanada, or turnover, if you will. He said, "Close your eyes, I've got a surprise." (while I'm driving, no less.) And pulled out the extremely smooshed (yet extremely tasty) Uncrustable. I squealed. It was so good, not only because I like them so much, but because he thought of me, his old mom. Sure, he doesn't like p. b. and j. so wouldn't eat it anyway, but that's beside the point.

Today, he wanted to make tacos for dinner like they did at school one day a while back. So we went to the grocery store and bought taco shells, shredded cheese, tomatoes and ground beef. I wanted a different cheese but since he was cooking, I told him he could choose. I came home and prepared the ground beef filling and lettuce and put everything in bowls and he showed me how to assemble the tacos. It was too cute. I should've taken a picture but he didn't want his recipe on the Internet. He only made one then started eating. He was really hungry. I had to make my own following his instructions. Very tasty.

I asked him, "Is this taco filling as good as the one they make at school?" He nodded, except the shells were a bit stale and hard (just say no to Old--I mean really old--El Paso). So we started talking about cafeteria food and I asked him if he liked the way they cooked in the cafeteria. He said, "Yes...But, you cook much better, Mom."

Oh, my heart! See what I mean? His father could learn a lesson or two. He cooks, he gives thoughtful gifts and compliments and he even vacuums after dinner. No wonder he already has a couple of girlfriends.

I've Got...Nothing

I looked for a photo that might go along with this post. Couldn't really come up with anything as I hate my freakin' camera, so I'll just chat... Here's one I don't think I showed you.

It's of Joaquin on one of our final days at the public pool in July. He still wants to swim and although it's still hot, I feel like the season is over, but I feel bad because he doesn't have any fun swimming alone. We were supposed to go to a resort but I can't believe they still charge $140.00 off-season. Makes you wonder what they go for during the winter. CHeck out this link for the Arizona Grand Resort(music alert). I bet this is the reason for the escalated prices. I still want to go.

I've been working. I mean, really working, not just there for special projects and whatnot, real work. I am not happy about it.

So I stay up late. I wish I could say drinking and carousing, but it's more like computer, laundry and toilet bowl cleaning. I just finished watching Coco Chanel on Lifetime. How did I watch a cable program when I have no cable TV? Bandwidth, my dear, bandwidth.

I loved the costumes and sets. Shirley MacLaine was alright, so was the other girl, but I felt something that might have been a little swoon in ma belly when the charcter "Boy Capel" played by Olivier Sitruk appeared in his scenes. The tango scene, oh my. I'm gonna go watch him again.

About Girls and Such

I've never been good at symbolism and I can't decipher dreams so you can understand why I was surprised as a young girl to learn that the Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds" was about LSD and that Jefferson Airplane wasn't really singing about Alice in Wonderland in "Go Ask Alice." I just can't read between the lines. So I'm asking now. Is that catchy little tune, "Pocket Full of Sunshine," by Natasha Bedingfield about drugs or sex?

I'm battling a horrible headache right now. I've had it all day but it's gotten worse. I've taken Tylenol, sinus meds and high blood pressure meds and I can't get rid of it. Feeling a little woozy. I should probably go to bed, but first:

Joaquin told me today that he has a girlfriend. "Isn't that funny?" He asked. He told me her name is Natalie and she looks just like him except she's a girl and doesn't wear glasses. Looks just like him? Well then, I know she's cute. She is in second grade and is not as smart as him, but she is sort of smart. I asked him how it happened and he said "She was standing next to me [in class] and I just asked if she wanted to be my girlfriend and she said ok. Isn't that funny?" He kept asking, "Isn't that funny?" Is my son smooth or what?

Joaquin had his first after school science class today. It is put on by Mad Science [link]. They made slime with many rules: Don't put on carpet, furniture or your brother or sister.

We tried to make it to his basketball basics class but it's just not going to happen. Bummer, I really like this instructor too. So we're getting a refund and hopefully will be able to sign up for another one soon. Or maybe we just should forget about basketball, I mean last time we tried, my mom got really sick so we couldn't make it and now this conflict. I should probably just take this as a sign. Still, we really need to add some exercise to our life. Maybe we'll find a dog this weekend who will help us with that goal.

Only 150 tickets!

That's all it costs to get a groovy 'stache at Peter Piper Pizza.

Odds and Ends

Hallo everyone! Have a nice weekend? I sure did. Saturday I went to lunch at a teahouse called "Gooseberries" [link] with my girls to celebrate Joaquin's cousin Angelica's promotion. I got my toes done. Nothing crazy like dots this time. I must admit, I sorta miss the dots. We looked at some model homes, you know, keeping my options open. If only I could move the houses to my neighborhood. Of course, just spending time with the cute older sister who brakes for wine was great as usual.

On Labor day, we met our new great nephew. Yes, my brother is a grandfather! Joaquin says he'd better start taking it easy and not work too much since he's a grandfather now. Of course, I don't know how he's gonna take it easy being that he starts graduate school soon.

I finished watching the first season of "Dave's World" and "Northern Exposure." Fun, fun. Now Ivan is going around whistling the theme from N.E. Oy. "Northern Exposure" reminds me of this Jewish guy I had such a crush on in college. I was so shy around him, I couldn't even say hello, or "hola," since it was a Spanish class. He was what my cousin Diane calls "stunning." And he was on the gymnastic team. (I know!) I never considered it but this may be the reason I don't speak Spanish so well. As for "Dave's World," I always like the parent-child relationships in that show and I loved their house, especially the jukebox. The jukebox that is still on my wishlist.

Continuing my journey through the young adult section of the library, I finished reading "Strawberry Hill," by A. LaFaye, and began reading "The House At Pooh Corner," by A.A. Milne, hence the "Hallo" greeting. Can you believe I've never read A.A. Milne? I am enjoying this book so much more than the Disney Pooh books I've read to Joaquin. I really should be reading it to Joaquin (or making him read it to me), but I'm being selfish. Maybe I'll look for a book on tape or tape myself reading it. Oh, he'll love that.

Lately I've been obsessed with the Diet Coke commercial that features the song, "Starry-Eyed Surprise," by Paul Oakenfold [video link]. How many of us over a certain age think of "Everybody's Talking At Me" [video link], from the movie "Midnight Cowboy" when we hear it? You're welcome if you hadn't yet made the connection or sorry for putting that in your head if you didn't want to know, whichever the case may be.

I know, pretty boring to most, but such is my life. Maybe something exciting will happen soon. Not too exciting, of course, I've got enough stress in my life and I'd like to be able take a decongestant.