Little Sister

One of my younger sisters moved into her dorm room this afternoon. That was just weird. I know that she's not little anymore, but I just can't believe that she's old enough to be in college. For that matter I can't believe that I'm old enough for her to be in college. It was also somewhat strange to be back on campus, watching everyone move in, and knowing that I won't be going back as a student. Watching all the freshmen walking around campus trying to orient themselves and parents investigating everything to ensure that their little darlings will be comfortable took me back to my first day at Rice. I was so nervous and scared, with no clue what I was doing. I've changed a lot. I hope that in four years all these young kids will look back at the beginning of O-week and realize that college is an awesome experience. I hope they have as much fun as I did.

Weekends

During the week I don't do much besides swim, work, drive, and sleep. My weekends however, look like they will be a lot more fun. Not having homework problems to do or tests for which to study makes it so much easier to relax and just do whatever. Friday night I went to an Astros game with a group of Rice friends. Things are really going to be different after Biggio retires at the end of this year. I remember going to games with my dad and older brother when I was in first and second grade...watching Biggio and Bagwell play. At one point I had a ball signed by all the Astros. I have no clue where it is now.

Saturday morning was spent running errands, which did include a stop at Borders. Books and shoes are my weaknesses. I already have to buy (or build) another bookshelf for my room. I spent the rest of the day playing in a hat tournament. I seriously almost died. It had to have been one of the hottest days of the summer, and with no cloud coverage for most of the day. I felt as though I were running with an elephant on my chest. Add to that the fact that I've started swimming in place of running and I am actually somewhat sore right now. It was so much fun though. I still haven't decided what I'm going to do about ultimate. I know that I won't be joining a club team this year, but I really do enjoy playing. The problem is that it's much more fun when you're actually in shape and in practice so I'll have to find a way to make that work. After the games were over I stopped by a friend's apartment to say hi. I didn't plan on staying for long because I was quite nasty from the day. I didn't think much about it cuz the guy is practically my older brother. I've known him since I was 3 1/2, and so I was just planning to chill with his wife and his younger sister who was also hanging out at his place. Well, they didn't bother to tell me that it also happened to be poker night...yeah they just left that little detail out until a couple guys showed up at the door. Of course at this point they wouldn't let me leave because they wanted another player for the game. I was not ok with this. It's pretty bad when you know that you don't smell too good. To make a long story short I ended up borrowing some clothes and showering there so that I could stay and learn how to play Texas Hold'em. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be, and I probably could have placed higher than third if I hadn't gotten impatient at around midnight and decided I just wanted to go home.

Today was also jam-packed. I got to church early because a friend and I wanted to try to join the choir. I've wanted to join for the past four years, but because of the car situation I haven't actually done so. As of this morning however I am now a member of the Annunciation choir. It's "off-season" now so we're just singing hymns, but come Advent we should be starting back up with the Propers. I think we're also going to try to get some more enthusiasm going for Polyphony. After Mass a large group of us went out to breakfast. There is no parish hall, which makes it somewhat difficult to meet a lot of people at church, but this breakfast group is a ton of fun. I went last year once, but now that I have a car I should be going much more regularly. It's a whole mixture of people- from a retired history professor to little kids. After breakfast I went to a semi-housewarming party and re-watched the second Borne movie. Now I have to go see the third one. The remainder of the afternoon was dedicated to a nice long nap before heading over to another friend's house for some fresh grilled fish which were the product a deep sea fishing expedition yesterday. And now, I am ready for bed. I really don't want to go to work tomorrow, and I definitely don't want to get up at 5:15 to swim in the morning. Why am I doing this to myself?

Diversity and Inclusion

Today we had what BP likes to call "D&I Day." Is is basically an excuse to have free food all day long and bring in speakers who talk about various diversity or inclusion issues. The first speaker today was talking about the need to respect and love ourselves before we can respect and love others. She went on about commonality and looking beneath the surface blah blah. I could understand the point she was trying to make, but it still seemed like there was this huge part that was missing. The whole thing was approached from a purely human perspective. It just seemed like it was more about "feeling good" and "being happy" for yourself. Including others, and celebrating differences were good things to do because of what they did for you. I can't remember off the top of my head what the four major themes were but one was "We are all similar and we are all different." Another one was "Communicating with compassion." Both of those are good, but as with everything else she was saying, they revolved around self. She recommended taking some time in the morning to "listen to your heart and connect with your inner being." It is all so close, and yet at the same time so far away from hitting the mark. Unless God is the center of our lives we will not be able to achieve this inclusion and understanding of others. When you examine it from a Catholic point of view, all the pieces fit. We are all the same. We were all created in the image and likeness of God Himself. We all have eternal souls. But at the same time we are all different. Each human being is unique. We all have free will. When we look at this world keeping in mind this fact that we are all children of God, and when we see in other people God Himself, it follows that we will treat others with compassion.

We are faced with many social problems in our society, but they are impossible to cure without knowing the cause. The root cause is that we have taken God out of our lives. We are trying to address the symptoms without acknowledging the disease itself. It is as though a doctor were handing a band aid to a patient who has been in a horrible car accident. It might cover a scratch but it won't do much good beyond that.

For your viewing pleasure

Go big or go home

I just got off the phone with my mom, and one of her last comments was "You just can't do anything that's not big can you." In case you are wondering what prompted that, let me tell you a little story. It's a story about my first day of work. Ya see, it started out the way I planned. I woke up at 5:30 and swam some laps at the apartment pool, came back, showered, got dressed put on makeup, got in my car and started the drive to work. Being the slightly nerdy dork that I am, I was alternating listening to some piano music that I want to learn and some French pop as I drove. I'd been a little afraid of the traffic, but until the last stoplight it was flowing pretty well. At 8am I turned into the complex, proud of myself for timing things so well. The visitor's parking garage was just ahead, but I stopped to let a pedestrian cross the street. All of a sudden "BANG." Ok, stop and rewind. That's just the music right? It can't possibly be that the guy in the white SUV behind me just hit me. Please don't let it be that? I got out of the car and the first words out of my mouth were "Just tell me you have insurance. That's all I care about. Please just tell me you have insurance." You have to remember that I'm driving my brand new, less than a month old, car. The guy assures me that he does, that he just bought the car two weeks ago, blah blah. He's young, just started work two weeks ago. We exchange information and agree to meet later as we both have meetings starting at 8:30. Four o'clock rolls around and we meet downstairs in the lobby of my building. The poor guy is visibly shaken and very upset. Me? I'm not too worried. After all, insurance is going to take care of it, right? Right! Oh, except for the one little part where his insurance is now saying that he's not actually covered. Talk about God having a sense of humor. But things are going to work. He's willing to pay for everything, and drove with me to drop off the car and pick up a rental. It really could have been a lot worse. I could have hit the guy crossing in front of me. It could have been much worse damage. One of us could have been injured. He could be a complete jerk. Granted, things aren't completely finished, but I trust that things will work. At least I hope they do. I was telling the story to my roommates when I got home this evening and they started lecturing me for my stupidity. Yes, the check he wrote me could bounce, and he could pull his credit card. And if that happens then I might stop being so amused by the fact that this happened on my first day of work. But until then, I think you kinda have to give the general decency in human beings a shot. I dunno. In the end it's just money.

And now for something lighter. You should totally check out this video. I can't take credit for mixing it, but I can and will take credit for most of the video clips and pictures...esp the ones of people laying out. Yep those are my pictures. I pretty much rock. :-)

New Apartment

I moved into my new apartment on Friday, and incredibly enough was able to completely unpack in one day. It is rather nice to have my own room again. My roommates have also moved into the apartment, but they don't have their furniture here yet so my room is the only one done. The only thing missing is a second bookshelf...I didn't realize I had so many books!!! Hopefully in another few weeks we will have the kitchen and living room completely furnished so that we can throw our supposedly obligatory party. I had been rather nervous about the whole move and new job etc, but now that I'm here and settled and near all my Rice friends I'm really looking forward to tomorrow. The fun part will be getting at 5:30. I want to try to start swimming again in the morning before work. Technically the pool at the apartment doesn't open until 10am, but somehow I managed to get permission to swim early as long as I don't make too much noise.

Moving

So the movers are scheduled to arrive at 8am tomorrow. I know I should be excited about moving, and I am...somewhat, but it's also a little scary to know that I am moving pretty much for good. College was different. This was still my home. But that's about to change. The ironic part is that now that I have a car I'll probably actually visit more often than I did in college.

Racism

There are very few things that will get me as upset as quickly as racism. I went to the library today with my younger sister to return some books and pick up a movie. As we were waiting for one of the librarians to find the movie in the back we chatted with the other two members of staff working at the circulation desk. One of them was white skinned and the other dark. Ok, so truth be told we were actually talking with the darker staff member because he had just come back from South America and was wearing a pretty awesome embroidered shirt he had bought there. The third librarian was helping an older man when a middle-aged woman approached her with a stack of books. Immediately the guy behind the desk offered to check her out on his computer. Without looking at him, and with her back completely turned the woman replied "No, she's got it." I immediately looked at the young man and saw reflected in his face the same shocked expression I knew was visible in mine. He smiled and shrugged his shoulders, but I could barely continue the conversation because I was fuming inside. She had made no direct comment; there was nothing blatant that I could use to call her out, but the message was obvious. Subtle but direct. Unbelievable. We call ourselves United and we tolerate that in our neighborhoos, libraries, schools, and workplaces. Two years ago I witnessed something very similar in a gas station in middle of nowhere, small town Oklahoma with a friend of mine whose parents happened to be from India. He was from a big city in the Midwest and had absolutely no clue what was happening. For a split second I could understand why Blacks have in the past said that they just knew to get out of town..."sun-down cities." As an American I am embarressed to be forced to acknowledge that racism still exists in this country. The question is...how do you solve the problem?

I was talking to my cousin about this very issue last week. There are a lot of programs in schools, and the errors of racial discrimation are heavily preached in classrooms. But are they doing any good? Or are they instead deepening the cycle by raising awarenss in the minds of children who would otherwise be too innocent to compare their friends based on skin color? In most cases adults are the ones who place that issue in their heads, who introduce the color filter which then casts a haze over their relationships with others. Many people are surprised when I reveal that I am Latino. (I cannot count the number of times people have started to make comments about "those stupid Mexicans only to stammer "oh, but I don't mean like you" when I remind them that I am Mexican.) Sure, I may not have the brown skin that most people associate with Hispanics, but perhaps that is part of the reason that I insist on it. Skin color should not be a determining factor in anything, let alone personality or character traits.