The Cherries

Sometime last week my mom had to ride in the car with my chain-smoking neighbor, Marialena. My mother (true to Cuban form) complained about the smell in the car. Marialena asked for her oh-so-great advice about how to get rid of it and my mom told her to buy this incredibly strong can of cherry smelling stuff specifically designed to take care of any strong odors that might be invading small vehicles. 

Marialena took my mom’s advice despite my warnings about the hazards of the cherry scented car thing. The next night, I was sitting on my porch having a couple of beers with Chris when Marialena pulled up. Before she even opened the door, the smell of incessant headaches and nausea made its way into my nostrils and I knew that she had popped the cherry can. She burst from the car waving her hand in front of her face. She was complaining about what I’m assuming was the smell. I couldn’t hear her because I had already leaped to the other side of the porch. I wasn’t in the mood to re-live my wonderful school days when that “scent” would cling to my hair and my clothes. Quite frankly, I’d rather smell like an ash-tray. 

Today, just 10 minutes ago, Marialena sped into her driveway and just as I was ready to catapult myself across the porch, she steps out of her car smiling with a cigarette hanging out of her mouth. My mom asks her about the cherry can and she says “Oh, umm…it just…fell out of my car!”

Let’s Just Say…

I got a new job and it’s pretty awesome so far! I am now working for a pharmaceutical company. Honestly, It’s like a really good episode of The Office. Today, all of the new hires were “initiated” and it was hilarious. Apparently, one of the guys bought “The World’s Hottest” hot sauce at a conference in New Orleans and I got to try it. Let me just put it this way, my mouth was numb for like 3 hours after eating it. I have a drug test to look forward to tomorrow morning and I am going to pass it! Hallelujah to that! Aside from that, it’s the same old same old in the city of the Cubanasos.

Amanda and I decided that we want to buy a pooter on Monday so that we can play awesome pranks on people. If you don’t know what a pooter is, then check out Jack Vale on youtube. Trust me, you won’t regret it. Moving on, I’m looking forward to a lazy Friday night hanging out with Amanda and my mom. Maybe I’ll put a good dent in the new book that I’m reading. I have a lot of writing to catch up on, though. I haven’t been very good about keeping up with my blog. Not to worry! I’m going to dedicate myself this time and try not to lull anymore.

Today is Now

It is time to get my life in order…again. It seems to me that I have a talent for impulsively changing the biggest things in my life and starting over. It is pretty painful, however I did what I felt was best for everyone involved. That said, I need to do some shopping today. A new sketchbook is definitely a must and a couple of new books to keep me from sulking too much. I have been offered a couple of new jobs but I’m not going to cross that bridge until I’m ready for it. A solo beach trip is definitely a must and free yoga at Biscayne park. I have an entirely new day ahead of me and no routine to follow. The sun is shining, the sky is cloudless, and I am going to the beach. 

Ouch

I finally quit my job. Everything is a mess, so to speak. I guess it is always very messy whenever I try to start a new chapter of my life. Sometimes the messes are awesome and other times they are painful and hard to clean up. This mess is of the painful quality. I want to move back to Miami and the thought that I probably won’t see the people who I live and hang out with ever again is excruciating. I was skimming through some of my old posts, diaries, journals; just trying to see if I had any awesome advice for myself hidden in my small archives and I found myself reading my old brainstorms about how I feel in this city. I find my thoughts muddled by emotions, I need to clear my head and figure out precisely what I am doing, what is keeping me here, and more importantly, if those people and places and things out weigh my need for family and freedom. I have about two more weeks to get my life in order; the easiest thing to do emotionally, would be to stick around and find another job. The practical thing (hardest thing) would be to move back home and get my life in order. I am a pretty strong person, but I feel like this challenge is definitely testing exactly how strong I really am.

When You Call Me

The past couple of weeks were very interesting. We felt the tremors of an earthquake, then prepared for a hurricane that just barely hit us. We made the best of it though! Between the hurricane parties and Emily moving into our basement; my life started changing, like the weather (63 degree sweater weather). I don’t really know exactly what is changing but I can sense that it will be positive.

My tummy hurts!!!!!

Let Me Fly

I think that it’s time to move on. This job has me bound in chains that I locked onto myself–and I don’t do very well in chains. Apparently, I am not cut out for fake smiles and passive masks when my words are wrenching about in here waiting to boil over and sabotage my fruitful efforts at a peaceful and friendly work place. On the other hand, there is a lot to learn here. Running away is not always the answer. I have a feeling that this is going to unravel and become a valuable lesson, as most tough situations are. A lot of these issues are my fault and I am willing to own up to that. I am human and I make mistakes. I don’t expect to be babied around; I need to take the rough road sometimes, otherwise learning those valuable lessons would be impossible. But when is it enough? Maybe it is really time to move on. The next door might lead to a better room.

I Need New Books

 

Think

“The worst of doing one’s duty was that it apparently unfitted one for doing anything else. At least that was the view that the men of his generation had taken. The trenchant divisions between right and wrong, honest and dishonest, respectable and the reverse, had left so little scope for the unforeseen. There are moments when a man’s imagination, so easily subdued to what it lives in, suddenly rises above its daily level, and surveys the long windings of destiny.”

-Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence 285

La Mer

The rain…beautiful, cleansing, loud, incessant, rain. I stood beneath a tree and let it wash my hair, before I realized that I was standing in a lightning hotspot. I ran onto the porch and wrapped myself in a towel, grabbed my book, read a few pages and I haven’t moved since. It is funny, the things that people do when nobody is around to witness our strangeness. Funnier still, is the thought that not even our friends reveal this closeted side of themselves until they get caught.

…Lightening, and now the power is out. Back to my book! Arevoir.

Silver lights

My phone took a near fatal fall last night and the whole screen is cracked. Now it officially looks like a typical Katryna phone.

A few nights ago, a house full of room mates sat in their front yard while one of them tried to do a cartwheel. The rest of them stood up and attempted to do the same. One fell, the other almost fell, and the last one landed perfectly. After this, one of the room mates heckled at some of the stumbling drunks across the street, and tricked a cab into stopping. Then someone decided to make a people pyramid. Everyone consented. They flaunted their perfect pyramid before someone on the bottom burped really loud and made everyone laugh. The pyramid came crashing down in a tangle of limbs. Once everyone untangled themselves, they took their places on the sidewalk and played a game of hearts. FIN