The Joys of MidTerm Week

So... This week kinda sucks.... a lot. It is officially midterms week for me. I have only three tests to take out of six classes, but still... it's really frustrating. I've been preparing for my Nutrition class midterm... and the teacher came out and said this, "I don't mean for the midterm to be tricky..... but it is.". I have nightmares about these words. She continued to explain that nothing would be like the quizzes we have been taking the past couple of weeks, and that all the questions would be real life application with similar answers to chose from. OH JOY. but yeah... no biggie. What I am really scared of is my Physiology midterm (and lab midterm)... that class the spawn of chemistry, anatomy, and biology. Kinda creepy... but the good news is, it is an ONLINE CLASS!!!! so it is, more or less, open book. There just isn't a lot of time to look up answers, so I have to study extra hard. Besides that....

This week has been pretty OK. I finally got news of my brother's furniture getting in (it took 3 weeks... frikin IKEA sucks). I also got to spend some time alone with Thomas... which has been kinda hard since the both of us are in school and have a lot of crap to do. So I enjoyed this weekend thoroughly. OH! i forgot... Valentines day!!! that was pretty awesome. I went out to eat with Thomas and my parents to Capital Grille... and ate like a cow there. Everything from shrimp cocktail to strawberries immersed in champagne a la mode. yummm! That was pretty great. Otherwise, not much has happened. 

My cousin Roxanna (a.k.a. Bubu) has been at my house the past week. She will be in Miami for only one more day... but the time she was here was nice. She has a great son (Steven Lee..5 yrs old), who loves to play Wii bowling and what not. I thought it was cute how he played, though. He would get ready to throw the bowling ball and say out loud, "Please Lord help me get pins down!" And when the ball would roll down the lane he would say, "Please Lord Pleaseeeeee". Really cute. He beat me. He would get spares and strikes every turn! I suppose I have to conclude that Jesus loves bowling. Therefore, I love bowling. (jk) =).... So that is my update... sorry if nothing is really that interesting...but it's kind of a quiet week now that I've been studying. Hope you all have a great week!

Tripping UP the Stairs

Song: Misery Business

Artist: Paramore

So, at my lovely friend K-lo's request, I am going to tell the story of how I tripped up the stairs.

Before you read this story, however, you must read a little bit of background information.

Thomas is Greek. In the Greek culture, when someone gets married, their best man and maid of honor can not be a blood relative... here is why. In a Greek wedding, you are supposed to pick your best friends (boy and girl) who are not relatives to be your maid of honor and best man for this purpose: Who ever these people are, they become kind of an extended family... not necessarily blood relatives, but just... extra family (the way cubans call close friends Tio and Tia.. lol). Anyway, Thomas's ex girlfriend (who also has a twin! might I add.. pretty cool)... she is a part of his extended family. Not like he dated his cousin or anything... more like a close friend. Her mother is the extended family of his, so they kind of grew up together and the families are close. The breakup... and Thomas's getting together with me.. have kind of been a funny thing that none of us really ever talk about... kinda that awkward thing no one wants to mention. So, now that you know that, here goes my story.

Thomas and I were at his aunt Maria's 50th birthday party a couple of weeks ago. Of course, like all family functions, his ex girlfriend was there. I have kinda adjusted to being around her, and don't really mind it. I just try to not be awkward, and try to make small talk (which I suck at...). So, the night went on perfectly. Things were great! The family was fun! Everything was cool. Later on, Thomas's uncle asked me, "So, is it awkward for you that you are around her? Like, do you have to leave the room when she walks in? Or do you talk to her? Is it weird?"... I know the rest of his family wonders the same questions for me... but they don't ever ask... so this was a first. I responded, "No wayyy!!!! I'm totally cool! It doesn't bother me at all! She's just like any other part of the family to me." He seemed shocked by my response, being that the entire family feels the non-existing tension between her and i. 

So, it was time to go. I started giving my good night kisses away to the family, one by one. I started outside, worked my way to the TV room, then to the kitchen, then to the living room (which faces the stairway). DONE! All I had left was the upstairs, where all Tom's cousins were playing Wii. I started to make my way up the stairs, and in the process, Tom's ex was walking down the stairs. I could feel peoples eyes staring at us, waiting and thinking "OH MAN! THEY'RE SAYING GOODNIGHT!". I said goodnight to her, and did the kiss on the cheek thing as usual, and right after that... BAM! I tripped on who knows what... and fell up the stairs. It wasn't even a pretty fall, it was like, trip trip try to get up and trip again on the stairs. I started laughing loudly out of embarrassment. I heard people asking if I was ok, but all I could do was look at her face, watching me as I fell and tried to get up. WOW. So, I think I pretty much shot the "Things are totally cool" statement to heck after that. The family showed concern and tried not to laugh, but my embarrassed laugh is so loud and obnoxious that they had to laugh along. I turned bright red, like a tomato... and proceeded to the door and left. 

When I got in the car, all I could do was laugh the whole way home. For some reason, the embarrassment followed me. Thomas felt bad for me, and so did the rest of his family... but that didn't matter. All I could do was laugh. I guess it's not as bad as it seems, but still... I was quite embarrassed.... especially because I had just finished saying how OK i am with seeing her around. Oh well!

So that is the story. I hope you enjoyed it!

Amazing!

It's great how God works in every day situations.

READ THIS

Internet... how I love thee.

So, today I just happened to realize that I really love the internet. You can get just about anything done on here. I'm taking three of my college courses online, my text books are online, you can read books online, look for information in an infinite database, and even blog about it. How freaking awesome. I think the thing I enjoy most about the internet is Ebay. Ebay is the freaking mac daddy of all auctioneers. I think you can buy just about anything there! and well, I have been buying things there.... things I can't find anywhere else! I was so happy to see that they have the European version of DOVE deodorant on ebay. It comes in a spray bottle, and lasts for 24 hours....literally! It is freaking awesome! I use to use it when I was studying abroad in Prague. It just happened to be the greatest deodorant ever.... So good that even in the heat wave we experienced, I smelled frikin awesome! So yeah... horray for ebay and... INTERNET!!!! WOOO!!! Thank you Tim Berners-Lee for inventing the internet, Pierre Omidyar for creating ebay, and wikipedia for giving me that little tid bit of info! 

Other news: I am very happy that the NY Giants won the Super Bowl! It was quite possibly the greatest game I have ever seen. Also, Giselle Bundchen will not be keeping her promise to run through Time Square naked as a result of the Patriots losing. (So sorry guys). Her press manager said she never made such a promise. Apparently the rest of the English speaking world is wrong about it. Oh well, no biggie. I just thought it was quite funny (and arrogant) for her to make such a strong pre-bowl supposition. 

Things have been pretty quiet in my household lately. Now that Rey is gone, I wake up to an empty house (well, Macho is there) and sub-sequentially decided to stop watching TV in the mornings since I have no one to watch it with. I must say, I am in much better shape now that I've replaced TV watching in the AM with a little exercise or gym time. So, horray! for being in shape... but BOOOO. I kinda miss watching Spin City and Dharma & Greg every morning with Rey. To compensate for the emotional pain, I eat now. (jk..lol)... but I do love to eat. Now that I'm in a nutrition class, I've learned how to make my terrible eating habits semi-good! I'm very happy with the classes I'm taking this semester; they're all pretty awesome!

Other than all this randomness, not much has really happened in the past 10 days that I have not blogged (sorry for that... online class gets in the way. lol)... I went to Thomas's aunt's 50th birthday party.... had a great time...and also tripped up (yes up, not down) the stairs while saying goodnight to Tom's ex-girlfriend (you must hear the story some day... pretty funny).... went to my uncle Arthur's 50th birthday party a couple of days ago, and had a great time with family and friends (and the Samurai food we ate)... and basically did alot of nothing.

I just wanted to catch up, and maybe catch up a little more later. Dave Uribe told me something that I am recognizing to be true now.... Something about being deterred from blogging because we don't have enough time to make a long one... when really, short and sweet ones are better than none! I couldn't agree more, so short and sweet it shall be. So.... yea! Thanks Dave. Good advice.

That's about all I have to say today, so... bye? or... whatever you say at the end of a blog. 

Oh, the Randomness of It All.

Song: Helicopter

Artist: Bloc Party
So, Today was just a normal day... I got up, gave my brother's car to Optimus Prime (to have it shipped to Kentucky), made some pancakes (yum!), got ready, and went off to school. Things went by as usual. I went to class, went to Martha's after that, went home to take a quiz, then got ready to go BACK to school for my night class. Wednesday is a pretty boring day for me.... especially because it's the day that Thomas and I can't hang out (He studies with his group @ FIU on wed.). Because he goes to school right after work, he doesn't really have a chance to eat dinner. I decided to be nice and pick him up a snack. I went to this bakery i love on 32st and 107 ave.... picked up a pastellito for Thomas, then saw an ice cream man washing his truck outside. I was really surprised (having not seeing one in a long time), so I went and bought the best thing ever: A BLUE BUNNY SNOW CONE! Perhaps, my favorite thing in an ice cream truck...even though it's just ice and no cream. Anywho, I happened to be talking on the phone with Thomas when this happened...and he asked me..."What kind are you eating?"...I replied.."I'm eating the REAL kind! The kind that stays in the freezer for a whole year... the kind that is red, blue, and yellow (and orange and green where the colors mix).... The kind that I guess you can say looks like a clown's head!".... he started laughing... As soon as those words came out of my mouth, No Joke... A car pulled up next to me at the stop light... and when I looked in, there was a CLOWN with SNOW CONE HAIR and a glittery face! He looked at me smiling pointing at his head and at my snow cone in comparison! I swear, I was thinking to myself, "WHAT THE HELL IS IN THIS SNOW CONE?!?!?".... I started laughing so hard.... because... what are the odds of that? GEEZE! If that wasn't a SCRUBS moment... I don't know what is.  Anyway, I thought it was great, so I told Thomas... and we laughed together. I also told my Aunt Martha and she says I was probably hallucinating... which God knows I might have been with that year old snow cone... but WOW! I'm telling you... Things just happen... and well... in short... God has a good sense of humor. That made my day... and I wanted to share with you all the randomness of it. That is all. =)

The other side of the terminal....

My mood today: BLAH!

Song to hear while reading: November Rain! 

(it gives this blog a nice dramatic touch. lol)

Today was the day that Lauren and I drove Rey and my father to the airport to wish our final farewells (my dad went with Rey 

to help the moving process). We woke up at our own leisure this morning, packed up Rey's bags into my car, then went on our way. 

About 5 minutes after we left, my father realized that he forgot his bag, so we went back for it. I kept stressing to my father that it was important that they be at the airport EARLY in order to prevent the missing of a flight (like they've already done before...mind you.). 

He said, "Relax Brigitte, let Rey take his time....we have time!". I didn't believe him, but what could I say, he's my dad.  Anyway, we went on our way to the airport AGAIN, hit some ridiculous traffic, then arrived safely! (that may not seem like a big deal to most people, but man, in the traffic there was this morning, I thought we were going to get into a ton of accidents... so i was grateful.) 

 

We arrived at the airport to find that there wasn't any short term parking available, so we parked in the long term garage. While Rey was taking the bags out of my trunk, I noticed a stray luggage cart (the kind you pay for), then screamed, "YAY! FREE CART!". So I ran to the cart like an idiot than ran back with it. For some weird reason I didn't notice what was sitting in the front of the cart, until suddenly, it was clear to me. "EWWWWWW! REY!!! DONT PUT YOUR BAG IN THE FRONT!" Yeah, turns out there was a dirty diaper rolled up in the top compartment. Frikin gross. 

But that didn't stop us. I opened my trunk and found the only thing suitable to pick up such a disgusting thing: a Marlins bucket hat. I used the hat as a glove, and decided to take it out of the cart... just so we didn't have to look at it anymore. (we didn't even use that part of the cart, but the thought of it made it so much worse than it was). My dad got pretty upset with me for using a hat to take it out, but I didn't think it was a big deal. 

 

Well, we continued on our way to the terminal. When we found American Airlines, we got in line to get their tickets. There were some people standing around the line, but they were talking to someone and not going to the ticket machine, so we walked by them. About 5 minutes later I hear the man we passed saying (loud enough for us to hear), "It's so rude of some people to cut in line!"... and other stupidities. I kinda chuckled because he wasn't really in line anyway, but that's besides the matter (isn't it). 

 

We got the tickets and got the luggage tags, all that was left was taking the luggage to screening. I noticed that there was a gigantic line for screening, and guess who was in that line?!?! you guessed it, pissed off man from before. My dad saw an opening in the line, and the AA personnel asked him for his bags! (which was cool! NO LINE FOR US SUCKA!)... well, turns out it wasn't so cool. Pissed off guy got even more pissed off and yelled "THERE'S A LINE!", my dad was kinda oblivious, it wasn't really his fault since the AA guy just asked him for his bags anyway. My dad wasn't going to pass up this opportunity to skip a line legally, so he said OK! and gave up the luggage. The people looked even more pissed, and i laughed even harder. (HATERS!) Well, after all this hateration, we went to La Carreta for a quick fill of cuban bread! (Something Rey would not find in Kentucky). It was pretty great, and we finally realized that it was time to go! Rey picked up his carry on bag, as well as my dad, and we walked towards their terminal. Earlier we had been talking about when i left to Prague, and how my mom cried for days. I remember feeling terrible, but when i was gone, I felt better. Unfortunately, this time I found myself at the other side of the terminal...The side where you just get to sit back and watch your best pal walk away from the life he use to lead.

My brother in line for security check, about to go for good... this was not a happy moment. It hurt me to watch Rey and Lauren kiss as the tears streamed down her face... and my brother trying ever so hard to be strong. Inside, I wanted to die, and I knew that this was goodbye, for real. I tried to keep my composure, but my dad turned to me and said, "it's ok to cry...". That was it for me. The tears kept coming and coming and coming, and there it was, in a flash, goodbye, i love you, see you soon. My heart ached... For my mother, for my family, for myself, and mostly... for Lauren. As I thought of the pain of letting go of your closest companion, someone more than just family or friend, but your best friend and love, I couldn't bear the thought, let alone watch Lauren go through it. 

I tried hard to make her laugh... to the extent that we even took a picture while we were crying (for my blog's sake! lol)... she chuckled a little, but it didn't take long before the both of us were crying again. I guess I can say I've hit rock bottom. I've avoided the pain so long...that it's just swelled up inside of me and now I'm paying for it. I know it's just temporary, but still... letting go is the hardest part of all. 

I just have to stick to good old GnR... "Everybody needs some time...on their own". I guess I'm just waiting for that wicked guitar solo to come around my way once again. Can't wait to see you Rey! I love you! Miss you already, and boy.... don't we look awesome when we cry! ;) So there is today, the day of suck on the other side of the terminal.

I forgot to tell you! When I said in the beginning that you need to leave EARLY to the airport... I meant it. In the long run, Rey and dad missed their flight. Not because they weren't there ON TIME, but because they weren't there with ENOUGH TIME. Some jerk decided to make it hard for them to get on their flight, and ultimately won the war. They ended up taking a flight to Dallas, TX... then a flight to Kentucky. What a day.

As a door closes, another opens.....

So, today is Rey's last official night in Miami. I guess since I originally thought he was leaving in August, I've been prepped for this, but as the time grows near (by the minute), I realize how not-ok I am with it....but somehow I've come to the conclusion that Rey's leaving is out of my hands. This is just another step in his life that he needs to take to become who he wants to be, and I'm ok with that. I guess it just sucks, knowing that I'm coming home to nothing (or waiting up late at night for nothing). I must say, it's been one hell of a good run he and I have had. (and here is where i start to reminisce...it helps in the coping process)  Since birth, I've known Rey to be that amazing big brother... the cool guy whom I'd look up to forever. When we were young, I happened to be a very small infant, so Rey would stroll me around in my cabbage patch kids stroller (yeah i fit in there) around our pool table... and from that moment on... I always looked up to him for everything and anything. Like this ONE TIME.....

We had just moved into a new house after hurricane andrew... and my father asked us to pick up the big rocks from around the yard (I still don't know why...). In the process of doing so, my brother explained to me with alot of anxiety, "BRIGITTE....HE CANT DO THIS TO US! ITS CHILD LABOR!!!!!"... he continued to explain the point of child labor laws and how my dad happened to be violating them all... (mind you... we must have been 7 years old and 11)... and so he encouraged me to tell him what he (my dad) was doing wrong! I believed everything Rey ever said, so I obeyed. I proceeded to barge into the house, dirty hands, smelly, you know... kid stuff.... and yelled "THERE ARE CHILD LABOR LAWS AGAINST WHAT YOU'RE HAVING US DO!!!!". My father responded with the infamous Backhand. Yeah, it sucked... but Rey got a good laugh out of me getting in trouble for his dirty work ;) ...I have to admit though, that was pretty damn great. 

There was also this other time, I asked Rey if planting a strawberry would produce any fruit. Rey responded by explaining how if I planted a strawberry in the back yard, a strawberry tree would grow! I was very skeptical... I asked if he was just screwing around with me... but he convinced me he was telling the truth. So, I took a few strawberries.... and planted them in the back yard. When I got back in the house, Rey just looked at me and started laughing... really hard (I guess in disbelief that I actually believed him...and followed through). At that point I was thinking... what the heck is so funny. Turns out strawberries don't grow on trees (clearly)... and that planting a strawberry in my back yard (the barren land) would yield nothing. I swear, I'd probably believe anything that guy tells me... no matter how sketchy it seems. (Oh, by the way.... don't think this story is funny? Here is the "punch line".... This wasn't when we were kids... it was just some time ago that this happened.)

There was also this one time.. I was too young to remember... but my mom told me the story and I thought it was too freakin cute to not mention it... BEST STORY EVER!

When I was born, my mom would change my diapers very often (DUH.). One day, Rey just happened to be present when she was changing me... And Rey GASPED out of disbelief. He said, "MOM!!!! THIS IS TERRIBLE!" She responded, "What's wrong Rey?"... And he continued, "BRIGITTE! SHE DOESN'T HAVE  A PIPI!"... yes... pretty funny... but it gets better......"Mom, we HAVE to take her to TOYS R US and BUY HER A PIPI!" =) this is my favorite Rey story. He use to think you could buy everything and anything at toys r us... including genitalia. 

So yeah, thinking of these stories, the late night chats we have, the times i stay up waiting for him to get home, the times i tell him to go to bed cause he fell asleep on the couch, waking up to watch dharma and greg and spin city, saved by the bell, etc... eating entire loaves of bread for breakfast... playing guitar hero... playing the wii... everything! I am definitely going to miss him. So much so, that I wanted to write about it. I know it's his time to leave the nest though. I am confident that he will do well where ever he goes and what ever he does... because he puts God first. So, since this is his last official night, I thought I'd write his going away prayer. I hope when you read this, you would send him your blessings as well. 

Here it goes:

Dear God,

Thank you for Rey! The greatest brother in the whole world!!!! Please protect him where ever he goes, and help him succeed in all the things you have in store for him. I am confident that you will look over him, because he is your child. I pray that you'll bless him for his obedience, and help him adjust in his new environment accordingly. Please bless him as he goes, and keep him company when he feels alone. Thank you again for such a great brother, friend, and teacher. In Jesus' name...

-your child.... Brigitte

Cool, my first blog prayer. That was interesting. Anyway, that's all I guess. Thanks for your time in my reminiscence. See you again soon!

Rey, my hero, my best bud, if you're reading... I love you. Be careful! Beware of the haters! lol... freakin toaster haters.

PS... happy birthday Janell! yay!! 20!!! welcome to purgatory. 

PSS... have any funny Rey stories? let me know!