Monday, February 27, 2006

Denied!

I was rejected at the donor center because my iron was .04 something, I don't even know the unit of measure, too low. Let that be a lesson ladies: the post-period week is too soon for donation, fyi. Anyguey, after being deemed iron deficient I went swimming. Since our bodies 60 percent water no matter what, I knew I would fit in or wouldn't be turn away (unless there was a swimming practice or meet, but you get my point).

Saturday, February 25, 2006

Sabado relajante

Frank says the week flew by. I say the week dragged but the semester is flying. Just had breakfast with my mom. Life has changed. Ten years ago she was my number one enemy, today she's my spine. I'm listening to Tupac's Greatest Hits album, "I get around" is on. I'm back in '96 big time.

Today, in about two hours, my body will extract a pint of blood from a plucked vein. It's been 56 days and the NY Blood Center seems to have me on speed-dial. It's all good. I find it funny that the site is inside the Citigroup building. I'm donating at a bank, hardy har har. It was funnier in my head.

The week was fruitful. Slowly I'm letting go of fears and insecurities that were so ingrained I thought they were facets of my personality. I still feel like my true self wears twenty North Face coats, mittens, and earmuffs for a winter ended a long time ago. And I know this but I keep it all on for security, precaution, and isolation. It's all a process though, a trip with an irrelevant destination. Let get outta here and go give away my sangre, gresan, ergnas, my gotas of me. Its wild to think that there are folks somewhere walking about with some of me inside of them.

Saturday, February 18, 2006

Things I'd like to do today... let's see

Go to my favorite second-hand furniture store in the Bronx
Have my eyebrows threaded- I've never done it before and I'm curious.
Go buy some frames for my posters and pic-tu-res
laundry-BOOOOOOO!
Walk a dog at B.A.R.C.
Work on my poetry
Finish The Prophet
Check out the Tianguis
I need some more contact lenses but I don't want waste my Sabbath (day of rest) on errands.
Write thank you cards to a couple of peeps.
Go swimming.

We'll see. In any case, I've got much to choose from. Happy Saturday!!!!!!!

Friday, February 17, 2006

El que sabe sabe...

Here's my MSN horoscope:

February 17, 2006
You might find yourself out and about in your neighborhood today, running errands and paying visits to friends and family. Don't be surprised, however, if everyone you meet seems preoccupied and less inclined than usual to make light conversation, Monika. This is not the day to try to communicate about serious matters. All signs are that people are introverted, and their minds a bit befuddled. This is a great day to stay home and read.

A meme for meeee.. please complete

http://kevan.org/johari?name=Paperback+T.

What would Judge Mathis do?


I have major brain flatulence this morning. My body resists being productive once my last class of the week is over. From Thursday 9pm until Monday (sometimes Tuesday) my workbrain commutes to some obscure part of me, an intimate little bistro on a side street in my head to drink wine and pontificate about life.

So the rest of me is split on what to do today. I have tons of work to do, the only pieces of clean clothes left in my closet are my socks, and I have no desires to be anywhere but underneath my deliciously comfy flannel blanket and quilt.

What would you do Judge Mathis?

Monday, February 13, 2006

What happened to northern Manhattan?

When I Google'ed "map of Manhattan" I was dumbstruck at the number of map images (and respective websites) that have edited out upper Manhattan (see it here). The maps' makers--who you know are downtown New Yorkers themselves--just lopped off everything above Central Park as if it all broke off and floated away. See example below:

(from: Manhattanliving.com)

Harlem, El Barrio, and Washington Heights must be a part of the Bronx, I guess. Hmmm...Could this be the map the Mayor Bloomberg consults when designing the budget?

Thursday, February 09, 2006

Upon reading the snippet for an award-winning South African movie in today's Daily News (see it here), without passing judgement, I wonder:

Why is it easier to enter a movie theater ran than a neighborhood to witness the ‘ghetto life’? It’s this sort of detachment that prevents us from unifying as a people. The Civil Rights impacted the country precisely because it forced different communities to enter each others’ spaces and interact. We are regressing more and more each day as we keep figuring out effective and sneakier ways to exclude those who are different in class or race.

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Jackie Collins on Tony Danza Show...[Mon's imitation of the tabloid media]

Jackie Collins: I have to tell you [to the audience] this man has the greatest meatballs on earth.
Tony Danza: Yeah, my balls are great...


TD: ...Yes, I need to have my balls in the picture....

JC: ...Of course they have Italian blood in them...

Monday, February 06, 2006

The bittersweet Saturday

I spent most of Saturday at home. My thoughts, my breath, my being were slower than usual. I listened to the Republica Dominicana and Ladies of Latin America compilation cds while I worked on the frame for her picture. I've decided the picture needs a new location since Dannyboy knocks it down off of my desk lamp with his big hind feet when he's trying to find a comfy sleeping position. My poor abuela gets no respect.

On February 4, 2005, my grandmother Queta died. It's strange to think she's been buried in the earth for a whole year. She was 97 when she went. But with an advanced stage of Alzheimer's Disease, I think the abuela I knew growing up has been gone for years. Her frail frame became a jaula for the claustrophobic spirit of the matriarch in the royal blue bata.

Everyday afterschool she fed me a meal of grilled cheese sandwich, Tang, and a tale about her parents or children (my tias and tios) in Santo Domingo decades and decades ago.

The things she must have seen and lived through in those 97 years... She was born in 1908! Her life experiences and memories were the kind of stuff Hollywood and PBS filmmakers use in making nostalgia pictures and historical documentaries. Cut to a Spielberg movie (or Gregory Nava, if it's an ethnic pic) of Abuela Queta's life with J.Lo or Eva Longoria opposite Russell Crow or Javier Bardem in sweaty, tropical Santo Domingo and the Bronx (in the summertime) throughout the twentieth century.

After eating dinner, I went over to Rose's and hung out with Rose, her mom, Shaun, Rachel and others. We shared baby names and laughed at sketch comedy shows.

Thursday, February 02, 2006

"gang-infested" as in "rat-infested"? Things that make me go hmmm...

Paragraph nine, which begins with "The slum dwellers..." is also a little suspect. I guess once you reach a certain level of poverty, one becomes a dweller rather than a resident. And what about the assignment of Jordanian peacekeepers to handle the Haitian turmoil? Ayayay...

"Commander: Haiti Slum Must Be Controlled"
by stevenson jacobs / associated press writer

FEB 1, 2006 9:10 PM EST

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti (AP) -- U.N. troops in Haiti must take control of a vast, gang-infested slum while minimizing the impact on civilians, their new commander said Wednesday.

At least 200,000 people live in the warren of cinderblock shacks and open sewage canals known as Cite Soleil, where kidnappers stash hostages, heavily armed peacekeepers barely penetrate and polling booths will not be erected for national elections Tuesday due to insecurity.

Brazilian Lt. Gen. Jose Elito Carvalho de Siqueira told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview -- his first since arriving in Haiti last week -- that having a strong U.N. presence in Cite Soleil is one of his chief objectives.

"Certainly, it's necessary in the future that we must go in, and stay, to help the population," Elito said in the interview. "But we need to think of these people that are living there."

Limiting "collateral damage," the general said, "is absolutely a priority in every plan you do. We are here for a stabilization mission, not as an occupation force."

The new commander said his top priority is ensuring that elections next week go smoothly and are free from violence.

The Haitian capital, Port-au-Prince, has been consumed by violence since a bloody revolt toppled then-President Jean-Bertrand Aristide nearly two years ago. U.N. peacekeepers fight almost daily with heavily armed gangs, some allegedly aligned with Aristide.

The elections have been repeatedly postponed because of poor organization and violence. Thirty-five candidates are running for president and hundreds more for 129 legislative seats.

Elito said he was optimistic and is pressing all sectors of Haitian society to cooperate."The comprehensive plan is going quite well and I think if we're lucky and have the cooperation of everyone, we can have a very good result on Feb. 7," Elito said.

Slum dwellers have accused U.N. troops of shooting unarmed civilians during late-night raids, but Elito said peacekeepers only fire when attacked.

"They have strict orders not to shoot without identifying the problem. But we need to return fire sometimes to control the situation," he said.Two Jordanians were gunned down at a checkpoint in Cite Soleil last month, the eighth and ninth peacekeepers killed since the start of the U.N. mission.

In Cite Soleil Wednesday, two young men lay in the street wounded by gunfire that one of the victims and witnesses said came from a U.N. armored personnel carrier. Jordanian U.N. peacekeepers based at the nearest U.N. outpost waved journalists away when they approached for interviews.

The general acknowledged that cultural differences may be hindering the Jordanians' ability to win support from the Creole-speaking population, but said such obstacles are normal in U.N. missions across the globe. He said there were no plans to replace the Jordanians with troops from other nations.

"It is not going well there but it's not mostly a problem with Jordanian units," Elito said. "The problems with the Jordanians could happen with any troops."

Elito, 59, replaced Brazilian Lt. Gen. Urano Teixeira da Matta Bacellar, who shot himself in his hotel room Jan. 7. It was the first suicide by a force commander in the history of U.N. peacekeeping.