We did nothing on Saturday and it felt good… relaxing… even vacation like. Well I did do some stuff in the WoW world, but besides leaving the house to get some food we did nothing Saturday.

Sunday we did Dim Sum with some of the usual suspects from the blogsphere, Eric, Michelle, Nuke and the organizer Toast. I had never been to Dim Sum and I am not even sure why… it was a great experience that will have to be repeated again soon.

We also went to see Wall.e and had a good time watching it… beside that, I am getting my brain ready for the work week… what did you guys do?

I have been on a funk for a couple of weeks. My last real (out of the country) true vacation was probably 8 years ago to Cancun. I had other trips in between, but they were either a week that was too busy or went to fast, or a long weekend where the “on call” button was pressed.

I have issues with stopping my brain sometimes. I keep on thinking and thinking about things, and if I catch a bad train, it seems to just take me to the land called the funk.

My grandfather passing away is one of the hardest things I had to go through. I cannot even imagine how hard it is to lose a parent or a sibling. My wife and some of my friends have experienced this and I cannot imagine doubling, let alone multiplying the pain I feel for that loss. Losing loved ones scares me, my Mom being sick recently scares me… but she herself told me that we must enjoy the time we have together and not think of the what ifs.

I don’t want to waste my time here on earth. I also don’t want to not enjoy it by over thinking everything.

Yesterday I realized how lucky I am. I have been learning a lot from my wife on how to deal with situations. She has many good things to say about her father and how he dealt with what life sent his way. That helps. In fact, it helps a lot. Also knowing that she has gone through some difficult losses in her life and she is still able to smile gives me strength. She is a good listener and has the ability to process information that sometimes comes out of me all jumbled and still make me feel understood.

A conversation with my friends at lunch yesterday, one with my Mom, another one with my sister and then with my wife really broke me out of the funk. I was able to get off the wrong train, that as one of my friends put it made me all “Emo.” I saw how lucky I am to have people that care so much about me. I might have lost the greatest cheerleader of my life when my grandpa passed away, but that does not mean that I still don’t have a team of them behind me.

Even though this has nothing to do with Thom Hartmann’s Hunter vs Farmer theory about the origin of Attention Deficit Disorders, it is an interesting read and somewhat related. This rant is more about one of the differences between my wife and I, that could also be talked about in a battle of the sexes way. I hate shopping.

I do not mind going to the store and get groceries, or even go get a book while 100 people are in line, however the whole window shopping, see if this purse goes with these shoes kind of shopping drives me nuts. So I started to think of me as a hunter and Bea as a gatherer.

I go to a store with a list of targets in mind. Mind you, I have been looking for a copy American History X at the used DVD store for a while, but a hit list none the less. Once I enter, even if I am just browsing I have things in mind that I want to find. Even at my favorite electronics store, I can only browse for so long.

When my wife browses, time stops for her and a trap 70’s superhero shoe style starts running in my head. We have tried to split up and go on our own little trips through the stores with ill effects. I spent 2 hours at a store that I had already browsed the first 15 minutes, while my wife was just getting started. She only had time to strategically locate what earrings go with what sunglasses.

I think this is a basic difference between man and woman. No matter how busy a woman is, she is diverted to her gathering ancester the minute she sees shoes. Do the test, take your significant other shopping at a shoe store and set them free. You will have looked at, sport shoes and dress shoes isles and she will just have started at the shoes that are not made out of hemp but still called Mary Janes.

English Version

Yo se que hoy cumple años y aunque se que todavía no puedes leer esto quería escribirte esta carta para capturar todos los sentimientos que tengo en mi corazón. Se que en unos cuantos años aprenderás a leer y espero que veas en estas palabras que tu eres una personita que haces mi vida mucho mas feliz.

Una de las cosas que mas me duelen en tu primer año es que no pudiste conocer a mi Abuelo. Como mi suegra dice, el fue el personaje de mi vida. Mucho de lo que soy yo como hombre hoy se lo debo a ese viejo que en mi opinión se nos fue muy pronto. Aunque tu tienes a tu abuelo, mi Papa, cerca y de el podrás aprender muchas cosas, te lo digo de todo corazón que “Toñito” como le decían a el donde trabajaba, fue alguien que como tu cambio mi vida. De mi Abuelo aprendí que la verdad es algo poderoso y debes siempre seguirla. De mi Abuelo también aprender que el Estudio es lo mas importante, porque lo que sabes nadie te lo puede quitar.

Espero que yo de alguna manera te pueda hacer llegar todas las historias que tengo en mi mente, algunas vividas con el, otras contadas por el. No esta con nosotros, pero mira lo bonito que es el circulo de la vida. Ahora te tengo a ti para que me acompañes. Te vi hace poco y tu sonrisa con solo dos dientecitos me enterneció el corazón bastante, y espero verla muchas otras veces a medida de que vallas creciendo.

Quiero que sepas que aunque no este cerca de ti geográficamente, te tengo cerca de mi en mi alma al lado de tu hermanita a la cual quiero que quieras tanto como yo quiero a la mía. Espero que todos tus sueños se hagan realidad y se que llegaras muy lejos en esta vida. Dios quiera que yo este aquí para ver todos tus logros, pero con el mismo amor que mi Abuelo me lo dijo a mi, te lo digo a ti… “Yo Creo En Ti.”

» Read the rest of the entry..

When I say that I miss home, I refer to Chicago the most. That is where I have spent most of my time as a reasoning being. Even though I spent my childhood in Colombian, most of my forming years were spent in the U.S.

While that makes me very American in some of my thinking and the way I approach things, I never forget my heritage or where I come from. When I came home every night from school, I remember that Colombian food was always on the table. The weekend barbecues always had Colombian music playing in the background, and it was even here in the U.S. that my Mom taught me how to really dance Salsa and Merengue.

I am Colombian, that is where my roots are and it has been five years since I have been back to my country.

The first time I took a trip back I had to go visit the grave of my best friend who died in a tragic car accident. The last time I took a trip down, my Grandpa was sick… this time he is no longer with us and I will most likely go visit his grave. That was one of my biggest fears about going back, that people would have changed so much or just not be with us anymore.

Life is about that, it is about that change. Two of my closest friends are pregnant right now and the cycle of life begins once again. Our families seem to shrink and grow with every passing year, and life continues its course.

I am not nostalgic, I am very excited about the trip I am about to take to Colombia in the coming months. I am visiting my country of origin with my wife, someone that happens to be from the same city I am from, someone that I met here in North America but with the same South American roots I have. I get to meet her family for the first time and make my family instantly double.

I admire the people that move away and come back to the place they were born, I even admire those that stay right where they started. I feel a kinship with those that have moved away and had to adopt other ways of living, because it is not an easy thing to do. The world alien bothered me at first when I moved to the U.S. but slowly but surely it felt very fitting to what I experienced when I got here. I am not an American and not an alien anymore, but I still hold my days as a non English speaker close to my heart.

Even though Kansas City is slowly becoming our new home faster than any other place I have been, I still say I am from Chicago or Colombia. Having great friends come into my life make that transition to calling this place home a lot easier… at the same time harder to leave if we ever chose to do that in our (my - my wife thinks she is a penguin) quest to live with no snow.

I am missing home, I am missing Colombia, partly because my little escape place has been taken way… but mostly because I cannot way to be back there to see so many people that I have not seen in a long time… it has been more than 15 years since I saw some of my classmates… even 20 when you count the grade school ones.

The company where I work is moving and I have just had my brain drained by tons of work… but trust me as soon as I have a night where I have some time I have a couple of good subjects I want to “discuss.” How was everyone’s weekend?

Deguia has put together a very interesting meme that I think is worth thinking about and doing. Some of us are lucky to still have both of our parents alive, some of us are not… but in the end I think remembering the good they did for us its what counts. So… lets do this for our Mother’s

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Mother’s Day will take place on May 11th and while I’m not a huge fan of the whole “Corporate America wants us all to honor our mothers on one day each year” thing, I do agree that doing something a little extra for your mom is never a bad thing.

From my experience, no matter how old you are, moms love it when their kids make something for them. Often times it’s difficult to think up something creative to do for your mother, so I thought it’d be fun to start a meme to help get the creative juices flowing.

Tell me about three things, in detail, that make you really appreciate your mom!

Be specific! Think about all of the things your mother may have done for you: things she may have sacrificed, times when she went WAY above and beyond for you, etc.

To kick things off, I’ll go first:

1. My mom has a warm meal for us every single day we were growing up. This might not mean much to some people, but I know it meant the world to me. I appreciate it even more in todays world of never ending work weeks and deadlines.
2. She stayed up with me every single time that I was sick. She would do special meals for me and nurse me back to health every single time.
3. My mom sacrificed the best days of her life for me. She was just 16 when she had me and growing up I never thought of her as one of the after school special girls. She never made me feel like I had stopped her life or was a big sacrifice.

Your turn! Leave me a comment at Deguia’s and let him know that you’ve done this meme, he really wants to check out what you wrote!