December 8th, 2009 by the lady

Still around. Just extremely busy with life. I wish all my friends blessings, health and prosperity in the new year

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!!

September 17th, 2009 by the lady

I have been very busy lately, thus the reason I haven’t write anything in a while. Everything is fine, I’ m just tired and unmotivated @ the moment. It sucks.

August 10th, 2009 by the lady

Rented:

Defiance – a true story about Jews hiding in the woods during the devil’s regime in Germany. Interesting.

Coraline – pretty but dark movie. Tim Burton rules!

Valkyrie – trama too short, but still interesting

Watched a little movie the other day called The City of Ember. Surprising in a good way, but again, too short. Then HBO showed Tropic Thunder. What a piece of s***! Enough said.

August 10th, 2009 by the lady

A true moment of pride and happiness. The appointment of Justice Sonia Sotomayor to the Supreme Court. A  live testament of the American dream. You can do anything.

Woman, Hispanic, Puertorrican. Who knew? It’s overwhelming. Sacrifices, difficulties, poverty, discrimination, were no obstacles in the life of this remarkable woman. A live example of discipline, commitment and ambition.

Here in the island we are so proud of her accomplishments. And so do I.

Well done!

July 30th, 2009 by the lady

It means “the crazy life”. That’s what it is when you have to spend 7 hours in a place waiting for something. Case in point, the university yesterday, schedule day, my daughter’s classes. After waiting in admissions for one hour, we went to the nursing department and waited for about 6 hours because there were only 2 people doing schedules and about 20 students there. The interview lasted around 30 minutes a piece, so you can imagine. Students were sent away after 3:00 pm. No relieve in sight. With no breakfast or lunch, we were famished. Just a coke and a snickers bar from the vending machine.

In our case, we were there over an hour due to a little problem with the transcriptions. After all said and done, we had to go register and oficialize the classes but there were no less than a 100 students in that office, so forget it! I was about to pass out from hunger (my blood sugar is stupid). Soo, we went this morning (about an hour drive) and finished the fraking thing.

After that we visited the classrooms to get a layout of the place so she won’t get lost Monday. And Monday, we have to go to the financial office to get the grant certificed. Thank goodness she got the full amount this year, but I still have to paid some tuition and the books. Oh, well. At least it’s a help.

Saturday we will go shopping. Tons of stuff for the future nurse. Love it!

July 23rd, 2009 by the lady

Yesterday we went to see the premiere here in the island, so we left early for the matinee show. I expected long lines, so I was ready for the waiting, but there was nobody there! The show was to start around 2:00pm and we arrived around 11:30am. What a waste. Thank goodness they opened the doors at 12:15, so we went in and sat on an empty theater. Pleople started to arrive around 1:30. No rush, no craziness, no lines. Just one girl with a black rope . That was the only sign that this was a Harry Potter movie. Incredible. And there were a lot of empty seats by the time the curtains came up. I remember back in the states, we would go to the midnight show and it was madness. I guess people here don’t go crazy for that.

Anyway, to be honest, I found the movie extremely boring, lame and confusing. This director (Yates) jumped too quickly from scenes without letting us savor it’s content. And when something interesting came about, it would end just as quickly as it started. I guess he was trying to fit as much of the book as possible in the tedious 2.5 hours it lasted, but it became a maze of distorted dialogue and confusing imagery. Not even the funny part where Ron is under a spell could save this over the top catastrophe.

My daughter loved it more than the Order of the Phoenix, but in my opinion this is the worst of the series.

July 22nd, 2009 by the lady

We are so happy here due to the news that our beloved rain forest El Yunque is one of the finalists in the New Seven Wonders of the World competition. After months of voting, the forest was finally selected.

It is a beautiful place. I live about 5 minutes from the south west entrance and I see the highest peak every time I go out. The flora and fauna are unbelievable and the rivers and streams are most delightful although very cold. The Last time I went there (last month) we spent the day splashing in one of the many streams around the mountain. It’s a very popular place for tourists, foreigner and local alike.

It’s 28,000 acres of forest is the only one of its kind in the United States Forest System. More than 100 billion gallons of rain fall each year. There are natural pools, picnic areas surrounding the river, walking trails and an observation tower near the highest point were on a clear day you can see forever… I mean, the entire north side of the island. Amazing view! We visited that tower around 27 years ago and it took us around 6 hours of walking up the mountain to get to the top. It was worth it! Coming down was another story for it started to rain and we came down on our backs most of the time.

There are some pictures I took from El Yunque which you can view @ the album. Here’s a sample.

To know more about it, go here.  And, if you wish to vote for it, you can visit here.

July 21st, 2009 by the lady

Well, my daughter is moving from Turabo to Interamerican University. The classes in the latter are all in English, and since she is having such “difficulty” learning Spanish, we think is the best move. Besides, this school is accredited by the National Association of Nurses and the other was not. She wasted a year. Hopefully they will credit her some of the courses she took.

Only downfall: the classes are all at night, some on Saturdays,  and the school is over 45 minutes drive from home. The only one in the island with an English curriculum in Nursing.

Anyway, she is excited and looking forward to start. We went to the orientation and it’s unbelievable the branches of this amazing career. A nurse can even achieve a doctor’s degree. I didn’t know that! The councelor is a nurse, so she explained to us all the aspects of it. My daughter wants to be a neonatal nurse, but according to the councelor, there are so many opportunities to move within the profession, that she may change her interest later on.

The classes start on August 3rd, so I will post her progress. I’m so happy for her!

July 20th, 2009 by the lady

It figures. A couple of months back, when the news about the swine flu hit the tv, everybody here (including the head of the health department) said that it was difficult for us to get it since we are an isolated island and the airport and ports were ready. Yeah, right. So, everybody forgot about it and went on with their lives.

Guess what. This past week, all of a sudden, panic started spreading like fire when a tip to a news media confirmed 9 people dead, 58 positive and more than 1,000 infected, all within days. Kazaam! Hell broke loose in paradise when papers, radio and tv were inundated with alerts and advisories.

Now, everyone is getting ready, taking the precautions they should have taken months ago. It’s crazy!! You cannot find any masks, or hand sanitizer or gloves anywhere! Are we under biological attack or something? It’s insane. Things are flying off the shelves like there is no tomorrow. I wanted to buy hand sanitizer because mine is running low and could not find any. At least I have alcohol towelettes, which are as good if not better.

The panic is contagious too. I went down to the city today for some shopping and I used my sweeter to open doors and hand sanitizer to wash my hands afterward. Cashiers @ Wal-Mart are using gloves and some are using masks. At the door, Sam’s Club is giving away a pump of sanitizer along with an antibacterial wash cloth to clean the cart handles before coming in.

The people are blaming the government for the lack of management by letting this slip away and for hiding the severity of the emergency. Now they are facing a mess. Hospitals are not enough and special isolation tarps are in place. Some people are panicking and overreacting to the crisis. I know is a problem but we cannot be carried away with nonsense.

Information is the best defense. And most important, personal responsibility. We cannot let big brother look after us all the time, for goodness sake. There are things that we can and must control. I dont’ want to be dependant on politicians and lousy public officials. Each one of us must take care of our own. Nobody is going to do it better.

In the meantime, I will follow the precautions and protect myself, and by doing so, I will protect others.

Enough said.

July 15th, 2009 by the lady

Rented:

Inkheart – good movie, different

Tale of Desperaux – funny and cute

P.U.S.H. – weird, complicated, lame @ the end. The mission for  finding the case was not completed

Knowing – I love disasters movies. The bigger and explosive, the better. This one needed more of that and more drama. The concept was stupid. Only children will survive, kidnapped by aliens, or were they angels? Who knows…

Went to see:

Transformers 2 – too loud, no story. First one was better