josie4884's Xanga

Saturday, December 31, 2005

Sat, 31 Dec 2005 03:07:12 GMT

It’s Friday night with nothing to do, and I haven’t posted in a long time, so I guess I can keep myself sane by updating my xanga.

So much has happened since the last post, there is no way I can possible update on everything, so I will do only the current stuff. Only one more semester to go so I can finally graduate; these 4 years have gone by a lot faster than high school. Maybe it’s that I have spent all the time studying, because it sure wasn’t all party and fun, that is for certain. I must say that I love Hopkins, and most of the people there. But I can say I won’t miss Baltimore, or Hopkins once I leave, but I sure will miss the married couple dinners, ice cream nights, basketball Sundays, and all the parties we have had. Also dancing, I’m almost positive that no one in my dance group even has a xanga, but I hope they have learned something, and can pass their knowledge to a significant other in years to come.

But now to more pressing matters like medical school. If I don’t get into any medical school, I’m so going to regret going to Hopkins, that I will never let myself down for that stupid mistake, which would probably be the most stupid mistake I’ll ever make in my life. It really frustrates me that everything is based on numbers, and unfortunately I fall short in many aspects when it comes to numbers: I’m not tall, I’m not rich, and I don’t have a high enough MCAT score. The only place where I excel when it comes to numbers is: my weight, and my GPA; and the former isn’t something to be to proud of. So I’m banking on my GPA to save my MCAT, but we shall see.

I don’t care where I get accepted into medical school, I just want to get into anywhere. I’m not fearing the interview process, if I ever get one, because I think that is where I can excel. It is like Darren says, words cannot fully describe Jose. There are no hand gestures I can write down on paper, it’s like I say my personality must be experienced. But I’m not going down without a fight, I am going to do a little hand waving, to see if I can get their attention that way, like a big SOS signal, that says look at me, I’m right here. The only other option I have is to apply out of the country, which would make my life a lot harder when I have to come back to the states and do my boards here, but oh well, I gotta do what I gotta do, and unfortunately I have usually had to take the longer, harder route to get things done.

Anyways, I’m back at home. There is no place like it. I just got back from the mall, and I have made the most interesting observation. When I walk any mall here, I can maybe pick a handful of women that aren’t acceptable, back in Baltimore, it’s a miracle if I can find a handful that are acceptable; and it can’t be HIV, because I have the same sight over there as I do here. So I guess that doesn’t make me to mad when I think to myself why I can’t find that many acceptable women at Hopkins. Therefore I have given up officially, I’m not taking any initiative, I don’t care who it is. Maybe my mother should have bought me that shirt—a skeleton, sitting on a lounge chair, that said, “Still waiting for the perfect one”.

Speaking of shirts, my sister bought me this nice green Gap long sleeve shirt and a nice pair of jeans, I’m all the way up to 3 pairs now. She is making me more metrosexual now, I’m slowly getting into fashion. Although I love Miami, and I call it home, it really doesn’t feel like it, because I have very few friends here, just a handful that I still talk to, because all my high school friends I have grown apart from; another reason why I’m doing absolutely nothing on a Friday night. I should have just gone to freaking UM, slept through half the classes, had time to study for the MCAT, most likely found a nice girlfriend, and I would have had the same chance of getting into medical school as I do coming from Hopkins apparently. But anyways, to end on a happy note, I just saw a really nice shirt at the mall, although they didn’t have my size, that I’m definitely going to buy once they do, it said “I’m smart, I’m sexy, and I’m Cuban, doesn’t get any better than that.”

P.S. Below are some pictures from Christmas eve, now you will all know what una caja china (chinese box) looks like, and how we cook a complete pig for the 24th. Enjoy

Chinese Box

(caja china)

Begining product

about to shut the lid on it

It's getting hot up in here

final product

final product

Wednesday, July 06, 2005

Wed, 06 Jul 2005 05:26:42 GMT

So it is 12:46 A.M. I have been up since 9 am, driven over 150 miles, and today has been so exciting, and thrilling that I know I can’t go to sleep, so I’ll be productive and write this update.

Let me begin with this weekend. That is when all the weird, yet exciting things began. We left to Naples on Friday afternoon. We got there around 2. At 4 my mother’s uncle from NY, calls us that he is in Naples also, and we told him, guess what we are here too. Mind you we didn’t have the faintest idea he was coming. So then my mother’s uncle’s son, that lives in Miami also, went to Naples to visit. And we knew that my mother’s cousin, shytes and giggles like I prefer to call her children and my aunt were going to go to Naples also. We would have never been able to have planned a family get together in Miami, but by pure luck we were able to get a whole bunch of people united over 140 miles from Miami, and 1300 miles from New York, in a place none of us reside. My father made a big BBQ at the hotel on the 3^rd, because that was when all of us could get together, so that was nice. It was shytes and giggles first time ever in their life staying at a hotel. A little background story. This is a couple with five year old twins, and an 18 year old son. They came from Cuba a year and a half ago. In Cuba they weren’t allowed to stay in hotels, and here they hadn’t ever taken a vacation, so this was their first vacation. They saw a professional fireworks show on the beach at Naples, that they were absolutely amazed about. We went to the beach and go a lot of sun. I received a sun burn on my scalp, because my hair is so short. First time ever that has ever happened, it is painful to sleep now. Well that kinda raps up the weekend, and takes me to what now is yesterday.

So we left Naples at 11:30. My father wanted to leave earlier, because the dealer finally called and told him that his car finally arrived. So we got to the dealer at 1. His car was there, a beautiful, white Toyota Tundra. So we started the paper works. Got the purchase order, had to go to the credit union to get the draft, and while we waited for the draft to be made, we ate at cracker barrel in 30 minutes flat, because we were starving, and we had to be at the credit union at 4 before it closed. Got the draft, went back to the dealer, and got the keys to the truck. My father was happy. That was new car number one. My older cousin was talking to my father when they were in Naples, that she wanted to get a new car also, a Volvo S40. So my father called her, and had her meet us at the car dealership and after we finished with my fathers car, we went to the Volvo dealer next door to work on her car. They didn’t have the base car she wanted, but they had one with a few more amenities, but we thought it would have been a little too expensive for her. But given that the 2006 were out, the 2005 had a $1500 incentive, so that helped, and we worked on the car. But her case was a little more difficult for my father—the car salesman beware—tactics, because she had her old car as a trade in. So they were giving us a good deal on their car, but they wouldn’t give anything for my cousins car. So my father hassled and hassled with the guy, and we got to the point that my father said give me $6350 for her car, and the manager said he would only give $6100. So my father pulled a little stunt, and said, let’s flip a coin and you call it. Well the manager said since the car was for my cousin to have her call it. She was so nervous, she didn’t know what to do. So my father took a quarter out, flipped it, she called it in the air, “heads”, the quarter fell to the ground ,started spinning, everyone was just standing over it to see what it would fall in, and after spinning for what seemed a minute, it landed; heads!!! We all cheered, by we, I mean my father, cousin, sister, mother and I. I don’t think that the manager has ever lost $250 on a coin toss selling a car before, but I must say it was a damm exciting moment. So my cousin got her car also. A white Vovle S40. A cute little car, I am sure she will enjoy a lot. I guess this weekend/week, was a car buying one, because my godmother bought herself a new Yukon XL, after she wanted to upgrade from her Toyota celica because of the baby, my sister and I godson. And another friend bought herself the Acura TSX, which is also a very cute mid-size car, with the coolest voice activated navigation system in the market right now.

Anyways back to finishing up my day, we didn’t get home till 9:30. Then out of no where, I got a call from a very dear friend, to go to Dave & Busters. Well I guess you can say I might have something for this certain friend, so of course I took her up on the offer. Took a speed shower, got dressed, and went to D&B for the first time ever. It was fun; I learned though that I shouldn’t become a semi-truck driver, if it is anything even close to the arcade version. Well if you got this far, I hope you can feel the excitement I have had these past couple of days. I’m sure you have interesting fourth of July stories I want to hear about. I guess i should try to get some sleep now, hoping that the excitment doesn't waste away to quick.

Thursday, June 30, 2005

Thu, 30 Jun 2005 20:54:01 GMT

Here is an update from Miami, per someone’s request. I guess I should start with it looks very promising that I might become a chef. I did worse on my MCAT’s, yeah I’m retarded, I know. I got a 25 now, so looks like I’m going to have to do this the hard way, kinda the same way I got into Hopkins with a 1260 SAT. (I will reframe from using smiles, although I am very tempted to put them in) Therefore I have been a little lazy with filling out my Hopkins pre med questionnaire, and the AMCAS application online. But I know I want to become a doctor, so I just gotta suck it up, and hopefully I get an interview and I will be able to show my passion that way.

Things I have done since leaving Hopkins: Went to Disney world for my sister’s birthday on Memorial day weekend, and also because our godson had a Sunburst competition there. Beyond our wildest imagination he won the competition for the cutest two year old boy in the state of Florida, I guess he takes after his godfather. Supposedly he has to compete in Atlanta now for nationals. Don’t know if we are going for that one. But Disney was fun. To short, because of the pageant, but it is a magical place. I wanted to go to Sea World which I haven’t been to in ages, and to Animal Kingdom, which I have never been to. Maybe I’ll go at the end of summer, if I can find someone to go with. Speaking of that, I am NOT pimping anyone. I don’t have a girlfriend, and will most likely continue my life waiting for the perfect one. I applied to the children’s hospital that I worked for last year, but they haven’t called me back, so that doesn’t look to promising either. So I have mainly being doing things around the house, and doing stuff for my grandmother. I read Angels and Demons, which I recommend to anyone, I personally liked it more than The DaVince Code, but both books are a must read. I have been pretty bored since I finished reading the book, with nothing much to do, so I actually learned how to play Gin Rummy the other day, my sister taught me. It was fun times, I don’t think we have laughed that hard at me in a long time. I had Gin, and I didn’t call it. Hey I didn’t know how to play. But now that I know the rules, i’m getting better at it.

Movie wise I saw Bewitched. It was good, I think Kidman did a great job, but I didn’t like Ferrell to much. I also rented Hitch, and saw that for the first time. I watched it with paper and pencil in hand, taking as many notes as possible, any little bit helps right now. YES even corny movies! I also saw Shall we Dance which was excellent, Taxi was funny, Spanglish was good, and Mean Girls was hot. Yeah I guess you can say I have turned into a vegetable, which I kinda hate it.

So future plans include going to Naples Florida, not Italy, for July 4^th weekend. Coming back, and hopefully my father gets his truck, which we have gone on a mission and a half to buy. He was worse than a two year old, when they enter toys R Us and don’t know what toy to buy because they don’t know what they like. He finally opted for the Tundra, I approved. If Miami Children’s hasn’t called me for a job, I guess I’ll try a volunteering position, although my father would prefer for me to earn money, but I think the experience would be invaluable. Maybe I’ll get a small part time job as a waiter, or something that I won’t be bored doing. Gotta finish organizing my room, hopefully I finally get the shelves and book case I asked to be made. And I have to finish my grandmother’s house front landscaping that she wants to put some trees and new dirt and mulch. Maybe a girl will fall in somewhere in there, maybe the beach here and there, but first I gotta make dough, or find myself a sugga mama. Ha ha j/k. Oh yeah, forget to add the med school application process. I must complete that. Well that’s it, looks like it is going to rain again, just like it has been raining every afternoon for the past two weeks. I’m just glad it isn’t cold Baltimore rain, and it usually gets really nice outside once it stops raining. Everyone have a wonderful 4^th of July, no matter where you spend it, and until next time, take care of yourselves, and each other.

Sunday, April 17, 2005

Sun, 17 Apr 2005 22:19:49 GMT

As promised, here is the posting after the MCAT. I guess I can start with saying that it didn’t go as bad as the first time. I feel a lot more confident, and better this time, but I guess I’ll know for sure in two months. If not Puerto Rico, Santo Domingo, or South America here I come, if not then Johnson and Wales culinary school it is. I’ll be content with any of the three outcomes, either way I am sure to be beneficial to society . But what I really would like to post about is my 21^st birthday party. To describe it in one word I must say it was unforgettable. So why was it unforgettable…

I knew that the electricity was going out that night at 12, but of course nothing ever goes to plan, and BGE decided to give me a birthday present by cutting the electricity at 6:30. Thanks that we have gas stoves, and we were able to finish cooking. I must thank all my friends that pulled together and we able to get things done, I definitely could not have done it without all of you, so from the bottom of my heart, thank you so much. So the food was finished an hour and a half behind schedule, but we finally got to eat under candle light dinner, it couldn’t have been more romantic . Then we played Jeopardy, being that it is my favorite game show . I was pretty buzzed by this time, so I must say I was not the sharpest tool in the shed. But it was very well thought out, and there was a lot of effort put into it, and I think that it was that much more fun without electronic devices, adding more commotion and bickering, most from me I must say. And I will never forget that my wonderful Panda’s name is Ding A ling ling. Then in keeping with making the birthday absolutely amazing, my birthday present from the group was nothing other then the blend of two things I truly love, cooking and ice cream. I received an ice cream, sorbet maker that I must put to use soon, but I am waiting for Sunshine to help me. Speaking of Sunshine, her present was very cute, and witty, hey she’s right, I have been shaking it since 1984, thank you very much. And then saving the best for last, I most thank my two friends, and sister that flew in. Marc, my partner in crime, I hope you now feel my pain about Hopkins, no place like Miami . Jackie, luz de mis ojos, I don’t know how I could ever repay you for coming, nothing you could have given me could have ever replaced your presence, and I am so happy you were here to spend it with me. Ritica, my favorite sister, it is gestures like this that show me how much more you love me every day, and how dumb we were to fight so much when we were young. I love you so much. Oh I can’t forget to thank you for finally fucking me up on my birthday, hey what are sisters for. And all of this and more made, is what made that weekend one that I will NEVER forget.

There are 4 more weeks of school left, and although I have 2 papers, and a presentation to do, all that I can think about, and that is keeping me going is looking forward to this summer back home. A combination I love, home, friends, and summer.

Tuesday, January 04, 2005

Tue, 04 Jan 2005 04:08:39 GMT

Happy New Year everyone. I wish everyone nothing but the best in this New Year, with much prosperity and love.

Wanting to leave the past behind, I will only write about what has occurred since the New Year. This year was kinda awkward, since we did not welcome the New Year as the usual family reunion. My father opted instead to take up one of our family friends offer and bring in the New Year at the Keys, just us four. It was absolutely beautiful. They have a nice house that over looks the ocean, with an amazing view, that is so peaceful and tranquil. Just what we all needed, and a wonderful way to start the year.

I did come out of my little shell and a tried more alcoholic beverages, since the owners of the house liked making drinks before dinner. I tried a cosmopolitan, red and white wine, champagne, and mojitoes. Not all in one day though. After many shaking of heads after not so pleasing tastes, and then more appetizing tastes, the mojito won the top of the list. It is kinda like a lemonade, with rum, and mint. Another thing was all the food I ate over there. We had seafood everyday, something that I unfortunately don’t eat a lot of. To welcome in the new year we made a paella that was absolutely amazing. Chicken legs, scallops, grouper fillet, shrimp, clams, crab claws, and lobster tail, it was super scrumptious.

I also started reading The Da Vinci Code, since I want to improve my reading skills. I am currently a little less than half way through the book, and it is really good. Very interesting, and insightful. The day before leaving we went to Key West, we had some famous conche fritters, and walked around the pier. It was funny in that I meet someone from Hopkins there. More than a thousand miles away, if we would have planned to meet, we wouldn’t have found each other, but oh well I guess this is one of those coincidences of life. The hardest part was leaving this peaceful and tranquil location, but all good things must come to an end unfortunately. But it definitely made more solid my dream of one day being able to own a house in the keys.

Finally I started two projects at home. Our bathroom vanity needed painting, so I took it off, sanded it and I’m currently in the process of painting it so that it looks better than new. And the other, that is going to start soon, is painting my room. It needs a major overhaul. I already let my father know I need a few shelves, and a bookshelf. I want to try to take stuff off my dressers and put them on shelves. Lets see how my interior decorating skillz come out. I am going to try my hand at two tone painting, lets see how that looks. All I know is that it will be better than what I have now. Also today I went to the eye doctor, and i am getting closer to being legally blind, the headaches confirmed my deteriorating eye sight. Well that is all my rambling for now. Oh the most important thing, my new years resolution. I want to write it down here, so that people can remind me when I am not doing it. I MUST study for my MCAT. From now until Mid of April, I must learn enough bullshit information so that I don’t have to try my luck with culinary school, or nursing school. After April, I’ll come up with another resolution, but that is my only big one until then. Best wishes this year in all your endeavors. And may all your dreams become reality.

Friday, November 26, 2004

Fri, 26 Nov 2004 02:52:05 GMT

I am sorry, it has been such a long time since my last posting, but school has been keeping me pretty busy. I will try to hit the highlights from the last month or so, and not try to bore you to death.

Culture fest was an enormous success. The hard work that everyone in the dance group put in I think showed magnificently, and I am very happy with their performance. Event though I screwed up, I was slick about it, and it is like I always say, it is the girl that makes the guy, and well my dance partner is amazing.

Then our next performance was the following Friday at Faces of the Caribbean Pageant, where once again we did a really good job. As a side note, the girl representing Cuba in the pageant won Miss Caribbean, and she is from Fort Lauderdale and is half Cuban & half Venezuelan, and I really liked her final answer, which was what culture practice does the country that you represent have that American culture lacks, and you think would improve American culture. And I think she said something very true, which is how united and respectful Cuban families are. For starters it would not even cross my mind to go anywhere else but home on Thanksgiving, Christmas and Spring break from school; no doubt whatsoever, and there is this respect that exists that I think definitely lacks in some American families. But anyways, that is enough of that. I want to keep this short.

Then on Saturday I went out on my first outing in my Hopkins career. No it was not a date. Well it was a lovely night, with an even lovelier young lady. We went to go watch “Motorcycle diaries” about Che Guevara. We both agreed it was a really good movie. I believe it was a fair rendition, and was very good (except at the end) for keeping it politically neutral. But I still don’t think El Che was this great man that so many people paint him out to be, but hey we are all allowed our own opinion. I beat my record from high school though, where it took me until senior year to go on an outing with a girl. Hey maybe come medical school, I can have an outing by my second year. I am such a nerd.

I kinda had to get over my fears of public speaking, when it was finally our turn to give our presentation in brain injury and recovery of function. It went pretty well. At least I am hoping it did. I learned that if I have gum, it helps take out the frustration while I am not talking, and then sticking the gum behind my teeth while talking helps.

Then the last interesting thing was my 3.5 hour delay at BWI. So I got to the airport at 4:45 for my 7:15 scheduled flight. When I went to check in through the e-ticket machine, it didn’t allow me, and I had to go through an agent. They had to call somewhere to confirm my ticket for some reason. Well anyways they said that the flight was being delayed till 7:50, so I was like that isn’t too bad. At 6:30 they come on the speakers, and said the plane we were suppose to take has something wrong and they cannot fix it, and we have to wait for another plane to come in and replace it. Well the other plane didn’t arrive till 10 that night. Thanks to Frank I didn’t go crazy at the airport, because I was able to watch Sharktale while waiting. So I didn’t get home until 1:30 in the morning, but it was sweet. Once again, I get less sleep at home than I get at school, but that is ok, because I am home, and enjoying every moment. Well that is enough rambling, I should start getting ready for dinner later, check up on the turkey, make sure it is getting a nice tan. Happy Turkey Day, everyone. Just a few more weeks till the coolest holiday. I love Christmas.

Wednesday, November 03, 2004

Wed, 03 Nov 2004 20:05:42 GMT

Let me begin by saying that I don’t care for politics, but given the recent situations, and being pretty much neutral on political parties, I would like to toss out my philosophical views on the US political system. Also, I must say that I find it totally absurd that friendships can come to an end, or at least be affected over political views. What ever happened to being tolerant of other’s personal views?

First of all I would like to say that if there is anything to blame, we must blame the system. In the end it all boils down to which candidate has more money. The more money, the more advertisement, the more advertisement, the more people see you, and the more people see you, the more people are likely to vote for you, it literally is that easy. The second thing to blame is the democrats themselves. Given all the intelligent people that there are in the US, I don’t believe that the democrats choose the correct or greatest candidate to run for presidency. So then why was he elected? Well for the first reason I mentioned above. I found it funny that the hard core democrats would always say to me “Well you should vote for the lesser of two evils” when I said I wasn’t voting. Well I don’t want to vote for an evil, why can I not vote for a competent person, someone I feel will make a truly good leader, hence why I didn’t vote. And I want to say, that neither of the two candidates seem to be capable, or competent leaders of the greatest nation on earth. I would just like to throw out that I would have most likely voted for Kerry, IF I would have voted; because he probably was the lesser of two evils.

Also, now I hope that all the people (aka democrats) that said they would move out of the US if Bush became president again, are people of their word, and pack up and leave. I am sure the Canadians are dying to have more Americans, or even the South American countries, they can use some US money over there. Whether good or bad, we are all AMERICANS, not republicans, not democrats, but AMERICANS, and no matter who leads, we have to stick together as Americans, because if there is something that the majority of the Americans do not believe in, well it won’t become law. The majority elect the president, and the majority make things happen.

I want to also rant about the election procedures, and my views about them. As long as we continue with electoral college, I don’t care how much you try to convince me, YOUR VOTE DOES NOT COUNT. For example, in Ohio, most of the absentee ballots are not even going to be counted because the gap is so large. Likewise in Florida. Did their vote count? NO! and now think about this, you voted for Kerry in Ohio, but all the electoral votes from Ohio go to Bush, did your vote count in the grand scheme of things? NO! because you didn’t vote for Bush. So what did your vote count for then?

Now to wrap things up. I do agree that the next four years is going to determine our future, as a nation, and for our children and their children. Unfortunately I do not believe we were given the best choices to lead us into these deciding times. All we can do as a nation is settle our differences, don’t yell, and offend other people because of what they stand for, and the world will continue to turn. For the democrats out there, just think of it as you are half way out of the forest. And for the republicans, congratulations. I have higher aspirations for 2008, I don’t think we will be cheated of powerful and erudite leaders, just a few names out so far are Hilary, Giuliani, McCain and even Edwards. Well I hope this has given many people a different perspective, and opened some very narrow and close minded ones. I welcome comments, and criticism as I know it will be natural. And in the words of Jerry Springer, “Until next time, take care of yourself, and each other.”

Saturday, October 23, 2004

Sat, 23 Oct 2004 05:42:09 GMT

Ok let me start with hopefully the last bad news I have to talk about for a long while. I received my MCAT scores, so I had set the lowest score for which I would take the MCAT again at 25, and well they were nice enough to give me a 26. So unfortunately I have to endure the all day pain again. I don’t believe that there is a large probability that I won’t become a doctor because of a standardized test, damm I suck! I have been through this same road before, oh yeah i remember same crap that happened with my SAT’s. But oh well, if I cannot become a doctor, I will just go into culinary school, I don’t think you have to take a test to get in, and at least I know I can cook, or maybe go into nursing school, not sure. Whatever, this decision will be made sometime during the summer. Ok on to bigger and brighter things.

So I did finally end up going to club night at Latin Palace. It was aight. I was a little disappointed that they played more American music than Spanish music, but I still had fun dancing. Dancing is always a nice break from school work. I just wish I could find a partner so that I can do it more often. The OLE dance group is doing really good, we are finally coming together, and she wasn’t mad at me, so that was good. I believe we have the potential to wow the audience this year, so come and see us and Chinese lion dance at culture fest, on November 13.

Work is going really well. I have yet to go a night without a survey, so that is good. On Monday though it was funny, because I started making calls, and most of the people that I called said they could not talk because they were watching the sox/yank game. So I just ended up doing a whole bunch of paper work, so that the other nights I can do calls. Friday night, I got 3 surveys, so that was really good. Since I don’t have any test this upcoming week, I guess I will work both Saturday and Sunday, to make a few extra bucks.

This week that just passed wasn’t cool at all though, because I had a cellular and molecular neuroscience test on Monday, and then an Italian test on Wednesday, we shall see how that went. And to end with a highlight, later on today is Latino Fest. This is the most Hispanic food I ever see here in Baltimore, and its free, so this is by far the best OLE event of the year. Not to forget the piñata, that always brings good laughs. I’ll update you how that went on the next posting. I must insert these quotes because they are way to funny not to, someone pulled not ONE but TWO funnies the other day, and here they are in no particular order: "everyone in hollywood's been coming outta the closet lately, i swear that whole community's gay" and "The Red Sox is officially the team with the worse hair is baseball."<~~AJK

Until next time take care of yourself and each other.

Saturday, October 09, 2004

Sat, 09 Oct 2004 03:30:16 GMT

What A bad Friday, it feels like a Friday the thirteen. It has been just an awful day. So now that I know the answer to both of the things that I alluded to before, I will give you full details, my Friday will be explained later.

“Georges” referred to me getting a job, which I did. I will be working as a telephone interviewer for an organ donation survey. They needed someone that could administer the survey in Spanish, and whom better than me. The pay is good, and I only have to work 15 hours, with a maximum of 20 a week. I could do weekends also. It looks like I will most likely be working Monday, and Friday, and then hopefully just one day during the weekend, or if not two, depending on school work. There are a couple of firsts along with this. My first job at Hopkins, and my first time I am working and going to school at the same time, hopefully I can handle it.

“Fishing” refers to a potential girl friend. The reason it is referred to as “fishing” is because my wonderful roommate Darren, misinterpreted me one time, when I said I like to fish, thinking by fish I meant looking for girls. I would like to make it very clear that I like to fish for saltwater fish, and not for women. For some reason they think I am some sorta pimp, despite having multiple of my friends clearly describe me as a huge nerd. Anyways, Darren and Audrie got me the most adorable “Chucky” (another inside joke, if you want to know, all you have to do is ask) bear from build a bear, and he is an adorable fisherman. And the double entendre know is a living relic in my room. Well unfortunately he is still fishless. Key word from above was potential. I decide to be a man for once, felt weird I must say, and I asked the first girl ever in my Hopkins career out. Yes, yes what I just said is true. Well not really ask her out, but more like get to know her more, to see if there might be something between us. Well anyways, I was not going in with high expectations, and like I expected I was mildly declined. I must say though, she was super sweet about it, and she is a really nice girl, so I have no bad, or hard feelings against her. Hopefully she isn’t mad at me either, and we can at least be acquaintances. It was perfectly understandable and painless, and even though I was carrying a parachute, I didn’t need to open it. Although it went better than I planned, I don’t think I am cut out to be doing these kinda things, I was so nervous. My stomach was doing circles, my checks were quivering, and my hands had uncontrollable shaking. You see women, you see what you make guys go through. I think I might just stick to my old philosophy, sitting and waiting. I know that patience is a virtue, along with all good things come to those who wait.

So that happened in this morning, then this afternoon as I was going to the public health school for my first job training, the bus side swiped a car as it was leaving penn station. The guy got out of the car, and started yelling something to the driver. I couldn’t hear because I was literally in the back of the bus. I looked at my watch and saw I was going to be late, because they were calling the cops to do an incident report and such. So I hopped out of the bus, and thank goodness we were at penn station, I was able to get into a cab immediately, and get there on time. The training went pretty well, best part of today. It doesn’t seem like it would be to hard, I am just going to have to convince people to take the survey. I hope I can do that better than convincing a woman I really am I nice guy.

I did do something productive tonight though, so that at least ends the day on a good note. Did some ERT, emergency repair team, on the Chinese lion head, and then did the much needed grocery shopping. We were not able to buy to much meat, not much was on sale, but I think we have enough to last us the week at least. Now hopefully I can catch some good movie on TV, and sleep this Friday off.

Although this weekend is fall break, there is no break for me. I have a lot of work I want to accomplish this weekend, since this upcoming week is going to be hectic. The most exciting thing occurring on Thursday, where you can go shake your tail feather at Latin palace night club. I’m still debating whether I should go, but we shall see when the time comes. There will be buses leaving from the library starting at 9:45, and it is only $5. Everyone should go and learn some salsa and merengue, it will be fun I promise, none of us know how to dance anyways. Friday the thirteen, or not Friday the thirteen, that is the question.

Friday, October 01, 2004

Fri, 01 Oct 2004 22:54:59 GMT

So Hopkins is not all about having fun in the library, us nerds can have fun on the beach too. Fall festival was nice. I liked foremost the free, non-sodexho barbeque. And just chillin like a villan on the grass with my friends, it is definitely a nice change from all the studying.

Speaking about change, OLE started the dance group again, and I was kinda appointed the salsa instructor for guys, so we shall see how that goes. Everyone seems to be getting it just fine, and they are slowly starting to add some of that Hispanic flava to their hips, so it definitely looks promising. I just hope I don’t scare any away. In ballroom dance we started cha-cha-cha again. Like always the first class was relatively large, but lets see how many come back next week. It was also nice to see some familiar OLE dancing faces in cha-cha-cha classes. I danced pretty much the whole time with my perfect dance model (both in salsa and cha-cha-cha), so I cannot complain. That is going to keep my Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays pretty busy.

Yesterday was also the opening ceremonies for Latino heritage month. They ordered some south American food, and then for dessert, it was suppose to be flan I think, but it looked more like a custard soup. Whomever made a “flan” like that in Miami, would be shot. The tres leche was good though, I had a couple of pieces of that.

Got an A in my first Italian exam, holla back youngen. That was even after I wrote some of the cloths in Spanish and French. We shall see how other test go. There are also two new exciting things going on, but I am not going to divulge that info yet, until I have a complete story to tell. But well it has to do with “fishing” and “georges” Well that is about it, I think this is short and sweet. Until next time, take care of yourself, and each other.