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| With all that's been going on in my life, I decided to take a ride out to Santa Monica to smell the ocean. I haven't been out there since last November so there were a few changes along the promenade. I stopped by Lenscrafters to get a new pair of glasses-I try to change my look every year. The last thing I want to do is be stuck in time. I took a spin around the beach front just as the sun was getting low on the horizon. The sweet smell of the ocean is always restorative; the gloaming is always my favorite time of day. Still waiting for more changes to come into my life. Unlike when I was younger, I am learning to just breathe deeply and let go. Funny thing about change is that it's never what you guess it will be yet ends up being the very thing you needed.
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| Life is full of irony. Just when my dad is finally making a recovery-he was transferred to an extended care facility yesterday-I learn that my best friend's dad was diagnosed with a terminal lung disease. I'm hoping it's just speculation for now but it doesn't look good. My best friend is someone I've known since high school. We've both been through a lot and have seen each other go through some amazing transformations. She's been there for me when it didn't look like my dad would make it. Now I'm the one that has to be there for her. The big difference is that she's married with a daughter. Our lives have always paralleled one another's. Taking turns going through life's trials so we could lead the way for the other.
"A teacher affects eternity; he can never tell where his influence stops." -Henry Adams
My thoughts and prayers are there for you, my friend.
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| How to explain what has transpired in the past month? Dad on life support for most of the month and not knowing if he'd be alive. Seeing your Mom get hysterical and break down. Doing my vigil by his bedside. Few events in life change your view on things and their importance more than facing the finality of mortality. The humanity in others surface unexpectedly. At times I felt as if I were drowning; straining to keep from breaking down while driving back from Vegas. Facing coworkers not sure of what to say. Through some miracle, Dad is still alive.
This will be the first weekend I've spent in LA since after New Year. Getting back into familiar routines and sleeping in my own bed bring a special kind of comfort. I also bought a new car; my previous car, while still great, was getting up there in miles and felt it was time to get something new. The model I chose would make transporting Dad easier and perhaps it's my way of holding out hope that all will be well once again.
What's important to you?
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| Some highlights from Holiday '06:
-no traffic headed to Vegas for Chirstmas weekend!
-just enough snow on Mt. Charleston to make it feel like Christmas
-6 new ornaments to add to my collection
-no traffic headed back to LA
-spending NYE at Circus...5 years in a row lol
-having the hottest guy in a wifebeater, in a drunken stupor, leaning onto my side
-eating in Little Tokyo on NYD
-watching a clerk in a Chinatown bakery/lunch counter chewing out an old chinese lady with no teeth because she was a few pennies short to pay for her dimsum! Feel the love...
Is it 2008 yet?
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| Yeah it's been a while since I last posted an entry. So much happening and the stress of the Holiday Season. An invitation to a neighbor's son's birthday party was something I had mixed feelings about. I decided to go as the birthday boy is someone that greets me evey time he sees me-usually when he hears my scooter starting up. At first, he called me "senor". The first word I taught him was, "guantes"(gloves in spanish). From then on, he would say "guantes" repeatedly. After a few months of that, he then began calling me "amigo". Ever time my scooter would start up, he'd dart out to the back so he could say, "amigo! moto?". He'd always be standing on the bottom rung of the iron fencing seperating the properties and reach out to me. That brought on the next phrase: "dame cinco"(give me five). He LOVED that one and needless to say, that's the greeting I get everytime he hears me coming or going.
His birthday party took place in his bldg's parking area-just like when I was a kid. There was a huge cake with X-Men, Spiderman, and Batman. The theme continued with the 3 pinatas the parents bought. The boys couldn't break them open which left the girls to come to the rescue. My Mom used to have pinatas at our birthday parties but these were filled with bags of oreos, potato chips, huge sized M&M's...well, you get the idea. When the goodies hit the ground, the adults were more rabid than the kids! Amidst the commotion, Gabriel saw me sitting on the sidelines. He grabbed some candy and walked over to me. "Amigo!" I nearly melted. A couple of the mom's sitting by me said, "he really loves you".
While I don't think I'll ever be a parent, this one event gave me a glimpse of what it is like to share the love of a child. It reminds me of what's important and what's not. So to Gabriel, so aptly named after the angel of Christmas, happy birthday!
Dame cinco!
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