A tip of the hat after 30+ years

On March 31, 1973 my mom and dad got married in a small community church in Colombia. naturally for my mother it has been a day of remembrance since this is the second straight wedding anniversary without him. Needless to say she hasn't been in the best of moods today.

They were never the type to brag about the number of years they were wed. Even the wedding anniversaries were pretty low-key. Dad usually would be gone for the day at work but he would always come back with a lovely (albeit inexpensive) bouquet of flowers for my mom. Heck, he even made dinner for all of us even though he would usually be tired too think after returning from work. By night's end they would sit in bed talking and reminiscing of the wedding and the first few years of being together.

Their union was certainly not without its faults. They would sometimes argue over trivial things and there were periods lasting weeks when they would not even greet one another. Twice they had nearly divorced. Yet through it all they never diminished the amount of disrespect or adoration for each other. Somehow they would overcome their differences and they each grew stronger due to it.

In a day and age when some marriages don't last 34 months (or in very rare cases 34 hours) it's reassuring to know that they would've continued to humbly celebrate a few healthy decades together.

It was nice while at lasted. I honestly don't know what else to say beyond that severe understatement.

I heart shoegazers

I remain in the quasi-funk that has bugged me for the past few weeks. However, one of the few things that has kept me awake includes shoegazer music.

What is shoegazer? Check out the following YouTube clips and you'll see:

Astrobrite - Overdriver

Lush - Nothing Natural

Resplandor – Sueños de un Ave

Medicine - Time Baby III

My Bloody Valentine - Only Shallow

Damn that felt good!

Sing your life

Morrissey performing at Radio City Music Hall in October 2004 (photo copyright Alyssa Scheinson)

Saturday June 30 at Madison Square Garden.

Need I say more!

Un año

Yesterday was a landmark day for this blog in that it was the one-year anniversary of its inception. In the course of the past year I’ve written about many things from politics to sports to my many foibles. In that sense I’ve accomplished one of the primary goals in the creation of this blog- to write about various different topics. That was why I named this blog Huevos Pericos- because it is a dish with a milieu of ingredients that combine well enough to enjoy as a delicious meal.

Yet at the same time I realize that the blog’s production has been inadequate. In one year I’ve only written around 70-something posts. Ideally, quality should trump quantity. (That’s the modus operandi of my favorite blog- forksplit). However I need to write more and more about the ideas that run rampant in my mind and hopefully I can accomplish this in the upcoming weeks and months.

This blog was created as a conduit for my many disparate and varied thoughts; a diary, if you will. That was why I chose to type up my first post on the 6-month anniversary of my father’s death. The past few days have been quite difficult because his passing away was predominant in my mind. Very little of the feelings of nostalgia and remembrance have changed since then. More so when I look at old pictures of him like I did yesterday as mom rummaged through some old boxes of photos yesterday.

There was one snapshot in particular that caught my eye- it was of him grilling dinner during one of our summer vacations camping in southern new jersey, circa 1990. He was standing over a small hibachi grill grinning from ear to ear wearing a tattered t-shirt and shorts. His expression glowed in the brightness of the mid-afternoon sun and one could tell that he was absolutely blissful. It was a photo that captured him at his very best- energetic, overjoyed, and generous. Mind you, there were occasions when he could be very mean, ornery, and cruel. But for now I prefer to remember the positive aspects about him and try to use that as a crutch to support my still-wounded psyche when I look back at the unfinished book which was his life.

So yeah, we’re one-year-old. Happy birthday to us.

Old habits are hard to break

I need to make up my mind. Just a few days ago I vowed that this month will be a time when I go out to several events and I won’t be so sedentary like I was in February.

So what happens? I stay at home this weekend.

Yesterday I was to go out for a meeting of the Jackie Robinson Foundation Alumni Association (JRFAA) as part of the foundation’s yearly Networking Weekend. Instead I get cold feet and figure irrationally that I will make it up by going to the JRFAA Dinner Sunday night at the Brown Shoe Company.

So what happens? I don’t go to the dinner.

Part of the reason is because my stomach was somewhat topsy-turvy. Yet I still could have gone, but in the end I decided I would much rather stay at home and get a few things done.

Really, I make no sense whatsoever.

However, salvation is around the corner in the form of my shrink who I will visit tomorrow afternoon. First I have to go pay a fine for overdue books at Bobst, then go see him. Perhaps it would be a good idea to stop by the hotel where the Networking Weekend is taking place and take a few minutes to greet some old pals and acquaintances. It is the latest I could do after rescinding on the events of the weekend.

Yet knowing me I’ll flee for Queens as fast as I can after the appointment’s done. My insecurities will get the best of me and I will want to interact as little as possible with other people. I’ll probably be a bit disheveled and tired from not sleeping well and pale from having skipped breakfast and lunch. Besides, there’s supposed to be rain and snow showers in the late afternoon which would make it ideal to commute before the rush hour.

Cold feet indeed. I bet that’s what will happen.

Hopefully I’ll prove myself wrong.

Tidbits: March shan’t be ‘meh’

Ugh, February was terribly uneventful for me. It was an extremely blasé month were my accomplishments were almost none but my failures were equally as tiny. A month where I was pretty in much in stasis when I only went out a handful of times to the doctor’s office. Mercifully, February is the shortest month of the year and I eagerly look towards March to change things around. For starters I’ll be off to Manhattan and the Jackie Robinson Foundation Networking Weekend starting Saturday, and later in the month I hope to go out to lunch a few times with friends, go see Reno 911! Miami with my bros, and sing my assiduous self off during the Aterciopelados concert two weeks from this Sunday. Fun, fun, fun by the ton, ton, ton!

Okay, off to the tidbits:

• Three exceptional events I missed over the past month due to my acting like a bump on a log- Dominican food festival at the United Nations Delegates Dining Room, The Armory Show, and La Cumbiamba eNeYe’s concert.
• So I suppose you’ve already heard of Anthony Bourdain’s article on how the Food Network has transformed itself (i.e. too much focus on Rachael Ray!). But I wonder hw he feels about the food-oriented programming on the Travel Channel (e.g. Epicurious).
• Dammit, I really miss Pollo Tropical! Perhaps I’ll have to make due with this.
• Why couldn’t this have happened when I was a student there! I tell you, those kids have it made. (I suppose I’ll have to take solace in the charity games we faced yearly against the Islanders).
• C’mon Moz! Please give us some good news and tell us you’re going to tour this year!
• Lastly, a very handy guide to remembering things (via Metafilter).

So that’s all for now. I’m looking forward to seeing many old friends and acquaintances mañana and hopefully that will bump me out of my stay-at-home funk.

And away I go!