Mardi Gras Indian Practice.

What an incredible experience!
Words can't explain the energy in this room.
The feeling and community behind a truly authentic experience.
Here is some video that don't come close to explaining the feeling of the practice.
The rythmn of everyone around you.
The sound and dance.
The pounding.
It was amazing.





My whole weekend was amazing really.
A great potluck dinner with good friends.
Went to The Presbetyre,
a museum on Mardi Gras with my Caribbean Festival's class.
Did Sparta and Pegasus Parades Saturday night.
Had a float full of little girls get a flat tire right in front of us.
Relaxed most of Sunday
and then went to the Indian Practice.
One very full weekend.
Now I need to put my presentation on the Mardi Gras Indians together!!

Presentation tomorrow.
So happy to be done.
I notice when I'm stressed,
my creative juices flow more.
I crave writing, and painting,
and photography.

My goal for the next two weeks is to center myself.
I am going home,
catching up with Andrew,
seeing my entire giant Cuban family,
getting my wisdom teeth pulled out,
back to school shopping,
and collecting my thoughts and ideas.

I need clarity and definition.
I need to focus on what my goals are,
and how I'm truly going to achieve them.
I will further elaborate on this,
when I personally have them straight.

I am happy to go home.
My teeth hurt!!!!
I hate wisdom teeth.
I'm actually looking forward to this surgery!!
Crazy.



Summer needs to come to an end.
I feel disappointed and in worse shape than I began.
Sadly,
from this dispair,
I feel inspired,
I understand why artists must be tortured to truly make art.

Are you an Old Spice Man?

Just saw the funniest commercial for old spice,
which begs the question now,
are you an old spice man?

More to come once I finish my presentation,
and I get my wisdom teeth pulled,
and my perpetual head ache stops.

Mug Night.

What a great night.
Went to The Bulldog with Katy.
We ended up going to the Mid City Bulldog.
I've only ever been to the Uptown one on Magazine,
but they are under renovations right now.
The Mid City one is huge and quite lovely.


Wednesday is mug night,
so we had a few pints.
My personal favorite has to be the
"One for the Ladies."
On the pint glass is a picture of a
man in an American Flag speedo!
Too much! Too much!
Coincidentily, only Katy and I got one of those.
Hmmmmm....
I'll have to put a picture of them on here another day.


Here are some sample glasses.

The selection of beer was amazing.
I had a Stell Artois, which is a Belgium beer
and a Rogue, Chocolate, which is brewed in Oregon.
The Rogue had quite an after taste/bite.
Both were interesting
and quite enjoyable.


The selection on draft.

Afterwards we went to Bruno's.
Vodka tonics for life.
We were engaged in quite the political talk.
It was pleasant enough.
Then I went home
and slept like a baby.

I have my interview with Princeton Review today!
Fingers crossed.
I need to finish my "lesson."
I'm starting to get worried its not creative enough.
I am teaching basic piano...how to read notes.
Oh boy!
Katy made a turkey sandwich for her interview.
We'll see how this rolls!!!

More to discuss later!

Independence Day

Happy Fourth of July.
Happy 231st birthday America.
I feel so bittersweet about celebrating this year.
I think we have lost the meaning of "Independence."

It is not just relinquishing ourselves from British rule,
it is about having the stregnth to remain independent.
Our policies and nation building efforts have made us imperialistic.
We are an imperialistic nation.
We have lost the values our nation was founded on.
Within ourselves we have become intolerant, scared and complacent with the gradual elimination of our freedoms (habeus corpus, cough, senior bush).
On an international level we are controlling, minipulative and an all around control freak.

We must regain the values of tolerance, consideration and peace set forth by the writers of our constitution.
It is called Independence Day for a reason.
Our simplistic minds may prefer July 4th,
but the history of holiday should not be lost admist fancy fireworks and tasty barbeques.

Today Ashley and I went shopping at the mall.
I got two really cute tank tops!
One good for my presentation later this summer
if I can find a jacket for over top.
Later we went to Wal Mart...more cheap love.
Then went to Superior Grill,
where I could not help but get a margarita and the enchilladas.
YUUmmmmYYY!!!!

After dinner we had desert at Sucre.
I would not recommend the Cafe Glace...
I should have known by the bullshit name that
the drink itself was bullshit.
It was an over priced frappucino...which is sort of silly since those are overpriced anyhow.

Post desert we went to the top of the parking garage and watched the fireworks.
It was a lovely evening,
though as I said before, I find the entire holiday bitter this year.
Over the course of the year,
my political beliefs have started to be defined by my personal beliefs, not whom my parents should say I should vote for.
I feel this is an important step in maturing,
and I hope to keep this same level of passion towards it in the future.

Wow...started drifting there...
the point was...
I'm not happy with how our country is looking.
The pendulum must swing back.
We have gone too far.
The tide of change is flowing.
I hope by this time next year to feel differently and proud of my nation.
I hope we will all learn from the gross abuses in power both internally and externally our nation is fostering.

Happy Fourth of July!


What we are???


What we were.