Time Flew!

Jason, Shawna, Ricardo, Edgar and Carla at our Thanksgiving table.

Wow! What happened? Well, Happy Thanksgiving...we stayed here in Dallas for once and really enjoyed NOT having to face the drive, although we all missed the Lousiana family! Normally we don't mind driving, but Thanksgiving is just CRAZY with traffic...the 6 hour drive to Lafayette turns into 9 hours, the 3 hours to Austin becomes 5 or 6...it's very aggravating!

So, we stayed in Dallas, and had Shawna, Jason, Trystin and Forest over; as well as Nayi, Edgar, Lupe and Duli. The girls really outdid themselves making some of "Abu's" recipes, and between what we cooked and what everyone brought we had quite a feast. The best part as always was the after dinner conversation that lasted into the night!

We had a great time on the other days home, going to movies, hanging out, cleaning the house, sleeping and reading. Then the rude awakening on Monday! My grant deadline rapidly approaches....an interim deadline is this Friday and then the final deadline is December 15th--I can't wait!

Oh! and on Sunday we had our first Parranda performance! We were kind of nervous, it was an early morning event (hey, 9am is early to me...) and so the first performance was kind of shaky. By the 11am performance we were warmed up and did so much better! Thank you Unity Church for inviting us!

Ok, I'll get back to posting more regularly. I hope everyone had a great Turkey Day and is gearing up for a good Christmas and New Year!

Music and Friends

(Forrest, Mr. Wright-Principal, Sofia and Cristal)

Last night Sofia debuted her composition at the Middle School Piano Recital at Harry Stone. It was a very nice recital and Sofia played three songs, including a duet with her friend Blanca and another with the piano teacher Mr. Brown. At a prior recital she aparently told Ricardo that she wanted flowers like some of the other girls have gotten after playing, so we brought her these roses. She didn't seem that enthusiastic about them, maybe she got over that! Anyway, I loved how she played, although being the expert she of course found fault with her performance...

I'm so happy for her that she loves piano so much, it seems like such a wonderful outlet to have. Even though we really didn't have room for a piano in the house, we managed to carve out a space in her room for the piano--thank goodness it's not in the living room because she's ALWAYS on the piano. In fact I know she's awake because I can hear the piano, and then know when she falls asleep because the piano stops...

This is Sofia's last year at Harry Stone--it will be my 12th year as a parent there!! She's already working on her application to the Talented and Gifted (TAG) High School, which is due in February. We should know by March or April, that's when Hannah found out and I remember that it's nerve-wracking to wait for that response!!! This year it's going to be very competitive because TAG was named the best high school in the NATION last year by Newsweek magazine. Yikes...

I Want to Gogh...

I had a great time last week when Janet and I went to see the Hatshepsut exhibit at the Kimball in Fort Worth. I was really impressed with how different the style was from other Egyptian works I've seen. It reminded me of when I first came to Dallas and Janet and I went to see King Tut. It had been too long since I'd had a high brow outing with a girlfriend! Now I really want to see the Van Gogh "Sheaves of Wheat" exhibit, I apologize for the pun in the title...

Ever wonder what kind of art movement you would be? Well, I hadn't thought of that either, but found this on the web and thought it was kind of funny and interesting. I DO love impressionism, or it was one of the first artistic styles that I noticed for myself. So I took this silly quiz and found out...

You Are Impressionism

You think the world is quite beautiful, especially if you look at it in new and interesting ways.You tend to focus on color and movement in art.For you, seeing the big picture is much more important than recording every little detail.You can find inspiration anywhere... especially from nature.

What Art Movement Are You?

So, go on, find out what kind of art movement you are...you know you want to know...

Pictures and Words

The moon rising over downtown Dallas tonight - one of those sights that's so much more spectacular in person!

I have just discovered the world of photo blogs and I'm hooked! Being able to capture a moment in time, or a great scene is one of life's great pleasures. Putting up pictures is one of the things that attracted me to blogging in the first place. My first love is still words though! The combination of words and pictures...as they say in the famous ad...priceless...

You have to check out the Dallas Photo blog, actually both of them:

http://dallasdailyphoto.blogspot.com/ and http://dallasdiorama.blogspot.com/

And on either of them you can see a list of other city photo blogs, the ones I saved were Edinburgh (there's no Aberdeen, so this is my Scottish fix), Mumbai (the colors!), Oulu Finland (this one captures the BEST images), Paris (for Shawna!), Port Vila (because there wasn't a Guam and this was in the 'vicinity'), Seguin, TX (for that small town TX bit), and Wailea (to remind me of my trip there with Sofia).

Earlier this year a small group of us started a sort of book club based on "The Artist's Way" book. It was so much fun! We only had a few meetings and then summer got in the way, and then our group was DECIMATED by two of the 5 members moving out of Dallas (we miss you Gretchen and Milena!!!). The goal I set myself has already come about, I wanted to write more. I set that as my artistic goal and totally internalized it, to such a degree that even though I didn't really think about the goal anymore I started writting! First one blog, then another...(home and work) and then started writing some letters...and now I have an idea for a Spanish language column I'm thinking about. That's a lot bigger committment but I'm really interested in trying it out. And then there's school....

I had left a PhD hanging a few years ago...no, I'm not going back and getting my PhD...rather than leave it as a bunch of coursework I would like to go back and turn it into a second Master's degree. That would also involve some writing....maybe not as fun as this! So, I guess I'm a writer again. Or maybe I never stopped being one, I just like to add pictures now.

Ayer Marchamos, Hoy Votamos

(The "Marcha" reflected onto the windows of City Hall,

Downtown Dallas, Spring 2006)

"Yesterday we marched, today we vote". That's on a sign I saw in my mostly Latino neighborhood recently. It reminds me to VOTE TOMORROW! And that has reminded me of my strongest election memories, which I'll recount below...all six of them:

1. High School - I either ran for office or helped my friend run. What I remember was the smart-alec negative campaign slogan against a fellow student. Our poster had the competitor's picture with the slogan "Can you really trust this person with your vote?" This was during the era of the "tricky Dick" impeachment hearings, so we thought it was clever...needless to say "the man", ie. principal, squelched our campaign saying it was innappropriate...
2. College - my first service project was an idea I hatched up after reading an article about hunger in Lafayette Parish (ie. county). I went to the Clerk of Court Office and proposed that we have a canned good drive along with an upcoming election. The Clerk agreed, and to my JOY even gave me a little office and use of the copier and phone...I've always loved office supplies! Of course he got a lot of PR value out of it, and I had a great experience actually making a project happen in the community!
3. Before leaving Lafayette I somehow got roped into being an election judge. I thought it would be exciting to be a part of the election process. I hadn't taken into consideration the early hours (I had to BE THERE at 6am), the late hours (didn't leave until 10pm) and how BORING it would be most of the time...even in Louisiana there was no cheating, no drama...
4. I was so excited when President Clinton won because it was my first EVER election outcome that matched my vote! At the rate we're going, it may be the ONLY one...
5. Two years ago Ricardo became a citizen and a few weeks later got to vote in the presidential election. It was wonderful to witness how seriously this new American took his privilege. I hope all the new NEW Americans vote tomorrow. Yesterday they marched, now they should vote...
6. Earlier this year, Sofia ran for VP of the student council. She learned a lot throughout the process, she did a great job planning her speech, she made "Be Weir'd" buttons for hours, she campaigned hard...and lost...it was a disappointment I know, but she's moved on and learned from it!

Well, let me know your favorite election memory...By the way, Sofia and I went to the "Marcha" earlier this year, check out our video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EjHlPIO9-ko