Fish and Chips

"Nothing has a stronger influence psychologically on their environment and especially on their children than the unlived life of the parent." - Carl Jung

I spent the weekend visiting my family in the Valley. I hadn't been back for quite some time it felt like. The pretext for the trip was to drop off my dog Chloe with my dad so that he could take her to get spayed. He will be able to take care of her while she is healing much better than I would be able to.


I left after work, but I got in late on Friday night. Chloe did great on the drive down, she even got to ride in the front seat the whole 6 hours. It was an hour longer because I kept stopping to give her a chance to pee, but she just took the time to sniff around and get a good walk in, making me stop again half an hour later since I didn't know how well I could trust her. She did great though, but as you can see in the picture, I put up protection. Usually when I would go visit home, I'd make an effort to go out on Friday night to make the most of my time, but this time I was tired and just went to bed.

Saturday morning, I visited with my older sister Ana and my father. I also gave my mom a surprise. She had been wanting an ipod, so I got her an ipod nano. It is the new one that also has a radio and a clip, so she can use it when she walks. She really liked it and I showed her how to add music to it, but I don't know how well she will remember. In either case, I hope she gets good use out of it.

In the afternoon, I met up with my friend Andrea who provided the motivation for visiting. We went to the Edinburg Museum of South Texas History for a Dia de los Muertos event. Her sister Tanya, her niece and her friend Sara came along. I hadn't been to the Museum since I was little and from what I hear the majority of it is pretty new, ie, built in the last 10 years. My only childhood memory from there was of the old jail and of this noose that hanged in a room and from what I recalled, only one person has been killed there. I took the time to go and visit that room and it was just like my memory, except that the rope was much thinner. But back to the Day of the Dead event. It was well put together and very festive. I had a great time. Andrea's niece seemed to really enjoy herself. There was face painting, music, food, art and these Day of the Dead Alters. The face painting was done by legit artists and the work was impressive. They probably got less people done because they were so detailed, but the work was great. I never grew up celebrating the Day of the Dead and appreciate it as a Mexican tradition, but not my own. The alters, though important to people and about real people, just would not be a way I would want to remember someone. This I thought a lot about while I was there.

I hadn't seen Sara since high school, so it was great seeing her and Tanya, who I think is awesome, is due to have her baby pretty soon. I was impressed that she was still so active, but then again, I don't really know much about how active people normally are. At one point, we took on the arts and crafts tables where I did my first coloring since elementary to pass the time. It brought back crayon memories and we even learned how to make flowers, mine which I gave to a little girl who liked it and asked me about it. I got an approving nod from her father. I even got to ask questions of one of the artists who was there. He was a college senior. His mom was also there and so proud. He was a bit embarrassed of how proud she was, but more so there was pride over his work. I was impressed. Andrea is great about finding these types of events. I'm sure I'll go back sometime to actually check out the Museum part of the Museum.

Later in the evening we went out and I finally got to see the movie Secretariat. I saw a preview during the Kentucky Derby and really wanted to see it despite the fact it was PG/Disney, so probably geared towards kids. It was not, and it was a great movie, the type a family should rent and watch together. It was great to finally get the see the story about something I only knew bits and pieces of. I like horse racing a lot more than I thought I did. I do watch the Triple Crown each year, but other than that, I don't know much.

Sunday morning, I met up with my sister Eliza and her family for lunch. It was nice visiting with my nieces Tori and Celeste. Celeste I feel does not know me very well, mainly because I've been absent most of the time, but in Tori's case, when she was a baby I was in college, so I missed a huge part of her life and I still consider us pretty close now that she is older. No one wants to feel like a distant uncle, but sometimes things just play out how they play out. It was great to have some good Mexican food before I left. The trip back felt longer than the trip home, even though I made so much better time. I got to listen to the Cowboys on the radio and it isn't even worth mentioning.

Sunday night was the season finale of Mad Men. I did not plan on being such a fan of the show, but since truly discovering the show this summer and catching up, I've packed in 4 seasons over a matter of months. It was bittersweet in the sense that I was excited about the episode, but sad that I would have to wait a long time to see a new one. It is the type of show where I wish there was some sort of class the next day where we could discuss the themes and story. There was a scene where the blanket that Don's secretary was wrapped in was my favorite type of blanket, the type with a satin edge. I liked that detail. My favorite line has to be the one by Faye, "And I hope she knows you only like the beginnings of things." Great finale, but it doesn't mean I agree with it. I'm kind of dismayed by it actually. I saw that it was coming, not to that extent. I'll try not to drop any spoilers, so I'll leave it at that.

Here are some random thoughts. I wonder if people ever wake up and think, "Man, I did not age well." This isn't something I had put much thought into until recently. I saw this woman in her late 40s who had actually aged really well. Not well enough to where I couldn't tell she was in her 40s, but nevertheless well. I wonder how much it has to do with being healthy versus genetics. I've seen people in their late 20s that look like they are in their late 30s. Attractiveness is somewhat subjective (science proportions aside), but being youthful looking must add to it. Maybe I have just been caught up on the subject of age as of late.

I hate to end on a negative note, but I hate chain forwards and I'm not a guy that throws the word hate around. (Did you catch how I threw it around by trying to explain that I don't?) I really do, with a passion that runs deep. I know I have mentioned this before, but it just has to be said again. Misinformation disguised as "warnings" ones drive me crazy and makes me wish people would just go to scopes.com before forwarding/posting. Religious and nationalist forwards bother me even more. Yes, God is great, Troops are great, but do they really care if you forward this poorly written message. There are sometimes good intentioned ones, but they still say stupid shit. I hate when there are comments like, “93% of people won’t forward this.” Fuck you, is that supposed to motivate me to forward this bullshit on, like some sort of reverse psychology guilt. 93% of people are smart enough to delete this shit I want to reply knowing that 93% is a number they pulled out of their ass. Then you have ones, if you love God you will forward this, or something of that nature, which by not doing what they say, makes you by default a bad person. So I was a good person, but didn't forward your shit, so now I hate puppies? thanks. The chain letter is an old instrument and whether it is now in emails or facebook postings, it is the same old concept and I can't believe that virus is still around. I’ve said this before and will say it again, if the info in your “forward” is so grand, then copy it and send it alone without all the bullshit "forward me or you will get bad luck and make baby Jesus cry" bullshit. If you read my blog, you might notice I usually do not use curse words liberally, though on occasion they make sense, but this topic really annoys me. I mean, I love forwarding cool information to friends, great articles or news, but that is different than a chain forward and I hope you understand that. The way to spot a chain forward is when you are asked to forward it on to more people. If it is so it, the message it self will prompt the wanting to share, not a command under penalty of "insert chain letter tactic here." It is really simple I guess. So even stuff like, "I love my family, if you do too, post this on your wall" is a chain forward and even though I do love my family, I'll never post it and will try super hard not to let it annoy me, which I will fail at. Now if a person posted, "Vote against the law that kills puppies", and that is all, then reposting is not a forward and this is probably good information to share. Why am I trying to explain this, you understand, I'm just rambling like an old man now...this isn't meant to offend, just as a way to vent.

You know, speaking of venting, I do not enjoy reading when people vent about negative things they do not like. It just says more about them than it does about the thing bothering them. Knowing that, I should probably delete my forwards thoughts, but there is no use trying to be someone I'm not. (I wrote this rant a while back, and am much over it now, but reading it again, I could still relate.)

You are the moth, not the flame