I Am

From the Andes and the Amazon rainforest,
and from the sands of SoFi.
A mountain girl in the magic city,
bred with frijoles, sancocho and Burger King.
A speaker of romance whose tongue
becomes a contortionist -
Erre con erre cigarro, erre con erre barril.
Roll your tongue, mija, ole, niña.
A gringa among my people;
a Latina among my people.
Confused for a stranger.
Across two continents, and two
languages, one woman,
mother,
daughter
lover.
A hyphen in an unhyphenated world.
A Paisa and Miamian born in Queens,
who celebrates Noche Buena with
buñuelos and natilla
then spends Christmas morning
unwrapping Santa Claus, Kris Kringle,
Father Christmas, El Niño Dios.
My father used to say in Latin,
de gustibus et coloribus non disputatum,
but we still argued
about the colors of our people.
My mother’s daughter,
a pseudo- perfectionist
who dreams of the Louvre and the Seine
while moving to Cumbia and Vallenato.
My mother’s mother and father’s father;
all the greats in one solitary shape.
Colombia patria querida.
America the beautiful.

© 2009 Alexandra Penaloza Alessandri

Someone stole my credit card number!

UGH! I got an email today from my bank that there were some questionable transactions. Great, I thought, but when we called, I nearly fell off my chair. Turns out that someone took my credit card number (because we had our cards) and charged over $17,000!!! The first transaction was done in Hialeah for the $17K at an auto glass shop 3 days ago, and the others were either gas stations or Home Depots in FL and MD! I felt like saying, are you serious?! I started trying to backtrack and see where I used my card last, but I guess it's almost impossible to track. Sigh. Just be careful with your stuff. You don't need to have the physical cards stolen to get robbed. I am grateful though that we were alerted today instead of when the next statement came in.... that would have been disastrous! And thankfully, it was the credit card and not the ATM/debit card. That would've been worse!

Hope you're all having a better weekend. ;) For those of you that celebrate Easter, Happy Easter! For those that are celebrating Passover, Happy Passover!

Inside a Barnes & Noble Café

I sit in the Starbucks café and look around me at the faces brimming with the aroma of
Café Lattes and Café Mochas.

They peer at the words dancing in front of them,
their rectangular eyes resting
on bridged noses, wondering where
Shakespeare found his talent, and the meaning
of juxtaposition.

Some carry their laptops with them
fidgeting in their seats as
they try to understand the way to
connect with knowledge without seeming
desperate. They hunger at the smell
of curiosity and ability.

Others sit in a huddle, reading
anxiously over algorithms, intervals and
quadratic equations. Their scarlet eyes tell of
desperation and lost scholarships balanced
precariously on final exams.

A few are mothers, breathing in the
caffeine, enough to replace a
few hours of sleep they don’t have. Their children –
some sitting and reading Tigger and Pooh or
the Backyardigans, others running
from their tables – leave them
yearning for solitude.

Most are silent, oblivious to the
cell phone conversations of breakups and
business arrangements or the intermittent
brewing and foaming that takes place
behind the counter. They sit steadily,
eyes fixed, engulfed in metaphysics and Milton.

I wonder if I had ever been like them, noses
insistent on snorting the words and becoming addicted
to layers of philosophy, submerged
in a world of similes and butterflies, oblivious to
antonyms and the bearded man at the counter.

© 2009 Alexandra Penaloza Alessandri

New Additions

I added a "quote of the day" to the blog. I considered adding "word of the day" too, but I couldn't find one whose format/code worked well here. I love quotes, so I thought the quote thing would be nice. I'm also working on a new faculty website that could help everyone. Granted, it's late for this semester (I just went to the class/training on Friday), but I may be able to get it up in time for the last few assignments. It should be informational and helpful, and it would have links to great online resources. We'll see how that goes.

And I know most of your are counting - 3 more weeks (give or take a day or two) until the end of classes! Phew! Most of you are probably planning your next moves, whether they be classes or summer activities. I will be planning my son's 2nd birthday, working on a few writing pieces (bits of the memoir, some short stories, and a poem or two), and maybe taking a couple trips to Disney. I wouldn't mind getting in some scrapbooking time (I have TONS of pics juts laying around that I need to organize) and maybe putting some order at home. Oh yea, and I want to get my son some swimming lessons, too, and maybe try to get in some pool/beach time, too. HA! One summer is not going to be enough time for all that!

But before the summer gets here.... we have the last three weeks of classes and papers to write. We will survive! ;) Hope you guys are having a wonderful (and HOT) weekend!

Blogging and Keeping Up

It seems as if many have forgotten that the blog is part of the grade. While I just don't have enough hours in a day to reply to the posts, I do read. And as I read, I notice that the dates start becoming further and further from the current date. For example, many of the blogs have a last post that is dated back to February, and some even to January! I mean, c'mon people. We're at the END of March. Not only that, but I'm noticing that the responses to posts has been slacking, too. I know it's a PITA, especially for those that aren't used to this, but it's still a requirement.

Now, for those of you that keep up with your blogs and your replies - thank you. I truly enjoy reading them and sometimes find myself either laughing by myself in the office (or at home) or remembering quite vividly being a freshman or sophomore in college (among other reactions).

Anyway, this was really just a reminder that the whole blogging thing is mandatory, and if you haven't kept up or you haven't started, your grade will suffer. It was also a thumbs up for those that are keeping up and contributing worthwhile posts and responses.

Harry Potter

So my newest obsession is Harry Potter. I finally read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince in preparation for the film's release this July, and now I'm finding that I have to re-read the last book of the installment: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. I started backwards, if you will, with the whole Harry Potter phenomena. I had never read the books when I was younger, and instead found myself fascinated with the movies. Both my husband and I love those types of movies. So, after the 5th movie, The Order of the Phoenix, I couldn't wait any longer and bought the last book of the series. That was the first Harry Potter book that I actually read. Then, I bought book 6 and read that one. I'm now anxiously awaiting the release of the film because I love comparing films and books, and I will finally be able to compare Harry Potter. Up until now, I've only been able to talk about the films. Now I can talk about both!

Other than Harry Potter, I'm looking forward to the rest of the semester! I hope to be able to keep up with the grading (not like I have much of a choice, now do I?). We get into interesting territory now, in both 1101 and 1102 classes! And before we know it, the end will be here and we'll be on our way into summer! Hip, hip, hurray!

Anyway, I hope you all have a wonderful, safe, and dry weekend, and I'll see you all next week!

Spring Break is Here!

Okay, so it's been here for the last few days, but only now do I get to blog about it. I have to say that I think teachers look forward to Spring Break just as much as students do! It's either a chance to get away and take a much needed break in between a semester or the chance to play catch up with grading and school stuff. For me, it's the latter. I have been growing very acquainted with Grademark, a grading software from turnitin.com that allows me to grade papers online, with comments and symbols just as if I were writing on the actual paper. That allows you guys to see your essays and grades as soon as I finish your essay; you wouldn't have to wait until I finish everyone's paper. Of course, it's purely online and I'm new to it, so I'm still working out glitches and working on speeding the process, but so far I like it.

Other than that, I'm still nursing my son back to health. Thank goodness it's Spring Break because otherwise I'd be having to take time off! He went back to daycare 3 days last week only to get sick, again. This time, his ear infection from last week did not respond to antibiotics and got worse. He also got another cold which developed into croup. Ironically, I remember talking about croup recently to one of you. :) It really does sound like a barking seal! As a result of being out part of last week and now this week, he missed his class pictures. :( I know it's silly, but I was looking forward to getting a picture of him with all his little friends from school. We missed it last year because he hadn't started yet, so I was eagerly anticipating this year's class pictures (and anyone that knows me knows that I am a sucker for pictures). Stinks.

I am, though, getting tired of walking into daycare only to find kids with green boogers hanging out because that means my son is going to get sick. There's supposed to be a "sick policy" in place but that doesn't seem to be getting upheld. In the meantime, my mom, my husband, my mother-in-law and I (in a new job!) are all having to take time off over a month and a half period because of him being sick. If my son is sick I don't want him a) getting other kids sick and b) getting worse. Sigh. That's part of life in daycare.

Well, I hope you are all enjoying your time off. Hopefully, you can actually enjoy the break and do something fun. If not, well, at least enjoy having some time off from going to classes. ;)

See you all next week!