There ain’t no excuse for loosing your feet
Drowning in your defeat on this road of life
There ain’t no excuse for coming up short
The ball is in your court
So reach up and touch the sky
-*NSYNC on Do Your Thing
I can’t believe what a great year this has been, both physically and mentally. I remember at the end of 2009 I wasn’t sure how the next year would go because I had many things that I had accomplished that year. I got to finally make a connection with my dog, Paloma, after her and I hadn’t really been close during the first few months. I also got to become acquainted with a group of people, one of whom I still consider a very good friend of mine. I got to do what I wanted in 2009 as I grew a lot during that period as I had great conversations with all sorts of people at school, at work, at social gatherings, at home, and other great places as well. However, I accomplished so much in 2010 that I don’t want the year to end but I think what I would want to be heard is my top 5 things I am proud of in 2010:
5. Taking a vacation after four years:
This was a tough road for me because I was thinking in my head for the longest time about how I hadn’t taken time off work for a substantial amount of time. I would request to take the occasional time off which was mostly for sporting events and other events to attend to. My vacation was from March 21 till April 1 which was plenty of time for me to just reflect and relax about what I didn’t need to deal with. The week was filled with fun and surprises because the first day of my vacation was when I went with my dad, grandma, brother, sister in law, and her friend to the flea market. I had wanted to go to find a CD that had been released recently by Banda Cuisillos and I had no luck in finding it. What I found fun that day though was the sheer enjoyment I saw in having my family there with me in the good weather that we have here in the bay area, just relaxing and not worrying about anything. We ended up eating nachos and drinking soda that day at the flea market which I enjoyed because if it’s food it’s food. When all was said and done, my co-worker, Jed, called me to see if I was doing anything because he was “bored”. I complied to him because at the time I didn’t know any better as to what being “bored” meant to him so I obliged and I just went along with him to go to his house and pick him up. We ended up going to wal-mart in Milpitas but then he proceeded to ask me if I could drive him to pick up a fish tank part. We ended up getting there and he got it then we called it a night. The next day was when myself, my dad, my brother, and Jay went to watch the WWE Supershow leading up to Wrestlemania 26 which was awesome due to the sheer athletic ability that guys like Rey Mysterio and Shawn Michaels were putting on that night. I was dumbfounded by the fact that there were so many people there that you couldn’t even buy merchandise and what not so I was a little disappointed I couldn’t buy anything. The next two days I started studying for my Biology final and working on my Ethics paper which to this day amazes me because not only was it well written but I did it in a timely manner. I was stressing for those two days because the night before my Biology I was debating whether to hang out with my co-worker, Jay, and my friend Rick. I decided to call it off because I realized that they weren’t going to hate me for the rest of my life if I said no once and they were both very courteous about me saying no to this one time occasion. I went to Biology the next day and did ok on the final but I felt I could have done better. The next day I ended up waiting for my brother to call and tell me what was going on that day. If it isn’t really known yet, I took about a four day trip to San Diego with my brother and my sister in law’s family. The momentous occasion was that one of my brother’s friends, Alex, was getting married to his girlfriend of three years. I was happy enough for them that I ended up buying them a set of knives that was on their wedding list. I waited for my brother to get there and when we ended up getting to the airport for the rental car, it seemed like a very long process. I couldn’t wait for my brother to get on the road and start driving. I hadn’t really got to talking to him on that long of a trip before so I was looking forward to it. He was really quiet on the drive but I found out that my sister in law’s family loves talking about other people’s problems. For example, they were talking about how so-and-so didn’t really love them so they weren’t really being faithful and I didn’t think any differently of them, it just opened my eyes to what my brother had to live with. The next morning my brother stayed with me in the hotel talking and watching TV with me. A few hours later he and his girlfriend had to go wedding rehearsal which I didn’t go to. I was starving so much that day that all I could think about was food as I went with my sister in law’s family to go shopping at CVS and Ross. They finally got back from the rehearsal and we went to eat and I was amazed how many people from my brother’s and his friend’s job were there. It amazed that only his closest friends were there because he deserved to be poured in all the glory. I have always considered him to be a decent human being because he tries to be courteous with you without ever putting himself over you. It all seemed so surreal because I had known some of these guys close to five years now and they were pretty cool with me. I remember the comment of the night came from one of the guys that I have known for about five years in Aldo, as he stated something about our minds not being as cognitively functional in our early years. That concluded the night there. The wedding was something else because we had the ceremony which was really nice because I saw a guy I hadn’t seen for some time, Dave. Dave used to be one of the guys that my brother used to work with and I always found myself talking to him when he would have us over his house. He seemed really cool due to the fact that he loved movies and I loved movies so we hit off pretty well actually. The ceremony was well attended to and I saw Alex being really nice to everyone who had attended the ceremony as he tried his best to take pictures with his wife with everyone. We then went to the reception itself which was followed by food and dance which was great to see as everybody had a few words to say about Alex and there love for him. I thought one of my buddies, Allan, had one of the best moments of the night when he busted out with a rap about Alex’s marriage and everybody, including myself, ate it up. My brother also had some words to say and I believe that he and Alex have this bond that is almost impossible to break up. I can see that through this speech that Alex might be the only one who really understands my brother because sometimes I find it difficult to even reach my brother. Everyone had fun and everybody seemed to be enjoying themselves. I was just a spectator but I still found enjoyment in the fact that everyone was having fun. The next day, my sister in law’s family decided they wanted to go to Disneyland which was fine with me because my brother and I went and had some amazing ribs at this restaurant out in LA somewhere. The ribs were amazing and I couldn’t help be enthralled by the fact that Wrestlemania was that day and I was most interested in Shawn Michaels’ final match. I was waiting for the final result as I later found out after a little delay on my Ipod Touch that Michaels retired and I felt a little sad after that. I reflected a little bit after that maybe 2010 was a year of change and rightfully so it was. The final day of our trip, Monday, was when we got back home and I was tired from so much driving and I was little taken aback from what was in front of me when I got home. Of course, I remembered that my aunt from Mexico had recently gotten in so I greeted them as best I could as I had to help my brother bring back the rental car. I was kind of saddened by my brother not standing up for himself more when his girlfriend’s family was practically yelling at him to get stuff done so they could get home and rest. I honestly felt bad for my brother because he was genuinely a nice guy with no ax to grind but I guess sometimes that sort of stuff happens. The next day I kind of relaxed and I ended up going to the gym with my co-worker, Jay. We talked about work as per but I wanted to just talk about my trip afterward. The next day I decided to take my friend, Rick, and Jay to Fenton’s which was all the way in Oakland which was on March 31. That was a memorable day because that was a memory that will never leave me, as we were all one and no one had really been hurt or berated against so I took it for what it was: an honest good time. I also bought MLB 10: The Show which was an awesome game that I played for close to six months. That night, myself, Rick, and Jay played the show and we just enjoyed ourselves.
4. Starting this blog:
There is not enough words to say how proud I am to have started this blog. I am proud of this blog mostly because it improved my writing skills and it helped me appreciate life more. I was talking to a co-friend at work one time and she suggested that my first few blogs were great reads and after hearing that I was encouraged even more. I feel the need to say things on this blog because some of it is what I believe and my beliefs are what I stand by in life. As I say these days to people, I could be wrong, nobody has to be right all the time. For starters, blogging has opened up not just opening up more, but it makes me appreciate life more.
3. Continuing my journey to fill up my Ipod Touch:
I am proud of this for many reasons. For one, my selection of music at the beginning of the year was honestly not that great and for good reason I decided to experiment and see what new music I could listen to. I have always considered myself a type of person who will listen to anything if it has meaning and depth to it. For example, the list of ten artists or bands I got into this year was:
1. The Clash
2. Eric B. and Rakim
3. Billy Joel
4. 98 Degrees
5. Linkin Park
6. Los Tiranos del Norte
7. Oro Norteno
8. Gerardo Reyes
9. Los Titanes de de Durando
10. Los Huracanes del Norte
I am trying my hardest to keep exploring because I like music that tells stories whether they be about love, tragedy, political movements, violence( though it seems unintentional at times), and pretty much anything else. Right now, I have close to 1600 songs and once I pass a certain milestone, say 2000 or 3000 I will listen to every song on there. If I hear something I like, I’ll try my hardest to get it on my IPOD anyway I can. As a great philosopher said, Friedrich Nietzsche said “Without Music, life would be a mistake.” Not only is this true, but it’s something we can rely on to get us through our days, whether good or bad.
2. Having great conversations with a good friend of mine
This is something that I look forward to every week and it’s something I want to do every week. At first, I thought this person was just someone that would forget about me after he quit the job that we both worked at but I thought it was worth a shot to see how he was adjusting to life after the Big Red Machine. At first, I feared rejection and doubt raised in my head as to how he would respond to text messages I would send him. I was still a bit upset that he just quit and abandoned his “friends” at work. I was wondering what triggered in his mind to want to leave this job that I felt at the time had a lot of upside to it and it was a good environment to be in because there were still a lot of good people to work with. After a few text messages and a bit of doubt being raised out of my head, at the end of 2009 he and I decided to talk a bit about work and what led to his decision to finally leave the Big Red Machine.After talking to him that day, I realized that there was still that bond between us. After that, I didn’t hear from him for a few weeks due to holidays and work filling us with things to do. But on January 19 of this year we met up at a local strip mall when it was raining and pouring at the same time. I remember that day very vividly in fact because I remember my friend got very soaked when we were trying to head for a local Subway that was close by and we talked about work early on but after that day we found more in common with each other than I would have thought. We talk about life, our experiences, our triumphs and tragedies, our problems that have solutions, school, work, and one of the best sports ever baseball. I want to take this opportunity to thank this friend of mine because without him, I would not have realized that we as human beings have a lot more to offer each other. Talking to somebody and getting to know them in conversations is essential because (1) We get to see that we are not alike in our beliefs but if we disagree with each other, we can always try to respectfully see the other’s person’s point of view. and (2) The human relationship between two human beings is slowly going away and when I finish talking to this friend of mine whether it is on the phone or in person, I want to be able to try harder in life. For example, I remember just last week when he and I had a brief, but magnificent conversation about baseball and what was going on in our lives. After that, I was looking forward to work because even though it may be a crummy job for crummy pay I still enjoyed myself that night because I also tried my best to not create any drama and just get my work done the best I could. Thanks Buddy!
1. I am proud of motivating myself to the fullest extent
This year was a road of emotions, highs and lows, excitement, triumphs, and it was also eye opening. This year I motivated myself to be motivated at work, school, home, with my family, and also with my friends. I dreaded going to school for the first few weeks of school in 2010 because they were mostly 9:30 classes but I saw after a while that even though the subjects themselves weren’t that great I still found myself learning new subjects. I remember in Biology that there was a classmate of mine who helped me a lot with class assignments as I was not the best at Biology. It kept me motivated to believe that if someone can do that for me I can help other people out as well. You can say that he was teaching me the best he could about DNA and RNA. He also helped me understand plants and what goes into the construction of what makes a plant. In my speech class from the beginning of that year, my speech teacher praised me for writing a 7 page paper on Health care which I thought wasn’t that exciting to begin with. I remember that date, February 18 because that’s when I got together with a few buddies of mine to converse about our lives and we just had a lot of fun that day. With Philosophy, I took an ethics and a History of Philosophy class as well. I found the Ethics class to be particularly engaging because I would usually bring some of the topics with me to work and discuss them with P!NK. I remember we had some great discussions about the ideas of being a good person and doing the right thing which was usually the essential question I was asking myself for the majority of the quarter. I also got to asking myself why exactly some people do the things they do morally or not in their case. It kept me motivated to start questioning whether it is right to even consider if it is ok to never lie? I still have trouble with this question and sometimes I am a little hard with myself about the ways I may tell lies to people. My family was a big reason why I decided to keep being motivated because they have done a ton of stuff for me this year. I remember there have been times where my dad or mom have decided to make food for me when they are tired or they have just gotten home from work and I thank them for that. I also found it very fitting for my dad and myself to watch WWE Smackdown whenever he is not busy on Saturday afternoon and he and I become very engaged in the product whenever Jack Swagger or Kofi Kingston go out and have another classic in front of the fans. I also got to seeing my brother finally become a dad and he looks a bit more happy than he has in previous years due to Jazmine Diaz coming into the picture. Jazmine and Paloma are the two new additions to our family and ever since both of them have noticed each other they become aware of the other’s presence. I love them both dearly because Jazmine is going to be a very smart kid just from seeing her very engaged in her surroundings and Paloma is just as adorable because she doesn’t yell you when you get home as all she wants is comfort and care. I made the habit of also discovering that the connection of childhood will never leave someone. This past summer, my old buddies Freddy and Alex stopped by here near my area and we had a great conversation for close to two hours about our lives. This kept me motivated thinking about all the changes that we have all made and the reason that I believe it was better for me to see them was because I saw that both of them being brothers keeps them together and they have a lot to offer the world. They are as I would say “one of us” rather then them being someone you had just met recently. 2010 was also the year I got to take some fun trips with a co-worker of mine to malls, Chinatown, Gilroy, and other places. I do miss those times on long days here in the winter but we always have to remember that we can’t have any regrets here in life because once you’ve lived it it is a part of your life that will be gone but not forgotten. I also had the chance to go to game 1 of the world series which is something that I will never forget. I took the train to hear the game and also watch it on the big screen which was worth it because not many people get a chance to have a world series in their area. It was a fun experience and one that is forever ingrained in my memory. 2010 was enjoyable and hopefully I’ve inspired people to write even more so about their lives in 2010: Good day and here’s a little something that is awesome ( one of my best memories of 2010)
Just Another Day... 