Country Rican

Being a mom has been a unique experience.   Although at times I am amazed that we managed to keep Sofia Carolina alive for a year, most of the time what I feel for her is an immense feeling of pride.   I look at her and I am grateful she is so smart, curious, beautiful, healthy…I wonder how we can be so blessed.   I worry about her all the time. Michael says it is my job to worry, but like every mom I guess I feel I worry too much.   That first night in the hospital when we were all so tired and my mom and Michael were both finally napping, I held a tiny Sofia in the darkness of my hospital room and wondered, hoped, even prayed that I could do this.  I had waited so long to be a parent.  I felt so blessed that we had been able to conceive in our late thirties so quickly, and felt lucky to have a perfect baby in my arms.  Ten toes and ten fingers. She was the picture of good health.  I had waited for the right partner with whom to ...

We met through Match.com.  Yup.  More marriages than any other dating site? That one.  We emailed a few times, and talked about movies, mostly.  We liked the same few movies we had just watched, and so he said we should go see one together, why don’t I call him-and sent me his number.  I sat there in my extra bedroom on that old computer that weighed more than I did and wrote back saying no buddy, you call me, and sent my number.  I hit send and before I could move on to another site (old cable connection) my phone rang. We went to the movies that Saturday, July 31, 2004.  There was a blue moon.  We watched “The Village”.  We have been together ever since.  We have talked every day, we have never broken up, not even for an hour. What we have is the kind of thing that, pardon the pun, happens once in a blue moon.  We truly enjoy each other’s company.  Michael likes to say we were married from day one, because we were lik...

Valentine's Day is fast approaching and as it happens every year, Michael and I get into an argument about it.  He wants to be a sort of Atheist Jehova's witness.  He wants to not believe in God and renounce gift giving as part of his non religion.  I, on the other hand, am a sucker for gifts and gift giving.  I am bitter about being born on Christmas Eve and the absence of birthday parties in school and all that jazz.  I really enjoy giving gifts.  You will never, ever, get a pair of socks from me as a gift.  Never!  Gifts are tokens of appreciation, should be fun, and special.  Occasionally I am open to practical gifts, sometimes the wants and the needs can match up.  For example, Michael once gave me an air purifier for Christmas, or my birthday (they get confused at times).  It was the year I spent Christmas in Puerto Rico without him. He picked me up from the airport and when we got to my place there were several gift...