Country Rican

Ahhhh, the 70s. I love my brothers.  I do.  When I look back at my life it is hard to imagine my life without them.  Of course, I am the youngest and so they have always been there.   Kano was an only child for seven whole years! Lucho was the baby for a year and a half!  I was born with two brothers and would not have any other way. It was not always that way.  There were many times when I wondered why I couldn’t have a little sister.  Someone younger than me to torture as Lucho tortured me.  Or maybe we could trade him for girl?  J   I say this now because I am sure there were many times as kids when he was stuck with his wimpy nerdy sister that he wished to trade me in for a little brother; and because after years of wishing for a sister I feel blessed to have brothers instead.  I’m a guy’s girl.  I have always been better in a circle of guys and I know it’s because I had them with me all through my life. It...

I was put on birth control at the age of 16 for medical reasons.  It was a 3 month treatment for what was basically out of control hormones.  I was in high school, and much to my horror my period would show up every other week, or not at all, or come and stay for a month.  My mom took me to a female OB/GYN, and this was her prescription.  I am sure my mother was a little nervous when her gorgeous teen age daughter was given birth control.  But, it was a medical treatment, I needed it, and it worked.  After a three month treatment and for at least a year after my period was "normal".  I was a virgin when the treatment started, and I was still a virgin after it.  Fear of getting pregnant is not the only deterrent to having sex, no matter what the religious right tells you. That was over 20 years ago, and at the time only my close friends knew I was on the pill because back then people would label me a slut if they knew I was on...

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...

Main entrance Last week Michael and I purchased an apartment in Puerto Rico.  For those of you who were at our wedding, it is about 5 minutes from where the reception was held, right at the entrance of the small township that is Boquerón in Cabo Rojo (my home town).  For those of you who are not familiar with it, if Puerto Rico were the United States, Cabo Rojo would geographically be where California is.  It it the southern most, western most town in the island and it has the most beautiful beaches.  We claim to be "the tourism capital" of Puerto Rico, but this is an insider's title, since most people stay in San Juan. Cabo Rojo is literally and figuratively as far away from San Juan as a you can get in Puerto Rico. When I lived in Cabo Rojo it was a one stop light town, had no fast food restaurants, no American chain stores, nothing.  It now has about every fast food you can think of, and over 50,000 people live there.  However, it still d...

I am a political junkie.  I am.  I love it.  I know people who would rather tear their own nails out than watch a political debate, but I simply enjoy them.  I have a bachelor’s degree in Political Science.  That means I have read, and read, and read some more about the subject.  It was always fun to me.  I have a Master’s degree in Spanish, in literature.  You can guess what books I gravitated to…politics, history, sociology, current events.  Most of the people who read this know me, so none of this comes as a surprise to them.  But I live in small town where I have only lived for two years, so I am still making friends, getting to know folks.  If this is the first time you read The Country Rican, I am a lefty, a registered democrat, a yellow dog, a liberal, a bleeding heart, a left wing nut job (as Michael used to refer to me when we first started dating).  I think that one is my favorite: left wing nut job. I wear the...