another illegal

two friends shouldnt both have 25th birthdays on the same day...it causes several things to occur of which ive listed below, not all bad not all good...

1. running around town from one bar to the restaurant to the bar and back
   
2. drinking wine from the bottle at 3am
3. having people pose in jason's green tractor hoe shirt
4. eating multiple dinners while attempting to moderate ones diet
5. throwing the wii controller at the wall on multiple occasions
   
6. getting stiffed by a bartender who thinks u gave him a 10 spot instead of the actual 20
   
7. getting your ass grabbed by random strangers on the dance floor
8. trying to chill a bottle of white wine quickly and finding it blown up in the freezer the next afternoon
9. pouring shots of cointreau into wine glasses because there are no clean shot glasses and then not having wine glasses for the wine (see number 2)
10. finishing all the half bottles of every liquor in the apartment because the bars/clubs close way to early
    
11. waking up in the morning and having to scrub the kitchen floor down because your socks are sticking to it
12. drunk dialing spain at 4am and leaving unsaid number of hilarious messages each of which include all of the following words each time: whore, slut, bush
13. waking up on the couch with your feet in the air having never made it to bed
14. having no taste buds for any meal the next day
15. getting rid of all the bud light in fridge finally
16. having to reread myspace and facebook posts to confirm u weren't too obnoxious
17. opening the door to the security guard saying someone called you in for noise violations
    
18. staying in bed until you think the room won't spin when u stand up
19. finding a bag of bread on the kitchen floor half eaten
20. forgetting your credit card at the first bar of the afternoon
21. having to call and activate your other credit card while the bartender pours your drinks at the 3rd bar having used all your cash at the second
22. someone in the party actually considering driving the car when there are ten denver cop cars parked in the street 20 yards away
23. fitting 6 girls and a guy into the back of a toyota prius hybrid cab
24. actually attempting to play psychologist of a relationship gone awry conversation at 4am
25. thinking that an after party is a good idea.
    

la familia

a week ago friday i got a phone call from my cousin that my grandma val, mom's mom, wasnt doing well...that i guess would put it lightly...i known she'd been in the hospital for a few days but hadnt gotten around to calling her...details aside, as my grandmother isn't big on sharing her getting old with people including relatives, after talking with her and hearing those words, "i love you", something i've always known, but rarely heard said...it just wasnt how she usually expressed herself and im the same way so i get it..., i thought it best to head down to austin with my mom who was already booked on a flight for the next day...after moving her flight around at about 430 i booked my own 730 flight to austin...

as family, not seen together in over 10 years, arrived from san antonio and mcallen and minneapolis, we all hungout in the hospital...a place i normally dont find a funny place, turned into a riot and we knew grandma was gonna make it when we all got yelled at by her for, as my mom calls it, "joking" too much...

id been meaning to make a trip to texas for awhile...my plans were to do it under better circumstances but ill take whatever life throws my way...my cousin danny and i had our every 5 years chat till all hours of the morning...everyone wanted to know about the big trip and what the plans were and how i was paying for it...we all appreciated each others company, something i rarely experience with family and not since my sisters wedding had i enjoyed the phrase 'hangin with the fam' so much...monday i was able to get away and see some old friends up in round rock for lunch and dinner where i had to teach the bartender what a 'press' was...she still got it wrong...

te quiero

perhaps i ought to start using spanish more frequently in my conversations, both aloud and wrote. last night i wanted to find out how to say brotherly love, phileo in greek, in spanish but apparently there are only two definitions for it in the language, querer and amor the first of which is used more often...but thats better than the english number of only 1. one word or not love is still effective either way and in another conversation, details excluded, i reverted to the Bible to provide a friend the best definition i know of...

Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always preserves."
- 1 Corinthians 13:4-7

so what the hell am i talking about love for? its not really my strong suite ill admit...i love a very very few people in life, but love them by this definition i do hope to...no my segway is into a little national holiday we have every year in february...mine of which i spent dropping a load on sushi and introducing nick to sake bombs.

during my morning commute is listen to maxim radio quite a bit and in the two weeks leading up to the 14th i heard so so many different ideas of what this day is, what it means, what it implies, and more and more and then...ill admit my ideas on the holiday changed and im ok with it...for now. getting to the point already, im not a fan. i feel there is something missing from our society's definition of love if we need a special day of the year to show our love for someone. plainly this love we share on this day, the gifts of chocolate and flowers, the expensive dinner reservations should not restricted to only one day...these things ought to be done every random day of the year just for the hell of it...just because u love someone.

however in following this thought process and the consideration of not celebrating the holiday, i realized it goes against one of my other issues with our culture here in america, we don't have enough holidays...we dont celebrate life, love, happiness, family, friends, selves, etc. enough...in germany everyone joked about the shear ridiculous number of holidays...i dont know about you but i wouldnt complain...in spain according to friends there exists another large section in the cultural isle for fiestas...brazil does a good job too...where as in america if a holiday falls on the wednesday, we push it to friday and call it a three day weekend...brazilians leave it put and celebrate the whole damn week...the also dont combine presidents and founding father birthdays into one...i could go on but this isnt about bashing america, thats a blog for later i guess.

so the end result, lets have a holiday, but lets not make it exclusive to couples and dinner for twos and candied hearts and day old roses that say ive fucked up all year...lets celebrate our love for each other every day of the year so that on this day, maybe we make that hug extra big or that kiss just a little longer, but not over the top with expectations of galore.

its time to write

several conversations ive had recently centered around my passion for writing...as different topics were discussed my problem of lately not being able to sit down and put words to screen, pen to paper, even though i had all these ideas and such i wanted to share...conversation in one of these instances moved to how i would be able to write a book if i have this condition...of which my response was essentially this. i feel restricted sometimes even burdened to write when im stateside but whenever im abroad i cant wait to find an internet cafe and start typing away, i feel inspired...there are several possible explanations for this but thats another blog for another day...however since i do not have the opportunity immediately to jump a plane im going to force myself moreso to keep the thoughts flowing despite my current location, mentally and physically...so enjoy the next few posts, i have some catching up to do...