t-minus.

let's set the record straight before i even begin here. i love this island. love this island. i am distraught over the fact that i actually have to leave...but i know that this is my temporary hiatus. call it what you want, but i'm coming back. period.
at the same time, as much as i love this place, and as much as i love me in this place...te extran~o. me haces una falta terrible. extran~o la casa tuya, tu cara, tu voz. extran~o la manera en que me miras y me dices buenos dias, princesa cuando estoy bajando las escaleras de casa y apenas puedo abrir los ojos porque todavia estoy media dormida. te extran~o tanto que me duele, fisicamente. dammit. i just miss you, period.
i can't wait to see you. 4 weeks seems like an eternity, but it's going to fly. i have to pack up my entire life in those 4 weeks. i have to baptize my godson in those 4 weeks. i have to say goodbye, if temporarily, to all of the people who have helped me and accompanied me in this brief but awesome escapade on la isla bonita. this is my own road of bittersweet.

oh, and i cannot WAIT to see your face when i walk through that door. that's a moment 27 years in the making.

love to those who listen.

for s.

whiskey y lagrimas.

va a ser una noche de whiskey y lagrimas.
va a ser una de esas noches inolvidables, como tantas otras que hemos vivido. vamonos por ahi, a donde nos gusta ir, en el viejo San Juan...a beber, a vivir, a gozar como bien sabemos hacer. vamos a cantar, a bailar, a reirnos de esta maravilla de vida que estamos pasando aqui en nuestra querida isla del encanto, pais adoptivo para ti y para mi, las potorras inventadas. va a ser una noche estupenda, como siempre.

pero va a ser una noche de whiskey y lagrimas, porque te vas man~ana, y eso simplemente no es justo.

quiero desearte lo mejor en tu aventura de vuelta a Boston, que ese espiritu que vive en ti nunca deje de ser tan bueno y tan decente como es. la vida no sera igual de ahora en adelante sin tu generosa sonrisa aluminando los dias boricuas.

we shall miss you, my dear richard.

bendiciones,
l.

chez moi.

well, not really. but i did want to show you something...without further adieu, je vous presente...mon bureau. (that's my office, people.)




and my monkey in my office:



and the view from my office:



...and that's all for now.

special congratulations go out to my pals J & M, who just met their little girl, S., in China for the first time. This was a long time coming for you guys, and I for one am thrilled for you. Welcome to the crew, S.!

Love to those who listen.

epicurious.

allow me to start out with this: i love living alone. love. there is just something about it that is hugely attractive to me. i may grow out of this stage - in fact, someday, i hope i do...but for now? i'm young and unattached, and i love living alone.

however. it has its downsides.

i hate cooking for one person. it's a constant chore to have to be the one every night who decides what is going to be for dinner. cooking for one is not a fun job most of the time, because you're the one who has to do all the work. just you. the cooking, the eating, and the cleaning up. highly annoying.
because i hate cooking for one person, i don't do it as often as i should. i'm a big fan of the heatitupandeatitrightthen sector of food - aka frozen crap in a box (or bag, as the case may be). also a big fan of takeout. i'm trying this week to eat my lunch "in" because food is downright expensive, and i'm spending too much on takeout. AND frozen crap in a box is not, shall we say, the healthiest of alternatives. this undertaking is harder than you might think...in addition to planning dinner, i have to plan lunch, too?!?!?!?!? whose idea was this, anyway???? i know, i know. mine.

the point of all of this useless drivel is to present to you my most recent culinary adventure, inspired by a lunch brought by one of the secretaries last week (stuffed peppers with salmon) that i swooned over whilst trying to enjoy my carboard subway sandwich. this is one experiment that actually turned out QUITE tasty.

I present to you:

Stuffed Tomato Salad

1 can garbanzos (chick peas, gringos.) - drained
1 carrot, chopped
1 can tuna (I prefer in oil)
1 large tomato, top cut off, insides scooped out
herbes de provence


dressing:
1 tsp. grey poupon
red wine vinegar
salt
pepper
olive oil

Mix garbanzos, carrots, tuna, and any of the insides of the tomato (chopped) that you want. Sprinkle with herbes de provence (this is the secret - I am not kidding).
Make vinaigrette using dressing ingredients (if you need directions, tell me. it's not hard). toss garbanzo mixture in dressing.
Spoon salad into tomato, packing it in as you go. Let the tomato sit overnight in the refrigerator - it takes on the taste of the dressing, and it holds together really well.
I had enough stuffing for 2 tomatoes, possibly 3, depending on their size.


This, along with some cottage cheese, was one of the better lunches I've had in awhile. And everyone at the office was jealous. True story.

My next stuffed tomato adventure (I'm on a big tomato kick, can you tell?) is going to involve avocado...stay tuned.

Oh and suggestions for lunch are most welcome.
Love to those who listen.

descubrimiento.

discovery.

or, more specifically, self-discovery.




if it was always only as simple as discovering your own reflection in a mirrored closet door...

grateful.

i know that i'm usually marginally witty in my blogging, but for the last 2 days i've been feeling sort of...off. So you're just going to have to suck it up, and wait another day. i'll be back to my usual bitingly sarcastic self soon.
until then, consider yourself forewarned.


grateful. this is a word i've been thinking about a lot today. i spent the day floating around the apartment, balcony to sofa, to bed, to sofa, to fridge to sofa again. you know, big traveling. i stood at the balcony this morning and looked out over the landscape (and it's a nice landscape - i'm on the 9th floor). and i couldn't help but feel...grateful. blessed. grateful to be in this spot. grateful that a firm in san juan chose me for my externship and i didn't have to stay in the state resembling a sneezing walrus (or, if you prefer, a mitten). grateful that i didn't have to deal with the howevermanyinches of snow and ice that fell in my home state during the last weeks. just...grateful. SO grateful that the end of this wonderful and at the same timy horrifying ride called law school is drawing closer. maybe i'm getting a little too reflective, but i needed a day like this. a day to be completely alone with my thoughts...and grateful.

i'm even grateful i don't have a tv tonight. normally on super bowl sunday i would be glued to the TV. i LOVE football, anyone who knows me at all knows this fact. not having a tv forces me to do other stuff, like reconnect with old friends i haven't seen in more than 5 years, and listen to music on my ipod, and enjoy the sounds of this island, that are so different than the sounds from where i came from, but that are strangely familiar and comforting at the same time. grateful. crazy, hypothetically speaking, but grateful. i'm even considering not reconnecting the tv. ever. note that i said considering.

on a lighter note...i love that i have blog groupies. tell your friends. join up. every once in awhile i may come up with something intelligent to post. thanks for boosting my ego, peeps.

ok enough of the schmoltzfest. let's get back to the wit, shall we?

i want a peanut butter sandwich so bad, but i'm afraid to eat peanut butter for fear that i shall get salmonella and meet my untimely demise. i'm further afraid that should said incident occur, my tagline in the times-gazette would read: Gringa en Guaynabo, 27, died eating a peanut butter sandwich. Sancho, please make sure this does not happen. I'm leaving this task in your capable hands.

in the spirit of gratefulness, i am going to try to upload a video i made to the blog, to share with you what i see when i look out my balcony. note again that i said try. my internet connection is hopelessly slow, and sometimes it's faster to wait for the second coming than try to upload anything. true story. and since i don't see Jesus around here...yet...

i think i shall venture into the kitchen for a diet coke and the dreaded peanut butter sandwich.
love to those who listen.

Re.

Regurgitation.

Or, at the very least, the overwhelming urge to as I sat on the sofa this morning and floundered over the decision as to whether or not I was going to check my grades. Even though the voice on one side said no, let it wait, enjoy your weekend...the voice that said yes won out. And so I checked.

Re-examining.

The one class standing between me and the end of law school, the bane of my existence, my kryptonite...the class that was a "re-do." The class that robbed me of the little sleep I usually partake in anyhow. Anything less than a C, and the world comes crashing down.

Redemption.

Higher than a C. Hallelujah. As long as the last grade is not an F, this is it. The journey be all end all is over - I will be a lawyer.

Reflection.

Strange that the same weekend that I will walk across the stage in my Juris Doctor getup and have them hand me my piece of very expensive paper is the same weekend last year that I fell apart. Strange how the dates coincide. Strange to remember things like that.

I told my advisor a long time ago that I had made up my mind that I would leave law school when one of two things happened: they handed me my diploma, or they pried my cold, dead fingers from the revolving door of the Cooley Center lobby. Law school has a high attrition rate. Many of my friends and classmates went the finger route. Me? I'm glad it's not the second option.

Redemption. and, of course, celebration.

love to those who listen.