Losing my carpool buddy to kindergarten.

As kinder-round up approaches this April I am a bit saddened by the loss of my constant morning companion and carpool buddy Sofie. Let me clarify. I am losing her to the public school system. She has been with me for the past five years. She has had to be flexible with the surrounding economic crisis of the past couple of years. She was enrolled at the school across the highway from my old office. I had to withdraw her from that school when my job relocated. I hated to withdraw her because it was such a good school.

The new office that I relocated to has a preschool associated with the company. Sofie adjusted to this new preschool with ease and made plenty of new friends. She has been there close to two years. As this school year closes I am saddened that I will not have a little one to ride with me each morning. I will not have a little one to ask me a lot of questions every morning like:

• Will I get bigger?
• What are those cows doing?
• Can we stop by McDonald's for a drink?
• When will I go to the big school?
• The kids in my class are mean to me. Why?
• I'm scared of going to the big school. Can I stay where I am at?

I will miss my carpool buddy. I know I will have her spirit with me every morning in the car with me. In the mean time. I still have a couple of months before we part ways and she goes on to higher learning . I know she will grow into the "big girl" that I know she can be. She will probably be one of the oldest kids in kindergarten since she missed the cut off last year by a couple of weeks. She will do great in school. I know it. As my eyes start to swell and a couple of tears start to flow I just look forward to seeing her and the rest of my daughters after work. I look forward to meeting her and Mia for lunch on my days off. I look forward to helping Sofie with her 'big school " homework. I look forward to going with her on her first field trip and holding her hand. Below are her favorite flowers. We have been seeing lots of these on our commute to work.

The life and times of a barrio dog- forward (sneek peek)

Here is the forward to the book I am helping my dad write tentatively titled "The life and times of a barrio dog." This is a rough draft. Hopefully I can give you all more excerpts of his book in the future.


“Life is without meaning. You bring the meaning to it. The meaning of life is whatever you ascribe it to be. Being alive is the meaning.” Joseph Campbell


My life at this point seems pretty ordinary. I’m not sure if my life has even started yet. My life is a series of calculations. Every situation I enter is calculated ahead of time to give me the desired outcome. I guess you can say I am cheating myself of life. I know life is very unpredictable and can be very overwhelming. I know there are setbacks and victories. I have had my share of both. Half of my life is gone already and I know there is a lot out there for me to experience. By my age my dad had already lived a full and exciting life.

My dad grew up in the roughest part of San Antonio which is in the deep westside of the city. There is nothing luxurious about living in the westside of San Antonio in the 1950's. It was a constant struggle back then. It was a struggle to pay the bills and put food on the table with whatever means necessary. You did what you had to in order to stay alive. There was no fluffy outdoor malls back then. I have grown up in the safe suburbs of far Northwest San Antonio. My dad held several minimum wage jobs with just a GED education supporting a family of nine. It was not until later that he had time to continue his college studies. He later became self employed and then moved on to the corporate world. I have worked a few minimum wage jobs while in college obtaining my degree and have really worked in one industry for the past fifteen years. I have been supporting a family of four daughters which is a completely different story itself. My dad has told my that I have gone through similar struggles that he has gone through. I don’t really believe that. My struggles are minuscule compared to him.

My struggles are sometimes financial but that is usually just panicking and thinking worst case scenario on my part. That is about as bad as it gets for me. I had no "turf wars'' to deal with or guns pointed in my face or knife scars to show anyone. He struggled learning to speak English in school. He struggled to help his mom and dad with money whenever he could. He struggled to keep out of the “turf wars” growing up in San Antonio with little success. He has told me that sometimes the “turf wars” go looking for you. He struggled with personal demons when he had to go rescue his dad from a bar fight while getting a gun pointed in his face. He struggled with himself not to go back to that bar with his buddies and shoot the place up. He knew that was not the right thing to do. That is not what his parents taught him.

My dad has lived more than I will ever live. He has lived that life so all of my brothers and sisters can have a safe, predictable life. His parents passed down the hard work ethic to him so he can pass that work ethic down to us. I hope to pass my work ethic down to my wonderful daughters. In a way I am helping my dad with this book for my daughters and my brothers and sisters so they can cherish this book for eternity. Hopefully my daughters will read this book when they get older and understand the life that my dad had to live in order to give me my values and pass those values and work ethic down to them.


Rene

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Thanks Blogger!

Thank you Blogger for adding these new templates. The new templates look great. I will be experimenting with different templates in the future so I hope all of my readers don't mind.

Another birthday approaches !

I wish for a lot of things. Good health, winning the lotto and also the health and safety of my kids and wife. One thing I wish I could stop would be my birthdays. Yup, I have another one approaching so fast (April 23rd to be exact.) Someone in their forties has just enough life experiences to be considered wise and yet there is still a bit of learning to do.

So the countdown begins.

Who was President of the U.S when I was born?





What else happened I was born?




So I am dating myself. Oh well..What's another birthday.

Women's Health Foundation girls night out

On April 1st The Women’s Health Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to raising awareness and support for issues of women’s pelvic and sexual health, will be hosting an educational girls night out event at the Fort Sam Houston Golf Club in San Antonio. The evening will bring local women together to toast champagne, indulge in chocolate from local bakeries, take part in flirty dance instructionals and learn how to better themselves from the inside out.

The event will feature presentations from local women’s health experts who will offer expert advice on everything from springing into lasting health and relationships this season, to tips for optimal women’s health at every age. Dr. Yashika Dooley, a local Air Force Officer and Urogynecologist will also speak about her personal journey with women’s health. The Foundation’s founder, Missy Lavender, will do the same. Details Thursday, April 1st from 6 - 9 pm Fort Sam Houston Golf Club 2109 Harry Wurzbach. San Antonio, TX Tickets are $15

Date(s): 04/01/2010 - 04/01/2010
Time: 6 p.m.-9 p.m.


Fort Sam Houston
1212 Stanley Rd., Bldg. 124
Fort Sam Houston, TX 78234
Phone: 210/207-3078

Parents having fun with texting

My 70 ish year old parents have discovered the art of texting. My parents are in Las Vegas today and I received several texts from them. The texts are all funny. It is a good way for them to keep us kids up to date on their wins and losses in Las Vegas.

My parents have discovered how to send the same text to multiple parties. I thought they were sending the texts to only me. But after calling my mom in Las Vegas to see if I was special I discovered that they are using the above mentioned technique to send all of my brothers and sisters the same text messages. It is not as personal as them calling us but it is still communication. I will now attempt to describe a couple of text messages that I received today.

1. Picture mail with audio of certain hotels.

2. A picture mail of the winning slot machine my dad was using.

3. A picture of them heading to the Donny and Marie concert.

4. A text message from my mom stating something about my dad's pants falling down from all of the walking they are doing in Las Vegas.(I had to put this text in PG-13)

Overall I am happy that they are able to communicate with us and have fun with technology that was not even available when they were growing up.I still remember playing with my dad's brick cell phone. I wonder what text messages I will get from them tomorrow?

P.S That is not my mom with that I-Phone in the above picture.

I just received a text that my parents Donnie and Marie concert was canceled (1 minute ago)I hope they can go see another show instead.