These are the thoughts of a Texas transplant in West Michigan who makes his living as a newspaper reporter by evening, and a struggling novelist by day.

Friday, September 12, 2008

a whole lotta films

i am exhausted. i was on a high and i peaked and i'm tired now. it was a natural high. still, it felt good.

this afternoon i attended the tulipanes art & film festival awards ceremony. it was the culmination of film watching over the summer. this weekend is the festival. i'm introducing three of the films: "motherland," "bracero stories" and "angel de fuego." they're back to back to back at the knick.

today, too, i had to dress up. i wore my purple shirt, which is my only really cool shirt. ha ha. dawn bought me a tie and i'll jus say it: i looked sharp. tomorrow it will be back to normal. andit's friday, so i can dress casual.

it was a nice ceremony, meeting up with the committee folks again. i got to see kara and hilary, becky and ortencia (she had her baby and looks very diff.).

in a corner playing the harp and guitar were denise and mig. they looked really cool. all that was needed was a mic. it's too bad that that wasn't taken care of. still, they're getting their names out there. they're looking sharper every time we see them.

i met a few people who knew dawn from her early days in the 'hood. it was nice to meet them. many of them have done good in their lives as they've grown up. it's good to see hispanics excelling in something aspect of business.

as an added bonus i saw teresa lamb. she saw me actually. she's a lovely woman. i met her a handful of times when she still lived here, but we hit it off pretty good. we chatted it up for awhile. she even jokingly told someone, "I knew him when he was a kid," (referring to me when she met me about four years ago. she's supposed to perform and i think i'll go check her out saturday.

i also ate the most delish bacon-wrapped shrimp. yummy. i'm not a big shrimp fan but this rocked. one of the guys dawn grew up with in the 'hood did the cooking.

and so i left feeling good, although my left shoe was killing. doesn't it just suck to have bad shoes? oh it kills me! ha

time for bed. i'll call texas tomorrow and see how that baddie hurricane ike is doing. good thing it's not hitting the corpus area directly, though it's a monster storm that stretches close to 550 miles with tropical storm winds. normally it's 300. so it's big.
tomorrow (sept. 12) is sissy's birthday. she's 28. she's getting old. daaaaaamn!

this weekend (at least during tulipanes) it marks the second anniversary of the umbligos (as mig called us all). two years ago, dawn and i met up with mig and denise as two couples for the first time. little did we know then that we'd be bestest of bestest.

Monday, September 08, 2008

the eyes of children

i spent all day wearing a white undershirt. i slept in it and it remained on all day. it felt comfortable, so i never changed.

i was outside with my neighbor talking. my mother in law came over, dawn saw me in it, people i know saw me in it. no one said a thing. that's fine.

i'm walking back home this evening, minding my own business. i'm a few houses away and i spot my neighbor kid. he's out front, bored. he says he wants someone to play with him. i had no intention since i had to come in and cook some supper.

i'm pretty much done talking with the kid and he looks at my shirt and says, "you've got holes in your shirt." he says this very matter of factly. i look down and examine my shirt. i was aware of only one hole in my shirt and that was off to one side. but no he saw a few others sprinkled throughout the front. very observant lad.

it's funny because he meant no harm by it. he was simply pointing out what he saw. he's 6.

that's what i like about children. they'll point out a truth about something or someone. they're themost (brutally) honest things. if you want the honest truth ask a kid. he or she will tell you if it's cool or not.

also, if you want an opinion about someone, ask a kid. i'm not saying take his or her word for it, but kids are very astute about things. they've not be corrupted yet, if they're young enough.

Sunday, September 07, 2008

the garage sale

somewhere in the depths of the internet is another aptly titled blog entry. i saw it being typed, so i know it exists. but that is where it ends in similarly. maybe.

the sun rose early yesterday morning. and even earlier for dawn. it was time to prepare for the coming garage sale. i managed to push myself out of bed and dressed with unenthusiasm. it was chilly and i longed for more sleep. but i knew we had things to do.

evie was already here and she and dawn were doing their thing outside. cars were already driving by even at quarter to eight. the sale was to start at 9.

i placed out all of the items that were heavy and arranged them on the driveway. people started coming. we opened a bit early and they came in droves at the start. one thought came to mind: zombies. i saw these folks walking in, eyes glazed over, and thought they looked like zombies. they milled around and saw, picked up stuff, then walked off it nothing interested them. it was interesting to observe. it would have been funny it it wasn't so earlyl in the morning.

denise and the girls came over and the girls set up stuff in the front lawn. sid made out like crazy. people love kids' stuff.

the day wore on. people came and went, some stuff went and other stuff didn't. i was disappointed that more furniture stuff didn't go. it was cheap. dunno why. the reason i wanted it to go was so that i'd be out of the house. oh well. bibles for mexico here we come.

the girls and i went to thelibrary as the sale ended. they needed a break and so did i. it was enjoyable to hang out with the blondes (as i call them). they're fun, for sid's seriousness to beller's goofy grin and fun laughter.

the day ended and we were exhausted. we slept late in the afternoon. it felt good to rest.

but we had our friends come over late and we sat, talked, drank and ate. it was good times for us. i enjoy sitting around a table doing that with them. i always do.

and so the night ended with a little dex (no it's not a code word, filthy minds) and we were off to sleep.

today is today.