Category: School

Happy Thanksgiving to all who celebrate! Hope you’ve had a wonderful day surrounded by family and friends :).

We had a great day. Mary made the turkeys (and put them in the oven herself, which she shouldn’t have!) and the rest of us helped here and there under her instruction. A weight fell on her foot about a week ago and it’s still very swollen as she’s a stubborn lady and doesn’t keep off her feet. We had to keep scolding her for getting up and trying to do stuff, which she ended up doing a few times anyway .

The food was great. The turkey of course, and broccoli rice, mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn and green bean & bacon casserole that Annie made. Then there was dessert: cranberry sauce by Yadira, pineapple upside down cake by Elda, fruit salad by Sonia, and pies that Annie brought. Mmm…I’m getting hungry again just thinking about it!

I’m so thankful for SO many things this year. Mario’s great job, our family, our health, the wonderful friends I’ve made at school, the opportunity to be in school, our shelter and all the things we need and want; I’m just so incredibly grateful.

We didn’t get to see Gramma today, but hopefully we’ll make a trip out there tomorrow. I miss her. She’s the only family member I didn’t get to see .

Tuesday and Wednesday were…interesting at school. It all started with our gift-exchange and how the “other” side of the class didn’t want to exchange with “us”. I spoke my piece about it (we thought it would be a nice gesture to exchange with them and get to know them better), and it seemed to have ignited a certain girl’s fury. All day Wednesday she kept talking smack about me behind my back. I even called her out in front of everyone at school and she denied everything (just to call me a “pendeja” when I turned my back). She kept going out of her way to shove my shoulder with hers when she’d pass me. 3rd grade much?

Long story short: my teacher’s supervisor ended up calling us into his class (separately) to state our case since I’d told Mrs. C-R that I might do something stupid (like smack her with a keyboard) if she kept it up. We didn’t talk to eachother after our talk with Mr. B. My grades are way more important than fighting with a little girl over petty high school-esque drama.

Mrs. C-R and I talked later and she told me I was better than “that” and that she had good students, but never a perfect student and that I was just that: perfect. To think of that whenever someone tried to get to me like that chick did. Nobody’s ever told me something like that before. I’ll never forget that.

Our pot-luck on Wednesday was pretty cool. I made enchiladas, Kimberly made rice, a girl named Nallely made beans, Miguel’s mom made really good mashed potatoes (with bacon bits!), Mayra made a strawberry and an Oreo cheesecake, Ricci made choco-flan and everyone else chipped in for pizza. I ate till I felt like I’d barf. I didn’t eat dinner that night; I was so full!

I should get to bed. Mario, Mom and I are waking up at 4am to go to the Black Friday sale at Wal-Mart. Jaylen wants a Powerwheels and they have one for $90! I wonder how bad the crowds will be this year? I’m so taking my camera with me (I just hope I don’t get mugged!).

Aww *tear*. Ricci just called to say she was thankful for my friendship. You see what I mean? Could my life be any better right now? I gotta remember to call Lucy and Mayra tomorrow.

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This weekend was pretty eventful. I dropped Eenan off at school Friday, spent the day cleaning, then we picked him up, ran a few errands and met Noelia and Andy at the movies for Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire. IT WAS GOOD!

Goblet of Fire Mini-Review–Read at your own discretion!
I won’t go into detail, so as not to spoil it for anyone, but it was quite different from the book. It was good, of course, but lots of stuff was changed. This is my favorite movie, and book, so far.

The kids loved it. When Voldemort was “brought back”, Eenan sort of hid his face and Jaylen excitedly whispered, “Is that the Dark Lord?!” It was much more “adult” than the other movies (as they said it would be) but the kids did well anyway. During the sad part Eenan cried, and I had a lump in my throat but was blinking back tears since I was supposed to be setting an example and kept telling him, “It’s okay, Baby. Don’t cry. It’s just a movie.”
End of review.

I spent Saturday cleaning (I had this rush of energy and I had every intention of taking advantage). The house was SPOTLESS. Mary and I went to Noelia’s sorority banquet that night, so we were all dressed up and shmansy, as John says. Everyone was in glamorous dresses and tuxes. Noelia got two awards and a gift. She had a good night.

The funniest part of the evening was when one of the catering ladies tried to steal one of Mary’s pineapple upside down cakes. She made two cakes for the evening and another lady had made two. When they served us dessert, they gave us this miniscule excuse for a cake slice, and on a napkin, mind you, no fork. I’m a slow eater but I ate that tiny piece in one bite. I look over to the catering table when I’m done (since it was right next to our table) and notice that the two cakes wrapped in celophane that the other lady brought were intact and still in their celophane. I then notice that a round catering lady was discretely sliding Mary’s other cake over to a roasting pan and set it in there. I kept telling everyone how rude it was that they didn’t even cut the other cakes and then whisper-yell, “Oh my gosh, she’s taking the cake!” Everyone was laughing at my paranoia, but seconds later they too notice that she’s carefully covering the cake with napkins and placing bread loaves on top. She thought she was real slick hiding the roasting pan behind this plastic crate, but I saw everything.

When I’d had enough I tell Mary, “I’m going to go say something.” She says, “Yes, go!” So I went. I told her I saw that they didn’t use the cake, that my mother-in-law made it and we’d like it back since they weren’t serving it. She pretends she doesn’t understand English and says, “Que?” So I repeat everything in Spanish.

She says, “Oh yes, you can take the cake.” And a waiter hands me one of the cakes covered in celophane.

I say, “No, no. Not those, the one that’s under there,” and I point to the roast pan.

She says, “What cake?”

I point again and I say, “That one, the one you covered with napkins.” She stupidly starts removing the bread loafs and napkins and says, “Oh! I didn’t even know that was there! I was just starting to pack everything away.” She shoves the cake into my hands, I smile curtly and say, “Thank you!”

We couldn’t stop laughing about it later. I told Mary, “Well, you should be flattered that they liked your cake enough to steal it.”

We chilled out all day Sunday. We started the morning by putting Mom’s futon together. Later in the evening, we met up with some of Mario’s co-workers and went to the Mud Pits. I’d never been, neither had John or Mario. It was really cool. A teeny jeep got stuck in the water and had to be pulled out, and this other huge Ford Ranger almost fell sideways into the deep water. We got video of it all. At night, people were throwing themselves into the mud and a guy on an ATV got REALLY stuck. He was covered top-to-bottom in mud and since he had the crowd in the palm of his hands, went with it and just threw himself, back-first into the pool of mud. Crazy. It was a really cool experience. Next time we’ll take the boys. A plus: it’s free!

So that was my weekend. We started a new course at school today: Accounting. It’s okay so far; I thought it was going to be dreadfully boring. I hope I can get Roadrunner to fix the internet–we’ve had no internet at home all weekend.

Tonight we shall go to the mall, to see Gramma and Wal-Mart. My feet hurt just thinking about it.

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We got rear-ended this morning.

I picked Ricci up at her house (a little late since Mary had called and asked me to find a bottle of pills for her that Norma C. needed) and she quizzed me on our study guide since we’d be having our final today. Mayra called us and said she’d seen us leaving Ricci’s street. She was going to stop by Whataburger because she was craving a biscuit, so she’d see us at school.

When we get to the 10th street exit, Ricci asked me, “What does Partitioning mean?”, when the world around us seemed to start whizzing by. I see a red F150 getting closer and closer so I started to brake. I braked so hard I smelled rubber burning. I was seriously about an inch away from the truck’s bumper. Another red truck came out of nowhere and went straight across nearly hitting the concrete barrier. Then I see the white truck and white car that had crashed. Ricci and I looked at eachother, eyes bulging out, breathed a sigh of relief and BAM! We got hit.

I groan and fear the worst. The impact was so hard I was certain my bumper was on the road or totally smashed in. I get around the car and the woman who hit me says, “I’m so sorry, Miss. I tried braking, I really did, but everyone stopped so fast…”

I assess the damage: 3 scratches, that’s it. We already had another 3 scratches about an inch away, so I thought we’d leave it at that. Why make a report for just three scratches? After all, a few days after we’d first gotten the Sentra a guy rear-ended us (Mary was driving) and nothing happened to the bumper so Mary didn’t file a report.

The lady asks if I’m sure we’re okay, and I feel fine so I say yes. We get into our cars. I whisper to Ricci, as if the lady can hear us, “Get her license plate number; just in case.”

I couldn’t stop shaking. Ricci was having a hard time breathing because she was that scared. My foot wouldn’t stop bobbing up and down on the gas pedal. It was the weirdest feeling. All of a sudden I felt this warm, achy sensation wash over my back and then the throbbing started. I ask Ricci how she feels and she says her back hurts. I reply, “Mine too.”

A few feet later we see another car accident. And then another; there was glass everywhere. I couldn’t believe what was happening. Mayra calls us and asks if we’re okay, if we’re stuck in traffic. I say yes, that we’d just been hit. We decide to hang up since traffic’s moving at a snail’s pace and our exit to school was nearing.

When we’re at school, we tell the teacher about why we’re late (20 minutes), and relay the details to Mayra when she gets there. She said, “Everything happens for a reason. I never go to Whataburger. Imagine if I hadn’t?”

If she hadn’t, she would have been in the midst of the accidents, maybe even gotten hit much worse that we did. As she says this, I think about how I was later than usual picking Ricci up since I had to look for the pills. I tell them about this and about how much worse the accident could have been and Mayra says, “It just wasn’t our time.”

How right she is.

It may be corny that I got all worked up and started thinking about how lucky I am to be alive, but it’s just a fact that we were indeed lucky. Had we left at the regular time it could have been us in the horrible accidents. Us with glass shattered all over the road.

I’ve felt terrible all day. A Tylenol and 2 Asprins later and NOTHING. I feel worse than I did this morning. I stopped with Mario to see him really quick and leave him some nachos I’d bought him after school and then went to drop the pills off with Mary. She checked the car and said it looked fine, but if I still felt bad tomorrow I should call the police and give them the lady’s license to get ahold of her. I feel bad about this, as the lady would have probably willingly filed a report if I’d asked to. I’m so dumb .

On a brighter note, I probably aced my final and I have 5 extra points so that’s pretty cool. We played a game yesterday in class and I was appointed captain of one of the teams, so I got to choose who was in my team. I picked Lucy first (who isn’t really talking to me again. I don’t know why .) and then Joey, the other captain, picked Ricci. The look on her face. She half-jokingly called me a traitor all day . My team ended up winning (like, duh ) so we got the 5 bonus points for our final. She kept saying things like, “I have to study extra hard because I don’t have 5 extra points!” She will never let me live it down.

I’m going to bed, I guess. My back is throbbing. It hurts where I got the epidural with Jaylen. I hope I can sleep well. Our bed is so soft it kind of caves in in the middle. I feel sore even when I’m not getting into car accidents–I can imagine how I’m going to feel now. One thing’s for sure though: I’m NOT missing Harry Potter!

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