Scenes from El Salvador.

 

 

  

 

 

1. Dog and cat seen while wandering around San Salvador, the capital city.
2. Surfer in La Libertad (a state there). El Salvador has a very strong surfing culture.
3&4. Sunset in La Libertad.
5. The very edge of a the city in La Libertad where we stayed. I wandered around inside those buildings for a while -- some of the best food and cutest little mom and pop shops I've seen in a long time.
6. A little shack that housed a good restaurant, right near the beach for all the surfers to stumble into.
7. Chickens run practically wild as soon as you leave the main city. This little chick had lost his momma when I got this shot.
8. A beautiful lake in the mountains that we saw on our way to visit volcano Izalco.
9. Four shots of a beautiful flower I spotted near Izalco.
10. Izalco, one of the many still active volcanoes in El Salvador.
11. This dog I saw in La Libertad is the manifestation of loyalty. You can't see in the photo, but his owner was out surfing and he followed his owner's every move from the beach.
12. We went and saw the Mayan ruins which are actually located right on the edge of San Salvador. The government doesn't have enough money to entirely excavate and protect the thousands of archaeological sites, so this is ones of the only "full" temples you can see.
13. Another 'typical daily' shot. The animal is actually a cross between a sheep and a goat. I don't know.
14. Do you really need an excuse to take flower shots? :)
15. Fried plantains. Yum. Just sprinkle some sugar and sweet cream on and they're delicious. :)
16. This is a shot of my mom in front of the street she grew up on. We were all a little emotional -- it took us hours to find the house that my mom's family had to abandon to escape the civil war that started when she was a teen.
17. A shot of the city of San Salvador and another volcano. The flag says "DIOS UNION LIBERTAD" which translates to "God Unity Liberty."
18. Footprints in the sand. :)

Want to see more?

Merry Christmas... late as always.

As always, I'm a few days late.

But I had to go through these and edit them.
As well as finally acquire some internet access.
Since we're in the middle of moving
(I know... AGAIN. And, and BACK to DFW. I KNOW.)
and our current temp apartment doesn't have internet.My cousin, Emily, with their adorable new puppy. It was like a giant ball of fluff.

Merry (belated) Christmas from my family to yours. :)

Did you guys all have a wonderful Christmas? And for my non-Christian friends, did you have a wonderful Saturday? :) How many of you are caught in the blizzard?

Weekend Whoop!

First of all, Happy Easter everyone! To those of you who celebrated, I hope you had a great day with family/friends/whoever, to those that didn't, I hope you had a wonderful Sunday doing whatever. :)

Thursday: I used my morning off to write the Change in Direction blog post that has people all a flutter. Check it out to get a new link to a new blog. After class, I drove home for a wonderful three-day weekend with the family and friends. That night, Mr. Man surprised me with tickets to the midnight premiere of Clash of the Titans, which was pretty awesome. Whoooop! Check it out!

Friday: I spent the whole morning running errands, among them finally finally finally getting around to quitting Mary Kay like I said I would months ago. Whoooop! I went and got snocones with a few friends that afternoon, which was fun. They hated me for taking pictures though.

It was really really sunny out so some of the pictures came out totally washed out-looking. Sad.Gotta love funny faces pictures. :) Whoooop!

That night, I hung out with Mr. Man and two of our close friends from high school, one of which is in Aggieland with me and the other of which escaped off to California like I hope to someday do. We made a late night IHOP run, which seems to be becoming a habit for me. :)

Saturday: Had lunch and went shopping with my friend Sydney, yes, the one that's engaged. It was great seeing her. Mr. Man took me out to a fancy dinner that night, which was really awesome. That boy makes me laugh so much. Whoooop! After that he had to go do something, so the two girls from the previous picture and I had a girl's night. We saw The Last Song, which was good but made me feel kind of stabby. Not because I disliked it, but because I'm been writing a story super similar to it and now I have to scrap it. Tssssss. But it is good, so go see it. :) We made an IHOP run that night too and became the best table ever, because we had a crapton of Easter candy with us and were giving it out to the waiters. Yes, Easter pinatas were involved. Whoooop!

Sunday: Easter! My family and friends had a big brunch together, then at noon I left to go hang out with Mr. Man for a last hour before I had to leave. :( He's still in the market for a new car, so we went and walked around a few car lots and chatted a bit. It was nice to get some relaxed alone time. Whoooop! I then drove back to Aggieland, and somehow got stupidlost on my way, which makes about zero sense since I make this drive at least twice a month. I have no idea how I managed it. Tsssss. There's also some drama going down tonight, which is not. fun. Bigger tsssssss.

Don't forget, you should TOTALLY participate, Aggie or not. Whoooop! is for awesome things that happened, while tssss is for lame things that t-sips do. :) Leave a comment with a link to your blog post if you do.

How was your weekend?

HEY, Etsy owners! Feel like hosting a giveaway for my blog-oversary celebration? Click here!

Secret Telling Time!

Okay, maybe you guys haven't noticed that I've mentioned a few times that I've been keeping a family secret. And that it's making me anxious and happy and a whole other wealth of emotions I can't even begin to express.

But I have noticed! (Duh.)

And, now, I get to tell y'all! FINALLY I'VE BEEN DYING TO TELL PEOPLE HOLY CRAP.
Drum roll, please...

My family is moving to Colorado! :)

Okay, YOU may not think it's a huge deal, BUTIDO. We have lived in the same place for about 13 years now. It's boring.

It's going to be below 110 degrees F in the summer!

We're going to be near ski resorts. I love snowboarding!

We're going to be out of Republicanland Texas, which is great because if I have to be surrounded by diehard Republicans that cannot fathom the idea of hearing the other side of an issue any longer, I'm going to tear my hair out.

There's nothing wrong with Republicans. Honest. I lean Republican on some issues. It's Texan Republicans. Specifically Texan Republicans between the ages of 15 and 23 who only have those opinions because Mommy or Daddy told them to believe that.

THINK FOR YOURSELF!

Sorry. I used to be a lot more moderate. And I really wouldn't call myself a Democrat, because I don't agree with everything that party is for either. But for all those who said that traipsing off to Aggieland would make me a diehard conservative: hahawrongsuckers. If anything, attending TAMU has made me much more liberal, mostly because of aforementioned 15-23-year-olds who refuse to have an opinion that wasn't fed to them.

A-hem. Right. Colorado.

We're going to be near mountains where we can go hiking and fishing and snowboarding!

We may move into a cutesy little cabin!

Did I mention that I'm GOING TO GET TO SPEND MY WINTERS THERE, SNOWBOARDING EVERY SINGLE DAY?

I may get a Jeep (my little sports car + snow = BAD)!

This, by the way, TOTALLY counts for my #12. Because I'm not renting a cabin in the mountains to go snowboarding IF I OWN ONE. (And by "I," I definitely mean my parents.)

So, Colorado is where we're headed off to during my spring break. House-shopping and snowboarding and OH DID I MENTION THE BEING OUT OF TEXAS AND THE SNOWBOARDING?

Dear Friday,

I know I tell you often that I love you, Friday, but I think it deserves mentioning at least once more.

Thanks for bringing me home to see my family tonight, Friday. For being calm and relaxing. For allowing time for shopping. For being the night I had dinner and coffee with Melissa, and for telling me about hilariously awesome Shakespeare plays to see on Saturday.

You're always there for me, Friday. And I really appreciate that. You're just such a good friend, you know?

Oh, did you think we were more than friends?

Oooh. AWKWARD.

Sorry, Friday.

Stay classy?

Friend love,
Valorie

Hellooooo, 2010!

My first blog entry of 2010! I wish I could tell you that it's going to be amazingly deep and witty and brilliantly written, but I fear I may let you all down once again. Can you live with that? I hope so.

I've just gotten back from a wonderful place called California. Perhaps you've heard of it? I arrived there on the 30th (yes, my last entry was written there. I would have written more but it's such a hassle to type up a whole entry on my phone) and only got back last night. We spent some time with family south of LA, ringing in the new year with them. (This is the same family I went to San Diego with.) It was a bittersweet New Years though. My mom's only brother, my Tio, was recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's and I can already tell it's taking it's toll on him. He looks so much older than his age and even though he's met me hundreds of times it took me reminding him whose daughter I was for him to recognize me. It was tough. His moments of clarity are still more frequent than his moments of forgetfulness, but they're obvious and my Tia doesn't look like she's taking it well. No one in my family is taking it well, really. He's not even 65 yet! He's not old enough to be getting Alzheimer's. Such is life, I suppose. Que sera, sera. Hopefully God's reason for all of this will be shown to us.

The other half of our time was spent with my mom's best friend from college, Mandy (who we went to Munich and Prague with). She showed us all around downtown LA, Malibu, Hollywood... all the touristy stuff that I've never done despite having spent significant time in the area once or twice a year since I was born. It was quite an action packed trip. But of course there was time of shopping, both boutique and giant chains alike, and I was able to rekindle my love with Forever 21. After so many attempts at shopping there and being overwhelmed by how disorganized it was, our relationship was falling apart and we needed the reinvigoration. :) I would love to show you some of the pictures I took, but my laptop is currently being rather tempermental, which is why it's going to the shop here in about 20 minutes. Because I can't take this anymore! I got a new camera (read: the Canon Rebel XSi I've been talking about since JUNE) but I can't set it up if my computer refuses to read the software!

Well, I've rambled on long enough. How was everyone's New Year's Eve? Did you ring it in in style?

End of the Decade

Everyone is making End of the Decade lists and I thought I'd join in.

5 Favorite TV Shows
1. Friends
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. Fairly Odd Parents
4. Criminal Minds
5. Futurama

Years I Can't Remember Anything Significant About
1. 2002
2. 2004
3. 2005

Nicknames I've Had This Decade
1. Venni
2. Val
3. Valorayray
4. 13.
5. Aila
6. Rie-Rie

Number of Journals I Started
7

Number of Journals I Finished
0

5 Fads I Can't Believe We Were Obsessed With
1. Miley Cyrus
2. Jelly Roller Pens
3. Pokemon
4. Ugg (ugh) Boots
5. Those weird stretchy shirts

Initials of Guys I Wish I'd Made a Move On
HL
MO
SD

Jobs I Considered This Decade
1. Writer*
2. Photographer
3. Physical Therapist
4. Teacher*
5. CIA
6. Archivist
7. Lawyer*
8. Linguist*
9. Surgeon
10. Swim Coach
*Jobs I'm Still Seriously Considering

5 Favorite Books
1. Harry Potter, JK Rowling
2. Invisible Monsters, Chuck Palahnuik
3. The Awakening, Kate Chopin
4. Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury
5. The Avalon Series

Sports I Tried My Hand At
Soccer
Cheerleading
Swimming
Gymnastics

Times I Can Remember it Snowing in Texas
6

Religions/Philosophies I Bought Into
(in order chronologically)
1. Christianity
2. Paganism
3. Agnosticism*
3.5 Pastafarianism*
4. Atheism*
5. Existentialism*
6. Christianity
*These all happened in the course of one very confused year. Also, 3.5
was a joke I told people while I was agnostic that they honestly
believed.

Ages I Was This Decade, in Order of Awesomeness
1. 19
2. 18
3. 17
4. 11
5. 10
6. 14
7. 13
8. 12
9. 15
10. 16

Classic Christmastime

I'm finally getting a chance to sit down and email in a post about how wonderful Christmas was. Six hour drives will do that.

We visited Dad's family as we always do, and with five kids running around funny moments are always bound to come up. Yesterday, the
youngest, Austin (10), managed to somehow get a splinter in his finger. His dad and Grandma were trying to get it out when his older
sister Grace (14) started antagonizing him. I don't remember what she said first, but I know we were all laughing at it, which Austin took as laughing at him. He lunged at her, but luckily his dad caught him before he could attack. He said, "Come here, let's look at this thing in the light." to which Austin replied, "Hold ON, I have to beat her up!" It was hysterical an a classic family moment. :)

We also saw Sherlock Holmes that night, which was good. I definitely recommend it for anyOne in the mood for some fun action and a little mystery. Plus, you really must see Rachel McAdams and Robert Downey Jr act alongside each other, it's great.

How were your Christmases? Any funny stories?

Thankfulness

Hey, remember me? I'm that person that sometimes used to blog here. Yeah, that's right, Valorie. Uh huh. Yeah, I'm alive. Where have I been you ask? Oh, well, that's a pretty long story. How about I try to catch you up while I catch up and list the ten things I was thankful for this Thanksgiving?

I'm thankful...

1. For my family. I drove home last Tuesday to surprise my parents (I was supposed to go home Wednesday) and earned a scream from my mom, who was on a conference call with her boss when I walked into the house. We then drove to Arkansas to visit my Dad's family and stayed there until Saturday, which was simply wonderful. I have a big family but I rarely get to see any of them because we're all so spread out. Like a dummy though, I didn't take a single picture the whole time so I can't show you them. Lame, eh?

2. That I don't have to write another paper this semester. No, seriously, I actually silently said thanks for this at the lunch/dinner table on Thanksgiving. I really do love to write, but I *hate* writing research papers. My only one this semester was due last Monday -- now I just have to wait and see how I did.

3. For my friends. I saw most of the ones I'm really close with over the few days I was there -- it was wonderful. Very few of my close friends actually go to A&M, and I don't really have the money (or the time) to be driving all over the state of Texas to visit all of them. Though I do have plans to visit Cyndi in Houston next semester. I'm excited. :)

4. For dayquil. I've been sick on and off for the past week, so dayquil has been a life saver; without it there's no. way. I could have gotten out of bed for classes today or last Tuesday. Though, if we're honest, the liquid dayquil tastes awful. Absolutely. If anyone involved in the production of dayquil is reading this: step it up. Also, why is it burnt orange? That's pretty much the worst color ever. (Gig 'em, Aggies! [Yes, it was necessary.])

5. For Black Friday. I got some pretty suh-weet brown "leather" boots that day. As well as a really bad a set of 10 picture frames for $12 bucks. And a couple cheap-y necklaces that will break by the end of the week, but that's okay because I paid less than $5 for them, as well as a purse that better not break by the end of the week, though I did pay less than $20 for it. And a bulletin board, though I'm not actually sure why I bought that since I don't know where the heck I'm going to put it. Caught up in the shopping fever I guess.

6. For Barnes & Noble coupons. They send me some pretty much once a week, but last week there was an email for 50% off and another for 40% off waiting in my inbox, like a little reminder that it will all be okay, that the world isn't coming to a halting stop before exploding into a fiery ball of doom. Needless to say, I made a trip over there immediately, and now have a copy of Superfreakonomics and a beautiful leather bound journal that will eventually be used for #55, once I can bring myself to destroy it (which is, of course, the whole freaking point).

7. That I'm still in school. During my catching up with all my friends, I was caught up on all the old high school gossip (don't look at me that way, you do it too), and I realized just how many people that were supposed to go off to college and become successful lawyers and doctors and teachers and whatevers... are now bums, smoking pot and doing nothing with their lives. The most important thing any of them do is wait tables and play at the coffee house on Tuesday nights. On the one hand, it's like, 'okay cool, do what makes you happy.' But they're not going to be young forever, eventually they'll need to make more than $7.50/hr. Maybe I'm being judgmental.

8. That I haven't actually quit Mary Kay yet, though I still have every intention to. I'm actually going to have a big 25% off sale starting on December 1, which I'm extending to you guys through this website. I just feel like it would be easier to sell all the product than return it to the company. (If you have any questions about the sale, feel free to email me -- beautifuliconoclast [at] gmail [dot] com.)

9. For extra credit projects in my Chinese class. And for going to class on Tuesday even though most of the class skipped and finding out that I have an extra credit project. I'm already half done with it and I only spent about an hour on it last night, so it should really work out. The fact that it's giving me somewhere between 1 and 5 points on my final grade it pretty stinkin' wonderful. :)

10. THAT IT'S ALMOST TIME TO START CELEBRATING CHRISTMAS. I love Thanksgiving, really, it's one of my favorite holidays (right after Halloween), but there's just something about the Christmas season that really makes me happy. But, I do really hardcore believe in not celebrating Christmas before December 1, so it DRIVES ME CRAZY when corporate America is like "oh it's November 1? It's almost Christmas! Put up the decorations now! We've got to suck consumers dry before the holidays really even start!" Consumerism isn't even what Christmas is supposed to be about... But that's for a whole different post.

Does that catch y'all up enough? How were your Thanksgivings?

San Diego, CA

I love the city of San Diego. I flew in Friday night and have been having a blast since. My cousin Jackie (pictured, left) lives here and as soon as she picked me up at the airport, it was just go, go, go. After a late lunch at CPK, we went to the Padres game. It was pretty touch and go for a while, but they won with a grand slam in the last inning. That night we rented movies -- The Sweetest Thing (hilarious) and He's Just Not That Into You (even more hilarious).

Yesterday we were part of one of the most out of control things I think I've ever seen. See, a year or two ago they passed a law in all of California saying that you can't drink of the beach, but drinking in the water (like, in a boat) is okay. So naturally, Californians have found a way to get around this: Intertubapalooza. Once or twice a year, a giant party is thrown in one of the bays where everyone brings intertubes or any kind of floatation device and beer into the bay. The law says that as long as your feet aren't touching sand, you're okay to drink. So, yesterday, about 500+ people got together in the bay at Pacific Beach (PB), tied their tubes/homemade rafts/inflatable dolls (yeah, really) to each other and to boats and commenced to party. It was out of control, the type of thing you really only see happening in movies. It was craziness. Jackie and I were so beat though by like 8 pm that we went to her house, got an obscene amount of food and just ate and watched Friends until like 2 am.

Today, Jackie's younger brother Jonathan and even younger sister Jovanna drove down from their parents house like an hour and a half north of SD to hang out. We got In-N-Out (best fastfood ever) then went back to PB and have been hanging there ever since. Blogging on the beach is possibly one of my favorite things ever. Though I'm getting kind of hungry... Maybe time for another In-N-Out run?

Happy July Fourth!

Tonight, I'm at grandfather's beautiful house right on the Arkansas River and doing lots of very necessary thinking as I watch all the neighbors do fireworks. Sadly, we didn't do any of our own tonight. But that's okay, because I'm getting to bond with my grandparents and our neighbors on the river that I haven't seen since I was thirteen (exactly five years today, actually). And tomorrow my two uncles, two aunts, and four other cousins will be joining us for fireworks and fun. We're having to do ours a day late because the second oldest of the five grandchildren, Emily, was performing at a baseball game tonight and wouldn't be able to even get out to the river before eleven. But that's cool, we'll just be the awesome family doing our fireworks a day later. They'll be jealous. :] Plus, just being out here is like the epitome of summer to me. When I think "summer," I think "the river house."

In the meantime, I've had a good Southern home-cooked meal and the neighbors, watched other people's fireworks, baked some cupcakes and watched TV. Now I'm going to finish editing those pictures from Munich and Prague so I can finally show you guys bits and pieces from our awesome trip.

Just one more reason to think my family is crazy.

Okay, so, I was planning on blogging about mother's day and how wonderful it was to see my mom (she drove down to see me at TAMU) and how thankful I am for her. And while I was thankful for her yesterday, I'm not so thankful now.

I realize that sounds awful, but I'm really upset.

Late last night, I found out that my Great-Aunt Mildred passed away early Sunday morning. I was floored when I found out. I mean, she'd been sick recently and I knew she was in a lot of pain so part of me is glad she's not in pain anymore, but I'd kind of expected her to pull through. I shouldn't have expected that and taken her health for granted, but how many people honestly expect death? I digress; I was devastated when I found out from my cousin. Of course, I immediately called my mom to tell her and to my surprise, she said, "I know."

She knew? She'd been here with me that morning and she knew? And she didn't tell me?

Well, I asked her why she didn't tell me and after a few minutes of stammering and talking in circles, she finally admitted that the family had decided not to tell me. My entire family decided not to tell me (except my cousin, apparently). They actually decided that not telling me was the best answer because of finals. I asked when they had planned on actually telling me and she said Thursday at the earliest, but probably more like Sunday because I have my friend's prom to go to.

Let's reiterate. They were going to wait until a week after she passed to tell me because of a few tests and a prom.

Pushing the betrayal I felt by the alone aside, I asked when the funeral was going to be. This led to more stammering before she finally said that it would probably be Wednesday. My last two finals are on Wednesday. The funeral would be roughly 6 hours away. There's no possible way I could make that. So, I ask her to call me as soon as the date and time are confirmed, thinking that if it is on Wednesday, I still have time to reschedule my finals for Tuesday and make the funeral. I retire to my room to deal with the fact that this wonderful woman who loved me and my entire family unconditionally has passed away and I realize that my world feels a little emptier without her in it.

Today, I wake up at noon and immediately check my phone to see if my mom has called to let me know when the funeral will be. I have no missed calls, which shocks me. My mother said she was going to find out at about 7 am when the funeral was. So, I call her to see if she knows and maybe just forgot to call. She doesn't answer and I leave a message, asking her to call me as soon as possible.

I call her again at one. No answer. Two PM: no answer. Three o'clock, four o'clock, five o'clock: No answer. I left a message each time. I tried calling other family members. No answers.

At this point, I'm starting to get anxious. Did they decide to have the funeral today? Or is it just coincidence none of them answered? My mom hasn't answered all day... is she okay? Did something else happen? Are they trying to keep more stuff from me? Should I go ahead and reschedule my finals for Tuesday? Well, the family is really widespread, they probably couldn't all get there by Wednesday, so what if they do have it Thursday or Friday? What the hell am I supposed to do, hundreds of miles from the nearest family member, when no one will answer the phone and tell me what's going on?

Finally, my mother calls me back at 9:16 PM. By that point, my rationale that it will be on Thursday has won out (I also added in that my mother knew I knew and that she couldn't possibly be cruel enough to deny me the chance to honor my Aunt at her funeral), so I haven't emailed my profs and asked to reschedule. I've packed up most of my dorm so I can leave as soon as my finals are over and drive straight to Arkansas (where the funeral was supposed to be). Well, my mother calls me back, and I immediately ask "Okay, so, what time is the funeral?"

After a minute or so of talking in circles she tells me: Wednesday, 2 PM. Of course.

She soon admitted to having found out at 7 am that morning and having ignored all my phone calls because she didn't want me to reschedule my finals because she didn't want me to rush through them and possibly get a bad grade on them. She knew if she waited late enough, I wouldn't be able to reschedule my finals in time to make it to the funeral.

Let's get this straight: First, they were just not going to tell me because of a few tests and a dance. Then, when I found out, they decided to not tell me when the funeral was so I wouldn't get a bad grade on my finals. Did they think I was going to be happy that they didn't tell me until a week later? "Oh, thanks family for not telling me so I could take a test and go to someone else's prom and be happy"? Do they really think I'm going to get a good grade on finals now? "Oh, my Aunt just died and my family has virtually denied me all chances to go to her funeral and get some closure and say goodbye... LET'S ACE THIS TEST!"? Like...honestly? And did they really think I was going to cope better without my family? Without going to the funeral? Without that closure? What honestly made them think this was the best way of going about this?