Blog Makeover

What do you guys think about my new blog image? Like it or not? Should I just go back to my previous one with the starfish? Please give me your opinions, o.k???

Here are some picture of yesterday beach time, it was short but sweet, because after about an hour it started raining like you won't believe it, so I took the opportunity to jump on the water (which got pretty warm cause of the rain) and took some pictures while I let the rain wash all my worries away.

myself and the beach through my husbands sunglasses

the rain is coming

raindrops

raining hard

Schizofrenic Saturday...

The weekend is flying by so fast that it's Sunday already.

Yesterday was a pretty bizarre day, in the morning got a text from my boss only saying;

"I just got one question: what did I ever do to u?"...

So to me, this is a joke! I mean, if you have a problem with somebody and you want to confront this person, you have to do it either in person or over the phone, cause what's the point of trying to confront somebody via text message, uh? So I obviously ignored the text and went on with my day... But this made me think that there was already something going on at work.

After some shopping we ended up having lunch at a new Tex Mex Restaurant (and the only one on the island, can u believe it, on an island with more than 30k people!). It was good, and I had a very large Margarita... which kind of got me through the rest of the day...

The reason to say the Margarita got me through the rest of the day is because when we were waiting for our meal, the assistant manager at work "J" called me to tell me that in fact it was the end of our manager at work, that she got fired that very morning, which probably explains the reason I got that text...

So, later on in the evening I got another text, this one explains the fact that not only she is bipolar, she has this paranoiac personality, and I'm sure what she meant is that the assistant manager which she refers to as "my friend" is the one that calls me that. I'm sure the reason why she is saying this is because she saw us talking on Friday (about random stuff) but I'm sure in her head it was all a conspiracy meeting against her... so her text this time said:

"I hope you are happy to know what your friend calls u, a short, fat, b*#%h. I am".

Nice, ah? Very classy of her, and probably the result of a very depressed and drunk afternoon. Oh boy I tell you, I've been working with this woman for almost 3 years now and I always knew her last days at work were not going to be pretty, and even though I tried to stay away from this whole situation, I knew she always had this time about me and it's call envy.

So, obviously ignored that other text and when I see her, if I ever get to see her again, and I probably will, cause she refused to sign the letter that was giving to her yesterday, and left saying she was going to talk to her lawyer (yeah like she can even afford one!).

Anyway, like I say before, I really don't wish her any harm and I'm sure that she will be a lot happier somewhere else if she hates us all that much (specially me!).

On another better note, it's Sunday so now I'm off to the beach... will post some pics tomorrow!

32 yrs ago...

On a day like today, but in the year 1977, my birth mother Gilda passed away of an aneurysm.

She was 23 yrs old and I was only 6 months, so unfortunately I don't remember my time with her.

This last time I was back in Costa Rica I went to see my grandmother (Gilda's Mother) and got a hold of some old pictures that she still had. My grandma used to always have tons and tons of pictures, but I guess with her being sick and having lots of different nurses and helpers the pictures as well as a lot of her stuff has gone missing, I was glad to be able to get some of my mom's pictures as well as some from when I was a little girl.

I can't really say I miss her because as I say before I really don't remember her, plus like I mention in a previous post (my two moms), after she passed away God and my dad gave me the opportunity to have another wonderful mother that has being more than I can ever imagine in my life.

But I know that mom Gilda is always looking out for me and although she was very young when God called her to his side, and we did not get to spend much time together, she is always in my heart and I live each day thinking of the best way to carry her memory and legacy of love!

Here are some pictures of her through the years...

2 years old

first grade 6 or 7 yrs old wearing a CR typical dress

Graduation Pic. Aug 4th, 1971

She did a little modeling

circa 1976 @ work

our last picture together Sept. 1977

Fateful Friday

This is kind of how I feel at work today...


...things are not good and it's been like this for a few days now. It's really nothing directly related to me, but with our Manager.

Sometimes she is a very unstable person when it comes to problems and confrontations (maybe because of the fact that she is bipolar or else). Unfortunately she took some bad decisions in the past few months and besides that she has changed her version of it a few times as well. Now upper management has found out about the whole situation, so the future at the company is not looking very bright for her.

Next week things might get worst because the Vice president of the corporation is coming down to sort things out with her or maybe to give her to boot for good.

Meanwhile her attitude towards everybody at work is horrible, it's like she blames everybody for her mistakes and I'm sure she thinks we are all conspiring against her, but this is not true...

I really don't wish her any harm, I know she is got a lot of issues in her personal life and with her finances but that doesn't give her the right to give grief to everybody at work because things are obviously not working for her, right? Also I think that the fact that she is pissed at everybody and is walking around the place with a horrible long face doesn't really make her look like a positive leader that can handle a staff, never the less manage a store.

Personally I am being affected quite a bit and the stress is really awful, this morning I even woke up with a cold sore on my lip, which I get every now and then for various reason but I'm sure this one is 'cause of stress...

So as I'm writing this, then only thing that keeps me going is the fact that it's Friday so it means I will be out of the office for 2 days, hopefully things will get better next week and we can have the harmony walk into our place again... Have a wonderful weekend or at least try!!!

My shower buddy

It was at a friends house the first time I saw you...

At first I found you very intriguing.

But then, we took our first shower together and that's when I knew there was a reason why our paths crossed that day.

My first reaction when I realized our destinies belong together was to take you away for good. But then I thought, if my friend is a real friend, she will understand love at first sight and would let me depart with you.

So I told her, that I wanted you, that I have being looking for you all along, and because it took me this long to find you, I couldn't let you slip away like that, and then grieve your lost and the opportunity to have you in my life, for as long as we both shall live!

And she understood and wished us farewell.

Now we are together, so today I want to dedicate this post to you.

Thank you shower buddy for being with me on my daily shower and not only untangling my hair but at times even my ideas... You are awesome!

Wednesday Movie Post

Today's review is about a movie that might not appeal to many but it's definitely an animation jewel, and the reason I say this is because it is an animation movie but not the same old computer animated characters but a type of animation with figurines hand carved with clay, and this wonderful movie is not other than

"Wallace & Gromit in The Curse of the Were-Rabbit".

If you've never heard of this wonderful duet which is Wallace (as the leader and inventor) and Gromit (his loyal assistant and friend), you are definitely missing a lot. I was first introduced to them by my husband that have always liked them and has a few (maybe even all) of their episodes, which are mostly short films.

Anyway, back to the movie and the review. This one feature film is about Wallace & Gromit owning a very respectable and efficient pest control company (Anti-Pesto) that deals with pest control but in a humane way. But just days before the big vegetable competition in town, all of the crops are being affected by rabbits that are eating the competitors precious produce.


So that's when W&G had to come in and help, but by using one Wallace's many inventions things take a bad turn and they end up dealing with a were-rabbit (instead of a were-wolf, get it?).


I think this movie is very unique and the animation is awesome, it is very british but that gives it even more character. My favorite character by far is Gromit, I specially like it when he knitts, but I also love that he is a dog and can do anything humanly possible but talking.


Maybe another reason why I like this film so much is because I'm going through a very strong phase of Farmville addiction (in case you don't know this game it's a facebook thing), so I'm all about farming, vegetables, fruits, animals, crops... but that is just going to have to be left for another blog post, LOL!

So far today...

It's Tuesday, there are going to be 3 cruise ships on the Georgetown port today (Carnival Valor, Carnival Legend and Disney Magic) each one of those ships with and average capacity of 2k passengers but lately it feels like they are not even half full.

Work is being horribly slow and I don't even want to mention the sales of this month. It's so depressing for me to think that today, I made the first sale since Sept. 10th, that's 8 business days!

At this point I'm trying to convince myself that this just another low season on the island, that the economy is picking up and people are just being cautious about spending as Christmas is aproaching, right?

Besides that, weather is slowly going back to the normal rainy season but without any threatening storms or hurricanes around. What I really like about this time of year is that you can see patches of clouds and rain all around and sometimes it's raining out on the sea and you can see some beautiful scenes around...

Just the other day I was driving home from work and got to see one of these nice scenery and managed to stop and take a picture.

West Bay public beach

Also in the past few days, I felt like dressing up one of my dogs (Sheba) for the first time, just to have a laugh, so I found one of my shirts to put it on her and I knew that this was going to drive her off the wall, here is the result... she was quite annoyed, LOL!

Sheba is very annoyed here

She is over it...

Also last night we went to a very nice Italian Restaurant (Edoardo's) to celebrate our friend Ben's 40th birthday, it was a surprise party organized by his wife through facebook with a secret event page and all.

It was really fun, specially because he really had no clue of the party and he was truly surprised and happy to see so many people there to celebrate with him and specially on a Monday night. Here are some of the highlights of the night.

Ben (bday boy) and Jenn (his wife)

the best looking couple @ the party, LOL!

I got tattooed!


we had some good Italian coffee


when they brought the cake, she almost throwed it at him!

don't even know what's going on here...

Typical Work Week

Not much to write about today. It's Monday and after quite a rainy weekend, it's time to be back at work and now the weather is gorgeous (go figure!).

Don't know about you, but I just think Mondays are not the best way to spend 1/7 of your life, right?, but then if Mondays didn't exist I would be saying the same thing about Tuesdays, right? It's just that the weekend is way to short and the week is too long...

Well, everybody have a great week and just think that in just 5 more days we will be back to the weekend... So, just hang in there!

Desert Rose

I've always really liked the song "Desert Rose" by Sting.

On a side note: I saw him once in concert in Costa Rica. After the concert a couple of  my friends and me went to a sushi restaurant at a hotel were one of friends was living at the time and were Sting was staying (but we didn't know), so we saw him at the restaurant and even got to sit at his same table... it was cool!



But anyway, as I mentioned before I always really liked this song and even the video is o.k. although I never really knew there really was such a plant/flower (the video does show a single one of this plant/flowers) until one day my husband brought home a plant with that same name.

He said that when he got it, they told him that it's supposed to be a very beautiful flower, we waited a few months and finally it bloom and I agree it is very beautiful.

I've read a little bit about them and they seem to grown in really arid areas in Africa so they are a very good option for people that want a plant that needs barely no attention or water as they are pretty adaptable. Also I hear that the very big plants are very valuable and expensive... ours is small still! Unfortunately I also read that the flowers are very poisonous if eaten, so if you are ever lost on the desert and feel like eating one of those flowers to survive it would not be a wise choice.

Our beautiful desert rose

It's official...

Well, after all the hard work and studying to be a close circuit rebreather diver, it's official!, I got my certification card yesterday, so we are probably doing a celebration dive tomorrow (yeah, like we really need a reason to dive on weekends, other than we love it!).

Other than that, I don't have much to post about, it's saturday and I'm at home, weather is on and off raining and sunny. Have a nice Saturday!

Post #2 for today...

Some of you might remember my Wednesday post where I mention that the sea looked so glassy that it was hard to tell where the sea ended and the sky started, well right now it's raining in the horizon and the color of the ocean in front of my office is just unbelievable. Check out the difference:

On Wednesday, beautiful glassy calm sea....

Today, amazing turquoise color and a storm behind far away...

Just thought I would share it with whoever is out there reading....

Cabaret Dinner

Last night my friend Linda, her daughter Daniella and me went to a place on the island call Vivendi, which is a Cabareth Style Restaurant, meaning you get to have dinner and there's a show going on at the same time.

The show we saw last night was Lady Dove, which is a Cirque du Soleil style production which primarily features circus acts intertwined with theatre. The show tells the story of a heroic pirate who liberates her fellow woman aboard the Libertad and features acts ranging from extreme balancing, aerial ballet, rope walking, strong men, an incredible skating duo, juggling and much more. To me it was all about Pirates of the Caribbean.

I have to admit I was very impressed and very pleased with the performances, I thought it was going to be mainly dancing, but noooo, it was so much more than that. Once the show is over all of the performances come down from the stage and grap people to dance with from the audience.

My friends little girl is only 2 1/2 and she was so focus the whole entire show, she loved it, it was like she was hypnotized, so funny. At the end, as she was the only little girl at the place, every single dancer wanted to dance with her, but she was a little hesitate about dancing with people she didn't know, so I took her on the stage for a while and so did her mom.

We really had a fabulous time and will probably try to go again to catch another show. Here are some of the pictures (sorry about the quality, at times I was afraid to use to flash cause I didn't want to mess up their concentration, silly me, this people are professionals, LOL!).

beginning of the show

 this guys coming were pretty amazing...

the one time Daniella looked back

 they were actually jumping rope like this...

dancing with the audience

Dani and me dancing on the stage

Have a great weekend!!!

T.G.I.T.

Today is just like another day but it's also a day closer to the weekend, yipeeee!

Besides that, I had one my best friends coming to visit me today.

Old picture of Trudy and me (circa 2006)

Trudy lives in one of the other islands (Cayman Brac), were I used to live before I moved here to Grand Cayman. She was in fact my boss at the hotel I used to work for Brac Reef Beach Resort. But besides working together we were also neighbors and did tons of stuff together, not only she was a good boss but she is also a wonderful person and a fantastic friend. She was also my maid of honor at my wedding last May!

So today, even though we just had a hour lunch together, being with her makes me so happy it uplifts my spirit to have a friend like her. At times I wish she was closer to me, also because she is a very busy person and sometimes it's hard to stay in touch over the phone (and it's definitely not as fun as talking in person).

I miss her a lot and always remember the great times we had together and with her wonderful dog Gracie, she an old dachshund but the sweetest dog I've ever met. Here's a picture of her last year...

I miss you "crazy gracie"

Wednesday Movie Post & More...

"The Soloist", it's a captivating movie with performances by Robert Downey Jr. and Jamie Foxx. The movie is based on the true story of an LA Times writer (Downey Jr.) that meet and incredibly talented but homeless Man (Foxx) and decided to learn more about this persons life (his talent and the reason why he ended up living in the streets after even having an opportunity in the past to do something with his talent but decided to dropped it all) to write a series of columns on the paper about him.

Even though this movie can be consider a sad story, it makes you think about how relative everything in life really is, as Foxx's character is homeless but also sees his situation as an opportunity to cherish the city and the outside, and on the other side there comes a point where Downey's character try to help him "get back in" (I guess back to society, and living a "normal" life) just because that is his concept of having a good life...

So I ask myself, how do we know it's worst to not have almost anything, living on the streets without attachment compared to having a s**t lots of stuff that maybe we don't even need and that makes us slaves of a society always wants to fulfill our ego??? Like the late Bob Marley said in one of his many wonderful lyrics, "Every need has an ego to feed".

I really recommend watching this movie, it's a great story that makes us appreciate life even more, what we have and opportunities that come in life and that we should not waste, it also makes us appreciate true friendship, and I specially need to mention one line at the end of the movie which is something like this "experts say that by just being somebody's friend, it can change the chemistry of your brain"... Not sure if it's true but it sounded nice.


In a different note, I had to share with you that the Caribbean Sea it's so unbelievably calm tthis morning that it's hard to tell where the sea ends and the horizon starts. I took a picture right in front of work and even thought it doesn't show as well as reality, it's pretty close.

 

Happy Hump Day!!!

R.I.P. Patrick Swayze

Last night I was sadden by the news of actor Patrick Swayze loosing a battle against pancreatic cancer.

As Dirty Dancing and Point Break are two of my all time favorite movies and also the movie Ghost (although it makes me cry every time I watch it), I can't help but feel sad by his death.

So, today's post is in honor of Mr. Swayze may he rest in peace and wherever he is I hope he had "the time of his life"...