ABCs!

A is for age: 23
B is for beer of choice: Blue Moon
C is for career right now?: Sales Associate at Marshalls ( I love euphemisms)
D is for your dog's name?: Cooper and Rita
E is for essential item you use everyday: deodorant
F is for favorite tv show at the moment: The Best Week Ever/ The Soup
G is for favorite game: Street Fighter
H is for Home town: Alamogordo, NM
I is for instruments you play: violin
J is for your favorite juice: fruit punch
K is for whose butt you'd like to kick: Old Man Winter
L is for last place you ate: in the living room
M is for marriage: M is for Meningitis, so what the hell is your point?
N is for your full name: Liz X Boogaloo. Ha, try and crack that code, internet predator.
O is for overnight hospital stays: I stayed in the ER with my mom. For a long time.
P is for people you were with this week: My cousin, my aunts, the southside of Springfield
Q is for quote: "This kitchen is bitchin."
R is for Biggest Regret: Not joining the Girl Scouts.
S is for status: Limbo
T is for time you woke up today: 11:30
U is for unforgettable moment: walking around downtown Chicago at night
V is for vegetable you love: cucumbers
W is for worst habit: extreme laziness
X is for x-rays you've had: none
Y is for yummy food you ate today: Black Forest Ham panini
Z is for zodiac sign: Aries

So, last Saturday Rob Zombie was playing at the Jordan Valley Park Amphitheatre. Which is downtown Springfield. I don't know why he was here. I don't think even he knew why he stopped here. But I went to the concert. Sure, I stood outside the fenced designated area, but I got to see the exact same concert as a paying ticketholder. Ha. And damn the man.
It was good and loud. And Rob was sportin' some weird ass zebra striped pants. And at one point, some guy got on stage in a robot suit. Doing his robot thing. It was really sad. Because he was part of the tour.

Yari – Life of Pi is a really good book. For me, the beginning was a little dull and it felt like I was trudging along. It didn’t start to get interesting until Pi started questioning the meaning of God and how He fit into different religions (which I think you’ll like). It’s cliché to say, but this book made me run the entire gamut of emotions. Anger. Delight. Grief. All of it. I’m still reeling from the ending. If I ever have a son, I’m naming him Richard Parker.

Ooh, and if you want, you should check out the Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri. Or anything by this author, because I love the way that she manages to capture the Indian born woman who leaves the only country she’s ever known to live in the States. The sense of culture shock, and seeking out other Indians for solidarity and tradition. The characters in her book get used to living in the States, but they never cut ties with their mother country. But they end up raising children who are used to American ways.

It made me think of my own mother, and the fact that she is fairly assimilated into American culture. But her family in the Philippines is still a major part of her life, and there are some traditions and values that she continues to adhere to. A flight across the Atlantic won’t change that.

And then it made me think of the time I spent overseas. Just handling the currency was enough to make me burst into tears. The language barrier. That elated feeling you get when someone you’re speaking to knows where New Mexico is. The upside down weekend (Saturday and Sunday, for us; Thursday and Friday, in Kuwait). A whole new set of social norms to learn. And to top it all off, adolescence.

Wow, that felt like a Reading Rainbow moment.

So if you like lifeboats, and God, and tigers, go read Life of Pi.