El pan para la noche

Mamá Toni repeats the story every time there’s pan dulce on the table.

“El pan para la noche,” she says imitating me and giggles. “No te recuerdas?”

I shake my head no. All I remember of my trip to El Cargadero that summer was the excitement of being on a plane without my parents, running around the large plaza in front of Papá Chepe and Mamá Toni’s house playing games with the neighborhood kids, and getting hooked on Rosa Salvaje. I must have blocked out my love for pan dulce and the result.

When Danny and I returned from El Cargadero, I had gained weight. Again, I don’t remember this, but my mom and Mamá Toni insist that El Cargadero was the turning point. I was no longer average. From ’88 on I was chubby/chunky/fat/whatever/insert your own euphemism.

While I don’t remember the result of my trip to Zacatecas, I do remember my First Communion the next spring. I wore the white custom-made dress I wore as a flower girl for my Tía Nellie’s wedding just a few weeks earlier. While waiting for the ceremony to begin, mom talked to Mrs. Millan, my Brownie troop leader. Mrs. Millan complained about finding a dress for her small and skinny daughter. Mom told her she had the opposite problem, but was lucky I had the flower girl dress. I was embarrassed and felt like hiding.
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Cambios, Familia

Hand-holding

I sat in the middle between Lori and Adrian. My brother tagged along simply for the post gym trip to Costco. Lori and I had business. She needed to start up her gym membership after letting it lapse recently and I needed to sign up. We gave our IDs to Philip so could start the process.

Adrian asked, “Can you put me down as a referrer so I get he next month free? What if you add me to Lori’s family plan. I want to pay less too.”

“No,” Philip said and explained that I couldn’t be counted as a referred because Lori was not technically new and I was being added to a pair/family plan. He was nice about it though, and joked with my siblings whom he both recognized as regulars at the gym.

A few days later I was alone and without my sibling to hold my hand through my first session at the gym. While I consider myself fairly independent and willing to do most things alone, I was intimidated by the gym and any workout that wasn’t simple jogging around the local high school track or swimming.

I called Lori for some advice.

“Um… I’m going to the gym. I don’t know what to do. Help!”
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Cultura

Taking Over

My original Valentine’s Day plan was to make DB, the boyfriend, brunch and then walk to the Kirk Douglas Theater in Downtown Culver City (DCC) for the matinee showing of Danny Hoch’s Taking Over. I’ve lived just a few minutes away from DCC since 2000 in ~~Palms~~ South Robertson*.

Walking over to the Kirk Douglas didn’t work out. I was wearing heels and a dress. More importantly, we were running a little late.

I had DB drop me off and park in one of the relatively new parking structures along Washington Boulevard. Even though I’ve lived here for 8+ years, I only recently started spending any significant time in DCC. Previously, there was nothing to do after 5 pm and a dearth of any other sorts of entertainment. That’s all slowly been changing. The Kirk Douglas Theater playbill describes the “revitalization” (aka gentrification) of DCC in recent years. In a small area you can find several architecture firms, art galleries, a couple of theaters, and several restaurants. On Tuesdays, local growers set up a farmer’s market. If you go during a weekend night, you’ll find the 5 or so blocks between the Trader Joe’s and Kirk Douglas Theater quite busy. Now, I regularly shop at Trader Joe’s, buy fruit and vegetables at the farmer’s market, watch movies at the Pacific Theater and eat at some of the restaurants. I’d never gone to a production at the Kirk Douglas until last week. Still, it’s hard to ignore the fact that the only reason I’m watching Danny Hoch in Culver City is due to the recent ~~revitalization~~ gentrification of the area.
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Blog/tech

Todo cambia

I updated WordPress for the first time in over two years. Embarrassing, I know.

The one-click upgrade was simple. Everything worked okay, except for my custom made theme. I settled on a simple temporary theme. DB stitched together some photos from the Lotería photo shoot with my buddy Rio.

I’m not sure if I should try and repair the old theme or go for something new. What do you all think?

Escuela

UC’s new eligibility policy (pay attention, freshmen)

The Regents of the University of California recently voted to change the eligibility policy. Some people hailed the change as a step in the positive direction while others criticized the decision.

My friend and fellow higher education nerd (er, scholar), Oiyan, breaks down the changes to be implemented for the fall 2012 class (or today’s freshmen):

By the end of your junior year, you need to be done with 11 of 15 college prep courses. Like I said before… get thee to your guidance counselor!

Just like before, you’ll have to maintain a weighted GPA of at least 3.0. So take lots of honors and AP courses!

Take the ACT writing test OR the SAT reasoning test. That’s right… no more SAT subject tests, unless you want to be a superstar and take some anyway. The UC will still look at them, and think, “Wow! Super Achiever! We’ll count these tests like we count AP test scores.”

(Emphasis mine)

Oiyan’s six part series is a candid and snarky conversation with Asian Americans (and conservative pundits) concerned about how the new eligibility policy could hurt their respective communities. So far, she’s posted parts one, two, three and four. I assume parts five and six will be posted soon.