The Little Chap That Follows Me

A careful man I must always be;
A little fellow follows me.
I know I dare not go astray
For fear he’ll go the self same way.
I cannot once escape his eyes,
Whate’er he sees me do, he tries.
Like me he says he’s going to be;
The little chap who follows me.

He thinks that I am good and fine,
Believes in every word of mine.
The base in me he must not see;
The little chap who follows me.
I must be careful as I go
Through summer’s sun and winter’s snow,
Because I’m building for the years to be;
This little chap who follows me.

Father and Son Making Music

Father and Son making music together on a street in the Claremont Village on the Friday after Thanksgiving 2008. It was poetry set to music. Music made for the sheer joy of it. I was privileged enough to catch this special moment with my own son, asleep in his stroller. Two sets of fathers and sons, each father in love with his son.

Father and Son Making Music

My Dream Car: VW Bus

I don’t know why I am so fascinated by old VW Buses. My wife thinks I am crazy for liking that old hippie van. This was my favorite automobile at the Westlake Village Car Show. This is a gorgeous VW Bus, restored to original condition. Pretty much perfection in my eyes, lovingly restored. I can see myself taking long road trips up and down the coast of California in a Bus like this with my wife and son. This would be heaven.

Cool Red VW Bus

I love the pop-out front windshield. The original air conditioner.

Large MTA bus-like steering wheel is almost parallel to the ground just like in a full-sized bus. Spartan dashboard, just a speedometer and fuel gauge. Plenty of front leg room, too.

Love the big shiny chrome “eyelids” on the headlights. Adds personality to the automobile.

Another view of this beauty. Oh well, maybe someday. It costs nothing to dream.

Scooby Doo Where Are You?

That is what I thought when I saw this old van at the Westlake Village Car Show. Scooby Doo Where are You? I did not take notes that day and now its a couple of months later that I am going through some old photos on my computer. I think its a 1964 Chevrolet Corvair Greenbrier Deluxe van. This is the original American minivan.

Scooby Doo Van

Running at Night

I went for a run tonight. I started at 9:00 p.m. It was not my intent to start that late, but my son would not go to sleep. By the time he went to sleep and I got ready and loosened up, it was 9:00 p.m.

Running at night was different. I was able to focus on the bright moon tonight a bit. One interesting thing I heard as I ran past a small creek was hundreds of toad chirping “Ribet, Ribet”. It was quite loud actually and surprised me because I had run past there many times during the day and never heard a thing. It reminded me of a scene from Platoon where the soldiers are waiting in silence in the middle of the jungle and it is so loud with insect and animal noises.

I enjoyed running under the moonlight. It was different change of pace. However, I think I still prefer running early in the morning before the sun rises.

Focus for 2009

Seems like the New Year always brings people to make resolutions. I am no different. My resolution this year is to post to my blog more often than last year. 2008 was great in that my son was born in July. With the new baby came new responsibilities and new demands on my time. I thought it best for me to focus on my son and my wife. So I put blogging time on the back burner. Truth is, for the first 2 months after the baby was born I had no energy to blog or to do anything else for that matter. After that, I just decided to stay quiet and really enjoy these months with my  newborn son. After all, he will only be an infant once and when its gone, its gone.

Baby M is now 6 months old! and he is such a good baby. I am so proud of him and proud to be a Daddy! I feel ready to come back to the blog now having passed the 6-month milestone as a new dad. I have a new found energy, a new focus, and I feel more complete now.  Only time will tell what 2009 will bring. Hopefully new adventures in parenting, patience and lots of smiles from me and my baby.

Pensamientos en Enero del Dos Mil Nueve

First post of January 2009. Feliz Año Nuevo! Another year, 2009, is now here. Talking to my best friend on the telephone last night felt really good. Nothing like talking to an old friend even if it is about jack caca or the same retread topics over and over. I don’t get tired of it at all. It feels good to my soul. Gracias, hermano.

Lots of things to be thankful for as we close the door on 2008. Most of all for me was the birth of my son in July which has changed my life for the better, given it new meaning, and gave me a feeling that my life is more “complete” now. Don’t know how else to say it, but yes, it is more *complete*. Watching my little guy every day do the littlest things brings me great joy and a feeling of thankfulness at how great God is for blessing me with a child of my own. I think I have kissed my son more than a million times already.

So I wish to start off 2009 by sending my best friends some very positive vibrations and a big BEAR HUG to let you guys know that I love you and am thinking about you, and that I value your friendship. Lets hope and pray that 2009 is a good year for all of us, and that its brings us lots of happiness and peacefulness.

Cool Green VW Bus

I always wanted one of these. This goes on my Automobile Bucket List. A VW Bus. I saw this cool green VW Bus on the campus of Pomona College.  I am not even going to try to speculate on what kind of activities this Bus has seen.

Cool Green VW Bus

2008 A Year of Big and Positive Changes

Well, it is now 2008.  Happy New Year to my two readers!

I had stopped writing in this blog for two reasons.  First, I felt I didn’t have anything meaningful to write in my blog.  Better said, I just didn’t feel like writing, so I did not.  Second, LIFE got in the way of my blog.  I am very happy to announce that my wife and I are expecting our first child!  We are 10 weeks pregnant.  This means that we are 1/4 of the way through the process because pregancy is only 40 weeks (btw-my wife would kill me for saying “only” 40 weeks). 

The soon to be new baby has really changed my life in so many ways for the better.  I can’t really explain it in words, but I have a new appreciation for life, and a new sense of wonder at the miracle of life.  I have returned to church (in my own way), or should I say returned to thinking about God and spirituality, in order to thank God for all of the blessings that God has bestowed upon me, and to pray that my baby grows healthy and that there are no complications at birth. 

I have been reading different books and doing lots of research to prepare for the new baby.  It has eaten up tons of time and I am getting to the point of information overload.  We have been thinking about and discussing tons of baby names.  We still haven’t found a boy’s name that we both agree on.  Any suggestions?  Its still way to early to find out the sex of the baby using the ultrasound.  However, my wife is convinced the baby is a girl.  My mother and sister in-law are both convinced its a boy because of the shape of my wife’s growing belly.  I truly have no idea or clue but I think its very cool how everyone keeps guessing.

I truly have no preference for a boy or a girl.  I would be extremely happy with either. At this point, I am just praying that the baby is healthy.  We are both older.  I am now 37 and my wife is 34.  We are both Latinos with advanced degrees and waited to get married to have children.  Yes, we don’t fit in to the Latino/Mexican stereotype.  We have numerous friends who also waited until a bit older in life to have children and several had miscarriages or other complications.  That is why I pray to God and La Virgen de Guadalupe.  Shoot, at this point, I will pray to Buddha, Siddharta and whoever Aztec gods.  Plus, I should have lots of credit stored up from 12 years of Catholic school.

I also have been seriously thinking about what I want to teach my child.  All of the things that I would like to pass down, and all of the things that I don’t want to pass down.  Thinking of these things has been much harder than I first imagined. Of course, thinking about these issues will inveitably cause serious introspection about my own childhood and all my own childhood issues.  I have stayed very positive for the most part because in the “grand scheme of things”, I had a very decent childhood.  One this is certain though, I don’t want my child to experience poverty.  Once I received my advanced degree and started working in my field I have never, ever worried about paying a bill or having enough money for groceries or health insurance.  That type of financial stability is the best feeling in the world and sure beats hearing “no hay dinero” or “no te vayas a enfermar porque no tenemos aseguranza y tu papa no tiene dinero para el doctor”.   I’m not saying that I want my child to be wealthy or spoiled, but just to have a certain level of financial stability and security.  Something above the bare necessities of food and shelter.  After all, that is the reason that my parents came to this wonderful country: para triumfar!

My Compadre (who is still childless) suggested that I teach the new baby all the crazy dichos our parents used to throw at us like “El que no trabaja, NO COME!!!” or “Dios apreta per no ahorca”.  So, I am working on compiling that list too.

2008 will be a year of big and positive changes for us.  I know that time will factor into my blog/internet time, especially once the baby is born.  The baby’s due date is July 2008.  I am also thinking of starting a separate “pregnancy/new baby” blog to document this life changing event for us.  So excuse me if I don’t post that much anymore in this blog.  Its just that life is happening and I want to experience every single moment of it. 

 

Swing Low, Sweet Chariot by Paul Robeson

One of the great voices that I love to hear.

Ten years later, in 1956, Robeson was called before the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC) after he refused to sign an affidavit affirming that he was not a Communist. In response to questions concerning his alleged Communist Party membership, Robeson reminded the Committee that the Communist Party was a legal party and invited its members to join him in the voting booth before he invoked the Fifth Amendment and refused to respond. Robeson lambasted Committee members on civil rights issues concerning African-Americans. When one senator asked him why he hadn’t remained in the Soviet Union, he replied, “My father was a slave and my people died to build this country, and I’m going to stay right here and have a part of it, just like you. And no fascist-minded people like you will drive me from it. Is that clear?” (Testimony before the House Un-American Activities Committee, June 12, 1956) At one point he remarked, “you are the nonpatriots, and you are the un-Americans, and you ought to be ashamed of yourselves.”