Divine Romance

This weekend I had the privilege of being part of a beautiful celebration of love. As mushy as that sounds, it’s the best description I can give of my roommate’s wedding. Christa has been my roommate for all four years of college. I remember first meeting her and thinking how we were never going to get along. She was this quiet, little, white girl and I was this loud, crazy, Hispanic person. Four years later I found myself wearing a bridesmaid dress at her wedding. God did truly bless me with her friendship and had it planned the whole time. I could write all night about how unique our relationship is, but tonight I want to mention Aaron. I like to call him by his last name, Sherman. It just sounds cooler.
Sherman is one of those guys that I truly have respect for and look up to. Over the past years of being with Christa, he has provided an example of what a gentleman should be like. He is the model of how a man should pursue a girl. He treated Christa like she was more precious than diamonds. He continues to amaze me with his creatively and uniqueness of how he displays his love for Christa.


I cannot count the times I would see Christa’s face light up every time she sees Sherman.

He is an answer to many prayers. God had it planned all along.

He reminds me of what I need to pray for in my future spouse. He reminds me of what commitment is. He reminds me of what pure and true love looks like. He reminds me of what it means to be pursued. He reminds me to always put Christ first.

I’m so thankful and glad that Christa’s new roommate is Sherman…even if he is a boy.

ice berg lettuce salad

Today I came back from a short trip to the beautiful country of Costa Rica. I went there as part of my assistantship at grad school. My supervisor and I were part of a vision teams in hopes to send a mission team out there for the year 2011. Anyways, the rest of the vision are from all over the states and flew to Houston, where I joined in, before making the final arrival to Costa Rica. I was quite hungry when I boarded the plane and I silently prayed that there would be peanuts or crackers served to us. I really wanted the honey roasted ones because when I actually do expect a meal, that’s all I really get in the end. Such harsh reality. Well, as I settled into my seat with ipod and book little did I know that I was about to experience one of the best airplane meals in my life. It was so simple, yet here I am still impressed of the effect it had on me. I was given the option to either have the chicken wrap or some beef sandwich thing. I decided to be bold and choose chicken, plus I love chicken. Along with the chicken wrap the flight attendant handed me a black plastic carton that contained a clear container filled with a salad made with ice berg lettuce, red onions, and shredded carrots. The next item in the black plastic carton was a little “fun size” bag of baby carrots. Now those who know me really well and hang out with me often find me eating a huge bag of baby carrots in one sitting. In other words…I love baby carrots. I prefer them over chips…hands down. I really liked how on the package it said: “No Preservatives. Ready to Eat”…it was reminding you that you can actually eat the carrots…in case you forgot.
The third item in my plastic magical black carton was a “fun size” bag of Brussels cookies that Pepperidge Farm manufactured. These cookies always amazed me because of the packaging is white and I like the color white. The next two items that were in my black neverending carton were a plastic form and Cholula Hot Sauce, which supposedly was imported from Mexico. Since I felt like fighting the stereotype I decided to not use the hotsauce. Ha, eat that stereotypers…just because I look Mexican does not mean I enjoy hot sauce on my ice berg lettuce salad or Brussels cookies.
Since I had all my plastic wrapped food in front of me ready to eat, I decided to eat my ice berg lettuce salad first. I figured I could act a little civilized in a seat thousands of feet in the air. I opened my clear plastic contained and poured on the creamy Italian dressing on the ice berg lettuce and friends. To be honest, I was a little nervous about the meal I was about to experience. Ice berg lettuce does not impress me. It’s the good dark green Romaine lettuce that is my companion in a salad. Along with as many other vegetable such as: tomatoes, cucumbers, red and green bell peppers, carrots, and when I’m adventurous, I throw in some fruit….but I digressed.
After I swallowed down my ice berg lettuce salad, I opened my southwestern chicken wrap. It was warm. I bit into the wrap and became impressed. Who knew that an airplane chicken wrap would be a fiesta in my mouth? My taste buds rejoiced and my tummy did the Hallelujah chorus. “Yum” I thought in my head. I devoured that chicken wrap with help of sips of nice cool airplane water. Next it was the Brussels cookies turn. I opened the awesome white packaging and took one cookie out. “Here we go” I thought. Yes, thank you Pepperidge Farm for manufacturing some divine cookies. Even thought it was “fun size” my sweet tooth was happy. At this point, I was full. I took more gulps of my airplane water and saved my baby carrots. I figured when I needed a little pick me up in Costa Rica, I’ll just whip out these babies out and enjoy. That meal satisfied me and was the highlight of my flight to Costa Rica. Thank you Continental Airlines for giving a 21 year old female hope for airplane food.
…then that hope was shattered on my flight home…I’m still recovering from the meal.

one headphone

Today while I was at Wal-Mart picking up some essentials for my Costa Rica trip tomorrow, I noticed a girl with one ipod headphone in her ear. Just one. Not both of the headphones, just one. “huh…” I thought to myself and continued on my way. I was looking at greeting cards and another girl, completely different race and size, came up next to me with one headphone on. “huh…weird.” I thought to myself again. Then I decided to buy some packaging tape and while I was walking up the aisle there was another girl…with one headphone in her ear. “what the crap?” I thought. I don’t understand the point of having just one headphone on. There are songs that uses both headphones to enhance the joy of the song. Why do you want to have one headphone on and get half the experience where you can have both headphones on and enjoy the beautiful sounds flowing from a square electronic device? Plus, why in Wal-Mart? Is Wal-Mart that lame and boring that you need some entertainment to pick out what kind of shampoo to use or what birthday card is the funniest? I just don’t understand. Also why three girls? Even though they were three completely different girls, there were very similar. They all wore: shorts too short, a tank top way too tight, flip-flops, way too much makeup, and a look on their faces like they ruled the world with their attitude and looks. I just thought it was quite comical that I saw three girls with one headphone on, walking around Wal-mart with a bored look on their faces.

amigos

I’m a relational person. I love people. I love being around people. I love talking to people. I love laughing with people. I love crying with people. I love living with people. This means that I take my relationships with people seriously and sacredly, which also means that my friends are like family to me. I think it has to do with me being an only child and I had to learn to make friends so I won’t be a loner and a snob. Growing up I always ran around with the neighborhood boys and racing on our bikes to see who got to Dunkin Donuts first. Of course growing up with a rough homelife led me to playing outside to escape the hardness of life inside. I found refuge in my neighborhood buddies. As I got older, I learned how beautiful friendships are inside the church. As my faith grew, my relationships grew with people who believed and worshipped the same God I did. They sharpened and encouraged me. They embraced me goodbye when I left them for college. When I got to college, another level of friendships met me there. First the sisterhood of the dorm floor that I lived on for three years. It took me a while to get use to dealing with 30 other girls and their “issues” but I’m grateful for that. They were there for me when that boy didn’t call me or when my butt started to get big or when my face broke out like a large pizza. We would stay up till 3am eating cookie dough and watching Gilmore Girls. We would sit in each others rooms and talk about how frustrating it was to date in college...when we actually had one. Of course we were each different in our own personality and style. We also had friends outside the dorm floor but like we always say: “Once a G3er, always a G3er.” To this day, those girls are precious to me and are my sisters. I would do anything for them. If they needed me to go buy tampons for them I would in a heartbeat. I do miss that sisterhood. That sisterhood I experienced helped me to mature into a woman. I love my G3ers.
In college, I also had the privilege of having another group of friends. I consider them my “family”. One way or another, we all came together. Come to think of it the main thing that brought us together was our Spanish speaking church. I will never forget the first Sunday we all met. The pastor took us all out to Cici’s pizza. We were the loudest and biggest table. Little did we know that from that Sunday on we would be together through those tough years of college. Throughout the years, more people came into our group and some people left. Yes, we went through some awkward and tough times but we were there. It would take us forever to decide what to do on a Friday and Saturday night but in the end…it made memories. I knew that I could always count on the group for anything. They were there as study buddies during the all nighters in the library at finals week. They were there at super bowl cheering and pigging out on junk food. They were there at Saga when the food looked like it was thrown together in a blender. They were there worshipping with each other Sunday night at prayer and praise. They were there when it seems like the end. They were there when someone had a birthday and cake was involved. They were there with the all night long movie marathons. They were there when someone needed prayer. They were there when accountability needed to be set. They had the brotherhood. We had the sisterhood. Yes, there were times when I wanted to pull my hair out because how stupid it got. I even thought about leaving the group and never coming back because how hurt I got sometimes. But I stayed and I loved them even more. They showed me how it was to love even if the person is driving you crazy with their drama. They taught loyalty and respect. They taught me to relax and actually have a good time. They taught me to love.
Now I’m about to go to grad school in the fall. This summer I’m learning how to let go of these dear friends and moving on. Yes, it hurts and it sucks. With my G3ers and my group of friends, we have been through so much. Life goes on. Sometimes I wish it didn’t. Sometimes I wish I didn’t have to grow up. Sometimes I wish I wasn’t so adventurous and eager to leave. Sometimes I wish I didn’t love so deeply but I do. Now when I go to grad school, my heart will have to grow more to let more people in. Already here in Houston, I’m making more friends that I know I have to say goodbye to. I hate goodbyes.
The main point I’m making is that relationships are so important in our lives. Honestly, I don’t know what I would do without my friends. (Yes, family is important…but that’s another blog.) We should not take for granted our relationships. It’s the real friends that are there to listen all night when a boy/girl breaks up with you or you with them. It’s the real friends that will hug you when your day completely sucked. It’s the real friends that would make instant coffee for you when you’re camping in the middle of nowhere and your head is pounding with the worst caffeine headache in the world. It’s the real friends that love you no matter how weird you are.

i made a necklace

Tonight I made a necklace. I was looking through my nightstand and stumbled upon some beads, pretty string and hemp. “hmmmm…”, I thought to myself. Next thing I knew I was making a creation that I call a necklace and four hours later I come out satisfied. Now as you just read those last couple of sentences, you may think to yourself…this girl is nuts. She stayed up to 2am making a necklace that she considers a masterpiece. Well, let me tell you my friend…I wasn’t just making a necklace…I was thinking. Yes, I think. As we have already established before, I have the tendency to think. I was actually going through the past week that I experienced. I was thinking of how much God’s hand was over these past couple of days. As I was tying the string and sorting through the beads, I laughed to myself the silly mistakes I made in front of numerous people. And as I looked at my final product, I remember how God changed my plans to protect me and bring new people into my life.

This Wednesday I was supposed to drive three hours from Houston to Corpus Cristi to spend a couple of days on the beach with a really good friend of mine. Some of you may know that my car has been acting up like crazy this summer, and my family has spent way too much money on the darn thing to be fixed. Anyways, the day before I was supposed to leave I just felt something holding me back. I really couldn’t put my finger on it until my dad mentioned his concern for my poor little car. I agreed with him and cancelled my plans. I was bummed but I knew I just had to stay home, which compared to the beach was something I did not look forwarded to. Fast forward to Wednesday night…I got invited to hang out at some dude’s house after church. I figured that I should hang out with people my age that loves Jesus. On the way there I noticed my A/C was not as cool as before. “Hmmmm…” I thought to myself. (I tend to do that a lot.) Of course, I shrugged it off as no big deal. Then I noticed something a little different about my car whenever I stopped at a stop sign or stop light; it felt shaky and weak. Sounds like way to describe a human feeling…but it’s the best I could come up with. Well, we finally arrived at the dude’s house and right when I stepped out of my car I noticed smoke coming from my hood. “Oh crap…” I said out loud. My car overheated. Great. Yes, I was freaking out because I do not know a thing about cars. The people who I was with were such a blessing. The guys that were there reassured me that it will be ok. So I called my dad who came out and confirmed that my car overheated. Turned out that some water house was super old and cracked which created a hole. Bummer.

Now my car is ok. There is a point of that whole story. Even though it was just a minor thing…it was major to me. I’m so glad that happened at someone’s house that was 10 minutes from mine and not on the road to Corpus Cristi. I knew that it was the Holy Spirit that told me to stay. I knew that little voice in my head was my common sense to listen to the Holy Spirit. In that little incident, I was reminded of so many life lessons that I easily forget in my crazy life. God is my protector. God is in complete control of my life. God loves me and will always take care of me. From car trouble to Grad school to money issue; I have a Savior who is my King.

I praised Jesus that night and the next day and the next day and the next day…

So I made a necklace tonight. While stringing on the beads I thought about my summer plans of traveling, visiting with friends, spending time with family, and getting ready for grad school. Then I smiled knowing that it could all change in one split second for the glory of the Lord.

reasons for late nights

I don’t know what it is about late nights, but I find it’s the only time of day where I can freely write about anything and everything. Maybe my brain is shutting down slowly and my defenses are down, therefore, leaving me to freely express whatever I have been pondering over the past 24 hours. I have been told numerous times that I think too much, which could explain my insomniac nights. I may think too much that at the end of day my brain just can not hold it in anymore and needs to let some of it out before I drive myself insane. It may be that I have always been a night person but then again I like the sun, so that can not be it. It may be that it’s those late nights when everyone else is asleep and I actually have time to myself that I can write. Usually I am listening to some good music and drinking some beverage, which usually it’s water..even though it makes me pee every ten freaking minutes. Whatever the case may be, it’s late at night that I find myself scribbling in my journal about the events of the day with my own commentary on the side. It’s in these late nights that I also find myself facing some hard questions in life and writing out all of these questions with a question mark at the end. These late nights that I write I have a chance to really explore who I truly am. I am able to learn the hard lessons that I need to accept. I am able to praise my savior for all the mighty things he has done in my life. I am able to express my concern and care for humanity. I am able to humor myself with some wise cracks I think throughout the day. In these late nights I explore the person that I am and embrace the changes in my life. I sometimes find myself opening my Bible to a Scripture or two. I write out a prayer for my hard issue or a loved one that needs hope or encouragement. In these late night writings, I vent out all the frustrations of my undergraduate life and now my new graduate life. They are real and personal. I seek my God out. I find meaning and purpose. I discover love and hope. I experience compassion and mercy. I express concern and gratitude. I embrace failure and success.

So tonight…I write. I write about everything and anything…because I can.