Lunch Break Notes

   Time and time again people comment at my size and weight. Usually the comments come in the form of either mockery or in a way to make me feel inferior to the larger person spitting the insult. The comment is not always meant as an insult but either way it makes me step back and feel pretty bad about the size I am and have been for the past 10 years. I am 5'and 5", weighing in at 120 pounds. This may sound ideal to most but for someone like me, it's not where I am comfortable being. Have I accepted this size? Yes, of course, I have no choice. I'm Hispanic with a high metabolism. I eat to gain weight and it vanishes overnight. I can only work out so much before I start to burn more weight. Not what I like especially since I work in a field where I deal with macho type personas that try to show dominance by size. Just like in the animal world where a larger male will show dominance over a smaller male. Larger guys don't scare me but they like to think it does.   ...

Things are always changing here in good ol' Jersey. As of lately... for the worse.  Over the past few years it has become increasingly tough to maintain a life in New Jersey. For those of you that think it's all Guidos and nightclubs on the beach, well.. that's one reason it's been getting tougher. It seems that businesses here and landlords alike are only interested in satisfying the needs of the summer crowd that plagues, yes...plagues, our lovely little oasis. Not only are there no places to live year round but the cost of staying here is ridiculous. It seems to me that landlords want a chunk of that New York money that is no longer enough to sustain a life in the big city and its surrounding areas. I have seen the rent go up in our area at least twice a year for the past few years and there is no knowing when it will stop. I am sick to my stomach with knowing that it is only a matter of time before we go broke and are flat on our asses and forced to va...

Me and my wife have had our fair share of neighbors. We moved out together when I was in college and she was just graduating High School and NO! it’s not weird. We were dating all through High School. It’s not like I coaxed a Junior to move in with a grown man. However that is sort of how we were depicted by our first batch of neighbors. We were assumed to be the typical young, partygoers that you see in the movies or on TV, throwing parties every night of the week in a show of our newly found independence. That is not us and never will be.  Not to mention our first apartment was actually smaller than the living room that I am typing this note in. We fell victim to assumption for the noises that came from the apartment above us. Obnoxious sex noises coming from the open patio door of the 40 something year old woman that was seeing a man on the side, overheard a phone call, of her unknowing husband. Neighbors would slam the doors on us when we had groceries and they even threw...

Some of you may have noticed my sudden absence. I found it tough to express the thoughts bouncing around my head when more pressing matters were at hand. For the past two weeks i was unemployed and what seemed like unemployable. With reasons spanning from me not having a bachelors degree, which is asinine considering the positions, to me having a wide range of work history. So! That means I know how to do a lot of different shit! I can sell, I can lead, I can create, my customer service is top notch, I know how to sell a house, wire a light switch, change a hard drive and take a food order. The whole thing was extremely frustrating especially when my dream company expressed tons of interest and suddenly dropped me out of the running due to no degree. It did not help that I had to keep explaining that my previous company provided software and not cell phones. But as they always say, this too shall pass. And it did. I recently started as the coordinator of all things office for my BI...

   When bad times get you down, it is extremely hard not to fall into.... a funk, it's natural. Major loss has a way of screwing with your head and how you see the rest of the world. I have had the pleasure of marrying into a family that has no place for hard times. I'm not saying that I married rich, which is how it sounds when I say it back to myself in my head. My wife's family is headed by one hell of a matriarch. Not only has she been on her own since... I don't know how long it's been but its a really long time, running  her own career and blazing her own trails. My wife's grandmother, better known as Nanny, has taught and practiced the family-ish tradition of celebrating misfortune. This is foreign to me and most likely many others, but it is a trait passed down. When times get tough,  when jobs are lost and accidents fall upon us, it is said that we must celebrate. Don't let them get to you. Things always get worse before they get better and a ...

It pains me to say...I have failed as a vegetarian. I lasted longer than  i ever thought but not as long as I hoped. Reasons for my change back come from all over. I found it very tough to stick to vegetarian while my wife was not. We have opposing blood types me and her. My blood thrives on the vegetarian diet while hers does not. My wife is also the best cook i know and I'm not just saying that. The girl is a magician in the kitchen and its nor fair to either of us when she prepares her favorite dish roasted chicken with vegetables. Oh man...it really is something. She works very hard to prepare each meal, minus breakfast...sometimes, that we eat. She takes a lot of pride in sourcing her ingredients to ensure the quality of the meals. There were some health points that popped up as well. One major health issue was my hair. That stuff was coming out like crazy. Found out it was because I was not getting enough vitamins or something like that. Once I started ...

This weekend was a sad and infuriating one for these two Chinese food loving kids. Like most New Jerseyans, we order Chinese food about once every two weeks, sometimes more depending on how the weather is. It's sort of our ritual. We get wine, we get out our special Chinese food bowls and ALWAYS eat with chop sticks. Me and my wife are serious about our Chinese food so much that after we got married we took a trip up to the first major Chinese restaraunt in New York City. No, not P.F Changs which by the way, created General Tso's Chicken, the way that Americans know it anyhow. We have traveled far and wide for any place on anyones radar that seems worth it. I tell you this so you can get a sense of the disappointment that we faced this past weekend. We noticed lately that the same food that we have been ordering for about six years has begun to cost more. The prices have not changed so why has our total? My wife wanted to get to the bottom of it and in do...

I used to think the force was made up, just some far off mystical story that people made up. But it's not! It's true, all of it... the power, the stories, the following... all true. The power and truth that I speak of is the cultish following that is a part of all Subaru owners. You have no idea it's happening but once you realize it has, you always find yourself sitting there saying to yourself, usually while sitting in your Subie, "Huh... would you look at that... I am in a cult... and I kinda LIKE IT". Subaru has been pumping out the same 4-6 models of AWD vehicles for the past decade and has grown an incredible following from all sorts of people. This is no surprise if you look at the failed history of the company. Some time ago Subaru was part of a five family Japanese automotive company. As the stories go, Japan wanted to reel in all of their Auto companies and produce them all under one roof to stabilize the market. Subaru, or better know...

Some people might read the title to this and think...WHAT!! A Hispanic that doesn't eat meat!!!. Others may think it's no big deal. Another group will suggest that I am pushing my own agenda, which I am not. Becoming a Hispanic vegetarian has not been easy, especially since my Hispanic heritage is more so the Puerto Rican type. Meat is such a huge part of the culture and diet of Hispanics and Latinos all over the world. Although the change has not been easy, the choice was simple. I recently discovered my blood type, A positive. For those that do not know, an A positive blood type has a specific dietary need as do all blood types. Your blood is specific to your overall bodily system and how it functions. Mine in particular is a vegetarian based diet. A positive types were the original harvesters and thrived off of what could be harvested, not hunted. There are a few meats that are good for me such as mutton and lamb. Nowhere in my blood types requirement does it say that I s...