Random Thoughts by Me Presents: Random Moments

Today I went on a wild goose chase to find some finishing touches for my Halloween costume.  Why a wild goose chase? Because to be honest I wasn't even sure what I was looking for.  Anyway, I decided to cut my losses and just go home.  I went to get on the train when of course some woman with her baby carriage is taking up half the door.  I swear its during rush hour that I see more baby carriages than at a Babies R Us.  Anyway, with the carriage and other passengers, I moved over right by the seat nearest to the door.  As I'm standing there I notice the guy sitting right in front of me is sleeping with his mouth wide open.  Normally I wouldn't care, because I've seen this numerous times.  But in this case, the man started bopping to the left and right and then started coming towards me.  He kept falling half way towards my stomach and then would bop right back up.  Now, I started to get worried because all I'm thinking is, "This dude better not fall out of his seat, onto me."  And as I mentioned the train was packed, so there wasn't really anywhere for me to go.  So as he's moving back and forth, I put the little bag I was holding on my arm holding the pole, so when he would start to come towards me, he would feel it and go back.  It worked....for a while.  Eventually as we approached the next stop, and made a sharp turn, there he went right into me or rather it.  Yes, ladies and gentleman, right into my wonton soup, into my woo woo, into my golden ticket.  Yes, he went head first right into my baby maker!!!!  I was beyond disgusted and pissed off at first.  But nothing, and I wish I had a picture of it, could compare to the embarrassed, confused and horrified look on his face.  I just started to laugh as he said, "I'm sorry. Oh, I'm so so sorry."  Needless to say he got off at the next stop and no, there is definitely no pun intended there!  So yes, these are just some of the things I experience on my Subway adventures.


Have you had a similar random moment? 


Happy Blogging All

Random Thoughts by Me

So yesterday I went to a charity concert event and came home really late. My friend and I tried catching a cab, but we just couldn't get one, so we eventually just got on the train.  So I text my mom when I got off to see if she was up.  But thanks to my HORRIBLE service I couldn't send any texts or call, because it couldn't detect a signal.  So as I was walking it seemed two men were following me.  In actuality they were just walking in the same direction I was, but as a woman you have to be extra cautious.  All I kept thinking was how would I escape if they tried to grab me or assault me in some kind of way.  Now tell me, am I the only person that when walking home late at night, when it's dark and eerily quiet, holds a scream in their throat? You know, where you're instantly ready to let out the biggest scream of your life if someone tries to touch you or if a leaf grazes your arm?  That's what I was doing!  Every time the wind blew too hard or I heard a car in the background I was on the verge of letting out the loudest scream, that I'm sure would've sounded like I was giving birth.  And sad to say, embarrassing to say, I did let out a yelp when a car drove by at one point. I know, I'm silly, but come on, I live in the South Bronx so I must be prepared to scream, kick and hustle it outta there at all times.  And if all else fails, prepared to ball up into the fetal position and start sucking my thumb and hope my attacker doesn't have any weird fetishes. 

Have you had this random thought?

Happy Blogging All!

Random Thoughts by Me

So I thought I'd try something new on LaLatinaLoquita and see how it plays out with you all.  See I always have these random thoughts, ideas, or just comments that I make to myself throughout the day.  And when I say random, I mean random.  Like today for instance, I saw a rat going through garbage (thankfully I was across the street).  But my immediate thought wasn't, "Maybe I should walk faster" or "Thank God I'm not on that side".  No, my thought was, "Holy shit imagine there was a bomb in there and it exploded and there were rats body parts everywhere."  And my second thought was, "What if like there was like a head rat.  So that when this rat saw him, he'd scurry off and leave the feast of garbage to the king."  Again, I'm SUPER random; you get the point.  Now see as funny as I think these random thoughts maybe, they don't really merit an entire blog.  But nevertheless, sometimes I feel like I just have to share them.  Maybe some of you can relate and make me feel like I'm not a complete lunatic.  Or maybe some of you will read some of my "thoughts" and think, "Yea, not reading her stuff anymore. She is a freakin' loca!"  Either way, I'm going to bring you in a little deeper into the crazy things that go through this girls mind.  Hey, they don't call me Loquita for nothing, so here goes my first "thought" in my new series, "Random Thoughts by Me".


You know how sometimes you go to the bathroom (at work, movies, restaurants, etc) and you walk into a stall and it's just disgusting.  You know, tissue left stuck to the seat, stains on the wall, pee on the seat, a baby swimming in the toilet and so forth.  So you move to another stall, and then notice someone go into the one you just rejected.  Well do you ever think, "Aye que fucking puerca! Cochina!" (*translated to: Ugh, what a fucking pig. Slob!"  

The other day there was "poop splatter" on the inside of the toliet, that as soon as you looked in the stall you could see. I was so grossed out I went to the next stall.  A few minutes later a woman went into the very stall I had just avoided.  I was making so many faces to myself, and just so disgusted by this woman.  So of course I washed my hands long enough to see who it was, so I could judge them internally.  I mean, who does that?

Have you had this random thought?

Happy Blogging All!

Friends. How many of us have them?

*True Friends

Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about the concept of “friendships.”  See to me friendships have always been a huge deal.  It’s not just, “Oh this is my friend so and so and we drink beers on the weekend, blah blah blah.”  No, that’s not it.  My friends have always been treated as if they’re a part of my family.  In my opinion, in some ways, friends are a little bit more important to me.  Now before I get the whole Latino community jumping down my back (as well as my own family members who read my blog) because family is huge for us, let me explain.  With family, you’re born into it.  Like them or not, love them or not, you’re stuck with each other forever.  You’re like squatters in each other’s lives;  Like that unsightly mole; Like an eyelash on your face that you keep trying to wipe away but just stays there!  You get the point.  I’m actually fortunate that many of my family members I can actually, tolerate and can consider good friends.  However, there are SOME members that I could surely do without; I’d give anything to have those moles surgically removed.  But that’s a different topic for a different day.

Friends are people YOU CHOOSE to have in your life.  When you meet someone, it’s completely your decision if you want to invest in them or not.  You can tell by a few meetings if this person is worth your time and energy, or not; much like any other relationship.  Now I’ve always chosen my friends by who’s most compatible with me, relates to me and can understand my sarcastic humor.  It’s the same way I’ve chosen the men I’ve dated.  Needless to say, my luck with friends hasn’t always been the best either!  See I find that the people you hang around with reflect the person you are.  My best friend for instance, is a sarcastic, witty, intelligent and a crazy gal.  Just like me!... Before I move on, I must add that you should never use the term “best friends” for everyone.  A best friend is someone who’s with you through thick and thin.  That person that you can call at 2am and they know it’s you and they know to get to the nearest bank to bail you out…  Then there are other friends, who though you may not have tons of things in common, you know that there are parts of them that you see in yourself; parts of yourself you wish to bring out, and they help you with that.  And then there are those “friends” that you thought you had things in common with or felt a connection to, and just like that douchebag ex-boyfriend of yours, they show their true colors and you’re blindsided by the “not so friendly” person that they truly are.

As we all know, family can, and most likely, will screw you over at one point in time.  But they’re family and you have to accept them.  Now when friends do it, while you can easily cast them off to the side and say, “good riddance to bad rubbish”, sometimes the pain stings a little more.  Why?   Well because you’ve opened yourself up to this person. You made the choice to let them in, thinking your assessment of the person was spot on, and you’re basically shown that you were dead wrong!  It can make you reevaluate other friendships and your own (what you thought to be) good judgment.  You start to wonder how you could have been so wrong about someone.  In fact you might start to feel a little stupid for having been so gullible.   And it doesn’t always have to be that they’ve done something terrible to you, i.e. burned down your house or anything like that.  It could just be their attitude and personality that changes.  Or you could realize that you’ve had blinders on to this person for whatever reason, and then BOOM, they’re different.  For example I had a best friend for years and we were almost inseparable.  And then one day she was dating, then getting pregnant, then getting engaged and poof it was as if she was gone.  It was like a relationship where the sex stopped being good, so you venture out.  It felt as if the friendship stopped being good, and it wasn’t worth keeping up with it.  And I understand we grow up and move on, and start lives on our own, but I never imagined that our friendship would just sizzle out.  While I'm sure I played a part in this as well (I guess we all change), it really hurt and still does.  See I use this as an example because I have another friend who has gone through the same process of “growing up” and we continue to be relevant and constant in each other’s lives.  It just gets a little sad when, as you grow up, you start to realize, as painful as it maybe, that all of your relationships aren’t as solid as you thought.  It’s not always rainbows and cotton candy.

So what does friendship mean to you?  Do you hold your friends in high regard or do friends just come and go for you?  I’m curious to see if I’m the only one that values my friendships as dearly as I value my relationships with my family member (if not more in some cases).  Hey, sometimes when family isn’t there, it’s those really good friends that are by your side when you lose your balance.

Happy Blogging All!

Fourth Annual Spreading Smucker’s® Traditions Recipe & Essay Contest

Now you all know I don't like or know how to cook.  I think I've made that clear plenty of times.  However one of the things I do love, besides eating, is sitting in the kitchen whenever my mom or grandmother are in front of the stove making one of their deliciously scrumptious meals. With my mom she'll go into detail about how to do this and that, and I'll just watch her move so effortlessly about the kitchen and click with everything around her.  It's as if the spoons and spices just flow right to her and she knows EXACTLY what's she's doing.  Half the time she's not even looking! And the best thing about my mother is that she makes all types of foods from Spanish, to Italian, American and so much more.  She has a passion for it all.  

Now my grandmother, her specialty is Spanish, Puerto Rican, food.  From Pernil to Arroz con Gandules, this woman cooks it up.  And whenever I'm in the kitchen with her, she talks to me about each ingredient she's adding in, and always manages to tell me how she learned how to use them all.  She'll start talking about how her grandmother taught her this, or how her mother or even her sister taught her that.  Just today she was making chicken and was telling me how she learned it from a lady on TV years ago; she gets inspiration and lessons from everyone and everywhere.  One of my favorite and probably the memory I'll take with me forever, is making Pateles with her.  Now if any of you have ever made Pateles, you know it is a tiring process that takes DAYS! Yes, you have to buy the stuff, start peeling bananas, bleeding out those little red seeds, then smashing and grinding the bananas, washing and prepping the leaves, etc.  By the time you're ready to eat them, you're over them completely.  BUT, working with my grandmother on these delicacies, has always been interesting and an eye opening experience.  Listening to her stories and her telling me how to do this and that, is always a little treat for me.  So while I'm not a chef, I LOVE watching the women in my life cook and talk to me about their recipes with such love and devotion.

So what's a perfect time to bring up families and special recipes and combining the two?  Now, during Hispanic Heritage Month, and Smucker's® is going to help!  From now until November 16th, Smucker's® invites you to visit their site, www.smuckers.com or www.smuckersenespanol.com, to enter and share your original recipes using at least 1/4 cup of  any of their Smucker's® jams, jellies, preserves or fruit butters, plus an original essay of 200 words or less (in English or Spanish) about how the recipe is a part of your family's traditions and how it makes family celebrations, special.  Then in March 2012, five contest finalist will be selected and flown to New York city for a live recipe demonstration and judging, where one will win $20,000 towards a dream family reunion!  Doesn't that sound amazing! How incredible that a family recipe could possibly win you such a wonderful gift with and for your family!  And Hispanic Heritage Month is a perfect time for this contest, as Latinos all over the country are celebrating their history and culture together.   Hmmm, I wonder how a Orange Marmalade would mix in with Pateles.

For Official Contest Rules visit www.smuckers.com or www.smuckersenespanol.com.  Open to legal residents of the 50 United States and D.C., 18 years and older.  Void where prohibited.

So stop reading, and start cooking and writing!  Good luck to all of you.

Happy Blogging All!

Disclaimer:  While Confessions Of A Latina Loquita did receive Smucker's® products, it did not receive any monetary compensation for this post.  Participation is completely voluntary and all opinions noted in the above are my own opinion.