Juan of Words

Kids Learn The Darndest Things!

Little boys are unusual to say the least.  I’m saying this from the perspective of someone who until relatively recently didn’t pay too much attention to details like these.  Not until the role of parent was introduced into my life.  Like most rookie-father-figure-types-in-the-beginning-stages, I was at once excited and terrified of everything that this one single word could mean: father!

The responsibilities that come along with it, even more reason to spend countless nights tossing and turning wondering just how badly I could screw up a kid.  I mean by all accounts my childhood was pretty normal, and yeah my youngest siblings were so much younger than me that at times it was easy to forget they weren’t my own kids, but being a very involved older brother was very different from being completely responsible for another human being.  What if I just wasn’t ready?

Taking things one step at a time.

Coming to terms with the expectations

I’ve never been much of a sports fan, my skills as both a handyman and a mechanic are pretty slim – I know just enough to get by – and while my brute strength is exactly what you’d expect it to be for a man my size, there was always that question in the back of my mind – what if it’s not enough?

What I started realizing a couple of years ago, though, probably since Edgar could talk in full sentences, is that all of that stuff really doesn’t matter.  Sure it’s important for his social development, especially as he gets older and things like baseball and football become more important among his friends, but those aren’t the things he’s been depending on me for, up until now.

Embracing and accepting things as they are right now

I was the one that taught him how to use the restroom standing up.  I was the one who showed him how to spit.  I was the one who told him it was okay to sing as loud as he wanted to in the car… yes, even to the songs sung by female artists, just as long as he didn’t do it in front of his friends.  I’m the one who pushed him in the water and told him to start swimming.  His mother yelled at me for that one.  I’m the one that tells him “Stop crying!  Do it again!  Keep practicing.  That’s how you learn.”

He looks up to me for things I never even imagined he would.

Every time I spit, he spits right after me.  If we’re going to bed and I take of my shirt he does the same.  If I take off my tennis shoes and put on a pair of sandals, he does the same.  I have a wallet.  He wants one too.  He wants to pump gas, he wants to spray down the truck at the car wash, he wants to go to work with me, and one day work in the same office building “so that we can go to lunch together everyday.”  I can’t imagine what it is to see myself through those eyes.

And hey, who knows how long this phase will last – kids are also pretty unpredictable – but for the moment I am completely okay with the way things are.

Piropos for Valentine’s Day

¡Estas bien enamorado!  You are so in love and you just can’t help it.  You’re feeling those butterflies in your stomach and nothing anyone says can make you change your mind about the object of your affection.  He or she is perfect in every way in your eyes.  From the way they talk, their smile, their smell, the way they laugh… this person has to be the one you’ve been waiting for all of your life!  Let’s face it, you may not have been tirelessly searching all of your life, let alone holding casting calls for a perfect mate over the years, but you know deep down inside you’ve always been hoping your media naranja is just one bad date away.

So in love...

Only one problem, this person has no idea you exist!  They’ve seen you around.  They might even know your name, but they haven’t a clue about all of those feelings that little heart of yours has been harboring inside for them.

Here’s where a good piropo could be just the icebreaker you’ve been searching for.  On the other hand, and I’m just throwing it out there, it could also be the kiss of death for your platonic relationship.  El chiste es that you have to selectively choose which piropo would be the most appropriate for your crush.  If you’ve been observing this person closely enough to notice their smile, their laugh, and all sorts of other little detallitos - and you know you have – then this definitely should be pretty easy for you.  I’m not calling you out.  I’m just saying.

Now a little history.  There’s no clear actual origin to the piropo, at least not that I was able to track down, which if you’ve been wondering what the hell I’m talking about could best be described as a compliment or come-on intended to flatter a person your interested in – think of it as “putting your game face on” in Spanish.  Nevertheless, most sources online place the beginning of piropeadas either in the Middle Ages or in early Rome as an evolution of our early languages.  Whatever the actual origin, what is true is that piropos are truly most popular in Latin America and among Latinos in general.  So rather than go on and on, let me just share a couple of the most amusing piropos I ran across online in this video.  Enjoy!

Standing Against SOPA & PIPA

I’m not going dark today - prieto ya estoy - but I am supporting the Blackout Day against the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) and Protect IP Act (PIPA) by abstaining from posting anything new today.

If you haven’t heard about SOPA & PIPA and why they are a bad decision for America, check out this explanation by Google.

Cherish the Moments – They’ll Grow Up Before You Know It

Me and Edgar a couple of years ago. He was so small.

Today, Edgar’s science project was due.  It was on Albert Einstein and his contributions to the field of science.  Titillating, I know!  Hear me out though, real quick.  As we were making our way up the stairs of the school, he wrestling with the display board about twice his size and me trailing behind trying not to tangle the stand alone kinetic energy model Anjelica had built for him the night before, all of the sights and sounds of elementary school took me back a couple of decades to my own grade school experiences.  Memorable, to say the least!

Wow!  This is what it feels like for him everyday at school.  Usually once I drop him off and leave for my office I rarely give his day-to-day activities any thought.  He’s at school learning.  That’s it.   At least in my mind that’s the rationale.  This morning, though, seeing all of those other kids and teachers in the hallways, in the classrooms, in the main lobby areas, and then hearing his classmates greet him “Edgar!” it really made me realize just how much of a part of his life school really is.  Yes, I realize that might make me sound like a crappy parent, but I’m just being honest.

It’s easy to forget that these little people are also living their own daily lives that feel just as important as our own adult lives everyday.  Even easier to forget that in the blink of an eye they can be all grown up and living their own lives, not needing us to finish or carry their science projects for them anymore.

Cherish the moments with your little ones folks!

Dream Big & Dream Often

Always the dreamer, me in the Rio Grande Valley...

My parents like to tell the story of when we went to church in the Valley.  It was an Anglo-Mexican mixed community and services for all of us were at the same time.  According to mamá and papá, and my two older sisters for that matter, as soon as we’d walk into the building I’d walk away from them and head to the front of the church where I’d sit next to the little girls with the blue eyes and blonde hair.  No matter how much my mother would signal me with her hands to come back, worry in her face, they say I’d only turn back at them and turn away, as if taunting them with my disobedience.  I was in grade school back then and don’t even remember these occurrences with any clarity, but every time I’m told about them it is with great laughter and pride, especially from my mother.  In the way only a parent can, she took these actions to mean something deeper about me and who I might one day become.  She tells me it was a sign that I was restless and curious, aching to push beyond the definition of what I should be and how I should act, what my place as a child of Mexican immigrants should be.  I don’t know that I agree with her assessment – those are big shoes to fill and I am definitely not sure that I am the one best suited to fill them – but today, as an adult and a parent myself, I understand the hope of wanting the next generation to push beyond the boundaries of our own limitations.  I understand what her hope for me and the rest of her children was.

I understand because, today, I have hopes and dreams of my own.

Burradas: “Blonde Moments” by Los Metiches

Burrada – dicho o acción torpe, brutal.

They’re called burradas because they are things we all do without thinking.  Things that might embarrass us or even make us feel pretty clueless for a couple of seconds.  Sort of like blonde moments – we all have them regardless of what color our roots might actually be, and they’re just pretty hilarious.  So take a look at some of our best blonde moments caught on video.

I still say I make/have fewer burradas!