Tony

My Uncle Tony died on Thursday. He had been battling cancer for over a year, they had given him 6 months to live, but he made it well beyond that. From what little I knew of him, he always had a smile on his face and love to share with all. I can tell that his children, grandchildren and wife loved him so very dearly. Everyone says this is for the best because he is no longer in pain. All I can think of is, that could have been my dad. Life is not fair, but I count my blessings to still have my father in my life after his fight with cancer. Tomorrow will be Tony's funeral and they are asking everyone to wear purple because that was his favorite color, so even though I will not be able to make it, I will wear purple tomorrow and hold my few memories of him close to my heart. God Bless Tony. I'm sure you will keep an eye on everyone from up above.

Life

Life is strange.

It takes you to places you'd never thought you'd go. It forces you to experience things you were never certain you wanted to experience. It brings you close to people you never thought you'd see again. It throws you curve balls you never really wanted. It gives you what you need and also what you dint. Its life.

Life is not fair. Life is not kind nor harsh, it just is. For each person, the path of life is different. Each path as unique as each individual. Yet, we compare our life paths to others, we value ours based on how others perceive it, we feel a need for others to want or desire our paths more than theirs. This makes us feel complete, but why?

Why cant we just accept our life, our paths, who we are as unique? Why cant we all agree that no one has a perfect life or path, that we all have our obstacles? That its OK to be different, to struggle? Its in our uniqueness, in our strangeness and in our struggles that we learn to appreciate those moments of happiness and contentness. Its those life struggles that make us who we are.

My life has not been perfect, I can blame so many people and things and most importantly myself for these struggles; but really I am glad I have had moments of hardship and struggle, it helps me to have compassion and understanding for others. I have learned from those moments and most importantly, it has allowed me to appreciate the good days even more.

My life is a good one, not a perfect or amazing one, but a good one. And for this I am thankful.

Recent Art Work

Household Portrait. 7 Grove Ridge Ct.

Abstract for living room.

Missing Hawaii.


Iris Plate.

Asian Plate for mom.

Jaxon Ryder Samonte

I just realized! I havent posted about my new nephew!!

Jaxon Ryder Samonte!!!

Born on June 16, 2010 @ 7:34am 7 lbs., 9 oz 19 ¼ inches long

He is beautiful!!

No Electricity for 24 hours

So I forget how spoiled we are in today's culture until a day like last weekend when I came home to no electricity.

I came home from being at the movies in Chinatown in downtown DC, and tried to go to the market by my house but it was closed. Didn't think anything of it. Came home walked in the door and went to put my left overs from lunch in the fridge when I thought it was curious that the light in the fridge was out. The all of a sudden it occurred to me... I went over and flicked the kitchen light switch...ahhh, the power was out.

I had no idea it had stormed so bad in the few hours I was in the movie to collapse power lines, uproot trees and put something like 600,000 homes without electricity. The City of DC was fine, it was the suburbs of MD right outside DC that were screwed...right where I live.

Of course I was the only one home, I figured the electricity would be on soon so I went and did some house chores and twiddled around. The power had been out for two hours when I decided to get on my computer to realize that the Internet runs off electricity. Then I went to do laundry and realized that the washer runs on electricity. Went to heat up left overs until I realized that the microwave runs on electricity. See a trend?

Then I got to thinking, since it was now getting dark out, I need candles, lighter, flashlight... oh what about an alarm clock for work in the morning and then started to panic, is my cell phone charged enough to last all night?? It was charged, oh good.

I hung out and read and did little things around the house until dark, then I wrote parent notes for my kids with a flashlight and decided to read some more. Thank goodness for ipod and such, for I realized mine was recently charged and I had tv shows downloaded that I hadn't seen yet.

The air conditioning was wafting away fast, it got hot on the third floor....like really hot! I was sweating just being on the third floor. Decided to go to the basement and sleep in the recliner, but that was terribly uncomfortable. Then I moved to the floor in the basement, but all I could think of was "when was the last time this floor was vacuumed?" and decided to go try and sleep on the second floor on the leather couch. Leather couch + heat = no sleep. Then I decided even though it was hot at least I would be comfortable and went back up to the third floor to sleep in the heat, and I did at last. At like 2am.

The next morning I awoke to my cell phone alarm and still no electricity. For the first time I was happy no roommates were home because I was able to leave my windowless bathroom door open while I showered in the dark. I got ready fast because I had no blow dryer or straightener or radio or any of those other morning comforts.

Luckily, by the time I got home that night I had electricity. I was ready to kiss the ground that electricity walked on and came to the conclusion that I had no idea how many things ran on electricity that I love!

Family Tattoos

My dad called me one day and said that Jessica wanted to get a tattoo to represent Dads over coming of cancer and that she wanted Dad to get one too and that Dad wanted me to be a part of it as well. So Jessica had her idea of an anchor with waves that said "Daddy's little girl" (Jessica is the youngest). I didn't know what I wanted but the more I thought of it the more I loved the idea of an anchor and getting something that tied in with my sister. The anchor was perfect, my father used to work on a fishing boat when he was a teenager, he loves the beach and boats and he is the anchor in our lives. So I decided to keep it a lot simpler, but keep the anchor theme. My dad wasn't keen on getting another tattoo, but wanted to be a part of the experience. After a lot of thinking about it he decided to touch up a previous tattoo with colors. This is what Jessica and I got:

Jessica's Tattoo

My Tattoo

My feet are so much prettier now!

Maggy and John get Married

After my trip to Washington for my cousins wedding, I immediately went to Colorado for Maggy and John's wedding. It was an amazing elopement with their closest friends and family. It was beautiful in Colorado and we all had an amazing time getting to know eachother the days before and after the wedding. Here are the highlights.

Maggy and John get their marriage license

Bachelorette Party

Wedding Ceremony

You may kiss the bride

Mr & Mrs John Collins

I loved their wedding cake! Very delicious also!

Instead of a reception there was a four course dinner! It was incredible!

Leaving dinner into the limo (Whats JoeyD doing?)

End of the night in the limo with the bride and groom.

Jimbo and Ashley's Wedding

My 19 year old cousin, Jimbo, married a wonderful young lady, Ashley. Are they too young? Possibly, but who am I to judge? I flew to Yelm, WA with the rest of my family on my dad's side and we celebrated the marriage of Ashley and Jimbo on July 4, 2010. It was a small and simple wedding and Ashley's great grandfather was the Pasteur. The service was short, only about 15 minutes, but the celebrations afterwards went on for hours. There was a DJ, family, Friends, dancing, a keg, fireworks...the whole nine yards! It was a great family reunion and also a combining of two families! I had a great time and hope they last many years to come!

Wedding Ceremony

You may kiss the bride

Cake Cutting, This cake was very delicious!

Our whole immediate family. We are on the large side.

Jeanne, myself and Jessica.

Sandra's visit to DC

Sandra stayed on the East Coast for over a week and visited another friend also in that time, but Sandi and I had pleanty of time to catch up on all kinds of things as well as do a little sight seeing. We had a great time and now I miss her even more!

Painting at the ceramic Studio

Sandra and Andrea Painting

Final Products. Sandra and I painted something for eachother. Sandi made me a duck for my bathroom and I made her a business card holder for work.

At the monuments

Feet in reflecting pool (So white blinding the camera)

Dinner with Lesley! High School friends!

Sandi and I celebrated Sandras birthday in style with crab, shrimp, vegies and garlic mashed potatoes! YUM!

My 27th Birthday Bash

For my Golden Birthday I had a big party at our house. We cooked and decorated for days. Two of my very best friends Sandra and Marcus came for my party. We have been friends for about 15 years! They havent changed a bit, still goofy people with big hearts. The party was a lot smaller than I had anticipated, but we had fun never the less.

Sandra and Marcus

Roman and I

My roommate Shaun plays rockband with the gang

Shot for another year old

Gerald and his girlfriend stopped by

Ger sings me happy birthday with my pink cupcakes!

Beautiful pink and black cupcakes!

Dancing in Bubbles!

Dad and Jeanne Visit DC

My Dad and Step-Mom visited last April. They were here for about 4 days and we did all sorts of sightseeing including; philli for a baseball game and ice cream, dc for monuments and museums and then my house for bbq and neighborhood sightseeing. Here are some pictures.

Jeanne and I at the Phillies game!

Citizen Bank Stadium


Ice Cream at Franklins in Philli

Jeanne and Dad at WWII Monument

Snow-magedon

Its Day 6 of what the news reporters are calling "Snowmegedon". We have had well over 30 inches of snow on the ground, probably something like 5o has fallen. There has been constant shoveling and praying that our power and cable/Internet doesn't go out and, knock on wood, it hasn't as of yet. They are saying our snow is finished for some while and I am very happy and relieved to hear this for I don't think I could stay inside for another day without going cynically insane. 5 days in the house with my roommate... I love my roommates, don't get me wrong, but I hate being cooped up anywhere for any length of time. I am the kind of person that either works or goes to school on the weekends just because I don't know what to do with a whole two days off of work!

At first I spent my days just cleaning and doing household kinds of things that I had been wanting to get done, but by day 3 I was running out of chores to do. On day 4 I spent much time bothering my roommates. We played Darts, Wheel of Fortune and Rock Band for hours on end. On day 5 I started a puzzle and got through over half of the 1,000 pieces it has. Today is Day 6, they say its the last day and that we can all go back to work tomorrow, I have never been so relieved to go back to work!! I Cant wait!! Until then, I think I will finish my puzzle, clean the kitchen and shovel off the back lanai. Oh 24 hours cant come soon enough!! (Remind me of this when I complain about work in the future)

Stay warm out there people! And more importantly, Sane!

Storm Watch: DC 2010

The past 24 hours has been the biggest snow fall DC has seen in almost a century.

However, after having lived in Japan where a foot or two or three over night was normal in the winter, I wasn't too nervous about the amount of snowfall we were about to get, but I was nervous about the electricity going out or being stuck with no where to go for days on end.

The whole area was in an uproar for a week prior to the first snow fall. They kept changing the amount of snow fall first it was supposed to be 18-24 inches, then 20-30 inches and in the end it was over 30 inches by our house in Maryland. The whole area acted as if it were the end of the world, the grocery stores were sold out of shovels, out of water, out of milk. out of salt. The lines at the grocery stores were over an hour long! It was insane.

Most of the school is in the area shut down in Maryland and Virginia. Unfortunately for me, we go by the DC Federal closures and since Obama complained that DC closes to easily due to snow, we rarely close. So the day the storm was supposed arrive, I still had to get up and go to work. (Why is it that snow days always come on Weekends?) I got to work and they said that we were closing at2:00pm when the snow was supposed to get and start to get heavy according to the news. We only had 16 students with 4 teachers, not the most challenging of days. It was snowing when I left work but not sticking. I took the metro from DuPont Circle to Grosvernor by my house, only about a 20 minute metro ride and when we popped out on top of the ground the snow was sticking and making the roads and sidewalks slippery. I got home just in time! Exhausted from the busy week, I feel asleep for about 3 hours and when I woke up there was already about 3-6 inches on the ground. I watched the news for the next hour or so and looked out the window to see that people were already starting to shovel. Out of fear that Id get snowed in and because I was the only person in the house that was home I decided to shovel the little that had snowed.

Difficult to do when you don't have a shovel.

So, I improvised.

I used a dust pan and broom. The broom got most of the fresh powdery stuff on top and the dust pan worked as a mini shovel. Didn't take long to get the 6 inches down to concrete. Then I went to sleep.... and boy did I sleep well!

I woke up to over two feet of snow on the ground with the snow fall still coming down! Went to shovel the snow and couldn't open the front door because the snow as piled so high. So I pushed the door open just enough and started scooping snow with the dustpan...I got the top part of the stairs done and decided that at least the door could open. I was exhausted. Shoveling, especially with a small dustpan in two feet of snow.

I waited until the afternoon to finish shoveling, by then there was another 6 inches of snow or so on the ground where I had already dust panned. I finally got a path clear an the snow was letting up. There were tons of people shoveling out side. Shoveling their cars, their stairs, the sidewalk. It was the most I had ever seen my neighbors out and about. They were talking and helping each other and sharing shovels and styles. Its strange how extreme conditions bring people together.

The worst to happen out of this storm was a few old buildings collapsing but no injuries. Just another day in the life of Monica...another storm. I always tell my mom " I don't find snow, the snow comes looking for me".

Whats on my mind.

Its one am, which means that I am inspired to write. I always feel the most creative at night. Maybe is the silence, the still of the night, the idea that others are tucked up safe in bed..... no matter the reason, the fact still remains the same: I feel most creative at night.

I have a few things on my mind this evening so please bare with me through this jagged blog.

First off, I hate my keyboard. I think I should send it somewhere to get looked at, but every time someone else tried it it seems to work just fine. Is it my fingers?? Any suggestions?

I adore my roommate, a crush one might call it. But then again, I always have a crush on someone. When that person reciprocates feelings then I find reasons to be annoyed with them and run the other direction. So you can understand that I have no desire to let my feelings be known. I have an inkling that he may light one of my friends, but I am not sure if he is her type. And to be quite frank, I don't dare tell her because I fear that shed "Give him a try" and might end up liking him as well. Oh whats worse than a roommate you are crushing on dating a good friend of yours....awkward!! I am going on 30 and still cant be adult like enough when it comes to grown men and relationships. On the other hand, what if I tell her and she says "so not interested in him", which I think is more like the case. And then he hits on her and she tells him she doesn't like him and then he is uncomfortable when she is around. That would suck, I want them to be friends. And then there is a third scenario, what if he hits on her she says "Monica likes you and so I can not cross that line, but I like you too" ... Oh that's a whole different story. I get that meeting a significant other through a mutual friend (or roommate) might be the best way to meet someone, but there is so much pressure on the person in the middle. Oh It all makes my head ache. I hate relationships.

Something else that has been going on in my life is that I got a raise and am the lead teacher in our classroom which means that I now need to become a certified Early Childhood Development teacher. My bosses and I took many hours discussing this and have decided I would benefit the most from a 90 hour course program that includes 3 classes and then the certification process. They agreed to pay half of my tuition at Montgomery College as long as I signed a commitment that I will stay working for the school one year after the last class. Which means I will be working at the same place doing the same thing for the next two years!! Oh a two year commitment is so long for me. I am so nervous and feel so suffocated knowing that I am committed for that long. Really suffocated. I don't know how to unrestrict myself except to tell myself that two years isn't long...that I lived in Japan for three and time flew by, that I am learning something and have to earn the tuition that the school is paying for.... But to be honest, even with all of this rational and reasoning, I still feel suffocated. Like I don't have a choice and I hate that feeling.

On top of all this we have a new roommate moving in. I hate finding new roommates or moving to new group houses. There is so much stress. I hate getting to know peoples personal habits. It takes a long time and lots of observations. I was comfortable with my old roommate, I loved living here with them.

So that's whats on my mind tonight.

Is it true? Have I grown?

I visited my family and friends this past winter for Christmas and New Years Celebrations. It was one of the best vacations I have had in a very long time. Not because I did anything that was over the top exciting, but because I spent the majority of the time with my friends and family really spending time with them.

I let my family be my family (the good and not so good sides), when arguments started I would back off knowing that it wasn't worth the fight, I spent time with old and NEW friends by experiencing their lives.

My mom and I have always fought, not in the worst kind of ways, but in the family kind of ways (does that make sense)? We have always felt unheard by the other and always felt as if we were judged by each other. The more I teach, the more I learn how to deal with people in general. I have learned that children are just like adults and we should be able to solve problems as easily as children do. A simple "You hurt my feelings" and "I'm sorry" should suffice. So I took these skills I have learned from teaching and used them with my mother and it did wonders. So many arguments were solved before they could escalate. It was nice.

The exciting thing about visiting home this time was being able to meet my friends daughter Grace. She is almost a year old, but I hadn't gotten the privilege of meeting her and finally did. She is wonderful. A very sweet, even tempered child for the most part. She seems so very happy and that brings me so much joy (more than I can express). I also got to see and visit their new house that they just bought. I am so happy for the Fivgas'.

I also spent time with other friends that I am so blessed to still have in my life. I love knowing that we have been friends for over a decade and are still going strong.

I even managed a trip up north to visit my father and his family as well as my sister. My sister has the cutest little one bedroom apartment in Union City. She has a cute little life and seems happy which always makes me happy. I would be happier if we lived closer, but cant have it all in life. My dad had shoulder surgery and is going through a long recovery.

It was a good trip, a trip where I realized.... I have grown.

A New Year: A New Decade: A New Goal

Now that its 2010 I have taken the opportunity to sit back and think about my life and where it has been, where it is and where it is going. I have decided that this year is about re cooperating and sorting through things so that I can start heading in the direction that I want my life to go.

I have been thinking: If I were to die, what is it that I want people to say about me. Right now I believe people would say I was a nomad. A person who sought after new experience and exotic places. But, what I really want is to make small impacts on peoples lives. To do good things for others, it doesn't have to be something major or overly exciting, just small simple things to impact people and future generations.

That being said, this year my goal is to (1) become more stable financially(so that I can start preparing for my dream: to teach children to read in Africa by the time I am 30) and (2) to do small things that better my community and therefore myself.

I will accomplish the first goal by doing less traveling this year (the one exception will be attending my cousins wedding in July) and paying off at LEAST half of my credit card by 2011.

I will accomplish the second goal by volunteering for something in my community and I want to raise money and do the 3 day walk for Breast Cancer in October. I also will be taking classes in Early Childhood Development to further my education in teaching to be the best teacher I can be.

These are small goals, but important ones. Its the small things in life that make the biggest impact, or that's what I believe in life.

What are your goals for 2010??