Aileen Maria

Some pictures from my trip to Aruba. The beaches are beautiful and the sand is really soft. There were a lot of little fishes in the water that were bold enough to approach us but they didnt come out in the pictures. A lot of people speak both Spanish and English as well as the official language, Dutch and their native language, Papimiento so it's easy to communicate. You could even see Venezuela from the island! It was a great experience and I recommend it as a vacation spot to everyone.

"Sometimes, the universe has already given you what you need. It's just up to you to recognize it."
Lauren in Dirty Girls On Top by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez 

I just finished reading "Dirty Girls on Top", the sequel to The Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodriguez. Well the book made me laugh out loud and tear up just like the first book and my favorite character, Lauren cracked me up the most before she hits a very sad moment. The only thing thing that I started to get annoyed at was the way the characters stereotype people of other backgrounds but I guess that's the point right? They're supposed to be flawed like regular people. At first, I thought Rebecca's British husband was portrayed as an open minded perfectly calm gentleman while the characters continuously described Americans as narrow minded and I have known enough non-americans to learn that they also come in all varieties, narrow minded, unfriendly and the opposite of calm. But then there is some great character development when Lauren realizes that she has been misjudging her white american co-workers all along. She acknowledges that she was too busy putting up walls to look past their differences.

There is some steamy dating and disappointment with Lauren's love interest, which broke my heart as much as it did Lauren's because her boyfriend reminded me of mine, sans the drug dealing past. The wonderful thing about the Dirty Girls books is that you can probably relate to one thing about each character and shake your head at them when they make bad choices like you would with your real girlfriends. I relate to Elizabeth a lot because we are both from the coast of Colombia and poetic but I relate to Lauren even more because I am loud, sometimes very full of anger and not afraid to show my emotions. I also love how the women have been so much older than me since I started reading the books because they have always given me something to look forward to. Can you imagine if I was reading teen books only (cough cough Twilight) instead of Dirty Girls Social Club? I would be one of those pathetic girls my age that thought she was over the hill just because she's no longer in her teens. Not that I dont like reading teen books every now and then. I just think you need to have variety in there so you can stay young at heart AND look forward to growing up.

Some pictures from the last weekend of the play. We had a nice cast party with good food and cake too!

This is the view from where I spent my fourth of July. I was chillin inside an air conitioned apartment in Manhattan sippin champagne. OK I made up de champagne part but de rest is true.  

I am watching an interview with one of the fantasy writers I sometimes read, Laurell K. Hamilton and she said something about memory being a funny thing. She said if a crime was staged, everyone in a room witnessing it would not be able to accurately describe the criminal and would describe different hair colors etc.. . Hmmm... I have heard this before and I wonder if this is really due to memory and not due to perspective. For example to some people I am "really really" skinny while to modeling agencies I am on the curvy side. So if a modeling agent was present with other people some would describe me as a very skinny person because they are mostly around average sized people while an agent would say I was curvy because of what they are accostumed to. Neither of these has a bad memory just a different perspective. Similarly I have argued haircolors with people. Dark brown hair looks black to most, to me it looks dark brown and only jet black hair is black. Strawberry blonde hair is described as red while to me only really red hair is red. We see things differntly and we remember them as we see them so is it possible our persepective affects our description not a bad memory?

Speaking of memory, I had a funny dream that messed with mine a while back. The dream took place three years ago so it was a memory in the dream world. In it I was at work and saw in the Village Voice that Mos Def (my favorite rapper) was doing a signing that day. I went to the signing right after work, unprepared because I had found out about it at the last minute. So when I get there all I have is the copy of the village voice and everyone looks at me like I'm pathetic. Intimidated by all these "good fans" I slip out of the room and leave. I kick myself for being so cowardly. When I woke up I actually thought this had really happened and kept asking myself, "how could you do that? You should have talked to him." I beat myself up for twenty minutes and spent another forty trying to figure out if it was a real memory or not. Finally later in the day I realized that there was no way it had ever happened and I couldn't believe the dream had messed with my sense of reality so much. Yeah, memory really is a funny thing.

I am re-reading my favorite chick lit book:  The Dirty Girls Social Club by Alisa Valdes-Rodrigues. I like her stuff but I must say this is my favorite. Even though I've read it twice I still laugh out loud at all the good parts and shed tears during the sadder moments.

One of my favorite quotes from the book is:

I went to Isla Verde Beach in Puerto Rico which is close to the airport and very pretty but there was a lot of kids shouting and making noise. There was also no showers on the beach so I was full of sand on the ride back. I was grateful to shower and sleep when I got home. Here are some photos from my trip.

I will be with Love Anjia on Sunday at Bushwick Open Studios where she will be selling some of her designs. Come through and get a coquettish girly skirt for yourself or your girlfriend.

Has anyone else noticed that thanks to social networking hypocrites have a new outlet for their phoniness. Personally I see a friend talk really badly about some individuals and then later I see them sucking up to them on facebook, leaving flirty playful messages on their walls. Of course I know we have to be civil and mature even when we don't like people, especially when they work with you so completely ignoring their friend requests might not be an option but kissing up is another story. It makes me take them less seriously. It seems like abnormal behavior when it would be much easier to just play it cool. The only reason for doing this I can think of is that maybe they feel guilty so they make up for it by sucking up later witout realizing they come across mad fake. I prefer to keep it real and keep the company of people who also do so.

Thats my rant of de day.