I hate cars...& other rants

OKAY...I know they are needed...especially here in the Midwest where everything is so darn spread out. My 2006 Ford Taurus MIGHT have a brake fluid leakage. I just had the car in the dealership about two weeks ago or so to replace the A/C. This car only has 24,000 miles. I was taking it in this Friday for the routine oil change (I DO keep up with these sorts of things)....I mean a car is a woman's independence, and for me as a single mom, my avenue to work. I cannot afford to NOT keep up with its mantienance.

Anyway....I will be filing a formal complaint with Ford Motor Company regarding this vehicle I purchased because WHY should it be having all these problems?????????????????? MAYBE I will hear something back from BIG CORPORATE AMERICA! I just had to vent because I bought this new car due to my old Altima finally giving out. (It was 12 years old) and yeah I know I was due for a new one but raising a kid and my rent going up each year (which just pissess me off to NO end)....I am taking some classes hopefully in October to learn how to manage my finances better and buy a home so I do not have to deal with landlords and their "analness."

Okay, I feel a LITTLE better now. :)

Puerto Rican Recipes

I just love Caribbean food. Man oh man...I remember as a little girl spending my summers in Puerto Rico and my abuela (grandmother) cooking up some arroz con pollo (rice and chicken) and with some lip smacking beans...GOD it is making me sooo hungry right now. Found this website on food and is a great quick link to a variety of Puerto Rican delicacies and simple dishes.

http://www.recipehound.com/Recipes/puertorico.html

I am planning to make this dish for a potluck lunch at my work on the 27th. I pray it turns out alright:


Chicken with Rice Aibonito (Arroz con Pollo a lo Aibonito)
Servings: 10-12 people

INGREDIENTS:
2 whole bone-in chicken breasts with skin, cut into 2-inch pieces
1 recipe traditional garlic dipping sauce
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup black olives, pitted and chopped
1/3 cup golden raisins
1/2 cup green peas
1 6-ounce jar pimientos, drained and cut in strips
4 cups long-grain rice
4 to 5 cups chicken stock
generous pinch saffron, soaked in an additional 1 cup boiling chicken stock
2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon black pepper

Marinate the chicken pieces in the dipping sauce for 30 minutes. Drain and discard the liquid. In a skillet, heat 2 teaspoons oil, lightly saute the chicken pieces, and set aside. Heat the remaining olive oil in a Dutch oven. Saute the olives, raisins, peas, and pimientos for 5 minutes. Stir in the rice. Add enough chicken stock, including the cup with saffron, to cover the rice, and bring to a boil. Add salt and pepper. Reduce the heat and add the chicken. Simmer for 20 minutes, or until the rice and chicken are cooked.

Today I turn 39

WOW....hard to believe. My mom called and had my grandmother on the line. They sang Happy Birthday to me in Spanish. I love the songs:

Estas son Las manañitas
(These are the morning songs)
que cantaba el Rey David. (that King David sang.)
Hoy por ser día de tu santo (For today to be the day of your saint)
te las cantamos así. (we sing to you like this.)
¡Despierta, mi bien, despierta! (Wake up, my dear. Wake up!)
Mira que ya amaneció. (See that it is already dawn...)
Qué linda está la mañana en que vengo a saludarte...
(How beautiful is the morning in which I come to greet you...

Feliz, feliz en tu día,Amiguito(a) qué Dios te bendiga,Y qué reine la paz en tu día,Y qué cumplas muchos más.

Happy, happy on your day,Friend, may God bless you,May peace reign on your day,And may you have/complete many more (birthdays, years).

Luxury of owning a pet

I read on cnn http://edition.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/africa/09/14/pets.zimbabwe.ap/index.html regarding the sad situation in Zimbabwe on how pets are being slaughtered for food. What has happened to this poor nation that people are starving and resorting to this behavior??? I am aghast. I think about the state of the world and cry for it. I know one person cannot go at it alone but man, I can see dollars well spent helping others survive instead of blowing them up with bombs and underhanded political deals. I come home every day to my two precious cats and wonder if it had to come to it---to kill my pets in order for me to survive could I do it? Thankfully I live in a nation aplenty...albeit too plentiful with the obesity rate rising and alarmingly so in children.

I just see the world's priorities being heavily skewed and wonder where we are heading morally?

Dating

DATING CAN MAKE ONE FEEL SO UTTERLY ALONE. Especially when it seems so freaking hard these days or is it because I am older??????????

Dating as a single mom has its advantages and disadvantages. Positive in that you can usually weed out the a$$holes who could care less you have a kid and negative in that those people CAN be such a$$holes.

Also, dating at 38 (going on 39 9/18/07) is interesting in a sociological perspective. I do, yes feel a kind of rush to hurry up and find Mr. Right...but at 38 I also know how to sift through the bull$hit so as I do not waste my time on Mr. Wrong. My ex still calls me, wanting me to re-visit him but I know he needs to get on with his life and find his Omani Mrs. Right. Just being realistic. Of course it hurts to know 8 years of togetherness is no longer viable but we should take the good with the bad, learn from our mistakes and treasure the good times. Life is far too short and precious to be negative.

And WHY is there such an obvious discrimination between the sexes in regards to dating and the older woman? I mean, seems to me women these days are taking better care of themselves, do not have that ugh...old maid look about them. I think that society has placed some unrealistic goals on older women as compared to men. Hey, maybe I am wrong but compare a single 38 year old man to a single 38 year old woman and see where the chips may fly when it comes to which is seen as being more attractive and pleasing in the dating world realm??

The best solution is just to enjoy your life, live for the beautiful moments, work through the hard ones (find solace in being you....)enjoy your youth and your middle years--accept growing older...life is just too invaluable to waste on pettiness and men who think your age is equivalent to an expiration date. Vincit qui se vincit - She/he conquers who conquers her/himself.

Something I have learned about life...

I NOTICED THERE ARE PEOPLE WHO TEND TO LIVE LIFE ON THE EDGE...WHO DO NOT EMBRACE IT. These people do not delve deep into their consciousness (afraid or lazy) to discover out who and what they really are. Instead.... they go through life pretending to be someone they are not. I am not that kind of person. Never was. I think people short change themselves when trying to mold into something they think society wants or their family desires. I believe, as long as you are a good person, respectful then who is to say otherwise about one's character? Embracing life is the fountain of youth I think.

Embracing One's Faith

SOMETIMES I WONDER WHAT JESUS WOULD THINK OF MODERN CHRISTIANITY? Have we floundered from his mission, his true calling of bringing humanity together in the name of God, of peace? Sometimes I wonder about this and sometimes I wonder if I am following in God's footsteps as Jesus taught us to do. I have debated over and over whether or not to remain a Catholic. I struggle every day with my faith in God. I know that God exists but does He exist the way Modern Christianity has dictated? And by dictated I mean the political dilemmas this world is facing, a crisis of conscience. Am I raising my child properly to uphold the teachings of Jesus Christ? I will return to church but in my heart I wonder always if this is what and how we are suppose to be following God and revering him? Am I wrong to have my doubts. HAS Christianity been compromised by the bottom dollar ($$$$) by politics and other worldly means? What kind of path am I following? Will I even get to where I am going? As the pop culture saying goes: What Would Jesus Do??