Taking a Break-Check me out on skirt.com

Hi! It is getting harder and harder to keep up with two blogs and all that I have going on. I'm now regularly contributing to houston.skirt.com.

As much as I love this blog that has been my home for four and a half years I must retire and take a break.

I may come back occasionally to post an update, but for the most part you can find me at my blog on skirt! magazine.

I also have a monthly article on houston.skirt.com I hope that you come and visit me there. Please leave me a comment and let me know you've been by.

Kids Write to Know "GO GREEN" Awareness

Check out this event next Saturday if you're in Houston.

It looks like a really great event to take the kids. We are planning on attending and will most likely grab something to eat at the Thai restaurant in the same square. If you haven't been to this square you have to check it out. It reminds me of San Antonio.

The event will be held at the East End Urban Market that is in the same square with Bohemeo's and the Houston Institute for Culture.

Date: Saturday, March 28, 2009
Time: 1:00pm

Put your hands to work in a creative way
Increase the value of your community!
Join us at East End Urban Market
716 Telephone Road @ Lockwood

http://www.eastendurbanmarket.com
RSVP at http://www.kidswriteonline.org

Goals:
Help youth discover the power of thinking on paper
& Help increase the value of your community by recycling and going Green

Everyone will enjoy:
Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
Hands-on Workshops by local artists
Special presentations by Kids Write to Know students
Author of "Where is my Daddy", Valerie Paterson Owens

AND Latin Grammy Award (the oh so cool) Artist Lizbeth Ortiz

As well as, Students for a Better Houston digital storytelling projects

My New Girl in a Coma "Crush"

I am so proud of myself. I have finally gotten out of the '80s music time warp I've been in for the past twenty years. (I've written about this before.) In the early '90s I did listen to some music. I liked some Pearl Jam, Red Hot Chilipeppers and Soundgarden. But the affairs were brief and unfulfilling.

After college and when I started to work full time I went back to my '80s music and stayed there. Yes, I have listened to some random stuff in between. In the past two years I have slowly started to listen to some new music. For example, I love Lori McKenna and her folksy beat. I love the lyrics to many of her songs.

Now at the ripe age of 39 I have discovered new bands that I have fallen in love with. My latest "crush" is Girl in a Coma. I know that for those that have known about Girl in a Coma that may seem so "yesterday" but it's new music to me and I love it. Here's a link to a Guanabee post about them at the Pachanga Festival in Austin. Listen to it through the end. I love how Phanie Diaz describes Morrissey. They opened up for him on the East Coast and on his European tour.

After reading that Girl in a Coma was opening up for the Sor Juana Festival/Divinas Concert at Discovery Green this month, I wanted to hear their music. The name caught my attention of course, being a Morrissey and Smiths fan. I went on to You Tube, where we all go nowadays, and I quickly found all their top songs from their debut album, Both Before I'm Gone. I fell in love with a bunch of their songs, mainly, "Simple Man," "Their Cell," "Clumsy Sky," "Road To Home," and "Say." Check them out if you can. You won't regret it!

Something that really strikes me about this band is how young they are! The lead singer, Nina Diaz (sister of the drummer Phanie) was only 12 (yes, TWELVE) when she started writing songs and singing with her sister and the bass player, Jenn Alva. Of course she's much older now, but still in her early twenties at the most. Her songs and her voice get beneath your skin and the songs stay inside your head all day. In a good way! I bought the whole album on iTunes and promptly added them to my iPod and I've been listening to them all week.

I can't wait to see them in person next Saturday at Discovery Green.

Weird Fears and Random Stuff

I have a couple of weird fears. One is going into public restrooms by myself. I've mentioned this one before. I hate going into creepy ones especially. Which ones are considered creepy? I don't know! But you know creepy when you see it.

A good definition of creepy is when I was watching the trailer to this new animated film, Coraline and I saw her open a little gift box from her alternate universe parents, and the box has buttons and a needle and thread for her to sew on her eyes. CREEPY!! That's when I was totally convinced that the movie is not appropriate for the children. They have been begging me to take them to see it but I keep telling them, NO! I don't care how warped their little senses of humor are, that movie is freaky. They love watching weird cartoons like Foster's Home of Imaginary Friends, or something like that, but Coraline will give them nightmares for sure.

So on to other things that creep me out. Oh! Why am I scared of public restrooms? Because of that cheesy movie Blow Out that I saw as a kid (see!) where John Lithgow is the psycho killer and he kills women in public restrooms. Maybe he just killed one in a restroom in that movie but it was burned on my brain forever. Whenever someone comes into the stall next to me I check their shoes.

The other thing that creeps me out is taking a shower when I'm by myself in the house or if the children are asleep. I think that's also related to a scary movie, Psycho, the original movie.

I had a false alarm. I thought Rey's grandparents were coming to visit THIS weekend and I was already starting the slow journey towards panic, but then I found out today that they're coming NEXT Thursday. Whew! Now I can proceed with my "clean a little each day" plan until we get the house clean. Some of the big jobs will happen this weekend so I can get someone to come help me do some of the deeper cleaning next week. They're sleeping in my bedroom!

My bedroom is not the safe haven that Oprah talks about. It's the dump for all random things and the last room to get cleaned because I'm always cleaning the rooms people can see and I can shut that door. OK. Now you know my dirty little secret. How else do I have the time to write?

Tomorrow are our annual awards at work. I don't know if I'll win anything. I was nominated this year, but there's really not telling if I'll win. Rey calls me the Susan Lucci of Pub Club (that's what our awards are called) so if I win this year you'll hear about it.

I still need to take a shower and figure out what I'm wearing. I'm sleepy! I worked out 2 days in a row and I worked out 3 days last week! Yay! I'm also the Queen of livestrong.com. I've been logging all my food every day! Maybe I'll win the iPhone.

New skirt! Houston for March

Hey there! Semi-busy weekend. Kids had a kid party yesterday. I actually took a nap today. Something I never do.

March is here and so is most likely the last cold front of the winter. Spring will be here soon!

I have a new story publishing in the March issue of skirt! Houston. Check it out. It's a story about local artist, Lizbeth Ortiz.