Oscar Casares Reading from Amigoland (possible Oprah book choice)

Photo by Marsha Miller from Oscar's official website.

Only three days from now my cousin Oscar Casares will be reading from his novel, Amigoland, at his sister's (and my cousin too) restaurant, Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen. 6401 Woodway Dr, near Voss. He's reading Tuesday at 7:30 p.m. but Sylvia will be serving a $12 buffet starting at 6:30 p.m. The bar will be open too.

I've written several times about Oscar and about his book. His book has been very personal to me, because I recognized the characters in his book, even if the average reader didn't. His two characters are so familiar and the book made me so happy and so sad at the same time. The two main characters are older men. And their personalities are so much a mix of Oscar's dad, my dad and our Uncle Hector.

To make things even more exciting... There are rumors flying about what will be Oprah's newest book club choice. On the list of possible suspects is no other than Amigoland! If Oscar's book is chosen this will be an amazing success story for him and for our family name. I hope that if you're in Houston you can come by and hear him. I will be there too and I would love to see as many people as possible there. So spread the word!!

Depeche Mode Was Awesome & More

Depeche Mode in Houston, TX, 8/30/09. Photo by Rey Ruiz

Last time I went to see Depeche Mode the Summit had just become the Compaq Center. They put on a great concert then. I don't know if it's that I'm older and I appreciate a good concert more now or if it's that I don't remember the last concert as well. The concert was so totally amazing! I read a great review on The Houston Chronicle's newest entertainment blog, Peep. It was written by no other than Joey Guerra. Read it and get chills.

On to other news. Read my skirt blog and the chron.com Peep blog (once again the Peep) about my cousin Oscar's upcoming reading at my other cousin's restaurant, Sylvia's Enchilada Kitchen. He will be reading from his novel, Amigoland.

As you can tell, I'm up and running again. Kids started school last week and I started work full time. I've been exhausted every day. My son started Kindergarten and he has brought home homework every day since school started. Well, they actually send a pack of five worksheets for him to work each day.

I'm online and blogging way too late as usual so I will say good night now. I need to go make school lunch for tomorrow.

Pain is NOT my Friend

By Anne Taintor. Order yours today!

I'm not good with pain. Of course that's hard to believe when you consider the fact that I went twenty-two hours with no pain medication when I was giving birth to my first child. I so desperately wanted to have a natural child birth, void of any drugs. I literally heaved and tried to throw up from the pain.

I got to the 22 hour mark and the doctor said, "No!" I hadn't dilated to 10 and the baby was big. Now they were asking me to hold her in and to wait for the epidural. The anesthesiologist was in shock that I hadn't received an epidural and now he had to administer it in between my hard contractions. I sat on the edge of the bed, my head pressed hard against my husband's chest. My hands gripped his arms even harder. The doctor watched the monitor for my contractions and asked for my input. In between each contraction he steadily stuck the needle into my spine. I thought he was the most talented anesthesiologist ever. He didn't paralyze me for life as I had feared. Having a sister who was an OBGYN nurse and told horror stories since I was a baby didn't help.

I had another c-section after that one and the 2nd one hurt more than the first. I actually felt the epidural going in that time. I say it's because it was scheduled and planned and I knew it was coming. The first time everything happened so fast and I had already gone to that dark place with pain that the epidural was a piece of cake. I also healed slower from the c-section the second time around.

A year and a half ago I had elective surgery and that didn't hurt too bad. So I guess I wasn't really prepared for the pain I experienced from last week's surgery. Not fun!
When I removed the bandage a couple of days later and looked at my stitches I realized that they only went in through my belly button. I thought that he was going to cut around it as well for some reason. I was surprised that the stitches are all inside of my belly button.

No wonder it hurt so much! Our belly button is the center of our soul! Just think about it. When you are in utero you receive all of your nutrients through that cord that connects right into the center of your body. Now poke yourself in the belly button. Clean it out and see how it feels. Don't you feel a weird sensation? Now imagine being cut there... Not a great thought is it?

It's been five days since my surgery now and I'm finally off the strong stuff. I only had to take extra strength Tylenol yesterday. That Vicodin was evil! The side effects were killing me. I have no idea how anyone can become addicted to that horrible drug. What was Chandler thinking??

I'm feeling better but I still ache in my center. I still can only sleep on my back and not on my side like I like to sleep. I don't feel well enough to drive yet. But I can feel my body slowly healing. Our body is amazing, how we patch ourselves up.

A friend of mine experienced something really scary over the weekend that makes my surgery seem like small potatoes. Her leg had been bothering her for about three weeks and she just chalked it up to a pulled muscle. On Friday her leg became so swollen she ended up in the emergency room. It turned out that she had a blood clot in her leg and more in her lungs. She was very very fortunate that the blood clots gave her a warning sign in her leg. It shows us how important it is to pay attention to our body when it sends us a signal. Our body is talking to us every day. It’s our responsibility to listen. I’m glad my friend listened to hers because it saved her life.

Today is also the official debut of my cousin Oscar’s novel. You can read more about that over on my skirt! Blog.

I’m home these next 2 weeks and I’m going to pretend to be a stay at home mom/writer if I don't lose my mind first. I have a lot more to write while I’m here. I’ll keep you all posted.

P.S. Go over to Guanabee and check out this awesome interview with Oscar by my cousin Cindy.

Interesting Things This Week

I went to the lab to have some blood work done and it always amazes me how people dress out in public. My favorite was when the elevator doors opened at one point and there was a lady in big black rollers standing in front waiting for the elevator to go the opposite direction. She didn't even have a scarf on her head to cover or attempt to hide the rollers. Another lady was wearing house shoes. Like fluffy house shoes! Wow! Why do people do that? When I get old if I start doing either one of those things please lock me up!


Then I had a wonderful experience at the lab. The young girl phlebotomist almost killed me! She stabbed me in the left arm and then kept moving the needle around to the point that she made me scream from the pain! After all the torture she didn't even get any blood out.


So then she said she was going to take it from my hand and I told her, "NO! Please try my right arm first! I would rather you stick me in the arm again." It hurts really bad in the hand! When I had one of the kids I had to have the IV stuck in my hand and I cried from the pain, it was that bad. Thank goodness she was able to draw what she needed from my right arm. Now I'm sporting a little purple bruise on the inside of my arm.


I received the August issue of Texas Monthly and I'm calling it a Trifecta. There are three great things about this issue.

1. There's an excerpt from my cousin Oscar Casares' new novel Amigoland.
2. There's a review on Nina Diaz from Girl in a Coma,
3. In the cover story, "The 50 Best Burgers in Texas" Speedy Burger's Mexican Burger is listed as #48. Speedy Burger is down the street from my house on Irvington and I LOVE their Mexican burger. YUM! I'm so glad it got the recognition it deserves.

So it's official. I'm having surgery in early August. I have to have a hernia repaired. Yes, yuck, I know. On a bad note, yes it will be painful the first couple of days and yes, I have to be absolutely still for like a week.

But on a good note, I will be at home for two weeks and I have a list of things I'm going to do while I'm having to stay at home. Like finally finishing Seth's baby book. Yes, he's 5 and I'm just now finishing it. I also have a couple of other projects I need to get started and this will be a good opportunity to get them done.

The first week I can't drive and I have to be pretty still. The second week I think I can drive but I can't do anything strenuous. So the first week, after the initial pain wears off, I can get some of my projects started.

I know I encountered a lot of other interesting things this week but I can't remember them now. I'm getting old. Oh yeah! Which reminds me. It's now going to be 29 weeks to 40! The count down begins!

I Laughed, I Wanted to Cry

This isn't going to be your traditional book review of Amigoland. You see it can't be. Oscar Casares is my cousin and this book was very personal for me. But as an avid reader and an English minor I can tell you that yes, I would still think that it is a wonderful story even if I wasn't related to the author.

And besides all that, this is my blog so I can get up close and personal about this novel. You see, Oscar's father Everardo was 10 years older than my dad and he just passed away a year and a half ago. My Uncle Hector is 5 years older than my dad and in a nursing home outside of San Diego. He's lost most of his memory now and can't walk around very well at the age of 90. The last time my father really had a good visit and talk with him was 5.5 years ago when my Aunt Celia died in Fresno. My dad drove all the way to California by himself and picked up my uncle in San Diego and they drove together to Fresno. My dad, Nico, is 85 years old and his memory is really starting to go. It's getting harder to have a conversation with him these days because he gets lost. It's really sad.

Keep those facts in mind and think about what it was like for me to read a novel about two older brothers, ages 90 and 70. The older brother has been in a nursing home for a while and he and his brother haven't spoken in a few years, until the younger brother finally decides to go visit after much encouragement from his housekeeper/girlfriend.

The story is bittersweet and written in such a beautiful prose. Oscar's descriptions are vivid and his dialogue is entertaining. I love the dream sequences. In one, my favorite, Don Fidencio dreams that he sees his younger self and that he wants to speak to himself to tell him that he's going to make it and that he'll be okay.

Socorro, the housekeeper/girlfriend is so endearing. You feel for her when you hear the story about her unhappy marriage and how it ended. She is both kind and caring and you wish you can make everything turn out just right for her.

Celestino is a good man, but he doesn't really believe that he deserves the love of such a young woman, so it's hard for him to return her love. He's skeptical about his brother's story about how their grandfather came to Texas but his love for his brother (and some convincing by Socorro) makes him break him out of the nursing home so they can begin their adventure to Mexico.

Fidencio is clearly the main character of the two brothers. He has a very strong personality and he's hilarious in the way that he describes everyone by names he can remember, because he can't remember their actual name. So there's his roommate that's "the one with the hole in his back," another resident of the nursing home, "the one with the ugly finger." And there are the nurses, like the male nurse who he calls, "the one with the big ones." Fidencio is hands down the most entertaining of the brothers and the one I really became attached to. His failings pull at my heart strings, maybe because I see so much of my own father in him.

When I finished reading Amigoland I wrote my cousin and I told him, "It is SO VERY VERY GOOD!! Even better than your short stories, and those were good. You wrote a beautiful novel! Thank you for sharing it with me."

I'm not the only who thinks Amigoland is great! Publisher's Weekly has already given Amigoland a good review and it has been listed on USA Today's Summer Reading List.

If you read Oscar's collection of short stories, Brownsville, brace yourself for an even better read.

Amigoland by Oscar Casares

It’s here! My advance copy of Amigoland, the new novel by my cousin Oscar Casares. I can not wait to read it! So far just reading the synopsis and the first few pages have me hooked! I will let you all know more when I’m done reading.

In the meanwhile, the back of the book reads, “In a sleepy town nestled against the Mexican border live two brothers, Don Fidencio and Don Celestino. Aging, stubborn, and fiercely independent, they have more in common than either will admit, and an argument so old neither wants to concede.”

Coming in August 2009.