My Two Cents About World Cup

Okay before any World Cup fanatics message me (like I have hundreds of messages) now that the US Team has lost I'm going to have to root for the Mexican team. Of course I haven't watched any of the games since most of them are playing at odd times I think, so I'm going to have to watch at least some of the Mexico vs. Argentina game today. It would seem only natural that I would want for Mexico to win since I am Mexican-American. So GO MEXICO!

Shoegirl's Shoe Corner

#1 and #2 are the sad sad 2 pairs of Kenneth Coles I bought in New York. They fit in New York and I get here and they don't fit. The second ones still have some hope if I have them stretched but the first ones hurt my feet too much. I'm going to have to give them to my sister. Que lastima! I've had these for a while but I just had to show them to you since I've talked about them before.

#3 are my gorgeous Isaacs from Target! Love them and they're really comfortable.

#4 are my second pair from Torrid. Very comfortable too and I love wearing them. You saw the first Torrid pair a few days ago on an earlier posting.

After this I'm done shoe shopping for a while. I've pretty much updated all the old shoes in my closet. Love it!

Dot Com

Everything is "Dot Com" to my daughter. Whenever I tell her we'll look for something she'll ask if we're going to look for it online. For example, "I'll get a calendar today." "Where? On calendar.com?" she asks.

What is this future generation going to be all about? Computers? Technology? I can't take a picture with a traditional camera or she'll ask if she can see the picture. Even the baby knows to look on the camera to see the picture. Instant gratification.

I was in a training class today on collaboration and one of the big challenges in organizations today is the collaboration between the three generations- the Baby Boomers, the X-Geners (me) and the Y Generation. The Y Generation is all about technology and they don't even e-mail any more. They only IM now. Instant gratification. Very interesting.

Whenever I attend training classes like the one I attended today I'm intrigued with this type of research. I can't believe that it's been 5 years since I received my Master's degree in Organizational Communication. My original plan was to go into consulting but I just never did it. I got caught up in life.

Now it's been 5 years and I've worked in advertising for 15 years and although the communication consulting for organizations really does interest me, it would mean starting a brand new career. If I'm going to do that I might as well write full time. Life is weird! Maybe I'll just go to FigureOutWhatYouWant.com.

Daddy

Sunday my dad (who I've told y'all before is 82) was in a serious car accident and Thank God he is alive and well. He was sitting at a stop light waiting for it to change when a young guy in a truck plowed into him and pushed him across the street into a wall and he hit the wall with the passenger side of his car. Then the guy hit him again on the front as he sped away. My father was left dazed and not sure what had happened except that he had just been hit. Thank goodness some passerby's stopped and helped him. He called me to tell me he had been in a really bad accident and I panicked but got ready to go to him.

Rey told me to stay with the children and he would go. He called me as soon as he arrived and told me my father was fine, just a little shook up. It was amazing that he wasn't hurt. He has a pacemaker so anything could have happened.

The police took over an hour to make it to the accident! We could not believe that they did not reply to the call of an elderly man in a hit and run accident immediately. That just blows me away! Anyway, they were able to get the information on the guy, if he was in fact driving his vehicle, because he dropped his license plate when he hit my dad’s car!

My poor dad! His car was totaled and he was left without a car. Rey brought him back to our house.

When they got here Rey called out to me, "Loida, I told your dad he needs to go the hospital and he doesn't listen. Look at how he's walking!"

My father was limping really badly and when I saw him I cried out, "What do you mean? I thought you were okay?!"

They both cracked up laughing. "Oh, y'all are both EVIL!" I cried.

My father is such a joker. He had just been in a serious accident and his car was totaled yet he could still joke about it. Ay a yay!

I made him spend the evening and night with me because I wanted to watch him to make sure there wasn't anything seriously wrong with him. We've known of people who have been in an accident and seem to be okay and then the next day something happens to them. Nothing happened to my dad.

The great irony of all of this is that my 82 year old dad drove himself to Austin and back on Saturday to my cousin's wedding. He did all of this without a hitch and yet the next day in Houston just a few miles from his house and mine he has a terrible car accident.

At first my sister and I wondered if perhaps he had been hit by someone who didn't expect him to be driving so slowly. We thought that maybe it was his fault somehow. Then we find out that it was nothing like that. He was just sitting at a light. That's also very ironic. He drives terrible, yet never has an accident. He sits at a light and some yahoo comes and plows into him! Amazing!

I know my father is getting older and I know that one day he may just go, but when I received that phone call from him on Sunday my blood ran cold. I imagined the worse. I imagined him in a hospital bed, immobile and angry because he'd lost his freedom to come and go as he pleases. I was scared for him and I must admit I was scared for me and my sisters.

Being the child of an elderly parent comes with that chance. I know that when it happens we will take care of him the same way he and my mother took care of us when we were little and helpless. I just hope that day is still far way.

Family and Good Wine

Here I am this past Saturday at the wedding. I filled in the dress a bit more than the Torrid model. I decided to go with the closed toed pointy tan shoes. Sorry, I don't have a picture of the shoes.

The wedding was absolutely beautiful and elegant. The reception was in a beautiful old historic Austin hotel. The best part was seeing my cousin so happy and his beautiful bride so ecstatic. They made a beautiful couple.

The next best thing was seeing so many family members and meeting a new cousin. She's actually my first cousin's daughter. Her mother is 75 and I'm 36. She's the eldest of the Casares cousins and I'm the youngest. Very strange! That gives you an idea of the age span of all the cousins and how many of us there are. There were 13 children and my father was #10.

We arrived Friday night kind of late so we checked into our hotel, the Hampton Inn downtown. Very nice by the way and I was surprised. We were only 4 blocks from 6th St so of course we had to walk down and people watch. Needless to say, we felt old. We looked for the quietest place, a restaurant called the Iron Cactus and we just drank margaritas and watched people. (6th Street is where all the bars are for you non-Texans.)

When we walked up to the door the doorman was carding some kids in front of us and when it was our turn he said, "We're not serving dinner any more but you can have drinks." We told him that was fine and he proceeded to let us in without carding us. It was hilarious! He probably thought, "these old fogies can only be here for dinner." Then the other funny part that was while I was sitting there people watching and drinking a margarita I started to nod off. Talk about lame!

We drove home Saturday afternoon after the wedding and I lamented that I hadn't planned better and looked for wineries or vineyards to visit on the way home. We decided to travel on Hwy 71 to I-10 and on the drive home on Hwy 71 East we ran into a quaint vineyard and winery, Rosemary's Vineyard. We were really excited to find out that they have only been open for 11 weeks and we were privileged to drink of their first crop. They are also the only winery on Hwy 71 or in that vicinity. We loved their wine!

Rey was really excited to see they had a Ruby Port so of course we tasted it. I liked it a lot better than some of the other port wines that Rey has bought. I bought the Blanc Du Bois and the Muscadine Red. Both are a perfect blend, not too sweet or too dry. They also carry a couple of bottles for another vineyard and that guy had a great wild grape wine but I can't remember the name.

If you ever drive out to Sealy to go shopping you just need to drive a little way out on Hwy 71 East and you'll see the winery on your right hand side. The address is 5521 Hwy 71 East, La Grange, TX and the phone number is 979-249-2109. Hours are TH-Sun, 12-7.