My first job: retail

My first job ever was at this clothing store called EASY PICKINS. I was 15 and my friend Melody got me the job. I think I lasted about 3 months there before they let me go because business was "slow". I still remember putting away endless pieces of clothing, monitoring the huge dressing room, running the cash register and finding old pairs of shoes in the boxes for new shoes… the first time I learned people shop lift – a LOT! lol. That was the first and last job that I ever worked in retail….

Three of my favorite songs..

You can follow me on blip.fm at http://blip.fm/latinabella if you'd like to hear more of my favorite songs! One of my favorite things… music.

Gwen Stefani by Don’t Speak

Love this song, it speaks to heart break that we've all felt

You and I by Stevie Wonder

This is a song that I love that reminds me of my husband and I

Thank you by Dido

Love this song, I dedicated it to my daughter when she was born…

My Private Weakness…

eating ice

I have this new thing, chewing ice. As I'm sitting here typing this I'm crunching away. It all started when I was pregnant with my daughter 3 years ago. I loved to drink lemon water with ice and splenda. Yum, I still love to have a refreshing glass of it to this day. And that was when I discovered this weird craving for chewing ice. Every day I chew about 3 trays of ice. I make fresh ice every day just to keep up with my habit… And I worry about what others might think of me when they see me tapping the bottom of the glass for that last piece of ice.

My Weirdest Pet Peeve

Filing Cabinet Open drawer

I have this thing about things that are left open. Cabinet doors, drawers, closet doors, jar tops, boxes. It just really bothers me when they aren't closed. And I have to stop everything that I'm doing and close everything. I can't even cook with cabinet doors open that I'm going into often. I have to close them every time.

Sr. Beverly Revisited…

I went to an all girls Catholic high school. And looking back on it now, I’ve always been opinionated. Taught from the time I was a child to always stand up for my rights, and never to let anyone trample on me. All of my years in school had been pretty tranquil, and I was typically known as the “teacher’s pet”. So in comes Sr. Beverly, during my Junior year at Hallahan Girls Catholic high school.

Now there was something about Sr. Beverly that just rubbed me the wrong way. The way she picked on certain girls in the class, usually all my friends. She’d twist their words around to make them look stupid and all of the girls in the class would laugh, she was such a clown. But I never did. The way she put people on the spot and made them feel insignificant never sat well with me. There was just something about the way she talked to me, how her eyes would open really large, she’d push her face really close to mine and stare at me as if she could expose my soul.

She had this “in your face” follow you around the school kind of philosophy on teaching. And for some reason today, when my husband and I were arguing about what color trim to put on the floors, she came to mind. It was was almost as if I gave into him, that it would be like being back in that classroom watching one of my friends being humiliated by her and staying silent. I could stay silent and just acquiese to what he wanted. Or I could open my mouth and say something to her, something to sting her and make her think and make the other girls laugh at her instead of my friends. And I’d save my friends from embarrassment and in turn save myself.

I deserve to have a say in this situation after all, I’m the person that is here the most often. I should just LOVE this space, every inch of it. So it’s like Sr. Beverly’s Religion class revisited at home today. Me, saying things that Sr. Beverly/ my husband didn’t want to hear, but that I had to say so that they wouldn’t weigh on my soul. And this time it’s not for my friends, but for me… so that I don’t have to look at myself in the mirror and feel pity. But so that I can look at myself and know that what happened was hard, but I’m a better person for having stood up for what I believed in, and not letting others trample over me.

Cardboard Confessions…

Cardboard Confessions… So this is a clip of the first service that I was invited to at my church … In the Light Ministries in Philadelphia. I started attending on Sunday, January 31st and haven’t missed a Sunday since for the most part. Since then I’ve developed a relationship with God. He’s like my friend. I talk to him whenever something is bothering me. And he always is on my side. My relationship with him is this huge thing that is almost too big to put into words. Without him, I’m angry, short-tempered, bitter, resentful… still my happy self of course, but I am all of those things too. But with him, in him, I am happy, patient, satisfied, thankful. It’s like this amplified cloud of love has settled into my heart and my life and is here to stay.

So I wanted to post this clip, so that hopefully, everyone can start to see what turned the tide with me. And no, I’m not a holy-roller, not by a long shot. But I am a God-loving, God-fearing woman of God.