Unknown

By: Gabriela Yareliz

We meet again… it is hot outside. Let me rephrase: HOT. The best thing about a car with no AC is the fact that the open window suffices to blow you away. I look like some random gypsy today with a scarf around my head–I think I scared the Subway guy. Poor fellow. I have terrible allergies; my eyes are numb after I put in the allergy drops.

Today is a day for random flow–so it begins here:

Abuela

My days have consisted of taking shopping trips with my Abuela. I think we have managed to make it to the store every day. I hate the store, but I like being with Abuela. She obviously likes the store; we seemingly need something from it every day. This is a record. This reminds me of Europe where people go to markets every day. When you live in the middle of no where with cows in the U.S., this daily shopping experience is less than ideal, however. I have also been reading and chilling with friends. I miss the routine and social aspect of school, not the work, though.

I sit on the counter and watch her cook. She is gracious enough to watch Bollywood films with me, though I am sure she finds the subtitles annoying. She and I read on opposite couches and discuss our readings.

Reading

I keep eyeing the Civil Procedure text book Suffolk U College of Law was so gracious to send me. Maybe I should flip through it before I am officially welcomed to the craziness of New York and law school. The closer it gets the more real it becomes. Naturally.

As far as books are concerned, I read some Shashi Tharoor. Excellent reads on politics, the UN and India. I think I am done reading books on the failures of the U.S. It gets depressing after a while. You can only take so much about how stupid we have become as a culture and our imperialism which oppresses people around the world. Most people who read these books already know these things; the preaching-to-the-choir thing always proves true. Those who the book talks about are too busy stealing from people, manipulating governments and watching E!

Cricket

What else is new? Shah Rukh Khan was banned from the Mumbai cricket stadium. Wow. Which reminds me, I need to pick a pro cricket team to follow… That has been on my to do list. I really love this sport and I watch it for non-shallow reasons. This is impressive. It joins my sports seriousness with hockey and futbol.

Age and romance

I found a funny article on Bollywood movie matches (“He is old enough to be her father”), and how the guy tends to be way older than the girl. I noticed this in Saawaryia between Sonam Kapoor and Salman Khan. I can write a whole blog on this age difference stuff.

Felicia and I were talking about this last night. The whole whether “your love for men transcends all ages” or if you have “daddy issues.” I used to be more accepting of age differences (I am talking like 8-29 years of difference), now I am more wary of it….

I found out the other day that my great grandmother was like 30 years younger than my great grandfather… no wonder she was widowed so soon. But see there is also a cultural element that goes into this. I am not talking about the movies anymore. They pick people for roles based on hotness, and how young they can make them look; I am talking real life now.

I once liked a guy that was older than me, not by 10 or 20 years mind you, and he turned out to be a selfish, egotistical flake. Bad experience. I think mentally though he was younger than me… now that I am reaching the age he had when I knew him back in the day I wonder what the heck was running through his head.

Or take men and women who have yet to figure out themselves and they spend time speed dating girls  or old men who could be their daughters or fathers–yeah. It is gross.

I guess it all depends on the people, where they are in life and the motive? And as Felicia would add, whether they have “daddy issues.” This is open to discussion.

The sisterhood

More in my random flow goes to: I read the fifth book to The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants series, which I had read throughout middle school and high school. The sisterhood, 10 years later.

It was terribly sad. [SPOILER ALERT]

Sisterhood Everlasting was a great read, for those familiar with the characters you’ll probably cry or bite your nails through half of this one.

Problems I had with this book (yes, I had problems with it…)

-Tibby dies. Yes, rebellious, sarcastic Tibby dies. She was one of my favorite characters. It sucked.

-Carmen is engaged to Jones (guy with shaved head who could care less about her family and culture and cares only about money and show biz) “DUMP HIM!!!” I was screaming in my head throughout the book.

-Lena is boring. She puts her life on hold for the Greek guy, Kostos, she fell in love with while in high school when he went and slept with half the world; OBVIOUSLY not caring about her one bit. Why put your life on hold for someone who doesn’t care and hurt you?

-Bridget is still reckless. Nothing new.

The things I loved about the book (It was an awesome book despite its character’s life crisises):

-Motherhood is praised throughout the book. I think this is rare, and so many young women could care less about being a mother these days, or the value of a tiny human life inside of them.

-Carmen does not marry Jones. As she said, “Not now, not ever.” YES. He didn’t care anyway.

-Tibby has a little girl named Bailey. Smile.

-Bridget starts a family with Eric. She allows herself to be loved. YAY.

-Lena ends up with Kostos. I am not going to lie. I wanted this from book one. But at this point I don’t know… He was an idiot and she was like a slave, waiting for him to come around. They deserve each other, but this relationship was in no way healthy.

Anyone else a fan? It was a great book.

Unknown

My last thought was something I was meditating on recently… have you ever had those epiphanies in life; it can be about love, reality, yourself…. when something completely unknown comes and hits you in the face. It feels like a pile of bricks fell on you. Something clicks. It can be in a moment, with a glance, some weird eye locking moment, a moment where all the noise fades into the background and all you are left with is yourself?

The unknown can be frightening, overwhelming, hard to point out even, like a grammatical or editing mistake…