Every word

My submission was free thought but using every letter of the alphabet. Thus "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" Any thoughts?

“What is unusual about the sentence, ‘ The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog?’”

     Rebecca sighed. Getting Ethan halfway ready to talk to girls was going to be a challenge.  His awkward mannerisms and lack of eye contact were difficult to ignore.

      Forcing his face over, she made him look into her eyes. “Not the best line to start a conversation with. Try again.”

      She watched him turn and stare off into the distance. He had quiet moments where he processed. She took that time to examine him closely. If she didn’t know he was Autistic she would have thought he was simply shy, maybe even conceited because he actually was very good looking. 

     It startled her when he turned and faced her. Looking into her eyes, he smiled, “You’re the most beautiful, annoying person I have ever met.” Blushing, she remembered what she liked most about Autistic people: their honesty.

P is for Pitiful

“Para usted,” was all I could make out of the conversation as the Spaniard handed me a sample of the cheese. As I took a bite I tried to think of something witty to say.

“Perdona mi Español. Estoy embarazada. Me gusta este queso feo.”

Apologizing to him for my Spanish and complimenting the cheese made him smile. He leaned in close to me where I could make out the green specks in his amazing eyes.

“You said, “Pardon my Spanish. I’m pregnant and I like this ugly cheese.’”

Mortified, I grabbed my groceries and turned to leave whispering to myself.

“Pitiful.”

Triplets at 11months and Bobby Riscopy

I had the longest couple of days recently. The triplets have been in perpetual motion and show no signs of slowing down as we race towards their one year anniversary of joining our family. Beau is taking it very seriously and has cut four teeth in a little over a week and a half. Gisele is taking her time and has one and 1/2 teeth. Carlos is just watching and waiting to see what all this teeth hoopla is about before committing to anything.
    All children have a bad case of "momitis" and want no one but yours truly to play with and, of course, at the same time. When I can get a spare moment I find that I just want to go to bed to close my eyes before I start the Groundhog Day of child rearing all over again. The best description I have had of raising kids was in the movie, "The Backup Plan" when two men are at the park and the veteran father is telling the soon to be dad what it is like to raise kids. To paraphrase, he said:
"It's something crappy, than something else crappy, than something else crappy, than something else crappy, than something wonderful.... than something else crappy, than something else crappy, than something else crappy, than something wonderful."
    Just the other day we had one of those wonderful moments here during lunch. As most of you know, I am really into making my kids homemade food and healthy...blah,blah,blah. But I was tired and defeated and had two cans of ravioli in my pantry that were screaming out my name. So the trips tried Mr. Boyardee for the first time and with "One Direction" playing on iTunes my little ones were bouncing and bobbing in their chairs while they plowed through both cans of the stuff. Pictures follow describe the scene:

There was truly a wonderful moment with these guys. But like all good things....this one needed to be cleaned up. Each child was taken out of the chair bathed in the sink, redressed and put in a pen until I finished with each one. Then the table and floor needed to be detoxed of tomato sauce. It took over an hour...thus the something crappy, something crappy etc. 

     Early that next day, I received a phone call from my sister, Lourdes, telling me about her secret admirer, Bobby Riscopy. She-happily married- had received a phone call from a man offering her a 52 inch screen television, a car with loads of electronics for the back seat and his undying love. She said his voice was a bit high and he had a lisp but he sounded sincere none the less. She turned him down and wondered if I may be interested so she put him on the phone. Sure enough, a very high pitched, lispy voice came over the line telling me "Hewo, Thyl-via" and how he loved me and would be willing to take me away with a TV and fully loaded car. I was sweaty and stinky from my run, I had barf on my shirt and it wasn't even mine, and I had bags under my eyes so I felt pretty flattered. I looked at the pile of clothes that needed folding and told Bobby that I would go for a used pick up truck as long as I could sit in the back alone with a newspaper for an hour. And it didn't even have to be a recent newspaper either. Bobby was elated but I soon learned that he was, in fact, my seven year old niece Anneliese. Oh the horror. Just when I thought I would be free of laundry and Chef Boyardee clean up. Luckily, Golden and Eva came home with Honor Roll giving me that something wonderful to hold on to through the rest of the day. 

Easter Mermaids

Easter was filled with surprises. Not only did the Easter bunny find our new home just fine but so did my sister Lourdes and her family. To say our kids had a blast is an understatement. But my only regret is not having enough time with them. We had an Easter egg hunt and had a nice lunch before the Hildoer's went back home to Atlanta.

The cousins stood still long enough to take only these three photos. 

Jonah

Anneliese

Some people were not in the Easter spirit.

After the Hildoer's departure, I found my daughter busy at work on the computer. Soon after I found her lounging in the tub with these papers all over the bathroom floor. The intense scribbles are a charm to turn you into a mermaid. Having been a mermaid in my former life, I warned Eva that this spell might not work because she is still not the right age for the change to occur (or so the mermaids tell me). Nonetheless, she was determined to try. And guess what......

How to become a mermaid. 

She did it. Isn't this the coolest thing ever. I have to say that Eva has been in full mermaid form most of the week. She is in her room reading with the tail. In my room, playing with the babies. And yes....in the water.

Look what Mike found the next day!

In the pool.

I just love my little mermaid. In the sea and on land. 

D is for Deadly

A continued writing challenge.

     Dark and lovely was how Polly frequently described me. Now that she is gone, I am sure she would add one more word to her depiction: deadly. No one, including my good for nothing family, would ever dare say that the youngest daughter of Mayor Jessup was a bad seed; which is quite funny if you think about it, because that’s how I killed her; with a single sunflower seed. And as they lay her to rest in a shoebox in my backyard I can’t help but look around, and smile, knowing that I finally am free from that darn bird’s incessant cries.

C is for Choose

            “Choose,” is all the guard said to Emilio before shoving two scarves in his face.  He didn’t take the red one; choosing, even in the end, to defy Fidel Castro’s Communist regime.           

“Return to me.”

            Those were his wife’s last words before he had pushed the stolen rowboat out to sea. He was unsure if their infant son could survive the ninety miles to freedom but knew it was the only choice he had to save them.

           

As the scarf was placed over his eyes, Emilio wrapped his hand around the letter in his pocket. 

“They can’t take our love away,” is how she ended it.

He was not scared now that he knew they were safe. These animals would choose when he died but they were banned from choosing how. As the firing squad raised their rifles, Emilio took his last free breath and shouted, “I love you, Carmen.”

In keeping with the A to Z Blogging Challenge, the entries should also comply with the following, based on the day you write your entry (for consistency, we'll be working in US EDT time):

• Sunday April 1 - base your entry around the letter "A"
• Monday April 2 - your entry should contain the words "brackish" and "bend"
• Tuesday April 3 - begin and end your entry with a word beginning with the letter "C"
• Wednesday April 4 - include four words starting with the letter "D" in your entry
• Thursday April 5 - base your entry around the letter "E"
• Friday April 6 -  your entry should contain the words "flight", "forlorn", and "fog"
• Saturday April 7 -  begin and end your entry with a word beginning with the letter "G"
• Sunday April 8 - free choice - no requirements for your entry. Alternatively, for an added challenge, see how many words beginning with the different letters of the alphabet you can include
• Monday April 9 - include four words starting with the letter "H" in your entry
• Tuesday April 10 -  base your entry around the letter "I"
• Wednesday April 11 - include three words starting with the letter "J" in your entry 
• Thursday April 12 - your entry should contain the words "king", "kestrel", and "key"
• Friday April 13 - begin and end your entry with a word beginning with the letter "L"
• Saturday April 14 - include four words starting with the letter "M" in your entry 
• Sunday April 15 - free choice - no requirements for your entry. Alternatively, for an added challenge, see how many words beginning with the different letters of the alphabet you can include
• Monday April 16 - base your entry around the letter "N"
• Tuesday April 17 - your entry should contain the words "own" and "orient"
• Wednesday April 18 - begin and end your entry with a word beginning with the letter "P"
• Thursday April 19 - include three words starting with the letter "Q" in your entry
• Friday April 20 - base your entry around the letter "R"
• Saturday April 21 - your entry should contain the words "silent" and "slinks"
• Sunday April 22 - free choice - no requirements for your entry. Alternatively, for an added challenge, see how many words beginning with the different letters of the alphabet you can include
• Monday April 23 - base your entry around the letter "T"
• Tuesday April 24 - your entry should contain the words "unsure" and "unknown"
• Wednesday April 25 - include three words starting with the letter "V" in your entry
• Thursday April 26 - begin and end your entry with a word beginning with the letter "W" 
• Friday April 27 - see how many X's you can include in words in your entry
• Saturday April 28 - include as many words beginning with the letter "Y" as you can
• Sunday April 29 - free choice - no requirements for your entry. Alternatively, for an added challenge, see how many words beginning with the different letters of the alphabet you can include
• Monday April 30 - base your entry around the letter "Z"

I hope you have fun taking part in my contest! Feel free to enter as many times as you wish and on as many days as you wish - the only requirements for you to claim a prize are that you are following me, and that you include your email address in your entry if it's not already included in your user profile. And I'd love it if you'd tweet or facebook or Google+ the contest or mention it on your blog.

I Come from Where Palm Trees Grow

My brother Gus is "the guy" who is in charge of our family's genealogy. Some might call it obsessive but not me. He is all kinds of good crazy. Let me tell you how far Gus goes to get our history. But first, I must tell you a bit about my family. My mother, Silvia is the kind of woman people write stories about; whether as a protagonist or antagonist is still up in the air. But no one can deny she has led a most colorful life. She has been married twice. Once to Pedro Marinello and later, to Alfredo Villate. She had eleven children. TECHNICALLY, five children were with Pedro and the others were Villate. The truth is there was a whole lot of explaining to do later in life when almost all of my brothers looked like my father Alfredo. Gus, along with my other brother Peter, and sister Sylvia (who died in Cuba) were the only true Marinello children that we can tell. But I believe that none of us really ever thought of ourselves as anything else than true brothers and sisters. My sister Maria, has a completely different father but that is another story for another time, as is the fact that I believe my blood type does not match my father's. Different story again.
     Back to Gus. He loves to find out where we came from. And in doing so has had us all swab our DNA to trace our maternal lineage back to the dinosaurs but more interesting is that he travels to Cuba often to visit  relatives and obtain documents from our life back in Cuba. He has taken pictures of our homes, plantations, Sylvia's grave, the beaches of Ciudamar Yacht Club. It is all so wonderful and sad to see what I know in my mind must have been such a beautiful country be so destroyed. And yet, I can tell you without a doubt that there is no one more proud of their heritage than a Cuban. Even a Cuban who has never stepped foot on it's soil.

My mother in white on her wedding date with Pedro Marinello

Zoilo and Pedro Marinello, brothers.

    So that pride is what gets a guy like Gus to go to the Marinello museum in Cuba (Yes, there is a museum named after the Marinello family.) and without really thinking things through, he proceeded to stuff pictures of our family in his pants while his cousin stood watching in shock. Now, it seems a funny story but if he was caught, Gus would have been way up a huge Communist prison creek with no American embassy paddle. In telling the story, Gus simply said he saw a picture of our family. My mother, Piry (Pedro) and such that used to be in his house growing up. He was furious that these Communists pigs would take it and than use it for their socialist museum. I get it. Really. I do. But it was hard not to laugh at how things spiraled when the curator of the museum came up to Gus (with pants full of photos) and asked what he was up to. Gus, who is the funniest man I know, isn't sure of what she had seen so decides to play the only card he can. He tells the woman that he is a Marinello and wants to speak to whoever is in charge. The woman tells him it is her. He than proceeds to berate her over the "poor conditions" of the museum and how upset his uncle and father would be over the wall color, tiles etc. The woman is now all apologetic and Gus leaves with a limp because one of the photos is running down his leg.
So now, I have this wedding photo of my mother at seventeen. I see so much of me in her. And I see the resemblance in my niece and daughter too. It's amazing to have these memories that were stolen from such an awful dictator so many years ago. And if you want to know what my brother Gus' smile looks like, you just have to look at the brothers. I see it most in Zoilo in this picture. Gus looks a lot like him.
For most people, genealogy is not so hard to obtain. You just need to make it into your nearest Mormon website and start. I am thankful for Gus for doing a lot of the leg work that was required for the missing documents in Cuba.
One day, I will go to Cuba. Since I was a very small child I have heard the stories over and over again that I feel I was actually there. Thus, my blog title, "I Dream in Cuban." Once, someone asked me if I dreamed in Spanish or English. I was going to say Spanish but what subconsciously came out was I dream in Cuban and I never corrected it because it is true. In the first lines of Guantanamera the words say, I am a sincere man who comes from where the palm trees grow. I guess that is where my roots begin and where the tree ends is still a story unwritten.