it’s a new day!

Good morning world!

Sitting at my desk, finally up and out of bed at 10am, drinking a perfect cup of Gimme coffee, thinking about the Halloween Party tonight at Stewart Little (a co-op where Cornell grad students live, among them some friends of mine). I really wanted to be Maleficent, but didn’t order the costume on time so I’ve decided to be a pirate. I bought the costume and some funky stuff to go with it at an antique store last week. Let’s see how it works out.

Also looking forward to having hotpot with some friends whom I haven’t seen in while. It will be a small gathering and maybe I can convince them to come with me to the Halloween party afterwards.  Either way, it’s bound to be a fun night!

Meanwhile, besides trying on my costume and making sure all pieces work, I have to start thinking about my next art show. Yes, I should have started already, but, geeze! one thing at a time please! Last week I was working hard at the cafe, then translating, from English to Spanish, documents that have giant enthobotanical words in them. Mind you, I have almost no formal education.  Those of you who are new to this blog will need a tiny update (I don’t expect you to read all of my posts).

I grew up in Mexico in an extremist religion where we weren’t allowed to contact the outer world, much less go through the school system.  I was taught to read & write in English, and those living in the US sent us boxes of books to read every month. I read most of them. I only had first grade level understanding of Spanish, though. When I was about 15 I decided to change that and began reading everything in Spanish on my own, and over my life I have been very curious as to history, arts, sciences, etc. so I would try to read about it whenever I could. I have never been formally educated in Spanish though! So it is a big deal to me, that at this moment, I am given papers to translate (I think I’m still in the trial phase) for an endowed professor. (He’s going to give some lectures in Mexico in a couple of months). I had to do research to figure out what a lot of the words meant, like “Sesquiterpenes”, “1,2-Dithianes” and “Zoopharmacognosy”, and then how they translate correctly *in context* in Spanish.  I turned in the finished product when I said I would and the feedback was, “Gabriela, you did a splendid job translating”.

I also made up my mind that it is time to do something I have wanted to do for such a long, long time: become a true vocalist. I pulled out my music and started practicing.  I will take the easiest possible steps to not overwhelm myself since I have been away from the world of music for such a long time. Unlike myself ten years ago, I really am in no hurry. There’s nowhere for me to arrive, I just want to sing!  I know what I’ve done before and that I can do it again, that’s all I need to carry with me at this moment.

So, this morning I woke up to new dreams (old dreams resurrecting), new commitments, new energy, and a beautiful new day of sleeping in until whenever I was ready to get up, and a Blog Party tomorrow!  I never heard of a blog party, but it does sound like loads of fun!  I don’t know exactly what I’m supposed to do to participate, but I guess will figure out tomorrow.  Meanwhile, today I will paint, sing, test my costume, buy kale, and yes, wash some dishes, then go to the Halloween Party 🙂