Tacos de Carne Asada...

I haven't had a good taco in a long time -like maybe 3 weeks or even more. I guess I better get with the program and go to Mi Pueblo and buy me some good carne asada tacos this week. Anybody wanna go with me?

I love making tacos (and I do make good ones) but there's always something different about the ones at Mi Pueblo. Maybe it's all the extra greese or something but they taste really good.

But Mi Pueblo isn't my favorite place for tacos though. My absolute favorite taqueria in the Silicon Valley is Eduardo's Taqueria -a hole in the wall behind the McDonalds on Winchester Ave. (a few blocks North of Hamilton Ave.) Their tacos are so juicy and soft that it feels like you are biting into hundreds of little pieces of worm. No, just kidding. What I mean is that they 'melt' in your mouth. Amazing taste, you really must try it sometime. Anyway, Mi Pueblo is almost as good as Eduardo's and is also a lot closer to my house (it's on King & Story).

So yeah, I hope you're hungry cuz I am, even though I just ate.

Camping at WoodLeaf

This weekend I went to YoungLife's WoodLeaf camp as a leader with Capernaum Ministries. Capernaum is a branch of YoungLife that works with handicapped kids and this was my first Camp experience with them.

My friend Joanne recruited Giggles and myself, along with about 10 other leaders to go with her kids who live in the Walnut Creek area. The other guy leaders in my cabin were Chris, Ray, David, Shawn (Sean?) and Kevin (Somebody please tell me if I got the names wrong).

I had three kids assigned to me -Todd, Ed, and Mark. We called ourselves the 'Savages'. I don't know why but it just sounded cool.

Todd is autistic and has the ability to remember anybody's name and birthday. Ed and Mark live in a group home and are pretty much high-functioning kids. It was cool just hanging out with these three guys. I felt that they bonded with me rather quickly and I definitely enjoyed getting to know them.

There was a lot of snow at WoodLeaf. It was probably left over from the storm we had a few weeks ago. The kids seemed to have a great time in it doing the usual -throwing snowballs, eating yellow snow (j/k).

I had lots of fun. They had awesome skits and games and lots of really cool people. I only wish I hadn't forgotten my luggage at the YoungLife Office. That prevented me from joining in on the messy activities. I felt so dumb because I had already forgotten my sleeping bag at home which Giggle so kindly picked up for me.

I also wish I hadn't yelled and screamed so much on Friday Night because on Saturday Night, I performed the most hoarse version of my Chihuahua Song that I have ever sung. My voice was definitely shot.

Although the weekend was kinda short, it was still cool. I came back exhausted.

David (Martinez), if you read this guess what? You missed out on all the really good looking lady leaders, ha ha ha... You know the saying, "Go to YoungLife, find a Wife." ;)

Oh yeah, I saw my old-school Jr. High club leader Alberto Cuellar. He used to work for CityTeam back then and I pretty much remember him as being a realy cool dude who liked to drive his little Suzuki as hard as he could around corners to see if it would tip over. Nowadays, he is a Regional Director for YoungLife but I'm sure he's as cool as ever.

Well, WoodLeaf has lots more stuff going on in the summer time but I don't know if I'll be able to go since I'll probably be at Camp MayMac again. WoodLeaf is cool but I have a special love for MayMac.

Today, I revive the old Skater wannabe in me...

After work today, I stopped by a skate shop called "The Station" and bought myself a new skateboard.

I haven't skated in 6 years and the two skateboards I had during Highschool were given to me for free. Since then, I have wanted to get a skateboard but always held back because of the cost of a good quality board. Well, now I'm making a bit more money and I'm also getting fat! So I figured that this should be a good investment. (I weigh 215 and should weigh 185-195.

Back to my story... The Station is located in Fremont and is owned by a very friendly couple who have been in the business some 24 years. The shop seems typical of most skate shops; they had skater clothing towards the front, snowboards in the middle, shoes and skateboards towards the back. I picked out an Element deck, 'clear' grip tape, Independent Trucks, Element wheels and I forget about the bearings. The lady behind the counter promised me that her husband would put my skateboard together in 10 minutes or less.

As the man put my board together, I felt kinda weird because I was still in my security uniform. I mean, it's guys like me who have to enforce NO SKATING rules on certain private and city property. The man was almost done with the board and the lady told me not to worry about my uniform. She talked about a Highway Patrol officer from some other state who had some photo shots taken of him doing a rail slide! The cool thing was that he has been a customer of The Station before and in the picture you can actually see their logo sticker on the bottom of the guy's trucks.

They also told me that lots of guys my age are 'going back' to skating. I was never much good at it before -I was a wannabe before skating was even cool, whatever that means, but skating is a great workout. At least in my opinion. And now, after having gone on my first ride, my lower back agrees with that assesment.

Hopefully I won't break my neck trying to do tricks but what's life without taking a few risks, eh?

Cenizo... Life in El Cerrito de los Pescadores # 1

I was six years old, I think. I lived in Mexico at the time, in the village that my mom grew up in. Life was great, I had a lot of freedom and did some really funny things.

One day, my cousin Chavo asked if I wanted to go swimming with him and my other cousin, Chaguin. I was thrilled at the idea and happily joined them on this little adventure which took us down the main village road towards Sahuayo, past all the houses to a 'vallado' that had about 4 feet of water. I guess it was more like a creek or canal but vallado is the word we used.

It must have been the rainy season because this creek had a lot more water in it than usual. It was perfect for swimming on that sunny day.

Each of us proceeded to undress and I felt a bit embarrassed at the thought of people passing by. We didn't have bathing suits, we didn't even know what those were. I think we swam in our underwear -probably with Transformers on them. If we swam naked, it was normal, I don't remember.

We didn't really know how to swim. I wonder why I didn't drown, but we had fun for a few minutes and then decided to go back home. There was a problem though. Our mothers had not necessarily given us permission for this little bath and we ran the risk of getting in big trouble if they found out.

Being the ignoramus that I am, I asked how in the world the moms would even know we had gone swimming, all we had to do was dry off and we would be fine. Chavo's response taught me something I never knew before. He told Chaguin and I that by drying off in the sun, we would end up looking "cenizos" (meaning that we would have ashy skin). Then our moms would automatically know what we had done because, well, it was common fact that if you went swimming in creeks, you would get ashy skin.

The solution to this 'ashiness' dilemma was to use our own pee as if it were a lotion and rub it all over -mainly on the arms and face. So we applied this technique and rubbed the all natural lotion on our own bodies. Soon, the three of us were back in our dry clothes. Our skin looked smooth as ever, so we thought. Anyway, I wonder if we stank.

We didn't get caught. I may have even told my mom what we had done. She probably told me something like, "Ay, hijo de tu madre. Que andas haciendo metiendote en ese vallado... tan sucio que esta."

I don't recall swimming in that creek again, I think it dried up.

There were other places to swim, like 'Los Posos' which were some water-filled holes a few blocks distance on the other side of the village. Over there, the water was nice and warm, but it wasn't the same because, on the days that they were actually filled with water, a lot of the other kids showed up and it would get crowded. Also, you would have to wonder exactly why the water was so warm.

It's always nicer to have a creek all to yourself and maybe one or two cousins.