First Time Cooking
Wow! what a day I had Friday the 20th. I was suppose to do the Christmas party dinner for the family. I had never cooked a big meal for a dozen people before. I was a nervous wreck. I couldn't sleep the night
before, I kept getting up for one thing or another. At 7:30 I got up and just couldn't go back to bed so I
put the picnic ham "pernil" in the oven and put the timer on for an hour and a half and went back to bed. I got up at 9:30 am checked the ham and set the timer for another hour and a half but this time I stayed up had coffee and toast and started on the rest of the goodies I had in store for my guests. To put me in the festive mood I put on the music and started to make my famous "coquito", a caribbean Christmas drink much like egg nog except I add cinnamon, vanilla extract, sugar spice cinnamon and my secret ingredient, and "rum 151"  to really spike it up. Boy! was it spiked up. Anntie Anna had a cup and served herself another and another before you knew it she was protecting her cup like she was a 'Navy Seal' on a secret mission. "Don't touch my cup", she said and you didn't touch it.  She was feeling good and so were the others. I got an "A" on my cooking skills and that made my nervous day a happy day . Me--rry Christmas

Love Lost

Did you ever think how wonderful it is to be in love especially after meeting the love of your life? I met mine and thought it was the best thing that ever happened to me in seventeen years. He was so thoughtful and careful and even helped around the house. He mopped, cleaned, and cooked. Oh, it was rough for him to get a real job, but I was patient and waited and waited and waited. Boy! what a jerk I was. He was smooth and slick and knew how to sly. I thought I had a good guy, but I was wrong. I am now happy again. He had me stressed out and thinking I was in poor health, but thanks to my womanly intuition I finally kicked him out of my house and my life. I will now remain the happy widow I once was.

I was just thinking about the other girls and one guy in my class today and wondered about their ages. The youngest must be in her/his twenties and the oldest in her/his forties. I thought what a delight to be among the younger generation. Being around them made me feel younger myself. The conversations they would have with one another was interesting but mostly no different than the conversations I once had; the children, the hubby, cooking, parents, celebrations, bills, love, and so on. Life doesn't change we just get older but the scenario stays the same. What does change is, however, the daily hassles of life like paying bills for example in my days you either went to the office or mailed the payment directly to the office, today you pay by computer or automatic deduction over the phone. In the past you talked on the phone today you talk on a the cell. In the past it took forever to save to go on vacation today you can use a credit card and no need to save dollars. And that's how it used to be. I wonder what the future has in store it must be even more wonderful you can live longer and not even use your own body parts anymore, well I must go my cell is ringing and I will start my car from right here, see you on the next ride. Oh yes, my diabetic machine just informed me that  I need another insulin shot.

End Of The Road

Well it's the end of the semester and I am grateful to my teacher for trying to help me with the computer. I have learned what I was supposed to know a long time ago. I still haven't dominated the skills  I'm suppose to but what the heck, I did learn something. So my advice to other elderly students who have not dominated computer skills, just keep trying. For me it's over, thank God. Now for the next technological feat I really do not want to try I guess I'll just try to enjoy the rest of my retirement and live a happy life as long as I can. For now it's the sun, the fresh Florida air, and the beach, my true love. Adios, farewell, and goodbye no more studying for this old lady.

 

Thanksgiving in Florida

 

Thanksgiving in Florida is quite different than it is in the north. For example, I'm from New York City and up north the weather has a lot to do when celebrating the holidays. During Thanksgiving the weather might be warm one year and cold another year. Sometimes there is snow and other times there may even be a blizzard. But here in Florida the weather is always mild or cool. However, the north and the south have its similarities. In the north as well as in the south we choose to be with our families. Of course there are exceptions, but we are discussing the big picture. Thanksgiving means Turkey to most Americans. To other cultures it could mean pernil (picnic pork shoulder) with arroz con gandules (rice with chick peas), and for dessert everyone loves flan or arroz con dulce (rice pudding). And yet to other cultures it can mean Egg foo Yung, chicken or other types of food accordingly. My favorite is Turkey, stuffing, cranberry jelly, sweet potatoes, potatoes, salad, and the list goes on. I'm Thankful that I have the opportunity to celebrate an important holiday with both cultures I feel doubly rich because I can identify with my fellow North Americans and my parents original ethnic culture Puertoricans. Up north I'm addressed as a Neoyorican because I was born in New York City of Puerto Rican parents and for this I am grateful. Sometimes we have both turkey and pernil, Boy!how fat can we get and we still complain about our weight. Well, as long as we are chubby, healthy, and happy who cares how fat we get just be thankful that you have someone to celebrate Thanksgiving with you can always go on a diet after that or after Christmas, or after New Year's or not at all, smile, you hefty person I still love you after all we are all Americans!

Anna G. Colon

Have you ever looked at something and swear that it's not what you saw? For example, you see a bright light in the night sky it moves side to side; it starts to get bigger then smaller. It goes up and down then it goes down again, you're sure it's a ufo, but suddenly it gets loud. The louder it gets the more you are convinced that it's only a helicopter, wow! no invasion on earth tonight! Things do not always appear to be what you expect so when my professor gave us an en exam today everyone was up in arms. It read the following: "Read everything before you do anything, 2-write your name in the upper top left-hand corner on this page." Between numbers 3 to 19 was jebberish. It was number 20 that blew my mind and everyone else'.  It read: Now that you have finished reading the directions carefully, do only sentences one and two. Sit quietly until everyone else is finished. Some students didn't understand what was needed by them some even got annoyed because they could not understand, it was so simple once realization stepped in. How silly, sometimes we take perception out of context today our professor taught us a big lesson "things aren't always what they seem."

I thought I already knew how to use word processing in only four (4) hours, well that's wishful thinking BIG TIME! Ok , learned last weeks lesson, but this weeks lesson was something else. So sweetheart if you think you can learn computers in one or to lessons wrong again. It seems that every week is a brand knew class, not a new lesson, but a whole new confounded class. Bless the younger generation they learned computers as children, this old soul still hasn't been able to dominate the
technology. Right when I think I'm hot on the trail it goes from cool to cold to freezzz. And it starts over again. As I start to get warm the chills begin to crawl up my spine, my brain begins to feel numb and my sweat glands take over. My clothes get wet, the palms of my hands get sweaty, I begin to choke-up. I can't see straight as I feel the thumbing in my chest get louder and louder. All I hear is a loud buzzing in my head. I ask myself why me? Why couldn't I just sit home as a retired good citizen and do nothing for the rest of my life, Oh no not me, I had to go and be a smart ass and try to keep up with the in-crowd. Well, it's too late now, I'm here to stay so get used to it girlie you're in for the long haul, get used to the ride, it's going to get bumpier as time goes by.

  Starting over is a drag. If I counted the times I have started over the numbers on my key pad would be exhausted by now. So, again I am starting over. My life is about starting over and over again. After my third husband passed away I moved 14 times and am considering another move. The fact is that you must start over in life to achieve goals, in my case,  achieving my goal is to learn, learn, learn. Now I am learning how to use what I learned in the past and forgot how to use it, so now I am starting over again. But what is this thing I have to relearn? It's the Computer and all the technology included in the twenty first century; cell phones, I pods, tablets, notebooks, and I don't mean the paper kind.
 Computers have come a long way, so have I.  When I started to use the computer back in the 1970's you had to use floppy discs. Some computers used double disc drives and to add insult to injury a code had to be added to be able to use the keyboard before typing the actual language. And if you think kids today sit at the computer for a very long time now, we had to sit for hours just to get the darn thing up and ready to use...to make any sense out of it! Now I'm over the mountain (over the hill) and across the sea (in another place) looking for new challenges and things to do. So if you think that starting over is a drag ask this young chick who IS over the hill but remains young at heart because I'm competing with the youngn's and you know what? it's not so bad competing with the young ones makes me feel younger and stronger. Oh there were times I felt like quitting and walking out and I even used language you don't want to hear @#$%+ but as long as I master what I am learning it makes me happy. Now let's see what else is new?