This And Read

What a day! Waking up a little after 4am to drive nonstop for 6 hours is not precisely what I call a fun time. Specially when my girlfriend, who is supposed to be trying to keep me awake, falls asleep in the passenger seat- and makes me wanna sleep too! Oh well, we made it here safely. Got lunch with the aunt, took a nap, dinner with the parents, hung out. . . all good times.

Right after dinner, we went into Borders (the bookstore) because my girlfriend's mom was looking for a book to give to her husband. First of all, that's just cute- I really hope that after 30 something years of marriage, I too will have it in me to get little things for my spouse. Second of all, it reminded me how behind I am on my readings!

Really, it's not about being a geek, I really hope "the cool people" of nowadays would understand that. I've always thought of reading as excercise for the mind- and I'm not trying to be corny here. I've always been the one that never gets tired of learning more and more. But lately, I've been reading less and less.

I got "Night" by Elie Weisel for my birthday (which was back in November), and if you look at my "Currently Reading" section (on the right side of this page), you'll see that I'm still reading it! Granted I've been doing all sorts of trips and things but that can't be an excuse. I need to read more and I will do just that. So I'll finish this and read a bit, that's a promise.

Oh and for future reference, any book you think I should read?

P.S. The road trip was actually really enjoyable!

Luck Story

I really am getting used to writing daily but I am visiting my friend in Northern California and even being here right now writing this bit, I feel guilty for taking up some of her time to post something.

The friend I'm visiting is certainly a friend I wish I could see daily but thanks to a 400-something-miles distance, that is not quite possible- So I'll do a little bit of cheating and post something I previously wrote.

I will always attribute my love for reading to that one lady who randomly selected me to give me a book. As a kid, I rarely ever felt lucky. If anything, I used to think I had bad luck. And this wasn't a state of mind, it was a reality.

One day I went with my family to some sort of festival. In the crowded place, I found a booth advertised as "Colored Pets." I walked over to the man that seemed to be the one in charge of the booth and he showed me a cage filled with birds of all sorts of colors. "You can buy one for five dollars, or try to pick the blue ball," he said as he reached for a box with a circular opening on top of it, "out of this box for one dollar, for each time you try." I quickly searched through my pockets and found five dollars that I was given minutes earlier to wander around with. The way I saw it at my short age, was that if I'd play my odds well, maybe I could get three blue balls out of the five chances I'd have with the whole five dollars, instead of just buying one bird- "This way I won't have one lonely bird," I thought.

After my five tries, I was empty handed. No money but no bird either. Somehow I managed to pick the white ball every single time. Now I can't help but question if there was a blue ball at all, but that's off the subject. Because I didn't want to give up in taking a bird home, so I went over to my mom to ask her for money. When I told her what it was for, she simply answered: "It's not right to keep a bird captive. Your dad is the one that does that kind of things." (My parents are divorced and my dad DOES have birds 'til this day). So I never got the bird.

But that one day when my second grade class was receiving a visit from a new editorial company that wanted to do business with the school, my odds suddenly changed. The lady from the editorial walked in and was going to give away a copy of the book they were trying to sell the school. Everyone around me quickly raised their hands and yelled "me, me, pick me" in what it seemed like a chorus but I just put my head down, knowingly that there was no way in earth someone as unlucky as me would get the book.

Maybe it was the fact that I didn't ask for it that the lady decided to pick me and give me the book. But I chose to think that she somehow overheard my thoughts and how badly I wanted to be chosen that she decided to give it to me.

Once home with the book, I read it that same day. Then got another one, and another one. And another one. Perhaps it's some sort of celebration to my first glimpse of luck, or maybe books are just so damn good. Whatever it was this event marked the beginning.