What is that? Well when I was a child it was merely another day to get more gifts!! Well and technically for many children, it still is!! Living in New Jersey and coming from descendants of Puerto Rico, as a child, I had the best time this time of year. It started Christmas Eve and ended in mid-January. It was the best.
Christmas Eve would usually be spent at my uncle Johnny’s house (his was biggest). The adults all got drunk and danced the night away. The children ate more than they should and got to stay up all night!! Around midnight, the kids would open up their presents. We’d rest up Christmas morning and play with our new toys. Then on the 26th or 27th we’d be on a plane headed to the beautiful isla of Puerto Rico. There would be a welcoming party with great food! On the 31st the entire family would gather with a huge a@@ lechon (pork) and music. We’d ring in the new year!
Then we’d hang out some more but on the evening of January 5th, all the children went to gather some hay or grass and a bowl of water and place these under the bed before going to bed that night. These were intended for the camels of the Three Kings who would supposedly be exhausted after their trip from the Orient to Puerto Rico. The camels would eat and drink while the kings left you gifts. In the morning on the 6th, we’d awaken with the cockadoodledoo to get some more gifts.
This night would mark the beginning of the “octavitas” (eights) –8 nights of parties with “parrandas” (sort of like a chorus that got bigger as the night went on because they’d pick up more straggler chorus people from home to home; a group would go knocking on someone’s house, usually unannounced and even sometimes wake you from your sleep, singing folk songs and start a party in your house that would last unil the wee hours of the morning; one or two people from your house would join the party and continue to the next house).
It was extra nice for me because Santa had given me gifts on December 25th and now the Three Kings on January 6th. I was doubly blessed. So Happy Three Kings Day everyone. May your blessings be doubled this year!!
Archive for January, 2008
L’est We Forget–HAPPY THREE KINGS DAY!!
Robert Frost’s Summer Home Vandalized??
I saw this small news article today on AOL news. The headline actually read: “Famed Writer’s Home Vandalized Teens’ Party Got Wild, Cops Say“. I thought that was going to be some funny story about a published author’s feisty teen children. I was pretty feisty myself. So I thought it would be funny but what this story is actually about is some people and some are allegedly teens, breaking into the historic summer home of Robert Frost in Ripton, Vermont!!! I was speechless when I saw the pictures and so depressed. I mean when we aren’t even respecting the memory of Robert Frost!! They broke a window to get in and proceeded to drink and leave blue plastic cups strewn about the floors. They also broke much of the antique furniture. I find this so totally despicable. I mean it’s one thing to break into a currently vacant house and hang out with your friends (I told you I was feisty–LOL) but why destroy property too? And irreplaceable property–we’re not talking build it yourself IKEA here! And I’m not upset just because it was Robert Frost (I like him but he wasn’t one of my favorites). But the house clearly states that this is a historic site and it says Robert Frost. And I’m sure it’s local kids so they must’ve know who this is because I’m sure the town boasts about it. I’m sad that teens today no longer seem to respect anything. I hear it from my own goddaughter at times–”I’ll respect her if she respects me,” she says referring to one of her teachers. She fails to realize that respect is not something you are given. Respect is not something you are born with. Respect is earned! Yea it may sound like cliche but it’s the truth. Blood, sweat and tears–but it is earned.
ON ANOTHER NOTE
Ok I’ve been watching the news lately–not on purpose. I leave the TV on as I type on my blog because I like having the background noise. After the shows are over, the news start and I get too lazy to change the channel or can’t find the remote. I had given up the news because there is always bad news on–and how often do we have to hear about who got shot or who got hit by a drunk driver or who died in a tragic fire.
Well I was flabbergasted! (LOL) at the news today about an Arizona pageant queen, who by the way is a law student and a law intern, so I’m assuming she cannot possibly say she didn’t know better; well, she kidnaps her ex-boyfriend and gets two other females involved. They duct tape him and threaten him. She holds a gun or maybe a butcher knife to him (I lost this part). They show her beauty shot and admittedly, she is very pretty. Then the mugshot–OMG!! What a difference!! Can I just tell you that there is a reason why women put on make-up and why some women put on make-up for an hour or more. It gives new meaning to the phrase “putting on my face.” But what really amazed me was that she was released on a $50,000 bond!! She takes this man against his will, locks him up, gags and bounds him for two days and threatens his life and is given $50,000 bond. So we know her sentence will be a mix between probation and community service!! Talk about an unjust system!
I know someone who for whatever reason (because I don’t know the reason or if there can even be a reason) fired a gun at a building wall and two hookers see him. Both hookers state that he slowed down when he drove by them and that they saw the “fire” and heard it once he drove past down the block. Does sound crazy right? It doesn’t make sense to me as to why he would do this. Kind of stupid but I’m getting off track. He gets a $150,000 bail!!
And I’ve been hearing a lot of crazy things like this lately–you kill someone and you also get $150,000 bail and you do 5-7 years!!! That doesn’t seem right for a life. Same as it doesn’t seem right to do three years for getting high and ruining your own stupid life. There are too many things in our system that just don’t make sense. Like “correctional institutions.” What exactly are they “correcting?” A first-timer’s ability to pick locks? Because they aren’t correcting or doing anything about the problem to begin with, which in my opinion, starts with a poor education and poverty. If more isn’t done about the immense level of poverty in our cities, then it’s just going to be a never-ending cycle.
Another thing that didn’t ever make sense was when I worked at Hudson County Welfare, I found that a person convicted of a a drug offense could be denied food stamps unless they went through some type of rehabilitation program (like a correctional institution–that counted!). However if all you’d done was molest a child; well you could eat for free every month! Isn’t the system great?
HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
Just a quick note before the first day of the year ends. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!
May 2008 be full of blessing, miracles, more money, less bills, true friendship and peace!
