I figure I should number these things because I end up making similar lists pretty frequently.

• It’s a beautiful, sunny day and I can’t bring myself to do anything productive like playing softball at the park, going swimming at my madrina’s house or spending some money I don’t have.
• Nebur has a short series on encountering violence way back when he was a high school senior. No, that wasn’t a crack at his age. Well, maybe it was. Anyway, the series really is short, nothing like Oso’s “Pitching outside the strikezone” series that’s gone on forever. He’s a great storyteller and I encourage you to read Hometown Violence part 1 and part 2.
• I went to another concert last night. This time, it was Al Green, the Four Tops, and Brenton Woods (who we missed because we were still having dinner). It was kinda cool to see the kind of mix of LA I’m used to only seeing at Dodger games. The crowd was pretty diverse in age, race, and probably class leveles too. I think this is the eighth concert of the summer and I still have at least 3 more to check out. Oh yeah, my non-date, HP, behaved himself. Hehe.
• I was in our grad student lounge a few days ago and checked out the rack they have with a bunch of brochures about things to do in and around LA. I know you’ve seen them in hotel lobbies. Anyway, I noticed one about rafting in the Kern River and it made me really happy. I can’t wait to go camping this weekend. It’s been years since I’ve slept in a tent and chilled in the river all day long.
• I don’t really wanna go back to school. I don’t start classes for another six weeks, but I know once classes start I’m going to go back to being stressed all the time. I just realized that I have class on Thursday night which conflicts with danza. I really don’t want to miss out on danza for ten weeks straight. I can’t really articulate how much I’ve enjoyed ensayo for the last two months or so. My week just doesn’t feel complete without danza. When I miss it, something feels wrong and there are times when I feel I need to go. Yeah, it’s like that.
• Guess what’s coming up? Eh, I’ll just tell you. I’m having a birthday party in two weeks. Wanna come? If you’re out of LA, it’s a perfect weekend to come down considering it’s a holiday weekend. If you’re here, you can make a trip out to blue house on the street that shares it’s name with a coffee brand and experience a world famous M family party.
• I hadn’t mentioned it before because I didn’t want to seem even more nerdy, but if Derek can admit it, so can I. I’m addicted to Sudoku.
• I was thinking earlier this week that I was in Mexico for a long time. At this time last year, I was back in Salamanca getting caught in storms with my tía Gaby (she’s more like a cousin, really). I spent a few really good days with my uncles on the rancho. You know what I conveniently forgot about my trip? The fact that I kept getting minor injuries and lots of mosquito bites. It’s easy to forget that stuff ’cause the pain goes away, I don’t really have any pictures of that stuff, and all the good was so much easier to remember.

That’s it for now.