Summertime heat + travel = dead plants

It happens every year. My Mom and Dad visit during Spring and Fall. My Mom who has the most beautiful plants down in Ecuador, buys new plants for my condo. Then she leaves and gives me all the instructions on how to take care of them, how often to water them, and how to talk to them.
It all goes well until I leave for a week or two. Then I come back and notice one is losing its leaves rapidly. then it dies. or at least that's what I think. Until my Mom comes back and miraculously resurrects it. Some times they are really really dead, so there is no use in doing anything.
I left just for 8 or 9 days at the beginning of June, and one of the resurrected ones died on me.. bad... It was so beautiful.
Now I am leaving on a Family Trip to Europe for 18 days and wonder if I'll find something when I come back. I hope so.
At least I know there is one that surely be alive and kicking when I come back: These plants never die! And I find them really pretty. This is the first plant I got when I arrived in Houston...so it has survived almost 6 years.. Yeah I guess I should ask someone to come water them once a week... but the only neighbor I know comes back the same day I leave.
(That is one of my secrets: Haven't even met my neighbors, or seen them! isn't that a shame??) I don't understand why we don't even coincide in the elevator or something...
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New Facebook-Life realities

The other day I sent a picture to my Facebook profile, and later got an e-mail saying a good friend had made a comment. When I wanted to answer her, realized the comment was not there, and when I searched for her... she was gone from my Facebook contacts. So, are there Facebook ghosts???

I got a little worried because she is going through a divorce and went back to Ecuador to sell some things, etc. and I didn't have her e-mail address, because I contacted her through Facebook. I thought, well, I hope she is doing Ok, I'm going to pray for her.

Then today I got a call from another friend, who usually takes Facebook breaks. She has two really active toddlers and thinks that sometimes she uses too much of her time to be on-line and in FB. She told me she had briefly connected to Facebook and she didn't find our friend either, and that she was worried... That made too of us.

The strange thing is we haven't seen our friend in who knows 5 years? but when we contacted her on FB we started following her life, and we miss that. I think that with Twitter and FB our relationships are changing a little bit.. we are following people's lives, and when we don't have updates, we feel strange.

I for example am a little frustrated that my best friend back in Ecuador won't consider getting a Facebook account or a Blackberry, and since we both have too many things on our hands we never e-mail... Now we look for instant gratification and instant communication... Good thing that when we meet we have the best conversations, that won't replace FB or Twitter updates.. it will always be better.

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Announcements via Twitter...

These past few weeks Twitter has become relevant. Specially with all that was going on in Iran. Now, it seems, you learn from people that has died in Twitter first. Meghan McCain commented that many people learned about Michael Jackson from her first than from CNN.
This morning everybody was commenting on Billy Mays' death. Hmm I said to myself, well but who is he?
I went to the fountain of wisdom, Wikipedia, and seeing his picutres realized I knew who he was, who doesn't? The interesting part was that his son announced his death in Twitter. There was word that Billy Mays had been in an airplane yesterday. The tires of this US Airways airplane blew off when it landed. And if you go to his Twitter page, there it is... some of his last words about that close call. I found it first in Twitter, went to the Huffington Post and it was not there yet.

Also it seems that teen stars (or any star) don't need their publicists anymore, they promote their concerts, their new singles, albums, etc, in Twitter. Interesting trend. Read more!

Braving the heat

There is a heat wave advisory in the Houston Area. Good thing that with Daylight Savings Time, you can go out biking from 6:30 pm until 8:30 and it's quite nice. Not so nice as in the Spring time, but manageable.
I really enjoy the trails in The Woodlands when the sun is coming down... I feel like taking pictures or videos, but I guess it's kind of dangerous taking video with your Blackberry when riding a bike, still I couldn't help doing it:



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What are you thinking?

As expected, I din't pass my third CPA Exam (FAR). The fact is, I didn't study much, or cover all that I had to study. I can put the blame on my Twitter addiction but I am to blame, really.
The funny thing for me was, that although everyone kept asking me via Facebook wall or comments, If I had passed (they took a month to give the results), I wasn't brave enough to put it on my Facebook status. Of course, the story would have been different if I had passed, I would have used all the exclamation marks after the words "I passed".
Anyway, I sent a good old email to all my close friends, and it was nice to get their words of wisdom and good vibes saying I will pass next time. The best reply I got was from my old college mate: Hey! "Are you learning from me? Remember when you used to say I was really lazy?" (she slept on the couch while the rest of us studied)"But we love you anyway"... (Smile)
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Coming from the South

I love the States, but I also enjoy going to my hometown, Guayaquil (Ecuador).
I love seeing my friends and family. This time I only went for a week, so I really had to stretch time to be able to meet with everyone I wanted to. That meant I barely had time to sleep, so I came back from my one week vacation exhausted.
Ecuador is one of those ungovernable countries, so we never have good presidents. But in Guayaquil we have had great Majors, so the city is in good shape.
I become really spoiled when I go there... My family, like many others, have "help"... we have "people".. We don't have to do any cooking, or ironing, or laundry washing.
And the food is great so it's a complete gastronomic experience.

I discovered some advantages of being in Facebook. It takes too much of your free time, but in some cases it's pretty useful. My cousins and I had a reunion planned in Facebook, it was the first time in... well the first time we got together just the girls... We've had huge family reunions in the past (I have 40 cousins on my mother's side), but this smaller gathering was really too much fun!.

Also, thanks to Facebook I was able to share some of the things I wrote about the blessing of a Shrine over there (I belong to a Catholic Movement), and my photos were shared many times again and again.

And talking about connected life, my Blackberry saved my life. For some reason everybody has a Blackberry over there, so I was able to contact them via the Blackberry Messenger... cool. Although I've had Macs for many years now, and I love them, that Blackberry Messenger and ATT are keeping me from getting an Iphone. Read more!