tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34482361592020373682024-03-05T16:50:47.756-08:00Just Your Average American FamilyUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger448125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-83583109750785144922023-06-02T22:56:00.002-07:002023-06-02T22:56:29.526-07:00First & LastFirst day of K at Hunters Woods ES (Reston, VA)Last day of high school at McDaniel HS (Portland, OR)Some highlights (by grade):K - called in for a parent meeting after watching a Three Stooges marathon with his abuelo and acting out various scenes at school.1st - played Angry Birds with friends during recess. They hurled themselves off the swings towards moving targets. Ended with a bump on his Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-77332795992648543942022-12-05T12:15:00.006-08:002022-12-08T17:11:53.216-08:00The kid will be alright Asher at (almost) 18Back in 2004, when I was pregnant with our second child, I really wanted to name him Asher. I was still obsessed with Chaim Potok's My Name is Asher Lev. I had read the book post-college while in bed recovering from knee surgery. I fell in love with the sound of the name and the Unknownnoreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-52147039992738783942022-10-30T15:10:00.005-07:002023-01-04T16:22:25.976-08:00'It happened how it was supposed to happen'I’ve always considered myself fortunate in life. I’ve often said that I’ve had experiences that are beyond this barrio kid’s dreams. Whether it was being the first in my family to graduate college, or getting to work and live in the places I’ve worked and lived, it’s been a good life. And all along the way, having friends, loved ones and mentors to share the moments with have made it that much Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993734779190025631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-77110620149149757962022-08-11T22:50:00.006-07:002022-08-19T12:40:35.515-07:00Ave Maria pelencho, que bien me siento!Editor's note: This post is strictly for my own memory. If no one outside my family looks at this, I don't care. This is for me and a chance to jot down what I remember from one of the best interactions I've ever had with a public figure/baseball hero. If you click off here, absolutely no hard feelings.There's something about Latino moms, no matter the region of origin. No matter how hard you Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993734779190025631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-20077832068215293882022-05-09T11:57:00.002-07:002022-05-09T11:57:31.031-07:00A Little Truth Serum on Mother's DayA little truth serum on Mother’s Day: Motherhood hasn’t been at all what I expected. When I got pregnant with Noé I assumed we were all headed on a trip to um… Denmark and then we took a swift detour to … let’s say … Morocco. Morocco is a fine and an equally beautiful destination. But I wasn’t prepared. I had been learning Danish and studying Denmark guide books and none of that was remotely Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-68183990475820389482022-01-19T15:38:00.003-08:002022-01-19T15:48:55.740-08:00Marine Drive Last weekend, Ed had to work and Noé paced the house like a cat on crack cocaine, so I took him for a drive. Drives with Noé have been our go-to during the trickier parts of Covid. And Marine Drive is our favorite pandemic driving destination.Tucked into the car, I thought of our many drives on this roadway since Covid hit and the many ways Marine Drive has changed with the times. I realized I’d Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-59348027738654647642022-01-03T22:39:00.006-08:002022-01-10T23:31:07.614-08:00In appreciation of male friendship“Male friends are important to me, and the ones that I love are vitally important. These two guys, I loved.” -- Ben Bradlee, in his memoir A Good Life, on his friendship with Art Buchwald and Ed WilliamsThe guys in the picture above are Alfredo and Jose, both of whom I met in 2019. I met Alfredo first through a Latino professionals networking event that we’re regulars at (well, at least we were Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993734779190025631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-6635829980240111152021-05-16T23:10:00.002-07:002021-05-16T23:10:31.501-07:00#21Today is the 21st anniversary of my dad’s death. I wasn’t going to write anything, so many of my friends have suffered their own huge losses and mine isn’t any worse. We’re all going through our own stuff.I won’t lie, I still feel anger about his death. And I’m especially angry that he left us so young. I’m only a couple years shy of the age that he was when he passed away and everything in my Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-52849344537616511322021-04-20T20:05:00.002-07:002021-04-21T00:02:29.531-07:00GuiltyThe boys and I decided to hike this afternoon and as we drove away from the house I turned on NPR. They were announcing that the George Floyd verdict was imminent. Pandemic year note: The boys are still doing CDL and I'm working part-time so Tuesday afternoons are free, and now that the sun is out, I'm not complaining quite as much!Asher and I talked about the trial as we listened to the NPRUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-54052400720632285472021-01-21T15:34:00.000-08:002021-01-21T15:34:01.316-08:00January 6, 2021I keep thinking back to my days as a college intern in Senator Wyden's office waa-yy back in 1997. One of my intern duties was to assist with Capitol tours for constituents. I loved the tours because I didn't really get many opportunities to go to the Capitol building, aside from occasionally delivering papers or messages to the Senator or his aides in that pre-smart phone world. There was a Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-26420998493336857542021-01-07T17:38:00.001-08:002021-01-07T17:38:40.412-08:002020 Favorites NonFiction Books 1. Stamped from the Beginning, Ibram X Kendi2. Untamed, Glennon Doyle3. Shrill, Lindy West4. How to be an antiracist, Ibram X KendiFiction Books1. The Refugees, Viet Thanh Nguyen2. City of Girls, Elizabeth Gilbert3. Little Fires Everywhere, Celeste Ng4. Homeland Elegies, Ayad Akhtar (still reading)MR/YA Books1. Esperanza Rising, Pam Munoz Ryan2. It Ain’t So Awful,Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-64092809273725408602020-10-31T22:54:00.008-07:002020-11-01T20:50:09.373-08:00The Dodgers won the World Series, and I feel fineFor the last several years after the Dodgers would win their first game of the season, I would turn to anyone who'd listen, usually Jen or maybe my parents via the phone, and proclaim, "This is the year!"It was always meant as a joke, but deep down I wondered if one of these years I'd ever be right. Well, the moment I wondered if I'd ever see again took place on October 27, 2020, at 8:37 p.mEdhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993734779190025631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-215575867798989362020-09-14T20:52:00.001-07:002020-09-14T20:52:11.235-07:002020-21 School YearFirst thing this morning we headed over to the High School for Picture Day. Once we rode our bikes up to the school grounds, Noé was ecstatic. Everyone at Grant HS knows Noé. His autism quirks don’t camouflage well in a high school environment. And he is accepted and affirmed every day in his school community.Noé understands routine. He knows once it is Picture Day, the First Day of School is notUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-52964900076041115622020-09-14T20:48:00.004-07:002020-09-14T20:48:51.791-07:00Wildfires 2020Asher asked me if the sun is supposed to be the same orange hue as Trump’s face. No, no it’s not, son. Our home smells like a campfire, even the indoor parts, and I have a raging headache from inhaling smoke. Yet we are so profoundly lucky to live in the city right now. Living three miles from downtown, if WE get an evacuation order all of Portland is going up in flames.There are 500,000+ less Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-42433712037851975932020-07-16T14:02:00.001-07:002020-07-17T00:04:04.859-07:00How's your pandemic going?
Ours was going just fine, thank you very much.
We were doing the work from home and the school from home. We were washing the hands and disinfecting the house. We were baking the banana bread and planting the garden. We were taking the evening walks. The world was falling around us, but we had this shit down.
Then, on a quiet Thursday evening in late May, Noé fell into my arms and had aUnknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-78689021766153740562020-05-10T13:09:00.003-07:002020-05-10T13:09:58.521-07:00Family History: The Repatriation of Patrocino Reveles
Patrocino with a son and a grandson
"She wasn't deported. She was repatriated," my mother-in-law explained to Ed, in Spanish.
I had begged Ed to call his mother. I was desperate to know the truth about his abuela after reading about The Mexican Repatriation, which was unknown to me before I stumbled upon it reading a YA historical fiction novel. So many of the things I'd heard Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-85695969860732585492020-04-23T16:10:00.004-07:002020-04-23T16:10:41.152-07:00TodayToday it rained and nobody got out of their pajamas except for Ed, but really that was a dress shirt on the top, pj pants on the bottom zoom meeting situation. Noe did his math with me for 15 minutes but only if I allowed him to touch my elbow three times in between each problem.
Asher came busting out of his room carrying his laptop during Spanish and said we were being "hella loud" and Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-91924450328233833312020-02-21T18:20:00.002-08:002020-07-16T15:01:49.682-07:00That time Asher and I met Mayor Bloomberg
This isn't a political story. But it does feature a prominent politician. And it really isn't a story about an overwhelmed young mom, although I did play that role exceptionally well.
It's more a story you'd put in the category of "only in New York...."
We were living in a second floor walkup in Astoria, Queens. Man, I loved that apartment --- and the neighborhood --- with its Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-50614838794318949522020-01-26T18:11:00.000-08:002020-01-27T11:40:49.625-08:00It's an L.A. ThingI was born and raised in East L.A., and my parents still live in the same house I grew up in, but I haven't lived in Los Angeles for any great length of time since I was 14. It was always home, though, and the Lakers were one reason why I proudly identified as an Angeleno through all the many places I've lived, both by myself and with a family that eventually came to include two sons.
As a Edhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03993734779190025631noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-54445563848438484052019-12-31T11:50:00.005-08:002019-12-31T11:50:52.918-08:00Noé, at age 17
Noé, at age 17, has finally mastered the art of blowing. This sounds ridiculous unless you understand that he has severe apraxia, which makes him unable to coordinate and initiate movements of his mouth and jaw on command. This is also the primary reason why he is nonverbal. For years, he ignored his birthday candles. We would "practice" blowing them out ahead of his birthday, but he just could Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-32400632034178488322019-10-31T21:11:00.001-07:002019-11-02T22:16:44.837-07:00Dear DadDear Dad,
It's been almost twenty years since you died. I'm only four years younger than you were when you fell. That seems impossible.
Everything has changed, but nothing has changed. But mostly, everything has changed.
I married a Stanford graduate, for reals. But most importantly I married a kind and loving man. A man who is honest and doesn't cheat on me or in life. A man who loves his Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-88811340473761340212019-10-15T22:53:00.000-07:002019-10-16T21:38:34.102-07:009th Grade English: 1989 versus 2019"Mom," Asher asked me a little sheepishly. "I want to show you my narrative essay, but I have to tell you something first."
"What's that?" I asked.
"Our teacher lets us use swear words." Awkward pause. "Is that ok with you?"
I stop to consider this revelation and then quickly shift into writer's mode. "Well, I think that depends on how you use the words. Does it add emotion to your story? DoesUnknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-82254581359972800722019-09-22T16:39:00.000-07:002019-09-23T09:42:23.440-07:00Familia Guzman by the NumbersEd and I just celebrated another wedding anniversary, so I thought I should update our family numbers:
18: Years of Marriage
2: Kids
2: Languages Spoken in our home
4: Cities We've Lived in (Portland twice, NYC, DC, Seattle)
7: Homes we have lived in
5: Full-time Jobs (Ed)
2: Full-time Jobs (Jen)
8: Part-time Jobs (we're all about the side hustle)
2: Cars we've owned
9: K-12 schools the kids Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-15118980935726441232019-08-21T18:07:00.005-07:002019-08-28T14:37:32.565-07:00Noé's Secret School LifeWe were on vacation this summer, somewhere along the Northern California coast, lurking among the giant Redwoods. We had just parked at a trail head to do some more exploring when a red, sporty convertible pulled up beside our sensible Honda CRV. It was driven by a middle-aged man in sunglasses with a huge happy-lappy dog in the backseat. I was fetching empty pop cans from the car, trying to Unknownnoreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3448236159202037368.post-53510252475145928192019-08-11T22:35:00.002-07:002019-08-12T10:33:07.559-07:00The Fake PactShortly after Noé was diagnosed with autism, I made a fake pact with God that I would not have to endure children who threw up. It seemed fair - I had a long row to hoe with Noé and having puke-y kids would just be over the top.
And then neither of my kids ever threw up and my fake pact magically became real.
They NEVER threw up! A mom friend would lament how their kid had puked on their face Unknownnoreply@blogger.com0