As of 10/26/05

I will be working on Stuart Vaughn's Dia De los Muertos puppet show again this year. We will be performing at Arroyo Seco Park's Art In the Park on Sunday the 30th and at the Canoga Park Community Art Center on November 4th. Call me for further details.

My friends, Rob and Cassandra's, wedding in Cabo San Lucas was absolutely incredible. They got married on the beach, with the most beautiful blue ocean as the background. It was so much fun to attend a destination wedding, and I loved it! It was really wonderful to see familiar faces thousands (I think) of miles away, gathered together to celebrate our friends' union. The town of Cabo was o.k. Too "touristy" and too expensive. However, the water there was unlike any other I had ever experienced. The warmest. The most blue. Drinking Margaritas and Pina Coladas, poolside, at the Los Cabos Hilton was also quite memorable.
By the way, I have never tanned so much or gotten more dark as I did upon my return from this 4-day trip...

I still don't know what I will be for Halloween. I will have a costume. I better!!!

Karina, God willing, will be having her baby in the next few days. Hopefully by Saturday. I am excited and scared for her. I love her and love the baby inside of her already...

And The Winner Is...

I am ecstatic about the number of great films out in theaters at the moment, and that have been released so far this year. It isn't even mid-October and studios--Hollywood and independent--have released an impressive number of brilliant films. If it were the end of the year tomorrow, the Academy Awards would have more than enough choices for "Best Picture" consideration. Among them, in my opinion: Capote, A History of Violence, The Constant Gardener, Crash, Me and You and Everyone We Know, Proof, The 4o-Year-Old Virgin, Broken Flowers, and let's not forget about all the great documentaries released during the summer. There are two and a half months left to the year and I cannot imagine how great the films that are awaiting releases will be. There may not be enough room for only 5 nominations per category come Oscar time...

My Neighbor Chavela

I am upset about the recent news that my 65-ish year-old neighbor, Isabel (Chavela, as we all call her), is being evicted from the house she has been living in for the last 20 years. On the block, Chavela claims to have lived for an additional 10 years.
In late August, Chavela says, her landlord's nephew gave her notice of his intentions of selling the property. Her landlord has not been around in the last year, as he has been put in a nursing home. Chavela is upset that the nephew never gave her an option of buying the house, which she has cared for and lived in for two decades. Last month, a couple who work as realtors, knocked on her door with papers claiming to be the new owners and giving her just a month to move out. I came into Chavela's house yesterday and saw most of her belongings in boxes. I could see that workers had already come into the property to make changes and fix things around the house. They couldn't even wait for me to leave, Chavela says. The realtors have also not shown their face at all since evicting her.
Chavela says she will be moving in with a relative in the neighborhood, but not really walking distance from the block she has called home for 30 years. She has no children. She will putting most of her belongings in that public storage place on Glendale Blvd. She says she will miss seeing me walking up our hill with my bookbag around my shoulders, heading home. I told her I will miss our conversations and will miss hearing her call my name to say hello.
Sometimes changes suck...