2010: A Blogging Year in Review

New Year's card I designed for 123print.com

Like every TV channel has their end-of-the-year summary of the big events that happened that year, I do the same. Ok, let's see what I did this year...

• I designed a poster that almost won AIGA's Poster Clash,  the Annual Report for the Goodwill of Frederick County, the poster for Boo Bash, a Halloween party and one of my designs got published in a design book
• I designed a website for my Mom, for the Frederick County Civil War Roundtable group, for Rehabilitation of Frederick, for the Unifom Store and another one that will be unveiled soon...
• Visited friends and had a good time in Paducah and in upstate NY
• Got a new hip
• Got a new apartment and had the mandatory house warming party
• Got my first traffic ticket for running a red light
• Spent Christmas in Puerto Rico and watched my Dad get married

But my biggest accomplishment this year is one I never talked about in the blog. When I had my car accident in 1997, I started receiving Social Security Disability. Ever since I got it, I wanted to be able to live without it. I didn't wanted to be a burden on the government and feel like I depended on that. I always had some form of other income but it was never enough to be able to live without at least some Social Security income. For the first time this year I am earning enough money that I do not need Social Security and it is a good feeling. 

All in all a year of new beginnings...

Not Your Typical Wedding...

On December 19th my Dad got married in Puerto Rico. It was a very special experience to share with my Dad and his new wife Yadira.

It was also fun and not your typical wedding. I guess that when you are over fifty, the wedding rules do not apply. It was clear that it wasn't going to be your typical wedding when the whole wedding party and guests met on the side of the road in Carolina.

After everyone arrived, we all left together to where the wedding was going to take place in Loiza. My Dad is in a motorcycle club and there were about 20 or 30 motorcycles and about 10-20 cars. We all drove in a row following them to the wedding. It was easy to spot them in the crowd because they were sitting on a black convertible.

In such a long line of cars and motorcycles we were bound to run into red lights that would break the group. But I guess the motorcyclists have done this before. Whenever there was a red light, they would stand on the way of incoming traffic to block them and let the wedding guests continue with the group.

It was crazy but it was fun. I was waiting for the cops to arrive and arrest us all. I wonder what the outsiders thought. The probably thought it was a big celebrity driving by. Finally we arrived at the the venue. The place was gorgeous right on the beach. I walked in with my Dad. She walked in with her two sons.

After a short and sweet ceremony, the party began.

It was good to spend time with my aunt and uncle who I haven't seen in a while.

During the toast, her mom said a few words, their friends said a lot of words and I tried to say a few words. I don't know if they heard any thru my sobs. I'm very happy to see my Dad in a group of people that care a lot for him and a new wife that I know will be there thru thick and thin.

Yadira, welcome to the family.

Happy Thanksgiving to me!

This year because of circumstances beyond anyone's control, my family was 300 miles away and I spent Thanksgiving Day by myself. I was determined to not get sad about it. So when I got up in the morning I made a big nice breakfast. It wasn't a day for Pop Tarts or cereal.

I ate breakfast while watching the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Yeah Beverly, that is your sunflower and Mark that is your artwork next to the TV. I used to see the parade every year like every kid. I probably haven't watched it for over ten years now. I noticed two things. I remember that in the past, there was a lot of emphasis on the big balloons and less on the performers. Now is the opposite. I probably saw like ten balloons and they were in the background of the show. Maybe I just remember the big balloons in my ten-year-old mind. Another thing I noticed (bug me) was that NBC uses the parade to constantly promote their shows. That was annoying.

So what is a graphic designer to do alone on Thanksgiving? This:

I was doing fine will all the alone-for-thanksgiving deal until I got this text (or tex-mex like my mom calls them) from my sister.

I still don't know why she sent me that and I don't think she understands why that was wrong. The I got a call from my mom suggesting that I should go to a restaurant. And sit by myself? How sad is that?

Then I remembered there were three others that were alone during Thanksgiving. I went to the supermarket bought three turkey dinners (thanks Terrin for the idea) and a cheesecake and went to visit them.

They probably thought I was a crazy cat lady at the supermarket buying cat food on Thanksgiving. At least I got some cheesecake. While watching the kitties have their Thanksgiving feast, I realized how similar to humans they are. Of all three cats the female cat, Artemis, stopped eating before the male cats. She must be watching her weight.

And the fattest cat, Dinsky, ate her leftovers. I guess there won't be turkey sandwiches tomorrow.

That night I had the mexican version of Thanksgiving dinner.

Yes, there is some vodka in that cranberry juice. And of course, cheesecake.

Let's hope next Thanksgiving I'll have more company of the human kind.

It's a housewarming!

Last weekend I had a Housewarming Party in my new apartment. Now I know why they call them housewarming parties. My apartment and I were warm and happy. :)

Baltimore Museum of Art

Last week I went with a friend to the Baltimore Museum of Art. It took me by surprise all the cool things they have. And it reminded me that I should get back to the wonderful world of art making. Here are some random shots I took here and there.

I just realized that most of the pictures I took were of sculptures. Hmmm...

I'm moved!

When I moved to Maryland from Kentucky, the plan was to get my own place right away but the plan changed once I picked up the newspaper and saw that the lowest rent was in the $800's. I was paying $350 a month in Kentucky. I was going to school and didn't had a regular income so I stayed at my sister's house for two years.

Now things have changed and I have been in my own place for a week now. Things are still in boxes and I am still getting used to being in an apartment by myself as opposed to being in a house with five other people, three cats and a dog. Here's a mini tour of how things look.

I am not allowed to paint the walls and I can't stand white walls but that is ok. I have tons of art that I haven't unpacked yet.

The problem is going to be if I have enough walls.

There is a lot of red around here so I had a pedicure to match my apartment.

My mom made a flower arrangement that was meant for someone else but it looked so good in my living room, I left it there. Shhh! don't tell her.

Having my own space again is great. The only bad thing is that pets are not allowed so I can't have Dinsky with me. He is stating at my sister's. Something tells me he doesn't mind at all.

I'm a hip chick! (cont.)

Here are a few photos of my adventure. In this photo I'm all prepped for surgery. The funny thing is that in the room there was a really badly designed poster and the only thing I could think of was how I could make that poster better. Kept my mind occupied!

I got a few gifts and flowers. Thanks everyone!

My niece was so worried about the surgery they had to admit her too. Not really. Notice the hardwood floor in my room.

To pass the time I played Spanish Scrabble with a gringo and he was surprised I beat him. (Of course two weeks later I beat him in English Scrabble too.)

After leaving John Hopkins, I spent a week in College View Rehab. The nurses and therapists were very good and treated me well. They could use newer equipment and better food

but overall it was a better experience than I thought it was going to be. It got a lot better when they moved me from the room with the crazy racist roommate that probably wasn't too happy of having a Hispanic roommate with "a made-up name."

After a week in the Rehab I went home. I have been home for two weeks taking an extraordinary amount of medicines

and getting stretched by a cute physical therapist. It could be worst. Oh yeah, it is a good thing to be abl to work from home.

I'm a hip chick!

I'm finally home after hip replacement surgery. I'm not 100% yet but I'm slowly getting there.

My surgery was July 6th in John Hopkins Bayview Medical Center. Which turned out to be a good time to be in an air-conditioned hospital.

If you ever need joint replacement surgery this is where to do it. If I hadn't been cut open, woken up every 4 hours to give me medicine or poke me to take blood and felt crappy, I would have thought I was in a hotel. I was in the Wenz Orthopedic Unit. This unit was built in honor of Dr. Wenz that died in 2004 after a car accident and was the head of orthopedic surgery at 40 years old. He also invented the type of surgery I had which is considered a minor invasive surgery. The top of your leg bone is cut off and a metal part is installed all thru a 4" incision as opposed to a 12" incision as it is usually done. How they can cut the top of your leg bone and insert a big metal apparatus thru that little hole is beyond me.

Dr. Mears in the video was my doctor. The unit has 10 private rooms, hard wood floors, cherry cabinets, flat screen TVs, DVD player, a guest sleeping sofa and a mini-fridge. I was going to take pictures but didn't feel up to it and thought there would be some online but there aren't any. My room was in front of the nurses station so the nurses were always there. John Hopkins is a teaching hospital so there were plenty of cute young doctors watching over me.

Two days after the surgery everything was going fine but all of a sudden my heart rate stared to go up like crazy. Nobody could explain why. One time I had been lying in bed all day and my heart rate went up to 160 which is the heart rate of someone running. They poked every vein in my arms attached every cable to my chest and made every test imaginable and nothing was wrong. I was taken to the Intensive Care Unit where they could monitor me constantly. They were worried I was having a heart attack. Fortunately everything was ok. They figured that I was anemic (probably because of all the blood test they did) and in pain and that was the cause of my increased heart rate. After a few days my heart rate slowed down somewhat and after 5 days, I was transferred to a rehab facility. I didn't do much walking in the hospital because of the heart problem and there are stairs in my house so I needed to get a little better before going home.