Summer Fun

The trip to New Mexico was fun! The Wedding was very nice and I had a great time dancing the night away. The wedding itself was beautiful and heartfelt. It was fun to see all the family and relatives. Visiting New Mexico is itself a big adventure because we hardly go down that way as much. A lot of our uncles, aunts, cousins and others live down that way. The weather was very nice and the hotel we stayed at was very comfortable -- provided coffee and a nice breakfast every morning. Man, I couldn't believe how much we ate over there! Thanks to all the families that provided such lovely homemade food! Can't beat that anywhere else!

This is my newest Vlog about the Wedding, Football, and Wii Fit! (I recommend Wii Fit for anyone -- it's fun and most of all its part of a great exercise program if one needs to find a great system; go for the Wii!) Sure enough I talk about Summer almost coming to an end and you all know what that means! Nope, not school is coming back, but FOOTBALL! The NFL will start a new season and sure enough as a 49ers fan, there is so much to look forward to: A new offensive coordinator - Mike Martz, added power as in Issac Bruce, and so much more! The more reason to join Fantasy Football! Anyway, here is my new Vlog, hope you enjoy it! (Interpretation of my ASL can be provided upon request)

Dorm Life Friends -- The Ideal Advisor

What does one do when someone is away from family and the main communication is not really there? When someone seeks advice from family, but seeks it elsewhere? What does one do when it becomes obvious that the advice is not rapid and not given right away because one has to wait till the weekend to seek that advice from family members who live far, far away? In this case, living in the Dorm of CSDR has given one a sense of seeking advice from dorm counselors and/or teachers. Even the idea of going up to a staff of CSDR has fallacy in any given situation. Living in the dorm, knowing the guy across the room knows your habits, whereabouts and interests. They see you everyday, and in the case of a room mate knowing you better than your own parents goes to show that, maybe then, these are the ones you seek for advice.

One such person I recall in my CSDR years living in the dorms is young in years, but wise in experience of all that happens around him. I seek him as my ideal advisor when I was living at CSDR dorms. This guy who I will call B.A.G. for the purpose of respecting his identity. He joined CSDR a few years after I came. He was an animated but honest sort of character. What we went through going to CSDR as Dorm life friends, and even as school friends, was more than any adolescent could go through. Life filled with happiness, fun, and sometimes pain. (Those pains, which were part of growing up -- broken relationships, discussions about life after CSDR, and even God.) Oftentimes. the dorm life friends were very close for we lived together for 6 days out of the week mainly, and go back to our families during the weekends. Then it starts all over again, living in the dorm. Seeing everyone around us, the close personal events that affected not only the ones going through ordeals, but oftentimes affects everyone in the dorm as well. There were events at CSDR dorms that led us to temptations of experiencing everything growing up -- even getting in trouble, getting caught; but learning from it. These are the lessons of our teen years growing up without our parents around us, but knowing once the weekend was over, there was always our dorm life friends. In a sense, it was sort of like a family. But with time, we each fell farther apart as we get older and time changes. I look back and think about those times of my ideal advisor -- someone I could talk to, someone whom I could trust. This, my dear readers, is what no one can really understand unless they lived in a dorm like that.

Even if it was advice on school, sports, friendships, love and even God -- then that was more than enough because we are able to trust and communicate in a way that bridge the gap that we felt with our own families. This was why living in the dorm and the life we have lived through at CSDR was about education, yes, but it was much more if one was living in the dorm. It was about personal relationships with those we lived with everyday of our lives at CSDR. It was that one person you could count on to get you through your hard days, it was the one person you knew was there understanding the same things they were going through, and that my friends, is the ideal advisor.

Always, the dorms were filled with Dorm Life Friends all around us. But there was a rarity of finding "The Ideal Advisor." As time goes on, and we each know that there are the separated paths that leads us to our dreams. What we always will do is look back at our CSDR school days and always there will be that foundation of remembering our Dorm Life Friends. That too fades with time, but in our hearts we will never forget those who we called our Ideal Advisor.

New Mexico

The expanse desert landscape

As we all drive on our road trip to escape

The California Sun with its immense heat

Nothing can drive the sun away, nothing can beat

The insane perspiration.

Ah, but New Mexico is in our sights

As we all drive through the day and into the night

The mountainous air, smell so good

For we are finally there

A state of chilis, a state of family affairs

And flour tortillas

Perhaps a margarita

Or Two.

(If one can take all that tequila)

Rattlesnakes, desert all around

But New Mexico we are all bound

For wedding bells are soon in the air

For New Mexico we are there!