Seen on the train

☺ An older gentleman watching Cinderella on his IPhone.

What is it about airports?

Recent events brought me to question myself why is it that i insist on dropping people off and picking people up at airports. I mean, you can see the planes taking off and landing, which was the initial charm of airports and at some point in my life it was my family's favorite pastime.
But I started thinking about it more and it wasn't until I recently went to one that I realized what it was: It goes way beyond the fact that you can watch the planes and that I wanted to be a pilot when I was a kid. It's all about the people.
I love, LOVE to observe people. I sit on benches in park just to do that. I love to eavesdrop and hear the conversations they have. I love to watch their face expressions, the way they talk, their gestures, etc.... I especially love to pick people up at the airport because you can observe people waiting for their loved ones, or their friends, or their customers, etc. I observe people when they are waiting, some bring their newspapers and books and read, other bring their families and friends and engage in different type of activities: playing with the baggage carts, buying food or balloons, talk loudly about all kinds of subjects; there are some that start to run out of patience and begin to sigh, and walk from one place to the other, and there are others who play or talk with and on their cellphones.

But the height of the moment is when the expected person finally arrives: their faces light up and they smile and run towards them and they hug or shake their hands. It's a happy moment. it's always a happy moment, either because you are having a close encounter with somebody you care about or because your wait is over.

What's up with that?

So today I went to a home supplies store because I needed to get -you guessed it- some home supplies.
As I was walking my way inside the store and trying to find the stuff I needed, I found EVERY employee saying "hello". And I mean EVERY employee. And that store has a lot of employees. There are like three per section: Kitchen supplies, bathroom supplies, closet supplies, bedding, etc.
At the beginning I thought "Oh! they're friendly" but then it kind of freaked me out to the point that I wanted to scream "Stop it!!". They were so repetitive and so automated that they seemed like they were machines instead of people.
The funny thing is, you may think that they greet you just to make you feel like you are being taking care of, meanwhile, when I went to ask a question, they ignored me at first and then they made me feel like stupid for pointing out the obvious (OK, I did make a stupid question, but that's not my point).
There was only ONE person that seem to be truly honest and helpful (I say honest because he actually asked me "do you need any help?" as opposed to saying "hello"). He actually meant what he said and was very attentive. He even suggested a much cheaper item than the one I was intending to buy.

Please people, do not allow the store system to make you act as a machine, instead focus on some real customer service. Maybe they should just pay more attention to how small store owners run their businesses.

Story

Once upon a time, there was a girl who always dreamed of doing something big, something meaningful, something that would help out her community (whatever this community is).

But that was only her dream, she never thought of ways of how to make it happen.

One day she said it to someone out loud and she then realized that once she did that her dream had started to become real, because once it came out of her mouth, her words were tangible since there was somebody listening.

This is a story that still needs to be developed more.

Keep dreaming little girl.

On how to stay motivated

It's just hard sometimes.
Sometimes my only motivation is that I don't depend on nobody but myself. I I don't push myself hard enough then the only person who's going to suffer the consequences is me.
I happen to stay calm and somewhat positive on though times. But when things are not as bad, that's when I start giving up. Why? I don't know. I seems like I need to hit rock bottom in order to lift myself up and continue with the struggle. And I'm the strongest when I'm on my own.
Does this mean that I need to be doing really bad and have nobody around for moral support in order to find some motivation?
I have to find some balance, I definitely do. As much as I want to be on my own and as much as I seek to be in a desperate situation, the world (or whatever) seems to be sending people who actually want to be around me and also keeps improving my situation. So what is left for me to do? Just take life how it comes and go with the flow.
(I don't know if the text follows what the title says, but what the heck)

On trying to be a better person

I am (to my disgrace) very politically correct.
I try to help others in any way possible.
I support all my friend's artistic career, even though it means that I'm gonna be spending the money that I don't have.
I'm very caring. I really am.
I give up my subway or bus seat when I see a pregnant woman, an elder or anybody that might need it more than me.
I try not to spend too much water when I shower, when I brush my teeth, when I do the dishes, etc.
I donate to charity: Planned Parenthood, UNICEF, Doctor's Without Borders, WNYC, Children International and World Vision. I used to donate to Habitat for Humanity, The Humane Society, ASPCA and Channel 13th. I can't really afford to do it anymore, that's why I cut back. Even still is not enough to get a decent tax deduction.
I try to be as honest with my family and friends as I possibly can. But sometimes silence is the best policy.
I try. And I repeat, I TRY to keep in touch with my friends, even if is through Facebook. My success rate is kind of low.
I love animals. And they love me back.

I'm not a bad person, but I'm not perfect either. I don't think I'm doing too bad.

Ok, I'll try to improve and add more to that list.

Introduction

So how does one start a blog? I mean, I tried before, but it didn't seem to make any sense, so I erased the one entry that I had. Something about my name is such and such, this is how I arrived to this country, this is why I'm writing this blog, blah blah, blah.....

And in what language does one write? It doesn't matter to me really. I don't write for anyone else but myself. So why do I have a blog? That, I don't know. I guess that's what people do. Is like a fad or something: "So! how was last night?", "Have you seen my blog yet?", "No","Read it, it'll tell you all about it".
I know, I know, I'm being a bit extremist. But only a bit. I know that there are very interesting blogs out there, in fact, I'm subscribed to some great Architecture blogs that are very informative and fresh.

I don't care about the reasons why people have blogs. I don't care if people read my blog and I certainly don't have a strong reason to be doing this, but hey! here I am, and this time there will be no erasing. Hopefully.