¿ BRAN ؟ this is me and my thoughts

Recently, I had to find out what all the fuss was about. I read it via Twitter through the folks I follow, newscasters,  read it on New York times and lastly, when my cousin gave me no choice. She gave me bag, with colorful tissue paper. A gift, out of nowhere…really?!? I thought, man am I a good cousin or what. It’s not my birthday, it’s not an occasion of some kind where I was to expect a gift. Nevertheless, a present, yeah it excites anyone and everyone. So I removed the tissue paper, only to notice what laid within this bag wasn’t clothing, or anything feminine. Rather a book. A book! Don’t get me wrong, books, I love to read…but I’m very particular about the books that I read. How could someone possibly  know what I want to read.. so I grin and bluntly tell her with confusion, a book?! Prima (this is what I call her, meaning cousin in Spanish). She smiles, I know you said you will read it, but I thought by getting it for you, you would read it. No excuses, read it! Goodness, lady what has this book done to you? Nevertheless, this is where I begin… I have to now read this book because I have it now (not to mention, I love to read). Just not romantic books. Why would I want to read about someone else’s romance, lol! Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got plenty of romance in my life, just nothing compares to reality vs. someone else’s romance. So 500+ pages?!  I begin to read Fifty Shades of Grey… OK – here I go….

Well into the book, I’m amazed, the pressure put on me to read it, why?! I almost feel like Anastasia, being pressured, pressured to read it to be exact. I’m completely at awwed?! This is a whole different type or ‘romance’. Regardless, I feel as if everything in my life has been put on hold. I don’t want to put the book down… not because of the description of the occurrences but because how can someone be seduced so rapidly, can someone fall in love so quickly?!? Well w/o giving too much away because if you haven’t read it… I won’t be one to pressure you to reading it however I recommend it. It’s a whole different type of romance, almost a too good to be true romance with it’s darkness. You do have to go into it w/an open mind, or close… at the end, it’s just a story, a book!   It took me only 48 hours to get through the first book… is it this interesting, for me… it took two evenings to get through it… this is no pat on my back, it’s the type of book which tends to give me that thought, #1 New Yokr Times Bestseller?! People really like this huh… well neath less to say, on my part this book has it’s moments, I am however over the constant fighting

Recently, I took it upon myself to purchase the second of three books for Fifty Shades… unto Fifty Shades Darker….

Many have their opinions on this book, at the end of the day, it’s your mind and your time… judgement may arise, but if that’s how they use up their minds and time… you wonder who is actually at lost?! Share your experience and thoughts on these books?

Continue reading Fifty Shades…

Huntington Beach… always the beach that you expect for it to be!

If you’re at the beach, typically you are either on the boardwalk, pier or where else but on the sand! This day in Cali, sunny yet a tad chilly, it doesn’t stop some people from visiting the beach and getting sun exposure. Nevertheless, the day is just beautiful and would be considered a waste to spend it indoors.

Of course, you also have those that prefer to be out in the water… doing one of the activities I just became a part of, paddle-surfing! If you haven’t… my-goodness you should try it! The upper body work out is awesome! Despite that fact that you are working-out, you’ll enjoy it too much to even consider it a ‘work-out’!

And this was a typical back-in the day kind of  walk through the pier, a boy and his boom-box. YES!! A boom box! It’s not the 80′s dude, but seriously love the fact that he doesn’t seem to care… no Ipod, or any musical device replaces the realness of walking through the beach with a boom box. May I add that this kid definitely didn’t look like he was born in the 80′s.

Well, it wouldn’t be the beach with out  eh-hem, life guards! Enjoy!!

Continue reading Huntington Beach (end) Winter 2012

Recently, my family and I took a trip to Arizona. We headed to Mesa, Arizona. We decided to visit Mesa, to visit my grandmother (from my father’s side). She’s such a strong woman, pretty admirable and motivating. She’s 80+ and has the drive of a 60 year old. Mesa, well it’s a very good, comfortable and relaxing place to retire. She’s in a perfect place! It was a relaxing two days in Mesa! We caught up to some needed down time (oh did we need a day or two of that) It  felt great to take it easy with nothing to do but relax, since back at home it  involve sports, homework, work, cooking, errands…etc, it just doesn’t stop. So during this time, we took advantage. But of course, it wasn’t t0o long before we decided to get back on the road, because we are just like that, a 24 hr down time to re-energize and back up to normal.

We had stayed in Mesa, long enough to realize that a day or two was enough of relaxation time. We gassed up the car and drove to where ever it took us.  Arizona, so much beauty of mountain views, cactus, and land! Lots of empty land! As we drove, we decided to go to Flagstaff. On our way there, we passed many little cities up on a mountain plateau. We went as high as 6000+ elevation. It was pretty amazing just being able to see how much empty room there is out there, behind the mountains, in from of the mountains. It’s just amazing that I come from a city where we’re all cramped up however, being in Arizona, up high between mountains… I’m able to see the room that exist and is un-lived in (at least by humans, I’m sure animals roam in these lands). As you gaze into this beautiful view, you can’t help but to stop and think about what else is out there, past those mountains and even further.

My thought: if this beautiful view was taken up by buildings and roads, there wouldn’t be times like my vacation to show me that there’s more out there than what we seem to shelter ourselves to see and believe, we wouldn’t appreciate the World and the room it offers. The world has a lot of room to be explored. With a car and a full tank of gas – your possibilities are endless. Go explore and see what room is out there in the world (sometimes in your own city, state)!

Thanks for reading
-M. Bran

Continue reading All the room in the world!

It’s been some time since I last blogged. Been super busy with life and everything else that comes with it, so granted – when I can get time to rest (especially rest from the computer and/or phone) I’m going to take advantage and rest.  So speaking of being busy, which brings me to today’s blog, this is part of what has been keeping me busy.  Soccer season has begun! Practice twice a week and games on weekends. Today was the first game of the season, actually the first TWO games of the season. My son had back to back games (with an hour break in between).  It was a very interesting two game day.

Game # 1
The day had began very gloomy, in fact it began with very loud thunder and small drops of rain with even larger drops of hail (incredibly hard to believe considering just the day before we were over the 90′s HOT weather). So waking up early to check the mudd-line to see if they were going to close off the parks/fields. Our side wasn’t affect  as bad  (since our game started mid afternoon) so our fields were OK to play. Coming from me with 6 years of soccer experience, playing a game in the rain was probably the best games we had.  So I would have been bummed if they would have cancelled them.  Players started arriving, started practicing and the game began. Since they day start gloomy, it wasn’t hot and dreadful – made it easier on the boys to play without being torching hot.  We unfortunately lost game 1, 3-0!

Game # 2 – WOW! This game, our kids definitely were not going to go down a second time!  They went in guns blazing (not literally, lol) but you know what I mean. The kids were hype considering that after a few hours, the weather started to get hot. On this game, they gave a moment of silence for the life’s lost on 09/11 since this year 09/11/11 is the 10th year anniversary.

Once they lifted their heads, they headed to their positions. As soon as the whistle blew, the ball got kicked and the game just went from there and 90 minutes later we won 5-0! A big comeback from the earlier game. Our kids were not going home with two losses on the second game of first day of the season!  By the way – our team (as my son would say it) is black & yellow!

and dedicated to my son who score 1 out of the 5 points on this game… he makes me proud!

(yes, that be my son grasping the ball between his legs and throwing it up successfully)!

Thanks for reading
- M. Bran

Continue reading Let the season begin!

So… one day I realized I carry way too many things in my purse, unnecessary things! The obvious question…” Do I really need ALL these things in my purse?!” I’m a big purse kind of girl so I know I abuse the room/space I have! I exchange from big to small purses, I truly love all kinds of purses (shoes too, but that’s just for another blog post) but prefer big purses overall. I own more than my husband would like for me to own, he knows not to mess with my purses just the same way he would prefer I didn’t interfere with football games (during football season of course). You just don’t mess with that!

Every time I switch purses, I realize I always just toss my things from one purse to another. This time, I figure I should take advantage of the opportunity of ‘spring cleaning’ my purse. During my purse ‘spring cleaning’ I notice that I carry to many things and I need to start cutting down on what I need vs. what I like to keep in my purse. One big reason is because things are harder to find, you spend a good unnecessary amount of time reaching your arm into your purse, and just digging…anticipating and hoping what you are looking for is what you will grab first. Eh’, you eventually find what you are looking for after a while of course. Besides, my shoulder starts to get tired and I have to rotate it from shoulders, arms (although the weight isn’t bad on my forearms, lol). So as I cleaned out my purse today to switch to a different purse, I realized that I have stuff that are very old and I find myself trying to remember where did I get half these stuff….and when?? So as I emptied-out my purse, I decided to pack up my essentials. Of course, my wallet, glasses (if you’re as blind as I am) and my keys are a given. Anything else, sort of reflects on what you are like, no?!? Well, I gathered a few things in which I know I always carry with me, simply because it’s the small things that I feel I need and use all of the time.

Allow me to elaborate my essentials – first off… my Blackberry is a most definite! I depend on my Blackberry for everything!!! That is the first and last thing I touch (hey, keep it pg13) each day and night. Next to that, I have to have my mascara…it’s the  only make-up I apply on everyday of everyday living, of course next to that is my eyelash curler…that comes after several hours after the mascara, just to add a little flirt to my semi-almost there lashes. I use my MAC eye shadow for emergencies…it helps distract the dark circles I have after a sleepless night. An absolute must is my lip gloss! I must have my lip gloss, well without adding a little touch of softlips chap-stick to keep my lips moisturized first. My sanitizer, because nowadays, they’ve got you so scare with the slightest germ  you don’t sanitized immediately, you’re risking  yourself from getting the worst disease ever (well the media has a way of over exaggerating).  And last but not least, my Altoids – I’m a huge coffee drinker, so the Altoids come in handy. Oh, my rings…I just added those because I love what my rings signify, those don’t go in my purse, LOL, always on my finger!! Just thought to include them to show-off a little love!!!

So, have you taken a look to see what you carry in your purse? Do you think you can probably do without some of the stuff in your purse? Let me know…. What’s in your purse?

Thanks for reading
M. Bran

Continue reading Gathering my essentials….

I remember when I went for it – I went for my.very.own apartment! It was just me and the kid (that’s my son). I remember it being difficult, so much was processing in my head. “Am I going to be able to do this?”, “am I going to be able to still provide all the necessaries for the kid and myself?”. What about furniture? I just completed paying off my tuition! Did I have enough for furniture, food, bills…Etc? Yes this was all nerve wrecking! Well following my intuition showed me that I’ve made the best decision. I signed the lease to my apartment and let’s not mention the ‘deposit’. It wasn’t good but hey, the money comes back to you once you move out (w/no gain or loss).

So months in my apartment, gradually I was able to purchase living-room furniture, better cooking equipment, so on and so forth. It definitely was a growing experience and an enlightening experience at the same time. All those doubts I had placed in my own head were just negative thoughts, reason…or even excuses to not take the next step of adulthood. I’m glad I didn’t listen to the thoughts but did proceed with trusting my intuition.

OKAY! To the point of my blog, after many years later (if we are rounding to the nearest number, let’s say a decade…almost)! I got engaged w/my long term boyfriend (now my husband). So it got to the point  where we had to come to a decision, his place or mine?! I’m ready for a change, so we both decided on his (his condo has a bigger kitchen, lol). As the move date got near, I start getting boxes from friends, office, stores, anywhere I can get an empty box, I was claiming it! So living there for almost a decade, I couldn’t believe all the boxes that had been packed and the stuff that still was left to pack. I mean, almost a decade before, I was worried about not having anything to make my apt. a home. And now, I’m having problems packing everything. I mean, I grab a decorative bunny that sits on my office desk. I ask myself, “What drove me to make this purchase”? Wait, how did this office desk get here?! I mean, really?!? Did all this stuff gradually sneak into my home? It’s amazing how you don’t realize the stuff that comes into your home until you have to pack it – you begin to remember the origin of these items (why, how were I able to convince myself to buy it). I mean, do I pack it now so that it can become a question later again… I don’t know. Is it worth keeping?! Decisions, decisions…it’s always about making decisions!

I find myself in the same position as I pack the stuff. I mean, combining stuff between myself and my finance’. Who is keeping what?! I find myself in the same scenario when I first move out, with a completely different twist! Instead of worrying about what I don’t have, I am now worrying about…”are we keeping his stuff or mine?”, “what do I do with all this stuff?”,”where did all these things come from?”

So in retrospect, we tend to make ourselves go crazy over what?! The answers are much easier sometimes than what we probably make it seem. So the next time you find yourself contemplating, procrastinating – you’re better off going with your first intuition! If that fails – I just kept things I recall having memories, anything else I couldn’t remember at that moment; it obviously didn’t have a story…so I donated my non-memory items.

Do you think you tend to over buy unnecessary stuff? Have you taken a look around to see what exactly you own and why?!
I would love to know your story!

Thanks for reading
M Bran.

Continue reading Where does all this sh!t come from!?!

So, yeah… it’s been some time now since I last wrote something. I have to say; it’s been tough juggling quite too many things on my end. I just have to stay committed to myself and to my fellow readers (are you there?)… I may not always have great stuff to say or write but hey, did you read the title of this blog?!

Lately I’ve been scanning through tons and tons of websites and every-time I continue to click from one site to another, I shrivel little and little more every time. I mean, hell – I’m going to jump at them for a stupid blog, message or even comment. I guest not really but eh’, at the end…here I am with this site and with days, weeks and even months with out one word/blog from me! I mean, I’m just wasting a little memory of a milli-something in web language for what? A parked site? *Pues not really; so after scanning/reading through site after site, I just thought – Wow! These people know what they are doing, saying and some in their own terms and languages (with made up words) and better yet, they have followers and people who actually “like” them more than just to follow them on Facebook or even to hear a tweett from them. So I ask: Is it Creative thinking or Creative Writing?  With so much available to us and so much room for eh-hem ‘error’, we expose a side to others that may be found admirable or just entertaining-ful,  what ever the case may be… I’m glad that I’m able to just throw what ever is out there and just run with it, simply because I thought of it!

Continue reading Creating thinking vs. creative writing…or?!

Monday  night – what did I listen to today – pure songs from the past. Songs I grew up listening to! I prefer freestyle  and hip-hop. I grew up in New York – the heart of freestyle and hip hop! Attending high school there and hanging with my friends- I was expose to a huge part of hip hop. I never learned to free-style as slick as many of my friends did, although I did gather to put ill lyrics and rhythms together… those are the old days and again on day four – I’m still living in the past – today I went from listening from Mos Deff to Rakim! I mean WHOA! (yea, listen to Black Rob too).

Most importantly the song that really gets to me and I love the artist, beat and lyrics is common – I use to love her this song, you have to listen to -the lyrics to this song have you thinking one way and lands up revealing a different view, completely different on what you were putting together based on his verse’ until the end of the song!

My day in music visited the late 80′s to mid 90′s! Felt at ease and loved it – felt just right for me!

Thanks for reading
-m bran

Continue reading Music me this, Music me that April 4th!

OK – today Sunday the 3rd, I wake up feeling with this amazing feeling  (aside from having a terrible sinus headache) with such glow – I mean, having a great night out with the hubby and there after waking up to a beautiful day – it just felt like one of those days where I wanted to listen to a fast pace song from the past. I guess so far on day three – I’ve realized  I have a tendency of remaining in the past (or it could it be that the new songs of today’s time  just doesn’t  have that kind of effect on me, yet).

This song - The Glow – Last Dragon (soundtrack) – man-o-man, this goes back to those days when my brother introduced me to the movie ‘The Last Dragon’ – an kid who was completely out of his element with a dream to be just like his idol, Bruce Lee…. the greatest Martial Artist known!

So neat-less to say, I’m going to be listening to this song over and over again – or maybe I should just rent the movie. Either way, this day is for songs by Willie Hutch, just those songs that had that head bopping beats with the right words to them! Going back to the Vinyl era’!

Gotta love it! I recommend the movie too!

Thanks for reading
-m bran

Continue reading Music me this, Music me that…April 3rd!

On April 2nd, being a Saturday – I for some reason woke up with this drive of cleaning up my house.  Very thoroughly!  Of course – the best driven motivation to cleaning is to have music playing in the background. Not sure why, but it drove me to remember my young days when it was Saturday – early, too early in the morning!

So,  Leo Dan – Pideme La Luna – this song, it brings me tons of memories. I remember waking up , early….. EARLY on Saturday mornings with this song blasting  (hint from mother that it was cleaning day). Nevertheless, this very old Spanish song by an Argentine composer has a very attractive voice + the Spanish lyrics makes the song even more emotional.  So, as it appears – I woke up this day feeling the urge of remember either my young days, or just simply that this song would play when I would be cleaning up back in the days.

So neat-less to say, for the rest of the day, I’ll be listening to songs from the well accented men full of romance that will sweep you of your feet (all Spanish of course) =)

Thanks for reading
- m bran

Continue reading Music me this, music me that… April 2nd!