I am returning to my roots in blogging to comment on Rick Riordan's fourth book in The Heroes of Olympus series. So once again it behooves me to write for the sake of those who despise spoilers: click the little 'x' in the corner of the screen and abort reading this post if 1) you have not finished reading the book and 2) you will not consider it a tragedy to know something that might influence your adventure with the demi-gods. I know I would avoid this post if I had not finished reading The House of Hades.
But I did! So here I go...
My one sentence review of the House of Hades:
Riordan continues to craft an enthralling story of Olympic grandeur.
I love reading. The activity becomes even more addicting when you have someone to further discuss the story, any theories, the writing style, etc. I read this book in tandem with my sister. And that is the key to becoming a bibliophile! (Ask your parents to produce a smarter sister who loves books as much as you do.) In fact, my love for the HP series started with my younger siblings who read the book and talked about the story. My sister and I would discuss the characters and the themes, the story arc, and such literary elements with multiple perspectives. And so it is with Percy Jackson and friends (this time, I was her ticket to Riordan's world). With this scant introduction to such a magnificent story, I share with you a playlist I started to compile as I read the book. My sister chimed in a few song suggestions.
Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash)
Snails (The Format)
Calling All Cops (Motion City Soundtrack)
Roxanne (Sting, but the Moulin Rouge soundtrack fits better)
Mercy (Duffy)
Same Love (Macklemore)
Eye of the Tiger (Survivor)*
Born to be Wild (Steppenwolf)
Someone that I used to know (Gotye)**
Mona Lisa (All American Rejects)
Crazy (Britney Spears)
Born This Way (Lady Gaga)
Destination (Imagine Dragons)***
Camille and I know that this list is only the beginning. There are so many more songs we could add. Blimey, we could probably make a playlist for each character! I kept singing the first few lines of Snails because of a certain name... Same is true for Calling All Cops. There is just one word. ONE WORD. And I start singing/humming that part of the song.
*Frank Zhang all the way!
**Ha. For Camille and Calypso... at least that is what I had written in my iPhone notes.
***For Festus and me!!!
Camille... we will continue this ongoing conversation...
Tuesday, October 15, 2013
Monday, October 14, 2013
The life of a drifter
I have been a vagabond the past two months. Therefore I have stories. Good stories. Sad stories. Happy stories! Frustrating stories. Rather than share all of it in its glory, I have opted to list some wonderful
nuggets of my comings and goings:
I have slept on a bed for probably two out of the last eight
weeks, which means I have slept on a floor with various degrees of padding for
the majority of the time.
Ammon makes a mean breakfast burrito.
Ammon is the best front seat passenger. Seriously, this kid is funny and chill.
The parents don’t mess around when it comes to breakfast. They
begin each day with a meal fit for royalty.
Camille is the queen of sweets. One day, I ate Rocky Road
ice cream for breakfast, Angel food cake for brunch, and chocolate pumpkin
cookies for lunch. She keeps a large glass container filled with various
M&M’s and always has a stash of Reece’s Peanut Butter Cups and marshmallows (because "Lucky Charms does not have enough marshmallows").
Mario gives the best hugs and has the best stories of outrageous
people. He can’t help but develop a hilarious perspective of people. Whenever I hear his stories, I realize how uncommon it is to actually have common sense.
Pineapple shaved ice is the best flavor at Shoobies. I
should know because I experimented with multiple concoctions for 2 weeks. (Tiger’s
blood and mango are close seconds.)
Shaun, Tina, and Maelin are the most pleasant and ideal hosts.
Matilda is my favorite movie buddy because we can go to
whatever show we want at whatever time of day. No babies allowed.
I am loved whole-heartedly from this little guy. I love him more than he loves me (at least I'd like to think my love is that powerful and encompassing) .
I have been able to run in Rexburg, ID (elevation over 6000
ft), the desert surrounding Page, AZ (God’s country), and the parks of Oro
Valley (perfect temperatures). Each run was better than the last.
Conversations that had me laughing like a native...
Ammon (addressing me with a shake of the head): Xaz. All
books. No Street.
Camille: I wish we could keep you here forever.
Me: Uh... that is called captivity... and is punishable.
Dad: Your mom was asking me some goofy questions earlier
today, so I answered her seriously.
Mom: I asked your dad to tell me something romantic. And he
replied “Randy Travis.”
Dad: It was either Randy Travis or George Strait.
Phone
conversation on speaker
Me: Camille, I’m watching The Amazing Race with the parents.
I’m explaining why we would be a great team.
Camille: Yeah, we would be either really competitive or
really funny because we were so terrible.
Dad: I think you two are too competitive and would take it
too seriously.
Camille: Nah, whenever one of us becomes serious, we always
laugh at the other person.
Dad: I wonder what people think of the LDS people (mormons)?
They act like Quakers and dress like Mennonites!
(Said on
the way to church at the LDS meeting house in Echo Cliffs)
Road
trippin’... usually with my dad or mom or both
Dad: Xaz, do you think all elderly people are wise?
Me: No. You always ask me that question and then go on to
share a story as to why they are not.
Dad: You know I’m at the age when I can be called an elder.
People are supposed to be listening to me!
Dad: Xaz, don’t ever let other Navajos tell you that you are
not one of them.
Mom: You were born in the heart of the reservation- Fort
Defiance!
Dad: Yeah, that’s right! You were born in the armpit of our
nation.
Mom: In the old hospital—
Dad: In the old, condemned hospital that’s boarded up now.
(I really
don’t know the origins of this conversation/ “pep talk”)
Text from Stuart (Camille was driving Seth, Stuart, and
herself back to Tucson after a relaxing trip north. They began the first leg of
their journey on the newly paved Coppermine Road, N-20 between Page and Gap.)
The meanest thing Camille has said today to a fast driver,
“I hope that the police is up there. Or a cow.”
Dad: Ammon thinks I know everyone in the whole world, but I
really know only three people and we hang out at the same spot so it seems like
I know everyone.
Friday, October 4, 2013
Goodbye Kelekar Lab, Part II
Thursday, October 3, 2013 7:26 PM Tucson, AZ
In the spirit of Mindy Kaling (who is my avatar at the moment), I will finish Goodbye Kelekar Lab, Part deux.
... ... ...
Blimey, my Gryffindor journal entries start out so well! Unfortunately, most are unfinished stories of my adventures and thoughts. No more than three seconds passed upon writing that sentence when Seth grabbed my pointer finger and pulled me away from the comfort of sitting/laying like a sloth on the couch. Being an aunt takes some work. Being an AWESOME aunt takes more work. I am the best aunt in the history of the world, which means my game hovers at superhero level. Naturally, I ditched the writing and transformed from a sloth to a dragon-cat-slash-Voldermort kind of animal. It was really cool. In retrospect, I think I was channeling Benedict Cumberbatch's animation of Smaug. I digress from the point of this post, but I need to repeat that the raspy, growling, Voldermort-hiss sound that I created for my dragon-cat animal was supercool. Seth loved it and tried to replicate it. He choked. But only for a few seconds. He screamed in delight as I began to chase him on all fours. He laughed. I laughed. And that basically sums up my experience with my nephew- we love to laugh together.
Now to return to the second week of August, 2013... Part 1 set the stage for the conceptual planning of our departure. Ryan and I, being the gems that we are, never had a tiff about the treasures within Party City. We LOVED it. However, we had to be reeled in, lest we purchase the store without any clear idea for a theme. Fortunately, we did have a ranking of things we loved. Ryan, as we all know, could be summed up with the 'Hello Kitty' section. Generally speaking, we would associate everything and anything PINK with Ryan and give him reign over such decorations.
I, on the other hand, love to celebrate the following holidays: Cinco de mayo, Halloween, Mexico's Day of Independence (September 16th), Chinese New Year, and St. Patrick's Day. Hence, the love of this aisle and the eventual use of the inflatable cactus and the mariachi band (over 5 feet!).
We chose the fiesta theme with pink decorations.
A typical conversation between Ryan and myself sometime that week:
Ryan: What is the theme of our decorations? (A legit question that I had not considered)
Me: Ooh! We could have that as a trivia Q!
Ryan: (Perfectly smiles in assent)...YES!... and the answer would be --?
Me: Hmm... I would accept an undiagnosed ADHD person with something against Bay 5-170. (Okay, this refers to the 2013 battle of the bays, which was waged between Downey and Ryan and myself. There were moments of world peace due to the power of ice cream and movies. Details remain hazy as to who instigated this battle, but the victor at the end was of course, Bay 5-168. Wow, that was a tangential point I did not intend to go down. Back to the comment I made at the time, there were few things that Ryan and I knew were a definite part to our decorations. Among them were Fiesta decorations, PINK streamers, something with wrapping paper, and aluminum foil)
Ryan: So our decorations are Fiesta-themed and Pink... it is like a quinceañera!!!
Me: YES! A 15-year old Latin American girl's celebration into womanhood! It comes together so beautifully.
Ryan and I merrily proceeded to finish our work and chat about other things. We had a life to organize and we knew that Friday night was going to be a looong night, especially since Thursday night unfolded not according to plan (Part 3 loosely titled "Ryan floods the floor and steals the janitor's mop").
Ha ha... that is all that I can write for now. Maybe this post will be in four parts. There is The Flood to write about and the night that Ryan and I created a quinceañera.
In the spirit of Mindy Kaling (who is my avatar at the moment), I will finish Goodbye Kelekar Lab, Part deux.
... ... ...
Blimey, my Gryffindor journal entries start out so well! Unfortunately, most are unfinished stories of my adventures and thoughts. No more than three seconds passed upon writing that sentence when Seth grabbed my pointer finger and pulled me away from the comfort of sitting/laying like a sloth on the couch. Being an aunt takes some work. Being an AWESOME aunt takes more work. I am the best aunt in the history of the world, which means my game hovers at superhero level. Naturally, I ditched the writing and transformed from a sloth to a dragon-cat-slash-Voldermort kind of animal. It was really cool. In retrospect, I think I was channeling Benedict Cumberbatch's animation of Smaug. I digress from the point of this post, but I need to repeat that the raspy, growling, Voldermort-hiss sound that I created for my dragon-cat animal was supercool. Seth loved it and tried to replicate it. He choked. But only for a few seconds. He screamed in delight as I began to chase him on all fours. He laughed. I laughed. And that basically sums up my experience with my nephew- we love to laugh together.
Now to return to the second week of August, 2013... Part 1 set the stage for the conceptual planning of our departure. Ryan and I, being the gems that we are, never had a tiff about the treasures within Party City. We LOVED it. However, we had to be reeled in, lest we purchase the store without any clear idea for a theme. Fortunately, we did have a ranking of things we loved. Ryan, as we all know, could be summed up with the 'Hello Kitty' section. Generally speaking, we would associate everything and anything PINK with Ryan and give him reign over such decorations.
I, on the other hand, love to celebrate the following holidays: Cinco de mayo, Halloween, Mexico's Day of Independence (September 16th), Chinese New Year, and St. Patrick's Day. Hence, the love of this aisle and the eventual use of the inflatable cactus and the mariachi band (over 5 feet!).
We chose the fiesta theme with pink decorations.
 |
| Jenna, I REALLY wanted to get this for you (the small Drink Cozy serape). I don't know why. For some reason, I thought the serape screamed your name. |
 |
Okay, the scene setter would have been hilarious. I doubt Ryan and I would have been able to put this up... Wait, let me restate that... Ryan would have had to put this up solo because I would have collapsed from delirious laughter. It is GINORMOUS! This little party scene would have had to be hung in the outside hall because there was not adequate space for it in the lab. [Additional note: Now the Giant Outdoor Fiesta decorations would have been super fun to use on you lot. But I bought them to use for my brother's family! This may be the reason why I love cinco de mayo... I originally bought party stuff to tease my younger brother because he dislikes "those holidays that are not holidays" and then it grew into a genuine love for 'those holidays that are not holidays' to some people.] |
 |
This beautiful serape would have made a decent lab gift for either Jenna or James (or Eric to go with that sombrero) because they go to the mouse room with their lab coats. I doubt this would have passed as a lab coat and so it is relegated to only a picture. :( |
A typical conversation between Ryan and myself sometime that week:
Ryan: What is the theme of our decorations? (A legit question that I had not considered)
Me: Ooh! We could have that as a trivia Q!
Ryan: (Perfectly smiles in assent)...YES!... and the answer would be --?
Me: Hmm... I would accept an undiagnosed ADHD person with something against Bay 5-170. (Okay, this refers to the 2013 battle of the bays, which was waged between Downey and Ryan and myself. There were moments of world peace due to the power of ice cream and movies. Details remain hazy as to who instigated this battle, but the victor at the end was of course, Bay 5-168. Wow, that was a tangential point I did not intend to go down. Back to the comment I made at the time, there were few things that Ryan and I knew were a definite part to our decorations. Among them were Fiesta decorations, PINK streamers, something with wrapping paper, and aluminum foil)
Ryan: So our decorations are Fiesta-themed and Pink... it is like a quinceañera!!!
Me: YES! A 15-year old Latin American girl's celebration into womanhood! It comes together so beautifully.
Ryan and I merrily proceeded to finish our work and chat about other things. We had a life to organize and we knew that Friday night was going to be a looong night, especially since Thursday night unfolded not according to plan (Part 3 loosely titled "Ryan floods the floor and steals the janitor's mop").
... ... ...
Ha ha... that is all that I can write for now. Maybe this post will be in four parts. There is The Flood to write about and the night that Ryan and I created a quinceañera.
Sunday, September 22, 2013
Good bye Kelekar Lab, Part 1
Okay, I have not updated my blog for more than a year. Pathetic. Nor have I shared the following pictures and texts, except with Yan and Ryan. Now is the time to tell a story. Unfortunately, I'm tired because of extensive traveling to visit friends and family from Rexburg, ID to Tucson, AZ. I promised the lab an account of the past 72 hours prior to leaving Minneapolis, MN. However, the story must begin nearly a week prior. Here goes with the "lazy Xazmin" method of story telling...
Book report style:
Who: Ryan and Xazmin (the custodial staff was always on hand as well)
What: The thoughtful adventures of Ryan and Xazmin
Where: MCB 5th floor, BAY 5-168, Party City in
Roseville or at the Quarry, Target
When: Aug 6th to the 10th, 2013,
usually between 7pm-12 am and at least once until 4 am
Why am I telling this story with pictures? These texts are
priceless. I couldn’t do the story justice with my words... well they are my
words and Ryan’s... Oh boy, I miss you Ryan!!!!
CONVERSATION ZERO between Ryan and Xazmin...
X: “I’ve been thinking about the send-off I want to give to
the lab.”
R: “Me too.”
X: “I would love to pull a practical joke on them. My friend
Sonita, specializes in executing practical jokes.” [X begins looking through
Sonita’s facebook pictures...]
R: “....”
X: “...”
R: "..."
X: “Okay, I will head over to the party store soon and I’ll
text you what I find.”
R: “Have fun!”
CONVERSATION 2.0 (Our dialogue transitioned to technology)
 |
| Picture 1. A Hello Kitty piñata (I think piñatas are the best! And at the time, we were thinking along the lines of a cat theme...) |
 |
Picture 2. A 43” JUMBO monkey... What could have been, but I did not purchase immediately because we were in the ‘conceptual’ phase of planning... Also one more point that I must stress, I am not 53"! I stand at a mighty height of 63 inches. |
 |
Picture 3. Aha... the decision making process of Xazmin: top hat or jester hat for Michael? Earlier that day, upon thoughtful staring at the white board, Michael summed up the musings of himself, Eric, and myself with a nod to Alice and the Wonderland by saying, “Just give me a top hat.” I chose the color blue because he is a rare individual who will always have the same school colors, which happens to be blue. |
 |
| Picture 4. OVER 6 FEET! It would have been lovely on the window between Eric and Jenna. |
Okay, I realize I need to give a small backstory to these 'calculations'... Sonita and co-workers had recently pulled off an epic post-it notes prank on her boss who recently had a baby. This is their story--
Now back to the conversation...
*2 hours was a boy's dream and a girl's foolish hope
Michael. Michael. Michael. Ryan and I both love and miss you. We make an excellent threesome.
Hours/Days (?) later... In the lab, Ryan and I discussed our half-baked plans. Our goals that week were to update our lab notebooks, organize data, and perform experiments! (And I suppose *think* of packing... we knew it had to be done at some point and it was the last thing we accomplished before we headed out. Personally, I am choosing a minimalist lifestyle to avoid the stress of packing in the future). We did not want to discuss our plans in front of you all. Luckily, we communicate sort of telepathically and somehow the following picture became part of our theme...
To be continued...
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