<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<?xml-stylesheet type="text/xsl" media="screen" href="/~d/styles/atom10full.xsl"?><?xml-stylesheet type="text/css" media="screen" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~d/styles/itemcontent.css"?><feed xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" xmlns:feedburner="http://rssnamespace.org/feedburner/ext/1.0" xml:lang="en"><title type="text">Lotería Chicana</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/cindylu" /><updated>2012-05-24T17:54:56+00:00</updated><generator>http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2</generator><sy:updatePeriod xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/">hourly</sy:updatePeriod><sy:updateFrequency xmlns:sy="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/syndication/">1</sy:updateFrequency><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="self" type="application/rss+xml" href="http://feeds.feedburner.com/cindylu" /><feedburner:info uri="cindylu" /><atom10:link xmlns:atom10="http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom" rel="hub" href="http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/" /><feedburner:browserFriendly>This is an XML content feed. It is intended to be viewed in a newsreader or syndicated to another site, subject to copyright and fair use.</feedburner:browserFriendly><entry><title type="text">Wedding Wednesdays</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/24/wedding-wednesdays" /><category term="Boda" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-05-24T10:54:11-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3804</id><summary type="html">Wedding planning hasn&amp;#8217;t made me go crazy yet, but it has turned my hair gray. Wait, that&amp;#8217;s just genetics and aging. I can&amp;#8217;t blame wedding planning. Forthe last year, Sean and I do a little bit of planning and get &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/24/wedding-wednesdays"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/6876633704/" title="Less than six months out and I still refuse to buy bridal magazines by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6110/6876633704_c2c38fb0e5.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Less than six months out and I still refuse to buy bridal magazines"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Wedding planning hasn&amp;#8217;t made me go crazy yet, but it has turned my hair gray. Wait, that&amp;#8217;s just genetics and aging. I can&amp;#8217;t blame wedding planning.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Forthe last year, Sean and I do a little bit of planning and get a big thing like the date and venues out of the way and then take a break from wedding planning for a few weeks or more. That wasn&amp;#8217;t a problem when we had more than a year to plan, but now we&amp;#8217;re less than 4 months away and can&amp;#8217;t procrastinate. Sean suggested Wedding Wednesdays, the day when we get out our to-do lists and check off some items. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since my &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/01/we-couldnt-wait-any-longer"&gt;April Fool&amp;#8217;s elopement post&lt;/a&gt;, we&amp;#8217;ve been pretty productive.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Bridal Party&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7258429908/" title="Picking up my dress. Still have tons to do on the wedding to-do list. by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7091/7258429908_6dce2307a1.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Picking up my dress. Still have tons to do on the wedding to-do list."/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I picked up my dress! I got a call on Tuesday from Rosa&amp;#8217;s Shop. I was surprised. I ordered it early in February, but didn&amp;#8217;t expect to be in until next month. I stopped by yesterday and tried it on again. According to Rosa, I can&amp;#8217;t lose/gain weight nor get taller. That should be easy, especially staying short. My dress has a lace-up back so it can be tightened/loosened and won&amp;#8217;t need any alterations besides the bustle and maybe sewing in bra cups. I still need to figure out shoes, veil and any other accessories.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sean chose his and the groomsmen&amp;#8217;s suits. I&amp;#8217;m hoping to gather up most of the bridesmaids for shopping this weekend We have a few top choices.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We still need to figure out flower girls, but have a ring bearer. I asked my cousin Tony and his wife, Ingrid, if their elder son would be our ring bearer. They were happy and said yes. When I asked eight-year old Anthony, he said no and ran away to play. Kids are silly. I hope he comes around. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Reception&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7262863618/" title="BCC patio by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7104/7262863618_93b7a0b2ea.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt="BCC patio"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We re-visited the reception venue. The &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2011/07/15/wedding-venues"&gt;first time we visited&lt;/a&gt;, the staff was very helpful, but I didn&amp;#8217;t know what to ask. This time, we got a much better sense of how the banquet hall and adjoining spaces are typically set up for weddings or parties. I had no idea we could use the hallway outside the room to place a photo booth. Last summer, we didn&amp;#8217;t even check out the patio. I was surprised to find out it was much bigger than I&amp;#8217;d imagined. I came away feeling better and excited about the party. Seriously, I worried our guests weren&amp;#8217;t going to fit. In my imagination the venue had shrunk.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We hired a DJ. I know he&amp;#8217;ll be able to handle my Mexican family&amp;#8217;s requests since he has very similar roots (also from Jerez, Zacatecas). He won&amp;#8217;t need to go look for a copy of &amp;#8220;La Marcha de Zacatecas&amp;#8221;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7262799112/" title="More arrangements by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7096/7262799112_9347922485.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="More arrangements"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I searched for a florist searching and did some pricing in downtown LA&amp;#8217;s flower district with my mom. I also met with a potential florist (recommended by a friend). We still have to hire a florist, but at least I have a budget in mind. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Met with and hired a bartender. She was recommended by Alexis (brother&amp;#8217;s girlfriend). She&amp;#8217;ll be bring along two other people to handle our party. She also gave us some pretty good suggestions on stocking the bar on a budget. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Priced alcohol, plates and cutlery. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ordered tablecloths and napkins. We found a wholesaler downtown who did custom colors and was more affordable than the rentals I&amp;#8217;d looked into. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;Ceremony/Church stuff&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We had our second meeting with Fr Ricky at St. John Vianney and went over the results of the compatibility test we took at orientation last summer. We have some areas to work on/talk about, but we knew that. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We attended Engaged Encounter, a retreat for Catholic couples. Our church requires this rather than weekly classes in preparation for the sacrament. I liked the retreat because it was a focus on marriage rather than the wedding. It was nice to talk to several other couples with summer/fall weddings. Plus, it was refreshing to see what I&amp;#8217;ve known all along: the average couple in Southern California is underrepresented on the popular wedding blogs.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Looked into a soloist to sing at the ceremony. Mainly, this meant asking my cousin, Fabiola, if she&amp;#8217;ll sing. I&amp;#8217;m crossing my fingers that she can make the trip from Guanajuato. Music is already included in the church fee, but I&amp;#8217;d love to hear Fabiola sing a song or two. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/fZOKJCWeeOY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/24/wedding-wednesdays/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">0</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Forty hours in New Orleans</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/22/3789" /><category term="Amigos" /><category term="Viajes" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-05-22T01:10:26-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3789</id><summary type="html">I&amp;#8217;ve been a little lax on blogging. I&amp;#8217;ve been out and about doing some cool stuff like taking a super quick trip to New Orleans for a wedding. Sean&amp;#8217;s former ZogSports (intramural football) teammates, Tony and Christina, got married on &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/22/3789"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7178997544/" title="It's like Disneyland, but with a lot more alcohol. by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5113/7178997544_cf2450fc41.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="It's like Disneyland, but with a lot more alcohol."/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#8217;ve been a little lax on blogging. I&amp;#8217;ve been out and about doing some cool stuff like taking a super quick trip to New Orleans for a wedding. Sean&amp;#8217;s former ZogSports (intramural football) teammates, Tony and Christina, got married on May 12th.  &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I arrived on Friday. Sean picked me up at the airport. He flew in the day before and had an extra day to party and reunite with his New York friends. We dropped my stuff off at the hotel, Maison Dupuy, and walked around the French Quarter for a little bit. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7206417268/" title="Beignets at Café du Monde by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8143/7206417268_4052368c3c.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="Beignets at Café du Monde"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7206420698/" title="Café du Monde by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8164/7206420698_8af7624952.jpg" width="500" height="374" alt="Café du Monde"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We had café au lait and beignets at Café du Monde and stared out at the Mississippi for a moment. Later that evening, we met up with several others for a delicious dinner at Emeril&amp;#8217;s Delmonico. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Afterward we went to a club to meet up with the groom and more friends. We didn&amp;#8217;t hang out too long since I was tired, still recovering from my cold and not really up for enjoying the  New Orleans nightlife. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7206436492/" title="Pouring outside our window by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7098/7206436492_757e5ecdf3.jpg" width="374" height="500" alt="Pouring outside our window"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;On Saturday we had brunch near the hotel and then shared some beers with friends in a pirate-themed bar. I felt like I was at Disneyland with the pirate and French Quarter thing going on. We didn&amp;#8217;t do much that afternoon except get ready for the wedding since we weren&amp;#8217;t too interested in walking around in a storm. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/7211672258/" title="Mr. &amp;amp; Mrs. Buglione by Melanism.com, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8141/7211672258_e394876f69.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Mr. &amp;amp; Mrs. Buglione"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Tony and Christina&amp;#8217;s wedding was a lot of fun and worth the too-quick trip. They had a short ceremony at Our Lady of Guadalupe. It was the first time I attended a Catholic wedding that wasn&amp;#8217;t a full Mass; they just did the liturgy (readings) and vows. The reception was held at Maison Dupuy. Since the courtyard was still wet from the rain on Friday and Saturday, the party was moved to two smaller ballrooms indoors. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Highlights from the wedding: &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/7211646786/" title="Tony sings a song he wrote for Christina by Melanism.com, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7103/7211646786_bb1fbf6fa2.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Tony sings a song he wrote for Christina"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Tony sang/played a surprise song he composed for Christina. It was really sweet. Tony&amp;#8217;s mom asked Sean how he was going to top that. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- The excellent band of about a dozen musicians and singers. They played covers of current pop songs and old rock hits but it wasn&amp;#8217;t cheesy at all. They were great and once I started dancing I couldn&amp;#8217;t stop. I guess when you&amp;#8217;re in New Orleans there&amp;#8217;s no shortage of great live music.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- The food. They set up a buffet of hors d&amp;#8217;oeuvres, gumbo, roast beef carving station, fruit and cheese. Judging by how I felt the next morning on the flight home, I liked the food and champagne a little too much. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/7211616444/" title="Suit up by Melanism.com, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5116/7211616444_588d4a19a7_n.jpg" width="213" height="320" alt="Suit up"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/7211619284/" title="My Wedding Date by Melanism.com, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8166/7211619284_cf460a9fd0_n.jpg" width="213" height="320" alt="My Wedding Date"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- My handsome date. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7197615280/" title="Teal twins! by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7235/7197615280_517c63b48c.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Teal twins!"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Being teal twins with Jen (totally unplanned). I think the color suits us well. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/7211675010/" title="Go Dodgers! by Melanism.com, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5339/7211675010_ea7ba9f3c1.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Go Dodgers!"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- Dancing and partying with the NY crew. I hope they bring the party to our wedding, but leave the Yankee fandom out of our decorations. Sean really liked the groom&amp;#8217;s cake.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/7211538306/" title="Second Line through the French Quarter by Melanism.com, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5114/7211538306_883feb55a8.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Second Line through the French Quarter"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;- The &lt;a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_line_(parades)"&gt;second line&lt;/a&gt; through the French Quarter at the end of the party. It&amp;#8217;s been a dozen years since I&amp;#8217;ve been in a parade with a brass band. Last time, Rose Parade 1999, was much different since I (a) didn&amp;#8217;t need to play my trombone and (b) wasn&amp;#8217;t in a band uniform. Instead I just marched/walked to the music and waved a white handkerchief as is customary. Since it was a Saturday night, there were lots of spectators cheering on the wedding party as we circled several blocks in the French Quarter. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/7211582138/" title="Second Line through the French Quarter by Melanism.com, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5330/7211582138_d4528000b4.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Second Line through the French Quarter"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When we arrived back at the hotel, we danced a little more. I&amp;#8217;m really glad my purse was big enough to hold a pair of flip flops. I wouldn&amp;#8217;t have made it back to the hotel in my heels. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7187737766/" title="Adios, NOLA by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/7187737766_0584c7d468.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Adios, NOLA"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We only got a few hours of sleep before waking up at 5 am to make our 7 am flights. Ugh. The trip home was not fun.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;All non-iPhone pictures borrowed from &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/meldotcom/sets/72157629681786602/with/7211758222/"&gt;Sean&lt;/a&gt; since I forgot my camera. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/B_Hj7d3cCWM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/22/3789/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">2</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Listening to my (un)consciousness</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/18/listening-to-my-unconsciousness" /><category term="Cuentos" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-05-18T19:11:01-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3783</id><summary type="html">Yesterday morning, I fainted&amp;#8230; again. This happens once every few years. The symptoms/causes are usually similar. Last time, I was waiting in line at the school pharmacy. When I came to, there were several nurses and doctors from the student &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/18/listening-to-my-unconsciousness"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;Yesterday morning, I fainted&amp;#8230; again. This happens once every few years. The symptoms/causes are usually similar. Last time, I was waiting in line at the school pharmacy. When I came to, there were several nurses and doctors from the student health center hovering over me. I remember one complimenting my purple flats, but mainly I was just embarrassed and my butt hurt from the fall. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;This time, I was sitting. Yeah, it&amp;#8217;s possible to faint while sitting.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I hit the floor of the bathroom (I was on the toilet), Sean heard the noise and came in to help me.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;Cindy!&amp;#8221; It sounded like he was yelling, I&amp;#8217;m sure he wasn&amp;#8217;t. His eyes were big and worried. I knew I had fainted, but I was confused why he was there. I had broken in to a cold sweat and my shirt felt damp. My head and knee hurt a bit from the fall.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was a lucky coincidence that Sean was home. He&amp;#8217;d  left five minutes earlier to go the gym. Halfway down the block, he realized he&amp;#8217;d forgotten his phone and returned. He came in, grabbed his phone and was almost out the door when he heard a loud thud in the bathroom.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I was ready to go out of the bathroom, Sean helped me get back in to bed. I was still sweaty and dizzy. I immediately fell asleep.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I woke up a few hours later. My head hurt, but it wasn&amp;#8217;t horrible. My neck felt worse. I couldn&amp;#8217;t tilt it nor turn much to the right. The dizziness and other symptoms went away after my nap, but I still felt very tired. I rested throughout the day, drank a lot of water and Gatorade, and took a short walk to get some fresh air.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I didn&amp;#8217;t go to the doctor until this morning. She checked me out for a concussion and gave me a muscle relaxer for my neck. I was cleared on the concussion. We talked about why I fainted (stress, dehydration, cramps, gastrointestinal issues). I mentioned running a half marathon on Sunday. She didn&amp;#8217;t think it was a good idea, and I didn&amp;#8217;t argue.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My neck feels better today than yesterday, but I still don&amp;#8217;t have full range of motion. I&amp;#8217;m a little bummed about backing out of my first race, but only because of the race fee. I knew I was far from doing my best on Sunday, but would&amp;#8217;ve still ran the race out of stubbornness. Now, my body is saying it needs more rest. I&amp;#8217;ll listen.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/r3cvvon99nA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/18/listening-to-my-unconsciousness/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">6</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Zero miles, dozens of tissues</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/14/zero-miles-dozens-of-tissues" /><category term="Boda" /><category term="Corriendo" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-05-14T17:55:51-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3773</id><summary type="html">Zero. That&amp;#8217;s the amount of miles I&amp;#8217;ve run since May 4th. This does not bode well considering I have the Pasadena half marathon coming up in 5 days. I have an excuse. Of course I do. Mainly, I haven&amp;#8217;t been &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/14/zero-miles-dozens-of-tissues"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7199975624/" title="Sick days by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm9.staticflickr.com/8149/7199975624_5f5bc8c418.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Sick days"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Zero. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#8217;s the amount of miles I&amp;#8217;ve run since May 4th. This does not bode well considering I have the Pasadena half marathon coming up in 5 days. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I have an excuse. Of course I do.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Mainly, I haven&amp;#8217;t been up to it. My last run was a couple of hours before Sean and I were scheduled to attend a weekend long retreat for Catholic engaged couples. I know a lot of couples grumble about these classes or retreats required by the priest/church marrying them. I can&amp;#8217;t lie and say I was really looking forward to it. There were a bunch of things going on that weekend I didn&amp;#8217;t want to miss, but we&amp;#8217;d already committed to the retreat. And I knew it was important. Marriage is a sacrament and it made sense to me to have to take some sort of class. I did the same thing as a kid/teen for Reconciliation, First Communion, and Confirmation. I enjoyed the retreat and all the great conversations Sean and I had about our relationship and what we look forward to in the future. I got a lot out of it, most of which was great.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The one thing I came home with that I would&amp;#8217;ve rather have left at the Montebello retreat center was a nasty cold I caught from one of the other 100+ participants. Ugh.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;That cold knocked me out and kept me home from work a few days. In the past, I&amp;#8217;ve been able to sorta keep up with my training and get in some easy runs even if I had the sniffles or a cough. This time around, I just wasn&amp;#8217;t up to it. And I don&amp;#8217;t feel bad. I&amp;#8217;d rather be healthy and under trained on the 20th than still sick.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I doubt I&amp;#8217;ll be able to knock out a PR or sub-1:50 (original A goal). I&amp;#8217;m okay with that. I haven&amp;#8217;t been too into running lately. I&amp;#8217;m not sure why, but I think after the hard effort at the LA Marathon I&amp;#8217;m ready for a little break. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/-bQkUnjqc4w" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/14/zero-miles-dozens-of-tissues/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">3</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Your middle name is always</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/01/your-middle-name-is-always" /><category term="Boda" /><category term="Cuentos" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-05-01T21:27:51-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3742</id><summary type="html">Whenever we&amp;#8217;re asked how we met, Sean and I both respond, &amp;#8220;Ummmm.&amp;#8221; The truth? We really don&amp;#8217;t know how we met, but we figured we had to get the story down before we got married. The easy answers would be &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/01/your-middle-name-is-always"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/engage1.jpg"&gt;&lt;img src="http://loteriachicana.net/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/engage11.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Whenever we&amp;#8217;re asked how we met, Sean and I both respond, &amp;#8220;Ummmm.&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The truth?&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We really don&amp;#8217;t know how we met, but we figured we had to get the story down before we got married.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The easy answers would be &amp;#8220;through mutual friends&amp;#8221; or &amp;#8220;at a barbecue,&amp;#8221; but that&amp;#8217;s not completely accurate. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Here&amp;#8217;s what we know:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We met in Los Angeles in May 2002. Ten years is a long time and all I remember is being introduced to Sean and his friends from New York. I don&amp;#8217;t even remember what we talked about, or if we talked about anything.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Seven months later, I saw him again when I took a trip to New York with a bunch of mutual friends. During that trip, I hung out with Sean and friends once or twice again. I think we watched a movie (&lt;em&gt;Gangs of New York&lt;/em&gt;, maybe) and ate at a Chinese restaurant near Times Square.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Neither of us remember more than being in each other&amp;#8217;s presence with several other friends. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/143304633/" title="The reception was held in an art gallery by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/50/143304633_1858e19cdb.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="The reception was held in an art gallery"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Although we were both part of the same online network, I didn&amp;#8217;t ever really interact with Sean. In May 2006, he came to LA for a wedding. We sat at the same table. A few years later I told Sean, &amp;#8220;I didn&amp;#8217;t even remember that you were at Andrea and Jasaun&amp;#8217;s wedding until I went through the pictures.&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;We sat at the same table! How could you forget?&amp;#8221; I blame our friends&amp;#8217; adorable baby girls sitting at the table with us.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I do know that Sean and I started interacting more through our blogs in early 2007. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sean&amp;#8217;s &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2007/01/23/so-predictable/comment-page-1#comment-9638"&gt;first comment&lt;/a&gt; &amp;#8212; according to WordPress &amp;#8212; on a post about the Coachella Arts &amp;#038; Music Festival: &amp;#8220;Rumor has it The Police might be reuniting there as well.&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We soon realized we had very similar taste in music and television. We both adored &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2008/04/21/heres-to-all-the-pretty-words-we-will-never-speak"&gt;Rilo Kiley&lt;/a&gt; and lamented the fact that our local friends didn&amp;#8217;t love the group as much. We chatted almost daily on G-Chat about Lost theories, new music and dating misadventures.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/2313463313/" title="First submission for the job of concert buddy by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2148/2313463313_72cedacc96.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="First submission for the job of concert buddy"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Our relationship continued like this for a few more years. Sean was the first person to apply for the position of &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2008/02/22/wanted-concert-buddy"&gt;concert buddy&lt;/a&gt; by sending in a mix CD. I loved the songs he chose and soon developed a &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2008/04/15/crush-evolution"&gt;mini crush&lt;/a&gt; I kept to myself&amp;#8230; and the blog.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/2379926954/" title="Sean, the New Yorker who told me I needed to be nicer by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm3.staticflickr.com/2236/2379926954_cceff8c802.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Sean, the New Yorker who told me I needed to be nicer"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I visited New York for an education conference in 2008, we hung out, watched &lt;em&gt;Lost&lt;/em&gt; played video games (I won, of course) and drank beer while talking about the similarities in our upbringings as first generation kids. The next year when he came to LA, I took him out for Mexican food and watched &lt;em&gt;Lost&lt;/em&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;We were friends for a long time and got to know each other quite well before either of us ever let on that we &amp;#8212; gulp &amp;#8212; had non-platonic feelings. Despite this, there was still a lot I&amp;#8217;d come to learn about Sean while falling in love with him.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://loteriachicana.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/comment0608.jpeg"/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Sean&amp;#8217;s now my concert buddy for life. No plane ticket required. Mix tapes still accepted.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Wrote this for the wedding website. I was inspired to revisit it when I read &lt;a href="http://melissanibbles.blogspot.com/2012/05/love-is-mix-tape.html"&gt;Melissa Nibbles&amp;#8217;&lt;/a&gt; post on the book &lt;/em&gt;Love Is A Mix Tape&lt;em&gt; and thought about how sharing music helped my relationship with Sean develop from platonic friendship to long distance relationship and then some. &lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/jGu_KvutmqI" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/05/01/your-middle-name-is-always/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">3</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">There was a riot on the streets, tell me where were you?</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/30/there-was-a-riot-on-the-streets-tell-me-where-were-you" /><category term="Los Angeles" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-04-30T23:45:55-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3734</id><summary type="html">I usually get annoyed when one topic takes over news and culture podcasts for the week (e.g., Girls, Sharon van Etten&amp;#8217;s latest album, Baratunde Thurston&amp;#8217;s book tour). This week I didn&amp;#8217;t get annoyed by the excellent coverage of the 20th &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/30/there-was-a-riot-on-the-streets-tell-me-where-were-you"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/6984848572/" title="LA palm trees by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7217/6984848572_b1eeef86ef.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="LA palm trees"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I usually get annoyed when one topic takes over news and culture podcasts for the week (e.g., &lt;em&gt;Girls&lt;/em&gt;, Sharon van Etten&amp;#8217;s latest album, Baratunde Thurston&amp;#8217;s book tour). This week I didn&amp;#8217;t get annoyed by the excellent coverage of the 20th anniversary of the LA Riots (or Uprising, depending on how you saw the situation) on LA&amp;#8217;s traditional and social media. Instead, I haven&amp;#8217;t been able to get enough.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I was 11 years old during the Riots and living out in the suburbs 20 miles away from any of the action. I definitely was aware of what was going on. I knew the name Rodney King and had seen the video. Everyone had, but I didn&amp;#8217;t know the excessive force used against him by the four LAPD officers was not an isolated incident. I didn&amp;#8217;t know about Latasha Harlins and Soon Ja Du. I&amp;#8217;d never heard of the Watts Riots of 1965. Nor did I know anything about police* brutality, institutionalized racism in the justice system, redlining, de-industrialization, and a recession that hit the poor and working class communities of LA hard. (*In my mind, the police were there to serve and protect, and warn us about doing drugs with the DARE and SANE programs.)&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Like millions of others, I watched the coverage of late April and early May 1992 on the news. I was scared and saddened. I didn&amp;#8217;t understand why people were burning buildings in their own community. I don&amp;#8217;t remember being worried that the burning and looting would reach East LA where my grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins lived. I highly doubted that anything would happen in Hacienda Heights; though something did happen a town over.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7026132791/" title="Helicopter by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7198/7026132791_72911ebd37.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Helicopter"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I remember talking about the looting with some kids who lived down the street. I don&amp;#8217;t remember the boy&amp;#8217;s name, but he either bragged about looting or just said he &lt;em&gt;wanted&lt;/em&gt; to be out there. I also remember watching Edward James Olmos doing a cleanup (I was a fan at the time). I think my cousin who lived in East LA went out to help.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Since I was a kid, I&amp;#8217;ve read more about the Riots and talked to people who were closer to the action and/or remember it differently. I&amp;#8217;ve also learned a lot more about the conditions that set the stage for such an uprising in LA. I&amp;#8217;m not a clueless 11 year old anymore, naturally. I&amp;#8217;ve had not-so-great experiences with police and been at marches/rallies that got sketchy. Luckily, I never took a rubber bullet to the eye or got pepper sprayed. I no longer live in the suburbs, but in an LA neighborhood that might have seen some burning and looting 20 years ago. It&amp;#8217;s changed a lot in the 12 years I&amp;#8217;ve been here. We even have a light rail line (Expo!).&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A lot has changed in LA in 20 years. At the same time, we haven&amp;#8217;t come that far, but it feels good to know that there are many in LA who are still working to effect change.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;Ed at [view] from a loft has a great  &lt;a href="http://www.viewfromaloft.org/2012/04/la-riots-still-define-la-culture.html"&gt;roundup&lt;/a&gt; of 20th anniversary coverage.  More from &lt;a href="http://www.laobserved.com/archive/2012/04/la_times_writers_revisit.php"&gt;LA Observed&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://blogs.kcrw.com/whichwayla/category/la-riots/"&gt;KCRW&lt;/a&gt; and &lt;a href="http://multiamerican.scpr.org/2012/04/perspectives-on-the-l-a-riots-20-years-later/"&gt;KPCC&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/8aXlV9C4pDE" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/30/there-was-a-riot-on-the-streets-tell-me-where-were-you/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">6</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Reviewing “Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America”</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/27/reviewing-taco-usa-how-mexican-food-conquered-america" /><category term="Comida" /><category term="Mexico" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-04-27T18:27:03-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3678</id><summary type="html">. A couple weeks ago I RSVP’ed to attend a book talk and signing to coincide with the release of Gustavo Arellano’s new book, Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America at UCLA. I was looking forward to it as &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/27/reviewing-taco-usa-how-mexican-food-conquered-america"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/2869167989/" title="Reading from his new book, Orange County: A Personal History by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3016/2869167989_366fbef960.jpg" width="500" height="333" alt="Reading from his new book, Orange County: A Personal History"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A couple weeks ago I RSVP’ed to attend a book talk and signing to coincide with the release of  &lt;a href="http://www.gustavoarellano.net/"&gt;Gustavo Arellano’s&lt;/a&gt; new book, &lt;a href="http://www.amazon.com/Taco-USA-Mexican-Conquered-America/dp/1439148619/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&amp;#038;qid=1332792582&amp;#038;sr=8-1"&gt;Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America&lt;/a&gt; at UCLA. I was looking forward to it as I enjoyed Gustavo’s two previous books  (&lt;em&gt;Ask A Mexican&lt;/em&gt; and &lt;em&gt;Orange County: A Personal History&lt;/em&gt;) and couldn’t wait to read the results of his research on the popularity of Mexican food across the US. I follow him on Twitter and Facebook and he’d been dropping hints about his research and trips on both and in articles on the &lt;em&gt;OC Weekly&lt;/em&gt;. Plus, is there any topic better than Mexican food and drink? &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/82920978/" title="The quietness of El Cargadero makes me think of Rulfo's Comala by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/41/82920978_6feded3ab2.jpg" width="500" height="356" alt="The quietness of El Cargadero makes me think of Rulfo's Comala"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Anyway, I also like Gustavo. He’s a funny, entertaining and opinionated writer covering topics a lot of other journalists ignore. I’m also a fan because we share similar roots. Our mothers were both born in El Cargadero, a pueblito outside of Jerez, Zacatecas. His more autobiographical books felt like I was reading my own familiy’s history. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I never went to the book signing. That afternoon, my Dodger loyalty trumped my Cargaderense roots and pride. Who says Mexican immigrants and their children don’t acculturate or assimilate? Sorry, Gustavo. I ditched your reading but I did buy and read &lt;em&gt;Taco USA&lt;/em&gt;. I went the e-book route since I didn’t want to wait for it to ship and didn’t feel like making a trip to the bookstore. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;strong&gt;&lt;em&gt;Taco USA: How Mexican Food Conquered America&lt;/em&gt; Review&lt;/strong&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/taco-usa.png"&gt;&lt;img src="http://loteriachicana.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/taco-usa-213x333.png"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
&lt;em&gt;Taco USA&lt;/em&gt; is a must read and worth the money you would have spent on dinner at your favorite Mexican restaurant or a couple of meals from your favorite taco truck. I read slowly, wanting to savor &amp;#8212; sorry for the pun &amp;#8212; the descriptions of a lot of new-to-me takes on Mexican food outside of Southern California. I was also disgusted by some of the many culinary crimes committed in the name of making Mexican food palatable to white Americans’ taste (see: canned tortillas&amp;#8230; guácala!). &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/5038576106/" title="I always start with 4 tacos when I go to Martha and Emilio's by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm5.staticflickr.com/4111/5038576106_9a2fcee1da.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt="I always start with 4 tacos when I go to Martha and Emilio's"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;
Back to the book, the first two thirds are a chronological history of Mexican food in the US. Gustavo recounts the heyday of chili queens in Santa Fe and tamale men from San Francisco to Chicago at the turn of the century. Even back then, ambulantes (street vendors) were a big part of the Mexican food culture, or what passed as Mexican food. I had no clue why cartoon characters crowed about “hot tamaleeees!” Now I know. Other things I learned: the taco (hard, fried style not the ones above) didn&amp;#8217;t become popular nationwide until the 1950s-60s; why non-Mexicans are the most popular Mexican food writers and chefs; the origin of nachos; and why chicken, shrimp or veggie fajitas is a misnomer.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/6019355751/" title="Tepeyac's Manuel Special by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6012/6019355751_5ef1e82854.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt="Tepeyac's Manuel Special"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My favorite chapters were about the burrito and Mexican food cooked by and for Mexican people. I attribute that to my LA and California bias. Gustavo begins the chapter on the burrito by describing the Manuel’s Special giant burrito at El Tepeyac Café in Boyle Heights (East LA, for the LA outsiders). &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/50365903/" title="El Tepeyac Café by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm1.staticflickr.com/30/50365903_878ceaf9d0.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="El Tepeyac Café"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I have a particular affinity for El Tepeyac even though a lot of people don’t think the food is all that great. My grandparents, Papá Chepe and Mamá Toni used to live right around the corner from El Tepeyac. Literally. During parties, we used to peek over the wall into the El Tepeyac parking lot. My parents met when they were part of the youth group at &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/50365908/in/photostream/"&gt;Assumption Church&lt;/a&gt;, which is across the street from El Tepeyac. It’s where they got married. My siblings and I were baptized there and several other aunts and uncles married there. My roots run deep. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/2832010113/" title="how to make burritos - step 5: enjoy (or save in baggies for lunch the next day) by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3252/2832010113_01a90f7906.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="how to make burritos - step 5: enjoy (or save in baggies for lunch the next day)"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I started the burrito chapter, “What took the burrito so long to become popular”, with warm fuzzies. And then Gustavo went on to the Mission style burritos in San Francisco (my favorite burritos) and how they inspired chains like Chipotle. I’ve had two Chipotle burritos, both bought by someone else. I don’t get the hype. He also answered a baffling question about the origin of San Diego -berto suffixed chain restaurants. My favorite is the Adalberto&amp;#8217;s by my tío Beto&amp;#8217;s house in Chula Vista. Their carne asada nachos are amazing.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/758462897/" title="Chilaquiles at la Juquila (they made me cry) by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm2.staticflickr.com/1106/758462897_0a9710539d.jpg" width="500" height="375" alt="Chilaquiles at la Juquila (they made me cry)"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gustavo’s chapter on the rise of Mexican food made by and for Mexicans made me hungry and sad that my favorite Mexican restaurant on the westside shut down a couple years ago. I was introduced to Oaxacan food in the late ‘90s by friends and quickly grew to love their moles, enchiladas and chilaquiles. I didn’t know at the time that Oaxacan restaurants were still relatively new in LA. The westside outpost of La Guelaguetza closed down recently. It bummed me out. That was my go-to spot for taking friends from out-of-town for Mexican food they couldn’t get elsewhere. Sadly, I never tried the chapulines (grasshoppers).  &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/3844869728/" title="Tapatío at a Cuban restaurant by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3496/3844869728_428fe8bd94.jpg" width="500" height="357" alt="Tapatío at a Cuban restaurant"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;The latter third of &lt;em&gt;Taco USA&lt;/em&gt; focuses on Mexican food products and drinks in US stores. This was less interesting to me, except when Gustavo discussed the history of brands like salsa El Tapatio. I was used to seeing it on the table at home, but was surprised when I started to see it as a condiment in restaurants or as a flavor for Doritos. I also got confused by all the entrepreneurs making money off Americans’ tastes for tortillas, salsa, tequila and more. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;My only criticism is that Gustavo doesn&amp;#8217;t discuss one popular critique or fear of Mexican food: it&amp;#8217;s unhealthy and fattening. He does discuss the xenophobic fears, e.g., Mexican food is dirty, too spicy, or it&amp;#8217;s going to cause some unfortunate digestive issues. This one got to me when I was losing weight and would read &amp;#8220;Going out for Mexican, help!&amp;#8221; on the Weight Watchers message boards as if Mexican food needed to be feared. Yes, I know, there are a lot of popular Mexican dishes that are fried and/or very cheesy. I love some of those, but it&amp;#8217;s just one type of Mexican food. I lost a bunch of weight without ever giving up my beloved tortillas, (both corn and flour, not the cardboard like whole wheat kind either), tortas and tamales.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A life without tortillas would just be sad. I think &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2011/04/08/this-day-in-chicano-history-oscar-zeta-acosta-1935"&gt;Oscar Zeta Acosta&lt;/a&gt;, the Brown Buffalo, said it best:&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;blockquote&gt;&lt;p&gt;What value is a life without booze and Mexican food? &lt;/p&gt;&lt;/blockquote&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Gustavo is currently on a media and book tour. Check out his schedule &lt;a href="http://www.gustavoarellano.net"&gt;here&lt;/a&gt;. For more on the book, you can find a short interview with Arellano on &lt;a href="http://labloga.blogspot.com/2012/04/la-bloga-interviews-gustavo-arellano.html"&gt;LA Bloga&lt;/a&gt; and an &lt;a href="http://www.laweekly.com/2012-04-05/eat-drink/tacos-history-southern-california-gustavo-arellano/"&gt; excerpt in the &lt;em&gt;LA Weekly&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/a&gt;. He also was on &lt;a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/thesalt/2012/04/23/150886690/the-california-taco-trail-how-mexican-food-conquered-america"&gt;NPR&lt;/a&gt; this week discussing the rise of tacos and the origin of Taco Bell. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Edited: The NYT reviewed &lt;em&gt;Taco USA&lt;/em&gt; in the Dining &amp;#038; Wine section this week. It&amp;#8217;s a great review and gives you more of an overview of the book and about Gustavo&amp;#8217;s career as a food critic and expert on all things Mexican American. If you haven&amp;#8217;t exceeded your 10 pages/month limit, &lt;a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/02/dining/north-of-the-border-its-everyones-mexican-food.html"&gt;go read it&lt;/a&gt;.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/rS9ejYuvgPg" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/27/reviewing-taco-usa-how-mexican-food-conquered-america/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">8</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Are you fit?</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/26/are-you-fit" /><category term="Cambios" /><category term="Corriendo" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-04-26T11:38:53-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3704</id><summary type="html">A couple years ago, Lori invited me to join her and her friend/pseudo trainer for a short trail run through the hills of Schabarum Regional Park. Even though I grew up in the area, I&amp;#8217;d only run/walked the trails once &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/26/are-you-fit"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;img src="http://loteriachicana.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/areyoufit.jpg"/&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;A couple years ago, Lori invited me to join her and her friend/pseudo trainer for a short trail run through the hills of Schabarum Regional Park. Even though I grew up in the area, I&amp;#8217;d only run/walked the trails once before. R was running late and by the time he showed we has warmed up, stretched and were ready to get on the trails. Before we headed out, he sized me up.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;Are you fit?&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&amp;#8220;Um&amp;#8230; I guess.&amp;#8221;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;It was a strange question and I really didn&amp;#8217;t know how to answer it. At that point, I was at/near my goal weight and had been regularly working out and running for a year. I was in a healthy BMI range for the first time in my adult life and could run 5-6 miles without stopping. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;If &amp;#8220;fit&amp;#8221; meant keeping up with Lori and R on the trails, my answer was accurate. If it meant anything aside from running* &amp;#8212; then and now &amp;#8212; not so much.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lately, I&amp;#8217;ve been switching up my strength workouts. Rather than doing the routine I started in December (I&amp;#8217;d added weight and reps since then to make it tougher), I attempted 30 minute strength workouts on the Nike Training Club app. I&amp;#8217;ve done two workouts. Both have kicked my ass. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I tried both at home and after a few moves, I was sweating like crazy, breathing heavily and my heart was beating faster than when I do hill or speed workouts. Even though the moves are meant to be done non-stop without rest, I frequently paused the app to watch a short video demonstrating the moves and to take a breather. At one point during Perfect Score, last night&amp;#8217;s workout, I got lightheaded and laid down on my mat. I&amp;#8217;d only been doing the workout for 20 minutes. If I was running, I&amp;#8217;d barely be sweating at that point.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;img src="http://loteriachicana.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/perfectscore.png"/&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Ten minutes later, I was done with Perfect Score. The woman hosting the NTC app congratulated me,  but it was totally undeserved. I barely finished. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Despite feeling  defeated, un-fit, and sore for a couple of days following each NTC workout, I plan to continue challenging myself. I love running and I&amp;#8217;m pretty happy with my recent improvements. However, I know that if I spent all my exercise time &lt;em&gt;just&lt;/em&gt; running it won&amp;#8217;t be enough to improve my overall fitness and help me get back to my goal weight.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;*I&amp;#8217;d exclude flexibility. I think I&amp;#8217;m okay on that one, but haven&amp;#8217;t done any sort of test.&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/bkwz8J-NnO0" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/26/are-you-fit/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">5</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Gullible parents</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/19/gullible-parents" /><category term="Familia" /><category term="Payasadas" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-04-19T12:24:13-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3690</id><summary type="html">When I put up the April Fool’s day post about a civil wedding, I didn’t bother informing my parents or siblings. They occasionally read my blog, but I didn’t think they’d read that day nor fall for the joke. I &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/19/gullible-parents"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt; &lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7058355123/" title="The parents a little overexposed, but still looking good by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5200/7058355123_c8f452661c.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="The parents a little overexposed, but still looking good"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt; &lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;When I put up the April Fool’s day post about a civil wedding, I didn’t bother informing my parents or siblings. They occasionally read my blog, but I didn’t think they’d read that day nor fall for the joke. I was wrong on the latter. My mom read it later in the week and called my dad a little confused. “Am I losing my memory?” she asked him. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;He read the post and was fooled too until he got to the end. “You got us good,” he told me. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Silly parents. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/T1m5VjxhPPY" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/19/gullible-parents/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">1</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">It’s all fun and games…</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/17/its-all-fun-and-games" /><category term="Cultura" /><category term="Familia" /><author><name>cindylu</name></author><updated>2012-04-17T11:41:06-07:00</updated><id>http://loteriachicana.net/?p=3692</id><summary type="html">I spent Sunday afternoon in Ontario at a last minute birthday BBQ to celebrate Nancy&amp;#8217;s birthday. As usual, hanging out with the cousins was filled with a lot of laughs, games, and an accident or two*. Early in the afternoon, &amp;#8230; &lt;a href="http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/17/its-all-fun-and-games"&gt;Continue reading &lt;span class="meta-nav"&gt;&amp;#8594;&lt;/span&gt;&lt;/a&gt;</summary><content type="html">&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/6940474342/" title="Cake time! by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7056/6940474342_27697e0fec.jpg" width="500" height="500" alt="Cake time!"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;I spent Sunday afternoon in Ontario at a last minute birthday BBQ to celebrate Nancy&amp;#8217;s birthday. As usual, hanging out with the cousins was filled with a lot of laughs, games, and an accident or two*. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/6937044696/" title="Thoughtful Minel by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5442/6937044696_1fb45ac2fe.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Thoughtful Minel"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Early in the afternoon, I played four square with the cousins and catch with the nephews. The nephews were a lot less competitive, but that&amp;#8217;s probably because they&amp;#8217;re toddlers and still getting the hang of throwing and catching.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;center&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7086520961/" title="Family vs piñata by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7061/7086520961_f7369852fc.jpg" width="400" height="400" alt="Family vs piñata"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/center&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Later, we had cake and strung up the piñata. After some swings by the few kids present, the adults took over. I got a couple of good hits, but mainly missed.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/7086535889/" title="Calaca piñata pre and post by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm6.staticflickr.com/5349/7086535889_c1fa170797.jpg" width="500" height="166" alt="Calaca piñata pre and post"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Even though I missed a lot, the guys didn&amp;#8217;t. The piñata lost an eye.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/cindylu/6940477290/" title="Cause and effect by cindylu, on Flickr"&gt;&lt;img src="http://farm8.staticflickr.com/7234/6940477290_f1fcac85d6.jpg" width="500" height="251" alt="Cause and effect"/&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;After Adrian beat up the piñata, tío Pancho threw candy from the roof. As I shot the photo, I thought the situation looked sketchy and backed up a little. Those candy scrambles are always risky, especially when the goodies are thrown from higher up. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Unfortunately, I was right. Adrian left the melee with more than some Snickers. Ouch. &lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;Lesson: piñatas can be dangerous for adults too.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;p&gt;*The accidents don&amp;#8217;t happen often. We&amp;#8217;re not that reckless or clumsy.&lt;/p&gt;
&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/kFCW9nfbX8k" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content><wfw:commentRss xmlns:wfw="http://wellformedweb.org/CommentAPI/">http://loteriachicana.net/2012/04/17/its-all-fun-and-games/feed</wfw:commentRss><slash:comments xmlns:slash="http://purl.org/rss/1.0/modules/slash/">4</slash:comments></entry><entry><title type="text">Links for 2011-01-20 [del.icio.us]</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2011-01-20" /><updated>2011-01-21T00:00:00-08:00</updated><id>http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2011-01-20</id><content type="html">&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://el-oso.net/blog/archives/2011/01/20/a-delicious-proposal-for-an-annotated-web/"&gt;El Oso &amp;raquo; Archive &amp;raquo; A Delicious Proposal For An Annotated Web&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
It&amp;#039;s been a while since I&amp;#039;ve used Delicious, fitting that I&amp;#039;d use it for this link.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/ixWkIQrqkvA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content></entry><entry><title type="text">Links for 2009-10-21 [del.icio.us]</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2009-10-21" /><updated>2009-10-22T00:00:00-07:00</updated><id>http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2009-10-21</id><content type="html">&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/10/21/books/21alexie.html"&gt;Sherman Alexie - A Native Son With No Borders - NYTimes.com&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
“I’m not conflicted about the success of that book,” Mr. Alexie said of “Diary,” “but I guess the thing is, you end up feeling very schizophrenic about it. I think the new book was an attempt to re-establish my eccentric self: ‘I’m not supposed to sell as many copies as I just did, so let me write something that won’t.’ ”&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/zndhyheapEA" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content></entry><entry><title type="text">Links for 2009-08-13 [del.icio.us]</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2009-08-13" /><updated>2009-08-14T00:00:00-07:00</updated><id>http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2009-08-13</id><content type="html">&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://tazadechocolate.blogspot.com/2009/08/shrimp-by-any-another-other-name.html"&gt;A shrimp by any other name&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
&amp;quot;Camarón? You want to name your kid camarón?&amp;quot;
&amp;quot;No, ΄Amá, CAM-er-on. CAMeron. Can&amp;#039;t you say it right?&amp;quot; 
Similar to the recipe I use to make coctel de camarón (which I&amp;#039;ve been craving!)&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/4dfFfkWYLeo" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content></entry><entry><title type="text">Links for 2009-02-24 [del.icio.us]</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2009-02-24" /><updated>2009-02-25T00:00:00-08:00</updated><id>http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2009-02-24</id><content type="html">&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.paleycenter.org/paleyfest09-pushing-daisies"&gt;Unaired Pushing Daisies with Bryan Fuller | The Paley Center for Media&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
I&amp;#039;m still sad about the cancellation.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/31rAQqWvTQc" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content></entry><entry><title type="text">Links for 2008-11-11 [del.icio.us]</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2008-11-11" /><updated>2008-11-12T00:00:00-08:00</updated><id>http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2008-11-11</id><content type="html">&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://mattbites.typepad.com/mattbites/2008/10/spend--enough-time-with-me-and-inevitably-youll-find-yourself-asking-me-the--same-question-because-almost-everyone-i-know.html#more"&gt;MattBites&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
Does anything go well in a tortilla?&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/s4_lLn8C710" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content></entry><entry><title type="text">Links for 2008-09-15 [del.icio.us]</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2008-09-15" /><updated>2008-09-16T00:00:00-07:00</updated><id>http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2008-09-15</id><content type="html">&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/09/15/BANQ12UI6C.DTL"&gt;Undocumented students' college aid in jeopardy&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
Not good. At all.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/T3vKO_xfPwM" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content></entry><entry><title type="text">Links for 2008-09-08 [del.icio.us]</title><link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2008-09-08" /><updated>2008-09-09T00:00:00-07:00</updated><id>http://del.icio.us/cindylu#2008-09-08</id><content type="html">&lt;ul&gt;
&lt;li&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.latinalista.net/palabrafinal/2008/09/republican_party_platform_will_be_a_hard.html"&gt;Republican party platform will be a hard sell for Latino votes (Latina Lista)&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br/&gt;
Analyzing how the Republican platform meets the needs of Latinos.&lt;/li&gt;
&lt;/ul&gt;&lt;img src="http://feeds.feedburner.com/~r/cindylu/~4/U460CwvbK2A" height="1" width="1"/&gt;</content></entry></feed>

