Cathy's World

2006-06-16T10:55:00.000-04:00

June 2, 2006-Jayden Lee was born to one of my closest friends Anna Banana. He is such a cutie! Before and After.

2006-06-16T10:46:00.000-04:00

My baby girl plays the viola and in May had her first concert. She was awesome! My best friend Horacio and I went to watch her play and the kids sounded amazing! Nobody can play happy birthday on a viola like my Bri Bri can. :-)

2006-06-16T10:34:00.000-04:00

Williamsburg...Briana, her friend Halle, one of my closest friends Diego, and I set out to Williamsburg for memorial day weekend. Great time. We went to Busch Gardens, Water Country USA and had a great time.

If you are scared of riding roller coasters, its best just to get a picture in a seat outside the ride and pretend you rode it. :-)

Check out my poor baby in the bird cage....They tried to eat my BRIANA! Luckily she made it out alive.

2006-06-16T10:26:00.000-04:00

Mor Salsa Dancing! In my quest to continue my salsa moves, here is some more pics from a local salsa club called Caribbean Breeze. Pictured is one of my favorite girls Leshia and Earl Rush www.stuckonsalsa.com. Also Mario, my favorite fellow organizer! Check out the shirt...:-) Official Salsa Meetup Shirt.

2006-05-11T21:41:00.000-04:00

Here are some pictures salsa dancing at Clarendon Grill in Arlington. I love dancing there because you will find some of the absolute best salseros in this area and they are the best to dance with as I continue my pursuit to be an amazing salsera. In the blue shirt, is my AMAZING salsa instructor Michael, in the black shirt is Keith, owner of Lation Motion Dance Company and instructor at Clarendon Grill, in the white is one of San Antonio's best and my friend Emilio, in the grey long sleeve is very seasoned salsero Kevin, in the red shirt (is it starting to sound like the United Nations here??? lol) is Joel Rodriguez, long time dance instructor of both salsa and rueda, and the last picture is a photo of some of the 400 salsa meetup members. Check us out at www.salsa.meetup.com/162.

2006-05-11T21:34:00.000-04:00

A few weeks back, I went to Avenue to meet up with two of my friends having a birthday.... Happy Birthday Vince and Liz. We had a great time dancing our tooshie's off. What a great time!

2006-05-11T11:29:00.000-04:00

I just cut my baby's hair last night. She is such a cutie!

2006-05-09T19:45:00.000-04:00

DC Salsa Meetup Family Picnic-www.salsa.meetup.com/162. As mentioned in previous posts, I am an organizer of a Salsa meetup group here in DC. We get together and eat a lot of salsa with chips while seeing who can still stand after 7 tequila shots and then we......oh damn...wrong group. Um, we get together and dance salsa at local venues and have such a great time. This past Sunday, we had over 85 members in attendance at a picnic that I organized. We had some of the biggest names in Salsa to include DJ Andy, Earl Rush, Sam Rodriguez, PsyonMauricio, Tanya Fiske, Joel Rodriguez, Barb Bernstein, etc. We had an amazing time and although stressed from having this picnic the day after I came back from Cancun, it was definitely well worth it. Special thanks to my baby girl Briana and her friend Aby for checking people in and being our security guards. :-) Enjoy the pics.

2006-05-08T23:00:00.000-04:00

CANCUN-I had the chance to spend a week in Cancun this past week, April 29th to May 6th, with some friends, sans Miss Briana, and had a great time. We ended up meeting some awesome people. If you have never been to Cancun, you have GOT to go! So much to see! Aqua blue waters and wonderful people not to mention Corona, Dos XX, Tecate, Sol, and well you get the point...Lots a beer! Enjoy the pics!

My best friend Sabine and I with our new friend Clint that just so happens to be from TX too!

Cancun will also make you do some wild and crazy things such as getting pierced and sticking balloons in your shirt and limes up your nose...Just lovely...

2006-05-08T22:53:00.000-04:00

I went to Florida with my baby girl Briana from April 6 -14th and proceeded onto Arkansas to visit family for the weekend the 14th -17th. We had a great time and always love the chance to visit Florida! My best friend Horacio was also able to join us for a few days. I also had the chance to visit Mr. Reunion Organizer himself Yamel and do a bit of salsa dancing. Enjoy the pics.

2006-03-06T09:49:00.000-05:00

Hello all! I have some catching up to do, don't I? EEKKSS. I haven't updated my blog in sometime now, but I have meaning to for a long time! Can anyone believe it is already MARCH! WHAT! Where did the time go? Anyway..I will update you a bit since the new year.

On New Years, my closest friends Allison, Lili, and Sabine along with Vince and Nghia went to a local bar and club called Tabaq. We had a great time and enjoyed ringing in 2006 together.

The start of a new year always brings on time to reflect over past years with what I have accomplished and what my future goals should be. As a result I decided my New Years resolutions would be to work either part time or take off for a year and concentrate on finishing my BS in Business Adminstration. After much consideration, I decided that it was time for me to leave Digital Harbor as a full time Recruiting Manager and Inside Sales Rep and take a part time role as a recruiter for a local services company working from home. The kicker??? I make just as much working part time as I did working full time at DHI. What took me so long to leave! hehe I will miss DHI and the people most, but vow to always keep in touch. I love you guys! Now Check out my new home office.....SSWEEETTTT!

Ok now I work from home and go to school full time and although running smoothly, it is no picnic in the park! My classes include a Literature class, Western Civ, and International Business........but most importantly.....Estoy tomando clases de Español nuevamente! I have been wanting to learn Spanish for so long and I finally am! So far, I have been doing very well. Special thanks to Horacio and Diego for keeping me on the right track. :-)

In the end of January, Briana and I took a mother daughter trip to NY for three days. We took a train, awesome experience by the way, and stayed in a nice hotel by Central Park. We took a horse carriage ride through Central Park, ice skated in Central Park, visited FAO Schwartz near Central Park and Toys R Us in Times Square, went to see Statue of Liberty, visited Ground Zero memorial, ordered room service, mastered taking the subway, and many many more things. It was nice to spend this time with Briana.

Valentines Day was a great day spent with my baby girl. We did a mommy daughter evening at a spa where they did our nails, hair, makeup and I received a massage along with cupcakes, sparkling cider, chocolate covered strawberries, and a goodie bag from Red Door Salon. WOW. We had a great time.

We completed the evening by coming home and having a candlelight picnic on the floor. She is definitely the love of my life. :-)

So I celebrated a big milestone on February the 16th. I am now 30 1/2 years old! Horacio, Juliette and Briana threw me a little party to mark this most joyous event. :-)

SALSA TIME!!!!!In the past few months, I have joined a local Salsa Meetup Group. The intent is to go out dancing every week and meetup with some local salsa lovers. I personally have made it a habit to go out two to three times a week.This has now become a huge passion for me. I love to dance, especially salsa. It is a great form of exercise and a lot of fun to do. I have met some great people who are a ton of fun and share the same passion as I do. Due to my dedication, I have been recently promoted to assistant organizer of the group! AWESOME. I, along with Christine who is a professional salsera, assist Mario with events and growing the group. We have increased over 50% in the last month alone and we have had the opportunity to meet some great people associated with the salsa lifestyle!

Pictured here are pics of Christine, Mario, DJ Andy and I along with Earl Rush, www.stuckonsalsa.com, and me! Check out our meetup site at http://salsa.meetup.com/162/ for more details and the latest photos and events.

Just recently, my baby won an award for her good behavior and good grades at school. I was so proud of her and she felt so good about herself. Way to go baby girl!

Ok so this brings up until this point. Briana and I are doing very well and looking forward to a trip to Florida for her Spring Break in April. I will try my hardest to keep this blog updated on a regular basis and keep you all informed of our very busy lives....God Bless!

2005-11-16T11:36:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I took Briana to visit her grandparents in Florida and I visited my friend Yamel. Some of you may remember Yamel as he graduated in Germany, class of 91. His brother is Akmel and sister Yahiliz.
I reconnected with Yamel as I found out he is planning a Mannheim Reunion in Florida for summer 2006 for classes 89-96 graduates . Check out his site at www.kellyamel.com for more details. I love Florida and enjoy going whenever an opportunity arises.

On Saturday, we went with Yamel's friends to a very nice restaurant and dance place called the Samba Room. The food was so good and dancing was amazing. I don't think that there was one person in that place that couldn't dance Salsa......Well except for me. I was trying to keep up though and managed to keep all my toes by the end of the night, so that was good enough for me. :-) I think I lost 10 lbs just by sweating. HEHE By the way, check out my cute lil turquoise dress. Special thanks to Yamel for helping me pick out my wardrobe for the evening. I got that for the bargain price of $6.99. Does life get any better than that!

Yamel's friends Tania, Gina, and Carlos were amazing. They all definitely made my experience at the Samba Room a great time. I laughed so damn hard when Carlos referred to Tania's drink as a fricken liquid jolly rancher. Sorry guess you had to be there!

Not to mention this older Cuban guy whose idea of Merengue Dancing was rubbing all his goods on me in a back and forth motion. I think he might have mistaken that move with a pornographic move he saw on a X-Rated video. Can't blame the old dude for trying I guess.

Here are a few pics of us playing around with the camera. Minus the quadruple chins that I had to cut out, this was a good pic.

Thank you Yamel for taking me to the Samba Room. And despite what you might think, you are definitely well on your way to becoming a great Salsa dancer.

On the last night that I was there, Yamel took me to this nice restaurant called Brio Tuscan Grille. They had the best chicken with portobello sauce that I had ever tasted. YUMMY. BTW Yamel, I left my leftovers in your fridge and I expect it back. Could you please mail that to me asap? Thanks....your a doll. :-)

So Tuesday morning, we had a very early morning departure which is never enjoyable. UUGGH. But we managed to make it back home safely.

Thanks again Yamel for showing me around and I will return the favor once you come to visit Washington DC. You better make it soon as this offer is subject to change. lol :-)

2005-11-07T21:39:00.000-05:00

Last weekend a friend of mine from high school, Catrice Stukes, had her 30th b-day at a local club called Zanzibar. I decided it would be a good time to wear my pimp hat. :-)

I met some other friends that I went to high school with to celebrate this wonderful milestone with Catrice. Afterall I just turned 25 again for the 5th time in a row just a couple months back so I am no stranger to milestone birthdays. :-)
We danced, ate and watched Catrice play security while kicking folks out of our VIP area. I think with every drink, she got more bold. LOL

I hope you all enjoy the pics. Pictured are friends Catrice Stukes, Crystal Willis, Laura Dupree (Paine), Alex Stukes, Alex Ahorrio, my friend Sabine and Sean.

2005-10-28T14:33:00.000-04:00

This past weekend my sister Jeannie and her kids Charley, 8, and Destiny, 16, along with Destiny's boyfriend Ted came to visit from Oklahoma. We had such a great time. We did fun things like going shopping for clothes at the Outlet Malls, grocery shopping first thing in the morning without even brushing our teeth first,we are so rebellious, and taking Jeannie out and showing her a bit of the Washington DC nightlife with my best friends Sabine and Lili. My best friend Horacio also turned 31 this past weekend and we threw him a big Country and Western themed birthday party. It was so much fun. We sang songs from the Karaoke machine and ate some great Bolivian food. Yummy. I was so sad to see my sister and the kids go, but I will be seeing them at Thanksgiving when Briana and I fly to Arkansas for a few days. We will look forward to hanging out more at that time.

2005-10-19T10:20:00.000-04:00

First of all, let me just say that I have never posted to a blog before nor do I have any clue what I am doing...UUGGHHH. So hopefully you will be able to see what I have posted. :-)

When Yamel and Akmel challenged us all to document a day in our life, I thought that my contribution might be very boring for people to read. However, I thought it was great to write about for my own benefit. I decided to document my Monday as this is the busiest day for me. Hopefully this will entertain you enough to keep you reading throughout. I tried to post only pictures taken from today, but I had to cheat a little bit. :-)

Just a little about me first. I am a 30 year old professional single mother of one amazing 8 year old daughter named Briana. I own a home in Germantown Maryland, but have recently rented it out so that I may move closer to my office in Reston Virginia. I tried the commuting thing for sometime but that took a toll on my body and my car. J I hope you enjoy my little day in the life excerpt and I look forward in reading yours soon!

It’s Monday, October 17, 2005. My internal alarm clock always awakes me every morning at 7:20 am. Having an internal alarm clock can be great during the week. However, can be the biggest pain to have on Saturday morning after going out with friends the night before until 3:00 in the morning! J As I stroll out of bed, I turn on the radio station Hot 99.5. This radio station has a real funny morning show and plays Top 40 in which my daughter loves. Therefore I turn it up loud enough so that she can hear it from the other room to help her get up. She is such a bear to get up in the mornings!

So, on the radio is her favorite song, “Pon de Replay”, now on my way to her room. I turn the light on in her room in which she immediately commands me to turn off. “Mommy, it’s too bright!” I proceed to open her blinds so that at least the sun will shine through. I start singing the song and kissing her face so that she will at least start to wake up. She doesn’t move too much. I then tell her I will turn the dreadful timer on should she not move. The timer is a cooking timer that I threaten to set for 20 minutes if she doesn’t get up on her own. The deal is if the timer goes off and she isn’t ready, then she is grounded from the TV that night. This is usually something that gets her up right away. She couldn’t think of a night without watching “That’s So Raven.”

So both of us are ready and rearing to go at 8:20 am. She has to be at school at 8:35 am and we live right around the corner from the school. I drop her off and now I am off to work. Mondays are my busiest days in the office. I am a Recruiting Director and Inside Sales Rep for a Software Company. My first meeting of the day is my Sales Meeting at 8:30 am. There are about 13 people on the team to include reps from California, Georgia, New Hampshire, New Jersey, and New York. It’s a pretty exciting job and I am learning a lot about Sales in general. However, the meetings are incredibly BORING as each Rep is expected to review each one of their accounts. I take this time to do some data entry in my laptop.

My other meetings are Recruiting meetings scheduled with the Consultant Manager at 11:00 am and VP Product Management at 11:30 am. These are to discuss progress of their openings and review the candidate database. After this is concluded, it’s LUNCHTIME.

I do not usually go out to lunch. I have a great group of people that I work with that are a lot of fun so we usually walk to the deli next to our office or in fact bring our lunch and eat in the lounge area. We love to crack up about things and talk about people who bug the crap out of us during our daily routine.

Today at lunch we decided that it would be fun to call our VP of Finance and Administration and play a practical joke. He just recently had a Vasectomy and has told the entire company that as he puts it “got his nuts snipped.” Pretty forthright, huh. So we get our Technical Trainer who is a white 30 something male that has one of the best Indian accents to call and pretend his name is Dr. Anuts Asnipped and that he needs to make a followup appt. It’s the most hysterical thing ever. What a great way to spend a lunch time.

After lunch, it’s really hard getting back into the swing of things. I have been at the company for over 7 years now so I pretty much have the clout to do what I want as long as the job gets done. So I will occasionally walk around the office and do stupid things with the staff. For example this past Friday, we made a pyramid in the hallway and did some cartwheels. Today, I decided that I would ask some people to participate in a Jumpathon and have them do a jump while I took a picture. We would call this “Jumping for PiiE”. Piie is our product that we produce. It stands for Personal Interactive Information Environment. I am also the Company Morale Leader so it makes for great fun to see your fellow employees acting like a fool. J

Now onto independent work for the rest of the afternoon. My job is to talk to candidates and call possible leads for Sales and discuss our product with them and the possibility and seeing a demonstration. Very exciting work! I do love my job and love the opportunity to learn. Now its 5:00 pm! Time to leave!

My daughter will go after school to the YMCA. I pick her up and pray to God that she attended the Homework Club that they provide and has most of her homework completed. Luckily we only have to study for three tests. Math, Social Studies, and Spelling. Math is my hardest subject and luckily comes easier for her. Thank God, because her skill level in 4^th grade has far surpassed my knowledge! Hehe!

After picking her up, I always ask her how her day went. I get to hear so many school stories that make me laugh and remind me of growing up. Yesterday’s big fiasco was that her friend Bayse, yes her name is Bayse, wasn’t her friend any longer cause Bri didn’t pass Bayse’s silly test that she gave her. Some of the questions on the quiz were “Do you think Usher is cute?” in which she said yes….um of course he is. “What is your favorite color” Briana said Blue….good legitimate response. “Do you like the song Candy Shop by 50 Cent” in which she responded no as she KNOWS she isn’t allowed to listen to that. And well, I guess this is why they aren’t friends. All cause of 50 Cent! Hehe Anyways, this is the part where I get to throw the advice that my mom gave to me. “If they were your true friends, they wouldn’t judge you on this.” I can’t believe I am turning into my mom.

Dinner time around our house is usually around 6:00 pm. I sometimes cook or will sometimes eat out. This time, I cooked. Well if you call it that. Luckily Briana loves my cooking as fortunately she doesn’t really know better. J Her favorite dish is called Cheeseburger Macaroni and Bread. I make it with Velveeta Shells and Cheese Sauce with Hamburger meat mixed with corn. Odd mixture, but its real good. YUMMY.

After we eat, we do homework and chores. Its bath night, so Bri takes a bath and gets ready for bed. Ideally she goes to bed at 8:30, but with all that we had to do tonight, it was 9:00 pm. I tucked her in and told her a quick story. Bri doesn’t usually get stories, but I told her the story of when I was pregnant and how she used to kick me. She loves that story. After this, she of course asks Biblical Questions that prolongs the bedtime by a couple of minutes. You know the kind of questions…Like what is evolution and how does this affect Christianity and my friend is Jewish, what does that mean? You know the questions that can never be answered in a 10 minute bedtime story. Of course, I know my daughter and realize that she would never ask these questions when we have the time. Only when she doesn’t want me to leave her room. J So off to bed she finally goes.

It’s around 9:20 now. Time to do some school work of my own. I am trying ever so diligently to finish my degree in Business Administration. I attend Asynchronous Online Courses. I prefer attending classes on campus as much as possible, but the school didn’t offer any classroom classes this semester that I needed or was interested in taking. I enjoy online classes, but they can be pretty difficult. I do most of my school work on Sundays, but am taking the time now to try and get ahead of the game.

After this, I review my work and personal emails and start scouring the Monster website for some decent resumes for the 15 job openings that I recently have open. I am not your typical 9 to 5 employee. Although I might be in the office by 9 and out by 5, I assure you that I am quite dedicated to my company and usually make myself quite accessible via my cell phone or email should anything more come up. After Monster, I check Craigslist.org for anything good. This is the best site as you can find Furniture, Cars, Employees, and even boyfriend/friends. I found my dining room set, my car, our Accounting Manager at the office, and a good friend of mine Mathina that I go Salsa dancing with on occasion, but have had no luck with the boyfriend thing. I will just have to keep looking. Feel free to help me out if you want and put my name and number on a bathroom wall somewhere. That might help my chances. Hehe!

Now its 10:30 pm. I am on the couch downstairs in my house with my laptop and starting to feel real tired. I need to wash my face and brush my teeth, but I really don’t want to move off the couch. I just bought a new bedroom suit too and have barely even used it because I always fall asleep on the couch. I keep weighing the options. Should I get up and wash my face and brush my teeth or should I lay here risking the chance of pimples or gingivitis. Oh what the hell…..I choose Option B. J Goodnight!