I love this picture! I wish I could go back to this single moment of my life. It was so good to hear the sounds of the waterfalls in Jamaica. I had my friends with me and it was awsome! If I think really deeply I can mentally go back there. I remember the water on my body and we were having a great time. My friend said that he was going to take a pic and I tried to meditate haha. I stayed there for long time, couldn't get enough of that peace feeling. Next vacations are gonna be on July, already know where I'm going. It promises to be as good as this one and the last one in Brazil.

Swine Flu

I'm so scared with this Swine thing!
It seems like it's hugely dangerous, I just got to know last monday when my friend mentioned to me that our friend in commom went to Mexico because his mom died and he was saying that the border officers wouldn't let him in back. And I asked why and he was surprised that I didn't know about the swine flu. What the h***!!!! It's a flu, it's way too easy to contaminate, I avoiding any personal contact even with people that look healthy because the symptoms don't appear on the first 4 to 7 days. I tried to buy the only medicine that is working a little against this and they didn't let me buy because I need a prescription. And I think it's right because otherwise everyone would buy to save at home and who really needs might not get it. It started in Mexico and already made 160 victims there. People from all over the world are working hard to make a vaccine capable to kill this virus. I would like to help but I don't know what to do. I guess I'll help enough not getting sick and alerting other people for this problem. The airports in Brazil are being inspected because there's none case in Brazil yet. Every person that arrives in Brazil is checked by specialized doctors.
It's unbelievable what's happening to the world. Everyone will have to walk around wearing masks now, I can't stand it.

Visitors!

I counting the days to receive some visits from Brazil! First, my dad comes in two weeks to stay one month. Him, my brother and my mom are my best friends. The first to know everything that happens to me. My dad is 41 years old and the proximity of our ages makes our friendship easier. I admire him very much and even when I have terrible news to him he keeps calm and has coldness enough to think what the best is. I would like to have the fast make decision power that he has. I'm not too bad at it but if I spent some more time with him I could learn a lot. Since I left home when I was 15 we haven't spent more than a month together. The exception was last winter when I stayed two months in Brazil. I even had the opportunity to work with him and it was very grateful. Now I'll have the chance to do many things with him. Although I have to work, I'll try to get together with him as much as I can. I'll try to take him to Boston and NY as well as Chicago. At least he can meet some of the US before I go back to Brazil.

Monkeys

My friends from Brazil get mad when I tell americans that I really had 6 monkeys in my house in Brazil. Because, usually, Americans tend to think that Brazil is a huge jungle and people there live with lions and other wild animals. And it's good to say that nobody has monkeys in their houses, but I did! It was so much fun. We used to live near to a national park and they probably came from there. First it was only two, and because we had many trees and we feeded them, they became 6! They sometimes could come to my dad's hand. In Brazil, it's not allowed to have wild animals at home and that's why we never showed the monkeys to the local tv. It could have given us some complications.

I loved to wake up and hear the beautiful noises that they make asking for bananas.

Caterpillars

Just read about this infestation of caterpillars in a city close to my hometown. They were found in a abandoned house, and there are just like billions of them now. They started reproducing in a old tree in the back of the house. Then, last week they went to neighbor's houses and it's everywhere. The house will be brought down this week.

Hope it doesn't get to my house! hehe, There are a couple of hundred of miles to walk before they get there.

The simpsons lost their house!

I was watching this episode from last month and guess what?!

Even the simpsons lost their house with all this crisis. In the episode, they renegotiate the mortgage of their house, and gave a big carnival party with the credit that they received. On the next day, they were informed that their type of mortgage was changed and they couldn't affort to pay anymore. The house went to a bid where their "favorite" neighbor bought the house. Ned Flanders, the winner, accepted to rent the house, so then they had a place to stay.

First time I saw snow

I was in Stamford when I first saw snow. I was upset because it had been almost two months that the winter had started and I had not seen any sign of snow. When I woke up that morning and looked out my window, it was snowing a lot! I put a short and a jacket on and went to take a picture. The first few tries I could not because I had nowhere to leave the camera, but when the snow stopped a little, I got my picture and immediately sent to my dad and mom.

Caribe

This was one of the best vacations ever!

When my friend called me last year: "Yo, I'm in Florida, You wanna come to a cruise?" I really thought about for two seconds and said YEEEEEEEEEESSSS.

Next day I was telling my boss that I would have to leave in one week to a cruise to Bahamas, Jamaica and Cayman Islands. He wanted to kill me, but since I'm very good with what I do, he let me go and paid for the week!

This week in Caribe gave me millions of stories to tell and remember. I had a wonderful time!.

Happy easter

I love the easter time! I have such great memories! This was one of the holidays that my family met to go to the beach and do barbecues. Nobody's house would fit all my family so we rented a big house in front of the beach for the holiday. It's so much fun, I love to have my cousins around. The best time was on the sunday, that we had to find the chocolat eggs that our parents had hidden from us the night before.
This year I watched a movie with my friends and had lunch with my other friends and family. But had no chocolate, that's not like easter. Next year I want full myself of chocolate.
By the way, easter is a Christian holiday and according to Christian scripture, Jesus was resurrected from the dead three days after his crucifixion.

Elegance

There is something really hard to be taught, and maybe that's why it's so rare. The behaviour elegance. I think it's a gift that goes far beyond of knowing how to use the utensils properly or saying thank you after a kindness. That comes with us and it is manifested in the most prosaic situations during regular days, when nobody is watching... It can be detected in people that point quite more compliments than faults, in people that listen more than talk and when they talk, they don't say a piece of gossip.
We can see also in the people that don't use a superior voice to talk to someone that works in the market or the gas station or people that avoid embarrasing subjects because don't feel any pleasure in someone else's suffering. We can see by punctual people that value everyone's time. Also people that show interest for subjects that don't know about, give gifts with no reason and keep their word.
Giving flowers is elegant, opening the door, giving a seat, making something for someone and never let them know how hard it was to accomplish. Not to talk just about money or something that you love. Giving back is elegant, and the silence sometimes is very elegant facing rejection.
Smiling is so elegant! Makes everyone better.


There is not such a book which teaches how to live generously and not arrogantly.

Also things like to offer help, look in the eyes when talking. Everyone deserves your elegance, even the closest friends, they will appreciate it more than everyone else.

Good manners will get lost after certain time with no using, and a detail: It is definetely not trifle.

Saudades

Saudades is a word that in Portuguese we use to say that we miss something. And yesterday when the day started snowing the first thing that I thought was: "Que saudades de Floripa" Something like "I miss Floripa", the place where I live in Brazil. There is no better thing than enjoy a sunset on the beach with my girlfrind or friends. Beaches like the one below, this is one of 52 beaches. Looking at this paradise I can say that I've got enough reasons to say SAUDADES.

Peace

Who said that peace is impossible?

"He looked me in the eye

And then he told me his heart

He said I cry like you cry

And I'm afraid of the dark

He said I'd like to put this gun down

And go home today

But it seems

That war won't go away.

He said, I bleed like you bleed

And it tears me apart

I need to know,

Where does peace start?

He said I cry like you cry

As I watch your flag fly

He looked me in the eye

and he told me his heart

And then he said,

Where does peace start?"

by Judy Puckett

Lana's Birthday

These are some of the photos of Lana's birthday!

She must have had a lotta fun!

I wish I could be there too to hug my little monster haha!

Pizza

I love pizza!

Well, I guess everybody loves pizza but I really enjoy a pie made with care and love. I like making it also what makes the experience really fun.

I prepare the dough in the mixer with secret ingredients ;) then I roll the dough, let it raise. In the meantime I prepare my sauce which goes just peeled tomatoes and oregano. I open the dough , put the cheese on it, and spread out my sauce carefully on the cheese. I like to have a light brown color, not perfect, and I finish it with fresh basil. That's my favorite one, a margherita!

I used to work making pizzas, that's where my passion came from. Now I'm one of the managers of Wilton Pizza and Pasta in Wilton and whenever a get time, I make a nice margherita for me, like the one in the picture.

And the pie below is my heart-shaped cheese pizza.

Victory

Every time I see this commercial it reminds me my childhood. Soccer was a really important thing in school, it was the difference between the popular boys and the Nerds. And for me it was even more important than school. Never missed a game on tv with my dad and I read the sport's section of the newspaper every day. And yet used to play soccer in video games and computer. Although I was not really good playing I was always in the grade's team. Maybe because of my sense of leadership or my physical bearing. Whatever the reazon was, I loved to be in the team and all my biggest victories and my defeats are on the bottom of my memories, like the time when I scored in the semi-finals of a championship and the coach said to my father that we could win if the team had five other guys like me. It was great to see the satisfaction on my daddy's face. I love soccer!

Lana

This is Lana, one of my loves. I just thought it would be interesting to talk about Lana because she is not like any other dog. She is more like a daughter for me. And she turned three last wednesday so this is like a gift to my little meatball since I can't be there to hug her. I bought her to my ex-girlfriend, Mah, as a lovely present for valentine's day and this beautiful dog changed my life since then. We raized her together, walking her every week early in the morning on sundays. Lana sometimes is the only thing that makes me smile because anytime I pick her up to a ride, she runs and barks so happily (most of times she also pees), that any problem I had vanishes away instantaneously. She also put me and my ex-girlfriend back together after fights many times just staring at us and pretending to be mad. I remember one time when I took her to my house and there was my other dog, a big and dangerous akita. So when I went to play with the akita for a while, I left Lana on the second floor of my house. When Lana saw me playing on the ground, she jumped. I got scared but somehow nothing happened to her.

It's been 18 months since we broke up but every time I'm home I have to see my puppy and play with her. She sometimes cries before I leave, I guess she misses me a lot but she is in very good hands, Mah is an excelent mommy and does everything Lana wants.

Places I Call Home

One place I certainly call home would be Pizza Post. It was one of the first things I saw in America. A small and tiny pizza place in the middle of a plaza situated in Greenwich, Connecticut. Lovely place, I could see people coming in and out all the time when I was brought there by a friend that told me they could have a job for me. There I met all the greatest guys and girls from all over the world. Three from Italy, four from Usa, two from Brazil, one from Uruguay, one from Equador, one from South Africa, one from Lithuania, one from Mexico and one from Guatemala. That was my first real job and looked much more like a fun house. Jokes have to be part of a resume, I thought. These people were different ages but they all looked kids for me. They worked with an enthusiasm renewed every day. I participated of their lives too, sharing problems, fighting, giving each other christmas presents, like a big family. Even now that I don't work there anymore, I still have the key and go there often to see my great friends. And it's exactly like when I worked there because I know their moves, when they will play a trick, when I can't say a word and so on. They've made my great experience in America even greater with their smiles and gestures because it's just this simple to make life better.