Work And The New Year

Today was my first day at my new temp job at the Hollywood Reporter. I am a web editor, which means I copy-edit, post stories and pictures to the web, write headlines and pick up the slack where ever the staff needs it. Training went slowly today but I managed to post two music stories and crop a couple of photos. The office uses Macs so a simple thing like opening a new web browser on Firefox takes some thought on my PC-trained-brain. It's not so bad though: it's for 30 hours a week, Tuesday-Friday, and I get paid more for 30 hours there than I did for 40+ hours as a freelancer with my old company. I came back from my travels swearing I was through with entertainment but I couldn't turn down this opportunity. We'll see what happens with it -- at the very least, I am learning new web skills that will help me down the road.

The most noteworthy happening of the day occurred on my lunch break. There's a "park" behind my office building with tables and benches and greenery. There's an identical "park" behind the building next door and that's where I decided to sit because the sun was hitting its benches.

There were three strollers and three nannies already camped out at the bench area when I arrived. I nodded "hello" when I approached and sat myself at the one vacant bench left. These nannies all spoke Spanish and all had young Anglo charges. One lady excused herself soon after I arrived but the two others carried on with conversations about potty training, their bosses, and the English words for various berries. I minded my own business until one of the kids did the most precious thing. His caretaker was feeding him berries and one did not suit his fancy. He exclaimed, "No sirve!" cracking up the ladies and myself.

"No sirve" roughly translates to "it doesn't work" or "it's no good." That little kid is more bilingual than I am! I would never had thought to say that even though it was exactly the right thing to say. The nannies laughed and laughed and laughed at the boy's ability to express himself so succinctly. It was cute. That little boy understood everything his nanny was saying to him in Spanish and could answer back in Spanish too. If only my brain worked that way!

I did get to practice Spanish over the holidays with my relatives from Mexico City. I was not as good as I was this summer but it did come back to me a bit. After hearing me speak to my cousins, one relative noted that my Spanish had improved quite a bit since returning to L.A. That's all I can wish for.

Christmas and New Year's was all about the family. My dad was in town from Gig Harbor, Washington, the Mexican relatives were staying at the house, and my sister was in town from Atlanta. There were birthdays, get-togethers, Christmas Eve, shopping, field trips, and more gatherings all revolving around the family. I went up to LA only once in three weeks, the rest of the time was spent down here driving people around and hosting events. Busy but fun.

The last event we hosted was my mom's 70th birthday brunch on Sunday. There were at least 40 people here but things went smoothly with catered posole, rice, beans, and enchiladas. Lots of desserts and mimosas too! My mom is a lovely lady and friends and relatives came out to wish her the best. It was moving and worth it.