Why Do I Blog?

  By MaggieAmada | May 24, 2013 - 10:52 am |
9 Comments

I blog because I like to connect.  Sometimes, I neurotically question my every thought and feeling.  Through blogging, I realize that other moms bemoan the days when they go to the restroom alone, just like me.  I discover that some of us feel guilty and grateful for the time we spend away from home at work.   Blogging helps me to find people who I can connect with.  It’s awesome to meet a gentleman from Kansas one day and a woman from Australia the next.  It’s awesome to talk to people struggling with their weight just like me halfway around … Continue reading →

9 Internet Safety Tips For Bloggers

  By MaggieAmada | May 23, 2013 - 3:12 pm |
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Internet Warning-Maggie Amada

There’s a lot of people in the world who are ready and willing to use our weaknesses against us.  And, we all have weaknesses.  A person with no weaknesses is likely either a sociopath or possesses the weakness of unawareness. Some of us blog and, in doing so, reveal a piece of our innermost selves.  We are adults and it’s our choice.  We are all learning to exist in a world where privacy is illusory.  Most of our lives are chronicled electronically whether we do the chronicling or the companies and people we interface with do.  Blogging is a way … Continue reading →

What Is Prejudice?

  By MaggieAmada | May 20, 2013 - 4:55 pm |
2 Comments
Prejudice

One form prejudice can take is a lack of kindness toward our fellow human beings.  It can mean looking at another person and reacting with anger or disdain, holding ourselves above them because of our traits or because we think we’re better than them.  But prejudice doesn’t have to mean that. The truth is we sort people, things, animals, you name it.  It’s how we make flash decisions because we can’t possibly process all the information around us and deliberate on everything.  Do I want a female gynecologist from India or a male doctor with a Southern accent and a … Continue reading →

How Salvatore Dali Can Cure Consumerism

  By MaggieAmada | May 16, 2013 - 12:56 pm | ,
12 Comments
Destino_1

Early in our marriage, my husband took me to an art show to shop for our new home.  I decided I wanted a set of six Dali Disney prints that cost way too much.  I’d just gotten the biggest bonus I’ve ever gotten in my life and I was celebrating.  I’m ashamed to say I was a total spoiled brat and I insisted I wanted them.  Dali was something my husband and I shared and I wanted a visual reminder of it hanging in my house.  I claimed if I needed to, I could always sell them and I’d have … Continue reading →

How Inconvenient Is 400 ppm?

  By MaggieAmada | May 13, 2013 - 7:52 pm |
4 Comments

Remember that movie, The Inconvenient Truth, and the limits in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere it talked about it?  400 parts per million?  A number never before reached in human history?  Well, according to a lab in Hawaii we just hit that number on May 9.  Does this mean we’re doomed? We are still going around our business every day so I’m going to go with no.  What concerns me is not that the world will definitively end.  That would be easy because if the world were ending, we’d get off our collective behinds and actually do something about it … Continue reading →

Teaching My Mom Twitter

  By MaggieAmada | May 10, 2013 - 9:37 am |
6 Comments
Mom-And-Me-Oil

This morning I decided to teach my mother Twitter. She loves to learn new things and teaching or learning provides me an opportunity to connect with her. Usually, I find this difficult. You see, my mother is bipolar. A lot of people hear that and picture some over-dramatized TV show where a teenager goes from euphoric to depressed in a matter of hours. The reality is not quite so dramatic, particularly when good meds are involved. It’s more like living with a very moody person who engages in childish behaviors to get attention and gets really anxious over minor things. … Continue reading →

Rant On The Economy

  By MaggieAmada | May 9, 2013 - 9:42 am |
1 Comment

These opinions are most definitely not shared by my employer.  They are my own.  Please feel free to comment, but don’t attack me.  That’s not nice and it will get you blacklisted from future commenting.   Dow Jones recently hit 15,000 for the first time ever.  The job numbers say unemployment is now hovering at about 7.5%.  On television, many are holding up these numbers claiming they mean the economy is getting better.  I hope they are right and it is getting better.  However, I’m not sure I trust the models that told us several years ago we had a … Continue reading →

How To Celebrate Mother’s Day?

  By MaggieAmada | May 6, 2013 - 6:36 am |
8 Comments
Drag Racing Mom-Step5

Weekends are theoretically about rest. In practice, parents often wake up on Saturday with a mile-long to-do list. Like a drag racer, we try to cram our lives into two measly days. I want to take my daughter to ballet, spend time with my family and friends, do the mountain of laundry that’s taller than me, grocery shop, clean the house, cook, spend quality time with my kids, publish another chapter of my work in progress to my followers on Wattpad, write a blog post for Monday. Now it’s Sunday night and I’ve accomplished a lot of things but none … Continue reading →

4-Year-Old Social Milestones

  By MaggieAmada | May 3, 2013 - 4:32 am | ,
5 Comments
Kid1-Caricature-MaggieAmada

Today, my almost five year old daughter reached a new milestone in social development: she learned how to use guilt against me. She’s been doing it for several days but I didn’t realize she’d crossed this important milestone until today. This is what happens when your kids spend time with family. They learn new tricks. I see the progression now. Two nights ago, she negotiated for us to play Hide and Go Seek and dance past her bedtime. Last night she negotiated extra time on the iPad while sitting on my lap. This morning she stayed home from school because … Continue reading →

Why Amazon Is The Best Dating Service Ever (Guest Post)

  By MaggieAmada | May 2, 2013 - 9:19 am |
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Today, Brandy at RomanceBookWorm.com invited me to guest post about the best dating service I’ve ever found: Amazon. You see,I was a studious teenager.  Dating was a major disaster that, thankfully, occurred rarely.  My young mind had trouble lining up the men in my dreams with those that existed in real life.   It turns out most men suck, and not in a good way. But, Amazon changed all that.  Their dating service introduced me to some of the most scrumptious men I’ve ever met, besides my wonderful husband, of course.  The best part is that they have a sixty second … Continue reading →

A Dominican Yankee Visits Family in Georgia

  By MaggieAmada | April 30, 2013 - 9:32 pm |
4 Comments

I just got back home to NYC from my cousin’s wedding in Gainesville, GA.  I’m glad I went because weddings are some of those events that become milestones in our memory.  We get to see family together and enjoy moments with people we may never see again.  During my wedding, for example, was the last time my husband got to dance with his mother.  I got a father-daughter dance to a song my dad used to sing to me when I was a kid.  Those moments were worth the twenty-seven thousand dollar price tag on the event. For this weekend’s … Continue reading →

Curly Hair and Passion

  By MaggieAmada | April 26, 2013 - 6:08 pm | ,
4 Comments

I am very passionate about curly hair.  It sounds weird but bear with me. I was raised Dominican.  It’s a rich beautiful culture with lots of dancing, gaiety, strength and perseverance.  The island of Hispaniola is split in two.  When Columbus came to the New World in 1492, Hispaniola is where he landed.  Half was settled by Spanish Europeans, Indian natives and a few black slaves (Dominican Republic) and the other half was settled by French Europeans and black slaves (Haiti).  Haiti has been mired in extreme poverty for centuries.  There have been brutal bloody conflicts between the two sides … Continue reading →

I Won Something And To Celebrate I’m Going to Tell You 11 Personal Things

  By MaggieAmada | April 25, 2013 - 1:07 pm |
4 Comments

Friends, I’ve been awarded the Liebster Award for Blogs.  Thanks to Kerri, at Undiagnosed But Okay , for this award.   She called me awesome which means a lot.  She uses her blog to spread understanding and acceptance of parents that have a few extra challenges and opportunities with children that are not quite diagnosed as autistic. With this award there are rules. You have to: 1. Answer 11 questions from your nominator 2. Post 11 random snippets about yourself 3. Pass the award to 11 other bloggers 4. Torture those 11 bloggers with 11 questions to answer Kerri is a tough and … Continue reading →

What It Meant To Have Someone Hold My Hand

  By MaggieAmada | April 24, 2013 - 12:28 pm | ,
4 Comments

I was in the hospital over the weekend, honestly scared and apparently very anxious.  I am tired and just a bit angry with myself right now for not taking better care, for working too hard and not doing enough to change.  I wrote a post about what it’s really like to work in a large Corporation trying to maximize efficiency and another about being too young to be in a hospital hooked up to a monitor on a Sunday night right after my daughter’s third birthday.  I saved those for a later time when I’m more objective.  Instead, I wanted … Continue reading →

FTSF: I thought I was so cool when I…

  By MaggieAmada | April 20, 2013 - 11:58 am |
3 Comments

Actually, I don’t think I was ever cool.  I was always the awkward kid, the geek, the workaholic.  I had too much discipline for my own good and had moved sixteen times by the time I was eighteen years old.  In high school, I made friends that I remember to this day even though I haven’t spoken to them in years.  If one of them were to call me out of the blue today, I would respond because I still care for them. To me, that’s what friendship means. It means accepting another human being with all their faults and … Continue reading →