Recently in today Category

I had the day off and was in the mood for a little adventure off the beaten path. With that said, I headed to Grand Central Station, picked a destination that I had not yet explored and bid Manhattan farewell.

I got off the MetroNorth after close to an hour ride alongside the scenic Hudson and arrived at the city of Beacon, named to commemorate the historic beacon fires that blazed on the summits of the Fishkill Mountains to alert the Continental Army of British troop movements.

Beacon continues to have that small town charm despite a census of well over 16,000. Beacon is best known for the DIA museum which houses a nice collection of pop and modern art, my personal favorites are the Andy Warhol and David Serra collections.

However, in my opinion DIA can not upstage the quaint inviting charm of Beacon, especially noticeable as one strolls up Main Street which is lined by small shops and galleries. If you are into ice cream you have got to try out Zora Dora's, a small batch handmade popsicles shop with a great menu of flavors. Mixture Screen Printing a few doors up has some really cool t-shirts or try out Muddy Cup for a quick bite and a cup of joe.

Today, my baby and I are off to Costa Rica and I am super excited!

It’s nice to not have to worry about NYC or the states till the end of the month. My only stresses will be getting good shoots of all the wild animals during our several rainforest expeditions, not falling into any type-3 rapids and drowning, not getting bitten by anything poisonous and avoiding dengue and malaria at all cost. lol

If you know anything about me you’ll know that I love all that adventurous crap. I especially look forward to horseback riding to the active volcanoes at night, scaling a few rocks, zipline forest canopy tours 100's of feet above the groud and relaxing on pristine beaches to name a few.

"Life is nowhere near perfect but it is […] life and life no matter how short or prescribed, is life. The word life in of itself evokes much more than the positive and that we choose to romanticize, for it also is inclusive of the not always celebrated.

We must work with the hand we are dealt, not count days or limit ourselves but rather inhale as much of life as we possibly can.

Do not concentrate on how the story ends, because all stories come to an end; rather drench yourself in all the nuances that your life offers.

We all owe that much to spirit, and spirit I'd like to believe, shall repay in kind"

-Yusef

posted on www.cholonization.com

Thirty-three is not as bad as I thought it would be. The number is just a little hard to say so I may opt to continue saying 32 (or younger) for the time being. Correcting me will not be necessary and all attempts to will be accompanied by a speedy change-of-topic and the evilest of stares.

Ultimately, 37 pages worth of Happy B-Day wishes and comments from 6 countries means a lot. I can not take the time to thank you each independently but I am grateful and thankful of all your wishes.

33, I think there is a NYC ordinance against so many candles on one cake.

Please donate via my personal AIDS Walk link below:

http://aidswalknewyork2008.kintera.org/yusef

I am writing to let you know that I have registered for AIDS Walk New York and am very excited about the event. This is a very important issue to me so I have set an ambitious fundraising goal. I want to do as much as I can to make a difference in the lives of men, women, and children affected by HIV and AIDS. Even though there has been a lot of publicity about drug treatments which are prolonging some people's lives, they don't work for everyone and there is still no cure in sight. Moreover, young people are still getting infected at alarmingly high rates.

GMHC and about 40 other AIDS organizations in the area get the money from the AIDS Walk. It's clear that we need more services and more prevention programs than ever before.

I want your help. Will you please sponsor me for the AIDS Walk? Just click on the website address below to enter my personalized web page and charge your donation. Thank you, in advance, for supporting this important cause and for showing that you join me in wanting to end this epidemic.

A few facts you may want to know:
~AIDS Walk New York is the world's largest AIDS fundraising event.

~AIDS Walk New York stands out as a model of community action and cost-efficient fundraising. The priority has always been to have the money raised go directly to vital services to help people living with HIV or AIDS.

~AIDS Walk New York benefits GMHC (Gay Men's Health Crisis), the nation's oldest and most comprehensive AIDS Service organization. The organization's staff of 189 and 7,000 dedicated volunteers provide services to more than 15,000 men, women, and children living with HIV and AIDS and their families.

~A portion of the net proceeds from the AIDS Walk also goes to dozens of other AIDS organizations within the tri-state area.

Please donate via my personal AIDS Walk link below:

http://aidswalknewyork2008.kintera.org/yusef

This is how I felt today after getting a filling at the dentist. It was my first cavity in a very long time.

I left the dentist’s office and walked along Central Park South with a swollen face, numb from the Lidocaine which had me drooling, speaking semi-incoherently, and freighting the fortunate affluent who unfortunately tend to suffer tunnel vision.

Prime example, was the faux fur coated Barbie I encountered in the elevator who sported a catalogue nose and chin and 3cc's of Botox on her frozen-look-of-surprise forehead, which seemed to want to frown when I bid her “B-ood B-orning”.

It is too bad for some that a root canal and low co-pay can’t resolve the root of our social shortcomings…

A lot has happened since July, but that is the truth of anyone without possession of a time-stopping device or Alzheimer’s. Mostly, I have been rethinking life, reprogramming myself, and meditating.

Not meditating under a Joshua tree or a Bikram yoga loft in SoHo. Conscious breathing has had nothing to do with it; in fact every so often I tense up and have to remind myself to take breath.

Detachment was not based on the abandonment of materialism and flings with Nirvana but via a process of learnt humility. Rather, the allowance of giving my self permission to accept that there are things beyond my control, to let go of more, and have faith in that the universe has an incredible knack for provision.

Provision oddly enough occurs when one has apparently lost all hope. It seems that faith to the faithful works like that of an ethereal pituitary gland; just when you feel you have no where else to turn and are at your wits end about to go Faust, the universe responds with a fresh dose of answered prayers.

Prayers by the way are also not offered according to the letter of the supplicant but rather as a series of opportunities that one must be attuned to pick up on and respond to.

Exemplum hodiernus:

Prayer:

Oh Lord, please bless me with a break from work in a cooler place; make be braver, more warm hearted, selfless, open-minded and bring someone into my life.

Answer:

You get stuck in an unheated elevator on your way to work, with a mange stray kitten and wait all morning for the fire department while dealing with your claustrophobia.

How it works:

Four hours later you are rescued and you call the office to explain and are given the rest of what would have been a 13 hour work day off; you were given the opportunity of compassion which you responded to by keeping the kitten warm; answering your desire for warm-heartedness.

You become more open minded during the second hour when you decided that cats weren’t so bad after all. The selfless thing was answered when you decided to adopt the feral flee bag.

After 45 min of claustrophobic hyperventilation, you realize that you are going nowhere soon and have to learn that tight spaces other than those found in a significant other aren’t as bad as your Freudian short comings make them out to be, but that is yet to be seen considering the cute EMT who slipped you his/her cell phone number.

Halleluiah…?

Happy New Year.

I almost feel inclined to apologize for my lapse in absence, yet I will not. I decided 6 months ago that Cubanizm had inadvertently transformed into something more than that of a personal digital pass time but had evolved into a systematic responsibility I felt obliged to attend to.

70,000+ hits later, your regulars start to annoyingly tap their refresh buttons hoping that a new blog entry will magically appear. They then follow suit with where-the-hell-are-you emails, of which I have 75.

Where was I, what happened to Cubanizm, and why no new entries seem to be the top 3 open questions asked.

In all truth I have been right here, living more of life than spending time writing of life spent.

Pre-Beefy Stew Bambi:

Pre-Beefy Stew Bunny:

"Quick give me a poison dart..."