my life – Page 5 – Anthony Otero

2013, Barnard College, moving, my life, Washington Heights

Moves

There is so much truth in the term “making moves”. At this point, it seems to be all I do in my life. I crossed off another goal from the list I made last year for 2013. After weeks of searching, I am moving again to a more permanent apartment in Washington Heights. Thank God for that because the entire search process can be ridiculous and way too daunting.

This will be the 4th time I move in less than a year. As a matter of fact, I will have moved 4 times in 9 months. Babies have be conceived and born within that time span. I have moved from a 4 bedroom house to a room within a house (both in Syracuse) to an apartment with my woman and her parents to now a place that is just for me and her. Did you get all that?

I have an insane amount of boxes and general crap in my brother’s garage that has been there in September. It will be nice to see some of my stuff again and yet I feel that even more of that stuff will get purged somehow. Every man should expect that when they live with a woman that much of his shit will get tossed or be put in storage somewhere. I am just glad she has nothing against comic books. I make it sound bad, but the truth is that it really isn’t. Since I made the first move, I have come to realize that there are many things I can just live with out. Last thing I really want to be is a hoarder.

What I am really hoping is that this will be the last time I have to move for awhile. I know sometimes things happen, but it would be nice to settle in for more than a few months. While I am very adaptable, I was never meant to be a nomad. I think this is one of the final pieces that solidifies my move back to NYC.

For those are thinking about it, yes, I did mention that I am moving in with my girlfriend. This is indeed another plateau that has been reached. Of course, this was part of the overall plan discussed by us. It would be nice to just concentrate on each other without having to worry about parents, who have been great. However, a person can never be comfortable unless they are in their own space.

I am set to move this weekend and the funny thing about this whole thing is that my office at Barnard College has been in bit of flux too. We are moving from one office to another this week. Actually we moved from our old office in December and we are currently in what we call a “swing space” until our new office is ready (which is tomorrow). So technically I have moved 2 more times which being my total to 6, but who is really counting anyway?

Clearly, I am becoming an expert at moving. Although, I think I would like to be an expert and making moves considering that I am 2 for 2 on my Goals checklist. Everything is smooth now unless something pops up to prevent me from the other 8 things I have on my list. I believe it is always easier to get the goals out of the way early. I personally thought that finding a place was going to take me a lot longer to do. Although, we did start looking in November.

I am looking at a busy week heading into the weekend. I cannot wait until I am all moved in so I can move on.

50 Shades of Grey, Afro Latino, color blind, culture, Dad, grand father, Latinos, my life, racism, zombies

The Grey

It seems like everyday I’m finding another grey hair on my face. Which I suppose I am ok with since I am deciding to grow more facial hair. If I get tired of it, I can just shave. Yet, I look at it as proof that I continue to survive from year to year.

I often joke that each grey hair on my head is assigned to various people in my life both past a present that have left their stressful mark on me. However, the obvious reality is that I am getting older. I would like to think that my graying hair means that I am growing in wisdom, but I am not sure how true that is. I feel that I make enough mistakes to keep me young. Of course making mistakes is what being human is all about but, making mistakes usually means that one is out there doing new things.

For some reason when I think about the eventual salt and pepper look I will get (which will be a LONG time from now), I think about my maternal grandfather. I kind of knew, by my hair type, that I would be dealing with a greyish look. My dad has a different hair structure (I still compare him to Danny Trejo) that is very flowing and South American. Mi abuelito had hair that was more traditional with afro Latino…

{Pause}

I want to take a pause here because I am trying to not laugh…really. I mean, look at me trying to be all politically correct when it comes to the quality of the hair certain family members have. I could be really honest and just categorize it the way most people do. My father has good Latino hair that flows like Jesus and mi abueltio has pelo malo (bad hair) that flows like brillo.

{Un-Pause}

I think that I will eventually go back to the clean shaven look since there seems to less grey on my head than on my face. I’m really not that old. I’m staring at 39 in about six months and I feel like I am about 25. Truth of the matter is that being grey is not so bad. I feel like most of my life has been different shades of grey (which by the way…I hate that the book has coined this phrase).

{Pause}

Now that I think about, those are not grey hairs. They are white. Maybe, they seem grey when compared to the black hair. I find that interesting. I mean, I have been called racist by white people so I wonder if there is this psychological thing that does allow me to call a white hair white. Maybe, I am color blind in the sense and don’t want to recognize the importance of a certain color so I just call it grey. Interesting thought.

{Un-Pause}

It’s all good. I think have the wisdom to get through such trivial things like grey hairs. I am just glad that I still have my health. I just hope that I never get to a point where I consider using products to color my hair back to black. Do not get me wrong, both Clyde Frasier and Keith Hernandez are both legends but I’m not doing that little “touch of grey” thing that they have been promoting for years.

I think that when people get older they need to own up to their age and just face facts. Getting crap like botox or any anti-aging things will only end up making you look plastic. I mean, just imagine how they will look during the zombie apocalypse. No one wont be able to tell if they are alive or dead AND that is a damn shame.

I am owning up to my impending age. I think I look good. I can’t help but laugh at the fact that when I was younger two things occurred. The first was that I always cried about being the shortest and the youngest. I would always look too young or small for anything and I hated it so much, I could not wait be old (when you’re a kid being old is 19). The second was the fact that I looks so damn young and nerdy, women never looked at me.

Well, I think now I have the last laugh on both cases. 🙂

Blogging, my life

Big Things

I wasn’t sure how to go about this. I am so used to writing on a different space and using WordPress is so foreign to me. Originally, I thought about treating my first post, on a new site, as this world class event with all the bells and whistles that I can muster. All that usually means is a big Facebook announcement with some mentions on Twitter and Tumblr. But, What would be the point? I am still just about the writing.

So, in thinking about it again, I decided that my first post should be more like a Free Write. Truth be told, I just want to get used to the new digs. I want to get comfortable writing here because I may just be here awhile. I have nothing against my old site but, like my 2012 life, I needed a change. I have been wanting to do something different for a very long time. I have laid out the plans of this site change back in 2011. I knew then that it was only a matter of time before I made the move from my old site.

My thought in 2011 was to have yet a another site just for my fictional writing, I would post some things, here and there, so prove that I am indeed writing. The original title for this site was called “Leafless”. It represented my feelings on novel writing without the use of paper. I thought it was cute, but then I thought the whole thing was pointless. I was not ready for this because my life was ultimately not ready. So it just remained to be yet another project sidelined by a life in limbo. When I took a second thought about the whole thing, putting my intellectual property out there for free is probably not a great idea.

Yet, I loved the idea of moving to a new site as a way to start something new. Don’t get me wrong. I love my old site. The number of hits from 2012 were the best I have ever had (58,465 page views) which come out to about 4,900 page views monthly. I barely wrote 73 posts all year and I am amazed by this. Blogger was everything I wanted when I started 2009. It was easy to just get on and write. It was all I wanted to do. I cared little for the visual presentation. As I got more comfortable, I knew that I would eventually have to make my site look as cool as the words on put on it. I tried to change looks over the years, but again, I knew I had to make more of a lasting change for me.

Let’s also be honest. Other blogs around me were getting better and looking more refined. I didn’t want to make a change for the sake of making a change. I wanted to do it in my own time and in my own right. I also didn’t want to copy anyone. Which is another reason why I waited. I didn’t want to get inspiration to be something I stole from someone else. I wanted my idea to be fully formed and fully developed (I have been watching Inception too much).

So now I am here. This looks cleaner. It feels smoother. I think that if I am going to still be about my writing, I need (you) the reader to be able to see the words crisply. No more fancy fonts in green. This is just as much about my relationship with those who choose to follow me. I am hoping all goes well here and I will say that the changes you see on this page will continue as I continue to grow. 2013 is here and expect big things to happen.

Welcome to the other side.