It’s been a while since I last submitted an entry. After my birthday festivities, finals came around and I took off for Texas. I got there the day before my mom’s 50th birthday celebration and met up with my family and extended family. The party was a hit. Live band. Personalized champagne from Champagne, France. Mariachis. Dancing. Tequila. Great company. Two of my mom’s sisters were able to attend, my Tia Vicky and Tia Celia, along with my Tio Lionel and cousins, Sonja, Celia, and Cristina. Of course, we had lots of other friends from around the country as well that made it very special for my mom. Unfortunately due to the torrential snow in the northwest United States, my brother, Rudy, and two other of my mom’s sisters, my Tia Betty and Tia Francis, missed the party but made up for it the day following. It was an awesome and I could tell my mom had a blast. I still can’t believe she’s 50. She definitely has a timeless soul and an ageless smile.
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For the following week, I was fortunate to spend a lot of quality time with my brother, Rudy, who is always stuck working in Washington State and doesn’t get to visit as much as we would like, and his son, my nephew, Antonio. We went out a lot and I was able to meet up with my good ole Harlingen friends who never let me down and know how to have a good time despite there only being one bar to go to in Harlingen. I have to point out that Natalie D. never let me down and was always game for going out.

I also got to hang out with the parents a lot and even with my other brother, Carlos, his wife Norma, and their four million children…well, it seemed that way. Haha. The three little girls, not including the mini-Carlos and other little one on the way, were quite a handful. You can’t avoid their love for life and relentless desire to run their little bodies to the ground. I don’t know how my bigger-than-life parents handle them on a constant basis.

My annual Christmas party came back with a vengeance, literally, on Christmas night! Haha. ALL my friends that were in town made it over and we had Rudy dress in a Hawaiian skirt and hat as the bartender who made sure we all had a good time…definitely did. Yara and Mona weren’t happy with me by the end of the night, but they know Fez can never get too sour for too long…haha.

As you can expect, my time at home flew by. I’m glad I was able to see my parents and recharge my motivation and humility to move forward with life so it was sad leaving especially since I have no idea when I’ll be home again…maybe next Christmas? Why do we have to grow up so quickly and leave the house? Someone remind me. Oh yeah, that’s right…time doesn’t let us be irresponsible forever.

I returned to my “grown-up home” in Brussels with my friend from home, Summer, who has a tradition of accompanying me on extravagant new years parties. This year was Paris and I had the best new years yet. We got there a couple of days early and did all the touristy stuff. We visited the Louvre, Arc de Triomphe, the Eiffel Tower, all the good stuff. Summer took excessive amounts of pictures, per the usual, and I got frustrated, per the usual. We started New Years night at the Moulin Rouge Restaurant pretty early at about 9pm and didn’t leave the place until about 5am…I think. We met some cool people while we were there. We started to hang out with some guys from southern France, and then a couple from Nice, France, and then a couple from Germany…I think the Frankfurt area. It’s funny how we were lifelong friends by midnight. Anywho, we danced and drank the night away like ballers and two bottles of champagne. Oh, and by the way, apparently Europeans don’t do the whole count-down for new years…very upsetting since everyone suddenly said it was new years and we had to toast…totally missed out on the whole drama of it all…oh well. It was an awesome time.

We headed back to Brussels on New Years day to catch up with some friends that were already back from vacation and had a good time. Jordan, Tara, and Justin made it out to give Summer a last hoorah and we definitely did. She finally took off back home and now I’m back at the “real” world or whatever it’s called for students.