A Puerto Rican Affair

It's so interesting how life brings people together.  Take me and my cousin Maritere for instance.  Maritere is a cousin from my Dad's side in Puerto Rico and until recently it had been about 15 years or so since I had seen her.  Maritere lived in Orlando and came to visit us in the mid-90's with my Aunt Tita and Grandpa.  Recently, however, her husband was offered a job in Maryland and, before we knew it, they were living practically in our back yard and we have seen them twice already!

Yesterday  we actually made the trek out to visit them (they live a little bit outside of Baltimore) and not only was it worth it to see them, but Maritere is a wonderful cook (like her mother) and made a great Puerto Rican spread fro lunch...chicken, rice, spanish beans, sweet plantains, and salad...mmmm!!!  I brought my camera and meant to take pictures but I totally forgot all about it when I walked in the door to the smell of her cooking ;)  Anyway, her husband, Alvaro, runs marathons (and actually got lucky enough to early register for the Marine Corps Marathon here in D.C. which is sadly now sold out) and even has done an Iron Man triathlon (which he did in just under 14 hours...crazy!!!) so we are excited to have someone around to help us find out about cool races and start running again here in D.C.

Well, needless to say, yesterday was wonderful and when it was time to go, her two kids ran up and gave us big hugs and said 'I thought you were going to stay longer? We don't want you to go yet!' (cute!)  Curse you law school for taking over my life haha!!!  For real though, we are so lucky to have so many wonderful people around us in our new home and to be able to spend time with those whom I hadn't seen much since moving out west in 2004.  Even my Aunt Tita (from Puerto Rico) will be coming to visit next month so I am excited to have a family get together and see her for the first time since 2007 and practice my espanol!

The rest of the weekend has been a mix of studying and enjoying the city.  We actually did two date nights this week - Friday (after recovering from Bar Review the night before...going out two nights in a row is hard when you're an old man like me!) we went to dinner and then out in DuPont with some of my law school friends to a mixer with the Georgetown Med School and Saturday went to Columbia Heights for dinner to enjoy eating outside on a patio while the weather is still nice!  Over dinner we were actually talking more about how lucky we are to have so many great opportunities and especially for all the great people we have in our lives...sometimes its hard to believe that we're only in our mid-twenties and blessed as much as we are!  We were talking about the concept of 'home' and that, while we both miss our loved one's in Utah (thank goodness for Skype), we are really loving this opportunity and taking advantage of every day!  Maybe after law school we will all just have to meet in the middle...how does Kansas sound to everybody?  I guess I'm just dying to really be able to say 'We're not in Kansas anymore' and have a dog named Toto :)  Just remember, 'home is where the heart is'...and my heart is with each of you - love you all!  Have a great week!!!