8 posts tagged “awesome”

running diaries- 10 miles saturday morning

Sep 8, 2008
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the alarm goes off and my thoughts immediately go towards the task at hand. I have made it my goal to run 10 miles this morning, 10 good hard miles! The most until now is 8, so I feel ready but still nervous. I quickly change, grab some toast with PB, grab a bottle of water, prep the ipod and the GPS and am out the door. A quick stretch of everything and now its time to decide which direction to head in. I don't want tons of hills but quickly realize that this will happen regardless, especially near here... I don't want to drive somewhere, so I head towards South Park... Up Robinson, down Florida, up Upas and the two hills there are KILLER- steep!! There are some people out and the air feels fresh and clean, a friendly "good morning" to the little old man outside his lawn and I continue. I turn South on 30th going through South Park, I love this cute little neighborhood, Rebeccas coffee shop is packed as always

(and they freaken rock- one morning while out on a semi long 6 mile run, I didnt take a water bottle I ran in hoping they would let me have some and they immediately handed me a disposable cup full of ice water- right at that moment I could have married the coffee shop, talk about customer service),

but I totally digress, passing through the neighborhood, I head down on 30th until I am down in Barrio Logan I think I cut across K street, I continue with my breathless greeting of, "good morning!" or "buenos dias!" to anyone I encounter. It really disarms people when you acknowledge them. Its sort of great and all most people really want, and its also great for me to get an ackonwledgement. I get tons of strange looks, what is this crazy woman doing running through the neighborhood? people must think. Over onto 28th street and now I am on Imperial ave in Barrio Logan---here, there are tons of people out early and I continue my greeting blitz. Not many runners head through here and here I am I am heading down, waiting for the GPS to mark 5 miles so I can turn around.

Thats when I decide that I am very close to Chicano Park. How cool would it be to have run to Chicano park and back all the way from my house? Fucken cool I respond to myself. Head down towards Commercial st, somehow end up on Julian st, and on Cesar Chavez Parkway... down cross the freeway entrance and BAM!!! Run up to the Kiosko, touch it and turn around! VICTORY! Halfway down! I Stretch out everything that is tightening up and keep going. At this point, if I walk to much, I will just stop.

Must keep going.... there are hills tons of hills on the way back...ouch... keep going... now theres three miles to go, ooop- now its 2.7, so close... two miles...and slowly it winds down... 1.5 miles... 1 mile... done!!!!!! All this running to the soundtrack of a crazy person involving everything and anything from rage against the machine, bad hip hop (hey its got good rhythm), el gran silencio and tons of other random goodness. I slow to a sort of drunken walk, my muscles have had enough, I drink the last of my water bottle and slowly head back. I have a few blocks to go after I hit ten miles, so I walk and start stretching everything out...tight shoulders and calfs. Get home, continue the stretching, shower, eat food at a near daze and pass out into a delicious, calming deep sleep for three hours... wake up, POWERFUL

woot woot for Immigrants!

Aug 27, 2008
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This great article, summarizes wonderfully, the Olympic games and the large immigrant presence on the USA teams! :) Its well put and judging from the comments, really got some silly people really pissed off.. because its all true and its good stuff!!!

Thirty-three U.S. Olympic athletes for these games were immigrants, a number of others were the sons and daughters of immigrants.

SAN DIEGO -- Now that the flame has gone out on the Olympics in Beijing, it's worth taking a moment to applaud the U.S. Olympic team. Not only for dominating so many events and winning the most prizes overall -- 110 medals, 36 gold -- but also for winning the argument back home over the contributions of immigrants and their children.

The immigration debate has digressed from how to keep out the undocumented to how to keep out those who have documents as well. After all, the real concern is the changing culture, and millions of legal immigrants have helped spur some of those changes.

Still, immigrants don't come empty-handed. They bring their hopes for a better future for their children and a work ethic that often puts natives to shame. And they apply these things to a million different pursuits, including Olympic gold.

Thirty-three U.S. Olympic athletes for these games were immigrants, a number of others were the sons and daughters of immigrants.

Among the immigrants: Sudanese refugee and 1,500-meter runner Lopez Lamong, who served as the flag-bearer for the U.S. in the opening ceremony; beach volleyball player Phil Dalhausser, who was born in Switzerland but now lives in Ventura, Calif.; and gymnasts Nastia Liukin, whose parents brought her from Russia in 1992 and who now lives in Parker, Texas, and Alexander Artemev, who was born in the Soviet Union and now lives in Highlands Ranch, Colo.

Children of immigrants included: gold-medal decathlete Bryan Clay of Kaneohe, Hawaii, whose mother immigrated from Japan; gymnast Raj Bhavsar of Houston, whose parents came from India; and Kevin Tan of Fremont, Calif., whose parents fled China for Taiwan and then California.

But for my money the best U.S. immigrant story of these games belonged to 21-year-old wrestler Henry Cejudo, all 5-feet-4 and 121 pounds of him. Cejudo, who was a long shot to win any medal in Beijing, won the gold in freestyle after defeating Japan's Tomohiro Matsunaga. Cejudo celebrated by breaking into tears and -- after family members in the stands tossed him an American flag -- wrapping himself in Old Glory and parading around the arena.

The road to that victory lap was long, hard and uncertain. The son of illegal immigrants from Mexico, Cejudo was born in Los Angeles but moved around the American Southwest. Raised by his mother after his parents separated when he was 4, he grew up poor and eventually looked to wrestling to save his life. It did.

So did the United States of America. In his moment of glory, Cejudo didn't forget that. He proclaimed his love for his country and settled the question that pokes at so many immigration restrictionists -- that of alleged divided loyalties, the same suspicions that made life difficult for German-Americans and Japanese-Americans in the 20th century.

"I'm proud of my Mexican heritage," Cejudo told reporters. "But I'm an American. It's the best country in the world. They call it the land of opportunity, and it is."

Cejudo had one advantage: his mother, Nelly. She didn't coddle him or tolerate excuses. Instead, while working two and sometimes three jobs, she pounded into his head what it took to be successful in this country.

"I never played the victim," Cejudo said. "My mom taught us to suck it up. Whatever you want to do, you can do, and that's what I did."

That's my kind of mom. And Henry is my kind of American. This country could use more folks like these. As it is, we have an overabundance of people who have more advantages than they realize, but who blame others for their failures.

Those who want to seal off America have a crass term for the U.S.-born children of illegal immigrants. They call them "anchor babies" who help keep their undocumented parents rooted here. Some restrictionists even want to amend the Constitution so that, in the future, children born in this country to illegal immigrants would be denied U.S. citizenship in order to make it easier to deport them.

It's a dangerous and despicable idea. Besides, the activists miss the point. It's not the parents who are anchored in the United States. It's their kids -- people like Henry Cejudo. He made his choice. He's not going anywhere. And if you want to pry that American flag -- his flag -- away from him, why, you're going to have to wrestle him for it.

too cute to eat!

Aug 25, 2008
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how awseome is this, cute edible food! look at the little eyes, yes!!!

http://mfrost.typepad.com/cute_overload/2008/08/betcha-cant-eat.html

son of undocumented immigrants wins olympic gold

Aug 20, 2008
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This gave me chills! I love this triumph and show of the strength of people!

Henry Cejudo- son of undocumented immigrants from Mexico, became the USA's youngest gold medalist to win olympic gold in wrestling:

BEIJING — The American flag landed on the scorer’s table, launched by a family member with exceptional aim. Henry Cejudo grabbed it from his coach and draped it around his body. He stood there for the longest time, fighting back tears, the son of illegal immigrants wrapped in the Stars and Stripes.

After Cejudo had defeated Tomohiro Matsunaga of Japan to win the 121-pound freestyle wrestling final on Tuesday, and after his family members had celebrated so loudly for so long that security threatened to kick them out, officials hung a gold medal around his neck. He said he might never remove it.

“I might just sleep with this,” Cejudo said. “It changed my life already.”

Fitting, because his is a story about change — for himself, for his family and maybe now for the USA Wrestling program, which trained the 21-year-old Cejudo to become the youngest gold medalist in United States wrestling history.

The gold medal, and his path to it, changed so many lives along the way.

Like his mother’s life. Nelly Rico, who came to the United States from Mexico as an illegal immigrant, raised seven children by herself and left Los Angeles with them in the middle of the night to escape the career criminal who was the father Cejudo never really knew.

Rico does not like flying, so she watched her son’s Olympic performances on a laptop in Colorado Springs. She vomited three times — one for each period her son lost in the three matches leading to the finals.

His right eye bruised and darkened, Cejudo talked of all the hours his mother had worked over the years, as a janitor and a construction worker, anything to put food on the table or to heat the house. He talked about all the times they moved, from Los Angeles to New Mexico to Phoenix to Colorado Springs, each time in search of a better life.

“I wish I could just give her the medal right now,” Cejudo said.

More lives changed, like those of all the people back in Phoenix. Frank Saenz, Cejudo’s coach at Maryvale High School, was the one who raised money for him to enter tournaments by knocking on doors and pleading for donations.

Tracy Greiff, another wrestling coach from the Phoenix area, was the one who had told Cejudo in seventh grade that he would win an Olympic gold. Greiff said he sold hundreds of tickets to travel here and sit in the rowdiest section this venue has seen.

Alonzo Cejudo, one of Henry’s older brothers, was the one who said that next to the birth of his children this ranked as the greatest moment of his life. He was the one who remembered how Rico called Henry her “little golden boy” from the moment of his birth. The one who listened to Angel, Henry’s brother and training partner, talk all week.

Angel told the family he had never seen Henry this strong, this focused, this tough or this prepared.

“Henry knew he was going to take it,” Alonzo said. “He just came to pick up what was already his.”

Angel’s life changed, too, for better and for worse. He was the first Cejudo brother to take to wrestling, the first to become a star. He won four state championships at Maryvale. He had a 150-0 record.

When he went to Colorado Springs, Henry, as always, tagged along. When Henry won more matches, more tournaments and more medals, Angel became his toughest critic and best friend. When Henry wrapped himself in that flag on Tuesday, Angel watched from the stands in tears.

“It’s not, oh, it should have been me,” said Angel, a world-class wrestler in his own right. “Because if it should have been me, I would have been out there. I’m not going to be jealous of my brother.”

More change looms on the horizon, but this time, with a wider reach. Tucked into the Cejudo cheering section was Jake Deitchler, an 18-year-old who wrestled in the Greco-Roman discipline at these Olympics. Deitchler had committed to the University of Minnesota but said on Tuesday that he would instead head to Colorado Springs.

“I want to go down the same path,” Deitchler said. “I want to be where he’s at, gold medal hanging around my neck.”

The victory was what Kevin Jackson, the national freestyle coach and a former gold medalist, had envisioned since Cejudo entered the program at the Olympic Training Center as a high school junior. Instead of going to college, where folk wrestling is the dominant style, Cejudo honed his considerable skills against the best freestyle wrestlers in the world.

The program pays for him to attend college if he wants. In the interim, Angel said, “the benefit is going up against world-class athletes.”

Jackson ranks Cejudo among the best young United States wrestlers ever, alongside names like John Smith, a world champion at 21, and Lee Kemp, a world champion at 22. Jackson hopes Cejudo’s success at these Olympics will prompt promising young wrestlers like Deitchler to follow the same path.

“He is the present, and he is the future,” Jackson said of Cejudo. “He has two more cycles in him. And he hasn’t come close to how good he can be.”

After the match, Jackson lifted Cejudo in the air, a freestyle wrestling tradition. Jackson watched Cejudo afterward and concluded he was the most emotional champion in recent memory.

Maybe that is because Cejudo’s medal meant so much to so many.

His family waited near the tunnel, and after Cejudo received his prize, he made wrestling’s version of the Lambeau Leap — right into the stands. His family members embraced him, tousled his hair and wrapped seven pairs of arms around him.

They all wore or waved American flags, an entire family decked in the Stars and Stripes. A family that started with illegal immigrants and advanced to right here, this moment, their very own gold medalist resting in their lap.

“Only in America,” Cejudo said.

I love that his family was loud and obnoxious, we are so tame and mild nowadays, your family member just fucken wond the gold medal in olympics you damn right you should kick, scream, shoot kick, frolick and make a fool of yourself---- this is a BIG DEAL!!! Woot woot, applause to his family and friends who are not taking sedatives like everyone else!!!!

I'm going to College Ma!

Feb 13, 2008
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I am going to be a student again! Grad School here I come! :) I opened my email yesterday and found my acceptance into UCSD's Latin American Studies program! I start this fall! I am soooo excited! Thank you everyone- Leah, Tricia, Raquel and Rob who helped me with my writing sample/personal statment and everything else-GOLDSTARS! :) whoooo hooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!