For the past two days or a little longer (it's hard to notice exactly when, when your Facebook stream is bombarded with the following) there have been people who have either:

a) talked about what they learned in 2010
b) talked about what they need to do for 2011
c) wished everyone a New Year way before midnight 12/31
d) said goodbye 2010
e) have suddenly decided they need to confess something before the year ends

Honestly, it's silly. Everyday is a new day and the only people I see who vocally appreciate that are Christians, parents, or people going through hardships. Occasionally the people who find what they have been looking for give thanks for the day or God, but for the most part, the majority of people won't vocalize that they appreciate a day. We are just changing a number at the end of the year, starting back the calendar one more time while we still get to breathe. I don't need to celebrate a new year.

Especially with a party or going out and running around all over the place. I can do that any day. What I want is to celebrate this second...and this one...and this one.

I don't want to mark my life by what I can do in a year. I want to see what I can do in a day, in a month. I wish to do better every second, even when I feel really low. I just want to write, have good times, be in love and enjoy life. 

When we were kids, my cousin Melissa and I came up with the silliest thing. I don't even know how it came about, but we started counting down the next minute like it was the countdown to the ball. We would countdown the last ten seconds of a minute and then say "Happy New Minute" and burst into giggles. That's was the beauty of childhood. Every moment was new and we did acknowledge that.

So what am I doing right now with 45 minute to go? Writing this anti (well sorta anti) New Year post. I'm going to go shower in a few. Maybe I will bring in the New Year with a hushed moment of rushing water down my back. Whatever I am doing at midnight, it's going to be like midnight of any other day. And I will be grateful with that.

Happy New Minute!!!

My footsteps hide under blankets of snow. The flakes and I have our secrets till Spring.
---

In January, I am participating in "a river of stones", a month long writing project of writing small stones everyday. I am testing out my AROS filter so my post can go to the widget on the site. So the above was a small stone, dedicated to the blizzard in New York.

You can read more about the "A River of Stones" Project at their site or follow them on Twitter @ariverofstones.

My iPod has been getting a workout lately. There are some songs that probably have 50 or more plays (or will be arriving there very soon) by now. These artists aren't mainstream cookie cutters that you can find on the radio. But these are artists that should be on the radio to redefine what music is about. Four out of five of these artists are poets, one is a super singer looking to start a genre of her own. 

This is how our lesson in great music is going to go folks. First will come a picture of their release which will link to a page where you can download and/or purchase their work. Underneath will be links to their website and/or Facebook Page. Below that will be a one line review of their work. Got it? Good! Let discovery begin!

Facebook: Leeia Music
Website: http://leeiamusic.com
Review: Urban Alternative is becoming one of my new favorite genres. Great vision. Dynamic.  Very Passionate.

Facebook: Aja-Monet
Website: http://ajamonet.com
Review: I'm scared to listen to this much love. On constant repeat. Recess and Dance with Love, best tracks I have ever heard!

Facebook: Erica Riva Buddington
Website: http://rivaflowz.com
Review: What hip-hop and poetry should be about. This is a REAL female MC. She needs to release more tracks every week!

Facebook: Caits Meissner
Website: http://caitsmeissner.com
Review: Raw magic. You feel like you are listening to her live on stage with every track. Great, great work.

Facebook: Ainsley Burrows
Review: Best thing I've had delivered to my house all year. A man with lyrical sense. Better than hip-hop, fantastic poetry.

2010 is on it's way out so whatever plans I had for my writing, well...it's too late now. But I can have hope for 2011...

I got an e-mail from author Fiona Robyn earlier today. I am subscribed to one of her blogs, Planting Words. She made an announcement that in January, she will be holding a month long writing challenge called NaSmaStoMo (National Small Stones Writing Month). This means that everyday for the month of January, you would write a 'small stone'. A small stone is a small, poetic observation. You can read more about small stones on her blog. I even have one published on her online lit zine, a handful of stones.

I started thinking about how often I push myself to write everyday. Since 2009, I have done NaPoWriMo, also known as a 30/30 challenge in April, which is writing a poem everyday in April for National Poetry Month. Last December, I did another 30/30 (or 31/31 since it's December) for the end of the year. Of course I write throughout the year, but there are times where I am uninspired or extremely stressed out to write.

When I was younger, I wrote several times a week. Now I'm lucky if I write a few times a month. I need to push myself and challenge myself more. I used to before I became reliant on school to help me with my writing life. Goodness, I was writing long before I decided this should be a career, I shouldn't be a slave to learning from academia! I taught myself a lot of stuff before college. And I was writing more too.

So I have decided to do more month long writing challenges. I'm not going to do it every month, but there will be more months of challenges (which means more action on this blog). I'm also going to do shorter two week challenges between breaks. I am going to list my schedule right now as a matter of fact! 

2011:

January -  NaSmaStoMo at a river a stones via the Write Queen blog
February - break
March - March 7 - 20, Haiku Madness
April - NaPoWriMo via the Write Queen
May - break
June - June 6 - 19, Tanka Marathon
July - Discover Me - 31/31 of Self Discovery Poetry
August - break
September - Spell It Out - 30/30 of Acrostic Poetry
October - break
November -  November 7 - 20, Haibun Runs
December - 31/31 for the end of the year

Whew, just looking at it scares me, but it's exciting at the same time. Now that everyone knows my writing schedule, don't be afraid to push me if you see me slacking. Encouragement is the best medicine for a writer. Makes us feel loved!

On the first day of National Poetry Month, I received a book from my Book of the Month Club. It was Nikki Giovanni'sBicycles: Love Poems. In the middle of reading it, it made me want to fall in love again. I started to read it in the laundromat, while occasionally glancing at the spinning washing machine. I wanted to have my lover come sweep me off my feet. I wanted to spin in the ideas of love. The language was powerful yet simple. Which is what love is. Powerful yet simple.

Being that I was in the middle of finishing school, I didn't have time to look into more of her work. Over the summer, I downloaded The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (P.S.) on my iPod. Of course, life gets in the way and you get to only read a bit at a time. I'm still reading it, but I have to say that Nikki Giovanni is one powerful woman. She is not afraid to say anything.

I hope one day, I can be the same.

Take a look inside at Bicycles: Love Poems and The Collected Poetry of Nikki Giovanni: 1968-1998 (P.S.) at HarperCollins:

I like these poems, "We're Going To Mars" and "Woman" that I found on YouTube as I write about her today.

“I really don't think life is about the I-could-have-beens. Life is only about the I-tried-to-do. I don't mind the failure but I can't imagine that I'd forgive myself if I didn't try.”
- Nikki Giovanni

Some people know everything there is to know about their families. Their family tree is a constant discussion in the family unit.

Not the case in my house.

I know the basics. I know that we are Puerto Rican, that my mom's mom had eight kids, my dad's mom had five. I know that they all mostly grew up in Brooklyn. That my grandparents came to the U.S., but my parents were born here. This I've known since about the age of nine or ten.

What I don't know could feed a whale. My parents love to believe that they tell me stories about their childhood. I've heard bits and pieces, but when I talk to my cousins or when my parents now bring up something random that they swore they told me when I was a kid,  I am clueless!

I didn't get to meet my maternal grandfather until I was about eleven or twelve if I recall correctly. My mom had issues with him that I am still unclear about today. He died sometime after but my best memory of him is the only memory I have and he didn't even do much. We were at his house and they brought out his keyboard. He was a musician. My mom and aunt sang "Somewhere Over The Rainbow" while I triggered the keys to play the music (because no one bothered to listen to my pleas of "Please let me learn an instrument" a couple of years before).

I remember walking around his house and looking at his awards that he got in Puerto Rico. It reinforce the idea that I must study to become a music producer one day and I knew that my love for music did come from somewhere.

Recently at my cousin's housewarming, I found out that my grandfather was in a band in P.R. that was kind of a big deal. Of course my mom never told me this. Of course I am like the only one who didn't know. How can you be in a family and not know a thing about them? 

This and other occurrences often make me feel like the black sheep of the family, on both sides, not just my mom's. I believe that part of it has been the lack of my parents not taking the time to tell me enough. Another part of it has been their lack of participating in things when I was younger with the family.

This weekend, I went to visit my dad. We were talking when he mentioned his great great great grandfather. He said that he was the first president of Venezuela. As I cocked my head to the side and gave him a confused look, he knew that once again, our lack of communication has done me an injustice (or I hope he thought that).

He got the info about this man from his room. One of his friends traced my grandfather's other last name "Paez" to this man, Jose Antonio Paez, who was the THIRD president of Venezuela, but was the first to govern the country after it gained independence from Gran Columbia.

So I'm supposedly part Venezuelan...okay.

But this has me really curious about the rest of my family tree on both sides. As an only child who is close to only so many people in her family, who knows very little about them as they do her, there comes a point where you have to.

How do I begin? Do I talk to people? Do I do one of those family trees that you can do online? What do I do?

Well, that's a goal for 2011: To discover the Rodriguez/De Los Santos family tree that flows through my veins.