Quinceanera!

Yesterday my daughter had the honor of serving as a lady of honor in the court of a Quinceanera. This is a beautiful Latino tradition for a young woman's 15th birthday.

The day started with a formal ceremony and mass honoring Jessica's rite of passage to young womanhood.

A huge stretch limo was hired. Photos were taken a a park and a formal reception was held at a rented hall.

Some people may have gushed at William and Kate's wedding as every young girl dreams of becoming a princess, but this was so much better in so many ways.

The first picture is of the mini-quinceaneran, one of Jessica's cousins who enjoyed the honor of dressing like the honoree. She also won the admiration of every little girl at the park!

Jessica wore an elegant dress, a tiara and carried a scepter. She was truly a princess for the day!

She is escorted by her brother. He rode in the limo with about 13 beautiful young ladies! Lucky guy! He took a bit of "razzing" from his friends, but didn't seem to mind too much.

What an incredible day for a wonderful young lady. We returned to the reception hall for homemade Salvadoran food and dancing. There was a ritual "changing of the shoes" where Jessica's father replaced her Chuck Taylor sneakers with high heels. Jess stood up and thanked her family and her friends for helping her become a young woman. Every member of her family helped to prepare the feast and festivities.




Jessica's mother told me that she could not have one because her family in El Salvador was too poor.

She fulfilled the dream for her daughter.

I wish every girl could be a princess for the day.

(My daughter is the ginger-haired, third from left). I hope you enjoy the photos. Blogger would only allow me to upload three. What's up with Blogger these days?

Shirtless George

Here is the founder of our country, George Washington, shirtless!

Oh what a scandal!

I did not realize that this scandalous sculpture existed!

Thankfully, my art student daughter enlightened me.

This sculpture, created by Horatio Greenough created quite the scandal in 1840.

The Wikipedia entry is as follows:

Greenough modeled his massive (30 tons) figure of “Enthroned Washington” on the great statue of Zeus Olympios which was one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (and which was destroyed in late Antiquity). The seated and besandled Washington gazes sternly ahead. He is bare-chested and his right arm and hand gesture with upraised index finger toward heaven. His left palm and forearm cradle a sheathed sword, hilt forward, symbolizing Washington turning over power to the people at the conclusion of the American Revolutionary War.

Well, the American people at the time thought it was obscene and hid the sculpture until at least the 1960s. That makes it all the more fun doesn't it?

And by George, he was chopped!

We met up with my California brother in our nation's capitol Friday. This was the highlight of our trip, besides dinner at La Fourchette, the restaurant we visited over our honeymoon, and breakfast at The Diner at Adams Morgan.

Coming of Age - The Elusive Job Hunt

Daughter A has been home from college for a month now. While I love her dearly I am ready for her to not be here so much. Daughter D's last school day was Tuesday.

Now you can understand my reason for helping with the job search.

Oh it has been extremely frustrating. All of the retail outlets and food outlets must be swamped with applicants as none of them ever bother to contact us. The girls follow up with phone calls and hear all manner of excuses.

Finally Mom's ingenious idea: The Temp Agency. I used to use these agencies when I was young and inexperienced. I landed a few nice little busywork jobs filing and typing and filling envelopes and such, but they were resume builders.

I helped A to build up her resume. Highlight skills: Adept at Photoshop, Excel, Word, Powerpoint, yadayadayada. Beef up the National Honor Society and 500 letters to soldiers and Vice Captain of the Fencing club to compensate for her lack of actual "work" experience.

It helped so much that she became overqualified for work in the cookie factory. (Not exactly what we were going for)

Then the Volkswagen dealer was looking for someone with her exact qualifications but wanted a permanent commitment. (No chance)

Will try another temp agency tomorrow. Funny, when I was her age they were always looking for clerical people.

This teen boredom might be the reason there are so many cute cat internet pictures, videos, games, etc.