PRICELESS

If I could make a MasterCard commercial based on some of my personal experiences in NYC, it would go like this: 


Veggie burger at vegetarian restaurant on the Upper East Side:

$10



Ticket for a movie:

$12.50



Ride home with a subway full of transvestites:

PRICELESS!




For everything else there are student loans… and MasterCard of course.

2nd Year of Grad School

So I just turned in my thesis prospectus and it feels really good. For those of you who do not know, I am currently a second year graduate student at New York University, where I am doing a masters degree in Museum Studies. My obsession with museums began at the age of 17 years old, when I first visited Le Musee de Louvre in Paris. Just being at that place, surrounded by so much art and history, was an enlightening experience. So here I am now working on my thesis and getting myself mentally ready to graduate in six months, which as cool at it sounds, it is scary as hell. So I was thinking the other day that I had not posted pictures of my school. So here are a few pictures I have taken throughout this past year. Enjoy!!!

*Some thoughts on being mormon, single and 25 years old

It has been a little while since I have written a real post on this blog. Just so you know, I am doing well today, even though a week ago I was not doing so well. This is the deal, I love my family, my city, my school, my apartment, my roommate, etc. I just love my life and feel so grateful, but I must admit that living in NYC can be very hard at times. I am currently on my second year of grad school and have started working on my thesis, which can be very stressful. I am also starting to freak out about my life after May 2010, when I will be done with grad school and I will be starting a new stage in my life. On top of that, I have been going through a spiritual crisis. I began to question some things and I became a bit frustrated with the way the LDS/Mormon church deals with their single members once they reach their mid twenties. To be honest, I am sick and tired of single wards. I have actually never liked them as I believe that they create divisions in the church. Let me further explain. As we know, singles wards have been created for the purpose of bringing together mormon singles so that they can interact, become friends, strengthen each others' testimonies, date, and eventually get married. The reality is that this is not always the case. I have been attending singles wards for over 7 years in my life and I have never dated anyone I have met there. The majority of my close friends have been attending singles wards for years and have never dated anyone they have met there. But I also know of people that have met their eternal companions at singles wards, so I guess that in some cases single wards do work. Anyway, once the single members turn 31 years old, they must leave their singles wards and start attending family wards. Even though I have not been through this, I have heard from some friends that have, that it can be rather a hard and lonely process. The thing is that when a single member begins attending a family ward in many cases they may feel like outsiders, as they are different from most of the other members in the ward who in the most part are already married with children. So I honestly believe that by dissolving singles wards the church can become more unified as the marital status would stop to be an issue for everyone. I mean, in my home ward in Puerto Rico nobody cares if I am single, is just not an issue and I believe that a big part of this has to do by the fact that single wards are non-existant in my country.

I should explain that I understand the importance of marriage and the reason why the church focuses so much on it. In the LDS church we view families as sacred and as an essential part of the plan of salvation. We believe that a man and a woman should be married in the temple of our Lord for time and eternity. We believe that after being married, the husband and wife should have children and teach them the gospel of Jesus Christ. I personally believe in this and find it to be a perfect plan, but the truth is that this particular scenario does not apply to all of us. Not all members of the church get married by the age of twenty-one and have 5 children by the age of twenty six. The church would like this for all the members but of course this is not always the situation. I grew up in the Church where I was told as a young woman that if I remained a worthy, a worthy priesthood holder would marry me. I am twenty-five years old (which in the mormon world is equivalent to 42 years old), and even though I consider myself to be good, I am not married nor close to be married. Do I worry? I do. Why? Because I do want a family,but my time has not yet come, and if I was not reminded every time at church about my marital status maybe I would not mind as much. I mean, all my non-members friends don’t care, so why should I care so much? I am convinced that the reason why there is such a high rate of divorce in the church is because we are told so much that we need to get married while at the same time neglecting to discuss important issues related to sex, pornography, homosexuality, etc. I believe that many young members of the church get marry not having a remote idea of what they are getting into. So one of the reasons why I am so grateful that I am 42 years old in mormon age and not married, is that it has allowed me the time to go through experiences that have helped me grow as a person so I can be a better woman, mother and wife. So in conclusion, I love God, Jesus Christ and the gospel. I am so grateful for the peace and strength that I receive by knowing of the atonement of our Savior Jesus Christ. I love the mormon church and I am grateful to be a part of it. I just hope that this post can create some sort of discussion regarding the position of young single adults in the church, and that it can contribute to the unification and strengthening of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.


ps. I feel so much better getting all these thoughts out of my system.
pps. Speed dating or not speed dating? that is the question...





* If you read this post and are not a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and have some questions about some of the things I wrote about, feel free to email me to jendarmorales@gmail.com. I would love to answer any questions you may have.

Andy Warhol vs. Lady Gaga

i kind of wish it was halloween every single day...


halloween 2008

halloween 2009

An Education

I had been waiting for a while for this movie to come out. I watched it and loved it. "An Education" is the beautiful coming of age story of a 16 year old girl named Jenny. Part of the movie was filmed in Paris, which of course makes me love it even more. Voici le trailer: An Education.

Happy One year Vegetarian!

Remember the time when I used to think that if my meal did not include any meat then it was not a meal at all? Or the time when my grocery-shopping list included items such as pork-chops, hot dogs and Spam? Or the time when I could not go a couple of days without eating a spicy chicken sandwich from Wendy’s? Or the time when I could easily eat a Beto’s al pastor burrito at 3am? Well, if you knew me over a year ago, you may remember this. Until a year ago, I was obsessed with meat and did not understand how some could live without it. Until a year ago, I would make fun of vegetarians and vegans. To be honest, I was secretly jealous of them. I was jealous that they could live healthy and happy lives without having to depend on meat. I really wanted that, but was too dependent on my dose of bacon. I remember one time when I was 14 years old, I attempted to become a vegetarian. I announced to my parents my new plans, which they did not take seriously of course. For dinner that night my mom made pork-chops, and as you can probably guess, I forgot all about my vegetarian plans, until a year ago.

A lot of my closest friends live vegetarian and vegan lifestyles, for environmental, animal rights or health reasons. I admired their passion and wished I could have the strength to overcome my weakness for meat. Over a year ago, while I was working as a teacher’s assistant for a debate class at a high school in the Bronx, the teacher’s topic of choice for that week’s debate was that of animal rights. He gave all the students articles on animal cruelty in the pharmaceutical industry. He had me read these articles so that I could help debate in favor of using animals in laboratory tests. As I was debating against a student in favor of animal testing, I realized how selfish I had been all these years. I thought of all the animals that had been killed by my expense, and that thought made me incredibly sad. On my way home I could not stop thinking about the articles I have read at work, and about all the things that have been said during the debate. The next day I called my family to announce my plans of becoming a vegetarian.

To my own surprise becoming a vegetarian has been fairly easy. I do not crave meat or even feel tempted to eat it when it is presented to me (except maybe for my mom’s fried chicken). I feel a lot healthier than I did before. I am also a much happier person, as I know that I am contributing to a cause that I am passionate about. Becoming a vegetarian has been one of the best decisions I have made in my life. It took me a while to make it there, but it was definitely worth it. I really hope I do not give this up as I feel it has made me a better person. Anyway, to end this post I just want to add that if you are a meat eater, and are planning to stay that way for the rest of your life, I think that is absolutely fine. Who am I to judge after I ate so much meat for 24 years of my life? But I would like to say that if you eat meat, do it responsibly, always remembering that what is on your plate was once a living being like you and me. Bon appetit!




p.s. Did you know that Leonardo Da Vinci, Mark Twain, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Leo Tolstoy and Isaac Newton were all vegetarians?
p.p.s Even Meat Loaf is a vegetarian.

my dream has come true...

as I have finally seen West Side Story on Broadway. My obsession with West Side Story began at a very young age as I grew up among a family who would constantly talk about this musical, and a mother and three sisters who would randomly start singing such songs as “America,” “I Feel Pretty,” “Cool,” etc, etc. I remember asking my mother what this musical was all about and she telling me it is a modern version of Romeo & Juliet set in New York City, where one of the gangs, known as the Sharks, consisted of Puerto Ricans, and the second gang, called the Jets, consisted of Caucasian youth. I remember becoming so intrigued by the story from that moment on, even though it was not until my late teens that I finally watched the movie, which I happened to love of course. From the catchy songs, the cool outfits, the amazing choreographies, Rita Moreno, I just loved it all. It was at that moment when I started considering a career in Music Dance Theatre, just so I could play Anita in a production of West Side Story. Unfortunately those dreams became shattered when during my freshman year I worked with a guy who was in the MDT program at BYU and who for some reason thought that real life was a musical, as he would randomly burst into dance and song (Thanks, but I like humanities people way better). So last April as I was waiting at a bus stop, I saw on a bus an ad for West Side Story, which happened to be starting once again on Broadway. My mascara started running down my cheeks. I was so excited. So as my sister came to visit me this weekend from California, sans her children, we decided to go see WSS. It was incredible of course. What was even cooler about this particular production is the fact that most of the dialogue among the Puerto Ricans was in Spanglish, and some of the songs, including “I Feel Pretty,” were translated into Spanish. I know that non-native Spanish speakers may not be into this, but I am as it makes the story more real. So if you live in NYC or happen to come visit, I strongly recommend you to go see West Side Story on Broadway. Keep it cool boys…





p.s. as my sister and I got into the train today to go back to my place, we sat right across a smiling and young good looking man who happened to be Seth Meyers, the head writer of SNL and the anchorman of the Weekly Update. As we were both debating with each other wether we should start a conversation with him and maybe attempt to take his picture, the train stopped at 47-50 Rockefeller station, and Seth, with his lovely smile, got off. My sister and I just sat there feeling dumb. Oh well. Hopefully, he will sat across from me once again,or maybe next to me, in the train and when that time comes, I shall speak to him for reals.