The Scintilla Project Begins... With Me

This post is my first step in my participation in the Scintilla Project which begins today. Each day, for the next two weeks there will be a prompt provided by the project which I will respond to here on Rivera Runs Through It.

Here's what I found at the Scintilla Project Prompt page today...

Day 1: Wednesday, March 14, 2012

• Prompt A: Who are you? Come out from behind that curtain and show yourself.

• Prompt B: Life is a series of firsts. Talk about one of your most important firsts. What did you learn? Was it something you incorporated into your life as a result?

I decided to go for Prompt A.

 Who am I?

I'm the one the entire neighborhood saw this morning on a quest for her beagle, Buffy.

I'm the one who, upon returning, needs a nap, a meal and her medicine.

I'm the one who is receiving text and facebook messages about how this day, Pi Day, always reminds people of me.

I'm the one who will always be reading and writing stories, no matter the topic.

I'm the one who is conflicted about her husband forgetting his homemade lunch at home again - for one, who knows what he ate instead, on the other hand, I don't have to go crazy developing another safe gluten-free, dairy-free lunch for myself to get through until I do the same for dinner.

I'm the one who dreams of living like the Doctor, traveling through space and time, forever on an adventure discovering new things, new people, new places; but instead, lives like Boo Radley, trapped in her home due to old, wearisome symptoms, conditions and fading finances.

I'm the one who reads children's books, anticipates the release of The Muppets on DVD and is surrounded by her husband's action figures, but has not found a path to bringing our own children into our life.

I'm the one who always earned and saved money from when I was a child selling goods out of a greeting cards catalog door to door in this exact neighborhood that I still dwell, who is now doing nothing but spending to survive watching every single penny of a lifetime of savings disappear into the vapor of nothingness.

I'm the one who fears she will lose the house she grew up in because she got sick.

And yet...

I'm the one who believes everything happens for a reason. And if I could believe that about the death of my father when I was twelve and of my mother when I was 29, then these little bumps in my road should just be added scenery, not the show-stopping events I am building them up to be in my mind.

I'm the one who has faith.

I am an optimist.

So, I guess, I should sum it up:

Who am I?

I'm a girl woman, who has been through a lot of crap (who hasn't). Who's going to make it through. I can't see how right now (probably because of my crummy eyesight), but that doesn't matter. I'm the one you'll read about someday. They'll be saying what an amazing success I am and someone, maybe not you, will think, Damn, she was so lucky! because, by then all of the stings, the burns and the pains of the present will be long scarred over and some may even be forgotten.

I am Nicole Rivera and, if you stick around long enough, you might just figure out how cool that can be.

What If #20 [Writing Prompt]

What if #20:

What if you could speak to your pets for one full day?

Buffy, please get off the computer. We need to talk.

I spend a lot of time with my pets. Today my husband will go back to work and it will be me, the dogs and the gecko again. I talk to them all of the time, but they really don't understand me (most of the time). I'd love to have one full day- 24 hours - of conversations with my pets. This is not because I'm bored it is, instead, because they need to know some really important things. I'd also love to know what's on their mind.

So, in response to this prompt this week I am going to write a post about what I would say given the opportunity to finally communicate.

What about you? What would you say to your pets given the opportunity? What would you hope to hear from them?

Write up your own blog post and link it up below. I can't wait to read your responses!!

Each week the Rivera Runs Through It blog presents a different "What If...?" question for you to explore.
Link up your own post about this week's question. If you have arrived at this post and the inlinkz tool is closed, or you don't have a blog, then please leave your response (or link) in the comment section below using DISQUS.

For a list of all of the What if questions asked so far, 

see The What If Prompts

Who Do I Think I Am?

Who I Am
 
I've lived here my entire life, so, if I want to make this post short, sweet and to the point, the answer is simple: I am an American, a New Yorker or, to really pinpoint it - I'm a Staten Islander.

Who I Think I Am
 
However, a couple of years ago, I began to explore my roots. My parents always told me I was half Sicilian (dad's side) and half Irish. Well, maybe more like an Irish mutt - Mom's side was a little less pure, but "Irish" was evidently the most prevalent. After losing both parents early along with my grandparents being gone as well, I realized it was high time that I learned my back story before I had some confused kids of my own - because, like their mother before them, they'll find dad's lineage to stems from one island's story (this time Puerto Rico!) and mom's (that would be me) one big muddled mutt mess!

Growing My Family Tree
 

I've been on my own personal "Who Do You Think You Are?" (a la the NBC show) journey without the budget, the celebrity, the international trips or the cameras to follow me all around. It has been slow going and it is really making me wonder about Who I Think I Am!

I've been learning a lot throughout this process - some things I am learning about myself, some things I am learning about genealogy and some things I am learning about history (my family's and my country's). I am no where near the finish line, but I thought I would share what I've picked up so far with all of you tuning in to my adventures here at the Rivera Runs Through It blog!

Lessons Learned from my Family Tree Adventure:

1. This could easily turn into a job. I have been at this for years because I am not in the best health and can not give it the attention it needs, but I could easily see me waking up each morning to do more research, scan more records and add more info every single day. This is a big project.
2. The family stories are invaluable. While my parents and grandparents are no longer alive, I had up to 33 years of stories from one grandmother, 29 years of stories from my mother and almost 25 years of stories from my paternal grandparents. I remember them, they are what I have and they helped so much in the process. I knew approximate dates of major events (coming to America, births of brothers and sisters, deaths, careers, military service and weddings) and general locations of family units.
3. There are never enough stories. Once I reach a point where my stories no longer reach I begin to kick myself, "Why didn't you ask them more, Nicole? Why did you waste time telling them about your day?!" It is a silly thought, I know. Conversations are a two-way street, so, of course, I had to add input, but there is always a point where a question mark pops up and I think of missed opportunities. My advice to those of you who still have your family with you: Don't become an intense reporter bombarding them with questions all of the time, but don't miss opportunities. In fact, start this process now WITH THEM while they are still alive.
4. Sometimes legends are just that... [maybe] nothing more. I have gone back four generations on mom's side and I've crossed "the pond" in three different directions so far - England, Germany and France - and have no Ireland in sight yet! I'm not saying that there is no Irish blood here, I'm just thinking that goes back a bit further than my family once believed. I'm wondering if this is a lot of wartime movement, or if it is actually where we are from (this is why I say I have a lot more to go!).
5. "Family" has a much broader meaning than what is flowing through our veins. There is so much evidence of this in our everyday lives, but let me demonstrate just two (and a half) examples that glare at me repeatedly in this process.

• My mother was raised by her "grandparents" - Bob and Ann. When she died I had absolutely no doubt in my mind that they were the first angels to greet her, and the first she would look for. These two people made my mother the woman she was. And, yet, search as I may, there is no record of Bob and Ann together nor with my mother. I am not surprised. Bob was Ann's second "husband" and I don't think they were ever married. Also, I think mom was legally listed with her dad at the time.
• As I search through the census records of my ancestors that were the first to come to this country in search of (who knows?) freedom, work, a new life; I rarely find that they are living with blood relations in the initial years. There are names listed that I know from "the stories", but I can clearly see now that they are not blood-related. This, in no way, changes my own definition of them as being family.
• There is NO MENTION of pets on ancestry.com. In this house, pets = family/

I enjoy this process more than I ever thought I would. I thought it would become a passing curiosity, but it is, in some ways the greatest story ever to be revealed: The Story of Me. I remember, as a child, having a book that was customized to have me in it as one of the characters. I loved it. I thought it was just fantastic. Growing my family tree is like reading that story but 1000 times better! There are no fictional characters in this tale, and there are so many characters that I have loved for a lifetime before  even unveiling their creation story. It's like I am getting the prequel to the story I am living every single day.

I love prequels.

Do you have a family tree or are you in the process of growing one?

Did you have any surprises in your backstory?

How do you capture and share your family's story?

Wordless Wednesday: My Furry Children

Doggie TV = Actual window to the world

King of the couch.

Buffy is our princess and the pea.

Bunk beds?

A favorite pastime.

Champ knows that Wednesday is comic book day!!

To All The Dogs I've Loved Before

I once had a dog named Buffy,
She's not what I would call fluffy
Instead she was ridiculously furry 
And never in too much of a hurry
But that didn't make me love her any less.

I once had a dog named Chewy
Whose puppy face made my heart go all gooey
She ate my glasses, the garbage and my books
But the Lord gave her such good looks 
And THAT'S what always led to her forgiveness.

I once had a dog named Champ
And with him I finally understood the term "scamp"
He would jump up and down 
Because he's so low to the ground
And if ignored would become completely distressed.

I once had a dog named Ashley
She taught me about true loyalty
Watching our family, whole,
Loving us heart and soul,
For that dog we all felt truly blessed.

I once had a dog named Rufus
His story really confused us
Mom told us he went to a farm 
And we knew that was a little charm 
Until we learned t'was the TRUTH when his new owner finally confessed!