Cafe Hitch-hike

2018-02-19

From there to here

I saw Eric's picture the other day, and my heart just fluttered. I could feel my face even turn a little red. I started thinking of him because his team recently won the Super Bowl, and I wondered how he was doing. I then had seen an actor who looked just like him play a romantic lead in a series. I thought I would had loved to be his co-star right about then, and definitely not in front of a camera!

One of my buddies asked about Eric the other day. I knew my friend didn't like him, but he took it further this time. He said it takes one guy to sniff out another, and apparently Eric registered on the guydars of a few of our guy friends.

Eric and I didn't date for long, but he sure was a lot of fun! He had an enthusiasm and passion for life that was just infectious. He was a tall, strong guy who was a former college athlete but got injured when he was going to go into the pros. I loved laying next to him and feeling that... fire! Yeah, I got to see and feel it in many areas of our relationship!

It was just nice to feel that juicy burn of desire come back. It's even better to know that it's still there, even if I forget.

Replacing the patio fountain pump was a success! As it turned out, the home improvement store down the street from me had everything I needed! Now, we can hear the gurgling and trickling of water, along with the occasional lap of my dog drinking from it. Maybe I can credit the pump replacement for pumping a gentle (and quite thrilling) recollection of a lover past.

I got some results back from a heritage DNA test I submitted a about 6 weeks ago. I got a 2-for-1 deal and gave Rafa the other one as a Christmas gift. As an add-on, the company gave me free and temporary access to their records database where I was able to get some information of my family tree.

I discovered the name of the mountain town in central/eastern Puerto Rico where my paternal side is from. Apparently, Puerto Rico was poorer than poor for a very long time, so I couldn't expect great record keeping from that side.

I got a lot on my maternal grandmother's side because they hopscotched between northern Mexico and Texas for a very long time. I guess the border was a formality they mostly ignored. The women lived into their 80s and 90s. My maternal great-grandfather died rather young (age 42), but he didn't drink himself to death as stated in family folklore. He suffered from tuberculosis for 4 years until he died from a blood clot in his lungs.

The family tree exercise gave me a much different perspective on their experience. I was born and raised in the midwest and may walk and talk like an American, but my origins were very Latin American.

Then came the interesting part, which was the DNA heritages by breakdown. Native American and Spanish would show up, and probably some African:

**Native American was the majority (27%), and it was all northeastern Mexico and South/Central Texas, confirming more family folklore.

**As expected, Iberian Peninsula was second (18%).

**African: 6% and from two different regions, where most of the slaves brought to the Americas originate.

Here's what I did not expect: Irish, Welsh, or Scottish (13%); Eastern European Jewish (11%); South Mediterranean (9%); North Africa (8%). Almost no Asian (but with a tad from the Caucus region), and slightly more drops of English and Scandinavian DNA.

My maternal grandmother was easy to identify, but my maternal grandfather's would be interesting. Although he was Mexican, most people remarked he did not look like one. He was tall and looked like Donnie Brasco when he was young, hahah, and like Alan Arkin when he got old!

I then wonder what my father's side contributed to that genetic mash-up. I heard other genetic tests can test maternal and paternal sides.

Well, the funny thing was my Latin friends often called me white girl as I grew up. Now I can say they were quite accurate! This was, however, very fascinating and makes me really wonder about where my people really came from, and what the hell brought from there to here.

downwind | upstream