Julian & Marlon Condo in Upper West Side

Julian got this condo from his parent when he moved to NYC in 2004. He hates living alone and when I started thinking about moving to the city we agreed to live together. After my fathers heart attack I had to go back to Maryland but I still pay rent and for sure will not give this place up. I love being able to come and go on the weekends. We have a great time when I visit and with other friends moving to the city in the last year the Happy Hour and Dinner groups are growing.

A Great Day To BBQ And Be With Family

This is my home that was left to me by my grandmother.I'm so glad my aunts and uncle's decided to join my father and I for an afternoon BBQ at my new home at the last minute.

We cooked steaks, ribs, mexican chorizo, corn, chicken, and burgers.

My Aunts made all sorts of sides including fried yucca, corn bread, potato salad, tuna salad, pasta salad with walnuts and cucumbers.

I had ahuge bowl of rice pudding with cinnamon on top.

We also served fresh sliced watermelon on a hot day like today.

It was such a perfect day and I was very glad my aunt Domingita and her husband Roger showed up also.

I played NCAA Basketball on line with my uncle Frenc while my other uncle Raul slept. He played cards the night before from 7pm until 5am this morning. He was a little tired but woke up when he smelled the meat cooking outside.

We watched a game of soccer while all the cooking was going on also. I'm glad we had this time today it really helped me get other things out of my mind and heart for a few hours.

NYC Here I Come!

I'm going to take this time due to the current events regarding my love life and go see friends in NYC. I was going to go see Ben Harper in Central Park and Pearl Jam with Nikki in a few weeks. I will for sure go and see Ben Harper but I'll pass for now on Pearl Jam.

I'm glad I going for the week and my friend Julian who I was going to live with is going to take the first three days of next week to help me blow off a whole lot of hurt.

It's funny because I really dont think she got it. I LOVE YOU NIKKI!

I already have reservations for dinner on Tuesday night at The Cutting Room in SOHO. I'm hurt but I have to much to do and I'm going to concentrate on myself for a while.

I don't have room to love anyone after this. I'll focus on my business and work and get my treatment out of the way when I return from NYC. I have to much to live for and have a lot to offer for someone special in the future.

In The Far Future. I'm Done With Relationships For A Long While.

Good Bye Sweetie!

Well- I was correct in my thinking about Nikki. I felt her pushing away and now we are no longer together. She's a wonderful girl and I'll miss being with her and laughing with her. She was feeling as if I was not giving her room to see her friends. I regret she felt that way and I regret "if" I did make her feel that way. It hurt's that she told me in a email I just recently received.

"Thank you Marlon. You do make me so happy. And I can't even begin to tell you how much you mean to me. I love you so much. Your message meant a lot. Xoxoxo

your loving girlfriend"

I'm going to miss her warmth and her voice and her laughter. She's got a wonderful family that I will miss also. I have to respect the fact that she no longer wishes to be with me because of our age difference. I asked her more then once if she had a problem with the age difference and she was always fine with it.

We saw each other for the first time since her trip with the family on Wednesday. She was acting a little odd even then and I asked her if "we" were OK! She lied to me and told me that we were.

I called her the next morning to tell her good morning and she was non responsive. She told me she had a really bad morning and that it was personal.

I called her two other times in the day to see if she was fine and she said she was. She told me she had things to do until very late and would do her best to get together.

I never heard back from her and when I called her she told me she was out with her friends.

I'm glad she was out having a good time and I know I never kept her from doing other things with her friends. I wished she would of talked to me about it if this is how she was feeling.

I know this is no real reason to break up with someone who loves you and cares for you and I hope she knows it. I asked her if her bad morning the day before had anything to do with me and she said sort of. I suspect the outcome and I'm not mad just hurt because I do love her and care very much for her. If her family had a problem with me I wish I would of known earlier before I fell in love with her.

Anyhow- I will not say a bad things about her and I will go on with my life and she will go on with hers.

I love her very much and wish her the best. I hope she goes far in life and finds what she seeks from life and may find love and happiness.

She will always have my friendship if she seeks it and wants it. Good by Nikki and I will miss you.

The Black Knight: My Girl & I Love This Part

The Black knight

Remembering The Isla De Ometepe

Granada Where My Grandmother Was Born

Animals & Sounds All Over The Island

Beautiful Plants All Over The Island

Isla De Ometepe

Knowing The Produce Was Fresh

The Main Square

I loved turning the rocks near the beach looking for these and from time to time I got my fingers cought.

Volcano Concepcion In My Back Yards

If this is not a beautiful view I dont know what is. I loved walking out as a kid and seeing this sight all the time.

Approaching Isla De Ometepe on Lake Managua

Thinking back to Nicaragua

I was thinking back about my childhood in Nicaragua. It's been twenty one years since I left and have not gone back. I remember being little and looking forward to seeing my grandmother, (Mimi) as everyone called her - But her real name was Teresa. She would come to Nicaragua every couple of years. She was one of nine sisters and two brothers and on her visits she would bring gifts sent by relatives back from the states. I have to tell you that she was a hard lady and yet very loving.
I was thinking back about my early years living in the Isla De Ometepe on Lake Managua. As a kid one of the things that I miss now was being so close to the water. I had this small boat that my father had built when he was nineteen years old. I used to take it out and go fishing with him and friends. I remember this old tree near the banks that lead to the beach. It had fallen over long before I had even been born and it's branches were all in the water. It was used by kids to tie their boats to the branches and we would climb on top of the huge bark and scale our fresh catch.
I remember everything being so green and full of color and sounds all over from all the animals. It was such a sight being on the boats that trasported you from the island to the pier in Managua. As you got near the island you would see this massive volcano standing tall. It was such a sight and it was on my back yard from every direction. I was taken by my uncle on a hike years ago to the very edge of the mouth. It was so green and lush with life all the way up to the top and it just faded out into pebbles and huge rocks as you got to the mouth.
I remember taking my boat with my father my uncle threw out the many connecting rivers in the island and it was just so beautiful seeing the monkeys jump the branches as they sensed up approaching. I have to say that I have always loved the iguana the most of all the animals.

I wish I knew what was going through my girlfriends head at this moment. I understand she wants to find a new job and get herself ready for school and all. I even understand her need to start looking at her course of study for this up coming semester. I'm just a little confussed by her distance in the last couple of days. I called her this morning and I felt blown off. I called her and asked if all was well and she said she was going threw some personal stuff and would not share. If she wishes not to share I do understand but she's being so secretive about her activaty for the day. I wish she would just let me in and see if I could help.

The Next Cycle

I was having a brief conversation with my girlfriend last night and I feel helpless. I know that this is just part of growing up and realizing you are no longer a child. It's a scary thing to wonder about going out and having to do things on your own. It has been for years your parents responsability to guide you and make choices for you because it is the way of parenting. She has come to that very important part of her life where she's looking at that next great step towards setting and making her goals come to life. She's a very bright, warm and very beautiful person inside and out and she will figure things out and have a lot of faith she will go very far. It's a proven fact this cycle continues far even after you've been in the work force for years using that degree you worked hard for. It's been shown how often people choose to go back to school and change careers all together from what they have known. I sent this this article to try to help her out. She means a lot to me and I just want to help.


By Susan A. Lieberman
In the past months a trail of students has passed through my office troubled by not having a clear path to follow after graduation. This lack of clarity makes Rice students anxious. But more than that, the students seem somehow embarrassed by not knowing that medical school or graduate school or Andersen Consulting is their right next step. There is a fear of the unknown.
Yet, it may, for many students, be wiser to fear the known. Those undergraduates who are marching toward graduate or professional schools with due diligence and a Princeton Review book but without enthusiasm, without curiosity, without two teaspoons of passion for what lies ahead, should be far more terrified than their classmates mucking about in confusion. Spending tens of thousands of dollars and nearly as many hours grinding away in a program chosen because it seemed like 'what one ought to do' is an idea that truly scares me.
Most Rice students have been in school, steadily, 17 or 18 years without a break. Some have never worked in a professional setting or outside the university. Their folder of information about the possibilities that await them in the world is slim. Their experiences are limited and their awareness of their strengths and weaknesses in the world beyond the academy is undeveloped.
Take a year or two out, I suggest. Go spend time working and see what you discover -- about the world of work and about yourself. “Oh no! What if I get off track and don't go to graduate school?” is a common response. Seems to me that if graduate school is where you should be, you'll go and if you get “off track,” it's because you discovered something that made more sense for you. Actually, after two years of working forty hours a week, of waking up at 7 and battling morning traffic, graduate or professional school may suddenly seem sensible and widely appealing.
“I'll lose the drive to study,” is another common response. If you don't have the drive to study a profession or a discipline, why study it? When we live and work in a university, not having a graduate degree seems to mark you an inferior sort of being. In fact, in the world at large, people are much more interested in what you can do and how well you can do than where you went to school and what your GPA was. For many young people, it is far more likely that a time out will rekindle an already-lost desire to study.
Yes, many interesting and intriguing doors are shut to you without proper credentialing and laying the foundation for a financially and/or intellectually rewarding career is a smart move. If you are clear about your course, if you are sure about the right path, certainly, you might choose to forge ahead. But if you have doubts, be assured that the graduate schools are not closing. The professional schools are not subtracting admissions points for people who took time to work between college and graduate work. To the contrary, most value that experience. What difference does it make whether you work in your field for 40 years or 42 years? What's the hurry to have learning done with in an age in which we are told we must be life-long learners?
Students who take time out after college before continuing their education are NOT wasting time. They are, by my lights, intelligent adventurers. They are using the curiosity we try to foster here. They are developing the self confidence and self-awareness that we hope will make them wiser and better professionals. They are doing the research needed to make wise decisions. Maybe they are even having fun. Soon enough, we find ourselves with careers and families and responsibilities. We take these on because we want it, we like it and we believe it makes a good life. I believe that. But I know that as a busy professional, a wife, a mother, a daughter, a good citizen, it's hard to kick back and fool around, to learn new tricks and find time for old interests. Certainly, there should be time in life for this and the years just after college are, by my lights, a great time to breathe deeply, catch up on foreign films, explore new restaurants and have some fun while learning the rules of the work world.
Trust me on this: students with a Rice education run a minuscule risk of being unemployed for any length of time. The world needs bright, disciplined, thoughtful people in every sector. I can't promise you a high paying job where you get to make important public policy in your first year out of Rice. But if you want a job, you will find one. You will find a place to live, a place to work and the confidence to face the unknown and make it work for you. This is a gift. Don't be afraid.

Happy Hour @ Cheesecake Factory

I got a call from my briend Billy & eric about doing Happy Hour today. We got to the restaurant around 4:30 pm and started with a round of Grand Marnier shots. I ordered a dirty martini and the guys had a few cold ones. I was really happy to see them and after 30 min. there the shots started coming. We had dinner and after two hours we were done and headed home. I'm a little buzzed and with reason to be after 1 martini, 5 grand marniers and 2 soco and limes. Anyhow- I'm going to pass out now!

Family BBQ: Remembering Mimi

Since my grandmothers passing a week ago today we are gathering to celebrate her life and remember. My aunt Tina and her husband Raul brought up the idea to have the family get together and have a BBQ in remembrance of her. I think it's a great idea since all the family has done is mourn in the last week. In this manner we can still mourn and do some of the things she enjoyed, like cooking for her family and just being together under one roof.
It was not meant to be a big get together so we kept it as that. We cooked some steaks with corn on the cob, garden salad, steamed broccoli, fresh rolls, etc. It was a great afternoon meal with loved ones. We just got the report from the coroner and it stated that she died of, Respitory Failure, Chronic Obstruction Disease, pulmonary Fibrosis, Left Lowe Lobe Pneumonia.

"President Bush" & Weapons Of Mass Destruction

Political Cartoons like this one are so great!

I do believe we have to look at other forms of energy other then oil. It's a costly production process to produce Ethanol but one that has many benefits. It's catching on with automobile producers in the production of E85 vehicles. It's such a small scale operation at the moment that in the Washington, DC area there is only one pump station for this service.

Creek Bed In Color

The Creek Bed and the Iron Bridge

Twinbrook Park and it's Trails

Wooden Fence

One of the "BEST" shows. Yes/No

On SpikeTV @ 7 & 8 pm Monday - Friday

U.S Capitol

Washington DC is where I grew up.

Union Station: Metro