Re-Introducing The Random Writings

So....if you've visited the blog in the last day or so, you may have been shocked or amazed by the changes around here. My last blog design was in 2014, and lately I've been feeling like the blog was due for an updated look. Since we just got our anniversary photos, that helped motivate me--I wanted to use our new pretty photos in the new design!

Use this opportunity to take a look around--I've updated my pages and now you can get to them from the navigation bar across the top. My "About" page has a typically Rachelesque description of myself, along with links to the various travel destinations I've covered. The "Book" page is all you need to know about The Cactus Who Craved a Hamburger. "Resources" has some of my favorite useful links from around the internet. "Questions?" is a page I've resurrected from an older design, one that I'm certainly willing to add to if there are any new questions you all have for us!

Feel free to test out all of the new, fashionable features of this design-- a great test would be to follow me on your social media of choice by using the social media buttons across the top, or go ahead and use the super-cool hovering "pin it" button when you want to pin a photo from a post! (I didn't even know the template I purchased on Etsy for less than $10 included a pin-it button, so that was a cool surprise for me!). You can even see my Instagram photos on the cool 3x3 grid on my sidebar and follow me from there! Search the blog or follow via email from the handy buttons on the sidebar! When I write something especially touching or useful or hilarious, you can use the ultra-stylish Facebook, Pinterest, and Twitter sharing buttons located below each post to share my awesome posts with the world.

There is your short and sweet tour of the amazing new features The Random Writings now has as a result of the long evening I spent at home while Angel got stranded at a gas station after work due to a dead car battery. Now for a re-introduction to Rachel and Angel, the brains and brawn behind the blog, here are a few random facts about us and our relationship:

Me: I'm not really a musically-oriented person. I used to have a keyboard and taught myself to read music and play as part of homeschool, but have no natural talent or ear for music. I am completely comfortable with silence and am not likely to ever turn on music when I'm on my own, though there are plenty of songs I enjoy. People who are uncomfortable with silence confuse me.

Angel: When he's in the car, he has a habit of constantly flipping through radio channels or skipping songs on cds. Never listening to an entire song. Probably because of my lack of affinity for music in general, or just because I'm used to him, I hardly notice this habit, it just feels normal to me, but when other people ride in the car with us, they tend to get quite disturbed by this. A few months ago we were chauffering a bunch of teenagers and they were shouting with frustration because Angel could never seem to let them listen to an entire song before switching to a different channel.

Us: Neither one of us has ever bought a TV. We didn't have a TV when we first got married, then somebody gave us one they were getting rid of, the big fat box kind, and that worked great, and we'd watch stuff like America's Funniest Home Videos after Angel would come home from work on weekends. Later, Angel's brother gave us his TV, which was a major upgrade because this one was skinny, and we got Netflix. Our apartment in China technically had a television, because that was part of the work contract, but the television didn't turn on. We haven't had a television set at all for the past two years--I'm more of a social movie watcher, I don't watch any shows by myself, so we'll go to family movie nights at my parents' house, or else Angel and I will just watch a movie on our laptop together. But our home internet is quite awful so no streaming subscriptions for us, it's not worth waiting for the buffering to end.

Me: I read pretty much anything. I have a few genres I don't read or don't prefer (I won't read anything super scary, and it's rare for me to read romantic fiction). Kids books are a favorite, along with classic mysteries and adventure novels. Once in a while I'll read a bit of sci-fi or fantasy and I also have a great fondness for educational books--history, geography, true stories. I also read catalogues and cereal boxes and anything that has words and is within arm's reach. I don't really self-help books. Those always seem like the kind of books that spend 60,000 words telling you something you already know.

Angel: Plays most sports well, and has boxes of medals and letterman patches and plaques in his parents' house from high school sports. He started out doing cross-country in college, but then found out that real education takes real study time and he left organized sports in order to prioritize his Nursing and Spanish degree. Now he runs 5k about 5 times a week, more miles and more times if he's training for a bigger race, and tries to squeeze in a basketball or soccer game whenever one fits into the schedule! But work and life responsibilities come first!

Us: I didn't know Angel was Mexican when we first met. I figured that out about 4 months later. People say things like "Every marriage is a cross-cultural marriage because no two families have exactly the same culture." Which is certainly true to an extent. But it's a totally different extent when you're in an interracial and cross-cultural marriage where you don't even share the same mother tongue or any cultural stories. Angel is really Mexican and I'm really not. Sharing in his culture and his family adds so much to my life. He tells stories of El Chupacabra and La Llorona to my little sisters, and we all benefit from his carne asada grilling skills. But there's things that don't feel quite so natural. I still have to ask what words mean when the topic of a family conversation in Spanish goes over my head. I don't like or cook a number of the dishes that taste like "home" for him: ceviche, lengua, menudo. The flour vs. corn tortilla debate will never end. We have to talk about whether we'll give our future kids Spanish or English names.

Me: My favorite animal is a jellyfish. When asked why, I typically answer: "Because they look cool and sting people." Other than jellyfish (and even those I only like from a distance), I don't really like animals. I will ride horses and cats are tolerable at a distance and I might even hold a kitten, but other than that...pretty much no animals. Thankfully, even my animal-loving family members understand this and tell their dogs to leave me alone. Dogs seems to be drawn to me with their inerrant instinct for finding the only person in the room who doesn't want to pet them.

Angel: Loves pets, but I'm not sure they love him. He's allergic to cats and dogs. He's known for telling friends and family that he wishes they would post MORE photos of their pets on social media (a statement that I'm pretty sure has never been heard in the history of the world). His favorite dog is Chikis, his mom's chihuahua, but I'm pretty sure they have a love-hate relationship, as evidenced in this video. She's so used to him that  she gets pretty defensive the minute he says "It's okay.". Smart chihuahua.


Us: I'm an INTJ and he's an ISTJ, which really explains a lot. The fact that I'm so clueless about romance that I had to ask him bluntly if he was interested in me. The reason why Angel's fond of saying he logically decided that I was the best wife he could get. Our shared value for being on time to everything and keeping commitments. My absolute loathing of rules for the sake of rules and inflexible schedules. Angel's calm demeanor and reliability and lack of imagination.

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That's us! Anything else you'd like to know? I could use a few more questions to add to my questions page, so ask away!