Débora #7 – Being Normal (Updated)

People, at least one day in their existence, will ask themselves if they are really normal and what normality is, because the concept is so subjective. What is normal for me can be abnormal for another person. Besides, it’s impossible to live according to other people’s expectations.
According to dictionaries, one of the concepts is that normality is to live according to the rules, which begs the question about what the dictionary refer to as “rules.”

Surfing on the Internet, I’ve found a lot of blogs, pages where people inquired about the concept of normality. After a lot of explanations and rambling, the consensus was that the best definition for normality is to live according to the rules of the society that the person lives in at the moment.

For example, it’s chilling for me to think of a man who is married to ten women. After all, it’s allowed and normal in Arabia, but in Brazil, where I live, in spite of it not being legal, it’s weird, freaky and hard to accomplish. Managing a relationship with only one person is already difficult. Only one person can monopolize all time, asking for attention, demanding time to be with, being jealous with friends. Besides it´s costly: presents for Valentine´s day, Birthday, Anniversary, Christmas and something else that commerce can contrives.

Let me clarify something, by society i don´t mean only different places, countries and cities, it also depends on people beliefs. Veja São Paulo Magazine, two weeks ago published an article about Jewish people in São Paulo, precisely in Higienopolis neighborhood. It has portrayed how they live, their habits inside and out their homes, their relationships. Practicing “Hassidicos” Jewish Orthodox follow word by word the Commandments of “Torá” and “Talmude” at the same time – both Jewish Sacred Book which it means a lot of rules, restrictions and above it all, respect to “Shabat”, a period prayers and rest that commence on Friday sunset until the beginning of following night. In this period of time, it’s totally forbidden to generate any kind of energy that’s why they can’t not even press the button of the elevator or use any kind of vehicle, that’s why we usually can see them walking down the streets going to the Temples. Men dressing dark clothes and hat, long beard and sideburns while women must use clothes that hide neck, knees, elbows and for the married one wigs. Dates or any kind of touch are totally prohibited before marriage. Hand shaking also. They start splitting sexes since the kindergarten, boys in one school and girls in another. Inside the Temples, when they grow up is not different, men close to the altar and women in a different room. They don’t eat pork, seafood and they also don’t mix at the same meal, meat with dairy. All variety of food must be prepared with rabbi supervision. This is a complete normal behavior for “Hassidicos” Orthodox Jewish but for people like me, this is a total parallel world which I must say that I respect, but I can´t say it´s normal at least for me.

Another example of normality involves an English teacher of mine, who used to work as a life guard in his college years. He told me that one day, instead of saving a drowning child, he preferred to save a dog who had jumped into the ocean to save the kid. People on the beach that day probably wanted to kill him, labeling him as rebellious and heartless. If this behavior is normal, who am I to judge? After all my teacher is a dog’s lover. Let me say in different words, if everyone worried only about kids, who would take care of dogs? Is the life of a human being more important than the life of a dog?

Therefore, living with and according to so many rules is really irksome. In other words, it is better to be yourself as long as you don’t hurt anyone. Maybe people will look at you as a rebel, but then again, who cares?

Débora – Portfolio #2 – That Afternoon

It was winter of 1998, precisely June 3rd. I was in my last year of Law School in my last week of classes before the finals exams. As I used to work as a trainee in a Law Office in Santo Amaro, on that specific week, I wanted to finish my job as quickly as possible and go to the library one hour before the beginning of classes in order to study a little bit and solve all my doubts with the teacher before the finals.

But that day, I don´t know what happened to my inflexible and intolerant boss, who had told me the week before that I would be able to leave the office one hour before the usual time until the end of the semester. Even though there was not much work to do and we were great about deadlines, he didn’t allow me to leave the office earlier that day.

As a consequence, there I was, stuck in the middle of that terrible traffic jam in front of Ibirapuera Park at the time I was suppose to be in class solving all my doubts. Minutes went by, and I couldn’t move my car for even 10 meters. I can’t remember the music playing on my radio, but I remember that, despite my stress, I was singing and dancing — assuming it is possible to do that in a moving vehicle — and then I saw THE guy in a S-10 pick up on my right side, staring at me.

I didn’t know if it was because he thought I was crazy, dancing and singing out loud, or if I was pretty or both. Later on, he told me he was looking at my car, a S-10 extended pick-up, asking himself if he did a good job buying a S-10 regular pick-up instead of the extended one, when he noticed the driver of the pick-up and then looked at me. He smiled at me and got a smile back. Encouraged by the response, he started to mime so as to discover my cellphone number. He was a good looking, charming guy, and owned a nice car I have to admit. He was only asking for my number. As soon as I gave him the number, he called me back at the same time. We started talking, just an innocent flirt.

I ended up missing class, which I didn’t mind at all. What can I say, exactly seven years later, June 3rd, 2005 we got married. In other words, Prince Charming does exist but don´t expect to meet him necessarily in a ball or at a party: he can be anywhere.

Débora – Portfolio #1 – Description

I´m a 32 year old woman with blond, chin-length hair. It´s not as straight as I wish, but it´s fine. I have hazel eyes, turning from blue to green and sometimes to gray depending on my mood.
My pink cheeks always gives away my mood, which is not always so pleasing. Pimples come and go. I wish I could have a full mouth like Angelina Jolie, but I´m happy with my regular lips. I´m not slim neither fat, just call me average. I´m working on it, because nobody deserves a flabby and fat body, right? Like people say, “You weren´t born like this.”

Débora #5 – Description (Updated – Does it have potential to be a Portfolio?)

I´m a 32 year old woman with blond, chin-length hair. It´s not as straight as I wish, but it´s fine. I have hazel eyes, turning from blue to green and sometimes to gray depending on my mood.
My pink cheeks always gives away my mood, which is not always so pleasing. Pimples come and go. I wish I could have a full mouth like Angelina Jolie, but I´m happy with my regular lips. I´m not slim neither fat, just call me average. I´m working on it, because nobody deserves a flabby and fat body, right? Like peole say, “You weren´t born like this.”

Débora #6 – That Afternoon (Updated)

It was winter of 1998, precisely June 3rd. I was in my last year of Law School in my last week of classes before the finals exams. As I used to work as a trainee in a Law Office in Santo Amaro, in that specifically week, I wanted to finish my job as quickly as possible and go to the library one hour before the beginning of classes in order to study a little bit and solve all my doubts with the teacher before the finals.

But that day, I don´t know what happened to my inflexible and intolerant boss, who told me the week before, that I could leave the office one hour before the usual time until the end of the semester. Even though there was not much work to do and we were great about deadlines, he didn’t allow me to leave the office earlier that day.

As a consequence, there I was, stuck in the middle of that terrible traffic in front of Ibirapuera Park at the time I was suppose to be in class solving all my doubts. Minutes went by, and I couldn’t move my car even 10 meters. I can’t remember the music playing in my radio, but I remember that, despite my stress, I was singing and dancing — assuming it is possible to do that in a moving vehicle — and then I saw THE guy in a S-10 pick up on my right side, staring at me.

I didn’t know if it was because he thought I was crazy, dancing and singing out loud, or if I was pretty or both. Later on, he told me he was looking at my car, a S-10 extended pick-up, asking himself if he did a good job buying a S-10 regular pick-up instead of the extended one, when he noticed the driver of the pick-up and then looked at me. He smiled at me and got my smile back. Encouraged by the response, he started to mime so as to discover my cellphone number.

He was a good looking, charming guy, and owned a nice car I have to admit. He was only asking for my number. As soon as I gave him the number, he called me back at the same time. We started talking, just an innocent flirt.

I missed the class, which I didn’t mind at all. What can I say, exactly seven years later, June 3rd, 2005 we’ve married. In other words, Prince Charming does exist but don´t expect to meet him necessarily in a ball or a party: he can be anywhere.

Débora – Portfolio #1 – Being Normal

People, at least one day in their existence, will ask themselves if they are really normal and what normality is, because it depends a lot, because is so subjective. What is normal for me, can be abnormal for another person. Besides, it’s impossible to live according to other people’s expectations.
According to dictionaries, normality is to live according to the rules. Then, what I’ve asked myself was what kind of rules the dictionary was referring to. Later, surfing on the internet, I’ve found a lot of blogs, pages where someone was inquiring about the concept of normality. After a lot of explanations ans rambles, the consense was that the best definition is to live according to the rules of the society that you live in at the moment.
It’s chilling for me to think about a man who is married to 10 women. After all, it’s allowed, it’s normal in Arabia, for example. But in Brazil, where I live, in spite of not legal, it’s weird and freaky.
Another example is one teacher of mine, who used to work as a life guard at one time in his life. Instead of saving a child, he preferred to save the dog who wanted to save the kid who was drowning. People probably wanted to kill him, taxed him rebelliously, heartlessly. If this behavior is normal, who am I to judge? After all the guy is a dog’s lover.
Living with and according so many rules is really boring. Better be yourself, as long as you don’t prejudice anyone. Maybe people will look at you as a rebel, but who cares?

Débora #6 – That Afternoon

It was winter of 1998, precisely June 3rd. I was in my last year of the Law School and specially in my last week of classes before the finals exams. As I used to work as a trainee in a Law Office in Santo Amaro, on that specifically week, I wanted to finish my job as quickly as possible and go to the library usually one hour before the beginning of the classes in order to study a little bit and solve all my doubts with the teacher before the finals.
But that day, I don´t know what happened with my intransigent and intolerant boss, who told me the week before that I could leave the office one hour before the usual till the end of the semester, there was not much work to do, we were great about deadlines, the thing is that he didn’t allow me to leave the office earlier.
So, there I was, stuck in the middle of that terrible traffic in front of Ibirapuera Park on the time that I suppose to be in class solving all my doubts. Minutes were passing by, and I couldn’t move my car even 10 meters. I can’t remember the music that was playing in my radio, but I remember that despite of my stress I was singing and dancing (if it’s possible to say that) and then I saw him… He was in a S-10 pick up on my right side. He was looking at me in a fixed way. I didn’t know if it was because he thought I was crazy, dancing and singing out loud, or if I was pretty or both. Later he told me that first of all he was looking at my car, a S-10 extended pick-up, asking himself if he did a good job buying a S-10 not extended pick-up and then he noticed the driver of the pick-up and then he looked at me, smiled (I’ve corresponded) and then he started to mime in order to discover my cellphone number.
He was a good look charming guy, cute, nice car I have to admit, and he was only asking my number. Miming I gave to him and he called me at the same time and we’ve started talking. Just an innocent flirt.
The class that I missed? I didn’t mind at all. What can I say, exactly seven years later we’ve got married.
So, Prince Charming do exist but don´t expect to meet him necessarily in a ball or a party, he can be anywhere.

Débora #4 – Booze (Updated)

It is difficult to handle with teens with no bounds. Teenagers are having free access to booze earlier and earlier in their lives.
And thinking about it, it is easy to blame everybody. It´s posible to blame the commerce, who is supposed to ask for an ID when a teenager wants to buy a beer, for example. It´s posible to blame parents who, sometimes, have a different point of view of the concept of being a real father/mother. Being a friend of our own child it doesn´t mean that you have to be liberate, it doesn´t mean that you shouldn´t put any boundary.
Parents should have more control and check what their teenagers sons are doing with the monthly allowance they give and what kind of friends their sons have for example. If there´s a party, parents should inquire about it: Where is it? What time can I pick you up there? Give me the place´s phone number. Which father or mother of your friends that will be there? Because at these private parties there´s no control per age of the booze teenagers are consuming and sometimes even there´s an irresponsible adult together.
I have a nine month son. He´s just a baby now but from the moment I gave birth, it has afraid me how he will deal with these problems, drugs, booze, and other problems of course.
When he becomes a teenager, how he will come in contact with friends who will have free access to alcoholic drinks and above it all, how will we, as parents, guide him well through this. Parents have a penchant for doing all of their kids wishes. How we are going to deal with our son´s friends who have no bounds.

Débora #5 – Description

I´m a 32 year old woman with blond, chin-lenght (short is better, right?) hair. It´s not as straight as I wish but it´s fine. I have hazel eyes, turning from blue to green and sometimes to gray depending on my mood and the day.
My pink cheeks always denunciate how I´m feeling and definetely it´s not nice. Pimples come and go. I wish I could have full mouth like Angelina Jolie but I´m happy with my regular lips. I´m not slim but I can´t say I´m fat…so what can I say, I´m working out on this, because nobody deserves a flabby and fat body, right? Like peole say, You weren´t born like this.

Débora #4 – Booze

It is difficult to handle with teens with no bounds. Teenagers are having free access to booze earlier and earlier in their lives.
And thinking about it, it is easy to blame everybody. It´s posible to blame the commerce, who is supposed to ask for an ID when a teenager wants to buy a beer, for example. It´s posible to blame parents who, sometimes, have a different point of view of the concept of being a real father/mother. Being a friend of our own child it doesn´t mean that you have to be liberate, it doesn´t mean that you shouldn´t put any boundary.
Parents should have more control and check what their teenagers sons are doing with the monthly allowance they give and what kind of friends their sons have for example. If there´s a party, parents should inquire about it: Where is it? What time can I pick you up there? Give me the place´s phone number. Which father or mother of your friends that will be there? Because at these private parties there´s no control per age of the booze teenagers are consuming and sometimes even there´s an irresponsible adult together.
I have a nine month son. He´s just a baby now but from the moment I gave birth, it has afraid me how he will deal with these problems, drugs, booze, and other problems of course.
When he becomes a teenager, how he will come in contact with friends who will have free access to alcoholic drinks and above it all, how will we, as parents, guide him well through this. Parents have a penchant for doing all of their kids wishes. How we are going to deal with our son´s friends who have no bounds.