¡OLE!

I'm Dutch, like 100% Dutch, like I own wooden

shoes and like windmills sort of Dutch, like my

last name starts with "de" sort of Dutch, like I have

blonde hair and blue eyes. DUTCH.

And yet, Cinco de Mayo easily closes rank on my

favorite days of the year.

I like Mexico. Love it even. I've been many times,

I speak Spanish, I can siesta with the best of them,

I can enjoy a good taco. But is that why I love

Cinco de Mayo. OOOOOH no.

Here's the story:

It was September 2006 and one of my dearest and

best friends in the world, the beautiful Laura Mauriello,

and I had been assigned to volunteer at an AIDS

children's home once a week with Moody's PCM

department. In order to get to the home, we had to

travel through a very Puerto Rican area of Chicago—we

entered this lovely neighborhood under a huge

over-the-street Puerto Rican flag, and left passing

under one about 8 blocks west.

So, there we were, in September, driving home from a

night of volunteering. A few of the roads through Puerto

Ricoville were blocked to accomadate a HUGE carnival.

Me: "I wonder what they're celebrating?"

Laura (zero sarcasm here): "Probably Cinco de Mayo."

Me: "Eh, ole?!"

Her answer would have been acceptable, had it not been the

case that it was, in fact, September, and we were surrounded

by none other than Puerto Ricans.

That's my Laura J

And so, ever since that year, we've celebrated Cinco de

Mayo (Ole!) together. Today was our 4^th year!

Year 1: Cinco de Mayo party on the south side. We were

the only two white faces in the entire crowd. This was only

accentuated with the lead Mariachi pointed us out and yelled,

"This one's for you, Mamacitas!" To cap it off, we had a

caricature drawn of us together. Clearly, year 1 was epic and

a great foundation for the many Cincos to come..

Year 2: Lalos for dinner and live Mariachi music and

a lease signing…we signed a lease on a condo together!

Year 3: At this point, we'd been living together as

roommates and best friends for about 11 months. This

celebration was pretty low key: Went to Mexican

restaurant, ordered waters, and left (didn't make the cut

for Cinco awesomeness). Walked down the street to Loco

Burrito and ordered fresh guacamole and chips and

Jarritos soda, went home, and watched Baby Mama in Spanish.

Year 4: Cinco de Mayo goes international! We celebrated

together on Skype! I scoured my Kazakh city for something,

ANYTHING, that said "Mexican" on it, and I found a weird green

"Mexican Holiday Soda." I picked up that soda and said to myself,

'I think Mexcian Holiday Soda is perfect for my little Mexican

Skype holiday!' So, I bought it and drank it and ate refried

beans and this other crazy red dish my Mexcican Roommate

Carolina prepared. Delish. Laura and I sang "La Cucaracha" and

"Feliz Navidad" together because those were the only songs we

could sing in Spanish. Laura waved the Mexcian flag. We shouted

¡OLE! over an over. Year 4 was epic, too. [pictures above are

year 4 pictures--me in Chicago with Laura and Laura in

Kazakhstan with me!]

Can't wait for year 5!

Laura Mauriello, you rock my Mexican socks off!

¡OLE!