About

I actually had a Facebook moment and started to write this in third person. How pretentious. Or lazy. Or both!

I suppose you came to this page in search of some fascinating tidbit about me: where I was born, where I live, do I drink diet soda.

In a nutshell, here’s my life. I was born in Cuba in the early 1960’s, at a time when, among other things, it was inconvenient to be Catholic AND have a conscience. My parents, lovers of freedom and no friend of the totalitarian regime still squashing human rights even as I type, came to the United States, as many do, in search of human dignity, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

I attended school, played basketball, resented my siblings, and read to excess. Then I grew up.

These days I live outside Atlanta with my husband and three [almost] grown children, one serving in the Army, oneĀ two in college and one who will finish high school sooner than I’d like. We also have a dog.

I no longer resent my siblings, but have been known to give the dog piercing looks. Oh, and I’m not a fan of diet soda. I figure, if I’m going to drink chemicals anyway, they might as well taste good.

108 thoughts on “About”

  2. Pingback: Thank you for the liebster award | Emovere

  4. and, You have a great sense of humor that I picked up on right away. One of my favorite qualities I must say. Thank you for visiting my blog. I hope something there makes you smirk, smile, or laugh.

    Reply
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  8. Thanks for following Shaking the Tree and introducing me to your blog. I’m looking forward to reading more (and I’m with you on the diet soda thing).

    Reply

  10. Hi there Maria, thank you so much for stopping to pause on my blog and giving it a follow. It is greatly appreciated and you are warmly welcomed aboard. Feel free to chip in, be good to have you around. I have to say you have an interesting background. Now allow me to spend some more time looking around your own corner of the blogosphere, MM šŸ€

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  11. Hi Maria – love your pictures – thanks for following my blog – I’m looking forward to exploring yours.

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  12. Looks like a great blog. I look forward to following you. I love your recent post of your son “eating” the sun! Very creative. šŸ˜‰ Btw, we have something in common, we live in the same state. How cool is that? I’ll be back soon…

    Reply
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  18. Thank you for following my blog. I read a few of your post and will definitely have to read more when I have a little more time. Although I don’t know much about writing I have enjoyed reading the posts very much.

    Reply
  21. Pingback: Versatile Blogger Award! | Izzy-grabs-life

  22. Hello, Ms. Maria. Thank you for visiting and following my blog. Otis looks like a good dog; I think we would get along. My secretary drinks a lot of coffee, so she likes your title.

    Sincerely,
    Albert

    Reply

  26. You made me laugh at the diet soda thing šŸ˜€
    I think I’m hopelessly addicted to Diet Ginger Ale. It’s the only carbonated drink I like … I wish I didn’t :/

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  33. Hi Maria! Happy New Year! First of all, what an irresistible name you’ve chosen for your blog! Thank you for following mine and thus letting yourself be discovered: ) I’ll stick around – can’t seem to pass on another cup of coffee!

    Reply

      1. You should check out the DS game &qwru;Doatn to Life". You draw the main character (and can change it later if you want), draw the weapons and even the platforms that you jump on. I had a lot of fun making absurd things, like a taco gun that shot beans.

        Reply

  35. I’ve listened to the show when you mentioned Titus Brandsma. I followed his twitter account on 2011, celebrating his life: @FatherTitus42
    Here’s my favourite: “Spoke with reverent Jacob Overduin in bathroom. About the work of God’s grace. Even here. Gave him my cigarettes. Probably my last.”
    I wish you um Feliz Ano Novo

    Reply

  36. Hola Maria! Thank You so much for following and visiting my blog. I looked around your blog as well and I love the simplicity of your blog. It inspire honesty and pure life! Love it! I hope we keep in touch! šŸ™‚
    By the way I also like the title of your site. I love coffee!!! šŸ˜€

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  37. Thank you very much for your visit to my blog and following it. I hope you will visit my world of travelling more often.

    Loved your blog, So you will find me crawling in your blog more often.

    Much Love
    Aanchal

    Reply

  38. Thank you so much for following my blog.

    Loveee you writing style, looking forward to read more of your posts.

    Cheers,
    Fatima

    Reply

  39. I hate diet sodas too! It’s interesting to read your search for freedom. I’m glad to hear you could make a life for yourselves in the US. Pleasure meeting you:-)

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  41. Hello Maria. Thanks for your recent visits and follow on my blog. I’m looking forward to poking around here and discovering more of your stuff as well. You too have a new follower šŸ™‚

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  42. Have enjoyed browsing your blog Maria, beginning with the photo of the lady in the Post Office, that I related to! Many of your comment boxes were closed, so am writing here instead. Thank you for your follow! šŸ™‚

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  43. Thanks for following my blog, Maria. I look forward to delving into yours as well. I would love to visit Cuba, I guess just because of all I’ve read about it recently, and photos I’ve seen. Have you ever gone back?

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    1. Katte, du hast volomlkmen recht!!!!! Unsere Bilder sind doch auch ganz okay geworden und die Messe war echt geil!!!! Und naja eine Erwartung hatten wir auf jeden Fall: SpaƃÅø haben und Leute auf uns aufmerksam machen!!!!

      Reply

  47. Hi Maria,
    Thank you for visiting, and now following my blog! I hope you’ll enjoy reading all my little ramblings šŸ™‚
    I’ll be checking out your blog soon – making my way around and seeing what you have to say too!

    Reply

  57. Maria, Thank you so much for joining me on my journey! I’m so honored to have you follow along. I love the name of your blog…I love coffee!
    Thanks again,
    Becky

    Reply

  58. Thank you for dropping in and following my blog! It brought me to yours and I know we are kindred spirits……tho’ i don’t know what soda is! Enjoy the ironic twist to your written voice.

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  67. Hello Maria-
    Thanks so much for stopping by Just Another Nature Enthusiast and giving a “follow.”
    Very happy to meet you. I hope you will enjoy wandering around the Pacific Northwest as I track down nature-related photos and thoughts.
    – Jane

    Reply

  68. Hey there Newbie Spikey!
    (for your info, a Spikey is the term for folk who are part of the clan known to be followers of Uncle Spike šŸ™‚

    I wanted to catch up and say ā€œthank youā€¦ I really appreciate your ā€˜followā€™ as I for one, know how many interesting and entertaining blogs are out there.ā€

    Blogging since June 2013, my aim is to deliver an eclectic offering of posts, from my ā€˜point n shootā€™ attempts at basic photography, to the sharing of my travel adventures over the decades, as well as day to day happenings here on the farm. Oh, plus a few observations, opinions and lighter-hearted stuff thrown in for good measure.

    I normally keep to a couple of posts a day, maybe 3-4 at weekends if I have something special to share. But if you are at a loose end one day, maybe youā€™ll enjoy trawling through some of my older stuff too. I have added plenty of categories to help in said digging process.

    Thanks again and hope you have a great dayā€¦

    UNCLE SPIKE

    Reply

  69. I’m popping in from the a-z. I love finding other believers in the blogsphere! I wasn’t crazy about my siblings until later in life, either. I’m Catholic, too. Let’s stay in touch. Visit me, if you’d like:
    from The Dugout

    Reply

  70. Maria, I heard oyu on sqpn saying that we can friends list you on the Jimmy Akin Podcast, but I can’t spell your middle name or your hyphenated last name?
    Maria something Johnson?
    Please email me the answer thanks! šŸ™‚
    ~Doug

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  71. Thanks, I have done just that(research that is). But i did like your discussion on the subject that day, whether you were winging it or not!

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  72. I was listening to old podcasts of harry potter SQPN..

    I remember you given a mini review on the “parts of initiation story”, the sequence of events the character has to go through to get to his/her great end.

    Do you remember what episode that is? Or can you point me somewhere to read up on this? Your blog, a textbook.

    I am not a Literary scholar by any means ( i work in emergency medicine) , but passionate about reading, and find these types of discussions and analysis fascinating. I recently just read an article about “Literary Alchemy” in popular literature, and thought that too was amazing!

    Thanks for your help.

    Reply

    1. Wow, Regan, I don’t know šŸ™‚ I think you can probably do a simple google search for “initiation stories” and it’ll give you something to start with. My literature books are actually…books! No digital notes šŸ˜¦

      I don’t want to make it too public that I just responded to what my colleagues were talking about on SHP, so I didn’t really do show notes (don’t tell Fr. Roderick that I was winging it!)

      Reply

  73. I was talking to a co-worker about my experience in Aix as a college student and decided to google Les Deux Garcons and came across your photo. I could not believe it! I lived above the cafe with a family from Sept. 1980 to May 1981! Who did you live with? Where did you study?

    Reply

    1. The Blondel sisters. Lovely women, the oldest, and the youngest. And their niece who lost both her parents in an accident. Did you know Nancy? You must have!

      Reply

  74. Gosh. I am so sorry it is taking me forever to read these but,
    better late than never. I feel the same way, why drink diet if it has chemicals anyway. I never have understood anyway why people say they are in a diet and eat all this food and then follow up with a diet soda. What the heck is that? Does that make sense? Oh well, I figure just have the real cola, no fake stuff.
    yuyi

    Reply

    1. that’s so true! I remember that as a kid in Atlanta, when the waitress asked what you wanted to drink, you always said “Co-Cola” which was followed by “What kind?”

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  76. Hi Maria,
    I am getting ready to teach some new college freshmen about Bloom’s Taxonomy and remember you talking about this in the SHP podcast – I even used the podcast in class last summer but can not remember which episode it was included in. Do you happen to remember? Could you let me know. it was a very powerful teaching tool for them. My e-mail address is mmorrinfl@gmail.com. Thank you!

    MM

    Reply

  82. What i want to know is how you became such a HP expert that Fr. Roderick would have you cohost the SHP series!

    Reply

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