A heart so pure, so innocent...

Very timely story when the Catholic community celebrates the Feast of the Sto. Niño today:

I was talking to my Mom and her Amiga tonight after hearing mass. It's about the Amiga's grandson, JM whose mother just gave birth to another boy. The baby has a delicate heart condition that he was not discharged from the hospital right away, also because of monetary reasons.

Little boy JM, age 4, knew that he became a big brother and was excited to see the baby. When told that he has to wait, he asked why. They told him their money isn't enough yet to bring the baby out from the hospital, and guess what he said?

"Kahit ako na lang sa hospital, makalabas lang si baby." (I'm willing to stay in the hospital, so they will let the baby out.)

If only it was just that simple, eh? I cannot grasp how this kid can say that. But it is touching that a kid his age is willing to sacrifice out of love...and is just trusting that everything will be okay as long as the ones he love are okay too.

Reminiscin'

Yen's Thursday Thirteen today inspired me to do this post. It's all about random memories from childhood (not sure I can fill up the 13 slots though) ;)

1. My sister and I are eleven months apart so we got used to be mistaken as twins! Didn't help that we wore similar clothes and haircut :)
2. I remember mom and dad bringing us to Fiesta Carnival in Cubao and riding the carousel
3. Riding a "katig-less" banca, scary haha
4. My brother R hit me with a small bowl even if I was sick (I must be that annoying, uh!)
5. I joined a declamation contest (Oh Captai, my Captain) in Grade One because my teacher said I had a powerful voice and good diction. I was the only girl competing and I lost.
6. My mom's BIL was playing with me, threw me up the air, missed me for a second, and finally caught me by the ankles..and I was upside down, hanging behind him!
7. I fell in a canal behind my lola's house and got this scar on the forehead.

I'll come back for more. This got me thinking eh :) But I gotta close the store first...hehehe

Frustrated HR Practitioner

The number one path that I planned to follow after I earned my two bachelor's degrees is the one that leads to the Human Resources. Sadly, I was not able to attain that goal. I was already depressed not finding a job after 11months of graduating (who said it's easy for us who came from that Uni in Taft?! Especially that I wasn't an A-list student) that I grabbed the opportunity to work in that Telecoms company. I was hoping to get transferred laterally to the HR after some time spent in CMG, the idea was openly discussed with my bosses. There was no opening during my entire stay, until I quit. I should have accepted another opportunity but time had other plans for me, and considering that HR positions during that time were only open to those with experience. And looking back, I should have continued reading stuff about HR and not find myself clueless when asked what succession planning is.

But am not complaining anymore. Because recently, I realized what I really wanted to do with my life...that is to learn as much as I can about digital stuff. I'm working on it. :)

Rollercoaster

I've been crying for the past two nights caused by some family matters AND some personal, emotional and physical troubles.

As I told my brother R, every one of us has, at some point in life or another, frustrations and failures and shortcomings. But that doesn't mean we don't deserve the love and strength from the people who matters most. I know, this too, shall pass. We just have to hold on. And accept.

Months from now, when I go back and read this entry, I'll probably forget what am ranting about here. I'm not gonna leave traces or hints of reason for even writing this. For once in my blogging life, I am not writing to remember.

I am not gonna end this entry on such a sad sad note, though. Because on Wednesday, R&R will be back home where I think they belong. Not to mention that someone made me smile yesterday, and that was Mami Carmie. She apologized for not being there on the courts coz she was having a headache. I told her to get well soon. And then she thanked me and called me "such a sweet person". I am happy to be appreciated especially on the most unexpected times when I had too much to worry about. ♥

Illogical fears.

I am afraid of heights. You bet I will never ever ride the Soarin' Over California attraction again (Hubby tricked me into riding once!). Sure I do roller coasters but the speed I can take. Never ask me to ride a Ferris Wheel. And you will find me stiff in a cable car ride if I have no other choice.

I am afraid of open staircases. Everytime we encounter one, hubby will have to go ahead of me so he can cover for me, hehe.

I can get claustrophobic at times. I do not like flying cockroaches.

These are some of what I fear most (Hah! I just revealed myself!). But guess what my mommy is too afraid of? Anything that has fur or feathers, may it be alive or inanimate. Try throwing her, for instance, a gund toy and she will squeal even before it lands.

I learned in college that some phobias arise from experiences as early as childhood. Oh well. Mommy once shared that when she was younger, she fell down the stairs, fell on top of a cat and killed the poor animal in the process. That must be traumatic for her since she carried that memory into adulthood. I wonder if there's anyway I can help her overcome that fear. Or maybe I should think of overcoming my fears first? :)

The storm has passed.

Typhoon Egay finally left Philippine area of responsibility on Saturday. The last three weeks were stormy (Egay came after Dodong and another one) and found us spending more nights in Quezon City than at home. Imagine us sneaking out of the house at 2am on Saturday coz hubby feared we would get stranded again at home and he won't be able to report for work! It was raining hard with matching thunder and lightning.

Because of the flooded streets, I also had limited time checking on the garden and the pizza parlor. When we did visit last night (after braving the waters), I noticed that our tents are almost worn out, the floors need a mean scrubbing and the outdoor lighting probably needs to be replaced (after those strong winds, hah!).

We are still lucky I'd say, the typhoon(s) left us with minimum damage. There are still a lot of homeless families in evacuation centers. In times like these, having a roof atop our heads is almost always enough.

The place that made me wanna go corporate again.

Tuesday saw Ane and I in Ortigas Center early in the morning. I had to wake up early so we won't be stuck too much in rush hour traffic. We should have gotten to our first activity at 8am but since I asked for a few more minutes of sleep, we got there just before 9am. Which was fine because the person we were seeing arrived at 9am. Hehe. Our little meeting ended a few minutes after 10am and we were strolling Megamall by 1030. We walked right away towards Chocolate since I planned early on that I will buy this month's Havaianas fix. But guess what? They're closed for renovation when I was there last Friday and they were still open. Sigh, I hate disappointments. We paid some bills and then we were off to Mami C's office right behind the mall. Ane and I were scheduled to collect payments for the Avenue Q tickets.

So the title of this entry really pertains to the place Mami C works in...that is ADB. The minute we walked in the reception lobby, that has AC btw, I felt different. It doesn't matter that they have x-ray machines for bags, just like in the airports, I simply liked it there. Mami C met us there, we were given guest passes with our names printed on them...and then we entered a totally different world. I may be exaggerating but I do love order, and that's what they have there.

We entered the building and passed through another security check (for "pre-boarding" as Mami C says heheheh). Mami told us to wait while she withdraws from the ATM and my eyes grew big when I saw that they actually have their own Citibank and Metrobank inside! They even have payment windows for Globe, Smart and others! Whoah! We then took the stairs and up there, I saw a well, a nice lobby and a Figaro! Their cafeteria looks like a hotel, even with low ceiling, the lighting fixtures are beautiful. They have a full meal worth 100 bucks, because the food is subsidized yet you can have other options if you have more budget. We ate Mongolian BBQ. We had a happy chat during lunch. Mae was there (Oh I suddenly missed our lunch sessions in Makati) but Mitch was kinda sick she failed to show up. After lunch, Mami toured us around a bit, showed us where they play badminton. Going there, we passed by the seminar rooms and when we peeked inside, the rooms may pass for hotel ballrooms. Do they rent it out for weddings?!?! Hehehehe. They even have big staircases perfect for pictorials, haha. They have a zen-like garden just outside the cafeteria and the fountain near the ADB Ave entrance was huge. Later, Mami showed us her workstation and it hit me. I never really had a chance to work in a corporate setting. The corridors and offices overwhelmed me. I actually liked it there. But going corporate is not in line with what I currently want. I wanted to go back to school and study something related to the Arts.

Given the chance, I would want to be employed there. It's a totally different world in there (they have their own gasoline station for the blue plated cars, for Pete's sake!). It's like when you go out of the compound, you're stepping off the street gutter and you suddenly get hit by an incoming vehicle! To sum it all up, the experience of visiting the place is, as Mae put it "nakakaCulture Shock" :)

Ps. Thank you Mami for treating us to lunch! Can't wait to go back!

We deserved a Mcdo Float each :)

That is, after being stranded at home for about 36hours :)

I do not mind staying home for long hours as long as I am given the option to go out ANYTIME. But that wasn't the case. We could not go out because it rained nonstop since Tuesday evening and the tide was high early yesterday (and today). A wall near the river collapsed which made the entire situation even worse. The flood was almost knee-high this morning, deeper down the street. Welcome to our world. Welcome to Malabon. Hehe.

I am just glad that even if we do not have cable tv at home, I had Ane with me (on his rest days) and the DSL & electricity cooperated. Worse, we only had water and ice inside the refrigerator, and oh rice, a bag of Cheetos, 2 cans of sliced pineapples, and 4 pieces of bite-sized chocolates! We always forget to buy groceries since we got back from the long break. I should be grateful for what we had though...others had nothing to eat. And besides, our Bong was more than willing to brave the flood and buy things for us. I had her buy some Coke Light this morning because not having any made me all the more depressed of our situation. Hehe. Not having any Coke Light to drink was more depressing than seeing boats outside our home. Exagg. Hihi.

Around 5pm, Ane looked outside and the flood have subsided a bit. Thank God it stopped raining. We decided to leave and let Espee, the Sportivo, tackle the water. The water was up to 3/4 of the poor truck's wheels. But we got through. The minute we stepped on Valenzuela, we realized that life beyond Malabon was pretty normal!

We drove thru Mcdonald's on our way to QC and got ourselves some Twister Fries and Float. Comfort Food! :) We got to the apartment and caught the news. Apparently, the City council of Malabon declared the City in a State of Calamity since 60% of the area is still under the waters! If you saw the news this evening (24Oras), the scene with boats was shot along our street! It was that bad. I am just too glad we were able to evacuate or we might be stuck there until tomorrow.

And in case you wanna know, there were no damages to our home. I am just sad that others were not as lucky as we are. Flooded houses are in fact already a way of life out there. Nothing to do but accept their circumstances :(

PS. Another underwater county, Obando, was also heavily flooded. Our coffee shop and pizza parlor's stock and freezer area is currently submerged in water. It's good that our crew was able to transfer what needed to be transferred. I hope everything gets back to normal tomorrow.

Snailmails and Handwritten journals.

I was browsing thru the webpage of the family friend who recently died. She posted some of her letters to her daughter, and made me think. When was the last time I actually wrote a heartfelt letter using my own cursive strokes? I cannot remember. I cannot even remember the time when people would check their mail boxes, wondering whether the mailman already dropped by? (I still see the same man who delivered our letters when we were young..until now he walks everyday but mainly to deliver bills, perhaps?).

With the digital age in our midst, my last handwritten journal was probably composed eons ago! I wanna go back to writing. My hand starts to shake now everytime I write stuff (receipts, reminders, etc. in haste) and my writing isn't the same as the one others admired for its clean lines (print). I guess I'll have to practice again.

Family time is important.

Sundays are important. It is a time to spend with family (after God). Too bad, Ane has to work on Sundays until I dunno when. It is on these days that it shouldn't matter whether we have extra money to spend or not. Eating at fastfoods and nothing fancy would oftentimes be enough, heck, eating at home before going out is usually better on those days. Coffee and desserts sessions (what we call "Starbucking") are amiss. As long as we are together, we are fine. As long as there are no business and work talk, we are fine. As long as we don't talk about our current circumstances, even for just a couple of hours, that is enough.

Like yesterday. The two brothers, the 'rents, and I were at Rockwell. We were able to squeeze in the budget for a movie. Later, I realized we should have gone somewhere else (but not SM! hehehe arte talaga) because the movie cost P161...where was I when this happened?!? Hehe. Or maybe, back in the days, it didn't matter how much a movie costs? Hmmmm.

While everyone else (the lines were loooooooonggg!) were lining up for Ratatouille, we had tickets for The Simpson Movie. The rat movie is pretty nice too (saw it in the States) but the Li'l bro wanted Simpsons, him being a fan. Mom was apprehensive when she realized we were watching cartoons but later, while inside, we could hear her laughing out loud. That's what the movie is. Full of laughter from start to finish. The humor is not for kids though, with it's PG13 rating.

I suggest you watch it too. If only to forget about life (and it's troubles) for a moment. Cheers! :)

**picture from wikipedia

A truck is a truck is a truck.

I was looking at my assigments and I hurriedly went to the site where they sell truck accessories thinking that I will see parts for, well, trucks. Trucks as in fire trucks, garbage trucks, that sort of thing, but I am obviously wrong the second I got to the website. Hehe.

I remember last year when Joaquin came here with his dad. He refused to call a Revo or an Expedition, a car. His Ninong's Altis is the only one he would call a car. All others are trucks. Anything that is big for that matter, he called a truck. Because that's what they are in the US. :)

From now on, I will also believe my hubby when he says that my in-laws' Sportivo is a truck -- runs like one, sounds like one, mechanism is like one and is made for the flood-county of Metro Manila, hihihi.

Ninong can go home by himself.

Said Joaquin. Hehe. He didn't want me to leave, but jokes my Ane that he can leave anytime. But he was happily waving goodbye at us at the airport. Later he said we were just at the market. Poor boy, thinking we are returning anytime soon.

I was talking to him this morning and asked me, "Ninang, are you still in the airplane?" Which made me laugh, hihi. And made kwento about his Mommy getting him a new Lego Set (of course my sister was denying it to his face hahaha). Anyway, I always tease him and tell him "You silly boy!" for which he would retort, "You silly mommy!". My answer would always be, "I'm not your mommy!". One day, I was startled because he answered back, whispering, "But you are my secret mommy." Aaawwww. How can I not adore this boy?

On our last day in San Jose, we still managed to watch Tranformers again :). We accompanied Kuya Jun. Of course, we had a blast (again!) and I understood the movie better the second time around. Because then, I was more observant and saw all the small details of the movie which are quite important too. We got home around two pm and continued packing our stuff. We also managed to get some boxes of Girl Scouts cookies from (Tita) Didith. We love free stuff :)

While packing though, we received some sad news from Ate's college galpal (more on that later). On the way to the airport, we grabbed some Krispy Kreme Glazed Doughnuts and some Burgers from In N Out so we'll have something to eat at the airport while we wait for our boarding. I'll miss the burgers for sure!

We parted ways around 830pm. I felt like crying especially when we said our goodbyes. We took off shoes and passed through security. I was trying my best so my tears won't fall until...

Security asked me about my handcarried bag and whether they can open and inspect it. And then boom! I was instantly scared (a bit) while thinking about the contents (not that there are prohibited things in there, duh!) but just the thought of being held for a few minutes. I was nervous! It was just the ref magnet we bought from Disney that did it. Hehe. So there. My momentum was clearly ruined, hihi.

After that, I looked back and realized that my sister and her family already left. Sigh. I miss Joaquin already.

My li'l brother is a music-lover.

Yep, he is. Amazingly, he appreciates music from all genres. Quiz him about some new band and he'll give you answers :) Ask him about New Wave or some OPM songs from the 70-80's (he was born in '90), he can even sing the tunes. While here, instead of buying himself clothes or big boy toys, he got music CD's...lots of those :) If we had the luxury of time (and money!), we would have purchased concert tickets online to see a band or two that he likes to listen to live.

Anyway at the moment, he's into some Rock music, that kind of stuff. He texted me last week if we cold still grab him three CD's he'd really like to have in his collection (and in his IPod, too!). We had a hard time finding one of the CD's because we weren't familiar with the band. We went to Barnes and Noble on Tuesday, and I must say I was quite embarrased. I was looking for a CD by Juturna named Circa Survive. The man in the counter (being an old man himself), could not find it in their database. And then when he tried to look for Circa Survive, he looked at me and said, 'Circa Survive is the name of the band and Juturna is the album title'. It figured! I smiled and thanked him for the information but I felt my cheeks went red. Hehe. Finally, we got the CD at Circuit City where it is available :)

A Biology lesson.

Before I came here for a vacation, I was talking to my HS Biology Teacher, Ms. T, who has become a lifetime friend. We planned to see each other after I got married but we didn't get around to doing so. It was postponed and re-postponed, until I told her I'll be away for two months. Just letting her know. Anyway, one of the reasons we didn't see each other was she became busy with her brother who had a stroke. I exclaimed, "your brother had a heart attack?!?!" I tell you, she wanted to laugh and scream at me at the same time. Hehe. Finally she composed herself and told me, it doesn't follow stroke = heart attack, and that she should have flunked me in Bio back then. Shame on me. Hehe.

Anyway, she probably won't believe it when she hears this. After watching Ratatouille this afternoon, I realized that DNA matching may be done using strands of hair! Pardon my ignorance but that's the same reason I never wanted to be a Doctor in the first place! :) Hehe.

A dollar can go a long way

And I mean a long way. I used to not believe in insurances (even got on a big row with a friend who wanted to sell me the service), but come to think of it...one never knows what happens in the near future, right? So I agreed to get one for myself, a Pension Plan. For US residents though, Globe Insurance offers a $50,000 coverage for only a dollar policy.

A dollar can buy you a big bottle of Soda or a big bag of chips or two Sunday newspapers. Now, even insurance. It will be worth the investment, don't you think?