Crazy Daisy...

I was running some errands in a grocery store when I caught a glimpse of a bunch of flowers on a lady's pushcart. From a distance they looked like plastic or paper for their seemingly unbelievable bright colors but at a closer look they were real and live and so I too bought a bouquet of them--CRAZY DAISY it said on the label. Finally, Spring has sprung up and so have the flowers. And then daughter saw the bunch: "Mom, they were DYED though!" Silence echoed...eyes bulged...jaw dropped....TOINK!!! "Ah, oh...you're right, sweety!"....AWWWWW! Abi ko sa 'Pinas lng may galugom bulak.....CRAZY CHARY, hey!

A Red Day

(11/04/07)

I did not wish for it. But it seemed that some forces in the universe had conspired to make my birthday (Oct.27) a literally RED day!

It all began in the eve of Oct. 26 when I got a text message from Katrina, one of my student-writers, stating that we would wear red shirts for the Division Press Conference Contest slated on the following day.

Though I had already something in my mind as to what I’d wear for that day (and certainly it wasn’t a red one) I obliged as I didn’t want to be a wet blanket.

Anyway, nothing went red for the duration of the one-day contest but I could figuratively say it was a bloody war among the best student-writers coming from the different districts of Iloilo. At the end of the contest, our school emerged the 2nd highest pointer! Must be red power, huh!

Surely, it was a tiring day…but hey, I still had my birthday to quietly celebrate with myself and my husband (our unica hija had gone to Aklan for her sem-break)! After parting ways with my students, I went straight to SM City to meet my husband and buy RTCM (ready-to-chew-meals).

First thing we bought was a layer of black forest cake topped with cherries. Then we headed to one fast food chain to buy fried chix. I was falling in line and patiently waiting for my turn when everyone was distracted by a commotion outside. It was seemed like a slow mo: I turned around and there, few feet away from me, were two teeners furiously beating and lashing one guy with a belt’s metal buckle. The poor guy was in no match against the two and his head and arms were already bleeding. And where were the mall’s security guards? Sure they arrived…and caught the two agressors red-handed!

Right after I got my order, we hurriedly left the mall with shoppers who were either too stunned of the incident to move or were simply waiting for the next event to unfold.

While on board a jeep, I began to think this must be a hellish day! I closed my eyes to shake off the creepy red-alert feeling that had started to set in me.

"Hey, why not count your blessings instead! You’ve just turned a year older today, so what have you lived for?" Yeah, you’re absolutely right my dear conscience! There are other things more worthy of contemplation and reflection than the what-i-call-red-day!

I closed my eyes and started to rewind in my thoughts the bday txt messages i got from my megafriends: Cynth, Dane, Ramir; from my sistahs who were then enduring a slight hangover from a midninght-to-dawn party fevah at Bora’s Coco Mangas: Yey, Khayet, Gelay; from my cousin Nene, and of course just like during my bday last year, from HER EXCELLENCY GLORIA MACAPAGAL-ARROYO and PGM Winston Garcia—my so-called GSIS Kahit Saan, Kahit Kailan, Maaasahan Mo Family. Clap! Clap! Clap! And this thought made me smile…no…GRIN!

I gave a sigh of relief…and there…I somehow felt better.

I then opened my eyes…

SURPRISE! SURPRISE!

It was just then I realized that:

my right hand was holding a RED box of KFC’s sizzling hot chicken…

my husband got a RED box of Red Ribbon cake…

the passenger to my right was wearing a RED sando…

and

the guy across me got a RED knapsack on his lap…!


Ah oh…it was still a REDDDDD day for me!

Of Brit and Teri

(10/04/07)





Ayyy, this time i luv britney spears more than i do teri hatcher….

Why?

At least si britney, in her "leaked song", considers Phillippines a refuge….
Read on the lyrics of her song tentatively titled "Piece of Me (some reports say "Pieces of Me"/"Everyone Wants a Piece of Me")...

I’m Miss American Dream since I was 17
Don’t matter if I step on the scene
Or sneak away to the Philippines
They still got the pictures of my derriere in the magazine
You want a piece of me? You want a piece of me…
(This is in youtube too!)

And Teri Hatcher?
Who has not ever heard of her *** line from one episode of Desperate Housewives:

Okay, before we go any further, can I check those diplomas? Cause I just would like to make sure they are not from some med schools in the Philippines"?

So, Brit, definitely you’re NOT DESPERATE….

And Teri,

SORRY, I don’t want a piece of you….

To Do List

To Do List


1. Wake up.

2. Drink milk.

3. Eat breakfast.

4. Drink vitamins.

5. Eat lunch.

6. Read books.

7. Wash up.

8. Eat dinner.

9. Sleep.

No, this is NOT my To Do List. It’s my daughter’s which one summer afternoon she scribbled on her all-around notebook. I say all-around because it’s one thick notebook where you’d find all her kinds of drawings like Batman 1 and Batman 2 (the bad guy), a two-deck car, or her spelling exercises, and yep, some lines/strokes that look like a graffiti to an adult’s eyes (Oh, well…it’s a child’sworld anynway).

I don’t know what prompted her to write that To Do list. I just presumed that either she got bored of drawing, or simply got tired of my repetitive commanding: "Kaish, eat your breakfast now! … Kaish, drink your vit…blah…blah..blah…!" that she quietly resolved to make her To Do list and just do her tasks on her own (but this, I have to see yet!)

As I read her To Do List, I was kind of amaze to find all her words correctly spelled and her thoughts logically organized. So I sat down with her and dictated some spelling sentences like: My father is tall; I love pizza… which she got all correct.

Nope, I’m not claiming she’s a genius as never have I wished for Einstein’s genes in her. It’s just that weeks before enrolment, I was harboring some apprehensions about transferring her to another school (though my husband is 100% sold-out of the idea) which system is greatly, if not totally, different from her former school, and I fear that she might have a hard time adjusting, and eventually quit school!

But then popped her uncoached and accurately written To Do List which admittedly gave me the much-needed go signal.

And so I bravely filled up the school RF which I stashed in a shoe box and there remained untouched for weeks, headed to the bank and paid the 20% downpayment for tuition fees + P for books and supplementary materials, then presented the copy of the bank deposit slip to the school’s registrar, and presto, the RF was stamped: ENROLLED (Kinder 2)!

Now, is my girl able to adjust to her new school and cope with a new system?

Gracious Heavens,YES! In fact, next week she’ll have her first quarter exam….

And so, here goes MY To Do List for today:

1. Make a reviewer for Kaish’s exams in Phonics, Civics, Chinese Math and Vocabulary, Sci., Fil., Math, Computer, Eng., and Reading….

2. Review her tonight….

And my other to do will have to wait after daughter’s exams :>

Color blind, color deaf...

(06/03/07)



Poor me! I must have been color blind and color deaf lately. My six year old daughter made me realize this.

Days ago I was flipping through the pages of her notebook when my attention was caught by her drawing of a two-storey car with rays around on some of its parts. Curiosity got in me so I asked her to explain it to me. It was two-storey daw because there were many children inside it and that the rays around were lights so that they could see where they were going. Hmmm…sounds logical enough.

And the last question I asked: “What’s the color of the car?”

She quickly answered, “Cerulean!”

“A what?”

“Cerulean! That’s my favorite color!”

Obviously, I haven’t seen such color nor heard of it (and this makes me sort of color blind and color deaf ). So I asked my daughter if she had that color/crayon and she gladly showed, and even read, it to me.

Poor me!

Well, well, back to my crayon days in the 80’s, the most “sophisticated” colors then were simply flesh, fuchsia, etc., and no CERULEAN yet. And when I went to high school I’ve got to thank my creative writing teacher Ma’am Methusellah Santamaria for introducing me to sardonic, scarlet, bismuth, ebony, and ivory ….(but not to CERULEAN).

Also when I went to college the most colorful color I met was vermillion, and never the shadow of CERULEAN.

And sssshhhh…. not a single color was ever tackled in my graduate and post graduate studies…!

Anyway, CERULEAN is deep blue lang naman pala according to Mr. Oxford.

Hay naku, I guess I need to add more colors to my days. I don’t wish to be color blind and color deaf for the rest of my life.

My Joyful Affair with the Flower Aristocrat

(09/06/07)


I cannot fully admit that i have a green thumb but i love green things sprouting on the horizontally-challenged space that surround my home-cute-home. I have to utilize and maximize every square inch of vacant lot available for a blade of bermuda grass or a piece of a decorative pebble so as to have a house-with-a-garden. Though a garden with a house would have been better (or best) but for now a pocket garden is all what my pocket can afford.

Anyway, one variety among my few greens is orchids in pots and others attached to 2 driftwoods. I’ve been tending them for almost a year now; few have withered and died, but most have survived!

Actually, I wasn’t into orchids before until Manong Romeng started to frequent our subdivision every weekend. Perched on his right shoulder was a big basket of orchid plants which according to him came all the way from Bacolod City. The flowers were just irresistible! And like Persephone of the Greek myth, I was sooo enticed by their wondrous bloom that i just had to buy, kahit 2 stems lang!

And you could tell what happens next. The two stems had become x2 and even x3! Hala, it could be addicitng pala! And when i calculated and realized that i had shelled out a good amount of money for this adorable aerial plant, i had to hide (hehehehe…but please don’t tell!) from Manong Romeng the next time he would pass by our block. He would call out though, "Ma’am, maayong aga! Mabakal ka orchids?" And I just had to restrain myself from responding to his call just to avoid being tempted to buy more! And when I sensed and felt that he had went on his way after presuming that I was’nt home I would hurry to the window and surreptitiously peep at the jalousies to see if he got new species, or just to look and admire (hayy, the most i could do) the colorful flowers in his basket.

So okay, what do i get in return from these orchids__the so-called floral aristocrat of the flowering plant world?

SPELL this: J—O—Y !

down

in my

heart…


deep,

deep,

down

in my heart!


Truly, it is such a joy for me to discover new refreshing green roots branching out from the plant itself…

or new bulb-shaped singil or saha bulging and growing…

or new stems of flower buds sprouting and reaching out….

And i just can hardly contain the excitement in my heart as I joyfully wait for the morning when these buds open to eye-catching colors of stunning orange, deep fuchsia, butter yellow, majestic purple, and virginal white…all blooming in full glory!

Kind Strangers

(First published in the Phil. Daily Inquirer, Youngblood Column, Jan. 8, 2002.)

ONE of the stories mother often read to me when i was young was LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD. And everytime she finished reading, she would remnd me: "Strangers cannot be trusted. So don’t talk to them. Look what happened to Little Red Riding Hood."

Remembering Little Red Riding Hood and believing my mother’s warning, I became aloof to strangers. However, this attitude changed five days after I got married on Dec. 18, 1999.

For our return trip to Iloilo City after spending our honeymoon in Bohol, my husband and I boarded the M/S South Korea. Six hours after it left Cebu City, the ship ran aground off Bantayan Island in Cebu and quickly sank in the morning of Dec. 23.

This tragedy introduced into my life several strangers. I don’t even know the names of some of them, but I will always remember all their faces and their good deeds for the rest of my life. They are:

THe CREW members of the M/V Edago who rescued us from the stormy sea where we had been floating for 8 hours. They saw us being tossed by gigantic (as big as houses, I swear!) waves, helped us aboard their ship and fed us with what was left of their provisions: lugaw and a few packs of noodles cooked in a big casserole filled with water so that hundreds of hungry mouths fished out of the sea could eat. They brought us safely to Salazar Shipping Institute (a school ship) in Sta. Fe, Cebu.

The OWNERS and STAFF of Salazar Shipping Institute who took us in and fed us of our first real meal for the day consisting of rice, dilis, sardines, bread, and black coffee (even without sugar, the coffee tasted heavenly!)

The FOLKS of Sta. Fe who at the unholy hour of 2 AM braved the rough waters and the chilling wind to ferry me and other injured survivors to the Bantayan Island District Hospital.

The DOCTORS and NURSES at the said hospital who attended to my fractured right ankle and to my husband’s bruises which we sustained from jumping off the ship. And the social workers who gave us slippers, underwear, toothbrushes, and toothpaste.

THe handsome PILOT of the plane that airlifted us to Cebu City and who gave me a pack of BlueSkies soda crackers with these kind words,"Eto na lang ang natira o. Pasensyahan mo na lang."

The alert and on-the-ball SOLDIERS of Mactan Air Base in Cebu City who facilitated our transfer to Chong Hua Hospital

MR. GEORGE TIO, the administrator of Chong Hua Hospital, who let my husband make long distance calls for free to our families in Iloilo City. DR. EDDIE YAP and his competent team of doctors who spent Christmas Day operating on my fractured ankle; the cheerful nurses (yeah, I remember two of them dancing the swing in the Recovery Room); and the staff who treated me with gentle care and patience making my four days of confinement comfortable.

JESSIE LIM, the operations manager of Coca-Cola Bottlers Phils. Inc., Cebu Plant, who after being contacted by my husband’s Manila-based uncle (Herni Defante), with his wife searched and looked for us at the Emergency Room of Chong Hua Hospital and brought us fresh lumpia and apples, which my husband and I had for our noche buena. Also, they bought us some clothes and gave us money for my hospital needs.

NENA SOGOCIO, a DSWD social worker who paid us constant visits and even gave us P100.

MANANG VIRGIE, a fellow survivor of the sea tragedy, who offered us a place to stay in Cebu City.

THEY were all strangers to me, and I to them, but they treated us with kindness. These acts of kindness indeed saved my husband’s life and mine, and the short encounter we had with them proved that strangers can also be trusted.

Now I have recovered from the trauma, my ankle has healed, and I’m a mother to a bubbly girl. Tonight, before we retire to bed, I will be telling her the story of LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD…and of my own experience with those kind strangers, of course….

When kids ask the darndest questions...

One lazy summer afternoon I was curling up in bed with one of my fave mags Good Housekeeping when my little girl marched into our room with these questions:

How are babies made?

What is a virgin?
I know this moment would come when my kid would ask me "those" kinds of questions. However, it came when I least expected it!

For seconds I was caught offguard; my mind was racing with my hearbeat pulsating rapidly as I pondered for an answer. As a mother, I felt this was one delicate matter I had to handle. Standing in front of me was a six-year-old girl whose innocent eyes begged for an answer. And she was no Scarlett O’Hara that Rhett Butler’s my-dear-I-don’t-give-a-damn remark would be enough to suffice her.

After what seemed like an eternity of contemplating, I straightened my torso (to exhibit confidence and authority) and answer in the most casual tone and manner I could muster:

Babies are made when a sperm cell and an egg cell met and fertilized.

A virgin is someone who has not engaged in sex(ual act).

Then I asked: Do you understand what fertilized and sex mean?

Nooooo was her quick answer.

Indeed, she might not have understood a thing of what i had given her for an answer but at least, it was science-based. And I believe it was the truest, the most correct, the most precise answer. Though incomprehensible for her, yet it was an answer that would not certainly confuse her especially someday when her future science class discusses the topic.

So I told her, "Okay, I’ll explain that to you when you’re old enough to understand…."

With sealed lips, she nodded in agreement…

…and there ended our Q&A session….

No further questions asked, Bill Cosby!

Marriage as an Ice Cream

(An excerpt from a message delivered during Jayme-de los Reyes Nuptial on May 20, 2009 at Punta Villa, Iloilo City.)

Being married myself for nine years, I can best compare married life to an ice cream. Well, you see, an ice cream has different flavors: mango, ube, buko salad, rocky road, or lately merong very rocky road, and other flavors. Also, ice cream comes in brands like Selecta and Magnolia. May tinatawag rin na limited edition na seasonal lang ang paglabas sa market; meron ding supreme na pinakamahal sa lahat, and the classic one na available in the market at all times.

So how do all these relate to marriage?

1. First, a married life, like an ice cream, has different flavors too. It is loaded with different emotions: joy, bliss, happiness, at syempre hindi talaga mawawala yung “rocky road” na sinasabi nila–mga tampuhan, away-away, petty quarrels. But let this be the flavor that would enhance and strengthen your relationship. After all, kahit ano pang problema ang dumating, lahat yan, matutunaw rin lang katulad ng ice cream.

2. Second, sa pagpapakasal, kailangan kang maging “selecta” or selective of your partner. We’re happy that finally Nonoy has found the right partner in the person of Nelisa to be his life companion. May whatever qualities you have discovered from each and the other deepen your relationship, and draw out the best person in you.

3. Third, marriage is like a Magnolia ice cream. As we know, magnolia is a flower which color is white–so pure. In husband-wife relationship, whatever thoughts you think about your partner, whatever words you speak to your spouse, whatever acts you demonstrate to your better-half, always carry them out with pure, sincere, and good intentions in your heart.

4. Fourth, a life partner is like a “limited edition” ice cream. This means that you have to fully–100 percent–give your loyalty and commitment to your partner. Honesty is a must for a marriage to become successful and lasting.

5. Fifth, married life is also like a “supreme” ice cream. In husband and wife relationship, no one is supreme or above the other. Both are equal and therefore should have mutual respect for each other. Let Christ, the Supreme Being, be the center of your married life and anchor your faith in Him always.

With all of these, your love will be like a “classic” ice cream. Classic in a sense that kahit ano pang different flavors or emotions, problems, that you would face and confront, your relationship is surely to last and will be blessed by Christ.

Congratulations and best wishes to Nonoy and Nelisa!

Happy Birthday...Happy List

What made my birthday really happy? Let me count the ways and list them here:

1. I turn 35 this year…and am still very much alive!!! Thank God for another breathe of life and for the chance of experiencing life in a country new to us.

2. I got my Maple Leaf Card (Permanent Residence Card) right on my birthday. A coincidence? No, it’s God’s amazing grace!

3. I silently wished for a bouquet of flowers and I got one! Nope, not from hubby. He still can’t find in his heart the understanding, I believe, of my placing the bunch of red roses he gave me 13 years ago (that long!!!!, and he can’t move on???)) in the washroom when all I thought was those flowers really made a good ambience there. Anyways, thank you Mckenna family for the exquisite flowers. I had them on the dining table and not anywhere else; I don’t want to commit the same “flower-folly” I did 13 years ago…hahaha!

4. I got loved ones, relatives, and kabayans here who slaved themselves in the kitchen (thankfully, not one of them burnt nor sliced a thumb!) to do some cooking and baking:

Uncle Ernie and Auntie Gemma: Gracias for the yummy cheesecake, lasagna, and muffins!

Ate Nene and family: Salamat for the traditional Pinoy pansit!

Ate Vicky: Your cottage cheese was truly a “bite-ful”!

Sis Sahlee: You are a superb party organizer and planner!

Sis Gelay: What’s in your fingers that you could do the most perfect slice of embutido?

“Ex-bf “ Ric: Those pork and beef barbecues were great even they were just oven-cooked!”

5. I got birthday cards as well as gifts–just when I thought I was overage for those stuffs!—Uhum! Thanks Pravlee, Banjojie, Aunt Therry, Acuna family, Aunt Gem & Uncle Ernie, Kuya Supremio and family, and Mckenna family (You guys could surely hear the whisper of the wind! Those Chapter Indigo gift cards were also “silently wished for”!).

6. Lastly, I got cybergreetings from kaberks and relatives: Meren clan, Alma May, Joy, Rodz, Lea, Leoda, Jon, Agatha, Andi, Johmy, Beespunky, Lala, Mitzie, Glyn, Sucy, Pauleen, Lourdes, Zia. Thanks for remembering!

Can’t help but look forward to another happy birthday next year. And so I better start count the days now…