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My Family

Just the Two of Us

hubby and meI just realized that it’s the first time Butch and I are travelling without the kids. The last time we were by ourselves was our honeymoon twenty-two years ago. Since then, our children have always been the number 1 priority in our lives next to us. We have been planning for a family vacation for some time now but our schedules never match. Either one kid is busy with school activities or the other has work obligations. Butch and I just decided to travel on our own without them. He didn’t want the kids to be home alone even when I assure him that my aunt is just a block away for emergency. After all security precautions, we took the weekend off to burn our devalued dollars for Christmas shopping in Singapore. The plane fare alone will be paid from the savings of the gadgets we intend to buy for the two girls. Of course, the most important thing of all is Butch and I will have a lot of romantic moments together getting lost in Singapore.

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Photo Hunt: Classic (1940s Photo)

The [tag]Photo Hunt[/tag] theme for this saturday is anything on Classic. What does “classic” mean?

“of or characteristic of a form or system felt to be of first significance before modern times” As an adjective, classic means ““belonging to the highest rank or class” as well as ““having lasting significance or worth.” As a noun, classic means ““a superior or unusual example of its kind”

momasateenagerthumb.jpgMine is a classic [tag]1940s photo[/tag] of my mom as a teenager. She must have been sixteen here in this photo, roughly taken sometime in 1947. I found this photo as my sister Belen (who happens to look like my mom) and I packed up our things from our ancestral home in Cebu. Though a bit worn, we were able to capture the photo with our digital camera.

I like gazing at [tag]retro photos[/tag]. A glimpse of the past is captured forever. I get to see the fashion trends during the good old days. One thing I notice about this old photo is the way she positioned their upper torso. It’s like mom is leaning to one side and her eyes aren’t focused on the camera as if gazing to someone behind the photographer. It’s great that she beamed a stunning smile though.

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Halloween Trick or Treat Tradition

halloween.jpgHalloween Trick or Treat is a tradition that my husband started in our family. As a kid, I never grew up in the Halloween tradition of the Western world but hubby did. Halloween Celebration through the years is a memory that my kids treasure because of the yummy treats and magical costumes. [tag]Halloween[/tag] in the early nineties didn’t reek of commercialized gimmicks from the shopping malls. The kids actually wore scary Halloween costumes. We, the parents contributed to the trick-or-treat-ing activities in our neighborhood.

Yes, happy childhood memories next to Christmas and birthday celebrations. I am not about to stop this tradition just because they are now over twenty years old. The spooky Halloween orange/black decors are up. The pumpkin baskets are displayed on the table. Everything bright and orange-y abounds the house now. And yesterday, I bought a bunch of Halloween candy treats.

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A Childlike Mind

halloween treatsThe girls are now in their twenties and they have their own gimmicks these days. I can’t even schedule a photo shoot for a family portrait because their schedules always conflict with the date. The only occasion for us to be together is when we dine out or shop. Yesterday afternoon was one of those rare moments when they wanted to be with me. I was invited to the “All Treats No Tricks” event of All Flip Flops and Marta’s Cakes at the Bonifacio High Street where we get the chance to ice cookies or cupcakes. The girls thought it was an excellent idea to go to the swanky Bonifacio High Street and hie off to their favorite hangout, The Fully Booked bookstore. (Asides, I think Andres Bonifacio would rise from his grave if he saw his namesake being used for such a ritzy shopping complex. )

halloween treats
My dear husband offered to drive us (thank goodness) and meet up at the Fully Booked after the event. So we were at the tent across All Flip Flops and sat down to work on our cupcakes and cookies. My two lovely daughters sat across me and suddenly memories of their childhood flooded me. Those memories where we often did arts and crafts and even icing the cookies together. Where did the good old days go? As I iced my own cupcake, I know deep inside the girls are brought back to their happy childhood memories. Those were the days when I devoted a lot of my time cooking and baking. Those were the days we would look far and wide for a playground. These memories never die. Our childlike mind always lives in us and it is a good thing.

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Best Friends forever

I am in Cebu City right now for an overnight business trip. It feels great to be home. Well, not exactly at my old home. We sold our family home a few years ago because none of the siblings live in Cebu. Home is where the heart is or my hometown, where I spent the first 16 years of my childhood. Part of my agenda entailed a meet up with my grade school best friend, Rowena. It’s been 34 years since we last saw each other. Yes, the last time was at our high school graduation. I’ve never forgotten her though. The problem was I didn’t stay long enough in Cebu to reunite with high school friends whenever I went for my semestral break or vacation. Memories of high school popular cliques and my mediocre school performance made me want to avoid any reunions. But whenever I was in Cebu I often wondered what became of her.

Six months ago, I received a text message from Rowena. I was happy to hear from her, of course. Her reaction surprised me even more “I’m crying that we finally talked to each other”. I was thinking Did we have a fight? is that why we drifted apart?is that why she is crying? My heart remembers the love, the camaderie, the laughter and the innocence we shared as kids. She told me that I often gave her roses and cake for her birthday. Was I that sweet? Did I really sneak out those roses from my mom’s rose garden? Did I “steal” cake from our bake shop just so I had a gift for Rowena? I desperately wanted to remember how I was as a young me.

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Glorietta 2 Explosion Memories

explosionMy hubby sent me a text message yesterday to get away from the [tag]Glorietta Ayala Malls[/tag]. He knows it’s my favorite mall since it was just a 10 minute drive from our old home in Makati. I texted him back that I was in another mall and not to worry about me. As soon as I reached home, I googled for “[tag]Glorietta 2 Explosion[/tag]” and was surprised at the Google Search Engine Results. I was suddenly taken back in time. Lauren’s May 18, 2000 entry showed up on the first page that there was a Glorietta 2 explosion on May 17, 2000 which injured teenagers mostly since the blast occured near a video arcade:

Glorietta 2 was bombed yesterday ( the third bombing in just a week ) and one of the girls in my batch, Ana May, was there and got hurt. Twelve were injured and mostly teens cos it happened at the Synergy video arcade (the other arcade we go too sometimes). I guess it’s good that me and Stephen aren’t, well, exactly friends cos if we were, we woulda been there like every other Wednesday and I don’t really like the idea of my body parts flying all over the entire mall.

Why Glorietta 2 again? Not that I want other parts of the mall to be blasted away. It just seems so suspicious. I was at the Glorietta 2 entrance just a few weeks ago and remember raising my eyebrows when the security guard didn’t check my bag. He was busy reading the text messages from his cellphone. (Ayala Mall security, remove their cellphones while on duty please)

Anyway, just 3 days after that May 20, 2000 entry, Lauren wrote another one and this time on the SM Megamall Bombing that happened on May 20, 2000 where a janitor was killed.

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Holy Rosary Podcast

rosary.jpg The blue rosary in the photo belongs to Luijoe. A month before he died, he placed it lovingly on the rear view mirror of my car so mama, you will always be protected. Little did he know that he would be in heaven a month later, watching over me and the rest of the family. The Holy Rosary played an important part in my son’s life. My heart often tugs at the memory of my son chastising me for not saying my regular prayers. One night, he pulled me over to our bed because he wanted to pray the Rosary. This lazy mother begged off saying “I don’t feel like it…it’s too long to pray”. That memory often brings me tears of regret that I wasn’t supportive enough of my son’s staunch faith in the Holy Rosary. I should have just prayed along with Luijoe even if I didn’t feel like it. In the eulogy given by Luijoe’s pre-school teacher, she talks of Luijoe as he prayed the rosary:

One time I assigned him to lead the rosary. He was murmuring. One of his classmates told him to speak louder. So loudly but seriously with a big voice he uttered the prayers. At the end of the rosary, all of his classmates clapped their hands. Then, he shouted innocently,”This is not a program..This is a prayer!”

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On Erap’s Guilty Verdict and Erap Jokes

royal_elastics 043.jpgI felt sad for the former president, [tag]Joseph Estrada[/tag] (Erap) when it was announced that Erap was guilty of the plunder case. It’s not easy to be locked behind bars. I don’t know enough of the case to talk about it but I suppose the Sandiganbayan examined the evidence given during the past six years. As I saw the dejected face of the former president, memories of my son idolizing [tag]Erap[/tag] filled me. My son would have been really sad for Erap. Luijoe loved hearing the funny Erap Jokes. See my son had a great sense of humor and loved to throw a joke or two. Then he discovered the Erap jokes. One time, my 6 year old boy overheard us laughing to our heart’s content on an Erap joke. He badgered to know the joke. So I narrated the joke

Erap: Miss, do you have a ballpen?
Clerk: Sorry, sir we don’t have any ballpen
Erap (angry): Why did you name your store “Penshoppe“?

Luijoe loved to tell this joke to everyone . One time, Luijoe and I passed by Penshoppe ( a teen fashion store) in Glorietta mall and I teased him if he wanted to go inside with me , so I could ask the same question Erap asked. Luijoe tugged me away. hehe

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Lauren, A Young Internet User in 1996

youngblogger.jpgLauren told me to scrounge around for her photo as a 10 year old using the computer because it was needed for a magazine article. As some of you might know, Lauren started an online journal (not called blogs then) on December 1996 so the photo had to be around that time. Oh no! It’s like looking for a needle in a haystack. For days, I poured over stacks of photos because I have not been organizing them for the past 12 years. I finally found the photos of her in various poses with the computer. My geeky little Lauren.

Lauren was 9 years old while M was 8 years old when I had an internet connection at home. Between the 2 girls, Lauren used the internet a lot more than M. My internet service provider in 1995 was Virtual Asia. For 500 pesos a month, I had 15 internet hours. Geesh, it was terribly expensive to get wired during those days. The internet at home was mainly used for email purposes as I wanted to save my precious internet hours. One summer day in 1996 , 9 year old Lauren got bored and demanded to go online to search for penpals. I foresaw the need to strike a balance for the wonders of the internet with the responsibility for accountability, self-discipline, and safety. The best defense I had was to make exploring the online world a family affair. Together, we surfed and discovered two kid sites , the kidscom.com and kidpub.com. What caught their interest in kidscom was the graffiti wall that served as a chat room but it wasn’t in real time. The kidspub was a fun place to submit writings. Lauren was raring to get her creative juices started with the kidspub. The thing was they wanted her to submit the articles in HTML.

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My Type of Guy

I thought I’d go down memory lane and reminisce the days just before I fell in love with my ex-boyfriend (read our love story) .In this day and age, my husband is the so-called brooding artist, emo-ish guy (Think of my daughter, Lauren). I mean he is my total opposite. So why did I fall for him anyway?

Jane posted this meme on her blog and it alsogot me thinking if hubby is really MY type of guy. Not that I doubt if he is MY guy but it’d be fun to see the score at the end of this meme.

So here goes:

1. Suplado = I like suplado guys. There is an air of mystery around them. Butch is suplado.

2. Mr. Shades = Oh yes, groovy. Like that.

3. Masculado = Not too many muscles. Those rippling muscles look scary.

4. Guys who give flowers = Flowers given without any occasion is the best surprise.

5. Smiling face = Of course, a smiling face is way better than scowling face

6. Hiphop = Being a “good dancer” during the late seventies was a must. I thought Butch could dance because everytime a dance music played, he’d dance and wiggle on his chair. Oh dear, but that’s all he could do. Dance while seated. Haaay.

7. Guys who ask permission before courting = I would have loved that but nooo…Butch was unconventional.

8. Has earring/s = Though it wasn’t the fad then and if it were in this day and age, I’d say NO WAY.

9. Used to chew bubblegum = Definitely a turn-off!

10. Long-hair = Okay as long as it is kept neat , clean and tidy.

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a mom blogger who advocates constructive engagement in issues on family & society.
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