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Parents & Children

Harry Potter Book 7 Release Day

harry potter
I promised M that I would get her the [tag]Harry Potter Book 7[/tag] ( [tag]Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows[/tag] ) at 7:00 AM on July 21, 2007 which is the same opening time as UK’s midnight release. The problem was I didn’t reserve the book. See, I never reserved Book 5 and Book 6 and still managed to get a copy on Opening day at the National Bookstore Katipunan Branch. I never believed in getting a reservation because I will get a copy of the book anyway. The thing is M wanted to get a copy by 7:00 AM even if I have to summon my “bitch” (assertive) powers. I never use my “bitch powers” if there are rules in place. I don’t think I can get a copy at that time without any reservation.

Dine comes to the rescue. While I was at the mediation yesterday afternoon, she offered to reserve a copy for me. Isn’t she sweet?

What a teamwork Dine and I are! And what moms do for the love of their daughters? Even if it means waking up at 6:00 A.M.

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Krispy Kreme Party

krispy Kreme
Surrounded by media celebrities , Lauren and M find themselves posing like celebrities themselves.

Early this evening, a few bloggers attended the Krispy Kreme Coffee and Doughnut VIP Party. How could I resist doughnuts. The girls tagged along with me to check out the new branch over at Greenhills which is scheduled to open this thursday, June 28.

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How do you know you’re a couple?

My daily routine consists of waking up at 5:15 AM to drive either of my 2 daughters to work or school by 6:15 AM. During one of these trips, I was caught in traffic at Ortigas Avenue for at least 30 minutes. What to do? To distract myself from the stressful traffic, I take this as an opportunity to chit-chat about anything under the sun. As always, the topic was men. This time, I was curious about how guys and girls these days know they are a couple. I often hear the phrase “she asked me out” or “he asked me out” and that’s it.

I asked Lauren, how is it done these days?

I told her that the first guy who courted me in the mid-seventies asked me “Can you be my girlfriend”? And all I had to do was bat my eyelashes and utter a “yes” or “No” but not after giving the guy at least 2 months of hardship. And all that courtship is done inside the house under the watchful eye of my mother. I was not allowed to have guy visitors if there was no chaperone in the room.

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Get Out and Vote

vote“Get Out and Vote” is probably the first sentence I learned as a toddler. Posters of “Get out and Vote” in yellow and white colors were plastered all over our house. My dad used to lead the Citizen’s Quick Count in Cebu, the equivalent of today’s civilian quick count. I lost count of the names. Is it NAMFREL? Though dad was not involved in politics, the civic duty of citizen’s tabulation rested on his sharp mathematical skills.

I tagged along with my dad to those quick count centers. The numbers tallied on the board excited me. Strange thing. I probably grew to love numbers because of my father. I can add a long list of numbers without the use of calculators because the latter just slows the tabulation.

Memories on election day remind me so much of my dad that’s why I wrote it today.

My entry is Get Out and Vote yet I can’t vote. Not because I don’t want to vote. I stupidly forgot to re-register. Still in denial, I checked my name at the online COMELEC Precint finder. And what do you know?

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Misteryosa No More

misteryosa mFor those who have been reading my blog for the longest time now, I refer to my second daughter as M. I think I have mentioned before how M is such a private person, opting to keep a private blog for her close friends. She used to own two domains during her high school years. Her blog had amazing and original graphics. In fact , she churned out new designs every week. Quite a prolific web designer. I begged her to design customized headers for my blog and even willing to pay for it. I remember teaching her Adobe Photoshop basics when she was a pre-teen and she became quite adept at it, more than I could ever be.

It mystified me why she suddenly chose to have a private blog. And then out of the blue, the mystery is over.

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Job Hunting Blues

airportLauren will arrive at the ungodly hour of 4:00 AM tomorrow. I hope she’s all revved up, motivated and raring to get back to job hunting. The couple of days before her short vacation in Singapore, she kept on whining how difficult it is to look for a job. How bored she is etcetera. How depressing it is etcetera. There is nothing more annoying than to hear a bored child‘s rant. So I have been asking my friends if they know of job openings for fresh graduates.

The problem is not the lack of job opportunities. Blogger-Friends in the publishing industry like Cathy, Jayvee and Annamanila have asked for Lauren’s resume.

The problem is , she doesn’t want to get a job because of connections.

Sighing, I explain ” In Filipino work culture, most employers look for referrals or recommendations. Sometimes a job requires someone they can trust. Besides they will still have to look at your qualificiations.”

She muses “I will think about it”

I told her as I drove her to the airport last wednesday “Let me tell you… how I ended up in the best job I ever had.”

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Travel and Online Friendships

In a few hours, Lauren will be on board the plane for Singapore with 2 guys (both brothers) *gasp* . One of the guys is Lauren’s band manager. I didn’t know she was travelling with 2 guys. The mother of the guys called me up and assured me that Lauren will be in safe hands. That was sweet of her to call me but I trust Lauren knew she would be in good company. At the last minute, the female companion backed out.

She loves the excitement and the adventure of travel. The travel itch started at the age of 10 years old when I “forced” them to join a cultural exchange program (choir tour) in the USA and Canada every summer. Those were my stage mother years where the girls were caught in the hustle and bustle of stage performances. During those travels, I taught the girls every immigration , travel and plane procedures because I knew they’d be travelling almost every year and I wasn’t sure if I’d always accompany them. I didn’t know it then but today, they tell me that their travel experience is something that they will always treasure.

While at Singapore , Lauren will meet up with a few Singaporean bloggers who have been her readers for the past decade. Imagine that!? During the early days of the internet, I was often questioned why I allowed my children to get online.

Questions often asked were:

Am I not afraid of pedophiles? Am I not wary of the pornography ? What if the online friend is really some serial killer?

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Adjusting to a New Home

kyleeladyIf you think moving is stressful, imagine what went through our pets’ thoughts when they saw boxes upon boxes being packed, furniture disarranged, and everything in our old home to which they’re accustomed being turned upside down. The family managed to live with the mess for two months. But what about our pets? One of the many considerations of the move was the feelings of our pets. How do we make them feel comfortable towards their new home? Can we teach old cats new tricks? Will they escape and walk back to their old home?

My dear husband refused to bring the pets with him when we drove by convoy to our new home. Humphrey the Boxer pup, Kylee the sassy Siamese Cat, Lady the Royalty Cat, my daughters L and M all rode in my SUV. Humphrey wedged in between the two girls behaved quite well . Kylee and Lady inside one carrier looked like two very pissed tigers. What torture for Lady. She sqwalked all the way from Makati to the other end of Pasig.

“meooooowwwww. meowwwww”

lady the catkylee the siamese catboxer pup

Her wailing meows must have irritated Kylee to his limits that the latter bit Lady’s face. A cat fight ensued. Oh dear. Humphrey ignored the meows as he was being needy. He was still nursing a hurt paw. Despite the pets’ nervous state, my two girls just laughed it off as I continued to drive merrily to our new home.

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The Tuition Fee that Blogging Paid

graduationIMG_4711.jpgHalf a million pesos or so later, my husband finally gets to visit Ateneo de Manila campus today. Can you imagine that? Sure he has seen the campus through the windshield as he drops Lauren to school but to actually step down and take a stroll…err no. My daughter’s college came up with this “Congratulatory Ceremony” with cocktails in honor of the graduating class of 2007. Lauren says they are around 25 Social Sciences Major in her batch.

Butch and I arrived in separate cars and met up at the Figaro coffee shop in some new building in the campus. We sip coffee and nibble on carrot cake as we reminisce of the past when sometime in 2004, a financial crisis hit us. Thanks to blogging because Lauren was able to pay half of her tuition fees in college (details here). I have to give credit to L for being so frugal and wise. She gives herself so little credit. I am so blessed with a daughter who has a vision of her financial independence. Feeling generous for all the blessings she showered on us , we bought her a Fender Squier guitar and a trip to Singapore and other Asian cities in the next two weeks and a US trip soon after. Squealing with joy then hesitates a bit “we have money for this?”

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Safeguard the Web for Children

bloggerpower.jpgI came across Thinking Blog entry on “[tag]Safeguard the Web for Children[/tag]” which is originally a campaign from Blogger Power.

Basically, Blogger Power, is an open letter to all adult website owners:

“Please require a password-protected login before allowing even free access to explicit adult content. We understand that selling porn is your business and we respect your right to make a legal living. But understand our legitimate concerns and work with us. You already have the ““warning adult content” on your websites. Yet kids, who are not legal customers of your product, ignore the warning. So to prevent them from having direct access to explicit images, texts and sounds, the simplest way is to have a password-protected login. No more ‘free tours’ before a visitor supplies basic information.”

FACT: Children today are often left alone with a computer and sometimes visit pornographic sites accidentally. I truly support this move.

As a mother, I often monitored my children’s surfing activities until their high school years. In 1996, Lauren then a 10 year old often used my computer in my bedroom. One afternoon, I excused myself to get a phone call. Kids these days type really fast so by the time I returned to my room , I found Lauren with a puzzled look. Right in front of her, the images splashed across the screen was explicit sexual act with all genitals exposed. Mortified, I asked her why she was at that site. Seeing my horrified look, she meekly stammered that she typed the word “chat room” so she could chat with kids her age. The first link she clicked led her to that adult site. At that moment, I explained to her all about porn and the sexual act. Before this happened, I already educated her about sex through the CD “Adam’s body” but graphical images were never displayed. Sometimes I wonder if my dear daughter got traumatized at those porn images.

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