Clubbing 101 for a clueless, hip mom

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It’s been a trend over the last few years, but it’s just getting bigger and bigger. It’s the clubbing, party-going crowd, and it gives people an excuse to dress up how they normally wouldn’t. Shari Maxwell


Receiving an invitation to a launch is nothing new to me and with my busy schedule, I am quite picky. The cool invite to attend the launch of the new Republiq , a club, a venue of sorts located at the Plaza, Resorts World Manila, Newport City in Pasay City piqued my interest because it was Tim Yap’s latest venture. I met Tim Yap in Singapore last year at the height of Ondoy and got to know him beyond his celebrity status.

I appreciated the invite because I have never experienced the clubbing scene in Manila. Who says I can’t have good clean fun at my age? Having a little adventure is always fun. Bringing my husband was out of the question. It was a week day. Good thing the hubby didn’t complain when I told him that I’ll bringing the girls out on thursday night. Off we went to Republiq club in long dresses, a rarity. It was a good 40 minutes drive away from home.

Like I told you earlier, I thought it was a media event so I brought along my Nikon DSLR. The lady at the entrance told me that my DSLR had to be deposited. No problem, I didn’t feel like dragging my chunky camera along anyway. She placed a stamp on my hand.

At the entrance, the guards inspected the hands of my girls. I looked horrified as I stared at my right hand, ” look, the stamp on my hand disappeared. Let me go back to the counter…”

My daughter, the “club authority” whispered, “Mom….UV light will detect it.”

I chuckled at clueless me.

The Republiq was not ready for the guests so I just sat down and looked around for my media friends.

Noting my disappointment, another daughter rolled her eyes “Mom, this is not a media invite. You were invited. Didn’t you read the invitation? Private launch?”

Then another daughter piped in “You may be hip and cool,mom but still a mom. Clueless about clubs”.

Laughing at my faux pax, I chimed in “I know, haha. well, what I know about clubs are disco clubs…we actually dance.”

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Wrinkles should merely indicate where smiles have been

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You don’t stop laughing because you grow old. You grow old because you stop laughing. Michael Pritchard


Life is good. I am 53 years old today. I’ve never felt so great, so young and happy! I know the past had come and gone. I know I wasted parts of it. Once upon a time, life looked gloomy. The clouds always looked grey. The sun never shone. The birds never sang. The colors of the world was just black and white. I never knew there was life after a death of a precious child. I forgot how to smile. I guess in each one of us there resides some survival or coping mechanism… or perhaps I was just touched by my angel. We get touched at some point in our lives if we allow it to happen.

Like my age, I don’t mind if people ask my age. After all, age is an issue of mind over matter. “If you don’t mind, it doesn’t matter” said Mark Twain. I think it is a compliment when college friends tell me that I look so much better now than before. I can say that confidence played a role. Taking care of oneself is important. Love yourself first before you can love others.

Smiling is easy now even as I wake up with the sunlight streaming down my face and the birds chirping by the bay window. It is the smile that adds sparkle in my heart and the twinkle in my eyes. It is what makes me who I am today that I could not achieve in my youth.

I am out of words today yet grateful for all the blessings God has given me. I am thankful for the second blooming in life. Life at the age of 53 is indeed just the beginning of a new life that has opened before me.

To celebrate the smile and the laughter, here is a 10-second video.
Thank you Nuffnang for the lovely birthday birthday present (the LED billboard for this blog)

Dancing with the feet is one thing, but dancing with the heart is another

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““You’ve got to dance like nobody’s watching and love like it’s never going to hurt.”

dancing
I guess nobody is perfect. My husband is handsome, cute, romantic, passionate (hot-headed too), smart, crazy, weird…and that’s just some of the reasons I fell for him when he “drooled” all over me in 1978. When we were seated at the restaurant as the disco music played in the air, he’d sway his body left and right or shake his head. Wow, this guy can groove, I thought. When we were finally steadies, I brought him to “Birds of the Same Feather”, a small disco place in Timog ( it was Ozone a few years later). As I dragged him to the dance floor, he sort of stood there, with his left feet stuck on the floor. With a sheepish grin, he confessed ” I don’t dance, eh. ”

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Freedom, Victory of the people lies in our hands

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“In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved.”
– by Franklin D. Roosevelt

noemi-flagToday, we celebrate the 112th Independence day amidst grandeur display of our president’s so-called achievements. Never mind that the Freedom House downgraded our “Free” status to “partly free” since 2006. The sad reality is that 112 years after the declaration of independence, our nation has still to assert its sovereignty. We lack an indpendent foreign policy,our government is beholden or subservient to foreign interests, and foreign troops are still based on Philippine soil.

I have always considered freedom such a precious word. Living most of my teen-age life under a Martial law and a dictatorship, I learned to adjust to our limited freedom and to party only till just before midnight. A breath of freedom during the EDSA 1 People Power was wonderful break only to be broken once again with corruption that seems rooted in our culture. The Philippines “partly free” status makes me vigilant that there is a benchmark, that I can play a part in achieving the “free” status of our country.

To be truly free, we have to be vigilant to make sure we do our duty as good citizens to keep watch on the government and make sure that election promises are actually fulfilled. This is only the first step. The journey to complete freedom is still ahead of us.

Freedom, Victory of the people lies in our hands.

The Kamaganak Inc mapping project

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The presence of the Kamaganak Inc. in the Cory administration was a huge turn-off in the past and it is one of the other reason that I didn’t choose Noynoy as my presidential candidate. We all know that the Aquino-Cojuangco feudal clans (and their extended network of cronies) arguably make up the single biggest oligarchic bloc in Philippine society which is called the Kamaganak Inc..

Noynoy will soon be our new president. Vigilance is the key and we hope that the Kamaganak Inc will not be a strong force in the new administration. In the spirit of transparency and good governance, I think the Kamaganak Inc. Mapping Project is a wonderful initiative.

The the Kamaganak Inc. Mapping Project reveals some of these Kamaganak

Some of the factions within Kamaganak Inc are already scrambling for the spoils of Noynoy’s ““landslide” win in the polls, to name a few:

– The Aquino Siblings (Kris, Ballsy, etc.).
– The ““Hyatt 10″ – emo officials who resigned at the height of the Great ““Hello Garci Scandal” of 2005
– The cast and crew of Noynoy’s Hindi ka Nag-iisa campaign video (Ding Dong Dantes, Ogie Alcasid, Regine Velasquez, etc.)
– Peping Cojuangco – who is a power bloc in hig own individual right
– The ““New Media Bureau” of the campaign headed by Enteng Romano that delivered Noynoy his million-strong ““fan” base on Facebook.com among others.

You can also view the map here.

Who killed Jennifer?

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The invite read “You’re invited to a dinner to die for” and along with it came a magnifying glass. How nifty.

“Some know me by name. Some have eluded my deathly grip. But there are still more women out there – unsuspecting, unaware, ignorant that I am lurking at the sidelines. Eyeing them. Waiting to surprise them when they least expect it.”

jennifer

I was told to dress-to-kill in 1950’s attire but found none in my wardrobe. I ended up wearing a thick belt over my top and skirt. The theme definitely piqued my curiosity. Never mind if I was pissed off at the drama starring Speaker Nograles, Rep Romualdo and Rep Art Defensor for their show “ Kill the Freedom of Information Bill (FOI)” a few hours earlier. Nothing was going to prevent me from enjoying the night with my blogger-friends.

party

It was a night for searching clues to find out who this female serial murderer on the prowl is – before it strikes to claim the next victim.”
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No one can take away our love

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He evoked in me a capacity for love I did not know I had. Those feelings did not die with him, nor will they, I pray, die with me.– Gordon Livingston

A tribute to Luijoe’s 10th angel year (May 27, 2000 – May 27, 2010)

Parents who have lost a child speak of the ““zero point”. Our lives are divided into the time before and the time after our children died. No event – no graduation, no marriage, no other death – so defines us. At one moment I was one person, then, suddenly, I was someone else. The task we face is to create with our new selves something that, in some measure redeems our suffering.

We see, always with longing, children who remind us of what our child was or would be now. (Gordon Livingston)
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Where I am today

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DadoFamily214I often wonder how he would look like today. The young man as he often called himself even at 6 years old, is supposed to be an incoming college freshman, the last of my children to be in school.

Would he have been taller than my husband? Would he have the same gleaming smile? Will he still throw me kisses and give me a bunch of flowers with an ““I love you” note? Would he still be cracking jokes? I can’t imagine because I will always remember him as an innocent and beautiful 6 year old boy whose death caused my world to spin around and around. I still miss him dearly but the pain is not heart wrenching anymore. I don’t feel like I am drowning in pain. I yearn for him especially during birth and death anniversaries or when I see a boy similar to his age.

Like this very moment, I think of Luijoe. Tomorrow is his 10th angel year.

flowers

““I don’t know how you’ve survived. It would kill me to lose my child.” Oh, to have one peso for every time I heard that sentence! I’d spend every one of those pesos for an answer, for you see, I don’t know how I’ve survived. What choice did I have? Each transistion has been work, hard work, sorting through what it means and learning to function in the face of these circumstances not of my choosing. Five years living as a zombie and the next five years in my new normal.

My new normal as a blogger served me well: my role as a bereaved mother is no longer the first way I define who I am, but it is ever-present in my life and cannot be separated from all that I am . . . for the rest of my life.

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Ambivalent towards Erap

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I feel ambivalent towards Erap.

I neither like nor dislike him. My feelings has something to do with the memories of my little boy. My 6 year old son adored Erap. Luijoe thought the world of the former president. Luijoe yelled at the top of his voice that Erap was the smartest president in the whole world, in a jumpacked room at a plane ticket office ten summers ago.

In his booming voice, he threw his hands up in the air , twirling around the room, “Mom, President Erap is so smart, the smartest president in the whole wide world”.

awkward silence

Nobody in that room could deny not hearing my son’s adulation. It was May 2000 at the height of Erap’s unpopularity. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow both of us. I could feel the steely gaze and snickers surrounding us. My boy never sensed the awkwardness of the situation but I wanted to save face.

“So , why is Erap the smartest president in the whole wide world?”, as I squeaked the question to my naughty son.

“Mom, his jokes mom. He says the funniest jokes. That is very smart of him” (or something like that)

See my son had a great sense of humor and loved to throw a joke or two. Then he discovered the Erap jokes during one of our conversations. Luijoe overheard us laughing to our heart’s content on an Erap joke. He wanted to know why were laughing. 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“?

royal_elastics 043.jpgHow my boy laughed! 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

I bought him the book , “Joke ni Erap” by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism in early 2000. Luijoe often packed this Erap Joke book in his backpack and kept re-reading those jokes that he could understand. He loved the book so much, he even labelled it with his name. Here are a few of his favorite jokes culled from that book.
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I wear many hats

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IMG_6634I wear many hats literally. With the summer heat, the hat protects me from direct sunlight or else I suffer migraines. My favorite is this light and summery straw fedora as it often gives my outfit a summery and sexy feel. I like how I look with my hats. Wearing many hats give diversity in my look. I guess I can say the same about wearing many hats as in having many responsibilities. With each change of hat I am a different person.

The past months, I have had to wear many hats. No longer was I just your ordinary mom blogger, I learned to go out of my comfort zone, learn everything I can about the elections and political issues. I looked forward to the day elections will be over and done with. I told myself that I just want to live my pre-Blog Watch laid-back lifestyle. No hectic schedules. No late nights writing articles. The past events made me rethink that position because I feel that I have gotten so involved with citizen’s watch.

IMG_6635Not only am I in citizen’s watch, I wear another hat as features editor of the Philippine Online Chronicles. I love my work. Listening to the story pitches of my editors every month is something to look forward to. I learn something new every time I read articles whether in Health & fitness, Sports, Technology, Movie Reviews , etc.

Then I wear another hat at home, as a loving wife and friend to my darling husband, and another hat to my two girls who are often too busy to talk to mommy. I’ve been so remiss with my homemaker’s hat. I am grateful that I have a trusted helpers who can execute my “things to do” for the day. I will wear this hat more often now , at least for the next few weeks. The dry grass in the garden needs to be attended to. The kitchen cabinet needs to be reorganized with the new appliances I just bought. The tons of books lingering with dust needs to be hauled off to someone who will actually read it. Junk , junk everywhere needs to be thrown out.

I’ve done my share to help this country. It’s time I attend to home sweet home. Oh yes, I will wear this hat for now.