"The curious are always
in some danger.
If you are curious you might never come
home."
Jeanette Winterson
"The curious are always
in some danger.
If you are curious you might never come
home."
Jeanette Winterson
02: september
11 used to be august and everything after.
|
310103
Temp 34F/2C/270K It's a relief to wake up hot instead of cold. Baby packed her stuff and left for Vermont, and I went to **** to pick up my work sked. 8-3 or 3-9, M-S with Tuesdays off. Beggars can't be choosers. :p Passed by Key Food on the way back to get some pig thigh for crispy pata. Caught the Juvenal online. Great to see you again, Sir. :o) *lonely girl mode* Temp 26F/-2C/261K Happy Birthday Gio! Camote for breakfast, plus OJ and my daily dose of Centrum, Selenium, Vit E & C to keep the blues away. Baby brought her skis to work for easy travel to Vermont tomorrow. It's just Greta and myself for the weekend, plus a possible DVD night with the Petrol. I will miss my blog, knowing I may not have time to update this as often as I would like to.. Work starts Monday, with my shift still unknown. It's either 8-3, 10-6, or 1-9. We're hoping there aren't many 1-9s because that would take a lot of L.L. (loving-loving) time away, but we'll work our way around it. Dinner with Amy and Maloy at Merchant's at 16th st bet 6&7 ave. We chose this over Man Ray at 15th because it seemed too fancy from the outside and we weren't dressed to partake of Johnny Depp and Sean Penn's cuisine. Not so great Greek Salad and Cuban Sandwich, but the Shrimp Quesadilla was good. What is it with the double L's pronounced as Y's? E.g. Pa-ey-a for Paella, Quesadee-ya, Po-yo? At first I thought it's just the inability of Americans to pronounce the double l, as in el-ye in the Spanish-Filipino alphabet. What's the deal? Anyway, we had a great time coercing the girls to join us in NOLA. Bo-malabs, it looks. In any case we arrived home to find 2 out 80 of my resumes returned to the sender, and Greta being a good girl. Hugs, nitey-nites, and more congratulations. I love how she's so proud of me. And the way I pursue my dreams. :o) Temp 28F/-2C/271K Finally, some warmth (?) WHO'S THE MAN? I woke up at 3AM, excited. I am now employed. No more worries, or nightmares, or fears. I got the freakin job at Park Slope! Of course I'll be tied with them for at least 3 years, but that's part of it I suppose. I will shine. I will be great. I will be what I promised myself I'd be. Happiness. Hugs and Kisses. Thanks to everyone who believed in me, continue to support me, and especially those who sent prayers and positive thoughts my way. It is all greatly appreciated. Amor and Petrol, I owe you dinner. :o) I'm the man. Checklist of things to do include: Contact
Buckley New Orleans vacation set for 13-18 Feb, long valentine's weekend for my sweetie and i. Whoaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Dinner with Amy and Maloy at Merchant's at 16th st bet 6&7 ave. We chose this over Man Ray at 15th because it seemed too fancy from the outside and we weren't dressed to partake of Johnny Depp and Sean Penn's cuisine. Not so great Greek Salad and Cuban Sandwich, but the Shrimp Quesadilla was good. What is it with the double L's pronounced as Y's? E.g. Pa-ey-a for Paella, Quesadee-ya, Po-yo? At first I thought it's just the inability of Americans to pronounce the double l, as in el-ye in the Spanish-Filipino alphabet. What's the deal? Anyway, we had a great time coercing the girls to join us in NOLA. Bo-malabs, it looks. In any case we arrived home to find 2 out 80 of my resumes returned to the sender, and Greta being a good girl. Hugs, nitey-nites, and more congratulations. I love how she's so proud of me. And the way I pursue my dreams. :o) Temp 11F/-12C/261K Rice cake for breakfast with Greta begging at my feet. Caught Dr. Ana online, she was my college roommate and she's trying out her luck as a vet in CA. Who knows, maybe we'll both make it. :o) 4 hours till the interview, it's cold as hell. I'm wearing my sweats and a sleepy face. Had a dream that I was walking through a dark building overhearing a conversation about me. I was on my way to take a test, and it felt like I would ace it. Interpretations? 2pm I'm at ************ waiting for Dr. *****. Lucy, a Boston Terrier pup who just had back surgery, comes to play with me. Dr. ***** arrives and together with Lucy we proceeded to the office and he tells me about his learning experiences in the Philippines. "Most americans don't get to see how good they have it. If you've never been to a place where running water and electricity is a luxury, it's easy to take things for granted." They've got other applicants, but he says he likes me. I'll know in 2 days, he says. I walk home in fervent prayer. 5:30 pm Dr. ***** calls to say they want me on board with them. Yahoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo! Baby and I called everyone we knew. Elated is an understatement. Temp 13F/-10C/262K Awaiting the Verdict Blogtime on weekends is almost nil. Saturday involved a whole story at ABC too entertaining to be written down. Let's just summarize it in one word: Psycho. Sunday was Superbowl night, we had friends over for tacos and buffalo wings, watching the Raiders perish. Today I have an interview at Soho-Tribeca, and hopefully I'll know the verdict from ****. Faith... 1pm I head off to the city via the 2/3 and transferred to the A from Fulton. 5 Lispenard street, i walk in and a Brazilian doctor comes to talk to me. The hospital was fantastic but the odds of getting in aren't. I missed my stop on the way back but figured it out and got home to a message from **** to come for a second interview with ****'s partner ****. Hopes... I don't like CSI Miami. Temp 8F/-13C/259K Friday Out In my inbox the Riverside Veterinary Group wants to see me regarding my "impressive resume." I gave them a call and they're scheduling me for interview at the mo. In the meantime I have an interview at 5th Ave bw 7 & 8 st at 10:30, followed by a lunch/afternoon chat with Pam, meeting her at the Grand Central info booth below the large clock. Whew. 10AM I walked out in the freezing sunny winter to 5th ave. Had time to spare so i didn't take the bus. 10:30 I'm waiting at ********** with a cat that looks like it was run over by a car. Dr. ***** calls me in, and the first thing he says is "So you graduated from UP Los Banos?" I was surprised that he knew how to pronounce it, and then he pointed to his diploma above his head, the same kind of diploma I had from the University of the Philippines. Kewl. I remember him as he's just a year higher, we talked about old professors and difficult subjects and he told me that he knows i have excellent training. That's a big relief, considering how hard it is to convince these people my educatioin, although from a developing country, is more than legit. I mean, how many countries have professors with PhDs in Veterinary Anatomy, Pharmacology, etc, from no less than Cornell? I loved his practice, his hi-tech clinic. This one is a keeper. Monday is the verdict. Pray for me. :o) 1pm I met Pam at Grand Central and we headed off to Fridays for Brushcetta and Chicken Fajita. Chit-chats, catch-ups, etc. it was great. i invited her over for a party Saturday night and a possible sleep over, when Terry from ABC calls to say i should come in tomorrow. Dr. ***** is willing "to work something out." Two job offers, one in the air. It wasn't as difficult as i thought it would be. :::still crossing fingers::: Arrived home 4pm and Roz calls to say she's off skiing next weekend with her bosses. Who wants to party with me? :o) Maybe it's about time to know what this Kil is all about, eh? *parinig* wala namang nakikinig? Tonight: Shrimp in Tamarind Broth (sinigang na hipon, pare!) Temp 9F/-12C/260K Vaseline The surface of the Hudson is frozen. And my nostrils have been cracked and bleeding since Thanksgiving. What else is new? I've started an online Balderdash game. Balderdash is a board game designed for creative and deceptive minds, and I used to have a fab time playing it with my pals from back in the PI. so i've started moderating an online email version of the game, whose object is to convince your fellow players that your phony grandiose definition of a given bizarre word is the correct one. Sounds complicated? Well you should see the funny and imaginative definitions my players have come up with for the word SKIMMINGTON: A. a
gypsy of northern European descent
Looks fun doesn't it? that's why it's my favorite game. :o) It's Thursday, and boy did the week fly by really fast. I think it has to do with the cold, you're always rushing from place to place to get indoors. The week is almost over, and aside from meeting Pam (old Manila friend from 98, who moved here for college a few years back) tomorrow at Grand Central for some catching up, I'm excited about the weekend. Maybe lots more loving and, oh yeah, Superbowl sunday. I'm not such a fan of football but we have a wager going on. :p Hopefully, one of these letters will make it and give me a freakin i-hate-my-life job. In the meantime, enjoy this. ::::::::::::::::::::::::::: 12:30 First call for job interview: *************, 5 Lispenard St. Dr. Mark called and asked me to drop by on Monday at 2pm. Take the A train to Canal, he says. I could have screamed in delight, but of course i'm just crossing my fingers as i don't want to get heartbroken again. 79 more responses to go. Oh God... 2:05pm Second call: ABC , 49 Ave B b/w 3rd & 4th St. Terry calls and says they have an opening for a vet technician and a receptionist. Take the F to 2nd Ave. 6pm. Yikes! It's a part-time position so i don't know if they're willing to work within my constraints. Oh well, better than nothing. Hi Terry, so pleased to meet you. :o) Laters...78 5pm I head off to the Q. Baby said it would stop at W4th but it didn't! so i ended up in 14th, took the L to 14th and 6ave, and caught the F to 2nd ave, Lower East Side. 6pm I arrive at ABC and Dr. Tufaro speaks to me. Questions, inquisitions. He's too nosy, sweetheart says. We'll see... 8pm back home awaiting steak and salad dinner, I get another call from **********. They want to see me tomorrow at 10:30. I'm on a roll...hopefully one of these things will work out my way. :o) Temp 12F/-11C/262K Today I'm mailing 80 application letters to clinics and laboratories all over Brooklyn and Manhattan. If nothing comes out of it, there's still Queens, Bronx, and Staten? Jeez, how about Long Island? Even Westchester would be fine. 2 hour commutes are my cup of tea, and don't really bother me much if I'm seated. Manual labor doesn't scare me either. I may be a rocket scientist but I'm no stranger to hard fucking work. I've just been here freezing my ass off. Trying to keep busy to keep the SAD away. Greta's back. I'm back. I'm hungry. I put my blog on the NYC Bloggers' Map, a cool idea if you think about it, i mean i didn't know that there were so many of us in the Big A who are so diluted to think anybody would care to read about our day-to-day activities. There were quite a few interesting blogs on my street, and I remember that I looked at them long ago when i was searching the web a long time ago for details about my future home. I wanted to see what my street would look like. And now everyday that i'm here nothing fails to entertain me. Watched American Idol on Fox 5 last night, and like WWF we think it's all rigged. There were a few entertaining contestants, especially this really loud Filipina girl, but then after that it just seemed like watching people make a fool of themselves. Well, people make fools of themselves all the time, might as well make a show about it, yeah? Temp 16F/-9C/264K Oh I forgot to tell my cigarette story. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere upstate driving home from whiteface, we stopped at a gas station where Roz asked me to buy cigarettes. I asked for the usual Marl Lights and the lady asks me for ID. Of course, I don't have one, so I ask Beth to buy them for me. "Sorry, NY State Law requires ID for all below 30," the lady says, so Beth hands me the packs and I start to walk away. The lady stops me and says "you're not allowed to carry cigarettes out of the door." Jeez, whatever. That's why the movie Traffic says it's so much easier to buy drugs than cigarettes. :p I look like a minor? At the library they asked me which High School I go to. Must be aging really well, huh? I must say that the country parts of NY are pretty sheltered and ummmm...racist. We encountered a few evil looks and bad remarks while skiing (families pointing us "orientals" out to their kids with snide remarks), and even buying wine. we thought the wine lady was pretty rude. One minute she's saying her giddy hi and hellos to the white folk and then when we walk in she's just a total bitch. Reality check, helloooooo...recent news says that Hispanics now outnumber African-Americans in the US. Minorities do exist, and are gaining ground. Deal with it. Lake Placid Weekend -15F/-26C Can you believe it? Took off at 11AM after making turon (banana and jackfruit in spring roll wrapper and fried in sugar) and packing my backpack. Took the 3 to Nevins and boarded the 5 to Brooklyn Brindge where baby met me carrying a box of pizza and pasta salad. We rode the 6 to Grand Central Station where we boarded the MetroNorth Hudson Line to Poughkeepsie. Ate lunch on the greasy-floored train and got off post-nap at Peekskill where Beth & Susan arrived shortly. Drove off for 5 hours and arrived at 7:30pm at our cabin. Cooked my Pancit molo while the rest of our 14-strong crew arrived. Saturday morning with Filipino breakfast, and I waited for everyone to get dressed outside, lying on a snow-covered bench. We left at 1:30pm for town, attempted to go tobboganing but we were too late, attempted ice skating but it didn't pan out, so instead we ended up at Ben & Jerry's for some hot choco while i thawed my frozen toes. Ouch! Sweetheart got me a pair of kewl snow pants at EMS, and going back home we picked up six-pack-beers for baby and Mike's Hard Lemonade (same as Sam's Lemonade in the PI) for myself. Had a good dinner of shrimps and sotanghon (vermicelli soup) and buffalo wings (red hot cajun sauce is the trick...spicy flavor with out the burning sensation...mmm), and a game of Guess-tures that we won, of course. Warm evening by the fireplace, learning how to haul wood up the stairs, rowdy fun and games. Not bad at all. :o) Sunday breakfast of spam and eggs. Ling and I get up early to see our sweetheart skiers off. Roz, Des and her sister left at 8am for some daredevil slopes at Whiteface mountain. Sweetheart says I can't ski here because the slopes aren't friendly and I don't have insurance. haha. Ling and I opt for cross-country skiing instead, but the rest of the group took so long getting ready that by the time we got there it was already lunch. Took some lessons, went through a couple of trails, and absolutely enjoyed it. I'd really want to do this again soon. Maybe I can get a pair of skis and cross-ski at the Park. That would be fun. Monday morning I felt every single muscle in my body was worked out. It was a good feeling that reminded me of my days as an athlete. Competing for the swimming and basketball teams in college, those were the days. Now i'm just a tired smoker learning to ski. :p Showered, cleaned, and left for home. Dropped by Uno's grill for lunch and Hop Kee at Chi-town for some flounder/crab dinner. Mmmmm. It was a great weekend with my sweetheart. You amaze me day after day. Temp 20F/-7C/266K Cooking Day Must have slept for a mere 2 hours, thinking about my NY License. :o( My sweetheart gave me a hug and said she isn't going anywhere, and that helped a lot, but i still felt bad about it because my life is still not going anywhere, plus now i have to shift gears regarding my study and ummm...reformat. Regroup, as some would say. The good part about it is that i have a longer time to prepare. The bad part about it is that my status complicates a lot of these matters. Oh well...i'll survive. Kisses to M on her way to recovery. Thanks. Tonight we're bringing our stuff up to Peekskill, Westchester, where our ride to Lake Placid is. That means I have to pack and cook the Pancit Molo (dumpling soup) we're serving for dinner Friday. I hope they enjoy it. It's cooking time today, now that the study part is scrapped. Something to get my mind off my misery, I suppose. I think I'll make some cookies for the trip as well. Our plantains are good enough to make turon (banana spring rolls with jackfruit), but i doubt it can come close to the local saba banana variety. We'll see. Got a listing of vet clinics in the Brooklyn area, i think i'll send out 10,000 resumes here and in the city. maybe someone will see how briliiant I am. Hopes... Made a bunch of chewy oatmeal cookies from scratch (why does everyone assume it's from a package? i didn't even know they sold ready-to-cook cookies). We drove Michelle's car to Peekskill and had molo and rellenong bangus (milkfish) for dinner. Mmmm. Temp 22F/-5C/267K HAPPY BIRTHDAY ATE AYA! Dreamt for the second consecutive night that I was back home in the PI and all alone. This time it was worse, my boxes containing my life which just arrived here a week prior, were back in my parent's house in Paranaque. I asked our driver Peping to give me a hand carrying them. On the way in, my father tells me about a business plan he hopes to implement, one of his grandiose devices to which i replied "This year?" obviously i was involved with the business again. I opened the boxes and took out my office clothes, still wrinkled from storage, and started to try them on, thinking "pwede na ito" ("this will do,") knowing i had to be at our Makati office to work the next day. It was a familiar feeling of emptiness, the same feeling i had when Roz left in September. That queasy, exhausted feeling similar to being on crystal for too long, not feeling hunger or sleepiness, just the uncontrollagle urge to think and think and think. And dream of being back in my sweetheart's arms. I was so bothered I stretched my arms out wide. BAM! I hit Roz right in the face, shaking her off violently from her slumber. I apologized profusely but couldn't get back to sleep, terribly bothered by my dream, knowing that I would do absolutely anything to stay here. Every single day i look at Roz's passport on this desk, studying each and every detail and travel, wishing for the life of me that one day my passport would be blue instead of green. On that day, when all things fall into place, i will finally rest easy knowing nobody can ever take me away from this precious state ever again. Maybe then i can have a full night's sleep. And stop dreaming of being in handcuffs and running away and getting shot. It's my sister Yasmin's birthday today, she's 32 and Tita Nilda says she hit it big. I have six years to go before I hit it big, which is enough time, i suppose. If only i could get certain constraints out of the way. I have no doubt I will have more than enough at 32, and boy would i be happiest if it didn't have to do with even a brief separation from my one true love. Dinner with Nasty at Tangerine, but first drinks and rolls at Sushi Samba (87 7th Ave. S.NY). She had a cold, so i said that Ibuprofen works better with alcohol than acetaminophen, which works out the liver in combination with booze. Stories about her weekend, excellent convo as usual. I had a mojito and spicy tuna roll at Sushi, and then we shared Bangkok Chicken, Mango Salad, Massaman Beef Curry and Deep-fried Grouper at Tangerine, followed by bananas in coconut milk. Good enough, but not great. She hailed a cab home and we boarded the 1/9 to Chambers and headed off to Bergen on the 2/3. Arriving home I got my licensure application packet from the NY State Ed Dept. Bad news. Turns out I might not be able to take the exam in April as i hoped, and have to wait until the next sked in December, due to paperwork requirements. I felt really bad about it, knowing i wasted much time, encountering once more the numerous possibilities from now until that point. Sheesh. :( Temp 21F/-5C/267K Hats Essential Caught Dre and Burn online so I invited them to a conference. Made them laugh a bit, they're going out for coffee and I wish I could join them. My treat this time. Saw the monster furball Java too, he's gotten so big and I doubt he still remembers our quiet old days in Maamo. Charm looks fantastic on her webcam as usual, they all say I'm fat. Funny part is i've kept my weight at a standstill. Must be the winter. Time to hit the books. There's a certain kind of apprehension I get whenever I do, and I just savor the few questions I do get to answer correctly. It keeps my mind off the eventuality of uncertainty, as far as my status here is concerned. Something will come up, yeah? If it's meant to be, then it's meant to be. Right? Aight! Baby arrives and we headed off to Eric's to pick up her skiing jacket for our Lake Placid weekend. Got her North Face and waterproof pants too, promising to play with me in the snow. We cancelled her gym membership and then picked up some vegggies at the Korean deli and walking home Rico was outside waiting for us. Chitchat, and boy that cutie Rico can talk! I was, as usual, labelled as "shy" as I cooked sinigang na hipon (shrimp in tamarind broth) for dinner while they had their beers. Cousin John's pie ala mode (Dre says apple pie ala huy...that cracked me up), and then we walked him to the end of the block where he's gonna take the 2 or 3 to Nevins and transfer to the 4 or 5 and head off the city where he lives. Minus a couple of hours for loving. Sleep tight, don't let the bedbugs bite. :o) Temp 26F/-3C/269K Freeze my ass! I've gotten used to the cold but it's gonna get much colder. If you're reading this from the PI, can you imagine -10 to -15C? I don't think so, unless you've gone outdoors here and felt your face freeze within minutes. I'm looking forward to these extremes, especially now that when my Tita Nilda said "basta balot na balot ka" ("as long as you're bundled up") I knew what she was talking about. Unemployment looms overhead, and I wonder now if I'll ever have a chance at a job if long-time players like Petrol are losing theirs. Relax, good things come to those who wait. When I worry about my life being on a standstill, I remember Mike's New Year speech when he said to take things easy and to savor these moments when I'm doing almost nothing. Pretty soon you'll be back in the rat race like you're used to, so enjoy this time to yourself while you can. I worry too much kasi. Decided to bake chicken for dinner. Soak in lemon and soy sauce, stuff with onions and bell peppers, sew openings with toothpicks, and tie legs together so they won't fall apart. Bake covered at 350F for one hour, bake uncovered until golden brown. I served it on a bed of cabbage and roasted tomatoes, and had a cream of corn soup starter. Baby loved her surprise dinner. American Music Awards with Rob Thomas singing Disease. Ashanti, Eminem, and Nelly, plus a rendition by Mariah Carey. The tragedy of pop. CSI Miami isn't as good as the original Vegas series, but we saw it anyway. Sweetie falls asleep on my chest. :o) Got up late so the park plan was pretty much shot. I made breakfast while baby gave Greta a bath. The usual Flip Bfast of tuyo and longganisa. Ate too much because I didn't want to throw our last supply of tuyo away. We were supposed to go to the city to check out the sale in Paragon, but sleepiness caught in again. This weather is for hibernating, i tell you. Instead we took a walk at 7th and got some apple crumb at Cousin John's, walked down to 5th and passed by my cat clinic of shame. Headed to Key Food to get ice cream for the pie, turns out they're buy 1 take 1 but no more vanilla. we ended up with 5 bags of groceries and Greta going home. Heaviness! Just in time for the Jets/Raiders game, which turned out horrible for NY. Sweetheart falls asleep again, while I made nilagang baka (boiled beef stew) for dinner. It was Kia's relatives' day, because weekends I get unlimited minutes on my cellphone. I spoke to my sister for an hour, and then my aunt from Illinois calls, and then my cousin Yen from NJ who says she's mailing my next supply of tuyo from my mom. Shweet. ESG Solar Dried Tuyo. Can't beat it. :p Great weekend of horizontal-ness and loving. My kind of life. We got up at 7:30AM to bring Greta to the Park. Sue, Emiko, and their cattle dog pup Oscar meet us downstairs and we're off. Flatbush cor. 6th Ave, we bump into Eric and Greta's brother Barkley, so we walk to the park carrying our hot choc cupsters, excited about letting Oscar free for the first time. He loved it, and it was fun seeing worried mommy sue's eyes when he got too far off. Greta and the Bark-man got into their usual wrestle, and when it got rough with another dog, we remembered Greta didn't have her collar on, so it was impossible to grab her. Barkley was wearing a cool ranger outfit, which became a mangled mess post-Greta, who just kicks her brother's ass. Eric helps grab Greta and we're off home for breakfast. Emi & Sue come over and so does Mike to pick up Azelia, and we had brunch: waffles, bacon, turkey sausages, potatoes, and sugar apples. Mmmm...of course that eventually turned into a day of napping. The exterminator rudely interrupts what was a good steamy start of something, so we fell asleep till the afternoon instead. Nasty cancels the evening's plans and we think she hooked up with someone. Intrigue and mystery are integral to lesbian lives. :p Made tomato soup and close-to-horrible beef mechado for my sweetheart while she watched the football game. you're such a dyke, i tell her. but she liked the dinner anyway, except for the acid overload that made her reject my offer for some great grapefruit over TV watching. Bedtime again? Swell! Some studying done, 11 weeks to go. Azelia comes home in the middle of my Spice Channel routine. Yikes! Must practice those rapid channel-changing techniques in case of sudden disturbances such as these. Belly pain. I do my coffee in secret, and then play with Azelia's new acquisition, the Motorola cellphone with the wide colored screen. $50 with rebates, including camera? Not bad at all. Dinner at Blue Ribbon for Emi and Sue's 4th year anniversary. Ling and Des join us for one dozen oysters (six each from the east and west coasts), one dozen clams, surf&turf lobster and steak, and some not spectacular Land&Sea selection of greasy catfish and chix. I had two glasses of wine earlier so I was pretty much anaphylactic, meaning that i was itching and had no appetite. anyways, it was a good enough dinner and the waiter looked like Jesus. "Has anyone ever told you you look like Jesus?" my sweetheart asks the waiter, much to the rest of the crowd's embarassment. Bunch of Catholics in the house! Came home near midnight, and I was feeling sick. That familiar feeling of having your insides not quite working well, and an upcoming sore throat. I down my vitamins plus my father's stash of garlic caps, lysine, oregano, and gargled my Betadine mouthwash. Worked wonders. :p Temp 47F/8.3C/281K Warm? Not Quite. 8C is the coldest it gets in the PI, and that's supposed to be warm here says Dave, but the wind still made me zip up my jacket while I gave Greta her morning walk. It's so "warm" that ice is falling off the antenna of the Empire State Building, closing off streets in its vicinity. It's Dre's Birthday today, she's turning 29 and feels OLD. I guess you would too if you've been living it up since age 12. But anyway, she and Yari were off to dinner, she has a videoke party going on at Mahiyain tomorrow night, and Roselle will sing a few songs. They're gonna miss me, I hope. I hear everyone's getting fat. Mailed my mom a letter with photos of our dinner with Moke last December. He's my only relative in NY, I have another cousin in NJ but I haven't seen her in decades. Last night my sweetheart says she misses my emails, so I think i'll write her one today. is it the tragedy of happiness? Jing Hidalgo once said that distance makes for good writing, so in the end one of these prized gifts (happiness or writing) must suffer for the other. Why? Why is it so difficult to write, for example, that the days are so beautiful I feel like butterflies do pirouettes on my nose in the morning? Kisses to you M, things will be better soon. Brrrrrrr! Made my study sked and hit the books for a few good hours, getting a boost of confidence from answering questions correctly. I still remember lots of things from school, after all. 3pm I decided to get ready for my meeting with Paul. No cold water, yikes! My hands froze from washing the dishes. Walked the cheesedog and then headed off to the Q till 57th. Walked to Paul's office beside Carnegie on W56th and stood outside trying to locate the Petrolyo. He turns up a few minutes later with my bonnet gift from M (thanks! i love it!), a chocolate seastar, and the awesome Photoshop 7.0! I gave him his CDs and two rolls of Batangas Cacao tablets, to make Spanish hot chocolate the old fashioned way. We always had this for Noche Buena. He walked me over to the Q, hugs, and I was off to Canal to meet with my sweetie. Turns out I get off of Canal and Broadway instead of Lafayette, so I ring her up and she was on her way, walking down from Broadway. She arrives with her boss Pam, who goes home instead of accepting our invitation to tour the Pearl River Chinese department store, where neat Asian finds are located. Anyways, Nasty and the gang cancelled our evening, so we just bought some crabs at Chi-town, some tofu and vegetables, and took the Q back till 7th Ave. Canal is the first stop after the bridge. So it was Canal - De Kalb - Atlantic Ave - 7th Ave, which is three blocks from Bergen. I was thinking, yeah, yeah, crabs. Coming from a tropical country with lots of coastal areas, I thought nothing could beat the tastes I've experienced when it came to seafood. Boy, was I dead wrong. the crabs weren't too big, but they were overflowing with aligi (crab fat), and had a flavor to it that was just addicting. I think I must have had 4 crabs, saying it was better than Kare-Kare. Mmmmm that was really good! Minor spat over shelling crab claws, we sat down at the couch and watched The Glass House, and proceeded to the bedroom for a sleepy massage-cum-storytelling. Nite. Temp 28F/-2C/268K Unpacked my books and combined my clothes, all of which I can't wear until the summer anyway. I also unpacked the food products i shipped, like more herring, sardines, soups, and sinigang powders. Also a bunch of calamansi juice concentrate. MMM. Cooked lasagna for our anniversary dinner and went to Key Food for the groceries. Watched "Big" on TV but I'm quite sure it didn't end that way from what i remember. oh well. Temp 28F/-2C/268K Moke passes by at around 10am, and we head off to JFK to get customs clearance for my shipping. It's Rockaway Blvd, not Rockaway Parkway, so we turned back at Belt Parkway to get to Building 77, where the customs officer stamped my release form after i filled it up with..bogus shit. Off to Secaucus, to Arrowpac Container Station, a beat-up warehouse where my entire life history and personal treasures were being stored after arriving in NJ from the Philippines via the Quingdao Express. We picked up the boxes, paid another set of fees, and grabbed lunch at Houlihans before heading back to the Hood. I realized I actually knew the way home from Verrazano Bridge, and that made me feel mighty proud. the shit was so heavy that Moke had to put on his weight-lifting belt and I had to catch my breath for a good hour after we were done carrying my stuff up to the 3rd floor of 539 Bergen. Whew. The first box I unpacked was the one which contained my CDs, i set aside Paul's CDs that I got for him in Philcoa, showcasing the latest in local music, as well as some hits from our time in college. Sweetheart arrives and says the indian cabinet might not be able to hold my stash, so I put them all back in the box and cooked dinner. the Glickers call for their keys so I walked over to Park Place to collect my moolah. $210 total for a week of dogwalking. not bad. they sit me down to thank me for being such a lifesaver, as well as talk about my life history as the heir of a corporation back home, this and that, goodbyes, thank yous, see you soons. Had
adobo and monggo for dinner, and baby develops a headache so we're off to
bed early. Back massage, foot massage, she falls asleep over "Any Given
Sunday." Hugs, warmth, tenderness. Tomorrow it's our 4th month
anniversary. :o) It seems so long ago but then, unpacking my stuff
and feeling how cold they were on my fingers, remembering the hot sweaty
day i packed those boxes, i realized that i did pack it all in for the
great big NYC. Am I sorry? No. I am home. Cold morning walk with Fred, who ran with me around 6th/Sterling/5th then back to 34 Park Place. When I got back home baby was cooking brunch: longganisa and rice, with eggs over easy and fried salmon. Delish. NY Times over television, until I got bored and wrote letters for the customs/Secaucus errand tomorrow. My personal stuff I shipped from the Philippines have arrived, and my cousin Moke and I will pick it up tomorrow. Wrote Gio a letter about recent developments and a corresponding opinion request, and I hope he replies SOON. I'm writing this waiting for my sweetheart to come and hug me...ooops here she comes, saying "What's my baby doing, huh? You seem awfully quiet there!" Hahah! laters.. :o) My sweetheart was glued to the football game (and I, just recently learning the object and rules of the sport, didn't really appreciate it) so I dozed off and started snoring until around 5 pm. Got into the shower and headed off to Geido (Flatbush ave), the only decent Jap resto in Brooklyn. Had the usual unagi (eel), sake (salmon), tuna, until we were served a delectable set of white meat and roe. Mmmm, what is this? We asked Osamu the sushi chef, and he said it was scallops ("hotate"...sounds much like hot potato in hototay sauce, hehe.) It was snowing out, nice white shower lining the streets so I opened my mouth and let the snowflakes fall on my tongue. Baby had an umbrella, while I walked in the snow. Love this weather, even when it gets all icy and slushy. Walked fred for the last time and said my goodbyes, leaving a note for Gary and Fran who are arriving from Mexico tonight. I hope they think I did a good enough job. tomorrow night I collect my $110. :o) I should stop converting, but in Php that's a hell of a lot of money. :p We scheduled a setup for Anastasia with an older friend. I hope they click, although I find Jenna a lot more intriguing. Mysterious geek types...oh well. Baby says she might be too young for dear old Nasty, but what is age anyway? unless you belong to the majority of 20-somethings who are just too...20ish. Hayy...hope Anastasia finds a love interest before she flies off to East Timor. She's teaching 7th graders in the Bronx now, after flying back from Jakarta. Nasty is one of the most interesting people i've met, and a fantastic conversationalist. I like her because she's one of the few people who don't feel threatened about my silence, and who know that the few words that come out of my mouth do make sense. Suddenly Jaypee comes to mind. Jaypee was a transgendered male I met in college, who once said that I was so much like carbon monoxide...invisible, odorless, but lethal. I've always liked that comment. It's one of the best compliments I've received. Oh wait, I haven't mentioned the cheekbones comment...but that can wait until the whole story is consolidated. It's fragile at this point. Sweetheart is back in front of the TV. If not for the Spice Channel i wouldn't touch the remote. :p I hope the shipping thing works out tomorrow. I need my freakin books! (Of course I know their arrival will bring about a new state of panic...but security blankets are integral to my existence.) After my morning walk with Freddie, we made waffles, omelet, and bacon for breakfast. Horizontal the entire day, until we got up at three to meet Anastasia for dinner/movie/drinks. We had Masala Dosa at Hampton Chutney (Lafayette and Prince), and walked over to Loews Theater on 2nd Avenue to catch 25th hour. Sold out. We decided we couldn't wait for the only available time (9:45pm), and instead had drinks at Solas in front of Soba-ya in East 9th St. Such losers, we left the bar at 9 and had dinner (tuna/scallop sashimi, agedashi tofu and bean curd soba, green tea/honey wasabi/japanese lime ice cream for dessert) till 11:30 anyway, but the conversation with Anastasia was fabulous. All in all, I like Anastasia best. :o) We picked our favorites among the display of Netsukes at Soba-ya, and then headed off to our respective train stations. We took the 6 train and transferred to the 2. It didn't stop at Bergen so we had to get off at Atlantic Ave and walk over to Park Place for Fred's evening walk. Cuddled till 1:30AM, and dozed off to dreamland. I woke up with thoughts of setting up Anastasia with Jenna from the Park, as well as fantasies of my sweetheart on my back. :p Temp 32F/0C/273K Half an inch of snow outside my window. It's raining too so it's slush city all day. Baby slept well on my chest this morning, until i had to whack her ass to get her off to work. started my day quite busy too, walking Greta then Fred, then walking over to Atlantic Center to get Cora's Christmas gift. Cora's girl Carol is celebrating her birthday at our favorite fajita place on University Place (El Cantinero). Margaritas till midnight, yowsa! I want my weekend sweetie! M likes kuchinta. She would definitely love sapin-sapin, pichi-pichi, and palitaw too. Mmmm...hungry. Walked
Fred early and we boarded the 2 train to Nevins and transferred to the 4
train to Union Square. Walked over to El Cantinera for Carol's birthday
party. Margaritas, fajitas, and some mind-shattering conversations. Tons
of possibilities, responsibilities, callings. Details
later. Temp 32F/0C/273K I am in love. With Fred the geriatric grump. If you don't already know, Fred is the sixteen year old poodle i'm walking for a week. It started out as hell, with me having to pin his head down while i put his leash on (in the meantime he'd be chewing on my hand), but now he's grown quite accustomed to me. Perhaps he figured that it was just him and myself so he'd better just deal with it, so now he comes up to greet me and lets me pet him. he kisses my face and my hands and lets me cuddle him. He smells. He smells old. But when we're running up and down Park Place or when he's sitting on my lap just letting me love him for a bit, he's always a puppy at heart. :o) Panicked at my studying again, until i picked up the review questions book and realized i do remember a lot of stuff from school. I think i'll just try my best. if it doesn't work the first time, it might work the second. if not, i can always be a geek on a PC, a dogwalker, or a strugglinig writer. right? or, maybe in a parallel dimension, i could go back home to my heiress life, and baby could put up a bar. we'd have a car and a driver and live a decadent life. but i would definitely miss the 'hood. :o( We spent New Year's Eve having a quiet dinner of Arroz Caldo (rice porridge and chicken) followed by fruit n' chocolate fondue. Eric, Azelia and Mike joined us in our celebration and our homegrown superstitions. keep all food containers full. Jingle coins in your pocket. Jump at the strike of twelve. The works. We watch the Prospect Park Fireworks display from our window, and went to bed. The
next morning we had longganisa breakfast and then we took a nap. We headed
off to Ling and Des to return the car, had dinner at Arunee Thai Resto in
Jackson Heights, and played Taboo! at Christine's place. Car service to
Park Place to walk Fred the dog. Fred loves me now.
:o) 2002: ~ this ember ~ ~ novembrrr ~ ~ september 11 used to be just marcos' birthday ~ ~ august and everything after ~ | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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