no place like home

my mother, brother and i went home to my parents' hometown this past weekend. the reason for this is to see how our grandfather was doing after his nine-hour operation on his esophagus tumor. everyone in our family had insisted we go home to see him because he seemed very frail day by day.

so on friday (actually saturday morning since my mom and i got left behind by the bus), we prepared to go home. thankfully, our grandfather is doing very well with the help of a feeding tube and the presence of his family.

what truly makes it worthwhile though, aside from having seen our grandfather do well, is to be close to family again. it's been years since i've been home and it's fun to see my uncles, aunts and cousins again. getting to know our youngest cousin is a feeling i won't forget. he was a lively kid with so much charm, and because of that charm, i had promised to buy him his schoolbag, not knowing that it would cost almost two grand! hahaha... but to be able to help my cousin, as his father had helped take care of us when we were kids, i'm willing to do it again.

the next day, we went to visit my other grandmother who is turning ninety-nine this year. hopefully, she will reach the ripe age of one hundred next year, as she is planning to give away her picture as a souvenir on her birthday. isn't that great that my grandma is now looking forward to her 100th year and already thinking of a souvenir? :) today, she may be frail but all in all, she is healthy - physically and mentally. she drinks her milk, takes her vitamins, and eats her raisins (she insists it's raisin eventhough the label already states that they are cranberries) for good bowel movement. at noon, a priest comes to give her her communion. unfortunately, she still alternates in speaking in english and ilocano (thank God she hadn't started speaking in Spanish when she insisted i take all her spanish books) and it's hard to let her know that only english will do. she is a little deaf now and the only way she can hear us is when we raise our voice. yes, that's my grandmother.

kuya had the best time too, i think. he was able to take care of my grandfather, look over our grandmother's health, wrangled out an invitation to tour the provincial hospital from the chief whom he met at a conference he attended earlier in the week, and lastly, he was able to get to know the youngest of our cousins.

this past weekend was not bad at all, not bad. my brother and i even had a chance to travel together for the very first time when we went back to manila together. we got stranded after our bus broke down, had to transfer in a cramped bus, experienced a severe (but fortunately not long) traffic, before arriving home at the apartment.

thank God for this weekend! there's truly, there's no place like home and no more loving people than family.

night sky

we saw this earlier tonight... it's so amazing. i said it looked like cyclops smiling, another said it's like an engagement ring and another said, it's like cradle with a person in it! LOL

tonight, we saw this --

photo: yahoo.com

we welcome a baby

Welcome to the world, Baby Sam!

To the proud parents, Adr and E, congratulations! Sam is such an angel! :)

making history

today, we can now be called the pioneers of the automated election, the first users of the pcos machines.

i woke up around seven today and went to my precinct at around 830am. since it was a new style of elections, i had to look for where my new precinct is located (while in the queue, i noticed that the building housing my precinct was now demolished), and was directed to the ground floor of the limbaga building at the quirino elementary school. when i arrived there, i had to fall in line in this very long queue. most of my fellow voters during that time were parents and it was really great talking to them. they may have not told me who they'll be voting for but their thoughts on this election, their reaction to this lady trying to cut in line (they made her go away), their hope for a better future made me think that yes, this is the thinking mass! these are the people you want to be with, the people who knows what our country needs, the people who are sincerely for change. as they said, i'll stand in line here even if it takes hours, even if it means i'll miss lunch because my vote will matter. i want to be counted. i want to have a better future.

at the end, we ended staying in line for about an hour, walking towards the only polling center for six precincts. distance walked was about 100-150 meters. imagine that. it took an hour though for us to get our ballots because the pcos machine from time to time had paper jam problems. when it was our turn at the machine, we got held up for about 15 minutes because again, the ballot got jammed. thankfully, the BEI and smartmatic people were able to fix it.

outside the school, it was chaos - not the violent type, though. trash, water bottles, sample ballots were scattered all over. good thing was there were assistance centers, a fire truck and police centers ready to help those who are in need.

***

today is also a special day because this is the first time my sister voted. as we have different polling precincts,
we had to look for her polling center. the last time i checked with comelec's precinct finder, it indicated that she would vote at the barangay hall but apparently, a comelec officially told her that it would be in don quintin elementary school (just beside quirino, my polling center) after her voting registration. we braved teh traffic and scatter of anonas street only to find out that her center is at claret, only a few blocks away from our apartment. we went there and then again, were told that this isn't her center but at the barangay hall. so if we should have believed the comelec's finder, we wouldn't have wasted money and wouldn't have suffered the scorching heat of the sun.

at the barangay center, we spent more time waiting in line than i did early in the morning. we were there around 130pm and ended going home around 430pm. in the middle of the election, the pcos machine broke down and they had to request for a new one. the bei and poll watchers decided that they would just go ahead and follow the back-up procedure -- take the ballots from the machine and secure it. the new ballots will be placed in the machine and will later be scanned by the bei themselves when the new machine comes in.

but before this, they tried restarting the machine and it worked (must have just felt the heat and wanted to rest). everybody got excited because the voting can resume but unfortunately, after just a few feeds, the machine broke down again and they had to finally resort to the manual voting.

my sister was excited to use the machine but she only got through it manually. however, it wasn't a waste because we know, her vote will be counted.

unhealthy diet

in the last few days, i have this uncontrollable urge to eat and eat. it could partly be due to stress and lack of sleep for the last two weeks. so on monday, i've had 10 isaw baboy and 15 isaw manok in two seatings. on the night my sister arrived home from cebu bringing some lechon, i've had two lechon meals (yummy). the next night, i had lechon again. today, after the last of my meetings in the past two weeks, i went out to eat at kfc with a friend. i ordered this nba meal which contains the zinger (burger), hot and spicy chicken, mashed potato and softdrinks. i was so happy! tonight, i craved coffee beans morrocan mint latte so i decided to eat there. together with the latte, i ordered a chipotle roasted chicken on wheat bread with side salad and i also used my bdj coupon to get a free cheese muffin. double happiness! last but not the least, i accompanied allan to this new dessert place in trinoma -- parvati's, where i saw a lemon square that looked oh so yummy. so i decided to buy one (and a triple decker which my sister ate!). added bonus was seeing cheska garcia shooting there for her feature story in us girls...

wow, i'm so bondat (read: very full) but i'm so happy!

***

today, i received an email from a friend asking to reconsider voting for gordon, and if i don't waver with my decision after reading her link on gordon, she is curious to know why i am for gibo. i guess it's time to write my piece.

get my point?

it's not something to be ecstatic about but i think, it's one step forward to letting my superior know where i feel i am at work.

I told him that I'm so lost at work and that I don't know what else to do to make my project more attractive for investors. I said, ''really, the eyes doesn't see what the mind doesn't know!''

I just hope now that he gets my point.

stay in love

...fall in love, stay in love and it will decide everything. --- Pedro Arrupe, SJ

hmmm.... gpt this from a friend's facebook profile... sounds nice, doesn't it?

lost in gb2

after asking a lot of people how to get to greenbelt, i finally arrived at the building. only one more question to ask -- where is cyma? luckily, i saw a security guard and i asked him:

me: kuya, ito na ba ang greenbelt two?
kuya guard: oo.
me: aah. alam niyo po saan ang cyma?
kuya guard: oo.
me: ........ (waiting for the directions.... and waiting....)

kuya guard: ..... (just looking at me.... and looking at me....)
me: eh, kuya, san nga yun?
kuya guard: diretso ka lang. nasa kaliwa. (as if meron pa sa kanan, e open ground yun!)

si kuya talaga! nabitin ako. pagdating ko sa cyma, kinwento ko ang nangyari at lumabas na, nagtanong din ang mga kaibigan ko kung paano pumunta doon. malamang, si kuya guard rin ang napagtanungan at nagsawa na nang ako na ang nagtanong! hehehe....

apologies to the non-tagalog speakers. story is better told in tagalog :)