Las Vegas: The Trip

My sister arrived thursday last week. Since then it's been raining hard, unusual for California weather. The weather was not cooperating even on the weekend, so she ended up shopping at Cabazon. She bought me a pants and some shirts (isn't she the best sister?). That's besides the shirts and jackets I got as 'pasalubong.'

She and her friends, Tony and Christine, picked me up on monday morning. They're hoping that it's not raining in Las Vegas. But I told them that I checked the weather online and it's gonna be raining until wednesday. My sister wants to watch Lani Misalucha and the Society of Seven show but too bad, it's dark date this week. They we're teasing her that she has 'balat sa puwet' (birthmark on the butt?). But we didn't expect that the worst is yet to come.

Thanks to Jun, Tony's brother in vegas, and Rey, a time-share salesman, we get to stay in a 2 bedrooms suite at Hawthorn for FREE. I didn't really grasp the idea of time-share, except for the part that you can stay free in hotels or suites anywhere around the world where there are affiliations for few days, or big discounts on airfares and hotels. This is good for frequent travellers.

My sister was excited to take pictures but the rain was pouring hard outside. While waiting for the rain to stop, we shopped again. The rain didn't stop until tuesday evening. We're on our way to Rio when we had an accident. The road was slippery and the SUV behind us was following too close. The SUV skidded and hit us. None of us were seriously hurt. Just back and head pains when we bumped to our head rest. The car's back left fender was broken. The left side bumber was smashed. Fortunately, the car still runs. The firetruck and the police came. After doing the police report, we went to the hospital for checkup. We we're not discharged until 2am. My sister sighed and said, "this is my worst vacation ever."

The sun finally came up on wednesday morning. Took pictures in every casino/hotel that we went to and watched some free shows.

The woman I've been longing to see

... next to my mom, is my sister. And after three long years, I finally got the chance see her and spend time with her again. I took few days off to tour her around... catched up with the lost times. Though she appears to be eating a lot lately (peace ate!), she's still as pretty and hot as I last saw her. I'll be blogging our tour in the next few days. In the meantime, I need to read my gazillion emails...

our last picture together 3 years ago (my 22nd bday)

Three Years and Counting

Exactly three years ago, I was in the Centennial airport bidding farewell to my mom. While I was waiting for the final boarding, I was having second thoughts if this is the direction that I want to pursue. I was scared. It's not my first time to go out of the country. But it's the first time that I'm going by myself.

My oh my. How time flies. It's been three years of hardship and fun. But I miss home. I'm hoping to visit soon.

Another lesson learned

I'm not a perfect person. There were things that I did that I'm not proud of. No matter what your principles in life are and how you are raised by your parents, if caught up in a situation where you can't escape, you commit a mistake. Last week, I committed such mistake. I never imagined that I can do 'it'. I didn't feel guilty that much. I actually enjoyed it. But I promised myself not to be caught in the same situation again. And if does happen, I know now how to handle it.

A weekend in L.A. II

Things that happened last weekend...

1. Went to LA again.
2. Met up with my college classmate's friend.
3. She treated me at Koji's and feasted on shabu-shabu. No it's not the drugs nor the candy that we usually buy at the 'sari-sari' store.
4. Went to Out of the closet thrift store again. It's shopping with a cause (by helping the AIDS victims).
5. Dropped by at Point Point (yes, a pinoy fast food 'turo turo' place) and bought a pan of leche flan.
6. Went out with friends.
7. Met the Pinoy cab driver again on my way back to SB.

What I Had For Breakfast

I was happy to see two giant size Valerio's pandesal on our breakfast table this morning. Even if there's an oatmeal, fried rice, ceareals or pop tart, I'd still choose eating pandesal (followed closely by strawberry pop tart). Valerio's is popular among filipinos here in California for their delicious, mouthwatering and tasteful pandesal (this is a paid advertisement). The nearest branch in our place is in West Covina (where there's a Jollibee, Chowking and Goldilocks, and lots of pinoy). It's about 45 minutes drive so we only get to buy once in a while.

Pandesal brings back some fond memories from my early days. I was in first year highschool when my mom asked me to buy pandesal every day as one of my household chores. Being a middle class family, we usually have a 'kasama sa bahay' (a.k.a. maid... she doesn't want us to call them 'katulong') to do that. But since we were financially unstable at that time, she wanted to lessen our expenses so she got rid of our 'kasama.' For merienda (mid-afternoon snack), I buy 'Monay'(it shapes like a boobs), 'Makabayan'(it shapes like a straw hat), 'Pan de coco' or 'Pan de regla' (the one with red filling).

Though I'm the laziest among my siblings, this is one of the chores that I enjoy for I get to keep the change and I get to eat ahead of them.

"I Believe In Dreams"

Elvin thinks that I know the reason why he wrote "Forever and a Day" in his list of 'memorable songs.' Well, I don't. Harhar! Joke! But yeah, here are my answers:

Random 10:

1. If I Had You - Diana Krall
2. Time Will Reveal - Boyz II Men
3. Heading In The Right Direction - Renee Geyer
4. Do You Only Wanna Dance - Mya
5. Doors - Michael Johnson
6. Follow Your Heart - Mario Frangoulis
7. Waray, Waray - Eartha Kitt
8. Believe It Or Not - Joey Scarbury
9. What Might Have Been - Lonestar
10. A Certain Sadness - Astrud Gilberto


1. What is the total amount of music files on your computer?
In C drive: 38.2 GB - 4,256 Files (Videos included)
In D drive: 235 MB - 61 Files (Im just starting to fill it since my 80gig C drive is already full)

2. The last CD you bought is:
Regine and Ogie Greatest Hits - Not for me (defensive!), bought it in Tatak Pilipino as a Christmas gift for a friend.

3. What is the last song you listened to before this message:
Fra Lippo Lippi - Later (....how could you memorize my name and forget who i am...). I'm a mp3 server for my friends, and one of them asked me to download this song.

4. Write down five songs you listen to a lot or mean a lot to you:
I Believe In Dreams by Janno Gibs - All time favorite song
Lead Me Lord by UP Singing Ambassadors - I get goosebumps each time i listen to this
Special Kind Of Something by Kavana - story of my life
For Just A Moment by David Foster - reminds me of high school
Close To Heaven by Color Me Badd - I just like the song since high school

5. Who are you gonna pass this stick to? (3 persons and why)
Momar - Because he's a music lover
James - Though he's extremely busy, he's one sentimental guy who loves music
Mayet - She loves to sing and loves music. Besides, she needs to update her blog.

Ok. I'm done. Is there a bonus question? Are there points for effort?

It's Just Another Love Song

Valentine's day is fast approaching. It's the time of the year where flowers and chocolates are hot commodities. The time where motel owners of Cubao, Pasay, Pasig or Santa Mesa (where I've been a patron once) feast with their overnight income from lovers seeking 3 hours (short time) of 'pleasure.'

While others are busy preparing for the day (reserving restaurants, shopping for gifts and cards or booking hotels), I'm busy preparing for a song list which I will play on V-day. Here's my initial list:

When Tissue Is Not Enough

Being raised in the Philippines, I'm used to using "sabon and tabo" (soap and dipper?) method of cleaning the anus rosebud after defecating pooping. What's 'tabo' in english? I've been searching and asking for the english translation but I can't find any. It's a container used to scoop water from a bucket or you can directly fill it up with the faucet. You can buy them cheap at the 'palengke' or in the supermarkets. If you're in a tight budget, try what other pinoys use which includes 'Magnolia' ice cream containers, pitcher or plastic cups.

As for me, I use those coin tumblers I got from casino hopping in Las Vegas. It's just that I don't feel 'clean' no matter how many times I wipe my ass with tissues. It's ok when I'm in public restrooms, but at home, washing is a must. I have a friend who's a nurse and she always bring soap and 'tabo' at work. Her Mexican co-worker commented "You're weird. Why do you have to soap up each time you go to the restroom?" She didn't
reply. But deep inside she feels "yaaakkkiiii!" for her co-worker and murmured... "Mga pinoy lang naman ang lumalabas ng basa ang puwet pagkatapos umebak." (Filipinos are the only ones who comes
out of the bathroom with wet ass.) And yeah, I have a friend who even showers after discharging bodily waste.

But that was then. Washing after pooping is kinda messy. In my bathroom, there's a 4-5 feet distance between the bowl and faucet. I have to reach for the faucet if the water isn't enough so the water in my ass drips in my pants or in the floor. I started using ass wipes. I wipe it with tissue first, then the wipes, and then tissue again. It gives the same wet and clean feeling like soap and water. Works for me.

Some ass wiping tips:

1. Wipe your ass from front to back and not the other way around. You don't want poop smears in your balls/pussy.

2. Learn the art of folding. What you learned from kindergarten is helpful in conserving wipes/tissues. After all, they cost money too. Specially if like Elle Woods, you use Charmin instead of generic brands.

3. You know that you're all done if the tissue/wipes comes out clean. You can save it for later use.

What I know About Super Bowl

It's Super Bowl last weekend. I'm not a football fan and there's only few things I know about the game and Super Bowl:

1. Players fight for a small oval ball and they try to bring it to the opponents goal line.

2. If you have the ball, you have to run fast (like Forrest Gump) if you don't want to be crushed by 200 pounder men.

3. There will be new commercials.

4. Famous singers belting out 'Star Spangled Banner' such as Faith Hill, Mariah, Jessica Simpson, Cher, Charley Pride, Barry Manilow, Backstreet Boys(boooh!), Beyonce... and ofcourse the famous rendition was from Whitney.

5. Superb halftime entertainment such as Janet's breast exposure.

You Are the Current High Bidder

I just bid on 4 books (by S.S.), 3 cargo shorts (I only own 3 pairs of shorts. Yep. I wear jogging pants most of the time), a V.S. bathrobe for my sister (she's visiting soon), Voltes V and Voltron DVD's (don't you love 80's cartoons?), a surfer bracelet, and a #%#*#&#@!%# (secret!). As if I have the money to buy them all. I don't expect to win anyways. E-baying is fun but can be very addictive. Most of the time you bid on things you dont really need.

Tongue Tied

I was chatting with my grade school classmate yesterday. He migrated in the US when we were in high school and is now based in NY. He scanned some of our 'foundation day' pictures and it turned out, that even in elementary days, sticking my tongue out is one of my best talents.

Trash and Web

It's really hard to update this blog specially when I have a gazillion things to do. Ok, not really. But I do have a job (technically speaking) and some sidelines. Here are the things that happened the past two days:

Monday

Monday is trash/recycling day. One of my chores is to bring out the trash bins early in the morning and bring it inside in the afternoon or after they picked it up. If a holiday falls on a monday, the collection will be made the next day. For most houses in our area, they have 3 containers/bins with color coding. Blue for recycling. Green for green waste. Black for refuse. These containers were given by the city and were designed so that the truck (w/ a hydraulic arm) can easily lift the them. There are certain municipal codes that they need to follows as to how to set the containers properly, the time it should be set, the maximum weight, the orientation, etc. We don't have those containers for we are exempted from recycling (I don't know why). What we use are 6 'orocan' like bins.

For the last week, we only filled 3 bins. When I went outside to bring in the bins, I only saw 2. It was windy outside, 30-40mph, probably it got blown. I looked around but can't find it. Maybe the trash people took. It's dingy anyways. But at a 500 meter distance down the hill, I saw the trash bin rolling and being blown by the strong wind. I went catching up w/ the bin not minding all the cars passing by but I saw some of them were looking and laughing. They were kind enough not to hit the bin.

Tuesday

Raket. I update some of our websites. I'm not a designer nor have an eye for layouting and graphics. I just do the coding. I can do some photo editing in photoshop like this. But I wish I can learn flash and director.