change of address

Forgot to tell you that I changed my blog. No big reason for it except that I have more friends on this other side of the fence.

That's funny cuz I almost hopped a real fence today. Good I didn't, would have totally gotten hurt.

anyways, see you there.

http://cellardoor99.livejournal.com

Filipino wives . . .

These lists have gotten pretty tired, but I like this one's approach, it's really good.

I found this on 'Stuff Filipino People Like' : http://www.thinkunique.net/stuffasianpeoplelike/filipino/
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YOU MAY BE MARRIED TO A FILIPINA IF . . .

♥ your refrigerator is always full but you cannot find any food that you recognize.
♥ instead of a dowry, you got the whole bill for the wedding and honeymoon.
♥ most of the decorations in your house are made of wicker.
♥ you are expected to be able to read her mind just by watching her eyebrows move up and down and which way her lips are pointed.
♥ all her relatives think your name is Joe.
♥ the instant you are married you have 3000 new close relatives that you can’t tell apart.
♥ your house isn’t really on fire, but there is a very charred fish right on top of the stove burner.
♥ all the desserts are sticky and all the snacks are salty.
she eats her fruit with giant salt crystals and her fried chicken with ketchup.
♥ even the ketchup tastes weird . . . very weird.
♥ you throw a party and everyone is fighting to chop the leathery skin off a dead pig.
♥ all your kids have 4-5 middle names.*
♥ your in-laws take 10 years to acknowledge your existence and to call you by something other than “that white guy.”
♥ you try to call her up on the phone and someone tells you “for a while” and you want to know “for a while, what??”
♥ you are trying to go to sleep and she keeps asking for the comFORT’r, and you ain’t got a clue what she’s talking about . . .
♥ your first Christmas present is some funny looking baggy see-thru shirt made out of leftover lace doilies.
♥ your phone bills are all international and average 3 hours per call.
♥ she sweeps with something that witches usually fly around on.
♥ her idea of classy, expensive champagne is Asti Spumante
♥ the rice cooker is on 24 hours a day and uses up 50% of your electric and food budget.
♥ on your first trip to the Philippines, you have 18 giant boxes that weigh 1000 pounds each and your “carry on” luggage requires a small forklift truck.
♥ the same luggage is over filled with things that cost an average of 15 cents each like old magazines and M&Ms — the worst part is when you get off the plane, the same stuff you’ve been hauling around half way around the world is available in every store in the airport for half the price!
♥ all her pajamas look like they were worn by the Dalai Lama until they got too faded.
♥ the first time she’s pregnant you have to go out at 4:00 in the morning looking for some weird type of greasy sausages, green mangoes and bagoong.
♥ You buy a new $500 freezer so she can store 200 pounds of SPAM and CORNED BEEF that was on sale.
♥ everything in your house was bought on sale, even if you don’t need it .. as long as it was a “bargain” is all that matters.
♥ she gets really excited by sucking the fat out of pig knees.
♥ your daughter gets her ears pierced when she’s 2 minutes old but your sons are not circumcised until they turn 21.
♥ all your postage bills instantly double.
♥ you hire a yaya because your wife thinks you clean mirrors with soap and a sponge and the yaya seems cheaper than a divorce.
♥ the only “white meat” she likes is You, and that’s if you’re lucky . . .
♥ her favorite sauce is called patis, Americans call it turpentine.
♥ she actually thinks that bowling and golf and billiards are real sports and are more important than baseball and football.
♥ you were married 5 years before she explained to you that “ARAY!” doesn’t mean “ooh, baby!”
♥ she prefers bistek to beef steak.
♥ her idea of new upholstery is rinsing the bagoong stains out of the slip covers.
♥ she can eat and talk at the same time, in fact that’s her especialty!
♥ her favorite meal is leftovers, her favorite fancy dessert is Jello mold and for something REALLY romantic, she’ll offer you a halo-halo with 2 straws.
♥ you still don’t know what’s the difference between manong and manok.
♥ she and the kids are always saying “Daddy made utot” and you still don’t know what it means but they think it’s pretty funny.
♥ other than eyebrow raising and lip puckering, her next most expressive form of communication is grunts and pssst’s
♥ she goes to the movies just for the AC.
♥ her homeland has more Megamalls than islands.
♥ before every holiday and visit, her sisters fax you a 10 page “bilin” list which says “suggestion only.”
♥ your kitchen table has a merry-go-round in the middle.
♥ all the vegetables she buys at the Filipino store look like they were grown at Chernobyl.
♥ your in-law’s first visit lasted 5 years.
♥ her friends are named Chinky, Girlie, Boy and Bimbo and you are not allowed to smirk.
♥ her home economics course only taught shopping, eating and siesta; cooking, cleaning and sewing were not electives.
♥ her idea of edifying reading is gossip magazines.
♥ all your place settings has the silverware backwards and there are no knives.
♥ she washes her hair with a bucket and her car with a broom.
♥ she uses an umbrella even if its not raining.
♥ her favorite book (she has 3 copies) is “1001 New Recipes for Pig Parts You Were Gonna Throw Out”
♥ you are the only family in a 200 mile radius with 6 DVD player, 5 televisions.
♥ she’s done her best job planning a surprise party for you if she manages not to tell you about it until a week or two before.
♥ she “cleans” her closet by throwing all the crap into your closet.
♥ you are pretty proud of yourself because you think you snagged up for yourself some unique, rare, tropical goddess type until you go to the Philippines and can’t tell her apart from anyone else in the whole country (unless she’s taller than 5,,1″, then it’s a bit easier).
♥ there’s always singing in your house, even when the radio’s off.
♥ your own mom, who was lukewarm about your marriage originally, now calls you long distance…to talk to your wife, not to you.
♥ your family announces that in the unlikely event of a divorce between you and your wife, she will always have a place to stay, but you better find a new family.
♥ your wife asks to get a job so that you will both have a little extra money, then thanks you for not complaining about having to drive her to work.
♥ your wife has a contagious smile.
♥ you both decide to divide your spare income, and you spend yours on a computer game or a power tool, only to learn that she spent her money buying clothes for you
♥ she might not have had a second pair of shoes growing up, but she’s rapidly making up for lost time.
♥ everything in your house is “namebrand”.
♥ you have a Western Union “Preferred Customer” card. Really.
♥ you complain when your wife tells you that longaniza is only for breakfast.
♥ you learn to like rice, even plain.
♥ you have a budget.
♥ she may only tell you she loves you once in awhile. But, she shows you that she loves you in everything she does and says.
♥ you go to sleep each night knowing you’re the luckiest man in the world

I really have no idea what all this means.

Really bad dream John and I go to his work at night to meet his friend, Pete and another girl there. We then go to a strip mall with a coffee place and we all took Pete's car to get there. It's pouring rain, yet the place is packed. I feel pretty cool because I finally get to socialize with anyone of John's friends and also I'm out of the house i general. I also feel a little bummed because the rain is so loud that I can barely hear what everyone is saying. Also, they're talking about games and work which I can only speak very little about, so I'm actually a little extra bummed. Again, I am happy that we are just out with friends cuz that's pretty much my favorite thing. Going to get snacks and coffee with people. So I sit there sipping and enjoying my coffee, which is strange because I asked for half coffee, half ramen noodle soup (the good kind, not instant). This is obviously one of the more creepy, dreamlike elements of this dream - of which there seem to have only been a few. I feel glad that the guy actually only put in like a fourth cup of coffee, cuz it just tastes like soup, with a small hint of coffee and it's not bad.

I stop trying to hear John and the others and I'm looking around and checking out the place. There is a very cheap and ugly fountain that poor families are playing near and staring at. Then I see that there is a Tapioca Express and I get pretty excited and point it out to the group. The rain goes from steady to torrential every other minute or so. Then I overhear a word or two, which is all I really catch from time to time, and the girl friend (who I understand has an undefined courtship with Pete) mentions their plan to stay all night in the 24 hour TapEx and play WOW or some other video game. She is not proposing the idea, they have already decided that this is what the group is going to do. If a group decides to "bar-hop" and hasn't personally asked me, I really wouldn't care, after all, I'm just out to have fun. But here the situation is obvious. They play WOW online with headphones and mics just about every night. They play just to play, sometimes to really put time into their guild work, or mostly just to spend virtual time talking with each other. I suddenly feel very betrayed by John, because I either am going to sit and watch (which isn't going to happen, he knows I have little interest in it) or I'm gonna sleep in the Tap Ex while they play (not really an option) or I'm going to stay in the car by myself. I look over at John with my mixed expression of disbelief and some other unexplainable feeing, and he gives me this sly little smile, looks up and whistles as if to joke around like he didn't know what was going on.

I thoroughly fumed and yelled something and then stormed to the parking lot. I felt so bad and ran/walk the whole way. After a while I knew someone was behind me, I took a little glance and saw that it was John but with his jacket draped over my head. He caught up and hugged me from behind. I realize it's not John but some worker from the stores and I think I pushed him away and he left. I'm not sure. Then I kind of just remember waking up on the street part of the parking lot - not in between the cars but pretty much in the main thoroughfare part. The feeling of pure betrayal heightened even more.

I get up - it's almost sunrise or so - and storm into TapEx which is still has a line out the door. I spot familiar faces, more of John's friend's had shown up throughout the night, but I walk by them and have decided that I'm totally fine with all these people witnessing the crazy woman screaming and bawling and destruction that I'm about to lay down.

All I keep doing is crying and yelling to John, 'Did you just leave me to play a video game?' 'How did you not care about me being out there?' 'What the hell are you doing right now? I don't understand anything. Why is this happening?' . . . stuff like that. Although there's another more pitiful question that I kept asking him that I can't remember anymore. We get out of the store and my eyes are glued to his face and how he is responding in the worst way possible. My guess is that he thought I'd be better that he not go talk it out with and just allow me to blow off steam by myself (in the parking lot? all night? in the storm? with no keys to Pete's car even?). He never really answers my questions and I feel like this is exactly how John really would act but then I also equally feel that this is nothing that I'd ever imagine him to do. I can't decide, and the dream is pretty real feeling so I am thoroughly upset here. I wake up to my alarm and still feel all these shitty feelings - even the ghost feeling of my throat achy from the almost guttural screaming and my face plastered with frustrated tears. What upset me the most was that he had no answers for me. He just had an I'm Sorry I Did a Bad Thing look on his face. He tried to calm me down but never explained much. And all I needed was the answer to the question, 'Why?!'

One of the only other random, dream-like thing is that I go into a nearby grocery store with a cart. It's really small place and a lady is stocking bagels and tells me that she needs 2 more minutes and can't move out of my way even though I'd been waiting there for like a minute already. I come out of the store with one fresh bagel in a little bag and find John alone at a side table near another table with a lady eating. I commence another round of my yelling and screaming that is pretty much the same as my other one. I'm starting to look at how this five year, pretty much engaged relationship is falling apart for a stupid reason over an incident of which I have no understanding. In the middle somewhere I had woken up, but decided to sleep more to figure it all out. But, again, no answers.

OMG followed by OMG

Huge OMG day, really. I know one has to be careful of overusing the trendy term, but today I let it all out, cuz there was definitely heaps of OMG in my day today.

First of all, I'm off today, and a day off feels so good that I usually feel like going to work as a customer just so I can truly feel that I DO NOT HAVE TO WORK TODAY feeling! I usually veg out and stay home, but still, the feeling is there.

So, mostly though, today I found this great website that sells funny Pilipino-American pride t-shirts and other gear. (Like most people, I found it while watching a new HappySlip vlog.) I'm so excited, I almost paid extra for expedited shipping! You know that means I was excited.


I ended up getting a tote canvas bag with this "Pinay" logo they have and then I saw this other design they have that says "Maganda" and has a flower, I think a hibiscus which my dad grows, which I used to draw a lot in high school. Anyways, when I first got my MacBook a while back I wanted to name it, cuz she's a cute little thing who I spend a lot of time with. My friend Jammie thought 'mac-galing' would be cool cuz magaling is tagalog for "really well done" or almost like "bravo". But Mac-ganda would be cool too, and I really need more meaningful stickers for this sucker. And I've been wanting to go to the Philippines SOOO much recently too.



So, okay, and theeeen John sent me a YouChoob thing that talked about this Filipino cover band singer who sings exactly like Steve Perry from Journey! And theeeeen, Neil Schon from Journey saw him on YouTube and freakin' hired him to replace Steve Perry!!!! How absolutely awesome is it that the new Journey lead vocalist is a Filipino guy! He is a stunning, even "soaring tenor" - as the press release contends - and states that he doesn't wanna copy paste Steve "The Voice" Perry, but be true to himself as well as to the greatest band in the world! I'm like beyond myself and filled with madaming Fil-Am pride! I'm literally pumping my fists in the air. Just as you imagined it.

Witness the uncanny resemblance here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5nnNji6s3ck

A KEYS!

I went to my Uncle Rick's this weekend and my Auntie Marie had this gorgeous baby grand piano, a Petrof, which sounds like some awesome Russian or East European brand, which is enough to impress me. It had cool filligree (sp?) too. It's just inspirational to see an instrument like that.

Speaking of how awesome pianos are in general, Alicia Keys' new album is on point. I listen to it on loop, it's just simply great writing. Her vocals have even more confidence than they have previously and the songs have just so much substance to them. I never doubted that she can keep creating great albums that can just stand on their own, but it still is an amazing group of songs. This is reminding me of my days at the Union where I found it actually harder to review good album, as opposed to bad ones. hehe.

btw, I've seen the new Rob & Big episode like 4 times now, it's a real good one and it was free on itunes. So funny, and they really haven't changed much since their first season. Which I imagine is difficult to do for anyone.

Britney, Britney, Britney

I like Britney Spears' music. It's not a secret. She puts on a good show and has supplied me with great catchy music for all girls nights out and all those times that I like to dance around in my room in my underwear. I also was amazed at the way that she dominated the world with very little effort. Just like Mariah Carey All these thoughts are, ofcourse, pre K-fed.

But I guess now she really dominates it all . . . front page Yahoo links their own story intimating that Britney's recent downward spiral and hospitalization will actually put a damper over a wonderful, celebratory better-than-the-Oscars award show, the Golden Globes. Imagine that? What's worse is they equate the importance of this almost predictable saga of 'Another pop star falls' with the industry-shaking SAG strike! They think people are really going to stay home cuz Britney Spears might dominate headlines because of something she's probably already done?! egads! Shame on Yahoo.

http://omg.yahoo.com/spears-strike-loom-over-film-gala/news/5378

Things that I just can't stand, but that I actually really love.

LAUNDRY Everyone will prolly agree with this one. . . but here's the thing - I actually love laundry. I like taking good care of my clothes, I even especially love to baby my vintage and/or sentimental pieces. I like putting it out in the sun too [if you didn't already know, a good half of your laundry should never visit the dryer for more than 5-10 minutes].

What I really hate is doing laundry in a laundry room at an apartment complex. It's incredibly heavy to move to the laundry room. It's expensive. You can't do small loads cuz it's more expensive. It's harder to baby the dryer. You have to go back and forth all day to move it over. You have to share with neighbors. And then sometimes those neighbors will take your laundry out of the washers! I'm sorry but no one like to know that your damp undies have been manhandled! God, I just hate every part of doing laundry at an apartment. But - I actually like laundry.



STEAMED RICE If you know me at all, you know that I love carbs. I will eat oatmeal and pancakes for breakfast (made from scratch, thank you very much), rice for lunch and then rice for dinner, and then maybe cereal or a piece of toast for a midnight snack. Ok, this is an exaggeration, but still. My relationship with steamed white rice is special to say the least (it's actually boiled, why do they call it steamed? hmmm, just realized that), and I will never compromise it for any fad hollywood diet. I feel complete dismay cuz now my mom thinks she's fat because of it. Rice has been a staple for many cultures ever since time freakin' began. And being Filipino, I can't think of any more exciting sounds than that click sound of the rice cooker tab when it pops up letting you know that your steaming pot of hot rice is ready for your mouth!

I even saw a mini documentary on the man-made "8th wonder of the world" Banaue Rice Terraces of the Philippines. It's now on my list of places I wanna visit very soon. I'll prolly do a worship dance when I get there. . . . all joking aside, I'll prolly actually cry when I see it, and then dance. it means alot to me because the whole thing requires a lot of care, mostly done completely by hand and it really shows that if FIlipinos embody any attribute to the fullests I would say it was their high levels of hard core work ethic.



Click me, I'm an amazing picture!

I've totally gone off topic. Man, I really did that time. So what I ACTUALLY can't stand is the steamed rice they give you at chinese fast food places, especially Panda Express. I've figured out that this is because most people get the fried rice and chow mein (one of the worst nutritional decisions ever. There's enough calories in the orange chicken to keep you going the whole day, why do you need a fried rice and noodles? How much oil do you think it takes to coat EVERY grain of rice and EVERY noodle? Alot. duh. ) And to make fried rice, you need day old rice. Not dryly made rice, but day old rice. But at these places they just make shitty dry rice solely because they make fried rice out of it. So when you ask for steamed rice, it's just horrible little pebble-like, shamefully dry rice. GRRRR!