A surprise visit

I was pleasantly surprised when my close friend of almost 20 years now visited me last weekend. It was a fun visit. We reminisced about the old times. You know, we grew up together in the same neighborhood. Got separated when they temporarily lived abroad and rekindled our friendship when her family came back to live permanently in the Philippines. They did not come back to their old house across the street. But the friendship that started when we were little kids became stronger through daily phone calls. And we saw each other in special occasions when they come visit.

I just missed her a lot. She is still single like me and is currently working for a big pharmaceutical company as an executive. Next time, I will be the one to visit her at her new condo unit.

A Happy and Blessed 2008 Everyone!

I wish everyone will have a bountiful year ahead

I know you have noticed I have been away for days now. I am currently enjoying some ‘vacation’ time and will be fully back by January 7, 2008. I will make it up to everyone by then.

God bless everyone! Have a safe New Year’s Eve celebration!

On friendship…

You could potentially be friends with anyone, even someone you may dislike intensely right now.

I saw this question when I was answering an online test. My answer is a YES. What’s funny about my friendship history is that I normally get close to someone I dislike originally. For example, I really didn’t like my friend Joshua the first time I met her. She seemed too timid and too intelligent. I generally didn’t like persons who were too shy to begin with. But do you know that right now, she’s one of the closest friends I have?

So yeah, my answer is a big YES. I can potentially become friends with just about anybody

A message for all…

Crossing the bridge…

If I will give a score to My Life using the scale of 1 to 10, 10 being the highest, I will give My Life a 6. In my 29 years here on earth, I think about 15 years were spent Down. Too many problems. 2 deaths in the family…

Don’t get me wrong, He has been good to me, too. With every moment spent Down, I get something out of it so that I can move Up. I became stronger and more resilient. But I developed a bad ‘habit’. I don’t know if you can call that a habit. Cycle perhaps? I get depressed every few months. It just comes. I don’t know what brings it on. I just feel it and misses everyone so much. Sometimes I think I need to see a psychiatrist just to get these all out. I have so many hang ups in life. I asked kuya Vince about a counselor before. But it’s too expensive.

I often wonder what’s at the other end of the bridge. I always think it’s happiness, contentment, pure bliss. I still have to cross it to know for sure.

For the meantime, I need something. I just don’t know what it is

Pissed!

I hate it when friends abuse my kindness!

I lent a friend some money back in July. I wouldn’t have lent him some if he really didn’t need it. I also trusted him not to double cross me. Boy was I wrong! Almost 6 months down the road, here I am, begging him to at least leave me a message on YM. I have left messages on his YM accounts, Gmail, Friendster and even texted him even if his cellphone number is always out of reach. All messages asking him to at least tell me if he can already pay me or he still needs more time. I was polite at first thinking maybe he has not gone online for a few days now and his cellphone was pawned to get money for his kids and all. I am creating scenarios in my head so as to avoid thinking that he has no more desire to pay me. And then I saw his Friendster account a few minutes ago. It says that his last log in was 24 hours ago. Tapos dedma??? WTF?!?!@#$!%

I left him an angry message telling him to give me some respect because I did not just picked up that money out of nowhere. Of all my friends…

Another friend is asking for some financial help. She might not pull something like this on me but I don’t know. I have a soft heart for people undergoing financial problems because I’ve been there so many times I know the feeling of drowning in a sea of debts. That’s why I help relatives and friends. I always keep in mind that when I was in that situation, I hardly had someone I can run to for some financial help. And now that I can do my share of helping, I want to at least give back the kindness I received from others before.

But with this situation, I don’t know if I will lend money to friends again.

I am really pissed right now!

Can you feel the Christmas spirit?

Not really. I just felt it when we went to Divisoria last weekend. Saturday and Sunday mornings, we were at Tutuban and 168 Malls. We bought gifts for relatives and friends already. That is the only time I felt its already Christmas because there are so many people around doing their Christmas shopping. But other than that, wala.

I just feel sad because you cannot feel the old Christmas spirit anymore. Those times we were kids when shopping was not really important. Caroling was the main focus of kids, eagerly awaiting December 16th. I miss the old times when Christmas decorations did not consist of huge, expensive “parols” bought from Pampanga or Gilmore Street but of a simple parol made of papel de Hapon. Christmas is so commercialized nowadays. If you don’t have enough money, your Christmas is doomed. That’s the idea injected in our minds.

I noticed that in our neighborhood, only 3 houses, including ours, put up Christmas lights and parol. How sad no? When before, after November 2, decorations are in full swing already. Now, it’s already December 3 and yet people are not yet in the Christmas mood.

Ask them why and only one answer will they give you…

Wala kasing pera.

Didn’t they know that with or without money we can all celebrate Christmas? It need not be an expensive celebration. We just have to go back to basic and celebrate it because of the Lord. A simple parol will do. It need not be an expensive one. Banderitas will do. And some Christmas songs blasting from the neighbor’s radio will do the trick.

Wait, come to think of it, do you hear Christmas songs being played on the radio?

Come on, let’s start spreading the Christmas spirit. It’s 22 days before Christmas… can you suggest ways we can celebrate Christmas even without much money involved?

To inay…

Happy Birthday dearest inay, my friend
To me you are heavens end
I’ve never known a brighter spirit
With all good thoughts and deeds of merit

A kinder person I’ve rarely known
Your friendship true and love you’ve shown
So today my special friend
With all my love I do send

special bouquets of all God flowers
Filled with prayers with all His powers
To keep you safe throughout your days
and strength no matter what comes your way

Happy Halloween!

Remember to pray for your departed loved ones more than anything else.
Be safe.

Happy Halloween everyone!

Monday Tidbits :)

I saw an email that says I have a new Friendster comment from my friend Shen. I would like to post it here again because it truly made me smile…

Thanks, Shen!

***

I would also like to greet the following people:

Emmyrose… Happy birthday, sis! Sorry na-late ng 1 day but better late than never, right?

Kuya/Br. Vince… His birthday is on November 6. Advance happy birthday!

Cess… On November 7. Advance happy birthday!

God bless all of you!

***

Have a great week ahead everyone! Keep on smilin’!

What would you do?

What will you do if you have a best friend, already married, and is having marital problems? He insists in making you a pillar of strength even if you are in doubt whether you want to take on that role. Whenever you talk to him, he opens up and pours out his weaknesses and how he ought to just kill himself because he cannot act like a father should. And you are all tired of negating whatever harmful things he thinks he ought to do.

What will you do?

I am a good friend. Not because I am kind and all. It’s just that I believe in karma, that’s why. I am a good friend because I want to have good friends in return. And I can say that I do have some really good friends. Especially those from high school… and two from college.

I do not want to be a bad friend, most especially to a really close bud. But I am tired of everything. Don’t get me wrong, I love my best buds. The other one does not bother me with marital problems yet. He’s getting married soon. While the other one…

I just realized that maybe because I am used to seeing men like my dad, I am uncomfortable with the kind of setup I currently have with best bud no. 2. I don’t like it at all. I don’t like to always remind him to be strong for the kids, to not give up on the wife, to just hold on to the family and not harm himself. I particularly hate stopping him from leaving his family. I really hate it! It’s a sign of weakness and I hate it that a father can think of abandoning his family for whatever reason.

Now I am resorting to going invisible whenever he’s online. I hardly reply to his text messages.

And this afternoon, I cringed at a message I received from him. He’s asking if I am mad at him and if so, he does not want it to happen because I am the only one left that he can lean on.

I really don’t like it at all.

If you are in my position, what would you do?

My mom, my angel

I miss her so much. It has been 2 years now since I saw her breathed her last. It will forever be one of the most painful experiences of my life… seeing her die.

Home has never been the same without her. She had a way of making her presence known. Nobody can cook like her ever. My mom was a superb cook. I miss hearing her ask what ulam I want. I miss her hamonado, chicken tocino, chopsuey, spaghetti… I miss watching her cook, helping her prepare the ingredients. Even the smell of her cooking…

I miss going home and finding her waiting. I miss telling her everything happening to me. She would be the first one to encourage me to pursue something I wanted to do… besides wanting to see me happy, I guess it was her way of saying sorry for pushing me into this profession. I miss making sumbong about work. I miss hearing her cheer me on. I can just see her face if I told her I want to quit work. She knew everything about me.

I miss hugging her and laughing with her. I miss her childlike glee upon seeing a gift or a pasalubong for her. I miss gossiping with her about people we both know. Or hearing whose birthday it is today. She had this uncanny knack of remembering special occasions.

Today is her 2nd death anniversary, later at exactly 9:30 in the morning. I miss my mom so much. Life will never ever be the same without her to share everything with.

I love you ‘my!

Related: Missing them