Picture Taking with Jaye

My favorite model is so far away but we could still have a photoshoot right?



Sometimes it just takes a little creativity. =)

Why I Wouldn’t Be a Barista Someday

I haven’t used the coffee maker all my life but I’m tired of coming to the office and be greeted with an empty coffee pot. One day I observed one of the employees and how they setup the machine to make coffee. Monkey see, monkey do. I found out it was very easy – place filter, put coffee grounds on it then press the brew button.

One day, I arrived in the office, sleepy and groggy and I wanted some coffee and whadayaknow, it’s empty! I still remember how the guy changed filters the other day. This lady then came and wanted some coffee but saw that I was already working on it. I recognized her, she’s a big boss on one of the projects here. I had a meeting with her once and she never smiled one bit. It looks as though she had never been hugged for years.

There’s a sudden burst of anxiety on me while she watched me with crossed arms take out the round filter filled with old coffee grounds. I held it by pinching two sides of the filter when disaster struck.

The filter flopped on the opposite sides where I was holding it, spilling coffee grounds and splashed coffee all over the floor, all over her shoes, all over the lower part of her pants… all over her white shoes and beige pants.

The pantry looked like the home of a Chihuahua with severe diarrhea who decided to hump her leg.

I wanted to throw a one liner and say something like “sh*t happens?” but both the angel and the devil on my shoulder were shouting “no! no! no! no!”. She gave me the judge Judy look.

I cleaned up the floor but she took a few steps away while she cleaned her shoes and pants. A few “sorry”s later, she walked away from the pantry with a cup of tea while I had a cup of iced water instead. What a disastrous morning but at least I wasn’t sleepy or groggy anymore.

The Aftershock

Damage check. Yup, it’s an ankle sprain –- second degree sprain on two ankle ligaments and now my ankle is bigger than a tennis ball and more purple than Barney.

This injury sure changed a lot of plans since:

• I was supposed to go to a concert in Chicago’s House of Blues which is just a few blocks away from my apartment the same day I got injured. There was no way I could go (I could crawl there but that's just plain creepy). Good thing CeeJay dropped by with a big bowl of Carbonara while Feliz and Louvre went home right after the concert to check up on me. (thanks guys!)
  
• Sundays plans were all wiped out and I had to do everything from my bed. Laundry, cleaning my lenses, cleaning my room, etc.
  
• My next four meals after the injury were cheeseburger – cheeseburger and carbonara – cheeseburger and cheeseburger. When I ran out of burger patties, I checked my cupboard and saw the only edible thing remaining. “Well, well, look who’s come crawling back.” says the Quaker Oats guy.
  
• Twice I accidentally kicked the leg of the table. Once I dropped a big water bottle on my bandaged ankle. All of which will make me have this facial expression for a few seconds – the same facial expression you had when you saw Britney at the MTV Awards. I know, that was really painful. Here's a better version.
  
• For the second straight day I had to work from home which honestly, I hate doing. Doing work at home is like going to McDonald’s to eat the Chickenjoy you ordered out or Gabby Concepcion having a concert in Chicago. It's just plain wrong.

Of Travels and Unfortunate Accidents

It was a nice peaceful Saturday. I was lying on the couch, feet up on the furniture with a remote control while watching TV and eating Ruffles potato chips. I need a drink. I tried to stand up but I had to sit back down. I rolled off the couch and into the ground and crawled my way to the fridge where I kneeled up to get a can of Coke before crawling back to the couch.

Flashback to 3 hours ago. I was walking to the train station in Des Plaines, Illinois, a city a few miles northwest of Chicago. The train going back to Chicago will be arriving in 5-10 minutes. I just completed my photography work in Des Plaines and so I had my full gear – a big backpack and camera equipment. I had to cross the street but the pedestrian light was red. The cars were stopped since the traffic light was red too. While the light was red, I ran across the street then as if I was shot by a sniper, I collapsed to the ground. My cellular phone went flying and I found myself face first down the ground. I sat up writhing in pain for a few minutes. There were people who started to approach me but I stood up and gave them a thumbs up since the train was arriving in a few seconds.

Back in Chicago. I had to zombie-walk all the way to my apartment since I only had 4 bucks and couldn’t afford a cab. 40 minutes later, I was able to crawl on to my couch and rest my severely sprained ankle.

I’ve had sprains before but most of them I was able to walk and laugh off. This one? I was wincing in pain for the next few hours as it started to stiffen up. The pain was so much that I had teary eyes and I developed fever. I couldn’t put any weight on it and I had to hop around on my left leg. Since my left knee isn’t strong enough, it started to hurt and I had to resort to crawling around like a fat Gollum.

Don’t you love the irony? The last 2 years, I’ve gone skiing, played basketball, ran along Lakeshore drive, played tennis and have regular gym workouts and at worst I only got minor cuts and bruises. I cross a street and badly sprain an ankle. The next morning the swelling was worse than I thought as its swollen on both the left and right side. The blood clotted around the injury and foot looks like an eggplant.

The flies are just for effect...

It’s always interesting when fate plays a game called “Up yours, Arnold”.

Cooking with Arn XI

Why stop now? Tapa rhymes with chamba? Here's my next... uh... attempt:

Chicken something something

I have no idea what to call this dish. Anyways, Jewel-Osco had a sale on chicken split breasts – buy one take one. I had no idea what “split breasts” are but well, buy one take one e.

Back in my kitchen, I found out that “split breasts” didn’t have the word “fillet” in it and so I had to find a way to debone it. How? I have no idea. I guess cut them up where there are no bones.

Eww... this looks like road kill

I took out a pan and sautéed garlic, onions and green pepper on butter. Once they were half cooked, I chopped up the chicken and dropped it into the pan. I placed some soy sauce, stir fry sauce, rice wine and sesame oil into the mix. Why? Well, the entire thing looked Japanese and I checked my cupboard and got all the Japanese looking ingredients. I figured the soy sauces and rice wine will give flavor while the sesame oil will give that extra kick. Minutes later, the whole thing was done and it was time for the taste test.

I called my roommate over.

He said it tasted great. I tried it and… hell yeah it tasted great. I knew it should taste decent but I never knew it would taste this good. Perfect blend of ingredients for a powerful but not overwhelming taste. It tasted like something from a restaurant – it was THAT good.

The problem? I never measured anything. I added this and that. Salt here. Pepper there. Something here, something there and I never took notes. I wish I could make this again.

Of Road Trips, Linkin Park and My Chemical Romance

Tinley Park, IL.

A village south of Chicago and venue for the Projekt Revolution tour which includes Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, Placebo and Taking Back Sunday. There’s also what’s their name and something something but well, I’m not a big time rocker so I wouldn’t know.

I’ll be honest, I love Linkin Park but only because of their first album, Hybrid Theory. My Chemical Romance? I like their songs “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “Famous Last Words”. I’ve already seen Taking Back Sunday in Chicago’s House of Blues a year ago.

I decided to go anyway. After a long week of work, I needed a break badly. Anywhere without a laptop should be ok for me.

Off to Tinley Park we went via 2 cars – one rented and Vince’s blue bullet.

I was sitting in the backseat just observing the south side of Chicago when I suddenly became dizzy and went out like a light. Guess that’s what 3 hours worth of sleep would do to you.

We arrived at the venue where the opening bands were already playing. The other went around to watch while Feliz, Louvre and I looked for concert shirts.


30 bucks for a shirt?!? You mean the shirt is more expensive than my ticket?!?

We arrived there at around 1pm. The main bands don’t play until around 6pm. So much time to waste…

Things I observed:

- Plenty of rocker weirdos. Believe me, for me to call you a weirdo means you’re really really really weird.
- People really lined up to buy the shirts! Some were spending almost 200 dollars for Projekt Revolution merchandise. They’re weird but they’re rich weirdos.
- I bought myself a pretzel which was covered with white sprinkle dots. It turns out that those “dots” were chunks of salt and the whole thing just tasted terrible. Worst pretzel ever.
- The “F” word is mentioned in every sentence throughout the event and not just by the bands but everyone there. “I’d like a f*ng pizza”. “Ok, that’s 8 f*ng dollars.” “Here you f*ng go”. “thank you, have a f*ng day”.

At last the main stage was open and we camped on the lawn. The big bands were now playing. People were going wild in the mosh pit. Everyone else was either drinking, smoking and having fun. As for me?

I was asleep on the lawn.

I woke up one time then someone told me that Taking Back Sunday was already playing. I looked at the stage and thought I’ve already seen them and went back to sleep. Wheee… what fun I was having.


The view from the lawn

I only woke up when My Chemical Romance started playing. They have great pyrotechnics and the artwork behind the band was stunning. Am I really getting that old? I go to a rock concert to sleep. I didn’t drink any beer, I didn’t really listen to the music and I simply observe the stage props more. Maybe I’m losing it.


Me and RJ while waiting for Linkin Park

Linkin Park was the best though I only recognize the songs from Hybrid Theory. I like their new songs where Chester just screams "yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhh" and "oooooooooooooooohhhhhh". Come to think of it, all Linkin Park songs have that. I like it anyway.

Overall I really had a great time. 10 hours straight with no thoughts of work? Believe me, sometimes that’s all I ask.


er... di ko sila kilala...

The Red Sox Series – Day 2

The game was at 2pm but I had to work in the morning. It was pretty important work and around 9am, I predicted around 40% chance to make the game. While I could ditch everything and come up with an excuse, well, I don’t do things like that. 12 noon came and I was monitoring a batch run. There were 8 jobs that need to be completed and I could only leave if and only if all those complete in time.

For an hour, I waited and waited for this progress bar and at 1pm, it was finally done. The moment I saw the word “success”, I took a bath and from the bathroom, my clothes were waiting for me in front of the door since I laid them down on the floor in the proper order so I can literally jump into my clothes.

I still had my gear from last night but I dumped the umbrella (it wasn't raining anymore) and I brought my trusty Nikon DSLR camera. The same blur came out of the backdoors but instead of the red line, it made a turn and dropped by Popeyes. I was hungry. I run fast but I need to eat something first.

This weekend was about facing plenty of problems but lady luck has really supported me big time. I ate three pieces of chicken tenders and while eating, a chunk of ranch dressing fell on my shirt. IT made a mess and I didn’t have time to go home and chance. I cleaned it with a tissue paper and suddenly, I didn’t realize the shirt I was wearing.

I had it on backwards. I flipped it inside out and the stain was gone.

From Popeyes, I walked to the red line (sorry, I can’t “blur” with a tummy full of chicken tenders) and faced the same Red Sox crowd, heard the same Red Sox cheer, took the train but ended up in a different seat as I was now near right field.

I took tons of pictures using my camera and my 200mm zoom lens. I didn’t take plenty of videos and I was able to observe the game and the place more.

- On TV, after innings, we end up with commercials making me think, what do they do in between inning?. The players play catch. Videos are played on the screen and the fans get food (except those who had a big chicken meal on the way to the park).
- I had a good view of the Red Sox bullpen (the bench for pitchers). One inning they came out and were stretching together like those aerobics shows in the morning.
- I was sitting by White Sox fans who were extremely frustrated because the home team was making plenty of stupid mistakes.

After the game, I stayed longer to take pictures of the park – the diamond, the empty seats, the view of Chicago downtown. It was another great day however I had to run back for work since I had a conference call setup. :-S The perfect timeout on a busy weekend =)

"Your fly is open!"

The view from my seat

The Sox bullpen

Where's Waldo?

For some reason I was heavily distracted by a Big Mac, Fries and Nuggets racing

Boston vs Chicago!

Empty seats after the game

We believe!

The diamond after the game

The Red Sox Series – Day 1

Just great. My Red Sox series is on the weekend when I expect to have the heaviest workload throughout my stay in Chicago. I am a big fan but I am a professional – if I have to miss these games because I had work to do so be it but as long as I can go and there’s nothing important going on anyway, I’m going.

Friday. With the help of Feliz, I was able to shake off work early. I left the office and ran home to change, drop off my laptop and prepare my camera. There was a 50% chance of rain so I had to bring an umbrella. The game was at 7:00pm. 6:30pm I was still in my apartment. 6:31pm, the backdoors of our apartments opened and a blur came out running towards the Red Line trains over at Clark and Lake street. Down in the subway, it was like being in Boston. Probably 70% of the people were wearing Boston Red Sox shirts and jerseys. 20% were wearing the local White Sox jerseys. 9% were wearing normal clothes and 1% didn’t have any shirts on.

Then came the familiar roar of the red line train which was followed by cheering of the people with a “Let’s Go Red Sox” chant. I saw the train’s headlight then when it slowed down, it was like back in Manila again – it was full. I skipped the train and went on the next one which had a few seats left.

A few stations later, there was this old woman who stepped in and was crushed by the standing people. I gave up my seat and got myself crushed. The price of being a gentleman.

35th / Sox Station. The red line stopped and I jumped out only to be greeted by a swarm of red who clogged up the escalators and stairs. Welcome to the US Cellular field – home of the Chicago White Sox! I made one quick check where my seat was and I was able to find it easily. Good, I only missed a few at bats and it was still scoreless.

Things I observed:
- My seat was in the “500 section” which was the highest part of the park. I was directly behind home plate and I was still able to enjoy the game.
- Food were priced like Disney, 4.50 dollars for a hotdog? 6 dollars for a beer?
- There were more Red Sox fans in the crowd than White Sox fans.
- It wasn’t a sold out event and so seat numbers are merely suggestions. Sit where you like. If someone flashes you a ticket and they’re supposed to be there, just move to the next best seat.
- Unlike NBA games which take 2 hours to finish, baseball takes 3 – 4 hours with plenty of breaks and delays. Now I understand why people who watch baseball games but are not fans get bored easily.
- People don’t come in for the 1st inning. The stadium was packed only around the 3rd inning and most already left after the 8th.
- There was a scoreboard on the right side which showed the Yankees losing.

I stayed until the end of the game which was already past 10. I waited for the crowd to leave while I take pictures and when I stood up, the lights went out and it was pitch dark. What happened?!? Are they locking me in? Suddenly, something shot up the air and exploded. There was a fireworks display and I stayed even longer to see it. It was cool.

I took the train back home and went to Portillo’s. It has been a great day, might as well finish it with style. I entered and there was something new in their menu called a “Big Beef” which was Italian Beef but 2x longer. I checked my pocket and I had enough money to order it (plus a side order of fries).

What a day. =)

The Red Sox Series – Day 0

I’m a Boston Red Sox fan.

“So what?” you ask? Well, it helps if you’ve watched “Fever Pitch” starring Drew Barrymore and Jimmy Fallon. I’m a diehard Fenway Faithful.

I keep track of their games, check who’s pitching today, what updates did they do on their roster, who’s injured, who’s hot and where they are in the standings. Being a Red Sox fan means of course I automatically dislike the Yankees.

I joined the Red Sox Nation BEFORE they won the whole thing in 2004. Yes, I was cheering them on in 2003 and yes I wanted them to take Pedro out early and yes it was a very heartbreaking loss.

On my calendar, 4 dates are circled in red. Finally, after two years of missing them in the US, the Red Sox are coming back here to Chicago to face the hometown Chicago White Sox. The first step is obtaining the tickets, which surprisingly, thanks to Ria (who taught me stubhub a year ago), was extremely easy.

I got myself tickets for three out of the four games. I have no idea but for some reason, the cheapest ticket for the 1st game was 60 dollars plus shipping which was way beyond out of my budget. I love my Sox but I can’t throw away money just like that.

I’m excited to go to the games however, I can’t help but miss Jaye more. She’s not into baseball but she’s into the Red Sox mainly because of me. She knows from my face whether the Sox lost (and/or the Yankees won) and she knows I’ll never miss Sox – Yankees games on TV.

Friendly people are common. Understanding people are somewhat rare. Supportive people, especially if it’s nothing for most but means the world to you are gems. Thinking about the fact that I have someone who has those traits (and more) makes me feel like I’m the luckiest guy in the world

The Photographer

So many things I want to do in my life.

video editor… check
teacher… check
basketball coach… check
basketball manager… check
software engineer… check
cook… judges? Hmmm… sige na, check

Now meet Arn the photographer. I just re-entered the field of photography (I used to do dark room film processing before when I was in school) however there’s still so much I need to learn.

I covered my first event as a freelance photographer – Margaret’s 1st birthday. Click here to see the pictures I took. No, they’re not of pro quality as I’m still a student of this art so don’t expect much.

http://arnoldrocks.multiply.com/photos/album/5/Margarets_Birthday

How much did I charge for this? A plate of lechon and pansit. I also received some crab rangoons for tip. =)

Of Happy Places

Toys R Us always had a special place in my heart. I remember back when I was a kid when the kid next door whose family frequented the US always had new and imported toys. He said all these came from a store called “Toys R Us” and I’ve always felt that it was this one magical building where all kinds of toys were made and sold.

I carried that feeling of mine for years until finally I was able to visit a real Toys R Us store in Hong Kong. Since we were on a budget, I remember buying two toys – a real microscope and a sea monkeys set. I was probably the happiest kid in the world having been able to visit the store and confirming that it’s not a mythical place after all.

A happy happy place.



One rainy afternoon here in Chicago, Louvre, Feliz and I dropped by the nearest Toys R Us store. After hours of roaming around inside, Feliz and I were done while Louvre was scouring the Thomas and Friends boxes for a good train set. In that section, there was an assembled Thomas and Friends set where a kid was playing. I sat down and thought that this was Toys R Us was all about – happy feelings. The kid was having so much fun playing with this huge train set. Louvre was happily rummaging through different boxes trying to find the ones he knows his kid would love (and there’s no greater joy to a dad than making his son happy). Feliz was sitting down and hugging the stuffed unicorn she picked out. Me? I was there sitting on the other side just enjoying this place and having no thoughts of work or problems. Heck, even my support phone couldn’t get a signal inside the store. What a place!

Like so many years ago, I’m still on a budget but I got myself my two toys. I wanted something that (1) would make me think but not stressed and (2) solved life’s tough decisions.

Cooking with Arn X

I miss home cooked Filipino meals. There’s an eat all you can Filipino buffet here along Clark street called “Little Quiapo” where you can eat inihaw na baboy and crispy pata until your heart jumps out and slaps your face.

I don’t eat there much though. It lacks that home feel since their meals taste more like cafeteria food. Besides, that restaurant is located between two cemeteries and it’s not a good location to chow down tons of Crispy Pata.

I want a home cooked Filipino meal and nothing says that more than...

Tapsilog

The famous Filipino food portmanteau. It’s the Filipino equivalent of America’s ham and eggs. It’s basically tapa (fried marinated beef), sinangag (garlic rice), itlog (egg) with atchara (pickled papaya), sliced tomatoes and vinegar with soy sauce and chopped onions. *drool* Oh, for the eggs, I like mine sunny side up and really runny. Mmmm!

Enter Arn – the sous (maryosep) chef.

I went to the market and picked out the meat. There was this woman there who was smelling, poking and thoroughly analyzing (as if there was something printed in the meat) the meat. I don’t know anything about determining if it’s good meat or not. I walked by the meat section, analyzed the price tags, grabbed the cheapest meat and walked away. What cut is it? Is it fresh? Is it proper for tapa? Heck, I have no idea. Who cares? I only have a few dollars with me so I grabbed the cheapest one. Life is simple nga diba?

Back home I sliced up the beef and marinated it in soy sauce, garlic, pepper, salt, sugar, etc then left it in the fridge overnight.

The next day, I cooked up half the batch. I fried up an egg and pan fried the rice with garlic and pepper. The egg was cooked nicely. The rice was perfect and the beef, well, it was too black to tell if it’s burned or not anyway.

Next, the taste test. I took a bite and there was silence. I chewed and swallowed and there was still silence. I looked out the window and I saw a pig flying around.

Arn burning food or messing it up is pretty normal. Arn preparing a decent meal is unusual is rare but not surprising. Arn cooking a great meal? Unheard of.

The tapa tasted great. It was tangy just the way I want it. It was even better than the tapa I eat at Goodah! and this can beat the crap out of the fast food tapa meals back home. I’ll even say this was the best tapa I’ve ever had. The eggs are just the way I like it - crispy edges but runny in the middle. It was so good it felt weird because I’m used to the overcooked, underseasoned mess I always have for lunch.



Maybe it's about time the cooking gods gave me a break right?

A Day Without Perfect Vision

Ontario and State street. Here’s a guy walking with big badass sunglasses. He’s walking normally but really he can’t see much as everything to him is a blur. He walks and walks until he rams his right shoulder into a bus stop. People were looking at this weird fellow as he dusts off his shirt and continued the long painful way home.

If you're a long time reader, no need to introduce the guy. First time reader? Meet Arn.

Imagine a day with severely blurry vision. Better yet, imagine a day where you have to wear your friend’s thick eyeglasses.

I had my eye checked at the Northwestern Hospital over at St. Clair and they dilated my eyes. It was the first time I had that type of eye exam and I initially thought it will just make me light sensitive. Wrong! Actually, after the exam, I could take the light by squinting. What made my day interesting was how my vision got blurry for most of the day.

From the hospital, they gave me these weird sunglasses. They looked hideous, but then they did the job. I looked like a fat dragonfly.

Hey, at least it did the job.

I walked home and as I mentioned, I accidentally rammed my right shoulder into a bus stop while turning. Ouch! Everything was a big blurry blob though I was able to read big print like store and building names. What I couldn’t read was small print like my cell phone or newsprint. Back home, I left my computer on but I have no idea what’s on it. I think someone IM’d me in MSN and I think that’s my outlook open but I couldn’t read anything

I was in no condition to work. I know I’m a shock trooper but in this case I have no choice here but to rest, stay home and take the day off.

So how do I call my manager? I can’t recognize anything from my phone. I don’t have her number memorized.

I gave my roomie my phone but he says her phone number wasn’t there. I couldn’t send even send emails or IM’s. Ugh! I walked all the way to the office to tell her I was pretty much useless for the day. Feliz was kind enough to walk me home and made sure I wouldn’t fall into the Chicago river. Back home though I couldn’t watch TV or surf the Internet.

Interesting day. Not bad. Interesting is more like it.

I started to get my vison back after lunch but then it gave me a terrible headache because it wasn’t 100% yet and it was like reading underwater. I decided to wait until my vision is completely back before doing any reading.

Without perfect vision, I thought my other senses would be improved. In my case, I just got hungry and ate and ate and ate. Daredevil lost his eyesight and developed superhuman hearing. I got blurry vision and it just made me hungry. Life’s not fair.

CeeJay, Feliz and Arn in Chicago and Oak Park

For all those requesting that I post more pictures from Chi-town -->

http://arnoldrocks.multiply.com/photos/album/4

Enjoy!

Me and Nikki

One freaky day when we had matching pants, shirts and tummies.



... then again she's carrying baby Logan while I'm carrying Panda Express. :P

Exploring Oak Park

Ernest Hemingway’s birthplace and Frank Lloyd Wright’s home and studio. Two landmarks associated to two famous Americans located in Oak Park, Illinois. Hemingway was a writer while Wright was an architect both considered one of the greatest during their time.

I took CeeJay and Feliz to Oak Park via train to see these two landmarks. We wanted to do something different and see other areas near Chicago (and well, we were low on funds). Oak Park is comparable to Makati’s Forbes Park. In a word - “sosyal”. The houses all look good, it’s an obvious rich neighborhood and all the people are nice. We took a stroll across downtown Oak Park until we reached Hemingway’s birthplace. A few more blocks and we reached the home and studio of Frank Lloyd Wright. We took plenty of pictures and enjoyed just walking around the neighborhood.


Ernest Hemingway's birthplace


Frank Lloyd Wright's Home and Studio

Can’t help but compare Pinoy houses and American houses. American houses have:
- a front yard with garden
- a driveway and a garage
- a mailbox with the red mailbox flag
- a backyard
- picket fences (for some).

Pinoy houses have:
- a crude basketball court (or just the rim)
- No mailboxes (if there was one, mailboxes are not used my mailmen anyway... IF they managed to correctly deliver your letter)
- A small grass patch (for some)
- 10 feet high bakod with…
- Broken glass on top of the bakod -- high tech way for warding off intruders.
- A BaGua mirror (despite the fact that they’re Catholics).
- An old palaspas that was there since Ramos was in office.

Cooking with Arnold IX

Post after post after post of kitchen tragedies (see my “Cooking with Arnold” series in the history), a good Samaritan has come to my aid all the way from Madrid, Spain.

Meet Cherina from the Application Integration team. Web server wizard. She posted some ridiculously easy recipes on her site specifically for me to try. If she went through all this trouble posting it for me, I might as well give these a try. Besides, going through the recipe instructions, these things will be easy. There’s no way anyone can mess these up.

But then again, I’m the rice burning, potato mashing, pancake smoking, Coke using chef slash arsonist. And oh, I make you have allergies too.

“Gazpechas”

The ingredients are listed in Cher’s site.

I cleaned and chopped up the veggies (tomatoes, cucumbers, garlic, onion and green pepper). I’m not a veggie person and there so many things yet for me to learn about vegetables.

Do you take out the tomato seeds? (I didn’t)
How do you cut green pepper? (I chopped it in half sending seeds flying in every irection)
Do you peel cucumbers? (I didn’t)
Do you take out cucumber seeds? (I didn’t)





I took out a blender, pureed the veggies then realized that I went through all the trouble chopping them all up and end up pureeing them anyway. D’oh! The concoction turned brown. It doesn’t look good. It smelled like freshly cut grass. I added the seasonings (olive oil, salt, pepper, vinegar, water), stirred it and stared at it. It looks horrible. I placed some plastic wrap over it then left it in the fridge to cool.



The next day, Feliz was over for lunch. I was too cowardly to taste this and I brought in someone else. I took out the bowl from the fridge and removed the plastic. Feliz saw it and jumped up and down “Wow! KARE KARE!”

An angel and a devil appeared on my left and right shoulder, both of them waving their hands and shouting “We know what you’re thinking! Don’t do it! Don’t do it!”. I sighed but agreed.

I told Feliz it was actually a cold veggie like soup. I took out a small spoon and I asked her to taste it. It felt like I was pushing a lamb into a lion's cage. Before she could approach the bowl, I took the spoon and mixed the bowl with it. I took a small portion and slowly brought it to my lips. My hands were shaking. I was so nervous I dropped the spoon which bubbled to the bottom. With Feliz and Louvre laughing horribly in the background I took out another spoon, closed my eyes and tasted the damned thing.

It tasted just like that… damned.

I ran to the sink and spat it out. I took the bowl and dumped its contents into the garbage disposal. I was still doing some spitting sounds because I couldn’t get the taste out of my mouth. On the way out, I picked up a pint of Ben and Jerry’s Cookie Dough ice cream just to remove the awful taste.

Gazpechas… Gazpacho na lasang…

Not Your Ordinary Sky

I looked up one day to see the sky and took a deep deep breath. I notice that the sky was blue, purple, pink and yellow.



Wow, I never thought the sky would ever look so gay.

Of Families and Happy Memories

When a certain group of friends form a special bond, they become family. It may not be as funny or as exciting as Joey, Phoebe, Monica, Chandler, Rachel and Ross but a family is a family.

I have a family.

We spend the whole day together and shared stories about each other. We had breakfast at their place and had dinner at my place. They told me things about their lives and I shared them my own. I learned a lot from them. They learned a lot from me. I remember telling them about Jaye, how much I love her and how much I missed her and they helped me complete my Debbie project – my big surprise for Jaye.

It was October 2006. I was flying home to Manila being the first person to leave. Before leaving, we had a serious moment and I shared that I was sad because things will never be the same again. This is the way this part of our lives go. They countered that nothing will change and I nodded my head not to agree but because I knew none of them have walked this path before. I had. None of them understood but I want them to continue on with positive thoughts. I don’t have to drag them down didn’t I?

Almost a year has passed now. All but one has flown back to Manila. One moved to another company. One moved to another country. One got married. One will be married later this year. Lorna and I were the only ones left in Chicago and when she flew home, everything pretty much ended there. Just like I predicted, things were never the same again. The way the cards have been shuffled, it will never be.

I have a family… well… had a family. I still have them as friends, but family, I don’t think so.

I miss everyone. Everything we did. Everything we shared. Every single detail. They all have moved on. I have moved on too as I have my better half now and a million plans.

Sad? Yep.

Regret? None at all.

Some people, even if they only appear in a chapter or at least a page in our life can make a big difference. In the end, it's not how long they appear or how many times they are mentioned but it's how much they made you what you are today.

Of Monday Mornings

*Beep beep* goes my alarm.

I woke up on time (not too early, not too late) but I was still groggy. After taking a bath, I put on my black dress pants and a gray striped shirt. I wore my black belt and my black socks, brushed my teeth, combed my hair and did my daily muscle flexes in front of the mirror (ala Hulk Hogan).

I chucked my laptop into my bag, grabbed everything else I would need in the office and took my iPod from my drawer. I also grabbed my sunglasses since it was a sunny day. I put on my black shoes, picked up my laptop backpack and walked to work – looking cool with my iPod and my sunglasses.

I arrived in the office, placed my bag on the table, removed my iPod and sunglasses and realized…

I grabbed my brown shoes by mistake. Arnold namaaaaan…

Lesson: Get completely dressed first before putting on your sunglasses.