Racial Discrimination

me: I heard they saw Usher taking Jeeps around Manila

aaron: I bet it was just some black guy. People see foreigners and they think of celebrities

me: but it's not just us.. those black guys you worked with used to call you Harry Potter and Spiderman

me: RJ kinda looks like Toby McGuire

aaron: no, RJ can't be Toby McGuire because he's not white.

aaron: RJ can be Jet Li.

aaron: and Choob can be Jackie Chan.

aaron: and K can be Jackie Chan.

Naaalimpungatan

7:30am. 7 Aug 2010

aaron: Gusto ko ng... bedpan

me: how about starting the day with "good morning"

aaron: Good morning, gusto ko ng... bedpan

to my mad hatters...

i just saw Alice in Wonderland (i know, i'm late) and a quote reminded me of you guys:

The Mad Hatter: Have I gone mad?
[Alice checks Hatter's temperature]
Alice Kingsley: I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are.

stay mad peeps!
:)

just a minor kwento.

got home sunday night from a weekend beach trip. pretty tired from the journey but i went straight to the Church to catch one of the last few evening masses. first time it ever happened to me:

I Fell Asleep!

While Standing!

True story. I swear. Quite an experience. I was off balance for a second but good thing i was able to hold on to one of the pews and thus prevent complete and utter humiliation!

Maybe this is the reason why i can't find my passport. :D

mid western yoga (y'all)

usual yoga teacher: open your chest, lift your arms to the sky.. exhale.. roll down vertebrae by vertebrae.. send the top of your head towards the earth.. inhale.. relax your heart center...

substitute yoga teacher with twang: beind over.. lit chur head haing, lahk a shanny lil weight on uh feeshin' powl.. [hiccup]

My Brush with Pet-loving America

TOASTMASTERS INTERVIEW:

Toastmaster: tell us something about yourself that few people know

me: umm. I like rabbit

Toastmaster: awww (with a sparkle of innocence in his eyes) you like bunny rabbits?

me: no, i like to eat rabbit.

[no response. perhaps I should elaborate]

me: I guess they're dual-purpose that way

[perhaps I should have stopped at "rabbit"]

me in a desperate attempt to redeem myself: BUT I don't eat them if they're named, domesticated or vaccinated

[STILL no reaction from the crowd]

I told Aaron as soon as I got home (sumbong) -- FINALLY got some laughter out of this (God bless supportive spouses or at least ones with a similarly twisted sense of humor).

my best (my only) comeback!

aaron: I'm gonna show you who's boss around here

me: ..by holding a mirror in front of me?

[laughter]

Sweet (& pungent) Dreams are Made of These

Wednesday morning I was the first person at the bus stop (wow an early Filipino!), followed by 2 Indians in SHORT SLEEVED office shirts. Now this made me (the minority) look pretty ridiculous in my 5 layers of winter clothing. But just as I began to second guess myself, I saw them pull out some thick gloves from their bags. Apparently the poor chaps just arrived from India and forgot their coats at home. Not a very warm welcome at all!

I chatted them up and enjoyed their conversation while waiting, but that was the end of our encounter because I decided to sit elsewhere on the bus. And no, the motive was not prompted by my Filipino nose (tiny but sensitive!) because they didn't appear to carry the distinctive signature Indian aroma. But alas, 3 stops later another Indian gentleman who not only possessed the scent but also exuded it well beyond his 3 layers of clothing, stepped into the vehicle and decided to sit beside me. Breathe in, breathe out. This exercise was not exactly calming given the circumstances. At this point I thought I'd just pass the time by sleeping off the rest of the trip. And with that I resigned myself to a long nap and several dreams of curry.

I woke up 30 minutes later and glanced at my neighbor only to find him asleep. Perhaps dreaming about... kitkats and longanisa?

Why I moved to another country

Oh shit...

Addicts

I found out from my nieces that the latest in-thing (at least in Canada) has been to collect Lush* products.

*Lush is a store in the mall that you can smell from a 2-block radius. Individually, their products are [somewhat] fragrant, but as a chorus on the store shelf, they will overwhelm you with an experience of the quintessence present in every grandmother's perfume of choice.

(Brace yourself: flashbacks imminent)

The day after Xmas, the grownups of the household were out (Aaron and I were too lazy to wake up and go with them) so I woke the kids and made everyone breakfast in preparation for a trip to the mall afterwards.

At the table, the two girls started planning their would-be purchases. Aaron listened to them talk about 60 grams of this and 100 grams of that, so he thought he'd make some conversation:

"Are you talking about soap?" he asked them.

"No," i said to him in a loud whisper. "They're talking about cocain."

The two of us BURST out laughing!!!

... and my nieces looked at us like we were from another planet called Cincinnati.

Sige na, People!!

A year long hush?! Where are the odd stories for all our fans? Well "fan" - we had one but I think the flashing lights of the virtual world have long stolen his pocket-sized attention span from our grasp! Take my word for it: Chronic Clicking (and double-clicking) will someday out-fashion ADD.

Just got home from dinner and a side-trip to the gas station where our headlight cover was crushed by the driver of a brand new car that decided to back up against us instead of moving towards the road ahead. REALLY, the guy had 2 options - front / back - was it that challenging?

Anyway, everyone's so nice here, Aaron didn't even bother honking because he thought the other guy was just adjusting the car and would stop in time. It was actually me, with my Filipino-driver instincts, who pounced on the horn with the speed and agility of a one-million-dollar-chance-of-a-lifetime game show contestant.

[Gimme a] BEEEEEP!!!!