another new year

the holidays are long over and if it's true that what you do on the eve of new year's is what you'll be mostly doing the rest of the year, then i would be travelling with friends and having fun. oh yes, more travelling is on the forecast this year. it's because new year's eve was spent driving to dennis' place in philly, watching the fireworks, meeting new friends and drinking booze.

(more pictures on my multiply)

to start off the year's lakwatsa, we celebrated dichi's birthday with a formal (meaning jacket required attire for the guys) dinner. it was at this nice little restaurant overlooking jersey and new york city. it took a while for me and dennis to find the place though, what with all the traffic and getting lost but we eventually found it. we were supposed to go clubbing in new york afterwards but because everybody was tired and rheza was sick we decided to just hang out at dichi's place and watch scary movies, sing videoke to our heart's content and take crazy pictures c/o crazy director senen. (pictures to come soon!)

the next day we drove to poconos to get our fill of snow tubing and skiing. we went to shawnee mountain ski resort. it was so much fun just watching the little kids ski their way on the slopes. it looked so easy but we were so sure it was more than our balance challenged bodies could handle. so we bored ourselves with snow tubing on shawnee's snow tubing park. it got so boring that the four of us (gina, rheza, dichi and i) stopped tubing and just took pictures and watched as the kids kicked dennis' ass as he fall on his bum on the beginner's slope (he he he). at one point i even told the pierced guy manning the tubes that taking pictures is way more exciting that riding the tubes and he was incredulous. he was very nice though because he even offered to take our pictures.

we ended the night driving back to new york and eating at our favorite vietnamese resto in 90th and amsterdam. after stuffing our faces with calamares (which i can't get enough of), cha gio, ca chien and the barbeque chicken, we dropped rheza off at her apartment, senen at the port authority to go back to boston while gina, dichi and i began our search for the missing camera which became the search for the missing wallet later on while dennis is driving us back to jersey.

weder weder

“Whether the weather be fine, Whether the weather be not, Whether the weather be cold, Whether the weather be hot, We'll weather the weather, Whatever the whether, Whether we like it or not."

we're going to the city tomorrow to watch an NBA game. the weather channel says, it's going to be nasty. freezing rain and snow with the temperature going down to the low 20's which would feel like it would be on the 10's for us. tanginangsyet! what a time to have fever and cough.

it started the night before while i was at work. i was freezing at the nurses station even if i cranked up the heat to 80. it got worse last night with the sore throat and cough making me miserable. i was thinking of calling in sick but felt guilty because i know how hard it is to find somebody willing to drive through icy road conditions. so i came to work feeling like crap and for the entire 12 hours i kept saying to myself that i will never ever feel fucking guilty about calling in sick again (especially if i'm honest to goodness sick), ever!

so tomorrow, i'll be bringing my dayquills, motrins and cough drops to the game. i'd be like a walking walgreens store the whole time. i just hope i'd get better tonight.

i am so back

so after countless weeks of having a life i decide to pay my blog a visit and post something. a lot of things have happened and have been happening that i don't know where to start.

maybe i'll start with how i got to meet my relatives in brooklyn. how a death of an uncle got me driving from jersey to new york by myself. how freaky it was that the certain uncle called my parents in davao asking about my phone number and address wanting to touch base with me days before his death. how that freaky premonition moved me to brave the goethals and verrazano bridges and of course new york traffic just to pay my respects for the last time.

things i realized:

• in a big foreign place such as america, it's nice to know i have relatives who despite the distances are still thinking of me and are always there in case i need help. i've always felt alone when i came here and knowing that they are just an hour drive away gives me comfort that i have a family here.
  
  
• death is freaky and it will get you on the most unexpected time and in the most unexpected place.



• there really was no need for me to be scared of driving in new york. i've conquered brooklyn, maybe manhattan will be next.

now on to other things. don't we just love summer? the picnics, the barbecues, the beach. i mean despite our rising electric bills because of my excessive use of the AC, i have to say summer is my second favorite season, next to spring. but then i'm typing this while cool air is billowing in from my open window and the temperature is in the mid 70's. if it went higher up to the 90's i wouldn't say i love it so much but it would still be my second favorite season. too bad it couldn't go on forever. anyway's a lot of things have been lined up for my summer. things like parties, fishing trips, camping trips and a road trip late in the summer are some of the things that i'm looking forward to. hopefully i get to go to all of them. i'm keeping my fingers crossed that i could arrange my schedule so that everything would fall into place.