A long overdue kwento

I've been here in New Jersey for three weeks now and I have not updated this blog to tell about my trip, experiences, people here in US. I'll try to recall them as much as I can and tell it as if it happened yesterday.

My second plane trip

It is my second time to go to US but I am still excited as the first time. I came to the airport quite early because I miscalculated the travel time (since we're leaving at two am, there should be no traffic).

I arrived in the airport too early but the line for check-in is already long. I guess there are people more excited like me. While cheking in, I was picked for a ramdom baggage check. Since I only have clothes, pulburon, chocnuts and other padalas in it, I am not much concern except for the way they rummage into it. Good thing that the guy is nice enough to keep things the way they are.

After checking in my baggage, I went to the gate but I stop in for a while for a quick breakfast of siopao.

Plane departed around 0630 when I am seated in the middle left aisle. Because of my condition, I requested for a low cholesterol meal. Since special requests are served first, I got my meal ahead from the the other passenger. When I check my meal, it is fruits, orange juice, egg, potato and spinach. i didn't touch the spinach because it didn't smell good. When the flight attendant, start her round to serve food, she noticed that I am not touching my food and ask me if I like it. I said no and ask her if she sould replace it with something else. She said that she'll check if there are extra after she have served everyone. By the way, I have no seatmate. I am not sure if the flight is not fully booked or there are people who resched their flight. Minutes passed and she's nowhere in sight so I decided to eat the potatos and egg. I am almost done eating when the flight atendant approach me handing me an omelet saying there's a spare one and I could have it.

It was around 11 am (Japan time) when we landed in Nagoya and I don't want to deplane. I'll be seating in the same seat on the same plane on my way to Detriot anyway, why would I bother to get out of it. Thought of pretending to be asleep playing on my mind just to have an excuse from not stepping out. That won't work, I think so I lazily get my heavy knapsnack and try to smile on my way out as the flight attendants saying adieu.

While walking to the next gate when we wil wait to board to the next plane,I have a chit-chat with a couple of American exchange students wearing PUP PE shirt. They explained that they were sent to Manila on a Christian mission. They ask me if am heading back to the States for school. Hehehehe.

I met Gladylyn (a fellow 77 GSI employee) in Nagoya. Since we have timw to roam around the airport to check some Japanese stuffs. She bought a smoked squid.

We boarded on the time around 1 pm (japan time) and I am seated at the same seat but this time I am seated beside a Japanese exchange student going to US. The flight is long and tiring though I am doing nothing except sleep, watch movies (She's the Man starring Amanda Brynes and Aquila and the Bee - an inspirational movie about a black kid winning a spelling bee comptetion). As usual, my food was served ahead because of the request I have done. Food were not so great when you have medical condition. With that, I'll never do another special request again. Here are some items about the flight:

• the japanese girl seated beside can't understand and talk English well. When food is served and she is asked to choose between two meals, she just nod and accepts whatever is given to her.
• I pulled another "I-did-not-like-my-food" stint to get extra food but I failed. Though I got warm milk
• I got hungry during the flight and ask for the some mini-pretzels snack. This time, it is a success.
• When we are on top of the Rocky Mountain, I was at the tail of the plane watching from the window.
• I was reading a comic book Power Mark while on the plane.

We reach Detriot airport at around 1 pm EST. Glad and I decided to split so we weren't be interviewed by the same immigration officer. It will be easier that way. So I went to the queue of some Japanese. It seems like m,y choice of line is not good. It took them longer time to be interviewed. When my turn came, I am no smiling anymore. I answered very briefly. When I was asked why would it take 2 months for me to learne the system, I irritably answered, "I dunno.. I am not the one setting the timeline. It's my boss." When it is time to take my picture, the immigration officer told me that it will not hurt to smile.

From the immigration officer, i went to the carousel to get my luggage and proceed to custom officer booth. Still irritated from lack of sleep, when asked if I have food in my luggage, I reply, "None. Why would I bring food on a business trip?". The custom officer just smile at me and instructed me to proceed to the check in area. I checked in m baggage and look for Glad who, despite of a little problem with he immigration office (her name is not listed in the database), still got ahead of me.

Our flight is delayed by an hour so Glad and I decided to check some stores/shops. We called 77 Software office to inform them about the flight delay. The flight to Newark is quite a bumpy ride. I was seated beside a doctor whom I asked a couple of questions on medical stuffs and how a real doctor similar to the doctors I saw in Scrubs, House, Grey's Anatomy and other series. On my left is a huge man who is a resaercher who watched "White Man Can't Jump" in his portable dvd player.

We arrived Newark airport at 4 pm EST. The sum is still high and the weather is the same as in Manila minus the humidity. My New Jersey adventure begins.


New Jersey - it is not what I think it is...

I rode with Miss Che and Sir Elmer from the airport to the staffhouse. While on the car, Sir Elmer was on the phone talking angrily. My first conversation with him is not a good experience. I find him mataray. The few minutes in the car with him didn't change my first impression. Later on, when he's done with his issues, he calmly talked to me explaining that since all the staff houses are full, I'll be staying in a separate house. I'll be staying with a Filipino family and since I don't drive, I'll be on a hatid-sundo basis. He also explained that it will just be my sleeping quarters for most of the time I will be staying in the staffhouse.

When we arrived at 77 Software office. I was surprise to learn that the office and the staffhouse is in one building. The ground floor was the office and the staffhouse is on the second floor. Also the surrounding is not what I expected. I was thinking that New Jersey is like New York with buildings, busy streets and fast-moving people. I am wrong- very wrong. The place is a suburb no different from San Ramon (in California).

On moving on...

Marife send me this article and I agree on all of the stuffs in it. I think it is worth sharing.

Closing Cycles
by Paulo Coelho

One always has to know when a stage comes to an end.

If we insist on staying longer than the necessary time, we lose the happiness and the meaning of the other stages we have to go through. Closing cycles, shutting doors, ending chapters – whatever name we give it, what matters is to leave in the past the moments of life that have finished.

Did you lose your job? Has a loving relationship come to an end? Did you leave your parents' house? Gone to live abroad? Has a long-lasting friendship ended all of a sudden?

You can spend a long time wondering why this has happened. You can tell yourself you won't take another step until you find out why certain things that were so important and so solid in your life have turned into dust, just like that.

But such an attitude will be awfully stressing for everyone involved: your parents, your husband or wife, your friends, your children, your sister, everyone will be finishing chapters, turning over new leaves, getting on with life, and they will all feel bad seeing you at a standstill.

None of us can be in the present and the past at the same time, not even when we try to understand the things that happen to us. What has passed will not return: we cannot for ever be children, late adolescents, sons that feel guilt or rancor towards our parents, lovers who day and night relive an affair with someone who has gone away and has not the least intention of coming back.

Things pass, and the best we can do is to let them really go away.

That is why it is so important (however painful it may be!) to destroy souvenirs, move, give lots of things away to orphanages, sell or donate the books you have at home. Everything in this visible world is a manifestation of the invisible world, of what is going on in our hearts – and getting rid of certain memories also means making some room for other memories to take their place.

Let things go. Release them. Detach yourself from them. Nobody plays this life with marked cards, so sometimes we win and sometimes we lose. Do not expect anything in return, do not expect your efforts to be appreciated, your genius to be discovered, your love to be understood. Stop turning on your emotional television to watch the same program over and over again, the one that shows how much you suffered from a certain loss: that is only poisoning you, nothing else.

Nothing is more dangerous than not accepting love relationships that are broken off, work that is promised but there is no starting date, decisions that are always put off waiting for the "ideal moment." Before a new chapter is begun, the old one has to be finished: tell yourself that what has passed will never come back. Remember that there was a time when you could live without that thing or that person – nothing is irreplaceable, a habit is not a need. This may sound so obvious, it may even be difficult, but it is very important.

Closing cycles. Not because of pride, incapacity or arrogance, but simply because that no longer fits your life. Shut the door, change the record, clean the house, shake off the dust.

Stop being who you were, and change into who you are.

I could see clearly now ...

Yes! no more blurry vision. I got a new pair of glasseses. My grade goes up from 25+/25- (my old glasses) to 75+/75+ (my contact lenses that I purchases 4 weeks ago) to 200+/200+. My right eye which used to be nearsighted is now farsighted. My vision is expected to fluctuate as same as my blood sugar.

As if looking at someone else's eyes

Due to my high blood sugar, my vision is also fluctuating. One day, I could see perfectly well without glasses or contact lenses but the next day, everything is blurry; As of this moment, I am writing this blog with my blurry vision. The weird thing is, when you cover an eye, the other eye can see well. I have to squint or close an eye to see what am I typing. I don't like this.... my vision is importatnt to me.

of being too much sweet ...

Weeks ago, I woke up with my vision suddenly blurred out. I cannot see the faces of more than 10 feet from me. When I went to the optemetrist to have my eyes checked and she asked me if I have high blood pressure or am I diabetic. I said no. She suggested that I shold have a check up first. She is not recommending to have my glasses changed but suggested to use contact lenses instead.

For days, I wore contact lenses. Last April 28, I took my very late pre-employment medical exam. The doctor took my blood pressure and I got 171/40 which is alarmingly high. He took it 5 times with a 10 minute interval and got the same blood pressure reading. I asked him for any advice or medication. He surprised me when he reolied. " Hindi kami nagbibigay ng advice, annual checkup ito.". What the f*** is that? Does it mean that if someone collapsed in front of him, he'll do nothing because he assigned only to do check up. That's bullsh*t!

Anyhow, the next day, I went to Healthway in SM North to have the checkup. The doctor asked me to have some blood test to measure blood sugar, cholesterol level and other stuffs, urinalysis and ECG. Since blood will be extracted, I need to fast for 12 hours so starting 9:00 that night til 9 am the next day, I am not allowed to eat and drink. Yes I cannot drink. That bitch doctor wanted me to die of thirst before I die of diabetes. This made me hate her more (the fact that during discussion she's not looking made me not to like her already). She also suggested to see the opthalmologist because my vision is affected. The opthalmologist is nicer but when I told her to take the vision test after I have the other lab test (blood tset, unrine and ECG), she retorted, "Ok lang mauna yung iba. Aanhin mo nga ang mata kung patay ka naman". Are they allowed to be that negative? I will not want to go back to her. Not anymore.

I went back the next day to have blood extraction and urine sample and ECG and I got the result the next day. I went to see another general physician because the first doctor is out (Thank God!). The new doctor is better. She look at me when giving her opinion and more jolly. She told me that the results are bad. Everything is high - blood sugar, cholesterol and uric acid. Good thing that my liver is healthy. The high blood pressure is a secondary effect of high blood sugar. She asked me to see a nephrologist (to see the state of my kidney) and endocrinologist (to give me medication on insulin).

Since there's no available specialist in Healthway, I went to MCU and found the kidney specialist who interprets and explains the lab results to me and give me medications. Since she's an internist also, I would not need to see another doctor (endocrinologist). She covered everything from my medication and diet.

Yes folks. I am a diabetic. From this point, no more white Toblerone and extra rice. There is a long list of food that I cannot eat and this is torture. But I know someday things will be back to normal. As the song in Avenue Q says, this is just FOR NOW.

Five Hundred Twenty-five Thousand Six Hundred Minutes

from the musical Rent

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Seasons of Love

Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand moments so dear
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure - measure a year ?
*
In daylights - in sunsets
In midnights - in cups of coffee
In inches - in miles
In laughter - in strife
*
In - five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure a year in our life
*
How about love ?
How about love ?
How about love ?
Measure in love
*
Seasons of love
Seasons of love
*
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
Five hundred twenty-five thousand journeys to plan
*
Five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes
How do you measure the life of a women or a man ?
*
In truths that she learned or in times that he cried
In bridges he burned or the way that she died
*
It's time now - to sing out
Tho` the story never ends
Let's celebrate remember a year in the life of friends
*
Remember the love
Remember the love
Remember the love
Measure in love
*
Measure measure your life in love
*
Seasons of love ...
Seasons of love

The Present

Last Friday, since there were no tasks assigned to asked, I dropped by National Bookstore in Podium to buy some stuffs that I can read to pass time as well as to claim my discount card (which I return because they mispelled my lastname). While looking for the latest copy of Reader's Digest, the book "The Present" caught my attention. This book is written by Spencer Johnson, the author of "Who Moved My Cheese?" - another worth-reading book. Since I found "Who Moved My Cheese?" inspiring, so I decided purchase a copy.

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I just finished reading the book and I am so happy I purchased one. It teaches a basic but often forgotten and taken-for-granted lesson -- to focus on the present, to learn from the past and plan for the future. Many may claim that they have heard it and had applied it, but why is it that many are still unhappy or unsucessful? Perhaps they have forgotten. Maybe it's time to review our ways.

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Are we so trapped in our past? Do we still have those emotional baggages in our shoulders that prevented us from moving on? Are we still feeling guilty for things we have done or things, we failed to accomplished? Are we still bothered by "... should have been ..." and "what if ..." thoughts?. The bad news is you can't change the past. There is no undo button to erase yesterday's errors. And time machines are only in movies. But you can still make it up today. One must not dwell on the dark shadows of the past but focus on what is important in the PRESENT. Think of the things one have right now and use them. Learn from past mistakes to avoid not-so-good things from recurring. Today is the moment when the ideas and improvements, that weren't applied in the past, can be utilized. It is time to take a different path and do thing in another approach.

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The book also discussed about planning for the future. In order to be successful, one must plan his goals and put actions in it. Planning is very easy but putting it in action was the challenge. As the book says, "No one can predict or control the future. However, the more you plan what you want to see happen, the less anxious you are in the present and the more the future in known to you."

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Another thing the book talk about is combining the lessons about past, present and future with purpose. It stated, "How do you respond depends upon your purpose. When you want to be happy and more sucessful, it is time to be in the present moment. When you want the past to be better than the past, it is time to learn from the past. When you want the future to be better than the present, it is time to plan for the future."

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http://www.thepresent.com/images/landing/BigBookTop.gif

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Lastly, the book defined success. It is said the success is becoming who you are capable of being and progressing towards worthwhile goals. Each of us defines for ourselves what it means to be successful. With this, no one can judge us wheteher we are sucessful or not for we define our gauge for success.

Morning post

It's Friday morning and I am in the office!

For now

I love this song ... It's a reminder that nothing is permanent in this world. so we should cherish the good stuffs and make the most of it. We should not waste time regretting or worrying about the not-so-good ones. As Princeton put it, "And we'll accept the things we cannot avoid, for now"

Good or bad, they are only here - FOR NOW.

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For Now
by Avenue Q

PRINCETON:
Why does everything have to be so hard?

GARY COLEMAN:
Maybe you'll never find your purpose.

CHRISTMAS EVE:
Lots of people don't.

PRINCETON:
But then- I don't know why I'm even alive!

KATE MONSTER:
Well, who does, really?
Everyone's a little bit unsatisfied.

BRIAN:
Everyone goes 'round a little empty inside.

GARY COLEMAN:
Take a breath,
Look around,

BRIAN:
Swallow your pride,

KATE MONSTER:
FOr now...

BRIAN, KATE, GARY, CHRISTMAS EVE:
For now...

NICKY:
Nothing lasts,

ROD:
Life goes on,

NICKY:
Full of surprises.

ROD:
You'll be faced with problems of all shapes and sizes.

CHRISTMAS EVE:
You're going to have to make a few compromises...
For now...

TREKKIE MONSTER:
For now...

ALL:
But only for now! (For now)
Only for now! (For now)
Only for now! (For now)
Only for now!

LUCY:
For now we're healthy.

BRIAN:
For now we're employed.

BAD IDEA BEARS:
For now we're happy...

KATE MONSTER:
If not overjoyed.

PRINCETON:
And we'll accept the things we cannot avoid, for now...

GARY COLEMAN:
For now...

TREKKIE MONSTER:
For now...

KATE MONSTER:
For now...

ALL:
But only for now! (For now)
Only for now! (For now)
Only for now! (For now)
Only for now!
Only for now!
(For now there's life!)
Only for now!
(For now there's love!)
Only for now!
(For now there's work!)
For now there's happiness!
But only for now!
(For now discomfort!)
Only for now!
(For now there's friendship!)
Only for now (For now!)
Only for now!
Only for now! (Sex!)
Is only for now! (Your hair!)
Is only for now! (George Bush!)
Is only for now!
Don't stress,
Relax,
Let life roll off your backs
Except for death and paying taxes,
Everything in life is only for now!

NICKY:
Each time you smile...

ALL:
...Only for now

KATE MONSTER:
It'll only last a while.

ALL:
...Only for now

PRINCETON:
Life may be scary...

ALL:
...Only for now
But it's only temporary
Ba-dum ba-dum
Ba-dum ba-dum
Ba dum ba-dum
Ba-da da da da
ba-da da-da da da-da
Ba-dum ba-da, ba-dum ba-da
ohhhh-

PRINCETON:
Everything in life is only for now.

Another no-task day

I have survived another day doing nothing but surfing the net and writing a blog entry about the reunion last Saturday. Before, I used to complain because I've been bombarded by endless tasks. And now, I am still complaining because I am doing nothing. Kasi naman, I am not used to it. Nakakabobo ito. I just wish na dahil lang sa holiday itong slowdown na ito.

Coming home where it all started

It is the theme of the general assembly last Saturday which turnout to be quite disappointing. I find it disappointing because it was not supported by the alumni themselves. Maybe many are not informed about the said get-together but I heard that a lot them showed no interest in attending at all. To make things worst, the event was challenged by rain and by two big television specials - Pinoy Big Brother Big Night and the Coronation of Miss World 2005.

This is the second attempt to conduct an alumni homecoming. The first one, from what I heard, failed due to the former school administrator's lack of support. And this time, due to lack of information dissemination and simply by support of the alumni. Too bad.

The gym is arranged as if there's a wedding reception whose motiff is red and white. The HRS students provided the catering service and I could say that the food is good especially the fish fillet (if i know that only few will attend, I surely ask the server to give me more pieces). Due to the poor turnout, the program started very late. We (Me-an, Jheck and Than-than) arrived past seven and we were expecting that we're kinda late. It's such a surprise for us to discover few people in gym and most of the tables are still unoccupied. We were settling ourselves in a table in the middle of the court when Bernadeth approach us. She's with her older sister (one of the first graduates of CDSC) and brother Francis (of batch 1991). The song "Salamat" by the Dawn played loud and repeatedly. Since the music is so loud, we decided to get out of the gym and take a look around the new school. We happened to pass by Mrs Nayo's window who is the currennt high school and elementary principal and have a chance to have a photo sessions with Mrs Lim, Mrs Salvador and Miss Somoza (I'll post the pics later).

When we go back to our table, we were told that dinner is serve. Since we're really hungry, we went to the buffet table and started a line for the food. They served rice, beef steak, steamed vegetable, fish fillet and buko pandan. A power point presentation of old pictures were shown during dinner. Among the pictures, we saw our old ACP picture taken when we won in the Flight Drill Competition in Villamor and a Christmas party picture when we were sophomores.

The programs started very late around nine pm when everyone starts looking at their watches thinking what they are missing with Pinoy Big Brother. The program started with the usual entrance of color, doxology and rendition of national anthem. While the student cadets are marching during the entrance of colors, Me-an can't help to comment that the marching is noisy and then we recalled our ACP days. The current uniform looks great but our ACP uniform is still the best. At the midst of discussion of ACP uniform, Than-than spotted a papable one. His eyes were still stuck his "papa" when the dancers come to the stage for the doxology. Bernadeth told him that the one of the prettty dancers is the papable's girlfirend. He retorted "Hindi naman sya kayang buhayin nyan no. Sa akin na lang sya." Then came the national anthem rendered in violin by a student. Jerrick commented that the school really improved because they have student violinist. When we were in highschool, teachers just randonmly assigned a student to give a vocal rendition in acapella. Me-an even recalled a time when Jheck sang the shortcut version of Lupang Hinirang during a program when we were highschool. We were kidding Jheck that he might get asked to sing with the violin tha night. After the national anthem, the lyrics of the school hymn/march appeared on the mini-widescreen. Earlier, we were discussing that if there's a singing contest for the school hymn, we will go for it. As Than-than says. "Talagang eeksena ako". Unluckily, there's no contest. But there's an unexplainable feeling while chanting the hymn. Can't explain it but all I can say that it felt like highschool. Must be school pride.

The program continued with the opening remarks and talks from the current administrators talking about the plans for the Alumni Organization. Then came the game. Since there are lack of participants, they merged us (Joy, Me-an, Than-than and me) with the batch 85 graduates. Each of us have an assigned letters pinned at our back that spelled CECILIANS and we were asked to form words based on their questions. The game went well despite of the loud background music causing us not to hear the clues being read. And we won a pin for a prize. I dunno how could we ever lose if there are no oppposing team? When we went down from the stage, a man from the admin table approached us smiling and shook our hand saying thank you for participating. Later, we discovered that the man was the current school president. WOW!

The next game is a trivia questions and "bring me" where I won another pin because i still have my 3rd year high school id. Then came the portion when every batch elected a batch representative. For batch 93, we have Engr. Jonathan M. Cano F.D. What's FD? Fashion Designer. Than-than have lots of idea for our batch for next year's school silver anniversary.

It is almost at the end of the program when the Bucio twins (Pip and Pol) came.

The night ended when the Pulang Ipis Band (they are alumni from Bryan's batch) start jamming Eraserheads song after it took them so long arranging their stuffs on screen. People quickly disappeared. I think they are in the hurry to go home hoping they would still see the announcement of the first Pinoy Big Brother winner or whatever left to see.

On highschool reunion

We will be having a highschool reunion on Dec 10. For a self-confessed workaholic who was tied to his work for years and haven't seen some classmates for a long time, I'm kinda excited.

Last Monday, Than-than told me that some of our classmates thought that reunion is a venue for payabangan. I beg to disagree! I am quite disappointed with this comment. After a couple of years not seeing people that they spend years of their life, aren't they curious where are they now or what are they doing? Who among our classmates got married and have kids and who are still single?

I believe that it should be more of kamustahan and rekindling old friendship. Rather than bragging of accomplishments, why not reminisce good old highschool memories. We can talk about things such as:
- how we sucessfully staged Florante at Laura, Noli Me Tangere and El Filibusterismo
- how some got suspended giving support to Josephine and Arnel in an interschool oratorical contest (this has lots of juicy stuffs in it)
- how funny stuffs happened in the during classes.

As they say, it's all in the mindset.

At last! A blog!

Before I was just reading friends' blog. Now I have my own.

Can't wait to spill out my thoughts.