Sunday Blah-dee Sunday

Ugh, the stifling summer heat. Surprisingly it was the lack of activity that almost did me in today. Phone calls to friends didn't turn out as expected, and within less than an hour of having 2 of my nephews sneeze on/ at me did I develop a cold.

Am also trudging through Peter Milligan's run on X-Men. Dull drama at best, waste of time that could be spent reading better comics at worst.

Easter Sunday w/ Kids and College Moms

When I got the text from Anne inviting me to her daughter (and my goddaughter by-proxy) Zylle Aniela Cole's (aka ZAC) 1st birthday party, I thought "Tom's World" was short for "Tomorrow's World." Turns out the place was like a Pinoy version of Chucky Cheese and NOT a sci-fi themed museum.

To "blend in" properly I brought kids w/ me: nieces and nephew Jasmine, Mia and Hans. We got unlimited ride privileges and a handful to tokens to splurge on whack-a-mole machines, basketball shoots and the like. The rides, though tame, nonetheless made me slightly queasy. Hans participated in the magic show and even sported looks of genuine bewilderment when the foam balls in his closed fists improbably debt doubling. They gave him a giant plastic sword for his efforts.

Chatastrophe

My online chats w/ friends always seem to come in "phases," as in they would start off light, go on for several weeks, then stop altogether, w/ perhaps an occasional Hi or Good morning from me every now and then. In seasonal terms you could call these my Summer Months. It was always something to look forward to, knowing there's a ready ear on the other side of cyberspace.

While it makes me sad that the chat periods come and go, I understand why it has to be. It's not like I have a intimate relationship w/ these people, and we do have lives to live and (sometimes) other friends.

From Fungster to E.Ang to GoodMorningDear to DCo to JCL to ItalianChic. Now the latest casualty is HiyaFelineLegume (man, I suck at aliases), but the reason for the end of this phase ticks me off: I'm being ignored. Long story short: our last chat ended w/ a verbal tiff. While HFL apologized and I admit to overreacting (and apologized the next day), I think that could've been the end of it. No such luck. Being flat-out ignored by the one person who said they'd never do that "because I don't want to be rude" strikes me as hypocritical.

Are you mad at me? Fine. Need some cool-off time? Fine. Just tell me. Don't be all rude and pretending you don't see me. This kind of runaround is exactly what caused the the verbal tiff to begin with, remember? If by some cosmic-technological improbability you really haven't been receiving my messages since that last chat (w/ your busy social/work sked and all), then apologies again. Otherwise: Pfft, what a disappointment.

New House(broken)guest

Guarded by fiberglass beagle.

She's adorable up to the point where you let her outta the cage and she goes onesies or twosies on the floor instead of back in the cage.

I call her Whiney. The 'h' is silent, unlike the dog.

This is her nibbling on grass (and a bit of my toe):

Good-Byes & Sad-Byes

Uncle Peter passed away this week. We weren't related. He was the husband of my mom's classmate from high school. Though the most time I ever spent w/ him was about a week (China vacation 2007), he made quite an impression on me. Hard-pressed to find a nicer guy.

So naturally, because God has a weird sensa humor, nice guys get and pass away from cancer.

That Thursday night in Santo Tomas Hospital I heard brought in the crash cart to revive him, w/c worked, but in the end it didn't last.

What I find strange is that I feel more grief from his passing than I did when my own grandparents passed away.

* * *

Speaking of nice guys... I drove to DLSU Manila yesterday (and got to park the car in-campus again) to attend Dr. Doy Del Mundo's surprise retirement party (the party was the surprise, not the retirement) organized by Mike Lim and a whole buncha DLSU students of his. First and former Pinoy MTV VJ Melanie Kasul (didn't recognize her 'til Eileen told me who she was) was co-hosting the program. As per your usual retirement celebrations there were songs sung, tributes paid, skits enacted, stories told, food served and thanks given. The only skit that caught my eye was the one depicting Dr. Doy's life after retirement, w/c apparently consisted of judging reality shows and hosting UAAP games courtside.

My birthday present to him was an actual Artistic License (too bad the final print came out smaller than I expected). I was probably the only one from ID 94 to attend, not that there weren't familiar faces in the audience, like Rache, Patty, Daniel and Eileen. There were also famous faces like Gil Portes and Bembol Roco.

After the program a good hour was spent by Doy signing autographs and having his picture taken. And boy, did these organizers miss out of some cool puns, like instead of Doy is My Boy logo done in the style of American Idol, they could have written PiDOY IDOL, or iDoy instead of "IDOL" on the custom-made T-shirts.

I wasn't able to buy the T-shirt or sign the guestbook, so I'll make do with the extreme close-up picture Eileen took of us. (Mental note: UNzoom before handing the digicam over to someone to take your picture.) Dr. Doy was a major influence on Eileen in developing her love of film and to Jemps' (wasn't able to attend) love of writing movie reviews. For me he was simply the best MassCom prof you could ask for: instructive but undemanding. So while I celebrate his new chapter in life, I pity the ones left behind (i.e. future DLSU MassCom students) who still have to put up w/ Sibayan.

Afterwards Eileen and I hung around Robinson's Ermita, checking out the even newer wing they built. I was feeling tired, most likely from hunger. After shopping for comics on sale (completed my Batman: Broken City storyline, as well as the 2nd Warren Ellis story on Ultimate Fantastic Four). I regretted ordering the salmon at SBarro's coz it cost twice as much as their deep-dish pizza, but definitely not as filling.

The Italian's Job

BF-In-Training Update: After dropping Pa off at the casino (his "afternoon delight," as it were), I stopped by the nearest Starbucks, got 2 mocha frapps, went to G's house and gave her one of them as a surprise. She gave me the dark chocolates she got me from her trip to Belgium.

* * *

After nice lengthy afternoon chat w/ HelloKittyPeanut, I got a nice surprise when I found my Italian friend Irene on YM after a lengthy online absence. She wanted me to guess where she was, w/c meant she forgot telling me in our last chat that she moved to ChongQing, China to be with her Chinese boyfriend to pursue a job and a whirlwind romance.

Funny how romance clashes with reality.

She tells me she's now single again, having split up w/ her Man (or "Chinese Boy," as she put it) after realizing she couldn't live up to the guy's mom's expectations of becoming a "proper" Chinese wife, or w/ the constant meddling of the latter. Or the concept of eating "mah kut" (w/c they prefer to eat spicy) and just spitting the bones out on the dinner table. I guess she was expecting some culture clashing (whaddya expect when spaghetti meets noodles), but I told her that those things she experienced are very Asian customs, not just Chinese, so they'll be very hard to get away from if she wants to settle w/ an Asian guy-- in Asia, at least (can't speak for those who grew up on the Westernized countries).

Then she said the words no child would admit to saying: "I should have listened to my parents."

Needless to say the guy wasn't happy she broke it off, but at least (she says) they'll still friends, and she's now residing in-campus as part of the faculty. While I'm sure this experience has revised her opinion on Asian men (if not turned off completely by it), at least she had the meatballs to take the leap and experience it firsthand, instead of just hanging out in her flat in Milan, chatting w/ the guy and wondering, "What if...?"

Ad Exdreamum

More vivid dreams, and by vivid I mean I can remember more details.

I was at Mendiola Street standing outside Holy Spirit College (University?) when I see Eileen coming towards me, dressed all in white and looking svelte. I complimented her on her looks while we walked together towards...

I'm in a church w/ a majority of my high school batchmates. We're doing some kind of formal full dress-rehearsal for a wedding. Not sure who the groom is, but the bride kept switching between 3 of my high-school crushes: J, M and S, all of whom are -- not coincidentally -- married in real life.

Even back in my SJCS days, during programs like this I never stay in my seat, but instead hang out "backstage." They showed the audience a video on the giant white screen where they usually project the church song lyrics. It was mid-afternoon and the lights inside the church weren't on, which was fine; that way they'd be able to see the video. It was R (lesbian batchmate) showing us around J's place and going through her stuff like some hybrid reality show-mix of Cops and MTV Cribs.

Backstage I was hanging w/ KV (not sure if he was part of the entourage or hosting this thing) when I decided to go the entrance of the church to see if they could do something about the heat. No lights inside, but no fans, either. While sweating in my barong Tagalog I remember thinking we're using money from the alumni funds, w/c wasn't much so we probably didn't pay the church much. I saw Edrich seated in the back, but I confused him for Sherman (both of them being big dudes) and complimented him on an excellent softball game we (never) had last week. I then made my way back to where KV was when I realized we were on a break. L was coming down the altar looking bushed. We stopped by our dining room (w/c looked like the one in my house) and got some water from the cooler. Shelby checked up on her too see if she could still go one more round.

Strange Dream Time

(Then again, when isn't a dream strange? )

Mine involved me, BoiT and a 3rd person whose face is being obscured by the nature of dreams fading quickly. I can only remember the last moments of it.

We were at my old high school (again!?), and encountered 3 white horses, strapped but w/o saddles. Somehow we managed to get on them and trotted our way... back into the school? After we got off some politician was calling out for Boit, but for some reason we ran in the opposite direction, right into a crowd of people waiting to the arrival of President Arroyo.

While nudging and shoving our way into the crowd we suddenly found ourselves in front of the President. Correction: I found myself in front of her. I felt time slow down and was left speechless.

Finally I just took my hand out and shook hers, saying "Merry Chirstmas, Ma'am!" Boit wouldn't stop giving me grief, saving over and over: "That's it?" I told him I had something in my head I wanted to tell her, but my mouth was disobeying my brain.