alphabet soup

things that have been swirling in my head the past couple of weeks:

A is for Almodovar - I rented "All About My Mother" after seeing "Volver." My new favorite director.

B is for Brooklyn - My uncle who just passed away lived in Brooklyn.

C is for Chinese New Year - 2007 is the year of the boar.

D is for Dogeaters - A play that Jeff and Arlene saw two weeks ago. I drove them to the theater, but didn't see the play because Sot and I drove around Hollywood instead.

E is for Eucalyptus - My mom has this herbal toothpaste that I used last weekend. It had eucalyptus in it. It was like spreading Vicks Vaporub all over my mouth.

F is for Foxhole - Aimee told me yesterday that Foxhole is the name of Sheezy's old apartment. I miss that girl.

G is for Groundhog Day - Jen's favorite day of the year and a great Bill Murray movie.

H is for Howard K. Stern - I can't turn on the TV or flip a newspaper without hearing or seeing this guy's name. I'm so over it.

I is for Imogen Heap - Some Brit singer who looked ridiculous at the Grammy Awards.

J is for Justin - DUH.

K is for King of Queens - I was watching Idol at Janet's last night and her friend mentioned she was going to a taping of this show. I said "That's still on?"

L is for LA (lah) - Sot kept calling the city "LA." He'd say "I want to move to LA." Fun.

M is for Madness - As in Stop the insanity, Britney Spears! I remember when your belly-baring Rolling Stone cover was a big deal. We want that girl back!

N is for New York - There's a possible photo shoot with Nickelodeon stars next month. I might get to go. I'm very excited.

O is for Oscar night - Oscars. Heidi. Wine. Munchies. Wine. Third year in a row!

P is for Pinkberry - I've hit the Larchmont, Los Feliz and K-Town locations so far. Original with blackberry, yogurt chips, and granola for me. Yum.

Q is for Queerty - A blog site I discovered today. There's a post on a Thai "Spice Girls" group called Venus Flytrap. They consist of five transgendered women. Nice.

R is for Ryan Seacrest - An Asian semifinalist who was barefoot on Idol last night stood taller than Ryan. Sad.

S is for Sotiris - Everyone loved him. My friends' opinions on "the boy" counts so much. He's a big winner.

T is for Tom B - Rest in peace.

U is for Urth Cafe - Flourless. Chocolate. Cake.

V is for Ventura - My sister's beach apartment is amazing. I can't wait for the summer.

W is for Wonka candy - We have a year's supply at the office. This is not good for me since I'm between dentists.

X is for Xtina - March 6th at Staples. Take notes, Britney.

Y is for Yellow Fever - A term I heard yesterday for people who are solely attracted to Asians. You can usually find these people at Game Boi, Friday nights at Micky's.

Z is for Z Pack - The antibiotics my doctor prescribed but advised me not to get unless my two-week long cold got worse. It didn't.

tomorrow

sotiris leaves tonight. back to london. the last six days have been great. he hung out with my friends. he met my friend/coworkers this morning. we talked about it last night, and we're taking baby steps to get to the real thing. it's going to be good. tomorrow we'll be talking again, but now we have lots of new things to talk about, laugh about, and share. it's going to be good.

PROGRESS

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-02-07-gay-teens-cover_x.htm

In Memoriam

My Tito (uncle) Rene passed away this morning of a massive heart attack. He lived in Brooklyn, New York with my aunt and his daughter Bea. He is also survived by his two sons, Joseph and David, who live in Manila. He was my godfather. The last time I saw him was during my grandmother's funeral in 2004. My uncle emailed the family often, with news of how he and his family are doing, and also to praise the accomplishments of his children, nieces and nephews. He was proud of my sister and I for pursuing and having successful careers in publishing.

This is a letter I saved, written by my uncle, days after the September 11th attacks:

"September 21, 1972, I was in Davao City. Everything was silent. I turned on the radio, there was no reception nor transmission. I turned on the TV, there was just a clouded screen. Nothing. I tried to call up the office, there was no dial tone. Then I went out and I saw soldiers arresting long haired men (hippies at that time). Joy was only 2 years old and Dave, 2 months old. Then I heard from my neighbor that Martial Law was declared by Marcos. My entire world changed all of a sudden.

September 11, 2001

As usual, the morning started with Jo leaving first for work while I brought Bea to school. Jo takes the L train and transfers to the A train at Broadway Junction, East New York. Bea's school, where she is now grade 7 is only 3 blocks away from us on the street, corner of Seneca Avenue. We are near the border between Brooklyn and Queens so her school is actually in Queens already.

After I brought her to school, I logged onto the Internet via AOL and saw the email of Atchie about the camping adventure of the Tatalui Boys and I made a response if you might recall. I logged off and suddenly the phone rung. It was Jo, who learned about the bombing in her office. She said I had been calling you and the line is busy.

I said why? Didn't you know, the World Trade Center has been attacked. I immediately turned on to NY1, channel 01 of the local cable company and saw the event happening before my very eyes. The twin towers were still up and then I saw them crumbling one after the other.

I called up JFK and my officemate by the name of Alicia Folkes was in a hurried voice. I asked what was happening. She told me everyone was in panic and leaving the building. I called up again after a few minutes and only the answering system responded. Just the same, to make it official, I left a message that I would not be reporting to the office that afternoon,

I called up the school of Bea and the Principal advised us that we are free to bring the children home anytime but the dismissal time would still be the same at 2:30.
Since I still had matters to attend to, I decided to go by dismissal time.

I called up Gari but he was not able to answer and I left word in his answering machine about the incident. Nobody answered when I called up Atchi.
I got back on line and gave notice to the 3C members about what happened to the Twin Towers.

The phone rang after I logged off. It was Daisy and I told her we were doing fine. She called up from her office. Ed's call immediately followed and we had a nice talk.

I called up Jo and told her I would not go to work and said I will pick her up later.
At 2:30 PM I picked up Bea from her school and we drove around. The vantage point nearest to our place was the K Mart Mall along Metropolitan Avenue. It is a tall building with the parking deck on top and the view of Manhattan is very good.

We went there and found that it was guarded by soldiers and we were not allowed to go up. I decided to go to the Brooklyn Bridge where there is a very good view of the twin towers. Unfortunately, there were so many policemen blocking all roads leading to Manhattan and again we were not able to reach that place. All we saw was the thick smoke billowing out of Manhattan. I told Bea as we looked at the cloud of smoke: "Believe it or not those are parts of the WTC Twin Towers flying in the air."

At 5:30 PM we met up with Jo in our rendezvous point at Genovese Pharmacy at the corner of Rockaway Blvd. and Woodhaven Blvd. We again went around to see spots where we could get a good view, still we were not allowed to get close.

We decided to drop by a newly renovated Warehouse/Supermarket near our place and did some panic buying of our own, reminiscent of the panic buying in the Philippines. It also happened here. Very big volume of foodstuff were sold that day.
Then we went home and stayed glued with CNN and NYI.

When Bea was about 2 years old, we had the Middle East Crisis from the last quarter of 1990 to first quarter of 1991. Ten years ago we were glued to CNN when it made its first hit covering the event. Now, I am doing the same thing, only I am now on the US side and ground zero at that.

Before midnight (9:00 PM in LA) I called up Ima to reassure her that we are doing fine. We had a nice talk and she related to me how they felt when Pearl Harbor was attacked and the Philippines the following day. How lives can change so abruptly without warning.

Actually, the whole world is not fine. We will be in this for the long haul and let us all hope that we can all go through this well. Let us keep the 3Cs alive.

Funny how history repeats itself. I hope we all learn from lessons in the past so that our future will be properly guided.

Just wanting to share."

Love,
CS Rene

spotted at the high school musical concert last monday

yes, two rows in front of my coworkers and i sat clerks/mallrats/chasing amy, etc. director kevin smith, aka "silent bob." he was totally into the 'tis. i, on the other hand, was totally into the star of the show: