Ink Talk

Once upon a time in college, I thought of getting a tattoo. I knew people got them to express something. Some got tattoo-happy, of course, and had their skin etched for every little incident. And, of course, I knew some simply got tattoos that they just thought would look cool. At that time, it did not feel like there was anything important enough to warrant a permanent representation on my skin, so I ditched the idea. As young as I was, I knew that most things in life are fickle… my feelings would change, my way of thinking would change, my preferences would change… It was not about capturing something at that time. It was more about a steadfast feature that I had. Anyway, now that I’m a mother, if ever I do get a tattoo, I know that it would have something to do with my child and that it would have to be perfectly executed. Tattooing is definitely an art form and you have to be impressed by its artists (the good ones anyway) who are able to create such fine tattoos. This is probably why we now have the various Ink series (Miami, LA, and London are the ones I know of thus far) for our viewing pleasure. The tattoo culture is certainly interesting. It’s like a brother - err - “siblinghood”. The tattooed can even congregate for some Tattoo Chat on the Internet. Setting up an account is for free. There, people can show off their body art and discuss all things tattoo.

Happy Birthday to My Dear Sister

Christmas started out great and ended with me barely lucid. No alcohol was involved, but the exhaustion caused by the season's bustle is catching up (has caught up and taken over and completely trounced me). I was ready to turn in at 8pm (who am I kidding? more like at 5pm), but couldn't because we were at my inlaws'. So I think we finally got home at... 11? Like I said, the majority of my being was already dead to the world. I hate sleeping in the car. I get weird body aches and having to wake up to get up to our apartment and go through the rituals of preparing for bed is a real pain. Gol-lee! Listen to me. Don't you just hate a whiner at Christmas time?

Anyway, it's my sister's birthday today. This is her second birthday struck down by her nameless condition and I continue to ask for prayers for her. The church youth group (with a sprinkling of youth group wannabes/stragglers - like us, hehe. Honestly, I can't imagine myself as part of any other group than that of the young people, lol) is throwing her a party today, so off to Marikina we go.

Noel

So to our friends and relatives with whom we maintain snail mail correspondence, our Christmas card will be getting to you late (again) this year as we didn't get the chance to do the shoot until yesterday.

To the rest of you, HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!! :D

Here are some pics from yesterday's shoot that didn't make it to the collage, lol.

Goth Talk

Being a student of European Languages, I had to go through several classes that discussed the history and culture of the different European nations. We studied architecture, music, literature, etc. One of the styles we learned about was Gothic and together with that the history of invasion by the Goths/Visigoths (in my case, since I was a Spanish major, los godos y visigodos). When I was studying in Spain, I joined field trips that focused on Gothic architecture, so I knew about the characteristic features and got to experience the ambience as well. Speaking of this particular atmosphere, we can segue to the current connotation of Goth, which probably stems from that. It involves music and style effusing bleak imagery and the color black. There’s a community of Goth aficionados worldwide and you can find most of them in the Goth Chat Room.

Just some random updates/anecdotes

So here's what's been happening around here lately:
- I joined Facebook. I know I said I wouldn't join another one, but it's a great way to keep in touch, so... just add me :)
- I made the mistake of allowing Marguerite 5 seconds of unsupervised time with a set of markers (non-toxic and washable; and in my defense... no, there's no defense. I had decided to squeeze in a quick kitchen chore) and the front door ended up with some "pretty" (according to Marguerite) purple markings (now erased) while the bed sheet remains jazzed up with rainbow scribbles.
- I was making flour tortillas to freeze and Marguerite conveniently ditched toy time and came running up to help me roll the dough. At first she came brandishing one of the paper towel tubes we had been using to sing in each other's ear (I guess it looked like a rolling pin to her), so I had to give up the actual rolling pin to her. The tortillas ended up okay, but table, floor, and child were unnecessarily covered with flour.
- Bedtime? We thumb our noses at bedtime... well, hopefully, only temporarily. It just seems so impossible to get to bed early these days. The required number of hours of sleep is more or less met, but bedtime is another matter entirely.

Somebody Else's Checklist

Have seen this circulating the blogosphere and as I need a quick post...

Rules: bold it if you’ve done it.

1. Started your own blog
2. Slept under the stars
3. Played in a band (but always got to say "I'm with the band" - lol)
4. Visited Hawaii
5. Watched a meteor shower
6. Given more than you can afford to charity
7. Been to Disneyland (DisneyWorld)
8. Climbed a mountain
9. Held a praying mantis
10. Sang a solo (in church, when I didn't know better... life lesson: when the congregation has this notion that all PKs sing like angels, disabuse them of this)
11. Bungee jumped
12. Visited Paris
13. Watched a lightning storm at sea
14. Taught yourself an art from scratch
15. Adopted a child
16. Had food poisoning
17. Walked to the top of the Statue of Liberty
18. Grown your own vegetables
19. Seen the Mona Lisa in France
20. Slept on an overnight train
21. Had a pillow fight
22. Hitch hiked
23. Taken a sick day when you’re not ill (I started young!)
24. Built a snow fort
25. Held a lamb (how about a kid - the goat kind)
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Run a Marathon (used to watch my dad run in one when he was younger)
28. Ridden in a gondola in Venice
29. Seen a total eclipse (sun and moon!)
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset (wish I did this more)
31. Hit a home run
32. Been on a cruise (just a sunset one)
33. Seen Niagara Falls in person
34. Visited the birthplace of your ancestors (some)
35. Seen an Amish community
36. Taught yourself a new language (not on my own)
37. Had enough money to be truly satisfied (not now, but early on in our marriage, we had enough to be comfortable - it's relative though because I don't need a lot)
38. Seen the Leaning Tower of Pisa in person
39. Gone rock climbing
40. Seen Michelangelo’s David
41. Sung karaoke (I'm Filipino, duh)
42. Seen Old Faithful geyser erupt
43. Bought a stranger a meal at a restaurant
44. Visited Africa
45. Walked on a beach by moonlight
46. Been transported in an ambulance (a friend's family owns a hospital and I got to hitch a ride from her one time she was driving it)
47. Had your portrait painted (well, isn't this a right shame? somebody should do something about this! Mark? lol)
48. Gone deep sea fishing (not deep sea)
49. Seen the Sistine Chapel in person
50. Been to the top of the Eiffel Tower in Paris
51. Gone scuba diving or snorkeling
52. Kissed in the rain (not the movie kind, I guess)
53. Played in the mud
54. Gone to a drive-in theater
55. Been in a movie (but I've been on TV)
56. Visited the Great Wall of China
57. Started a business
58. Taken a martial arts class (I can still see my taek won do instructor shaking his head at my back kick)
59. Visited Russia
60. Served at a soup kitchen
61. Sold Girl Scout Cookies (but I was a Girl Scout... we do it differently here)
62. Gone whale watching
63. Got flowers for no reason
64. Donated blood, platelets or plasma
65. Gone sky diving
66. Visited a Nazi Concentration Camp
67. Bounced a check
68. Flown in a helicopter
69. Saved a favorite childhood toy (wasn't really into toys, but books, yeah)
70. Visited the Lincoln Memorial
71. Eaten Caviar
72. Pieced a quilt(in the process)
73. Stood in Times Square
74. Toured the Everglades
75. Been fired from a job
76. Seen the Changing of the Guards in London
77. Broken a bone
78. Been on a speeding motorcycle
79. Seen the Grand Canyon in person
80. Published a book (was published in an anthology)
81. Visited the Vatican
82. Bought a brand new car (brand new? naaaah)
83. Walked in Jerusalem
84. Had your picture in the newspaper (lifestyle section, okay?)
85. Read the entire Bible
86. Visited the White House
87. Killed and prepared an animal for eating (well, fish)
88. Had chickenpox
89. Saved someone’s life (an animal's)
90. Sat on a jury
91. Met someone famous
92. Joined a book club
93. Lost a loved one
94. Had a baby
95. Seen the Alamo in person
96. Swam in the Great Salt Lake
97. Been involved in a law suit
98. Owned a cell phone (never bought one though)
99. Been stung by a bee
100. Read an entire book in one day (all the time!)

Not even half!

O Is for Offline

I'm still here, but these days I'm mostly reading than going online (obviously no regular gig yet). The books - well, they've always been my guilty pleasure. I took advantage of the 500-peso book promo at Books for Less (buy regular-priced books amounting to php500 and you can get marked down books amounting to the same cost free) and I've been reading Sue Grafton since Monday and I've just now started on Sara Paretsky. Obviously, I love women mystery writers. I got some books for Marguerite too, of course.

Les Petits Saboteurs

Today is our church's annual yard sale and fun day. I meant to head out to Marikina early today, but Marguerite, for some reason, decided to wake up at midnight and stayed awake until about thirty minutes ago. Kids certainly have a particular genius for sabotaging even the best laid out plans. It's pretty uncanny how they manage to do it every time, especially when the situation's crucial and involves serious things like deadlines. It's not that bad today, but a monkey wrench is a monkey wrench and the planner ends up taking it personally, lol.

Btw, I don't look like a battered wife anymore, just like somebody who's getting over a cold sore (and I've never had a cold sore in my life). Wisdom teeth are vicious little(?) things :(

Have you done your Christmas shopping? I think I'll do mine in January *rolls eyes* Honestly, I approach the entire thing with trepidation this year. The season sneaked up on me when I wasn't looking and I'm no way near prepared for it. Gosh, help me snap out of this funk!. I resolve to be merry, I resolve to be merry, I resolve to be merry... I shall not utter bah-humbug or any equivalent... Really, how much easier if Christmas was kept to its true essence. Oh well...

Another Post-hiatus Daybook

The Simple Woman's Daybook

For This Week...

Outside my Window... cloudy skies, no rain, but dense enough to block the sunset. I live on the seventh floor of an apartment building now and with the door to the balcony wide open, I have a pretty great view.
I am thinking... about WAHM options and starting dinner
I am thankful for... the healing and this new adventure, a new opportunity to test my faith
From the kitchen... some left-over soup (will be making tofu stir-fry with corn and broccoli in a bit)
I am creating... a home out of this box
I am wearing... rubber ducky boxers and a lavender tank top
I am reading... Checklist for Life for Women
I am hoping... to find a replacement for my old regular writing gig
I am hearing... typical building noises
Around the house... Marguerite's toys and general lived-in disarray
One of my favorite things... the Chestnut Creek 12 Teas of Christmas set (my aunt sends me one every year)
A Few Plans For The Rest Of The Week... get in touch with childcare experts (for three of the articles I'm writing), continue with the toilet training (my daughter's, not mine, lol), try out other writing options...
Here is a picture thought I am sharing with you...

Marguerite in the car clutching Maggie the doll (there was also a Maggie the dog), out on one of our late night drives just because (this pic is probably a year old)

La Misérable

What a miserable week! Just wanted to let you guys know that I've been wretched sick this past week that's why I haven't been able to update the blogs. Not even a month after we had left my parents' house, we (at least Marguerite and I) had to move back in since I was so pathetically helpless. Thank God really that it wasn't the flu. I wasn't catching anyway whatever it was - which really all just boils down to my immune system going down (no sleep Friday night - didn't catch up on it when I had the chance - got caught in the rain several times Sunday - took a jarring cold shower Monday morning just when my body was already hinting that I needed to get me some proper rest... THIS IS WHY I AM SO FURIOUS WITH MYSELF!!!). I was feverish for a couple of days and had all sorts of body aches. I had a terrible migraine as well with the pain emanating from my eye sockets, so for a moment there, we thought my eyesight might be failing too. My mom offered to lend me a maid for a couple of days, but I had a vision of the girl coming to me to ask about what to prepare for meals and me being completely stumped, so I thought forget it, better just go to my Mom's.

Anyway, as though I wasn't miserable enough, my stupid wisdom tooth started bothering me so I went to the dentist next door to see what could be done about it. She suggested an extraction and I decided to go for it. Well, two hours later, the hateful little tooth was still there (the crown was brittle so it broke leaving the root still firmly embedded), the corner of my mouth was chafed and bruised and I'd bled enough for bupkus so the verdict was that we would wait a week or two before she would attempt it again. I asked if there was an alternative and, of course, there wasn't or that would just make my life too easy, so the idea was that the pull of gravity would make the tooth descend (don't know why gravity can't go all out and make the entire thing drop right out of my gum) and in a week or so the forcep would have something to hold onto. Harrumph. So now I'm taking expensive antibiotics for the wounds I incurred from the failed extraction. Took three pain relievers too, but decided not to continue. They didn't help with the pain anyway. The antibiotics make me feel all out-of-sorts - dizzy and nauseated, but I think I'll be sticking it out for the rest of the seven days. How ironic that I endured my bout of the "flu-ish" without resorting to drugs only to be subjected to anesthesia and antibiotics in the end. I knew I should have just ground up some cloves again. The really bad thing is that my right cheek is swollen and I've got an ugly red something at the corner of my lower lip, which combined make me look like a battered wife. I can imagine trying to explain about the wisdom (blech) tooth and people going, "Of course, of course" all the while thinking "The excuses these abused women cook up."

My husband was very sweet, btw. He didn't go to work last Tuesday to take care of chores, Marguerite, and me. I think I used up his stores of domesticity though because when I got home last night, the apartment was exactly as I had left it on Wednesday. He didn't even clear the bed of toys, books, toiletries... the fridge had a bunch of expired stuff, the garbage needed to be taken out... oh well, why give myself apoplexy on top of everything else?

Getting to Know You...