Let's stay together
Loving you whether
Whether times are good or bad
Or happy or sad

That Big Mountain song's been running in my head all morning. Ahh... Saturday mornings. The sky is dark and the weather's really cold. I think I'm about to crawl back to bed in a few.

I just want to let you know that I wouldn't be around this weekend, if things happen as they should. I'll be likely to peep in every now and then, but wouldn't really have the time to comment and stuff.

Anywho, I found this pic and thought I should share. I haven't shared any kiddie pics in a while!

bymydesigns, dragonfly~was across the world and Z.˚rz made me remember that I, at one point in my life, used to draw. When I was a kid I would draw on anyplace I could—my notebooks, exam papers, Mama's glass table, and my parent's bedroom wall. My second-grade teacher saw one of my drawings and said I had 'talent'. She immediately forced me to join all the drawing contests at school. Feeling proud of that particular drawing that got me 'discovered', I showed it to everybody and my mom tacked it on the refrigerator door proudly. It stayed there for quite a while.

She also bought me this large sketch book that got me drawing and drawing and drawing... you get my point. I continued to draw up until third grade. I entered several school competitions and won a few. Then fourth grade came, and the interest disappeared (I became too busy playing POGS!).

So then high school came. I was more into writing and music at that time, and drawing was buried in the distant background. Everytime we had plays I always looked with indifference at the props and backdrops. I was always either the scriptwriter, stage manager, or if people managed to force me, one of the actors. The interest to draw had completely disappeared. And is cross-stitching considered art? I loathe cross-stitching stuff! I had plenty of those projects in high school... oh man, it pains me just thinking about them.

When Equilibrium had her drawing projects and asked (or pleaded) me to do them, I hated it. I was too lazy and too uninterested, but my parents always scolded me. "Help your sister out!" Mama would yell. "Use your talent to help your sister," Papa would advise. I would bitterly grab the large white cartolina and start drawing. Halfway through the drawing though, I would start to enjoy it. As soon as it was finished, I would feel accomplished and happy about it. It had always been that way. I would hate starting but would love the thing as soon as I got over my laziness and initial reactions of hate. How weird is that?

Sadly, though, most of the time the laziness and initial reactions win.

So recently I was invited to join the "Invalid Item" , and truth be told I don't know if I really deserve to join. I feel like I haven't done any art in quite a while (try years!). bymydesigns have always encouraged me about being an artist, and she had always praised my photography (and for that I thank you Trish) but honestly, I'm unsure about the whole thing, even at my own abilities. For years I've been more involved in other forms of art such as music and photography, but have stopped drawing completely. Maybe that's why I haven't participated much in the group. There's this feeling that I'm unworthy or something.

I haven't drawn or created ANYTHING for years. I had multimedia classes in college but I'm thinking that the interest had disappeared completely. I used Authorware and Director but stopped doing so as soon as I pass the class. I haven't created more than five sigs in this site, too. Just like I told YW ~ Back from Hawaii , I click on Photoshop and as soon as it's all loaded and ready for use, all interest to create something is gone. Pathetic, huh?

I don't know, I'm just rambling. I guess all I'm saying is, I would very much rather pick up a guitar than I would a paintbrush. When I'm at Saguijo, I'd much rather watch the bands perform than look at all the fabulous art upstairs (1st floor is a bar, 2nd floor is an art gallery sealed from all the noise). Maybe the 'drawer' or 'painter' has died in me... never the 'artist', though. That one... I think that one will always live.
 

A while ago, I watched my egg come to a boil. The scary part was, I had fun.

(shakes head vigorously to clear the fog)

http://download.yousendit.com/6F4F7753242F84D3
The lyrics up top and my song last night.

Anyway. Shiela finally showed up at the front door last night, complete with a bag of clothes and stuff. Jeez, that small girl can really amaze. She left Bicol with just a thousand bucks and since Friday have been hip-hopping all across Metro Manila. Stayed at her boyfriend's, stayed at her boyfriend's dad, stayed at her boyfriend's aunt, etc., and finally got here to me. She nailed a job at Quezon City and arrived there for an interview along with that bag full of clothes with her (after the interview she headed straight here so she had to bring it). She said the security guards asked a lot of questions about it, and with her usual snotty voice she haughtily told them that no, it wasn't a bomb and nooo, she wasn't a terrorist. I think the guards were disappointed. Heh.

She and I ended up hanging out all night. We called a couple of our closest friends, it was almost like her homecoming thing But truth be told, I'm really happy she's back. Our village seemed so quiet without her. While she was gone, my friend Mike kept shooting videos to send her. Not good videos, mind you. It's those

You're-Not-Here-And-You're-Missing-Out-On-A-Lot-Of-Things-Muahahahah video

How-Are-You-Over-There-At-Nowhersville-We're-Having-So-Much-Fun-Here-Too-Bad video

Here-We-Are-At-Another-Session-And-You're-Still-Not-Here-Aww-So-There video

and

Hurry-Back-Cause-If-You-Don't-I'm-Gonna-Steal-Your-Boyfriend video.

And all of those are accompanied with a lot of sweet insult words and such. But Mike, Shiela and Ramon have always been like that. Always hating each other's guts but totally and completely loving one another. Yeah, that's even though they don't like to admit it. Me? I'm mostly the one laughing while they all drive each other crazy. Anywayyyy—

So Mike wasn't here last night (busy doing his thesis on another city but Shiela and Ramon said he's just busy with his boyfriends), and Ramon was too tired for the usual drinky-drink night cause he works early the next day. It kind of sucks that we didn't see them last night, the fab four wasn't complete. Hah! But Soc and Alvin was there and we had a good tambay time nevertheless.

The four of us ended up sitting at our driveway/sidewalk thingy, under the light of the moon and a couple of streetlamps, talking and laughing the whole night and into the morning with nothing but a guitar and a pack of smokes. We were all flat broke, man. Shiela smoked like crazy. She said there were no Marlboro Lights or Reds at Bicol, only the sucky ones like Fortune and Winston. Anyway, one pack wasn't enough, so they scraped their pockets and pooled in their coins to buy a few more sticks. Sigh.

Seems like all of them were having some issues in their life one way or another. Alvin's pissed at his dad about something, also pissed at his girlfriend, he was in this whole "I HATE THIS UGLY UGLY WORLD!!!" aura last night. Meanwhile Soc's still having troubles at home and he and his mom have been getting into a lot of fights lately.

Then Shiela hates it that they have no more house here in Las Piñas. She hates it that she's broke, that Christian's (her boyfriend) broke, that her parents are broke. She's pissed that she has to go all house-hopping among her friends just to be able to go around the Metro and find a job. She whined about her dirty clothes and it didn't help that Pilar Waterworks, our main water source, was fixing their main pump so the entirety of our village have had no running water since Sunday. Her text conversation with Ramon on the cellphone went like this:

"Tin told me you finally got a job. What job?" (Shiela).
"Office stuff at UN Avenue."
"WHOOOOOO, aw c'mon, you work at a whore house and you're a pimp, admit it."
"Heheheh, that's right."
"I desperately need money, can you sell me? Hahaha."
"No. Ugly small people are forbidden."
"You'r an idiot. By the way, do you have water over there? I need to wash my clothes."
"No way. I need to take a bath tomorrow, the water's mine."

Sounds like a friendship made in heaven, huh. But those two blokes are there for each other in happy times and desperate times. I remember when Shiela's dad went berserk and it resulted in him beating her. She and Ramon were still neighbors at that time and he had been there for her and helped her get through it. The thing is, we know when it's time to stop fooling around and actually start helping each other. Our friendships have been through so much already. There were many nights of crazy, crazy stuff, but there were also nights of tears and hugs and advices and just plain being there for each other.

We also talked about me leaving last night. We were kind of sad cause it felt like everything's changing. We sucked it up though, and tried to joke through it. Alvin said I have to find a way to make him fit in my luggage. Soc was trying to weasle my Vans slipons from me as a parting gift. Shiela suggested that I should get my mobile roamed.

Change is an inevitable thing.

Shiela left this afternoon for Laguna and will be back in a couple of days, Saturday at the latest. Ramon's planning a grand drinky-drink (inuman) that night. Maybe one of our lasts... no regrets, though.
 

http://www.tourism.gov.ph/

Scarlett 's son Paul and his friend Mark are currently on Vietnam in a trip to Southeast Asia and from what I've read in their travel blogs, lovin' it. Well, if you're planning to travel or if you desire to be a happy tourist I suggest you try our country out (post-Xangsane, of course ). Really, our government should pay me for this!

---------------

Watched a show on TV last night about Russians learning Tagalog. Turned out that the Filipino language is one of the launguages being studied and taught at the University of Moscow. Though I laughed loudly when I saw this pale, red-haired Russian woman speak in our language, she amazed me. She's very fluent. She said she visited the Philippines years ago and have loved everything about us. So she learned Tagalog at the U and then proceeded to teach the lauguage at the University of Moscow herself.

Her students were also interviewed and I was floored. They have very little accents and they speak Filipino so well. My dad and I laughed our butts off when the whole class sang "Biyahe Tayo", the Philippine Tourism song. They were so funny, but so, sooo good!

The show also showcased the Philippine 'spot' on Russia's tourism place thingy (sorry I forgot what it's called) where almost all countries have stands and places and stuff to attract Russian tourists. In there they can have a glimpse of all these countries and get travel plans and such. Okay, so my dad and I laughed again when the russians all clamored to dance tinikling, one of our hardest and most famous cultural dances. Ahem... I've danced it myself, and thank God my feet didn't get cut off. Here's a video of that dance... a slow version, if I may add.

http://youtube.com/watch?v=dl4B33Bx1sk

In that 'spot' we also offered a few of our delicacies (don't worry, no balut) like dried mangoes, peanut bars and such. One Russian guy kept coming back to get 'em dried mangoes over and over again. It has a very sweet and unique taste, yum yum, I tell you. But dried mangoes are kinda expensive here, so when I buy myself some, I make sure I savor it. Here's a pic:

http://www.7d-mango.jp/images/mangotop2.jpg

Yum.

Okay, so next the Russians were served all different kinds of Filipino cuisine at this random restaurant or hotel lobby (still no balut, so don't worry). The show said that compared to Filipino food, Russian food is very simple. So they serve these mouth-watering feast and let the Russians at it. My God you should've seen the looks on their faces! It cracks me up to now. Let's just say that they liked it, and that's in very plain words. And there were no leftovers, man! Wow, Russians got some appetite.

After that they were given some of our tobaccos to compete with the very expensive cuban cigars. I don't see the point in smoking, so let's skip that part. After the commercial it was back to the Phi, this time with the Russian tourists. They went to Cebu (at the Visayas Island), went to the beach, danced with the locals, rode on our unique sailing boat, played with the tarsiers, etc. There was this old Russian lady who went nuts and started dancing like crazy to our local music. Yeah, she was lovin' it. From Russia to the Phi with love


The other day I spotted Ivy online, the friend I told you about who left for the states last January. She stayed at TX for a couple of months but moved to LA eventually. She asked me how I was and I told her about the whole move to Toronto. I also asked her if she was still getting homesick after all these months. I expected her to say 'no' for she seems to be doing really good. Well, she told me that she was still a lot homesick. "Iba pa rin and Pinas,"her words flashed on the IM window, which meant "The Phi is still different."

Yes, you're thinking "Of course she would think that. It's her home!" but truth be told we've known a lot of foreigners who doesn't feel the same way about their own homeland. They move here to the Phi, settle down, and when asked if they miss America or Canada or Korea or Germany they would shrug and tell us that they like it here more. I'm sorry, I know I sound really obnoxious and too proud of my country, but I'm just telling it like it happened.

We've been doing fairly well in arranging stuff around here; the disposing of unnecessary things is well on the go. Our house is a perpetual mess, but it's okay. I've given up about half of my wardrobe because they said it wouldn't do me any good in Canada. Pop has set up this garage sale and some he gave away to charity.

I'm okay about the whole move, really So if you could, just please don't comment about that. You've all been great doing that with a past entry of mine and have encouraged me tons. Thank you. I guess I just needed to vent and talk about my country every now and then.

... I guess I'd rather read witty, funny comments about dried mangoes right now... or Tagalog and Tinikling. I'm lovin' the lighter side.
 

I received this forwarded e-mail from my dad and later on that night all of us had a good laugh about it. We read each and every one of our birthday months and we were surprised and amused how by right and on-the-dot this e-mail is.

Equilibrium kept laughing and dropping these wiseass remarks when she was reading my month (August) out loud. Here's what it said:

AUGUST

Outgoing personality. takes risks. feeds on attention. No self-control. Kind hearted. Self-confident. Loud and boisterous. VERY revengeful. Easy to get along with and talk to. Has an "every thing's peachy" attitude. Likes talking and singing. Loves music. Daydreamer. Easily distracted. Hates not being trusted. BIG imagination. Loves to be loved. Hates studying. in need of "that someone". Longs for freedom. Rebellious when withheld or restricted. Lives by "no pain no gain" caring. Always a suspect. Playful. Mysterious. "charming" or "beautiful" to everyone. stubborn. curious. Independent. Strong willed. A fighter.

It's kind of creepy, actually, cause almost all words hit home. We were all laughing when it we came to the 'no self-control' and 'hates studying' parts. How true! Papa then gave me these knowing looks and nods when we reached the 'rebellious when withheld or restricted' part. And I can only smile wryly when Maricor read 'daydreamer' out loud. Tut tut.

The rest of my family's months (April, May, October and December) are all right on target about them, too. I checked out my friend's months just out of curiousity and I was amazed with how accurate it was, too. So I want you to take your month and tell me if it fits you. Deal?

JANUARY

Pretty/handsome. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Sensitive. Down-to-Earth. Stubborn.

FEBRUARY

Abstract thoughts. Loves reality and abstract. Intelligent and clever. Changing personality. Attractive. Sexiest out of everyone. Temperamental. Quiet, shy and humble. Honest And loyal. Determined to reach goals. Loves freedom. Rebellious when restricted. Loves aggressiveness. Too sensitive and easily hurt. Gets angry really easily but does not show it. Dislikes unnecessary things. Loves making friends but rarely shows it. Horny. Daring and stubborn. Ambitious. Realizing dreams and hopes. Sharp. Loves entertainment and leisure. Romantic on the inside not outside. Superstitious and ludicrous. Spendthrift. Tries to learn to show emotions.

MARCH

Attractive personality. Sexy. Affectionate Shy and reserved. Secretive. Naturally honest, generous and sympathetic. Loves peace and serenity. Sensitive to others. Great kisser. Easily angered. Trustworthy. Appreciative and returns kindness. Hardly shows emotions. Tends to bottle up feelings. Observant and assesses others.

APRIL

Suave and compromising. Funny and humorous. Stubborn. Very talkative. Calm and cool. Kind and sympathetic. Concerned and detailed. Loyal. Does work well with others. Very confidant. Sensitive. Positive Attitude. Thinking generous. Good memory. Clever and knowledgeable. Loves to look for information. Able to cheer everyone up and/or make them laugh. Able to motivate oneself and others. Understanding. Fun to be around. Outgoing. Hyper. Bubbly personality. Secretive. Boy/girl crazy. Loves sports, music, leisure and traveling. Systematic. Hot but has brains.

MAY

Stubborn and hard-hearted. Strong-willed and highly motivated. Sharp thoughts. Easily angered. Attracts others and loves attention. Deep feelings. Beautiful physically and mentally. Firm Standpoint. Needs no motivation. Shy towards opposite sex. Easily consoled. Systematic (left brain). Loves to dream. Strong clairvoyance. Understanding. Sickness usually in the ear and neck. Good imagination. Good physical. Weak breathing. Loves literature and the arts. Loves traveling. Dislike being at home. Restless. Not having many children. Hardworking. High-spirited.

JUNE

You've got the best personality and are an absolute pleasure to be around. You love to make new friends and be outgoing. You are a great flirt and more than likely have an a very attractive partner. a wicked hottie. It is also more than likely that you have a massive record collection. You have a great choice in films, and may one day become a famous actor/actress yourself - heck, you've got the looks for it!!

JULY

Fun to be with. Secretive. Difficult to fathom and to be understood. Quiet unless excited or tensed. Takes pride in oneself. Has reputation. Easily consoled. Honest. Concerned about people's feelings. Tactful. Friendly. Approachable. Emotional temperamental and unpredictable. Moody and easily hurt. Witty and sparkly. spazzy at times. Not revengeful. Forgiving but never forgets. dislikes nonsensical and unnecessary things. Guides others physically and mentally. Sensitive and forms impressions carefully. Caring and loving. Treats others equally. Strong sense of sympathy. Wary and sharp. Judges people through observations. Hardworking. No difficulties in studying. Loves to be alone. Always broods about the past and the old friends. Waits for friends. Never looks for friends. Not aggressive unless provoked. Loves to be loved.

SEPTEMBER

Active and dynamic. Decisive and haste but tends to regret. Attractive and affectionate to oneself. Strong mentality. Loves attention. Diplomatic. Consoling, friendly and solves people's problems. Brave and fearless. Adventurous. Loving and caring. Suave and generous. Usually you have many friends. Enjoys to make love. Emotional. Stubborn. Hasty. Good memory. Moving, motivates oneself and others. Loves to travel and explore. Sometimes sexy in a way that only their lover can understand.

OCTOBER

Loves to chat. Loves those who love them. Loves to takes things at the center. Inner and physical beauty. Lies but doesn't pretend. Gets angry often. Treats friends importantly. Brave and fearless. Always making friends. Easily hurt but recovers easily. Daydreamer. Opinionated. Does not care to control emotions. Unpredictable. Extremely smart, but definitely the hottest AND sexiest of them all.

NOVEMBER

Trustworthy and loyal. Very passionate and dangerous. Wild at times. Knows how to have fun. Sexy and mysterious. Everyone is drawn towards your inner and outer beauty and independent personality. Playful, but secretive. Very emotional and temperamental sometimes. Meets new people easily and very social in a group. Fearless and independent. Can hold their own. Stands out in a crowd. Essentially very smart. Usually, the greatest men are born in this month. If you ever begin a relationship with someone from this month, hold on to them because they're one of a kind.

DECEMBER

This straight-up means you are the most good-looking person possible... Better than all of these other months! Loyal and generous. Patriotic. Competitive in everything. Active in games and interactions. Impatient and hasty. Ambitious. Influential in organizations. Fun to be with. Easy to talk to, though hard to understand. Thinks far with vision, yet complicated to know. Easily influenced by kindness. Polite and soft-spoken. Having lots of ideas. Sensitive. Active mind. Hesitating tends to delay. Choosy and always wants the best. Temperamental. Funny and humorous. Loves to joke. Good debating skills. Has that someone always on his/her mind. Talkative. Daydreamer. Friendly. Knows how to make friends. Abiding. Able to show character. One guy/girl kind of person. Loveable. Easily hurt. Prone to getting colds. Loves music. Pretty/handsome. Loves to dress up. Easily bored. Fussy. Seldom shows emotions. Takes time to recover when hurt. Sensitive.
 

Bought two books today from my favorite Pinoy comedy writer, Bob Ong. We have all his books, the first three ones, that is, so we bought his fourth and fifth one today. Alamat Ng Gubat (Tale of the Jungle) and Stainless Longganisa (Stainless Sausage). I just finished Alamat ng Gubat and I laughed myself silly, brilliant writer, that Bob is.

This is what's on the back of the book (translated, of course):

ID: 1153047 Invalid Item  This item number is not valid. by Not Available.

On the final night of the blackout I wrote this on a piece of paper. Nothing but a pencil, a candle, and that scrap of paper.

Where I Would Rather Be

At the beach.
Vast, black sky
cold night wind
countless bright stars.
Buzzed, mellow friends
bottles, cans, sticks
big, raging bonfire.
Guitars and percussions
songs and laughter
sighs and kisses
smoke and embers
cool sand
calm sea.


Do you listen to reggae? Yes? Good.

http://download.yousendit.com/396C988C6C391E72
 

I finally heard from Shiela today, thank God. She's still at Bicol and I was relieved when she told me she was alright. Still coping with the whole disaster Xangsane caused, but nevertheless alright.

It was around 9:30 on Wednesday morning when Milenyo or typhoon Xangsane arrived at Metro Manila. Shiela was already at Bicol that time, a province south of Manila, and they were already suffering fierce rain for days. I received a text message from her that morning just as the winds started to get really loud. She was asking for a favor, saying something about an emergency.

Soon the power went out; the wind and rain continued to rage until about 12:00 in the afternoon. The eye of Milenyo hit us and all were silent for about an hour. We took that time to take care of the windows and drainage in our backyard, also took that time to sweep off the millions of leaves that seemed to be everywhere. At around 1:00 the storm resumed—we were being hit by its tail.

To tell you the truth, I slept through it. I really wasn't scared or anything, typhoons are typical in a tropical country such as ours. I crawled in bed and looked out the window as the trees swayed violently and as every leaf stuck itself everywhere. I just listened to the harsh, crazy, tornado-like wind... then I drifted off to sleep.

At around 3:00 I woke up to a calm rain; the typhoon was on its way out of our country. Since there was no electricity we only got to listen to AM radio for news. Our phone kept ringing; everybody was checking up on everybody. Papa told me that the power was out on the whole island of Luzon (that's where we are). FYI the Philippines consists of three major islands, the Luzon, Visayas, and Mindanao. Milenyo hit Luzon the best, most especially Metro Manila and the provinces south of it.

It had been eleven years since we were hit by a typhoon this strong. In 1995 Rosing or typhoon Angela hit the Metro too and I can still remember how everything seemed to be blowing away. Rosing's wind was 270km per hour, while Milenyo's was 170km per hour. Anyway that stat was enough to cause total destruction here. Listening to the radio, we found out that the whole of Metro Manila was a total wasteland. Trees have fallen everywhere, roofs flew everywhere, floods where everywhere, landslides where everywhere. If you've ever been to Metro Manila you will also know that in our highways there are giant tarpaulin billboards like, everywhere. Well, most of them have fallen, some went askew right in the middle of highways and some have fallen on houses and cars and such. Turned out that the companies weren't following the rules and regulations of highway law.

Everything was shut down; schools, ports, even the U.S. Embassy closed for a day (a huge tree toppled right in front of it). All cellphone signals were down, up to now the cell sites haven't been restored in full. All flights were also cancelled and countless people stranded as the two major commuter trains here in the Metro stopped all operations as well.

Luzon was VERY dark that Wednesday night. As we listened to the news the count of people missing, injured, and dead increased greatly. By Thursday night everything was still dark, though the power in Northern Luzon had been restored to 90%. They said that they were going to have a hard time restoring power on the South (that's us) because it was the place that had been damaged the most. You can imagine my frustration everytime I heard that. Hotels were booked to the full for people wanted some nice, air-conditioned comfort. Even Ate Grace and her family went to one, for Nate (my 1 year old nephew) kept pinching my sister over and over while pointing to their air-conditioner. Now you can imagine my sister's frustration over that. She suggested that we book a room too but we couldn't leave our pets.

I went to the nearest mall to withdraw money but when I reached the place the air-conditioning was zilch. Turned out that their generator exploded that morning. When I reached the ATM machine the line was a mile long. I shook my head and said 'forget it' and went back home. The next day every machine was offline.

The destruction here in our village was also tremendous. About seven Meralco posts have fallen and there were trees toppled everywhere. People have worked nonstop since; everyone's trying to get everything back to normal.

For days we had no running water too—on the first day of the blackout everyone was clamoring for one thing: WATER. Mineral and filtered water shops had closed down, every container got sold out. Good thing Papa managed to buy six containers that first day. Whew. Later we learned that some jerks were selling water for like a hundred and fifty pesos (normal price is about 45 pesos), taking advantage of the whole situation. How low.

By Friday night the power in most of Metro Manila have been restored, and for like three seconds the lights came on in our house, too. Then a Meralco electrical post exploded nearby and the power went out again. Our poor fishes went with no constant oxygen for almost a week. We took turns in generating manual oxygen by creating the bubbles ourselves (every batteried pump were sold out) so you can imagine how we all took shifts every night so the fish wouldn't die. My first shift with the fishes on the first night, I kept waking up every ten minutes, and it was torture. My eyes were killing me and my body was just dying for some real sleep. The second night was the same, and the next day I got sick. E took pity on me and finally took shift the third night. Papa helped us all the time.

There's just too much to tell, too many things that happened, but maybe I have bored you already. I'm just glad that everything's almost back to normal now—our power returned yesterday afternoon. Just imagine me bolting up from the couch when I saw that huge Meralco repair truck drive by our street. We were overjoyed, but being unable to sleep sanely for five nights, who could blame us? And just in the nick of time, for Corfish was just starting to look lopsided, and Dilfish starting to get crazy.

Last night as we were watching the news the power went out again due to the strong lightning and rain outside. "Back to normal!" we declared. But it returned after only an hour, thank God. During that time we prayed, got our guitar, played, sang, talked. Yeah... pretty much enjoyed the quiet time together.

Those five nights without eletricity had been really hard, but God helped us through it all. It's funny cause you get so used to having everything easy, then BAM—just like that it's all gone, and you have no choice but to make do with whatever it is you have. I think those five nights taught us a lot of things, especially how to lean and trust in the Lord.

I remember my dad praying, "Lord, if this typhoon will only cause destruction and pain in our country, please don't let it hit us. But if you have a purpose through it passing us, then Your will be done."

Milenyo had been destructive alright, but before it hit us the dengue epidemic was starting to get widespread in our country. The dengue death toll was starting to reach new heights and more people were getting infected everyday. Now, because of the fierce rain and winds, the breeding grounds of all those deadly mosquitoes have been destroyed.

God is good.

I'm still a little sick.. annoying colds. Everything is congested, but hey, yours truly is recovering. I just returned from my usual night of tambay with my friends so you can say that I'm on my way back to being to normal.

I hope to be able to swing by your blogs later tonight. I missed you guys.
 

The past five days have been so hard. I'm exhausted, physically and even emotionally. Thanks to everyone who e-mailed me expressing their concern. I'm okay though, just a little, no, a lot out of it.
 

I just finished chatting with Howard, I swear that guy and I are crazy when it comes to chat talk. When we're together sure, we talk, but we eat more, laugh more, he smokes more. In YM there's just... talk. The deep kind. You know what I mean? So I wound up typing for... sheesh, three hours. It's okay though, apparently I still am, for here I am blogging

Well anyway our whole talk made me remember some pictures out there, the ones I have stored up in Photobucket. In Your Dirtiest Pants made me remember them a couple of times too when she showed us her own pics, and I kept promising myself that I'd look over them again, but never really did it until now. I have a couple of albums there and if you're interested for a look-see here's the link.

http://s27.photobucket.com/albums/c155/ongasi/

And I've got a song for you. I've been listening to a couple of the Eraserheads' songs, so I thought I would share. I promise you you'll love this, they're the Beatles of the Phi. The song is in english, so don't worry!

http://download.yousendit.com/60B95A44758655E1

I just found out that the band got their name from David Lynch's movie Eraserhead. I haven't seen that yet, has anyone ever seen that? Zack was that the one listed in your top 10 movies? I'm not quite sure if I remember correctly.