Supermoms

I wonder how they do it. Cook meals, have a career, raise good kids, take care of the house, the husband, the laundry, the dishes, the bills and not look like something the cat dragged around for days.

It's a matter of time management, one of these supermoms told me. How is that done? Set priorities, she said. Sounds easy. That very same day, I had 3 Priority No. 1's and they all require LOTS of time. So much for that.

How do you find time for yourself? Another supermom answered, "I don't." Wow. That's some serious superpowers right there. I'm not sure I'm unselfish enough for that. In fact, I noticed that I get really cranky thinking about the new issue of Reader's Digest that arrived in the mail two days ago and I haven't even opened it. I want to read! I love to read. My brain is going to atrophy. I need to read.

So here I am, the supermom wannabe. Obviously not managing time properly (blame insomnia for not sleeping at this hour). Tomorrow will be another one of those days when I have no desire to move and there are 30 things on my to do list and 5 are Priority 1's.

Happy Mother's Day, Supermoms. I sure don't know how you do it.

Updates

I'm pregnant. It's a girl this time, due early September.

Jellybean turned 2 and:

• knows the alphabet
• can count in English and Bisaya
• knows colors
• and shapes
• says, "Mommy, pretty." Good boy.
  

i like steve wozniak on dwts

Steve Wozniak didn't get a lot of praise for his first episode on Dancing With the Stars. He should. He was much better than some of the contestants and did it all - including taking the judges criticisms - with a smile.

Some people might think part of this might have to do with me being an Apple/Mac fan. It is not. I appreciate Steve's performance just as much as Jerry Springer's from seasons past.

The Texter's Choice Burden

Last time I was in Cebu, I thought of watching the Miss Cebu pageant but I forgot when it was going to be. The other reason was that I got stuck in traffic (reminder to self: never think of driving from SM to Urgello when they decide to shut down major streets for a day-long parade). Later that night, I invited my cousin to drive back with me to Argao but he was stuck at the beauty pageant. Yeah, Lex, no thanks for not inviting me.

The next thing I heard about the beauty pageant was that there was a mistake about the Texter's Choice Award. They gave the award to the wrong person. Oops! Of course, we'd expect the organizers to apologize, set up an award ceremony somewhere (with lots of press) and give the award to the right person. Simple, right? Should be over in about a week.

That's not exactly what happened. I logged into Sunstar (Cebu newspaper) and guess what I just read? The actual winner's mom, Dr. Burden (I'm not kidding, that's her name) wants to take up the matter with the City Mayor. Are you kidding me? Never mind all the other important issues the Mayor has to deal with. Not to mention he had just arrived from months of chemotherapy in the States.

Seriously, Dr. Burden. It's already March. Graduation time. Get over yourself. You got the apologies of some of the people. Everybody knows your daughter rightfully own the award. Don't you think you're being a tad petty now?

jellybean, octomom and other stuff

jellybean updates

caveat: proud momma about to brag about her little one. JellyBean knows ALL the letters of the alphabet and can count to ten in English and Bisaya. He can do "Sampung Palaka" and "Row, row your boat" and a whole bunch of nursery rhymes. He loves to build little towers with his blocks and make them come tumbling down.

I've been hoping his fascination for vacuum cleaners will pass pretty soon. The noise gives me migraines. Well, I hope he regains his love to vacuum when he's old enough to actually vacuum effectively without supervision - I'm talking real chores here. Haha!

For those who don't know, JellyBean is 20 months old.

jellyfish

We took JellyBean to the Monterey Bay Aquarium over the weekend. He had a lot of fun! His favorite was the tank with the giant fish - tuna, all kinds of rock fish and sharks. He had fun pointing out all the sharks. He also loved holding the starfish and seaweed -- it runs in the blood, I guess.

We went to the gift shop to get him a souvenir and he picked out this tub of little plastic fish. We were going to buy it if it wasn't $35! We settled for a ten-pack of little plastic sharks, which he loved just as much. I love it even more. There are fewer little pieces for me to pick up.

octomom

Nobody can escape the "octomom" news. It is just all over the place. This lady, unmarried and jobless, tries to look like Angelina Jolie, has 6 kids all under 7 years old and gave birth to octoplets conceived through IVF. Even her parents are not pleased!

I read online that she might be trying to get her own TV show a la Jon and Kate Plus 8 or 18 kids and counting. I'd be one of the suckers who would try to not watch but will get really curious anyway.

francis magalona

I heard Francis Magalona died of leukemia recently. Sad.

TV SHOWS
survivor

After Bob's win last season, I started liking Survivor again. This year, I'm rooting for Sydney, TJ and Sierra. I didn't like Sandy so much, so I didn't feel too bad that she got eliminated. There was something very reptilian about her.

Coach needs to get a haircut and try to not be so full of himself. Seriously.

I love Tyson! The G-string was genius.

antm

Every year, I say I'd never watch this show again. Tyra can get irritating and the two Jays are too weird for my taste. This season, that mean girl didn't get eliminated although she completely sucked. Of course, I said I'll never watch another episode again. I wonder if Celia will win... Hmmm...

dwts

I hear Shawn Johnson will be on it. WILL be watching :D

of fish and cebuanos

Yesterday, I was out with my girlfriends and the conversation veered into what kind of "weirdidities" we have. Someone mentioned that someone from Cebu can't stand the taste of fish. I have never heard of a Cebuano that has a severe dislike for fish. Seriously, Cebu is where you can get the freshest and tastiest fish, there has to be something wrong with you if you're Cebuano and hate fish. OR there is something wrong with the person cooking your meals.

Okay, I had to admit that at one point in my life, I swore to never eat fish again. One of my grandpa's cousin has a fishing vessel and vessel and crew decided to be based in Argao(the town where I grew up) for about 6 months. Every single day of those six months, we get so much fish of so many varieties for free. As much as we want and more.

Most of the fish, were sold to smaller fish vendors who, in turn, sell them in the market or go door-to-door. We're talking fish by the banyera here. I think there's about 100lbs of fish per banyera. And there's the paconsuelo or pakapin - a little extra for goodwill - say, about an extra 2-3 lbs for every banyera sold. Oh, and I should mention the smell. Definitely not Calvin Klein.

Everyday, we had all kinds of fish dishes for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Name it, I've probably had it. Kinilaw, bulad, escabeche, minantikaan, sinugba, tinabal, inun-unan, ginamos, tinapa... Ihalason, barongoy, dalagan, tipos, tuna, katambak, iho (usahay)... It was the best of the best! But sometime in the second or third week, I was so sick of fish that I actually ate and enjoyed(!) some of the sauteed ampalaya - bitter melon- given to us by a neighbor in exchange for fish (background: I generally do not eat vegetables, especially green ones). I prayed so hard for the fishing vessel to leave soon.

Complaining about what my grandfather provides for the family is equal to saying "Please cut off my worthless, disrespectful and ungrateful head". No one dared to say anything to him. We were not going hungry, just sick to death of eating fish. One very beautiful day, he declared that he was tired of fish and we should have some beef bulalo! I was the most well-behaved and happy little girl that day. And the rest of the time the fishing boat was docked in Argao, we didn't eat fish unless we wanted to.

Perpetual Jet Lag

4am - Monday, January 19.

I am convinced that I have perpetual jet lag. I still have not adjusted ever since I moved here almost 4 years ago.

it's been a while....

I mostly hate Decembers since Papa died in a December. So while I had nothing positive to post, I opted to not post anything. Sure, sure, there are nice happy things that happened. Look on the bright side, yadda, yadda, yadda. Most of the encouragement in the world will be lost on me. I don't like December. Period. And it will be a while before I'll learn to like it. There.

On to a more positive note. I just got back from the Philippines! Woohoo!!! Things have changed sooo much! I mean I was just there in October! Finding Bo's Coffee was a wee bit hard. There are a ton of new restaurants, too. It was awesome.

I met up with old friends at Carla's wedding. Made some new ones, too. As usual, Cebu was beautiful, warm, friendly and food was tasty. Everywhere I went, food was good. So here I am imagining all the food I just missed. Oh boy.

Oh, my New Year started with someone dying on the plane a few feet in front of me. An older guy who couldn't afford oxygen to travel opted to travel anyway. It was too late when the doctors were informed of his condition. As if things aren't bad enough, I lost my engagement ring and wedding bands in Cebu. Woohoo!!!

So here's to the New Year. There's not much room at the bottom. Nowhere to go but up? Wish me luck!

through the fire

Today, the house two doors from mine is half burned down. The houses right next to them were also severely damaged. It is definitely one of those really looooong days.

I was reading and enjoying a nice cup of fresh instant coffee when I heard the fire alarm. Eh, someone's cooking went bad again, I thought. Then I saw all the smoke start to come in. And fast. I grabbed my laptop, important papers, jewelry, camera and stuffed them in a suitcase and headed straight for the door. The house was filling up with smoke fast.

I dumped my stuff in my car and helped my neighbor get all her pets out. We also made sure that our other neighbors and their kids have all left their houses. There was smoke everywhere. I called my husband and other neighbors to let them know about the fire. A few minutes later the firemen were all working on the fire. It took a few hours. They tore off half the roof with chainsaws and axes.

Now things are all calm but smelly. I was definitely happy that I saved my passport and greencard. No fire is going to stop me from going home to Cebu in two weeks.

Filipino Sign Language

I didn't realize that it is funny to someone who doesn't speak/act the Filipino Sign Language until D pointed it out. See, it felt perfectly normal to me - and totally weird to him.

For example, I open my mouth to signal that I didn't hear him. The first time I did that, he looked very confused. I certainly hope I didn't do that anywhere else with anyone who wouldn't understand. They might think, "why is this person opening her mouth?"

Other nonverbal "words" are:

• Nod for yes - while drinking, eating or smoking.
• Mouth pointing - pucker lips in the direction you are pointing to. The degree of pucker and corresponding "mmm" sound is directly proportional to the distance of the object you are pointing to.
• Two eyebrow raise - raise both eyebrows to say "hi" or "we have a secret agreement"
• "Glowing" eyes - Make your eyes as big as possible and look mean. This is a signal for "warning" or "don't do it!!!" or "behave". Parents (like my grandpa) used this to make the kids behave especially in the presence of visitors where yelling/pinching are seen as distasteful.
  
• The Sabong Numbers - cockfighters have an entire system of signals for numbers when betting. It is very important to know this if you ever go gamble on roosters killing each other. You don't want to bet(and lose) P5000 when you really meant to P500.

Mga kababayan, do you remember more of these signals? I'm compiling them in my quest to make my hubby fully fluent in the local language. In other words, aron mahimo siyang tinuoray nga Bisdak.