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I have a secret to tell. I love alleys and narrow streets. They make me happy. They are some of my favorite photo subjects.

But a day or so ago as I was inspecting what's on my flickr account that I could use for blogging in the future, I came upon this one that was taken almost a year ago today from my visit to Rabat in Malta.

It's a narrow street, the one we took to go to St. Paul's Church.

It isn't the first time I've seen this or reviewed this. Part of my unwinding at the end of the day is to go over my shots/albums and see what inspiration I can get for my blogs - I have three going at the same time so I need a lot of inspiration.

Always the photos make me happy.

But this time around, this particular image pinched my heart.

You see I have been experiencing some torpor in my life. I can't figure out why and what is the cause.

It can't be the season. Heck, it's autumn, and while my neighborhood isn't awash in vivid yellows, reds, and browns, it has the fall atmosphere. For those who wants to know, we have greens everywhere still with a hint of the season that is here. We always get our leaves changing colors later than the North or even the East. Last year we had lovely fall colors on Christmas day - yap that's how late we sometimes get our colors.

It can't be the season when the Giants, our hometown baseball team, is in the World Series. There is too much excitement and happy energy going around town and people are just happy around here.

Still I felt a little melancholic at seeing this image.

Then today I realized what I needed, what was missing. The root of my lethargy dawned upon me as I was taking my walk around the corridors - an activity I do to stretch my legs and keep me away from my computer screen.

The image conveyed some sense of sadness because my body was craving for an adventure. A little vacation. My camera needed some clicking action.

I need to breathe a different kind of air - hopefully something brisky cold - and my eyes needed to see a little color other than blue (sky) and green (pines and firs).

I need a vacation. A short one, for now.

Hawaii was in the cards in the summer time, but Cancun came in at the last minute and because value wise the latter trumped the former, Cancun we went.

Six days five nights - it got us through the rest of the third quarter.

I need another one.

We have initially penciled in a Hawaii (again) vacay in December just before all the cooking and gift-wrapping and tree-trimming, but my sensible self didn't think that our pocket book can suffer that much damage so close to the Holidays and with all the travel plans we already have for the next year.

So we scrapped the Hawaii island visit. It was difficult but it was the right move.

Now I am scouring the net for deals somewhere close to go to for an overnight stay, just to get away.

I need my mojo back!

Starting Monday The Right Way

.........and in a surprising way. I awoke before my alarm today to someone mussing my hair, licking my forehead and eyelids. And of course I thought it would be Emma since Emma usually wakes me up with a tap on my nose. One tap then two taps that's how Emma wakes me.

But this one is purring and biting my hair the whole time I was being woken up and I love it. Here's who the culprit is:



He is my newly adopted 5-month old orange tiger domestic cat I named Buster. Up until this morning, he couldn't jump high enough to reach the bed. Our bed is a little high, my short legs have to jump to get up to the bed too :) so I didn't think it would be Buster who'd be waking me up.

He is such a sweetie. Very energetic and still doesn't have coordination. He slides through the wooden floor a lot and bangs his body and every part of his body every where.

He is not a favorite of Emma, the resident queen cat. She still hisses and growls at him. But young as he is, he continues to play with her. So far no one has gotten hurt despite all the hissing and growling.

Little Buster copies all of ate Emma's actions.  Emma only drinks in a styrofoam cup on our sink.  Buster has taken to doing that - after a few days of realizing he can jump that high too.

It's a little nerve wracking when I think of how Emma is pissed at having company in the  house.  We're hoping that she will get used to the idea of having a little brother.  We keep telling her it's her little brother and as little brothers/sisters go - they all can be annoying.

Love Story

I love love stories. I love movies that feature love stories. Boy meets girl. Boy/girl hates girl/boy. Then at the end of the story, boy/girl realizes that girl/boy would be the only one who could complete his/her life.

Hollywood cannot make them fast enough for me. I love them. Even those sappy, very predictable movies that most people find boring and a total waste of time, I relished them.

Just think how magical it is to find that someone from all the people who are walking the earth right now, or all the people that have walked or will walk this world before you're long gone.

I remember when I was a mere teenager I marvelled at how lucky I was to be in the same world as these people I hang out with . Or how magical it is to find who I thought was the "one" walking not only the same planet Earth that I was walking in, but also the same streets. Of course not all fairytales end in happy ending. 

And all these emotions are coming back to the forefront because I watched a ho-hum movie last night, LETTERS TO JULIET.  Aside from the spectacular Italian countryside that was the locale for this movie, there is nothing that jumps out at the viewer or the critic to say "watch me". I have not read the reviews, but let me guess this movie would have the-little-man-is-asleep-on-the-chair rating. 

What truly amazes me is how people find each other.  How they find each other.  How the universe conspire to get them together in the same gps location at the same time.  It's fascinating to me and I never tire of hearing how couples meet.  And when you ask couples who have been together or married for quite some time, they recall their first meeting with that glint in their eyes.  And I am hooked.  I would sit in the couch or that pain in butt chair in the outdoor seating area of a cafe and listen.  Ask questions.  People in love is a fascinating subject.

Feeling October 20

It's Wednesday, October 20, and I'm feeling a mixture of happiness and anxiety.

Nothing big to you folks. Big for me though.

Oh before I go on. October 20 will always be significant. For two reasons. One it's my niece Cherrie's birthday and two, it's my hs bff's birthday. Cherrie has been raised by my mother, not as a granddaughter, but as the second daughter. We have a 10-year age gap. I considered her my little sister more than my niece to be honest with you.

Now to the explanation why I am feeling both sides of the emotional coin today:

One - the Giants are playing the 4th game of the 7-game NLCS. For those not in the know, the Giants are the hometown's baseball team. Happy that the Giants are ahead 2 games to 1 against the highly touted and defending NLCS champs Philadelphia Phillies. Anxious at the same time because this town has been burned before - personally I can remember the deep hurt and disappointment of 1997, 2000, 2002.

Two - happy that later in the day I'll be able to bring home my little kitten that I adopted last Saturday. I could not bring him home then because he needed to get fixed and have whatever medical check ups and shots he needed. Anxious at the same time because I don't know how my beloved Emma ( the resident queen cat) would react to this new addition to the family and to her household/queendom.

We were assured that if the cats don't get along, the shelter is happy to have the kitten back. I don't want to do that. I don't even want to think that eventuality will happen. I hope things will go well.

And six days from now, it would be my dad's birthday. I always feel a tug in my heartstrings when his birthday and death anniversary come along. Well, that's a week from now still. Let me just stew with my mixed emotions while I sip my hazelnut coffee.

Hope you all are having a wonderful Fall day.

Bloggers Swap For Christmas

A fellow blogger, Prinsesa, is conducting what could only be termed as super fun blogger swap for Christmas.  Please head on to her site and I'm pretty sure you still can join. 

This is my list of WHAT I WANT FOR CHRISTMAS.

Something small: table top Phil flag
Something big:

Something cute: keychain (Sanrio - it has been years)

Something soft: pastillas

Something techie: memory stick

Something fancy: gourmet pastillas or gourmet hopia

Something (my favorite color): pink anything from sanrio

Something wearable: bandana or bracelet

Something you need: pastillas

Something you can use for work: pastillas

Something sweet: chocnut (haven't had this in ages)

All I Want For Christmas: Filipino delights and delicacies - basta may amoy Pinas okay.

Don't Stop Believing

No reason, I'm just saying - don't stop believing.

Just Babbling

I don't want to begin this by saying how lousy I've been feeling lately.  But I just did.  I feel crappy - for days now.  But I'm seeing the doctor at Allergy Clinic sometime next week and feeling hopeful that finally whatever it is that's keeping me congested and headachy and eyes dry and throat itchy all the time would be identified.  Oh I have seen my PCP over and over about this - year in year out - but never really gotten the courage to find out what's bothering me.  In the past, after consultation/visit with PCP and taking in meds, my symptoms would disappear only to return a few weeks later.  Still it would be gone for a time and I'd be fine for that short time.  But this year though, the symptoms lingered long after I had taken all the meds, sprayed my nasal passages over and over, so it's time to go and get it checked.

I am worried that they would find pet dander as the source of my problems and I don't want to give up my Emma for anything.  Let's wait and see.

On the opposite side, I have been feeling really terrific lately as well.  And the cause of this euphoric vibe is the Giants, our very own San Francisco Giants baseball team who have won the National League Western Division Championship and are now playing NLDS with the Atlanta Braves.  I don't wanna say any more because I don't want this feeling to end and I'm afraid that by sharing all these happy thoughts and feelings with the cyberspace community, I'd be jinxing them.  Oh gods of Baseball Heavens, please let the Giants be victorious!
~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m~m



October already! 

It's hard to transition from summer's heat to autumn's crispness when we never had a summer to speak of around these parts.  For the most part, at least 95% of the entire summer, we had really cool temperatures.  If I didn't go to Cancun in late June, I wouldn't have experienced hot weather this year.

But I thought that lighting holiday scented candles would help me get into the mood of holidays, and so I have been lighting this jar of candle that I have.  It's halfway through and I hope to be able to completely light it out this year as this was the jar I had for the holidays last year.  The hubby gets congested when there are "foreign" scents around and so he snuffs it immediately - that's why I don't have to get another jar soon.

I'm thinking of going all out with holiday decors this year.  But I'm lazy to open boxes and see what's there in the garage in terms of decorations.  I know for a fact that we snatched some after holiday sale items last year.  So maybe I will cut down on my computer time and start digging into the boxes for decorations.

I know I'm babbling but that's the title of this post.  I feel so much better now than when I first started this post. 

Lemme see what else I wanna share?

Oh the fall tv season has been running for 2-3 weeks now and so my must-see tv shows have had 2-3 shows already. And what do I think?

NO ORDINARY FAMILY:  Cool concept.  I really like it and the actors are likeable too.

BROTHERS AND SISTERS:  They haven't veered from the gameplan - they've been running the same pattern every show:  problem, a lot of shouting always while eating and drinking and then by the end of the show all's well. 

I will give you my opinion on the other shows I'm following next post.  Right now I feel my stomach grumble louder and harder than when I started to compose this post.  So let me grab something to eat and hope you all have a wonderful weekend.

Street Photography #5:

Small historic preserved towns are my favorite destinations, like this one in Nevada called Virginia City, a once boomtown during the silver strike days.