Farewell to you, my friend.

On a routine check on Facebook this week I found get-well-soon posts for a friend. The very next day, the posts became RIP. Only a few days before that he posted photos of him getting together with school buddies eating, drinking and singing karaoke. So much joy in his smile.

I met him in school. I was in the fifth grade; he was a third-grader. I know, what third-grader mingles with a fifth-grader right? I remember how I met him. Our classrooms were a few rooms apart, but were in the same building. My friends and I were playing in the grass across our room and they were playing in the grass across their room. Somehow, he and two of his buddies ventured to our grass and that's how we met.

I remembered seeing him again in high school, when I was a senior and him a sophomore. Funny thing, I don't remember seeing him as a freshman, although we went to the same high school. The reason why I remember seeing him in my senior year is that he used to help out a buddy of his to get to me. Somehow, he managed to convince this guy that he's friends with me and he can help him get close to me. Such bravado, huh! I think that's how I will remember him - he was not shy at all. He easily made friends with both upper classmen and lower classmen. The friend he was helping, we got close alright. That is another story for another day.

Sometime this year through a mutual friend he found me on Facebook. I'm really hard to find, because I am under my married name on FB. He knows me through my maiden name. We were chatting one time and he mentioned he's been looking for me on Facebook but couldn't find me until this mutual friend mentioned my new name. I told him that logging in under my married name act as a filter. Only those "close friends" can find me. He sounded hurt that he's not in the loop.

In the chat we talked about our lives and families and how proud he is of his boys who were doing so well in school, garnering awards and honors. He even sent me a link to a video of one of his boys delivering a valedictory speech during graduation. He was a proud dad. He also mentioned the last time we saw each other was in Manila, by San Sebastian Church. That was a Wednesday afternoon. We regularly attend novena on Wednesdays in San Sebastian because one of the acolytes was the cute guy from San Sebastian College. He was cute. A lot of college girls from universities nearby would come to the novena to see him.

But I digress. I was so surprised to see him there. It's been years since I last saw him. He was really surprised to see me there and the smile he gave me was so nice that the girls with me - my best friends in college - remarked afterwards that it seemed like we had something going on because of the way we were talking.

I really don't know if there was something going on, because I didn't stop to think about stuff like that. We've been really friendly throughout our friendship. He promised to show me around when I go back "home". He said our town has changed a lot and it's no longer a sleepy town that you pass on the way to Baguio from Manila.

Honestly I don't know why I got affected by his death. Sure he was a friend of mine despite all the years we haven't had any communication. I suppose I got sad because he was too young to die. His kids are still in school and he didn't yet get the chance to reap what he sow with his kids.

Dear G - thank you for being my friend. Farewell and rest in peace.

Words to Live By

In short: Jesus, take the wheel.

Have a great week.

Still Here

I am still here!

I'm well aware that I have been gone for nearly 2 years. Busy schedule is to be blamed. Maintaining too many blogs too. However, a major change in my life and schedule has made me realize how I cherish the way I used to write about nonsense here, things that I cared about.

As mentioned above, I had a major change in my life this year and while trying to maneuver through all these knee-buckling changes I made a pass at the old posts and they cheered me up. I was writing about stuff that I was going through and I realized that I managed to pass through all those challenges as well.

That gave me some inspiration to keep this going.

I think I will just jot down what I think, what I feel, what I overcome, or what drowns me.

I will survive just so I can write all about it.

Happy New Year

New Year again. A fresh start. Clean slate. Another chance to write a story. Hopefully a better story than what we wrote in 2017.

As this year begins, I am hopeful. Hopeful that I can have a fresh slate to do better by me. I need to look out for me. To take care of me. It’s not about being selfish. I need to be healthy to take care of others. I cannot be running out of steam. Others are relying on me.

Besides that I still want to do so many things, to see many places and experience life. In order to accomplish that, I have to be in good physical form.

I have to resist the temptation of eating junk food; of eating when not hungry; of eating when bored.

I need to read more, find more activities that engage both the mind and the body.

I need to start acting like a grown-up.

I also must start writing again. Here. Not in my other blogs where I write about my travels and adventures. Here, where I write about feelings and thoughts.

Here’s to a kinder version of ourselves in 2018.

June Breakdown

I just got back from camping in Sonoma Valley. It was the annual church camping and I believe this was the fourth year in a row that we are having this group camping. The first one we were lucky to have found one group camp spot in Samuel P. Taylor Park. That park is beautiful with tall trees and despite being so close to the road, we could not hear traffic noise from where we camped. The next year, we missed it, but it was held in Mount Diablo. I cannot remember why we missed it, but we joined the group for a day camping instead. The third year we camped at Sugarloaf Ridge State Park , the same one we camped this year.

The beauty of Sugarloaf Ridge park is that it is generally an easy drive, without traffic you can get it under 1.5 hour. Another asset for this park is that it is right smack in the middle of all these beautiful wineries and only a short drive away from all the yummy Mexican food and incredible wine tasting. There are wonderful trails to take if you like that sort of activity. There is a creek that was full this year and provided entertainment for many of our campmates. There is a waterfall trail which ends in well you guessed it – waterfall. Although it’s barely a “waterfall” in the truest and grandest sense of the word. The trail descends and is an easy short trail that even someone like me could tackle. We were told that earlier in spring the waterfall was full and the runoff to the creek downstream was bulging as well, which became such a popular spot during the hot afternoon hours.

The preceding paragraphs were written two weeks ago now with the intention of posting immediately, but as is my life nowadays, something came up and I had to stop blogging and voila, days later I still haven’t posted.

Anyway, the camping was just one of the things that happen in the month of June. Historically this month is pretty quiet and also mostly centered on church activities. In this month we have our annual church fundraiser, famously known as Chocolate Extravaganza and since its inception I was a cashier at the night of the fundraiser. I guess I can handle a credit card machine that’s why I was assigned there; although two years in a row now that we only decided to go with cash and check basis for all the silent auction items purchased.

Another worthy of mention here is our monthly birthday dinner with a group of people. An old church friend of ours who moved away last year joined us for dinner. She actually had found a job so far away from the church that she and her husband decided to leave the area altogether. We definitely missed her bubbly presence at church and during church related functions, thus when she visits occasionally we make plans with her right away. So that was the reason she was part of the birthday dinner.

At the dinner we found out her happy news, she got a full time job. The sad part is, for us, that the job is in the East Coast. She just relocated a few days ago.

June is such a drag. Such a boring time. I mean one week it’s hot as hell and the next it’s knee-shaking cold.

I must do something about June next year. I have to plan a little get-away to break the monotony of the month.

I would "promise" to write here more often and go back to the purpose of this blog as a journal for my life. It doesn't need to be about the travels because I already have a blog for that, nor about cats which I also have a separate blog for that. The thought of sharing one's feelings and unspoken thoughts still make me cringe. You know once you put anything down in writing and hit send or publish you just don't have any control over those thoughts any more. So, yes still having second thoughts about that part of my blogging life.

May Breakdown

What can I say about May?

Nothing really exciting happened in May. After an April that is full of traveling, May gave me back the sense of routine that I may not have craved, but my body had needed.

In May, we plunged back to normalcy, to the demands and stresses of work and church, to the joy of hanging out with friends over amazing bbq or rooting for the home team – that is the Golden State Warriors, who at the time of writing needs only 2 more wins to be the Champions of the NBA.

Our 10th wedding anniversary was May 25. Sometime last year I had envisioned that we would have a church wedding to commemorate the 10th year, but somehow lack of interest on my part due to incredible work necessary to get that done, not to mention the amount of money needed to put that in motion, the dream fizzled. Furthermore, the hubs has always wanted to do a church wedding when his family members can be in attendance. Having both parents pass away, we want the wedding to happen when his only sister could be present.

Having taken an early anniversary trip to Morocco in April, we settled for a no fanfare day in the city spending most of the day at the California Academy of Sciences. It was a very fruitful and enjoyable day. In addition, we made brief stops at Stow Lake and a little walk around the Rhododendron Dell nearby.

To top it all off, we had a wonderful anniversary dinner at Tadich Grill, which if I may say, ticked one item off my foodie bucket list.

Since we are back to normal this May, we have decided it is the right time to start having our backyard fixed. We found the same guy who replaced our back fence willing to do the job so it’s a work in progress right now. I will definitely share a photo of it here.

The backyard job is quite long in coming. We have been living in this house since 2009 and I thought that replacing the carpet upstairs would come first, but I’m glad that the backyard is getting worked on right now.

No travels in the near future, although there is a camping trip in sight at the end of June. Also we might do a little traveling by the end of August, depending on the schedule of our travel buddies.

So far that is what’s been going on around my real world. Hope your summer is memorable.

April Breakdown

April had been one busy month. Three weeks of it were spent touring the Kingdom of Morocco and beautiful Lisbon, Portugal.

This would be the first time we joined a large tour group. You know the ones who get shuttled from one spot to another in air-conditioned bus?

There are some countries that are best suited for the tour group way and I believe in my heart of hearts Morocco is one of them. There are so many beautiful spots to see, and places to go to are far from each other. We have seen and experienced so much in our 11 days there.

You would have to read my narrative about the trip in my other blog to get the most of the experience, because in that blog I tend to post a lot of photos.

Among the cities we visited were Casablanca, Rabat, Marrakech, Erfoud, Ouarzazate, Essaouira.

Some notes about the trip:

THE FOOD: Moroccan food is not new to me; in fact there is a very nice Moroccan restaurant near where I live and we’ve been there and ate the food. But I learned in Morocco when you order tagine, any kind of tagine, it DOES NOT come with couscous like it does anywhere in the United States I assume, because it does in California. And when you are craving for couscous, wait until Friday. We’ve been told few times that they only served couscous on Fridays. And this from different restaurants and different cities.

THE CITIES: If you only take a photo of the street and no landmark, you’d guess the photo is from anywhere else but Morocco. However, Morocco is modern and the infrastructure in the cities is modern. You’d really think you are somewhere else. Also, aside from Casablanca, which is the biggest city, the cities are very clean. Everywhere else is clean. When we mentioned this to our tour manager, who was with us the entire way, he told us that there are street cleaners all day long, in 3 shifts, no wonder it is so clean.

THE SHOPPING: We did very little shopping even though we went to souks in every city we went to. The vendors are not pushy and the selection of rugs, ceramics, etc is incredible. I simply did not have any shopping money when I was there.

ARCHITECTURE: I love tiles and tilework and this is one country that is abundant with that. My eyes feasted on incredible tiles in riads, schools, old buildings, mosques, etc.

THE ROADS: Wide city roads with mini park in between the roads. I really like that feel when people have open space in the middle of the road for rest and relaxation and for kids to play in.

THE RUINS: I was blindsided when I saw the ruins here. Who would have thought that I would see ruins here? But they are magnificent particularly in Volubilis. Incredible.

THE MOUNTAINS: The mountains are so beautiful and another special bonus for me. I did not really pay attention to the itinerary thus I was again blindsided by the mountains. Some parts of the scenery reminded me so much of California and the agricultural lands and the orchards are nice to look at.

THE DESERT: What else can you say about the Sahara? It’s huge, it’s incredible. I would do this trip again just to be able to see the desert again and marvel at the different hues of the sand.

THE TOUR GROUP: There are 36 of us, all from US and Canada. I’m guessing the age ranges from 35-70. We did not mingle as one large group, but we were all cordial. Everyone is respectful and friendly and kind. We eventually found a small circle of people we regularly go to dinner with. What a fun group. I also liked our tour manager so much; he’s awesome and all the local tour guides we had.

After the tour was over, my husband and a couple that traveled with us in Morocco as well flew to Lisbon to spend a few days there? They opted to stay for 2 days and we had 3 1/2 days there.

It was their first time in Lisbon and on the first day we tried to show them around as much as we could. On the second day, we explored the city on our own. They went walking around and were pleased with how their day went. We opted to take the Hop On Hop Off bus to sightsee. The reason behind this choice is we wanted to see the sights we missed on our first visit in the city in 2014 and we accomplished that goal. There was an impressive looking church that we spotted late in the day in 2014 and we knew that we could not stop there because it was late. This time we especially stopped there first to see the interior. We were not disappointed; even though it wasn’t as glistening in gilded designs as the other churches. The ticket we purchased for the bus tour enabled us to take the historic #28 tram around the city. Oh boy, this was one wonderful trip. The tram is used by locals, but popular with tourists as well. We also walked where we used to stay and I was disappointed that the restaurant where we used to eat breakfast no longer exists. I was told by a wait staff in next door restaurant that the restaurant business is tough and staying open is difficult to accomplish. We met up with our friends for dinner and a short walk around before stopping for a little nightcap.

They left the following day to spend a couple of days in Barcelona; we went walking around the neighborhood some more and also signed up for a half day tour of Sintra. That is one incredible experience as well.

On our last day in Lisbon, we went for another round of exploration on foot and made sure that we had paella negra for lunch. In the afternoon, we caught our plane to Casablanca where we stayed for one night.

In Casablanca, we arrived late in the afternoon. We were staying in a riad near the airport. The shuttle was late. We had been waiting outside the airport for a long time, until a local asked if he could help. The hubs told him we were waiting for the shuttle. After inquiring what hotel, etc, the kind local dialed the number and told them where we are and that we were waiting for a ride.

The riad is cute; the owners – French and Moroccan couple – were very friendly, and so were their cats and dog. The room is nice too, but we were there for a very short time. Only a few hours to sleep before we got up at 3:30 am the following morning and banged the door to get someone take us to the airport.

I don’t know if this covers the entire month of April, but it is one incredible month. I think I would love to start booking travels in April when the weather is so fine and the flowers are abloom.