Keystroke Journal

In my One unproductive day entry, I was hoping for a different day the next day. Well, yesterday was indeed different. No, it had nothing to do with my research project though. I found an excuse haha. I was out and believe it or not, as a chaperone again but not to my nephews. It was my sister’s class to have their field trip. Unexpectedly, two of the four confirmed chaperones couldn’t make it so I turned out to be the chaperone-to-the-rescue of the day. Well, who couldn’t resist my sister’s plea and her lovable grade one class, anyway? So there I was with Mr. Grandad and Mrs. Mom as the other chaperones. There were 18 kids, so there were four with me and with Mrs. Mom and five more with Mr. Granddad and with Mrs. Teacher. It was my turn to have four girls whose age ranged from six and seven year olds. I wasn’t sure if it was their cultural diversity that made my group unique or was it their dynamic and lively attitude. Nevertheless, it sure was a different day. When Meshka, the Ind...

I’m cramped with research papers and I can’t seem to start anything right. I even caught myself just staring at the monitor as if wishing words will just pop-up on the screen. If only ... I have to work on 37 tasks -- done with the first three tasks, whew! -- in one project. But I still have three more projects with more tasks to submit before I could say, “I'm done!” I guess I’m overwhelmed with the number of paper works to start with. I remember my thesis days of a post-grad program. I had one term to work on the proposal then another term to conduct the study and finish the paper. The final paper was done in a flash because there was a deadline – I’ll be migrating. But then before I could really set my mind into it, it took me two dormant years in between the proposal and final paper to decide whether I should go on or not. At that time, I had a bunch of excuses for not pushing it through because I was not only working, but at the same time I was earning another post-grad degre...

It’s another chaperone day with another nephew. This time it's in grade 5. In one day, I was in three states: the state where I live, another state where my nephew’s school was and in Pennsylvania where the ski resort was located for their field trip. A mountain resort? Yes I went snow tubing with the kids! And we had a blast. Again, I was assigned to be in charge of boys – four more plus my nephew. I’m glad that the kids under me were manageable though. From time to time I had to look out where the kids were but at the same time, I got a chance to enjoy the ride – by myself -- as well. Yipee! In retrospect, the winter sport reminded me of one of the most awaited carnival ride we had way back in the Philippines. There used to be an open-air Big Bang Carnival in Alabang and they had this Giant Slide ride. The only way to go up the slide is through a one-way 4-story stair. And the only way to go down was by sliding through a smooth metal slide. We used a sack to cover our entire bod...

This morning was my nephew’s K5 class field trip. There was a father, a grandmother, two mothers and an aunt, guess who , as chaperones. The kids went to the Smithsonian Institute National Air and Space Museum’s Steven Udvar-Hazy Center near Dulles Airport in Virginia. Everyone was so quiet while they watched Blue Planet at the gigantic Imax theater screen. I wasn’t sure if the kids were really enchanted by the movie or some fell asleep but my nephew, he held my hand in the first few minutes of the show. He’s like that when he doesn’t have any idea as to what to watch. Somewhere in the middle of the movie however, he was able to understand what was the movie all about thus withdrew from his tight grip. After the captivating story of the planet earth, the 23 K5 children were assigned to each of the five chaperones and their two teachers. Since the only father and grandmother in the group had their girls with them, two more girls were assigned to each of them. The two mothers and two te...

An incident happened over the weekend. A boy and his family came from a four-hour out-of-state event. Before heading back home, they have to stop over at a relative’s house. On their way, they got off at a gas station and bought some goodies. After an hour, the boy realized something and he went hysterical at the backseat, "Mommy, I forgot the candy. It’s in my jacket’s pocket!” “What do you mean?” his mom said who was at the front seat. “It’s this,” showing off the hard candy. “You mean you had it all along and we never paid for it?” “Yes,” his face looking so worried. “That is not good." “What will I do?” and he started to sob. “Ask for forgiveness from God.” There was silence. And then, “But mommy can we just go back?” “We left the store an hour already,” then she glanced at the driver’s seat. The boy sobbed, looked at the front wheel and said, “Let’s go back, daddy, go back! Let’s go back, go back daddy.” The boy never stopped ranting until an hour later … “Now you know ...

I received emails from friends back home. As always, they’ve been all up with what everyone calls busy-ness. I understand. I remember a friend once said, “With so many things on my mind, there are times I just want to be thoughtless.” Yes, a busy life coupled with complicated personal concerns can sometimes make someone end up with blank-stare moments. Going back to my friends’ emails, in general, it's about overcoming blues, career transitions, and domestic decisions to future endeavors. It's as if everyone's on the same page. I can fully identify what they are going through right now. It's because that's where I am also. The levels of our concerns, however, vary but still the common thing is about coping with changes and moving on. Talk about developmental stages at a certain age …

Today, I came across a TV program about third world countries and the plight of the poor. Also on that show, I saw people not only making a difference but making outstanding services to people they don’t even know -- all because of their love for the Lord. Suddenly, something dawned on me. Years ago, I envisioned myself to be in the mission field, to be somewhere, far away from the hustle and bustle of city life; a place without too much commercialism and materialism; to literally feed the hungry, to heal the sick while sharing the good news. No matter how difficult life may seem to be in those countries, that is where I should be now. If only I -- I am certain someone will raise their eyebrows and say. “Are you insane? People want to be in your shoes for goodness sake! Why waste the opportunity?” Hold that thought. Personally, I came here for one reason - to be with my family - not to look for gold or a honey. If however, they come together with the family package I would gladly accep...

Recently stray cats have been sighted under a shed in a hilly back yard. They are always on the look-out for preys; they run after any living creature they see around them. But they run away whenever they see human beings. Two of the cats are grown-ups. One is colored black with white paws and the other one has a grayish fur all over its body, The third one is a younger version of the older black cat. Not sure if they're a family of three or more. Today seems to be a special day for the two black cats. They are out in the backyard literally enjoying the warmth of the sun as they lie down along the steps of the shed. It seems to be one of their lazy day out in the sun. The bigger black cat sprawled itself on the steps, looking like a statue since it hasn't moved for awhile however, the smaller cat is more active and playful; turning here and there until it finally fell down from the steps. After much effort to get up, the smaller cat was back on the steps again. They hea...

Today, I read an amusing article in a local newspaper. What caught my eye first is the photo of a vehicle. The vehicle looks very familiar anywhere else in the Philippines but to see it here in the US particularly somewhere near the National Mall, or is it the Union station , is quite a surprise. I’m talking about the pedicab yes that's how they call it, too . They have finally invaded Uncle Sam’s district! Such sight is nostalgic. I remember one amusing ride I had in Quezon City, Philippines. I was on my way to meet a friend at McDo in Quezon Boulevard. Coming from our school, it’s at least 8-10 minutes by walk. With books on my hand and to protect myself from the scorching heat of the sun, I decided to ride a pedicab instead. The road going up was a bit hilly and I noticed that the driver was having difficulty pedaling. From inside the passenger seat, I peeped at the gray haired driver and asked, “Manong, ok lang ho ba kayo?” “Ah o-oo, oo ok lanng a-koh.” The pedicab driver sa...

Today the sun is up with almost 70 degrees Fahrenheit temperature. It’s a fine day to be out at the National Harbor. It was a little breezy but the sun was a welcome treat for a change. Lunch was at the Potbelly's and while at the order counter, the sandwichmaker asked me, “And what would you want to have for your sandwich, young lady?” Young lady?! Did I hear it right? I looked around and saw only men except me on queue. And then he looked at me with his deep-set blue eyes and sparkling smile, "Mayonnaise, onions, peppers?" “Oh, with everything please.” "Ok", then he went on making the sandwich. Meanwhile, I looked at my reflection and saw myself in jeans with a red fitted, light knitted sweater, no make-up at all. I grinned as I was about to say to the young lad, Thanks for the compliment but my dear child, I could even pass as your mom! Then follow it up with a question, Do you have a single uncle who has the same set of eyes and smile as yours, instead? B...

I had a chance to chat with a friend online today. Our conversations revolved around life in general then focused on smooth jazz music and an Italian artist named Mike Francis of the 80’s. I was surprised to learn that he recently passed away. I immediately googled the news and read about it from a Philippine-based newspaper . It’s only then did I realize that he’s more popular back home than here in the US. Nevertheless, whether he’s known here or not, his music is very popular among Filipinos. And with his music, I couldn’t help but bring back memories in the 80’s. Today I find myself searching for his video or mp3 music online. It’s been years since I last listened to his music. While listening, I tried to figure out what made me like his music. I was young then and it was the in music at that time. It was my friends’ music as well. So it was something we shared in common. Looking back, I wasn’t really particular with the lyrics but what attracted me to the songs was the rhythm its...

Names give us identity. People know us by our names. We feel special when our name is acknowledged. Some have short names while others have longer ones. Names can bring us to fame or it can put us to shame, too. The origin of our names have stories to tell as well. Real names are taken anywhere else from a great grandmother’s Restituta ; a memorable place, Florida ; a Hollywood star, Elvis to even a special day, Tuesday . On the other hand, pet names are based on initials like AJ ; physical attributes like Chinky ; the too common thus timeworn Baby or Babes to out-of-this-world sounding names like Perps or Perpski . Somehow, people have an idea of our nationality by our names aside from our physical features. Peculiar as it may sound, some Filipino names are also repeated twice like Ning-ning or a letter H is placed in between a consonant and vowel letters like Bhoy . It's simply Pinoy. Every culture has their own way of writing names as well. In Thailand, they only have two name...

Strange things are happening in a week's time. Spammers from European countries have been registering in our church website with strange sounding names. For at least four days we’ve been bombarded with these out of this world usernames and email accounts. It’s a good thing that our web developer was able to block these undesirable elements. Now we’re hoping for the best. Coincidentally, unsolicited calls have been contacting my mobile phone for days. This day wasn’t spared either. I still got calls from these 803+ numbers. And yes, the usual early morning call, too. My dad, who was annoyed of the calls, too, came into the picture by talking to the people who apparently had no idea that their phone’s being used. They, too, were surprised of the said calls. Now we’re hoping that this will be resolved soon. As I write this very moment, we are waiting for the police to come to our place. Our church van, which was parked beside our house, was stolen in broad day light. The strange...

I was in the middle of a sound sleep when suddenly, my mobile’s ring tone stirred me up. Who could it be? Half-awake and half-asleep my right fingers tried to grope for my Samsung gadget. Just when I was about to pull it away under my pillow the ringing stopped. Ahhh! I momentarily looked at my window and imagined the sun rising up its way; I then turned around at the alarm clock, 6:48 a.m. My day started a typical morning except of course for that early call. I checked out who called. It’s one of the four numbers that has been calling me strangely for three consecutive days now, grrrr. Well, I did answer the first call on the first day but it was a wrong number; and yes, there was one voice mail but it was oddly silent. After that, my gut feeling told me something’s strange. Through a friend’s help I was able to figure out where the 803+ calls were made which was out-of-state; two numbers were from a state department office and the two other numbers were from unknown owners. I was ve...

With the new year comes another set of meeting long-time friends again as I was invited to join e-groups and a social networking site. What triggered such online groups was the recent high school homecoming. It’s been years since most of us ever got a chance to be in touch with one another. And we do need a lot of catching up to do. What’s also exciting is to know how far we’ve become in terms of life’s journey as well as where everyone is home-based these days in all parts of the world. I never realized though that joining such online social groups would also entail receiving a lot of inbox messages. In just one day I would receive 20 emails from various groups not to mention individual messages and the spam messages, too . If I missed a day or two, which everyone could identify, more emails will be coming soon. With these, I share ambivalent feelings: happy to finally get in touch with the people I’ve known and grown up with as well as shared some things in common from grade school t...