Andee's 9th

Andee's birthday today is 'gloomy' by her words. Lagi nalang daw umuulan pag birthday niya. Well, baby, rainy season naman kasi eh. Their Tito Cak was supposed to treat them to Enchanted Kingdom, but the rain kept pouring the whole morning till after lunch and we have to have put Plan B into action. 'Di tayo babayad ng 600php para sumilong lang!!!' was Cak's battlecry.

Took the kids to SM Mall of Asia, apparently on the top 3 list of largest malls in the world, with SM Megamall and SM North Edsa included in the Top 10. There's unusually less people here, part perhaps obviously of the rains. Have to visit again without the kids. Haven for window shoppers as well as those who'd enjoy a fantastic view of Manila Bay (nevermind if it's a bit murky..di naman halata). Anyway... watched Deep Sea 3D at the IMAX Theater and it was a worthwhile experience. For the first time, Andee nor Diego demanded to go to the bathroom for a leak. Unlike when we would watch regular movie screenings, where almost every 20 minutes or so, they'd ask to go to the bathroom.

On the way home, we dropped by Tiendesitas to just look around. The kids were so 'high' with the Pet Village. Funny because even the cutest dog would make Andee and Diego take cover. Palibhasa nasanay sila sa pusa. As expected, we need to literally carry them out when they began begging for either a rabbit or a hamster!

Had a final stopover at McDonald's Marcos Highway at around 9:30pm. Some customer service. After we ordered, Cak at the last moment presented mama's senior citizen card when the service crew started printing the receipt. He said that once the receipt has been printed out, the card can't be honored anymore. What?!?! So I asked if they can void it. He asked the service crew beside him about it and said that it's not possible anymore. Rather baffled, I asked for a manager. I 've been with retailing for more than 13 years and I can't seem to grasp why they can't honor the card. Wawa naman some senior citizens if at the last minute they suddenly realized to present their card. Anyway... the service crew spoke with his manager, whose busy at the softdrink dispenser and I just saw the manager shook her head. Wala man lang courtesy to face us!!!! Didn't even give us a valid reason except that the receipt has been printed out!!! Pasalamat sila I wasn't in the mood.

Ze Tour Nah!

Update with Carver:

-The Zaturnnah musical (Ze Tour Nah!) may find itself in Cebu this November. Crossing fingers on that one. Wish we could be in Zebu to vatch ze zhow!!!!! Heard that majority of the cast from the 5th run will be there.

-Congratulations to Vincent de Jesus and Rustom Padilla for bagging Urian awards in their respective categories for ZsaZsa Zaturnnah Ze Moveeh!

Visitors

Again.

There are visitors in the house right now. A little girl about Andee's age who I always 'see' peeking in the bathroom or when I change in my room, almost 'solid' so to speak, in shorts and white sando, no face-- or a blank face. She follows the kids around then disappears. The second one is a teenager, don't know if it's a girl or boy, who stands by the stairs. Just a few minutes ago, he/she walked past mama's room while we were there.

The kid has been here for almost 3 weeks now. Comes and goes. The teenager, just this week. One thing that I noticed is if the weather is quite cool, here they are. Don't know if there's any connection with that. Previous experiences happened in cooler weather-- my encounter with the little ones, the lady, the man in my room, etc. All who had in one way or another 'shared time', unforgetable time -- bad... or 'good' (!?!?).

Now my brother, Ron and sister-in-law, Marlene, brought home my new 2-week old niece. Hmmm... just wondering...

Sungka

Went to St. Scho to get Andee's report card, trying much not to mind how blurred my vision is due to sore eyes-- which is sooo weird why this is. Anyway, like I described before, their report cards are now printed in paper form unlike our time when report cards ARE report cards. Lowest grade and the only grade in the line of eight, is 87 for Social Studies. Highest is 95 for Math (di mana sa akin ito) while the rest are between 90 to 92's. Trua enough too, we wagered on giving Andee a reward for good grades most especially if she'd get a perfect score on her exams, in this case, Math. Her request? SUNGKA.

Tuwa naman ako. Instead of asking for bling-blings, or knick-knacks or whatever, she prefers this. Got her one. Di na siya maawat.

Not like it used to be

It was not how I last remembered it to be. My last (fond) memory of 'sore eyes' was way back in college when, on our way home from a Channel 4 taping (yeah, may channel 4 pa non) -- our then Maryknoll College Liturgical Choir opened a morning show (forgot the name!) with a Christmas Song-- I felt itchiness and 'stickiness' in both eyes. That night, my eyes were red.

This time, now, count more than a decade and a half later, there was no itchiness felt at first, but pain. Then redness. Before, putting eye drops then was pure heaven-- cool and refreshing, and soothes the itchiness. But now, OMG! it's like your eyes are being scrapped by pins that you'd like to jump out from your seat! Very painful. Maiiyak ka sa sakit at hapdi. But then again it gets more painful because of the tears. What happened? My eyelids are more swollen, though honestly I like it -- gives me a good eyelid hehe. There is still that sandlike feel in the eye but not like how I remembered it then when it was literally like sand in your eyes. Mas malagkit ang feeling ngayon. And most of all, gave me a fever and a flu-like feeling. This is weird. It's like it's a new strain or something. I'll be back to the doctor.. why the fever, doc?!?

Barangay Sore Eyes

Andee was absent from school since Thursday last week because of sore eyes. When I got home Friday morning I wondered why Diego didn't go to school. When he looked at me, naku! sore eyes din! I couldn't help but laugh. Wawa naman. I embraced him hard and kept on laughing. Kakaawa kasi itsura niya. Sorry, but I can't help it. Not only that. Mama, Diego's yaya, my niece, Macy and her yaya also has sore eyes! Everyone was laughing-- took it lightly. Ang saya daw. Ah, ok. Laughed along. Angge, my cousin, went berserk when she found this out. There's no safe place in the house!! Hahaha! By lunchtime I was asleep. Woke up for work in the evening and left.

Was sent home. Sore eyes.

ZsaZsa c/o Carver

Re-posting Cak's update for ZsaZsa Zaturnnah (tuluy na tuloy na!) :

1. The nominees for the 30th Gawad Urian Awards have been recently released. The Zaturnnah film has been cited in the following categories: Director, Actor, Supporting Actress, Sound, Musical Score, Screenplay, and Production Design. The Gawad Urian, to be held on September 13th at the Ateneo, is given out by the film critics group Manunuri ng Pelikulang Pilipino.

2. Negotiations are almost done for the Zaturnnah musical's first provincial performance. More on that soon.

Rumors about the provincial tour somehow 'emerged' after or during the 5th and last muzical run at the RCBC theater. Go! go! go!

August

Unusual. Peculiar. Weird. The whole month of August has passed and I only have one posting. Hmmm.... what did I do?!?! Thinking back... One of the highlights here is last month was when my brother, Earl, arrived from Dubai for a brief vacation. Finally got to have a long overdued sibling photo. Can't remember when the last one was!

My grandmother arrived in Manila on the 16th from Puerto Princesa to celebrate her 89th birthday with my mom and my titas. Tita Bing (2nd after my mom) arrived from Iloilo. Tita Ann (3rd) was granted a 4-day visit from work in Bangkok, while Tita Lang (their youngest) offered her place for their mother-daughters-birthday-celeb-cum-bonding weekend.

Diego, my 5 year old had his moment when they celebrated 'Linggo ng Wika' on the 25th in school when their whole class had a 'field demonstration' of "Ang Bawat Bata sa Ating Mundo", an APO remake of a band which name escapes me at this moment. Had a mother-son winning moment at Newspaper Dance Contest. Hah! we beat them all!!! hahaha! Never thought I can carry Diego and do a one-leg tip-toe on a 1/32 folded Bulletin Today. Finally got to meet Diego's most bragged about unofficial girlfriend, Julieanne. Cute girl! :-)

On the 26th my nephew, Hugo, celebrated his Spiderman-themed 4th birthday at KFC Marquinton here in Marikina with all kids coming in in their favorite superhero costume. A lot of kids showed up (bakit wala ito ung panahon namin!?!?!) -- Wonder Woman, Supergirl, Incredible Hulk (this kid was all GREEN and in tattered clothes obviously, and the KFC guard almost didn't let him in!), cheerleaders, Princesses, Fairies. etc.

Picture on the left shows Andee as Kim Impossible for the day, while Diego was in a camouflage number-- his Batman costume lacked the cape and now shows his bellybutton-- which might not give a good impression, har, har. Ron's kids, Jaki is Raphael--Ninja Turtle ito! and Macy had her fairy wings on. And finally, Hugo in his Spidey costume. Carol's niece, a very cute about 6-7 month old baby girl came in as Baby Darna, complete with boots emerged as the winner.

Lastly, it was my dad's birthday on Aug. 19th. He would've been 85 years old. Wondering how he might have felt if he were still with us. Wondering if we'd all be with who we are right now, or where we're working, or living with. Well... speaking for myself-- mine would've been very different. I won't have Andee or Diego. Or I probably won't be around the people I love right now. Maybe. Just thinking.