from my facebook's 'notes'

unfinished. unedited.


i was rereading an old book when i saw a sheet of paper between the pages - a short story that i was trying to write just after the 9/11 attacks. it is unfinished and unedited.



**********


i was talking to my wife when it hit us.

if i remember it correctly, she was talking about alimony and how much money she wanted to support our two kids --- things that i thought were totally improper being discussed over the phone. besides, we have lawyers who are more than capable handling such matters. i imagined her in her upscale office, looking at her planner and holding her black parker looking at her bullet points while she was talking to me. she had everything on paper. The woman hates it when she does things unplanned. she was anal retentive. i seriously wished her dead.

i was in the process of calling her a ranting bitch when the line went dead. 

i heard a loud crashing sound. then i heard an explosion. but for someone who has lived in Manhattan for a very long time, noises like those are as natural as organic tomato. i didn't mind what i heard. i was angry at my wife. i looked out my bedroom window in frustration hoping to find something nice to see when i saw a burning chunk of metal fall from one of the famous office buildings. i looked closely and wondered if what i was seeing was the tail end of a plane sticking out of the tower. 

and then came the screaming. painful and fearful screams. i looked down from my apartment window and i saw all the people with their mouths open. they were in shock.

i looked back at where they were were looking and it finally sank in. and just like the rest of the people below me, i froze.







*****

the requisite bathroom shot

now if i could just steal this guy's vocal chords (lift up your face - third day)

owkayyy.

so mom, i have three blogs.  all of which have been forgotten.  this blog (my oldest one -- started in 2005), if you're reading this (if you have a lot of free time in your hands and you have nothing important to do) has a couple of new entries.  i will try to maintain this blog from now on.

the other two has entries that can also be seen here.  there are also some that haven't been cross-published.  one is in livejournal ( i moved to LJ because my friend al has it) and the other one, the one that i really love is multiply (which no one cares about anymore because of facebook which does nothing to express our individuality.  multiply gives us the freedom to be creative.  fb is all blue and white).

wala lang.

sa pamilihang bayan ng houston

nagulat ako ng...

nakita kong mas malaki pa ang pechay ni ate sa malaki nang repolyong nabibili din sa maynila.



at...

humahabol din sa laki ang saging ni kuya.


partida malaki na kamay ko ha.

talaga nga namang 'everything is big in Texas.' lol.

ceiling

i woke up thinking that

after one full week

i found nothing.

So after four months of being here in Houston we decided to hit the streets of the museum district. we took the long road so we could take a look at the houses along University Avenue. When i grow up, I'm going to get a house there.

The photo you see in the left is the entrance to one of the buildings of the Museum of Fine Arts Houston.

As I've been told, the museum district holds at least three museums, some churches, a park and a few other establishments. I just wanted to see my first Van Gogh painting, so i hit the building right away.





My very first Van Gogh sighting. The Rocks (1888).

Since i know nothing about artists and their famous paintings, i only searched for the more famous ones in the lot. I saw a a few Jackson Pollocks in the American painters section. Impressive work. i wanted to take some photos but they didn't allow me.

This one, if i am not mistaken is by Monet.

I saw one painting that was mostly black. As a common tao, i thought it was ugly. really, really ugly. But then these famous painters can get away with anything and sell their trash for millions. Lucky bastards.





Then we went outside for a walk, and i saw ate getting photographed beside the fountain. Debut nya ata.



Then we took a stroll at Herman Park.








Other photos.










Oo na. Maganda na. But i still miss home a lot.

turn left turn right.

Both are convinced
that a sudden surge of emotion bound them together.
Beautiful is such a certainty,
but uncertainty is more beautiful.

Because they didn't know each other earlier, they suppose that
nothing was happening between them.
What of the streets, stairways and corridors
where they could have passed each other long ago?

I'd like to ask them
whether they remember-- perhaps in a revolving door
ever being face to face?
an "excuse me" in a crowd
or a voice "wrong number" in the receiver.
But I know their answer:
no, they don't remember.

They'd be greatly astonished
to learn that for a long time
chance had been playing with them.

Not yet wholly ready
to transform into fate for them
it approached them, then backed off,
stood in their way
and, suppressing a giggle,
jumped to the side.

There were signs, signals:
but what of it if they were illegible.
Perhaps three years ago,
or last Tuesday
did a certain leaflet fly
from shoulder to shoulder?
There was something lost and picked up.
Who knows but what it was a ball
in the bushes of childhood.

There were doorknobs and bells
on which earlier
touch piled on touch.
Bags beside each other in the luggage room.
Perhaps they had the same dream on a certain night,
suddenly erased after waking.

Every beginning
is but a continuation,
and the book of events
is never more than half open.

Love at First Sight by Wislawa Szymborska

back.

For a while i transfered my blog to livejournal since most of my friends were in LJ. But after a year of blogging there, i realized that nobody was reading my entries. Here, i used to have a couple of loyal readers.

So i'm back. and hoping that those two readers are still here.

hehe.

Oh, and i will be reposting here my old entries from the other blog soon. Ciao.

bekos!

i come from the pinoy school of english pronunciation.

that is why when i hear a word like 'because' pronounced as 'bek-hezz,'

i cringe.

***

i heard someone say 'bekhezz' lately. and as i imitated how he pronounced the word just so i could experience how saying it would twist my mouth and tongue, he said,

"ano ba pakialam mo?"

he had a point there, actually.

i won't tell what happened after he said that. 

***

i'm still craving for chocolat's 'death by tablea.'

Kreesmas Weesh Leest #2

Last year, i asked for the following:

1. a dvd of peque gallaga and lore reyes' youth flick 'gangland.'
2. new gloves for working out.
3. clicker.
4. john legend's new cd.
5. mp3 player(yung cheap lang).

The Gangland DVD, i got on sale six months later.  My very good friend Al Yabres gave me the gloves.  The clicker i got from Jeans.  I don't have a copy of John Legend's CD until now.  And a ghost from my past gave me an MP3 player. 

Not bad, huh?

Now here's my wish list for this year:


                                                                        1. A pair of 15 lb dumbells.





                                                                 'Happier.'  A book by Tal Ben-Shahar






                          3-4. DVDs of Mario O'Hara's 'Fatima Buen' and Maryo De Los Reyes' 'Magnifico'




                                                                            5. A Sony Ericsson P1i


                               
                                                                6. A CD of Sugarfree's 'Talaarawan'


                                                                          7.  Cute ankle socks

                                                                            8. Boxer shorts.  And...





                                                                               9. A trip to Boracay



                                                                                           

 

The Starbucks experience

So it came to pass that after i got out of the gym, i decided to meet a couple of my closest friends for some grocery shopping and dinner. And since it was still early to call it a night, we decided to go to starbucks megamall for more chit chat.

Carrying heavy grocery bags, we took our seats inside. I went with my firend to order while another friend of ours stayed in her seat. The female barista was generally nice -- she even offered us a sample of their raspberry green tea frap.

Now for our starbucks experience:

A lady was waiting at the counter for her drink. And by the way she was talking to the guy preparing them, it seemed that they were kinda chummy with each other.

And then he called my friend's name. While we were talking, reaching for our drinks, the barista looked at me straight in the eye and said: Can i see your receipt?

Of course I knew that asking for the receipt is SOP. But, when i looked around, there weren't anyone else waiting for their coffee. In fact, aside from the lady that tha barista was friendly to, it was just us who fell in line to order. So what was the receipt check for?

The lady who waited with us heard everything. And since the whole place was quiet, i bet some other customers heard it too. There were three cups sitting on the counter. The lady already got hers. We were the only ones who entered the premises in the last 15 minutes. We were the only ones who ordered. Logically, the remaining cups were for us.

We felt humiliated.

And then it hit me that among all the fashion forward coffee drinkers inside starbucks, i was just wearing a plain shirt and basketball shorts. My female friends were also in very casual shirts and shorts. We didn't look like typical starbucks fashionistas. In short, we didn't look like we were capable of buying their overpriced coffee.

I headed back to our table, got the receipt and gave it to him. I really wanted to shove it in his face. But I just told him to check the receipt (na tinignan nya talaga ng maigi) while i grabbed our coffees.

I swear the next time I want coffee, i'm going to the 'friendlier and less high-brow' cafe across the street.