Thanksgiving Thoughts...

This is how my thanksgiving went. On Thursday, I woke up my normal time which is between 6:00 AM to 7:00 AM. The night before, I thought to myself I wanted to get my day started early. So I woke up, got ready for the gym, and took off. While driving to the gym, I thought to myself, “Why in the hell did I wake up so early? It’s a freakin’ holiday.” I was little bit moody because I still wanted to sleep, but something on the road just brighten up my day. There is so much construction happening in Vegas that they leave the cones on the side of the road. Well, someone decided to play a trick on “Vegas” and put the cones in the middle of the road to construct a little obstacle course. This is the path that cars had to do.



Thanksgiving night rolled around. I had a great time. My family and I shared stories, and ate tons of food. I was really excited to meet my niece and nephew for the first time. My cousins recently moved to the United States, but had to wait an entire year before their kids can come over. During the summer, we talked about the kids all the time. To my surprise, my niece and nephew resemble my sister and I when we were kids. Mae talks a lot just like my sister, and shows a dominant personality. Bim Bim is a quite type, but he shows a lot of creativity when he plays with his toys. Watching them brought so many memories of my sister and I.

My cousin told us a story that I have to share on this blog. As everyone knows, there are some differences of being a Filipino and an American. Well in the Philippines, it’s common to see a little boy pull down his pants and pee on the wall, even on the school yard. Well, Bim Bim still gets confused what is acceptable in the States. Well, he had to go one day, and he started to pee in the wall. The teacher saw this, and sent him to the principal’s office. I felt bad for him, but it made a great story =).

During dinner, my cousin called me on my phone, and told me that he and his family can’t make it to Vegas because he either had a real bad cold or the flu. I was bummed about this because I was looking forward to seeing them for over a month. We planned to go to the Rio, and enjoy the seafood buffet, The Village. Well, my dad and I still went to the Rio to meet with my other aunties. When we went there, we found out that the Village was under renovation. I was once again bummed. When we were walking to the other buffet, there was a sign of the Chippendales models. My dad made a joke, and asked me if I would like to make $500 a night, and join the Chippendales family. I started to laugh because my dad did the “Sexy” dance when he asked me. I guess I can take the question as a compliment because I work really hard in the gym to get in the shape I am in. Overall, this Thanksgiving weekend was great. A lot of memories were created. =)… O yeah, I forgot to mention that I ate so much on Thanksgiving night; I woke up fool on Friday. That was a first for me.

Destiny???

Do you believe in destiny? Do you believe you are still linked someway, somehow to someone who you really cared about, or still care about? You know that saying after a relationship ends, “If you are meant/destine to be together, you’ll get back together in the future.” Well, I’m not saying that I will hookup with a past love, but I find it weird that there are signs. Before I used to look for them, but nowadays, these “signs” show up once in awhile. For example, I needed to buy a new lock for my gym locker. People may not know this, but I LOVE the color blue. So when I was shopping for a lock, I was determined to buy a blue one. When I was looking at what Walgreens had, there was only 1 blue lock left, and it was all the way in the back. When I got home, I opened the package. I looked on the back of the lock for the code. To my surprise it was: 22:12:--. My first reaction was, “What the F***! What are the chances?” You may wonder what does the 22 and 12 stand for. 22 used to be my pager code, and the 12 was her pager code… BTW, yes I am old enough to once own a pager. Till this day, people know 22 as me, and 12 as my ex. Anyways, there are small signs that re-occur. For example: there are times when I look at the clock it will be 12:22. That used to happen a lot after we broke up. Is this destiny??? Who knows… just live life to the fullest =).

I wish I can sing…

If a magic genie granted me 3 wishes, one of them will be the ability to sing. Lately, I’ve been learning a lot of songs on the piano and guitar, but the one thing I lack is the ability to sing. It would be so nice to serenade a female, but unfortunately I can’t.

Through the years I’ve been playing the guitar, I found out you can make a decent song with 5 chords that repeat over and over again. I can write lyrics, but just can’t sing it. It would be nice to empress people to sing and play. What I want to do one day is sing my vows instead of doing the traditional Catholic way where I have to repeat what the priest is saying. Do you believe anyone can sing; it’s just a matter of practice? I used to think so until American Idol started showing on Fox…. hahaha

Do I drink a lot???

Here's a thought that I've been pondering all day. Do I present myself as a person who drinks a lot? Well this is how this whole thought process came about. Last night, I received a call around 12:30 AM from a friend. She was so drunk that it was hard to understand her because she was slurring, and she could not finish her sentences. She kept saying, "I'm so drunk, and I can't focus. What should I do?" I haven't talked to this girl in months, and why of all sudden did she call me when she was drunk? People who are not regular drinkers do call me to get advice on drinking. Does that mean I'm an "expert" in drinking? I can honestly say I do have a lot of experience, but I honestly don't feel that I drink a lot. Or maybe, I'm just in denial. The truth of the matter is, I'm a social drinker, and when I was in college, I was around that scene more than I wanted to. My one rule with myself is never drink alone, so that means I haven't picked up a drink in my house for 4 months. Since I've moved to Vegas, I found myself working overtime everyday, and cannot even go out to the bars. From an outside perspective, does it seem that I drink a lot???

Halloween 2007

My Halloween 2007 was a great celebration. A couple of weeks ago, I was thinking what I wanted to go as. I left all my costumes back home in the bay, so I was limited to my breaking dancing fit. To tell you the truth, as much as I love break dancing, I was tired of dressing up as that. When I was talking to one of my students about 80’s metal heads, a light bulb turned on in my head. I wanted to go as an 80’s rocker like the people from Poison or Mötley Crüe.

The day arrived to dress up. One of the students did my makeup when I arrived at work. She did an awesome job, and all day I got compliments. Thanks Jen!!! I had everything perfect. I had semi-tight jeans on (didn’t want it too tight cause I needed room for my crown jewels, you know what I mean), bought a Guns N’ Roses t-shirt, great makeup, and had a wig. I borrowed a wig from my co-worker, Heidi, which she used as Miss Piggy last year. The wig was blond and super long. I thought it would work out since a typical 80’s rocker had long hair. Well, as soon as I put on the wig with all my makeup on, I looked like a gothic drag queen. I made a decision to take the wig off way before everyone got to see what I looked like. Only two students and one other teacher saw me with the wig, and they couldn’t stop laughing. Because of their reaction, I believe I made a wise chose to chuck the wig.

Everyone in the school I work at was EXTREMLY surprised for two reasons. First, since I looked gothic, some comments I heard was, “This is totally not you. I never thought you would dress up like this. You are definitely in the other end of your spectrum.” Second, they were shocked in how many tattoos I have. They asked me if they were real or I applied them for my costume. I told them they were real, and had them for years. They were honestly surprised because they thought a person like me would never have tattoos. The truth of the matter is, I got these tattoos for myself, and I usually won’t show them off unless I am in the gym with a cut off, or someone would want to see them. At work, I normally wear a long button up shirt that covers up my tattoos. During the Halloween celebration, it was the first time every student and teacher saw my tattoos. I could tell with the reaction of the students, they love my crucifixion on my right shoulder.

I think the funniest thing that happened was a student asked my why I only have black ink on my skin. I told her because of my skin tone, color doesn’t come out right, and the first tattoo artist told me to stick with the black ink. Then not even a second later, the teacher I work with made a comment how the artist must be really good because he said there is a trace of yellow between the lines of my tattoos. Then I had to make it clear to him that was my skin tone. The whole class started to laugh.

Well, here are some pictures from my Halloween 2007. I hope you enjoy them. Oh, by the way, I avoided taking pictures with that blond wig on =).

Triple D Productions Back in Business…

You may not know this, but I have a small business which I named Triple D Productions. I had this business for the past 2 years, but done a really bad job in promoting it. My cousin “pushes” me to create business cards, but the truth of the matter is; I’m too lazy to… hehehe. The things I do for my customers is video editing, slideshows, and little bit of photography. I mainly do projects for myself because I want the memories to last forever.

Here’s a little background how my business got jump started again. Last August, the school I work at had a career day. I brought my camera so I can take pictures of the students that I tend to favor since they had to dress to impress. Toni, the Director of Career Services, noticed that I own an SLR, and asked me to take pictures the entire day. After I did all my editing, I gave a copy to my department chair and the librarian so they can post it in the newsletter for the school.

Last week, Toni came up to me, and asked if I feel comfortable to be the photographer for the upcoming graduation. I told her yes, but I am not too confident in my pictures. I tend to be very critical with my work, and think everything is bad. So what I did, I put a portfolio together, and showed Toni my work. I wanted her to review it, and decided if she still wants to hire me. She told me my pictures were absolutely great, and hired me on the spot. She talked to the dean, and agreed to pay me $100 an hour. To tell you the truth, I was going to settle for a flat fee of $250.

During the conversation of what shots she was looking for, she mentioned she wanted to do a slideshow of the graduation, and I told her I can put that together. She asked me if I had any ideas for entertainment before the graduation ceremony beings, and I mentioned I can put together a slideshow of students during the past semesters. She also asked me if I can take pictures during the rest of the semester so we can have a variety during the graduation ceremony. Now I officially have the title of the school photographer.

Clara, the head of my department, heard about my new job title, and she came in to congratulate me, but stressed that I have to take care of the lab first. I understand where she is coming from because she’s the one who hired me, and not the other departments. Since I have that personality to help everyone, I tend to help other departments during my slow time. She actually got mad at me for doing that, and now wants me to ask her every time if I can help other departments before I do so. During our talk, she mentioned that the pictures I took during career day are going to be published in a National Court Reporter magazine. I was so freakin’ happy when I heard this. Everyone in the world will see the pictures I took. When that magazine comes out, I’ll buy a 100 copies because one day I can be famous, and say that my first shots was published in “this” magazine =P.

So if you need anyone to make a slideshow, video editing, video transfer, or anything that deals with digital media, you know who to contact… Triple D Productions ;).

I’m going to Europe…

After months of changes, my group and I finally locked down the dates of our Europe Trip. We have been planning this trip over two years, and every month something changes. We were originally going to go late August, early October of 2008 to enjoy Beer Fest in Germany. Then a whole lot of things kept changing; places to visit, when we were going, and places to sleep. Then last week, we locked down the dates for May 25th to June 8th. My friend Boogs supposed to start booking the hostels sometime in the next week.

I’ve been going on road trips with these same 4 people since college. We actually knew each other since high school. Scratch that. The other 4 people knew each other since grade school, but I joined their group during my high school life. This will be our first trip together that will be outside of the United States. This trip should be freakin’ fun as hell. I can’t wait.