Philippine Star April 29, p. J-1

Sunday morning. here's something positive to perk spirits up. As usual, my favorite Philippine Star columnist came up with another beautiful piece, this time on Aging. With his permission, I would like to post the last few paragraphs here. I highlighted the most important ones.
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.......Now, as an older person, I have learned to let go of the many fears and guilt that spoiled what could have been numerous opportunities for joy, growth and happiness in the past. I am more forgiving of myself, and as a result, of others as well. I also feel less uptight and opinionated. I am even learning to appreciate people and points of views that I readily condemned before. In fact, I find myself embracing many of them now.

And this newfound joy and liberation, ironic as it seems, is the gift that comes with aging. Advancing years and the body pains it brings have made me more awake and responsive to life. While I may feel the limitations aging has imposed on this body, it has also given me direction and purpose.

Others may argue that aging is the dimming of the light, the forcible abduction into the night that one, at best, can only rage against. I tend to look at aging as a point from where a person can look back at how he or she has lived so far, appreciate and accept himself or herself, warts and all, and with the remaining time left, go for the last unfulfilled dreams.

To burn brightly and tell one’s story to the world is what I am talking about. At best, I have about two decades left to sing, write, learn and teach, to love, laugh, be silly, make mistakes, to serve, give and experience joy, to learn from suffering and drink from the bittersweet cup of life.

I therefore approach aging awake and conscious so as not to miss out on its gifts the way I missed out on some of the gifts of youth.

We need not go kicking and screaming and holding on to life before the big blackout. As James Hillman put it, "We have the option to build up to a lasting, glorious, and memorable sunset like no other."
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"Older and Yet Younger"
HUMMING IN MY UNIVERSE By Jim Paredes
The Philippine STAR 04/29/2007

On my own

MISERABLES, LES lyrics

And the verdict?

P17,970 on parts. P3,000 discounted price on labor.
The Pasig River beckons....

Pulling the plug

I call it The Revenge of the Car that Wouldn't Die. It started off as The Little Engine that Could..pretty cute..but that was way back in the mid nineties when it was still a 'baby'.. and then it became the Little Engine that Wouldn't... and then now, more than a decade later, it is just begging for EUTHANASIA but I the master am just too stubborn (and too poor) to let it go and gasp its last breath of carbon mono. Of course I speak of none other than my constant companion, PSV 744, Toyota Corolla 1990, who has been more loyal to me than ANY man. But it has been dying a slow death, in and out of ICU the past two years.. it has illnesses with no known cause such as the over heating every so many kilometers - the reason why I carry jugs of water with me the whole time. Over heating at least twice a day is now such a natural part of my daily life as a motorist.
What happened two nights ago though was part of my car's revenge, or plea to finally pull the plug. There I was cruising along the highway, just finished the Shaw Blvd underpass..then...a click..a swoooooshing sound, then engine went dead, but the car still kept careening away...good thing I had the presence of mind to veer towards the pavement. Anyway, I had it towed yesterday all the way till Oasis (what an appropriate name for a car repair shop)... verdict? timing belt. Verdict last year when exactly the same thing happened while I was speeding along Ortigas at midnight? ALSO the timing belt. Last week, had the muffler changed, P1,500. The other week, spent P13,000 to repair the clutch lining and other stuff that had to do with the clutch (PLEASE, I have not mastered the vocabulary yet of all that gobbledygook which mechanics use)... This week? easily another P15,000. All my mechanic friends at Oasis (yes, they are practically my friends now) were gathered yesterday around the engine of my car, like a team of surgeons in an IC unit..and they were shaking their heads and making tsk tsk sounds... the supervisor turned to me and gravely said.. "panahon na'. (It's time.)

I think I should just have it flung into the Pasig River to catch clams.

He smiles!

He smiles! He smiles! Karl the unsmiling baby finally gave me his first smile the other day as I was leaving for work. Here we are in the driveway...you can detect the fraction of a mona lisa smile. maybe he was thinking about his breakfast.

ZARA DAY!!!

All of Zara was closed on this day due to the annual summer outing at Enchanted Kingdom!!! I and the rest of the dept heads were invited as 'guests'...
..Actually, we oldies didn't have as much energy as the rest who rode EVERY single ride, but we still had a blast playing pekwa in the dining room. hehehe. So here we are, taking time off from all the stress..

My never ending birthday....

The celebration continues...at the office!!! A surprise 'lunch buffet' organized by Sunday, May Anne, Corinne, Eliza, Miciel and Jeboy!

Yesterday's Birthday (and Easter) Celebration...

We found this CLOWN along Jupiter street posing infront of Aristocrat restaurant, on our way to the Easter lunch at Dasma, and quickly grabbed him to pose for some birthday pics!!

At Dasma: Our Easter (and birthday!) lunch from 12nn to 6pm!

Food, glorious food... Mom's Roast Leg of Lamb, Mel's Pasta, and Lia's salad....

Blowing my birthday candle on Easter Sunday: New life, new beginnings....!

Surprise Sweetness

Day 2 of my annual illness. What brightened it up was the arrival of 1 DOZEN ROSES yesterday!!! At first I thought it was from some mysterious admirer wishing me an advanced happy birthday..but no..it came from an even sweeter source and with a sweeter thought...it was from a group of Ateneo students I had helped out last December with their year end party at embassy, and they wanted to show their appreciation.. awwww...how incredibly sweet. They had such a touching letter addressed to me, Ma'am Malu, and I quote ...."It was truly an honor working with you for MECO's year-end party at Embassy. It was a huge success, considering that our attendees went beyond the Ateneo community. For this, we would like to express our gratitude......With this card is a bouquet of flowers embodying our deepest and most sincere of thanks. Again, it was both truly a pleasure and honor working with you..." Waaaaaaaa, I wanna cry, of course that was just the Beauty Bar sponsorship. but still, somebody remembered me in my illness, even if it wasn't really meant for my illness. Hehehe. Nevermind if it was work related. That's how babaw my happiness is.

Ick

This is it! I knew it would come this time of the year (it always does) and it finally did. My ANNUAL colds. Yes I rarely get sick...a whole year can pass by without me ever filing a sick leave from work even for half a day. But I do get my once-a-year colds which are the mother of all colds..it is truly debilitating. As if all those colds I should have gotten every month were compressed into one terrible, tortuous, cold. Headache, throat ache, limb ache, all sorts of aches. It literally took me 5 hours to get up this morning. Up by 6am. up then down again on the bed, then up, then down. My children just looked at me as though I was some beached whale. They were talking about me, I was asleep but I could hear them. Finally crawled my way to the bathroom at 11, and here I am infront of the computer, blogging this annual event for posterity.
On the brighter side, my left ear is getting better - failed to blog that one, as it was so stupid, it did not merit any blogging, but now that it's a thing of the past, might as well -- plainly and simply put, while I was indulging in some of my vanity 'ceremonies' one day last week, I accidentally clamped the edge of my left ear in between the two HOT ironing rods of the hair 'plancha' - the hair straightener. My skin got burned of course -- as to what degree I don't know, but I endured it silently as it was too embarassing to admit my stupidity. Nikki found out about it though (I had borrowed the hair iron from her), and she just shook her head and told me NEVER to iron my hair again without her help (like I was some old woman!!).
Well, the raw skin on the edge of my skin has finally began to dry in clumps, as you can see.

So here I am, with a burnt ear and terrible terrible colds. What a way to start my vacation..

Astoria hysteria

SUMMER is finally, finally here!! We escaped the scorching heat of summer via a weekend getaway in Astoria Plaza - just the three of us...(it was a gc given to me last xmas by friends at abscbn).. and what a relaxing weekend it was! In the words of Nikki, she said it was an excuse to put ourselves in 'sebo mode' because all we really did was sleep and lounge around.. and swim a bit.. I had a fantabulous body massage in the spa yesterday which just melted away all the knots..the tension that had built up over the past weeks. months. YEAR..















We enjoyed the one-bedroom suite immensely..it was like our own little apartment. Here we are hamming it up infront of the floor to ceiling mirror in the dining room...