New Year, New Beginnings

Corny, I know. Still, I figured it’s appropriate for what I’m about to tell you. Some of my close friends already know this so I just thought I’d let everybody know…

I’m coming home!

*confetti!*

Yeah. No definite date yet, but I’m looking at mid-February.

I haven’t told my cousin and the people here yet. It’s New Year’s Eve tomorrow and I don’t think it’s the right time to tell them. To be honest, I’m still figuring out the best way to break the news. I don’t even know how they’re gonna take it, or how I’m gonna feel about it. But I’m betting my ass that it’s not gonna be good. *sigh* I feel nervous already just thinking about it. I just hope they’d understand. God, they’ve done so much–so much–for me.

Which brings us to dilemma number two: How am I going to pay them back for their generosity? I have asked a friend what I could possibly say, do, or buy, but none of them seem enough. I guess it’s just one of those things where the most appropriate thing to say is, “I don’t know how I could ever repay and thank you enough for all that you’ve done for me.” It sucks, doesn’t it? I mean, of course I won’t expect anything in return if that were me, but as the recipient of such generosity, I can’t help but want to do something or give something back.

But enough about that. I will try not to worry about it until after New Year’s Day.

Anyway, when I get home, I will take up temporary residence in Quezon City. Right now, I’m just figuring out my finances for when I return. My mom still owes me big time, so I might just ask her to help me start up again–just little things and necessities here and there.

God, for the first time in almost a year, I feel extremely excited about something again. I feel like I’m finally moving forward and actually doing something for myself. I love it!

Oh and I find it interesting that 2007 is the Chinese Year of the Pig. Folks of 1983, IT’S OUR TIME! Let’s make the most out of it, eh?

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By the way, Jonsi, thanks for the Christmas card!

Sarah, I just received the package today! It’s soooo cute! Thank you for the polar bear (I shall name it “Chara” XD) and the “C” pendant and necklace. *big hug*

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HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!

Christmas Express

Spent Christmas with Kuya Edward, Kuya Edgar, Ate Awit, Colleen, and Ethan in Murietta. They picked me up at Victoria Gardens (in Rancho Cucamonga) where Ate Epie and the rest of the gang dropped me off. It was a sweet one hour trip from VG to Kuya’s apartment home.

The place was pretty neat with two bedrooms. (Kuya Edgar and I shared Colleen’s room.) They had a small Christmas tree set up in one corner, and the small fireplace was decorated with Christmas stuff, including the kids’ candy socks.

Christmas Eve we heard mass and cooked dinner. I prepared Ethan’s special chicken. It was organic chicken with lemon zest/juice and spices. We also had our traditional macaroni soup and another meal that currently escapes me.

Since Ethan has autism, he could only eat the chicken and rice. His rice was cooked separate from ours. He has his own plates, glasses, and other kitchen stuff used to prepare a meal, including the chopping board and knives. He also has his own special dishwashing liquid. (By the way, visit Autism Pinoy.)

The next day, Christmas, we all just stayed at home. Ethan had (Ethan-friendly) peas and hotdogs for breakfast. We had steaks, sausage, and rice for lunch. Ethan had some of his special beef and broccoli, I think. For dinner, Kuya Edward cooked shrimp sinigang. I forgot what Ethan ate. >.< We also opened our presents. I got a nice brown corduroy jacket/hoodie.

Anyway, I had a blast there. Too bad I had to go home today (it’s a long story I don’t even what to talk about it). The rest of them went to Big Bear after they dropped me off at the train station (more on this later). Ethan had two and a half hours of skiing lessons. (Gah! I wanted to see him!) Kuya just kept me posted while I was on the train. In the end, Ethan had a total of five runs down the slopes. Too cute! Can’t wait for the pictures!

About the train thing… Since Kuya was too lazy, he really pushed me to just take the train home. So I did. At first we had a hard time looking for the perfect schedule. It was one of three station choices: West Corona, Fullerton, or San Bernardino. The tricky part was the layover at LA Union Station. We thought San Bernardino had the best schedule for everyone. It leaves at 7:14am and only has a forty minute wait before boarding the train going to Palmdale/Lancaster. The other schedules had about an hour or hour and a half waits. Nah uh. San Bernardino it was.

We all left Murietta at about 6:20am and got to the station 15 minutes before the train was scheduled to leave. I arrived at LA 10 minutes early, so I waited for about 50 minutes there. My next train left LA at 9:20am and I arrived at Palmdale Station a few minutes late at 11:00am.

I travelled for four freaking hours and I just have to thank the following people: 1) Tita Florence, the old Filipino lady I met on my second train–we talked from LA all the way to Newhall, so that kept me entertained (she even gave me three Starburst candies, my fave!), and 2) John Mayer, for his sweet, sweet singing voice and his wonderful songs that made the journey a lot more bearable. Thank you, thank you, thank you, even if I never get to meet you again or ever.

When I got home I also got presents from everyone back here. I got a turtle-neck sweatshirt, bath stuff, assorted candies, and two humongous bars of Hershey’s chocolate, which I lovingly dubbed “Fat Camp in bars”. Thank you all!

BBQ Friday

Yay, Kuya Edward agreed to meet us halfway tomorrow so he could pick me up to stay with them for Christmas. Woohoo! I get to spend Christmas with my family. I miss Ethan and Colleen.

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Ate Epie’s friends from work are coming over today for a barbecue thing. Better put my game face on. Rawr.

I hate Cubao

Remember that time when I commuted from Makati to QC and got lost in Cubao? Well, it seems like I haven’t totally gotten over the whole experience. You see, I’m supposed to meet my brothers today or tomorrow (Kuya Edgar’s flight was delayed and he’s currently stuck in Heathrow Airport in London) but Kuya Edward is too much of a lazy ass to drive from Murrietta to Palmdale so he could come get me. Instead, he wants me to take a train from Palmdale to LA Union Station to West Corona, where he could just pick me up. WTF? I can’t even successfully get my ass from Point A to Point B in my own country let alone in this very foreign and very big state. I’m too scared to go alone towards Downtown freaking LA. *sigh* And he’s not budging. There’s no way in hell I could get him to pick me up except when I’m actually dying.

I’m feeling the love, yo.

Out for blood. I wanna go home… again.

Is it possible to kill my nephew when he gets home? (No, he’s not the one I was talking about in my last angry post.)

He doesn’t listen to me — AT ALL. I hate that he puts me in the middle all the time. He betrayed my trust — yet again — and now he gets my ass in trouble. What a stupid fucktard. From now on, no more Miss Nice Auntie. He can be rotting in the middle of the goddamned road and I wouldn’t even spare him a sidelong glance. What an idiot.

I hate this. I hate being surrounded by idiots. It’s scares me that some of that idiocy might rub off on me. Please, God, no.

Times like this just make me wanna go home. To tell you the truth, I’m seriously thinking about it. I’m seriously thinking about going home. Should I or should I not? I should ask my brothers. I’m meeting them some time this week. Kuya Edgar is flying in from Rome, maybe to spend Christmas with us. We’ll see.

I don’t know how much more of this crap I can handle. It’s sapping my soul. I feel like I’m dying, one good piece of me at a time. Nowadays, I feel like I’m existing just to exist. I’ve been living a semi-hermitical lifestyle for almost a year and it hasn’t been great at all. I daresay it’s barely even good. Sure I’ve had some fun times, but most days I simply stare at nothing in particular and I get lost in my thoughts. I’ve mastered the art of daydreaming — on the road, in my bed, or simply in this chair, staring at the computer screen. It’s bad that the only best friends I have here are myself, the dog, and my closet. Sure, I talk to my cousin, but I don’t tell her everything. She only knows about a quarter of my life, possibly even less than that.

Yeah, I think I might be ready to come home now.

Need to vent

WHAT A FUCKING ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!

MORON!!!

Pick-up line

From Junie:

“Hindi tayo tao…

Hindi tayo hayop…

BAGAY TAYO!”

…

Hahahahaha, panalo! XD

Tsk

It frustrates me to no end knowing what I know.

Afrikaans?

For some reason, I want to learn how to speak (and write) Afrikaans.

I already tried learning it today. So far, the only things I remember are the five prefixes (i.e., ver-, be-, ge-, her-, and ont-). I’m still confused by the long and short vowel pronunciations. Heheh. It was fun, though.

Hmm, maybe devote an hour to it each day?

The only problem I have about seriously learning the language is that there’s no one to practice speaking it with over here. Ah, well. Should be interesting.

Five Factor Personality Test

from Claire

The Five Factor Personality Test