Taz Just Died

My Rottweiler just died. He is the most adorable Rott one family could ever own. He protected us and he made us feel we were important even though we sometimes neglected each other. He was there for any of us that wanted attention. And all you had to do was feed him. Gosh I really miss him.

He was huge, intimidating, and adorable at the same time. at the park, everyone would fear him when he walked by, but end up petting him before we leave. he weighed 145 pounds at one point and no vetenarian would dare touch him when he growled. he finally slimmed down to a 135 pound menacingly looking Rott with lovable intentions.

the only human beings he hated were mailmen. i remember my sister refused to walk him because she was dragged literally 10 yards before she was able to stop taz from chasing a mailman. the mailman was so scared he couldn't pick up his spray repellent. well, the only reason why he hated them is because they drop mail in the mailbox. unfortunately, taz consider the mailbox as part of his territory. oddly enough, he loves my dad, a mailman.....heheheheheh

i was particularly distraught because i let him sleep with me for months when he was a pup. he hated being alone, so i allowed him to sleep near my feet. I would wake up really early in the morning to go to school and he would put on the poor doting eyes as if to say, "you're leaving already? Don't leave until you give me food or something!"

you couldn't get a dog more trusting than this one. When we had visitors, he would welcome them. Often they were my friends and they knew him well. When my friends play fight against me, Taz would quickly jump on them to protect me. It used to scare the hell out of my friends. Sometimes I would have my friends jump me so Taz can jump on them. I thought it was pretty funny.

but we were prepared for this to come. he is very old and he has guarded our house for over thirteen years. Now my parents are tired and they don't want a huge dog anymore. Mocha (my sister's half-chihuahua half-bull terrier) is all they can handle.

Wedding Soap Opera

Starring: Leyla Momeny

Saturday night: We arrived at my parents house only to pick up my mail. It was the first time we saw my parents after we told them the news. (you know the news: We are getting married. And we are having a wedding even!) Mocha (our half bull terrier-half chihuahua) greeted us with a lot of enthusiasm. It was as if she knew we both reached a milestone in our lives. or maybe my family had neglected her all week and she just wanted attention from the both of us.

My brother congratulated us after we came in. It's rare for my brother to leave his room briefly and walk up to the front of the house just to greet us. Usually he would get up to get a bite to eat or a can of coke. But he crawled back to his room after he congratulated us. Inside I was really glad he supported us explicitly. I think it was his way of welcoming Leyla in the fam. I think that is one of the purpose of having weddings. And my brother, as strange and aloof he has been these past years, figured it out.

Soon my parents came out to greet us. They didn't congratulate us. I didn't really care because they already gave us their blessings via "by" telephone. In fact, I didn't even notice but Leyla expected a verbal congradulation! They talked about where we were going to have the wedding. They talked about how Taz (our old Rottweiler) passed away and how my little sister didn't handle it well. Leyla left the house worried. She wanted to be accepted and she felt slighted.

I told her that my parents were a little strange about the wedding because they already knew through the grapevine that it wasn't going to occur in church! The one thing they wanted for their oldest child, is to get married in the church. It is one of those rites of passage for all catholics. I just hope my mom understands that myself, my brother, and even my sister will probably not care if we get married in church either. As the oldest brother, I set trends and the others follow. I might as well set this one also. underneath it all, my parents love us and they will eventually help us out. Leyla wasn't convinced. She left the house silent.

Sunday: We bought hundreds of dollars of Moroccan stuff at Cost Plus. We also went to Marshall's and she found these ottoman chairs that she thought were divine. She thought it was perfect for our little Moroccan motif. I like them as well but I thought they were expensive. What bothered me was the fact that I wasn't sure how it would look. I mean we are going to have guests that are going to be sitting on the floor and some on the chair? I thought that it was going to be a little strange. So I didn't like this buy.

"But I don't want to buy it, if you don't want it," she explained.

"Well I just don't get it...." and "I really don't understand it. Some guests are going to be uncomfortably higher than others."

Few minutes later, we left Marshall's not talking to each other. The drama just started!

Later on that night: Leyla was talking to her family and they wanted her to have the wedding in a huge hall. Leyla tried to tell them how it is not reflective of our personality. I think she was able to convince her.

Bottomline is that our parents love the both of us and they are very supportive. We know they have their own dreams of how our weddings should be. Their problem is that they raised us independent, free thinking individuals and we want something completely different. they will figure that out eventually and until they do, there will be more drama...as if we can't manufacture it ourselves.

Rustic Living in the Santa Cruz Mountains

Cabin life for two days wasn't what we expected at all. leyla and i thought it was going to be rustic living. you know the one where we pretend to be grizzly adams but without the bear to take care of.

it turned out that the man that owned the cabin was a former techy in the valley. he hooked up the cabin with all the amenities that most people have in their houses. we had cable, dsl hook up, long distance phone, huge television, dvd, and a radio. we even had a jacuzzi! we end up walking to the famous corralitos sausage grocery store for a few miles. but that was as strenuous as it got for the both of us.

actually, leyla (aka. hypochondreyla) caught an itch on the way to the market. she actually thought she may have had a rash from poison ivy or oak....heheheheheeh on the way to the market, she decided to jump into a patch where wooden interpretations of deer looked really cute. she wanted to take pictures of them. on the way out of the patch, leyla (aka. leyla the clutz) tripped on some shrubs you normally encounter in the woods. she got all scratched up and became itchy all of the sudden. i didn't think it was poison ivy because i knew what it looks like. but i had no idea it may have been poison oak.

i didn't want to scare her so i told her that it is normal to get itchy after getting all scratched up. actually, the was the truth cuz it happens to me all the time. its funny that i have been camping for ages and i haven't really experienced a poison ivy rash, or a snake bite, or a tick(just knocked on wood!). then again i never ever really thought about it until hypochondreyla brought it up. the reason why i brought this up is because that was the only thing that was compellingly challenging for the both of us....hehehehehehe

oh yeah...our last night, the phone suddenly cut off. we couldn't call out and we thought there were people outside that cut the phone lines off as they were about to kill us! i freaked out and leyla (aka. leyla the drama queen) also freaked out. she used my cell phone to call her family and told her sister that "if by chance we don't call you in the morning, we probably have already been killed....so make sure you write these numbers down." she thought it was funny, and i didn't. i couldn't shake the thought of the children-of-the-corn scenario out of my head. i don't know if being a teacher had to do with that at all. surely it was the manifestation of years and years of watching all the 80's scary movies like friday the 13, hellraiser, nightmare on elm street, and so on. it was pitched dark outside and the only light came from our house. we actually had neighbors but she was an old lady and i couldn't stop thinking that she may have been the mother in psycho. leyla thought it was kind of funny...even exciting....all i wanted to do was prop a couple of chairs on the doors! but i didn't...i didn't want leyla to think i was a big wimp....hehheheheh

We Finally Won!!!

Starring: doug cameron, ryan stewart, eric brown, and alex algones. the night started hopeless knowing that if we couldn't get at least four players, we would have to forfeit. fortunately, ryan finally entered as the clock ticked to the last minute.

it was our last game. interestingly enough, it was the last two teams that have not won a game yet. if that isn't adult league drama, i don't know what is. we have had some close games, but we just couldn't pull them out in the end. they have had some bad games and they were truly an 0 and 5 team.

we didn't want to lose, and our pride was on the line. we actually thought we were going to win the game after the first ten minutes. we were already ahead by ten points and they were playing with five guys. they decided to play with four after they realized they might lose against us with only four guys. if they win, they would have to accept the fact that they beat a team with only four players. clearly, they were in a lose-lose situation.

we could not miss a shot. usually we tire out in the end but doug and i just got tired of losing at the end. so we just kept the ball and made sure we scored. it was one of the easiest game we ever played. we end up scoring 73 points that night. that's a lot of points for four guys....ehehehehe

Winter Olypics: The Skeleton

i was watching the Winter Olympics one night not caring what i'm watching whatsoever. then the skeleton was on. who the hell thought of this!!!! basically, its a one person luge going down the pipe going 80-90 miles an hour. but the catch is that you are on your mother's baking pan head first down the pipe!!! i guess its called the skeleton because if you screw up and make a mistake, you become literally a skeleton after you eat it. by far, it is one of the craziest competitive game in the winter olympics. i mean, i have seen tons of skiers eat it on the downhill, but this is ridiculous. how the hell do they steer this vehicle? its pure torcher!

The Chronicles of the Dirty Thirty Two

This past thursday, i tried to go home early. so i kicked out all my kids afterschool around 4:30 and rushed home. on my way there, it was a breeze. i was glad i didn't have to wait for long until the bus came. it was particulary cold this past week. it was great that it was sunny, but the wind migrated from alaska just to make californians realize that there is a winter. it happens once a year.
the problem is that it was the Dirty Thirty. should i take the Dirty Thirty or should i wait another five minutes and freeze my ass off.

yup...took it. it was packed and my ass was creeping up on someone sitting down. i just hope i don't fart accidently on him....hehehehehe when the bus is packed, i usually have one view cuz its hard to move around and observe the crowd. and usually i would just look out the window. anyways, my view was a middle age chinese man who couldn't get his finger out of his nose! oh my god, from downtown through chinatown he took his finger out of his nose only to wipe and flick. what was he thinking?!?!?!?!?

I'm going to marry Momeny!!!!

I don't know what i am doing?!?!? but i really do! i am in love with leyla! she is intelligent, guapa, witty, and funny. what more do you want? my problem was that i wasn't sure if she was ready. so i had to talk to people. i talked to gant...and she said, "you better do it. a promise ring is a joke!"
i talked to chau. he said, "are you sure about this?"
"yes!" "you want to come with me to buy a ring? by the way, where the hell do you go?"
i talked to leena and nick. leena excited, "wow....great...reeeeeeeally!"
nick: (typical guy), "are you sure?"
"yes!"
nick: "that's great bro..."

my sister was the first i talked to....and she thinks its a great thing.

now i need to figure out where the hell i'm going to get this ring. all i knew is that she mentioned the size the rings she wears. i forced chau to go with me. i wanted someone to hold my hand (metaphorical). he wanted to go to tiffany. this is what i get for having a lawyer for a friend. jokingly,"so youre paying for it right?"

we headed for valley fair but we end up going to the great mall...the one place we both can't stand. but we figure there has to be a jewelry store in there. everyone has told me engagement rings should have a diamond on it. but i always knew she wanted something simple. she likes the kind of ring from "the lord of the rings" you know...simple, clean, gold. chau tells me that it is customary to have a diamond. "its once in a lifetime!" he retorts. what the hell am i going to do?

the whole week, i've been looking through the internet and there wasn't anything simple that i was looking for. i called some places and they said it would take a couple of weeks to customize....i said i had only three days.

we found a jewelry store after thrity minutes looking for parking. i hate malls! surprisingly enough, we found a jewelry store. they have what i was looking for!!! a gold ring without nothing on it...just round! there were other rings that were similar. i had no idea there was white gold, yellow gold, platinum, titanium...i just thought there was gold gold.

the jewelry lady tried to convince me to get her a ring with a diamond. she wasn't trying to get me to buy something more expensive. in fact, she was showing me something comparable. chau told her they are both weird! so she stopped.

now figuring out how to give it to her is incredibly difficult. i mean the typical on-my-knees-in-the-middle-a-restaurant-full-of-people, i knew i was obliged to. but i was still terrified. i told her we were going out for dinner, she got excited.

when i arrived in her place, we both were too tired to go out. thank goodness!

she decided to order in cuban. the yuca was great and the fried bananas was even better. i liked the chicken, leyla didn't. i think she wants to go back vegan again....hehehehee

i headed upstairs to leave the card under her pillow. i am so glad i didn't have to do the show in the middle in the restaurant. i got a break! but i was still nervous. i told her to look under her pillow and she read the card. i wont tell you what i wrote but she said "yes" resoundingly.

then we both called our parents. both wanted to know when we are going to have kids....! leyla wanted to know when i'm going to change my name to momeny?!?!?!??!

Sunset

Bart station: Bayfair. late afternoon and the wind is piercing through my freaking jacket. i was cold but i was very comfortable. there isn't really much to observe other than the bayfair mall, and if you see one mall, you see them all. prerequisite for all malls: target, DSW, marshalls/ross, old navy, macys, sears, jc penneys, michaels, borders, theaters, best buy, and occasionally jiffy lube. boring shit! in fact, suffocating.

i usually people watch but no one interesting this afternoon. besides, it seemed like everyone was partaking in peoplewatch and i seem to be the one being observed.

so i end up staring up in the sky. it was vestiges of a wonderful sunny day. the swath of orange hue was slowly dominating the blue sky. a plane slowly flew by leaving a trail of smoke. all i could think about is how i own this view. every where i have been in this world, i come across the same inspiring scenery. i recall my folded pants, my slippers, a worn down shirt, inebriated stoking a cigar, and feet propped up on a stool. ahhhh...i'm in spain, in egypt, in tunisia, in italy, and better yet, in thailand. i felt so comfortable. i missed it, and i need to get leyla to come with me again.

The Dirty 30 (Thirty)

Come you huddled masses...you bums of the world....come and take the "dirty thirty" through chinatown, san francisco to market.... downtown, and beyond.

i hate taking the "dirty thirty"...it smells, its grimy, and i feel like i am going to catch the bird flu! to get to the mission from north beach, you can take three buses: the 15, the 30, and the 45. in reality, i cringe every time i get in any of the bus. i think its because i am not acclamated to city life yet.

every time i take it early in the morning, i can be sure to expect to smell a bum out sleeping in the back of the bus. i really don't know why they are sleeping in the back. i mean, do they really know where they want to go?

but the 30 is grimy! it runs through stockton...middle of chinatown. every morning, i dread having miss the 15. the 15 goes through the business district, so its relatively clean. most of the riders are business oriented in business suits. however, one can't count on not having a bum that smell like shit sleeping in the back of the bus. actually, there is an asian old couple who takes the fifteen with these huge sacks of crushed aluminum cans! they would drag it inside and smack a couple bus riders along the way....hehehehehe its okay, they smile. but i like the 15 because its not as crowded.

but the 30 is always pack like sardines in a metal can. what's worse are the people that ride the 30. when i wait, i feel like i am the only one in the bus stop....but as soon as the bus arrives, i get shoved out of the way by a bunch of geriatric chinese. they are old women who are going to work at some restaurant. with no fail, they would always have a plastic bag with them. i wished they would at least smile, but that would only incriminate them. they just push you out of the way. what can you do? push old women back? and whats worse is that they dont give a fuck about picking their nose out in public. i have seen several times people pick their nose and i'm so glad they didnt fucking eat it!

and they usually are eating something with their mouths wide OPEN! i don't particulary want to see their food in their mouth while theyre chewing it. so i would always look out of the window. the problem with that is i end up seeing how i really don't like to envision chinatown. i would see trucks lined out with carcasses of pig in huge slabs packed together. lets just say sanitary issues aren't really discussed. and sometimes, they would talk, and they can be loud.


then there are the old chinese men that go to work in some construction site. they smell like they haven't washed their clothes..... dry sweat reaks! i like mondays because their clothes are usually cleaned for the beginning of the week.

then there are the chinese youngens who of course wake up 5:00 in the morning to study some more. then they take the bus early in the morning so they can get to school early to study some more! to top it off, there will be an occasional bum that would really intensify the smell of the whole bus.

bottom line is that i feel like i am going through china every time i take the 30. i dont really think the chinese are dirty or grimy....but i think being in such closed quarters makes me feel dirty. i used to worry about getting SARS every time i get on the dirty thirty. i guess its just something i have to get acclamated to.

I Think I Am Addicted to HANSEN'S!!!

i am not sure why, but i feel like i want to go out and run like forrest gump...except i probably end up with a fu-man-chu facial than grizzly adams! i've been feeling this way ever since i've been drinking Hansen's! a few months ago, i figured i'd replace coca cola because it is so bad for you. of course, the proverbial you-know-what-it-does-to-your-teeth?-ever heard of the experiment-where-you-put-a-tooth-in-coke-for-a-couple-of-days?....-it melts! that freaked me out for a while, but there are a lot of shit we put in our body that can be just as damaging if we are not careful. so that didn't bother me so much.

so why did i change?

someone happened to convince that it might lead to an onset type 2 diabetes. shit....my uncle lived with diabetes and i had always remembered him as stoic, strong, respected, and sharp. i looked up to him, and it was great to know i was related to him. i love my cousins and they were my role models. if anything, they were all tall, and i was tall. and that made us different from all the other filipinos in our block...hehehehehehe

but he visited my family a few years ago just before they amputated his legs and inevitably lead to his death. i saw a drained man tired of fighting, tired of acting strong for his kids, my cousins. i felt bad he had to be in that plane from manila to san francisco for hours. i could imagine the flight alone really roughed him up. but he had to meet his only brother for the last time, my father. it was touching....and all i cared about were the traditional dessert he brought over from the philippines. if i tried to think about why he came....and if i tried to think about why he had become so emaciated, i probably would have cried. i was just glad he was still walking.

anyways, this bothered me. coca cola bothers me. but i have this goddam problem. i really believe that i am still freaking young, invincible, inpenetratable. i believe my body can recover from anything....even from everyday intake of liters of coca cola. hell....i haven't got a cavity for the past several years. so how the hell coca cola is affecting me?

anyways, i have succesfully deleted my daily sustenance of coca cola for the past few months and replaced it with hansen's.....i don't think its much of a change, i mean the sugar intake in hansen's is just as high, but i feel better about myself. i convinced myself that since i buy it from trader joe's, it's that much healthier..hehehhhehe

i guess that is why it is so important that i stay active. once i drink this mandarin-lime sitting next to me, i'm a heading down to 24 hours fitness......

24 Hours Fitness Club

oh my god! two days ago, i paid a little less than my rent for a fitness club that i never thought i would ever join in my life. it was a three year contract and i don't have to worry about paying every month. i figure my health is that important!

is it?

actually, the only time i ever thought of joining a club is when i get old...crap....i'm getting old!!!!

San Francisco Experience

its 12:00 at night and i am heading down toward the water to finally workout at a 24 hours fitness club. never have i expected this moment to arrive. almost all my friends are attached to some kind of plan from one, two, or even three years. i refused to join a club. i felt it was a defeatist approach to healthy living. hell.....there are a lot of people that would probably be pissed at me, but there was a time where i just don't think that my kind of healthy living consist of going to a club and workout. i don't mean that people should find something else, but i feel like it is too sanitary, too easy and too artificial!

anyways, that wasn't the interesting part of the night. i was walking down toward the pier. the air was misty and the chill didn't bite like it would if you live in the midwest or the east coast. the fog already settled itself over our heads and the foghorn was blaring. the lights on the pier shimmered and inviting as i walked down the hill. it was like a renoir landscape, beautiful and colorful from a distance. what was really cool to hear are seals competing with the sounds of the foghorns. i felt really comfortable and i didn't particularly want to get to the fitness club any time soon. i just wanted to walk around for a while. all i could think of is how lucky people are to live in a city near the bay. the view is spectacular and the feeling is comforable! my friend was walkin with me and i wanted to tell him how i felt but it wasn't something i'd share with a guy on the way to the gym. i don't think?!?!?!

anyways, i wanted to walk and stop by a bar with an open terrace and a view of the water. i wanted to smoke a cigar. i haven't smoked a cigar for over a month now....perhaps i will have one tomorrow!