You know you're Filipino when...

1. You point with your lips
2. You nod upwards to greet someone.
3. You collect items from hotels or restaurants “for souvenir”.
4. You smile for no reason.
5. You flirt by having a foolish grin in your face while raising your eyebrows repeatedly.
6. You go to a department store and try to bargain the prices.
7. You add an unwarranted “H” to your name, i.e. “Jhun,” “Bhoy,” “Rhon.”
8. You put your hands together in front of you as if to make a path and say “excuse, excuse” when you pass in between people or in front of the TV
9. You like everything imported or “state-side.”
10. You Check the labels on clothes to see where it was made before buying.
11. You always offer food to all your visitors.
12. You say “comfort room” instead of “bathroom.”
13. You say “for take out” instead of “to go.”
14. You asked for “Colgate” instead of “toothpaste.”
15. You asked for a “pentel-pen” or a “ball-pen” instead of just “pen.”
16. You order a McDonald’s instead of “hamburger”(pronounced ham-boor-jer)
17. You say “Ha?” instead of “What.”
18. You say “Hoy” to get someone’s attention.
19. You answer when someone yells “Hoy.”
20. You turn around when someone says “Psst!”
21. Your sneeze sounds like “ahh-ching” instead of “ahh-choo.”
22. You prefer to make acronyms for phrases such as “OA” for over acting, or “TNT” for, well, you know.
23. You say “air con” instead of “a/c” or air conditioner.
24. You say “brown-out” instead of “black-out.”
25. You have a portrait of “The Last Supper” hanging in your dining room.
26. You own a Karaoke System.
27. You own a piano that no one ever plays.
28. You own a “barrel man” (you pull up the barrel and you see something that looks familiar. schwing…)
29. You refer to your VCR as a “beytamax
30. You have a giant wooden fork and spoon hanging somewhere in the dining room
31. Your car has too many “burloloys” like a Jipneys back in P.I.
32. You hang a Rosary on your car’s rear view mirror.
33. You order a “soft drink” instead of a “soda.”
34. You refer to seasonings and all other forms of monosodium glutimate as “Ajinomoto”
35. This you ‘ll agree 100% … Goldilocks” means more to you than just a character in a fairytale.

Writing again.

For 3 years, I was writing in my MySpace blog. I used to be really prolific writer back in the day with observations about life, my life, events I see and just random things in general. It all came to a end when a couple of things happened.

1. I got a bad feeling when someone in real life that I was good friends with, got offended with an entry and said that I was "coincided" and any other bad word that you can think of.
2. When I first started dating my future wife to be.

Those two events made me decide to stop blogging. Why? What was I thinking? Blogging was a outlet for me in those days to reflect on what was going on. I stopped for the sake of one person? I am feeling better because I am writing again and I still don't feel motivated enough to write all the time. I am married now and that makes it not easier to write what comes to mind that you want to share to the world and to express just to get it out of your system. When I got married, I just wanted to limit the amount that I do just to make my wife happy but I found out that was not the case. Why limit yourself after you got so much in the world in the palm of your hand?

Michigan City, IN

My wife one day told me about a outlet mall that she went to had a lighthouse. She thought it was in Wisconsin. Looking it up one day, I said "It is not in Wisconsin honey, it's in Indiana." We made a decision that morning to take the trek out to Michigan City, Indiana. Why not! It is a 77 mile drive taking I-294, I-80, and I-94 to get there. We put the address on the GPS and we started our journey. It was a nice day outside and there was not really that much traffic. There is a stretch of highway when I-80 joins into I-294 all the way to the toll road is one of the most busiest stretch in the area. A lot of trucks go though that section every day.
Traffic was not that bad and we got though pretty well past that big construction project with the I-65 interchange. We followed the path from the GPS and we took IN-49 and took US-20 to US-12 all the way into Michigan City. When we went into the city, we saw a big power plant. We looked at that and we thought, "There is a outlet mall near here? Are we in the right place?"
Not far from the power plant, we were able to find the outlet mall. It is a big outlet mall and it was built in the 1980's. There were not much people and plus I let my wife splurge a bit. The town is a popular tourist town for Chicagoan's since it is close to Indiana Dunes State Park and Lake Michigan. It is now rehabilitation the downtown area on the west side. It is a nice town and I would like to see the state park when I am there next time. There is something that I really do like about traveling. It is a way to relax and get rid of your usual surroundings and explore new places and towns. Another pleasant Sunday and more journeys to come.

When Thanksgiving mean much more.

I haven't written that much in blogs lately. Since I have been handling my relationship, I have been uninspired to write about what is going on. Things change. At a time in my life when there are a lot of changes (including a relationship),  things are put on to the back burner. However there was one significant event that happened when Thanksgiving made it much more however with almost tragic results. I was unable to write this until now.

It was November 26, 2008. My fiancee was working late and I was at home. She works at a hospital in Chicago. Anything can happen in Chicago. A couple of times while I helped her moved out, a guy asked us for money but kept persisting. I gave him $1 and let him go. But this time was different. My fiancee called me at 8:20 PM telling me she is on her way home. About 20 minutes later, I got a call from a 312 number. Thinking it could be from the hospital phone, I picked it up. It was my fiancee and she was in shock and sobbing. "I got robbed" with her voice breaking. I was in shock. After that call, I drove down I-290 to Chicago. It was the longest drive of my life. Thinking if she is okay is one thought but there were a lot of things that could happen too. When I got there, I saw a police car, and my fiancee. She was still, in shock and really shaken. In her hand, she had a handle of a the purse that she had. It was either cut or ripped off. It had her cell phone, ID's, wallet, bank information, everything. Luckily there was a witness and she saw what happened and she stayed around for her. My fiancee remembered the car and the license plate so I am happy for her after all what happened.

On Thanksgiving, the holiday was meaningful in more ways than one. Thankful that she is still her with us and she didn't leave us. That thanksgiving, we gave thanks for giving the gift one day at a time to live. I think that is why naming this URL was significant. Live one day at at time and enjoy everything that a day brings.

First post.

Well this is my first post. Random thoughts for random things and questions about life. I am not perfect. I feel it is the best to have another view of things in life. So sit back and enjoy.