Most Important Discovery in Howe Cavern

While David and I were enjoying our latern tour in Howe Cavern using our  ultra hi-tech, well, lanterns when we discovered something. No, it wasn't dinosaur bones or the holy grail nor the mythical Mormon tablets. No, nothing like that.  What we saw, however, proved to be something more "valuable" though not worth to look at.

Somebody, in all their goodness and glory, some not so pure and unvirginal woman left her soiled napkin in a hole on the side of the cave.  Thank goodness to our hi-tech lanterns, and my ultramodern eyewear branded Prada, I accidentally saw the object.  I wonder if the management was able to discover it and put it in a glass display box.

Maybe it's Mary Magdalene's.

I hope your mama's proud of you honey.

A 'Nice" Way to End 2009...

by having a car accident.

David and I were on our way home from Walgreens when it happened. The light was red and so we stopped when a car behind us hit us and shoved us under a chevrolet pickup truck in front of us.  The impact was great that it knocked off my eyeglasses. There were no damages to both cars that sandwiched us, but oh boy, David's car was wrecked (see pictures below). Good thing he was driving the car that day.  I usually drive for him. However, I was dismayed because we were talking about me buying the car from David as I need a vehicle for my clinicals.  It's a 2009 Toyota corolla and I loved it. Good thing David has another car or we would have been stuck at home for a month.  On the other hand, David is concerned that they culprit doesn't have an insurance to pay for the damages.

Now my back and shoulders hurt.  I have lidocaine patches. I took pain medications. And we are going to Hawaii next week. However, we were so glad that nobody was badly injured. 

Today, we went out hunting for cars again.  I guess we may have to get another corolla, a red one which I picked from the car dealership. I would have wanted a van but it doesn't give you a good gasoline mileage.
Now, we are driving David's Lexus with care.  And he's the one driving it.

Monday 'Nightmare'

School opens again this Monday! And I have to finish posting my pictures from our last trip. Have to wake up early in the morning again. Classes start at 8:15 a.m. and I take the bus! Help!

What do you do after a snowstorm?

Shovel of course.


Here are some pictures to show that snow isn't really pretty all the time (well, that is, after a snowstorm hit Rochester early this year).

Moi, showing how deep the snow was. This was taken after we shoveled the driveway of snow 10 inches deep. The snow on the car had also melted. Good thing David's other car was placed in the garage or we would have had a hard time cleaning it. Good thing it was just snow flurries and not wet, heavy snow.

Let it snow! Let it snow! Let it snow!

The night the snowstorm hit Rochester.

I'm dreaming of a white new year.

There it is!

I told you I'm not Chinese

Friday, the winter chill of autumn manifests and the leaves begin to fall. I have a love-hate relationship with autumn. The cold, cold air reminds me of loneliness. I do not wish to share this plight with other people. I am alone in this journey.

Ha, am I trying to revive my creative self? Not really. But last Friday was colder than the witch's tit, as David would say. It is time for long-sleeved shirts, coats and gloves.


While I was minding my own business a professor, of Indian ethnicity I know because I have browsed through his Web page, stopped and asked, "Where you from?" I, of course, was startled because I was not ready for such instance, especially when his English has a thick Indian accent. Without waiting for my answer, he asked me aloud, enough for the whole campus to hear, "Are you from China?"

Oh no, I said in my mind. Not again. Please Lord God have mercy. Last year I experienced the same incident when a lady thought I come from China. Few months later my classmate thought I'm from Mexico. Now, David said I am the "universal man".

"I'm from the Philippines!" I replied. I would have told him that our race have two Miss Universe title holders, developed the flourescent bulb, and designed the first lunar vehicle. No, I was humble enough. I didn't even reveal that I used to collect live centipedes in a bottle, my ethnic composition was performed before high school music teachers from around the country when I was in high school, a fellow for poetry in English, my poems were published in national magazines, and I have a column. No, I am humble.

"Oh," he said. "My very good friend is from the Philippines. I will let him know that there's another Filipino in the campus." I smiled. Okay, because I am hoping I could find another Filipino in school whom I can play luksong-tinik with, do the otso-otso and halukay ube dance craze, and share sinigang recipe. Now, I wonder if I can do those things in the near future.

Let's hope.

[more reflections on this when I have the urge]

China 'Ashamed' Of Its Own Citizen?

Here's one controversy at the Beijing Olympics that is as smoggy as China's air [China maybe as successful in its bid to host the games, but I am glad I am not a Chinese citizen. Hence, I am enraged with this report. I love my homeland and serve it to the best that I can, but if denies me of what's due to me I would be ashamed to be called a citizen of that country]:


"Fraud in Beijing Olympics"

Too Tired To Write

... so I'm leaving you all with this beautiful video from Youtube.com:

When David Gets Crazy

... he books a trip to Vegas for August and will stay in:

Photo from the web

Now, I'm Mexican

My professor made me a frog again today. Last time he just asked me to step forward and hold out my hands. He placed electrodes on me and test my muscle contraction. I was telling the class, "I don't want to be a frog in the next life." My seatmate said, "Oh, it is better to be a frog than be a rat or mouse or monkey. They're used in experiments more gruesomely." I couldn't agree more.

Well, today the professor asked me to lay down on the lab table to test my ECG. He made me as an example, for the students to follow the methods used in the lab. manual. Every table gets a laptop to work on the experiment, things that you will, perhaps, never see in school laboratory set ups back home.

However, when we finished the test, my seatmate (a black married lady and she's so nice) started talking. I told her that I am excited as I am going home in May. Then she told me that she will be going into a vacation with her family this summer. Then she said, in excitement, that she's going to Mexico! Then she started talking about the places she'd like to see there. Later she was frowning because I never seemed to give her tips about the places. She thought I am from Mexico.

Well, okay, I was mistaken as Chinese last time; now I am a Mexican.

Ola!

-stop-

-more for this entry as I am going to eat dinner-

Excuse Me. Who Is This?

When David Gets Crazy

This is what happens when David gets crazy... he books a 10-day trip to





We're leaving on the 10th of January.

Maddening Toy

Pam gave me this toy a year ago as a Christmas present. David received a marvelous chime from Pam.

I made a major mistake of "hauling" the contents without first taking note as to how the things fit together. And this is what happened: I can't solve the puzzle, no matter how hard I try!

Whenever I get a glimpse of this toy on the kitchen table I cannot help but wince. Pam, are you punishing me?

It fits like a tic-tac-toe puzzle.

Want to help me solve it?

Of colds and other maladies

I need Jhumpha Lahiri to interpret my maladies. Are they product of my imagination or consequencies of what I've done? The cold bug got me this time. I"ve been in a lot os tress lately. Though I have my flu shot a week ago, however, it just proved that it cannot give you full immunity to several other strains of the flu virus. and to think that I caught the American strain. When I was back home I seldom get sick even if I work some 12 hours a day for the paper (starting from 2 p.m. until 1 a.m. the next day. I'd go home at 4 or 5 in the morning). With my exposure to so many bugs when I was doing my internship for my Medical Technology degree and my volunteer work for a non-governmental health care organization I thought I was immune to most bugs. I was wrong.

Or maybe I was just stressed out. I haven't had any good sleep for days. I have received a message from my friends at the newspaper that my father was admitted to the hospital on Monday. We are middle class people. We cannot afford the high cost of medical bills, especially that my mother admitted my father to a private hospital. As the first-born son I am obligated to send money and help in the expenses. I called home last Tuesday and talked with my younger brother who is living with my parents. He was left to look after my grandmother who has been living with us after she suffered partial paralysis due to a stroke in the late 90s. My brother had to file a leave of absence from his work. Now, my concern is - my father's hospital expenses were beyond my expectation! Though I have sent some amount to cover expenses it wasn't even half of what they've sharged for his hospitalization bills. I have to find ways how to pay the remaining balance. God, I don't know what to do.

Help!