I am not sure if you forgot or you just failed to notice..

whenever we go to mcdonald's for breakfast, I most of the time order the egg omelet with fried rice, hashbrowns on the side and coffee or pink lemonade.

I think we still have a long way to go. *sigh*

First week of November and it is already snowing. I am off my job but going outside would probably not be a good idea especially when we haven't started unpacking our winter jackets. I stayed in most of the day and try to go over my hard disk. I found a couple of personal photographs I can send as postcards so I will be mailing them in this Monday. 

Here are some of the things that happened some few weeks back.

* My good friend asked me to go to a wake of someone dear to him. It's my first time to go to a wake here in America and my mom says that it is sort of formal. I was not really prepared for the whole thing because I was working in between days and could hardly find the time to go buy clothes to wear. I decided to do everything last minute. I've got the flowers, the pictures and the outfit but I was not expecting how far the place was. It was quite a drive, it was cold and I am starting to feel sick. When I got there, the placewas packed with relative and friends and I was clueless. I have no idea what was going on and I do not know anybody. After giving my sincerest condolences to the wife of the deceased, I've decided to leave thinking that the whole ceremony was over. Even if I do not know the person who passed away, he seems like a nice person and judging from the people who were there, i can tell that he is a good man and may he rest in peace.


* I was looking forward to celebrating Halloween this year and the scariest thought dawned to me when my manager put me on schedule. I had to work the whole day shift. Of course I got tired after so I stayed home and waited for kids to come by and get their treats. Since we were not into putting costumes and make-ups, my mom decided to get ridiculous outfits for the dogs which worked out perfectly cute. Our dogs changed their costumes twice or thrice for the whole night and the kids adored them. We can't stop showing off our little dogs but I guess Pepe scared them away whenever he gives a loud bark every time the doorbell rings. I should say my favorite costume for that night would be the kid joker. I never had the chance to take his picture but he cracked me up. He's got the whole purple outfit and that creepy smile across his face. Kids here are really imaginative and artistic. I wish I turn into a child every Halloween so I could go put on a costume and ask for candies.


* Some time this week I got a postcard from my friend Shari, who now lives in Christchurch, New Zealand. I was surprised and touched by her message. I miss my friends already. I can't believe we are now living our lives and some of us are in other parts of the world. I used to think about the days we were still in high school or college. Those were the easy days and my favorite. Receiving mails from my friends never fail to draw a smile on my face. Thanks Sha! I hope things will get better.


* Last Sunday, my beautiful sister and I went to Mitsuwa (the jap place). We were going to the Sweet's fair she was telling me about. I ended up buying two pens, one notebook, a set of stationery and none of the pastries sold in the fair. I tried to order the Beef Soba for lunch and it quenched my thirst more than my hunger. There was too much broth for me to handle in one meal that I barely touched my pork siomai.boo..I'm thinking of ordering the katsudon next time.



* Today, I got another mail. You just warmed up my first Friday snow..my heart too (in every second it beats..).

-.-

Yesterday was a truly remarkable day for America. The never-ending presidential campaign was finally put to an end after Barack Obama was announced to be the winner. I remembered yesterday afternoon, I heard our nurse talk about going to Grant Park (in Chicago) to watch Obama live as he gives his most promising speech of hope and victory. Hearing the people at work having a conversation about Obama gave all of us the chills. I never got the chance to vote but I am thankful enough to be living in a nation where hope brightly soars over the gray sky and we could all say 'YES WE CAN!"


Let's all vote for dreams, love and happiness.

Off from work, I headed to check out Bacci, home of the jumbo pizza. I first had a bite of Bacci's pizza months ago with friends when we went clubbing. That was my first night out in Chicago and my first jumbo pizza. It was a crazy night but the best part (for me at least) was the pizza. =P I could not remember though which street the pizzeria is located and later found out that it's all over Chicago so finding one would not be a hassel. I just can not afford to go to Chicago on my day-off because it's far and too cold for this time of the year. Luckily, we also have Bacci's here in McHenry, it's closer from work than home, so hooray!

I thought my favorite food was lasagna but after a while, I grew tired of it but spaghetti would always be comforting. I think I like pizza more than pasta and every week or two I see to it that I always grab a slice of pizza just to satisfy my taste buds. I know ketchup, tomato, salt is all bad for me but what the hell, I love to eat and I can't help myself. 

Anyway, back to the jumbo pizza, each slice is not overwhelming to look at and the taste is just okay. It's pizza made simple, only bigger (like way bigger). I, most of the time, order cheese pizza. I really don't like my pizza to be all meaty, oily and thick (except for Pizza Hut's cheesy crust..yum!). I don't want too many stuffing and definitely no olives please. I can live with green pepper, mushroom, white onions, and tons of mozzarella, dip it in ranch or garlic sauce or ketchup. So I won't complain if i'd get heavier and heavier each year. All the good foods are sinfully caloric and I am still not in that state of mind to eat right and healthy. I would rather die happily ginormous. =P

The other night, I was looking at my stuffs and realized that I have a lot of pens and notebooks already. I am so fun of papers and pens and colors. If you take me to a department store, I don't think I would be interested to look around unless I really need something but if you take me to a bookstore, I'd get all excited and my hands can't wait to grab a new set of fresh pen or a nicely bounded journal. I feel like a kid at toy's r us. I never get out of the bookstore empty handed.

I tried all my pens if they are all in good writing conditions and most of them are. I think i will go back to writing letters to friends. I want to say hi with letters and postcards hoping they would write back and holler back. But no expectations, it's getting really harder to squeeze things in one's busy schedule so this one I'll have to work on. I am hoping that I will be able to organize my time and do more.


As to snail mails, I am excited.

So friend, check your mail boxes and may you all have a cheesy day!

Exercise was never really my thing. I've tried enrolling myself to a gym (back in davao) and doing all the crunches, stretches and whatsoever but I never really liked it. I was not trying to lose weight that time, i just wanted to enjoy the free access of the swimming pool anytime of the day and perhaps the free wifi connection you get from inside the building. But I really love swimming and i think that is the only exercise that i know i can perform well plus you don't come out of the pool all sticky and sweaty and that is swell.

Just this evening when I arrived from work, I was doing my usual routine: watch pinoy dramas, go down to my 'lungga' (the basement) and sit some more and do nothing. Something different happened. I finally decided to move my butt and step on the treadmill. I am aware that I've been gaining extra pounds since i got here but losing some of it was not the main reason why i started running..or walking even when a lot of people close to me are already asking me to do something about my weight.

I figured running would take my mind off the many things that's been bothering me. I run till my legs start to hurt and when this happens i only think of the pain in my leg. I forget all about the others, the heartache. Maybe you can only cure a pain when you inflict another.

All i know is afterwards, i felt good. I started to feel less dead. I may not be able to think clearly as of now, but i know that i will soon be fine even if i ran out of breath most of the time. I will continue running until i can catch up with the bitter reality..with life itself.

sometimes it's not just about living healthy..it's about LIVING.


p.s.

Today, I learned how a garbage disposal works. Garbage disposal, by the way, is a device found under your sink used to grind your leftovers to tiny little pieces or you simply see one of these as a prop in horror movies used to butcher a moronic character;s hand when he tries to get a piece of jewelry or a key. It was months ago when our own garbage disposal just stopped working and no one even dared to put their hands inside to check out what's wrong. Call me a sissy, but I can not afford to lose an entire hand in my early twenties.

Because we do not have a functional insinkerator to dispose perishable food, the best we can think of is put leftovers inside the fridge and wait for the garbage men on Mondays. After doing this for several months, my mom finally realized that this must end before our fridge actually stores more frozen leftover than frozen food. so of we went to Home Depot to look around and buy a new one once we figured out how much one of these things cost. The price might be half of the problem, installing would be another. Finding someone to do it would be more costly than the machine itself. So i tried to ask around, we were at the right place because Home Depot always encourages their customers to 'do-it-themselves'. A guy was kind enough to help us find what we were looking for and tried to show us their displays. While he was explaining horsepowers, I was more impressed with the sound each garbage disposal makes as the blades turn. I realized the lesser the noise the more money. If I were to choose, I would rather have my hand chopped silently into pieces but my mother was already giving me that piercing look so I asked the guy if he could show me how to put a new one, which surprisingly is not that hard. He was patient enough to give me a little return demonstration or was it because not a lot of people were really coming in and he was not even that busy. I asked a lot of questions and one of which is how do you fix it when it's stuck? He showed me one of those wretch (sold separately) used to manually turn the blades from underneath. Then there it was, a 6.99 dollar solution that could fix the whole thing minus the effort of putting your hand inside. That works for me so that's what we got.

I gave it a try when we arrived home. I found out that something was stuck so the inevitable had to happen. I put my hand in there after saying a prayer and checking many times that the power was switched off. I took out a piece of black plastic thing that got stuck and tada! my hands are still in tack and the best part, our insinkerator is fully operational. I got irritated though that my hand now smells like grease so I will be spending the whole night washing my hands with every hand soap i could possible find.


Overall, I feel more accomplished than dirty.

=)