What a week

My best friend Tony came out for a much needed vacation this past week. It great to see him. He also brought his girlfriend Rhea with him. He was showing her his old stomping grounds and taking in the much needed California sun that he has missed.
I remembered when I was younger when my cousins would visit during the summer, there was always this void that settled in. All the late night trips, laughs, games, and fun things that we did all summer, just disappeared when they all left. I felt that same void again when Tones and Rhea left. We only hung out a total of 3 days, but it felt like a summer of memories. The trips, the laughs, and the food. Oh the food. It was nice because my wife got some girl time. She misses it so and I feel it. I think my wife really misses my buddies girl. We will see each other soon.
Tomorrow is the first day at my new position. I think I'm more scared then excited, but we just have to keep moving forward right?
I better get some sleep. Good night

Happy New Year....

I know it's late in the year, but never too late right? I have actually got a lot of things done already this year. Of course welcomed the new year in with my youngest son was great. Me and some friends participated in a Blazin challenge. If you don't know what that is, Buffalo Wild Wings has this challenge where if you can finish 12 of their hottest wings without ranch, drink, and wiping your mouth all under 6 minutes, you get a shirt and your photo posted on their wall of fame. It was a great experience. Out of our team of 3, I was the one that made the last cut. Five minutes 50 seconds to be exact. But man I was hurting the next day.
Then the next month it was my son's birthday. We postponed the first party because of rain. Then we were sad because it looked like it was going to rain on the other date we chose. But thank God it didn't. My parents and yaya worked hard to get the party ready and it was so worth it. We had lechon, taco lady, my mom's cooking. It was almost all gone when it was said and done.
It has already been such busy year. I can't believe it's already March.
This is about the time I start to reflect on my life. Where I am now. Where I am going. It's funny how perspective changes as you get older. How what was important to you then is minute now. How which friends who you thought were the greatest are now not so great and vice versa. How family is the strongest bond there is. And that a little boy's smile can make the most taxing day be the best day ever.

Sins of the Father...

Now before any of you start thinking thoughts, my father is a good man. I was thinking more in terms of my son. I love quotes and there was a quote that stated, "Live an honorable life so when you think back on how you lived, you can be proud." I would like to say that I had a good life. Sure, I didn't get to experience too much of the "wild" stuff, but if I never experienced it, how can I miss it?

I guess I never really knew what kind of adjustments I had to make personally in my life when Nathan came. I mean, I still see some of my friends that are married with kids, but they still club like no other. But that's them and another blog.

So now here I am, trying to be a good role model to my kids. It isn't easy being the good guy and I tell my kids that. That's why it's better to be the good guy. You get to see yourself in a proud light.

Just yesterday I noticed these two kids at the corner of my block. I had a feeling they were up to no good so I watched them. Sure enough, they hopped the fence to my kids school and what do they do? Start vandalizing the school. What did I do? I called the cops. Too many times I hear people complain about graffiti and how ugly it makes our neighborhood. Well, this time I did something about it. Luckily the cops caught the two kids who ended up tagging 4 buildings in the school. The cop said that it ill cost them over thousands of dollars to clean that up.

Where am I going with this? Were their dads like that growing up? Are they paying for the sins of their fathers?

I look at my children, especially my youngest one and wonder if I can prepare him for the world he is going to live in. I'm not saying I'm a saint, but I try to live an honorable life. And even though living a good moral, ethical life can be challenging sometimes, my hand will be there for my children to help guide them along this thing we call life.

Thoughts running through the night

Hello. Sorry it's been awhile. As I sit here in front of my computer, I can't help stop thinking about Friday night. No, not because that is the start of the weekend. It's because my old high school will play our arch rival. We, and I mean my old high school, will try to do what we have not been able to do in 20 years, beat them.
Yes, I know that is a long time, I just don't want it to be longer. I can't say I hate my arch rival school because my sister went there.
Me and my brother always teased her in not going to one of the sister schools. Then she gave me an answer that I will never forget. I asked her, "Why didn't you go to Rosary or Connelly?" Without blinking she responded, "Because they are not Servite." That just showed how smart my sister is.
So I took her answer and just smiled. I attended some games that she worked at, and she would come to our games and cheer us on. And of course she would cheer my brother when he was playing basketball at the time.
So in a nutshell, I hope we beat them, finally...so I can get some rest. hahaha

Made me think...

August. HOT day in the city. Just your typical Tuesday after work day. Got home from work, saying hi to the kids, having dinner, getting ready for the next day...typical.

So here we are in the living room. The kids and wifey on the sofa, me with the baby standing up, and were watching John & Kate plus 8. As we are getting into it, my cell phone rings. It's my dad. He wanted to know if we're watching TFC. I said no. He tells me to turn it there, so I did. It's the funeral of Cory Aquino. Martin Nievera and Regine Velasquez are singing The Prayer. I like Martin's version a lot and no, it's not because I am a fan. So we are watching the funeral as we listen to them sing. Then other singing stars like Ogie Alcasid and Jose Marie Chan are singing as well to pay tribute to the former president.

I hurriedly changed it back to John & Kate, but my wife wanted to watch the funeral. I was a little surprised because she doesn't really keep up with the goings-on in the Philippines. But in a sense I was glad she did...and this is why:

During the show, the daughter of the former president, Chris Aquino was being interviewed by the local news that was covering the event. She was very strong, carrying a good conversation, but, there was a time in the interview where realization set in. She said, "...now that the mass is over and we are processing to the burial site, it's more of a realization now and that we have to move on without her..." This hit me hard but I'm sure it hit my wife harder. You see, my wife lost her mom earlier this year. She lost her life to the same disease that Cory Aquino was battling, colon cancer. As Chris kept pouring out how she felt at her most vulnerable time, I sat next to my wife, for I knew what Chris was saying, is what my wife was feeling. There were a lot of similarities with my wife's mom and Pres. Aquino. I'm not saying that my mom-in-law was qualified to run a country, but she made sure her kids were taken cared of, when she was alive and now when she is at rest.

This made me think about my grandma, who's death anniversary of 1 year is coming up. It also made me realize how special these women were. I know we always say, "Treasure these moments fo you will not get them back..." So true.

Like I said life is experienced in stages. Enjoy each stage.

Weekend warrior

Hello everyone. This past weekend really tested my endurance somewhat. Friday was my cousin's wedding. We all welcomed "Lobo" into the family and he is a welcome addition. The mass was nice even though we showed up super late. The reception was really nice. There was an open bar which equals trouble in more ways than one, and a pianist (did I spell that right)?

We could only stay for a few minutes at the reception because me and my wife had to go to the airport. We had a flight that night to San Jose to visit her dad who had a stroke. It was a different mind set coming from a happy celebration to a somber mood. We dealt with a similar mood shift earlier this year, but we didn't know we would experience it again, and soon.

We got to San Jose late and boy let me tell you, whoever invented GPS, thank you. TomTom was great at getting us to where we needed to go. We were going to see her dad later that night, so we did the tourist thing and went to Fisherman's Wharf.

Now, we used to live up there and went to Pier 39 often, but for some reason it looked MUCH different. We did the whole tourist thing and got on the big red bus and man, has it changed. A lot of childhood memories came flooding back. I tried visiting the old neighborhood, but that will have to wait.

Her dad was doing fine. We found out that it wasn't a stroke. It was Bell's Palsy. It wasn't as major so we were relived. After that, we finished by having dinner at this place called Sino in Santa Row in an Jose. My wife's co-worker suggested this place. It's an Asian fusion restaurant. The food there was very good and the people, when they found out who suggested the place to us, were very accommodating. It also had a lounge area which was very nice.

The net day we visited one more relative who my wife had not seen in years. Her cousin just had a baby and is the Asian Michellin baby. Very cute. We made plans to see each other again.

As we flew back home and got the kids, we went to have dinner at my parents house and to our surprise our relatives were over. Just having our family over is like a big party already. Cousins, aunts and uncles hanging out, drinking, gambling, bar-b-qing. It was great.

What a weekend.

4th of July

Once again my yearly trek to Vegas during the World Series of Poker (WSOP) has come. As you can tell from the heading of my blog, I am a huge poker fan. But please, don't confuse with me liking the game from being GOOD at the game. We will talk about my skills or lack there off at a different time.

From all the times that my little poker group has gone, we never took my brother. My brother is a much better player than I am, so I wanted to take him there to check it out. He did admit he was a little star struck in the beginning, but that all went away when we entered the poker playing area.

First we visited the Poker Palooza. It was more a convention than anything where vendors showed off what they had to offer to us poker players. One of these days I will buy that card shuffler!!!

Anyway, after that we went to the poker rooms or halls and just watched these poker players who invested $10,000 to play. I say good luck to them. Do I want to be there, of course. I thought I was ready too because I got to play in a cash game the night before with some professional players at the Luxor.

Well, needless to say my brother got to thinking that he's always wanted to play but he never thought he was ready. After this weekend, I think he's ready.

He wrote a very inspirational letter to all of us poker buddies of his, and I think, I THINK, we will be there very soon. Till next time.