Happy 4th Birthday, Aidan!

Aidan celebrated his 4th birthday on June 24, and since this fell on a Saturday, he had his party in school the day before. This was Aidan's first real party with his friends, so Liz wanted to make sure he was happy. That means the menu had to include his non-negotiable requests, which were a cake bearing the logo of the movie "Cars", pizza, and lots of candy in a pinata. Liz and I spent the whole morning running around buying things for the festivities, and it was more hectic than we anticipated. Murphy's law was in effect the whole day, and we had to deal with missing membership cards, almost-lost pastries, and the like. Liz and I survived mostly on nervous/hysterical laughter, as we anticipated arriving at Aidan's school when all his guests had already left.

Despite the little foul-ups, we managed to get to his school in time to start the party; pizza, cake, and pinata in hand. One thing that amazed me about the party was how well-behaved the children were while they ate. I've attended quite a few children's parties at home, and they are invariably marked by hyperactive, overstimulated children running amuck on all the sugar they consumed, yayas in hot pursuit. In contrast, the ten or so kids in Aidan's class raised their hands to ask for food, and ate quietly in their seats.

But kids will be kids, and everyone was ready to go wild over the candy that the Ninja Turtle pinata was ejecting from its back as it was being hit. The pinatas here, unlike the "palayoks" back home, took quite a while to crack open. All the kids had their turn at whacking at the pinata (you just had to feel sorry for Ninja Turtle after the beating he took), but it still took some help from the adults for it to finally cough up its last piece of candy. The whole party, from setting up, eating, and pinata-bashing, took all of one hour, exactly. That was another amazing thing. That was probably the shortest-running party I'd ever seen.

The Sight of Seal Beach

Before I start this entry, I would like to apologize to Kuya Bong for the lack of Gil stories in my blog. I've wracked my brain but I can't seem to recall those priceless gems at the moment. Don't worry, I promise to write them as soon as I remember them.

Moving on... Last Thursday, Liz was off from work so she, Aidan and I made plans to hie off to Seal Beach. (Kuya was envious because he had to go to work.) We were so excited about our little excursion that we overdid the preparations. We went shopping for different kinds of sunblock, and of course, SNACKS! We bought chocolate, chips, cookies, and soda that would have lasted a week (and they did). After a half-hour drive, we got to the beach. But before we went to enjoy the surf and sand, we had lunch at Walt's Wharf where, as usual, we ate more than we should have. (This explains why the snacks we brought were not immediately consumed.) We had seafood dishes which we topped off with Turtle Pie. Yummy!


After our overconsumption of calories, we were finally on our way, beach paraphernalia in tow. We first saw the sand, but because the sand rose a bit in a way that concealed the sea, we had to go closer to actually see the water. This induced strange behavior in me. When I heard the sea, I ran up the sand to see it, and tears actually came to my eyes. Well, I didn't exactly bawl like a baby, but I have to admit my eyes became a bit misty when I saw the water. I REALLY miss the beach, more than I ever expected to.


After my brief brush with sentimentality, Liz and I sat on the beach to catch some sun. Aidan enjoyed playing in the sand with his shovel and pail, and I just enjoyed hearing the waves and feeling the sun on my skin. The water was a bit cold so I was hesitant to go in. But shortly before it was time for us to go home, Aidan persuaded me to play knee-deep in the water. After a few moments of playing in the waves with Aidan, I was convinced that I could handle the water. Next time we go to beach, I'll try swimming, even if the water is not as warm as I am used to.

If I lived in California, I would probably find myself on the beach pretty often. Then again, I was pretty near the beach back home and I didn't go there as often as I would have wanted. When I get back to the Philippines, I'm going to take a few weeks to decompress from my stay in the US at the beach. Being near the sea will recharge me and prepare me for my re-entry into the real (working) world. That's a year from now though, so in the meantime, I'm going to soak up as much California sun as I can.

Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival

Last weekend, Kuya decided to bring all of us (us being, of course, Liz, Aidan, and myself) to the Temecula Balloon and Wine Festival. Temecula is about an hour's drive away from Buena Park, and it's smack in the middle of nowhere, the better to view hot air balloons from. According to the brochure, we would see balloons glowing, so that sounded pretty exciting. When we got there, we went crazy with country fair food. You could buy any kind of food you wanted, sausages, cotton candy, funnel cakes, etc. It brought back memories of the school fairs I went to back home, where my friends and I would gorge on all the different kinds of food that you could find at the booths.

After getting ourselves shrimp balls, fish tacos, and other picnic food, we settled on the grass to wait for the balloon show. Kuya checked out the wine booth, where you could taste seven glasses of different kinds of wine for $15, a good deal all around. Unfortunately, the deal was so good that half of the people in the fair were lining up for it. So, we nixed the wine idea, and just waited for the show while listening to bands playing all sorts of music. We got all excited when the balloonists began setting up their balloons. There were five balloons set up where we were sitting. They were firing them up so the balloons lit up. We were waiting for the balloons to launch into the air and glow, but apparently, the glowing was all we were going to get. Aidan was shouting at the balloonists to fly, but apparently the show was to be held purely on the ground. Though we were disappointed that the balloons didn't actually fly, it was still a pretty sight. No wine, no flying balloons... but the glowing balloons were pretty cool, and we did get to stuff ourselves with fair food. Aidan and I also had fun running around on the fairgrounds. Liz and I amused ourselves by laughing at people who were trying (unsuccessfully) to dance to the music. All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday evening.

Lovely Cali

I've been spending my 3-month summer vacation in Buena Park, California with my Kuya Jerick, Liz, and Aidan. The weather's great over here. It's warm but not humid. No wonder land is so expensive here- the gorgeous weather is probably factored into the price. In Missouri, summer is both hot and humid, so it almost feels like home (on the plus side, less chance of getting homesick). It also feels so strange to not be in the minority, in the sense that there are more non-white people around here. I believe whites comprise less than 50% of the population in California, so they are technically the minority.

There are Filipinos everywhere, so we have to be careful about saying bad things about people. Kuya told me of their friend who rode a cable car in San Francisco. It was very crowded and she said to the friend she was with, "Ano ba 'to, natutulak na tayo palikod. Napatabi tuloy tayo sa mamang mabaho." She was referring to a man standing behind her, who looked to be African-American. Obviously, she was confident no one else could understand her. After a few stops, the man said, "Excuse me, dadaan lang po ang mamang mabaho." Which is why I don't speak ill of other people I see around here. Well, at least not too loudly.

Sweet Sick-teen

I've been horridly fascinated by a television show called "My Super Sweet 16" that airs on MTV, ever since our Qualitative Research classmates presented an episode of the show as part of a presentation they did in class. The concept of the show is simple- it's a reality program which shows how rich kids prepare for and hold their "Sweet Sixteen" birthday party. Apparently, turning 16 is a big thing for Americans (like debuts are for Filipinos). This show is the perfect example of how gross conspicuous consumption can be.

The show generally starts with the celebrant describing herself, or himself, as the case may be ("I'm an heiress in training!"), and what they want their party to be like- the theme (they usually want to be queens, emperors, and the like), their entrance (carried by gorgeous men? popping out of a cake? riding a camel?), how they want all the kids to get invites to the party, the present they want to receive (a car, a house), etc. Some of the preparations are shown (talking to the party planners, auditioning people for parts in the party), then the party proper is shown. Sometimes a celebrity makes an appearance at the party. Toward the end of the show, the birthday present is usually given to the celebrant at the height of the festivities. It's almost always a car- in one case there were two cars given.

The first episode I watched featured an apparently nouveau riche girl, who acted like a brat with her mother during the party preparations. "Moooommmm.... can you please stop talking for just a minute!!!" She was also gloating about how some kids were NOT invited to her party, and how they were all begging her to give them an invite. In other episodes I watched, you can see how the parents are so anxious to make their little girls happy (in one case, a boy who held a 15th birthday party). At the end of the party, the kids or the parents talk about how much they spent on the party and how it was all worth it. As the 15-year-old boy said, "I spent $300,000 (I guess he OWNED that money) for this evening, and it was a great party!"

Watching the show is like looking at a car crash- you just can't help but look out of morbid fascination. When I think about how much these parties cost and how many people could be helped by that amount money, it's enough to sicken me. "The Showbiz Show with David Spade" did a short feature on "My Super Sweet Sixteen", and they featured that same girl who was bratty with her mom. After the segment, David Spade said, "And we wonder why they hate us." My classmates in the research class reacted vehemently to the show as well; they say it's not representative of what real Americans are like. I'm pretty sure the average American is nowhere near these rich brats featured in the show. The fact remains though that there are still a lot of people like that (parents and kids alike) around here, and they are all dying to be part of this show, aiming to upstage the previous parties aired on MTV.

Being Carded in Missouri

Columbia is a university town, and as such, establishments are particularly strict when it comes to selling alcohol to minors. When you enter a club, everyone is carded, regardless of how old you look. So, it's not particularly flattering when they ask for my ID when I go to a bar or club, since that's just standard operating procedure. A few days ago, however, being carded felt a bit different.

Fil, Biljana, Maria Ines and I went to Walmart to get some groceries. As Fil was checking out her purchases, the woman asked for all our IDs since Fil got a bottle of wine. I handed over my ID, and a look of shock came over the woman's face. "Oh my," she said with some surprise, upon seeing my year of birth. "You don't look like you're a day over 21!" I told her not to announce my age to everyone (she looked surprised enough to broadcast it to the whole checkout counter of Walmart), since even my friends don't know exactly how old I am. (Keeping my age secret is my neurosis, so sue me.) On one hand, I felt flattered that she thought I looked that young. On the other hand, it was not a pleasant feeling to have people sound as if your age is so advanced that it's unfathomable (I exaggerate, but you get the point).

School's Out!

Finals week is finally over, and after all the stress of finishing papers and other requirements at the last minute, my adrenaline level has finally gone down. So, technically, summer vacation has begun for me. Since I'm not taking any classes, I'll be spending most of my time in California to visit my older brother Jerick, his wife Liz, and my nephew Aidan. The break is around three months long, and the length of school's summer vacation is making me consider becoming a professor. Teaching starts to look so attractive when you think about how you can have long summer breaks just like you did when you were much younger.