God, Happiness and Life

Love is unconditional.

She is from Lambunao, a town in  Iloilo province. We went to high school together. Her older sister was my teacher in my freshman high school; she and another sister boarded with us when she went to college in UP. We all stayed in one room and we were really like sisters. Along the way, so many unexpected things happened. After finishing her degree,  she found herself going back to Iloilo to teach at the UP Visayas. That was the last thing I heard about Joy. We totally lost contact. That's Joy and her lovely family. Over the years, I would hear snippets about her but details weren't exactly  enough to make an initial connection, until the internet. It's now almost 40 years. Just like my other friends, like Sue  fate smiled and through social networking sites like facebook, Joy somehow found us again. This was her initial message to me: "Hi Lou, bestfriend! I have been thinking of u. I was in Manila last Christmas and Ning and I were wondering how to find you. ...

I am having the time of my life in facebook. I got this account way back in 2008 but did nothing about it. Today though, I have grown so addicted.. It's the first thing I do after my morning rituals. My relationship with facebook grew fonder when I thought that it could be a  tool to find friends,  I have not seen in ages. True  enough with a little diligence we are now finding each other, one day at a time.  The  re-connections has been for me,  a  powerful feeling of camarederie, of friendship and  of love.  High school friends, college classmates, long lost relatives and acquaintances, the link has been re-established. It is not surprising that almost everyone is on facebook, I suppose there's this desire for  people to re-bond.. to re-connect if you will.  After all life is really short.  Sue was the first friend I found after searching and searching.  Sue - that's how I called her 40 years ago. That long already? An...

  I am not sure what to make of my son's love for gadgets. I think this is common among his  generation. He has a desktop, and  routers, a popcorn, and something that looks like a tiny computer server;  which he says,  enables him to download movies from the internet faster. And last December, he bought himself an HP Netbook . Something that he takes almost everywhere he goes. I guess all he needs to do is find a hotspot somewhere and surf away. Surprisingly, today he says, he finds it small for his purpose. I grin. And I wonder...

I met Faye, my daughter's friend last week. She owns  Child Time Learning Center, a pre-school and day care service provider  for children aged between 1.2 months to 5 years old.  Child Time,  as it is commonly called is  located right in the heart of Ortigas Center. Very convenient for working parents employed perhaps by San Miguel Corporation, United Laboratories, Philippine Stock Exchange, Asian Development Bank, Jollibee and other large corporations located in the area. The school is equipped with industry standard  facilities such as the following: Day Care Room with living room, kitchen, nap area, learning centers, audio visual Play Area with sandbox, cottage playhouse, 8 in one playground, developmentally appropriate toys, alligator and whale see saw  Babies and Toddlers Room where babies and toddlers  romp in a clean and child-proof environment  Classrooms where the learning explorations and interactions between other tots are ...

Holidays are over. The parties, the never ending drinks and the food that could almost make everyone feel like a  glutton. Why not? These are the seductions of holiday celebrations. And often,  reasons,  why post holiday conversations typically  reflect friends and associates complaints, "My tummy is bigger" or  "Darn my pants won't fit anymore!",  or perhaps, "Oooohhh, I gained 10 hip pounds, what the...". Hello? Gals, guys, wasn't that a given already? In my family, the first to complain about holiday weight gain is my daughter and other relatives who come home from abroad. It goes without saying that as soon as they are back, they binge to their wits; satisfying their food cravings like maniacs.  Ergo, the resulting effect of unwanted pounds. For those who have no problems whatsoever with holiday weight gain, good for you. You are so lucky! Otherwise, time to shake off those unwanted pounds. Time to review your weight loss strategy. The gym? ...

I still love my discontinued model,  laptop he he joke. Honestly! where before, I just spent time waiting for my partner's laptop to load all day; today, I am finding it hard to spend time in doing my daily household tasks. Because I am always with my laptop. Cheers!