COSMO: Geology, Geometry, Geography! I don't get the difference! They all start with J!
WANDA: Here's another J letter for you, Jidiot!
HAHA!
Monday, January 10, 2011
Friday, December 10, 2010
“One of the Best Christmas Story”
In September 1960, I woke up one morning with six hungry babies and just 75 cents in my pocket.
Their father was gone.
The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two.
Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.
Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds.
He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.
Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.
If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.
I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job..
The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town.
No luck.
The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job.
Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop.
It was called the Big Wheel.
An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids.
She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning.
She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.
I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people.
I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night.
She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep
This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.
That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night.
As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.
The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires!
There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires.
Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered.
I made a deal with the local service station.
In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office.
I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.
I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough.
Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.
I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning.
Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys
pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.
A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine.
The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.
When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes.
I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat…
Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box.
Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10!
I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans.
Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes.
There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.
And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.
As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude.
And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.
Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.
THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. 'Yes!'
2. 'Not yet.'
3! I have something better in mind.'
God still sits on the throne, and the devil is a liar.
You may be going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.
Their father was gone.
The boys ranged from three months to seven years; their sister was two.
Their Dad had never been much more than a presence they feared.
Whenever they heard his tires crunch on the gravel driveway they would scramble to hide under their beds.
He did manage to leave $15 a week to buy groceries.
Now that he had decided to leave, there would be no more beatings, but no food either.
If there was a welfare system in effect in southern Indiana at that time, I certainly knew nothing about it.
I scrubbed the kids until they looked brand new and then put on my best homemade dress, loaded them into the rusty old 51 Chevy and drove off to find a job..
The seven of us went to every factory, store and restaurant in our small town.
No luck.
The kids stayed crammed into the car and tried to be quiet while I tried to convince who ever would listen that I was willing to learn or do anything. I had to have a job.
Still no luck. The last place we went to, just a few miles out of town, was an old Root Beer Barrel drive-in that had been converted to a truck stop.
It was called the Big Wheel.
An old lady named Granny owned the place and she peeked out of the window from time to time at all those kids.
She needed someone on the graveyard shift, 11 at night until seven in the morning.
She paid 65 cents an hour, and I could start that night.
I raced home and called the teenager down the street that baby-sat for people.
I bargained with her to come and sleep on my sofa for a dollar a night.
She could arrive with her pajamas on and the kids would already be asleep
This seemed like a good arrangement to her, so we made a deal.
That night when the little ones and I knelt to say our prayers, we all thanked God for finding Mommy a job. And so I started at the Big Wheel.
When I got home in the mornings I woke the baby-sitter up and sent her home with one dollar of my tip money-- fully half of what I averaged every night.
As the weeks went by, heating bills added a strain to my meager wage.
The tires on the old Chevy had the consistency of penny balloons and began to leak. I had to fill them with air on the way to work and again every morning before I could go home.
One bleak fall morning, I dragged myself to the car to go home and found four tires in the back seat. New tires!
There was no note, no nothing, just those beautiful brand new tires.
Had angels taken up residence in Indiana? I wondered.
I made a deal with the local service station.
In exchange for his mounting the new tires, I would clean up his office.
I remember it took me a lot longer to scrub his floor than it did for him to do the tires.
I was now working six nights instead of five and it still wasn't enough.
Christmas was coming and I knew there would be no money for toys for the kids.
I found a can of red paint and started repairing and painting some old toys. Then I hid them in the basement so there would be something for Santa to deliver on Christmas morning.
Clothes were a worry too. I was sewing patches on top of patches on the boys
pants and soon they would be too far gone to repair.
On Christmas Eve the usual customers were drinking coffee in the Big Wheel. There were the truckers, Les, Frank, and Jim, and a state trooper named Joe.
A few musicians were hanging around after a gig at the Legion and were dropping nickels in the pinball machine.
The regulars all just sat around and talked through the wee hours of the morning and then left to get home before the sun came up.
When it was time for me to go home at seven o'clock on Christmas morning, to my amazement, my old battered Chevy was filled full to the top with boxes of all shapes and sizes.
I quickly opened the driver's side door, crawled inside and kneeled in the front facing the back seat…
Reaching back, I pulled off the lid of the top box.
Inside was whole case of little blue jeans, sizes 2-10!
I looked inside another box: It was full of shirts to go with the jeans.
Then I peeked inside some of the other boxes. There was candy and nuts and bananas and bags of groceries. There was an enormous ham for baking, and canned vegetables and potatoes.
There was pudding and Jell-O and cookies, pie filling and flour. There was whole bag of laundry supplies and cleaning items.
And there were five toy trucks and one beautiful little doll.
As I drove back through empty streets as the sun slowly rose on the most amazing Christmas Day of my life, I was sobbing with gratitude.
And I will never forget the joy on the faces of my little ones that precious morning.
Yes, there were angels in Indiana that long-ago December. And they all hung out at the Big Wheel truck stop.
THE POWER OF PRAYER. I believe that God only gives three answers to prayer:
1. 'Yes!'
2. 'Not yet.'
3! I have something better in mind.'
God still sits on the throne, and the devil is a liar.
You may be going through a tough time right now but God is getting ready to bless you in a way that you cannot imagine.
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Just a Dream
[Second Version]
*
I still felt really dizzy.
My legs couldn’t stand for me any longer and I automatically fell to the ground again. I can’t see anything at all…not even a small ray of light. I tried to stand up again, but my legs were shaking like a leaf.
Oh no! Where’s my wallet?? It wasn’t in my back pocket anymore, and I think my briefcase is gone, too! It wasn’t anywhere near me, or I still hoped it was somewhere around here.
What should I do?
Until, I heard a door open.
Finally! Someone’s here!
“Whoever you are, please help me!” I said.
“What happened to you mister?” I heard a little girl say, “Who did this to you?”
She sounded about twelve or thirteen.
“I don’t know. Can you find a light switch?” I asked.
“There is no light switch in here, mister! You’re in an abandoned warehouse. It’s a
good thing I came today. This is also my hiding spot” she said.
A little girl hiding in a place like this?
“Mister, do you want me to call for help?” she asked
“Not now, little miss, I need to compose myself first.”
“Oh, alright.”
“At least you found me and I feel a bit better.”
The little girl was really concerned about me. She was telling me that it was already 12 noon and that she couldn’t find any of my things in the warehouse.
“Are your eyes okay, mister?”
“I think, my vision got blurry when I got beaten up…I don’t know.”
We talked for awhile now and I didn’t even mind the pain of my body.
“Mister, you’ll be okay! Your parents are really worried about you right about now!”
“Wait…what are you talking about?”
The next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital room and my parents were right beside me.
I asked them what happened to the little girl who accompanied me in the warehouse and they had no idea what I was talking about. All they said was that they saw a group of men coming out of the warehouse holding a briefcase and a wallet.
Well, at least I know where my things had gone to.
So, what happened the whole time in the warehouse was all just a dream…
It all seemed so real.
*
I still felt really dizzy.
My legs couldn’t stand for me any longer and I automatically fell to the ground again. I can’t see anything at all…not even a small ray of light. I tried to stand up again, but my legs were shaking like a leaf.
Oh no! Where’s my wallet?? It wasn’t in my back pocket anymore, and I think my briefcase is gone, too! It wasn’t anywhere near me, or I still hoped it was somewhere around here.
What should I do?
Until, I heard a door open.
Finally! Someone’s here!
“Whoever you are, please help me!” I said.
“What happened to you mister?” I heard a little girl say, “Who did this to you?”
She sounded about twelve or thirteen.
“I don’t know. Can you find a light switch?” I asked.
“There is no light switch in here, mister! You’re in an abandoned warehouse. It’s a
good thing I came today. This is also my hiding spot” she said.
A little girl hiding in a place like this?
“Mister, do you want me to call for help?” she asked
“Not now, little miss, I need to compose myself first.”
“Oh, alright.”
“At least you found me and I feel a bit better.”
The little girl was really concerned about me. She was telling me that it was already 12 noon and that she couldn’t find any of my things in the warehouse.
“Are your eyes okay, mister?”
“I think, my vision got blurry when I got beaten up…I don’t know.”
We talked for awhile now and I didn’t even mind the pain of my body.
“Mister, you’ll be okay! Your parents are really worried about you right about now!”
“Wait…what are you talking about?”
The next thing I knew, I woke up in a hospital room and my parents were right beside me.
I asked them what happened to the little girl who accompanied me in the warehouse and they had no idea what I was talking about. All they said was that they saw a group of men coming out of the warehouse holding a briefcase and a wallet.
Well, at least I know where my things had gone to.
So, what happened the whole time in the warehouse was all just a dream…
It all seemed so real.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
Finally...
*Rust. I am surrounded by rust.
I gingerly pick myself up from the floor, trying to ignore the strong smell of iron assaulting my nostrils.
The floor felt hard and coarse to the touch, the air was cold and not a sound can be heard except for my own breathing. I try to open my eyes, and realize that they’re already open---it’s just too dark too see even my own hands. I honestly don’t know how I got here, I remember walking from my apartment to go to work…and that’s about it. The rest is all a blur.
Where the hell am I?
[First Version]
*
I felt a bump on my head, which gave me a splitting headache, and I automatically reached into my back pocket for my wallet and realized that it was gone. My black leather mailman bag was no longer around my shoulder.
I walked carefully inch by inch and pushed a heavy metal door, and the hot-glaring sun hit my face.
Freedom!
Freedom from the damp, musty warehouse!
I then realized that I was mugged. My aching body and splitting headache is telling me to call it a day and go home. From there, I can make a report to the police.
But for now…my warm, cozy bed will be such bliss for me!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
PO.U.CH [Poor Urban Children] Experience
The teachers told us to choose a PO.U.CH kid as our partner, but my friend Red Hood can't speak Filipino, so we had the same partner [yeah, I'm Red Hood's translator], named Patricia Fe from CAA Elementary School. She's shy, sweet, and a playful 6 year old girl.
I asked her if she wanted to play and just smiled at me! How adorable! I just suggested the game "Nanay Tatay" and she loved playing with me. Meanwhile, Red Hood was just was just watching us.
I changed the game to "Bato Bato Pick" since the three of us knew that game.
There were other games as well but Patricia was too shy to play.
Everyone was having fun!
Comments of my friends and I: This experience was fun, but when it was lunch time, only the PO.U.CH kids were eating and not us! We payed P200 for the food and they said it was for us and the kid. How did that happen? And the lunch was the P50 Chicken Fillet!
Well, I would never forget this experience and I wished it lasted a bit longer! [...with food...]
Monday, November 29, 2010
Someone Actually Won 700 Million Pesos!
Wow! I wonder who this person is exactly...
Anyway, whoever you are, here's my note for you: "Spend your money wisely!"
There's a reason why you won this huge amount of money!
"Everything happens for a reason..."
Anyway, whoever you are, here's my note for you: "Spend your money wisely!"
There's a reason why you won this huge amount of money!
"Everything happens for a reason..."
Tuesday, November 23, 2010
New in the World of Blogging
This is my first time making my own blog.
So... I'm new at this!
Thank God I made a blog! My internet is really, really slow at home!
I thank Jhin for letting me use his laptop! Halleluia!
So... I'm new at this!
Thank God I made a blog! My internet is really, really slow at home!
I thank Jhin for letting me use his laptop! Halleluia!
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