Dream in Nostalgia

It felt silly that I found retirement rather boring in my last blog.  It seems that boredom was my own making.  So, I took to the streets and entertained a guest from the Philippines who was visiting Las Vegas with his family.

My K of C friend Toti Roldan and his wife Norielle, along with their two sons, are on a cross-country tour of the USA.  Surprisingly, he showed me more of Las Vegas that I did not know about.  I'd been so much of a hermit in this city, I really did not know about the Freemont Experience asked me about in downtown Las Vegas.

What a revelation!  Downtown Las Vegas is a sight to see and the Freemont Experience is something to behold.  The Experience is a light show that comes on at night, at the hour, the last one being at midnight.  The photos above depict that Freemont Experience.  The next time you come to Las Vegas, be sure to go downtown.  It's well-worth the experience!

Exhilarated at the experience, I started going out with Ces to her favorite casino, South Point, located at the corner of S. Las Vegas Blvd and Silverado Ranch for dinner at its sumptuous buffet.  On the way out, I saw this penny slot machine, The Great Wall, which depicted Chinese characters.  The music that came with every hit was so oriental and bouncy.  I put in $5 and started playing 20 lines at 10 pennies each.  After the second push on the start button, the machine started flickering with bonuses of bouncing ying-yang balls.  I thought it would never stop bouncing and playing, but it finally did.  At that point the screen showed $325!  Woo hoo!  Of course, I stopped and cashed in!

Addicting?  You betcha!  The following day, I went back to the same machine after another foray at the buffet.  I put in $10 and started playing the Great Wall machine.  Wham, the bonus balls came bouncing around again after just three push starts!  This time, the machine gave me $345.

I don't think three is a charm.  So, I stopped going back to the casino and decided that I'd spend the $670 winnings at the real Great Walls of China when we visit Beijing on May 9-19.

Wanna come along?

Tags: China, Great Wall, Casino

Retirement Nonsense

Whoever said that retirement is all fun was not completely telling the truth.  Surely, a retiree has all the time in the world to do nothing. Yes, sireeee, take me as your example!

My retirement plans of writing, reading, watching movies, traveling and doing consulting work are well in place.  I am actually doing them all the time.  I edit The Del Rosa Bulletin.  I read a fiction or non-fiction book every two weeks.  I watch countless movies every day from all the premium TV channels, Vongo and Netflix.  I am out of the country, usually to the Philippines two or three times a year.  I still do my consulting work, with Prime Academy taking most of my consulting time.  Yet, there is something that is totally missing.

I am missing the regular wake-up-go-to-work-come-home-tired routine!  I am missing the interactions, both good and bad, with colleagues and the public.  I was doing then what I am doing now in retirement!  That is why this work-up-and-go routine that I took out of my life in retiring is causing me to get frustrated.  I am too gregarious a man to be denied this work interaction challenge!

If I am not going back to the regular employment routine, then I'd better go back to where I came from and roll on the salt-white sand of the beaches in Boracay Island and Siquijor Island in the Philippines while basking under the sultry sun in balmy weather!

That is where a retiree ought to spend time instead of just getting tired, re-tired and re-tired over and over again.

Hey, Ces, when are we leaving?

Tags: white sands, balmy weather, bright sun, retirement

Cherish the Love

“Love, like a river, will cut a new path whenever it meets an obstacle.” – Crystal Middlemas.  How very true!  If you have not experienced this, then you have not really loved the way Middlemas describes it.

     When I was a teenager, I dreamed of marrying an intelligent, beautiful and rich girl. When I became a teenager, I sought that girl in the playground, in church, in the market place and in parties.  But I did not find her there.  Instead, I found her in college many years later.  I first saw her in the auditorium playing a lilting musical piece on the piano.  I did not know her then nor did I bother to introduce myself.

     One Saturday afternoon during one of our social activities in college, I saw her walking down the stairs, so beautiful in her party dress.  She introduced herself to me as a courtesy because her father was the boss of my father.  In turn I was nice to her because my father was the subordinate of her father.  It was in this light that we started our friendship, a friendship that blossomed into love.  She was sixteen but I was not seventeen.  I was seven years older than she.  That age gap did not stop us from falling in love.

     Like me she also belonged to the top ten scholars of the college.  She came from a very rich family from the province of Antique.  She was very beautiful.  She was a poet.  She was a painter.  I found a beautiful, intelligent and rich girl. How could I let her go? 

     I married her when she turned seventeen.  To make this happen, we created a lot of drama that left the family no choice but to marry us off.  We were also good actors!

     The wedding party lasted three days.  This was so because her family was politically connected and had to entertain the whole province.

     That was 43 years ago.

     Today my wife and I have raised eight children, a boy and seven girls.  Our son, the firstborn, is a nurse.  Our first daughter holds a doctor of philosophy degree from Stanford University after a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from UCLA.  The second earned a doctor of philosophy degree from the UC Berkeley.  The third is completing her MBA from Mills College after a BA from UC Berkeley.   The fourth holds a JD from UC Davis Law School.  The fifth is on her second year of a five-year full scholarship to earn a Ph. D. in anthropology from Harvard University.  All are renowned in their fields of expertise.  A Google search will reveal their works.  The last two girls stay home with us and are attending a community college in Henderson, NV.

     Contrary to the usual logical conclusion, life, the way we have been living it, has not been all a bed of roses.  There have been countless obstacles that came our way.  Somehow, love always found a way through.  The love that we share...like a river, always cut a new path whenever it met an obstacle.  My indiscretions, her wanton spending, our irresponsible decisions and all the other ugly detractions remain no match to this surging river of love.

     Why does this love surge like a river?  In my considered opinion, this is due to the spiritual tenets on which it is founded.  Jesus, our Lord and Savior, is the focal point of this love.  This love will endure because Jesus lives!

     Who is this love that I so cherish?  Her name is Cecilia, my kantutay flower who has remained so young-looking and beautiful; my prolific poet and writer; my concert pianist; my intelligent and creative woman; my gifted artist-painter; the mother of my eight accomplished children.  She successfully combined raising a family and working a career.

     Ces and I do not have the monopoly of a storied love.  You, too, have yours.

     On this month of friendship, let us each cherish the love!

Friendship Month

“The bird a nest, the spider a web, man friendship,” said William Blake, English poet, painter, engraver; one of the earliest and greatest figures of Romanticism whose work was filled with religious visions rather than with subjects from everyday life.

     It appears to me that I am moving towards the same kind of vision for it seems that everyday events in life always take in hand religious experiences.  We say grace.  We wish people well.  We love.  We take care of ourselves.  We take care of others.  They are to me real religious experiences.

     Friendship, a manifestation of charity, especially comes to mind in February, the month of friendship for everyone.  Our very nature of being gregarious extrapolates how we exhibit this friendship.

     We join organizations that provide cherished friendships like alumni associations, service organizations, fraternities, sodalities and the like.

     I am especially touched by the AISAAM, an association of former students and staff of the American/International School of Manila.  These exemplary people show their appreciation of their friendship through chat rooms and reunions and reminisce on “glory days” and work together to immortalize the relationships with special projects and visits.  I am happy to be identified with this group.  Truly, the connection has kept me young and proud of these my former students and co-workers!

     Then, too, there is my membership in the Knights of Columbus, a fraternal service organization that combines the practice of religious beliefs and serving the community.  I have made good friends there who share my ways of bringing social amelioration assistance to the unfortunate and destitute squatters of Las Piñas City, Philippines for the last six years.

     Beyond these, we recognize special friendships that transcend challenges, tragedies, successes and happiness and now rest in a surreally spiritual pedestal.  I am referring to that unfathomable relationship we have with our spouses.  We keep going together despite the tribulations.  We continue to build beyond rhyme and reason for we believe in that marriage bond and know our moral and spiritual responsibilities.

     What about that really special friendship beyond our spouses that has overcome the test of time?  Some have lovers…Prince Charles?  Others, just extraordinary friends!

     I have a number of extraordinary friends.  Yet, one stands out!  His name is Eddy.  We have been friends since our freshman year in college over 45 years ago.  We have no legal bonds to keep us going as friends.  We just mutually keep the friendship going with no expectations of any kind.  We see ourselves in each other.  We both struggle the same way in making our lives better.  We share the same interests in writing, in community work, in teaching, in religion, in love and in never leaving anyone in need to the extent we are able to.  We see each other beyond our faults.  We forgive each others shortcomings and transgressions without conditions.  We never judge each other.  We are just there to help one another.  Our families have grown together with us.  My children are his children.  His children are my children.

     We are more than just friends.  We are more than just brothers.  I believe that what Eddy and I have is building on the spirituality of friendship that Jesus perfectly lived with His people.

Crazy Curves

Oh, gee!  Curves are not always sexy.  In fact, they are downright dangerously crazy!  I am not referring to the curves of the extravaganza  showgirls of Las Vegas.  I am actually addressing the driving lanes of its roads and freeways.  Here, the lanes swerve unnaturally out of position.  This is one place where one must expect the unexpected in driving lanes.

Either I am getting too old and demented or the driving lanes here are really crazily laid out.  It could be that I have become a careless driver.  However, how could I explain a clean driving record if that were so, huh?  The serious accident that almost caused my whole family our lives two years ago was perpetrated by a drunk driver who zoomed through a red light and struck our really sturdy Land Rover.

On Thursday, January 25, I drove my daughter Aari to her community college class in my tiny C230 Kompressor Benz.  From Freeway 215 East, I got off the Valle Verde exit to merge left into that avenue.  Well, I followed the lane left only to realize I was moving head on to oncoming traffic.  Egads!  How did this happen?  Wide-eyed, I noticed that the road divider was some 50 yards from the turn.  I should have swung far right as I turned left from the ramp to join the avenue correctly!

Quick defensive action!  What?  Flash the hazard light!  Move as far to the right as possible for staying on the left side would have been fatal!  Honk the horn continuously!  Oncoming drivers on my left side did not slow down!  Drivers moving directly on to me maneuvered to their right, giving me a squeaking passage.  Why didn't they stop, for God's sake?  Five or six rows of cars running abreast towards me in four columns came rushing by before I could make a quick and sharp u-turn with squealing tires!  Dang, forgive my French but my you-know-what shot up to my ears!  Make the same mistake  yourself and see if your innards will not fly out of your mouth!  Gosh, I pray to God that this will not happen to you...not in any remote way.

I thank my God for saving me and my Aari from becoming a road statistic.  I thank Him for keeping my heart strong and not failing in that trying moment. I thank Him for His blessing in giving me a critical mind that functioned well and weaved me through that swiftly grave time!

I am still alive!

God is good!  Vivat Jesus! 

The Third Visit

On December 10, I arrived in Manila for my third visit to the Philippines in 2006.  The purpose of this particular visit was to surprise my best friend Eddy on his 65th birthday, attend his 40th marriage vows renewal and participate in the Knights of Columbus Councils 4488 and 9636 joint social amelioration projects for destitute families in Las Pinas City.

I arrived without fanfare at the Ninoy Aquino International airport on December 10 (Eddy's birth date) at 6:00 a.m., boarded a taxicab and surprised Eddy with a birthday woo hoo that almost caused him to faint!

That afternoon, together with our Council 9636 knight brothers, we visited some 39 really very old, retired nuns in Paranaque City.  This is one of our projects.  We sang them Christmas carols, brought specially prepared chicken rice porridge which they asked for, and gave them our sweetest smiles in appreciation of their lifetime work in the service of the Lord.  They asked that we regularly visit them and bring only our sweetest smiles to give them joy.

I found out from the younger nuns who were their caretakes that these wheelchair bound nuns and bedridden nuns need adult diapers at least six times a day, mercurial blood pressure apparatus, thermometers, and lotions for bed sores and the like.  I promised to procure these for them.

That evening at the birthday party Eddy gave to the brother knights, we resolved to make the Visitation of the Nuns, a monthly project.  We will bring our sweetest smiles and as many adult diapers as we can get from donations.  A pack of 8 diapers costs 240 Philippine Pesos, roughly $5.

On December 18 at 4:00 p.m., the K of C brothers and I fed and gave gifts to some 200 squatter children and street children at the reception hall of the new McDonald's Restaurant.  At first, the plan was to take in only those children who regularly attend the catechism classes we sponsor at the chapel we built in the Manggahan squatter area.  However, it was a painful sight to turn away the other children.  I influenced my brother knights not to turn anyone away.  We fed them spaghetti, hamburgers, juices and sundaes.  Many of the children purposefully did not finish eating all their food.  They opted to take them home to share with their older brothers and sisters and their parents.  We also gave them food baskets and toy gifts.  The funds for this particular event came from the cash donations that Del Rosa Knights Ray Lobato, Jim Haubner, Bill Sutcliffe and I gave.

I actually shed tears of joy watching the children relish the food, take care of their younger siblings, and sing action thanksgiving praises they learned in their catechism classes. 

We actually feed these children every Friday morning with rice porridge and on one Friday of the month, we do our best to make it a special event by adding hamburgers and gifts of soap, toothbrush, sandals, or t-shirt.

I will be very happy to receive in behalf of these elderly nuns and destitute children any gifts or cash donations you will make.  Write your tax deductible checks in favor of Our Lady of Fatima 9636.  Every cent goes to the program without any overhead expenses.

My visit culminated with the 40th wedding anniversary of my best friend and brother Eddy in Cebu City on December 22.  It was a fitting end to a fruitful visit, even if I lost my voice as a result of a viral infection.  The celebration was both spiritual and secular.  Eddy is blessed with a supportive and loyal wife Zita and three devoted children Linnor, Junnie and May.

I left the Cebu City on December 24 at 5:00 p.m. and arrived in Los Angeles also on December 24 at 5:00 p.m., just in time to quietly but elegantly celebrate my own 42nd wedding anniversary that very same day with my loving wife Ces.

Thoughts on This Special Day

And who shall receive one little child in my name receiveth me. -Matthew 18:5

Today, October 2 is my birthday.  It is a very special day that makes me think about where I am and what I have done with my life.  I wonder what I have done in the last 67 years that have made this world better than when I arrived in it.  Let me share the past and the present.

As a teenager, I was a benevolent bum.  I was the leader of my gang because I was the thinker and I wrote the best love letters for my buddies.  I grew up at a time when you had to write love letters to express liking someone.  I wrote their love letters.  We collected "tong" money from jeepney and calesa drivers.  We exacted donations from businesses.  What did we do with the proceeds?  Unbelievable, but true.  We spent them on constructing a softball diamond, basketball court and volleyball court...all on dirt...and conducting tournaments for our barrio.  We also spent money on marrying off in church those who had been living together as common-law couples because they could not afford the culturally mandatory "feast" that goes with a wedding.  We provided the "feast" after the mass wedding.  We also visited prisoners in the provincial jail and gave them soap and toothbrush, particularly those who had no relatives visiting them because the relatives lived in far-flung towns.

Bums that we were, we all were religious and all belonged to the Legion of Mary.  It's amazing that we came out of those "years" better persons.  Two became lawyers, one a celebrated singer, two teachers, one priest, one Boy Scout of the Philippines Executive Director, one business executive and one town mayor for 25 years.  All, except the priest, are still alive and hopefully doing something good for their respective communities.

Me?  I went into teaching and dabbled in some consulting work in later life.  It is my ardent hope that I have contributed to the development of my former pupils and students and that they, in turn, are contributing to making their communities a better place to live in.  I pray that I have multiplied myself through them.  My former students at the International School in Manila who have remained in touch have given me the impression that Idid something right as a teacher.  Former students in San Bernardino who are now lawyers, teachers, businessmen and wage earners have given me joy in their acknowledgment of my contribution in their development.

One moment of joy stands out in a recent encounter with a former student who made life as a teacher a never-ending challenge.  He said, "Mr. Miyagi (they fondly called me this in San Bernardino, CA), remember how I always made you climb the wall angry?  Look, here's a picture of my beautiful wife and two lovely children.  I am about to graduate from CalState with a BS in Business Management...and you know what?  I am the Assistant Store Manager here!"  He gave me a hug and whispered, "...and you thought I did not listen to you!"

What is an old man to do, but feel tears of joy running down his cheeks!

Today, I continue to do social amelioration projects in the Philippines that I started in the year 2000.  I have teamed up the Knights of Columbus Council 9636 in Las Pinas City, Philippines and Council 4488 in San Bernardino, CA.  Through my efforts, Council 4488 raises funds and sends it to Council 9636 which implements five major projects:

1.  Feeding of homeless street children ages 4-8 years old every Friday morning.  We feed them rice porridge with chicken.  One Friday a month, they get an additional hamburger, sandals, shirts, soap, toothbrush and toothpaste.  Sometimes, they get all of these "extras;" sometimes just one or two, depending on funds availability.  Many times, the children keep the hamburger to eat at a later time of the day.

2.  Catechism class for some 200 children from the streets and from the squatter area every Sunday afternoon.  We teach them belief in God and to hope.  We give them paper and pencils to write on and catechism books to work from.

3.  Visiting Prisoners every month at the highly congested national penitentiary in Muntinglupa, particularly those who have no relatives visiting them because they come from far-flung provinces and could not afford transportation.  We give them soap, towels, toothbrush and toothpaste and give them hope that there are people who still care about their well-being.

4.  Eradication of dengue-carrying mosquitoes in the squatter areas.  We fumigate these areas every quarter and do the best in eradicating these mosquitoes that carry the deadly dengue fever.

5.  TESDA Scholarship sponsorship of two students from the squatter area to gain skills from the government-run Technical and Educational Skills Development Authority every semester term.  We pay the tuition fee and give students materials required of their skills classes and transportation money.

My friends and I focus our efforts, because of limited funds, on the first two projects that involve children.  We do not want our children to ever lose hope despite the seemingly insurmountable hunger pangs and lack of direction in their lives.

It is my ardent prayer that my friends who read this blog will find it in their hearts to touch the lives of these innocent children with some donations.  Every cent you send is all directly spent on them with no overhead costs.  Your donation is tax deductible, too.  If you want to help, give hope to these children whom you have never seen but who long for your love by writing your check to: Our Lady of Fatima 9636 and mail it to: 828 Sweeping Vine Ave., Las Vegas, NV 89183. 

Please join me in making Christmas a happy one for them.  God bless you.