California Dreamin'

It's a couple of days during our stay here that I realized I'm not just dreaming it: Donna and I are in California. And that's when I started sneezing! Yup my allergies started acting up. I went back to the Philippines to start construction on the house in March and not once did I have any allergy symptoms. I guess the Philippines does agree with me!!

Nido lent us their good old reliable Toyota Previa for me to drive around in. It was kind of hard for me to drive it at first because I kept wanting to step on a non existent clutch and I almost honked my horn on some driver who attempted to cut me off on Alondra Blvd. That's what driving-a-car-with-manual-transmission-in-the-Philippines-for-four-months does to you!!

Daniel drove us to LA last night to watch his friend Sue Jin (that's her between me and Donna in the top picture) and her band play in a bar. They were going to be the third act but when we got there though the first act wasn't even in the area yet. And it was looking like Sue won't be able to perform until around 11 pm so we went home without seeing her. Bummer. :-(

We've done quite a bit of shopping since we got here. All the necessary light fixtures, door knobs, etc. have been bought. All we need to get now are the refrigerated food stuff like Egg Beaters, Turkey Bacon, etc. which we're planning on getting the day before we fly back.

Tomorrow (Sunday, Oct 22) we're meeting our classmates (JASHS Class '70, LA Group) for lunch at a nearby restaurant to catch up on a lot stuff. We've talked with a few of them on the phone: Ed and Odette, Rey and Josie, Nestor and Glo, Imelda, Bert, Remy (Boy Dizon's wife). I've received eMails from Roger Catalan and from Nestor P. and Nestor M. both. I overheard Donna over the phone with a few of her nursing classmates.

We've had several get togethers with Eph and Dan, Rach and her family along with Romar and Girlie. We've visited my former work and Donna's work and everyone was pleasantly surprised and glad to see us.

We've also visited my favorite hangout - SAMURAI Sushi Restaurant, for a few lunches and dinner. They were glad to see us too and they proved it by serving us some gyoza on the house.

Early this week our stress level went up just a little bit. We dropped by the house of our travel agent to see if we can pay for everyone's plane tickets to the Philippines for this December for the upcoming house warming soiree. To our surprise, there was a big FOR SALE sign on the front lawn and a huge realtor lock on the front door knob. No one seems to know where she moved to. Fast forward what happened, we finally was able to get a hold of her later in the week but to our horror, the flight bookings were lost due to a misunderstanding between her and Eph. So she had to start from scratch. This Monday, we'll call her and hopefully will hear some good news.