Except for a couple of things, there haven’t been a lot of important happenings since our trip to San Francisco. Our brief stay in Dandy and Tan’s place is something I’m sure my boys will never forget. She literally overwhelmed them with her kindness, generosity and hospitality. She doted on them as if they were her own children. She offered Daniel to stay with her and Tan in Pleasant Hill since both Christine (who’s married and has her own place) and Francis (he lives in Glendale) have already flown the coup. Manami even got a brand new outfit from her.
Thanks a bundle, Dandy.
We left Pleasant Hill around 9 and made it to La Mirada in about 6 hours. On the way back from San Francisco we hit a lot of traffic especially by downtown LA. We passed by a huge accident where one car was on top of another – not quite sure how that happened. The car at the bottom had ‘Just Married’ written on its rear window. Although he and Rach flew from San Francisco, Donna called Eph right away and told him about it.
When we arrived I found my California drivers license has arrived in the mail.
Reggie and Manami did their laundry and then Dan took them back to Long Beach. We met all of them at my favorite hangout, Sushi Samurai, for dinner. Manami’s comment on its ‘authentic’ Korean sushi, “It’s interesting.”
We returned the van to Gerald the next day thanking him for it being trouble free and for the great discount. Donna and I then went to a Target store and got some dog food for Indo. A couple of bags had some discount coupon cards in them so we got them first, took them to the car, opened the bags and fished out the coupons. We were able to save 10 bucks for our next purchase and we got him a total of 4 bags, which should last him about a month or so!! We then had lunch at Midori. After lunch we went to Luisa and Sons and got a bunch of empanada to take to Long Beach for their ‘gift opening’ get together.
Eph and Rach took Reggie and Manami running around Hollywood, Beverly Hills and Rodeo Drive. Manami seemed to have enjoyed it from all the pictures they took.
Towards the evening we went to Long Beach to join the newlyweds while they opened their gifts. Jun and Rose were there along with Ate Medy and a bunch of Eph and Rach's friends. They had pansit and pizza for dinner along with empanadas.
Reggie and Manami were able to meet some of his friends the next couple of days. She enjoyed Halloween quite a bit, being such a new experience for her. Friday, November 2 we took them to the airport for their flight back to Japan. We picked them up from Long Beach in the morning for their afternoon flight. Rachel met us at the airport and joined us for lunch after they checked in. I think Manami must have warmed up to us during her stay here because she looked extremely sad that they’re leaving and so were we.
Reggie has already called us a couple of days ago saying they’ve arrived.
Robert left San Diego for his early Monday morning flight from Reno to Madrid via Atlanta.
Nido and Emy took us to watch
American Gangster the other day. It was a pretty good movie with Denzel Washington as the gangster and Russell Crowe as the cop trying to get him.
I woke up Sunday with an itch at my back, which developed into hives all over my torso. Donna applied some hydrocortisone on them and had me pop a Benadryl. They were mostly gone by the time we’re in church at 11. I was mostly asleep during Consecration, however. Benadryl has that effect on me. She had to drive us home after church. In the evening I started itching again so before bed it’s hydrocortisone and Benadryl time. The same thing happened Monday morning but this time the hives appeared in my arms and legs as well. The ointment and the pills seem to keep them under control. But Donna had to go by herself shopping and stuff and I was asleep most of the time at home. I spent my time awake by reading my old blogs and it made me terribly homesick.
Tomorrow we’re meeting Odette at their place and we’ll take her downtown LA to Chinatown so we can get a couple of things, T-shirts, socks, etc. On Wednesday, we’ll pick up Sister Gay from Panorama and she’ll stay here until she and Daddy Dick leave for the Philippines on Saturday. Nido and/or Daniel will probably take them to the airport since Donna and I will go to Las Vegas with Ed on Friday to meet at Kong Paing's place, a couple of our Kapampangan brethren from
ANASI, (short for Academia Ning Amanung Sisuan, Int'l.) Pidong Rivera from San Diego and the great poet laureate Renato Alzadon from Maryland.
