Post Thanksgiving in La Mirada

Friday, November 23, 2007
Got a call from Cong Paing this morning and he wanted to walk together around the Cerritos Park just like yesterday. But I told him Giancarlo was washing the van so he had to come over here and we walked around La Mirada Park instead. While we were walking, we were talking about yesterday’s Thanksgiving and about life in general.

Yes, it was Thanksgiving Day yesterday and as you can see in my previous blog, it’s traditional that families here share a meal of turkey. But since we’re ‘homeless’ nowadays, we had to go to Rachel’s parents Rose and Jun’s place in Norwalk for lunch to celebrate Thanksgiving with them as well as Jun’s birthday. And of course Rose baked a huge turkey for everyone.


They stuck a small candle into one of the chocolate cupcakes brought by Ruth and we all sang Jun Happy Birthday!


We were the only the guests they had along with Adelyn’s sister Ruth and her two daughters. Adelyn and Ruth are Ate Medy’s daughters and Ate Medy is Rose’s older sister who’s here from the Philippines visiting. She’s staying till after the New Year to experience the Rose Parade in Pasadena.


After lunch we went back to La Mirada so Donna can help Emy prepare for Thanksgiving dinner over here. Emy baked her turkey and salmon and Donna prepared the ham, while Adrienne fixed her bean casserole. We also had some vegetable lasagna, corn bread and stuffing.


Rach and Eph prepared a gorgeous dessert of trifle. It was delicious!


Romar and Theresa came as well as Daniel. Emy’s brother Nelson also came with daughter Vanessa. His wife Myrna had to go somewhere but joined us later for dessert. Rose and Jun also came to have tea after we had dinner. Although Nido had to work, he took several cat naps during the day and it enabled him to join us for dinner. But he went right back to sleep afterwards.

Thanksgiving 2007

HAPPY THANKSGIVING, EVERYONE!

The turkey, cooking in the oven.


The finished product, yum!


After dinner... yikes!


I'll post a longer blog tomorrow. I ATE WAY TOO MUCH! Everybody did, actually. Let me sleep it off and wait for the turkey to get digested.

November in La Mirada 5

Wednesday, November 21, 2007
At around 11:30 this morning, Donna and I left to meet with Pareng Quir and Mareng Chit for lunch. He’s a former shipmate of mine, an old Navy buddy. I’ve known him since boot camp. He joined to become a sailor here in California while I came from Subic. I was assigned to his company in the Navy boot camp in San Diego. The guys I flew from Clark with were one company ahead of me because I failed the swim test, something I’ll probably never live down – a sailor who can’t swim! Anyway, we went to boot camp together, were assigned to the same ship, the USS White Plains homeported at the time in Yokosuka, Japan. When I acquired the apartment at good old Moriya Mansions (where Reggie resides nowadays), he and a bunch of other Pinoy shipmates hung out together in our place until Donna, pregnant with Reggie and a baby Eph in tow, arrived from the Philippines.

He got transferred somewhere and I got transferred to NAS New Orleans. When I got out of the service I found him in Long Beach, married with a new born son Edmund. I and Donna were the only sponsors when Ed got baptized. Just like us, they ended up with two more sons, Roderick and Michael.

So here we are decades later! He used to baby sit Eph when he was little and last month they attended his wedding! How time flies!

After lunch at Ten-Ten, a dim sum style restaurant in Artesia, we took a couple of pictures, parted and promised we’ll see each other again. Thanks for lunch, Ed.


Donna and I were craving for some halo-halo, so we headed to nearby Red Ribbon. While we were enjoying this cold treat (boy, how I miss Razon’s!), here comes my cousin Cong Frank’s ex Atching Lori with daughter May-May and husband. We got to talking, while they were having arroz caldo, and she told us the story of how I drove her to the hospital when she was pregnant with her second child because Cong Frank was too busy trying to finish a special order painting. Cong Frank was Cong Paing’s protégé. Before they got married Cong Frank studied under Cong Paing. This was when I used to live with Cong Paing and Cong Frank and Atching Lori also went into the art gallery business in Angeles City. I couldn’t quite remember that story about me taking her to the hospital but if she says it happened, it must have.

November in La Mirada 4

Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Donna and I went and visited my former work, Goodrich Corp., to chika-chika with some of my former co-workers. I noticed the lobby changed a bit. They now have a pre-entrance where one has to call someone from the inside to be let in. It seems they got rid of the position because there was no receptionist anymore.


Donna called Sharon and she went downstairs and fetched us. Kent took over my cubicle and a certain Gina has been hired for my position. I also noticed the cubicle walls are much higher this time, for privacy, perhaps? Eunice is now pregnant and due to have a baby girl in February. We saw Meleah, Subu, Afshin, Sylvia, Kevin and Pat Trujillo the big boss, among others. There's been A LOT OF PEOPLE who has quit or retired since I retired last year. But it's notable to tell you the story of one employee who retired (or tried to retire, rather) a few months ago. He took the week off and they were going to give him a retirement party on a Friday. He died of a heart attack the day before! There was another who took about a year off to have surgeries on both knees and from all indications, he won't come back.

I rest my case.

Anyway, Sharon, Sol, Eunice, Donna and I went to Kung Pao, our regular Chinese restaurant hangout. It brought back some memories because we used to go there a lot. Thanks for lunch, guys. Pictures below were taken on its parking lot.



After lunch Donna and I went shopping for some more of Indo's stuff, like shampoo, jerky and flea collar. She also picked up a couple of shower caddies. Then we went to pick up Adrienne and Giancarlo from school. We were waiting in front of the school when we got a call from Nido saying they're already home. The Mom of Adrienne's friend Ruthie gave them a ride home.

As soon as Emy got home from work, we went to Buca di Beppo, an Italian restaurant on Imperial Highway past Brea Mall, for dinner to celebrate Adrienne's 16th birthday. Dan arrived earlier and he came with us. We were done with our calamari appetizers when Eph and Rach arrived.


They have huge portions on their dishes in this restaurant but they have a 'disclaimer' in their menu saying small serves two people and large serves between three to four.


Adrienne got a nice coat from Emy and Nido and..


..some cash from Eph and Rach.


When we finished dinner, Nido drove straight to work and said he'll catch some more z's in the car while the rest of us went home to have some tiramisu from the fridge. Happy Birthday, Adrienne!

I forgot to mention, it was Nido and Emy's 19th wedding anniversary a couple of days ago. Yup, they got married a couple of days after Emy's birthday.
HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, Nido and Emy!

November in La Mirada 3

Saturday, November 17, 2007
Last Wednesday we checked in at Pechanga, to take advantage of a free accommodation by the Hotel/Casino in Temecula. As soon as we checked in, we went to downtown Temecula to watch Lions for Lambs, a political film made by and starring Robert Redford. Its message was so against the Iraq war – not much entertainment value, however. I dropped off Donna back at Pechanga and I went and watched Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead, a movie about two brothers who robbed their parents’ jewelry store – which I have to say was much better, full of suspense and really intense at some point. Great performance by Philip Seymour Hoffman, he never disappoints.

Today, Emy woke up early to drop off Adrienne at school for a Speech Camp of sorts. It’s actually some kind of competition and we were so proud because she was the only winner in her level among her team mates.


It’s also Emy’s birthday today and they celebrated by going to some dinner dance that they’ve previously bought tickets for.

Meanwhile Donna and I went to the 5 p.m. mass at St. John. After church we went to Arcel and Evelyn’s place in Walnut. Evelyn used to work with Donna in a convalescent hospital and she was one of the major sponsors in their wedding several years ago. Arcel is a Capampangan who hails from Tarlac.


They now have a 14 year old daughter, Nikki and a set of twin boys. Let me tell you about this girl - first of all she's so tall for her age and she was into ballet and piano. She even played a couple of classical pieces for us. She's a freshman right now but Arcel was saying she's in some kind of program where she's also attending some sort of 'international classes' in which she'll have two diplomas when she graduates, one from her regular high school and the other from the 'international school'. I thought that was pretty cool. I think she was at the top of her class when she graduated from junior high and she got some kind of Presidential citation for it.


Arcel has been inviting us for dinner and we can’t seem to find a day where we’re free and they’re available. They were going to go to Disneyland today for the twins’ birthday but Nikki’s foot was hurting so the Disney trip got postponed and the twins got a Wii game system instead.


So after church we drove on up to Walnut and dinner was ready when we arrived at almost 7. Evelyn’s sister Fe played the piano after dinner. When she finished I felt like doing Karaoke so Arcel started setting and hooking it up to their flat screen. But he was having such a hard time doing it and his brother-in-law even helped.


Finally he gave up and he just hooked it up on their small TV with the audio on to his entertainment sound system. We so got carried away that it was past 1 a.m. when we left! This is the first time I’ve sung since Spain and it felt good!

Arcel - I hope you don't mind me posting a couple of your pics here. Recognize which ones?

Sunday, November 18
Got up this morning after Nido knocked on our bedroom door announcing, “Breakfast!” At around 11 Donna and I left for our JASHS Class ’70 USA get-together at Roger and Bev’s house in Rancho Palos Verdes. I filled a couple of small coolers with soft drinks and water and Emy and Nido had us drop by at Juan Pollo for a couple of orders of chicken. I like theirs better than El Pollo Loco, by the way.

When we arrived, Ed, and Odette were already there. They picked up Mon David (with his trusted guitar!) from their place in Tarzana. Also in attendance were Rey and Josie, Merlyn and Bert. Merle (Gamboa) Malinao and son Sam and Becka (Medina) Buenaventura with her husband Jun arrived a bit later. We were hanging out at the back where the view was really gorgeous. Roger said a short prayer before lunch, specifically for classmate and friend Manny Hilario's father who passed away recently. He also said a prayer for his well being as well as Rey's.


It was a bit too cold for us however so after lunch, we all went inside to listen to Mon. He sang a beautiful Capampangan song about a father telling his son to look up at the moon when he misses him while he was gone overseas working. It literally brought tears to Ed’s eyes. I was having goose bumps thinking of my sons while he was singing. Granting Becka’s request, he also sang one of his winning songs at last year’s London Jazz Competition. Ed created a Capampangan poem about OFW’s and Mon provided a melody for it and he performed it as well.


Mon had to leave early because it was his mother-in-law's birthday. In fact, in the middle of one of his songs, he got a call on his cell from his daughter wondering where he was. Since he rode with Ed and Odette, they had to leave as well. Before the party was over I delivered a short speech thanking everyone for their support and Roger said a final prayer.

There was nobody here when we got home. I was parking when Emy and Nido pulled in. We called Stacy to greet her on her birthday. Stacy is my god daughter and she's Nestor and Glo's daughter. That's her on my left in the picture below when she visited California on a business trip a few months ago.


And after dinner, we had Emy’s really delicious Red Ribbon birthday cheese cake, brought by her brother Nelson. We really do have to do some serious workout soon! Otherwise Donna and I will need to get a set of new wardrobe each! A couple of my Levi's won't fit me anymore! Yikes!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY, EMY!