I just got a text message from my sister: “We’re watching a horror movie.” 

“Which one?” I asked.

“Some Asian horror movie. Will text you again later. I forgot the title. Ha-ha.”

“Okay, bring that when you come here next time. Hush now, we’re also watching, ” I replied.

“What?”

“Insidious,” I answered curtly.

My son finds it bizarre that the people closest to him put horror movies on top of the list when choosing a weekend or an after-dinner movie. “Why don’t you just watch something that’s nice? A nice movie?” he reiterated.

“Horror movies are…nice.” I answered, not really sure what on earth I just said.

“Explain that,” Cole demanded.

“My fear exactly, ‘coz I I'm not sure. I really don’t know how to explain that, Cole. Let me see…Some kids my age liked watching "Ferris Bueller’s Day Off", "Indiana Jones" and stuff like that while I liked “The Exorcist”, "Children of the Corn"…"Amityville"…

My voice trailed off as I looked far away.

“Regan Teresa MacNeil was my…hero.”

“Who’s that?”

Suddenly, turning to him and with the best Linda Blair voice and expression I could muster, I said, “The Exorcist!”

Laughter erupted in the living room where my husband and my cousin were seated. After Cole recovered from the surprise, he started laughing and told me, “Mommy, you are the weirdest!”

I was quick to remind him that Linda Blair did not play the exorcist but the possessed young girl. 

“The priest,” I said, “was the exorcist.”

But really, I can’t explain why I like watching horror films. And I have company. Everyone in my family has a penchant for scary stuff. Even Cole. He might complain sometimes but he does like watching horror movies.      

We gathered after dinner to watch “Insidious”. Read Cole’s review of the movie here. He has an awesome blog called “We Have Hippies for Parents”. 

If you’re ten years old you’ll find some cool stuff there. If you’re older, you’ll find it cute. 

                                           

They say breakfast is the most important meal of the day because it fuels the mind and body. Health-wise, I don’t think anybody should argue with that. There’s another meal during the day though that I feel is more important for three reasons. One, it’s well-planned. Two, it’s well-attended.  Three, everybody’s ready for long conversations at this time of the day. 

Well-planned lunches

I have memories of the women in my family sitting down during a mid-morning coffee break planning the day’s lunch. We lived in the province where LUNCH BREAK meant coming home from work or school and eating lunch with the entire family. That’s the reason why lunches had to be well-planned — everyone in the family looked forward to it every single day.

My grandmother would sometimes call over the phone asking us what we’d want for lunch. So even if we did not live in the same house, she’d have our “orders” delivered by one of the ever-reliable househelps and the driver. I have loved crispy pata (pork’s leg) since I was four so when I was in the mood for it I’d let my mother dial the phone so I could call Lola Didit and ask for my crispy pata. That was my food delivery service back in the 70’s.

Attendance is a must

My grandparents were rather strict about lunch attendance. Everyone would be expected to be at the table a few minutes after my grandmother would ring the bell for a meal. Their home, the Villa Mercedes in Bohol, was a huge Spanish house sitting gracefully between two spacious gardens. You could be anywhere when the bell rang — you just had to make sure that you’d be at the table before the second call. It may sound a little austere but I’ve been thankful for all those moments because now I have wonderful memories of family time well-spent, eating together the most delicious home-cooked dishes one could ever imagine.

My father carried this on at home. You could never be doing anything more important than a family meal. It didn’t matter if Duran Duran was playing on MTV. You’d had to leave those guys to be at the dinner table when it was time for a meal.

Every bite counts

I’d be seated somewhere on the right side of my grandfather and they’d have to put a can of biscuits for me to sit on because I was tiny. My grandfather initiated all conversations and I still clearly remember how all the adults would politely answer him when he asked them questions. He was a judge and carried an air of intimidation in him.

The talk would slowly become animated in the middle of lunch so everyone would start easing up. I’d remain quiet, hardly eating anything but tremendously enjoying all the conversations that would go on around me. Theirs was a 14-seater antique table and you could just imagine the buzz that went on there especially when desserts were about to be served.

What are your lunches like? I'd love to hear about your memorable experiences with food. Share them here!

All the memories I have of food and the people who made them are all amazing. That’s what my husband and I have been trying to let our son (and now our daughter who obviously loves to eat) experience in our home.

From time to time we’d gather family around and cook for them and share the wonderful experience I had when I was little.

We gathered together recently, and as usual, cousins requested for Roastaman’s roast chicken. Roastaman of course, could not refuse.

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Taken during my trip to Cebu City

A plant will never mess on your rugs.

When we moved in to our home in September 2011, I got unbelievably busy with so many things. Attika just turned three-months old; Cole was still attending regular school then; hubby had an important job to take care of; and I had an entire house to unpack. I wasn’t doing everything on my own but OCness is not something you just can shrug off, so I was carefully arranging and rearranging things (and sometimes repeating the entire routine when "something looked like it was in the wrong place") to the amazement of my (superwoman) friend Christie who was visiting at that time. 

I couldn’t get any luckier. I had a fairy godmother staying with us and showering my kids a lot of love. But it was me, really, who needed her more than anyone else. I needed her to be there to laugh with from the time we'd wake up in the morning until we'd fall asleep late at night. With her around everything seemed funny. Now thinking about it, Christie’s the reason why I never had to suffer from postpartum blues. 

So while all that love was being passed around in our household, our plants were out in the verandas suffering from brutal neglect by yours truly. Not that I intentionally did that but for weeks I completely forgot that besides my little one, there were others waiting for me to feed them, too. They all looked withered and  their leaves were starting to fall out. Some of them were on the verge of dying, some looked weather-beaten, all of them looked thirsty and hungry, some of them looked…sad. I was panic-stricken when I saw what I’ve done (or haven’t done) for them. I promised them my White Dwarfs, Snow White, and all the living things we owned that I’d start feeding them regularly and that I’d talk to them more often than I should. 

Another friend of mine, Anna, left me with two boxes of books before she left for Canada. One of the treasures in that collection is Lynn and Joel Rapp’s “Mother Earth’s Hassle-Free Indoor Plant Book” published in 1973. I love the old book dearly because it was written for dummies like me who love plants but don’t know how to grow them. It’s so comprehensive and a fun read, too. 

I’m sharing with you the Rapps’ reasons why you should become emotionally involved with your plants.

A plant will make you happy.

A plant will beautify your home.
A plant will freshen the air.

A plant will make a friend feel good.

A plant will never talk back to you.

A plant will never mess on your rugs.

A plant will love you if you water it.

A plant will give you something to talk about.

And best of all—You don’t have to walk a Begonia!

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Succeeding in college is about having a goal and a game plan. Having fun in college should also mean getting all beefed up for the life that lies ahead.

College is a phase in your life where you have to play it big because it is the precedent to the quality of life that you will have in the future. Not that it’s the only thing that counts, but a college education will open boundless doors to those who make something out of it. There are those who enter college and finish a degree free of bumps, yet there are those who drop out as early as the second semester during the freshman year. How you become successful in your years in college is determined by how well you play your game. Your best bet to winning is through thorough preparation--a chunk of it you do in your senior year in high school; determination--the day-to-day life in the campus is challenging in many aspects; and discipline--the pitfalls may sometimes be difficult to avoid, so you should let your strong moral background come into play.

The stress factors in college life are as inevitable as a nasty flu. Stress is a screaming oppressor, yet most of the time it’s difficult to point a finger at your stressors, so they are often left disregarded. 

Stress, when not dealt with, is detrimental to a person’s psychological, mental, emotional and physical well-being.

College is a wonderful time to explore your genius and you can’t do that with poor health.

Understanding Your Game

I like to compare college to a huge ball game because it provides a simple platform for understanding. And well, ball games have an unobjectable capacity to excite anyone. The object is to win, and the only way to win is to play a good game. College is a time when you are on your own and how well you do during this crucial stage in your life is solely dependent on how you handle your game. You are your own coach, your best player and your own referee. 

To successfully get to your end-goal, you have to have a good strategy in dealing with the humps. The first step is understanding the causes of stress that might be affecting you:

Financial Stress  

Everyone worries about money and college students are not spared from the occasional financial crisis. It’s your first time away from home and you’re worried you’re not armed with good financial management skills. Well, who is? It takes time for some young people to learn how to do good budgeting of their daily/weekly/monthly allowance. Until then money will be a contributor to stress so it would be helpful to get guidance from somebody with financial know-how. 

Peer Pressure 

Parents fear this more than anything else. It all begins in high school and it doesn’t stop there. In college, people from all directions, with different beliefs, moral backgrounds, and religious affiliations will walk into your life. Some of them become your friends, which is good, unless they start imposing things on you that will jeopardize your life on campus. It will not hurt to choose your friends.

Photo Courtesy of Baloo Cartoons

Academics 

This is the be all and end all of anyone getting a degree in college. Getting into college is not much of a challenge for most, but their staying-power starts to get challenged when the academic load starts to pile up during the sophomore year. There are those who jump from one major to another thinking this will ease up the load. The truth of the matter is it won’t. Discipline and perseverance should be your two best friends to help you through your academic progress.

Photo Courtesy of Funny Cartoon Images

Responsibilities and Family 

College is a time when you experience life outside the comforts of your home. In college, you are expected to perform greater responsibilities because you are now a part of a bigger organization which is the university. The stress stems from the expectations that people have on you since you will be judged according to how well you deliver your tasks, whether these are small ones like homework or important ones like presentations. The best remedy for this is preparation. 

Preparing for the Play-off

Stress may be an inevitable part of college life, but it should never be your reason to fail. There are ways to handle stress:

Set Goals 

Without goals you will be floating in a sea of academic work load and not have the grasp of what your progress should be. You must have an outline of what you want to achieve every semester and set a realistic goal as to how to accomplish this. Start with your curriculum outline. Do advance reading as much as you can so you can optimize your learning. The load gets heavier as you go along and this is where preparation is going to help you.

Manage Your Time 

The academics is just part of an integral whole in the spectrum of learning. There are extra-curricular activities that will help you develop your skills set to prepare you for a future career. However, without time management it will be easy to get tangled in a schedule that might interrupt with your academics. Put your schedule into writing and make sure you’re faithful to it.

Organize 

There are others who claim that they work better amidst mess. This is not true for all, and studies suggest that the more organized you are, the closer you are to achieving your set of goals. 

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Get Enough Sleep 

Your level of concentration is compromised if you don’t get at least eight hours of sleep. Again, being organized and strictly managing your time will prevent you from the pitfall of losing sleep because you need to cram for exams and do last minute research for a big presentation.

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Journal 

There is no better way to enhance your creative skills in writing than keeping a journal where you can freely express your worries, and also jot down your college life experiences. This is a paper trail of your thoughts that you can always go back to.

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Eat Healthy 

A healthy body bears a healthy mind. The kind of diet that you have will dictate your well-being. Keep those veggies and fruits within each. 

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Laugh! 

Laughing releases endorphins that will put you in a better mood. This is the cheapest and the most potent way I know of staying healthy. Ever heard of Laughter Yoga?  It is a zestful kind of yoga that will help you and your friends discover that there’s more to laughter than what you already know about it.

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I veered away from the delusion of the “Man With a Newspaper” calling out to me because I have a tinge of fear that a delusion is not so much of a basis for writing about a venerable painting. 

The perfect prelude to a migraine is choosing a painting that is not popular and writing a review about it. As if writing a piece on art is not daunting enough for an informal writer such as myself, I chose the one that, I discovered, was not well-documented, in fact rather obscure. I realized, as I began my research, that even the omnipotence of the internet is challenged by the obscurity of Severino Fabie and his “Man With a Newspaper” (1925).  The very little information available about the artist would deprive my article of the ideal discussion on the background of the artist, and elements that constitute form, shape, texture, line, composition of space and things as such, as mentioned by Dr. Alice Guillermo in her lecture. But then again, I thought that even if I had all these bits of information screaming at me, I still would not be able to write a conclusive piece using those I mentioned as a guide simply because I lack the formal training to do so. Coercing myself to write with feigned ability would only lead to a write-up so alien to me that I could even deny writing it myself afterwards. So I go back to the question of why; why of all the paintings at the Vargas Museum was I drawn to this specific painting by Fabie. I veered away from the delusion of the “Man With a Newspaper” calling out to me because I have a tinge of fear that a delusion is not so much of a basis for writing about a venerable painting. 

I found myself going back to Severino Fabie’s painting several times and concluded that perhaps it is my own life experiences, the knowledge that I gained from the academe and my acquaintance with the universe that allowed me to appreciate what I was looking at. For instance, “Man With a Newspaper” is a powerful acknowledgment of the literacy of the Filipinos. Although the man in the painting is not reading the newspaper, and even has it lain over his right arm, his pensive look unarguably speaks for itself. If he was the “Man ‘Reading’ the Newspaper” it would have lessened the impact on the image of the Filipino as a discerning race. He is also clutching the side of the paper, an expression of defiance over what he might have discovered in the news. Although the 1920’s marked the beginning of the country’s liberation from foreign rule, the political, economic and social situation was still clouded with confusion, fear, and anger.

Contradicting emotions are expressed in the way Fabie imbued the physique of his character.  The man’s left shoulder is arched down, which is an indication of insecurity, while his right shoulder in contrast appears to be leveled, juxtaposing the feeling of uncertainty with hope. I unintentionally rested my eyes on his slightly elongated neck and my eyes were led up to a thin face of a man ripened by a life of tribulation.  His face, as I see it, set the dismal feel of the painting.

There is no part in the painting which led me to perceive illumination, so to me, lighting was put to minimal use by Fabie in “Man With a Newspaper”. At first glance, I had the impression that the painting was a classic because of the rich, dark colors that were used.

To my understanding, the man, the newspaper, the whole dismal affair of the painting, was Fabie’s lense through which part of Philippine history was explained.    

June passed us by so swiftly – reminds me of the strong winds coming to us from Laguna de Bay passing through from our sunrise veranda then through our living room, onto our sunset veranda where it moves to an unknown direction. We welcome these occasional gusts with open arms (I have a story on that here.) 

Although the month felt too short a time, June is a month of celebrations in my family. All my siblings were born in June. Some of my maternal cousins who are really close to me were also born in June. This year, the month embedded a memorable mark on our calendar because of a few life-changing events. One of my cousins got married; another one passed the architecture board exam; we officially started unschooling; our little one knows more words and has been expressing herself in such an adorable way; and my husband embraced a breath of new life by finally deciding on taking a different direction in his career. Also, brave as I am, I deactivated my personal Facebook account and realized how more productive I’ve become by focusing on real life. Cure for Mondays’s FB page is very much alive of course so if you have time please check that out. It’s “like”-anemic and needs you to be around.  

So yes, everybody happy.

There were of course a few (negligible) disappointments. My life after all is not a work of fiction. 

I continue to have mental debates with my appetite and this has so far been one of my greatest challenges. Attika will be turning one real soon and I still have not shed my postpartum excess baggage of 20 lbs. to be exact. I’m currently at 120 so there’s a lot of work that needs to be done. But between a BigMac and exercise it’s always so much easier to follow the former’s lead. Bad, bad mommy. I really hope to do something about my weight and in my head it has to start this July.

Let’s deal with the waistline later. For now, let me just say… hello July!