"Conquering human frailty"

Nope - this is not some serious preaching. Father Passenant's homily about today's gospel on “conquering human frailty and becoming friends with God” inspired me to write about how good people are in general.

Yesterday, while I was deadheading some hydrangeas in the garden, I observed how friendly people are. There was an offer of a cup of coffee and buttered roll in a brown bag, a refill of water for my watering can and warm "Hello" from passers-by. Whether they were walking their dog (hopefully on a leash), jogging with their little son, gathering rocks to beautify their rock garden, riding their bike to the park or simply bringing their wash to the laundry room, they paused for a little chat with me.

Life tends to be busy but they found time to say Hi and let out a smile. Even Raly with her reputation as the “rogue” in the complex, has a good heart to donate two shrubs and a fig tree for the garden. She made sure that I know these plants aren't cheap by leaving the price tags on!

The librarian who knew me well already and waived my overdue fees for my summer reads (shame on me), the mothers with their tots (young boys dressed to the hilt with their yarmulkas) and intently listening to the volunteer during storytelling time and the seniors who are being mentored in the use of the computer - they are all friendly at Vleigh Place Library.

A chat with the lady who asked to share the table with me at Costco while I was having my dinner (what else but Costco’s famous hot dog, soda and churro for desert - good deal for $2.50), priceless! She’s from Jersey but comes to do the shopping for her old mother who lives on Long Island. I’ll probably never see her again, but I’ll treasure that nice talk with her.
We may be crabby some of the time,

but we are good people most of the time.

It's a good day! Smile.

Happy birthday Issa

Life is good! Lots of friends and family joined Issa on her birthday & graduation celebration. "It's so wrong", was her answer when asked why she didn't bake her famous and beautifully crafted cake. Not for her own birthday, I agree. No way.

As usual we all pigged out on Nelsie's sumptous dishes, and her dessert bar that can compete with the local bake shop.
Chocolate-covered giant (or is it mutant?) strawberries, tiramisu and cream puffs and trays of other Pilipino kakanin. Yummy!
We kept Rob, our favorite "mixologist", busy at the drinks bar. Ninang Pitet as always the lovely hostess together with Bem and Michelle. Cousins Mao and Gris with her friend Alex all came too. We all had fun and hmm ...I wonder if they had Karaoke after we left!
Great party, Nelsie.

Success stories

You did it again Issa. What are you going to do next?
This is her second career. The church of The Immaculate Conception, with its stained glass windows of blazing colors couldn't have been a more appropriate setting for this sacred event. To quote the Bishop: "Nursing is a sacred profession". 'Proud of 'ya kid.

'Not trying to steal your thunder, but you may want to follow Tita Carol's footsteps. In May, she graduated from St. Peter's College with an MSN. Preparing to get into the doctoral program, I heard. Where do you find time Tita Carol?

Let's not forget cousin Genny who was accepted into the PharmD program this term at Western U, LA. Full time indeed. Great job Genn, big loss for Kaiser!! We miss you guys.
'Way to go girls! Love from Proud Auntie

No broken parts

The hostas in the garden are growing wild so yesterday I decided to dig out some of the unruly ones, divide and transplant them to the other sparse areas of the property. As I stepped on this long-handed, deep-bladed spade, my right foot slipped; I tumbled over a rose bush, cut my arms and legs in a few spots and landed on the evergreen! I quickly propelled my body out from inside the poor lush evergreen and looked around to see if anybody was watching. It was a pitiful, comical site – doing a half-somersault, the “phantom gardener” (as my neighbors call me; I've been spotted and heard working in the garden at the crack of dawn). I wish I have a movie to show you. It didn’t hurt much, no broken parts, more of an embarrassment. Neighbors were kind enough not to let me know they saw me.

This morning I helped my friend Regina, who has had two hip operations recently, dig out her lavender from the old veggie patch. She claims one neighbor keeps dumping hot charcoal bricks from his grill into her garden. This was the sand box in the former children's playground that we converted into a square foot garden. As soon as the plants were firmly seated in the box planter, I told her I’d get one of our porters to move it to her home garden. Being stubborn, she lifted the planter that contains at least 15 pounds of dirt, into the shopping cart I was using, lost her balance and down she went. She gave me a scare but luckily her hand broke her fall, slightly cut but was okay. Thank goodness she doesn't have a third hip to break! By the way, I need donations for a wheelbarrow and yes, the porters let me use their "runaway shopping cart" to ferry my garden tools.

I headed back home, jumping between spurts of water from the lawn sprinklers, looking like a wet little duckling with muddy feet.
I tell you, gardening can be a lot of fun. With some mishaps too!

Goodbye Nanay

On Saturday, we bid Nanay Amparing goodbye as she prepared to return home after a visit with her lovely daughters Nelsie and Pitet and her apos Issa and Bem.
It was an intimate family lunch gathering at Nelsie's place. Inang cooked her popular pinakbet, with lots of okra and kamote shoots, paired with Nanay's grilled tilapia and veggie lumpia. To die for! For dessert we had pakwan, pichi pichi, kutsinta, iced tea and more ice cream kaya roly poly na po kaming lahat. Nelsie's lush and picture perfect garden was the elegant setting for the late afternoon merienda. Tito Ped wouldn't leave Zoe alone; he's playing Vet and trying to diagnose her. Pitet was almost in tears, tuning out all the babbling of Tito Ped, how could he! Poor Zoe was so pissed she kept walking away and hiding between the earthen flower pots.

Goodbye Nanay, we'll miss you. Hope you had a good visit!

TASCA All Women Regatta

Sitting at the deck under a huge umbrella and baking in the 95 degree temps at the Meadow Lake yesterday, I enviously watched my friends participate in the TASCA All Women Regatta. It was an exciting race with six boats competing. Judy and Maria (Chong) took the challenge as captains of their respective teams.
Great race! Maria with her teammate Angela at the helm, garnered first place on the second race. Judy and Carol also did very well, considering three of the competitors were seasoned racers.
Me? I don’t have a single gene in me to succeed in any sport, so I just cheered on my two favorite teams, and took lots of pics!!
It’s sizzling hot here today again.

Another beautiful day in NY

It's another beautiful day in New York today. It was an interesting ride on the #7 train this morning, on my way to have my blood drawn for the dreaded annual cholesterol check. After 45 pages into Three Cups of Tea by Greg Mortenson, two hours lounging with this great book and an occasional conversation with other patients, my doctor called me in.

Except for this lingering bum shoulder, it was declared that I am "healthy", whatever that means. Until the lab reports are out next week, I won't know for sure if those tubs of ice cream did some damage to my arteries! 'got home in one piece by subway just before the rush hour crowd (kids getting out of school) charged in. Gee, I don't know how I did it all those years I was commuting to the city.
Tomorrow is a gardening date with my neighbor Sheila. We're swapping plantings, let's hope they don't die on us - it's a 94 degree forecast for this weekend.