all i need is the ashtray, the remote control, the paddle game...

can i just say that if the thin man were remotely into dressing up for halloween. THIS would be the PERFECT costume.

anyway, considering the state of the world today, i really should build a bunker and fill it with big bags of rice, bottled water, a rice cooker and some barrels of toyo (soy sauce) 'cause that's all i'd need... i'm not talking about all the other vital survival crap that i'd have to fill it up with to take care of the thin man and the kids... like the simpsons dvds or 365 recipes for stray cats in the event of a nuclear holocaust....

i'm talking MY STAPLES... and i could not survive without a fresh, steaming bowl of rice and toyo. that porcelain vessel of goo'ness just brings me back to center. but what KIND of rice? what BRAND of toyo? those are the questions...

as a kid, i don't even remember what brand we used to buy. it was always long grain, but it wasn't botan though. i always knew we were getting rice whenever my uncle climbed grumpily into the back seat of my moms chevy chevette. we'd head to fulton market (issacson & stein) and buy red snapper, snails and crabs. then, mom and lola would peruse the HUGE bags of rice and point to the one that my uncle would heave like atlas onto his shoulder. then, we'd always buy a big can of kikkoman.

as i got older, my mom started to buy thai jasmine rice exclusively. she really liked how fragrant it was. i think she thought it covered up the smell of the fried fish we had for breakfast. it didn't. she also started to buy silver swan brand toyo exclusively. i remember the first time i had a guinness stout. it was so.... good. i couldn't believe i had ever put a miller light to my lips. i thought this is like silver swan to kikkoman.

eventually, when i finally moved out and had my own kitchen to fill, i also bought jasmine rice (and continue to do so). and i was also a silver swan customer until a random incident when i tried to splash some toyo on some rice and couldn't. i looked inside to see if there was something blocking the neck of the bottle and found that there was mold floating on the surface of the toyo. i know. did that not make your stomach flip or what? i'd never seen mold growing in toyo before or since. maybe that was just a bad bottle, but i stopped buying silver swan after that and went back to kikkoman. then one day my corner grocery was out of kikkoman and they only had san-j brand tamari soy sauce. i shrugged and placed it in my basket and i've been hooked on it ever since. it's not milller light. it's not guinness stout. it's kinda like a microbrew or maybe a belgian...

so, feel free to come over for some rice and soy sauce... you know, when some random person remembers to sound the all clear siren and all...

confessions of a doll svengali

just an fyi - my first post for chicago moms blog titled, confessions of a doll svengali, is up!

what did you have for lunch today?

i just had two half eaten halves of hot dogs with ketchup, 3/4 of a golden delicious apple, some leftover jasmine rice from last night with tamari soy sauce, 1/2 cup of hot chocolate and two little debbie zebra snack cakes.

gone... GONE are the days of the organic chop chop salad, the flourish of imported fixings foccacia sandwiches, the local farm supporting gourmet veggie pizzas... soon, i'll be sporting a glowing chernobyl tan and possibly an extra eye...

more blah blah blah...

thanks to irene, i am one of the new contributing writers over at the chicago moms blog. yes, i AM as shocked as you are... and yes, you can complain to her directly...

in one of her earlier posts, irene practically dared me to contact jill, the director of development and marketing for silicon valley moms blog. so after an email exchange, i called her... and after i'd gotten over the initial shock that she was indeed a real person and not an actor, hired by irene to punk me... we talked, while the porkchop screamed and wailed, and i was brought on board...

i dunno... maybe it was a mercy hire due to the porkchops shenanigans... but there it is... still working on my first post, wish me luck. :)

busy body book

so, i just found out about this tres kewl giveaway over at chicago moms blog... the first five moms to post about BusyBodyBook Family Organizer gets a F R E E one...

FREE. say it with me... FREEEEEEEEEE!!!!

and i've seen my neighbor's little organizing gem from afar and i have cov. e. ted. it...

but why would i - uberUBERorganized, memory like a pachyderm - mamazilla want one? because it's all a lie! a farce! a sham! whatever organizational skills i held, i lost with the placenta... the FIRST one... i call it "placenta dementia".

anyway, it's getting worse and worse... although, i can count on one hand, the number of school functions i've forgotten, the importance of each one has doubled... if i don't get this busy body book, i may forget to pick up the paloma from the school bus drop off one day.... when she's eight...i may even forget twice! *SHIVERS*

so, here's me attempting to nip this problem in the bud. :)

need to rent chicken... STAT

will settle for ravenous squirrel on leash (please provide proof of rabies inoculation)...

UPDATE 5/22 -

have URGENT need to locate deprogrammer for children brainwashed by fanatical bug loving cult...

we're one day into the SIX WEEK invasion and i have had ENOUGH. here, in tree heavy beverly, the bugs are everywhere. yesterday, the paloma was in the backyard digging up the pentocular, winged, cat turds... holding them and cooing at them like they were fuzzy manga hamsters... today, one of 'em hitched a ride on the maclaren in the mesh basket... it wasn't moving so i figured it was dead (and that the thin man would dispose of the body later)... AND THEN I SAW IT CREEPING UP... STALKING REALLY...THE PORKCHOP'S LEG!!!!! meanwhile, i'm freeeeeaking out, brandishing a small tree branch like a machete... and he's raspberrying it, eyeing it like it's a hulky puff of pirate booty...

ugh, six weeks... SIX WEEKS!?

wait. this puts a spammer in the works of a breezy backyard brunch i was planning on hosting father's day weekend... would you like some cicada with your strata?

and what about ravinia??!! beautiful, bacchanalian, candlelit, canopied, cicada infested ravinia... i was hoping to see seu jorge, wynton marsalis and pink martini.... what do i do now? do i pitch mosquito netting in the west lot?

et tu, summer dance chicago??!! is 2007 the year that brood 13 redefines the jitterbug?

i'm living a 70s plague movie... without the valium... or charleston heston... or a station wagon with woodie sides... I'M DOOMED! doomed, i tell you... doooooomed....

two years?!

i can't believe it's been two years since i went away for three weeks to study with jessica hagedorn at ACA & finish writing a book that i haven't finished writing yet and seriously doubt that i will EVER finish writing... :( i don't really know how j.k rowling did/does it... i'm not even sure how jessica did it... i think when i asked her about writing while parenting - she just basically said that she did it.

and here for your viewing displeasure, i humbly offer you an (about 5 minutes) excerpt of me reading from my phantom book/novel/novella "chicago style halo halo" (working title) on the last night of my residency with jessica hagedorn. please excuse the inferior quality video/audio:

mother's day wishes

admittedly, i am usually a big scrooge when it comes to what i consider hallmark holidays - mothers day, valentines day, sweetest day, etc... let's just say, i'm a skeptic... i'm a cynical romantic when it comes to the institutionalized holiday...

even if it's a day that's meant for me, to celebrate motherhood, to thank moms, to dedicate hours of gift making, searching and giving to well loved moms over a tasty sunday brunch, to reunite mothers against war and most importantly, to remind you to plant tomatoes on the following monday and not one minute before (i'm so not making that up)...

anyhoo, fellow mamazillas - i do truly wish you a happy, happy mothers day... thanks for reading, please keep the reality checks, the laughter and the honesty coming... a list of my wishes for you (and i suppose myself, of course) follows (and not in any order of importance necessarily):

* that you get the day off... really and truly off... regardless of where you are physically located in relation to where your children are physically located... and with pay...

* that the diaper bag fairy visits your house and packs the diaper bag so that the above can actually happen...

* that you get to take a shower... or a bath (whoa, nelly!) ... not one of those RUSH jobs mind you... but one of those showers/baths that you used to take pre-children.. the ones when you got to use the expensive shampoo and conditioner that you splurged on at the salon, when you used a facial scrub and a body scrub, when you used a loofah and a pumice stone, when you got to shave with a new blade and a womens shaving cream... and the shower doesn't end there - no. you get to use your lotion (face and body) and again, don't rush in the application... you get to blow dry and style you hair like you used to be able to, you get to give yourself a mini ped - to clean and tidy up for sandal weather... you get to pluck your eyebrows and maybe even put on some makeup and spritz on some perfume...

*that you get to wear an outfit that is trendy, comfortable and flattering and not something you wear everyday out of necessity... put the track suit down, sistah. you know the outfit i'm talking about... it's calling for you, girlfriend....

* that you get to brush and floss your teeth... after every meal... like your dentist said... not just after the nightly weather report and after the kids go to bed. 'cause no one likes getting reprimanded by a dentist and no one likes to clean dentures.

* that mother nature cooperates and gives you a sun dappled and temperate day... honey, enough with the wildfires, the floods, the tornadoes, the cicada plagues...

* that screaming, crying, tantrum throwing not commence until after aforementioned showering and toothbrushing.... unless aforementioned actions are your own.... you go girl. just remember - there's a universal remote to replace the one you throw against a wall....

* that you will deflect any and all bodily fluids/secretions that are not your own... and i mean deflect - like wonderwoman with the bulletproof bracelets... and that outft WILL NOT COME OFF until you take it off at the end of the day... no wandering marinara spaghetti noodles or errant juice boxes allowed!

* that you do not catch another cold or flu... FOREVER... and if you do... that someone is there to help care for you too.

* that you either get to spend quality time with the kids or that you get to spend some quality time with yourself.... or both... and relative to this, that you will not feel any guilt for doing so...

* that you actually get to eat all three square meals at a human pace... not like a hummingbird. or a twentysomething supermodel. (how wrong is it that you eat like a supermodel and have no runway cred?)

* that you will purchase/receive something for you - not for the benefit of decorating the house or for extracurricular activities to do with the children or to put in the tote bag to drop off at the thrift store... read a book with more than seven pages, listen to something else besides dan zanes*, watch a movie that wasn't produced by disney, eat something besides the remnants of your children's meals and drink something other than the last of the apple juice spiked with sprite.... (*disclaimer... i'd totally see dan zanes... by myself...)

* that you get to talk to at least one person today... hopefully, within a few years of your generation or at least within a foot of your height... preferably, in person - not on the phone or online... someone that you've been meaning to talk to... to catch up, to get to know better, to practice words of more that one syllable, sentence syntax, grammar...

* that you do something that you don't normally do... go somewhere you wouldn't usually go... because the stroller wouldn't fit in the aisles, because the kids couldn't be trusted to look with their eyes and not with their hands, because you don't have enough time,etc...

* that you get to take a nap. even though you might not need one... or at least pretend to take one and then use that time to do the NYT crossword....

* that you know, today and everyday, that you are more than adequate, that you may not be the multifaceted superwoman you thought you were going to be and may never be... but that you are the best mother that you can be to your children and that your best is good enough.... and if not, just revise your version - motherhood 1.0, 2.0, 6.0, etc... y'know, i bet the best software developers are moms.

of course, right after i clicked "publish" - i realized three things...

1) in the rare event that my mom (who apparently can never find her inbox nor emails from me) finds out about this blog: thanks mom for making what could have been a very dark life, illuminated and illuminating... mahal kita. i can only hope that i'm as good a stay at home mom as you were a work outside of the home mom....

2) i also want to recognize those friends of mine (who may or may not read this blog) who have experienced the loss of their mother or the loss of a child and those who really did not have relationships with their mothers... i just wanted to say that i'm thinking about you as well today and hoping that it goes by as quickly or slowly as you want it... that it's a day to reminisce about the best and warmest times with moms or children, a day to build and dream about the future...

3) and to thank all the "extra" moms (i have plenty of "extra" dads too) for everything they did for me, when my mom (or me) needed a little help, a little guidance, a free hug... to my zillions of aunties, my mother in law, teachers and mentors. i cannot express my deepest and most heartfelt thanks in words....

chicago filipino news & events

so, i've been totally slacking off on the whole chicago filipino event thing and it's asian pacific american heritage month...


ha ha ha, filipino time, ha ha ha...

yeah. don't go there. don't make me eat your dog.

4/20/07 - kama sutra the musical opened at the royal george theatre. Kama Sutra: The Musical is the story of sexually-frustrated young couple, Dick & Gina, and how their lust life is revitalized by the mysterious arrival of the 1800 year old creator of the Kama Sutra, Swami Comonawannagetonya, who reveals to Dick & Gina the titillating secrets of how any couple can experience all the joys of a totally fulfilling sex life. Gina is played by filipina Jillian Jocson. Royal George Theatre1633 North Halsted Chicago Tickets: 312-988-9000 or ticketmaster.com Showtimes: Friday 8pm, Saturday 8 & 10:30pm


5/12/07 - pinoy show 2007 - Northwestern University's Filipino student association, Kaibigan, is hosting a show at 7:00 PM Ryan (Tech) Auditorium 2145 Sheridan Rd. Evanston, IL 60208 Tickets are $5. here's some footage of some students performing a traditional filipino dance at a local competition called "battle of the bamboo". their youtube channel also has footage from last year's pinoy show.


5/19/07 - fil-amthrophy - The Philippine Student Association (PSA) at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign organizes programs and events that show not only a common love and interest in Filipino American identity, but also a rising passion for political activism. Our mission since the beginning has been to foster and support relationships, through the education and promotion of Filipino culture, offering support to our community through awareness as well as to encourage the development of the academic, leadership and social skill of our members.

This year is our second annual Fil-Amthropy event entitled “Isang Pangarap, Isang Pangako, Isang Bayan” meaning “One Dream, One Promise, One Country” on Saturday, May 19th, 2007. This year, we will be continuing our efforts and support to gawad kalinga (GK) translated in English means to “to give care”, and it is an alternative solution to the blatant problem of poverty not just in the Philippines but in the world. GK's vision for the Philippines is a slum-free, squatter-free nation through a simple strategy of providing land for the landless, homes for the homeless, food for the hungry and as a result providing dignity and peace for every Filipino. It is a great time for family and friends to get together in a night full of delicious, authentic Filipino food and a showcase of various talented performances exhibiting our own student members dedicated entirely to our cultural heritage. It is through this event that we can bond together under one dream, one promise, and one country for a better tomorrow.

Simkus Recreation Center 849 Lies Road Carol Stream, IL 60188, $25 adults, $15 kids age 12 and under.

(incidentally, gawad kalinga reminded me of another filipino organization i heard about while i was in manila - children's hour: "Children's Hour is a fundraising and grant-giving organization that taps individuals and companies to donate one hour's worth of earnings to programs committed to the welfare of marginalized Filipino Children. The nationwide campaign is managed by Children's Hour Philippines, Inc., a non-stock, non-profit organization accredited by the Philippine Council for NGO Certification (PCNC). Since 1999, Children's Hour has raised over P134M in cash and services and has supported over 191 projects nationwide, directly improving the lives of over 188,623 Filipino Children.")

5/19/2007 - 11am Oakton Park, 4701 West Oakton St., Skokie, Illinois Festival of Cultures. Since its inception in 1991, the Skokie Festival of Cultures has become one of the premier ethnic festivals in Illinois, attracting more than 300,000 visitors and dozens of cultures, all representing Skokie's tremendous diversity. one of the last performers on the 19th is a local groups called samahang kapatid that offers classes in filipino language and dance.

5/20/07 - Santacruzan, St Thomas the Apostle Church, 1500 Brookdale Rd. Naperville, IL. procession at 2 pm. The Santacruzan or May Crowning is a traditional Roman Catholic ritual that is held every year by the faithful during the month of May. An image or likeness of the Blesssed Virgin Mary is ceremonially crowned as Queen of Heaven and the Mother of God.

lastly, can i just say how disappointed i am with how little attention is being paid to this month in chicago. the few programs that do exist (thanks to the silk road project and the chicago public library events) are not nearly as diverse as they should be considering the diversity of this city.

(btw - i took that picture above at the tiendesitas outdoor mall, this was one of the hundreds of antique booths. in the foreground is an antique kalesa. in the background, an antique handcarved four poster bed.)

let me re-phase that...

so, i'm realizing now how much tougher it's going to be for me to post with a) the summer fast approaching and b) the porkchop phasing out his morning nap. the first thing forces me to go outside and get some much needed fresh air and sun and the second thing forces me to... well, to go outside and get some much needed fresh air and sun.

this past weekend was busy here. thursday night, a dear friend came in from seattle for a conference. the thin man and i hadn't seen her in about 5 years so we had a lot to catch up on. she came over for dinner on friday night and then we all went out for lunch at frontera on saturday. of course, she looked fantastic - good thing i considered her bra and shave worthy ahead of time... ugh, i am such a poor but proud representative for the stay at home moms....

the great thing we've noticed about our friends is that although many things in their (or our) lives change - many things about them (and us) stay the same. when we do catch up, it's like we've been apart only a few days since the last time we saw each other. i always expect to hear the latest about new loves/friends or old loves/friends, new jobs, new apartments, new cars, latest travels, etc... but i would never have guessed in a gazillion years that she would have news like this to share... apparently, she was asked to compete in this year's show of The Bachelor.

i have never watched the bachelor until this year because frankly, i couldn't believe that the asian women made it this far into the show. i always read on the myriad of asian blogs how the lone asian woman left without a rose on past season's of The Bachelor, blah blah blah... but this year, it's been different. recently, i found out via a post on kimchi mamas that the bachelor lives in hawaii... so, that explains it sorta...

anyhoo... a friend of my friend's nominated her and sent her picture to the show's casting office. they called my friend and asked her to send a videotape. which she did. and then they asked her to compete. unfortunately, they also asked her to take off for six weeks. and that was the deal breaker, she just couldn't do that to her patients.

i really hope it doesn't take us five more years to reconnect again. but, i've always wanted to go to seattle - she's just one more reason to go and visit.

on sunday, the paloma was invited to a drop off gymnastics birthday party (at peterson park gymnastics center) by my cousin's daughter. i know... drop off? toddlers? for gymnastics? and sugar (in the form of a princess cake)?

tempt fate much?

but, i had already decided to surprise two other friends with an unannounced visit while the paloma was at this party so - i quickly read and nervously signed the waiver as she flipped, cartwheeled and tumbled away. apparently, she had a very good time. no broken bones or sprained ankles to report.

dodged the bullet. THAT time.... :)