Thanksgiving at Tita Novelle's House

I first Thanksgiving, ever, here was spent at Tita Novelle's house. Tita Novelle works with Leila, my housemate at John Muir and she teaches ELD at Muir. She is also a Filipina. What the occasion didn't lack was Filipino food even though its an American tradition. There was fried camote, empanada, bico, Magnolia ice cream (Jackfruit) and what we were waiting for, paksiw na bangus and dinuguan. Hehehe.

Of course, there was the star of the show, the turkey, gobble, gobble, gobble and there was ham as well. Who couldn't forget the cranberry sauce that went with everything as well as the gravy for the turkey, different kinds of stuffing, bread, pumpkin pie, and all kinds of pies. Food was everywhere. Yum yum. My only real contribution was helping to set up the hors d'oeuvre (I had to google to spell that). Putting the pitted olives, red, yellow and orange peppers, baby tomatoes, baby carrots on the lazy susan, putting candies on the serving trays as well as slicing the rolls and arranging them on a plate and yes, of course, the most tasking task of all, washing the green and purple grapes and cutting them into little clusters as Betty, Tita Novelle's sister-in-law said.

It was an interesting evening to say the least and I enjoyed listening to their stories. The main meal though, when Ivy was around and her family was the Filipino food that we feasted on, dinuguan and paksiw na bangus. Normally, I wouldn't eat paksiw, but this time, I couldn't pass up the opportunity to eat Filipino food. Yum yum.

When you're far away from home, eating a home-cooked Filipino meal is the next best thing to being at home.

Thank you Tita Novelle for inviting me to my very first ever Thanksgiving. I'm looking forward to Christmas. Too bad I can't be there though, the tuyo sounds really good...drool...

The End of November 2

I'm enjoying the last days of the long Thanksgiving break. I was planning to go to school today to work on the report card. But, I kept thinking about penny pinching and spending $3.50 on fare, hmmm...now seems a lot in light of $900. LOL. I know, I can't seem to get over that. And I don't think I really, will. Not anymore. I won't get over it, not until I stop paying for that exorbitant amount of money. And dang it, I don't care about that relationship anymore. As far as I'm concerned that's trash and will never be recycled ever again. I'm just too damned civilized and polite not to say that to her face. Mom sure taught me good manners, lol.

So, I'm at home, staying home and making sure that I save enough for when we have to move out and hopefully, not have to pay nine oh oh. LOL. Still can't get over that. The good news is, I did the lesson plan for the whole week, plus a couple of next week's lesson plans as well. I might just end up going to school tomorrow, but only if there's no fog in the morning, then I can walk to school and take the bus going home. But I've got a feeling tomorrow's going to be another foggy day too. And believe me, if you think that its a "cool" thing to do. It is not cool, but cold. LOL. You do get drenched. LOL. But it does look fun.

Today, I am going to Target and finally, finally, after a long wait, buy my long dreamed about skinny jeans. And I will just hunt for the clearance once. LOL.I'm not buying the expensive ones. I won't be able to afford them. Thank goodness for Target. And then, more walking around, just try to enjoy the day because the next couple of weeks will be busy before we go to the Holiday break. Wohoo!!! Vacay, here I come! Not that I'll be going somewhere warmer like home but actually someplace colder, burr....Hopefully, there's enough snow so I can make a snowman, or an angel, lol. If not, I'll be happy playing with a PSP or Nintendo DS...hint hint. LOL. On the other hand, I'll be thinking about work as well. Things I need to finish, I need to do, this and that. It just never seems to end, but then again, I'm not complaining.

The End of November

November pretty much ended with a big bang.

The biggest being a bang on my wallet. Rent has just increased to $900. In pesos, if I used 50 pesos to a dollar, that would be, hmm....around 45K pesos. Geez, I didn't earn that much back home. Not even half of it in a month. Wow, geez....and its not in a good way.

What brought this on? Let me just say that normally, I wouldn't vent in my blog about this, but I'm just up to my ears, literally and I feel like my chest would explode. I know that the whole world, not just the US economy is in the throes of an R, recession and everyone's tightening to their belts, figuratively and penny pinching as someone told me. But geez, I don't understand why us single people, seem to be less worth, as people as opposed to married people. Sure,  I can understand the I need to give my daughter this and that, but what the heck. Don't I, a single person have debts to pay too? I have family too you know, in case you didn't notice. I didn't spring out, full grown like Athena from Zeus's head. I have a mom, I have sisters, I have nephews. And most importantly, I have debts that I need to pay. Geez, are they any less than your family? Geez....

I know, I can almost hear Sheldon say, settle down, but I just can't. $900 is a whole lot of money and that's just rent. Geez, its so unfair. Let me say it, unfair!

So peeps, no Christmas presents, that includes you, penny pinching lady. The budget I have for presents, will all to go rent, no thanks to you, penny pinching lady. Well, there is such a thing as karma and one day, that's going to come back and bite you in the a**. And I bet its starting to bite you right where it hurts.

Grrrrrr........

The end of the month before you know it

I can't believe that November is almost over. Next week, we will only be in school for two days, Monday and Tuesday and then its Thanksgiving break. Thank goodness!

It's my first Thanksgiving here and people are making plans. Well, my plan is not to have a plan. LOL. Well, probably stay home, ponder on the report cards that I have to make as well as start preparing for my next annual IEP.

The good news is that it is still in January but I can always start by preparing for the assessment that I will do, this time using the Woodcock - Johnson. And then there's the TRI coming up for another student. That's something else to prepare too.

November seems very short now that I look back. There was the Veteran's Day and the CEA Non Duty day. And now, Thanksgiving.

In the spirit of Thanksgiving, let me think of the things that I am thankful for. And they are numerous if I really think about it.

I am thankful for my job, in light of the recession hitting the US as well as other parts of the globe. I am reminded of a poem about being grateful, or something like that. If we want to know how it is to have a job, then ask a jobless person who hasn't worked in a long time. Despite the seemingly endless things that I need to do, at the same time, I'm learning a lot of things that I wouldn't not have learned back home. A different perspective on things and see how things work here and the way things are back home.

I am grateful for my health. It is cold here and I am afraid that I might get sick and no one will take care of me. Unlike back home where I can call my mom and stay with her to recuperate. There is always that reassurance that someone's going to look out for me. Here, it's pretty much trying to fend for myself.

I am grateful for my family. I may not be there with them physically but my thoughts are always with them.

I am grateful for my friends and colleagues. They are always there to cheer me on and keep my spirits up. And its a great feeling to know that they're there to support me no matter what. It may be from something trivial like giving me a ride to Target so I could buy my favorite soda to thinking positive thoughts my way as I prepare for my IEP.

I am grateful to be here. That I continue to grow as a person, both emotionally, spiritually and career-wise. The last couple of years, I felt like I was in a rut. But now, I'm definitely out of the rut and its amazing how much I still need to learn. Not just about work but also more importantly about myself.

What are you grateful for this Thanksgiving?

Oh yeah, I don't think the turkeys will be grateful this season. I will do my best to steer clear of the turkey then. And just have pork, lol.

NanoWrimo month!

It's that time of the year again when, we write the day away, hoping to reach...how many words is that? lol...I don't know, all I know is, I'm supposed to write about 1,667 words a day. Oh no, I'm way behind. The solution? Well, set one or two hours today to jumpstart on my writing. The good news, we've got 5 days of breaks for the month of November, so hopefully, I'll still be able to catch up. Woohoo!!!

Now, I better start writing...type type type...type type type...click click click...click click click...hmmm...what am I going to write about anyways? Lol.

Come and join in for this November madness!!!

NanoWrimo website:

http://www.nanowrimo.org/eng/node

Rain, rain, go away...

A few weeks back, I was hankering after rain and now, it's finally here!

Hmm...I take that back, I don't want rain. Yes, rain rain please go away. And don't come back for a little while, lol. Well, that would be good for the watersheds so rain on there and not here. What I've learned about the rain here, well, I get stuck at home. Instead of going to school to do some work, I got stuck at home basically either sitting in the kitchen staring outside or inside my room, facing the pc (not that its a bad thing) or just sleeping the day away, which could be good but its mostly bad. Lol. Although my wallet I know is quite happy about that too. Saturday was over before I knew it and all I did was eat, sleep, sleep and eat...and not necessarily in that order.

So today, Sunday, I'm hoping the rain will let up enough that I'd be able to bring my laundry, still dry from the laundry place as well as walk to church and go back home, without being drenched and be able to go to the library and borrow more books. Please, please rain, go away, even if its just for a day.