28.12.04

My Coldest Christmas Ever

December 25, 2004. This is one Christmas that I will never forget. No, it wasn’t because I didn’t have a human blanket. I have lived the last 31 Christmases of my life without one, so what else is new?

I spent my Christmas at the Island Paradise of Boracay. While I have so much to say about its being an island paradise, I will just leave it as it is for now, perhaps catch up on it in another one of my ramblings.

Going to Boracay was filled with expectations of lots of parties, action all over the place, and practically no time to sleep. Spending Christmas there was the complete opposite. Sure it was the beginning of the peak season..tourists, local and foreign, flocked the place in hordes but I must say it was really quiet. To think I stayed up in a cottage next to Summer Place, where there was a disco going on until 5:30 a.m. of December 25.

Most of those who danced at the Summer Place were foreign tourists. I can’t forget this motherly lady of around 55, who danced the night away, occasionally coming up to the ledge at the prodding of a younger generation that looks like her children. There were also local tourists who danced real well; that a left footed me got cold feet to muster any courage to go to the dance floor.

Instead, I stayed at the cottage and thanked God for all the blessings that 2004 has brought into my life. I specially thought of human blankets, and if I will ever be blessed to have one. Maybe next year? I thanked God anyway that if it pleases Him, he is able to provide me one at His will. I thank Him for the one person, that if human blankets are for sale, I would pick him without blinking an eyelash, but at the same time I told God, that I am open if ever he isn’t the one he meant for me. I would cry some, but I will get over it, because I know His will is always the best.

I would get up occasionally from my own little world, look at the crowd next to the cottage, even dance to some of the music. But it was still very cold.

And then I remember my parents and sister. Back in my hometown, spending Christmas by themselves, because my brothers couldn’t go home as planned. I also thought of Cebu, where my brothers were preparing for a celebration fit for thirty guests. To think there was only four of them left in the city.

I thought about my family…and someone I wanted to start a family with, and the wind felt really cold. It was as if it was berating me for spending Christmas in an island paradise, when the real paradise is there where your loved ones are.

Boracay is a beautiful place….but Christmas should be spent with families.

21.12.04

Merry Christmas

Hi all,

Just dropped by to say hi...and to greet ya all a very merry Christmas..!!

Christmas without Jesus is meaningless...afterall, he is the reason for this season!

Wish you all the best!

20.12.04

blog..blog..blog!

So I haven’t written in a long time….again! What kept me busy? I have no idea! Oh…wait..I was beating a deadline..The project that I am involved in for over a year now is ending soon..Oh yeah…I’ve talked about this before..Well, we’re still in a crisis mode. I pray that the people who gave their word will truly meet the deadline.

I also went home to visit my parents. My father complained since I haven’t been home for two years yet I only stayed for less than 48 hours…hehehe!!Busy career..duh! He said I should just stay with them and work on a business with them. Pretty tempting, I must say…but I do have my reasons..For one I don’t have a local church there..Most importantly, there is no market for me there…LOL!! He won’t read this anyway! Hahahaha!! Next year my sister will join us in Cebu for the uni. I don’t know if I will still be here with her by then..lol!

And the series of parties! It started on the 15th. Globe invited us at work for an event they call High Five! It was fun..The first of their many parties that I actually enjoyed..And then Abel’s b-day on the 16th….We stayed up until midnight just talking. And then Friday night….we didn’t party, but we were very busy packing our Christmas presents..Saturday lunch was our party at work…It was very laid back…plenty of food for all ten of us plus a few guests…there was sooo much left over it could have been worth a week’s meal…well..except that…*sigh*

I was part of a mini E.B. (read: eyeball) with FFF chatters. Except for the regulars, I got to meet a few others, one of whom happns to be a cousin of my first cousin. It was the first time I met her..I just heard of her..I thought the facts that she mentioned matched so I asked for her family name…and bingo! Small world..We parted ways with the FFF folks..all nine of us at around midnight, but I moved with some of them to another bar where there’s a live band playing to wait for some friends. We stayed there til one a.m. which was a little late since I didn’t finish my Christmas wrapping for our church party the next day. I couldn’t work when I got home so dozed off I went and put off the work on the table til very early morning…Grrr…we didn’t finish till 11 A.M. and had to rush to the 12 noon party..By the time the party was over, I was so beat. I attended the 4p.m. service really sleepy, it was a miracle I didn’t sleep through it.

When I got home at 7pm, I was so tired I hit the sack in record time. I woke up drowsy by 11:30 pm and still managed to balance my business books at 1AM.

Three more nights and I will wake up in the island paradise of boracay. I can’t wait to be there. In the meantime, I have to endure the boredom of coming to work without anything to do except, well, blog..hehehe!

3.12.04

reaction

I have read Fr. Roy Cimagala's column, the December 3, 2004 article on the single-sex schools in Hints and Traces in The Freeman.

It reminded me of a professor who went to an exclusive school for boys. During one of his lectures, he talked about the importance of putting children in a natural environment, not some artificial situation wherein boys and girls are separated. He said something about the separation being not realistic, because it is not how we normally interact with people in real life. He mentioned that the artificial environment created for these children has stunted their social skills and ability to deal with those from the opposite sex. He exhorted us that if we ever have children in the future, we should enroll them in co-ed schools. And then he said something that blew our minds. He blurted, “Look what has become of me…”

My professor, a very well respected and competent practitioner in his field, he speaks different languages and has been schooled in excellent universities not just in the Philippines, but he also earned various scholarships in the USA and Spain to name the few that I know of. For the first time in the several semesters that I have been under him, he admitted his sexual preference that he is gay, which to his opinion, is largely affected by his exclusive school education.

While I do not have the statistics, we can make a random survey among exclusive schoolteachers on the lesbian and gay relationships in their institutions. But then again the students are probably discreet as it could be a ground for their expulsion.

I hope this is a factor that parents will consider when they think about their options on their children’s education.