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On St. Valentine's Day, Rooster says...

Point Reyes

For Martin Luther King, Jr. Day a couple weeks back, my brother, Karla, Bola and I decided to drive up to Point Reyes National Reserve for the day. It was quite the spontaneous trip and we decided to go there after stopping by the bookstore to look at Northern Calfornia travel books.

By the time we left, it was about 2 pm and Point Reyes was supposedly 90 minutes north of San Francisco.

Well we got there at about 5 or 6 pm, just in time to see the sunset.





I love the spontaneous trips. To justify it, we called it a "scouting trip" to make sure that Point Reyes would be a good place to visit in the future. After taking some pictures, walking on the cold cold beach, and just relishing in the nice environment, we picked ourselves up, and drove back to the city (and on the way, almost ran out of gas and stopped at a local restaurant whose service took FOREVER). All in all, it was a great little January trip

Happy New Year

...with emphasis on the "happy."

For the first time in my life, I feel sincere happiness and joy. I drove Jed to Oakland airport and Jo and Billy to Berkeley today and on the way back through the Bay Bridge, I stopped at the toll booth. And the toll booth operator gave me the hugest smile and said "Happy New Year." It was like I had never seen anyone so happy before and maybe because happiness is infectious, I could not help but grin back and reciprocate her greeting. It's like through happiness, everyone and everything seems happier and brighter too.

Although 2005 has been a tough year mentally and emotionally, life is great. I've got everything I want, I'm not poor, I have my brother up in the bay area, my family is well, I love my job, my friends are here for me, I have met fantastic new people here and I could go on and on.

I am blessed and I thank God for that everyday.


And I am courageously looking forward to a challenge and obstacle-filled new year.

Farewell to transitionary 2005 and here's to a joyous 2006!

At Golden Gate Bridge on December 31, 2005 with Da.

Happy Birthday Jesus... and me!

Today at the Costco check out counter, Jesus, the cashier, looked at my shirt, looked at me, and said, "Hey, I'm not your homeboy."

You see, I was wearing my "Jesus is my homeboy" T-shirt. And I calmly looked back at him and said, "Yes, yes, you are my homeboy."

And my brother, Jesus, and I started laughing.

How's that for a Christmas-time story? Merry Christmas to all!

Freakin Fantastic Weekend

Sam and I at the edge of San Francisco.

That's the Golden Gate Bridge (if you look at the first picture, the bridge is behind us).

We climbed down this cliff and it was gorgeous.

I had a great weekend spending Sunday with Sam in San Francisco's Lincoln Park / Legion of Honor (high on a headland above the Golden Gate -- where the Pacific Ocean spills into San Francisco Bay). I also went barhopping in my neighborhood (Mission District) with Karla, Bola and Bern. And on Friday, although Elizabeth and I failed at "Project Nightlife," we still had fun bouncing from club to club (starting at 12:40 am).

Other than the fun stuff, I managed to do two loads of laundry, do the dishes and clean my room!

Mischief managed!

Two city conversations

I had the 2 most random yet pleasant conversations tonight on the way home.

At No Name Sushi Restaurant
My favorite sushi restaurant in San Fran is this place everyone calls "No Name Sushi" because there's no visible outside sign. But really it's name is Yokoso Nippon. Anyway, I've been there at least once a week every week for the past 4 or 5 weeks since I discovered it. And this old Japanese waitress (who usually is there when I'm there) tonight said to me, " This is the first time you come alone. You usually here with big group or one other person."

So I told her that I had a long day at work and everyone I knew had eaten already and I loved the place. And we proceeded to have a pleasant conversation about Japan (some in Japanese) and Tokyo and San Francisco. And in the middle of it she gave me seaweed salad and miso soup on the house. How sweet. She really LOVES me. It was good to practice my, now, menial Japanese.

I realize that old ladies love me. And I love them!

At Olympian Gas Station on Mission and So. Van Ness
I was refueling and this ragtag old man comes up and starts squeegeeing my back window. Mind you, it's been raining so I say to him, "Oh come on dude... No. I don't need that. It's raining!"

Then he tells me, "Aw well I just need a 50 cents because gas is so expensive."

I respond, "Yea I know it's expensive. I can barely afford it myself. I work in an educational nonprofit."

Then he goes off on this huge tangent about how he ran into his old 3rd grade teacher just now and how he needs to shape up his life and start making money so he can attract women who weren't drug addicts or losers. And how he learned to read and write when he was 21 by reading the bible with his Jehovah's witness brothers. And how he really needs to save up money and be better with money. And after a while, he said, "Tell your students to live life in God's way."

And I said, "Yes of course. I do that in my own way."

24 on 24 in 24

I'm turning 24 on the 24th of December, which is in 24 days!!!

I can't believe it's almost the end of the year!!! I haven't been posting in a while because there has been A LOT going on at work, at home, and in life in general. Here's a short and unworthy recap:

In October and November I was in Los Angeles and Las Vegas every other week, so I spent the weekends in between recuperating and relaxing from the trips.

A few weeks ago, a co-worker packed up her belongings over the weekend and didn't show up to work the following Monday. I knew it was coming, but I didn't know that she'd leave without telling us farther in advance. She was my "professional partner" because she worked most closely with me with the students. Needless to say my job was impacted because I had to pick up a lot of the slack that she dropped, and it's caused the oddest tension in the office. It's been getting better since then, but it's strange now that we're trying to hire someone new to replace her.

Thanksgiving was pleasantly spent at my parents' house in Vegas. I hadn't eaten so much good food in a while. And I feel like all I did there was eat, eat and eat some more... which is not a bad thing!

I went down to LA twice, the first time for the homecoming football game. Karla, Sam and I roadtripped down and had a good time. The second time I went down was to watch Jed's Filipino folk dance performance for Kayamanan Ng Lahi. I'm glad I went and Jed did a really great job.

As the year is coming to a close, I realize that I haven't been out of the country in a while. I may need to do some outside travel next year. I'm thinking Latin America, Spain or back to the Philippines (it's been over a year since I was in the Philippines!).
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Steve Jobs Sighting

On the way to the Harry Potter & the Goblet of Fire premiere at the Metreon in San Francisco, me, my brother and his 2 friends spot Steve Jobs in deep conversation with some dude on Mission and 2nd Street. My brother rolls down his window and yells something at Steve, but unfortunately Steve doesn't hear or ignores us.

Oh well. It was pretty cool to see Steve in his signature jeans and black turtle neck outfit in real life. Almost like a celebrity, but he's a geek.

Anyway, that's all I felt like sharing for now. Work's been super duper busy. There have been a lot of major things going on at work which I'm sure I will write about soon, or at least when I have a break (here comes Thanksgiving!).

Happy Thanksgiving!

End of In N Out?

I love In N Out burgers.

But perhaps my In N Out tolerance has lowered because I went to In N Out last night for dinner and I felt all queasy and weird afterwards. And then I went to the gym and felt queasy and weird the whole time and all night after that.

A few weeks ago my brother ate raw meat because his grilled cheese sandwich from In N Out had chunks of uncooked beef accidentally inside. And then he felt sick all week.

Is this going to be an In N Out trend? I don't plan to wait around to find out.