S/HEROES

Carol Lam: the US prosecutor who convicted corrupt Republicans and was fired by U.S. Atty Gen. Gonzalez.
Filipino-am military man (Tabuig?) who called out U.S. Military abuses in Iraq.
(More to come…)

End of Year top photos…

Here are some of the year’s best-memory provoking and reality-reminding shots for 2007. (Most are taken by me; others from public press or relations)

Latino farm workers in Salinas Valley, California (en route to Monterrey). Wake up Americans, they do the work you refuse to do. Stop hating on immigrants!

Leap set of Cali crew in Monterrey.

Filipina mother protesting the killing of her activist daughter in Manila. The Philippines continues to trail second to Pakistan in all of Asia for its horrendous human rights violations.

Photo of the Oblation Run of members of a fraternity from the Philippines’ premier University of the Philippines. They shared in my call for an end to the killings of journalists, activists and other truth seekers.

Photo with Ben in his San Fran pad. Julius and I visited him this past summer. Discovered Haight St. and its nice lil shops…

Cousins’ Day Out with Calungsod Crew. Only one missing from this annual summer family gig was Camille. We had food at Beechwood Cafe in downtown JC since the Hudson County Bar Association picnic that we were going to attend got rained out. Daryl and I hope to continue this tradition as the cousins tackle college.

Fraternity Reunion at Willie’s steakhouse in Connecticut in the Fall. It was nice to reconnect with him and to introduce Julius to them.

Por su puesto, una foto de los perros, Einstein and Oneida (E&O). This is a sweet shot of them waiting for the door to Don’s car to be opened so they can be let loose. When Ryl and Don were in Costa Rica for the summer and J & I babysat Einstein, I enjoyed taking both dogs to Lincoln Park for their early morning run. To commemorate their first shared time together, we planted two pine plants in one clay pot and gave it to Don & Ryl when they returned from their vacation.
Below are more shots taken of dogs or their represntations when J+I estan en Espana:
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Thanks 2007 and welcome 2008! I look forward to new cases and journeys with my clients; March trip to Pinas with the whole familia; more Spanish immersion…to good health; family gatherings; office opening (pohon), LITM parties; downtown JC booming…writing; ma & pa joining us in U.S.; Minette graduating; Einstein behaving (so he can be with us at 140 Bay);…

Reunion of souls…

Our modern take on our ‘Ol Christmas Tree at 140 Bay.

What a wonderful Christmas it was…despite my end-of-the-line colds and flu.  Thanks to Bom for taking care of me with lemoncito and molotov cocktail of antiBAYOTICS (lol!)

1. Baybay Trio (no fotos b/c camera given to me by Ryl 3 years ago finally gave up.)
Cousin Noel (bday:December 24th hence el nombre, Noel) spent the night over to chill and “catch up” or to catch me up with the beautiful “discoveries” he has been finding. Always a welcome visit from the Doc, all the way from Michigan, where he is doing his residency. Noel, Ryl and I watched Hairspray on Broadway. The Baybay childhood trio reunited (sans the twins Jeanne and Anne). The show was a great laugh!Michelle joined us before New Year’s, another Baybay old school pillar. It is always a breath of new music and life lessons hanging out with her. (Waiting for photos from Ryl.)

2. Christmas Eve & Pasko @ My Baby Sis’ (Dog Days)

Julius and I spent Eve and Pasko with nay and tay at my little sister’s and bro-in-law’s place (Don) newly-renovated home. Nay and Tay just recently refinanced so they were on a very giving mode, to say the least.

Franz, Haidee and Isabela joined us with Tio Rey (fresh from Pinas) and Tita Norma; On Don’s side, his folks and cousin (Ate Wilma and husband).

The integration of Einstein, the family dog, on his first Christmas was hard for my sister and Don, to say the least. Lines crisscrossed and blurred, lessons (re)learned but nothing that time and a few readjustments cannot heal. (Thanks Kovacz, la dog whisperer. 2.4.08) Nobody said married life and all its attendant balancing was going to be easy.

3. Camille y Olang

After Christmas, I reconnected with my babyest lil sis, Camille, all the way in “sunny LA” via e-card. I am so so so glad that she is well with Ajit. I thank Ajit and God for keeping her. A necessary separation for her, no doubt but I miss her, nevertheless.

I also spoke at length with my elder sister, Minette, via long distance, literally, as she is in the opposite side of the world. She sounded so alive and this reverberated on my end of the line as nothing but the sweet sweet price of self-realization. I know she has had to pay premium price for hers. I am so happy to see her in this journey.

Ben, in another sunny part of Cali, San Francisco, left me a happy sounding voice message for Christmas. (What is it about Cali…Pinoys, after all, have old and solid roots there.) Genuine happiness you deserve and will have, the selfless person that you are to me… 

665 Office Party

 

We hosted the office party for the entire 665 building. Julius baked cheesecupcakes con pina (sold out); an apple pie; I bought empanadas from PhilAm and a birthday mango cake for Vanessa (it was also her birthday, Happy Birthday!); we had some wine (Housewine and FatBastard); Dr. Delston brought sandwiches.

We also had a fun fun fun Christmas trivia, which everyone got very excited about. Dr. Delston won first prize, Lynette, won 4th, booting out Fran to 3rd. First prize got $20 cash; Second: $10 w/ Christmas balls; third: $5. Part of the trivia is that 3 other religious Holidays are being celebrated this month aside from Christmas: Hannukah, Eid and Kwanzaa. 

(Yo con Vanessa y Lynette. Ver la pared de la oficina con todos los tarjetas de Navidad desde mis clientes)

Office Party and Pre Christmas gigs…

 

Our Holiday tree with lights bought from Union Square, NYC. Don’t they look like fruits? I always want to pick them off like oranges…    

   

With law school crew at Anand’s birthday party in Queens… Everyone is having babies… We met Pilar, Milda and Hector’s newest addition to la familia, for the first time. We also met Pedro, Amelia and Hui-Soo’s first child (son) for the first time, here, held by Julius. Unfortunately, I could not take any more pics b.c the camera my sister had given me as a gift about 4 years ago finally gave out. So for Christmas, Julius got me the latest model of the same camera. THANKS! I love my photo taking.    

Random Family Shots…also, Newport area opens skating rink…

NEWSFLASH: Jersey City opens its first skating rink by Newport area. For more info:
www.newportskates.com

This Christmas is all about family…I had to post these nice shots from a couple of months that I have just edited…
Enjoy! Three are with the Alvarados when they stayed at our place in Kissam before returning to Cali. (Tio Phil and Merlyn attended their nursing class reunion in Atlantic City)

Coolidge!!!

With nanay at Sherlaine Baas’ surprise bday gig; J+I on Halloween 2007; Julius’ recent bday dinner

Daily Rosary for La Virgen de la Inmaculada Concepcion

Nang Neneng Loreto-Eustaqio asked Julius and I to bring to our new home the statue of La Virgen since we, together with other hermanos y hermanas, will be the sponsor for next year’s 2008 fiesta, pohon.For over 20 years now, La Virgen has traveled to each home of a Baybayano where she is then prayed over by the sponsoring family with the daily Holy Rosary and asked for her intercession with our respective petitions. We have La Virgen for at least a month then After New Year’s, Don and Dariang will have La Virgen until the end of that month. Then it goes to the Calungsods for the month of February. Then they pass La Virgen to the next hermanos y hermanas. 
We pray for good health and peace of mind.

The fiesta was very well-organized. Here are some of the pics. As always, it is nice for us all to dance our respective grief and joys away, see everyone and catch up as another new year rolls on with its attendant challenges. 

I danced the “kuracha” with Nang Neneng to challenge Noy Noni Cortejos as he kuracha-d with a fellow Bitanhuanon. This was in the middle of the dance floor for everyone to see. But I never mind the attention so long as it is for a good cause. (Any attention in fact!) Julius was enjoying this traditional Leyteno (Waray) dance too much that he forgot to take a picture of me getting down. We need to keep this dance alive even for our home parties…

Mini gallery a la casa

 
Art of course came to be the center of our Thanksgiving Party as it will also be for this entire unit. After all, this is why we chose to move to this area because it is the Arts District. This is fitting since artists (the most wounded of us all and the ones who have managed to create despite all the pain) owe our gratitude for making life so bearable.

Julius insisted that we hang the growing collection of original artpieces that we have amassed (mura jud ug daghan) mostly from our travels and the rest, chance encounters. He also put up the cd and book shelf in a dead space of the warehouse unit. Great job dwadseez!!!

Two of my more recent pieces went up on the wall— “And the Home of the Graves”, which was originally a red-white-black acrylic representation of Jersey City (or what was Ahasimus and Aressick to the native Lenape Indians). That original piece was painted over in a 2 months grueling (labad-sa-ulo) but nevertheless necessary metaporphosis that thankfully still conveys my intent to critic how we, especially this Thanksgiving, collectively forget that America is stolen land (and stolen labor); that America sits on top of native graves (native/slave bodies). 

My other piece, an indio’s response to Espana’s Palacio Real, I will write about some other time.
 

And o yea, I took a self-photo (a la self portrait) in the midst of my creative flow. I’m doing the Che/bohemian look here.

Julius’ 31st Birthday Week…

Saturday

On Saturday, I invited a few of Julius’ good friends for his birthday. Below is the invite I had sent out to co-workers of his. I am trying to start a new tradition: on birthday gigs, that’s when we take out our baby pics. That’s Julius on the right side of the frame with the chubby cheeks.

Here are the guests:
Tita Norma came first with her sweet potato specialty; Lito and Ate Shirley brought pancit and pork lumpia. Thanks!!! Their daughters, Sher Ann & Sherlain also came with their cousin and a family friend. I prepared the rest of the food, pictured.

JK, the choir mistress from St Joseph’s Church in Greenwich Village also came so of course there was a lot of piano playing.

Co-workers from Julius’ prior hospitals also came: Donovan (great voice bai!), Gina, Dorothy and Marveline. Ophelia, with friend, and Lyla, her daughter, whose birthday it was on 12/1, came later.

So Lyla blew the cake that she brought for Julius with Julius. Beforehand, Julius cut the cheesecake nanay brought.

The guests left pretty early because of the impending first snow. So the best saved for last, the gift opening, began. Tita Norma and nanay stayed over night.

Biko was the only dog around since Neida stayed over Einstein’s to keep him company while my sister and brother in law were out of town.

Friday

Friday, nanay and tatay came over for dinner. So did my sister, Daryl and brother in law, Don. Since I had no time to cook, I ordered takeout at Sawadee, downtown JC’s newest Thai rez. No pictures taken at this dinner gig but it was great catch up time, as always.

Thursday

After cleanup of Kissam, we had dinner in Manhattan. We wanted to eat at the Spotted Pig in Greenwhich Ave., by the West Village bordering Meatpacking District but it was so packed with Thursday heads who consider Jueves the new Viernes. So we ate at another restaurant instead, Paris Commune. While the food was ok, the candle-lit ambience (tres romantique) was nice so here are some nice shots from that birthday night dinner.

Before we left, Julius returned to my sister and brother in law’s place (where we left a few of our outdoor plants from Kissam) to walk and feed Einstein (their hound dog). Julius is the alpha male in our pack so Einstein does not act up around him. (Pay close attention to Einstein’s full submission to Uncle Ulyos!) It was nice that Einstein got to greet his uncle for his birthday.

The morning of the 29th, his actual birthday, Julius and I spent doing the final cleanup and clearing of 4 Kissam since our tenant needed to move in that afternoon. So we said our goodbyes to Kissam until the lease expires next year, pohon. 

  

When midnight of the 29th struck, Neida and I took out the Red Ribbon mocha cake for Papa Ulyos. Since Julius wore a black shirt, Neida is barely visible, save for her eyes. (Neida was trying to get herself positioned close to the cake but chocolate is forbidden for dogs so wala!)

Wednesday

Starting Wednesday night, when Julius and I met up with Tracy (old college friend at Binghamton) at our local dive bar, L.I.T.M., Julius’ birthday week officially began. Tracy and I last saw each other at Phia and Noah’s wedding in September 2001 (a few days after 9/11). Since then, his wife and he had twin sons!!! I have always looked up to Tracy all thruout college and that remains to this day. Someday, I, too, with Julius, will be a dad.