Manding

Manding arrived from the US for a medical mission in Morong, Rizal last Feb 8. As I was the closest relative in Manila, we spent most of our free time together, before and after her mission. I picked her up in the airport, let her sleep in my room, went with her to the parlor and spa(where I got a free hair treatment, pedicure and foot scrub, and a full body massage, thanks to Manding), and sent her off to her mission. Of course, Bucky was there too. Good thing that Manding brought dollars to keep us fed and full all the time, and from all our favorite expensive restos no less. ;-)

After she got out from her mission a week later, my aunts (cynthia, mimian) and lola arrived so we could all gather in Bulacan for a mini-reunion. And we did. The oldies did some catching up, ate, and distributed pasalubongs, and played with the kids.

There was an impromptu, unplanned suggestion that we spend a night in Fontana. Good thing Bucky agreed to go so I had a ride going there. We had lunch in flat, then spent the whole afternoon swimming in the pools. It was the first time that I had gone down from a very high pool slide. Exhilirating. Even Bucky had fun. Since we were the youngest in the group, we had an excuse to enjoy the slide over and over again. Just like kids.

We had a blast preparing dinner. There was no gas around the hose so we had to be creative in burning the coals. After smelling of smoke and grilled pork (and a minor debacle over missing salt which we were able to purchase outside the resort), we had a hearty dinner and long cold bath. Since we were too tired and sleepy, Bucky and I decided to spend the night and leave very early for work the next day.

The next weekend, we went to Tito Umpong's house to have dinner with everybody from Bulacan. It was chaos.

I had a great time spending time with my neurotic family. Being with them made me realize that a big part of who I am now is because of them, especially the women. When I was watching and listening to them talk, I could almost hear myself. It was funny in a weird way.