Dad, This One is For You

Day 7


Whenever my father felt the first signs of illness, he always used to whip out the vaporizer.  I used to watch him as a child as he filled the brown vaporizer with water, drop some Vicks liquid, wait for the steam to rise, and stick his face in for 15 minutes.  I was mesmerized at the vapors.  Over the years, if I ever complained to my dad that I was getting sick, he always advised the vaporizer.  Guaranteed.  I never did listen to him until today, my third day of suffering terrible congestion.

As I walked to our nearby pharmacy (thankfully, we live within a 2 block radius of every kind of possible store we could need), I thought of my dad.  A dentist by trade, my father is the epitome of health.  He gets up at 4:30am daily and does his morning routine:  he walks briskly for 45 minutes with two pound dumb bells, returns home for breakfast, and then heads out to the market to buy the day's food.  His family has a history of diabetes, high blood pressure, and heart disease.  While his siblings take insulin and other medications, my father has managed to avoid the pills through strict diet and exercise.  I asked him on my recent trip to the Philippines if he felt any sorts of pain associated with aging that his peers often complain about.  "Nope," he answered.  Arthritis?  No.  Muscle stiffness?  No.  Indigestion, gas, acid reflux?  No.  I was impressed.  I'm half his age and suffer from chronic knee pain and various other joint issues.

I hope by the end of this challenge, I hope to feel the same way my dad feels.  I believe I get my discipline and determination from him.  So I dedicate my practice to my dad*, who is such an example to me of good health.  When I start to waver or have my down days, I'll ask myself, "What would dad do?"


*I can't dedicate a practice to one parent while leaving the other out.  So I also dedicate my practice to my mom, who is on her own health journey. 

Still Got the Moves

...and the stamina. Ha! Four Tanqueray and tonics and some unrecognizable shot later, I was still standing at 4:30 this morning. I was out celebrating my cousin's birthday at Strata. It was a nice little group of her friends, whom I've never met. But you know me, I can hang with anyone. And I sure did...and they were all 8 years my junior. They must've thought me a dinosaur. I chuckled to myself when two asked each other in wonderment, "When did we grow up and get old?" LOL -- ok spring chicken at @ 24. Yeah, you're old. And I'm a well preserved mummy. It's all good though because I had a great time...and just my sheer experience taught these kids a thing or too about confidence. ;) I'm so happy to be in my 30s!

Last night, I dusted off my dancing shoes and showed off my dance moves. It was a small blessing that MoJo wasn't there. He would've been bored to tears and begging to go home, which would've totally cramped my style cuz I'm a dancer! Had great fun. This episode of clubbing should last me a couple of months. Not my thing as it once used to be.

Maui I

Maui is beautiful! It's my second day back and the shot of cold weather coming out of JFK just reminded me how much happier I am when it is warm outside.

Mom, Mojo, and I had a fantastic time staying with our family and visiting the island. We decided not to travel to the other islands and in the end, it was good decision. At the start of our trip, we thought we had plenty of time to see and do all the things we wanted. After a few days, we realized that we could only accomplish 1/3 of what we set out to do especially since I tried to surf every day and we spent quality time with our family over breakfast and dinner every day.

More stories and pics to come...look for a pic of me on a surfboard...if you're lucky, I'll post the video! Come back and check again. In the meantime, here's a bit to whet your appetite.

JanJan & I on New Year's Eve. It is Filipino custom to pop firecrackers on Dec 31. I stuck with the itty bitty sparklers since the bigger, noisier firecrackers scare me. :)

Our first day on the island, we still had to get our bearings, adjust to the time difference, and shop for some necessities. We took a detour and stopped by Kanaha Beach, in Kahalui. This beach is right next to the airport (can you believe it?) and a perfect spot for beginner windsurfers.


We were treated by my family to a luau at the Marriott Hotel in Wailea. In the background is Molokini, the partly submergered crater, and further back is another island, Kaho'olawe.

Finally, a shot of my aunt and uncle (with a shaka) who were our fantastic hosts during our stay. They approve of Mojo and are thrilled that he was able to eat all the Filipino food they served him, especially since we had rice for breakfast. It is typical for Filipinos to eat rice three times a day. :)

Happy Mother's Day!

Here are the happy mothers on Mother's Day!! It also happens to be the birthday of Jellybean's Mother (shown here in red). Happy Birthday!!!

There were eight of us that schlepped from Forest Hills after church to Woodside. Two subway lines, four elevator rides, and several blocks later, we arrived at Sripraphai starving. Our hunger was satiated with their awesome papaya salad with mussels, squid, and shrimp and equally delicious duck salad (my preference is the papaya salad though). On the right, you see me scrapping up the last remaining bits of the papaya salad. To die for!!! I love their tilapia fillet dish with curry and eggplant and this time I ordered it mild. Last time, I thought I could handle the spice so I ordered "medium"...I thought my mouth was going to implode from all the heat. I was with J the first time, and our eyes were full of water. Poor thing, he had indigestion for two days!!!

Once the food arrived, the eight of us fell silent. The food was praised by all (thank goodness, since I picked the restaurant). After the meal, you see on the left that my mom and I are conniving behind the birthday girl. Several minute later, out came a banana cake with a candle on it. I think Jellybean's Mother was surprised.

Two hours later, the group emerged from Sripraphai and headed back to the 7 train, 61st Street Station. The station is located directly underneath the airline landing pattern for LaGuardia Airport, so here I am with mom, as we enjoy watching the planes fly low above us. Thankfully, we look nothing like Mr. Roarke and Tattoo as we exclaimed, "Da plane! Da plane!"

Happy Birthday Mom!

Mom turned another year older today! Here she is blowing out her candles surrounded by lovely roses and some cards and a check from me. Ha!











Of course, there has to be one with the two of us!

Happy Birthday Mom!

Christmas 2005

No pictures from Christmas since I forgot the memory card to my digital camera. Boo hoo! I am waiting for members of my family to email their pics to me. Boo hoo!

...Days later...

Wait, a member of la familia sent pics. Here's another one of our (in)famous group pics. They are always the same at the holidays: same family members with just different clothes on. Of course, our family grows and we are delighted to welcome new ones to the group.

Thank goodness Ate G is all the way in the back. Hopefully, she's not causing trouble by tickling people while the shot is getting taken...

Thanksgiving in SI

Gentle Variations & Dinner with MoJoShowBiz's Famiglia

Today, my "regular" yoga teacher came back to teach the usual Saturday morning class. It was great to see B again as she had taken several weeks off to complete her finals for classes in her Masters program. I told her about my new discovery last week with the triangle pose causing the old back pain to return so she taught me really good and gentle variations for the triangle and reverse triangle poses. They worked great since I do not feel any back pain tonight!!

MoJoShowBiz's parents took the family out to dinner at Agnanti, a nice Greek restaurant by Astoria Park for a belated celebration of Joe's birthday. There were 8 of us all together: MoJoShowBiz's parents, grandparents, his youngest brother and her girlfriend, and us. His middle brother was missing -- off playing at one of his gigs. The restaurant was a nice family restaurant; they provided dessert and coffee on the house. Can you believe they offered it to us for free?? Says a lot about this place, right? The thing is though...I can't remeber its name!

Mom headed to the Philippines

My mom is off to the Philippines for 4 weeks to visit her/my family and will be there to celebrate my grandmother's birthday, also on April 7. She will be turning 98 - God Bless her! She is such a spunky old lady although recently she's become quite frail and slowed down due to illness. As for me, I'll be turning 29 on April 7th! Have a good trip mom!