these past few days, i've been listening to a lot of "itchyworms". for a band whose songs are mostly written with humor, i find their music really good. parang they're the local version of the canadian band called "barenakedladies ". itchyworms is not the type na basta makapag-sulat ng tula na may konting rhymes, lagyan ng tono (na mostly major chords pa), and presto!!... song na!! instead, they really put a great deal of effort when it comes to arrangement. ako kasi yung taong mas unang na-a-attract sa music arrangement ng song kesa sa lyrics (naks! feeling "mr. c" ba? hehe)… nope, i'm not a professional musician, but i do have the ear for music. and if i'm to assess itchyworms' works, i give them….. a happy face, hehehe (sa mga di nakarelate, try watching pop star kids). i really hope they'll stay long in the industry so they can make more music pa.

august 18, i, together with my parents and one of my sisters, drove to pangasinan in a town called "bani", to pay our last respects to my aunt (father's side) who died last august 12. the town of bani is the westernmost town in the island of luzon. it lies between two big bodies of water: tambac bay on the northeast and south china sea on the west, and is bounded by five towns: bolinao on the north, anda on the northeast, alaminos on the east, mabini on the southeast and agno on the south.


but before we went to the wake which was at my late aunt's house in barangay quinaoayanan, we first stayed in our other relative's house located just beside the main road. after we had lunch there, we set for the wake. the house lies in the center of rice fields. since the weather that day was rainy, we expect that the road will be quite muddy... until we got to the fields we then realized that "quite muddy" was an understatement. the road was impassable to vehicles because of the mud. so we had to get to my aunt's house by foot. we didn't have boots with us, instead, we wrapped plastic bags to our feet (including our slippers). we didn't do that to keep our skin from the wet earth, but because we didn't want to remove our slippers to protect our feet from thorns (unlike what farmers do, they walk the fields barefoot). unfortunately, i left our digicam in our car. wala tuloy kami'ng souvenir ng experience naming yun. so this is what it's like to be a farmer, i told my self. there were some parts where our feet would sink in the mud at almost up to knee level. that's why when we got to my aunt's house, we stayed there for about two hours only then went back to our other relative's house before night fall, where we spent the night. we went to bed as early as 8:00 pm...

the next day came with the rain pouring really hard. the funeral was set in the morning. when we got to the church, the rain was hammering the roof. there were even times when the chandeliers would flicker synchronized with the thunders and lightnings. parang horror movie. after the funeral service, we went back to our relative's house to have lunch, and prepared for our journey home to olongapo. but the rain hasn't stopped pouring. when we were approaching agno, we found out we wouldn’t be able to pass because the road was already flooded. meaning, we had to spend another night to be able to get back home.

but despite the rain and being stranded for a day, i'm still glad we went there. i even get to see again the masinloc bridge, where we used to have lunch under it when i was still a kid whenever we go to bani. it was really nice even for a short time to get away from the polluted metro manila and from the stress my work gives me. it still pays to get back to basics sometimes.

i wrote this post last night and published it today:

here i am, inside a cab with plate# pyw713. it's friday at 7:36pm. isa lang ang ibig sabihin…. TRAFFIC!!! that's why i decided to take out my pda and write something about this little journey, then just post this tomorrow.

sobrang namumula ang kalye dahil sa taillights ng mga sasakyan na maya't maya ay pumepreno dahil nga sa traffic. we know for a fact that most of these vehicles are on their way to their gimmicks. but i, together with four of my officemates are on our way to robinson's galleria for a special work. teka, may sinasabi 'tong nasa kanan ko, pero walang pumapansin. di ko na rin papansinin dahil di ko rin naman naintindihan yung sinabi nya. sana lang hindi na lang dumaan dito sa maliit na iskinita 'tong malaking bus na sumasalubong sa amin. pero ala kaming magagawa, may malalaking letters on the side that reads "city of makati".

at last, we got out of those dreadful narrow streets. we're now in highway 54, commonly known as edsa. sobrang puno ng billboards itong guadalupe area, particularly dito sa bridge passing over pasig river. i didn't know kate hudson is the new model of kamiseta. ayan, may sinasabi na naman itong nasa kanan ko. at wala pa ring pumapansin sa kanya. di pa ba nakakahalata 'to? wow, grabe 'tong nakikita kong sea of taillights, meaning ganun din ka-grabe ang traffic. hmmm… pretty 'tong chick nagddrive ng red honda jazz ah… sayang, sa ilalim siya dumaan, dito kasi naisip ng driver namin na dumaan sa crossing ibabaw. dahil halos din na gumagalaw ang traffic sa ilalim, habang ang mga pasahero naman ay busy sa pagtetext ng "d2 p lng me, wer n u?"

uy, carmina looks really beautiful sa mala-higante niyang billboard for "ensembles" sa megamall. aba, megamall na pala. we're nearing robinsons galleria na pala. yaya, paki-ready na ang bayad natin dito sa taxi, abonohan mo muna dahil di kami makakilos dito sa likod dahil apat kaming pinagkasya dito. excited na rin akong kumain ng binalot sa foodcourt. ano kaya ang o-orderin ko… adobo, or tocino? hmmm….

happy birthday
dr. BUENARE
today she just turned 38.... OMG!! trenta'y ocho na sya?!!
hehehe. luv yah!