I mostly worked at our lawyers' seminar in Las Vegas, but having friends who live in the area, I was able to squeeze in some sightseeing. I dined at Spago, a Wolfgang Puck restaurant in Caesar's Palace. I enjoyed the buffet at Treasure Island and the shopping at the Premium Outlets. I also watched Mamma Mia at The Mandalay Bay Hotel and Phantom of the Opera at The Venetian. I wasn't a Phantom lover but it was a spectacular show. I fell asleep around four times while watching and my friend had to pinch me and remind me that I paid a lot of money and was wasting it by missing the show.
Mamma Mia was a wonderful musical and I found myself singing along. A tear fell during the scene "The Winner Takes it All". I'm a drama queen, after all.
Las Vegas is now more than just slot machines and weddings. It's a place the whole non-gambling family will love due to its myriad of dining and entertainment choices. I did not play in a single slot machine during this visit, and enjoyed myself immensely after a hard day's work.
Saturday, October 13, 2007
Inside a Chocolate Factory
My fellow chocoholics would instantly recognize the name in lights. I went to Ghirardelli Square and tasted not just premium chocolate but delectable ice cream and rich coffee as well. If only I could take the entire store home to give away to friends and family! It's that good, and it's a stop that every tourist ever in San Francisco should make.
Happiness Is...
There's a song from the musical "You're a Good Man ,Charlie Brown" popularized locally by Lea and Gerard Salonga that captures how I feel when I see this picture and remember that beautiful day I spent with Mel hanging out at Pier 39 and walking around Muir Woods.
HAPPINESS
x x x
LINUS
Happiness is having a sister
LUCY
Sharing a sandwich
LUCY AND LINUS
Getting along-
ALL
Happiness is singing together when day is through.
And happiness is those who sing with you.
Happiness is morning and evening,
Daytime and nighttime, too,
CHARLIE BROWN
For happiness is anyone and anything at all
That's loved by you.
If there's someone I sing well with, it's always been Mel. We don't just finish each other's sentences, we also finish each other's songs. Never mind that we remember songs from obscure Disney movies or some Broadway musicals or even wordless classical music played by Papa on his turntable while we were growing up- we just love to sing as we do household chores, and we sang well while I stayed with her for a week in her San Mateo apartment.
I'm excited to see her again together with the rest of the family very soon. I know she doesn't like publicity, but I just had to write this post.
HAPPINESS
x x x
LINUS
Happiness is having a sister
LUCY
Sharing a sandwich
LUCY AND LINUS
Getting along-
ALL
Happiness is singing together when day is through.
And happiness is those who sing with you.
Happiness is morning and evening,
Daytime and nighttime, too,
CHARLIE BROWN
For happiness is anyone and anything at all
That's loved by you.
If there's someone I sing well with, it's always been Mel. We don't just finish each other's sentences, we also finish each other's songs. Never mind that we remember songs from obscure Disney movies or some Broadway musicals or even wordless classical music played by Papa on his turntable while we were growing up- we just love to sing as we do household chores, and we sang well while I stayed with her for a week in her San Mateo apartment.
I'm excited to see her again together with the rest of the family very soon. I know she doesn't like publicity, but I just had to write this post.
Visiting the Redwoods
They reminded me of The Faraway Tree in Enid Blyton's books. When planning for my US trip, my sister asked what I wanted to do that I wasn't able to do during my first visit. Among my top requests was to visit a redwood forest.
She drove me to Muir Woods. I got car-sick for a while due to the zigzag roads but upon reaching the beautiful forest and inhaling its fresh air, I felt peace and balance. I did a little research and found that:
"California's magnificent Coast Redwood is the world's tallest known tree and one of the world's oldest trees. Average mature trees, several hundred years old, stand from 200 to 240 feet tall and have diameters of 10 to 15 feet, and some trees have been measured at more than 360 feet. In the most favorable parts of their range, Coast Redwoods can live more than two thousand years."
This is a picture of me beside one slice of a redwood tree that shows its age. Awesome. Simply awesome.
She drove me to Muir Woods. I got car-sick for a while due to the zigzag roads but upon reaching the beautiful forest and inhaling its fresh air, I felt peace and balance. I did a little research and found that:
"California's magnificent Coast Redwood is the world's tallest known tree and one of the world's oldest trees. Average mature trees, several hundred years old, stand from 200 to 240 feet tall and have diameters of 10 to 15 feet, and some trees have been measured at more than 360 feet. In the most favorable parts of their range, Coast Redwoods can live more than two thousand years."
This is a picture of me beside one slice of a redwood tree that shows its age. Awesome. Simply awesome.
My First Football Game
Not that there will be a second game, but the first is always memorable. My sister graduated from Arizona State University and the Arizona Sun Devils were in San Francisco to play college football against Stanford University. My sister, her husband, and I watched the game at the new Stanford Stadium. Josh very patiently tried to explain the game to me. I couldn't appreciate the many pauses within the game, the changes in players, etc.
What I appreciated was tailgating. For my Pinoy readers - a tailgate is "a hinged board or closure at the rear of a vehicle, such as a pick-up truck, that can be lowered during loading and unloading". To tailgate means "to participate in a picnic that is served from the tailgate of a vehicle, as before a sports event."
My brother in law grilled some bbq that my sister bought from an Asian store. Then she prepared a special sandwich made of grilled portobello mushrooms, avocado, lettuce, and tomato. We washed everything down with beer. Somebody please have the heart to tell Josh that I'm not a sports fan. Or maybe he noticed after one whole day of explaining the game and still I had a blank stare during the actual game.
American football is a winter sport. Josh said the cold was part of the deal. Since not many people showed up, it was freezing at the stadium. Many people won't believe that I cheered for a team whose mascot is a guy in a little red devil's costume. What's a girl to do?
I am truly Pinoy, I realized then. When I say barbecue, I usually am just referring to tiny pork bits skewered on a thin stick. I appreciate watching basketball a lot more than football - though I relished the experience of it all.
Our team won. GO ASU! Stanford's gifts must lie elsewhere, just like my beloved alma mater University of the Philippines. I read that once again, we're the top university in the country in terms of board passers in all courses and fields. I'm quite sure they didn't include UAAP as a category, because just like me, my university is so not into sports.
Next month, I'll be in Sydney and I heard that the whole country stops for Melbourne Cup. It's a horse race. We'll see. That would be another wonderful first for me.
What I appreciated was tailgating. For my Pinoy readers - a tailgate is "a hinged board or closure at the rear of a vehicle, such as a pick-up truck, that can be lowered during loading and unloading". To tailgate means "to participate in a picnic that is served from the tailgate of a vehicle, as before a sports event."
My brother in law grilled some bbq that my sister bought from an Asian store. Then she prepared a special sandwich made of grilled portobello mushrooms, avocado, lettuce, and tomato. We washed everything down with beer. Somebody please have the heart to tell Josh that I'm not a sports fan. Or maybe he noticed after one whole day of explaining the game and still I had a blank stare during the actual game.
American football is a winter sport. Josh said the cold was part of the deal. Since not many people showed up, it was freezing at the stadium. Many people won't believe that I cheered for a team whose mascot is a guy in a little red devil's costume. What's a girl to do?
I am truly Pinoy, I realized then. When I say barbecue, I usually am just referring to tiny pork bits skewered on a thin stick. I appreciate watching basketball a lot more than football - though I relished the experience of it all.
Our team won. GO ASU! Stanford's gifts must lie elsewhere, just like my beloved alma mater University of the Philippines. I read that once again, we're the top university in the country in terms of board passers in all courses and fields. I'm quite sure they didn't include UAAP as a category, because just like me, my university is so not into sports.
Next month, I'll be in Sydney and I heard that the whole country stops for Melbourne Cup. It's a horse race. We'll see. That would be another wonderful first for me.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Travelogue: Las Vegas & San Francisco '07
I'll be writing a series on my recent US trip. This photo was taken at Fremont in downtown Las Vegas. It's the place of the old strip. I posed with Lilet, my high school friend who's now Vegas-based. They own the Manila Sunshine restaurant. They (her husband, sisters, and daughters) dragged me to see some sights even if I was on "work mode". They knew me well.
Wednesday, October 10, 2007
It's All on Multiply
It would be good if I could annotate these photos from my US trip, but as I said earlier, I'm too lazy.
San Francisco trip - http://galadriella.multiply.com/photos/album/62/San_Fran_07
Tailgating - http://galadriella.multiply.com/photos/album/61
Leaving Las Vegas - http://galadriella.multiply.com/photos/album/60
Let them speak their thousand words.
San Francisco trip - http://galadriella.multiply.com/photos/album/62/San_Fran_07
Tailgating - http://galadriella.multiply.com/photos/album/61
Leaving Las Vegas - http://galadriella.multiply.com/photos/album/60
Let them speak their thousand words.
The Jonah in Me
I can't help but be amused by the story from the First Reading today. It tells me how I relate to God and how God relates to me.
We know the biblical character Jonah more because of the big fish that swallowed him and in whose belly he stayed for three days. What happened to Jonah after he obeyed God, since he was given a second chance to do so, is told in Jonah 4, the last chapter. In the previous chapters, Jonah tried in vain to escape from God because he didn't like what God was asking him to do. As he found himself on land again, delivered by the fish to the shore, he got God's point and proceeded to deliver His message for Nineveh. We read that the people repented so much that God decided not to punish the Ninevites anymore. He was moved by the prayer and fasting that they all did. Jonah, who was supposed to be just the messenger, did not like it that God forgave and forget so easily. So chapter 4 reads:
4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Believe you me, this drama sounds so like me these days, by analogy. To put it simply, God told me to do something, but I didn't like it. I tried to run from him and to hide, as if there was a place on this earth that was beyond His loving eyes. He scooped me out of the "bottom of the sea" that I was in, and gave me a second chance to do what He asked of me. But something happened - something unexpected - that shook my faith. I didn't confront God, but tried to avoid Him.
The ending of the book of Jonah sounds unfinished, at least, from a human standpoint. Jonah wasn't given a chance to reply. God had the last word, and I ponder upon these words. I was angry at God for something that He took away from me, but now I see that I did not labor for it, I did not make it grow, just as Jonah did not have the right to be angry at God for letting the plant that gave him shade to wilt. God, who pursues us the way He pursued Jonah, deserves much better treatment than what I'm giving Him.
I cannot say that I understand. That may come later. But I realized that I would not do well to be angry.
We know the biblical character Jonah more because of the big fish that swallowed him and in whose belly he stayed for three days. What happened to Jonah after he obeyed God, since he was given a second chance to do so, is told in Jonah 4, the last chapter. In the previous chapters, Jonah tried in vain to escape from God because he didn't like what God was asking him to do. As he found himself on land again, delivered by the fish to the shore, he got God's point and proceeded to deliver His message for Nineveh. We read that the people repented so much that God decided not to punish the Ninevites anymore. He was moved by the prayer and fasting that they all did. Jonah, who was supposed to be just the messenger, did not like it that God forgave and forget so easily. So chapter 4 reads:
4:1 But it displeased Jonah exceedingly, and he was angry. 2 And he prayed to the Lord and said, “O Lord, is not this what I said when I was yet in my country? That is why I made haste to flee to Tarshish; for I knew that you are a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love, and relenting from disaster. 3 Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live.” 4 And the Lord said, “Do you do well to be angry?”
5 Jonah went out of the city and sat to the east of the city and made a booth for himself there. He sat under it in the shade, till he should see what would become of the city. 6 Now the Lord God appointed a plant and made it come up over Jonah, that it might be a shade over his head, to save him from his discomfort. So Jonah was exceedingly glad because of the plant. 7 But when dawn came up the next day, God appointed a worm that attacked the plant, so that it withered. 8 When the sun rose, God appointed a scorching east wind, and the sun beat down on the head of Jonah so that he was faint. And he asked that he might die and said, “It is better for me to die than to live.” 9 But God said to Jonah, “Do you do well to be angry for the plant?” And he said, “Yes, I do well to be angry, angry enough to die.” 10 And the Lord said, “You pity the plant, for which you did not labor, nor did you make it grow, which came into being in a night and perished in a night. 11 And should not I pity Nineveh, that great city, in which there are more than 120,000 persons who do not know their right hand from their left, and also much cattle?”
Believe you me, this drama sounds so like me these days, by analogy. To put it simply, God told me to do something, but I didn't like it. I tried to run from him and to hide, as if there was a place on this earth that was beyond His loving eyes. He scooped me out of the "bottom of the sea" that I was in, and gave me a second chance to do what He asked of me. But something happened - something unexpected - that shook my faith. I didn't confront God, but tried to avoid Him.
The ending of the book of Jonah sounds unfinished, at least, from a human standpoint. Jonah wasn't given a chance to reply. God had the last word, and I ponder upon these words. I was angry at God for something that He took away from me, but now I see that I did not labor for it, I did not make it grow, just as Jonah did not have the right to be angry at God for letting the plant that gave him shade to wilt. God, who pursues us the way He pursued Jonah, deserves much better treatment than what I'm giving Him.
I cannot say that I understand. That may come later. But I realized that I would not do well to be angry.
Monday, October 08, 2007
For sale: Stateside Items
I couldn't resist posting this.
I'm selling Liz Claiborne wallets & a brown office purse, Smashbox makeup, Julie's Closet blouses, etc. at reasonable prices. Please email me at ella.delrosario@gmail.com if you are interested. I haven't had the time to photograph them. Direct buyers only.
I'm selling Liz Claiborne wallets & a brown office purse, Smashbox makeup, Julie's Closet blouses, etc. at reasonable prices. Please email me at ella.delrosario@gmail.com if you are interested. I haven't had the time to photograph them. Direct buyers only.
Saturday, October 06, 2007
I'm... Too Lazy for My Blog
Too lazy for my blog, too lazy it hurts.
I visit this page regularly, stare at the archives, articles, photos, and tags, and yet am not moved to write. Perhaps there is too much going on and I'm too lazy to put them into words. Writing requires a process - some analysis, a little simplification, at times, it calls forth certain embellishment - and I have neither the energy nor the desire to go through it.
Many things to be grateful for - my trip, the seminar we had in LV, my vacation, and the new things I experienced - but I guess I'm still lagging behind on many things so writing has to wait.
And there are the sad parts - failures and longings, frustrations and disappointments. There is the undeniable doubt that I struggle with daily, clogging my vision, blurring my passion. This too shall pass. The doubt comes from some pain I have not fully faced yet. If I'm too lazy to write, which is something I love to do, when it comes to facing pain I am downright slothful. I tell myself that if it doesn't go away soon, I'll have it removed by a professional.
Sometimes, though, when I let the thoughts wait too long, they pass me by, never to be recovered. A life is lived even though it is not blogged about anyway.
So I'm still here, gathering material until the day when the words come. I may write about a different time then and a different me. That would be so much better, not just for the writer, but for the reader as well.
I visit this page regularly, stare at the archives, articles, photos, and tags, and yet am not moved to write. Perhaps there is too much going on and I'm too lazy to put them into words. Writing requires a process - some analysis, a little simplification, at times, it calls forth certain embellishment - and I have neither the energy nor the desire to go through it.
Many things to be grateful for - my trip, the seminar we had in LV, my vacation, and the new things I experienced - but I guess I'm still lagging behind on many things so writing has to wait.
And there are the sad parts - failures and longings, frustrations and disappointments. There is the undeniable doubt that I struggle with daily, clogging my vision, blurring my passion. This too shall pass. The doubt comes from some pain I have not fully faced yet. If I'm too lazy to write, which is something I love to do, when it comes to facing pain I am downright slothful. I tell myself that if it doesn't go away soon, I'll have it removed by a professional.
Sometimes, though, when I let the thoughts wait too long, they pass me by, never to be recovered. A life is lived even though it is not blogged about anyway.
So I'm still here, gathering material until the day when the words come. I may write about a different time then and a different me. That would be so much better, not just for the writer, but for the reader as well.
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