Everything Under The Tropical Sun

There’s something about Halloween that makes everything seem so mysterious even at this not-quite-middle-aged age of mine. I think it’s because of all those Hallow’s Eve spent at my grandparent’s farm that instilled such a feeling in me. We had a tradition back when I was still in Manila. We’d spend every October 31 to November 2 at my grandparent’s farm to visit our dead. (You see, in the Philippines, flocking the cemetery during these dates is a big tradition.)

My father has 9 other siblings so you can just imagine how many cousins I have. It’s our massive numbers that prompted our elders to build a hut for us adjacent to the main house. We were just too many and too rowdy and when they have their family meetings, it was most convenient for them to just send us away to the hut. It’s also easier to keep tabs on us that way.

Along with the national tradition of visiting the dead on Nov. 1, my cousins and I created a tradition of our own. We gathered in a circle at the hut and exchanged ghost stories. My older cousins tried to best each other as they took turns telling us their spookiest and gruesome stories (there were a number of us who were just too young to know any cool ghost stories). My favorite is the one that gave me chills all over:

There was an atheist named Joan who never believed in God. Which was a pretty odd choice since she lived in a mainly Catholic country, went to an all-girl Catholic school, and hung out with Catholics. Her friends would endlessly try to convince to convert to the Catholic faith. She heard it all but it fell on deaf ears. She just doesn’t see the point.

She went about her life and stuck to her usual routine: Get up, have breakfast, take a bath, brush her teeth, go to work, work overtime, get home at 10 pm, a quick dinner, wash her face, brush her teeth and go to bed.

Everyday was just like the one before it ’til one day…

The day started out the same as always. When she got home that night, she fixed herself up with one of those store-bought TV dinner and ate it in front of the television watching the news. When she’s had her fill she continued to undress and went inside the bathroom and started to brush her teeth.

She bent over the sink to spit out the toothpaste in her mouth and when she looked up. She saw a demon with big bloodshot eyes, a mouth filled with sharp teeth, and horns protruding out of its forehead. It was just there, peering at her over her shoulder… its arms positioned as if he’s about to grab her.

Without thinking, she suddenly closed her eyes, clasped her hands together and whispered: “Our Father, who art in Heaven, hallowed by Thy name…”

She looked up at the mirror once again, feeling confident that demon have already fled.

And there he was, still staring back at her and in a taunting voice, he said: “Our Father…. who art in Heaven… hihihihihi….“

Happy Halloween everyone!

Disclaimer: I have nothing against atheists but growing up as a Catholic child, I found that story very scary. It is not my intention to offend any practicing atheists around. I just had to share the story… because I stopped brushing my teeth alone for a week after I heard it. Would like to pass it on. hihihihihi.

Nikon D80, f/5.6, 1/30, ISO 800, 135mm

My friend, Teach, advised me to stick to one topic or a uniform idea that will predominate this whole blog. I listened to him, took stock in what he said but it’s so difficult for me to do that!

Look at my header up there: EVERYTHING under the tropical sun… ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING under the sun that I could think of writing about. Isn’t it obvious that I don’t really know what to do with this blog? Yet it has become a part of my daily routine. I’m still trying to find out the right “look” for it since I’ve ingeniously incorporated a photoblog of sorts.

One thing that Teach told me that a blog is something that I should update on a daily basis. I reacted to that quite violently. But THAT advice I really listened to. So 5 months into this blogging gig, I found a routine that’s not too daunting for my taste and my Nikon D80 (here I go again with the never ending Nikon advertisement) really helped. If you’ve noticed, I’ve got a formula going here… every other day is a written blog entry followed by photo blog entries… PLUS no posts on the weekends (those are husband days and only belong to him).

This has turned out to be such a fun blog for me. Combining one passion that I’m trying to re-discover which is my writing and another passion that I’ve been discovering which is photography. Isn’t that simply amazing?! Something old, something new… Now if I could only find something borrowed and something blue… It’ll be like my wedding day all over again. Haha. Corny.

Anyway, I’m sorry, Teach. No single topic to predominate this blog because my life isn’t limited to just one thing. My life doesn’t revolve around this blog either… it reflects it.

Nikon D80, f/4.0, 1/20, ISO 200, 18mm

I got the cold last Friday and I have to say, I really really HATE getting a cold. Aside from the inconvenience of blowing my nose every 30 seconds, I hate feeling dumb. It’s like my mind is in slow motion all the time. You know? You can’t really grasp anything right away because everything’s too slow?

That’s how I feel and I hate it.

It started when my husband started getting sick because of over fatigue. He’s been working his ass off for the last week and a half. Two weekends ago, I felt like I was starting to feel like I was coming down with something. So I called in sick last Monday, tried to talk my husband into resting too but he decided to go the office because there’s so much stuff to do. He came back home in the afternoon but left for the office again.

I on the other hand, felt better and went to work. While he kept feeling under the weather throughout the week. I thought I was in the clear but last Friday, my nose started running.

My husband gets really worried when I get a cold. He says that I look AND ACT like the world is going to end at any moment. It’s the first time in weeks that he’s his normal caring self. He’d ask me how my nose was, how I was feeling instead of getting totally rapt by his oh so busy world. I get that the pressure was getting to him (which is off character because he usually doesn’t let me get affected despite anything that’s been happening in his professional life) but at least now he’s back. He’s my husband again.

I understand that we all eventually change. Sometimes for the better and sometimes we change into exactly the people we avoid turning into (namely, our parents). I’ve always believed that circumstances in our lives will come and go but it’s how we learn and react to these events that defines our character.

I just hope he doesn’t turn into my Mom, who’s a raving workaholic. Don’t get me wrong, I love her to death but because of her work, there were huge gaps in her relationships with the people who matters and should matter in her life. So now, she lives a life of fear. Fear of being alone.

I hope he doesn’t forget that we’re only doing this in the meantime and that there’s an end goal in mind. A life that has meaning and full of love. I don’t care how many weeks in a year my husband would seem possessed as long as he keeps coming back to who he truly is and he’ll never forget to return to being the man I fell in love with. Just like this damn cold. It’s here now but it’s not the end of the world and it definitely does not define me.

Nikon D80, f/5.6, 1/60, ISO 250, 80mm

I wrote about Philippine fuel costs last July 7, 2008. I was complaining how high it has gotten within a span of 2 months. At the time, diesel prices were at P55.26/liter ($1.23/liter) and at the time, I was in high hopes that maybe gassing up with biodiesel would be much cheaper for us. Only to find out that it wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. I also wrote about how jaded I felt after we gassed up with biodiesel.

Well, things are starting to look up. As you can see, there’s a huge drop in gas prices since. Now, the DOTC (Department of Transportation and Communications) announced that they’ll be reducing the public transportation fees before Christmas. That should more or less help the commuting public alleviate some of their budget woes.

The thing is, gas prices may have gone down P11.00 ($0.23) so far but it rose a total of P21.00 ($0.45). So there’s still about another P10 more to go before it equals to the original gas prices before the whole scarcity scare.

What I don’t get is that the crude oil prices per barrel has already dropped to an all time record low of $72/barrel when I remember that during the height of all of the fuel price increases, the price of crude per barrel was about $130/barrel. The drop is about half the price and how come they’re not dropping prices of retail fuel as fast as they brought it up???

Now they’re blaming it on the instability of the dollar. Whatever. If it’s not one thing it’s another. But I’m still glad that it’s been dropping. Just not all too happy about the speed. Now, if only other costs would go down as well like food prices, energy costs, etc…. but I guess that’s asking for too much now.

Nikon D80, f/4.8, 1/250, ISO 250, 44mm

I’ve never been big on fantasy novels but since the time I picked up Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone, I was hooked. I was fortunate enough to have discovered Harry Potter when there were three books out already. So that was a series of uninterrupted reading pleasure and after that, we (my husband and I) waited for only a year to get the 4th installment of the Harry Potter chronicles. That was the first time I actually went out of my way and pre-ordered a book. I continued to until 5 years after, the last Harry Potter book, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows came out.

It felt like saying goodbye to a friend. Someone that I’d wait years for and suddenly, he was gone. He wasn’t going to come back after two years or so. And it was then that I was looking for another “friend”.

I was fortunate enough to pick up the first of the Inheritance Cycle Trilogy, Eragon by Christopher Paolini, on a whim. I didn’t know how popular it was. I don’t usually browse through the bestsellers list (usually because my eyes have been molested by so-called bestsellers). I was merely looking for a book that could keep me company while I was away from Cebu on a business trip and for some reason, the cover caught my eye. I read the excerpt and it seemed like a good book to bring.

I was right. It was the perfect book to bring with me. I couldn’t put it down! I’d end up sleeping late and waking up early. I finished it before I headed back home.

I couldn’t get Eragon off my mind so I decided to do a little research to find out when the next one was coming out. And oh so lucky me, the second of the trilogy, Eldest, was already out! I scoured most of Cebu and finally found it. It wasn’t as riveting as the first, but it’s still a “friend”…

I’ve waited for this book for two whole years! And I finally got to buy my copy last month. I saw a sign at the bookstore window last July saying that they were accepting pre-orders for Brisingr. I was so ecstatic and pulled my husband inside with me to reserve my copy… totally forgetting that I was hungry. THAT was how long I’ve waited for this book (food is my comfort and joy).

So here it is. I’m so hesitant to go through this last book so fast. I don’t want to consume it’s pages so eagerly. I don’t feel like I want to say goodbye to another friend so soon. So I’m taking my time, loving every word of it and watching the life of a Dragon Rider. But I’m also so excited to find out how he will turn out that it’s such a strain to keep myself from reading it all in one night.

I guess I’ll just have to console myself in the knowledge that there, sits a friend… just waiting to tell me the rest of his story. Hello, Eragon the Dragon Rider. We meet again.

Nikon D80, f/4.0, 1/250, ISO 250, 20mm