Tri-State Tales Tinged by Patis

Did you ever have a classmate like I did with Dulce?

Dulce was my classmate for a couple of years in FEU. Because
of the inherent ease of arranging the class in alphabetical order, Dulce Afante
was right there besides me, and just after was Joy Aganon.

Dulce was a nice, sweet gal. I cannot truthfully say that I
knew her really well. I guess that just speaks volumes of how socially inept I
was, having the same seat mate for a couple of years and still not making
conversation, but I digress.

Funny enough, not only was she a few feet away from me, we
even lived a few houses away from each other. Imagine that, on the same row of
houses on Callejon-H Street lived my classmate … yet; I still did not know much
of her beyond that.

Graduation came and went, so off to our respective lives
Dulce and I went. Fast track to 2006, and Friendster as usual throws a
curveball at me.

Dulce had gone to Canada, and is married, to boot! I guess I
should not really be surprised, life did go on for all of us in the last seven
years since college graduation, but I guess the leap from my diminutive next
door neighbor slash classmate to happily married woman residing in Canada.

Congratulations are in order, of course, and it goes out to
Dulce and her spouse.

But it makes me think: what else has transpired in the lives
of the acquaintances I have made in the past near-three decades, what quirks
and quandaries have they found them selves in, how rich and interesting their
lives have become?

Sadly, I guess will not learn them all. In the same way I
guess, a lot of people know not what is going on in my life and family with
Consie.

Still, it was good to hear from you Dulce! Hope all is well!

Race day came. Consie was there, as I am so blessed to have.
Faith drove in from Queens to lend support as well. I had trained; I had been
able to do a 37-minute 5k in the park. Nothing earth shattering, but decent, in
my eyes.

Put on the comfortable Dri-fit training shirt. Had the
stability shoes to check over -pronation. Ate the recommended breakfast.
Registered, got my race packet, had the shiny number and timing chip on my
foot, like I was doing it for real.

The morning blurred by. Saw the milling runners near the
starting area, went straight there after the third restroom break. (Don’t want
a pee break to add to my already very amateurish time, eh?)

Suddenly, the MC yells “ Go! “

And so off I went.

Mile One: went easy,
watching myself from getting sucked in the vortex of first minute rush just to
fade in the end. Fought it off, stayed at 70% MHR.

Mile Two: Got into a fair-spirited game of one-upmanship
with Guy In Orange Shirt. Think I beat him by end of this mile, ran best pace
of my life at 11/minute mile.

Mile Three: Woohoo! Almost done! 0.02 miles and I can rest
easy!

Mile Unknown: Um, its has been 45 minutes and nobody is
stopping. This is the longest 5k/3.1 mile race I have ever been in!

Mile Unknown: ten minutes later: Worked up the nerve to ask
a fellow runner what race this was. The response? “ Oh, this is the Half-Marathon,
honey! “

Yikes! I thought to myself; 13.1 miles! The best I ever ran
was 4 miles, I could not do this! But hey, still running, nothing hurts,
nowhere to stop anyway … Maybe …

Mile Seven, one hour later: Oh, no problem, I really can do
this!

Mile Seven, one hour and fifteen minutes later: Ow.

Mile Nine: Ow.Ow.Ow.

Mile Ten: OW. OW. OW. But as a fellow racer put it “ Now, you
can run the 5k! “

Mile Twelve: Running on stubbornness and gritted teeth.

Mile Thirteen: Two hours, fourteen minutes, ten seconds. No
training, minimal breakfast, with shoes, water, sports drink and adrenaline I
finish. I feel ecstatic and so happy,
and I feel no pain! I did it! An unscheduled half marathon! I did it! And I am
not dead last! There I am. Finisher 712, Racer Number 927. And I still can not stop smiling.

Running has officially got me.

Epilogue: 33 Hours Later

Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow.

But you know what? Its still so worth it.

Some of you might know of this but I have been in a bit of a
tear as pertaining to physical activity lately.

From a not-so-picturesque 217 lbs last January 2005 I was
able to change with the grace of God and the support of my wife and friends old
habits that enabled me to live a healthier, more fit lifestyle today.

One part that eluded me though was even if I had the reached
the highest fitness level of the last say, two decades, I had no sport or
recreational activity that I was good at.

Ball sports was out, so baseball, basketball, volleyball
were off the table. Funny how I am a recovering gamer-holic and here I am with
poor hand eye coordination.

I love rifle shooting, but have no access or friends who can
join me in this fun activity.

Waffle making is not a sport, eh?

But then I stumbled on running. Well really, I stumbled on
Bayonne Park, NJ this summer, and started to run on the running track.

Such fun! I am not breaking any speed records mind you, but
a physically intense activity that I have the skill set for, with increased
caloric demands to boot! Roughly translated, that meant I get to eat more and
still stay lean. Hee.

So with some trepidation I signed up for a 5-kilometer race
in Jersey City, NJ to benefit the JC Medical Center Children Hospital.

Easy, I thought. I am in a half-marathon training program,
so by week 5, a 3.1 mile run or this 5k should be relatively simple.

Then a funny thing happened on the 8th of October in 2006.

It happened in June 2006, when the opportunity to move back
to the outpatient setting presented myself. Much as liked the staff of the
Rehabilitation Department of Christ Hospital I had to realize that I was not a
good fit for hospital-based therapy. Here I am I find myself in Fort Lee, and that is a story to be told in
the future as well.

The month of July, associated with Independence Day, fitted
my situation well. For too long I was in fear of the steering wheel and bless
my wife, she has put up with it admirably. But after a series of fortuitous
events, I gathered the wits, then asking the fine folks at the New Jersey DMV,
that gave me permission to operate an automobile. Sad for a 28 year old I know,
but that is a story that either Tequila, or Therapy shall expose later on.

July also brought much happiness and fun to our family, as
Consie and I were able to go to Cancun, Mexico for the first time. The azure
blue beaches, the balmy weather, the warm hospitality of the staff were all
nice, but I think it was the all-inclusive food and drink part that really got
to me. That kind of trip is really best when shared with friends.

Speaking of friends, one of the greatest blessings our
family obtained this year was the gift of friendship. At an Easter Vigil Dinner
celebration we spent with the priests of OLM we met Armel and Boots and Joey,
unbeknownst neighbors of ours. The evening was spent talking about all sorts of
things: politics, religion, and food, with bouts of singing in between, typical
of a Filipino attended party. Little did we know that this day marked a big
turning point in our social life in Jersey City.

This was the summer of 2006!

Turned out that Armel and Boots had a lot of interests in
common with us: like shopping for Boots and Consie and animation and movies for
Armel and I. Then we really got to know Joey, and further expanded the circle.

Right about the same time, Hans and Karen immigrated to NJ
with kids Karl and Ika in tow, with Dad a.k.a. Mr. Beltran. Ate Apple and Kuya
Bong knew them from Las Pinas so that further enlarged the network. With Bubut
flying in from Michigan to Jersey as well, it became a merry band of gatherings
and as we say, gimmicks.

This group started hanging out, and between the impromptu
cooking, DVD watching, shopping, volleyball playing, and just plain hanging out
we consider this to be a truly blessed summer.

Now with summer over, the kids are in school, and everybody
starts bracing themselves for the changing seasons. Its funny to me how summer
was such a fun time for us, how we made a lot of new friends, and did a lot of
things we did not do before. (How were we supposed to know Bayonne Park was
right there?) We really made an effort to go out because of Joey.

Joey pointed out a great thought: “ How many weekends do we
have in a lifetime? How much time are we going to spend together? The time to
do it is now. “

Never pegged him as the Carpe Diem type, you know?

Much has changed since the last time I blogged in.
Sometimes, this feeling of being overwhelmed stops me from placing fingertips
on the key board like I should, but as Althea once said to me (and I am
paraphrasing here): you just have to start doing it again.

I sometimes concern myself a lot with the little things too
much: my grammar is off, the structure is wrong; I am a sell out for not
pursuing writing, as I should if I really did love it. But after thinking about
it, all that matters is the fluidity of thoughts and ideas to the printed
screen or text, and that is therapeutic enough by itself.

A scary part of blogging as well is it documents and makes
one accountable for the feelings, ideas and emotions that course through ones
self that day. I surmise that it is this forced reflection if you will, on the
decisions of the day, for ill or for good that can stop one from laying your
thoughts down to paper for all to see.

2006 has been good to me.

By January, I have been able to come home to the Philippines
after five years, yet found myself detached from the land that I lived in for
the first 22 years of my life. I was able to meet family and friends again, and
it was good, but I sensed that I have grown and changed within myself that I do
not know them, as I thought they know not who am I after the five-year gap.

I came back, and immersed myself in work again. Life
in the hospital was fun while it lasted, but I realized the longer I stayed
that I am not as gifted with the abilities and desire to help patients in such
a debilitated state to health. Time for change was nearing.