Tri-State Tales Tinged by Patis

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.

Another blessing that Consie and I always am grateful about is the Our Lady of Mercy Parish.

Where to begin to describe the experience of OLM?

• Is is the Music Ministry? Suffice to say this is not the first time that I have been spurred to write by their voices and music, and I daresay, not the last.
• Or maybe the Sacrament of Baptism, done in OLM in such a way that optimism really shines through, despite what the world tries to do mitigate it.
• The spiritual fire burning strongly in the congregation, making the Eucharist such a meaningful and relevant high point in the week-in, week-out lives of our individual families?

So many things we appreciate about OLM, not one blog entry is enough to cover them all.

But I certainly will try to do that one for today.

Father Jack today gave such a brilliant, insightful homily today on the question that I have grappled with ever since I had the ability for critical and rational thought:

Is there no salvation for anyone else but Catholics?

I come from a culture that is strongly set, in what I now have been told, as the Pre-Vatican II teachings. What this has done is that it has put into place a way of thinking that troubles me.

Otherwise pleasant, dear relatives of mine have said "  the only good (non-Christian religion), is a dead (non-Christian religion)".

A mentor of mine that I hold dear has said of my questions regarding the unchecked, heavy-handed edicts of religious authorities; to paraphrase: " Take it or leave it. "

And many other situations that escape me at this time.

But Father Jack distilled and expressed so clearly today on how to reconcile the conflicting (at first glance) readings on whether Salvation is Exclusive to Catholics vs. all of humanity.

He focused on the part that said  : " The Word was made flesh … "

And he made the parish realize it did not say:

" … was made Jewish … "

or " … was made Presbyterian … "

or " was made Catholic… "

Just … " The Word was made flesh … "

He related , as far as I understood him, that Christ was a gift to all of man. To all that is of  "flesh". And with that, twenty eight years of my uncertainties, of my questions regarding my perceived hubris and arrogance of my religion/faith and how that clashed with what I thought the very essence of Catholicism to be … was clarified and renewed once again.

All the other ministries are such a big part of that is what makes OLM so special to me and our family. But for me personally, it is the always thoughtful, mind provoking and ultimately enriching homilies that Father Jack, Father Marty and Father Donato give, that makes it what it is.

A light for my own family, in the middle of a sea of material concerns and evils of the world, guiding us to what is true, what is fair, and what is just.

To what His Will is.

My family thanks you all.

One flaw I have always not liked about myself is the fear that I have of the new.

I worry and fret about how I do not know/understand/comprehend/be skilled enough on unknowns that I end up not doing it altogether. Driving, cooking, watching my health, heck even fixing broken friendships; all these things if are too much of a variable for me, I would shun it away, or put it off, and pretend it was not that important to begin with. This has caused me life-altering, albeit thankfully non-catastrophic effects on my life.

God blessed me with all the talent, skills, and abilities I need to fulfill His Will, yet I was not making the most of it. Dereliction of duty, if you will. But this is why I deem Consie as my greatest asset.

She has a quality of inner strength and self-confidence that is such a radiant part of her person. She encourages me to do things I would never have done on my own. Just this past week,see the things that I have done that I thought I never would do.

• I can now actually drive an automobile. Yes, my California based buddies, that is not a typo.
• I prepared, grilled and served hamburgers for lunch today. This is significant if one remembers my unique ability to cook so bad that I saw first hand that if one abandons boiling water long enough, smoke can come from the metal pot. I am lucky the state of New Jersey still allows me anywhere near a kitchen.
• I actually studied and am able to do, by myself, a Double Windsor Tie Knot. Which was caused by  …
• I got my first suit! Oh my, I am turning to an adult, I daresay. The tie was motivated by the suit, and considering that I have repeatedly sworn that I shall wear a tie on two more times from now on; my wedding, and my funeral. Darn it how was supposed to know I can carry a suit like that?
• Lose the sandbag of adipose around me I have been lugging around since … I don’t know ? 1996? And be in better fitness and conditioning than I have ever been in my entire life.

Consie has always said to me: " See what happens when you don’t give in the the fear? "

To which I say: " See how far I have come since the you, my God-given-gift, came into my life?"

My lap is getting really hot.

If you are of the filthy mind-set (and if you are my friend reading this, you probably are) all this means is that I am getting with 2006 and finally broke down and got a laptop for the house. This solves a lot of problems, namely me hogging the PC leaving poor Consie with no access to the computer.

It never occurred to me that a laptop would be this versatile, and that I could take it to bed with me so that while Consie lounged around, or watched TV, I could be merrily surfing away jacked into the Interwebs; happy as a clam … with wireless connectivity, natch!

Great weekend just swung by … had a few friends over, met some great new people ( *waves at Jessica and Allan* ) and consumed inordinate amounts of animal proteins … that will surely lead into dinners of oatmeal and yogurt for a week once again as penance of sorts.

Faith had a wonderful tale about how some of you folks out there read my stuff here and actually thought I was half-entertaining! I am very grateful for the morale boost so here I am again merrily pecking away on the keyboard, inflicting my take on the world on the hapless netizens of cyberspace.

Let us see … what have I learned this past week?

• After meeting and drinking with Mr. Allan Borleo, I realized that no, I am not crazy or stupid for being the way that I am in my career. Nice to see not to be alone.
• Also with Allan, being happily married does not necessarily mean that I am vanilla-grade boring … we married guys still have a lot of fun … but out of respect ( or is that fear ?) for our spouses, we are not at liberty to speak of our adventures in Marital-Land.
• Well, we could talk about it, but then our spouses would have to kill us. Or worse, impose a No-Sex-For-You embargo for the foreseeable future. Now we can not have that, can we?
• Laptops are waaaaaaayyyy cool.
• A little thing like a relative stranger/acquaintance praising your work can really cure a bad case of writers block.
• I no longer fear Jose Cuervo. Well, up to his 725 ml level anyways.
• Alone time away from a spouse is good to allow continued self-growth … but I prefer it only in very small doses.

How about you guys? How did your week go?

So Consie and I went up to Boston, MA (thanks for hosting VIkk!) last March to celebrate my getting older once more, and there we had a fun time experiencing the Old World Charm of Boston.

One of the things that stuck out though was our visit to Harvard in Cambridge. We were doing our tourist-shtick, commenting in Filipino, when suddenly this guy goes up to me and says …

" Hey, Filipinos! " (with nary a hint of the home-grown Pinoy accent we all love)

" Kamusta? " he said to us. The turning to his ( I assume spouse) …

" Hey, ‘day! " ( I presume short for Inday): Pinoys, o! "

After a bit of small talk, which was a bit uncomfortable in the predominantly Caucasian throng of people passing by, and we went our separate ways.

It was just so refreshing to meet a Pinoy who was positively elated that they met a fellow Pinoy, what with the semi-hostile, half-sneering looks Pinoys give each other in NJ.

So, here I am, 3:07 in the freaking a.m. and I am blogging.

After a nearly four month break I finally find the time and energy and will power to go back to the keyboard and be pushed by the Muse to write again.

I guess I owe it to a random checking of web sites I go to, and how I saw one bloggers amazement at how I read and remarked about her work.

As a fellow fledgeling writer, I could appreciate how she felt. So to the lady, you are most certainly welcome.

Now, it also dawned on me why the heck am I not blogging anymore? I read through some of my old work out in blogspot land, and I noticed reading from it now, I did not do too badly.

Noticed a few typographical errors here and there, some structure and composition mistakes that could have been better done, but over all, I did not feel like the stuff there was a total cluster-muck.

I just remembered I missed writing. Seeing your thoughts crystallized into printed form was, no, is still such a great feeling, even here in the two-bit, wanna-be-hack world of blogging. In the words of the Road Warrior Hawk " Whaaaattttaaaa rrrrruuuussssssshhhhhh !!! "

Mucked up interface with friendster or type pad mobile email/moblogging not withstanding, I really need to do this more often.

I mean, the world will not just create autonomously the biased, half-rambling, vitriolic & self-deluded verse that is my " Tri-State Tales With A Tinge of Patis " masterpiece by itself, would it ?

I owe it the the world. Or that is what I am telling myself in a dazed fog typing at three thirty eight freaking a.m.

Here we go!

I realize it is a bit late, but this emotional piece rendered by a child on display near the entrance of the WTC summarizes at an individual level the human tragedy that befell us all that day in September.

Be very afraid!

I have found a new outlet to totally waste my time on.

Behold, the number one issue of …

Astonishing Adventures of the Aguilas!

I know, it is just another web comic. But humor me! Click on the thumb nail, then

let me know what you think. Or give me gobs of money, so I could do this full time.

Either one will do.

Heh.