Currently listening to: Rent Soundtrack
Track on repeat: Track 16- Finale B
Temperature in da city: 50s
Temperature in da wood, MN: 15 with a windchill of 1

Movie Extravaganza

One of the biggest things that I've missed about being back in MN is watching movies. Not that I can't watch movies back in da Bay! If ya'll know Doh and MnM, you know that we are HUGE movie fans AND that we are opening day watchers. Yes, we love to watch movies the first day that they come out...it's just what we do. We were right there with the Star Wars geeks to watch the midnight showing of Episode III: Revenge of the Sith; for the last Lord of the Rings: Return of the King, we were at the first showing...and we basically had the theater to ourselves! Plus, it's not just the major blockbusters that we crave to watch before everyone else does, it's the lil' corny romantic comedies like 50 First Dates that we will head to the theater for. Again, it's just what we do. Hahaha..what else is there to do in Minnesota?!

During my short stay here in MN, we have definitely had our fill of movies...just our way of making up for lost time. In any case, here's a list of movies we have seen either in the theater (*) or at home on dvd (-):

* Rent
* Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
- The Polar Express
- Batman Begins
* Pride and Prejudice
- What Dreams May Come

There's a whole bunch of movies that I'm really looking forward to watching in the upcoming month, the one at the top of my list is currently "The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe: The Chronicles of Narnia." I'm almost jealous because the 4th graders at school are planning a field trip to watch it. 'Tis funny because it wasn't until about a couple of years ago that I found out that the book has a lot of Christian symbolism. We did watch the cartoon version of the book a couple of years ago, but if you've seen the trailer for the upcoming movie, it looks really good! You can bet that I'll be in the theaters, although not on opening day, to watch it- stay tuned!

Back in Da Bay

My Thanksgiving holiday in MN passed rather quickly. There were so many things going on. It was a happy-sad-happy time to be back...happy to be back in my house and to see hubby...sad to have to attend a funeral, yet happy that Tita Beth is no longer suffering and confident that she is in a better place. On the day that I left, it snowed and it was just so gosh darned cold! Because of the weather, I got to the airport early, but it turned out that because of snow, hella flights were delayed. I was originally supposed to fly back in da city by 10:30pm timeframe...instead, we landed a little past midnight. By the time I got my luggage and got picked up, it was past 1am...and yes, I had to go to class the next day! Ugh! Let's just say that while I was physically there, mentally, I was still stuck in freezing Minnesota. I swear, I felt that whatever people were telling me was going in one ear and going out the other...after five minutes, I will have totally forgotten what we talked about! Aiya!

Since I've been back, it's been nothing but Christmas practice after Christmas practice. To be quite honest, I really can't wait until the whole program is over! That day is quickly approaching- our show is on Monday, Dec. 5th. Are we ready? Are we set? Ha! Yah right! But I am a firm believer that everything will fall into place on the day of the show...and if not, well, the show must go on! The elevated stress level of all the teachers is quite apparent...people tearing out their hair, bags forming under the eyes, tolerance level of uncooperative kids running low, everything taking a physical, mental, and even emotional toll on everyone. It's not supposed to be this stressful! With all the pressure to have everything prepared, there's always that risk of losing the spirit of WHY we are having these Christmas programs in the first place. I sympathize with the students...I really do! Not only are they memorizing songs, hand motions, cues of when to go on/off stage, lines, etc, but the whole standing, sitting, standing, sitting can be very tiresome. Again, while us teachers are trying to get them organized and attentive, there's the risk of having the students NOT excited about the show. I think the kids are looking forward to the end of all the practices just as the teachers. Probably even moreso. Just a quick example of the physical toll it takes on the kids, I learned that a 4th grader fainted today! Fainted! The poor kid probably locked his/her knees and with the brightness of the stage lights and the stuffiness of being up there alongside 100 other kids, it was too much. I heard the kid met the floor with his face...literally. Ouch! Well, for his and all of our sake, it'll all be over next week. Counting the days...

"Lilipad ng Bubong!"

Okay, I don't know if I spelled that correctly, but those are the words that came out of my mom's mouth during dinner. "Lilipad" means flying or flew...so my first question to my mom's shocked response was, "What flew?! What's bubong?" Turns out that bubong is roof! Someone's roof flew off today because of the strong winds hitting the city today! As serious and as crappy as it is for whoever that happened to, the conversation that followed with my parents killed me! Seeing my mom's shocked face with my dad's calm face was the first thing. Nonchalantly my dad comments surely, their insurance should cover such damages. Him being an insurance agent and all, I just thought it was the funniest thing. There was no, "Are they okay? Was anyone hurt?", just "Yes, their insurance should include coverage for such damages." I mean, this is about one of their friends! Lol! From there, my dad got into reminiscing-mode and began telling about a time when a typhoon hit in PI. He continued to describe how roofs would always fly off of houses and in his words, "What can you do?" He shared an incident of when he was working at this plant and during a storm, a huge metal plate got sucked up in the air! "What did you do", I asked. His response? "Well, since it flew up like a flying saucer, the only thing you can do is make sure you don't get hit when it falls back down." Maybe it was the words "flying saucer" that made it funny or his facial expression or even his matter-of-factly sharing that yes, typhoons are bad. In any case, I learned a new word today: bubong = roof.

Birthday Shoutouts

Just wanted to send some birthday hugs to D.Reyes! Haven't seen this "omigosh-I-didn't-know-he-was-Filipino" dude in a long time, but whenever we get a hold of each other online, it's like the old SFState days. Happily married with a beautiful family of his own now, I will always remember him as the anime drawing freak from ASU! Lol! Hope you have a faboo birthday, D!