the Earth-bound adventures of the Lost and Found

lost and found by Jeneen R. Garcia to be published on December 31, 2005       My father puts down his glasses and finally rolls up the calendar. After hours of concentration, he has finished recording at the back pages of the 2005 calendar what he ate for the last meals of the year. It is something he has done for a couple of years now, listing every single thing he eats in a little notebook until he has more time to transfer everything to The Calendar.   And it’s not just what he eats that he lists down. Every single purchase he makes, the content of every text message he sends and receives, probably even every place he goes to each day--everything finds its way into a little notebook.   It’s for keeping track of what’s happened, he says. As one grows older, the years blur into each other as life flies by faster. Knowing what you ate exactly a year ago, or two years ago, perhaps gives you a better handle on all your other memories. How the kitchen smelled when ...

december 24, 2005 Davao City so there i was out in the garden at half past midnight, with only a towel on and the animal-print rain boots that my mother had given me. as i emptied the shovel into ashley's homemade litter box for the third time, i thought to myself: if this isn't love, i don't know what is. (no, this is not a fantasy or an allegory. i actually do stupid things like this. later that day, by the way, ashley almost died. but, of course, God was watching over my baby and saved her from the dogs) merry christmas everyone! can't post that much that often because i only have dial-up here. till next year! happy holidays and God bless you richly in the coming year =)

Okay, okay, so I'm obsessed. But isn't she ADORABLE? Photos taken December 15 and 16 at the office =) (i've taken to bringing her up to my desk in the afternoons because our big, gay office cat always eats up her food if i leave it downstairs). Have videos of ashley playing, too, but can't upload videos on Multiply anymore =( I LOVE MY CAT pin courtesy of cris , from the I Love You Store, where i got my oktomat =)

December 15, 2005. Another night out with the housemates, this time for the occasion of (surprise!) Christmas. First Christmas dinner together in our two years at 11-EE, and probably our last Christmas together.... We had it at Aranos, the secret Spanish restaurant in Guadalupe. Incidentally, it was also a full moon, and there was a luna festival at Handuraw again. But we decided this time to go for paella, gambas, malasugui, and crema de mangga. MMM! (nope not as hungry as the last time , but as usual, we forgot to take pictures of the food until it was all gone. tummies first!).

Start:      Dec 10, '05 7:30p Location:      Church of the Gesu, Ateneo de Manila "And the noise will fade; weary hearts will find themselves at ease..." Featuring old favorites and new additions to HANGAD's Christmas repertoire. Free Admission!

November 23 to 27, 2005. photos to complement my journal entry on ashley's first flight .

(an excerpt from my real paper journal, with some additions)   December 7, 2005 3:30 PM, My Room   perhaps this is an inordinately long break i’m taking from answering my scholarship forms. but look at this gray rain! and i suddenly miss the earthy music and dancing. even just tapping my fingers on my bamboo flute stirs up something in me.   it must be partly my cold, too, that as usual makes what is essential in this world more stark to my senses. whatever it is, i have totally forgotten my “real” life. i’m dreaming again, the way i always do when i’m under my acacia tree.   all i can think of is the smell of the rain, and how i used to sit up in bed, too, in Davao , in this same half-light, on days when only the rain mattered.   i suppose growing up had something to do with the loss of those rainy days. i’ve had to think of other people, how they need me, how i should be making myself available to them. selfishness has always been one of my great flaws.  ...

December 6, 2005 9:55 pm, Fine Cuisine   i woke up at dusk after a long nap, and for the first time, i didn’t feel the loneliness and vulnerability that i’ve always felt at dusk ever since i was a child. instead, i welcomed the solitude and the coming darkness. have i, perhaps, finally grown up? or am i just numb today?   just last night, i was feeling sick, partly caused, i believe, by some inexplicable emotional turmoil. but anyway, when i’m physically out of sorts, i become even more emotionally/ physically vulnerable. it’s like i lose all my energy to do anything by myself and long for a warm body to make me feel safe [so, ana, i ALMOST didn’t make it to the movie because you’d gone ahead to ayala]. good thing lots of water and prayers made it disappear by the time i woke up, and now i just have a cold.   right now i’m supposed to be doing my scholarship application, but i’m just missing ashley =( she’s been kicked out of the house. just yesterday, new house rules wer...

November 23 to 27, 2005. Had a General Assembly with othe legal resource NGOs at Makiling Highlands, one of the resorts in the famed hot springs town of Calamba, Laguna. On Friday night, we had our second solidarity night and shower party for one of our partners. And this is what happened.