May Day, May Day

I finally got the other couple of pictures from May’s camera last night. I know I posted earlier in this site some photos of when I went around Kentucky during my Cincinnati visit last May 2007, but this day was extra-special since I got to spend it with May Morales-Gayheart on her birthday. Dave was patient and kind enough to spend some of his time at Turfway Park doing horse-betting..while May and I had lunch, visited the Newport Aquarium and did girly-stuff 🙂

May is a Computer Management student in CIT, first batch..and I was in the Info and Comp Science, also a pioneering batch. I think it has already been a decade since I last saw her..and that was in Cebu, when she and her hubby Dave came for a Christmas visit. I have to hunt for a picture of our CLAIMERS group of girls…we danced during our ringhop and although I have lost touch of some of them, I know that when we do come face to face in the future, it will be like my encounter with May (Mayang as I and Erwin sometimes call her) – as if it was just yesterday that we saw each other and in no time at all we fall comfortably into a talka-thon.

CLAIMERS was a group some of us formed during our last year in school…each letter stood for one of our names..my mom came up with the acroynm after we re-arranged and dreamed of unique group names without much success.

Hmm..maybe people who know my classmates will come across this bunch of albums and help me connect up with them.

C – for me

L – for Liza Tomas (no contact, no news)

A – for Fe Amor Heruela (we call her Amor, not Fe and she is currently in Australia with her 2(?) kids)

I – for Imelda Pareja (last update was that she was off to join her hubby in the US with her 2 kids but no confirmation)

M – May Morales (thanks to the internet and Erwin, we got to see each other)

E – Evangeline Delago (we do YM, so I see her handsome sons once in a while on the webcam)

R – Rosemarie Alfeche (I became godmother – even if I was in Manila at that time – to her one and only child …for now, baka later 1 dozen na)

S – Sunshine (she is really Cara Mia if I remember correctly, but Sunshine was her nickname, also no news)

Coming back to the subject on hand –

Of course, there are some differences…May is medyo slang na nowadays..hehehe…She has incorporated into her speech some phrases which you would expect from an American…but…she can still come out with the occasional Bisaya word..hehehe…

She was kind enough to take pictures of me on her birthday, and treated me to lunch and dinner (well ok, Dave was the one who treated us to dinner). Lunch was at Mitchell’s and dinner was at Pappadeaux’s. More details later as I will have to shake my grey cells some more…

– Jul 27, ’07 1:55 PM

 

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Sanfo Day 5: Cheesecake & Grubstake (5.16.07)

I had a luncheon date with Bong Pagunsan, a dear friend from the crazy case-studies days at grad school. That morning, I was also, by sheer luck, able to talk to Kaiyen after leaving a message on her phone. She called me back and we agreed to meet for dinner.

This is the day I got the most exercise out of my whole trip (well aside from the Alcatraz trekathon). It is how I paid for my free lunch and dinner and unplanned stay at Kaiyen’s house hahaha!

I walked everywhere except for the last part late afternoon when I had to meet Kaiyen back at Ghirardelli Square where she would be picking me up for our dinner together. Shortly after I left the BART station, I lost my map somewhere during my walk, but I luckily remembered there was a SF Tourist Information Agency in Powell Station and walked back again *sigh*

These were some of the places I visited that day: a Walgreens store, Macy’s department store especially women’s section, Cheesecake factory – where I had lunch with Bong (my fellow Bisdak, who is from Iloilo), Victoria’s Secret shop (some goodies for my mommy), Disney (just a pose with the gargoyle), the Sunglass Hut (?), and scrounging around different Chinatown shops for owls and gifts to take home to the Philippines, then more walking around till I almost reached Pier 39 again!

But then I huffed all the way back to where I had previously passed because I remembered there was the Cable Car museum somewhere thereabouts, then Grace Cathedral where I wanted to take a photo of myself up front…and this is where Kaiyen at last was able to contact me for the dinner that night. Since SF is hilly, you can imagine me puffing along up and down the streets.

I was almost at Ghirardelli Square again but since I really, really wanted to have a cable car ride, I ran downwards (thank God for gravity) back to Powell Station where I caught the cable car to the other side of town – Beach St. (near The Cannery)…which was just a stone’s throw away from where Kaiyen would pick me up.

I almost gave in to my temptation to buy another couple of boxes of chocolates but then Kaiyen arrived and saved me from the unscupulously tempting little devils. I think though that Rustan’s in Makati carries a couple of Ghirardelli bars.

Going around the streets where I had also walked (this is funny..and exhausting to think about), Kaiyen debated on two restos recommended by her friend. We finally settled in Grubstake. We had a Portuguese style dinner..rose wine for me and a beer I think for Kaiyen (correct me if am wrong).

Then, I hypnotized her with the porkchop bone (we shared our dinner as Filipinos are wont to do) and she pressed me to accompany her to her home so she could call in sick tomorrow and take me around Sta. Rosa.

She was the perfect hostess and her hubby Steve was a very thoughtful guy with possibly a sweet tooth, who baked some huge chocolate-chip cookies and left them to cool on the kitchen counter for us!…since we didn’t eat dessert anymore at the resto. Wow, thats my kind of guy…a guy who bakes and cooks wins my vote everytime…*munch, crunch, munch, crunch* Way to go Kaiyen!

So I didn’t have any extra clothes but…I’m a cowgirl..and just borrowed a towel and used Kaiyen’s toothbrush..hahaha..kidding! She bought me the usual frills that a girl needs for an overnight stay. More pictures and mods on this description later…one thing I noticed though, I think I had more videos than pictures on this day and I have some missing ones which I have to look for.

– Jun 16, ’07 3:55 AM

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Cat, thru the eyes of Manang K. (grabbed from her MP blog)

Since Multiply is closing to us poor folks who have been using it for our blogs and photos, I’ve grabbed what I can before December 1.

Here is the photo album and thoughts of Kaiyen of my visit to here last 2007:

I know her face. We walked on the same corridors for four years in highschool but were never in a class together. I don’t think we ever had a conversation until Multiply. Fast forward twenty-one years later, here we are!

It’s so much fun to re-connect (or connect?). We finally get to speak on the phone one fine Tuesday morning and made arrangements to meet for dinner in the “City” the next day. We played catch up and talked and ate and talked some more. Then I realized I don’t know much about Cat, still it felt like I’ve known her for years! Next thing I know (after a rough wrestling and arm-twisting involved), she agreed to stay the night at my place but only if I promise to show her a piece of the Sonoma wine country. Tough deal. I called in sick the next day.

We did try to have an early start that Thursday morning of 5.17.07 but we ended up yapping up a storm and flipping through our high school yearbook instead. It was nice to look back (I am not very fond of those years actually – it almost seems like a different lifetime) and visit that place in time with somebody who was also there. After a big Vietnamese brunch, we headed on out for dessert drinks in Korbel for some complimentary champagne tastings. Mmmm Muscato! Then burned off some cals on a mile walk to meet a 1400-year-old, 300-something-foot-tall, “Gentle Giant” in Armstrong Redwoods SP in Guerneville. After our commune with nature, we cruised downtown and historic railroad square in Santa Rosa and dropped by to say a “quick hellow!” to the Peanuts Gang. Then it was time to go home… 

Cat, that was fun. Unil next time, girl friend. XO 

…okay, picture time!

– Posted May 24, ’07 10:19 AM

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Sanfo Day 6: Sta. Rosa -> Kaiyen (5.17.07)

Sta. Rosa, 17th May 2007 – An impromptu overnight stay at Kaiyen’s house off the next day with some reminiscing over the old STC yearbook. We took some time talking a little bit about those years – which was funny, because although we shared common one-time or another classmates, we never were in the same section together. I remember her though because thumbing through the yearbook years before, when I first received it after graduation, I looked through each of the pictures, and I made note of her, since she was listed as coming from San Fernando, Cebu…a “lungsod” prior to Sibonga, Cebu, which is where my dear mother comes from.

Talking as girls are wont to do, we missed breakfast and coffee, so Kaiyen hauled me to a great Vietnamese restaurant…where we gobbled up the pork chop, rice and soup (it made me nostalgic for Filipino food)…I cannot possibly remember the Vietnamese names…yummy brunch!

Then, a visit to Korbel where we happily partook of the free champagne tasting. We missed the garden tour by a couple of minutes since we took some pictures when we first arrived at the winery, but the nice guy who poured us the wines was friendly enough to talk about the selection and even looked at our identification cards (ahay, the price of looking young and cute like a juvenile teenagers…tee-hee).

After getting sloshed over 4 glasses and more pictures – I even got a feature in Kaiyen’s photo album – she drove us off into the forest – and not an ordinary forest at that.

These were populated by giant, fat redwoods…and aside from noting the tallest, the oldest and even unusual ones, I was sorry to leave this park behind without Kaiyen getting her 4-leaf clover.

A quick sneak back into her house to check if her hubby was around since they had to sync on their plans, then we managed to drop by the Charles M. Shultz museum where my fave beagle frolicked. There wasn’t enough time though, you would need at least one and a half-hours to go thru it and read the comics…but I contented myself with snapshots with the famous gang. A tour of the downtown afterwards convinced me that I really should come back here and book myself in a hotel if ever I got the chance again…it looked like a charming little town which had the conveniences of a city but the warmth and friendliness as well as cute little stores with antiques and other baubles to warm the cockles of my heart.

I couldn’t survive going back to San Franciso without eating, so Kaiyen took me to “In-N-Out” burger…and a good thing too because my stomach was sticking to my spine by that time…I was told that I shouldn’t leave the state without tasting this burger, and I must say, they were right..the burgers and fries tasted really different from what I had expected after eating a zillion MacDos and Jollibees and Burker King burgers. They were supposed to be authentically fresh (I had visions of the cows being slaughtered at the back of the burger joint)…

Then it was time for me to go back…and before I crossed the bridge back into dear old Sanfo, we stopped to get a few more pics on the other side. It was getting cold at that time, and although we shivered, we still managed to smile and gave a good shot at looking cool without showing we were cold.

Kaiyen had to call in sick to accompany me that day and she did more than I expected her to in keeping me company and touring me around. More than going around Sta. Rosa and getting to visit the sites, the most important take-away for me was discovering Kaiyen, and talking to her has given me a more complete picture of her than that of seeing her pictures and reading her posts here on Multiply.

Hasta la vista Kaiyen…won’t be saying goodbye because surely, surely..we will meet again..if only to share more food and adventures…*grin*

– Jun 10, ’07 10:41 PM

 

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Forest of the Giants (video)

Kaiyen and I trekked thru this marvelous forest on May 17, 2007. While searching for the ever elusive 4-leaf clover, we posed, pranced, and preened in front of these old, old giants. I felt so young compared to them, it was refreshing being there 😉

this got cut short though when I loaded this…but its only less than a minute left so its not too bad…

– Jun 9, ’07 2:16 AM

 

SF4: Extremes = Alcatraz 2 Ghirardelli (Photo Album)

I literally jogged thru Embarcadero St since the trains were running late on May 15, 2007. But even through I sprinted by Pier 1 to Pier 33 (where the Alcatraz Cruises were to sail off), I managed to get some pics between wheezing, sweating and puffing.

After more than 4 hours in super-windy Alcatraz (some of my landscape pics were ruined because I couldn’t hold my hands steady against the wind) and imagining myself in such a desolate and cold place, I sighed with relief upon finding myself back in the mainland.

I was grimly determined to have a hot fudge sundae to fend off feelings of weariness and hunger (no lunch since I was determined to squeeze every bit out of the Alcatraz experience, yes, even to the point of hunger!) and trudged the long way from Pier 33 to Pier 39 to Ghirardelli Square.

Before reaching my destination however, I found that there were so many other places of interest on the way…from the sourdough bread and clam chowder (Boudin), wax museum, Ripley’s and other stores which offered cheaper tourist trinkets, to the Cannery Row. Nothing really beats walking the beat so to speak.

I had to hurry through a bag of chocolates and my hot fudge sundae though, since I was to be meeting for dinner at AppleBee’s my friends and former colleagues from Sara Lee, most of whom had settled already in the US.

That meant a frantic search and pace back to where I could catch the Muni which would take me back to the nearest BART, and a mistaken wait at the wrong BART entrance while Jerry tried to pick me up from the other end…brrrrrr…good thing I had managed to buy a warmer coat AFTER Alcatraz (yeah..now I was too warm).

A perfect margarita as per Lala’s recommendation, and for the first time while I have been in the US – a steak for dinner (and I wrangled Louie for it too). Some desultory but easy conversation between all 6 of us and all too soon it was time to hit the sack.

I tried teasing Louie to take me to Monterey between an offer from Ronette to hang out at her place should I be late in arriving at BART the next day (the guys didn’t seem concerned about my being in these places late at night though..but as Ronette said – “alam ko lalaki yan si Cat, pero still….” hehehe)…

I went back with Roehl, prepared mentally and gastrointestinally for lunch with Bong and as the next day progressed…dinner with Kaiyen…wheee! free food and good company always wins hands down over shopping…

– May 30, ’07 1:07 PM

3rd day SF – Day with Choie! Haight St etc. (Photo Album)

San Francisco, May 14, 2007 – Jerry dropped me off early morning at Choie’s domain where I unabashedly chomped on breakfast, engaged in conversation with Choie while trying to keep up with her whirling around her kitchen in preparation for dinner with us that night. Isobel was delighted we would go to Haight as it seems to be one of her fave places to visit (did I hear “Amoeba!” uttered ecstatically somewhere?) and after a quick visit to the Glenn’s office to pick up something to fortify us…we went whizzing off to the BART. Choie was my instructor in all things BART and I was thankful, since this meant I could go gallivanting about as long as I could find my way back to the train station.

The rest of the day was spent in fun, esoteric and kaleidoscopically colorful Haight St. Little did I know what I was letting myself in for when I asked if we could just walk (the better to explore it my dear)….Choie and Isobel were game, but I think I got winded half-way through…hehehe…I was interested in looking also at the gay section of Castro, but 1 day in Haight-Ashbury wasn’t even enough. Meandering through different shops, while stopping by once in a while to pose and take pictures, it was an exhilirating experience to step back in time. A pizza lunch plus refreshments (tea!) at the quaint Red Victoria b&b (I want to try staying here in the future) were some of the highlights…and before we left the “needs-a-second-visit” district, we managed to get some owls for Hugzone…whew!

Ok, so I fell asleep on the way back to Choie’s house..and Isobel had to miss a class too and Choie was kind enough to let me snore in a spare room (plus she got the kinks out of my system when I woke up, by treating me to a great back massage!). Jerry had to beg off from dinner as Choie quoted him as saying he was already “durog” with all the meetings, but Roehl made it (well he should, who else would drive me back home with him..hehehe)…

Since I was hungry, I left it to the other grown-ups (ehem) to talk more and more, and concentrated on food..I had a couple of helpings of everything, ‘cept for the dessert because by that time I think I was ready to burst out of my turtlneck…hehehe…

Ah..I wish I could have spent more delightful time with them…but I’ve got my pictures and I’ve got some pasalubongs….so I am perfectly happy to become part of their lives for one whole day…(pics again will be posted sporadically, when I have good internet connection).

– May 28, ’07 5:11 AM

 

Sanfo Day 2: Napa Valley Surprise 5.13.07 (Photo Album)

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This is the only day I can remember in the whole San Francisco vacation where I was able to sleep in i.e. 9:30 na ako bumangon, at that was because Roehl knocked on my door (otherwise, I would have slept like a log throughout the whole day)…and this is the day that was really full of unexpectedly lovely surprises…but its Mother’s Day too…so I was missing my mom, but thought of her everytime I took a dainty sip of the wine..*grin*

Jerry and Roehl accompanied me (since Louie was nowhere to be found..his loss..our gain hehehe)…and its good to be with them on a trip like this…reminds me of boozy nights…

pics will trickle in slowly since I have not yet loaded the others…but Choie will be starring in some of them…along with moi (Ms Piggy accent) of course..

– May 23, ’07 5:15 AM

 

2nd week at Cincy May 7-11, 2007 (Photo Album)

bus ops week..meetings, got sick, missed free dinner, baseball game, meetings, german resto and last dinner at Cincy.

more pics later from diff cam

– May 21, ’07 10:55 PM