Eden's Wanderings and Wonderings

This a birthday weekend for me. Today, Friday, friends from work surprised me with a surprise get together / happy hour at the local cantina. I thought that I was just having dinner with 2 friends when more than a few showed up! What a treat! Now if I only knew how to upload some photos, I may be able to say it (the first of a series of celebrations) and show it as well. The celebration continues....

Did I say birthday weekend? Yes, my birthday was actually on the 9th, My children took me to Cafe Bastille in the city - San Francisco, that is. After lunch we did the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and Yerba Buena Center for the Arts. My children must think that their mother is some kind of cultured to plan such a day. :) I did have fun and enjoyed Baby Mikey's (the grandson) first museim visit. He is 6 months old.

This is something that I am stealing from Jill's Blonde Momentos. Great way to get to know someone - a little bit-

Four jobs I have had in my life:

1. Mom
2. Teacher
3. Elementary School Principal
4. Federal and State Programs Manager

Four places I have lived:
1. Cebu, Philippines
2. Yap Islands, Micronesia
3. Palo Alto, CA
4. Fremont, California

Four places I have been:
1. Paris, France
2. 24 states of the 50 in the U.S.
3. Philippines
4. Japan

Four Favorite Foods:
1. Filipino food
2. apple pie ala mode
3. Palma's and Charity's Baked Brie and Fig Jam
4. pasta, marinara sauce, or cream sauce, and lots of parmesan cheese

Four places I would rather be right now:
1. Maui or any of the Hawaiian islands
2. Paris
3. Some warm beachy clime in the Philippines
4. Lake Tahoe, if it was warmer

My three children, daughter in law, sister, and grandbaby Mikey went out for a celebratory dinner tonight. (Grandson Izzy was with his dad.) I had my one year check up yesterday and was told that my CT scan, and blood work showed clear results and that I am free of cancer. It has been a little over a year since my surgery and chemo treatments. I had some serious anxiety the night before the MD visit and was so relieved to receive the news!

Last night I baked up a storm. My other grandchild, Izzy, was to bring cookies to school for their preschool bake sale. One requirement - no nuts! I think they meant the food kind not the grandmas who are crazy enough to bake cookies with their 3 year old grandson. haha... That sure was a fun experience well not counting the extra sugar and extra flour he poured into the bowl. Life is grand! (Now if I only knew how to post photos, I can totally brag!)

Today's Quote

Age is all imagination. Ignore years and they'll ignore you.
-Ella Wheeler-Wilcox

I wish I could really ignore the years. I am finding it hard to get up from the floor when sitting around the carpet with my kindergarteners. I feel the age on my knees, back, etc...

Maybe I should work summer school to start the eye-lift, chin lift, and whatever else lift fund! Can they do this without knife and blood involvement? I am too chicken for any type of procedures... I am doomed to sagging skin!!! LOL

I thought of myself as a pretty good Catholic. I am not too sure after I went to Good Friday service tonight.

There was Mass and Veneration of the Cross. People lined up to genuflect and show reverence - some kissed the cross. Somehow, I can't remember this ritual ever...

I know I am forgetting things after my chemo treatments... so perhaps this is one that I have totally forgotten. It is that or I have never really attended Good Friday service in the past, or at least it has been a very long time since I attended one... Maybe because Good Friday is not a holy day of obligation!

A friend of mine sent an email last Thursday that forwarded a message from his brother that said "go out and wash some apostles' feet"... That I remember from Holy Thursday service ...

One of my good friends has a grandson, Matthew, who just got diagnosed with cancer. It breaks my heart when I hear news of young children with huge and immense challenges. As a cancer survivor myself, I know what is ahead of Matthew when he starts treatments. My heart and prayers go out to the young man. It just does not seem fair for an 11 year old to go through this.

Someone started a website for Matthew. I am going to try and add that link here. I feel that the more collective good thoughts and prayers there are, the better it is for Matthew. (It sure worked for me!)

http://www.helpmatthew.com/

I often tell myself that that "Aging gracefully" phrase is a lot of baloney. I have been waiting for that to happen and I am giving up on it. However, I still have a lot to be thankful for.

Example: As one gets older, it does take time to look for some of the things to be thankful for, so here I am taking the time to look!

I am sitting here, taking the time to ponder. Eureka! And I am thinking how nice it is (and being thankful) that wrinkles don't hurt!

I hate April 15! I hate paying additional taxes when it is in addition to an already high withholding. So I wait until the very last minute to work on my taxes and mail it on the very last day as well.

So I went to the post office this morning, arriving there at about 7:40AM. There was a schedule on the door that said they open at 8:00 AM. Inside (lobby) there was a line starting to form. So I joined in. I am third in line.

Then I noticed there was another posting on the inside door (closed at this time) that the post office opens at 8:45AM - unitl 10:00 PM perhaps to accomodate last minute taxpayers like me. In the meantime, the line behind me is getting longer! I shared what I read with the folks in line.

A braver person knocked on the door, well window actually, where people pick up parcels. One postal employee opened the little window and the brave person asked her about the 2nd sign on the inside door. The postal employee assured us that they will open at 8:00 AM (some 3 minutes from the door knocking event).

So about 8:05 the inside door opens. I was joking to that perhaps there will only be one window open.... From my mouth to some Post Office April 15 God's ears ... there WAS only 1 window open! YIKES... The line behind me was now about 30 person long! I was so proud and happy that I am third in line.

So #1 in line went up to mail his returns. I noticed that #2 in line had loose papers with checks paper clipped to the loose papers. He then asked the post office lady to provide him with envelopes. To my surprise, the P.O. lady complied!

I signaled to the lady that perhaps she could help me while #2 was stuffing his returns and addressing the envelopes. She ignored me. The clock is ticking and I needed to go to work...

8:15AM, a second window open. The P.O. lady #2 decided to rearrange her counter space, dust her computer, count her change, etc. as I wait. When she was done, she called out to me with a loud announcement that she takes only CASH. I told her that I had it and if I did not, I was going to beg, borrow, and / or steal from the people in line who will be more than helpful because "WE are in this together". That got some laugh from some people in line.

P.O. lady #2 repeated as I approached the window that she is "CASH ONLY". I told her that I had everything, cash, credit card, debit card, check, blood, sweat, and tears. What I did not have were an arm and a leg as I gave that to the IRS!

See, I hate April 15 because it impairs everyone's thinking, including mine!

I thought about this when Jill first posted this on her blog and once again after Deborah posted it in one of the forums. I am not the most original or creative one, so I thought about what it would be for me...

Here are two that I have been toying with ... not my original thoughts, of course, but I thought these fit me... I teach students who are children of newly immigrated families. So my classroom is pretty diverse culturally and language-wise. I thought the six word sentence below is appropriate for my work. It also carries over to travels - when I step into lands where the language is "foreign" to me... Examples Japan and France... hmmm ... smiles go a long way -

Everyone smiles in the same language

or

To teach is to learn twice

The sentence above is very appropriate in the work that I do and in my life goals... I am always a learner - pursuing something all the time...

I live in a town / city where there is a high concentration of Afghani immigrants. We have a part of our town called "Little Kabul". Lucky us, we have the opportunity to enjoy the Afghani culture and its food... Yummm... So here is a little peek at one of the Afghani restaurants in my area... It is a small restaurant with some "take-off-your-shoes-and-sit-on- the- cushions- on- the- floor- sitting" as well as regular sitting. Being old, I opted for the table and chairs this time...

My daughter and I went out to Salang Pass Restaurant tonight. There was a review of this restaurant this weekend on the PBS TV Channel 9 station's Check Please Bay Area. The three foodies / program guests from the San Francisco area came all the way to Fremont to try out this restaurant... All three had good reviews of the food. I have dined here a few times before before but thought we'd try it again...

We started out with one of my favorites here - the Borani Kadoo. It is pumpkin sauteed in and seasoned with garlic and topped with a special yogurt sauce. The restaurant gives the diners some salad and naan (bread) to start with, so I had the naan with the Borani Kadoo... delicious!

We then had our entree... My daughter picked Quabili Pallow. It is described as baked brown basmati rice with seasonned lamb and topped with raisins and juilllene carrots.

Today, the Staycation continues. We headed for the beach. Inspired by Barb Cabot's eloquently written post about beach memories, we headed for the beach today... towards Half Moon Bay.

It is nice to travel the usually busy Bay Area freeways in the middle of the day on Monday. There was no traffic so we made it to the beach in good time. We stopped at the San Gregorio beach where Izzy loved playing in the sand...

I am pretty content with life and really happy about being a transplant from the Philippines to California.

Then one of my cousins sent me a series of pictures she took of my hometown. Homesickness sat in! I miss Samboan, Cebu. It is in the middle part of the Phillipines; about an hour by plane from Manila. It is where I was born and where I spent my elementary school days. It is a pretty peaceful place... everyone seems to be related to me... and can potentially know everything about me...Inspite of that, or inspite of it being small and confining, it has some awesome assets... like this sunset...

I grew up in a little town by the sea. I have not been home in about 3 or maybe 4 years. My relatives are torturing me. My younger cousin and neices sent me some pictures of my favorite part of that town called Samboan. Here they are enjoying the sea....