Apron Strings for Emily

08 November 200813 June 2011

Show and Tell: Doin' De-butt

I actually posted this on Saturday. And really, since I’ve been out of town, I didn’t have a chance to post a Show and Tell this Sunday. So instead, I’m updating this post to make it this Sunday’s Show and Tell.

Presenting … my youngest cousin’s cotillion. Or what we call, a “Debut.” In my case … it’s de-butt! 🙂

And make sure that you peruse the other Show and Tell posts this week!

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Whew. This was a busy week.

Monday was spent catching up on the events that happened over the weekend. No … not the “social” aspect of last weekend (although I might blog about that another day). Working as an RN in the health care industry, the work never stops. Even when working for an insurance company. So as the phone calls and faxes came furiously all day Monday, there was little to no time to rest. And given that our company was closed for Election Day … well, I wanted to get everything from the weekend done by the end of Monday, so that Wednesday, I could work on everything that came in from Monday and Tuesday. So basically, my work week was spent trying to catch up from the previous couple of days. I. Hate. Work Weeks. Like That.

Yep. Me at 18. At my Debutt. With a few of my Cousins. — Yep. Me at my Debut with a few of my cousins; the same year my youngest cousin was born

Tuesday, obviously Election Day. Hubby & I tried to stay up to watch the results come in, but ended up falling asleep in bed with the T.V. still on. I swear, one minute (oh, let’s say around 11:30) Obama had 207 to McCain’s 148 (or something like that …) and the next, it’s 11:55 and the news reporter on the T.V. announces that they’re waiting for the new President-Elect Obama to give his victory speech in Chicago. And then the next minute it’s 5:30 in the morning and the T.V. is off. I’m guessing that Hubby finally turned it off when finally going to bed. Or, I turned it off in my sleep haze and don’t remember doing so. Either way, I’m seriously bummed I didn’t get to hear Obama’s speech.

(Sidenote: A week prior to the results of this election, I received one of those mass emails from one of my parents’ friends about how a vote for Obama would mean a vote against G*d … or something along those lines. And since then, I’ve been getting these “replies” from people that I don’t even know either agreeing or disagreeing to that first email. Today … I got one with this article attached to it. Grr …

And here's the Cousins 18 Years Later! — And here's the Cousins 18 yrs later!

Wednesday was obviously a repeat of Monday morning. And we all know what happened on Thursday.

Now yesterday … yesterday evening was fun. It was my youngest cousin’s cotillion. In the Philippines, it’s customary to celebrate a girl’s “coming of age” by having a “Debut” party when she turns 18. (Think “My Sup.er Sw.eet Sixteen” with a two year delay.) I had a variation of one; more of a combination of a graduation / birthday party, all while wearing a fancy shmancy dress. My youngest cousin had, what I consider more of a traditional Filipino cotillion; complete with the white ballgown, the 16 or 18 person “Cotillion Court”, and the ballroom dance routine.

She Could Be Princess Jasmine! — She Could Be Princess Ja.smi.ne!

Oh, and did I mention that her party was more elaborate than my wedding?! Uh, yeah. So much that when we got the invitation in the mail … I thought that it was actually a wedding invite! Even the banquet hall was complete with a “head table” (for my cousin and her “Court”) and chair slipcovers with baby blue satin ribbons to match her “theme.”

And the cake … !!

But really, the best part of the party was, once again, being with my cousins. One came from as far as California just to celebrate with us. And the fun that ensued was beyond incredible. As tired as I was from the past work week … I wished we could have spent more time together. Perhaps one day we’ll be able to do the “girl cousins” cruise we planned that night!

(Another Sidenote: If you ever want to see a great example of a traditional Filipino cotillion … not to mention an excellent example of growing up Filipino-American, go rent “The Debut“. It’s so “on the nose” that it totally freaked even Hubby out!)

And today? Well, today I’m finally getting a chance to relax. Hubby & I took a trip to Chicago for an extra-long weekend getaway. A much needed getaway. We’ve been busy nonstop with various activities since Labor Day and just wanted to have a moment together without any distractions. And when we got a most excellent deal on a Downtown Chi-town hotel, well we snapped up the offer. So as I type, I’m lying in our wonderful king-size bed watching my Hubby snore next to me. Oh, and I think he’s getting sick, too.

But I’m seriously okay with that. And to tell you the truth, I almost half-expected him to get sick. After all, he has had little to no sleep over the past weeks. And this is his body’s way of telling him that taking care of himself is just as important (if not more) than any other business he has.

Besides, then I wouldn’t have time to write this post.

07 November 200813 June 2011

For Everything Else …

Last Season’s Green Plaid “School Girl” Skirt with
Matching Green Sweater on clearance at Old N.avy:

"Sometimes, when I get nervous ..." — "Sometimes, when I get nervous ... "

$8.00

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Slightly used Green and White Saddle Shoes
purchased from local thrift store:

They're actually Golf Shoes!! — They're actually Green & White GOLF shoes!!

$5.00

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Two Wooden Promotional Rulers:

Free

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GettingTwo Co-workers in Nun Costumes to chase you
around the office building:

Priceless

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For everything else … There’s Laughter Card

06 November 200813 June 2011

The Quick Brown Fox …

jumped over the lazy dog …

Oh yeah … Day # 6 and I’m already stretching the dregs of creativity.

Okay, so I do have a few posts in the work but I just haven’t had time to sit down and write them “properly.” After all … I am quite the deliberative person.

So. What to talk about today? How about how I went to pick up my parents at the airport this afternoon? Except I wasn’t quite sure what time I was supposed to be there until about, oh … let’s say 1o am this morning?

Yeah. So when I went to their house to drop them OFF at the airport at the beginning of their trip … in typical Filipino fashion, my parents (well, actually my Mom) was running behind and rushing around. She left me what she thought would be their flight itinerary, but in reality … all the paper had was a list of where they would be on a day-to-day basis. Nope. No flight info anywhere.

Of course I didn’t realize this until after the had already been gone for a few days. And of course there was no way to get a hold of them, as part of their international trip included cruising the Greek Isles. And why would they think of calling me just to make sure they were okay? (Hello?! Dad with a history of a heart attack and open heart surgery within the past year … in a foreign country?!)

But … at least I knew what day they were scheduled to come back home. And what airline they were using. AND which airport they were flying in from. So, “Encyclopedia Emily” decided to go to the airline website and figure out which flights were coming into Detroit from the airport they were flying out from. And my excellent deductive skills narrowed it down to three different times.

Problem was, that they were all about 2-3 hours apart in time. So I could’ve showed up at the first time and possibly have had to wait until they showed up (which could be as long as 6 hours … can you imagine that?!) OR I could hope to G*d that they would call me before their flight takes off.

Lucky me, the latter happened. Which is good, because there’s nothing to do and no place to just hang out around our airport. And I wasn’t about to pay whatever huge amount it would be to just park my car in the lot. AND, well … I didn’t bring anything to do (read: knitting) if I had to wait around.

Okay. So that was a lame story. I promise a better one this weekend.

But maybe not tomorrow, because I’ve got my youngest cousin’s wedding … oops, I mean cotillion-slash-18th birthday party to attend.

03 November 200817 September 2024

Attempt No. 2

Okay, so I’m going out on a limb here. Seeing that I have now consistently written just about every day (sans a day here and there) for the past three weeks, I’ve decided to make another attempt at posting more consistently.

I may live to regret this, but I think I’m going to attempt NaBloPoMo. I personally blame Becky from Mommy Wants Vodka (just kidding, Becky … ) for inspiring me to do this. She’s doing it, so I decided to try it too. Of course, she’s also more a consistent poster than I am, so we’ll see how well I do.

So what to talk about today (which, I guess is technically Day 3)? Perhaps how I should have been wearing this t-shirt today at work? Hmm, for those of you that questioned who I was planning on voting for from this post … I guess you probably can figure it out now. Well, at least I still have tomorrow to wear that shirt. Wonder what the Exit-Poll people would do if they approached me.

Or I could talk about how I need to remember not to schedule my dental cleaning four days after Halloween again. What. Was. I. Thinking?! Seriously … I’m a little afraid for my poor hygienist, who might be finding some “Bit O’Honey” or bite-size “Snickers” bits in the back. Poor, poor girl.

Or I could talk about how this evening I watched “Duran Duran: Live from Wembley“on VH1 Classic Concerts. (And yes, Kara … was totally thinking of you.) It made me regret not going to see them in concert for that tour. Because, is it me? Or did Simon Le Bon’s voice get better and stronger with age? Or did technology advance that much since watching the “Arena” concert?

Oh, I know. I’ll talk about how easy it is to get suckered into taking stupid online quizzes. I must confess, that one time ( … at band camp … ) I must have spent an evening just taking quizzes. For me, it usually starts off by reading about someone else’s quiz.

In this case, it was another friend‘s blog who took a quiz on what she should be when she grows up. Of course then I wanted to find out for myself (because I still haven’t figured it out … ). And once I finished that quiz, I saw another one I wanted to take. And another one. And yet another one. I swear … I must have taken about 5 of them. But this one was the one that made me stop:

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You Are Changing Leaves

Pretty, but soon dead.

What Part of Fall Are You?
(Don’t click it … even though I know you want to!)

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I mean, seriously? “Pretty, but soon dead”?! Kinda a little freaky, don’t you think? And to think, that Fall is my absolute favorite season. Hmm … I might need to rethink that.

Okay, babbling enough. Guess I need to save some of this babble and spread it out over the next month …

01 November 200813 June 2011

On Being There …

I woke up about 4:30 this morning to the sound of my “puppy” needing a potty break. And because of that, I wasn’t able to get back to sleep right away. So instead, I fired up my laptop and started playing catch-up with blog-reading. It was at that early hour that I read this excellent post from Mrs. Spit.

Now, Mrs. Spit, I hope you don’t mind me saying … but that post had me desperately trying to hold back the tears. For it’s that silent communication that I’ve been searching for in my life. That feeling of knowing that someone … anyone … close by in proximity would (directly) acknowledge the hurt and that pain that I felt. And someone would realize how hard it was on some days to just get through certain moments, certain snippets in time.

Yesterday, being Halloween, was one of those snippets in time. Particularly made worse by the fact that it’s a very child-centric holiday. For obvious reasons, our yearly ritual of walking around trick-or-treating with our nephew was suspended. Understandably so, as the events of this past two months have put such a huge strain on the current relationship status with his family.

But that’s neither here nor there. And this is not another post about those issues. This is a post of what happens when someone finally made that connection with me. Today. This morning, in fact. And as I write about it now, the tears can’t help but spring back up again. Because this is what I get for trying to hold them back earlier this morning.

Simply said … there is nothing … nothing better than having your fears and your hurt and your pain directly acknowledged. Nothing better than having someone validate that what I’m feeling is real. Nothing better than having someone understand how hard it is to be and to act in my situation.

Nothing better than having someone physically say these things to you. And mean it.

And you know in your heart and your mind that she does. Because, although she will soon join the ranks of motherhood, she’s been there, too.