Meet Blanco

My husband gave me an ipod for my birthday. It's the loveliest little thing. I christened him Blanco and he goes everywhere with me. Especially to bed. For the past year, I've suffered from chronic insomnia and finally, I've found music has helped soothed me! My favorite bedtime listening is Neil Gaiman's Audio books. Listening to his quaint British accent has a calming effect. My second most favorite listening material is the radio play of "Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy." Those brits, so sexy.

I love my Ipod so much, I decided to buy my husband one as well. I got him a black iSkin to differentiate it from mine. Heaven forbid I accidentally get his and listen to the UK Subs to sleep.

What I also love about Blanco is that it's like working in radio again! I put together little playlists to suit mood and activity. Take a guess what might be in these playlists:

Chili Con Carne
Waxing Brazilian
Oi Noipi
Old School Punk
Old Wave
Popsicle Chill
Ira Would Be Proud
Road Demon
Kill Barney
Lilith Fare
Classical Thunder
Hot and Sweaty

Ipod, WEpod!

A Sense of Propriety

I don't know how my son came to be the way he is. He is so clean and proper. He loves his alco-gel, puts it on his hands constantly, then puts it on my hands, and legs, and jeans. He grabs a wet-one and wipes his face with it for about ten minutes. Then, he holds it in his hand like a hanky and uses it to mop up any perspiration. When it dries up, he gets a new wipe. That's why he's lemony fresh 24/7!

If a lamp is out of place, like heavens, on the floor - he grunts until I pick it up and put it on the table.

He is our little garbageman. He looks for stray pieces of tissue to put in the trash. That's great. Problem is, he also puts in empty glasses and silverware in the trash as well. We're lucky he's been able to differentiate plates now. Those, he knows, goes into the sink.

Sneezing is a regular habit (he gets that from me) and well, snot does not sit well with a little chum with a big sense of propriety. His dad taught him to wipe his nose with his shirt. Problem is he does not want his shirt to get wet, so he grabs the next best thing - YOUR shirt. I'm trying to retrain that behavior. Thanks Dad.

When I need to wash the dishes, he stands beside me on a chair and helps pour water on the soupy dishes with a little "tabo."

The ironic thing is my son loves the feel of water but if some of it lands on his pants or t-shirt, watch out! It's tantrum time up to the moment that he's out of the wretched wet item and into something dry. And you can't move fast enough to please him.

Kids are funny people.

Hirschsprung Disease

Hirschsprung disease is characterized by a congenital absence of ganglion cells in the distal colon resulting in a functional obstruction. Although this condition was described by Ruysch in 1691 and popularized by Hirschsprung in 1886, the pathophysiology was not clearly determined until the work of Swenson in the middle of the 20th century.

Most cases of Hirschsprung disease are now diagnosed in the newborn period. Hirschsprung disease should be considered in any newborn who fails to pass meconium within 24-48 hours after birth. Although contrast enema is useful in establishing the diagnosis, rectal biopsy remains the criterion standard. Once the diagnosis is confirmed, the basic treatment is to remove the poorly functioning aganglionic bowel and create an anastomosis to the distal rectum with the healthy innervated bowel (with or without an initial diversion).

I pray that my son does not have this. I hope he poops on his own soon.

Enema of the State

My 2 year old son is anal-retentive. Literally. I'm not just throwing this term around like the way people use the word obsessive compulsive. He doesn't poop. It all started when I left for the United States. First, he'd stop for about 4 days and now he goes 10 days without pooping. This is NOT good. His pediatrician says there's nothing physically wrong with him. He just doesn't want to go. Perhaps he's holding it in. Maybe he's constipated. Who knows? What we do know is that every week, my son has to have an enema in order to poop. No, ordinary glycerine suppositories just don't cut it. We had to haul in the heavy ammunition. The Fleet Enema. Costs P180 at Mercury Drug.

What's a mom to do? Google! I'm researching now on anal-retentiveness in toddlers. I'm scouring my books for information. I'm going into a full blown campaign to get my son to poop! I want this house to be enema-free!

Best Birthday Ever

I've never enjoyed my birthdays too much.

When I turned 18, my debut was marked by a Signal No. 3 typhoon called Rubing.
When I turned 24, my car broke down on EDSA. My mobile phone battery was dead. And yes, there was another typhoon. I was stranded for 6 hours with no umbrella.
When I turned 30, I turned 30. And yes, there was a typhoon too.

But this year, on my 32nd birthday, the sun is shining. Inside my heart and outside the plane. I fly straight in the arms of my son and husband. No party, no greetings, no fuss. But I'll remember this birthday forever as the one time I got exactly what I wanted.

My Terrorist Alias

Let's just say I fit the bill. Petite Asian girl heading to a country known for terrorism and kidnapping. Travelling alone. And my name. Oh heavens, my name. While I have the pleasure of marrying a wonderful most uncommon man, I carry with displeasure the most common name in the Spanish-speaking world. In combination with my first name - it spells TERRORIST.

As I patiently waited for my boarding pass at the O"hare airport, anxious to feel the arms of my son and husband around me, several thousand miles away - I knew something was up. The usual 5 minute wait for a boarding pass stretched to 10 minutes, then 20. Something was up. The ground attendant of American Airlines was neither friendly nor rude but her deadpan face gave me no clue. Finally after what seemed an eternity of keyboard tapping, she issued my boarding pass with a thin smile. She informed me my name was on the TSA Federal No-Fly watchlist. I had to call TSA and clear my name to prevent further delays in the future.

Wonderful. Why can't I have the normal boring type of air travel? Where luggage arrives when I do? And I'm not mistaken for a terrorist?

A New Craving

Butterburgers and frozen custard at Culver's.

Yum. Joli and Kevin brought me there last night for my last supper in Chicago. I'm going home tomorrow and they initally wanted to bring me somewhere fancy-schmancy but I suggested Culvers. Glad I did.

Off to Manila in 7 hours. I can't wait!

Green Light for the Green Card

Finally this crazy immigration process has come to an end. Our visa is approved!

The interview went very well. Scheduled for 8AM, they got the pre-interview at 10:30 and were finished by 12:30PM. The funny thing everyone got confused. They saw my husband's name on the file name, assumed the beneficiary is a girl, and then when they saw him (being white) they assumed he is the U.S. petitioner – so they were asking where’s the wife to be interviewed?? He had to explain and the U.S. consul got intrigued. Then, he started interviewing my German mother-in-law (she was there as a babysitter) about how a Germen ended up the Philippines. After 5 minutes, he said ok I’ve got no more
questions. Husband and baby were shooed off to Delbros to fix the courier service for their passports. Done!

Success!! The green (although white) card and the SS number after they arrive in the U.S. the first time.

For most of the interview, Axel was sound asleep. BUT he did his first subversive act. The naughty boy sneezed during the interview and wiped his snotty nose on the American Flag, right near the consul's booth. No respect at all!! My son, the hippie!

I got to start packing. I’m so excited to see my two boys again. I miss them so much and I'm flying home in a few days. We'll plan our next step soon. But right now, I just want to go home.

And so it begins…

The Box in the Basement

Something beautiful and unexpected happened today.

I was tapping away on Gandalf (the White, my ibook) in the basement, composing some email to some egroup -- when I heard some movement in the box in front of me. Now this box was filled with rustry Xmas tincans and assorted candy boxes (my sister's idea of organizing) so my immediate suspicion was there a mouse lurking in the box. Now, dealing with mice is not my cup of tea but I do know first hand that a mouse left alone in a trapped area will probably die there and end up stinking up the whole basement. I had to face my fears. Remove that dreaded mouse from that dreaded box in this dreadful basement.

Still in my pajamas, I went upstairs, gingerly lifting the box from the bottom with both hands - taking special care not to hold the box's inside for fear the little critter will use my hands as a "ladder." Then I strategized that I could bring the box up the driveway, and tip it over to the side so the mouse could run free into the fields! Of course, that is if the mouse wouldn't get squashed by the tin boxes.

You can imagine my surprise when I noticed the sound from inside the box was not a squeak but more of a squawk. Hmm...I proceeded to remove the tinboxes to unveil a tiny black bird. Reminded me of Matthew from Sandman. Weird! How did he get into the house and how did he land in the basement? I can only imagine. I put the box to the side and he hopped off a bit - that chirped a final farewell (and perhaps thank you?) and flew off towards the neighbors house.

Funny how life is. You expect the worse, jump in to face your fears and find out things aren't so bad after all.

American TV

Here in America, I only watch two channels: VH1 and the History Channel. I can say that I equally divide my time between the two. On VH1, I get sucked in to watching these countdown shows. 100 Best Love Songs, 40 Worst Hip Hop Moments, 50 Greatest Child Stars (Where are they now?) On the history channel, I love watching documentaries on well... just about everything. The most recent one I saw was about the women of Hitler: his mistress, his mother, his propagandist filmmaker. It's all very educational. Now, if there was just a way to merge Vh1 and the History Channel.

Then we'd have countdowns like 50 Stupid Moments in History. Or 100 Bloopers of Bush. 20 Top Songs about Communism. Now that would be good TV.

Northworst Airlines

It's been officially three weeks and there is still no sign of our luggage. The customer service line at the NWA is always set on the answering machine so we've never gotten to talk to a real person for the past two weeks. Daily, I check the nwa.com's luggage tracking service and get the dreaded "No Information Available" message. It's so disappointing. I had been flying Northwest Airlines since I was 8 years old and airline loyalty got me no where. In the back of mind, I want to believe our luggage will turn up, maybe after 2 months, or 4 or 6 months....but it's doubtful.

I don't care about how many thousands of miles I got on my worldperks card. I'm never flying Northwest again.

Viva Las Vegas!

Check out my photos at www.pbase.com/aueysantos/sincity

I got the chance to walk around downtown Las Vegas alone for a solid 9 hours today, which gave me a lot of time to take photos.

First stop was Forums Shops, inside Caesar’s Palace, which had a Roman theme. You see, the gimmick here is that each of the major casinos have a theme, much like a theme park, which its own mall inside, restaurants, merchandising and entertainment. And everything is really over the top. Some of the ones I did not enter have the largest indoor rollercoaster,
aquariums etc. At Forum Shops, the ceiling was painted to look like the sky and special light direction changed the sky to mimick the sky outside. The stores were made to look like Ancient Rome with scattered statues of Roman Gods and columns. There is a huge aquarium in the center, about 2 stories high containing all types of beautiful tropical fish. In front of it, there’s a “live statue” show. The story is of a Roman God (I assume Jupiter) who is chosing an heir to the throne, and having to test his daughter, a Goddess of Water and the son, a God of fire. There’s a pre-recording of voices by actors and the statues mechanically move on cue. High tech with matching special effect of the water fountain and pools of fire. I couldn’t
get a good vantage point for a photo though.

For lunch, I went to McDonald's. Check out the ceiling at this place!

Next was the Mirage Casino, which had a jungle theme. It was the home to the famous magicians Siegfried and Roy. The white tigers were hiding that day, so I wasn’t lucky enough to get a glimpse of them. At the Mirage, I tried the slot machine – just four quarters and I gave up. Waste of money! I didn’t bother going into the casino areas after that as they all looked
the same to me. Outside the Mirage is a beautiful water show, every half hour after sunset.

Me with Bono. Apologies for the bad photo! Ah, the perils of travelling alone!

Then I went to Venetian which had a Venice, Italy theme. There, I entered the Madam Taussaud’s wax museum. Somehow I must have been really unlucky cuz I was all alone in most of the rooms which really creeped me out. The wax figures appeared so lifelike even mimicking the skin imperfections and to scale! The place was a photo op paradise but since I was
alone I wasn’t able to take photos of myself. One corner had a huge tiger-striped bed with Hugh Hefner. You can put on a bunny outfit and ears to pose by him. There was also Britney Spears sluttdancing by the pole, and the props there were fur coats and feather boas. In another room, there was Las Vegas wedding chapel and George Clooney waiting. You had the option of trying on a bride’s gown and having a photo taken with him as your groom. It came complete with fake
bouquet and wax minister. I was mildly disappointed with the Julia Roberts and Brad Pitt wax figures. The rest were pretty good. But what really freaked me out was one room entitled “Hall of Monsters” I had no idea what was going to happen but there was a small line outside and I got in line without reading the warning. Turns out it’s a darkened hall with wax figures from famous Horror Movies. But some of the wax figures are actually actors who surprise you by jumping out in your face. It was in all good fun but I’m definitely not doing that alone again!!!

Inside the casino, I came to the Venetians’ gondolas inside the casino. They were beautiful but just so fake. The gondoliers actually spoke in fake Italian accents and belted out “O Solo Mio” as they steered down the indoor canals. Costs $15 per person too. Crazy! In the main plaza, I was able to rest and sit down for awhile cuz there was a free concert of Italian opera singers (I highly suspect one was Pinay). I just listened to them as they did Carmen and other famous tunes. The plaza tried to mimick old Italy which some artisans like painters and charcoal artists who did portraits for a fee ($20) and carnival
mask makers, as well as street musicans and mime artists.

At the Belagio casino, I found the Museum of Fine Art and there was special exhibit on the Impressionist Landscape. It was a good break from all the garishness but by the time I got out, my feet and back so much, I practically was crawling.
I didn’t even go to Paris, which had a fake Eiffel Tower, Treasure Island, which had a beautiful Pirate show in front every night and New York New York, which boasts of the largest indoor rollercoaster in the world. Suko na ako! I don’t think I need to go
back either – I was on major sensory overload.

Back on Las Vegas Blvd, things were starting to get raunchier after sunset. I took the street level route for night photos and drunk men (probably on bachelor parties) would yell out obscenities to the people on the sidewalk as their cars passed by. The beautifully manicured landscape were littered with credit-card sized porno photos with numbers advertising “strippers
to your doorstep.” And there were a lot of people handing out fliers advertising Asians, Barely Legal etc.

And that was my day ... 9 hours on the Strip and no sign of Gil Grisam. Oh well.

Seat with a View

My first time to fly into Nevada upon Transmeridian Airlines, flight 327 from Chicago.

I'm at awe at the beautiful landscape. The highways look like snakes slithering in the sand. The canyons remind me of anthills with smooth spans of sand between. It's awesome.