Christmas Wish

Dear Mouse, Two parties yesterday and now I am sick. I cannot attend the Christmas party to be hosted by an American friend with his domestic partner. The partner lived in Baguio for three years as a Peace Corps so that he can speak to me in little Tagalog. Kumesta ka? Kumein ka na? The glaring difference between the Filipino party and the non-Filipino is the food. The party in the office for all staff was very austere compared to the Filipino party, I attended in the evening. Its all pica-pica like toritos, thin biscuits, fruits, cakes and some carrots, asparagus and cauliflower with Spinach dips. The Filipino party however had lechon, kilawen, pancit, chicken, shrimp, steamed fish and many more. The dessert consisted of fruits, ube, cassava cake, suman, bibingka and puto. Burp. We had a choir and a sing-along. Typical Filipino gathering. The exchange gift was fun too. There were Korean and Taiwanese guests(friends of some guests) who also participated in the gift-grabbing. I got a comforter and and the next to me grabbed it. I have to choose another gift. A foot spa. yaaaayy, I got two already. It seems the gifts brought by some guests were recycled from bridal showers and weddings. hehehe The conversations were purely about new house acquisitions, new cars and children. Whooo, I felt out of place. They are working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week and it is all because they pay for the house, for credit cards and for children's education. (Do I sound like sourgraping?) What about me? Ow, I work 8 hours a day, spends two hours in the internet (yong totoo, okay three, yong totoo sabi...sometimes four) and I sleep a lot during weekend and work on how-to-do-it- book. In short, I got a life. But there are times when I wish umulan sana ng pera kagaya sa Japan. Mystery money man rains cash on Japanese street A man who wanted to share his stock market winnings with the public tossed one million yen (about ˆ7,500) from the observation deck of a tower in central Japan today, causing a scramble for the money in the streets below. “I have too much money. I don’t need it,” he said. “I wanted to give some back to the world.” The unidentified man grabbed wads of notes from two shopping bags and threw them through an open window of the room at the TV Tower in Nagoya. The room is 330 feet above the street. The money rained down on the pavements and streets, where people scrambled to collect it. The man told NHK television that he wanted to give away some of his profits from playing the stock market earlier this month. But my Christmas wish really is to have peace and love on earth. (grin like Miss Congeniality). Merry Christmas, mouse and to one or two who read this blog.(three including myself). The CAt