The best Mexican ever

I work with this lady whom we call Maria O. She is an immigrant from Mexico. When she first came to the United States, she spoke almost no english at all. She wanted to work here and she realized that for her to find a decent job, she needs to be bilingual. So she went to one of those city colleges and studied english. Her english is not perfect but she is bilingual enough and that makes her an asset at work. She continues to learn english by asking questions and using the language with us. Her work ethics is excellent. She does not need to be told to do her duties. She is friendly and nice to everybody. And the most important reason why I think she is the best Mexican ever, she feels that she needs to accommodate to what this country uses, which is english, and not the other way around. I have met plenty of Mexican immigrants out there who does not even bother to try to learn english. Can we blame them considering that our government demands that we accommodate to their language needs? And it is not just Mexicans. There are plenty of spanish speakers from other nations who are this way. And the worst kind of Mexican out there are the ones demanding that spanish should be used when speaking with them. My other coworker had the misfortune to meet one of those Mexican woman. She had the audacity to demand that "there should be a spanish speaking Physical Therapist to work with my father". Lucky for her she did not say that to me or I would have told her something like this: "Last time I checked we are in Chicago and not Gualadajara." "Then perhaps you should bring your father back to Mexico where there is a spanish speaking Physical Therapist." Don't get me wrong. That example of the worst Mexican is indeed a rarity. Most spanish speaking Mexican I meet are so happy and delighted that I can speaking spanish to them. They are OK in my book. They hope but do not demand.

I myself was an immigrant here but I made sure I can speak english and I never expected or demanded that anybody to speak Filipino to me.

3 unrelated sarcasm

> I just don't understand reckless drivers on the road with a sticker on their car that says "babies on board". They don't want us to end up killing or hurting their babies on the road because they would rather do it themselves?

> The whole practice of saying "bless you" when someone sneeze may be what polite society do but it assumes that the one sneezing believes in a higher being that can bless them. I never say bless you and I do not really care to hear it when I sneeze.

> Both Democrat and Republican politicians do things that society frowns upon like adultery, prostitutions, bj in toilets or workplace, etc. But the main difference is the Republicans look more like a hypocrite when caught.

what bored soldiers do - part 9

More of Janet the dog.

- Since I had Janet, I became a more relaxed person. I have to let go some of my obsessions about cleanliness, tidiness and orderliness in the house. I let Janet play with her toys and run around till she is done then I pick up the toys and return it to her crate. I relaxed my tendencies to always wash my hand after petting the dog before I touch anything else. Of course I still wash before handling any food or clean garment or cooking utensils. Don't get me wrong. I did not turn into a messy person. My practical side just over ruled my obsessive side.

- A lot of my negativity towards Janet stems from the fact that I expect perfection from her. Most of the time she does obey but when she does not obey, I get annoyed. Most of the time she is behaved but when she on rare occasions would do something bad, I get upset. I have to realize that she is not perfect and will make mistakes. I should just take a chill pill when she does something "bad".

- Whatever other people think about it, I will NEVER let Janet lick my face. This means that I will NEVER kiss Janet. No mater how clean that dog is, she still licks her ass with that mouth. It is just a gross practice as far as I am concern.

An evening with Fiona

My friend Pinky invited me to join her and Tom to watch "An evening with Sutton Foster" at the newly remodeled Broadway Playhouse last night. I was luke warm with the idea but since I did enjoy watching Sutton portray Fiona in Shrek, I went ahead with them. First off, Sutton is an amazing singer and actress. The show is a cabaret style performance where she sings several songs from her album and roles she has portrayed in the past. And since I have only seen her in Shrek, I was only familiar with that song. I was also familiar with songs from her album cause Pinky gave me a copy of that album. But more than half of the songs were new to me. This situation resulted to me being bored half of the time. The guy to my left was fully enjoying the show and it was obvious that he was a big Sutton fan. He has probably seen all of the roles Sutton has portrayed in Broadway. Pinky was also fully appreciating the show cause she knew all of the song.

After the show, we waited for Sutton for a chance to meet her. It so happen that Bobby Cannavale of "Will and Grace" was watching the show too. And he was outside smoking so we took the opportunity to have our picture taken with him. Our evening was highlighted by our finally meeting Sutton. Pinky and my other friend Lani have been trying for a long time to meet her in several of those Broadway shows she was in but Sutton had been very elusive. So this meeting with Sutton was very special specially to Pinky. She was tall, slim, pretty, nice and obliging which just made me like her more.

The evening was a fun evening despite those moments of boredom. But next time I will probably skip that kind of show unless I really like the performer or have seen the performer in several roles.

I wannna kiss you man...

These guys in professional tennis are not gay (except for 1 rumored to be) but the pictures sure looks like they are in the verge of kissing. So homoerotic I say.

Only boys and men can understand

I often wish my bathroom at home has a urinal. Why? Because no matter how I aim to the middle of the toilet bowl when I pee, 20% of the times it still spills to the side or beyond. How is this so? Because the position of the urethral opening and the pressure of the urine can sometime direct the initial flow to the side or up or down. So with a urinal that is appropriate for my height, run away initial flow will still be caught inside the bowl. Without a urinal, these occasional spillage can be addressed by sitting while urinating. That way no matter where the initial flow goes, it is still within the toilet bowl.

Of course all boys and men understand what I am talking about cause it has happened to them for sure!

Janet Janet Janet

Here are some random things about me and my newly adopted dog Janet.

- I am now never alone. Every night as I come home, my dog Janet greets me with glee. She jumps up and down in excitement to see me. Or perhaps she just needs to go pee badly. She follows me every where I go in the house. She lay down by my feet when I am in the living room, office and even kitchen. The bathroom is the only place she is not allowed to follow me. She would even attempt to stare at me when I am sitting in the throne! I would promptly close the door.

- American dogs are high maintenance. Back in the Philippines, we just feed the dog once a day with left overs and they were fine. This milieu of mixed left overs even includes chicken bones. We leave them 24/7 outdoors and they poo and pee on their own. And most of them have never seen a Veterinarian. Here in the USA, dogs get to eat dog food, see the Vet, be taken out for walks and even get to have outfits and toys. I suppose with all the invested money for all these dog related care, one tends to safeguard their investment by not risking feeding the dog with chicken bones. That I realized first hand. But I must say that all those money spent are worth it. There is not a day that pass that Janet does not make me smile and laugh.

- Having a dog is definitely like having a small child. Now I have another life I am responsible for. I can not just go shopping for hours after work since I have to go home and walk Janet. I have sets of dog related duties to do before I head out for work. I do not go clubbing till 4 AM every weekend as I did before. I have to adjust my sleeping and waking schedule to accommodate Janet's needs. I have to dog proof my house and not just leave food in the couch or coffee table. At least she is small and can't reach the regular table. My life style did indeed change. And at this point, it is a change that is worth it. She had taught me to be less selfish and that is always a good thing.

- Training Janet to do good things and not do bad things is challenging. Sometime she just won't listen when she gets too distracted. But with patience and consistency, I am seeing progress. I can not wait for the day when I have a truly obedient dog that everybody envies.

- In retrospect, I now know that the bowel accidents Janet had were a result of my failure to understand her properly. She does show signs when she needs to go pee and poo. I now am more attuned to these signs. My learning process continues but I am hoping that I can read her better now to prevent accidents in the house.

bob and mike and liezel

I am happy for one of my fave tennis athlete. Mike and Bob Bryan won the US Open Men's doubles while Bob Bryan and Liezel Huber won the Mix doubles. Here are some post win press conference videos. :-)

He did it on a post it!

There was this episode in Sex and the City where Carrie's boyfriend, Burger, broke up with her on a post it. The girls made a big fuss about it that he was being cowardly and that it was so inappropriate. Break up should be done in person was the message.

In the past month, I was undertaking the dilemma on how to break up with this guy Joe. I wanted to do the easiest route for me which was to email him. My friend Sam was a little disapproving about that and my friends Tom and Pinky thought I should do it in person. They added that since Joe was good to me, I ought it to him to do the break up properly in person.

So I emailed Joe asking if he was available the coming weekend to I can come to his place to talk. (Let me mention that Joe likes using the email to communicate instead of phone calls or text message.) He emailed me back asking what was so important to talk about. He added that if I was to break up with him, he wanted to know via email since he is a grown man. He continued that he won't allow anybody to be "controversial" under his roof coupled with the accusation that I was being controversial. So I emailed him back that I was just trying to do the right thing and that I was not being controversial. I got my wish and was able to do the break up via email just the way he wanted it too in the first place. All the worrying I went through with the anticipation of a face to face break up was not needed.

What I am trying to say here is, who says that break up ought to be done in person? I guess one has to take the situation and the other person into consideration. In my case, Joe obviously did not care to be broken up with in person. He just wanted to know via email so he can cope with it alone and in privacy. Also with the current age of technology, breaking up via email, voicemail or text message seems not so foreign sounding anymore.