thanksgiving holidays

people here are already greeting each other happy holidays, and i don’t mean the yuletide season coming in three weeks. thanksgiving is a big deal here. thanksgiving parties, thanksgiving lunches, thanksgiving dinners, you get the idea. but for me, it is way too over-rated.

dapat long week-end ako, pero dahil nasa diyaryo biz ako, hindi puwede. thanksgiving was thursday, so automatic na yun, walang pasok. but we had to work on friday.

anyway, eto ang mga kaganapan ko the past three days, blow by blow—

thursday—thanksgiving mismo. lunch to death— turkey, ham and all those stuff, parang noche buena, only, we partook the food during lunch time. nabato ako sa bahay so i went to the cineplex. watched two movies—unbreakable, saka 102 dalmatians—okay lang. may surprise ending sa dulo ng unbreakable.


friday—work to death, then sa gabi, my friends and i went out and painted the town read. as in. had three rounds of drinks—apple martini, cherry margarita, miller lite—at pagdating pa sa bahay nung isang friend, nag share pa kami (five of us) ng isang malaking bote ng bailey’s. not a good idea. hahaha. while i didn’t get drunk, i almost puked my intestines out. no hang-overs. we slept around 3 am, set the alarm for 6:30 -- because we had to leave by 7:30 to go shopping. by 5 am, i had a nasty dream, i was relieving myself inside this bathroom when i noticed puke all over (not the puke that you know, lol, which makes me puke, too. hahaha) so parang na-induce. i went to the bathroom, and pagtapat ko pa lang sa sink, boom! yun na, suka to death.

anyway, obviously, hindi kami nagising ng 6:30, so nakaalis kami sa bahay, mga 9:30 na. we planned this trip a week before pa. our destination was 10 miles east of palm springs where there is an outlet mall with more than 120 stores. super sale talaga at pagdating ng gabi, medyo pagod na pagod na talaga ang katawang lupa ko kalalakad.

sunday—birthday ng pamangkin ko. we went to church, then had lunch at a chinese resto in chinatown (saan pa?) after that, drive to my other cousin’s house because two of my titas visited, one from toronto, and one from tucson, arizona. as usual, i dodged the same old question— “Wala ka pang planong mag-asawa?” with such finesse and mastery. Deadma, sabay smile. hahaha.

at ngayong lunes, andito na ako sa work, back aches and all. i had the itch to write kaya heto, nagsusulat.

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cliffhanger

i was up until about 4 am this morning—redundant ba? -- wating for the final results of the us elections yesterday. wala. it has been a roller-coaster ride. i don’t even know why the hell i am so much fixated with american politics. so much so that this fixation miserably fails in comparison with my cousins’ (well at least some of them).

i don’t like george dubya. i hate him even. no particular reason. hahaha. call me biased. had i been a us citizen already, i’d be a full-blooded democrat. god, i hate republicans and everything (okay, hasty generalization there. NOT everything) they believe in.

florida is too close to call. geez, this is so historic. the americans elect their president thru the electoral college. salamat sa mga founding fathers nila. this makes the popular vote moot and academic. as one broadcaster said, it’s like the appendix. it’s there but you don’t need it.

florida’s governor is dubya’s brother. i just hope that they’re not stopping at everything to deliver florida to bush.


boo-boos galore. media networks here committed booboos. twice. first they predicted that florida went to gore, and a couple of hours later, they recanted their claim and put florida in the too close column. florida carries 25 electoral votes. as it stands, gore leads, 260 to bush’ 246. the magic number to win the presidency is 270. whoever wins florida wins it. there’s one more state—oregon, with 7 votes—that hasn’t finished counting.

for almost an hour last night, i was crest-fallen, down-trodden even. when the networks declared george walker bush as the 43rd president of the united states. it was so heart-breaking. again, i have no idea why i was this affected. i called my a friend of mine and we discussed. he’s also a gore fanatic and we were both feeling so down. that was the networks’ -- abc, cbs, nbc, i think even cnn—major booboo. turns out that the counting in florida isn’t over yet.

when gore saw on tv that bush has been declared as the president-elect, he called dubya to congratulate him. on his way to speak to his supporters, he was advised that florida was too close to call. he called up dubya again and withdrew his congratulations, and the concession.

and that’s where it all stands now. florida has laws that make recounts automatic if there is ½ of 1% separating the candidates. oh well. at least, there is still glimmer of hope for a gore presidency. in the meantime, new york elected hillary clinton as their senator. okay lang. i find rick lazio so snotty and cocky. and of course, he’s a republican, so good for him. hahaha.

that ladies and gentlemen, is what’s happening here.

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