Who Wants to Be a Thousandaire?

Today, I had great, great fun!

It's Sunday. I just love Sundays. The way I love Mondays, and Tuesdays, and Wednesdays....

This particular Sunday is special.

I tuned in to Channel 5 to hear Bo Sanchez lead beautiful singing and praising of God.
He said one of the privileges of his life is to pray for dying people. He said that when it comes to dying, there are only two kinds of people: those who are afraid to die, and those who are not.

Am I afraid? Most definitely not!

Am I ready? Not sure.

Do I want to? No...at least, not yet.

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I was helping fix my things and I kinda got the idea to give away stuff I don't need to de-clutter the condo. Mom keeps saying I have so many stuff. (My mom? She's the neatest person in the world, in more ways than one!)

So, I had a brilliant idea! Why don't I give away my stuff, and make other people happy? And as my brother Nerick believes, "Charity begins at home." Today, we had a family gathering because it was Daddy's birthday last Friday.

I couldn't wait for every one to arrive!

Sure enough, they arrived in batches...but there were only 15 of us. My son, Abby, Coby, Eileen and Norenz were not around. Could have been even more fun.

The food? rice, two kinds of chicken, rellenong bangus, inihaw na baboy, pancit Malabon, dilis, softdrinks, and the biggest hit-- fruit salad in a cup! (Oyie's treat for having been promoted to VP status)

Then, my 4 nieces and 1 nephew played "What wants to be a thousandaire?" Each set their eyes on a prize and tried to answer more and more difficult questions.

We sort of had a theme "Matulungin", the street where we used to live.

Questions like -

...what did we first have? a) basketball court b) billiard table c) pingpong table d) mah jong table

...what car did we first have in Matulungin? a) Buick b) Fiat c) Volkswagen d) Lancer

...how many Bolibols did we have? (the maids ending with the family name Bolibol)

...which of the cousins had the most number of yayas? (answer: Eena, with 7!)

...and so on.

All too soon, they had to go.

Aww, just when I was still having fun!

That's the way with family...you can't wait to see them...you hate to see them go...

...till next time...

I am dying....

Multiple myeloma has no known cure.

My verrrry expensive medicines are only for prolonging my life.

In other words...I am dying.

I am eager to see my Creator and meet my father again.


But then I believe in miracles.

And so I have this to say -


I am dying...

To tell all of you that I love you!

Dying

Take these three sentences:
1) I am dying of cancer.
2) I am dying my hair red.
3) I am dying to tell you "I love you".

All three sentences start with the same three short words but these three words take on a totally different meaning with each sentence. The profound lesson here is: we should let people finish speaking before we ourselves speak.

Speaking of "dying", I've decided not to dye my hair just yet. They all say that once you start dying your hair, you cannot stop. And it can be expensive. Someone told me that there are 200 strands of hair per square inch of scalp. If my hair reaches more than 30% white, I guess that is my signal to start dying my hair. Meanwhile, I shall just pluck away my white hair or ask somebody else to do it (like what my sister did last Christmas day).

On a sad note, a batchmate from Maryknoll just lost her mother. (I hope I will have the opportunity to attend the wake today.)

As one gets older, more and more people you know, or relatives of people you know, die.

There are three things in life that are certain: death, taxes and criticism. Death, I cannot do anything about. Taxes, I just pay as dutifully as I can and leave the rest to the BIR. And criticism? Accept it graciously, give it sparingly, and for full measure, affirm and appreciate others generously.

There goes my thought for today.