I created a blog to quickly post pictures I took of the very nice recycled art works created by my mom. Check it out at  http://drinking-straw-art.blogspot.com/

It never occurred to me that something as innocent as a smile can make me go nuts. 🙂

I was briskly walking in the mall (SM City North) as I always do when the mall is just another obstacle I have to go through on my way home. But then I was forced to abruptly slow down my walk when I noticed an approaching familiar face – a former officemate. I quickly put a smile on my face for the incoming exchange of pleasantries. This is my typical behavior in this type of situation. But then by the time she looked at me, it hit me. As I realized my eyes failed me and the supposed to be former officemate turned out to be a complete stranger. There’s only a slight resemblance that I wonder why I mistook her for a previous officemate. After that rude awakening, I’m now faced with the problem of wiping off the big smile I’m still carrying, without looking like a fool. The last thing I want is for her to think I’m some nuts, who smiles at everyone I see, or worst, she might think I’m flirting with her. But I guess that would be ok, she’s not that bad 🙂

The crowded mall offered many solutions to my urgent problem. I quickly thought out a plan and proceeded to execute it. What I did was to cleverly look beyond her, pretending I was actually smiling at the girl just behind her. Good thing the girl was not looking at me, if she was, I would have to go through it all over again. Plan accomplished – perfectly.

I’m been having these bouts of what I call “Familiarity from a Distance” syndrome lately. Where every so often, I would, from a distance, mistake a stranger’s face for someone I know personally. But on a closer look, find out that he or she is just another face in the crowd.

Have you also had this kind of experience before? I want to know.

Being a twin myself, I never thought that one day I would be a victim of a twin-induced accident.

There I was, casually looking for a book at NBS on an uneventful Friday evening. I became quickly frustrated of not finding it quickly enough, so I figured I would just ask a saleslady and be done with it. “Where’s Catcher In The Rye?” I asked a sleepy saleslady. Startled by my question and not knowing where the book was, she quickly glanced over the shelves in a futile attempt to find it herself. “Who’s the author?” she asked. “J.D. Salinger” I mumbled. At this point, a girl beside the saleslady overheard me; she pointed and said that it’s just on the other side of the shelf. I hastily went to the other side and lo and behold there it was. I was there a minute ago but didn’t saw the book. I looked over the shelf and realized that the girl was gone. So I went straight to the cashier to pay for it. And as luck would have it, there she was, standing in line. I went behind her line and thanked her for helping me find the book.

“What book?!” she said snobbishly. I pointed to her the book I was holding to enlighten her of the good deed she just did. But all I got was a look like I was some psycho. I thought, she was just so nice to me a minute ago and now she’s acting like a brat. I just let it pass as a bad case of a moody personality. I wanted to leave the line but luckily didn’t. After paying for her books, I noticed her wait for someone outside the bookstore. Then it’s my time to pay for my book. When I was about to leave the bookstore premises, my jaw dropped to the floor as I saw, right there in front of me, twins! I quickly regain composure to redeem myself and try to once again give thanks to the rightful twin. When the correct twin looked at me, I wave the book to her, smiled and said thank you. She smiled back.

The weirdest thing happened to me with a Vitamin C tablet. Like a fish bone, the tablet got stucked in my throat.

I swallowed the tablet with the help of a glass full of water. Half way through it, I noticed the tablet was still in my throat. It happened to me several times before. The tablet would stick there, but I would just continue drinking the complete glass of water and the tablet goes down my throat with the rest of the H20. But this time, to my surprise, the full glass didn’t manage to drain down the single tablet. So I just casually fill the glass again with water, thinking this time, the tablet would go down my throat. Again to my utter surprise, it still didn’t go down. I can now fill the tablet melting in my throat, remember this is an ascorbic acid tablet, an acid!! It felt like acid reflux in my throat. Now teary eyed, I again tried another shot at it, and another, and another. I could’ve drank 4-5 glasses of water but the tablet was still firmly lodge in my throat. I just noticed that I’m having trouble breathing due to my water filled stomach. Thinking quickly, I rushed to the kitchen to find some solid food to help anchor the tablet as I drink water. Saw the casserole with rice, got a fistful of it, put it on my mouth, chewed a little, swallowed it all, and drank water some more. To my huge relief, the tablet sticked with the rice and goes down my throat. But problem didn’t end there, I take my vitamins at night just before I go to bed. To say the least, I had trouble getting a good night sleep that night, due to the frequent trips to the bathroom to empty my full bladder.

Weird isn’t it? That experience thought me to never drink a vitamin tablet the same way again. Next time, I’ll make sure to have some solid food lying nearby while I swallow a tablet. Especially, a Vitamin C tablet. 🙂

“A player who makes a team great is more valuable than a great player. Losing yourself in the group, for the good of the group, that’s teamwork.”

– Coach Wooden

There’s nothing like a pear, but do you really appreciate everything that is a pear? Sure there’s the attractive outer skin, but then you get to the meat of your pear, right down to the very core. There’s a lot in there. Discover all the goodness your sweet pear can provide you. Along with the occasional rotten spots, worms and bugs.

Go on take a bite, its quite tasty.

A mere fifteen minutes drive from our office here in Knoxville, Tennessee. I never thought such a nice cave can be so accessible from the city. Under what seems like a small hill with a good measure of trees, is the Cherokee Caverns. We were greeted near the entrance by Cheryl and James, our guides to my very first visit to a cave. Helmet and flashlight in tow, and together with my fellow spelunkers Mabel and Bill, we headed to the mouth of the cave.

The first thing we noticed was the decrease in temperature. Cheryl told us that the cave maintains a temperature of 56F (13.3C) all year round. And I thought, that’s why this was such a great place for the ancient people to live in – a naturally occurring place with air-conditioning built in. As we walk deeper in the cave, we came across beautiful stalactite and stalagmite formations, some even resembling something in real life. We encountered what looks like a gorilla, face of a  man, and the very cool formation resembling the Capitol. While we were marveling at the beauty of it all, James gave us the background history of the cave. From how the cave was formed eons ago, up to the last dwellers of the cave.

The cave has many chambers that can only be accessed by crawling and climbing. We explored the chambers crawling our way into different muddy passages. After a while, I became all muddy but my spirit was never let down. In fact, it all adds up to the thrill of it. I can’t help but feel a sense of fulfillment whenever I see myself all dirty.

We stopped for a rest in one of the chambers big enough for us to stand upright. Cheryl told us to turn off our lights so as to help our eyes get acclimatized with the ambient light. Little did we know that we’re in for a surprise, it was pitch black. In that unlit place, the world opened up. We talked about how the bats make this cave their  home, different species of bats and how to deal with them in this kind of place. Hearing these things, I became more at ease in this cold and dark place. I took comfort in the fact that in the darkness I knew I have friends.  We turned on our flashlights and crawled and walk back to the entrance of the cave, our spelunking is complete.

Looking back at the cave, I thought to myself. From a distance  the cave constitutes a simple concrete entrance. Up close, the cave inspires geological stories so profound that you’ll be temporarily rendered speechless.