~ °Café de Terrasse° ~
The thoughts of an odd duck who sits alone in a night cafe, with a stylo in his right, a journal in his left, a valise under his chaise, a tasse on the table, and plenty of time to pass.
~ samedi, août 16, 2003 ~
I was shopping for autumn fashions this afternoon to further my college wardrobe. I was searching for the ever-elusive perfect pair of pantaloons. What a terrible curse it is to be a guy with a small waist size; a thin thick, you might say. Apparently, America has a general population of size 34+ huskies. Four hours in three different stores and one article of merchendise at the end... a shirt... for my mother. Well I suppose you call it a blouse, but for dramatic purposes, I called it a shirt.~ dimanche, août 10, 2003 ~
Anyway, Sonya will be road-trippin' next week to Utah and her family has asked me to be their gardener while they are gone. Now, I know that they told me that the scope of my duties was limited to plant feeding, but I feel like breeding. I'm in a planting sort of mood. Oh, don't worry Sonya, I won't do anything drastic... I'll just maybe plant a tree in the middle of your lawn or replace your strawberrie patch with begonias, or something. Hahaha, i'm only jesting. I'll plant in my own garden at home. My mother's boss has also asked us to water their garden next week while they sail off to Alaska. So you can call me Benito the gardener. Hehehe, Benito indeed.
~Benjamin 8/16/2003 11:55:00 PM
Yesterday was all about family members i've not seen in years... or never seen at all. In the morning, my family and I went to my Auntie Nanette's child's christening. Aww, cute little Nina loved the holy water- she tried to jump into the basin. At the reception, I got to meet a few people from the Glinoga branch of the Estanislao family. Intresting people indeed. But they kept referring to the baby as "it". Kindof sad haha... Nina started to cry and someone was like, "Hey! It's crying again, whatever it is."
So we came home that afternoon and what do you know, there was a Washingtonian-plated car parked in front of Catabas Embassy. It was Auntie Becky and my cousins whom I haven't seen in 7 years. Yep, cousin Heather, cousin Bernadette, and cousin David from up north. I don't really remember much of them except that they used to run in their house a lot everytime we visited them in Lancaster. I remember sleeping over at their house when i was like, 5. Hmmm. So anyway, there were these two other girls at my house and I was confoosed because I thought that maybe auntie had more kids and didn't tell us or something. I find out later that a quarter of the blood that flows through them also flows through me... they were 2nd cousins from Vancouver... Cousin Hannah & Cousin Jessica- I refer to them as my Canadian cousins. They were cool... kindof shy but I guess that runs in the family. Shyness is a common trait in Melendres blood as well as the passion for travel. Yep, we're all travellers here. Yea yea. So anyway, we were gonna go to dinner at the new "Manila Buffet" restauraunt in downtown Glendale but when we got there, the food was sooo... normal.
Generally speaking, There are two types of Filipino food- the Spanish-inspired type & the Asian-inspired type. The Spanish type, like menudo, adobo, & empanada, are foods your mom cooks everyday and you eat it at home almost everyday. They're just normal filipino house food. The Asian type is upgraded filipino food like pancit (bihon/kanton/palabok/miki/ mala-something, etc.), lumpia, sinigang isda, lechon (not cochinito!), and what not. These foods are most often found in parties and get-togethers and are reserved for occasions.
So yeah, we went to the Manila buffet and my mom was like, "no". My dad was loudly telling us to get out of there and to go to Max's of Manila (they're known for their chicken, ya know) instead. It was embarassing. Poor auntie Becky & uncle Mel just wanted to eat. The lady behind the counter looked soo irritated so we left in a rush before they charged us for looking at their food because you know how filipinos are... hehe, j/k. So we ended up at Max's of Manila (did I mention they're known for their chicken?) and had some of the chicken that they're known for. haha. My dad kept talking about thier chicken- he's got me doing it. It isn't all that special but it's pretty damn good still. So yeah, we all came home at 1:12 am and we told them to just stay here and sleep at our house. I could've easily gave up my room for them and all... but they decided to go back to their Anaheim hotel at 2:21 in the morning. Sheesh. Crayzee. But, they're cool people... very easygoing. Ooh! Heather likes French music!!! Yep yep! And if she somehow gets a hold of this blog, I'm tellin her that she better learn some French so all us cousins can go to France! I'm tellin ya Heather & Bernadette- it's a nice place. And Hannah & Jessica, when I go to Canada, count on my visit!
I want to look for all my cousins. That's a goal of mine. One day, I'm going to travel the world looking for the many branches of the Melendres, Estanislao, Catabas families. I know I have oodles of relatives in the Philippines and around the Americas and I have quite a few in Europe too. I'll search for them all. And maybe one day, I'm going to find all the familiar blood to complete my own.
~Benjamin 8/10/2003 02:22:00 PM
