My weekends keep getting better and better. As mentioned in my Friday post, Vien made me a mussel dinner last Friday. The finished dish can be seen on the right. It was so good we did not have enough bread to mop up that yummy sauce.

We also had way too many Vietnamese bahn mis this weekend. We pretty much had one everyday from Friday until Monday. I think I'm taking a short break from those for a while.

Across the street from the bahn mi spot was this mural which was funny to me because my roommate's name is Caitlin.

Saturday was met with the first snowfall of this season. Usually, it starts with light flurries but that day, it snowed all day until late evening. It got so cold that Vien and I blew off three Halloween parties that we were supposed to attend and stayed in watching movies on Netflix.

 Snow on cars outside his bedroom window.

Halloween day was also moving day for Ana and Poy. I took Santi back to my apartment where we hung out with Vien while Ana, Poy and hired movers packed everything and moved all their stuff to the new apartment.

Later that day, Vien helped me while I took Santi trick or treating. He was such a cutie dressed up as Tigger. After an hour of candy begging, the three of us headed to Cornelius for Oyster Happy Hour. One year old Santi watched as his Nanny and her helper downed 18 oysters each with glasses of beer.

This is Vien when he was a baby. He hardly looks anything like he does today. This baby photo must be of someone else noh?

Monday night, I went out to see a Sandwich gig at the lower east side. I listened to them a lot in college and I was so happy to learn they were coming to NYC to perform. I got to see a few people from Manila I haven't seen in a long time and it was all very nostalgic and fun.

They let Rann play a couple of songs with them and he naturally ripped my ear drums off with his style of noise.

Nangati ang pwet ng pamilyang Elabdouni at namasyal. Tito Mo, Tita Chon, Omar and I hopped in the car with no destination in mind. Tita Chon simply wanted to go somewhere where the fall leaves were nicer for photos. We took the Triborough bridge and ended up driving through the towns of Connecticut and upstate New York. We drove past ginormous houses and drooled at their sprawling lawns with their own little ponds and fountains. We couldn't stop to take photos of the houses since it was the kind of neighborhood where they'd probably suspect you were up to no good if you lingered around taking photos of their front doors and lawns. Living in houses similar to those ones by the lake has been my dream since I was 13. They will forever be a dream.

The feel of autumn is much more visible upstate than in the city. The trees look lovely and the roads and nearby woods are covered with an assortment of yellow, red, orange and purple. We started taking photos late during the day and night began to fall. I tried to take as much as I could and not having a tripod didn't help with the lack of available light.

Ang gagaling namin umarte. Kunwari hindi naninigas ang mga buto namin sa lamig.

It was also very much colder out here and I wasn't appropriately dressed for the cold. I tried to take as many photos during the night despite having stiff knuckles.

I love how this shot was taken. By this time, it was already very dark and I was already shooting at ISO1600 and had to meter at the darkest area. The first few shots were drab and no reflections could be seen on the water. Then Tito Mo did something ingenious and turned the car's headlights on full and directed it at the scene which lit the water, the far off bushes plus highlighted the ducks on the water!

We had dinner at a Friendly's nearby and it was hilarious how Tita Chon was so fascinated by the restaurant, the food and the menu. I couldn't understand why she was so amused by it at first until I realized why. You see, restaurants like Chili's, Applebee's, Red Lobster, Cheesecake Factory and IHOP which are in abundance in California, are sparsely seen here. Our neighborhood is full of specialty restaurants that cater to different cuisines depending on the area. This is also one of the reasons why I love this place. We never go out and eat in places like Chili's. My father-in-law loved Chili's and I count how many number of times he took us there for dinner. Hahahaha!

I took a short nap in the car after dinner thinking we were on our way home. I woke up a while later to find out that Tito Mo took another detour and took us to New Jersey! We drove by the Hudson River coastline and picked the best spot to take my first ever photo of the NY Skyline. We were pretty high up and the wind was fierce and cold but we still managed to take a few goofy shots at Omar's request.

this image is better viewed at a larger size so *click*

We took the Lincoln tunnel to Manhattan and crossed through midtown going home.

I've been too lazy to download clips from my Flip the past several weeks so I'm dumping most of them here now.

Halloween Parade:


HodgePodge of clips from the last couple of weeks:

Mine wasn't mind-numbingly exciting as you would think seeing that I was in New York and all. I guess I'm getting too old for the whole "YEEEAAAAHHHH!!!! PARTEEEYYY IN NEW YORK CITY BITCHEZZZ!" Haha. So I decided to dress up a little bit and went out as a hippie after getting the idea from Leng's multiply. It was nothing fancy. I wore my thrift store dress from Vegas, put a scarf on my head and wore my frilly suede boots. I walked around with Omar trick or treating around the houses and commercial establishments in Astoria. It was great that stores join in the fun and gave away free goodies. We got free pizza from the pizza place, cookies and cupcakes from the bakeries and I heard McDonalds was giving away free cheesburgers too. Omar got fortune cookies from the Chinese restaurant! hahaha!

Skullzor says "Peace Out!"

They dropped me off at the subway station around 7:30pm and I headed to the Village to check out the Halloween Parade. I think the highlight of my night was riding the subway (specially going home, more on that later) because I rode with an assortment of characters. Going into the city I rode with a fellow hippie chick, devil and she-devil, a bee, (where's) Waldo, catwoman, a witch and another group of cats. Did I mention these were all adults?

I got off at 4th st in Washington Square park and was greeted with a whole crowd of people trying to exit. We all had to go through this long tiled tunnel leading out to the street. That moment reminded me of a scene from Schindler's List where the Natzis stuff this room full of naked jews then they turned the turned the acid showers on which killed everyone in the room. I started imagining nozzles coming out of the corners and killing us all. Haha...yeah, yeah, bad joke. Pfft.

I could hear the music blaring from outside. Sixth Ave was teeming with people and police officers were positioned on every corner trying to direct the human traffic. I was supposed to meet my friends at 6th and Waverly but when I got there I saw that they were on the other side of the street but seeing that the parade was going on, it was impossible for me to cross. Good thing one of Baby's friends, Fervic, also got on the wrong side and saw me walking around. He got me a good spot for taking photos but my cheapo lens failed to capture any good night shots. The parade was exactly like the Gay Pride Parade except for the fact that the crowds were in costume too. I can't count how many of them men dressed up as the Joker, there were so many of them I felt like I was in Gotham City.

The way V was dancing made me laugh so hard because I was imagining Hugo Weaving underneath the mask.

Left stormtrooper: Where did you park the star destroyer?
Right stormtrooper: It's hovering above Brooklyn's atmosphere.
I have a speeder bike that will take us to transport.
Dude behind Left ST: Dude, that flag is so gay.

Grandma struggling to work the digital camera.

This girl took my photo so I took hers. I saw my image on her LCD and she took a better one of me, though.

As the parade wound down, Fervic got a call from the others to meet up for dinner at Canal St. We rode the subway down to Chinatown and walked several blocks to Wonton Garden.

Baby and JP

I've known this lady since I was 12.
She was my first friend when I transferred schools.
ang ganda ng buhok ko dito, haha

Fervic and Bing

Charles and Tere

Ryan and Fervic
halata bang ako lang kumareer ng halloween?

More photos from last night here.

We parted ways going home after dinner and I started my exhausting two hour (it felt longer) trip home. On a normal day, it usually takes me about 30 minutes to commute to/from the city. I needed to take the N or W train to Ditmars so I stood on the designated N area, two platforms down and waited. After about 30 minutes and three Q trains passed by, I started to wonder when my train was coming. Then I saw a sign detailing service changes for the N train starting midnight of Nov. 1. I glanced at my watch and saw it was close to midnight so I went back up to the platform I passed by on the way down and waited with the rest of the costumed crowd. Soon, the 4 train came and everybody gets on it, leaving me alone on the empty platform...at midnight. I sort of freaked out and walked to the ticket counter and asked the guy where the N train stopped. He directed me to go back down from where I originally came from and walk all the way to the back of the platform. I did as he instructed and saw that at the end of where I was standing earlier, I had to go up a flight of stairs, turn and walk through a small tunnel, and go down again. There I saw a buffet of characters who obviously knew about the service changes. My train finally came and it was sardine-packed with an assortment of people dressed in their best halloween garb. I rode beside an irish pirate, a mermaid, Jessica Rabbit, Batman, a slutty nurse, catwoman, a gingerbread man and a black guy with long purplish green tentacles coming out of his jumpsuit. He was insterting his tentacles in jessica rabbit's bag and running them on people's legs (including mine) while the pirate yelled pirate lines in his thick irish accent for everyone's amusement.

By the time I got to my stop, it was another long wait for the bus to come. It was a little past 1am and it had gotten windy and cold. Good thing I had leg warmers. I was too tired to post anything when I got home and passed out...but not before taking this photo.

Next holiday...my birthday!

*On another note,
Just saw my image stats on pbase and saw that the photo with the most number of hits was this. Hahaha! Niki ayus ka ah!

I told him to give me a scary face and I got this blank expression, haha!
Also, all I had was shimmery black make-up so he's all sparkly today.

Omar woke me up this morning to do his make-up. There's a Halloween party in school and he'll be in his Skullzor attire until tonight's trick or treating. I was actually torn between walking him around collecting candies and going with Baby and her friends to the village, I'm guessing, to see the Manhattan Halloween Parade. Depending how long Omar wants to go around, I may be able to do both. I just didn't have the heart to tell Omar and I can't take him around as promised so I will do it and zip out to the city and meet up with friends. I sure hope the subway is friendly to commuters tonight. I can only imagine most people decked out in their halloween garb and scaring commuters and pedestrians. God knows I don't have the heart to withstand being scared at night.

Yesterday, I took one of the cars out and did my favorite chore...LAUNDRY! Haha! A big bag of sheets and comforters have been sitting in the back of the truck since I got here so I decided to do them already. I wanted to get beer since I ran out of Stella so I tried to drive to the supermarket but I got lost. I decided to get a slice a pizza before heading home when I saw there was a smaller grocery beside the pizza place. They didn't have stella, so I got ingredients I needed to make my own version of Bona's Breakfast Fruit Yoghurt Muesli! My version is better of course with an addition of fresh strawberries and blueberries. I had one this morning and I am so full since it turned out to be twice the size of Bona's.

The CW seems to be running out of ideas for tv shows. First, they do 90210, now they plan on doing a remake of this...

After seeing this, I just realized how Grant Show could very well pass for Viggo Mortensen. I wonder if he ever auditioned for Aragorn?

I can't keep track of my days any more. I no longer know what day of the week it is or how many days we have left until Halloween. I'll be spending Ol' Hallows Eve walking Omar a.k.a Skullzor from apartment building to apartment building collecting candies. I haven't decided if I'm to dress up for halloween. I half want to and half don't because of the creeping cold weather. Ellyn was quick to point out how enthusiastic I am when it comes to dressing up. Yes, I love themed dress ups. I fondly remember last years Halloween party at Paul's in Pilar. Wow. Has it really been a year since Dex dressed up us Pong Pagong? I miss our parties at Pilar. I miss the guys in Pilar. This year's birthday won't be half as fun as last year but I'll be with family and we might eat somewhere nice. My friend from high school, BabyG has promised me that she has requested my birthday off so we could go do something. At least I have something else to look forward to.

I've been staying in since that city day with Kelly. Without someone to hang out with, I'm finding less of a reason to go out. I told Bea that I'm wasting New York city by being broke. I can't help it. In the back of my head I can hear my mom saying "Wala ka ng pera, gagastos-gastos ka pa..." I normally don't listen to that voice but this time, she's right. I now feel guilty buying a $2 hair product. If I'm to go out at all, I will need to plan and make it a full day affair to make the most of my commute.

It seems that my aunt is unknowingly trying to get me fat. She has stocked the house full of pinoy junk food (Boy Bawang!), local chips and dip, ice cream (butter pecan, droooolz) and we also seem to never run out of apple pie. I have to start jogging...and soon. I try to walk the dogs longer and further whenever it's my turn, just so I get the extra exercise but it's been getting harder to do so when the cold night air nibbles at your ears and fingers.

I've been working on my online portfolio on and off for the last couple of days. My old photos have been getting new processing treatment courtesy of the new techniques I've learned over the past couple of months. I still have a couple more albums/photos to put up but you can view them at http://pbase.com/karilopez. They're nothing most of you haven't already seen but I've managed to arrange them into categories instead of seeing them jumbled together with my personal photos in multiply. Do let me know what you think and leave comments on the ones you like/dislike.