Leaky Faucets

Feeling pretty crappy right now. We left Cebu on Monday night and arrived in L.A. the same night due to the 15 hour time difference. So far jet lag has gotten the best of all three of us, and it is particularly hard with a toddler. On top of that I’ve been pretty sick since Wednesday. Started out as a bad cold and sore throat, evolved to fever (just under 101 F or about 38 for those of you who use the centigrade scale), cold sweats and shivering (this morning) and now general grogginess and a painful cough (chest and throat). I’m taking medicine, (Robitussen and Ibuprofen) which I normally don’t do, because I don’t want to ruin my vacation.

Our sleeping patterns are slowly aligning with Arizona time (our current location), but for the first few days we (including Ana) could not sleep at night, finally falling asleep around 4am every night and not waking until noon. We’ve had to play with Ana during these hours just to get her tired enough to sleep. Hopefully, tonight all of us will get a full night’s sleep and wake up at a normal hour feeling like we belong in this time zone, at least temporarily.

It’s been a little strange being back in the U.S. after almost six months away but it hasn’t really fully sunk in yet due to my dazed and confused condition. Also, L.A. and Arizona are not places that I’ve ever lived so there is nothing particularly familiar about either place to make me feel nostalgic. I don’t quite know how to answer the question “where are you from.” Is it the place I live now, the place I lived for the past 10 years or the place I was born and raised.

We spent two nights and one full day in L.A., staying at the Travelodge near LAX. We only stayed there for the low price and the location-not location in the sense that it is in a desirable neighborhood (unless you looking being surrounded by Adult toy and video stores and a Denny’s patrolled by prostitutes) but that it’s close to the airport and near the highways. We ate at that Denny’s twice (regrettably) but there were no hookers there at that time, only the time I loaded the rental car with our luggage at 3am in what became an aborted attempt to drive through the night to Scottsdale. I haven’t eaten at Denny’s since college, when it was one of the few choices for late night binging. The food hasn’t gotten any better with the exceptions of the chocolate milkshakes which are just as good and as huge with “a little extra in the malt can” as the menus always promised back in the day.

We made the most of our only day in L.A. on Tuesday as it was Aya’s first time there. After waking around noon we had breakfast (lunch?), got the rental car at Fox across the street, and headed for Venice Beach where we had lunch on the grass, strolled the boardwalk and let Ana play in the sand. We then headed toward Beverly Hills stopping at Trader Joe’s and Long’s Drug to pick up some provisions such as quality diapers and some snacks including Gorilla Munch, a gluten-free cereal for Ana. Also picked up a phone at the T-Mobile store so we now have a U.S. mobile. We just drove through Beverly Hills so Aya could see what it was like since we didn’t have much time. When we first passed the sign welcoming us to BH, Aya asked if it was the ghetto of Beverly Hills. It looked okay to me, but I guess she had certain expectations in mind that were not met. A drive down Rodeo Drive restored her original notion of the city. We then met up with Aya’s Columbia classmate Angelica who lives in L.A. near Beverly Hills. We walked (yes, apparently some people walk in L.A., at least in this neighborhood) to the Farmer’s Market and had dinner at Moishe’s, an Israeli place. Aya spotted a celebrity, although Angelica and I did not think it was her. She was convinced that Alexis Bledel from “Gilmore Girls” was at the counter at Moishe’s while we were seated. She has great vision so I didn’t doubt her but when I walked up to the counter to get our food, I heard her talking to her friend and she had a Southern accent, sounding nothing like she did on TV. So we argued over whether it was her or not and will probably never know unless Alexis miraculously stumbles upon this blog and clears things up. After dinner, we walked around The Grove outdoor shopping mall next to the Farmer’s Market.

Wednesday morning we were awoken at 12:15 by the hotel receptionist asking if we were checking out. We were. After abandoning our hastily conceived plan of leaving at 4am (after the original plan of 6am was in doubt due to our lack of sleep), we finally feel asleep only to miss our alarms. So we got ready in 30 minutes and hit the road dreading the infamous L.A. freeway traffic.

Stay tuned for more-gotta get some sleep now…

Early on in my time in New York, I discovered that living there makes you more assertive, more willing to speak up when something bothers you or push your way through a difficult situation.  You really have no choice.  The meek will miss their stops on the subway because they are too timid to shove someone away from the closing doors.

In the Philippines, at least in Cebu, people tend not to protest even when there is reason to do so.  A few months ago, we were having trouble getting a medical test done for Ana.  Every time we went to the doctor’s walk-in clinic she was not there for some reason or another.  The third time this happened, the receptionist said the doctor took the day off because it was her husband’s birthday.  This really set Aya off.  She yelled at the receptionist and lectured her on common courtesy, and then demanded that the doctor be reached on her mobile.  The doctor, taken aback at being chastised by a lowly patient, came in that day to give Ana her test.    The other waiting patients–who had silently absorbed the disappointing news of the doctor’s absence despite the fact that some had traveled two hours by bus to get to Cebu City-were stunned because people don’t stand up to doctors here.  They were also grateful that someone did because their time would not be wasted.

At a cell phone store at SM mall yesterday, Aya had another chance to bring out the New York bitch persona as she reprimanded the clerk for not fixing our phones and actually leaving them worse than when we brought them in on Wednesday.  They had told me that they couldn’t do anything further, but Aya managed to convince them to try again.  It’s harder for me to be assertive here because of both the language and cultural barrier, so I purposely summoned her over knowing that she would know just what to say.   She was always more nervy than me anyway and more comfortable confronting people in person (although there was that memorable occasion when I went I went toe-to-toe with the INSofficer and miraculously prevailed) while my forte is the written letter or e-mail dressing down the recipient.   So it is good to be able to trot out this bitchy persona when something needs to get done and we can thank her years in New York for this sometimes wonderful infusion of chutzpah.

Yesterday I passed up the chance to meet some of the top pool players in the world - all Filipinos - to go the gym for a run.  Aya went to meet these guys and was excited about it, but I guess I’m just not into professional pool and wouldn’t put meeting one of the greats up there with say, meeting Michael Jordan or Lebron James.  And actually, athletes are usually not that interesting outside of the playing arena arena.  For me, I guess I am more excited to meet a famous writer or musician such as the times I met Jhumpa Lahiri (though I thought she was a bit aloof) and Max Roach (who was extremely nice and personable.)

I’m getting off the subject, though.   The point I wanted to make was that given a choice of activities, I would choose working out in most cases, unless I have already worked out that day.  It’s not that I’m vain about the way I look, but I just want to lose weight and be healthy and do marathons again so I need to run as much as possible.  I guess I’m a bit obsessed.  Often, when I choose the other activity and forego the workout, I regret it.  This time, I made the right choice and was very happy about it despite Aya’s attempts to rub in her brush with fame.

When we moved to Jackson Heights from Astoria four years ago, I got rid of the old turntable that I purchased in 1996.  I had every intention of getting a new one, but I didn’t listen to records much anymore after getting an iPod.  I missed the crisp and authentic sound of vinyl and of the hundreds of slabs of wax I owned, many were difficult or impossible to find in mp3 format.

So last summer I decided to do some research on turntables and I found that J&R Music World in downtown Manhattan had a audio-technica model that would allow you to plug it directly into your PC in order to convert your vinyl into digital music suitable for playing on a computer or iPod.  So I bought one.

But it wasn’t as simple as I hoped it to be.  First, I’m an idiot when it comes to electronics, and this model is not a basic turntable.  It’s a DJ-quality player with many controls that I wasn’t familiar with such as anti-skating and tracking force.  Anyway, I tried to get it to work but I couldn’t.  I had to wait until Aya’s cousin came over one day for a party.  He was a former DJ and was able to help me set it up.  The next problem was that I could get the records to play but I could not figure out how to record.  Nothing I tried worked out.  And the timing wasn’t right.  It was only a few weeks before we moved overseas so I really couldn’t devote too much time to it.  I decided I would just wait until we got to the Philippines since Gahum is a whiz with electronics and computers and he was also a DJ for many years.

I had to ship the turntable via Johnny Ocean so even though we got here in the first days of January, my precious package did not arrive until late February.  We were so busy for a while unpacking our other 17 boxes that the turntable just sat around for a while.

Gahum is always so busy and is rarely home so I was never able to have him take a look at the recording process.  Last month, I decided to give it another shot myself.  I pored over the manual reading every step carefully.  I finally stumbled on something.  One of the settings on my PC was incorrect.  I changed it and suddenly it worked.  So I began recording the few records that I brought with me in my carry-on luggage in January.  (My vinyl is too valuable to ship and I wouldn’t trust the airline baggage handlers so I plan to bring a handful of records securely bubble-wrapped each time I go back to the States.)  It’s a time-consuming process as you have to let the record play in real time to record it.  Then I need to copy the songs to my iTunes and convert them from .wav to .aac files.  Also, since the record player is only a few feet off the floor and within Ana’s reach, I can only record when she is either sleeping or not home.

Still, I enjoy the process and get excited every time I can hear something on my iPod that I haven’t listened to in years because I only have it on vinyl or cassette.  Most of my vinyl collection is old punk and hardcore records but I also have a small amount of jazz, classical, old rock, hip-hop, comedy and novelty records such as the “12 Days of Cleveland Browns Christmas” 45 from 1980 that I bought several years ago at a record convention in Manhattan.  My friend Jimmy had this record when we were kids and I remember that 1980 season vividly.  Listening to my punk and HC records like Life’s Blood and Plasma Alliance is taking me back to my junior high and high school years when I used to spend hours in my basement either by myself or with Paul or friends just listening to records spin on the turntable.

I’m finally starting to appreciate the destructive powers of my daughter.  At first, it was harmless.  She dropped the remote to our A/C enough times to render the screen unreadable.  Still, it works, so we can live with it.  My glasses were so misshapen from her constant pulling on them that one of the lenses finally popped out a few weeks ago.  Even then, I was able to get the lens put back in and the frame bent back into shape, and now I’m careful not to let her touch them at all.

But now she’s messed with something more important than good eyesight.  Music.  She broke my prized Bose Sounddock.  It still works, but only when something is wedged behind the iPod to prop it up.  The speakers–one of the rare items I was willing to spend  a lot for–may be fixable if I can find a Bose dealership here.  If not, at least we’ve learned our lesson: if it’s in Ana’s reach, she will grab it and most likely alter it for the worse.  We have moved it to higher ground now, but like with rising flood waters, as Ana gets taller and bolder, we must continually relocate precious things to avoid maximum damage.

Something about the proximity of the words “Bush” and “Farewell” really bring a smile to my face.

I’m trying to pick up some Tagalog right now while I watch the waning seconds of Game 2 of the NBA Finals.  Actually, if the game was on ESPN I would gladly watch the American feed, but I’m stuck with the local RPN 9 broadcast which features a mix of Tagalog and English AKA Taglish.  I was watching with Bayani earlier and asked him about a few words during the first half.  See, you can learn something while watching basketball on TV. 

And, the game, which was incredibly boring for the first 40+ minutes has turned into a thriller all of the sudden.  I wasn’t watching during the comeback, but somehow the Celtics gave up a huge lead.  Looks like they will hang on though.