Enter the Exit

“Daddy, that’s exit! Wrong way yan!” protests Marcus upon seeing the big EXIT sign as I make a turn to the Greenfield toll gate during a recent trip to Nuvali. Wow, the kid has a point. Among the confusing road signs that we have (which we have a lot by the way) here in our country is the EXIT. Why? Can you recall seeing a toll gate sign that says ENTRANCE? Well, I may not have been paying attention but I can’t remember seeing one.

And I am not alone because I know a lot of drivers would agree. For example, “to go to SLEX (South Luzon Expressway), use the Carmona EXIT,” “If you’re coming from Batangas, you can go to Festival Mall via the Alabang EXIT” are just two examples of common direction instructions that mention EXIT whether that’s coming from or going to the expressway way. Either way, we just neither have an Alabang ENRANCE nor an SLEX ENTRANCE. So can we blame kids as young as Marcus to have the impression that their dads who have been their role models of a good driver—all the others are irresponsible, aren’t they?—are now obviously violating a traffic rule?

The immediate answer of course would be to explain it to them. But would it be plain and simple? I doubt it. It would take some more road trips, and similar you-are-wrong objections, before we can finally make them accept that what they have seen on the ‘opposites’ segment of their educational videos do not apply all the time. Yes, the opposite of ENTRANCE is EXIT but for some reason people who designed the toll gates didn’t consider that there will be parents with mini backseat drivers, who will start to learn how to read, and who will sooner or later question why in the world is his father entering a way with a big and clear exit sign. Good luck to us.

To all dads who will be on the road, happy father’s day! And I hope you don’t miss the exit…or entrance…to your destination.

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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (Got a mini LED key chain with my name on it as father’s day gift from wifey. Yesterday, Marcus gave me a car. Toy car.)

Bread is Bad

What did the loaf say after smelling his mouth in the morning? “I need to brush, I think I have a bad bread.”

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A recent article released by BBC news says that experts now believe that bread could be bad. Well, I say if it has a burger patty with cheese in it every time you eat it then it’s going to be really bad.

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Mood: 3/10 Honks! (First week at home of the calico cat.)

A Coaching Technique That Applies at Home

Just realized that the best wrap up of the day is watching my young child sleep. It makes me ponder what was done right, what was done wrong, and what could have been done better. Come to think of it, it’s like coaching people at work except that this time I talk to myself.

Good night, Marcus. You are loved.

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Mood: 1/10 Honks! (Great day. I was in Nuvali but not to work.)

Oggy is Now at Home

Not ordinary, the stars have aligned, we finally got Marcus his cat. Yes, what appears to be SSDD–Same Saturday Different Date–ended with us taking home a stray kitten from an unlikely source.

Stopping at a gas station to fill up, I gave in to wifey’s long standing request to avail of the NBA car sun shield promo. She wants one to show support to her favorite team. So I requested to look at the samples and while waiting for the gas attendant to get the items, a kitten under a Rubbermaid mop bucket appeared from my side mirror. It was the size I’ve been looking for Marcus for more than a month already. Eure-Cat!

“Is it okay to take the cat?” Hiding my excitement I asked the gas attendant as he returns with the promo item samples.”Ano ‘yun sir (What do you mean)?” he asked back, confused. “There’s one that just went under our car, we want to take it home,” I replied. Bending over to look under the car the man confirmed, “Ah, opo sir, para maalagaan nang maayos (yes you can, so that it can be taken care of properly).”

And so after paying for the gas and a Miami Heat sun shield, we drove away from the Phoenix gas station with a black-and-orange patched kitten stowed right under the dashboard. Gas filled, wifey happy, Marcus ecstatic. By the way, he named the cat Oggy from his ever favorite cartoon show Oggy and the Cockcroaches.

Oggy. (Cockroaches not in picture.)

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Before it happened we came from the church and dropped by SM Dasmarinas. Everything was almost routine but what happened in each place seem to add up.

At the church, being seated right in the front row, I was approached by the ushers and asked if I can bring the wine to the priest to be used during the offertory portion of the mass. I didn’t decline. Of course, as I expected, Marcus tagged along and was also given the ceremonial blessing by the priest.

Then at SM, he led us to the Pet Express store to tour me around at the recently opened shop. He was there once with wifey and it appears that he already memorized the items on the racks. On our way out was a PAWS ‘Catvocacy’ poster. It promotes saving cats.

And these probably were signs that somewhere on our way home could be an answer to Marcus’ prayers that sooner or later he would own a pet cat.

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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (So far the cat hasn’t pooped inside the house.)

Love Earth, Wear Dirty Jeans

What I don’t do for my jeans saves the planet. If you don’t know what I am talking about, then it is time for you to read Mashable’s article about CEO of Levi’s earth-friendly advice–do not wash your jeans. Yes, you got that right. Do not wash your jeans!

This is the second time I have read an article that encourages what I have been doing all along. Few weeks back, Yahoo! also featured tips on how to extend the life of fabric simply by washing it less often than most of us are used to. In that same article, it mentions freezing the clothing to kill germs rather than the usual laundry. I nearly tried it the last time had I found a ziplock bag where my jeans would fit as except for an almost untouched pint of ice cream, a partially filled ice cube tray, and a small bag of hotdogs, our freezer could accommodate such experiment–yup, it’s that empty.

Now that a CEO has spoken about this earth-friendly idea once more, regardless if it some sort of hype for a material and process that require less water to manufacture a pair of Levi’s jeans, my excitement to get my pants dirty for the love of the environment is becoming stronger. I am no stranger to this, in fact there was once a time when I have kept my Levi’s–I can afford one back in ’96–unwashed and continued to wear it to work for more than a month. (I now recall that it was also when Shaggy’s Boombastic became the catchy commercial jingle of Levi’s.)

Today, while I cannot accomplish same duration of an unwashed jeans, I still make it a point to wear my pants more than once. There’s just this feeling of guilt whenever I throw a pair of pants to the laundry bin worn only for a day. Maybe because I am aware of the decreasing water levels in our dams or just maybe because I would avoid laundry if I can help it. Whatever the reasons are, I now feel that wearing dirty jeans is one of my many contributions to save mother earth.

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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (Will skip gym just to write this post.)

(Street) Smart?

This week is Marcus’ 3rd week of summer class and yesterday after he exits the classroom I was able to have a short talk with his teacher to check for progress.

Soon I learned that while he gets marked with stars on the back of his hand for doing a good job almost often since day 3 he seems to be fooling around–which I suspect happens when he is bored. His teacher said, “I know that he knows the answer but sometimes he would deliberately give the wrong one.”

Upon arriving home I had him reviewed using the Word Family House game with a very clear condition: for every wrong answer he gives I delete one of his apps from our Telpad tablet. The frustrating session began. He says ‘cup’ instead of ‘mug’, he says ‘punch’ instead of ‘hit’. The clues I’m giving weren’t just working. He lost three apps by lunch time.

Today at school before class I reminded him that there will be another round of review, just like yesterday, same rules apply. Excitedly, he told me, “Daddy, I have given to mommy some of my games. I have placed Talking Tom and Minecraft in her apps folder.” Those were his favorite games, now it his mom’s which I can’t technically delete this time. I’ll give to him. Street smart, isn’t he?

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Mood: 1/10 Honks! (Jack Bauer in 10 minutes.)

The Towel

I was in Bacolod last weekend and after a good Sunday lunch I borrowed my mother’s minivan to drop my father off at Robinson’s mall—his favorite hangout—and then to proceed to a reunion with my old biking friends. As I was driving out of the gate, I saw my mother’s helper running towards the creeping beige Rusco van.

“Wait, wait, wait. Your mom wants you have this towel,” the helper said in vernacular as he reached the driver side. “Why?” I asked puzzled with the urgency. “Just take it, she insists.” So I absentmindedly took the towel and drove off to go about my tasks on that lazy high noon.

More than twelve kilometers later at an average speed of 60 kilometers per hour, I parked at Sta. Fe Resort and saw my face at the rearview mirror almost soaking with sweat. That was when I realized the purpose of the neatly folded towel which I have tossed at the backseat. Thanks, nanay. You still know best.

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Mood: 2/10 Honks! (I still can’t believe I just paid PhP 7K for this blog to continue being online for the next 3 years.)