Postpartum Pride

Other women bear children; I bear books. This one is my youngest...isn't he kawaii ?
The main character is based on my older brother, who didn't like taking baths when he was a little boy. He's a little sniffy about being immortalized in a children's book as a grubby kid (he and the main character even share the same name), and he denies ever having been bath-phobic, but he knows I have witnesses who can say otherwise. Cheers to Kuya... unsavory childhood habits notwithstanding, he truly is an inspiration :)

Quicklist: July

1. Spent another bundle on a new dermatologist when I started to look like the sort of person who would be flatly refused entrance to a public swimming pool. Am now the impoverished owner of a new set of lotions and creams, but the good news is that three weeks into treatment I started to look more like myself than the creature from the black lagoon.
2. Went bowling with family and friends on my nephew Jakob's fifth birthday party at Paeng's in Eastwood. Showed spectacular form, and even got a strike once, but on the whole I suck at this sport. Mostly I played it like the goal of the game was to get as many gutter balls as possible.
3. Tried to flip a coin into the Eastwood Mall fountain after making a wish ('please send me a man who looks like Daniel Henney'), and it flew in the opposite direction, bounced off the rim of the fountain, and landed on the ground. How's that for an emphatic "hell, no" from the cosmos?
4. On an errand to the bank, found out that some clerk had listed me as "separated" in the client database.
5. Went up on stage during the 26th National Children's Book Day ceremonies to accept my certificate for Honorable Mention in the last PBBY-Salanga writing contest. Was complimented on my 'fashionable' trick with a borrowed malong that I wore over my black dress like a sash. Made Neni Cruz laugh when I said that the friend from whom I borrowed the malong usually uses it to cover her sofa.
6. Got a haircut and let the hairdresser do what she wanted. Mentioned the korean 'Tony and Jacky' salon upstairs to make conversation while she hacked away at my hair. Might have had a subliminal effect on her handiwork, because now I look like Jun Pyo in 'Boys Over Flowers'. He happens to be male.
7. Still studying Japanese. Daniel-san wa watashi no boifurendo desu yo!

Missing Mike

Let aeroplanes circle moaning overhead
Scribbling on the sky the message He is Dead. ( W.H. Auden)


My introduction to Michael Jackson was in the time of the Thriller album. An older cousin's cassette tape found its way into our house and I took it hostage for a couple of weeks during which I locked myself in the den and danced to 'P.Y.T.', my hands-down favorite MJ song before I discovered the pre-existing 'Rock With You'. I can't believe he's gone. When he went from tolerably quirky to uncomfortably weird in the last two decades, I stopped listening. I thought he would keep on existing from year to year until we all stopped counting; like Keith Richards, like Mick Jagger. But he has gone and left without giving us a chance to say a proper goodbye. I find myself paying homage to the man by playing his songs and watching his videos and exclaiming to the universe, he really was an amazing performer, wasn't he? Never mind his personal life, never mind the stuff of tabloid headlines. He gave us the music that got us on our feet. He gave me P.Y.T. and the freedom to dance. Thank you, Mike. Bon voyage!