Sum of My Life: 20 words or less

Visited: Oregon, Washington, Hawaii. Three weddings. Bachelor: MusicEd. Mazda626. Kulintang. She's still out there. Thanks and Love: Friends and Family.

Got the idea from Voodoochild.


Who got it from the Mayfly project

Happy New Year everyone.

P.S. was supposed to finish the room tonight but got called into work last minute because co-worker's brother had his car stolen. So I will finish it tomorrow. I promise.

Room Status: Halfway done

Gee I do seem to posting a lot lately...

Family Values

Last night the 6 eldest Luis grandchildren went to Solita's Nightclub/Restaurant in Daly City. My cousin, Eeko, used to work there back in high school. I was jealous because I wanted to work there too [you know, the old family competitiveness] but since I was in Alameda I had no way to get out there. He left after a year or so and hasn't been back since. I was bored one night so I rolled by the club a few years ago to say hi, and though I always meant to come back, I never got around to it.

So anyway, while my youngest brother, VAL, was playing poker against the uncles, the rest of us were outside partaking in the habit of smoking tabacco. We were talking about going out, and someone brought up the idea of Solita's. It turned out that we were all free Friday night, so the plans were set. Since the youngest of us is now 22, we can all go out and enjoy ourselves legally. This is actually the first time we've all gone out for a non-holiday occasion.

We got there early by the club's standards, and quickly downed a shot of Hennessey. Then we ordered dinner: dinuguan, crispy chicken, pork sinagang, bbq spareribs, pansit canton and garlic rice. Unfortunately, those weren't enough for 7 hungry peeps [it was actually the 6 cousins + 1 BF + 1 daughter] so we ended up doubling up the order. Afterwards, we headed back to my cousin's house for more drinking and more gambling. I was out $14 after the second game. I'm starting to realize that I suck at card games!

Anyway, growing up my brothers and I saw less of our Luis cousins because they lived across the Bay in Daly City. We grew up more with my mother's side, the Hipols, because we were all pretty much East Bay raised. It's funny how growing up a little can change things. We get along really well with the Luis side whereas we've seemed to grow apart from the Hipol side.

Hopefully that changes in the future, because one should not favor one side of their family over the other, although that does seem to be wishful thinking in many people's case.

Pre New Year

I have one thing to do that I promised myself would get done before January 1th...

I need to clean my room...it's been in a state of flux since I moved into it...and I need to start off my year clean...in spirit, body and room.

I'll do my 2 day juice fast to cleanse the body on January 2-3, and I've already been to my mandatory mass [midnight mass on xmas eve] so the spirit is cleansed...

Now I need to get to the room, which means no partying for me this saturday...

Anyone know any 24 hour laundromats in the Daly City area?

Xmas Part II

We ended Christmas at Uncle D's house with a great game of cards. Total headcount :

• Dad & Mom, Grandma, 5 Uncles, 2 Aunties, 1 Uncle's gf, 2 brothers, 5 girl cousins, 4 guy cousins, 1 cousin's wife [plus 3 from her family] and a partridge in a pear tree.

The uncles decided that, after a bit of throat lubrication [on behalf of Stolichnaya vodka], it was time for cards. I had $8 in my right pocket, and $50 in my left pocket [but I didn't know it was there]. I was out after the first game, but my youngest brother ended staying in. My uncles, being the savvy cardsharks, played their favorite poker games. Uncle D likes 7 Card Stud Chicago, Black Mariah [basic 7-card, split pot between the high winner and whoever has the top spade in their hand]. Uncle Bert likes regular 7-card with the high/low split pot. Uncle T likes to play 7-card stud low ball. And my brother, inspired by watching the World Series of Poker on ESPN, chose to play Texas Hold 'em, which was good for him because my uncles are not as familiar with that one.

Anyway, the rest of us broke @sses went outside to share a cigarette and BS, while my brother VAL ended up winning two Texas hands in a row. We came back in to see him up $50. Finally after much deliberation, the last hand was played. Uncle T called 7-card hi/low split w/$5 community card. Up to this time they were playing $1 limit with 3 bumps per round. But since this was the last round, they decided to make $5 limits. The pot kept growing and growing. After many shots of stoli, Uncles D and Bert with pretty toasted. Uncle T knew his limit. We looked at the table and saw that my brother had 2 aces showing. He pulled a third and since his two aces were tops he started the betting every round with $5. 3 bumps later means the pot for that round could be increased by $80.

Then it came time for declaring. My uncles aren't stupid so they went low, which meant my brother won half the pot, which ended up $312. He ended up splitting with Uncle Bert, but no matter, he played and hung with the big boys, something I had tried 3 years in a row and never been able to do.

So the Luis cousins are headed to Solita [yeah, yeah, so what if it's FOBish, my dad's uncle owns it]. My brother already offered to buy a round. Ya.

Merry Christmas!

Finished up the last bit of my shopping last night, then met up at my parents' house with my brothers to a watch a little bit of the Osbournes [a present from my brother to his girlfriend] before heading to midnight mass. Now I don't think of myself as very devout, but something about Christmas and especially the music makes me feel like I'm at home.

But anyway, we came home and then opened gifts. Got a shirt, sweater, pajamas and a bathrobe from my parents. My middle brother gave me a Fossil watch, and my youngest got me a sheepskin throw rug and a Vampire Hunter D: Bloodlust dvd. Now we're here at my aunt's house, just chillin having dessert before we distribute the gifts.

Anyway, hope yours was well.

~No Tations~

Did a little bit of last minute shopping tonite. I picked my aunt for this year's Kris Kringle so I was racking my brain trying to find her something, but then I realized that she likes hippos, so I found 3 hippo statues to represent me and my two brothers. Now the only ones left are my parents.

'Twas the Night Before...

I'll be heading to work soon to finish off the final holiday hours night at Serramonte so if any of you are bored and are doing some last minute shopping in the area, roll by. [Great Earth Vitamins, right next to Taco Bell]

Happy Holidays

this is a test.

UPDATE: voodoo fixith

RECIPE

What do you get when you mix:

Butter
Sugar
Vanilla Ice Cream
Nutmeg and Cinnamon [both to taste]

and add it to:

Boiling water
RUM!

Answer: HOT BUTTERED RUM

Damn, that's some good @ss sh!t

Try it to liven up this holiday season. Make sure you use good vanilla ice cream. And mix the butter and sugar to taste. Yeah!

Happy Holidays

Further Bulletins [as events have warranted]:

Too much to elaborate so here's a quick rundown:

• I finished with my first semester as a Music Ed major. A little bit of stress at the end, but I made it out of my voice juries intact [although a bit of nausea/dry heaving manifested itself directly before], got an A- in Ear Training II [despite flopping on a duet and screwing up a chord progression] and made it through Counterpoint with my brain and sanity intact. The only drawback is that I didn't finish my Performance Attendance card, so I will have an incomplete in that.
  
• On the same note [haha] I registered for next semester's classes, and I have an almost full schedule with a minimum of free time. But it's cool because a lot of it is filled with ensemble rehearsal. Oh yeah, University Chorus is doing Mozart's Requiem, so those of you who missed Carmina Burana last year, try not to miss out. In case you don't know that one, watch Amadeus and you'll know what I'm talking about. Beautiful music.
  
• Last Thursday, the 18th, I made my debut with the Palabuniyan Kulintang Ensemble at the Asian Art Museum. I didn't get to play but was able to do a lot of accompaniment stuff, but the bottom line is that I was asked personally by Master Kalanduyan to fill in because of absences from the regular members. I'm not a member, but now I know he believes me to be a very adequate substitute.
  
• I have most of my shopping out of the way, just a couple of gift certificates for my godchildren and gifts for my parents and aunt. It's hard juggling shopping plus rent plus payments for my trip to Germany in March.
  
• My roommate cleaned the house because she was hosting a potluck for her dance troupe. Then she bounced to San Diego for the holidays without cleaning up. How fcuked up is that?
  

I am just about ready for the holidays. Only thing that sucks is that I have to work New Year's Day.

Lookout Tahoe! I'm coming to conquer

Makin' Mine [holiday] Music

~No Tations~

Um Yeah

Debut

On Sunday, one of my arrangements will make its San Francisco State University Chamber Singers premiere! We were hired to sing Christmas carols around the Ferry Building [Pier 1] in San Francisco, and the assistant Director asked if people had any carols to bring in. So I brought in an arrangement of Charles Brown's "Please Come Home for Christmas" in 5 parts [plus solo] a cappella. Being a choir that usually sings classical, this is a bit out of our usual repertoire, but everyone embraced it and it got a thumbs up at the rehearsal on Wednesday, so the world premiere of my arrangement is going to happen!

If anyone is not doing anything, we'll be at/around the Ferry Building at 1pm. I'm not exactly sure of the location but I know that's where we're going to be. When we're done I jet off to Oakland for another choir concert, then I'll be back in the city at 6 because a group of us is going to be caroling in Union Square that night! Oh yeah! I've always wanted to get a group together and carol and finally it's coming true.

ASCENSION

It's been awhile, but the end of the semester stuff has been taking up a lot of my time. The Chamber Singers had their last real concert on the 6th at St. Albert's Priory. It was a blast. It was virtually a full house, with only a few seats left over in the balcony. We did our full repertoire, and most of the songs went off pretty good. Our past 5 winter concerts were recorded and next year a live Christmas compilation CD is going to be released, which will be our third CD so far. One song that was especially cool was "In Paradisum" by Edward Fissinger. The text reads:

"In paradisum deducant angeli
in tuo adventu suscipiant te martyrus
et perducant te in civitatem sanctam Jerusalem.
Chorus angelorum te suscipat
et cum Lazaro, quondam paupere,
aeternam habeas requiem."

Translated, it reads:
"May the angels lead you into paradise;
at your coming may the martyrs receive you
and lead you to the holy city of Jerusalem.
May the chorus of angels receive you
and with Lazarus, once poor,
may you have eternal rest."

But what makes this one special is that there's a section in the piece, which was composed by Fissinger to 'sound' like what the ascension into heaven is supposed to be, an aurora borealis type of effect, but aural and not visual. It's really hard to describe except that you can feel the ascension and almost see it. Imagine what it would be like, with a chorus of angels welcoming you into the light. That's what this piece is trying to convey. My brother came to the concert and he especially liked that section, and he's not one to like choral stuff.

Anyway, "In Paradisum" is one of the songs we'll be taking to Germany/Prague in March, so I'm hoping some of you all can catch either our bon voyage concert or our welcome back concert. They should be excellent.

Now it's time for me to get back to end of the semester stuff.

Makin' Mine Music
~No Tations~

What a crappy day I had yesterday!

First my tire gets a flat. Then my coworker gets his girlfriend to buy me a can of Fix-A-Flat and I didn't wait long enough for it to seal the puncture in the tire. As I'm refilling the tire, the seal breaks and all the crap starts spraying everywhere. So then I need to put the spare on in the pouring rain.

But before I left work I had a run in with a customer. And I'm sorry, but there are exceptions to the rule that 'the customer is always right.' This woman was an idiot. Accusing me of harassing her. Saying I had the worst personality she had ever seen. Saying I was unsure of the information I gave her at work. Oh man, it was just enough for me to blow my top and come raining on her parade.

To top it off, I bring my tire to the tire shop at Serramonte. I open my trunk and grab the tire and start wheeling it over to the door and right when I get there the worker goes and locks the door without saying so much as, "Sorry, we're closed."

I guess it can't always be your day.

Here's to better days!