Seeing Things

I never put Wong's predictions in public entries except for this one. I paid her a visit today because I heard from my mom that after Mass, my lolo usually goes to their house. But that was during the morning so I had a 50-50 chance of finding him there so I can deliver his new cannister of green juice, the same stuff I drink.

My lolo wasn't there but Wong was! I hadn't seen her in months really because of PMX. She just came back from San Diego to visit her in-laws. We sat there and talked and I finally told her about Eric.

"I told you that already," she said about him being married with a child.

"Yeah but I think you told me that before 2003," I replied.

"Well, that at least closes one chapter in your life," she added, plunging her fingers into a ziplock bag filled with sunflower seeds.

"More like saga," I finally said.

I then said that I've been writing down her predictions and that I was wondering if she had any more. She replied that she'd been blocked since she was so busy with everyday life.

"You know something, we're going to see Eric sooner than you think. December or January. You're going to be crying on his shoulder and you're going to be very, very needy." she said.

"What?! What the hell would cause me to do that?" I was aghast.

"I don't know. Something bad. Very bad." she concluded. But I knew she knew and she just didn't want to say it. "All I know too is this: this year is very quiet for our family (jeez.. if you call Bryan going to prison "quiet") but next year is going to be immensely busy. Your book will get picked up and you'll be traveling. There's a ton of good stuff happening. There's bad stuff, but the good stuff will outnumber it."

So now I'm wracking my brain trying to figure out what the "very bad thing" is. December or January. That's too soon for bad stuff to be happening.

She said that sometimes she is wrong because we make different decisions that affect the outcome of her visions. But so far, on the stuff she's been correct, she's been dead-on.

Starting on September 10, I'm going to start seeing my lolo every weekend. To check up on him and to record/videotape him. When I saw him after coming from Wong's house, he looked oooh so very old and frail. Dear God, I hope the bad thing isn't about him. I'm not ready for that. That's the Number One Thing That Scares Me in my life. It's inevitable but still...

I want him to be around but time is against him. He's 89.

God, I need to learn how to use that digital video camera I bought almost a year ago and fast.

**EDIT**

Other stuff too: Kat is wearing glasses! :( She looks very grown up which makes me feel utterly sick. She also started reading the Harry Potter books I bought her for her birthday two months ago. She's on Book 3. :) She's also doing a comparative essay on the books and the movies. Geez... When do 9 year olds start doing stuff like that anyway? Comparative essays indeed!

Wong also said that 3 is the magic number in my family. She said I'll be having three kids and so will she. She's going to get pregnant again with one kid and adopting one at the same time. I dunno how she's gonna do it but... And there's that little boy... She said someone's going to have a little boy next year. Who could it be!? ARGH! I hate her visions!

Yeah, three kids for me. Great. That's a lot of stress I'm not ready for.

I Never Did Talk About Nisei Week...

So I will now.

That Saturday, I knew I was reeling from the news about Eric and I couldn't get him out of my mind. But the promotion of the show was my number one concern. The night before, I stayed very late at work to test out a new toy that we got. A plotter. It's pretty much a gigantic printer. It's super hi-res and I made a little (well, 2' x 4' is rather modest for this toy) banner for our show. It came out great. You could see it from a hundred feet away clearly. Considering a paper banner like that was $10 per sq.ft at Kinkos, I say I saved money!

But I digress. We pitched this show to the attendees like crazy and Random Ninjas was in the middle of the stage in the afternoon playing and pitching our show to the audience since that's going to be their next big gig.

It's funny but I had the opportunity to speak to an audience there. I just walked up to the stage and spoke when our show was mentioned by the emcee. I literally usurped the announcement. Somewhat breathless, I explained to everyone what we were all about and whatnot. The other staffers cheered in the background.

Here's the funny part... For some odd reason, as geeky and nervous and square as I am in real life, something happens to me when I have a microphone in front of me and I have to either read, announce, or just be on stage: I can go up there and do it as if it were a natural thing for me to be on stage with a microphone. I don't know why or how that came to be. Someone said before that I had "stage prescence". I never believed them. I guess I gotta see it to believe it.

Mike T. has stage prescence too. I remember when we went to Japan in 2004 and we were at AX Tokyo on a panel about Anime Conventioins Around the World, he went up there and usurped the panel and talked about PMX as if he naturally was a panelist.

We registered people on the spot that day.

Tina from Random Ninjas suggested, since she was also a writer, that I should start a mailing list for those who are interested in my novel. She said she wanted to be first on my mailing list. There's already a gang of people I know will be on my Novel Mailing List by default. I'm debating whether I should add Eric to that or not.

If you want to be on my Novel Notification Mailing List, send me an email at prangeles@hotmail.com.

The next day, we were there again pitching and there were less people and less registrations. That's okay. By that time, Mike T. and I were already tired and we just kicked back and relaxed. Chris H's car got impounded later on for parking illegally. UGH. :( We let him crash at our place. It was the least we could do.

But throughout that Sunday, I was also wondering if Eric would pop by to look at me from afar. Trust me, if I ever saw him, I would break down and cry anyway. I would probably just sink myself into my BF's arms. I dunno why I thought there was a possibility that he would do that. Hubris on my part? But then again, at the end of the day, I was glad that never came to pass. I guess he respected my wishes after all.

So that was the weekend. It was a working weekend again. The show is seven days from now and we're in a strange calm before the storm so... Until next time!

Monday Randomness

In that sleepytime between Sunday and Monday, I dreamt I was at work and we had a staff meeting. Our Executive Director told us, with a heavy heart, that the non-profit was going to dissolve and we were all laid off starting at the end of the month with severance.

People in the room reacted in so many different ways. From my periphery, I saw Cuntdescendora shaking because she started to cry. I, on the other hand, clapped my hands together, fingers intertwined from anticipation, and said, "Oh great! Now I can travel! Hooray!"

I was so incredibly happy and expectant at the layoff news that I was very disappointed when my alarm woke me up.

Last Friday, while I was working on disgustingly tedious data entry in a cube where I normally don't work in, I overheard C-bitch on the phone talking to insurance people. Trust me, I mind my own business but our cubes mercilessly allow us no privacy. She was whispering to them about some kind of money issue and that something was now gone regarding her new car and can't be replaced. She switched to Spanish when she heard me tapping on the keyboard. A lot of good that'd do since I could understand about 50% of what she was saying anyway. A few minutes later, she asked the Senior Accountant for a moment of his time and his cube door was shut. My guess is, she's asking for an advance.

Today, Monday, she was really out of sorts. Quiet, yet short in patience with people when she did talk. I say she hasn't resolved her money issue yet. However, I overheard her speaking to another coworker about the seatcovers she bought for her kitchen. Honestly, I really think she lives beyond her means and she has no self-discipline. She only looks put together but she really isn't.

I need to cry, scream, punch, or hurl something against the wall very soon. The stresses from the show, my lack of RDO, and rude eruptions of memory about Eric keep interjecting in my daily routine. Just random thoughts really. But enough to make me upset and angry, yet unable to do anything because I just don't have any time to deal with it right now. So I suck up all my emotions and move on to my next task. I know my shrink would be very disappointed in me right now. I am.

Self-Fulfilling Prophecy

Scenario:
For the past few days, I had been wondering how it would be like to have my keys fall through the crack between the elevator and the shaft.

I shouldn't have wondered too hard...

Incredibly Private Post Yet Audio Only

Sorry! This post is private. Not even sanitized text can be found here!

Audioblog available by email request only. Sanitized text version posted below.

Back-Dated Entry: July 16, 2005

We're losing it, the whole lot of us. We're all losing our minds.

By the way, every single one of us who is working on this show, does it on their spare time. We all have full-time jobs that have almost nothing to do with event planning. Most of the staffers are geeks, really. So when do we do all this planning and organizing and piecing together? After work. My schedule is as follows:

8 AM to 5 PM - Work
6 PM - Fight traffic
7 PM - Eat
7:30 PM - Work on the show

Sometimes, if I'm lucky, I get to sleep at midnight. Most of the time, I sleep at one or two.

Oh, did I mention we were all volunteers?

Audioblog available by email request only. Sanitized text version below.

Back-Dated Entry: The Staff Barbeque - July 10, 2005

The victory of last week's coup was quickly overshadowed by the fact that we now had to walk the walk and work double-time in getting guests. We went into a flurry of finalizing people.

But the stress was actually building up with me and a few other staffers who were doing the talent booking. I swear, if anyone from two years ago told me I was going to be booking talent soon, yeah, I would've laughed at them. But here I am, in 2005, booking talent. So stereotypically L.A! Ugh!

Mike started getting on my nerves bigtime. Just because I didn't slot my people on the programming grid with fanfare didn't mean I was slacking off. I was snapping at him and I even threatened to break up with him. (Sidenote, another reason why it's not a good idea to work with your significant other.). Our Music Director was having drama of his own so naturally, we griped amongst ourselves.

But Sunday was our staff barbeque which was our time to have fun and bond. But most of the talk was about the convention. One of the staffers had a magic mic, you that karaoke system that uses midi files on chips for music. Don't buy that system. It sucks ass. You'd be better off singing to midi files on your computer. if you ask me. But we plugged it in and sang to a warbling rendition of Queen's "Bohemian Rhapsody." We sang other songs too. We were sober. Good times, people, good times. (Oh, and the first song I sang on that magic mic was a Filipino song by Ariel Rivera called "Photograph". I'll be singing and dedicating it to a certain someone soon. Oh! The foreshadowing!)

Well, here are multiple dramas going on in this soap opera. So stay tuned! Until next time!

Back-Dated Entry: 4th of July Weekend

Wow! Voice!