Have a good laugh!

I saw this at my friend, Chari's blog. My vanity could not resist it so I decided to try it out. According to the site's face recognition software, these are the celebrities I resemble. Riiiiiight....


I hope they don't use this in crime prevention. They're way off! If I really resembled these people, I would be making the big bucks, too.

Indecent Proposal

The little boy and I waited at the security office of this mall. I didn't want to leave him alone with a couple of security guards, not with the horror stories I have heard of grown men abusing little boys and girls. I tried to comfort him as he whimpered, assuring him that his parents were on their way.

I had found him while shopping at the mall. He was probably about three years old, wandering around by himself, crying. I sat on my haunches to meet his gaze and asked him if he was looking for Mommy and Daddy. He nodded while crying loudly. I gave him my hand and told him that I was going to help him find Mommy and Daddy. So he willingly took it and continued crying as I led him to the security office of the mall.

Finally, the parents arrived. Both Mom and Dad were ecstatic to find their boy and thanked me profusely. I said I was glad to be of help, exchanged business cards and said goodbye.

I didn't give it a second thought until my pager started beeping later that evening. The message was from the father thanking me again for finding his boy earlier, and reminding me that if there was anything they could do for me, to not hesitate to ask.

I get another message even later in the night. This time, the message said that he couldn't stop thinking of me, asking if he could please see me again and to please call him. Here was this man, whose child I found, and wife I had met along with him, asking me to basically start an affair. I ignored the message and the others that followed the next several days after that.

This happened years ago when I was still living in Manila. It came to mind because I had been having a discussion with an old friend about indecent proposals. A young woman had struck up a conversation with him while he was having dinner alone at a restaurant. When he told her he was married, she flippantly said that she didn't care. She did not think twice about flirting with a married man many years older than she was, because she fancied him. My friend, whose wife had an affair not long ago and has been practically ignoring him since, was understandably flattered. He felt the affirmation and appreciation that his wife hasn't given him in a long time. Despite this, he did not pursue it, although it did make him pause and think.

His vulnerability made me think of my own vulnerability when it happened to me years ago. I was going through a very surreal and rough end to my first marriage. The only difference was I was lucky that that flagrant and indecent proposal I got was from a man that was not my type at all. His came from a young, attractive woman at the peak of his marital problems.

From what I have experienced, heard and read, there seems to be a lot more 'indecent proposals' going around these days. I don't think anyone will be completely shielded from temptation, especially since there are people who are only too willing to do the tempting.

However, that doesn't mean we can't fortify our relationships against it. Have you hugged and told your spouse "I love you" today? That's probably the first step.

C A N

"I can't."

I don't think I can ever say this lightly again after seeing this video.




Rick and Dick Hoyt have shown all of us that our physical limitations and setbacks do not have to hold us back. It can, in fact, lead us into things that are much greater than what this superficial world values.

Trying to patiently wait

I think the toughest thing about pursuing something is not the steps that you have to go through in trying to attain it, it is that period of waiting for the result. I am in that very character-forming time right now. :)

I have told myself and countless others during times like these in the past, that God is not so much concerned with the results, as much as He is concerned with how we deal with our process. So day by day, I just try to live and do everything with as much integrity as I can muster and know that whatever happens, it will always work out for the best for me.

Now, the best does not necessarily mean that I get whatever I'm going after. In the past, I have come very close and have had doors close on me at the last possible moment. And for a long time after that, I would be disappointed, questioning why it did not go the way I wanted. That is, until something even better happens which would not have, had I gotten what I originally wanted.

If I don't get this particular pursuit, I know I will be disappointed. But I know that disappointment won't be for very long, because now I am also learning to watch in patient anticipation as to how God will turn things out for even better than what I originally wanted. I have seen Him do it before. I know He will do it again. It's going to be fascinating to watch.

In the meantime, I wait.

Birthweek

It's been a while now since I started celebrating my birth week instead of my birthday. It's because it's just hard to cram all the great things I want to do in one whole day, especially if my birthday lands on a weekday.

Greetings and Lunches
It has been an awesome week, really - more than I had hoped for or expected. Hubby surprised me with a beautiful and humungous arrangement of roses at work that everyone raved about and won him the admiration of my co-workers. He also prepared a wine and lobster dinner for me at home. All throughout that day and the whole week, I received warm greetings from everyone I loved via hugs, kisses, phone calls, emails and cards and got taken out to more birthday lunches than my weight really needed.

Dixied Chick
That Saturday, we were able to get suite tickets to the Dixie Chicks concert at the TD Banknorth Garden. The whole place was packed but we had a suite practically to ourselves. It had its own private bathroom, a living area, a bar and a buffet table. A glass sliding door opened to a small balcony with two rows of seats to view the show. We ordered some food and drinks and our friend, who worked as a restaurant manager in the facility, brought us a bottle of Pinot Grigio. When our original invitees could not make it, we invited a couple of elderly ladies, who were avid Dixie Chicks fans and had nosebleed tickets, to join us in the suite. Their gratitude and enthusiasm really made our night! It was a great show. I have always liked the Dixie Chicks because I love trio harmonies, but this show has made a ‘dixied chick’ out of me. Watching them live was really exhilarating!

Cake Fight
On Sunday, we had a co-celebration barbecue with my SIL whose birthday was a few days after mine. I got to do what I had been itching to do all week – and that is smother and mash the birthday cake on the faces Hubby’s four nephews and nieces right after they sang the birthday song. I had to run after them a little bit, but got them really good. In several minutes, the four of them were laughing through their frosting-covered faces. Of course, they exacted their revenge rather quickly and I found myself with cake on my face and whatever part of my body they could reach.

Let’s Go Red Sox!
On the last day of my week-long celebration, I headed towards Yawkey Way to the historic Fenway Park and watched my first live Major League Baseball game, along with Hubby, BIL and his son. It was a game between the Boston Red Sox and the Cleveland Indians. We had awesome box seats that were as close as we could get to the home plate without being in the field. Needless to say, our seats offered us the best view of the game. It was great to finally experience something that I had only seen on TV and in the movies before – American baseball tradition, complete with the vendors and their overpriced Fenway franks and drinks, the die-hard Red Sox fans cheering and booing, the baseball players spitting, grabbing their crotch and playing great baseball. To top off the experience, the home team won!

It was truly a fun-packed birthday week. We couldn’t have planned it better than how God made it all unfold. I have Him to thank, along with Hubby and my loved ones, for making it extra special.