home alone

this fourth of july weekend and for the next two weeks, i am home alone.

my sister and aunt will board their flight to manila this afternoon at JFK airport. my parents, grandparents, uncle and cousins flew a few days earlier. it's going to be the first time my 4-year-old and 8-year-old cousins will visit the philippines, while it will be a second time for my 16-year-old and 13-year-old cousins. the latter went there while they were only toddlers.

well, i'm not totally alone. i have our cat, fish, and my aunt's shih tzu to keep me company. i'm a pet nanny.

the reason my mom is going to the philippines despite this peak summer flight season (their round trip tickets cost $1,300...EACH!!!) is because of her college reunion in our province. it's their batch's 30th anniversary, and i had encouraged her to go. it was only recently when she got in touch with her classmates, thanks to the wonders of the internet. now she's actually going to mingle and reminisce their good old college days with them after three decades. it's occasions like this that you know you really should go.

a side agendum for her is to become part of the live audience of the tv show "wowowee." no, seriously. just about a half hour ago i drove to catch up with my sister and aunt to hand them the DIRECTV bill which she forgot to bring. that bill serves as evidence that we are TFC (the filipino channel) subscribers, and consequently will enable her to watch the show in the studio. DIRECTV bill=golden ticket.

if she doesn't get to watch this show in the afternoon, she will stay up late to watch the midnight reruns. she is truly a fanatic viewer of this show. she knows who luningning is. she has attempted to mimic their dance moves (much to our embarrassment). she was devastated to learn about the ultra stampede tragedy.

if you see a wildly excited woman in the show within the next couple of weeks waving and probably screaming "HELLO TO MY DAUGHTER IN NEW JERSEY AND TO MY STAFF AT ST. CLARE'S E.R.! WOWOWEEEEEEE!"---most likely, that's my mom. i really hope she gets into this show. she's such a die-hard groupie, it will really make her vacation memorable.

in the meantime, i have stuff to do around here. i probably will be too lazy to drive and watch the fourth of july fireworks on tuesday night.