the mupas kids' babysitter
i don't know what it is, but i'm finding it very hard to stay motivated in writing things in good ol' LJ... there have been so many thoughts on my mind that i'd love to jot down, but i don't want to post it here... in fact, my handwritten journal's got a lot more facetime than this... i've had a commentary on change, thoughts on situations i've had, conversations i've hard with others, and other things i've been thinking about that have been left to remain in my mind... maybe i'll write them out sometime, but whatever... i'm forcing myself to journal about my week, b/c future john's gonna hate the fact that there's a week of his life missing in his LJ...
it's been quite the week...
sunday, bummed it at home, and watched a beautiful mind for the first time with my mom... great movie... i have great respect for john nash, who was able to ignore the urges he's constantly dealing with, in order to lead a normal life... if he could ignore physical and mental problems that lead to mental illness, how much more us normal people, in dealing with things that cause us to fall short?
monday was the first day of VBS, so i agreed to help set up, even though us oldies were retired... helped pamela run errands, which allowed me to learn a lot about her dysfunctional family, haha... had the college talk with kaitlyn, since that girl's got talent, and can really go somewhere with her life... also had a heart-to-heart with amy about friendship and setting levels of expectation, as well as some of the lessons i've learned in recent months... got to play with little ethan, who is the filipino reminder of my favorite kid, benjamin, up at PUC... i've trained that boy to smile at me, and hold his arms up to want me to hold him, including the ability to turn away from others that want to hold him, haha!
^ me, with baby ethan and his mohawk!
tuesday, went to bum it at VBS, since i was demoted from "craft helper" to "bum" by my own choice... ended up talking at a table with jason, pamela, amy, and margaret... realized that we're becoming exactly like the adults of our church, sitting around and talking about the kids and how they're growing up, as well as learning the latest gossip about them, haha... praise team practice ran short, but was successful...
immediately after practice, we literally rushed out of there to make it to santa anita mall to watch the midnight premiere of harry potter and the order of the phoenix... eunice, jason, pamela, amy, and i met up with joseph, valerie, and ben, who were outside waiting in a line... eunice and i took the long route, barely making it through closed doors and past security guards, haha... it was a lot of fun, playing mario kart, wireless against other people in the theater with DSes, and hearing the crowd cheer when the movie started... overall, it was okay, but i was still disappointed and expected much more... got home at around 3:30, and talked to valerie on the phone about her honeymoon and her experiences... glad to hear her and ben had fun...
wednesday, went to VBS again... margaret was the only one my age there, so we had a lot of time to talk... we caught each other up on our lives, learned about her future plans, talked about our new show, traveler, and shared random stories... it was great being able to spend that time with her, since moments like that are very rare...
thursday, went shopping with joseph and mom at the galleria to get some necessities for our philippine trip... had some good discussion as we always do... learned about joseph's new take on life, which is a great push in a positive direction... i'm proud to see the direction his life is taking... nancy called and it was her time to vent, since she's heard me out a couple of times since i've been back... it's always ironic to hear people going through problems i faced several months ago, b/c i'm able to offer my two cents and my experience... i definitely understood her frustration...
at church, valerie brought the instruments she bought from bali, since i asked her to get me a couple of instruments as gifts for being involved in her wedding... pamela, jason, joseph, and i played the instruments while valerie gave an impression of the balinese dances, haha... praise team practice that night was frustrating, b/c it seemed like it was band versus singers... i shared my frustrations with amy, since they were getting on our case about how we were playing certain songs, but were being lazy on their part as well... oh well...
friday, final day of VBS... the kids had a good craft today, so a couple of us oldies invaded the craft room to paint plaster figurines... ended up being extremely frustrating, so we were all very unhappy with our results... we had choir practice, i was excited to hear that tim had a game on his GBA that i was looking for, so we talked about our plans for the game, haha...
saturday... our uniform was black and white, so it was quite entertaining seeing everyone going on the philippine trip at church in black and white... i sang bass in the choir, since there seems to be an abundance of tenors, considering all the males in my family sing tenor, haha... it's also funny, b/c all the basses are the youngest males going: tim, zach, allen, me... anyways, praise team did well on our numbers, the skit was touching... i almost cried as i played the song, hearing auntie zenie weeping in the front row... it was also nice to hear a sermon from uncle garry, who is a natural at providing meaningful sermons; it must be something about his presence that puts people at ease...
after church, i made it a thing to look for the mupas boys, namely connor... found him hiding under a pew, so i pounced on the poor kid... naturally led me to become babysitter for the afternoon... i had to pull the poor kid from "uncle" letty's grasp, who was chastising him for running in the church... i was successful in getting him to eat, even though he utterly refused at first, even getting him to finish his food... the entire family ended up eating at our table for lunch, at it was funny hearing joseph and i telling auntie becky about how my mom made it through all those years raising three boys... we made her aware of all the kitchen breakdowns my mom had, where she would just curl up on the floor in tears... hey, it's not easy raising three boys! what made it hilarious was noticing that the mupas kids mirror my brothers and i almost perfectly... griffin is the manipulative eldest brother with attitude... cole is the quiet, clingy mama's boy, who doesn't cause problems... connor is the hyper, talkative baby, whose energy never depletes... auntie becky also said that griffin and connor fight all the time, haha... griffin, cole, and connor are like jason, me, and joseph, respectively...
i spent the next two hours playing an intense game of tag/hide-and-seek with the three mupas kids... griffin is quite the cheater and liar, haha... we probably spent over an hour total, trying to find him around the church, and when we would, he would call a time-out, or claim auntie zenie as "safe..." he also said that his mom allowed him to go inside the parsonage even though auntie becky never did... i made sure the boys stayed hydrated, considering they were tiring me out and it was hot outside... we must've explored every nook and cranny of the church... i'm sure everyone watching me chase after those kids were highly entertained... i had a lot of fun, and it was nice knowing that connor knows my name... by the time the games were over, connor was very obedient; he would run off and i would call him back, reminding him that he couldn't go anywhere without me, so he'd run back, grab my hand, then we'd go together... good times... the one comment uncle garry made to me, other than the typical "what are you up to these days" conversation, was that he now has to look up to me, rather than vice versa, b/c he feels like i've grown up to become a fine young man... good to know, haha...
^ me with connor and cole, taking a break from looking for griffin...
the praise team presented a concert at four, but i was seriously pooped... the concert went well, even though i fell asleep during the sermonette, haha... after having gossip time with hazel, the two of us together with jon and jason went to grab some sweets at krispy kreme... we finished an entire dozen and drove to 7Eleven for more snacks, before heading back to church for a social... we didn't stay at the social long, b/c we made plans to have a game night before leaving for the philippines...
joseph, jason, pamela, hazel, jon, and i meet up at his place, and jon and i grabbed some snacks at vons... got carried away and decided to make pizuki's... played a pretty good round of imaginIFF, but i lost pretty badly... to justify my loss, i was making amazing guesses that predicted the recipient of the question well, but everyone else was getting the majority right... joseph and i had a pretty good challenge round in predicting which trait pamela would want most...
once it turned midnight, we said happy birthday to joseph, and we decided to go to sugar loaf, a lookout point in la canada... we all squeezed into jason's 4Runner and made it to the top of the hill... that lookout point is amazing; it places you in the center of los angeles, burbank, sunland-tujunga, pasadena, san gabriel valley... a complete 360-degree view of our little bubble... it's amazing to know that your entire life pretty much fits within that view, and to see it all at past midnight, with all the lights of the buildings, and the stars above you was simply amazing... definitely a nice, quiet place to spend with friends...
we headed back to jon's place and chilled a bit... before we were about to leave, we heard loud screeches outside, followed by a huge crash and bang, followed by an alarm... apparently, a red truck crashed straight into cindy's diner right across the street from jon's apartment... it was probably by accident from the truck spinning out of control from a road race, since we heard them trying to back it out of the diner... the four guys ended up sprinting away from the crime scene... pamela, jason, jon, and i were hiding behind the RV parked in the apartment lot as jon called to report it... we decided to wait it out before leaving, before anyone would come and shoot us, haha...
when we called it safe to go home, jason, pamela, and i headed home... pamela stayed in the spare bed, and we ended up talking for a while about something she sees as a weakness... i gave her some assuring words and some advice, which led to a random moment where i knew i had to continue to remind myself to keep following my own advice as well...
after an intense saturday, sunday was spent bumming at home... got a phone call from the mohr's, as well as chris and chandra, which was a surprise, and pleasant... glad to know they're doing well...
today plans with nancy were a bust, but we talked on the phone for a while... gave her some quick driving advice and brainstormed about the seventh book... talked to andy on the phone for a couple of minutes, too... had to drive myself to church early for instrumental practice, but i decided to leave home an hour early to try my luck at a game store to find the specific DS game case i've been looking for... i've tried literally 10 different game stories to no avail... found out that there was a pretty bad car wreck on the exit i took, which resulted in an impatient detour and frustration levels rising, to find out that the family planned a birthday dinner for joseph that they failed to inform me about, and went without me, even though they didn't go the day before b/c mom had to go to work... so much for a "family" dinner, when i wasn't there... they offered to get me food to go, but that was WAY besides the point... to add to my anger, i find out that the game store i was heading to was closed for reasons unknown, so i completely wasted my time in that traffic jam... i was running late for practice, but i didn't care b/c i was starving, so i grabbed some food, only to have the nagging feeling of being late in the back of my head... rushed through my meal to make it to church, to find uncle nonoy and uncle dodong needing to listen to the song on repeat several times, since uncle dodong hadn't had the part completely written out... after about the tenth time of hearing the song, i was done and called pamela to vent... man, was it good to get all that business off my chest...
practice went short once everyone was there... our last practice before heading to the philippines... it's in God's hands now... pamela, amy, jason, and i rehearsed our special number afterwards, and now i'm home...
this is probably the last entry i'm gonna write before the philippine trip... gone until the 9th of august... don't really know how i feel about the whole trip, but i'm sure it'll be an experience... besides, if all else fails, we've got 7 DSes and mario kart, which means we're gonna be battling it out on the DS race courses, haha! man, i'm such a trendsetter, haha! once allen and tim found out about my game, they're obsessed with wanting to play as well, and everyone's getting into mario kart DS... oh, that plane trip will be fun!
it's been quite the week...
sunday, bummed it at home, and watched a beautiful mind for the first time with my mom... great movie... i have great respect for john nash, who was able to ignore the urges he's constantly dealing with, in order to lead a normal life... if he could ignore physical and mental problems that lead to mental illness, how much more us normal people, in dealing with things that cause us to fall short?
monday was the first day of VBS, so i agreed to help set up, even though us oldies were retired... helped pamela run errands, which allowed me to learn a lot about her dysfunctional family, haha... had the college talk with kaitlyn, since that girl's got talent, and can really go somewhere with her life... also had a heart-to-heart with amy about friendship and setting levels of expectation, as well as some of the lessons i've learned in recent months... got to play with little ethan, who is the filipino reminder of my favorite kid, benjamin, up at PUC... i've trained that boy to smile at me, and hold his arms up to want me to hold him, including the ability to turn away from others that want to hold him, haha!
^ me, with baby ethan and his mohawk!
tuesday, went to bum it at VBS, since i was demoted from "craft helper" to "bum" by my own choice... ended up talking at a table with jason, pamela, amy, and margaret... realized that we're becoming exactly like the adults of our church, sitting around and talking about the kids and how they're growing up, as well as learning the latest gossip about them, haha... praise team practice ran short, but was successful...
immediately after practice, we literally rushed out of there to make it to santa anita mall to watch the midnight premiere of harry potter and the order of the phoenix... eunice, jason, pamela, amy, and i met up with joseph, valerie, and ben, who were outside waiting in a line... eunice and i took the long route, barely making it through closed doors and past security guards, haha... it was a lot of fun, playing mario kart, wireless against other people in the theater with DSes, and hearing the crowd cheer when the movie started... overall, it was okay, but i was still disappointed and expected much more... got home at around 3:30, and talked to valerie on the phone about her honeymoon and her experiences... glad to hear her and ben had fun...
wednesday, went to VBS again... margaret was the only one my age there, so we had a lot of time to talk... we caught each other up on our lives, learned about her future plans, talked about our new show, traveler, and shared random stories... it was great being able to spend that time with her, since moments like that are very rare...
thursday, went shopping with joseph and mom at the galleria to get some necessities for our philippine trip... had some good discussion as we always do... learned about joseph's new take on life, which is a great push in a positive direction... i'm proud to see the direction his life is taking... nancy called and it was her time to vent, since she's heard me out a couple of times since i've been back... it's always ironic to hear people going through problems i faced several months ago, b/c i'm able to offer my two cents and my experience... i definitely understood her frustration...
at church, valerie brought the instruments she bought from bali, since i asked her to get me a couple of instruments as gifts for being involved in her wedding... pamela, jason, joseph, and i played the instruments while valerie gave an impression of the balinese dances, haha... praise team practice that night was frustrating, b/c it seemed like it was band versus singers... i shared my frustrations with amy, since they were getting on our case about how we were playing certain songs, but were being lazy on their part as well... oh well...
friday, final day of VBS... the kids had a good craft today, so a couple of us oldies invaded the craft room to paint plaster figurines... ended up being extremely frustrating, so we were all very unhappy with our results... we had choir practice, i was excited to hear that tim had a game on his GBA that i was looking for, so we talked about our plans for the game, haha...
saturday... our uniform was black and white, so it was quite entertaining seeing everyone going on the philippine trip at church in black and white... i sang bass in the choir, since there seems to be an abundance of tenors, considering all the males in my family sing tenor, haha... it's also funny, b/c all the basses are the youngest males going: tim, zach, allen, me... anyways, praise team did well on our numbers, the skit was touching... i almost cried as i played the song, hearing auntie zenie weeping in the front row... it was also nice to hear a sermon from uncle garry, who is a natural at providing meaningful sermons; it must be something about his presence that puts people at ease...
after church, i made it a thing to look for the mupas boys, namely connor... found him hiding under a pew, so i pounced on the poor kid... naturally led me to become babysitter for the afternoon... i had to pull the poor kid from "uncle" letty's grasp, who was chastising him for running in the church... i was successful in getting him to eat, even though he utterly refused at first, even getting him to finish his food... the entire family ended up eating at our table for lunch, at it was funny hearing joseph and i telling auntie becky about how my mom made it through all those years raising three boys... we made her aware of all the kitchen breakdowns my mom had, where she would just curl up on the floor in tears... hey, it's not easy raising three boys! what made it hilarious was noticing that the mupas kids mirror my brothers and i almost perfectly... griffin is the manipulative eldest brother with attitude... cole is the quiet, clingy mama's boy, who doesn't cause problems... connor is the hyper, talkative baby, whose energy never depletes... auntie becky also said that griffin and connor fight all the time, haha... griffin, cole, and connor are like jason, me, and joseph, respectively...
i spent the next two hours playing an intense game of tag/hide-and-seek with the three mupas kids... griffin is quite the cheater and liar, haha... we probably spent over an hour total, trying to find him around the church, and when we would, he would call a time-out, or claim auntie zenie as "safe..." he also said that his mom allowed him to go inside the parsonage even though auntie becky never did... i made sure the boys stayed hydrated, considering they were tiring me out and it was hot outside... we must've explored every nook and cranny of the church... i'm sure everyone watching me chase after those kids were highly entertained... i had a lot of fun, and it was nice knowing that connor knows my name... by the time the games were over, connor was very obedient; he would run off and i would call him back, reminding him that he couldn't go anywhere without me, so he'd run back, grab my hand, then we'd go together... good times... the one comment uncle garry made to me, other than the typical "what are you up to these days" conversation, was that he now has to look up to me, rather than vice versa, b/c he feels like i've grown up to become a fine young man... good to know, haha...
^ me with connor and cole, taking a break from looking for griffin...
the praise team presented a concert at four, but i was seriously pooped... the concert went well, even though i fell asleep during the sermonette, haha... after having gossip time with hazel, the two of us together with jon and jason went to grab some sweets at krispy kreme... we finished an entire dozen and drove to 7Eleven for more snacks, before heading back to church for a social... we didn't stay at the social long, b/c we made plans to have a game night before leaving for the philippines...
joseph, jason, pamela, hazel, jon, and i meet up at his place, and jon and i grabbed some snacks at vons... got carried away and decided to make pizuki's... played a pretty good round of imaginIFF, but i lost pretty badly... to justify my loss, i was making amazing guesses that predicted the recipient of the question well, but everyone else was getting the majority right... joseph and i had a pretty good challenge round in predicting which trait pamela would want most...
once it turned midnight, we said happy birthday to joseph, and we decided to go to sugar loaf, a lookout point in la canada... we all squeezed into jason's 4Runner and made it to the top of the hill... that lookout point is amazing; it places you in the center of los angeles, burbank, sunland-tujunga, pasadena, san gabriel valley... a complete 360-degree view of our little bubble... it's amazing to know that your entire life pretty much fits within that view, and to see it all at past midnight, with all the lights of the buildings, and the stars above you was simply amazing... definitely a nice, quiet place to spend with friends...
we headed back to jon's place and chilled a bit... before we were about to leave, we heard loud screeches outside, followed by a huge crash and bang, followed by an alarm... apparently, a red truck crashed straight into cindy's diner right across the street from jon's apartment... it was probably by accident from the truck spinning out of control from a road race, since we heard them trying to back it out of the diner... the four guys ended up sprinting away from the crime scene... pamela, jason, jon, and i were hiding behind the RV parked in the apartment lot as jon called to report it... we decided to wait it out before leaving, before anyone would come and shoot us, haha...
when we called it safe to go home, jason, pamela, and i headed home... pamela stayed in the spare bed, and we ended up talking for a while about something she sees as a weakness... i gave her some assuring words and some advice, which led to a random moment where i knew i had to continue to remind myself to keep following my own advice as well...
after an intense saturday, sunday was spent bumming at home... got a phone call from the mohr's, as well as chris and chandra, which was a surprise, and pleasant... glad to know they're doing well...
today plans with nancy were a bust, but we talked on the phone for a while... gave her some quick driving advice and brainstormed about the seventh book... talked to andy on the phone for a couple of minutes, too... had to drive myself to church early for instrumental practice, but i decided to leave home an hour early to try my luck at a game store to find the specific DS game case i've been looking for... i've tried literally 10 different game stories to no avail... found out that there was a pretty bad car wreck on the exit i took, which resulted in an impatient detour and frustration levels rising, to find out that the family planned a birthday dinner for joseph that they failed to inform me about, and went without me, even though they didn't go the day before b/c mom had to go to work... so much for a "family" dinner, when i wasn't there... they offered to get me food to go, but that was WAY besides the point... to add to my anger, i find out that the game store i was heading to was closed for reasons unknown, so i completely wasted my time in that traffic jam... i was running late for practice, but i didn't care b/c i was starving, so i grabbed some food, only to have the nagging feeling of being late in the back of my head... rushed through my meal to make it to church, to find uncle nonoy and uncle dodong needing to listen to the song on repeat several times, since uncle dodong hadn't had the part completely written out... after about the tenth time of hearing the song, i was done and called pamela to vent... man, was it good to get all that business off my chest...
practice went short once everyone was there... our last practice before heading to the philippines... it's in God's hands now... pamela, amy, jason, and i rehearsed our special number afterwards, and now i'm home...
this is probably the last entry i'm gonna write before the philippine trip... gone until the 9th of august... don't really know how i feel about the whole trip, but i'm sure it'll be an experience... besides, if all else fails, we've got 7 DSes and mario kart, which means we're gonna be battling it out on the DS race courses, haha! man, i'm such a trendsetter, haha! once allen and tim found out about my game, they're obsessed with wanting to play as well, and everyone's getting into mario kart DS... oh, that plane trip will be fun!