My past revisited

One of the fondest memories of my childhood is the library. I am reluctant to admit that I was a library buff when I was still in elementary, but it's true. I remember how I used to go to the library during recess time. I'd spend those times reading books while my classmates were busy running around and having a lot of fun. Not that reading books wasn't fun for me. It was actually fascinating. I'm not sure how it all started; I just know that I love to read. We have a whole set of encyclopedia and ten volumes of poetry, prose and stories. The stories range from classics like "Pride and Prejudice" to "Arabian Nights" and "Cinderella". I spent a lot of time reading and re-reading those books. I guess that's the reason why I know a lot of stories that my classmates, friends and family don't know about. I also didn't pass the chance of reading the encyclopedia. I love them so much that I used to browse through them for any topic I w...

I've met these three women (well, at least two of them undoubtedly are) in Andersen Consulting. We were all part of a new project involving PeopleSoft applications. Okay, before I go on a tirade about these three, let me introduce them first. Zesto is Cez Tolentino, Bading is Sally Librilla and Sister is Noreena Mariano. Reena is well known to me since we were part of the same batch in AC. But the other two were strangers to me. Well, not totally. I did see them every now and then lurking in hallways and in the pantry. But, that's the extent of my knowledge of their existence (which is probably something they can say about me too). My first meeting with my new teammates only involved Cez and Sally. Reena was on vacation and had no idea that she just became part of a new project. We were all excited because we were told that our training for PeopleSoft would be held in Australia and in New Zealand. Imagine! We'd be able to travel in two countries in two weeks. It was a novel...

"Mommy Ther, Mommy Ther, tingnan mo ang grade ko.", and my three year-old pamangkin proudly showed me her test result. All of my pamangkins call me Mommy Ther. I guess it was a tradition that we got from my mom's family because we call her other two sisters, Mama and Nanay. I have three nieces and a nephew from my brother and my two sisters. Toni is the oldest and the first apo in my family, then there's C-vic (an abbreviation for Charles Victor). Next in the line is my niece Marian from my youngest sister and then there's Angelica Louise from my twin sister. Toni will be four years old this coming November 19. C-vic is two and a half years old, Marian is two and Louise is barely 7 months old. I was not very fond of children before. I found them too noisy and too annoying. While other people were going crazy over a child, I used to just look in total indifference. I just don't see what the fuss was all about. And then, Toni came along. She was the first apo in...