I’m not a fan of generators but there were times when I really wished we had one - before (more than a decade ago) and just recently (about 2 weeks ago).

When I was still in third and fourth grade, when gas prices were still very much affordable, the whole country was badly plagued with frequent blackouts. I can’t exactly remember the reason for these power interruptions but what I won’t forget are the sleepless nights I had to endure as a kid especially since we relied on electric fans heavily for comfort. You see, the place where we used to live was not entirely well-ventilated so when power is out, we’d have to sweat ourselves to sleep.

And now, several years after, just when I thought that blackouts are a thing of the past, it happened again and on the day before I was to be formally observed in class (just 2 weeks ago). The lights went out before 8 pm and was never restored until 5 the next morning. THE STRESS…!

I so wanted to go to SM right there and then to buy a generator when I suddenly remembered how insanely expensive gasoline was! It was just a good thing I woke up early the next morning so I had enough time to work on my props before class started.

You know you’ve changed when you see yourself shopping for items in the mall that you’ve never thought you’d go shopping for before. For example, when andrea and I used to go on dates, whenever we’d pass by the department store, she’d always ask for time to look at swimsuits, regardless of what season we’re in. I, on the other hand, would look at rubber shoes. Now, however, we’d spend hours and hours rummaging through baby clothes and apparels. Even when we’re in bookstores, we’d catch ourselves browsing through coloring books, puzzles, and Barney or Backyardigan accessories.

In fact, yesterday, even after deciding to go to the mall to unwind and spend some quality time together, we ended up looking for mateo’s new toy - a soccer goal. Unfortunately, the only one we could find was too large and bothersome to set up inside the house so we had to go home empty handed.

Oh well, I guess this is what it means to be a parent!

It’s just a few more weeks to our 10th high school reunion and so far I’m having mixed emotions about the whole thing. I’m excited to see my batchmates but at the same time, I’m not too eager to brush elbows with them yet. Why?

The only reason I could think of is that I’m anxious. Perhaps it’s because the thought of comparing lives and achievements with one another just seems a little daunting right now. You see, on the financial side, I haven’t been able to amass insanely huge amounts of money unlike most of my batchmates who chose the corporate life. Being in the education business, I have very little (if none at all) opportunities for acquiring millions. In terms of professional growth and development as measured by position, I’m no vice-president nor branch manager. I mean I finally managed to become a coordinator this year, but let’s face it. That’s still a tad short of a vice-president position. Right?

What I do have however, and I’m proud to say so, is a beautiful family - a gorgeous, loving wife and our not-so-small anymore angel of a baby. They are my treasures, my life and my everything. But as much as I would like to compare accomplishments with my batchmates in that aspect, I don’t think I’ll be able to because most of them are still far from getting married. That’s why I’m almost 100 % sure that family life will take a backseat in this reunion’s conversations.

Perhaps on our 20th reunion, me and my batchmates will see eye to eye when they have children of their own too. Perhaps by that time, they’ll understand what kind of work and achievement is involved in establishing and supporting a family. But until then, I guess I’ll have to wait. I just pray they don’t take too long - hopefully before mateo is old enough (and vain enough) to start asking for an acne scars cream or facial cleanser. Haha!

I’ve been hearing a lot of things lately about Erate . It seems that a lot of US schools have started to participate in the program and they have been seeing good results come out of it. It is a School and Libraries program of the Universal Service Fund that provides discounts to assist most schools and libraries in the United States to obtain affordable telecommunications and internet access. The success of the program also lies in the service provider that would be chosen for a certain school. Trillion has a team of E-rate experts who can greatly help a school district or library. It’s great to have programs like this that aims to provide students more access to knowledge and information. For a teacher like me, it sure looks good.

It’s more than a hundred months since andrea and I got together. It’s more than 2 and a half years since we got married. It’s been significantly long since our story as a family started and yet andrea mateo and I still have no roof of our own over our heads.

Apparently, it’s not that easy acquiring a property nowadays. No matter how much foreclosure help i find, getting around to procuring enough for a downpayment is more monumental of a task than I thought. Huhu! And as the head of the family, it’s a burden I bear heavily on my shoulders.

Sometimes, I even get to the point when I would think about how andrea and mateo would be right now if I was a bit richer or if andrea decided on marrying a richer guy. Would they be more secured? Would they be happier?

It’s quite depressing contemplating on these things but as the saying goes… reality bites - sometimes even harder than you could imagine. I know andrea and I had plans of having a house of our own early. And even though, based on others’ standards, some people think it’s still quite early, I can’t help but feel that it’s not. I mean mateo’s growing really fast. Soon, andrea and I would have to decide about whether we’ll have another baby or not. Before you know it, we’ll have more bills to pay and less money to allocate for our own abode.

Bit by bit our dream of a house is slowly fading. I’ve got to do something about it before time runs out - no matter how drastic or tragic it takes.

I’m seriously getting worried about mateo’s health. Just this morning, I had to rush his poop to the hospital before going to school because the color was alarmingly green. Not to mention, it has a very liquid consistency - all telltale signs of amoeba infection. Yet it hasn’t been a week since he finished his cycle of medication for the same condition.

Even Mateo’s pediatrician couldn’t believe the results when I informed her about the outcome of the lab test. She was in such disbelief that she scheduled an appointment for tomorrow just to check up personally on Mateo’s condition. But the results are shockingly very conclusive. I saw how green his poop was and how liquid the consistency was. Even I couldn’t argue…

Anyway, the only thing we could do, at least until we gets confirmation from his pediatrician, is to put him back on medication. So now, instead of just his food, milk, water, change of clothes, diapers and a few toys, he has a separate luggage devoted to his medicine.

Poor baby. It just tears my heart into pieces seeing him take all his meds. I hope you get well soon babsy! I hope you get well really soon!

Mateo has been on and off antibiotics lately, first because of amebiasis, and now because of tonsillitis. It seems that his immune system has been significantly compromised. This is why andrea and i are now figuring a way to pinpoint where the problem started and how to solve it.

So far the only thing we’ve figured out was that whatever compromised mateo’s immune system must have been airborne. We didn’t show any symptoms of whatever he’s having so that means he must have caught it somewhere else… most probably school. That’s also why we thought about 2 ways of addressing the problem: (1) keeping him at home or (2) if he stays there, then making sure he has a safe place there.

In the first option, we can’t help but hesitate because of various reasons I’ve mentioned in my last post. In the second option, however, we’re limited in methods of virusproofing a place in school. I mean there are not many Santa Fe dehumidifiers around to filter out allergens and viruses so this is quite a difficult option too.

The only things we have now are options, worries, and a sick mateo.

After several searching and surfing sessions, I’ve finally found the laptop memory supplier that I want. This is all thanks to Google, Yahoo and Ebay. They’ve been my friends for several nights already keeping me awake at times when I’m about to give in to sleep.

It is a 2 gigabit memory that will replace the 512 MB one that andrea has on her laptop. It’s not the fastest one in the market but it’s the best one I could put in there. Unfortunately, the memory together with the shipping is gonna set us back in finances so I couldn’t do anything but keep on looking at it for now.

I just hope that the offers don’t expire before I could save enough to buy! I really want to upgrade her laptop!

Recently, Mateo has been coming with us to work and spending an average of 7 hours in school, sometimes even longer especially during occasions when andrea and i need to attend meetings. It’s no wonder that he’s already contacted a cold. I mean with all the interactions he’s getting with so many students (both sick and healthy), I guess he’s bound to encounter at least 1 with a virus that he can’t fight against yet.

It’s really very frustrating. Andrea and i are torn between letting him stay at home or allowing him to continue accompanying us to work. You see, both have very real and significant consequences.

On one side, he’s already entering the age of wild curiosity. He’s always testing everything, tasting anything he could get his hands on, seeing how far he could throw objects, and running all over the place. He likes exploring the school grounds so much that I fear we’d need a GPS just to make sure he doesn’t get lost. It is because of this that I want to let him spend his time in school where there’s so much he can learn and experience.

On the other hand, if he does spend a lot of time in school, it would mean exposing him to more threats such as viruses, accidents, and even some not-so-nice habits - all of which he could get from other kids. The more I think about it, the more I realize that school isn’t really a place for babies. But then again, mateo’s not such a baby anymore.

There was once a time when andrea and I were both on postpaid lines (cell phone plans I mean). That was after we both started working. She, in an insurance company while I, in the school where we’re at now.

I can still remember her refusing to give up her line because most of her friends are on the same mobile company as the one she’s on while I was on the other one. But since there was a communication antenna near our school which blocked all her phone signals, she found it difficult to hang on to her line when she transferred work here. Well actually we even thought of getting cell phone amplifiers as a desperate option but it was just too far fetched at that time. In the end, she just switched mobile companies.

Now, because of so many increase in expenses, we decided it would be impractical to keep more than one line. That meant one of us had to give up our line. This time, she volunteered hers. That was because we were already living together and we originally planned on her staying home to look after our baby.

Now, almost 2 years after, our baby goes with us to school and andres is back to working full time. One of these days, once i get to finish allocating our budget for a year, I may just surprise her with a new line. Haha! We’ll see!