I got a most compelling e-mail from a complete stranger. It wasn't spam, nor bacn. It came from a man who was instrumental in helping me and Kyera get out of a temporary financial set back last June.

To make a long story short, money I was expecting to cover the deposit on our apartment didn't come and I had absolutely no one to turn to for help. (It's been one of my toughest realities since resuming my life back here in the US; tougher still because whereas before I was an only child being raised by a widow, now I am here, single parent, raising an only child.)

I heard about Modest Needs at work, crossed my fingers, and visited their website - http://www.modestneeds.org. Their mission in a nutshell: to help normally self-sufficient individuals get back on their feet.

I applied for a grant and hoped for the best. Each day as I logged in to see if our request had been funded, I prayed, sometimes fearful, sometimes hopeful, waiting for the small change from around the world to come in. Thirty days later, I got e-mail with this in the subject line: Help is on the way. I posted my thank you on the site and a few days later, a check came in the mail made out to our apartment complex.

In these tough economic times, Modest Needs has a total of 447 individuals on their site waiting for a grant. The e-mail I got was a simple request to help spread the word for these people. Having once been in their shoes, how can I deny them the help I myself once received?

Small change may not seem like much but it has the power to make a big difference in someone's life. Hopefully, this blog and the others I keep will help do the same.

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Schools are coming closer to starting once again, any particular memories/thoughts associated with this time of year? Submitted by Chuck

I grew up in Portland, OR before my mom moved us back to the Philippines when I was twelve.  School years begin in June there so since returning to the US last year - after 27 years overseas - it's been a new experience to see things through new yet familiar eyes. All the ads for back to school shopping bring back my childhood in the Pacific Northwest. Being an only child, I was spoiled to the point that I never repeated my clothes! My teacher asked my mom one day if we owned a dress/ clothing shop because I always went to school in nice outfits. Little did she know that my mom had a great eye for bargains. Every year before school started, we would hit JC Penny's, Montgomery Ward, KMart, Payless and Fred Meyer for my clothes.

My mom passed away in 1997 and since moving back here, I think of her often and fondly remember her when I drive by the ubiquitous KMart or see the Blue Light mascot dude on TV.  "Attention KMart shoppers!" used to have us dashing through the aisles.  She would have gotten a kick out of the little cartoon guy.  I must admit though that since coming back, I haven't set foot in a KMart.  I'm afraid I'll cry. Or maybe, I've just discovered another good bargain place called WalMart.

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How does one explain an absence?  Do I describe the prosaic dailiness of the routine that has become our life in the US?  Do I share the inner scape of the loneliness that is life in the diaspora? Do I regale you with tales of faith and the sometime lack thereof?  Or do I show you pictures that will hopefully help you see what has become of us?

For the most part, we've been tired from moving our life in and out of boxes, from my aunt's house to our new apartment.

We're learning what it is to be far from friends and discovering how truly loved we are from their visits from Tallahassee...

And as far away as Manila.

But mostly, we've been alone together. So utterly alone.

With God, that is, since He's promised to never leave us or forsake us.  And He did give us a puppy along with all this abundant Grace in making a new life, so we can't complain.

Rocco

 
And so much favor at work, that all we can do is thank Him.

May Star

current state of mind: thankful
playing on the ipod: electric president's we were never built to last

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Someone's been practising her driving.

At 30mph on a 45mph limit road.

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

K Driving.jpg

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And so I'm back from outer space. With BlackBerry in hand, I shall now attempt to resuscitate my cyberlife.  Attempt.  Let's not get excited.  Or shall we?

Here's the debut photo from my new Pearl.

The daughter outside a restaurant taking a photo of herself for her mother's address book.

Kye Pout.jpg

Let's see if this BlackBerry can boldly take this blog where it has never gone before.
 

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Stopping by and realized I have missed VOX sooooo much! And I see that I missed the anniversary yesterday too! My timing is normally impeccable but considering that I've moved continents and miss my daughter heaps and am job hunting left and right, I'd like to think I'm off the hook for ignoring my blogs.

I've been in Tallahassee for a month and it was rough at the start not just for the aforementioned reasons, but more so from the lack of the little things that I always used to have - my own computer and an iPod. Things as simple as cyber-surfing and listening to music would have been a huge help in transitioning. There's nothing like the comforts of things familiar that help us get our bearings when all around us is new.

(That's one of the reasons why I always have a photo of my daughter nearby...)

Anyway. I'm happy to have discovered the alarm clock in my room has a radio so I've been listening to it as often as I can. Not the same as music on demand from an MP3 player but I'm not complaining. And I do get to use a computer, just not as voraciously as before since I'm sharing it with a family of five.

All is good. I hope it's likewise with you and yours.

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Greetings from Tallahassee!

Life's still upside down and sideways and I still haven't landed so I am hardly in front of a computer.

When things return to normal, I will be back to my old demi-cybergeek self. Blogging up a storm about my new life. But for now, this is as best as I can do.

Check out my blogspot posts for regular updates, in case you're interested - http://thelmabowlen.blogspot.com.

Hopefully, life will be normal sooner than later.

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Everyone needs to get away from their routine now and then. Thank God I have a good friend who feels the same way

Kyera and Nikki

Not the kind where cows produce milk and chicken eggs are collected at the crack of dawn. It's a kind of farm resort, if you will. They do have a few horses, and pigs, and goats, a cow, a snake and various dogs. But it's more of a weekend getaway spot where they have built a large kidney-shaped pool with a two-story cabana on 15 hectares of land.

They are like family to us. I think it's because we're both single moms. She has three and my one, together with hers, are like siblings. Before we head for their farm in Bataan, we went to church and kind of hung out. Red played drums Sunday morning with the grown-ups and then I took the big kids to have lunch while we waited for my friend, Len, and Red to finish with their stuff.

Red on Drums

So while I made a beeline for a nearby reputable salon, Kyera, Nikki and her brother Miguel fooled around with the camera and had cupcakes a block away. Not before taking pictures of ourselves over lunch, which by the way, were taken with an Olympus E-410D that I'm reviewing for a newspaper article.

So while I was getting my short hair cut even shorter, the kids got cupcakes and took more pictures. I should actually have them write the article for me! They're actually pretty good photographers. My daughter will post pics on her blog. Sorry.

I can honestly say that Len and her kids are some of the people I will miss the most when we leave for the US next month. But for more on that, you'll have to read my other blog, exits and entrances.

Miguel and Kyera

Oh! Here's me and my new hair. Cheers to random hair decisions and the joy of being with the people you love.

My New Hair

I hope your weekend was just as fab.

Miguel, Kyera and Nikki

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There's a typhoon in Manila. We've been getting rained on incessantly this past week. Apparently as one typhoon exited, another entered our "area of responsibility". But life in the Philippines is experienced in either extreme heat and humidity or extreme wet and humidity, so this is nothing new.

A life lived in Manila will always be punctuated with stories of flooded streets, power outages, and the cancellation of school, and sometimes work. We're pretty good with dealing with these factors! (I'll save these stories for some other blogs.)

Philippine tricycle

Last Wednesday, Kyera and I had an urgent errand to run so we had to brave the pouring rain. Just as we stepped outside, it started to pour. Bucket-fulls. Two blocks down the road at the tricycle stand found us drenched despite our umbrellas. By the time we got to our stop, my jeans were soaking wet up to my waist.

If you were to ask me a year ago what I thought about the idea of having to take public transportation at the height of a typhoon, I would have told you how thankful I am that I don't need to since I have a car. I would have said I felt really sorry for the people who had to walk in ankle-deep, or knee-deep flood water to get to school or work or home. I would have told you how more than once I had accidentally splashed into puddles and drenched pedestrians. I would have told you that if I were in their shoes, I would certainly throw myself a pity party.

But here I am a year later, without a car, getting drenched and splashed on and totally alright with it.

As I sat in the tricyle with my daughter by my side, I realized how different our life has become and how everything is fine after all. We chit-chat en route to our destination like we used to when I drove; she is able to nap on occasion; I am freed from the confines of Manila's butt-numbing, claustrophobia-inducing traffic.

It's all good.

Now when I am behind the wheel of my friend's car when we take turns driving her van on weekends to church, I have a better appreciation, and patience, for pedestrians and commuters.

Is there anything you didn't think you could see yourself doing but ended up being okay with after all?

P.S Look who else is here in the Philippines! Quentin Tarantino! Click here for my friend's blog!

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I'm a late bloomer to this thing called blogging.

Web Adventures!

I have a confession to make. I made the leap from "earth-dweller" (A term I picked up from my online friend Kevin M. Keating through one of his tweets last June.) to "cyberspace trawler" (Not sure who made that one up but I started calling myself that when I wrote myself a short profile on my tumblr and Pownce pages.) just February of this year.

Not that I was an internet-virgin before this. I did my share of Google and Yahoo and MSN. And most certainly had my fill of e-mail creating. But nothing came as close to actually venturing out beyond the confines of Multiply to "put myself on the web". Oh, wait! I'm forgetting friendster. Can I please forget friendster? (Can't bring myself to Cancel/Delete my account!)

The mere thought of being Googled made me shudder. Reading about my morning show and our station was fine but stuff about me me?!

And then Wikipedia happened. From my quiet and obscure existence, I found myself having to contribute to the website for work. Mediation was required and it was me who was tasked with doing the deed of making the request. In all honesty, I lost sleep thinking how easy it had become to Google my name and not just find me but only ONE facet of my life. A facet that is hardly wholistic and defining.

Debbie Weil came to my rescue. I read her book, The Corporate Blogging Book, and decided to define myself online through blogging.

I had two choices: let others define who I am through their own limited perception; or introduce myself and let people know more about who I am

I chose the latter and haven't turned back.  From my humble Multiply beginnings, I signed up for WordPress, Blogger and Vox in the span of one week. The username I chose for all four? Mine. My thinking is that since there are ways to find one's real name and address anyway, there's no use hiding. And in my observation, it only takes one blog to find out the other links that a person cares and blogs about, so why bother trying?

I would rather people knew about me, from me. How I think; how I feel; what I'm passionate about. Or how emotionally-adjusted I am; how spiritually-inclined; how intellectually-competent (Or think I am!)

So here is where I am:

1. Twitter
2. Jaiku
3. Pownce
4. iLike
5. Multiply
6. del.icio.us
7. tumblr
8. friendster
9. youtube
10. flickr
11. Spock
12. VOX
13. Stylehive
14. Wikipedia
    

So far.

I've met some fascinating people along the way. Now if only I can remember all these passwords and e-mail combinations!

How about you? Why do you Web 2.0? Where else are you?

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