I'm going to have a baby tomorrow! Well... not really me, but I'm kind of making it mine LOL for the first two months, at least, when the baby isn't really... doing anything. My sister-in-law will give birth tomorrow to Emmanuel H. Velasco II (yes, that's 'the second' and not 'junior') at the ungodly hour of 8am in the morning, cesarean (?) section. Ye gods, I'm going to be a doctor and I don't even know how to correctly spell CS. Yeesh. Anyway, it's a baby boy who has been bursting at the seams - literally - to enter this world. And my brother is so enamored of his name that he's giving it to his first son too. All I can say: whatever! I'm going to be calling him "the second" because it feels weird to be callin him "Em-em" like what my parents will be doing and calling him "Em" would be like calling my own brother, minus the 'kuya' of course. And since I'm a Tita who's got this quirk of calling people names that only I call, he's now going to be known as "the second" to me. For short, "the II". Lota, the mother-to-be, said that I should pronounce it "the see-coh-nd" ala Pippin (Billy Boyd) in LOTR ("what about second breakfast?") and I think that is what I'm going to do. I'm very excited. To have a baby in the house and family... and yet somehow, I'm also scared. It's one thing to be an aunt to the kids of my cousins and quite another to be the aunt of the first born child of my only brother. What if the kid doesn't like me? What if we won't be too close and I'll seem like a stranger? I've only got one brother. Our offsprings will be the only first cousins around... Ooh and due to this, my next coupla Friendster pix will probably be of a baby LOL and I sure hope people won't automatically assume or think that it's my baby. Coz unless the Immaculate Conception happens again or 24-hour human pregnancies are fine, it's impossible that it's going to be my kid :p

I love driving at night because I drive fast (especially when I'm alone) and there's hardly any traffic at all. What I don't like, though, is the lighting system. I mean, it's better if the road is well-lighted... but when it's not... ugh. You've got four types of headlights: too much, just enough, too little, and none at all.
Too much is just that, they have their high beams on and even when you flash them or give them a taste of their own medicine (w/c is the proper and polite way of telling them "yo! turn down the bleeping lights coz i can't bleeping see!"), they fail to dim down the lights. This usually happens in the province and since I do live in Dasmariñas, Cavite 4-5 days out of the week, my night-driving experiences often include these blinding drivers. And, of course, if you hit them, it's all your bleeping fault.
Just enough happens about... 40-60% of the time, depending on what time you're on the road. I've got no complaints over that.
Too little is the leering wink (I would've used the word 'seductive' but that's almost positive, isn't it?). Translation: one-sided headlights. You never know if you're facing a motorcycle, tricycle, or a truck or jeep. The first two are fine, the next two are not. I'm glad that there was a phase in my life (and somewhat now, too, altho I can't indulge anymore) that I liked cars and being able to identify them by sight during daylight and nighttime. And so, I can more or less guess if the sole headlight barreling towards me should be given a wide berth or not.
None at all is just that, no headlights whatsoever. Legally, their not allowed on the road, but there's enough of them on the streets to prove that Pinas traffic enforcement is sloppy. And, if you hit them, they're going to be ones who'll raise hell and blame you to anybody who would listen.

Christmas is just around the corner and as I wrap whatever few gifts I have to give (sorry, guys, we're all strapped for cash), I always hear Maws' voice in my head commenting on my gift-wrapping-style LOL she says she can always tell if the gift came from me, because I have a distinctive way of wrapping gifts - I don't know the 'proper' way of wrapping. I don't feel bad that Maws says that and I just laugh it off, really, and counter with: why, is there an actual right by-the-book way of wrapping? My philosophy is: it's covered, it looks pretty, it's neat, that's fine. It'll get torn up and/or thrown out anyway. Heh.

What happens when you've got a friend, either he/she is close or best or just simply a friend... and say, he/she has a problem... would I be a bad friend if I didn't ask about it? If I didn't know anything about it because he/she didn't speak up? I mean, you know how it is. You're friends with someone, you hang out with someone, maybe you might feel that something's 'off' but otherwise, the times spent are pretty okay. And then you learn that he/she has/had a problem - maybe big, maybe not - then was/is it my responsibility for not pursuing my friend's problem? Like, thinking that if I were a good friend, I'd have realized something was off and asked about it. But then, none of us are mind readers... and we all tend to live life thinking that as long as nothing is really far out of the ordinary, everything's okay. And besides, aren't we supposed to respect our friends for their need to privacy? I guess there's really no right answer to that... but sometimes I wonder... how much responsibility do I have for a friend? And I use the word 'responsibility' with all the love and care and concern in that word. It's not something that I 'have' to do but 'want' to do. Coz I care. :)