Oh my goodness! Yup, my friends, this is my nephew Sebastian! Look at that big Perez-head! Apparently he is taking after Arnold's father. He is almost a year old now, which is crazy! By the time I meet him, he will probably be walking already. Sigh... this is the cost of living far from family, it makes me sad to think that we are missing out on seeing him grow.... I mean we are missing out on big moments, like baby's first cell phone call....This picture tells you everything you need to know about small-town life in Colombia. Cell phone chained to the table. Motas (the dog) hanging out underneath the wedding dresses. My MIL made all those dresses! Cool, huh?

Awww... it looks like my brother-in-law Octavio learned some rudimentary photo-shop skillz! Your tios Maghanoy love you too Sebastian!

Doing the right thing...

Exactly one time in my life have I ever been involved in a political event and that was in college when I worked with a group who was lobbying for Veterans rights for Filipinos who fought under American command in World War II. During the war, the U.S. drafted Filipinos (the Philippines was a territory-type situation at this time) to fight the Japanese in WWII. Obliviously there contribution was appreciated and the president promised them veterans benefits. Except later, someone else decided that since none of this was documented that it seemed right to rip them off. So there were these thousands of Filipino veterans who fought in American uniform during WWII who were denied V.A. benefits like.... oh I don't know, pensions and medical care.

I am really happy that today, the yahoos in the government finally got it together to recognize the 18,000 who are still living and reinstate their benefits. And it only happened because some of the older republicans who apparently are the only ones left who remember the war and what it means to be decent and honorable, broke rank with their party. It never fails to amaze me to see how stupid govt. officials can be with military policy (i.e., it's illegal to pick vegetables in this country without immigration papers, but for some reason it's okay to join the military without legal papers?) but today I am excited. A SHOUT OUT TO THOSE REPUBLICAN CONGRESSMEN who DID THE RIGHT THING!

Also, on Top Chef, Dale Talde got props for making a killer Halo-Halo. It was an awesome day for my Pilipino peeps! Mix it up people! Mix it up!

Things that are mutually exclusive...

Ice Caps and Global Warming
Small Children and Clubbin
Street food and No Danger of Food Poisoning

Maghanoys and Modesty

Here's the thing, it's not secret that Maghanoy's are not modest people. I think the best man at my cousin Ron Ron's wedding said it best "Everything about Ron is big, his dreams, his goals and especially those ear (yup, RonRon and I both have BIG FAT AWESOME MAGHANOY EARS, but that's another story). My brother's both regularly tell me how awesome they are and don't get me started on the King himself, my GAD. No, seriously, I mean it, he oftentimes refers to himself as the "King" as in "I am the King of this Castle". Sometimes he just compliments himself for no reason, for example "My feet are perfect." So, you can see why I seem to have as Renee puts it "irrationally high self-esteem", it's a family trait.

It may seem silly, but I actually think that it is a very positive thing, this Maghanoyish Immodesty. It is not so much that we think other people suck but that we think we are AWESOME. And, seriously, if you don't think your awesome, don't fool yourself into thinking that other people will think it for you. They won't, they are too busy doing one of two things.

1) Wallowing in narcissistic low self-esteem "Poor me, blah, blah, blah"
2) Wallowing in narcissistic hubris. "Everyone is beneath me."

Do yourself a favor and take the Maghanoy middle ground. Here's an exercises that Maghanoy's indulge in quite frequently. Take your name and insert and adjective. Ex. "My name is Sonia Awesome Aujla" or "My name is Justina Wonderful Wong". Fun, huh!!! That's right, don't be shy, get your Maghanoy on! "My name is Alec Yowza Young!" "My name is "Jessen Lovely Langley"

Alright, good work peeps. Class dismissed.

Not so blind Item...

What Colombian who married a certain spunky Wilipina girl 6 years ago just got an invitation from the INS to interview for citizenship next month? Hint: His nom de plumme is the same as a certain California governor who was also naturalized.

I think I might smell an impending "Congratulations on your Naturalization Party"

An unrequited love affair with pink...

I am very into pink, but it seems that Arnold does not think that is a very manly color for our house. So, instead Lisa got a pink, Versailles themed bridal shower.! This picture doesn't quite show how adorable it was. No, crappy crepe paper and balloons! All, paper lanterns, pink gauze and candelabras. It came out quite well which is good cause I have a reputation to maintain. Even if the reputation is mostly just between me and my GIANT ego.

Not to brag but test-taking has always come somewhat easy to me. In general I have a stellar memory. That's right, I said "Stellar". Just call me Elephant Amelie. So, until 3 weeks ago I have never taken a test that I thought I flunked. Literally. No exaggeration. It was really hard, some of my classmates didn't even get to finish. I finished only 2 minutes before time was called. I actually had a nightmare about the test... after I took it. This, my friends is hardcore. In addition to being good at tests, I generally don't worry about them too much. Because... well, I don't care. After you take it, there is no fixing it, but this test plagued me. I thought about it all the time, like my mind couldn't let go of my big ACADEMIC FAILURE. It was quite annoying. The big problem being that if I flunked the test, there was a big chance that I might not get a B- in the class which means that I would have to sign up for another semester. In other words Fail Test=$1300 problem. That's big-time retirement money peeps! I could have like sooooooooo many cake breaks for that money.

Well, I'm happy to say there is a happy ending to this story. Freakishly, I got a B on the test. I wish I could say the same for my classmates, many of whom I am sure are pulling out their hair after that SERIOUSLY difficult test. But it seems that I dodged the bullet this time. To celebrate, I bought myself flowers, called Justina, and wrote this blog. And I feel good. Can't hold me down!

China Preparations 2008

So, I am kind of big into reading... and thanks to the Internet and the public library you can pretty much learn about anything you want. Right now, I am "training" up for our China trip. This is a not-so-scientific self-designed program. Right now I am reading a book about the great wall. It is totally my kind of book (tons of pictures!-see pic above). I am also trying to learn some basic mandarin so I can do important things like order food and find bathrooms. So far, I can only have missionary Mandarin under my belt. I can say "Hi", "Thank you", and "Jesus loves you". Being a missionary is illegal in China, so I'm guessing I won't have much opportunity to use the last phrase. And although I am totally overwhelmed by the whole tonal issue in Mandarin, one thing that is awesome is that there is NO VERB CONJUGATION! How awesome is that?

The second book I read about China was the memoir of an American woman who lived in Peking during the cultural revolution. It was a very good book, it's called "Go gently through Peking" by Lois Fisher. Since China has obviously changed a lot since the 70s it'll be interesting to see what is different. One thing that I think it the same is that apparently killing flies according to Lois "is a very important to the daily Chinese cleaning regimen". I think this is probably be true because when my friend Emily first came back from China she brought us back these weird electric fly-swatters. You would switch the thing on and the fly-swatter grates would electrocute the poor little buggers without having to be too precise about hitting them hard. Of course everyone we knew decided to touch it to see if it really would shock you. I'm not sure what this says about Americans. Anyhoo, when we get back from China I'll be able to report on whether killing flies is indeed an important part of the Chinese housekeeping.

And last but not least I have been engaging in the most important part of preparations. Eating cookies. Yum-mo!

Life comes at you fast...

I have three college roomates that I am still close friends with and even though we don't live in the same city, we make the effort to get together every once in awhile... and it always feel comfortable and relaxed. I like to call us the "Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants" because it's silly. I imagine it's the same impulse that drives Arnold to tell people that he is voting Hannah Montana for president of the United States. Anyways, we got together last Saturday and it was especially fun because Mags is pregnant! She's pulling a Nicole Kidman so you can't see the bump yet, but I assure you , I felt it!


On Saturday we went to tour the Scharffenberger Chocolate Factory. It was awesome! I know so much about chocolate now! Plus we got to wear stylish hair nets! And it was free! Free hair nets, what more could we ask for?

Plus, we made some friends! Thassa right! We might be pushing 30 but we still got it going on!

Is it weird that the New Kids on the Block reunion is like the most exciting news of my week? I CANNOT wait to relive my childhood. And every time Arnold rolls his eyes I remind him of how often he subjects me to listening to the Rocky soundtrack so that we can relive HIS childhood.

Sometimes I look back on college and I wonder....


Whoa? What was going on here? Why does Alex look like a monkey? Why I am wearing polar-bear pajamas. Why is my face so round? What kind of pose are we going for? I mean seriously, this is one weird picture.

Then again...In my defense... Alex's face is often red like that, at UC Davis it is bizarrely appropriate to wear pajamas 24/7 inside or outside of your house and I definitely know that neither of us were drinking when this picture was taken... or maybe that's worse. Somehow we ended up looking like this... without the influence of alcohol. That seems like it might be more embarrassing.