California Nightingales....

California Nightingales are gearing up for their mini- reunion in May @ Odie Martinez' residence....Kailan na ba and who are attending? Excited na ako for all of you..Odie, please update us...
I am counting the days before the July reunion..Excited na din ako na makita kayong lahat. I will not miss this for a moment!!!
I was so blessed to see the Mid-Atlantic Nightingales at our reunion and I am really longing for more fellowship with all of you..We were like in college again-- no inhibitions, free, all guards down, walang pataasan, walang ano na ang status mo or what?---walang ganoon akong na-feel...We were there to enjoy each other--just being us..Ang saya-saya talaga!!! I just want to share this with all of you--the acceptance, happiness, love and joy I felt when we saw each other at the reunion--what a moment! Thanks from the bottom of my heart to all the Mid-Atlantic Nightingales for such a wonderful time!!! I miss all of you already!!

jcp gigs

MID ATLANTIC REUNION

Indeed, we had a blast last week-end. Some of you might be wondering why I went to this reunion when I am from Texas. Well, I taught myself a new geography lesson. "Texas is part of Mid Atlantic " so that gave me a reason to go. Veron and I planned this to be a big surprise. You can just imagine the look on our classmates faces when I open the door to greet them.

We really felt like we were still in college. We slept in one room like in Sta. Maria . We had big project to finish until the wee hours of the morning...that was scap booking, and we talked and shared our stories lying down with our pajamas just like in the dorm. This just reminded me how we all worked together as a team.

For me...this was a MASTERCARD moment. Something money can't buy.

NEXT MINI-REUNION

First of all, I would like to thank the Lord for the perfect, most beautiful day for our reunion, to personally thank Flor, Obet and family for sharing their beautiful house to make this memorable affair of re-connecting, re-bonding and what Rachel had said-'just picked-up from where we left off 30 years ago' a reality and last but not least, to all our dedicated and loving husbands who gladly and willingly drove 2-3hours to bring us and join in this special occasion. Of course not to mention the coordinators and everybody who made it inspite of busy schedules.
We would like to extend an invitation to all who want to join us in another weekend of fun, food, music, drinks, dancing, karaoke, swimming, etc. (Veron, you can bring your Korean DVD's so we can all start getting hooked to watching them), to our humble home in Abingdon, MD on the 2nd or 3rd weekend of August whichever suits your busy schedules(whether you're in-state or out of state). From the wonderful experience this weekend, I believe that we can add these weekend gatherings to the 'list of healthy living' in addition to (3xweek) as the company, fun and enjoyment that we all share (not to mention the FOOD, forget the 'DIETS' during these times) can be our de-stressor to break the routine of a whole week of work whether it be at a job or home.
Since it's still a few months away, we can request to be off that weekend or coordinate our busy schedules.
We really had a good time this weekend!!!

Some funny lessons learned at the Mid-Atlantic reunion

Wow, I really enjoyed the reunion but I was tasked to post some of the funny lessons learned from this reunion--and you know of all people---ME?
Anyway, I truly had a wonderful time with the nightingales re-connecting, bonding, reminiscing, laughing, screaming and learning new things about where we are in our journey in life, our career, our ups and downs, our past, our children, health, beauty, marriage, menopause, scrapbooking, and the three letter word that starts w/ s-- (if you know what I mean):):):)Ha,ha,ha,ha....

Veron Orpilla taught us scrapbooking. We stayed up till 3am to do the Class 78 scrapbook. It was the first for me, Lele, and Mey, the rest, I believe have done this before... According to our instructor/"therapist", we all did a good job! Ray, Mey's husband said we all look like his creative therapy patients in the nursing home. He does not mean that we are "old and senior" but he meant his patients doing creative therapy..Ha,ha,ha,ha...

Rachel Evangelista taught us how many times we need to do s--(if you know what I mean) per week. She said we have to do IT 3x per week so we will stay fit and healthy. She also said we need to exercise the "muscles" involve in s-- to keep "these muscles" healthy just like how we exercise our heart muscles when we walk, jog or run...True! Ha, ha, ha, ha...Ang loko talaga ni Rachel!!!

We also learned instead of shouting "1, 2, 3, CHEESE!!" on pictorials, we should shout, "1,2,3 --times a week", taught to us by Ray, Mey's hubby.

Mahgene Pasion who is a Urology Nurse taught us sign language:
V- for Viagra
C- for Cialis
L -for Levitra

We also learned that husbands can be macho, sansui but tigasin:
Macho--- macho-nurin
Sansui --- 'sang sutsot, uwi
Tigasin--- tiga-saing, tiga-laba, tiga-linis

LOL!!!! Did I miss anything, Mid-Atlantic Nightingales?

Okay now, my advice to all the nightingales: As we are exposed to a lot of things in life, we have to be open and as my husband said: "You have to learn to just pick the meat and throw all the bones".....
Ciao for now.....

Mid-Atlantic Reunion

I couldn't sleep that night.... I tossed and turned, opened and closed my eyes, but no shut eyes. Ah, tomorrow is a big day, a day of rekindling the past and looking forward to an exciting day of fun and laughter with my co-nightingales.
My husband and I left our house at about 10:30 in the morning to go to 9 Runkle Place in New Jersey. It will take us 2 1/2 hours to go to the important site of the reunion. Everything was a smooth ride until exit 17 going to Flor's house was closed because of constructions.She did not realize that all the nightingales were going to exit that part of New Jersey to go to her house. She forgot to warn us! Well, we finally found our way but some didn't. Poor Mahgene and Luis, they had to call over and over again before they can find the place. Oh ,we had a lot of fun because of that!!
The big surprise for me was that, as soon as I opened the door, the big smiling face of Rachel suddenly appeared in front of me. I didn't know if I was in the right house, whether I was in Texas or New Jersey? You see, I was planning to meet Rachel in Texas for a mini reunion in June and I didn't expect to see her in New Jersey. Oh, if you could only hear the shoutings and wailing of everyone. I think that we were the loudest in the neighborhood.
Each nightingale arrived one by one, and each time one arrived, further shouting and laughing could be heard, one louder than the other. It was very chaotic!!! Finally our food arrived, delivered by two sweet nightingales named Cecile and Chato F. You see, we ordered our banquet feast from Filipino restaurants in New Jersey. Smart idea, right? Ruth brought crabs from MARYLAND which I enjoyed tremendously, the others brought champagne and Rachel brought kielbasa sausages from the great state of Texas(yi-hah) Oh, what fun!!
We formed a circle, alphabetical manner of course , from Adamos to Salazar, we prayed for the delicious food and friendship and began eating. We had plenty of food to go around, I forgot my healthy diet for one day and just enjoyed every moment with all these wonderful 14 nightingales including some of our husbands. You see, our husbands did not eat with us, they had their own separate group and they seemed to be enjoying each others company.
We discussed a lot of things while eating. We talked about our health, our state of minds , our menopausal stages and who had colonoscopy etc, etc. Most of all, we talked about how to keep our marriage lives alive and vibrant. One nightingale commented that she read a journal that we have to do it 3 times a day(you know what) to be healthy. Others said that they were not interested about it anymore, others were just too tired to do it that much. We all laughed so hard and we kept on reminding each other about 3 times a week, 3 times a week in each and every conversation. One husband who was videotaping us was getting embarrassed of our conversation
and said that the video was getting R-rated.
Aside from having a lot of fun, we also did in-service training so that a lot of nightingales can participate in the blog. The reunion became an educational training for some of us and became very exciting and informative experience. I can assure you that more nightingales will participate in the blog from now on.
At about 9 p.m. , we had a champagne toast for good health and good camaraderie. We cheered for class'78 and that we are going to do it again in the future. I had to leave at almost 10 p. m. but the rest of the nightingales had a pajama party, just like the good old days.
All in all, it was a successful party. Thanks everyone for coming, I enjoyed every minute of it and looking forward for the next MID-ATLANTIC REUNION in the future!!!!

Mid-Atlantic Reunion at Asbury, NJ 4/12/08

MID-ATLANTIC REUNION

PLACE: FLORDELIZA BOLOS ODI
DATE: APRIL 12, 2008
PRESENT: RUTH ADAMOS
AMY BENAVIDEZ
LELE BERNARDO
FLOR BOLOS
SARA CAPEGSAN
MILDRED DIAZ
RACHEL EVANGELISTA
CHATO FRANCISCO
CECIL HERRERA
TESS HERRERA
VERON ORPILLA
GLORIA PASSION
MEY PENA
SUSAN SALAZAR

CLASS 1978

The Way We Were

This has probably been spammed to you at one time or the other but I just want to resurrect it in this blogsite lest we forget those good old carefree days. . .let your kids know about it so they will realize how brave their parents were.

First, we survived being born to mothers who smoked and/or drank while they carried us.

They took aspirin, ate blue cheese dressing, tuna from a tin, and didn't get tested for diabetes.

Then after that trauma, our baby cots were covered with bright coloured lead-based paints.

We had no childproof lids on medicine bottles, doors or cabinets and when we rode our bikes, we had no helmets, not to mention, the risks we took hitchhiking.

As children, we would ride in cars with no seat belts or air bags.

Riding in the back of a van - loose - was always great fun.

We drank water from the garden hosepipe and NOT from a bottle.

We shared one soft drink with four friends, from one bottle and NO ONE actually died from this.

We ate cakes, white bread and real butter and drank pop with sugar in it, but we weren't overweight because......

WE WERE ALWAYS OUTSIDE PLAYING!!

We would leave home in the morning and play all day, as long as we were back when the streetlights came on.

No one was able to reach us all day. And we were O.K.

We would spend hours building our go-carts out of scraps and then ride down the hill, only to find out we forgot the brakes. After running into the bushes a few times, we learned to solve the problem .

We did not have Playstations, Nintendo's, X-boxes, no video games at all, no 99 channels on cable, no video tape movies, no surround sound, no cell phones, no text messaging, no personal computers, no Internet or Internet chat rooms..........WE HAD FRIENDS and we went outside and found them! We fell out of trees, got cut, broke bones and teeth and there were no lawsuits from these accidents .

We played with worms and mud pies made from dirt, and the worms did not live in us forever.

Made up games with sticks and tennis balls and although we were told it would happen, we did not poke out any eyes.

We rode bikes or walked to a friend's house and knocked on the door or rang the bell, or just yelled for them!

Local teams had tryouts and not everyone made the team. Those who didn't had to learn to deal with disappointment. Imagine that!!

The idea of a parent bailing us out if we broke the law was unheard of. They actually sided with the law!

This generation has produced some of the best risk-takers, problem solvers and inventors ever!

The past 50 years have been an explosion of innovation and new ideas.

We had freedom, failure, success and responsibility, and we learned

HOW TO DEAL WITH IT ALL!

And YOU are one of them!

CONGRATULATIONS!

The Invitation

By Oriah Mountain Dreamer

It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living.

I want to know what you ache for

and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.

It doesn’t interest me how old you are.

I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool

for love

for your dream

for the adventure of being alive.

It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon...

I want to know if you have touched the centre of your own sorrow

if you have been opened by life’s betrayals

or have become shriveled and closed

from fear of further pain.

I want to know if you can sit with pain

mine or your own

without moving to hide it

or fade it

or fix it.

I want to know if you can be with joy

mine or your own

if you can dance with wildness

and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes

without cautioning us

to be careful

to be realistic

to remember the limitations of being human.

It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true.

I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself.

If you can bear the accusation of betrayal

and not betray your own soul.

If you can be faithless

and therefore trustworthy.

I want to know if you can see Beauty

even when it is not pretty

every day.

And if you can source your own life from its presence.

I want to know if you can live with failure

yours and mine

and still stand at the edge of the lake

and shout to the silver of the full moon,“Yes.”

It doesn’t interest me

to know where you live or how much money you have.

I want to know if you can get up

after the night of grief and despair

weary and bruised to the bone

and do what needs to be done

to feed the children.

It doesn’t interest me who you know

or how you came to be here.

I want to know if you will stand

in the centre of the fire

with me

and not shrink back.

It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom

you have studied.

I want to know what sustains you

from the inside

when all else falls away.

I want to know if you can be alone with yourself

and if you truly like the company you keep

in the empty moments.

Photo by .SantiMB. on Flickr

Reunion Anxieties Anyone?

Since this blogsite began, we've been hearing a lot about the upcoming St. Luke's Alumni Association Grand Reunion in July and about how exciting it is to be seeing each other after 30 years and everything. Several people have already committed to attending it and have unabashedly declared that they are looking forward to reconnecting with old friends. Well, why not? After all, reunions are great for revisiting the past and stirring up wonderful memories. As we get older, it is no surprise that we tend to be more nostalgic and are more interested in reminiscing.

A reunion, however, is also a time to reveal to old friends how we are currently doing and that could potentially send shivers up the spine of some folks who are not too confident about how well they measure up to their old classmates. Fear of being judged on appearance and life status come to full throttle and drive people into a panic. It can make one go bananas over an event that doesn't even last for more than a few hours. Questions come flooding in. OMG, what if they think I'm too fat? What should I wear? Will they think I'm a loser? What if no one remembers me? What if I don't recognize them? I have to lose weight. I gotta get a life. I gotta make a million dollars. Aaaaaarrrgggghhhhh!!!!

The reason why I thought perhaps we ought to talk about these anxieties that some of us might be experiencing is so that we can put it out in the open and realize that we're not the only one with reunion jitters therefore we can just relax, leave our anxieties at the door and have a marvelous time at the reunion. And for those who are fortunate not to have any problems with the reunion at all, perhaps it will be good to be aware and be sensitive to the fact that there are people that may be feeling anxious.

Let's start with the anxieties we may have with our appearance. It is not uncommon for people to call up Jenny Craig and want to get on a quick weight loss program prior to a reunion. Naturally, we want to look our best when we see people we haven't seen in decades, right? The thing that people don't realize is that they're probably thinking as though they were still in their twenties. It will be more helpful to keep in mind that everyone will be 30 years older now with a sluggish metabolism just like yours. Unless, they've had liposuctions or facelifts, almost everyone will have bulging waistlines, double chins, graying hair and a few wrinkles. There is nothing shameful about having changed. It's expected and it behooves everyone to celebrate those changes instead of trying to look the way we did at our graduation in 1978. It's okay to look like we're fifty-somethings because we are.

Most people think of reunions as a time to impress others so they think of ways to make their careers and lifestyles sound exciting and lucrative. But what if you didn't have the charmed life that you hoped to live? What if things didn't turn out the way you dreamed they would? Honestly, you know what, nobody cares. People don't like show-offs and braggarts anyway. People are there simply because they want to have a great time connecting with friends from their youth; and maybe enjoy feeling young again for a while. People want a rejuvenating experience, not one that dampens their spirits because they have been made to feel less fortunate than others.

What if you've had a falling out with some old classmates? You wonder about how you're going to handle seeing them again. I say you ought to just forget about the problems you had with those people and assume that everyone else has grown up along with you. Show up at the reunion prepared to share the mature, fun and friendly you. By the end of the evening, you'll be laughing with old friends about how silly it was that you stopped talking to each other.

So come July, have a good time with everybody. Even if we've each taken different paths in our lives, we still share that common bond with each other. We still are sisters at heart...all St. Luke's Daughters of Nightingale 1978.

God's Blessings

These two little girls were PAMELA and HANNA.They were 3 years old way back in 1985. This photo was taken in Virginia when we were vacationing. PAMELA,(wearing blue pants) is now a CHEMIST at WATSON PHARMACEUTICAL COMPANY, the third largest in the U.S.A. She is getting married in July. HANNA, on the right is now a LIEUTENANT IN THE U.S NAVY NURSE CORPS. Oh, how time flies, do you know who their parents are?

Yeah, the proud parents are MILDRED AND RENE AND RUTH AND VAL.

Several years later , two children were added in their families. Mildred was holding FAITH her second daughter and Val was holding JOSHUA, his son. Faith is in RUSSIA right now taking her PRE-LAW courses and Joshua is graduating this year MAJORING IN BUSINESS.
After several years, MILDRED AND RENE were blessed with another daughter named
REBEKAH. She is taking up Nursing in the FALL of 2008.
Do you know who these cutie girls belong to?

Yes, the proud parents are MILDRED and RACHEL. These photos were taken in Disneyland way back 1984.

GOD is good!! He has blessed us with good families and good friends like all of you, THE NIGHTINGALES. I URGE YOU GUYS TO POST THE PICTURES OF YOUR MOST IMPORTANT TREASURES AND POSSESSIONS IN THIS WORLD....YOUR CHILDREN....

Arroz Caldo for the Soul

I just wanted to share this with those of you who may be interested in meditation. It's from the "Place...of Wellness" at MD Anderson Cancer, which offers our patients complementary therapies that enhance their quality of life (yoga, accupuncture, tai chi, aroma therapy, massage, etc).

Beyond just getting physical, we need to focus on our mind, body AND spirit.

Here's the link: http://www.mdanderson.org/docs/Into_the_Garden.mp3

Enjoy!