jamba juiciness

Just got home from errands with a pretty decent green tea smoothie from that Jamba Juice place. If it weren't for the fact that I'm a passionate meat lover (what Filipino isn't?) I would practically live at Jamba Juice. If only it were right across the stree instead of a few blocks away, but I'll not complain.

Well, go figure. My first post in months, and it's been what it is. I've always been one to lack discipline but at least I'm making a little progress here and there (blogging regularly isn't one of them).

It's been just shy of five months since I left Oregon and came here to sunny Southern California, where it has been therapy. Things change, often times in least expected ways, and all we can do is not so much prepare the hell out of ourselves for the unforseeable, but to cope strategically and intelligently with the unforseeable. It's a lesson each time, and most importantly, a chance.

My dad's death, one month after I came here (and ironically in part to help my mom take care of him) was in no small part a milestone. It helped put in perspective all that I've done, what I've gone through, and how I live now and in the future. I know I want to have my happy moments, and for the unhappy ones I simply work with what I have to improve them, to improve me. I think that's what Dad would want. If I'm not happy, especially on my own terms, then it's a dishonour to him. It was his ultimate dream to see his children - and his grandchildren - have all the good things he wouldn't have been able to give them had he stayed in the Philippines. Thus we are all college/university educated, and successful here and there. That is his legacy - happiness, prosperity, and independence. Those things were built on a base of sheer love for us, devotion, kindness, and particularly importmant, a great sense of humour.

Because to laugh and to feel joy and love is akin to being truly alive. That is success.