2008 Loves and Hates

Things that I love and hate about 2008 in no particular order:

Love 

1. My hubby

2. Being able to go home 2x this year 

3. Both sides of the family

4. Cheese

5. The Amish Market a block away from our apartment that sells a great cheese selection

6. Our new apartment

7. Keeping in touch with friends, old and new

8. Traveling, lots of it!

9. Still having a job to pay for all that traveling

10. Total independence

11. Morning coffee

12. Really good wine

13. Recessionista specials

14. Learning how to cook more complex dishes

15. The occasional suburbia getaways - hello, Walmart and Costco!

16. Commute to work

17. Presidential Election Results 2008. Yes we can.

18. Facebook

19. Gossip Girl, Mad Men, Lipstick Jungle, Family Guy, Food Network

20. New York City

21. Optimism

22. Love

23. Work-life balance

24. Surprise parties

25. Swiffer duster

26. Dishwashers

27. California weather

28. Recycling

29. Cheap but good restaurants

30. Wearing black any time of the year, and not getting penalized for it.

Hate

1. The US Recession

2. Massive layoffs

3. Liars

4. Getting ripped off

5. My old boss, ha!

6. Neverending wars in the Middle East

7. Bush

8. Filling out forms for random stuff - medical insurance, claims, visa application, taxes etc. Just thinking about it hurts my head.

9. People who are full of drama

10. "Puede na" mentality

11. Seafood pasta

12. Global warming

13. Jetlag

14. Getting stuck in an airport

15. Wintry mix

16. Greyhound Bus

17. 30-something guys who don't have their act together. Grow up.

18. Douche bags and airheads

19. Incompetency

20. The Real Housewives of anything

21. The Bad Girls Club

22. Senorita in Manila mentality. Hello, that was Manila. This is New York. Go back home to your yayas if you cannot handle making turo turo the fishball.

23. Coughing with phlegm - ick.

24. Messy anything 

25. $25 cover to enter a trendy bar - I mean, really? Or am I just too old for that?

26. Hummers

27. Winter slosh

28. Clowns. They are not funny at all.

29.  Subway stations that smell like pee

30. Monday morning meetings

Communicate

If there is one thing I'd have to accept and live with about my family, is that they are not very good about communicating. 

It does not matter that they all have mobile phones that they can use to call or text, even if they are abroad. It's probably too expensive for their taste. 

It does not matter that they have multiple laptops and access to emails 24/7. They probably have sore fingers, that they are unable to type.

It does not matter that in this day and age, there are countless numbers of instant messaging devices - Yahoo Messenger, GTalk, Skype, Meebo, etc. They probably have bad internet connection for most of the time.

It does not matter that we have set up VoIP in our home so that they would not have to pay exorbitant fees for international calls. Months go by and that phone still goes unused. (I call, but nobody picks up.)

If I were them, I would not have any excuse not to keep in touch. Reach out. Communicate. Say hi. Hello. How are you. We miss you. We love you. Or say Merry Christmas at least. But I am not them, and they probably have an excuse somewhere.

If we were in a long-distance relationship, we would have broken up by now.

But that's just how they are and I still love them for them. 

Friends Forever?

I logged on to my Friendster account after so long and went through all my testimonials. Most of the people who wrote me are old friends from back home. Some of them said things like "friends forever" or "we'll be friends no matter what". It almost brought tears to my eyes.

I have to say I tried to stay loyal and I tried to stay friends, but it seems like what they said are just fluffy words. I wonder... is it time, distance, communication or New York that came in the way? Whatever happened to "no matter what"? What ever happened to that?