Everybody is panicking, stores are running out of alcohol-based hand cleansers and bleach. I even saw on the news that somewhere in Maryland, thousands line up for the "swine flu" vaccine. What could a mother do?

Take a deep breath, and try to relax. I know it's hard when it's your children's health and life at stake. But, there are solutions and ways to get around this. Remember, PREVENTION is key. Although it is not 100%, it is still best way to avoid getting sick this season.

It's very hard to prevent kids from getting sick. But it doesn't mean that you will freak out everytime another kid cough and sneezes in your child's face. Not only impossible but also not practical. Unless you put your children in a bubble for let's say, till they are teenagers? That is crazy.

What to do:

Don't panic. Prevention is key. If there are small children in the family, all caregivers should get vaccinated. Especially if caring for "at risk" population 0-5 yrs of age. Or for people with underlying risk factors like asthma, diabetes, cardiac problems (which pretty much like half of the population already). And for some reason the virus targets pregnant women. Just get the damn vaccine!

Handwashing is very important. The virus can live on surfaces and can be infectious from up to 8 hours after being deposited on the surface. So whip up the cleansers and just wipe down kitchen counters, bathroom surfaces and I do clean door knobs, light switches, phones and cellphones. These items are the most used in the house and are often overlooked. Throw used tissues in the trash can and either wash your hands with soap and water or use hand sanitizers.

This is the flu season. I am not telling you to hibernate or hide away from the world. But if it's not necessary? avoid crowded places. Try not to bring your kids to a crowded mall or gatherings. Once in a while, yeah but, if you are bored and maybe having cabin fever then short trips will be enough. Good for the pocketbook too. They have hand sanitizers that are small enough and would fit right in your Prada or Coach bag. You don't have to be slouchy just because it's the flu season :P

If somebody does get sick. Just stay at home. Never mind the deadlines and whatever that needs to be done at the office. I am pretty sure the world will not end if you rest for a few days. Believe me, your co-workers will thank you for it. Spread the love..not the virus.

Avoid touching your nose, eyes and mouth. The virus is spread that way. WASH your hands I could never emphasize it enough.

If your kid does get sick, observe and give comfort and call your health provider. It may not be swine flu but regular old fashioned flu. As a mother, sometimes we dither whether to call or not to call. But trust your instincts, if you feel that something doesn't feel right? or the child looks worse to you? just follow it. Even if the doctor thinks you're crazy for calling in the middle of the night..hey that's what they are being paid for right? besides, I would rather be wrong and look crazy than have my child take a turn for the worse because I was afraid that the doc would think I am too paranoid. I'm a mother. I am supposed to be paranoid. I did not suffer and carry this child for nine months just to be pooh poohed by some doctor.

For more information click on the link. This will take you to the CDC website.
www.cdc.gov/H1N1flu/qa.htm

Better to be safe. Be informed. Call your health provider. Take all of this with a grain of salt. This is not meant to be a bible for swine flu prevention. But just a reminder. GET THAT FLU SHOT!!!!!!!!!!

Playing NOT too softly on my guitar

I was able to find an article on the web about our former band "Furies" which was formed way back when.. I lifted the address and hope Rakrakan magazine won't mind :)



Wish I had the pics to go with it...

I looked so young and innocent then...


www.rakrakan.com/2005/10/03/furies/

Playing softly on my guitar

I picked up my guitar today after a long hiatus. I got inspired to start playing again. Probably all those you tube videos I watch..where everyone is covering someone else's song.

I got the guitar as a gift from my husband 2 years ago. Both are birthdays are in December and just 2 days apart. So suddenly he said, he wanted to buy me a guitar as a birthday gift. I was initially surprised and thrilled at the same time. I left my electric guitar, and bass in the Philippines coz it won't fit in my overweight baggage 1 piece. And I didn't really think about music at that time. So when he said he wanted to get it for me..I was excited.

We went to a guitar store in Milford and oohhhlala the choices are endless. This was a different buying experience than going to 'Raon. So I settled on a shining chestnut beauty and was looking forward to playing..and playing...

It seems that I really didn't have time to play. With everything else going on I probably picked up the guitar once a week. And besides, guess who is taking up my guitar time? My hubby. He was constantly playing on MY guitar every night to the point that it drove me nuts. I finally discovered who the guitar was really for, it was for him. And I was just the excuse. Oh brother.

So going back, I started playing a few tunes, little rusty, a little stiff, and all my calluses were gone so I had throbbing fingertips. Just belted out tune after tune, remembering my band days. Late nights at Club Dredd, Mayrics and all those small anonymous bars that frequented and played at. I think we played at every party that was ever had. Small birthday parties, big outlandish debuts as long as there was space to set up amps and the drums, we were there.

Looking back, I still cannot believe I had the nerve to get up on stage and rock out. Headbanging and belting our original songs to a crowd that would be inconsistent...loving one moment and uninterested the next. So many experiences like having crowd dissolve in a mosh pit while we're playing, or the crowds initially cheering coz when five women walk on stage, they think we are cute or we are gonna play cute songs, just because we are women. But as soon as Aleth's drums start banging, my bass riff ripple through the crowd, Nadine's guitar solo screams out and Lovella's vocals demand to be heard, all in one cohesive moment Alda's melody on the keyboards brings it all in..yeah we rock!

So, today, I picked up the guitar again after sooooo long. I guess I got inspired by a friend of mine who is an accomplished piano player. He has been playing since he was 5 yrs old. I guess you would call him a protegee, graduate of Julliard. And he is doing what he loves. I am no child protegee. I didn't get formal training in piano, or guitar or bass or drums. I do it all by ear. But bottom line, it really doesn't matter. Coz music transcends that. It transcends age, time, and sometimes life. Life often times gets in the way of music and especially when one can barely find the time to get 4 hours of sleep in 24 hours of the day. But I just realized that it kinda soothes my soul. And quiets the beast inside. Music does tame the beast.

So I spend a few minutes strumming my guitar, a little rusty..but who cares? I don't.

What could have been

Do you ever play that game in your head, sometimes you think about what could have been?

I see my life as a line branching in many directions, something like if you watch a lot of sci-fi shows, or even twilight zone, sometimes I feel or think about my self "self", living my other lives if I had made a different choice. It's like whenever I am at an important crossroad in my life, another self separates and lives the life or with the choice that I have not chosen. I visualize myself spread out and separated into millions of "me" living out the lives that I have not chosen.

I actually remember one article by Jessica Zafra, she is one of my favorite authors, biting wit and her style of writing is outrageously funny almost to the point of being offensive but just a shade below it. I appreciate her nasty humor coz she calls a spade a spade, and man..she makes it very funny. Back to the article, she mentioned something about time-space continuum and living our lives differently at the same time..like a parallel universe. Guy meets girl, they date, guy dumps girl end of story. But in a parallel universe, guy meets girl, they date then guy proposes to girl, get married and have kids. So on and so forth. Every major decision in the guys life, creates a tangent life of what ifs...

I am not the type of person to regret decisions. I think it over, I may spend a lot of think brooding and thinking and basically asking for advice and every one's opinion, but after I decide. That is that. I never look back and I never regret. Feeling that it is a waste of time and emotion. But a lot has happened in the last 5 years that I feel like everything is happening so quickly that I barely have time to lift my head, look around and take stock of what is happening in my life.

Maybe instead of regrets, maybe it's time to contemplate on what direction should I be heading. It's kinda hard to do that since I am a mother now. I am responsible for raising my kids to be happy and well rounded and able to contribute to humanity. Tall order. It's hard to be selfish and put oneself first. Often I see moms letting themselves "go". They start to dress in jogging suits, comfortable but not fashionable clothes,have less time to put on makeup and basically take care of themselves. It's kinda hard to squeeze in ME time in between driving kids to soccer practice and ballet, cleaning house, making meals and trying to be a good wife and mother.

Sometimes it's ok to be selfish. Take time to go to the gym, or have a ladies night out a few times. Go shopping for your own wardrobe and actually avoid going into Children's Place or the kiddie section.

Mommies need their breaks. One must find a way to find happiness that is hers, and hers alone. Coz let's face it, when mommy has a nervous breakdown...not good for the kids. When mommy has had it up to her ears with stress and demands on her time..and starts swinging the knife and hears God talking to her about dumping her kids in the lake...well you get the picture.

Somewhere out there, in a parallel universe, I probably don't have kids, or I'm a famous newscaster or covering breaking news as a news reporter, or dead. I swear I did a lot of dumb things in my life that could have gotten me killed. And I look at this life, I look at my family, my career, my friends...then maybe, just maybe, somewhere along the way, I did make the right choices.

Suggested Books

Some books that I love and authors I follow..

Dresden Files By Jim Butcher
Codex Alera series also by Jim Butcher
The Vampire's Assistant (Cirque de Freak Series) Darren Shan
Maximum Ride series bTwilight series
Vampire diaries
The Looking glass wars by James Patterson

My daughter Mikayla loves these books..for toddlers and pre-schoolers..

The Bear snores on by Karma Wilson
If you give a pig a pancake by Laura Numeroff
If you give a pig a party
If you give a mouse a cookie..all by Laura Numeroff
Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown

Me the Bookworm

I read a LOT of books. When I say a lot, I probably read 3-4 books a week. And if I have the time, I would actually prefer to read rather than sleep, which is good for the body but I feel so good just being able to read. I went through most of the books in the adult section and now I am a lurker in the young adult section. You wouldn't believe the range of topics and stories one can find in the yound adult section. Initially I couldn't believe it myself but sometimes the descriptions are sooooo gory that I have to look at the cover twice and remind myself that it came from the "young" set and is meant for the teen population.

I love our library, we usually go to the Norwalk Public library on Motts St. and for me it's a goldmine of information. They have DVD's, VHS for adults and kids alike, new movies, documentary or fiction. Name it, they have it. And ooohhlala..the books, I am in heaven! They have new books, bestsellers, kids books and even parenting magazines. Some of you may hohum..about me going on and on about A LIBRARY. Coming from the Philippines, our libraries are not this well funded and not well supported. So I walk into this one, and again I say I am in heaven.

Give me a book anytime, I can read 1 book in one sitting. I will read it all! But right now I am interested in fantasy and the scary stuff. Thanks to the Twilight series, the vampires are very popular right now. I have read the Vampire Diaries before it was converted to the tv series as we know of now. Another movie is coming out "The Vampire Assistant" Cirque de Freak series by Darren Shan. I am pretty curious how they are gonna go about with the movie, if they are gonna tone it down, coz from what I remember, there are like 10++ books in that series. And like I mentioned before, when you start reading it, you kinda think twice if it's really for teens. Gory, violent and kinda scary if you kinda contemplate that this is supposed to be a kid book.

How did I get started with my love for reading? All I remember was during my childhood, I spent it growing up with my grandparents. We didn't have cable TV back then, so after sesame street in the afternoon there was nothing to watch. I read whatever is on hand, most of the time my aunts books, love stories with lots of torrid kissing and groping, which at that very young age, I never fully understood. I discovered my grade school library and it was like a door opening to wonders. I started borrowing one book at a time, Bobsey twins..then I graduated to Nancy Drew..then Hardy boys. I pretty much read whatever I could get my hands on. Now I have the Norwalk Library.

How do I get my child to love reading and learning. We read 3-5 books before nap time everyday, and 1-2 books at night. I take her to the library and let her choose her books. And I think I did a good job coz Mikayla gets excited going to the library. And she loves books, she reads to her baby sister. Well, not really read but she makes up stories and pretends to read from the book. She already knows her alphabet when she was 18 mos old and her numbers also at that age. I am not really rushing her with learning to read coz, I feel that she will learn when she is ready..

Oh well...I love the Library! Go support the library and start reading :)