A Trying Experience

As you may recall, I was ticketed by park police for allegedly walking Lenny without his leash. As unanimously suggested by you guys, I went to the court and fight it. I was scheduled for an 8:30AM hearing (or so I thought). Now, I am not a morning person but to prove that I am not guilty (and to save $100), I dragged my ass out of bed and went to court earlier than scheduled.

As usual, most government bureaucracies are slow to move, I sat there waiting patiently for more than an hour until they called my name. Finally at 9:35 AM the administrative clerk judge called me. We sat in his office and he turned on his recorder and started writing jibberish (it looked like my hubby's writing)

Now, this is not really my first time at this sort of hearing. I once complained about a taxi not driving me home because I live in different borough (it's a typical stereotype that if you live outside of Manhattan, you pretty much live in the ghetto - little they know, we live in prime Parkslope) and btought the driver to a hearing. I knew I was going to win my case based on the law in NYC that no taxi can refuse a fare because the destination is in the different borough. Also, they stupid taxi driver brought his meter record which actually proved my case. Long story short, I won and the driver got penalized.

Having watched my favorite show Judge Judy thousands of times, I pretty much knew how to act in with the clerk judge: Never say anything until you are asked a question. Answer only Yes or No questions and bring proof/evidence.

So finally the clerk judge spoke;

CJ: Do you want this case to be adjourned and for me to give you a lower fine or do you want a hearing?

JB: I would like my ticket fine to be lowered if possible.

CJ: I can't do that; you need to pay $100.

JB: I guess your honor; I have no choice but to do a hearing.

CJ: Do you want the officer to be present during the hearing?

JB: (If I'm wasting my time here I think it's fair if the officer should waste his time too) Yes, your honor.

CJ: Are you going to have a lawyer represent you?

JB: (I think my husband can represent me but I don't want to look cocky in the eye of the "real" judge and end up losing the case and his sympathy) No, your honor. I will represent myself

CJ: Very well, we will send you a letter for your next hearing. You can go now.


That's it? I wasted 1 1/2 hours just to answer this stupid questions? They should have just send me the questionnaire and I would have mailed it back to them via Fed-ex!

I will be waitng for the next hearing. Hopefully it doesn't come anytime soon while I'm half a world away for the next 2 weeks.

Maligayang Kaarawan Nanay

Today is my mom's 61st birthday. Because her birthday fell on Good Friday this year, we celebrated with the family last week. Believe me, it is not always an easy feat scheduling a get together with all of my family, which includes my uncle, Ivan (my uncles BFF) and my two brothers. My older brother often works weekends and my younger brother's schedule is just ever unpredictable because he is in the army. In fact, last weekend was the last weekend he was around before going out of state for three weeks for training. We all had an intimate dinner at Mulino Ristorante (formerly Trattoria Mulino - they moved up in the world!), one of our favorite restuarants in the neighborhood. Afterwards we went back to my house for ice crean and this ridiculously cheezy Filipino movie called "Dubai."

On her actual birthday, I met my mom for lunch. Since she was in a hurry to get bact to church, we net and had a wonderful pizza lunch at Sbarro in mid-town, (truth to be told, Sbarro's is a tourist trap - most New Yorkers wouldn't be caught dead there.) As usual, my mom was a bit slow to order so the guy thought that she was a tourist also. He started screaming at her that there is a long line and if she is not sure what to order, she needs to get off the line (ah that New York hospitality!) I thought it was pretty funny that my mom has lived in New York for a quarter of century and she still hasn't adopted the New York life.

On the left is a picture of my mom eating a slice of pizza along her favorite drink - cranberry juice.


To my mom, happy birthday! Without you I'd never have gotten to experience the New York life. And although our mother/daughter relationship went through some though times the past few years, I'm happy that we were able to start over. On your 61st birthday, I wish you a wonderful year, good health and many more birthdays for us to celebrate together. I also hope I can join you on your vacation back home next week. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that time will permit me.

Cheers Nanay!

Why Wasn't I So Cleaver In School

My friend Tes shared this to me. I thought its really funny so I'm sharing this with you :-D

1. James Bond

2. Expand

3. Boss' Wife

4. Elephant

5. God Made it That Way

6. X

You Always Remember Your First Time

As I'm sure you guys already know, about two months ago we adopted little Lenny the bichon. He's starting to come along really well at this point. He seems pretty well house trained, he is starting to get more and more playful, and he has really gotten so close to me that we've nicknamed him The White Shadow because, wherever I go, he goes (and my husband has a thing for cheesy 70s tv show reference, half of which I never get.) TWS follows me around so consistently that I don't even really need to keep him on a leash. Note I said "don't need to" not "don't have to" -- two different things, as I have learned.

Yesterday, I took Lenny out for late morning walk in the park. The weather was not so bad -- a little chilly but sunny -- so it felt nice to go for a nice long walk in the loveliest park in the city. As I said, I am confident that Lenny will follow me, so I don't need to keep his leash on him. However, for this walk, I did have his leash on.

It must have been the glint in his eys or the way he cocked his head or maybe the way the sunlight tinged his curly hair, but Lenny just looked adorable and I knew I had to take a picture of him. Now when taking a picture of God's most adorable creatures, it simple will not do to have him tethered to an ugly old leash in the photo. So I took it off. Just for the picture. I wasn't planning on walking him off-leash. I was going to take the picture and put the leash back on. Honest....

Well, I click the photo (or whatever sound it is that the iPhone makes when taking a picture), and all of a sudden I hear a police siren. (Parks department police, but whatever.) I turned around, and Park cop was looking right at me. I was caught red-handed and unleashed. As he was writing the citation, he told me the whole shpiel about dogs not being allowed off-leash anywhere in the park except during certain off-leash hours. The best I could think was to ask if I could be let off with just warning. He looked at me, my ring finger, and my address and told me, "We have a zero tolerance policy! We want eveyone to be safe and to make sure that the park is clean." Whatever! I see poop all over the place, so much for cleanliness. And safety? Does my 16 pounds ball of white fluff look viscious? Heck, he tucks his tail in and runs away whenever he sees another dog on the horizon! Who is he going to hurt? You wrote me a $100 ticket because you profiled me as a well-to-do (possible a domestic servant of a well-to-do :-) ). What am I stupid? But, he was a cop (sort of) so I remained quite.

So here it is...my very first ticket! (Lucky I wasn't in a costruction zone, I guess. They double the fines.) I should frame this!

I showed the ticket to my husband and he notices that the police got my information incorrect. I hyphenate my maiden name with his, but the officer only put my maiden name as last name. He put the second part of my last name as my first name (along with my real first name, which is just plain odd.) My husband said it's technical defect, but it's a defect nonetheless and I could probably fight the ticket in court (I wonder if its Judge Wapne's Animal Court.)

So what do you thing? Do you think I should try to fight the ticket or should not bother going to court and just pay the 100 bucks?

Not Economically Viable

I was cleaning my mailbox and saw an I email I sent to my coworkers when I quit a previous job (7 years ago). Oh I wish I could send this again but given the economic situation, we are forced to hold tight to jobs that keep us miserable

Goodbye Everyone

Now's the time to say goodbye
I bet you know the reason why
It's best for me to be moving on,
So, I'll pack my desk and say "so long"

Yes, I'm resigning, I just hate this place
I can't stay here anymore; I need a change of pace
But, to be honest it's not really the job that I hate
It's the boss that bitches for being five minutes late

So many people have left before me
You know I'm not alone, and there'll be more just you see
And with all the unspeakable anger and innumerable tears
I still can't fathom why I stayed for two years

So, now is the time to gladly say goodbye
But I'll thank some of you for many good times
It wasn't all bad, there was certainly some fun
But I still hope it'll be better at the new one

(A) Typical Night

On a typical night my husband and I fall asleep on the couch and sometimes around 1 or 2 AM, we wake up and move to the bedroom. Last night was no different, except there were 3 of us sleeping on the couch - my husband, me and Lenny the bichon. Well 3 of us sleeping for a while at least. I was woken up but someone sniffing and licking my back. Ready to yell at my husband, I turned around and, of course, it was Lenny. Maybe he learned the pattern and he was telling us to move to the bedroom. At 2 AM, all 3 of us went to bathroom to brush our teeth (Lenny is very talented) and head to the bedroom. As usual, Lenny positioned himself at the top of of the bed right next to our pillows.

This is us on typical night - in a living room

On those same typical nights I also get awoken numerous times by my husband's snoring (sometimes he even wakes himself up!) Well, on this Saturday, as I was about to fall asleep, I was once again woken up by loud snoring. But this time the snoring was different...it was..in stereo! Not only my husband is snoring, but so too was Lenny! And their snores were synchronized and seemed to be getting louder and louder. I couldn't help but laught out loud which woke my husband who thought I was dreaming.

He fell back asleep and I moved towards the edge of the bed to escape the cacophony. Suddenly, as I was drifting closer towards sleep, I was woken up once again but a funcky burst of air. What's this? Someone farted. Not necessarily an unusual occurence in our household, but could this be? Yep...it was Lenny! The worst part is was, his butt was basically aimed directly at my face. Ugh! What an awful night!

Eventually the smell dissipated, as did my consiousness. Around 8AM Lenny started making noises again. This is his was of telling us that it is business time (his business time, not the Flight of the Conchord's business time.) I asked my husband to get up and walk him so I could be alone and catch up some sleep. When they got back around 10 AM, I was surprised to find Lenny carrying a rose. My husband followed with a bouquet of daises. How sweet...After keeping me up, the 2 men in my life vindicated themselves.

Two sweet men of my life

As you can see, I was still wearing my robe when they got home :-)

25 Random Things About Joanie

I've been tagged in Facebook to write 25 random things about myself So here they are...

1. I can't write! Thats right. I have always had great ideas to write but I have very low confidence with my writing skills. The reason for that is....
2. I skipped English 101 when I studied here in US. I begged my college dean of admissions to accepts my English credits from the Philippines because I had no money to pay for my tuition fee. I wanted to graduate so bad so I could start working.
3. I can't drive. Yes you read it right. But you can't blame me; I've lived in the city my whole life (except for when I lived in a rural community in the Philippines)! And besides, parking in the city is a bitch!
4. I have terrible sense of direction. I guess it's a good thing I can't drive
5. I love to drink wine, but don't ask me to recommend anything....I have no idea what to tell you
6. My mom convinced me to study nursing so I did. But I quit in half a day of my internship. I couldn't stand the smell from the nursing home
7. I study Hotel and Restaurant Management in the Philippines (PWU) for 1 semester but when I came in the US I couldn't find a school close to home that offered that degree. Frustrated, I looked at the school list of courses and saw A for Accounting
8. I love coffee and hazelnut....coffee is my life support and hazelnut is my flavor
9. I was teased in high school for being really fat and quite. I was fat but don't think I was REALLY that fat :-D and quite....little they did know
10. I like my husband's cooking but I hate it when he cooks. He makes a huge mess in the kitchen and even all the way to the dining room. He uses every utensil around. And since he cooks, I have to clean. I hate cleaning!
11. I have 2 brothers and one of them is a US Soldier. I'm very proud of him
12. I love Judge Judy. I like it when she says "You are not a good witness. Because a good witness answers a Judge's question directly, and my question to you was a very simple one. A SIX YEAR OLD COULD ANSWER IT!!"
13. I do not get football. I've tried to figure it out and my husband and his friends have both tried to teach me, but I guess I'm just not into it
14. One of my close friends is Haitian and she is a sweet, smart & strong woman! I love her even though we don't see each other ofter....but hey that's why we have Facebook right?
15. I re-connected with my childhood crush, thanks to the wonderful world wide web. Unfortunately, he turned out to be jerk and pretty creepy. Glad he was just a crush
16. When I was young, I had a huge crush on Joey McIntyre of NKOTB, Hugh Grant, Bret Michael of Poison and John Cusack (because JC reminds me of ex bf)
17. One of my bridesmaids was a guy. I've known him for 12 plus years. He is a vegan (a.k.a. pain in the ass) and I call him my brother from another mother because his b-day is the same as my older bro and his mom and my mom has the same name and b-day too
18. I love shoes, handbags, the spas and the beach, but I can only afford one at the time
19. I love to read books but if I don't like the first 10 pages, I drop it like a hot potato
    
20. I seldon go to church/attend mass because I'm tired of some priest bashing other religions during homily, especially since...
21. My husband is a different religion from me. But it's never gotten in the wa of our relationship.
22. I’m not a big fan of one of my friend’s husband because he likes to talk big like he know this person and that person…I’m thinking “dude, if you really know the owner here, why the heck are we getting up to get our drink? Can’t that person you know hook you up for a 5 star service?” I guess talking big compensate for something he is….short of. ;-)
    
23. I hate it when someone only calls me because they need to vent. But as soon as everything is lovey-dovey, they have no time for you
24. Like my friend Mimi says - I really, really hate talking on the phone. If I don't call you - please don't take it personal. It's definetely the phone, not you! Text or IM me instead ;-)
25. Sometimes I want to kill my dog because my dog doesn't go to the bathroom when I'm around (or when walking him). He will hold it for 2 days or until my husband walk him. I know that he is just a dog, and he had really hard life for 5 years. I need to have more patience, but it can get frustrating.