Changes

It is now autumn in NY. The air has a crisp feel to it and sometimes even the light jacket is not enough to keep me warm because I tend to get cold quickly.

Where did the summer go? I wouldn't know. I have been wondering as well. Most of June and July was rained out and then we had a nice August. I was out for two weeks in September and when I came back - voila! Autumn.

I love the season though it has always been a melancholy time for me, the tropical girl who feels most comfortable in warm weather.

Being in Manila for two weeks however I had my chance to feel summer at its most summery mode. It was heat and humidity to the max. Humidity so dense you often feel like you can slice it with a knife. But did I hate it? Suffucatingly accepted it, of course but sitting outside my parents house always had some light breeze which was comforting.

So the trip. I ate tons of seafood and refused to eat anything I knew I would be able to get in New York which made my mom quip that I was now Jewish - refusing most pork dishes offered to me. Nope, I still haven't converted to eating any vegetables except for the okra and the kangkong which I do not count as vegetables. I try harder to mask this dislike when in front of my 7 year old niece and 5 year old nephew though. I didn't want to set any bad examples.

I had the chance to spend 4 weeks on the white sands of Panglao Island in Bohol with my parents and Nicole. These 4 days makes about the only 4 days in my 2 weeks in he Philippines when we were not inundated by a major typhoon. Did I tell you that in the two weeks I was home I had brought in two mega typhoons as well? Not the usual flooding, mind you but the kind that ruins lives, drowns pets and people and is broadcast on international TV. No, my family didn't get affected. My parents' house is so well constructed we were oblivious to the calamity until the Blackberry broke the news to me with an email from another continent.

So it is now autumn and not too far away would be the first snow. I am still unsure how and where I will likely spend the holidays. Probably stay in NY. I have said that Christmas in Manila is so chaotic and traveling during the holidays is a mad experience. But then all my family is there. I'd miss my mom's cooking and though I have put up the Christmas decorations up at home already, the lights have not been installed yet. I have to do that too. And that justifies my coming back.

I will decide when I get the plane fare quote. More later, peeps.

M