Thoughts About the Filipino Ball

I actually wrote this up just really quickly for Tita Esper because she wanted a young person’s perspective about the annual ball for submission to a Filipino newspaper in Chicago. I’m not sure if my perspective can be considered youthful anymore. I’m going to be thirty in a couple of years. I consider myself pretty old. LOL.

Anyway, I’m not sure if she’ll even be able to use the write up because I wasn’t really sure what I was supposed to write about.. If I was supposed to write about the annual tradition in general (which is what I ended up doing) or if I was supposed to just relay the details of the event (as in narrating what transpired, sort of like a play-by-play). Either way, I think it’s a valiant effort on my part.

—

Traditions are very important in any society. This is particularly true of the Filipino community in the Greater Wichita Area. Every year over three hundred people come together to celebrate milestone anniversaries, debutantes, and educational achievement. I feel truly privileged and fortunate to be part of this great tradition.

My family moved to Wichita in December of 1994. We attended our very first June affair in 1995, the year that I came out to the Filipino community as one of the debutantes. My family has been an avid participant of the event every year ever since.

My husband and I were invited to participate in the Rigodon de Honor in 2003. We also danced in the Rigodon de Honor the following year, 2004. It’s amazing to be able to look back at all the years that have passed, not just since I attended for the first time but also since the inception of the event and the very first annual ball in 1988. It seems only yesterday that I was a debutante and now I am among the married couples that dance in the Rigodon de Honor.

Having been honored last year for achieving 25 years of marriage, my parents helped organize this year’s event. The theme was nostalgia and in keeping with the theme, the couples that were invited to join the Rigodon de Honor were those who have celebrated milestone anniversaries in the past. I found it inspiring to see all these couples that have successful marriages. I feel that they are successful because of having achieved such longevity.. It’s enlightening to see that couples really stay together and marriages really do work. My husband and I aspire to one day be honored for our milestone anniversary years from now, like the great couples that have come before us.

The event isn’t just about marriage though, it also about celebrating youth and the achievements of the younger members of the community. It is also about getting together with friends and family and distant relatives who one may not have the luxury of seeing on a regular basis. People from all over Kansas attend the event. Some even come from far away states. Everyone eagerly anticipates the event each year because you do get to see people who you have not seen in a long time.

For instance, my friend Richard who now resides in Houston attended the event this year. He brought his girlfriend Jessica with him for us to meet. The event provided an excellent reason to visit because he then could touch base and catch up with everyone who means something to him in the community rather than just visiting a couple of people. It provided an excellent opportunity for everyone to meet his Jessica, who is now a significant part of his life.

The next day, Richard and Jessica came to our house to catch up and visit some more. Jessica likened the event to a family reunion. Upon reflection, I realize that she is absolutely right. While some families have a major gathering or reunion type of event every few years, the Filipino community has a reunion type gathering that occurs annually. And I think that is a great way to describe it because I really feel that the Filipinos of the Greater Wichita area are one part of one big family. I would guess that everyone in the community feels the same way.

June 29, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Family

Leave a Comment

Ching on a Tractor

I love finding old pictures. I forgot about these.. I’m really digging the new hand-me-down zip drive.

June 28, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Life

Leave a Comment

June Affair

If you hadn’t had enough of the pictures yet, Dad just posted the photos that he took. Enjoy!

June 27, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Food

Leave a Comment

Santa Came Through Early

I got the zip drive from Dad B and it works great! As you can see I’ve been uploading some old pictures into my Flickr album. You might see some of my old web content too from the early 90′s. I’m bringing some of the old chingay.com stuff back. The first of which is the driving polaroids section. You all can check it out if you like..

June 26, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Wishlist

Leave a Comment

Home Sweet Home

Brian and I just got home from the ball. Mom and dad had a room at the Marriott so they are spending the night there. We took Mama Iyay home. Derby seems so far away when you are driving in the middle of the night. Anyway, the pictures are going to be posted to my Flickr album in a couple of minutes. I’m doing it right now. Then I’m going to bed because I’m pooped.

June 26, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Family

Leave a Comment

Protected: Let Me Explain

June 25, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Poker, School

Enter your password to view comments.

It’s Last Minute Panic Time

Mom is freaking out about seating arrangements and last minute preparations for the annual ball tomorrow. I don’t even have anything to wear yet.

One would think I’d be freaking out, too. For someone who just realized that the dress I had intended to wear is the exact same one that I wore last year, I’m strangely calm. You’d think I’d be all panicky.

I won’t start panicking until tonight when I realize that none of my other dresses fit me anymore. LOL.

This is what I get for being forgetful. It comes with old age apparently. I don’t even want to think about what my memory would be like at sixty. It’s horrible now.

Thank God for the pictures. If it weren’t for these I’d probably be wearing the exact same dress. How embarrassing!

It’s embarrassing enough to recycle! One year I wore a dress that Jen had worn five years before and mom had worn it to another event (not the annual gala) and when I wore it I felt so small (small as in pathetic and ghetto) I said to myself I’ll never put myself in that situation again.

Unfortunately, I may have to do some recycling again this year because I have no money for a new dress. Let’s hope that there’s something in the closet that still fits. Â

June 24, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Family

Leave a Comment

Dear Santa

Here are a couple of things that I need but don’t have the money to buy right now — don’t worry, these aren’t frivolous I promise.

IOMEGA ZIP DRIVE
I’m looking at this one on ebay because it’s a pretty good deal but I don’t have $60 to spend on it right now. Does anyone have an old external zip drive they no longer need? I don’t need a fancy one like this, I just need one that will read my old 100 mb zip disks. I have some old pictures that I want to transfer to my PC.

Brian’s old computer used to have an internal zip drive so when I bought my computer I didn’t get one. I figured I could just use his computer to get the files since we’re on a home network anyway. But then he bought a new computer and he opted not to get an internal zip drive. Brian gave his old computer to his grandparents after he got the new one, so no more zip drive for us.

A PRINT HEAD FOR OLD CANON i950
I know we are getting a new printer (which was charged by the way, against my better judgement — but I was drunk on mimosas that day and also it’s a pretty good deal so this isn’t totally a bad thing), but since Brian is being a prick right now I’m trying to get my own printer working. I may need it.

SOME RAM FOR THIS SLOW COMPUTER
Because it’s really killing my productivity. Not that I’m that productive anyway, but I can’t multitask without having it slow down to a complete stop or just crash completely. It’s really ticking me off!

June 21, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Wishlist

Leave a Comment

Funny Story

Brian and I had brunch today at Legends (located inside the Airport Hilton, they have a good champagne brunch on Sundays) with his parents, grandparents, my mom and my grandmother. It was supposed to be an all encompassing celebration to commemorate Grandma Betty’s birthday (today, June 19), Brian’s birthday (June 13) and Father’s Day. Grandpa Clark and Dad B were there for the Father’s Day thing but dad couldn’t make it.

I was disappointed to hear that he wasn’t coming but I’m not going to cry about it.

Anyway, we left the parking lot last after we were all done. We were driving on Kellogg (US Highway 54) normally like normal people do. We see police lights flashing on the left. A cop had pulled someone over apparently. Then in front of us, we see break lights.

A little annoyed that someone is stepping on their breaks unnecessarily on the highway, I make the following comment, “I don’t get why people feel the need to step on their breaks when they a see cop car. As long as you’re not driving over the speed limit you don’t have anything to worry about.”

Then the vehicle in front of us moves to the other lane to pass the slowing moving vehicle in front of it. The car now in front of us is a gray Toyota Corolla. It looks exactly like my dad’s car. Incidentally, mom drove dad’s car to lunch.

“Watch. It’s probably my mom in front of us,” I joked. I don’t know my dad’s license plate number but as we approached closer, the accuracy of my statement became more evident.

Mom was driving exceedingly slow so Brian had to pass her. I was laughing my ass off as he did so, just because of the irony of my previous comment and the annoying driving turning out to be my own mother.

We were only driving at the speed limit but mom’s vehicle fell back behind us rather quickly.

“She’s got to be driving at least ten under the speed limit,” Brian says while looking at his rearview mirror.

“That’s a typical Asian driver for you,” I said jokingly. No offense to other Asian drivers out there.

Actually, my mom has three strikes against her. She is female, she is Asian and she’s a grandmother. So we have a whole plethora of jokes to crack. LOL.

Anyway, I’m allowed to pick on her because she’s my mom. So don’t you all get your undies in a wad.

Honestly, I’m just jealous. It’s only been a month since I last saw her and today when she came to the restaurant in her white striped suit she looked absolutely amazing. She must have lost ten pounds or something. She’s almost as skinny as Jen!

Here I am trying to kill myself by working out and then there’s my mom who, at the 50 and without even trying, looks better than me. My only hope is that I’ll age as gracefully as she does when the time comes.

By the way, I made the “trying to kill myself” comment because I was so sore today from working out yesterday. After spring semester was over, I was working out three hours almost everyday (except Thursdays and Fridays which are poker nights).

Since summer semester began I hadn’t been able to work out. So for two weeks I didn’t work out. Yesterday was the first opportunity I’ve had to work out and me being me, I siezed it.

At first I thought, maybe I should just do two fitness classes. I figured that I hadn’t worked out in a while so I should probably ease my way back into it. But then, I thought, we’re having brunch on Sunday so I won’t be able to work out then, I might as well make the most of today.

So I did my usual, muscle pump, step, hilo and phat, working out from 7:45 am to 11:15 am. That’s over three hours, if you’re doing the math. Normally, a three hour work out doesn’t really do anything to me but man, was I sore today! Working out regularly sure makes a huge difference. I can’t wait to get back into the groove again.

Oh, by the way, if you saw me at Best Buy today and thought I was acting a little weird, please accept my apology. I was tanked on mimosas from brunch and it didn’t hit me until we got there.

Mom didn’t have a chance to buy Brian a gift for his birthday so she paid for our meals instead. Me being not of sound mind and totally forgetting that we are broke, I told Brian that we could use the money that we would’ve spent on our meals to buy him the new PSP game that he’s been wanting. That’s why we hit Best Buy on the way home.

While we were there, we found that we can get a Canon PIXMA IP6000D for less than $200 (a lot less than what we paid for our i950 which as you know is now dead). We had been trying to find a cheap replacement printer head, but they retail for upwards of a $100. We found some on eBay which were going for about $65, but we kept losing the auctions. The reason why were adamant about keeping the same printer is that we just bought $60 worth of ink cartridges.

Guess what. The PIXMA IP6000D uses the exact same ink cartridges! I couldn’t believe it! Of course, I had to harrass the Best Buy employee because the ink cartridge boxes did not have the PIXMA IP6000D printer model printed on the outside. The boxes had the i950 and the i960 and other printer models, but not the PIXMA IP6000D.

Brian, who is very creative at rationalizing things, explained that the PIXMA IP6000D printer model is probably new and the ink cartridges have been around for a while, and that is the reason why the ink cartridge boxes do not have the PIXMA IP6000D written on them. So I told the store guy they just needed new boxes, simple as that. I don’t like the idea of buying something that doesn’t specifically state its purpose. Brian had to apologize and explain to the poor fellow that I was a little inebriated from having over indulged myself on mimosas at brunch.

I love mimosas! If I could drink it every morning, I would. Some people drink coffee, I prefer mimosas. What a way to kick start your day!

Anyway, I was so happy that we found a printer that is better than the one we currently have that uses the same ink cartridges that we already have and for the price of only a bit more than what it would cost to get a replacement printer head — I could not hide my excitement! I get a little too gregarious for my own good when I consume alcoholic beverages. I don’t have the tolerance that my party girl sister does.

Incidentally, we didn’t buy the printer from Best Buy. I was still sober enough to realize that I could probably get it cheaper off the internet. So as soon as Brian and I got home, I went to Price Grabber to price the coveted printer. I found it on buydig.com for about $40 less.

I can’t wait until it arrives! Brian has already cleared a space on his desk for it. We decided that since he’ll be using it more and since he has a much more powerful computer, this setup would be better. I can always get to it through our home network.

What a day, huh?

June 19, 2005 | Posted by Ching under Family

Leave a Comment