Tuesday, May 27, 2008

eyeball

I started maintaining this blog a couple of years back.

it was the early part of this year, when she started reading and posting comments on my blog. she is a filipina lawyer based in new york. she stays in manhattan with her italian husband and one year old daughter, jada. together with them is her pet akira, a one year old female alaskan wolf.

akira's actual photo courtesy of nova

yes you read it right. a wolf. uhuh. its not a huskie. its a wolf and don't ask me, how it play bites because i don't want to know either.
i remember the first comment she gave me:
"Just browsing through and saw that you're a fellow Filipino, and studying law..."
after that, there were already exhanges of thoughts and ideas. but it was just this holy week, when we both didn't expect something to happen.

i think it was black saturday when i've posted something about the film "kailangan kita" by aga mulach and claudine barreto.

basically the film was quite nostalgic for me and very well done. for it captured atleast the real picture of bicol and the families living within it. with my delight i also wrote something about my dad in the same post. I described how he basically looks like, his roots and how he is inside our family.
the next day, she left a comment, "Chinese bicolano father? My heart raced just a bit faster as I read about your family background. My father is also chinese bicolano, from Juban, Sorsogon. "
"what?!" this was the first word that came out of my mouth after reading it. juban, sorsogon is my father's hometown. i spent my four years of highschool living there, when the entire family migrated from manila to this place because of my dad's job.
and she continued, "the way that you described the typical bicol personality, well, I can honestly say you have just described my father in detail. Perhaps, we may be related in some way. How strange that would be, but in a good way. My family name is Alindogan."
i literally fell from my seat. Alindogan is not a common surname compare to cruz, reyes etc.

"this woman is probably throwing a prank at me," i thought. then i realized, i am blogging anonymously. so there's no way she'll know anything about me. i asked her if she can send a sketch of her family tree.
coincidentally, we found out that we're closely related. surprise! surprise!
then last week she flew here to the philippines and invited me for a meet up. at first sight, i was really hesitant since i really never do eyeballs before. but i realized that it was a different thing. so i agreed.
the moment i saw her sitting at starbucks, i already knew that we're related. she looks exactly like most of my female counsins. She is fun to be with and we share a lot of things in common: travelling, art, piercings (she has atleast four: two in her L.ear one in her R. ear and one on her nose. she also has tattoos) and movies. except for the wolf, ofcourse.
we walked and strolled all day. it was actually a good thing that she speaks and uderstand perfect filipino. although she was born and raise in the US.
unfortunately, we weren't able to have a drinking session to test if we really are both alindogan. because some relatives actually say that aside from the bold star reputation brought upon by our aunt, liz alindogan, we are also deemed as heavy drinkers.
she already left last monday back to new york. but we both assured ourselves that it would not be our last eyeball.

see you in october, novasan!

21 comments:

chroneicon said...

ang saya naman ng ganyang situation! bicolano ka rin pala? uragan ka padi!

Mel said...

freakingly amazing!

i remember a call from teleperformance before(novaliches site) but it was from their It personnel. his name? Rhodel Galima(I'm Rhomel Galima)! he says he was filtering some mails when came across my application, then w/o any further ek-eks, he called me up and asked for my hometown, his family originated a town away from ours(ilocos din) and talked with my mom and dad for a few hours.

it wasjust then i found out na hindi lahat ng angkan namin ay mahilig mag-ofw o kaya techie, kasi retired general na pala!

yun lang, share ko lang hehe

gerrycho said...

talk about small world! :D

TL said...

what a small world :)

. said...

Naks! May entry about the eyeball. Hehe.

Julienne said...

wow galing naman!

♥ N o v a said...

It was really great to meet you. You're such a cool person and I am more than happy that we are related! It was truly the weirdest of conditions that we were "introduced" to each other by this blogger thingy, but this just reaffirms my belief that life works in mysterious ways.

Anyway, in October, the drinking between us begins! Hehehe...

Ely said...

galeng naman. Kaya pala post mo dati about the former actress named Alindogan, aunt mo pala un?

Niel said...

ang galing!

although i wouldn't be too happy if a relative is reading my blog. hahaha!

Maria said...

hi wanderer. imn back, finally. i love the header. shades of green - ang cool sa eyes.

ang saya... parang reunion na rin sa long lost relative. hehe.

Dabo said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Nash said...

akalain mo yun hahaha

Lydia said...

Now, this was a most interesting post. It is quite an amazing story! I am curious about your phrase "eyeball." Is that a term used for meeting someone? Speaking of eyes, mine are crazy after reading your post on that black background. I wondered about why it was so difficult for me and then I read that people over 45 have real trouble with black screened websites. So it's an age-related thing that I'm dealing with! Very weird. One of the blogs on my blogroll (Project 365) is done by a young girl and she uses the black background also.
But your story was worth it!

jericho said...

naks naman .... tayo kaya hindi magkamag-anak? hehe

Lydia said...

I have returned to give you a link to a blog I found last week about a woman who is raising a wild coyote. Your relative might be interested in this, too!
http://dailycoyote.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

Oh so you're cousins. Such a small world.

sexymoi said...

liit ng mundo no? :)

wanderingcommuter said...

chroneicon: bicolano ini padi! hahaha. diin ka bicol? naku, patay tayo jan padi. baka magkamag-anak din tayo! hahaha.

mel: hehehe. i never thought it would happen as well. hehehe. pero freaky din yung sa iyo. i always wonder nga rin kung ilan ang kapangalan ko eh. hehehe.

gerrycho: talking about small world, indeed.

tl: mali pala ang kumanta ng: "im a big, big girl in a big big world.." noh? hehehe

mugen: hehehe. ikaw nga lang nakaalam nun eh.

aracir: hehehe...:)

nova: october!!! let's sked it in oktoberfest (its the country's version of germany's beer festival). hehehe. that is probably after dino's wedding. hehehe!
nova, i couldn't say more about you. its all here!

ely: hahaha. ayan nabuko na ang aming munting lihim ni nova. hehehe. malay mo kamag anak din pala kita! hehehe

niel: yun nga din ang inaalala ko. pero pinabayaan ko na. hahaha. thoughts lang naman eh.

icka: hey!!!! i am really trying to access you're blog before. but it wouldn't allow me...musta na?

dabo: lagi ka naman di nagbabasa eh...oooo0000... hehehe! joke lang!

nash: BIRUIN mo nga naman. hahaha!

lydia: hey lydia! eyeball is a slang we used here in the philippines to refer meet ups.especially if it came from the internet.
oooh, i am sorry for the lay out. well, unfortunately as much as i want to change the template or design of it, i am lost when it comes to reading HTML. hahaha!
whoa! i'll forward the website address to her. let see if she would consider an entire pack of the dog family in her yard. thanks for the visit!

jericho: hahaha... hindi ko kasi matandaan kung may naging karel ang chicboy kong lolo sa batangas eh. hehehe. biro lang!

bino and sexymoi: hehehe. lumiliit dahil sa internet!

chroneicon said...

ay dai padi. bako man Alindogan apelyido ko. sa Daet ako. kadakulun man na Bikolano digdi sa blogosphere. maray na bangui!

odin hood said...

hahaha really cool! surprise surprise haha nakakatuwa

odin hood said...

parang pwedeng plot para sa isang telenovela hehehe