26 December 2005

Dear Loved Ones,

HAPPY CHRISTMAS AND A MORE BLESSED NEW YEAR TO YOU!!!

Like you, the past days had been quite hectic for me, preparing for Christmas, deluged by greetings and kept busy by work. I was assigned in the closing shift ( 5:00p – 11:30p) two weeks till Christmas, so resting most of daytime and spent activities with Sean who is on school break since Dec. 10. Thus, he was in the computer most of the time, the reason for the delay of this chapter.

First week of December, I was visited by “angels” in various forms. When I arrived in August, my sister excitedly informed that she had a patient, an Engineer who gave his card for me to call, but unfortunately, she lost the card, so we forgot all about it. Dec. 5, she called that the patient was in her clinic and he asked for me and gave details to send my Resume. I checked the website of WILLDAN.COM and it turned out Mr. Win Westfall is the Senior Vice-President, Corporate Relations. I immediately sent my Letter of Interest and Resume through e-mail. Two days later, Mr. Jeff Atteberry, Vice-President, City Engineering, called me and asked for appointment-interview at their office the following Monday. Dec. 12, I had interview with Mr. R. Blaser, Sr. Vice-Pres. Regional Director, Northern CA, and Jeff for almost two hours, including evaluation of detailed engineering drawings/ plans which I satisfactorily answered. These Site Development plans were work I was doing twenty five years ago as Civil Design Engineer for the various power plants of National Power Corp. in the Philippines. They expect me to start work in January 2006, but I’m still proceeding with my plan to go home to Pinas on Jan 28. and hope to be back sooner. The great feeling is the hope that there are so many opportunities open in America!!!

Dec. 16, we started attending the daily 8:30am mass for Misa de Gallo at St. Mel’s church to complete the 9 days novena for Christmas. To climax, we attended the 9:00pm Christmas eve mass, which was preceded by singing of Christmas songs at 8:30 PM, by the costumed-choir joined by the faithful. The finale song was Silent Night sang in English and three foreign languages – German, Filipino and Italian! I was teary-eyed when the Filipino couple in the choir sang “ang sanggol sa sabsaban”! (imagine that! Filipino is part of the three foreign language inside that church!) There were few other Filipinos in church that night(Dec. 24).

Dec. 21, we went to the wake of our cousin Nelly (Evelyn) Dompor-Garcia who passed away of C, in Vallejo, where we had reunion with other family members – Mommy Charing(her mother), Boyet and family, Gerry and family and many others. Eternal rest grant unto her Lord and May her soul rest in peace!

DID YOU KNOW?
“December’s children are born of fire, and topaz calms their ardent desire.” Lustrous, inviting and cool as a winter morning sky, Blue Topaz stones are rarely found in nature. Topaz comes from the Sanskrit word for fire. The Egyptians wore topaz as a talisman to protect them against injury. It was thought to have magical properties to make its wearer invisible in a threatening situation. The Romans thought it could improve eyesight.

Not only is Blue Topaz the birthstone for December, it is also the traditional gift for a 4th wedding anniversary. Rated 8 on the Moh’s hardness scale, topaz gems are almost very durable; however, caution should be taken to avoid any sharp blows to the stone, Extreme temperature changes can also affect the stone and blue topaz should never be cleaned by a steam cleaning machine. A gift of blue topaz is symbolic of love and fidelity.

Christmas day, we spent time(2:00p -8:30pm) with the Daquipa Family – Nong Nonie, Ate Nenen, and their children Maria, Mark and Tony with his wife Steph. After the sumptuous meal, they had their traditional pictures-taking, followed by the opening of gifts to one another. Sean and I got our own share of lovely gifts from of their generosity. As I always travel light, I gave them several peso and dollar bills inside a greeting card, for their collection. In this season of sharing, no one is so poor as to have nothing to give and no one is so rich as to have nothing to want! So let the spirit of sharing continue throughout the year! As Sean said, now that we know the tradition, we have to wrap gifts next Christmas!

I got so many e-mail greetings and several phone calls today, some unexpected from Fr. Victor Bompat of Panglao, Bohol, Philippines, who was in CA for his annual apostolate and mission trip. He attended the funeral service for Nelly so he got in touch with me! We agreed to meet on Friday before he goes back to Philippines.

In the final months of my U.S. sojourn, I have mixed emotions. Happy that I experienced ad survived the changing of the seasons – summer, fall and winter; observing the dramatic changes of the leaves on the very old trees (maple, oak and evergreens) in front of our apartment. In my bedroom in Pinas, I have this beautiful painting of a forest which had a “calming effect” and it would easily bring me to sleep as I stared at it, while praying. Here in Citrus Heights, the “painting was alive” with those trees right in front of my bedroom window. I could hear the rustle of the leaves on the window panes as the wind or rain gently moves them and I continuously observed the dramatic color changes of the leaves, from green in summer, to orange/yellow in the fall until blown down and the branches completely bare of leaves now. Naturally, the leaves are expected to be back by spring as dramatically as they went. As the saying goes, if winter comes, can spring be far behind!

When I go home to Pinas, I have to adjust to realities there – the heavy traffic, the smog and pollution, but I’ll be home with my husband of 32 years! My life journey is really interesting – I have a daughter in New Jersey, a son in Sacramento, CA and a husband in the Philippines, can you imagine that! Well, I’m taking my options as they come along, wherever God leads me as I continue to pray for discernment

Upon the suggestion of a former schoolmate in UST Engineering Benjie, who had been following my journals, my son Sean created a website for me to publish my journals. So for my complete journals, you can access my website at http://sbgerardo.blogspot.com/.

You may put in your comments/remarks/advise, etc. Please do get in touch, I’ll appreciate it!

By the way, Sean got a Grade of A in all his subjects! And he was offered to be a student Beacon Tutor in Math in his school next semester (which will start on Jan. 17), so he will earn $ per hour. I read the e-mail of his Math teacher on the offer, “since you will be in Business some day, being a tutor will be a good training to develop good communications skills on how to be with people, and that is how I started!” . . . . . As if Sean needed a lot of convincing! Of course, Sean is looking forward to be a Tutor, earning for his pocket money. His grades and being a Tutor are giving him more confidence and hopefully, I can say that my stay here had been fruitful and rewarding indeed!!!

The opportunities here in America is amazing! I hope someday, Filipinos would have these options like people and students do have here. Now our college graduates could barely find jobs in Pinas, where knowing somebody is the norm, thus people just want to get out as OFW. Woe to corrupt politicians!

See you soon in Pinas! Best Regards and Love to all!!!
Susan B. Gerardo

Pictures from upper right going down.

1. I'm drinking hot apple cider since it is so cold outside;

2. Look at the wonders of the four seasons. In this photo, it is the season of Fall;

3. I'm with Sean inside Sunrise mall; Sean took a picture of the grand Chritmas tree where kids/families had picture-taking with Santa;

4. Me, together with Sean who took a photo of the American flag inside Sunrise mall.

5. I took Sean's picture with our beautiful Christmas tree on his side.