a zephyr in the sky begins

OK. Here starts the story of my life. Off the bat, if you were to ask me if I thought my life story is interesting, I'd probably say no. But I guess that's just because I'm no different from the vast majority of people who either undervalue their life experiences, or are just too caught up in the moment to remember what they've been through. I'm one of those people who should be required to keep a blog, cuz if I didn't have one I'd probably forget everything that happened to me beyond a week ago. So forgive me if every now and then the stories stop being chronological. It only means that I've suddenly remembered something that I should have remembered earlier.

So where do we start? Well, we should start a few years before I was born -- sometime in the 1970s, somewhere in Manila. I posted this before in another blog, but I will post it again anyway. I always get nostalgic whenever I think about how Manila was like in the 70s. For some reason I have this affinity with all things from the 70s, and especially all things that have to do with Manila in the 70s -- old Filipino movies, songs, pictures. Even recent stuff that is 70s-inspired appeals to me, like the stuff on True Faith's live album "MYX: Halo-Halo". My theory is that before I was born I was a spirit wandering around the world, and the place I liked most was Manila. I was born in 1981, so I guess if I really was a wandering spirit I would have been wandering around in the 70s.

As a wandering spirit, Leonida Almario and Florentino Bertumen -- my parents -- caught my attention. My Mom and my Dad were working in the same office back when they met; my Dad was my Mom's boss. It was my Mom's friend that my Dad was dating at first, but one time when my Mom's friend didn't show up for one their dates, my Mom went instead. Eventually my Dad moved to Papua New Guinea to work there, my Mom followed him, and they got married in a small ceremony there on September 6, 1980. None of our relatives were there, so when they came back to the Philippines people were a bit shocked that they couldn't wait but were nonetheless happy.

My parents enjoyed their married life without children for only 11 months. Not to say that they didn't enjoy their married life with children, but... we'll save that for another entry. I was born in the Our Lady of Lourdes hospital in Sta. Mesa, Manila on August 20, 1981. Oliver and Lisa, my brother and sister, were eventually born in the same hospital and delivered by the same doctor. Only Jelu, my youngest brother, was born elsewhere. I also will write more about my brothers and my sister in another entry.

That's it for now. If I attempt to cover anything more with this entry it will never get finished. I'm thinking about making future entries topical rather than chronological. Whatever. We'll see.