Friday, August 1, 2014

July 2014 Entry



I don't think I'll forget this month for a long time.

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- Originally, I had no July 4th plans this year. I actually wasn't sure if work was letting us off that day (since they have a record of taking away holidays). So after finding out, I asked around and most already had plans. I ended up meeting with a friend I had not seen for a few months at the City Centre. We chilled outside and caught up for a bit before deciding to go to Crawfish Cafe. I had not been to the one in Katy yet. Our friend (the owner) was there as well and we caught up a bit with her. Other than that, it was just eating and talking. Probably the most chill July 4th I've had in a long time.

- The fifth of July was meant to be a bike ride outing with a friend and I. The heavy rain changed those plans completely. I suggested we go eat at George's Pastaria, but they just happened to be closed until later at night. We ended up going to get shakes (can't remember the name) while waiting for the rain to let up, which it did not. We drove out to Katy Mills mall since we both have not been there in a long time. We walked the entire mall stopping at certain stores (arcade, comic store, shoe stores, etc). I was actually amazed that the mall was still good and had a lot to do (massages, food, trampoline area, etc). I wouldn't mind going back and doing more as we didn't do too much even though we were there over an hour. After that, we picked up food for his sister and went to Crawfish Cafe. Yes, he suggested we go there. I didn't want to go there twice, but I can't complain about it either. More eating and talking. The last stop was Fry's just to look around before I dropped him off. I enjoyed the miscellaneous ventures that occurred, but was hoping we could have done more and with others.

- Julie Zhan is a wonderful dancer and cheerful soul. I've always been a big supporter of her work. But I never expected to see my face in one of her videos. My "cameo" made me freak out when I saw it on the 9th. If you haven't seen it, I'm towards the end of the video.


- Got two new hats via ThinkGeek. That brings the total to 14. I need a better way to display them though.


- The 12th was the celebration of a friend's birthday. Saw a few faces I had not seen in years during dinner at Buon Appetito Ristorante Italiano. The food was good, but the place could do better with more parking. After that, a few of us went to Houston Escape Room. I had wanted to go there ever since hearing about it. It was a tough place to find (at night). We were actually a little late. We were teamed up with 4 strangers to have a full team of 10. The goal was to find and decipher clues, find the hidden treasure, and find the key to escape the room all within an hour. It was so much fun. Finding clues was always good and solving them was always a rush. There were a few frustrations as we couldn't figure out how to open locked items or figure out certain clues. Unfortunately, we did not find the treasure or find the key to escape in the hour. We were so close too. I enjoyed this experience a lot though and have recommended it to friends to try out.


I forget the name of the ice cream place we went to afterwards to talk, but I do remember we tried Bean Boozled since I gave a couple boxes as presents. Yeah, I have bad luck with that game, ha. I swear I've eaten the bad flavors 90% of the time. Anyways, that ended the night.

- I was supposed to meet with a friend on the 1st, but it got delayed to the 13th. She came over so we could plan part one of two for our dual early birthday celebrations. Part two was to be discussed and planned later. The plan was to go to Dallas to King Spa. She never had been and she was interested and I really like that place. Plus the indoor water park recently opened so I was looking forward to that. After we figured that out, we watched parts of my Roast since she was interested in throwing one for a friend. Other than that, we were just generally catching up.

Unfortunately, all those plans we made (and were to be made) had to be cancelled. Hopefully we figure out something to do in the near future.

 - On the 15th, a few of us gathered at a friend's apartment just to catch up and talk silly talk over martinis. The mango cream martinis he made were pretty good. And we sure talked about a bunch of dumb stuff that night, ha.


- I got 3 packages in the course of one week. I decided to open them a week later (27th), which will be explained later. One will be mentioned later in this post. The first one I opened arrived on the 26th. It was the blu-ray of Make Your Move starring BoA. Just bought it in support of her just like when I saw the movie in the theatre. Not the greatest movie, but I would recommend watching the dance scenes.


The second one that arrived (25th) was the second one I opened. It contained SNSD's The Best (first press limited complete edition). Pretty good package with cool content. I ended up watching the blu-ray the same day. I forgot that SNSD had so many Japanese music videos. It was a blast to see them all again and more.


- I had bought tickets to see RAW on the 28th. I was feeling a little under the weather and fatigued that weekend, but was mainly just coughing that Monday. Met up with my friend so we can carpool like usual. We caught up and I was surprised one of his photos got published in a wrestling book, very awesome.

RAW was good. We were on the side with the hard camera pointed at us so we could've easily been seen on TV if shot right (so far I've only seen us a little, oh well). That also meant that during promos, the wrestlers were showing their back to us, ha. We've sat almost every angle except where the hard camera is. Hopefully we will one day, but those tickets go away the fastest. Fun show.


- I pre-ordered the Chogokin Hello Kitty back in April. It finally was released in July and mine arrived at my door on the 30th. This thing is great. Amazing quality. It's small and very heavy (I don't pay attention to measurements, ha). While you can set it up in a number of positions, it took me a while to figure out. I'm overall impressed with it. I'll be watching out for possible future Chogokin figures to add to my collection.


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- Sting is finally in the WWE. "It's show time, folks!"

- Shovel Knight (Wii U eShop) - Review
I had a gaming drought after finishing Pikmin 3. I had heard all the praise Shovel Knight had received and decided to download it on the 6th (beat it on the 12th). I made a great decision. It's such a fantastic game harkening back to old school games. Read my review and download it if you haven't already.


- The Club Nintendo end of the year rewards were all downloadable titles. I opted to get Dillon's Rolling Western for my 3DS on the 16th. I chose it mainly for the fact that it was different from most games I would play. I don't really like tower defense games, but this one had some charm.


- A dear friend of mine surprised me and got me a Luigi Nendoroid. I've never had a Nendoroid before (eyed quite a few over the years). The quality of these figures are great. While I am running out of space to display these things, I'll keep my eyes open for a few select ones I would "need" to get. Thank you, friend.


- Nintendo Minute held a Twitter giveaway contest back when Mario Kart 8 was released on May 30th. I thought nothing of it and just entered like I have for a few other giveaways they've done.


On June 17th, they actually DM'd me informing me that I was one of the winners. I gave them the information they needed and then we communicated via email on the 24th. What I did not know was that all the winners were getting all the prizes they mentioned in their video. I thought I would just be getting one of the items mentioned. I was surprised when they asked for my QR code because I knew why.

I received the first set of prizes on the 7th of July. 5 Mario Kart 8 flags (bigger than the ones given away at a Best Buy event), a Blue Shell trophy, and a thank you card.


Honestly, that would have been enough. But the last item arrived on the 21st (but I didn't open it until the 27th). It was my very own Mario Kart 8 Mii figurine. That's why they needed my QR code. They asked whether I wanted it on a Kart or a Bike. At first I said Bike since I used it more in the game, but opted for the Kart since the name of the game is Mario KART. It's so awesome. The fact that it's a special customized one of my Mii just makes it rare and unique. I'd venture to call it the greatest prize I've ever won.


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- f(x) - Red Light

I actually prefer All Night off their new album. The album itself is pretty good, but I thought Pink Tape was just a little better. And it's unfortunate that they had to cut their promotions short.


- Girl's Day - Darling

I'm glad I'm into Girl's Day. They're all very talented. Minah is my favorite with Yura being second (plus the reason I watch We Got Married right now). Their latest mini album is good. My favorite is Look At Me. I'm embedding two of those performances. The first being a full performance of it and the second is when Minah's voice cracks. Her reaction was too cute.



- Sistar - Touch My Body

There aren't that many concepts and songs I dislike from Sistar ever since I started following them. Touch My Body is no exception. OK GO and Naughty Hands are my other favorites off their latest album.


- Hyuna - RED

While I've been a fan of Hyuna for a while (inside and outside of 4Minute), I never really had liked much of her solo stuff. But this latest one is pretty good. RED and Black List are really good songs.

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On July 19th, my Grandma Gina passed away. I wrote my thoughts down in a post that day just to get it out of my mind. You can read that via the following link if you haven't already and so I don't have to repeat myself.

http://forevergracefulimpact.blogspot.com/2014/07/rest-in-peace-grandma-gina.html

That night, my ex came into town with her husband and we were planning to go out. I wanted to go and forget things for a while, but we ended up not hanging out. I also cancelled on them on going to the Colombian Festival the following day on the 20th. My ex did suggest that I puppy-sit her dog Machete in hopes that I would feel better. She dropped her off.

Machete was a good puppy. Very quiet. I'm pretty sure she only barked twice the whole 8-9 hours I took care of her. It didn't take long for us to get accustomed to each other. I wasn't sure if she would run away so I only let her run around in the backyard a lot. I'm also glad she could eat human food so it was easy to give her some leftover chicken. My dad also took care of her so I could eat my own meals. I'm sure taking care of Machete was good for him as well. It was easy especially the latter hours of her stay since I had worn her out by running around the backyard many times. She mainly fell asleep on my bed, ha. Overall, I'm glad I was able to puppy-sit. I needed it for my sanity and to not just be depressed about my grandmother. Thanks, Machete. You're such a good dog.


On Monday, I did decide to go to work. Plans for the family had not been set other than our family from New Mexico was arriving that day to stay with us. I told work I needed the rest of the week off due to a death in the family and they granted it. I was also receiving texts, calls, and online messages from family about stuff concerning the funeral.

The family from New Mexico (aunt, cousin and his wife) had arrived earlier the day and I greeted them when I came home from work. My cousin actually filled me on grandma's final minutes and what actually happened as the three of them were there. The doctor suggested a surgery to help a deteriorated vein/artery with a 50/50 chance of success, but she opted against it. Apparently she always said she never wanted to have tubes or anything put into her or be a vegetable. She felt it was her time to go and she was ready to go. And minutes later...she peacefully passed away. I could see it in his face and hear it in his voice...it was hard for him to tell this story.

The plan was made for some of the family to get together and discuss things. My parents drove my aunt (dad's sister) and my cousin's wife while my cousin and I rode together. He and I caught up a lot and just laughed a lot about dumb things. While at another aunt's, the adults were to talk about arrangements for the viewing and funeral while the kids were looking over pictures to select for a memory board, slide show, photo album, and anything else. It was good to connect with the cousins as we rarely do get together (not all were present). It was mostly just sharing memories and stories of grandma as well as general catching up and planning. This went on way into the night and we all left around 9 to end the day.

Tuesday was the day of the viewing. There wasn't much to do in the day earlier except to take my cousin and his wife to buy a few things. During some of our free time, my cousin was playing a Dreamcast emulator I had with old NES games since we talked about old games during our drive the previous day. He mainly played Double Dragon II. It was a good distraction which he took in every day.

The viewing was at 6PM. We were one of the first to arrive. I'm glad we were because I had a good amount of time just to look over Grandma Gina and say what I needed to her without that many people around. The tears flowed early and did throughout most of the 3 hours there as I saw almost everyone's reactions to seeing her. It was good to just be in the company of family and others that loved our grandmother so much. I was surprised to see members from my mom's side of my family show up.

As more people gathered, emotions were all over the place. We cried, we hugged, we laughed, everything. One of our cousin's that was living out of state with her husband flew in that day. She recently announced she was pregnant and announced to us that day the sex of the baby, a boy. We were all so happy since our family was low on males, ha. But it was definitely one of the brighter parts of the viewing.

One of my contributions was setting up my laptop to play the video clips I recorded during Grandma Gina's 90th birthday. Knowing how I felt watching it the day of her passing, I knew those watching would want to see these video clips as well and just watch as she was enjoying herself.

After the viewing ended, a lot of us went to an uncle's house to eat. Good food, good stories, and good laughs. One of the hilarious things that happened was a couple of my aunts asking the other to "speak in English since some of us don't understand" only to have them immediately respond afterwards in Tagalog and me responding with "speak in English since some of us don't understand." Then a lot of the stories (due to our cousin being pregnant) were about how long all our child births were and how much we weighed. Apparently, I weighed the most at over 8 pounds. I always knew I weighed a lot, but I didn't know I weighed the most out of all the cousins. I think we left around 10 and got home around 11PM.

Wednesday was the funeral at 10AM. Like I said to a few family members that day, it was weird waking up knowing what we were going to do. I believe we were first there arriving a little before 10. A lot of us grand kids took to task to doing individual things to help out. On top of that, all the grandsons and one in-law were to be pall bearers. The first hour was mainly for attendees to arrive. Once it was getting closer to 11, you could see the mood shift.

All the granddaughters that were there as well as all the daughters of Grandma Gina were given roses to place in her casket before it was to be closed. The outpour of tears could not be contained. I was fighting the tears watching them go up, but when my cousin came back to sit next to me with tears in her eyes, I couldn't fight it anymore. Her casket had closed and all of us were sad to be losing her. One our uncle-in-laws spoke to all of us on stage. A few months ago, his mother had passed away and here he was going through this all over again. He noted how it was different though. While his mom was fighting a painful journey, Grandma Gina had made the choice to go. While they knew it was only a matter of time for his mom to finally pass, Grandma Gina's happened out of the blue. While his family had time to prepare for his mother's passing, none of us were ready for Grandma Gina to leave us. He said more, but those were the more memorable parts for me.

He then passed it over to the pastor. The pastor spoke well of Grandma Gina. He mentioned that her pansit was the best, her two favorite TV shows were The Price is Right and Wheel of Fortune, and that any time she walked into any church she always had a smile that radiated out to everyone.

Soon after, it was time to move to the cemetery. Emotion was still coming out of everyone as we were hugging and thanking everyone that was there. The pall bearers stayed behind and were given instructions. We all put a hand on the casket as we wheeled it over into the hearse. We all then drove to the cemetery. The pall bearers gathered again to wheel the casket into the mausoleum. Everyone took their seats as the pastor told us what was to happen next. As we were leaving the mausoleum, much like I did for my grandmother in Canada when she passed away, I kissed the casket before leaving. We then stayed outside as we saw the workers place Grandma Gina's coffin in the compartment next to our grandfather. Emotions were running high again. When the wall was sealed up, many of us placed flowers next to it and stood by to say any final words. It was a long 5 days...and then it was over. Rest In Peace. We love you, Grandma Gina.

We all met at an aunt's house afterwards to eat and just be with each other. Us grand kids took over one of the rooms and just had fun with each other like we always do. Many hours in, we tried to make plans for the following day for just us. The choices boiled down to Schlitterbahn or Main Event. Many had left a while ago. I left around 5PM. A lot of us turned in early that night to try to regain a few hours of sleep we had lost.

The plan for Thursday was mixed. Some cousins went to Schlitterbahn. I took my cousin to finally get the Whataburger he had been craving as well as to take him around to a few places that aren't in New Mexico (First Colony Mall, Main Event, Fry's). A few hours later, we met up with the rest of the grand kids at where I suggested to eat, Korean Noodle House. My cousin and I were there early and I ended up helping the lady owner rearrange the seats we reserved, ha. It was good to have all of us just together without the adults.

After that, one cousin wanted to go to Petite Sweets. Then we went to Chocolate Bar close by as almost none of them had ever been there before. They absolutely enjoyed themselves. Everyone pretty much bought something (some more than others) and we were all happily sharing with each other and taking photos. I actually ran into a friend there who I assumed I would see as it was Chocolate Bar's Thursday dance nights. Overall, it was a fantastic night. Probably the first day for all of us to be normal. Besides, our grandmother wouldn't want us mourning forever. She would want us to be having fun with each other and celebrating her life if anything.

Friday ended up being the final day for family. The family from New Mexico that as staying with us was leaving that so it was our turn to host the rest of the family for the day. Unfortunately, not all could make it. Most of them showed up around 1-2PM. We all ate, but it was definitely different this time around. You can tell that most of us were fatigued and emotionally drained. Not only that, but almost every time an aunt left, they cried. We all knew it was the final day and the start of the healing process after the passing of Grandma Gina. Hours after everyone left, the family from New Mexico started to pack up their car. Around 8PM, we said our goodbyes with tears in our eyes. And that was it. Family time was over and it was time to continue on with our lives.

One last thing that happened, due to a lot of us losing sleep and being generally fatigued, most of the family got sick that weekend. As of typing this (07.31.14), most have recovered. I myself finally feel back to normal health-wise. And ever since hearing of grandma's passing, I have yet to fall asleep normally. I had to have something playing in the background so my mind wouldn't think. Hopefully I'll get back to sleeping normal soon.

I didn't make it public that my grandmother passed away. I only told a handful of friends and coworkers. I still haven't told a lot of friends what had happened. Some did notice my absence from social media. That and a few other things I changed during this time with family. To those that did send kind words my way, thank you very much. And to anyone that read all of this, thank you. I needed to write all this as part of my healing process.

Genoveva Ragasa
December 1, 1922 - July 19, 2014

8 children (5 daughters, 3 sons)
14 grandchildren (8 granddaughters, 6 grandsons)
7 great granddaughters
4 great great granddaughters


We all love you and miss you, Grandma Gina.

Thank you for reading. Be healthy, be safe, be thankful, and be loved.
 

Take care. DFTBA.


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