Day 4:

I didn’t do much this day. I woke up late and breakfast was already out of the question. My mom and I were gonna go have lunch but we were going to bring my grandma lunch at the nursing home in the Millbrae area. We brought her some Filipino food and chilled with her for about an hour. She is in her early 90s and is in the nursing home because last December she passed out, fell face first, and dislocated her shoulder. There is no one to take care of her at her house in Pacifica so she had to go there. She will be coming home for Thanksgiving though but just for the day and then back to the nursing home.

I kind of hate going to the nursing home because you feel really bad in there. You walk in and almost all the old folks just sit in the hall and they stare at you when you walk by as if you should be coming to see them. Even when we are sitting down with my grandma in her room, old folks come by and just stare at us. It is a little weird but I endure it to see her. She hates it. She hates the food. She hates the help. She hates that other old folks there will steal her food. But mainly she hates that she can’t be with her family as much as she wants to be. We all hate that she is there too but no one can be home all day to make sure she is safe.

After seeing my grandma at the nursing home, my mom and I headed to “The Avenue” in Downtown San Bruno to get some grub. I always want to eat at a place that is not in LA. I stress this to all my family and friends who seem to keep offering places likes BJ’s, TGI Fridays, and Chevy’s as a legitimate place to dine. We ended up going to this Middle Eastern restaurant that was pretty good. The problem was that I got a huge food coma after eating there.

A Bite of Falafel

We left the restaurant and headed to Tanforan Shopping Center so I could pick up some jeans at Old Navy. But I was suffering from the food coma and I had to take a 30 minute nap in the car to try to re-energize. After getting inside the mall, I was like “fuck looking around let’s just get the stuff and go.”

After getting home I thought I was in store for another boring night until my boy Karl (DJ Panik) called me to tell me he was at his parents’ house in SF. This was perfect because their house was a block away from me. I headed over there and we just got in to DJ business talk. He hooked me up with some music videos for the whole VJ thing and we talked about opportunities to get on in SF or the Bay. He offered me his slot for a massive teen party in the East Bay on the Saturday before Christmas. It would be held by the Bayfunction Ent. crew and would expect about 1600 teens. I would be down but I don’t have the leave at work to stay in SF for a whole week again, and I wouldn’t want to anyway as you read in my last post. He then told me about getting a booth for HIN (Hot Import Nights) in the Southern California area. The problem was that it would take promoting and that flyer returns would dictate pay.

Should I?

Later, me and Karl went to Roma Pizza on Mission St. and Amazon St. for a pie and beers. We bought the large house special but could not finish half.

The night was over…

Day 5:

This was probably my most non-vacation day of the week so far. I woke and my mom made me take measurements of the lower level of the house. She recently evicted a tenant who was pretty much mentally disturbed. The lady filed a lawsuit against my mom. My sister was working for a law firm at the time in Honolulu and found old cases where the lady tried to pull the same shit on previous landlords. She always sued for the same amount, had the same statement, and accused the landlords of threats and trespassing. My mom finally got her evicted a few months ago but the damage was done. The lady snitched my mom out about building code violations. My mom has some illegal apartments downstairs (as most houses in San Francisco do) that my dad built to help her make more cash to help pay the bills. Now my mom has to bring a bunch of things up to code and can no longer let one of the rooms be inhabited. It’s crazy cause I grew up in the room they deemed unlivable. Shows how much they know.

My mom also wanted some shots of her and the dog, Daisy, in her new garden area. It was built by her friend Marshal, who lives downstairs in the unlivable room a couple of days out of the week. He only pays my mom about $200 a month to live there and keep his belongings there but he does a lot of handy work for her in the house and backyard. He has also done work for my extended family and has become a family friend. Sometimes it seems like he is the help though. He was even at both my aunt’s and uncle’s funerals last year to help set up the food on the viewing days. Yeah, we eat after the viewing and rosary almost everyday until the funeral.

Mom's Garden Area

Mom and Daisy

After taking dimensions, we drove to my cousin Eric’s house in Pacifica so that my Uncle Mel, who is a civil engineer, could take the dimensions and draft them up professionally. I could have done it myself, but my mom is to impatient to wait for me to get back to LA. I also picked up my Pacquiao shirt but it was too small just like my Upper Playground shirts. I told my cousin Ted to get me a large instead.

Uncle Mel

While at Eric’s house, I enjoyed the view that they had of the deeply vegetated hills of Pacifica. It’s something you don’t really see in metro areas.

Out the Patio Door

Veggie

When I got home from Eric’s house I called my sister Dorothy so I could go hang out at their spot in Colma. I headed over there but I had to make a stop at the ghetto liquor store in the worst neighborhood in Daly City. I bought a six pack of Negra Modelo and a “Cutty Bang” cocktail set. It was funny, they has a whole bunch of ziploc bags that had the ingredients to make single serve cocktails. But most of them are ghetto concoctions that you never heard of like cutty bang, apple jack, go dumb, and a bunch more. You also get a tall styrofoam cup to drink it from (think Lil Wayne). I actually bought it to be part of my white elephant gift at work. I wanted to give a joke gift this year after being the final reciepient of the one last year. I got a huge pair of pink ladies’ underwear, a pack of cigarettes, a $5 gift certificate to McDonanld’s, two cans of malt liquor, and a bunch of scratchers.

Cutty Bang

I got to my sister Dorothy’s (Dee) house and my brother-in-law Mike and his boy Neel were watching the Packers vs. Saints game. I was just talking to Dee, drinking a beer, and taking pictures of the boys Mikey and Marcel (Dee and Mike’s kids). Dorothy is a year older than me and we have the same dad but different mom’s. When Neel left, me and Mike were just catching up while Dee was taking 150 shots on my camera. She did get a really good one on there of her son Marcel though.

My Nephew Marcel

My nephew Mikey, Taken By Dorothy Moyrong

I Like This One of Marcel, Taken By Dorothy Moyrong

Representaz, Taken By Dorothy Moyrong

Night Over…

Day 6:

Today, I was determined to get to Huf and True. I left the house after 11AM and headed to Upper Playground to exchange my shirts for a larger size. I found residential parking but street cleaning was in 10 minutes so I had to get in and out quickly.

Next, I headed to Huf. Good news was that I found parking right on the corner of Hayes St. and Octavia Blvd. Bad News was that the meter cost 25 cents for every 10 minutes, change only. I paid for an hour but when I got to Huf they didn’t have t-shirts or hats anymore, just shoes. I guess they moved all the apparel to the Sutter store downtown. I left quickly and tried to see what else was around, nothing. I ended up eating at Flipper’s Gourmet Burgers to make use of some of my meter time.

I took off and headed to Haight St. I found parking on the corner of Haight St. and Ashbury St. in front of Aardvarks, still 25 cents for 10 minutes. I went to the True shoe store and clothing store but didn’t find anything. They charge way too much for everything (think of Workmen’s on Melrose in LA). They even had the Pacquiao shirt I got for $6 more. I wasn’t fucking with them. They suck. Why do I even go in there every time I go back and almost never buy anything. They would probably try to sell me a $5 bill for $7 if they could. Instead of getting ripped off by True, I ended up buying a Upper Playground shirt at Crossroads for $8.50 and it was in pretty good condition. I also got a pair of Air Max 90s on sale at Shoe Biz for $63.

Later, I went to the downtown Nordstrom with my cousin Joseph so he could pick up some items since he got a 33% employee discount that day. He told me I could look around but I didn’t need to cause I know I can’t afford anything at Nordstrom. I just went along so that me and him could catch up a little. I didn’t know before, but he actually moved in with his girlfriend, Camille at a place in the Sunset district. But when we got back to my house he parked in my driveway, since my mom let’s him, to go stay at his parent’s house for the night, which is two blocks away from my house. Parking is a bitch in SF, you guys already know from the last post.

An hour later I got picked up by my sister Dee and brother-in-law Mike. We met up with my brother Philip, his wife and daughter, Sherril and London, my sister Carol, and her boyfriend Dex. We had dinner at Val’s in Daly City. It’s funny cause we all have passed by this place a million times in our lives but just never ate there. The only reason we ate there was because Dee’s co-worker’s husband owns the place. The food was good, but pricey. I got fried prawns instead of steak because I hate steak. Steak is just not good to me so I never get it. Probably because I like my meat well done.

While Mike was at the ATM

Over dinner we talked about my sister Michelle in Honolulu, my brother Harold who is AWOL since last year, and my sister April who married Phil’s best friend and moved to Dallas with her four kids. We also planned a trip to Vegas in March since me, Dex, Mike, and Phil all have our birthdays that month. London cried a lot during dinner too but Dee told Phil to show her Barney or Elmo on youtube on his iphone and we watched that crying stop quickly. At the end of dinner we actually got free dessert from the owner, but it was just ice cream.

Dee & Phil

London & Sherril

Phil & London

After dinner, Dex and Carol told me to pick up the new San Quinn album because Dex (Dex Beats) produced a few tracks on it. San Quinn is a veteran San Francisco rapper and his been putting out albums since 1995. He is a legend to San Franciscans and is comparable to Joe Montana, if you listen to Bay Area Rap.

After Dinner Scenery

End of night…

For anyone reading this who is confused about my siblings:

Dad: Lawrence Lee Laughlin (Irish)

17 Kids

First 4 children Unknown

Woman: Unknown Mom #1 (Mexican)
Larry
Eva (deceased)
Mike

Woman: Minda (Filipino)
Philip (30 years old)
April (29 years old)

Woman: Katie (my mom-Filipino)
Michelle (28 years old)
Paul (25 years old)

Woman: Betty (Filipino)
James (27 years old)
Dorothy (26 years old)
Carol (25 years old)

Woman: Unknown Mom #2 (Filipino)
Harold (25 years old)

Woman: Rowena (Filipino)
Renz (11-13 years old)
unknown name girl (unknown age)

My dad got a lot of kids and I got a lot of siblings. Michelle is my full blood sister, but the rest are half. Me, Michelle, Phil, April, Dorothy, Carol, James pretty much kept in touch. But now that I live in LA, Michelle lives in Honolulu, and April lives in Dallas it seems harder for us all to get together like we did this night.

My dad may have been a womanizer but he gave me more family which is a good thing to me. For those who might wonder where my dad is now, living like a queen in the Philippines with his wife and youngest kids.