Our One Year Anniversary and Looking Back

My wife and I celebrated our one-year anniversary and decided to spend it in San Diego. We went to the Little Italy part of town, ate some good Italian food, saw the shops and stayed the night. The next day, we went to the San Diego Zoo Safari Park, and it was actually a lot of fun. I did not think that I would enjoy seeing rhinoceros, lions, giraffes and other animals as much as I did. It rained a little, but it was not so bad that it detracted from this mini vacation.

This one year went by fast, and it is definitely interesting to look back. When my wife got here, we were getting by with my single income. That was definitely a tough time having to penny pinch and hoping that no sudden expenses would come about. Somewhere along the way, we got a dog. My wife got her work visa, then got a job, and that was a load off our shoulders. Recently, she received her green card. Those were just some of the bigger events that happened. It all went by so fast and not without struggles, but it turned out really good, and we definitely got stronger from any struggles. We were definitely fortunate that some of the immigration stuff went about as quickly and smoothly as it did, as others are not so fortunate.

It is good to have gratitude for these blessings. I look forward to what comes next, and we have goals like buying a house, having kids, getting my book out, buying property in the Philippines, buying a new car, travelling and whatnot. I can only wonder what the future holds.

Green Card and The Beekeeper

My wife received her Green Card, so she is now a permanent resident of the United States. We have been waiting for this for a long time, and we have been blessed that this process was not as difficult as it has been with others. Getting a work permit and now this green card was relatively quick, and my wife did not have to do an interview for the green card. With this, she is able to do a lot from getting a driver’s license to travelling to various countries. A top priority for us is travelling back to the Philippines later this year. Vacationing outside of the U.S. is now much easier, and my wife is also eligible to drive. When I saw a Priority Mail package addressed to me and my wife, I admittedly let out a gasp that my wife saw. I knew right away that it was the green card.

We also watched the movie, The Beekeeper, starring Jason Statham. It was pretty much what one would expect from a modern-day Jason Statham movie, in that it was a silly, fun action flick. The villains were tech people scamming ignorant folks of their money online with no remorse. The main antagonist was a very unlikeable character who openly used drugs, hired prostitutes and used his powerful mother’s power and influence to his advantage. Statham played the typical extremely stoic hero of the story with an unlimited amount of fighting skills. Overall, it was just dumb fun.

Speaking of fun, we also went to the Brea Improv to watch comedian, JR DeGuzman. We have been to one of his shows already at the Irvine Improv, but he was still funny even though we knew some of the jokes. Also, Brea is just a nice city.

We have started the year very well, and this green card is just such a blessing. We greatly look forward to what is in store later this year.

First Week of 2024 and Parking

This first week of 2024 was busy. My wife and I mainly did events and things related to church. However, we are planning for our one-year anniversary along with other plans for the year. Admittedly, our anniversary came very quickly, and it is amazing that it has already been a year being married. We have booked a place for us to stay overnight in San Diego, and the process of doing that was a bit stressful along with all the hidden fees that just seem to pop up. Overall, we are looking forward to this mini vacation.

Another thing that happened was that some young man and his friend in their late teens or early twenties parked in our parking spot. My wife was not happy with this, and she was not having a great day, so she forsook any niceties like leaving a letter. She just called the towing company. Luckily for them, they made it back to their car before the tow truck arrived. We did confront the two, and they had flippant responses claiming that they could not find any guest parking (there is a lot of guest parking in our condo complex, but it seemed like these two did not bother to look very hard). We rolled our eyes at this obviously pathetic excuse, and they drove away.

This first week of the new year was one of building and busyness. We are already looking forward to our immediate plans, while planning and saving for our future plans.

New Years 2024 and Wonka

My wife and I spent New Years with family, and it was the first New Years that I spent with my wife in the U.S. A memory on Facebook came up where I was staying in a quarantine hotel in the Philippines, waiting to meet who would be my future wife for the first time in person. Two years later, and we are now spending New Years in the U.S. We have a lot of plans for 2024, and that includes travelling to the Philippines. My wife has been approved of getting her green card, so that is exciting and relieving at the same time. We also have comedy shows, baseball games, family birthdays, and professional wrestling shows to go to already planned within these first three months of 2024.

We also watched Wonka last weekend, and we both liked it. It was just a wholesome movie with no messaging of any sort, and if we had kids, we’d watch it with them. The movie is a prequel, and everything was just fun with some catchy and nostalgic music in there as well. It definitely had a sense of magic, and also real magic as part of the movie. Honestly, with so many movie offerings being subpar, overly long, or full of various messaging, it was nice to watch offerings like Wonka or Godzilla: Minus One recently.

2024 looks like a big year for us. With my wife potentially getting her green card, it opens a lot more of what we can do together. Things like purchasing a new car, buying property in the Philippines, or finally putting out The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom are on the table for 2024, which are exciting prospects.

Japanese Movies and the Holidays

My wife and I watched Godzilla Minus One the other day, and it was really good. Godzilla really was just a monster to be taken down by the Japanese people still recovering and rebuilding from World War II. The main characters was a kamikaze pilot who could not go through with his mission, and subsequently, could not move past the war or his need for revenge against Godzilla. Considering that there were a few big budget movies with a production budget in the hundred millions that flopped, it was incredible that a Japanese movie with English subtitles that had a fifteen million dollar production budget did as well as it did.

We also watched The Boy and the Heron, the latest Studio Ghibli film. It was very artistic and metaphorical, but still a good film. It seemed something of a compilation of Hayao Miyazaki’s greatest hits, in that tropes and ideas that he has utilize in other movies are used here. The motley crew of heroes, environmental messaging, non-adult protagonist, talking animals, villains that become allies, and many other things from previous Miyazaki movies can be seen here. However, the focus on family throughout the movie is strong, going through generations. It was a contemplative movie, for sure.

Besides the movies, my wife co-hosted and event for our church, which was a fun event. She used to host events in the Philippines, but that was the first time that I have seen it in person. Otherwise, we are just looking forward to New Years coming up and 2024 in general.

Pauly Shore and Being Sick

This past week, the company that my wife works for was hosting an event for clients at the Improv. The headlining comedian was Pauly Shore. I grew up during the height of his popularity when he was on MTV and in movies like Encino Man. His act was really funny, as he acknowledged his age and that only a particular age group and generation would really recognize him. He does a lot of physical comedy as well. It was great as he said a joke, and I reacted, and he acknowledged me and my reaction. It definitely made my day, and I had a lot of fun overall.

However, I got sick with something that seems to be changing every few days. I started with a sore throat and runny nose, and it became a chest cold with a cough and runny nose. Many people in my church were sick, and I would just hear about friends or acquaintances getting sick as well. Something is going around, but it is no surprise this time of year when it is colder, and people are indoors a lot more. Hopefully, it will pass sooner rather than later, and it looks like something that is just going around.

Otherwise, we are entering the holiday weekends, and I can only hope that we get better by then. It will be more of a week for rest and recovery, as it is just work and staying home after work. At least we can catch up on movies or shows.

Eating Out and Meeting People

This week, my wife and I ate out with friends or family quite a bit for various occasions. Birthday parties, game nights or just having a casual dinner with friends and family were all reasons this week to go. It is always fun to see people, but it really does take a lot of time. Some of the people we ate with were unfamiliar with how my wife and I got together, so we had to go down memory lane and recall how it all happened. Looking back, it is difficult not to see some sort of divine intervention in us getting together, as there were too many coincidences that had to happen all at once for us to have gotten together.

These discussions made us realize that many people along the way will help in achieving something. For example, had I not met a coworker, who would end up being a friend, back when I worked for Williams Lea, I would not have gotten the job that I have now, and subsequently, owning property. With owning property, instead of renting or some other situation, it gave us something of a head start in our marriage. It is interesting how certain things just end up working out for the better.

This coming week, I would like to watch The Boy and The Heron and Godzilla Minus One with my wife along with the plans that we already have. This holiday season looks like it will be busy.

The Book Jewel and The Shift

My wife and I had to drop off our parents in LAX, and we decided to get brunch at The Coffee Company down the street afterwards. On the same street were street stalls and a place called The Book Jewel. We decided to check everything out, going to the bookstore first. It just so happened that an author was having a book reading for her very first book. Her book was about her grandmother which resonated with my wife. She talked to the author, who seemed authentically pleased that her book reached another person. She also revealed to us that she is self-published, which allowed her more freedom. The whole experience made me think of becoming an author. I would like someone to read The Mustard Prince or another one of my works and resonate with the book in some way.

We also watched the movie, The Shift, made by Angel Studios. It was a good movie with many religious overtones, Biblical allegories, but also some science fiction elements as well. I did not know what to expect from it as it was a science fiction tale inspired by the Book of Job. Neal McDonough as the Benefactor was really good as the villain of the story. There is a multiverse, and I do not think that the heavy Judeo-Christian themes and ideas will hit with everyone, but I found it inspirational and thought-provoking.

This week was really busy, but I am glad that we got to watch some movies, attend a storytelling event, eat out and whatnot. It is good that there was a level of inspiration as far as being an author is concerned. We got to see an author put herself out there to promote her self-published book, which in turn just inspires me to get The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom out there.

Thanksgiving 2023 and Napoleon

My wife and I attended Thanksgiving with family. It was my wife’s first Thanksgiving here in the U.S., and it went really well. We prepared a turkey and other food items, while the rest of my family prepared and provided other foods and snacks. Seeing family and mingling during the holidays is always a good thing, and I got to eat my favorite Thanksgiving food, honey baked ham. There is definitely a lot to be thankful for this year especially with getting married. It is no longer the case where I go to family events, and I am the only single guy there while everyone else is married with children. We are planning to one day own a bigger home, either a townhome or a single-family home, and hopefully, we can have Thanksgiving and other family events there.

We also went to see the movie, Napoleon. There was a much higher focus in this movie on Napoleon’s relationship with Josephine. His exploits in battle were there but not the major focus of this movie. It was long, for sure, and the use of comedy and modern dialogue took me out of the movie sometimes. Apparently, there are French historians that questioned its historical accuracy. Overall, I thought that it was decent. There were a few gruesome depictions of violence with beheadings and cannon fire. The acting was fine, and it was interesting.

With the holiday season, it does not look like we are slowing down anytime soon. It has been go, go, go for us, and we generally have something planned every weekend. Thanksgiving is over already, and the last month of 2024, December, is upon us.

Aftermath of Las Vegas and Journey to Bethlehem

Getting home from Las Vegas surprisingly did not have much traffic. We decided to go eat at Golden Corral, as there aren’t any near where we live, but one in Hesperia, CA, and one in San Bernardino, CA. They were on the way home, and it has been about ten years since I ate there, and my wife has never eaten there. We decided to eat at the Golden Corral in San Bernardino, CA, and with it being the weekend of Veteran’s Day, they got a deal. It was just as good as I remembered it, and such a departure from the glitz and glamour of the Las Vegas Strip. We were both sleepy the next two days once we got home but have since adjusted back to our normal routine.

We have not watched a movie in theaters for a while despite having Regal Movie Passes, so we decided to check something out. Choices, admittedly, were limited but chose to watch Journey to Bethlehem. It was a musical romantic comedy. If you are looking for a strictly historically accurate adaptation of the story of the birth of Jesus Christ, this was not the movie for it, and the creators admitted to taking a few liberties with the story. It was a cute movie though, but it did have many modern-day sensibilities that just would not even be a consideration for that time in history.

We are now looking forward to our first Thanksgiving together here in the U.S. Last year at this time, I was in the Philippines visiting my wife, doing paperwork and whatnot before our wedding. A year later, and here we are, and it came very quickly.

Road Trip and Las Vegas

My wife and I took a three-day vacation to Las Vegas, Nevada. It has been over a decade since I had last gone there, and it was my wife’s first time. We decided to rent a car for the trip and drive there. Admittedly, I was apprehensive to do a relatively far drive. However, being with someone in the car and having something on during the drive made it go by pretty fast. The desert and mountains were beautiful, and we stopped by Peggy Sue’s 50’s Diner in Yermo, CA and the world’s tallest thermometer in Baker, CA. Peggy Sue’s had a lot of charm to it along with some good food and atmosphere.

We stayed at Caesar’s Palace, and we still did not see what the whole hotel/casino had to offer. The Las Vegas Strip is a sight to behold with gigantic hotels and buildings in a city that never sleeps. We watched Cirque du Soleil Mystere at Treasure Island, and it was amazing. The production, stunts, costumes and performances were awesome. I went to a Cirque Du Soleil in Costa Mesa, CA in a giant tent, but this one was far superior. We also went to Madame Tussauds wax museum at The Venetian. It was a lot of fun seeing wax replicas of celebrities that were very well done.

Overall, it was a fun trip, and we will definitely go back to Las Vegas one of these days. The road trip, quite honestly, was a lot of fun, and we only scratched the surface of things to do and see in Las Vegas.

Marriage Panel and Little Tokyo

I was a part of a four-man panel talking about marriage with our church the other day. It was not something that I volunteered for, and my wife was in the audience. It was very informative as the other individuals on the panel had much more experience being married. Their responses to questions had much more insight into them, and they had stories to tell that relates to the questions asked. It shows that there will have a lot more experiences to come in our marriage, and there is so much more to know about each other in the future.

My wife, her cousin and I went to Little Tokyo in Los Angeles. I have been there before a little after businesses started opening up after the lockdowns. We surprisingly did not encounter too many homeless individuals, as the last time that I was there with friends, a tent city was nearby right behind a bus stop. New shops opened up, and the influence of anime was highly prevalent with what many shops were selling. It Is always a bit different of an experience going to places with my wife instead of with friends. With friends, we try to fulfill our geekier side, but it is about exploration and fun with my spouse. Hopefully, we will come back there soon.

Speaking of soon, I am hopeful that I can start selling The Mustard Prince in the Condiment Kingdom, as we have received necessary artwork for this book. I am anxious to put it out, and it feels like a long time coming.

Friends and Housing

While my wife and I have been hanging out with family more as of late, it is still imperative to hang out with friends. Growing up, I hung out more with friends than family, especially in high school where high school was its own world. It is also something that we just see more in American culture, generally speaking, as opposed to in other cultures where hanging out with cousins and other distant relatives Is more of the norm. As I got older, friends got married, got children and moved away, and the importance of family became more prevalent. However, hanging out with friends has its own benefits. Talking about marriage, spouses, finances, exercising, buying houses, mortgage rates and whatnot are interesting and relevant things to discuss. It is nice knowing that others are in the same boat as me.

One thing that I talk about with friends is buying homes. In south Orange County, pretty much all single-family homes are upwards of one million dollars. I also work in the mortgage industry, and it surprises me that people are able to buy homes at this price and at this high mortgage rate. My wife and I go to open houses, as I like to see what is out there, the generally prices of homes in certain neighborhoods, floor plans and whatnot. My current condo has two master bedrooms/bathrooms, and it is surprisingly difficult to find three-bedroom residences with rooms that are big and with ample closet space. We are just collecting data at the moment, but these open houses are research for the future when we become serious home buyers. From what it looks like, the next step for us housing-wise will most likely be a three-bedroom townhome if we want to stay in south Orange County.

Things are good, and we are always looking towards the future with optimism and motivation. Our current situation is quite good, but we always want to achieve more.

Killers of the Flower Moon and Snow White

My wife and I watched Martin Scorsese’s “Killers of the Flower Moon,” and it was good, tragic but long. There was deception, betrayal, twisted family dynamics, greed, discrimination, blatant murder, immortality and other things to this movie. DiCaprio and DeNiro played their roles well as more or less the villains who acted like the good guys. At three and a half hours, it starts out slowly but really picks up as it goes along. With Scorsese being eighty-years-old, it is quite a feat that he could still make a movie of this high of quality, showing why he is such a highly regarded director.

As far as entertainment goes, it is interesting to see that another company, the Daily Wire, is going to make their own version of Snow White. There have had many gripes with Disney as of late regarding their constant remakes and reboots, their messaging, and the quality of their entertainment products. While they have had some hits, between Marvel, Pixar, LucasFilms, and Disney proper, they seemingly have been losing money with a lot of their offerings. It looks like this new Snow White is in response to the one that Disney is currently making, and I am curious to see how the final outcomes will be for both versions.

I am all for seeing the creativity and storytelling that both will put into their versions of Snow White. If one is good, and one is bad, then it is what it is. However, if both are good, then we the audience benefits.

Family Time and Date Nights

Lately, my wife and I have been spending time with family from both our sides of the family. My wife does have family within driving distance near where we live, and I have my own family nearby. For me, growing up, I was more about hanging out with friends than family, especially around high school and past that. It is understandable as the world of high school and college was about going out, exploring the world, trying to fit in and whatnot. As an adult when I was still living a bachelor lifestyle, that was still prevalent. Recently though, that has changed. I still hang out with friends, but not as much as I used to, now that I am married, and some of my friends have moved away. Our parents are now grandparents, our brothers and sisters are married with children, we are now aunts and uncles, and family takes on a different meaning.

Besides family time, date nights have been fun. We recently went to watch a classic movie, The Mummy, at The Frida Cinema, an art house theater. It was nice because it felt more like a communal event than just a bunch of strangers watching a movie in a theater. The Mummy is just a fun movie that was not trying to be anything else but entertaining. Brendan Fraser was a fun protagonist with lots of attitude and fighting ability. It was a bit campy at parts, and the movie asks its audience to suspend their disbelief, but it was great being able to watch it on the big screen.

Around the theater were a lot of places to eat and visit. Despite living in Orange County my whole life, there are still many places that I do not know about. It will be fun for the two of us to find and explore these places.

Double Dating and Overspending

Being married, my wife and I have been double dating with married family members, married friends, and non-married couples who are friends. It is a different mechanic from just hanging out with friends from what we talk about to what we are doing. There is a lot of catching up, vacation talk, future plans and other things that get discussed. We are not sitting at home watching UFC fights, but going to a comedy club, eating brunch, lunch or dinner, watching a ball game or something else.

We are now feeling the consequences of splurging the last month or so. We are not having to go back to when we first started, hardly eating out, not going to events and being very frugal, but we do have to watch our spending moving forward. It was fun having more freedom to spend without having to worry about the next credit card bill. Now that the bill has come, and we got a lot of the want to spend out of our system, it is now time to make a better financial plan. There will still have things that we will want to buy, yet we will have to watch out for what we “need” and what we “want.”

There are many differences in interactions, dating and financials when it comes to marriage. There is a lot more planning involved and carefulness with budget. However, I can see how marriage makes a person grow, from having to think of someone else and not just living for yourself.

Expendables 4 and Financial Liberation

I watched the Expendables 4 the other day, and it quite honestly was not very good. It came out a decade after the last Expendables, and there looked to be a lack of effort overall in making the film. The actors and actresses seemed to be phoning it in, and there was an abundance of CGI that just looked clunky. The plot was terrible with very predicable twists. The action sequences were good but nothing that we have not seen before in other action movies. This was disappointing as a am admittedly a fan of the Expendables franchise. It was the type of movie where you turn your mind off and just watch actors of the past. There was over-the-top action, and it was generally fun. This latest installment was a bit boring, and I doubt that they make another one anytime soon.

Otherwise, things have been good with me and my wife. Now that she has a full-time job, our financial situation has been much better. When it was just me working, we had to be really frugal with our money. We had to eat at home most of the time and not go out to eat even if it were donuts for breakfast or just hamburgers and fries. Now, we do not have to worry about that. There is definitely something liberating about being able to go out or buy things without this worry about finances. However, that is not to say that we do not have to be smart about our spending. We eventually want to buy a townhome or house, and we will have to save a lot and consistently in order to reach that goal. However, we have been so restrained with our money, and with my wife getting her first paycheck, we just had to splurge. We will definitely reign it in though in the near future.

So far, the future is looking bright. We pretty much have something to do every week and especially on weekends. There are events, shows and vacations planned, and it has been a positive to be able to do such things.

Les Misérables and Steve Trevino

My wife and I had a really busy weekend full of various forms of entertainment. We watched “Les Misérables” the musical at the Segerstrom in Costa Mesa, California. It was absolutely beautiful and breathtaking. This was live performance art and music done at the highest level. The sets were so intricately designed, and I still cannot fathom how they put in and removed some of the set pieces from the stage as it was so seamless. There really was not a dull moment, and the time went by quickly. To say that we were impressed would be an understatement, and a word higher than “amazed” would be more fitting.

The next day, we went to see the comedian, Steve Trevino, at the Irvine Improv. His opening act was just okay, but Trevino was a comedian who put many hours into the road and at shows. He talked about his life, a lot about his wife, his family and just things that people in his generation and married couples could relate to, and it was hilarious. He was definitely of a different generation closer to mine and made that a part of his act.

All of this was great entertainment showing the fruits of professions at the highest level. It is all art and creativity, but on a much different scale. Everyone is trying to tell a story and get certain emotions from the audience in various ways. They make it look easy being on stage, but that is only because of much practice and preparation. Thankfully, we the audience get to see that practice and preparation in its full form.

Classic Anime and Helping Seniors

I watch a lot of anime, but I also make sure to have an anime to watch on YouTube that is “easy.” It’s something to watch that can play in the background that I do not have to pay too much attention to like on a lunch break or some other time where I’m waiting. Right now, I am watching Robin Hood no Daibouken. When I mentioned to my wife that I am almost done with the series, she mentioned watching old anime that she saw as a child like Cedie, My Daddy Long Legs or A Little Princess Sara. Even with Robin Hood, some of the content from classic anime is rather dark or had heavier themes. I suppose that creators back then felt that kids could understand what is going on and not be turned off or offended.

Before I got married, I hardly did any type of volunteering or community service except in a few occasions involving my Church. Being married, my wife has pushed me in that direction, so we are now assisting a senior citizen who has difficulty moving around. We are walking her dog for her, which has been rewarding in its own way. It does exacerbate something about American culture. In American culture, once children become adults, generally speaking, they pretty much leave their senior parents to fend for themselves with just occasional visits here and there. Besides this woman who we walk her dog for, we have a senior neighbor who lives on her own. We do wonder where their children are and why they do not seem to be helping. Going out on your own though to try and make it has historically been the way we do things here though.

My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3 and Simplicity

The other day, my wife watched My Big Fat Greek Wedding 3. My wife loved it, and I thought that it was fun enough. It was the third in the series, so there was definitely diminishing returns. They still played off the Greek family and culture aspect of it all, which is still a strong suit of the Greek Wedding movies. Everything else was entertaining enough with relatively small stakes, making it an “easy” movie. It was definitely for an older audience looking for something fun and simple.

I also want to create something simple with The Mustard Prince series. I am not trying to reinvent the wheel but just write a fun, simple story focused on fun, memorable characters. Entertainment these days have seemingly lost the plot trying to get away from simple, effective storytelling in order to spread some sort of messaging. There is also a laziness to a lot of writing, opting to do away with character progression and making characters having already achieved greatness early.

I have to be careful not to fall into that trap though. There is struggle that characters should overcome that is not easy in order to become stronger.