Photos: Birthday to Boston

Well, I've been thirty-four for a whole month now, and I'm finally getting around to posting some photos from my birthday, as well as photos from my recent trip to Boston (where I got really sick, hence my intense lagging). Actually, I wasn't feeling well the whole month, so my birthday was pretty low-key.

I started out the day with opening presents and calling the in-laws back East for that real-time present-opening experience:


Sujata, Kevin's dad's girlfriend, sent me this adorable manatee card. Can you tell they live in Florida?

Later, we had dinner with my friends Haan-Fawn and Steve. Sadly, we all had our eyes closed in the photo I took with them! You'll have to settle for yet another photo of Kevin and me:


That is a chocolate raspberry cake from Whole Foods, by the way. DECADENT! DELICIOUS! Highly recommended! Kevin got the same one for his birthday, we later realized. Ooh, are we scary-married yet?

Blowing out the candle:


No thirty-four candles for me, thanks. By the way, the hilarious little critter next to me was a present from my mom and step-dad. Yes, it's a fat, squat, black, ceramic pug. Kevin keeps it close by as he works on his dissertation, 'cause it never fails to make him smile. If you look closely, you too can bask in its pink-tongued dopey-ness!

On October 15, I took off for a six-day trip to Boston. The Philippine Society of Boston College invited me to speak for their celebration of Filipino-American Heritage Month. Who knew that my birthday month (and my mother's) was Filipino-American Heritage Month? Well, OF COURSE it is!

I delivered a talk based on a chapter from my MA thesis, which I called "Flip like Us/Black like You: Race and Visibility in Filipino-American Spoken Word."


It was a pretty sweet set up, with all kinds of whistles and bells. I had a PowerPoint show, a video, and a couple of audio examples. Luckily, all the technical stuff went without a hitch.


Here I am with the organizer, Mark Florido.


My very engaged audience. In the third row to the right are Nirmal Trivedi and his friend, Nick. Nirmal is the brother of a good friend here in L.A., Kash, who I know through his wife, Shyamala, who was in my program at UCLA. We all had dinner together before the presentation. Nirmal, Nick, and I bonded over the trials and travails of grad school and the agony of dissertation writing (which I am experiencing vicariously through Kevin).


My oh-so-clever conclusion. These photos were all taken by members of the Philippine Society.


Aren't they CUTE???!??!! Such a sweet group of undergrads. They swear that I didn't bore them with theory, bless their hearts. They called me "Professor." I must admit, it rang quite sweetly in the ear. It may be the only time I hear that phrase. Ah well. It was such a pleasure to meet them.

(And did I mention that they paid me well? They paid me well!)


During my trip, I got to stay with Barbara Michaels, good friend, former Boston housemate, and officiant for my wedding. Barbara is currently making her way across the country en route to a new life in San Francisco. She and her partner, Liam, will stay with us next week.


I also stayed with Mark Quiñones and his fiancée, Rachel. They are getting married in July. What a cute couple! I've known Mark now for about fifteen years, since my very first year at Wesleyan in Intercultural House.

Mark and Rachel both teach high school level history and entertained me for hours with their tales of high-school hijinks. Oh those crazy kids and their attempts to conceal texting during classtime! Ha, ha, so naïve!

Well, that's all for now, folks. More news as events develop...