Lifted from an e-mail to Mila, with permission of both.
I
have a healthy respect for people who carry it
through ... The biggie
is having the dream .... and seeing it through.
I remember being somewhere in Anaheim for such a meeting and it was called "Dream Night" in 1994. Noel wrote down our dreams in a little yellow sticky and it sat in his organizer all these years. I came across it some time last week (the organizer became the house telephone directory - computer files have a way of disappearing - since we've changed systems time and again) and reading through it I realized that most of the dreams have become reality except for the part of living in some mountain in Oregon or Washington state - the air is just so clean and beautiful out there. We realize though that our kids are Californians for the most part and uprooting them to live in the mountains don't compute so we figured that dream needed some restating.
We're celebrating our 24th year of marriage - on May 11. Noel was teasing me one evening on our way to dinner as we passed by a travel agency window and he points to a Tour d' Eiffel poster and says "they have a restaurant somewhere in the middle of the tower, how would you like to have our anniversary dinner up there?". I naturally said "yes, I would love that very much" in the most serious way I could conjure. So we're spending May 6-13 in the streets of Paris in the Eiffel Tower district.... And that was one of the things he wrote down on that sticky.
Don't
worry about Paris' artwork, Noel can make the file smaller - I tried to
scan it myself and I did
a bad job. I'm nowhere near being a techie ompared to my husband
and 22 year old Kariz who is a help desk operator for MS Applications at
the Litton (same guys who made the first microwave), she's working at being
a network administrator in some other industry (perhaps the Garment industry)
where she gained proficiency in operations. Noel on the other hand
has worked with the earliest versions of CAD and just grew with the program
over time so while being a user he's an enthusiast. That makes me
the chronic novice in the house. Paris, the artist is turning 10
in June and is getting there with her brothers.
It's good to know your kids are helping out with mom & dad's business, that's just good training.
. . .
Happy 24th Wedding Anniversary, Daddie and Noel!!
Content-ID: <0_895819805@inet_out.mail.aol.com.1>
Content-type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Ces't Magnifique! Fantastique! Walastique!
Kaunti lang ang baon naming French (bumili ako nang Berlitz tape and phrase book) Sa shops, hanggang "Ces't combien?" na lang kami sabay turo sa calculator para i press na lang ang numbers nang presyo kasi kung bibigkasin hind rin namin maintindihan.
Our dream come true had a funny twist. As soon as we got to Paris on May 7, Noel was making reservations to the Jules Verne restaurant at the Tour d' Eiffel - sukat ba namang sabihin sa kanya the next available date for dinner is in July and for lunch was the day after we left Paris! We were going to have dinner at the Tour anyway...
So come May 11 (after we checked out the Notre Dame and
the Pantheon by the Latin quarter, the Place d' Itale, Louis XIV's
digs at Versailles, said hello to Mona Lisa behind her glass cage at the
Louvre in our grubbiest tennis shoes and t-shirts) we climbed 195 steps
up the Arch de Triomphe and took in the city panorama and of course I got
some background on the city's axis, it's layout and the wisdom of the structures
(mag-iingat kayo sa mga tour guide na architect!) tapos bumalik sa hotel
for lunch and to freshen up (as prelude to other things one could think
of on a free afternoon) and don our evening duds (the same spaghetti strapped
velvet dress in the holiday picture with a jacket and my tour guide cum
husband in his shirt, tie and jacket). We walked to the Trocadero
on the River Seine (akala ko "sign" eh "sen" pala) and did a river
cruise on the Bateaubus (Batobews ang pronounciation).
After the cruise, we went up the Eiffel and kissed at the very top tower!
It was quite a high literally! Baba kami sa second level with a sosyal
na bayong na may lamang wine, fromage/keso pala yun, nuts et baguette -
yun bang iniipit sa kilikili - we waited for the sun to set at about 9:15
pm, and in its place a full moon
took over while La Tour Eiffel was bathed in lights.
We watched all this from a bench where our bread and cheese dinner was
set. It was beautiful, napaluha ang puso ko! Yun palang wine
eh hindi twist off, wala kaming dalang corkscrew! Napabili nang German
Beer and Diet Coke si Noel sa fast food section. Later, we met up
with some Californians back on the ground who had a corkscrew so we still
had our wine! It was a night to remember!
The rest of the week found us at the George Pompidou Center
pero sarado - I wanted to pick up a Matisse poster to hang beside Noel's
reclining figure - I keep telling him Matisse comes close to his work!
Then we took in the Moulin Rouge - their international costumes looked
very authentic but they were all missing the bodice! Bagay naman....sa
may mga hinaharap. Then it was back to reality and building more
dreams. I hope to show you pictures of the Greek
Isles and Florence and Nice and Rome on our 25th anniversary!
Daddie
