Total Recall

I can't remember where or when, but I remember hearing (or maybe reading it) that events are remembered because emotions are attached to them.

One event that I remember would be one late afternoon in our Sampaloc, Manila apartment at the kids room. Dad, Mom and us (the kids) huddled around a game of pick-up-sticks. I remember my Dad picking up one stick; trying with all his might not to move other sticks. As he completes the tasks, comes my mom (in her very competitive mode, where I guess we all got that trait from) demanding that one stick moved. It was fun. Everybody was laughing. I remember the day ending very late at night in Sinangag Express (a local late night eatery of typical Filipino dishes).

Looking back, I guess we have grown to be very simple kids, with simple wants. Where family, food and just being together is already a prize on its own. That is why the weekly family dinners or the frequent family vacations are looked forward to.

I can't wait for the typical Manila dinner of having 20 people show up on a restaurant with no prior reservation, sacks of oysters for lunch in Iloilo, and even the Mo Po Tofu take out when no one wants to cook. Don't get me excited about the three day Thanksgiving pig-out event at the Poconos where food is on the table the moment we get to the cabins.

Did you notice that most of it is all about food?