Something About September

September is about to end . Somehow , I remember songs about the month of September more than any other month . I don't know why . There is in my pre teen years , a song that went like this :

I'll see you in September .
When summer is gone.
Have a good time but remember
Come back to me when summer is gone.

How can I forget that song by Gary Lewis And The Playboy , it's one of the 1st love song I memorized even before I fell in love . My elder brothers used to strum their guitars and sing it . Then there is the song by The Association .titled ' See You In September ' . These 2 songs came out at just about the same time.

In my post teen years , there was this song by Neil Diamond called ' September Morn ' . I became an ND fan because of how he sang this one . September morn can really make me feel that way ! Oh yeah , baby !


Early this year , I heard my son playing a new song by the Grammy Award winner Green Bay . The MTV shows a young man who went to join the military without the knowledge of his wife . He was eventually deployed to Iraq. It's titled ' When September Ends ' . It's beautiful .
So you see , whether in the '60s or up to the 2008 , September evokes passion.

There is something about September ...

In Some Goddam Places , It's Hard To Be Woman.

Yesterday , I watched the presidenti of Afghanistan being interviewed by CBS' Schiffer . It was a good interview with excellent views by Pres. Karzai . He talked about the progress made by the Afghan government since kicking the Taliban out of power . Among these ' progress ' is that thousands more children go to school now when it numbered only like 700 before . And only boys at that ! It's really unfortunate that in some countries even in this day and age , women are treated as 2nd class citizens. I recalled an incident that happened in Saudi Arabia . Over there , women are not allowed to drive anything . One time , a group of women staged a rally ( illegal over there ) to protest this rule . A handful of brave ladies drove their cars ( I should say , their fathers' cars ) around the block where we reside and defiantly did this for a few rounds . I do not know what happened next . There was no news of this event in the papers the following days . I just know that the rule stays up to this day. However, during the 1st Gulf War , American women soldiers went around driving to the consternation of the religious police . They can't do anything about it.
When I was a small kid, we often see Chinese ladies with small feet . The took , obviuosly , very small steps on their way to whatever destinations they were going to . When I asked my father how come their feet are small . He said it's to prevent them from wandering afar from their husband's place . These ladies were fitted with steel shoes when they were small girls keeping their feet from growing !

Men Are From Mars , My Wife From Sears.

My wife is a wise shopaholic . She's a tireless and patient shopper. She scours through rackful of merchandise store after store . Males do not usualy do that . Me and my 2 sons just buy stuff we see on the supermarkets without looking at the price. ' Just get it done and get out of there ' is my motto. Not so with her.
When we lived in Asia , she sometimes do some travelling just to shop . Her fav spot to shop is Hongkong . It's the shopper's heaven. Travel agencies even offer shopper's fare. Of course being part of China , it's no.1 market for imitation . All kinds of designer's copy can be found there . Christian Dior , Gloria Vanderbuilt you name it , it's there. In Bangkok , Thailand , she liked buying low cost real jewelries and fake watches like Rolex. The night markets there are great. That's where she shopped for inexpensive clothes. Singapore is the place to buy electronics . You might think that Japan is it 'cos that's where the electronic products are 1st made . Nope , it's expensive over there . Japan is the place where you can find new electronic products not found elsewhere. Lastly , Indonesia is where she shops for ' batik ' design textiles. One thing she missed in shopping here is the ' haggling ' with the sales people . ' You cannot haggle here 'coz it's fixed price ' she told me one time. ' Yes you can ' I quickly answered her . ' Go to the open market.' From thenon , she makes sure she goes to the open market wherever we are . Me and my big mouth !

Fireplace

Yesterday , my wife bought an electric fireplace for our new home . We opted not have one built in by the contractor ' because in our previous home we hardly used one we had .' Same with the jacussi bath . In our 4 years stay in our previous home , I can remember the times we used the jacussi bath . One . Exactly one time when my wife felt like ' soaking herself in a whirlpool of water.' Great . These are 2 house upgrades that I feel is a ' waste '. She agrees or so I thought.

Suddenly my wife decided that an addition of a fireplace will be a swell idea. Hmmm. This is strange . She seldom sit by one much less enjoy the warmth of a fireplace with a book in hand. This is my one ' knock ' against my wife . She is not a book lover . Not even a magazine reader. She is not a reader period. She is smart alright being an engineer. Then I found out later that day after we bought the ' thing ' the real reason she had a change of mind. Two officemates of hers were talking how much they enjoyed their fireplaces . Aha , I teased her . You want one ' to keep up with the Joneses ' . I told her that I will monitor how often she will use the contraption. Oh yeah , she does read something . The flyers to see what's on sale !

Marrying Up

It's funny but when I was young ' security ' was the last thing in my mind . I would marry the girl that will make me fall in love is what was in my mind then. This mentality was bolstered by Hollywood films . You know , poor girl meets rich boy , they marry and live happilly ever after . I was a real sucker for this kind of stories then . Even now . Pretty Woman is but one of the movies of the same theme that I love.
Now that I'm a parent of 2 grown up boys soon to enter the ' marrying age ', I tried to impart some wisdom to them that my parents did not pass to me ( not that they will listen to the old man ) . So one day , I told 'em in my best Cary Grant voice ' Boys , you should look for girls that will make you better overall '. From thereon , everytime my youngest needs extra allowance to buy a gift for his girlfriend who is taking up medicine , he would say to me ' You don't want the Doctor to get away , do you ? ' . Darn parenting skills .

Were Where You ?

I was at work when the terrorsits struck . Walking the production floor actually . I noticed the shopfloor people were either mingling or glued to the radios. I thought it was unusual that these particular incident generated so much interest until I came up to office where the bosses and staff mingling at the computers . There were a lot of ' mingling ' going on that day . They were all looking at the CNN website showing the Twin Towers on the verge of collapse . Needless to say , productivity was kaput that day .

I have a taste of the anger that soon followed the terror attacks .Well sort of . Appararently , my boss told some people I work for Bin Laden the father or something like that . One officemate seething with anger asked me about it . I worked for a company that is a subcon of Bin Laden Org. which is a very large firm in Saudi Arabia , but not directly for BLO. Also , I made sure I'm no Saudi although sometimes I'm mistaken for , among other nationalities, an East Indian , a Pakistani , an Arabian etc. It was really cool before 9/11 . Not anymore . An Aunt teased me by calling me ' Omar Sharif ' , the Dr. Zhivago guy . Now , I told her to call me instead - Elmer Sheriff !

Anybody Here Seen My Old Friend Bobby?

Can you tell me where he's gone ? That song always leaves me wondering . What kind of world would we be living in if the Kennedys and Martin Luther King were not assasinated ? With the forthcoming release of the film ' Bobby ' and the recent death of Mrs. Connolly , interests in the life and death of the brothers will be rekindled . Mrs. Connolly was the last living of the 4 passengers in that fateful presidential car . ' Yes, I believed we lost our innocense that day ' was her response to the question whether America was different after Nov. 3 , 1963 . I was a tiny tot then so I was still innocent but Bobby's death in '68 was kinda different . I was beginning to be aware of the girls errr ... of the political world . Although when given the customary question ' Where were you when Bobby K . was killed ? ' I have a tough time answerin' - I was in the bathroom taking a dump .
I think Bobby would have been a better President than his brod. The younger Kennedy has more morals and unbending too. I still remember the line that Bobby K. used ' Some people see things as they are and ask why ? I see things that never were , and ask why not ? I got 100% in history class the day that question was asked . I did not asked why !

Magic Makeover

We did it ! We managed to to ' fit' the content of our former home to a bungalow . The old home is a 2 story with a finished basement . We did not conduct a garage sale and gave away only a few items so our move was practically 'all the stuff we have '. It not that we don't want to give 'em away . It just that nobody wants these. Even my kids won't take the couch etc. for their apts. They want IKEA stuff as most students do.
I am in charge of interior designing . It keeps my mind occupied even at midnight . Last night. I woke up at 3 AM thinking of the best locations for the loads of pictures. I was not able to able to sleep after that. Next action item , where to place the plants ? I guess this is ' my feminine side' if you know I mean . My Martha Stewart side less the bitchiness !