Forever I Am!

If you had read my future wife's recent blog post entitled "Forever: Take Two", this is a recapulation of exactly what went on the night before leading up to the proposal night.  Many friends have asked about how and what was done, so let me try to explain and hopefully you will find it as romantic as it can be despite its simplicity.

Over two months now, I have been speaking with my sisters on staging my proposal.  Having considered and heard a variety of other ideas of proposals and how each friend of mine did theirs, it became clear that I needed to be creative and make this a memorable showcase of love and commitment that will be asked for.

Contemplating on an idea that stuck with me for quite some time, but would have cost me a great deal of money as well that would have involved at least 10 people in the process while another 50 or so individuals to witness.  All these were in my mind and yet I was not sold on the idea as it did not constitute a perfect day that I wanted, that I expected.

The day her ring arrived, I believe I was more excited than she was.  I couldn't help it, I needed her to know I had the ring on my palm as I viewed this stunning, elegantly placed rock that reflected light at every angle possible.  I was amazed by its beauty.

So the evening came and I couldn't sleep.  I had just came back from Japan the day before, cleared my office of the work required of me during the day, took a relaxing evening, but yet I couldn't sleep. I pondered on the thought of when shall I propose, where and how.  Ofcourse, I bought myself some time and told Boni that maybe in 4-5 weeks after I will do that and her faced dropped, but again, that was merely buying planning time...LOL.

That day before bed, I asked for my children to spend an evening with me the next day.  I recieved the approval and all along I was thrilled as I will be spending time with all the children, a family, together as one.  The morning came and all I thought of was seeing my children today. I Got ready and off to work to get my day started.  It hit me! I was going to have all the children together, originally I was planning for a Pizza hut outing, but relaizing the opportunity at hand, I changed plans and switched gears. I called friends for helping me stage my proposal with my family altogether.  Prepared a nice dinner, arranged for a bottle of wine, spoke to the children and asked for their permission on my actions for this evening.  They were all in it, they supported the actions and waited anxiously for my cue. Boni was expressing in her blog about our two children laying on the floor, under the table, atop the table, yup, they were busy and having fun.  It was a difficult moment as I tried to gather all my thoughts, distracted by the noise emminating from the young ones. So I just looked at her and blurted out, "this is my perfect day!  I have the family altogether and I want you to be my wife, will you marry me?" It was then I had the ring in my hand and opened for her to see its beauty, a masterpiece in itself.  Boni was stunned and I believe she really did not hear a word I said, but the vieweing of her engagement ring was enough to captivate her and shut out everything around her for that particular moment. "Yes, Yes"..  she replied and stood up for a kiss and hug.  I am the happiest of all and forever I am.

She calls everyone, it spreads like wildfire, I can see her happiness in her eyes, her lifted spirits of knowing that she does have a second chance to love again and be loved.  I love this woman, I too thought I would never find someone merely for the reasons that I have loved completely in my past.  I was wrong, I love more now than ever.

It's Finally Here!

Stunning and beautiful, this ring is surely going to turn heads. I am excited!

The Turn to Success

Im in Japan, sitting amongst hundreds of Marketing and tourism officials worldwide listening to the make up and recovery of Japans outbound travelers. Interesting enough, there is two sides to this story as to how they will manage to increase Japanese outbound (where the rest of the world will benefit) and how this will impact their economy overall. The basis is simple, tourism is both ways, the movement of people outbound creates such a high demand for countries to look into the country of origin of these tourist and n turn successfully spending high dollars to attract and then theres is the actual tourist themselves spending a pretty penny on their vacation at a destination of their choice and at the very moment, you realize they are Japanese. In one way or another, you will eventually want to see their home in the near future, hence you are now their visitor in return.

On another presentation that had me glued to my seat was the one made by Air Asia.com. This Low Cost carrier Airline embarked a new business model 6 years ago from Malaysia and has redefined what airlines can actually do to make travel affordable, despite the increased in fuel today. Innovation and marketing has turned to success in a time span of 6 years, hats off to them.

When thinking about this, My school LISS is in the same situation, being the pioneer for the CNMIs education-tourism, I am compelled to be innovative and practice uncommon methods to strengthening business, especially in the current economic slump experienced on the island. Air Asia.com, gave me another drive, an inspiration to push harder and be more creative in the outlook of the business. But then again, Airline and Edcuation business, how do they fit? I know how it does, do you?

Hello!

Photos of my sister Geraldine, Mom, cousin Leonard and nephew Joey. All in the mainland US.

Who am I? What am I?

Often times in any given day, your emotions take control of your day...How do you feel today?What is your expected outcome of the day? Well, this is just how I feel today, but what am I? Why do I look and feel this way?  Why do I feel a resemblance to this shot? Who am I today?

Brilliant Earth!

The brilliance of our earth that provides such fine formations that make every woman wish for, a diamond. This engagement ring of 1.02 carrat diamond with setting is a masterpiece in itself. The ideal cut and even the Gemologist I consulted told me the rareness of this stone in its class...

Will she adore this? I want to provide the very best and offer unconditional affection that will be for my lifetime. Yup, I will be engaging myself into a second marriage. Why not? I am a family man and want to be around the children I adore and with the woman that makes me whole. Why not commit myself?

I'll do just that... Stage my proposal, make it real, make her happy. Build a life and commit once again to the covenant of matrimony. This time around, I am certain, the marriage and lifelong commitment I will engage into will not fail. I know she loves me and I do too.

CUC Stickler!

There has been many complaints, stories, and reasoning behind the issues affecting our island utility agency. Published complaints, stories, and reasoning still do not make things any better for the people living the uncomfortable darkness. The CUC stickler continues to run our lives and now the on-going, longer outages is causing major problems. Take for example;

1. Electrical appliances breaking down;
2. Frozen foods spoiling;
3. Food poisoning from foods refrigerated in temperatures unacceptable to keep edible;
4. Generators running stores to keep open, cost is being transferred to consumers;
5. Increased inconveniences from outages as we cannot plan ahead, outages do not follow the schedule provided;
6. More of outages than that of non-outages;
Cost is significantly high for each family to try and get away from the inconveniences by taking time out from home; and,
7. The usage of candles has increased significantly due to increasing evening outages.

These are just a few examples of how the CUC issues are sticking it to the consumers. Do they actually own up to all these inconveniences? Have you read in the paper the load shedding schedule? I am sure you did... Can you trust it? I don't think so. Most businesses, in particular restaurants have lost a significant amount money from spoiling of foods due to these outages, but who cares right? Even the utility agency says what can we do!... Well, if we cannot even cater to this problem, what more about declaring the CNMI as a place to invest, build a home, retire, grow tourism, advance on education, opening of the airport for incoming and outgoing flights, and the safety of the community. This problem is more severe and has major consequences.

I thank our Washington Rep. Pete Tenorio on stating a "Humanitarian Disaster"for the residents of the CNMI, at least it is being seen by one of our most respectable leaders, which in fact, the people are truly living in a disaster, this is very true.

Just another taste of my thoughts on "Commonwealth Under Candles", our very own CUC.