Letters That I'll Never Send: To Someone Like Me

Dearest,

           I have a lot of things to say, but one which is most important is that: NEVER LOSE HOPE. We are alive, that in itself is a blessing, the rest are just material things that we can buy, wash, repair and rehabilitate again. We must learn from these tragedies. To be prepared even if there's nothing coming. To be ready for any disaster, the climate is truly changing. To learn from the mistakes we've made and to be strong to face whatever happened to us. We should count ourselves lucky to be alive, and to be given a second chance. We still have hope.

TCP: Urban Legends

Today's TCP is about Urban Legends. Unfortunately, I think my post for Suspense/Thriller also falls into this category. So again, my pick remains the same : When a Stranger Calls.
The Urban Legend:  A babysitter left alone in charge of sleeping children receives severalthreatening phone calls. After reporting the calls to the phone company, the girl is notified by the telephone operator that the calls are originating from the upstairs extension. The babsitter flees the house just ahead of an armed intruder who has already murdered the children.

Read my post about When a Stranger Calls here.
If you want to see more movies under the category of movies based in urban legends, you can also check out Wikipedia.
My other picks in the list: Shutter and Mothman Prophecies.
I love the horror I felt in Shutter but it's more of a ghost story than an Urban Legend. But most Urban Legends are indeed based on ghosts coming back to haunt people or just real bad guys.

Plus, if we do the horror route about just real bad guys - I know it's not a movie, but I really like Harper's Island. It isn't a movie but it's a 13-episode series that really feels like a movie. 

For more accounts of Urban Legends: Visit Snopes.

Join us here and write about your pick of an Urban Legend at:

Lessons Learned from a Storm

I haven't done my usual rounds of bloghopping and dropping and adgitizing for awhile now. In case you were wondering, our province was hit by the storm "Pepeng", international name "Parma". Our city is not safe and dry, though we are not in the news you see on your television screens. But you do see all the surrounding areas and towns near our city which makes it even worse.

My family and I are luckier than others. Water only threatened to enter our home from the front porch. We have food to eat and we are dry. I saw the devastation brought about by Ondoy. You can read and learn from Pehpot's experience too.

I worry though. Electricity comes and goes. My kids are not built for the heat. They itch and scratch and turn horrifyingly red. You have to fan my kids every minute. But that is not what worries me. What worries me most is my kids' supply of milk. We have enough for a week. I am praying hard that Dagupan would be reachable by then. My mom will try tomorrow. Calasiao is so flooded. Binmaley too. You're wondering why I have to go to a different city just to buy milk for my kids?

My kids' milk specially little Paul is so difficult to find. The stocks are few and in between. We frequent one grocery in Dagupan which supplies Paul's milk and scour drug stores if we don't find it there. The same thing goes with my daughter. Paul's milk is Nutramigen. Have you heard of it?

It's just 400 grams but very expensive.Mark Paul can finish this can in about a day. I have to distract him by giving him tons of snacks and rice just to make sure the can stretches to more than 24 hours. His sister was on the same brand until she turned 2. Now, it's hard to find. I've called Dagupan and some of the drugstores have run out of stock. My only hope is the grocery.

Maegan on the other hand can survive but her milk is also difficult to find. She drinks Hi Nulac XL.

My kids were born with an allergy to cow's milk and to soy milk. Their milk is artificially made. I can't even find a photo in the internet. So hard to find. (LOL!) But Maegan can drink other milk, juices, chocolate drinks so I'm a bit secure plus my mom stocked up on the milk of her 'favorite hardheaded princess' and her milk can is 900 grams big.

What have I learned?

From now on, I'll start panic buying on my kids' milk, medicines and my meds too. (I'm a diabetic and insulin may be hard to find specially the brand my doctor gave me).

A tip that I also learned: When you prepare your go bag, make sure you wrap your clothes in plastic. Wrap important documents in plastic. Waterproof everything in case you need to go up a roof when it's raining. Buy raincoats. A giant umbrella.

One thing my mom learned that she's sharing to you. Build a 2nd floor to your house. Just in case.