Soft Spot for The Oldies

It's been a while Blogspot! Not that anyone missed me or anything, oh please, no one even knows this blog exists. Lately, I really had nothing to talk about which explains why I haven't written anything at all this week. The one I've posted this week and last week had been on my draft for almost two weeks. 

This post will be about a special moment that happened during Mother's Day.

After celebrating Mother's day downtown with my parents, we decided to go home since we still had a lot of things to do. We took the subway home and it was surprisingly not busy.

I was sitting beside an old Chinese grandma in the subway train. She was sitting where the window was, and since I was beside her, we were both facing the direction of the train. I noticed that she kept looking on her left side (where I was) and I realized that she was observing twins on the stroller. She had this really peaceful and gleeful smile while gazing at them. She was so adorable that I wanted to pinch her cheeks. It's always a long way home from Downtown, it usually takes 30-40 minutes until I get to my stop. Since I was really bloated from the all-you-can eat Sushi that I consumed, I focused on my music.

I saw through her actions that her stop was next and since my legs were on the way, I had to move for her to pass. When she was about to leave her seat, she said something to me. Unfortunately, I was not able to hear her because I had my earphones on, but it was somewhere along the lines of take care. 

Although I was not able to hear what she had to say, I was dazed by her cheerful smile. I rarely see the elderlies that happy and bright, especially in a public transit. I felt bad that I was not able to reply to whatever she said so I moved to her seat and hoping I would see her pass by the window. When she got off of the train, she looked at the window where I was sitting and when she saw me she waved goodbye and smiled bright from ear to ear. I felt some positive energy and less annoyed in the train after seeing her smile.

I always have a soft spot for the aged people. I grew up with my grandparents which explains why I do. Her smile seriously brightened up my mood! I was concerned about her though. I started to wonder if she is alone in life or if she has a family to come home to. I felt bad that she had to take the public transit by herself. It looked like she is alone in the city, but I really hope she has a family here. No one deserves to grow old alone. Her smile looked so optimistic and it really passed on to me because her smile enlivened my mood. To others that might be normal, but to me, it was special and rare. She totally made me miss my grandparents even more.

*Imagine Liv Tyler Smiling With those Lips*

I cannot think of a better title. It may sound a bit improper but who cares! I basically wanted to describe how cheerful I am today through my title. I guess picturing Liv Tyler's wide lips when she smiles describes how happy I am at the moment.

This post is going to be short, I hope because I just want to talk about something really positive today!

This morning our TFC Box (A Filipino Channel Box that contains hundreds of programs imported from the Philippines' most popular network, Abs-Cbn) stopped functioning. If you are not Filipino, you would not really get it. Anyway, the head office that is responsible for the TFC Box decided to change the format of all the program receivers. They also replaced all the HDR Boxes to a more compact one, a smaller size. Few weeks ago, we received our box and was told that they will discontinue the original box (the current box that we have) meaning it will no longer operate. We decided to wait until our box actually shuts down until we connect the new box. Just this morning, our box eventually stopped working which meant that I had to finally connect the new one to our television. No one was going to connect it because my parents do not know how, so I had no choice but to do it myself. In the manual, users are instructed to call for installment assistance. But I am the kind of person who loves to do it myself first before I ask for someone else's help. I did it without reading instructions or the manual, and it was a success. After installing the box, fixing the wiring and the connections, all I needed to do was to call the contact number they have provided to activate our box.  To have our box activated was the only time I asked for help. When I was put on hold, the screen loaded meaning I have successfully installed the box. I was surprised when my stepfather said he was very impressed with my skills (out of nowhere) and he pat me in the back. I am quite techy and handy when it comes to these things. I was overjoyed when I saw him smiling and when he added more compliments saying I did a great job. He said was impressed because he can't even do certain things by himself, especially without reading manuals. To some people this might not be a big deal but my skills were acknowledged and that rarely happens. It matters to me. It really is the smallest things, huh? All my life I just wanted to be appreciated. Appreciation was all I ever asked from people and I am glad to get once in a while.

Appreciation do not necessarily mean I want to hear compliments all the time, I just want to be appreciated through my actions. I love it when my work, my doings and my achievements receive acknowledgment. I expect some appreciation when I deserve it. Simple things like this really makes me smile.