brotherly love

when my eldest brother, Ouel, left for Canada, i was only 11 years old. if you see how unbelievably childish i am today, then you could just imagine how immature and childish i was back then. the calls from canada went from long and daily to sporadic updates and ''how are you?''s. i blame this for not being able to bridge the already widening gap. to my brother, i will always be 11. even though i did visit them there, the year i turned 13, to him i will always be the 11 year old girl he refused to embrace before he left for a seven year stay in canada. while my other two brothers, despite whatever contradictions and objections they have, have accepted that i have grown, not only in height, thank you, my brother ouel will always think i'm too young to have a boyfriend, too young to be in college, to young to be going out with friends, and too young to be going out in shorts... too young. after all, i'm only just 11.

in one of our 'who's that guy in yellow?' discussions:

ouel: pero tisa ayoko dun ah
tisa: bakit? gwapo naman ah
ouel: hindi naman yun eh
tisa: mabait yun, inaalagaan ako nun, diba mama?
mama: oo, tatay nya yun dun eh
ouel: hindi, gusto ko kapag ganun, mahal ka.
tisa: salamat sa sampal
ouel: mas mahal ka kesa sa mas mahal mo sya. ayoko ng ikaw yung kawawa.

awww.. i'm 18 now. i think he's getting the picture. pwede na nga pala akong mag-boyfriend. wahahaha! but i'll just pretend all the guys i know are gay, para my being single is justified.

arlyn: hay nako mama, si ouel grabe asarin ang mga bata
ouel: hindi na ngayon, andito na si tisa eh. mapapahinga na sila nathan
bwahahaha

thanks kuya.
but really, i think i missed being the butt of his teasings.

we were going to eat at trinity in moa. we were left alone and he was complaining about how ate arlyn was such a nag:

tisa: kaya ako kuya, ayokong magapakasal
ouel: huh? bakit? kwento mo sa kin.
tisa: basta ayoko
ouel: bakit nga? syempre di pwede yun
tisa: eh wala naman akong picture ng magandang marriage no. si papa chaka si mama, sana maghiwalay nalang sila kung ganun lang din. kayo ni ate arlyn, away ng away,
ouel: syempre, part talaga yun, ala nga ng puro good times. may nangyayari ba sa bahay na di ko alam?
tisa: ano ka ba? syempre marami. basta di ako magaasawa, para kapag ayaw ko na, edi alis na ko. ganun lang.
ouel: huh? hindi pwede yun.
tisa: makikipaglive in nalang ako.....
....joke!
ouel: nagaaway nga kami parati ng ate arlyn mo, pero pag iniisip ko, ang pinakamasayang araw ko ay yung pinakasalan ko sya.

awww.

oh yes. he is quite funny.