I served as an officiant for the wedding of a couple of friends yesterday. It was probably the single biggest honor that I have ever experienced: launching a couple on their wedded bliss together. While I was plenty nervous leading up to the ceremony, it really was bad as the ceremony began. My hands were shaking and I was worried that I would lose my voice. The ceremony was on the south side of the State Capitol and the bride and groom looked amazing.

I know that the couple will be happy, and I like to think that my message bore significance to them and will help them as they enter this new phase of their lives together.

Afterwards, I even received compliments on how I did, from both friends and strangers alike. Someone asked if I would do it again, and I responded with a resounding, "Yes!" There is a point where feelings go beyond words, and this was one of them. The opportunity provided me the most amazing feeling and is an honor and a privilege to be a part of. My life is better for the chance being in it. In conclusion, if anyone is looking for an officiant, keep me in mind!

Warren Buffet recently said, "When you get to my age, you'll measure your success in life by how many of the people you want to have love you actually do love you. That's the ultimate test of how you've lived your life." Considering that he is regarded as one of the world's greatest investors, has an estimated net worth of $62 billion, and was ranked by Forbes as the richest individual in the world as of February 11, 2008, and is planning to give away his fortune to charities, I would say that he really means that.

He could have chosen many other measures and scales. While it is relative, it is a scale that anyone can use, from the poorest individual to the richest. It is also based on perception. One can not truly know how another feels about them. There are enough lies and deceit to exemplify that. Yet, if one perceives that they are loved, that is all the convincing they need. If that begins to fall apart, it is difficult to convince them otherwise.

"If it is worth doing, it is worth doing well."

The Dark Knight in IMAX is well done. I saw it on Tuesday night, in all its stunning glory. The size of the image and the quality of the sound were beyond compare. It was every bit worth the wait.

Which leads me to another saying: "Good things come to those who wait." In other words, "Patience is a virtue."

It certainly has helped me in remaining content and realizing the many blessings in my life. Undoubtedly, I have had my trials and tribulations, but my life could certainly be worse.

For example, my nephew, who will turn three this November, woke up with tremors around 12:20 a.m. I suspected that it was diabetes related but did not know what to do. We rushed him to the hospital where they confirmed that it was diabetes related. However, his blood sugar level was at 47 and he was suffering from hypoglycemia. They gave him juice and after monitoring him for a couple of hours, they sent us back home.

I know now that giving a diabetic a juice may save the life of a diabetic with hypoglycemia, and if their levels are too high, the damage is negligible.

Maybe I should have gone the medical route like everyone in my family wanted.

Today is my lola's nintieth birthday. We had quite a weekend, and in a Aristotelian confluence of events, a birthday card came in the mail from her youngest daughter, who lives in Guam with her family. My lola seemed more chipper today. She kept on repeating her birth date to me and how other people had told her that she is going to live to be one hundred years old.

In ninety years, she was born in the middle of the 1918 flu pandemic, lived through the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Indochine War, the Vietnam War, the Cold War, Desert Storm, and currently witnessing another. She has seen technology develop faster than anything like it before. Her life overlapped the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr, and John F. Kennedy. The earth reached the moon during her lifetime and the Philippines elected not one, but two women Presidents and ousted just as many corrupt Presidents. She bore witness to two People Power Movements, saw the 9/11 attacks, and may just see the election of our first Black President or our first woman Vice President. Her life enveloped Woodstock, multiple gas crises, and the Civil Rights movement.

A beneficiary of the 1965 Immigration and Naturalization Act, it was the 1990 act of the same name that served as the impetus for her to become a U.S. Citizen. Personally, she went from being a second-grade-educated farming daughter in the Philippines, to becoming a wife, a mother, a widow, remarrying, an immigrant, a grandmother, and now a great-grandmother. She is the matriarch of our family and when she says something, we heavily take it into consideration.

Physically, she went from a vibrant woman to an aging frame that has trouble balancing herself. Yet she still tries to do everything herself, only asking for assistance when it is absolutely necessary. Her influence on me is deep. So deep, in fact, that I wrote a paper in my American Studies course on her. My Teacher's Assistant (TA) said that I wrote evocatively. Really, my lola's story is the evocative part. She inspires me in ways that I can not explain.

I can listen to certain pieces or read certain passages and immediately relate them to my lola. One such piece is I Was Born With Two Tongues' "Carving Stone" from the Broken Speak album. The passage is basically any one from Pati Navalta Poblete's The Oracles: My Filipino Grandparents in America.

Of all my favorite foods, I would find lumpia the most difficult to give up completely for the rest of my life. Lumpia makes a wonderful appetizer, entree, and sometimes even a dessert. It is portable, good with or without dipping sauce, and even good freshly fried or as a leftover. The ingredients, the sizes, and the sauces are all variable. I can only imagine going to Alaska and not tasting the salmon lumpia. That would have been terrible.

Lumpia is not only good for one person at a time, because it is easy to share. You can easily feed it romantically to a special someone or playfully to a child.

Lumpia can be partnered with rice and with other delectable entrees or stand on its own. It can be eaten with any meal or as a snack at any time of the day.

There is even fresh lumpia for those that do not want fried lumpia.

No other food is quite like it. Adobo can not be carried around without a special container. The same is true of sinigang or laing. Other desserts like turon, kutsinta, or puto are not as adaptable.

One can even use literary techniques to come up with a phrase like "oompa lumpia".

No matter what, lumpia really satisfies you.

If I could fly in a hot air balloon over any city in the world, I would fly over New York City, right over Times Square, on New Year's Eve for the count down. I have never been on a hot air balloon or to New York City, so it would be efficient to take care of two goals at the same time.

Being on the hot air balloon would be a way to combat my fear of heights. I always get nervous when I am faced with heights, and my imagination runs wild, creating vivid images of me falling, or something happening to the bridge that I am crossing, the harness that I am strapped into, or the amusement park ride that I am on.

New York City (NYC) is the examplar of metropolis, and Metropolis is where Superman resides. Of course, one can not ignore the many famous and infamous landmarks in NYC and the history there. Considering that it is the city that never sleeps, I bet it would be amazing to see the lights and movement of the buildings and vehicles, to hear the sounds of the city and the jubilant celebration of people ringing in the new year.

It would be a great and wondrous moment. Someone once said, "Life is not measured by the number of breaths you take, but by every moment that takes your breath away." That would certainly be a breathtaking.