TheFranciscos.Net

One of the upsides to being at home all the time is that I get to spend a lot of time with my daughter Zoe. Back when I was still doing the grueling 1 1/2 hour commute to and from Wheeling, I was so tired from the driving that all I wanted to do when I got home was eat dinner then go to sleep. Now I’m able to spend the whole day with her, playing with her, feeding her, giving her a bath and all that stuff. When I start working again, this is definitely one of the things I’ll miss.

She’s so independent now that she’ll usually insist on trying to do something by herself before she lets you do it. The latest thing that she learned is how to use the remote to turn off the TV and the cable box. At the rate she’s going, she’s going to learn how to operate our home theater in no time… something even Aileen has trouble doing. She also has a vocabulary of about 500 words – and she even knows opposites now. One of the things that cracks us up is her observations whether the weather is warm or not. She’d say “It’s hot… not cold” or “It’s cold, not hot. I like it cold.”.

My daughter is growing up before my eyes and I’m just happy I’m here to see it.

Aileen and I had dinner last night with Dr. Ramon Lozano and his wife Pat at Youghiogheny Country Club in Elizabeth. We had a very nice time chatting about Manila, Pittsburgh, and the people in McKeesport. By coincidence, Dr. Lozano is another classmate of my mom’s from UST. It seems like anywhere we go here in the States, we’re bound to meet somebody that my mom knows. He talked with Aileen about a possible opportunity for her once she’s done with residency. It sounds promising and she’ll probably seriously think about it. Of course, that would mean staying here in the Pittsburgh area instead of moving on to Aileen’s ideal warmer states like Texas or Florida. That’s not necessarily bad because Pittsburgh has started to grow on me… the city is nice, the people here are friendly, we live in a nice neighborhood. So maybe, just maybe, we’ll be able to call the Steel City our “home” soon.