On my way to my girlfriend's house to celebrate Christmas Eve with her family, I had this feeling of wanting to see my son badly. I haven't seen nor heard from him since last Christmas and If only I know where he is, I'd gladly spend my Christmas traveling just to see him.

He was supposed to take only a vacation last Christmas 2006 at her mother's house. But her mother never returned him. I was forced to drop him out from school. I never heard from him since.

But just like how the Christmas Spirit usually is fabled to do its miracle, I had mine. A got an SMS message from my ex-wife while I was still traveling. No, I am not happy that she sent me an SMS. I was happy because she gave me a number to call so that I can talk to my son! She also said that he is already asleep so it's better to call on Christmas instead of that time.

I waited for Christmas like a 5-year old - excited and restless.

Come lunch time, I was already dialing the number. Soon enough, my son spoke on the other line. "Merry Christmas Papa!". And it came to me how much I really miss my son.

My son's voice hasn't changed. It was the same as I remembered it. One thing I did notice is his use of "po" and "opo" in every sentence which is quite nice. His Bicol accent is also very evident now. As always, he still a very proud child. Not wanting to waste any time, he quickly demonstrated what he recently has learned. Math, english, and songs. How I wished I could also see him as he did that. But one thing is sure, that child is an intelligent child just like her father ^^.

"Papa kelan ang operation ng heart ko?". I really didn't expect him to ask that, knowing that he is just a 5-year old kid. "Sa April, pag bakasyon mo sa school. Ready ka na ba?", I replied after a short pause. "Opo! Kasi pag napapagod ako sumasakit ang heart ko." That really made my heart melt.

After an operation this year for my mother's eyes, next year will be my son's heart! I got to be thrifty this coming year. This operation is going to be a costly one.

We talked for a good 40 minutes.

I will be visiting him this January.

This is the best Christmas gift that I had this year. Hopefully it gets better.

I really like the color black.

On a recent personal bedroom makeover, I painted my used-to-be brown desk with black paint. Almost all my gadgets are black. My Treo 750 is black. My Canon EOS 400D SLR is black. My laptop is black. My desktop computer is black. A third of the things hanging inside my closet are black. Most of my shoes are black. And most of all, my brother is black! Well it not that I really like my brother but you get what I mean.

On a related note, here are some of the pictures taken using my SLR experimenting on black. They are not professionally taken nor are they near professional as I am in a bracket much lower than beginner photographers. In any case, have a peek.

"Silver Reflection"
My anniversary gift to my girlfriend.
A silver watch reflected on a black plastic surface.

"Black Office Hit!"
My own personal office/entertainment system.