Lola Charing's 88th

We abandoned the novelty songs this year and went for the 70s look for my grandma's birthday program, nearly worthy of an ethnographic study. It's that one time during the (end of the) year that you say hello and beso cousins with falsies and fake hair.

Our group went with eyeglasses, hairbands and novel bellbottom extensions made of colored paper. You know you've got a lot of mathematicians onboard when even the dance steps are named after MDAS. We danced "Staying Alive"; my brother's group did "Shake Your Groove Thing". Forgot what the others did but for some reason my mom and aunts did the Papaya dance.

Top raffle prizes are in dollars, care of Tito F. from the States. My MatsuJun look-alike pinsan won that. Raffles are arguably income distribution: you contribute if you have work. Names are picked out until everybody gets called. The later you are called, the bigger you get. My brother was called fairly early and didn't recoup what he gave. On the other hand, I made a profit.

Lola reportedly wants to see folk dances but I heard some want to do Latin dance. We'll see about that next year.


The sorbetero (dirty ice cream man sounds dirty) was at work early with cookies & cream, cheese and strawberry ice cream. I could have as much cheese-flavored ice cream as I wanted. People squirm when I say that's my favorite kind. It's definitely not made of blue cheese!