Haunted and Enchanted.

Who could forget the fictional high school dance wherein Marty McFly dated and parked in the car with her own mother, in the movie Back to the Future?

It was the Enchantment Under the Sea,  a high school dance that was held at Hill Valley High School  on Saturday night, November 12, 1955 in which Marty McFly's parents, George McFly and Lorraine Baines fell in love after their first kiss.

High school dance or prom is always enchanting, no matter how it's themed and called.  It's usually the party where a guy gets to wear his first formal coat and tie, and for the girl, her first formal long gown.

It's also the event where guys and gals first learn slow dancing.

No matter what time zone and what year it happens, high school dance and prom always remain an affair to remember.

But high school prom is not just the stuff teens remember all summer long and all their lives.

There's the "haunted part" of adolescence. That period in one's life in which watching horror movies on vacation nights adds gory and glory to growing up.

That's why Hollywood never ceases to come up with horror films: the Halloween, Friday the 13th,  the Scream series, the Saw, The Haunting, The Blair Witch Project, Nightmare on Elm Street, Poltergeist, The Ring, The Texas Chain Saw Massacre, The Shining, The Exorcist, and the old Dracula movies are just some of those memorable and haunting horror classics. 

Of course, telling scary stories make camping and sleep overs more fun, too, even for adults.

Wackiness 101.

I have no idea how "wacky" posing for group photos started. I think this latter days' "wackiness" is an "only in the Philippines," phenomenon. I maybe wrong.

My conjecture is it probably started in Ireland where the Halloween tradition started, and persisted until the Irish settled in the U.S.A.  When the camera was invented, people took pictures of their Halloween costumes and antics. 

In 2009 when my mother passed away and we were holed up in the funeral home, we were doing "wacky" poses in the privacy of the family room. It was an antidote to our sorrow.

Then I discovered that in all group photo sessions, serious would be followed by wackiness.

I don't have any standard wacky pose. In fact when someone shouts "wacky," I can only manage a "slit my throat" pose or fingers curled like a black bear ready to pounce on a prey.

When I review "wacky" pictures, I oftentimes see people just raising both their hands as if scaring someone off their newly cooked dish or freshly baked croissant.

Some would show their tongues out, others would put the "devil's" horn on top of their heads or on someone else's head, and lots would act as if they're being killed or choked.

Look at "facebook photos" your friends had posted and you'd see wackiness all around.

Even during religious retreats, people ask their priest or pastor to be wacky for a split second during photo ops.

Kids always love being wacky, and nowadays, they're like professionals when it comes to photo shoots, almost always posing with thumb and pointer fingers under their chins, the so-called "I'm cute" pose.

"Wacky" also shows people jumping up or pretending to jump.

Just cook it!

I love salad: veggie salad (greens),  potato salad, fruit salad, macaroni salad, coleslaw, seafood salad

and whatever I can put salad dressing on or simply vinaigrette or balsamic on.

I used to make a plate of crab meat loaded with cucumber and some Ranch dressing, and inhaled it in an instant.

When my doctor declared I was diabetic, I subsisted on greens, wheat bread and peanut butter, oatmeal, tuna and sardines with tomatoes and onions for lunch, and grilled and steamed fish with lots of ginger and of course, on fruits, and immediately brought down my blood sugar level to 5+.

I learned to make smoothie as well.

I always craved for the brown rice with red beans of the Jamaicans, and their chicken, too,  and the rice con pollo of the South Americans, and the panini and roasted pepper and mushrooms and eggplant parmigiana of the Italians, and filled my palate but always, in moderation.

My mix and match drinks always pleased me, and red wine was and is, my favourite.

Three years into sabbatical from cooking and I am beginning to miss my own kind of cooking. And the other things I did, like dancing and long walks in the park with the dog.






Long pauses, alas, can be tiring.