me, myself and lanai

living in a house with a resident architect has weird perks.

to make life three times stranger, my dad is an architect*, my younger sister is an architect and my older sister is an interior designer. they've made our residence a lifesize dollhouse of sorts.

each time i look at the living room, the chairs are in different positions. our furniture has been moved around so much, each piece must be suffering from positional vertigo by now. it's fun, yes, because it's like coming home to a new house every time, but YOU try getting new bruises every time you try to enter your room without the lights on.

for my birthday this year (or was it my homecoming after the HK trip?), my family -- inspired by watching too many episodes of queer eye -- rearranged my room into a totally unrecognizable space, complete with a corner chair and lamp, in case i have to interrogate someone using a bright light. just yesterday, i came in and saw that my room was rearranged yet again by dad (mr i-have-too-much-creative-energy-after-retiring-please-let-me-do-something). this afternoon, he hung old framed paintings and random pictures on my walls. i took one look and laughed out of sheer amusement at how my room was so involuntarily dynamic. (interestingly, it was the same kind of laugh when i saw how strange my little HK apartment's kitchen looked after i hung all my newly washed underwear on the cabinet handles to air-dry.) (to you who are dying to comment: there is nothing erotic about delicates over a gas stove.)

and speaking of my dad: if there's one thing not everyone knows about him, it's that he has a thing for lanais/verandas/porches. of course, you'd just have to take one look at our house and it will hit you like a vigan tile.

our original house had one porch -- a simple outdoor area that led to the living room. then he added another one (lanai harder), this time on the OTHER side of the living room. because really, you need two of those in case you have guests who can't stand each other, right? (i will not mention at this point that we don't have a sprawling estate, so lanai harder is two hops away from the first).

BUT we had a second floor . . . and dad said, it is not good for two lanais to be alone.

so then there were three.**

and dad saw that it was good.

we have three lanais.

(will give you a minute to let that sink in. if you need a lanai to reflect in, let me know.)

as to why this lanai story is important, i will reveal in the next entry (which may or may not be written in this lifetime).

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*my favorite anecdote involving my architect father doesn't even involve his presence. i was playing taboo with some med classmates, when a male friend holding a game card exclaimed (excitedly), "this is the profession of orange's father!!!"

so, to match his energy, everyone shouted (in unison), "architect!!!"

he looked at me and said, "your father's an architect?"

(and yes, "male friend" is the famous ronald cruz. dr ronald "the-pigs-noticed-this" cruz. believe me, that taboo story is ultimately funnier if you know ronald.)


**don't think i didn't think of calling the third one lanai hardest. i just didn't want to insult you by stating the obvious.