weekend blues

b&b with the pasaway gang (thursday)

The supposed weekend getaway was officially cancelled (or postponed?) around 4:30pm, Thursday. Of course it saddened me. But then, Mhel and I decided to join Baddicts!' pasaway gang for their start-of-the-long-weekend-celebration. B&B is not bed and breakfast, that's too expensive at the moment. B&B is about recreation...B&B is bowling and billiards. The night was, however, extended until 4:00am the next day. The B&B as originally planned became B&B&P&V&U -- bowling and billiards and pizza (at least for Mhel and I) and videoke at ubusan ng kaban ng bigas. hahahahaha. But it was fun. We could do it again. But maybe not yet in the near future. I need a little time to save up first, hihihihi.

his ways. his plans. his reasons (friday)

Mommy woke me up with a text message saying "Gud am. alam mo mabait talaga c lord s atin. Kc lahat ng flight s hk dvrted sa taiwan kc zero vcibility ang airport. D makalapag s airport, blita sa dzmm today." (see related story here). You see, my brother Yang, cousin Ana and I were supposed to fly to hongkong last Friday. We've been planning to take advantage of the sale tour rates until it was officially cancelled yesterday.

I ranted about my disappointments about this trip. The setbacks amazingly piled-up -- moving the date; going with the whole family; having to fax passport copies to the agent urgently; Mom, dad and Gian backing out; agent not being able to book us; changing agents; temporarily cancelling the trip; Yan getting so pissed I had to take all his ramblings; changing yet to another agent; flight being booked; not being able to get a decent hotel to accomodate us; not being able to contact Tito Rody (who lives there) to accomodate us instead; feeling so hopeless. We just had to give-up, thinking and feeling that maybe this is not the right time to go. As Daday would always say, everything happens for a reason.

And on Friday morning, I understood. I never questioned God and I'm glad I waited until He "explained". Sometimes we really just have to wait. It's His time.

da layp of da feeling rich

Since the trip was cancelled, we thought of going on a local trip -- Cebu or Palawan perhaps, but decided against it because it was too late to book all of us. So mommy suggested that we spend the night in a Makati hotel where she has a gift voucher. We basically just rested (slept a lot!), ate, watched tv, surfed the net, ate some more, chatted with Sis and Joaquin (who amazingly at barely age 2 can sing The Star Spangled Banner) and told each other lotsa stories.

At dinner, it took us more than two hours before we finally gave up tasting the food at the buffet table. Sumptuous! We went up to our room again, bummed some more and before we knew it, it was already past midnight! Mhel left for home before 1am. Then I had the chance to soak myself in the warm bubble bath I prepared (finally! ahhhh, relaxing!). Slept soundly at around 230am.

Breakfast the next day was again buffet. This family just loves to eat. After breakfast, I didn't know what happened next 'coz I went directly back to sleep. I woke up just in time for check-out at past 12noon.

Total damage net of gift voucher: P339.00. Neat!

late for the games

Saturdays are of course Badminton days. Mhel agreed to meet us in Mandaluyong so we could go to GHBC together (to save up on gas and parking fees). We were late getting home from the hotel and Mhel was waiting for 2hours. The reason: we dropped by Glorietta to canvass projectors and for lunch. But it took us more time than we expected because we realized we had other errands to do like going to the mobile service provider center and shopping (teka, errand ba yung pangalawa?) heheheh. We just could not resist going to the Mondragon sale! I got myself a skirt and two sports socks.

The only thing that irked me that afternoon was the old man who "stole" our parking slot. I was so pissed I even took a picture of him. And I'll definitely post that picture here. Soon. I actually plan to write about not so educated drivers around. Tehee!

Oh yeah, we were late for the games but I still managed to play 4 wonderful sets. We had late dinner at Yellow Cab and went home (hindi na kinayang humabol sa kanila sa During's...).

last day of the weekend

there's nothing much to share about Sunday. There are actually some bad things not worth sharing. So I'll stop now.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
again pictures to follow. tinamad ako magupload eh eheheh.

all i really need to know...

Robert Fulghum's Credo

ALL I REALLY NEED TO KNOW about how to live and what to do and how to be I learned in kindergarten. Wisdom was not at the top of the graduate-school mountain, but there in the sandpile at Sunday School. These are the things I leaned:

Share everything.

Play fair.

Don't hit people.

Put things back where you found them.

Clean up your own mess.

Don't take things that aren't yours.

Say you're sorry when you hurt somebody.

Wash your hands before you eat.

Flush.

Warm cookies and cold milk are good for you.

Live a balanced life -- learn some and think some and draw and paint and sing and dance and play and work everyday some.

Take a nap every afternoon.

When you go out in the world, watch out for traffic, hold hands, stick together.

Wonder. Remember the little seed in the Styrofoam cup: The roots go down and the plant goes up and nobody really knows how or why, but we are like that.

Goldfish and hamsters and white mice and even the little seed in the Styrofoam cup -- they all die. So do we.

And then remember the Dick-and-Jane books and the first word you learned -- the biggest word of all -- LOOK.

Everything you need to know is in there somewhere. The Golden Rule and love and basic sanitation. Ecology and politics and equality and sane living.

Take any one of those items and extrapolate it into sophisticated adult terms and apply it to your family life or your work or your government or your world and it holds true and clear and firm. Think what a better world it would be if we all -- the whole world -- had cookies and milk about three o'clock every afternoon and then lay down with our blankies for a nap. Or if all governments has a basic policy to always put things back where they found them and to clean up their own mess.

And it is still true, no matter how old you are -- when you go out into the world, it is best to hold hands and stick together.

~~~~~~~~~~~~
Excerpts from Robert Fulghum's book All I Really Need to Know I Learned in Kindergarten, 1986, 1988, 2003.

high hopes

Remind me next time never to put my hopes up too high. I just might splat my butt back on the ground, again.

My first two long trips for the year (which are apparently set within a month's time) are practically ruined. Partly my fault, I became too excited right away, even planning to make everything perfect. Sadly, I missed to read the signs. I became too preoccupied. Too bad.

Receiving one not so good update shortly after the other unexpected news in one day is just too much for me to handle. Now I'm disappointed. Sad. Depressed. Agitated. Stressed. Anxious. I'm all of that right now. But who's to blame? Me. Just me. I assumed too much.

My spirit is so low I can't even continue talking about what happened.

Well at least today these eased me a bit: window shopping (for a laptop and mobile phones) with mom, the new shades for driving, the pedicure, and oh, the two orders of Starbucks Tall Coffee Frapuccino and two Starbucks Old-fashioned Oatmeal cookies.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Do you believe that Love is about being selfless? Would you actually sacrifice your happiness so your partner could reach his dream?

grade-conscious

Having a sister who's intelligent (read: getting high grades & into the honors' list without trying), I can't help but be a bit grade-conscious. Not that I really tried my best back in school. You see, I've had my share of line of 7's (especially in Math subjects), but I never meant to get those low scores. I've always been told that if I studied a bit harder, I could have gotten higher grades. I was, however, a very serious student, not wanting to miss classes. Maybe it's just that I knew I could never compete with a genius whose photographic memory allowed her not to take down notes anymore.

My brothers were not as pressured as the girls in the family (I never knew the underlying reason for such). So it was a wonder that Gian takes his studies almost seriously, even making it to the top5 of his class. Maybe he's afraid that he won't be allowed to play badminton anymore should he get bad grades. Which is good. And he studies alone, asking for help only when he desperately needs assistance -- a book report perhaps.

They were assigned to do a book report on The Twelfth Angel by Og Mandino. It's actually one of my favorite books so I was more than happy to help him do the project. We brainstormed, I noted down his thoughts and integrated it with mine. We actually crammed up to the last weekend before it was due. I was apprehensive to do it as perfectly as I could because the teacher might not believe it's his work. When we finished, we thought our best grade would be a ninety.

A week ago, I received some wonderful news -- the book report was graded 100 out of 100 and a note that says "EXCELLENT. Now this is what I call a project. Good Job!" Of course we were happy, very much elated. It was his grade, OUR grade.

So what's the point of this entry? Well, could it be the that my study and school work habits only equal that of a High School freshman (until now)...and that's the only reason why I did not excel much in college? hahahahahahahahahahaha...

Phew!

finally...

THE BOOK OF LOVE

Peter Gabriel

Shall we dance OST

The book of love is long and boring

No one can lift the damn thing

It's full of charts and facts and figures and instructions for dancing

But I

I love it when you read to me

And you

You can read me anything

The book of love has music in it

In fact that's where music comes from

Some of it is just transcendental

Some of it is just really dumb

But I

I love it when you sing to me

And you

You can sing me anything

The book of love is long and boring

And written very long ago

It's full of flowers and heart-shaped boxes

And things we're all too young to know

But I

I love it when you give me things

And you

You ought to give me wedding rings

And I

I love it when you give me things

And you

You ought to give me wedding rings

And I

I love it when you give me things

And you

You ought to give me wedding rings

You ought to give me wedding rings

~~~~~~~~~~~~

We were late for the scheduled dinner dinner date with my college girlfriends. D**n the friday night traffic along Makati Avenue. Amazingly, Mhel and I were the last ones to arrive when all the others were usually late. They were apparently really excited about the news. As Rissa told me about a week ago, "the suspense is killing me and Jacq." And since we were dismally late...

I missed the moment. I missed the surprised looks on their faces. I missed the initial shock. I missed the laughter which followed. I missed the wide-eyed look when they received their respective invitations. Since i knew the secret all along, the "secret-bearer" did not bother to wait for me at all. Which is fine with me by the way as the truth slowly sunk in the group.

Finally, it has been known, at least to her college friends (she still has her high school friends to take care of, hehehe.). It's out! Odes and Wes have been civilly married for about two weeks now, which is too long a time to shut my mouth, hehehe. They're gonna walk down the aisle on March 19 in a cathedral in Gumaca. The only gift she requested is that we join her in her special day. Nyeks, corny, but sweet.

Funny when i reminisce my lunch date with Odes and Rissa in December of last year, we were pointing fingers amongst ourselves who should marry first. Odes took the plunge. That leaves Rissa and I...hmmmmm...

dvd night at astoria

It was a unique dvd night all right. it happened last night at the invitation of Daday and AJ. The story and pictures here. We were torn between The Incredibles and Shall We Dance but settled for the latter since the copy was just rented. Mushy as it seemed, I'm glad we watched it. Richard Gere is just the most gorgeous Hollywood actor there is, even if he's old. In fact, I've fallen in love with him since watching Pretty Woman! Today, he still has that charming and kilig factor. Talk about ageing gracefully!

I would have written a long narrative review of the movie, but i would not. Simply because it's a story about how a married couple can keep a relationship last, and i have no experience when it comes to that. And simply because I was mesmerized by John Clark so much so that there's no better way for me to review it than to blab about Richard Gere. Hehehe.

getting married and staying in it

There's nothing more I could say. I'm just happy for those who decide to get married. Marriage vows are sacred and I admire those who keep those vows despite the shortcomings that come their way.

chaos

The world is in chaos, and so is my mind. I can't seem to organize my thoughts and post a rather interesting topic here. Until when i'll be like this, no one knows. I myself am clueless. Hah!

a dinner to look forward to

I have a scheduled dinner date with my college girlfriends (with our respective boys) tomorrow night. Although as of 10:04pm tonight, only two of us have confirmed, I'd really want this dinner out to push through. For tomorrow night, a big secret is going to unfold. It's a secret i've been dying to discuss with everybody, because as far as I am concerned, I am all set and ready for the big day in March. Getting hitched is something, sharing the preparation details is another.

losing weight and some inches

Today, I went to the second fitting of the gown mommy "commissioned" for me. Since the bodice would be a corsette, it's gonna be really tight, whew! When my measurements were taken a couple of weeks back, I was ready to request that the waistline wouldn't be so snug. But i held my mouth thinking that I could still lose a few more inches before I get to wear to dress, anyway. Last week during the initial fitting, i couldn't breathe all right. I still didn't say anything. Today, I was a bit surprised because when i had the corsette fitted, there's about an inch extra. And they asked me, "Pumayat ka ba?" Well, i guess, i did! Yipee! Losing some inches and not noticing! Yeba!

I realized then that i haven't been eating right. Sheesh. For the past two weeks, because of my crazy schedule, I've been living on two meals a day alone (one of which is usually a sandwich). This kind of diet proved to be advantageous (since I really wanna lose weight) at the moment. But later? I still dunno.

one-liners

For an interesting photoblog-hopping experience visit ranjit.

There's also a blog I stumbled upon, one that is a blog for dogs, for those who love the man's bestfriend.

This blogging-thingy is pretty addictive, even more at blogger.

Happy, happy birthday to sister Dadaydamakulay! God bless you!

baligtad na mundo

Matagal na panahon na nang ako’y huling nakadalaw sa dati kong paaralan, ang aking unang Alma Mater. Nitong mga nakaraang araw, nagkaroon ako ng pagkakataong bumalik, hindi sa paaralan mismo, kundi sa paligid-ligid lamang. Hindi ko maipaliwanag ang naradamdam ko nang muli kong masilayan ang lugar na kinalakihan ko. Para kasing walang nagbago. Walang pag-asenso, kumbaga. Siguro dapat akong malungkot dahil ito ang naghubog sa akin, ang naging pangunang pundasyon ng kung ano ako ngayon Nalungkot ako dahil kung hindi pinagsikapan ng aming mga magulang na mailipat kami sa mas magandang paaralan, malamang ay hindi na rin ako nagkaroon ng pagbabago sa aking sarili.

Subalit, natuwa (maaaring natawa) at namangha din naman ako dahil hindi ko akalaing hindi halata ang naging pagusad (kung meron man) ng buhay dito sa bayang kinalakihan ko. Mas lalong nakakatawa dahil ang mga estudyante sa dati kong paaralan ay pareho pa din ng patakaran sa buhay.

Oras nang uwian ng ako’y mapadpad sa pinakabayan. Nagkaroon ako ng pagkakataon na obserbahan ang mga estudyanteng pauwi sa kani-kanilang bahay. Ganun pa din naman: naglalakad sila palayo sa destinasyon, at sinasalubong ang mga dyip. Para abutang maluwag pa ang mga sasakyan, imbes na maghantay na lamang sa labasan ng paaralan. Ay baka nasasayangan sa oras na ginagamit sa paghihintay? Ewan ko kung sino ang nagpasimula ng ganitong sistema pero matagal na itong ginagawa (kahit ang mga galing sa simbahan, ganito din ang ginagawa lalo na kapag linggo). Sa opinyon ko, oo at sayang ang oras na ginugugol sa pagaantay ngunit sayang din naman ang oras na binubuhos sa paglalakad palayo sa destinasyon. Hindi ba at mas lohikal na maglakad papalapit sa kung saan man patungo? Bakit kailangan pang lumayo? Maganda din naman dahil sa bukod sa maaga nang makakarating sa bahay, nakapagehersisyo pa. Ideya lang naman ang sa akin.

Eto na. Nang makasakay ako ng dyip pauwi, may isang estudyante na handa nang magbayad. Ngunit nang umandar ng konti ang sasakyan, at nang makita ng estudyanteng ito na sasakay din ang isa sa kanyang mga guro, nagmamadali siyang kumuha ng baryang pandadag sa kanyang bayad. Naisip niyang ilibre si titser. Pag-upo pa lang ni titser, presto, bayad na siya! Napakunot-nuo ako. Bakit kailangang ipagbayad ng estudyante ang kanyang guro? Nagpapalakas? Nagpapaimpres? Nagyayabang? Hah? Teka, naguluhan ako, eh sino sa kanilang dalawa ang may trabaho? Bigla akong naawa sa magulang ng estudyante dahil sila ang naghihirap para mabigyan ng baong pera ang anak pero hindi nila aakalain sigurong malakas ang loob ng kanilang anak na “maglustay” ng konting barya. At si titser, ngumiti, nagpasalamat, at hindi nakuhang mag-oper man lang ng kanyang bayad. Ako ang nahiya para kay titser. Walang delicadeza (nakow, pasensya sa ginamit kong salita!). Ayaw niya siguro mapahiya ang butihing estudyante, pero mas nakakahiya naman yata para sa lahat ng kasama namin sa dyip na hinayaan ni titser na ipagbayad siya gayung di hamak na kaya naman niyang ipagbayad ang sarili dahil siya ang may hanap-buhay, hindi ba?

Ewan ko ba. Madalas kong sinasabing mahina talaga ang asenso ng Pilipinas. Sabihin nang negatibo ako mag-isip. Pero hindi ba at nakakabahalang mga bata pa lamang ang naobserbahan ko. Ang mga pag-asa ng bayan na sinasabi…sila mismo tumutulad sa matatanda. Tsk, tsk.

flickr.com

half eaten
Originally uploaded by kaje.

i find this site very interesting. and enjoyable, too! i got the link from a high school classmate and was automatically curious i tried it myself. it is only now when i transferred to blogger that i've actually used it, hehehe. the cookie picture here is one of my posts. flickr lets you blog a photo entry directly. neat! for me, the best feature would be the ability to add notes which can make pictures even more interesting to check out! 'stig!

rude

i've always been cautious, especially when security is at stake. you can't blame me if i tell my staff to politely tell off solicitors (beggars, promo people, preachers). i actually don't face these people, knowing that it's hard for me to say no. hehe.

the other day, everyone was busy (yup, the salon was full! yey!) and the supervisor was out. and this salesman, with a bag full of goods slowly approached the salon's entrance. so i had to face him. i was not able to stop him from entering. so i smiled at him and said:

me: ay sorry po, we are not interested.
him: sandali lang naman po ito ma'am.
me: ay sorry po talaga, we are not interested.
him: trained naman kami to speak kaya i won't waste your time. (kulet!!!)
me: (still smiling) eh kasi po may nagpunta na kanina dito na pareho ng dala niyo, hindi din namin inentertain eh...
him: iba naman ako dun eh...(kulet talaga!!)
me: hindi po talaga...
him: oy alam mo ang ganda mo! (looks at everyone inside the salon) di ba ang ganda niya, kamukha niya si toni gonzaga...(o di ba binobola ako!)...
me: thank you po, but still we're not interested.
him: alam mo actually yung manager ang kailangan ko eh, andito ba siya?
everyone: (in chorus) eh siya na yan eh!
him: ah ikaw ba manager...akala ko KATULONG ka dito eh! (the nerve!!!!!)
me: you know, the more that i am not interested with whatever you're selling. you can go now. please. leave.

he was apologetic upon leaving. but the damage has been done. honestly everyone gaped when he said that. such a loser! some people would rather be rude than accept rejection. to think i was extra nice to him. if it weren't for the clients, i would have mentioned that his tie did not match his shirt and that his hair needed combing.

change

i've decided to transfer from xanga to blogspot. it's just something i've been thinking about. and now, this. i know that in the long run, changing blog sites would help me. xanga's so limited (or at least you gotta pay for the premium, which is not an option for me...). there's so much more i can do with blogspot.

i know i won't regret it. i'm sure partners daday and rors will answer my questions...nyarharharhar...