1.30.2009

breaking news!

okay, now for some breaking news:

my brother has qualified for pisay! WOOHOO!

*breathes*



the pshs website says he was one of the 1,119 examinees who made it through the one-step screening last november, out of the total21,303 applicants.

thank you lord. hehehe. heto namang tatay ko talagang tinawagan pa ako para ako tumingin. eh pano kung di pumasa, pano ko naman sasabihin yun ano?

buti na lang nakalista eh! tapos nung kumalma na ako, saka ako tumawag. sagot ng tatay ko:

dad: oo nga eh, nakatanggap siya ng letter. just double-checking.

NAMAN EH! alam mo yung me moment before pressing [enter] sa search bar, yung moment of doubt na, "what if di pumasa yung kapatid ko? saan siya mag-aaral?" tangena. talk about a nanosecond of nanay-anxiety.

but no, he got in, and what a way to cope during these times of immense crisis. hehehe. congrats!

this merits celebration.

(meanwhile, this makes me the only non-pisay sibling. hmmm. buti na lang ako yung pinakamaganda, kundi magtatampo ako ke universe. hehe.)

1.29.2009

tomb raider to return without jolie?

reports say that tomb raider may be back on screen - but without angelina jolie. end of era much? I KNOW.

the fact is, i haven't met anyone, much less a lesbian, who has not had a crush, at one point or another, on angelina jolie. i mean, come on, those of you who realized you were much much more into girls than boys just by looking at ms jolie, raise your hands. *raises hand*



in many ways, angelina and her tomb raider movies were vital to my coming of age party, or something. tomb raider 2: the cradle of life was released in 2003, i think - which was the year i came out. and this, of course, is in addition to gia, which i loved as well.

and as much as i adored megan fox in transformers... well, i don't know.

***

on other news, this might not be new to you anymore, but i do want to say that i have the WEIRDEST dreams.

this morning, for example, i simply woke up with this statement in my head: The DepEd of the ocean is where all the school of fishes are.

i know, right. minsan iniisip ko rin kung anong klaseng issues meron ako. hahaha. or baka too much sabaw lang c/o hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy (which i'm reading, finally) and the movie yes man (wish you would step down from the ledge, my friend...)

1.28.2009

workaholic panda

my girlfriend has decided to indulge my caffeine addiction by giving me a design-your-own tumbler from starbucks as an early valentine gift. hihi. i have the best girlfriend in the world. <3

Pandas!
foreground: tumbler says, "will work for cuddles". background: meet panda, my newest toy. ahehe. <3

1.22.2009

sweet 16

And now, for something momentous - today is our 16th monthsary! =) Here’s to love and togetherness and homemade pasta on Sundays and domesticity and hulahoops and futsal and surprise weekend getaways to cold places and surprise vacations with families and to dancing and movies and coffee with friends and to reading in bed and talking all night and yes, to sleeping and waking right next to you, every single god-given day. Here’s to the best stretch of my life thus far.



I love you.

1.21.2009

balang araw, a barack

i missed the live coverage of the inaguration of the 44th US President early this morning, and i sure hope the net connection becomes well enough to run videos of Pres. Obama's speech later.

on CNN they're still showing the parties. i mean, they're really happy, aren't they? kinikilabutan ako just watching the utter volume of merriment that ushered in the first administration change in the US since 2001.

since 2001. since 2001... hmm. so sana tayo rin ano by next year. Universe, give Philippine politics something to party about in 2010. please.

1.20.2009

Things to say to a former self, who would not listen anyway

At my most prolific, I once filled pages of journals – volumes of small spiral notebooks, word documents that reach more than a hundred pages. I found some of my old journals while cleaning. Cringe-worthy, yes, but at least they painted a pretty vivid picture of the girl I once was.

Was. I wonder where that girl had gone. Sometimes, I wonder what that girl’s doing now. I wonder what has gotten the better of her, why she doesn’t write anymore. Wonder what she’s holding back, what’s holding her back to begin with. Wonder why she’s settling for single paragraph-updates. Or why she’s obsessing with status phrases instead of writing lengthy stuff.

Maybe she hasn’t got the time. I guess getting older does that to you – there’s more things to do, less time to finish them all. It’s inevitable, how you meet all these people and how as you grow older they expect you to be wiser, to be better, to be tougher, to outdo yourself with every outing.

I wish I could tell her that the thing with time is that it’s always there; and it’s all just a matter of how you 1) make do and 2) make some for things that matter. I wish I could also tell her that the thing with adults is that they are wont to stretch you until you break and you would, soon, if you don’t know how to pace yourself.

Or maybe, just maybe, for so long writing has been tied with some other habit, some other habit that she’d thought better to let go of. Well, what to do with habits eh? Long after you’ve quit them, they still manage to pull one right over you by taking a few things that matter with them. Then again, seven years of smoking ought to have damaged a significant portion of the brain, and perhaps this thing called writer’s block is among the whole spectrum of known and lesser-known quitting side effects. What to do then? Acquire another vice, perhaps? Which would be ridiculous, considering how last year had been spent mostly keeping clean. I wish I could tell her to stop whining that she’s too young to be this old, because young is mostly illusion by now and old is the new young, or something. It all boils down to perspective, really: you could think you’re still too young, or you could think you’re just old enough. Because really, in some cultures, 24 is old enough for marriage, and aren’t you just glad you’re not being forced into that? Haha.

Or maybe, just maybe, she’s run out of things to say. Which is scary and sad, considering. I wish I could tell her something she could go on with. Curiously, though, I’ve run out of things to say as well.

1.15.2009

spatial histories

so the thing is, i'm back in my sister's apartment. the same one i used to stay in during my last years in college, and the one we used to share during my first few years at work/her first few years in college herself. as it is, i'm cramming for a lecture i have to deliver as a favor for a friend in a while. jeez ang tanda na lang ng task na ito.

venturing into the bathroom when i got in, i noticed a box styro full of fishes. upon closer inspection, i found that 1) they were not goldfishes and 2) they were probably for her thesis. hahaha. i just fed them. i'm afraid one of them may have already passed on :(

anyway, to confess i'm actually a bit cautious about going back to maskom today. i don't know, it's unsettling. one minute, a place is like an extension of yourself. the next, nothing's quite the same anymore and you barely know it. on my way here, i was lining up for an MRT card, and upon getting to the counter, i paused for a while if only to remember THE NAME OF THE STATION I WAS HEADED TO. embarrassing. i think i had to scan the list of stations for three seconds. to think there used to be a time i could get from here to makati *half-awake* throughout the commute. i guess in time you really unlearn those reflexes huh.

which reminds me of that mcdo ad everyone's talking about. andrea and i have decided it would have been much more effective interesting had the girl ended up with another girl. BUT OF COURSE! hahaha.

1.08.2009

hey, hey, hey-ppy birthday!

Saturday, Jan 3. I never thought I’d really pull off something altogether secret for the girlfriend, seeing that for most of the break we were together anyways. Thanks to friends and text messaging and to a degree, email, we all managed to cook something up, something intimate and wild all at the same time hehe.

She was craving for Taters’ dip and French fries so we headed out early to Glorietta. We arrived even before the theaters opened, and the mall was practically deserted as it was still before noontime. After eating at Wendy’s we headed to Timezone, sang a few songs at the videoke booths out back, tried Guitar Freak and failed horribly. Haha.

By the time we used up all our creds, it was barely 2 p.m. and I had HOURS to kill (my surprise #1, a sninner/lupper with our older friends, was not due until around 4) and I was already running out of stretcher activities already! Imagine the panic in my unimaginative nervous mind. Haha. Anyway I did manage to come up with quick solutions, such as trips to bookstores and long strolls. When we got tired, I took her to the Starbucks near Timezone in G4, and that was where we started drawing girls.







She did the colors while I filled in the details on their dresses (I KNOW). Then we made up mini-stories for each of them. My favorite, to confess, is Sally – a preschool teacher who likes watching Buffy re-runs with her cat named Blair (I KNOW!!)



Anyway. Holiday traffic notwithstanding, we managed to meet up at Tokyo Café in Mall of Asia for our sninner/lupper with (drumroll please)



Guess who. Haha. Eto yung mga kasabwat ko sa surprise eh na di na muna natin papangalanan hahaha. Anyway, these sneaky fellas managed to also surprise *me* for my birthday.



A personalized panda shirt with my face digitally pasted into it and omg all these panda masks! Be still my heart! No wonder this girl from the opposite table kept on staring.

After dinner, we strolled around the mall and found the perfect match:



And then there were fireworks.



Then we strolled outside the mall, crossing over to the strip of establishments near the bay. I was actually quite surprised to find that it was where all the people who used to operate on Baywalk must have transferred. The space housed bars, coffee shops, and even a small perya. Andrea threw a peso on it and won a pencil. Believe me, this was no easy feat.



We walked until we reached the end of the strip, which was practically empty dahil hello sobrang layo niya. Di naman namin napansin kasi we were camwhoring all the way anyway.

Pagdating namin sa dulo there was this spectacular fountain and all that SPACE to camwhore as we pleased.



After having our fill, we walked all the way back – we had wanted to ride the tram, kaso sa bagal niya e baka umagahin kami so naglakad na nga lang kami. We had coffee sa coffee bean and then parted ways mga 11ish.

But that’s not all. Suko na nga sana siya at antok at pagod na, but wait, there was still a part 2!



(WHERE'S THE PARTY!)

Next stop: Music21 for an all-nighter videoke. Attendance: Tere, Rissa, Armin, Jun, Din, Lawrence. Sayang si Irene di na nakahabol, habang yung iba naman for some reason di natanggap ang aking stealthy invite via text (sorries). Don’t be fooled by the number though – inabot kami ng 4:30 a.m. at di pa nga umaawat ang mga yan sa totoo lang.

May special guests din.



May bagong dance step din kaming natutunan kay Lawrence habang kumakanta ng Low:



I’m sure maraming nagsisisi na hindi nila nakita si Lawrence na, actually, pinupulikat ang likuran at tagiliran dahil malamig masyado yung aircon. Pakipasahan naman ang Arthro, ang tanders eh! Haha joke lang.

Meron ding somewhat titillating na soft pron na accompanying video ang kantang... (Name that song!)



At sayang di namin nakunan yung video ng Tabing Ilog (na actual footage nina Rovic, Eds at Baron pre-rapist roles) at yung video ni Tiyo Kardo at Sheila Ysrael (na di ko na maalala yung kanta.)



“I said Heyyyy… Heypi birthday!!!” – 4 Non-Blondes, oha. 25 years of my life and still...



I love you <3 (k) Hihi.

1.06.2009

hello, 2009!

Well, that certainly was one of my more memorable Birthday-New Year vacations in years. Hehehe.

Monday, Dec 29. Turns out I could wheedle the girlfriend into spending New Year’s at my parents’ house in Cavite, where I had originally planned to spend my New Year. I’d been bugging her to meet my parents for months and what better way to end 2008 than with that ritual over and done with, eh? Met her at Mall of Asia Monday afternoon, had a few beers with a few friends at Gweilo’s. She surprised me with ice cream with candle and balloons as a belated birthday treat.



Imagine that, a bee-ladybug balloon! She told me she’d already wanted something with soccer and basketballs, but when she saw this one, she absolutely knew she had her balloon. Si ate nagbebenta, nagtaka, akala pam-boy yung hinahanap niya, nagtry pang tumulong: “Um, may flowers yan…?” Hahahaha. Ate wag kang pasaway.

Anyway. We spent that night at Casa then the following day, we went on to catch a bus to SM Southmall, where I had asked my sister to pick me up -- because she drives and I could ask her anything and she never really turns me down ever hehehe. Yes, I am older but I am inexplicably spoiled.

Tuesday, Dec 30. Turns out when my sister drove over to the mall she had the whole crew with her – my dad, auntie, my brother. So basically, my parents first met my girlfriend at the Jollibee joint in SM Southmall. Whoever said this must be done over formal dinner has no idea how easy and casual it could really be. We bought a full roll of chococaramel cake from Red Ribbon, which was awesome.

That night, we settled in front of the TV to watch DVDs. Guess which cult classic we popped into the player?



I swear auntie’s DVD player could turn any film into a classic, black-and-white one. Hahaha. Akala tuloy ni daddy old film yung pinapanood namin hahaha. And so I’ve watched Twilight – in black and white pa. Ngayon makakarelate na ako sa lahat ng Twilight jokes na nababasa ko online. I feel so accomplished, damn. (Ayun lang, wag nga lang color-related yung joke. O ayan naipagpag na.)

We spent our first night in my parents’ house in the spare bedroom auntie had prepared ahead of time. Actually, when I called to ask her to do it, she’d asked why we needed an extra room when we could all fit inside the master’s bedroom. Haha. The fact that she could actually joke about that was kind of a relief to me.

But what really brought me real relief was that she went on ahead and fixed it anyway. With matching Simba sheets (ohmygod I thought I would die in embarrassment. Hello, Simba sheets? Naman eh.)

Speaking of embarrassment. Remember how auntie had sort of filled this entire wall with frames? Pictures, certificates, medals, etc? It had pictures of all of us children in various stages of awkward life. Of course, by virtue of being eldest, I also had the opportunity of having the most number of photographs on that wall. (Directly proportional to earth years, I guess)



Oh man, I think I may have been 15 in that picture. Jail-bait much? I KNOW.

Wednesday, Dec 31. New Year’s Eve. As per tradition, my mother’s siblings and their respective families trooped over to our house to have early dinner and festivities.

Yes, that would mean that not only did she meet my parents, she also met practically everyone – my other aunt, my uncle, his wife, and virtually all my cousins. Save for my other uncle, his wife and my other cousin (who are based abroad), more or less, the group was complete:




Incriminating photos of the videoke kind may or may not be at Multiply. Hehehe.

Thankfully, the whole affair was without those awkward “Do-you-have-a-boyfriend-now” kind of questions. Apparently, news does get around fast, and I could only imagine how the elders had briefed each other about the whole setup beforehand. Hahaha.

While we were standing around the dining table waiting for the buffet to move, my gracious uncle had even engaged the girlfriend in the traditional, “So ano ang probinsya mo?” kind of small talk, and even went on ahead to say, “Di bale, wala naman akong masasabi sa pamangkin kong yan, mabait yan. Saludo ako diyan.”

Sukat bang ibenta pa ako. Uncle, nabili na! Nabili na nang bonggang-bongga! Hahaha ang sabaw lang eh.

So yeah, we didn’t have fireworks save for a few sparklers and some of those things that pop when you snap them apart for the kids. Relatively harmless, actually. However, since this was the first New Year *after* my attempt to more or less kick the smoking habit, my now unaccustomed to smoke sinuses were painfully runny and sniffly by the end of the night.

What we did have though, was BEER. I think Uncle had brought half a case of San Mig Lite and four Grande size Red Horse bottles. Ano ba mga lasenggo. Hahaha. So much for swearing to be sober in ’09. Hahaha.

And so by 7:30PM I was already sleepy and buzzed. Bow. They left around 8ish to catch New Year’s Eve in their respective houses. It was early but the streets were bound to be filled with firecrackers as early as 9 anyway.

I managed to stay up until midnight, if only to watch fireworks on our terrace, but only briefly.

Thursday, Jan 1. Slow Thursday. Andrea and I had agreed to get back to the city later in the day. Truth was, we were planning to drop by Enchanted Kingdom the following day. Wala lang, we just wanted to hehehe. Yaman din lang at bakasyon. To hell with the crowd, right.

Right.

Over lunch though, I had this splendid idea – what if I wheedled my parents into going with us to EK? The more, the manyer, ika pa nga.

So I began by casually mentioning the planned EK trip. Auntie, who was the designated driver, was kind of hesitant. Besides, she just said, it looks like rain anyway. That morning, it actually looked like it was going to rain.

However, somewhere between wanting to take us to the bus station back to Makati and watching the clouds part and let through a little sunshine, auntie made a turn for the South Luzon expressway. Now, deciding on the road was something my parents didn’t usually do. Usually, we decide at home where we were going and followed the road to there, mostly. We were already halfway through SLEX and both my siblings were still in disbelief – we really were going to EK huh?



The crowd was HORRIBLE. Hahaha. We got in around 3 pm and exited around 530pm (I KNOW!), just before it actually rained. Certainly, we had no intentions of lining up for rides amidst that crowd – we just wanted to move around and take pictures (How tanders and tita, but well). I think Wy was pissed (well, he’s 12, so he actually has the right to be pissed, mostly) but then again, he was outnumbered. Plus, andrea read somewhere that for one ride, the estimated waiting time was TWO HOURS. I mean, hello.

So we paid P150 for the Carousel pass – but then the carousel itself was packed so no carousel either. We just strolled around, took pictures, watched people get hurled around in the Flying Fiesta and get drenched in the Rio Grande, listened to those bloodcurdling screams from people horrified in the Space Shuttle and Anchors Away. We placated Wy by letting him buy something from Candy Corner. (My brother is so easy to please).













Now that that was over and done with, my parents drove us to the bus station at Metropolis and for the meantime, Christmas and New Year was over and we’re back to our own lives.

(Susunod – andrea’s birthday celeb activities, for more.)