gratitude list 11.04

thanks to:
1 - my nephew, for the fun timezone game he coerced me into playing. my right arm got sore but it's okay.
2 - kim, for treating me to dinner at bonchon.
3 - my bosses, for approving my vacation leave for tomorrow.
4 - the lord, for helping me manage to transfer from the bus terminal near ali mall to the one along edsa in kamias. i know that something or someone greater than i am made that possible. also to the angels disguised as security guards, for helping me find my way.
5 - st. vincent ferrer, for a fun tiring feast day at home.
6 - my mom, for the sweet ripe mango i had for dinner.
7 - the sustagen staff, for telling me my body age is younger than my real age.
8 - time, for enabling me to finally finish reading the wind-up bird chronicle.
9 - kim, for an afternoon at up diliman.
10 - the universe, all i had to do when i got home from work was sleep.
11 - cy, tere and rissa, for a fun fun fun monday night.
12 - leng and rhea, for the tip on the cpk deal.
13 - my job, for the challenge to write.
14 - the lord, i only got colds and cough. i was worried of getting a full-blown flu.
15 - kim, for a whole day well-spent together.
16 - hsbc, for the free tall frappes from starbucks.
17 - bpi, for the free pan pizza from pizza hut. i ate one slice for dinner today.
18 - bpi, i ate the last two slices of the free pan pizza from pizza hut for lunch today.
19 - kim, for the homemade chicken cajun sandwich you made for dinner.
20 - the universe, for the awesome packing skills you gave me.
21 - my research siblings, for a fun day at the beach.
22 - kim's family, for postponing their mt makulot hike so that i can join them.
23 - my family, for a simple dinner together.
24 - may, for the free dinner; meg, for the free ride; and teng, for the free videoke. to all three, for an afternoon of catching-up.
25 - kim, for going grocery-shopping with me despite not feeling well.
26 - the lord, for giving kim enough strength to go to work even though his body was still not at it's best condition.
27 - wednesday, because tomorrow is thursday already and then friday will come afterwards.
28 - miss jane, for the free movie passes. kim and i watched arthur tonight.
29 - cash cash pinoy, for being an instrument in making me attend a dance class again after eight years. and wendz, my dance buddy, for coming with me.
30 - kim, for letting me cheer you up and at the same time making me happy in the process. i love you <3

easter sunday

april 24. i spent the first half of my day at home watching tv with my sister and nephew. we caught mostly asap re-runs. oh and that angel locsin-piolo movie shot in australia, haha.

later in the afternoon, i met up with some hs friends at sm lipa. the original plan was to watch a movie but "senior year" wasn't on there so we just sat at the food court for some catching up while we figure out what to do next.

teng, moi, meg & may

meg and may are two of my closest friends from high school. my friendship with may even stretches back to grade school because we were classmates from kindergarten to fourth year high school. i can't remember the last time that the three of us hang out together but i'm sure it's been yearsss. back in high school, i remember meg made us promise to each other never to fight over a boy, hahaha.

mercados

while at the food court, we saw an sm personnel put plastic eggs under the plants behind us. meg was eyeing to get one so when the easter egg hunt started she grabbed the nearest egg behind us. when we opened the egg, we found a paper with the letter g. we figured there should be more to the game than just hunting for the eggs so we gave the egg to one of the parent-hunters we spotted at the food court.

swipers!!! :))

before 5 p.m., teng and may went off to attend mass; while meg and i headed to starbucks to chat over coffee.

meg's cake lollipop

starbucks lady spelled my name right! :D

after mass, may and teng re-joined us for dinner at shakey's. may treated us! happy birthday in advance, sis!

team kandila :))

team kulot *\0/*

we had pizza, chicken and mojos. meg requested she had soup, heh.

and she was happy ;)

teng, macho pose
me, taking the survey seriously
meg, camwhoring
may, paying the bill

over dinner, meg mentioned in passing that she misses singing so may suggested we go videokeing even just for an hour. we headed to la corona music pad. we charmed our way into getting the p300 (consumable = awesome!!!) per hour room even though it should accommodate up to three persons only. also, teng ended up paying for it. belated happy birthday, bro!

teng's angels ;P

kampay *hik*

sing it!

so, this is me, giving high school friendships another try.

black saturday

april 23. i was supposed to spend the day cleaning my bedroom but my laziness got a hold on me. well, i wasn't really that lazy because i did try to finish reading alice hoffman's turtle moon while lying in bed for most part of the day, heh.

later in the afternoon i met up with kim, who was on his way to quezon city for work (boo!!!), at mcdonald's uptown lipa.

wearing white on a black saturday

we ended up passing notes on our recipt, haha.

demanding? :))

when kim left, i resumed reading turtle moon while waiting for my sister to pick me up. we went to our brother's house with our parents. we brought dinner. but before dinner we played badminton outside. after dinner, the girls watched mula sa puso marathon while playing with aya; while the boys bonded over drinks at the yard.

it took a while before my niece warmed up to us. she was not at her best mood because of her two front teeth. at eight months, she now has four teeth all in all. and she can already sit up on her own.

what's happening?

good friday

april 22. climbing mt makulot has become an annual thing that kim and i do with his family. we usually go up on maundy thursday but this year we had to do it on good friday due to our conflicting schedules.

we found out more people were going up for the station of the cross on good friday. it was the first time ever that we experienced heavy traffic both on our way up and down so the whole trip took longer than our previous climbs. another consequence was that i did not have time to take many photos.

we passed by this sleepy dog on our way up:

our already-sweaty selves, halfway through the climb:

i can't take a good photo of the grotto on top of mt makulot because of the crowd. here's a view of cuenca, batangas from the top instead:

taking a rest at the top:

at the foot with the boys:

maundy thursday

april 21. my research family (sans the big boss) and i hit the beach to kick off our holy week break. also with us were andrea, julie and jaykie. our destination was the stilts calatagan beach resort, where i spent black saturday with my siblings last year. i am not fond of going to the same places but i really loved stilts (below are some photos of the resort from my camera and you'll see why) so my researchmates did not have to ask me twice. too bad the resort was fully-booked so we had to take a day tour only. we left makati around 4:30 a.m. aboard our rented van and arrived 8 a.m. on the dot at the resort. kate has the breakdown of expenses here.

first, a fresh mango juice welcome drink!

the entrance pathway:

this is the outdoor part of the restaurant overlooking the cottages on stilts:

the cottages on stilts:

the beach:

during low tide

spotted a school of fish

the group (photos from kate/drea's cam, unless stated otherwise):

everybody giddy, shortly after arrival

with kate, julie and drea
taken by lawrence
via julie's camera

ready to take the plunge

ready, set, go!

first dip
via julie's camera

pool groupakkk ™

eating galore at open hut #1

merienda under the shade of a tree <3

on the raft with the girls

with my research siblings

with myself (first beach trip since 2001 without kim)

sun-kissed already <3

hala, work it! :))

golden hour group photo <3

and of course, the requisite jump shot <3

my happy toes:

definitely sand-aficionados

and water-happy <3
taken from drea's entry here

stilts reminded me to always:

and that:

and most importantly:

live well. laugh often. love much.

have a happy summer y'all!