gratitude list 11.05

thanks to:
1 - working holidays. no tardiness and double pay, yay!
2 - my work, for another challenge to write.
3 - kim's bosses, for approving his change-of-schedule for this weekend.
8 - my mom, for being the bestest mom in the whole wide universe.
9 - kate, for the awesome "discreet" music vid from yesterday's beach trip.
12 - schatzi, for lending me her globe broadband. download galore!
13 - ensogo, for the p300 diamond peel deal at the zen insitute medical spa.
14 - kim, for another month together. to infinity and beyond! <3
16 - well-wishers, for wasting time typing me a message.
17 - torrentz. in the past week, i was able to download and watch the latest episodes of chuck, gossip girl, glee, the vampire diaries, the big bang theory and modern family. i also got some movies: season of the witch, no strings attached and just go with it.
22 - the adorable babies in my life. for making my weekend in the province extra cute.
24 - the good news. kim received a raise.
26 - liv, for accompanying me at the makati medical center's emergency room.
28 - ria of tony & jackey - buendia, for my new hairdo.
30 & 31 - the pdieu, for the two-day leadership seminar training.

i didn't have a thank-you for each day of may. will try again next month.

my gloomy weekend

and it's not because of chedeng...

thursday. i've been suffering from stomaches since the day before. based on a comparative study involving my colleagues personal experience, i figured i might be suffering from hyperacidity. after taking an antacid after lunch, my tummy was feeling better so i had very little hesitation to eat two slices of pizza and drink a cup of coke for merienda. and then my tummy ached again.

i have a dinner date with my former officemates that night which i cannot miss. so i went and endured the pain. i even ate a little of everything we ordered. an hour before we decided to call it a night, i was not feeling too well already and decided to head to makati medical center's emergency room. one of my former officemates, liv, was so kind to accompany me. and she stayed with me until i was discharged.

the doctor said i might have gastroesophageal reflux disease or gerd. i was given two types of medicine (one is supposed to regulate the acid production inside my stomach and the other one is for stomache relief) which i will be taking for seven days, after which i have to consult a gastroenterologist.

friday. i was supposed to go to the derma, the dentist and the salon but just like last weekend, i had to do all of them another day. i just stayed in the whole day nursing my sick self. my tummy was aching the whole night before, so i only got a little sleep. i haven't bought the medicines prescribed by the doctor because i got home from the hospital shortly before midnight already. kim arrived before lunchtime from work and on the way he bought my medicines.

saturday. i slept better compared to the other night so i decided not to stay in this time. my tummy wasn't aching as much as the past days but i also have headaches due to one of the medicines i am taking. an ache for an ache as i put it. i wonder why the doctor did not bother to tell me that it has a side effect. maybe she expects me to sleep for seven days?

so, anyway, i decided to go to the salon (tony & jackey) first because it is closest to our unit. kim accompanied me even though he still has no sleep coming straight from his night shift. i thought going to the salon would relax me but i made a wrong decision of getting my hair done because it took almost four hours (because i was sales-talked into getting their l'oreal volume rebond package, haha). it would have been fun if i didn't have head and tummy aches.

i was supposed to go to the derma afterwards but the clinic in glorietta was already closed when we got there. we decided to just have an early dinner at food choices. we ended having savory chicken classics because they have yangchow rice and corn soup which i thought would be safe for me.

at g4 food choices booth, with my doctor/nurse/all-around buddy

we then watched pirates of the carribean 4, which only worsened my head and tummy aches and made kim fall asleep. (it didn't help that my other seatmate was over reacting at some scenes with matching edging on his seat, flailing his arms and being too noisy. sarap batukan, mehn.) we headed straight home after and i fell asleep early from all the tiredness the whole day.

i hope to feel better by the end of my seven-day medication. please pray for me.

sad endings

in my idle moments (e.g. long bus rides), i often find myself writing stories in my head. most of the time, i'd see something or someone or a scene and i'd come up with an ending first.

and i really just get too caught up with the endings that once i have other things to do (e.g. i've reached my destination), i would instantly forget about them. so, long story short, i never got to write the other parts of any of my stories (now, those are really short stories, haha).

so, i am trying to compile these snippets in my head right here. and i hope this exercise will help me write a full story someday.

exercise no. 1

she was aboard a bus to meet her boyfriend when she received an sms from him, "where are you?" "along the zigzag road. the traffic is awful," she replied.

"what bus number are you in?"

"821."

"okay, i'm almost there."

puzzled, she looked out the window and saw the cause of the traffic: a funeral march.

she felt weird. she tried calling the boy's number but it can no longer be reached.

* * *

it rained hard that night. her husband took out a red duffel bag from their wooden storage room and in it he tossed a windbreaker jacket, a foldable umbrella and his smaller office bag - a man purse as one may call it. he kissed her and headed our for work.

the next morning, she had a breakfast of toast and coffee, took a bath, dressed up and walked to work. alone. and that moment she already knew. her husband had left her for good.

babies galore

may 20. today, i planned to go to a dermatologist, then to the dentist, and then to tony & jackey before going home to the province. but i ended skipping my three errands and went straight to batangas because of my nephew's incessant sms since 6 a.m. asking me what time i would be home.

once home, he didn't let me go out without him so i tagged him along when i visited my newly-mother friend reyna and her baby boy riley jade. but first, we had a mcdonald's date while waiting for meg.


two excited aunties, hihi <3


later in the afternoon, rajah and i went to my brother's house with my mom and dad. my niece was in a sociable mood. she let me carry her without much prodding. she still gave me the i-am-trying-to-remember-who-you-are look but i understand because it's been a month since my last visit.


i made her ride her walker outside their house and used biscuits as "bait" to make her walk, hehe. we were told she just learned how to sangoy (her interpretation of pangit or ugly) and my iphone was filled with pictures of her while i try to capture her with her "ugly" face (where i mostly failed, haha). anyway, here are my top three picks:

before we left, i was able to teach her a new trick: flying kiss! :))

may 21. i met up with some elementary friends. we were supposed to go swimming but had to cancel due to poor attendance, heh. we just talked over coffee and then drove all the way to ibaan for lomi when it rained hard later in the afternoon.

clockwise: charles, june, gener, babes, almi

this is my godson, who is a carbon copy of his mom (babes).

camera-shy boy

feeling old

strangers still mistake me for a 16- or 19-year-old but sometimes i can't help but feel old. especially when i look at old photos. i particularly miss being 23 whenever i see this picture. it makes me go: oh, i'm really old. that was me five years ago.

even year-old photos make me think how i could have aged over one year alone. i just finished a post on our bantayan trip last year for my travel blog and i can't help but wonder how i stayed relatively skinny then without exercise and with a weekly diet that included my favorite big mac meal at least once a week.

oh, don't mind me. pms lang, i guess. ktnxbye.

tell me who your friends are

a few days ago, a friend of mine blogged about his unexpected allergy attack and how that episode in his life made him think about who his true friends are.

i've been sick for most of the weekend and was literally locked up inside my room for the past two days. and this morning, i suddenly thought, who cared that i've been sick?

the simple texts and the tweets suddenly became more than just a text or a tweet. so i am making this quick post to thank jeng, kate, eliza, marielle, jaycee, rhea, mhel and han for wishing me well. it may not mean so much to you but it does to me. ang drama noh? haha. but seriously, thank you talaga. a friend of mine asked me earlier why i was not at work and when i told her i was sick she just went ahhhh. right? ugh. anyway, stay healthy, y'all!

and of course, to my boyfriend, who squeezed in time to take care of me after work and his other appointments, thank you so much. and i love you.

our saturdate the 14th

may 14. our simple 119th-monthsary celebration started later in the afternoon because kim, coming from his night shift, had to sleep first. we had an early dinner of slammer burgers and fries and twistix sour cream at glorietta 4's food choices (a.k.a. the food court).

<<<333

but first, check out this heart-shaped ma-ling i made for kim's lunch. these were fried ma-ling strips which i placed on top of each other and then cut using a pancake shaper for a puzzle effect.

kim was a bit snap happy yesterday and insisted to go paparazzi most of the time. alavet, heh. here's one shot i was totally unaware of.

pink puffed sleeves top (zara), floral skirt (f21), pink bag (mango), boots (f21)

the pair of f21 boots was kim's monthsary gift to me. thank you, baby!

these boots are really made for walking <3

kim was also very kind to accompany me to the triumph sale (buy one take one!) at sm makati, hihi. thank you, thank you. i also passed by forever 21 and wasn't able to resist its newly-arrived (i was told so) hello kitty selection.

shopping :D

moving on... for our movie date, we watched scream 4, haha. it wasn't really scary but there were many jumpy parts so we found ourselves screaming or grabbing each other's arms for shield most of the time. i think the fact that we were feeling too cold because we had frappes and ice cream before going to the cinema also made as more prone to being jumpy. overall, the movie wasn't a bit haunting and we just laughed everything off after. fun!

oh, and we bumped into jollibee and ronald mcdonald on our way home.

my friday the 13th

may 13. the day started with a smile as i stayed up for midnight to wish my long-time friend a happy birthday on facebook before i finally hit the sack.

diamond peel. i woke up early for an appointment at the zen institute medical spa located at the ground floor of hotel sofitel philippine plaza. i got a p300 deal via ensogo for either a diamond peel or facial session (valued up to p2,100). i chose the former because it is more non-evasive (i.e. no pricking). i set a 10:30 a.m. appointment and i was told to come earlier as my voucher will be forfeited if i don't make it on time. i was there by 10 a.m. and i was surprised that i was served right away.

i used to go for facials with my former boss and my sister but, as i have expected, my zen institute experience was different. to start with, i felt relaxed already (and in a sosyal kind of way) the moment i stepped into the medical spa's lobby. the place was beautiful in its calmness and quietness; i felt embarrassed just looking around, haha.

the signage at the back of the information desk read "le spa" so at first i thought i was at the wrong place. the lady asked me if i had a reservation and motioned that i sit for a moment at the waiting area. but my butt had not even warmed on the couch when a medical attendant approached me with a pair of slippers and took my shoes for safekeeping. i was then lead to a room upstairs.

the room was so neat and spacious. in my head, i was like can i stay here overnight? the attendant made me sign a receipt first (for the voucher) and then asked if i was ready to begin. in my head, i was can i take a picture first? haha!

so for the procedure, it was almost the same as when i had microdermabrasion before except that there were no powdery stuff used on my face while peeling. first, my face was cleansed and then massaged with cold cream. and then the diamond peeling begins where i mostly felt my face being sucked. my eyes were closed the whole time so i was not really sure what the instrument used looked like. after 15 minutes or so, the last step was to put moisturizer on my face. et voila!

i really felt the skin on my face was so clean. my face also felt soft and my old pimple scars have flattened. i was told not to wash my face for six hours. she also showed me the dead skin collected. eewww!

even though the session lasted under 30 minutes, i really felt relaxed after. but i still feel bad the place was too sosyal for pictures. i would definitely go back and maybe take pictures once i've establish that i'm a regular customer and not some bano first-timer.  >.<

attempted fridate. straight from his night shift, kim accompanied me for my appointment. from zen institute, we headed to sm mall of asia for lunch. we went window-shopping for a while and then browsed through some books at powerbooks. we also played the new street fighter game at power station before deciding to just go home. i can tell kim was trying so hard not to look sleepy. poor boy. my face was also still red from the diamond peeling so it was best for us both to just go home.

house arrest. i decided to stay in for the rest of the day. i did the laundry until it was dinnertime. i made my own version of a "coleslaw" and i cut my right thumbnail in the process of grating a carrot. spell O-U-C-H with a passion. i found myself sobbing friday the 13th while cleaning my thumb and wrapping it with a band aid.

a bad news. i learned via facebook that veteran journalist and professor lourdes simbulan (a.k.a chit estella) died in a car accident in philcoa, quezon city earlier that evening. she was never my professor and i don't remember if i was able to meet her in person but i know her from the news. her stint with the manila times as managing editor was a landmark in the history of women in journalism.

i also remember miss chit estella as one of the kind editors who accommodated me and my thesis partners when i emailed her a structured questionnaire for our study on the roles of women editors on newspaper gender sensitiveness. i still have our correspondence saved on my email. that's how thankful i was for her cooperation. rip miss chit estella.

please stand up

why i now see the distance from my workstation to the comfort room, pantry, editorial room and lobby as a blessing:

via medicalbillingandcoding.org

cheers to a healthy life, y'all!

this says a lot

yesterday...

almi: may kasalanan ako sa'yo.

kim: ano na naman yan?

a: basta. hulaan mo.

k: may inaway ka? may binili ka? o may nasira ka?

>.<

inay

as a mother's day special i am sharing with you my favorite mother-daughter photo to date. taken with my mom's film camera that has no flash (will check the model when i get home next week. i think it has no batteries, too. so awesome, heh.), this is the only printed copy and it's been on display since 2009 on my office desk (then at gs and until now here at pdi).

it was my birthday weekend and i was going to enchanted kingdom with kim, my sister and her husband, and my nephew. my nephew and i were taking photos of each other outside our house while waiting for kim when my mom joined us with her camera and asked rajah to take photos of us. "may film pa ito. sayang din. ubusin na natin." and we did finish the roll. we had several shots together but this one became my instant favorite so i asked for just this one and let her have the rest of the prints. i also took photos of her with my nephew and she took photos of me with my nephew. now you know where i inherited my love for photographs, haha.

one more time, a closer look, hehe.

ang aking ina, mahal kong ina <3

rain or shine

may 8. this might be my last beach trip this summer and i had to spend it amid tropical storm bebeng. the sky was cloudy the whole day and we experienced drizzles but we were still blessed that the stormy part came later in the afternoon when we were already set to leave.

i'm just a summer girl <3

this was planned as an angels' trip but cy had to miss it for work. kate, ice and i decided to push through with it because everything was set already. with us were kim, drea, jupie and ate abi. destination was nasugbu, batangas' pico de loro beach and country club which was sooo awesome!

snapshots of the beach club from my camera:

i was really impressed with the ladies' room that i was keeping myself from taking photos of every detail of it--it's even fitted with a steam room! it's really quite huge and i especially loved the dressers--the mirror, lighting and the fact that each station has a hair dryer in the drawer.

reflected in one of the mirros were the spacious lockers

i loved the sinks too :)

cute things:

wooden heart ash tray

flower-shaped candle holder

what we had for lunch:

pizza galore <<<333

the group (all from kate/drea's cam):

drea, ice, kate, ate abi, moi, kim & jupie

love this pic! so happy :D

mutya and the mutyayas :))

and of course, the rain-or-shine jump shot! ;P

i was very happy that kim was able to join us again this time. here be couple shots:

the rest of the group at the background :D

first dip <3

new shades B)

he's not drowning :))

tag team

the life <3

for more photos and kwento, go here and here.