gratitude list 11.07

1 - i found the cutest hello kitty shoes at zara!

later that night, i watched transformers 3 in 3d with kim and my godsons. it was so fun! rajah was too ecstatic while niño fell asleep, hahaha.

2 - i attended a family reunion <3
3 - kim and i accompanied his sister to buy a nikon d5100. she said we can borrow it when we go on trips, yay!
4 - i was not feeling well but i was surprisingly in a working mode. i was able to finish updating the correction files for last month and filing materials that have accumulated under my desk. i even worked on an article that was not due until tomorrow.
5 - i had some time to continue reading this neil gaiman book at the office. i hope to finish it by next wednesday.
6 - kim went to forever 21 in makati to buy me this pair of lace canvas high tops i've been drooling over for the past five days already!

7 - my tummy has been acting up again the past days after having coffee for breakfast because i ran out of milk and i keep forgetting to restock. this also meant i've been having sleepless nights and this morning i had the most terrible headache. the one thing to be thankful about is having an excuse to have starbucks' hot choco before bedtime, hehe.
8 - i spent the whole day with kim. we were able to watch a japanese film through the eiga sai. also, bonchon for dinner, yay!
9 - i had to buy an umbrella because it was raining so hard. i was too happy that the design i liked had a duo automatic version. oh, i love rainy days!
10 - i became style council on chictopia! to celebrate, i gave my first advisory post on what to wear when shopping here. please do check it out, thanks!
11 - today was just an ordinary day, and i guess it is something to be thankful for.
12 - kim has reserved a slot for a laser tag game on friday, yay!
13 - i finished reading my fifth book for the year! one mission, down! plus, happy house cooling at ching and gail's place with my gs gehls!
14 - up won against ue in the uaap men's basketball. harry potter opens. kim and i turn 121 months.
15 - kim and i had fun playing laser tag at lazerXtreme in market!market! plus shopping spree under p1,000!!!
16 - i had some catching up with my high school friends.
17 - it was a light sunday at work. that's all to be thankful for amid the sad news of my grandfather passing away hours after i took off for work. if i could have stayed a bit longer, i would have been able to get to him and see him one last time before he left.
18 - kim understood when i lost my temper easily.
19 - food overload at work. thanks to daydesk and assessment meetings and eliza's send-off pizza party.
20 - it was good to see family and old friends today.
21 - i survived a busy day at work.
22 - i had a fun time while waiting for my salary that did not arrive today, haha.
23 - i finally got my salary, yay! also, i finished reading my sixth book for the year!
24 - it was nice to have family around.
25 & 26 - i was able to give my body a much deserved rest (a.k.a. spent two days being sick and locked in my little room).
27 - it feels so filling to have bonchon chicken sandwich for dinner again, hehe. i also watched captain america with kim. and ended choosing seats beside gerlie and her boyfriend. what a small world!
28 - i had a light day at work which is good because i was feeling dizzy the whole day.
29 - today is the birthday of the best mom in the whole world--my inay!
30 - i brought kim to cash and carry at filmore and had fun at the grocery, haha. i also got a p99.75 hello kitty stamp set at a store there called "mindwerks." i am currently having fun using it for my planner.
31 - i spent a good deal of my free time comparing mirrorless cameras. it feels good to want something and look forward to getting it one day (say, by christmas? hehe.).

a day of goodbyes

yesterday was my mamay se's funeral. the weather was crazy. it was cold when we left our house but it was so hot when we arrived in san jose. the sky started to darken with clouds by the time we were about to go to church and then it started raining during the last stretch approaching the cemetery. the rain stopped almost instantly after we left the cemetery.

paalam. mamay

advanced happy birthday, mamay...

later in the evening, we had a simple despedida dinner for tita tata and her family. she cooked chicken adobo afritada. there was my favorite sliced cucumber in salted/peppered vinegar, yum! and ice cream! too bad we missed tito lito and charlene who went to pampanga earlier that morning. they will be flying back to california on the 27th. tita tata said they will visit again after five years.

bon voyage, tita tata, tito lito and charlene!

baptism, birthday, wake

july 20. it was my friend's birthday and his son's christening. she asked me to be one of the sponsors. i actually volunteered while she was still pregnant and i was touched when she accepted, hehe. i just love being a godmother. i now have eight godchildren--six godsons and two goddaughters, if i remember right.

ninangs

ninongs

naturally, the event became another mini-reunion for us.

afterwards, i went to my grandfather's wake. i spent most of my time there taking care of my niece.

that night, i also had my first poker game. i just learned how to play the night before by watching my cousin. i learned fast because i have pusoy dos experience. at one point, i have over 300-peso worth of chips more than my first buy in. but in the end, i won a grand total of 30 bucks, hahaha!

(all photos were taken by kim. thanks!)

mamay se

today, my mamay se was reunited with my nanay se. i know that he is now free from pain and feeling young again. but more than relief for him, i am just feeling sad right now.

i can only be thankful that i was able to visit mamay while he still has the strength to sit down and talk with me. he was supposed to celebrate his birthday on august 7 and the last time i visited him he told me he's not sure if he'll still make it. he was already tired, i guess. he has resigned to time, he told me. "kung kakaunin na ako ay sasama na ako..."

but i was hopeful then. i told him to eat well so that he will regain his strength.

and then earlier this afternoon, around 1:30 p.m., my mother called me to tell the sad news that mamay passed away. i still cannot absorb it. death is a hard thing to accept.

now as i try to remember my moments with mamay, one memory stands out--the way he says "ang aming almi" when i was still a kid. and then there was this memory from about nine years ago, when one of cousins gave birth to a baby girl that mamay said reminded him of me, "mayroon na tayong bagong almi," he announced.

i also remember how mamay was gifted with a healing hand. whatever body aches we had were gone after a massage from him. recently, i discovered my nephew might have inherited that gift. he would always ask me if i wanted a massage. "ikaw pala ang papalit sa mamay e," i told him. i almost feel guilty saying it. because mamay will never be replaced.

paalam, mamay.

saturberks

i remember how my friend karen's son khian's birthday parties always become an instant mini-reunion for our high school barkada.

khian's 1st birthday

the last time i attended was when khian turned two, and now he is turning seven.

khian's 2nd birthday

here be the birthday boy with his mom. and that's tita ann may with her badass dslr, hehe.

group photos from may, yay!

teng, you are missed!!! :*

my friend reyna brought one of her nieces with her. reihza is so bibo. "kaninong anak yan?" i asked reyna. "sa kuya ko," she said. and then the kid added, "at saka ng mama ko din!"

i love kids who are not shy and reihza is one of them. her cheerfulness and playfulness is so contagious. i ended jumping at the garden with her, haha.

photo by may :)

before parting ways, we had some catching up over coffee at cafe de lipa.

even though we've changed and we're all finding our own place in the world, we all know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we'll come to each other. because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point where we're not all still friends.

~anonymous

laser tagged

after having an early lunch at kfc, kim and i played laser tag at lazerXtreme in market!market! this was our first time there but we have played laser tag at enchanted kingdom three years ago. the one at the latter was an outdoor one; while the former was indoor.

here be a photo of lazerXtreme's lounge:

our opponent was a team of three (two females and one male) who were apparently not lazerXtreme first-timers. considering the number and experience advantages, we not surprisingly lose (palusot), haha! in addition, we came in white tops and chose the vests with pink lights; while our opponents came in all-black and just knew it was best to choose the vests with green lights. upon entering the arena, we know we were up for a challenge because the lights inside were mostly green and the color of the laser of the guns was green as well. we super failed on camouflaging, haha! but we still had so much fun!

after the game, we were each given our scorecards. my codename, which was pre-assigned to your gun, was falcon. here's my scorecard:

i ranked third (out of five), not bad at all! ;P

after washing our sweaty selves at a restroom beside healthway, which is across lazerXtreme, we changed clothes and decided to go shopping with a 1,000-peso fund. here's our p830-worth loot:

after shopping, we went strolling along serendra and bonifacio high street (where i jumped for joy, heh) but then it got too hot so we decided to go home already.

but on our way to the bus terminal, we first stopped by the open food court for merienda. kim ordered sisig,

and bought caramel tarts from bacolod for me.

best day ever

today is our 121st monthsary. we already had an early celebration last weekend but we still went on a quick dinner date to do our 7:38 p.m. photo tradition <3

we both need a haircut already! :))

i was really in a good mood so i let him kiss me (chos!), haha. it's just that earlier, the up men's basketball team won against ue in it's first game for this uaap season. it's the maroons' first win since 2009 so i know my fellow iskos and iskas are grinning until now like we are the champions already.

another source of good vibes is the second movie installment of harry potter and the deathly hallows that opens today. we are set to watch on the 20th and i am already too excited.

also, today, it's been one month since this <3

so, obviously, this is such a special day and for that we decided to have cheese on our burgers, hahaha!

ohlala, to the best days ever *\0/*

house cooling

i have been to housewarmings before but this was my first ever house cooling. venue was at newly-weds ching and gail's house because they are cool like that! ;)

photo by gail (on timer mode, of course)

food galore while watching, uhm, better to not say what, hahaha!

buffalo wings

white and margherita pizza combo

creamy basil pesto

treats from cibo

healthy wrap by ching :)

dream 070611

in this dream, everyone was telepathic.

i was trapped in another dimension for a mission. i was with a man and another girl. while trying to time our escape on either of the two exits warping from one place to the other whenever we approach (one leads to what seemed to be our headquarters and the other to a familiar place near a relative's house in the province in real life). i told the man and the other girl that i can lead the way to the exit near my relative's house because i know the way even if it warps.

but it was too late for us to escape because a different scene was already happening in that other dimension. people started running toward us from nowhere, mostly tourists and armed men. the man i was with has just recovered from a heart operation and one of the armed men misfired and shot the heart of our man.

the man fell into my arms and i checked his heart right away. his heart was a little to his right, not left. our female companion was panicking and screaming at me *in my head* to hurry up. but i wasn't panicking. i was moving slowly and so sure of what i was doing. i operated on the man with my bare hands and he breathed back to life.

it took some time before he regained consciousness and when he did he showed a certain dislike for violins. i was in a class and i was checking all the violins and the man was not pleased.

i found an instrument that looks like an upside-down banjo. at first, i can't figure out how to play it but when i tried strumming it, i played well.

then there was a pool and i saw a girl dived in and she never resurfaced. from the surface, she looked like she was walking under the water. and then i realized that the water was floating upside down, too. the girl was trapped.

and then there was a party. one lady seemed to be hated by everyone else there. she made me wear a white crochet dress. when she left, another lady approached me and said she didn't like the dress and said what could the other lady be thinking about making me wear it.

the lady helped me out of the dress because it was hard to remove. it had no zippers or buttons. underneath it, i was wearing a purple dress and the lady said it was good that i had a pretty dress with me. i said we pack at least one formal dress whenever we go on mission.

and then i woke up.

early monthsary celebration

kim and i decided to celebrate our 121st monthsary early because we will not be having a common day off next week. we were supposed to kick-off our celebration by using my movie passes at gateway cineplex on thursday after work but i was not feeling well then so the plan did not push through. we decided to just catch the eiga sai (japanese film fest) at shangri-la on friday, which was also free.

but first, we had lunch at tokyo tokyo for a more japanese feel, hehe.

we had the tonkatsu meal (na ang mahal na pala!).

the movie we saw was titled "your friend." it was two hours long and some might say it can be shortened for a movie with a simple plot about friendship. but i think the movie did its work for me because it was very honest. it had a mix of long shots and close ups and isn't life just like that? we experience moments either from afar or within our arms. and then at times, in the movie, the screen lingers on one scene for most might say too long and all that happens in the end was the little girl sobs. but life is like that, too, there are pauses and awkward moments and delayed reactions.

after the movie, we were supposed to head to megamall but i was still not at my best which discouraged us from walking. we just went back to makati. we dropped by forever 21 to spend my remaining sodexo premium gift passes and then had dinner at bonchon in greenbelt 1.

kim tried the chicken drumsticks,

while i had my usual chicken sandwich meal.

saturday morning was spent watching "the last song" (i cried) and half of "never let me go" (kim got bored), hahaha. after lunch, kim suggested we go to sm mall of asia to see the fireworks later that night.

we had dinner at bistro ravioli just because we haven't tried eating there and we love raviolis and there were only a few people when we got there (but by the time we were about to leave, we noticed almost all tables were occupied already). there was a mall-wide sale so all stores and restaurants were full and i was not at my best mood to try and be patient, hehe.

we tried the spinach and feta cheese ravioli,

12-inch margherita pizza,

and diablo chicken.

everything was good! and reasonably priced. our bill was around p800 only.

on our way to see the pyromusical show, we passed by selecta's kid's universe and we thought of taking pictures first because we still have 30 minutes to kill before the fireworks display starts.

the fireworks display that night had the transformers theme song as background music. the kids were all squeaking, haha.

it was raining and i ended buying this pretty floral duo automatic umbrella from fibrella.

irresistible cuteness (part 2)

warning pic spam of stuff i bought on impulse not because i need them but just because they are sooo cute!!! >.<

korean stick-on notes from a bazaar at eastwood city walk:

band-aid stick-on notes?! so adorable!!!

label-stickers found at fully booked:

pretty to-do list with magnetic back board:

a load of cuteness from landmark:

stick-on notes: close/open

stick-on notes galore

pink lace tape with hearts and bows detail

matching planners <3

planner cover

planner inside pages

paris-themed stick-on notes!!!

cute finds at dimensione

look back: irresistible cuteness (part 1).