female einstein

i guess i can never be considered a vain person at all.  true, i take forever in the shower, but getting dressed i do in a flash.  afterwards, i simply run my fingers through my wet hair as i go to the car then comb in front of my window once i get off.

i remember one time when i was at my parents' place, i overheard my mama in telling my niece, "you're just like your aunt!"

excitedly i ask, "in what ways are we alike?"

my mama in's reply erases the smile on my face, "'yung suklay nang umaga hanggang gabi na..."  ->  your combing in the morning already takes you through the day.  uh-oh, not a very good grooming model this aunt here  : }

this afternoon, i've crossed three time zones when i felt the need to go to the lavatory.  upon entering the cubicle, was i horrified to see a female einstein me in the mirror!  all the static in the plane has set my hair going in all directions in the most unflattering ways!  i wouldn't mind imitating the scientist brain-wise but hair-wise?!  yuck!

wake-up call

i had a really, really sluggish day yesterday.  i went home 5 am from an early christmas party (yup!  scheduled early so as not to be in conflict with the surge of parties expected in the season) and was really, awfully sleepy to the core.



i actually wanted to go home early  ->  ok, ok, make that literally early, around 2:30 am when the party ended, but couldn't as two of my classmates wanted to wait up until 4:30 - 5:00 am saying it would be unsafe for them to go home at 2:30.  they requested to wait up at another classmate's house, a request my oh-so-gracious classmate was ready to oblige.



i posed strong objections saying i am the one who has very often lately been picking up and bringing home early mornings  : }  said classmate and i am not about to bring her home now with company who would stay at her house even just a couple more hours.  i said if she's going home at 2:30 am, she better really be going home to sleep and not going home to hang out some more with whoever for whatever.



i really am just so mortified as it is to show my face to my classmate's husband thinking if i were he i would not think so nicely of me given that i am the one he sees 'dragging' his wife to this and that.  actually, all these late night/early morning get-togethers, i am just an invitee and so is his wife.  it just so happens that their house is along my route so i just fetch and bring home his wife on these night outs.  the wife, by the way, was my grade school best friend.



anyway, i suggested the four of us just go to this 24-hour eatery where we could wait the morning.  they were not ok with it given that we were all girls.  they preferred our classmate's house.  i was starting to get annoyed already thinking others went home before midnight, they stay past and now have all these qualms about going home or spending time in some public place.



good thing our batchmates, as they have been wont to do, planned to go someplace else after the party.  i normally would not like these transfers/continuations but this time i welcomed it as it would give my classmates someplace to wait up the morning.



so first we go to this restaurant.  but then a batchmate was not comfortable with the place's sanitation so they decide that we transfer to another classmate's place instead.  pile into the vehicles we go and chat the morning away at that classmate's place up to 4:30 am.



i was supposed to go home to my place (i didn't want to be waking anyone at my parents' place so early on a weekend) but decide to make a u-turn to my parents' house at the last minute as i was having a hard time keeping my eyes open while driving.  very risky  : }



i ring my sister, she opens the door, i rush upstairs, change into night clothes and drop like a log on the bed.  i did not clean my face nor brush my teeth anymore.  yuck!  (ugh!  i couldn't believe i'm posting such a statement on the web!)



anyway, late in the morning, i was still in half-asleep mode when my sister enters the room.  she sees me (half-)awake and tells me someone called.  i ask who.  she says the caller didn't say but she is sure it isn't my grade school best friend.  i then text a batchmate to ask whether it was she who called.  negative.  by process of elimination i already knew who it was and return the call.



after the short conversation, i lay awhile on the bed then clean up to attend the 12:30 pm mass.



after mass, i go back to sleep.  around 5 pm (imagine!), i seem to be in a dreamy state where i hear my phone ringing.  i answer it in a half daze and was surprised to find that it is a call from my high school best friend.  i tell her i am at my parents' place and she could just call me at their land line.  she does, long distance, and i am all the more surprised (appalled!) at the reason she was calling.  it has something to do with a clarificatory e-mail i sent our e-group a week ago (she read just now) and she called to put in her two cents' worth.  i glared at her (if only she could see me over the phone, ha-ha) saying she wakes me up to call about something like that?!  helllooooooo!!!  she tells me it's 5 pm.  i relate to her how i got home at 5 am.  we talk and laugh and talk.  i end up chiding her all this time she never really bothered to call me long distance, she reads a clarificatory e-mail which is not even about her and suddenly she's on the phone?!  ugh!  the stuff that makes one call... : }

crossroads

last night when i posted, i told myself i better blog again tomorrow so my blog will go beyond 13 entries -> ok, ok, silly thought there you might say : }



anyway, i had thought of blogging about my broken headlight but i'm going to set that aside to give way to something more personal.



i am at a crossroads at this point. something that i had believed to be easily obtainable all these years turns out to be hard to get. i learned just yesterday that certain requirements i do not meet.



i've been thinking, if i were to spend so much time, money and effort to dissolve something that was supposed to last forever; should i just not instead spend time and effort (no expense on this one) rebuilding what has been broken? hopes will be dashed either way -> which should carry more weight?



someone who used to be so dear to me liked to say, "there are signs for men of understanding." i don't really know whether i am a woman of understanding but right now the signs appear really conflicting to me. i am looking forward to a clincher. in the meantime, i am spending a lot of time in prayer and introspection... i hope i get my epiphany soon...

a jarring day

there's a lot on my mind at the moment... i've been in high spirits these past few months and today is the day the streak is broken. first came an unexpected e-mail; followed by an unexpected text. if these are signs, they sure are conflicting. i am confused...

they bothered : }

this afternoon, i was on the phone with a balikbayan friend from australia. what do you know, he, too, has read my blog : } you put something on the web, of course, you don't really expect it to be hidden or something. but then i must say i really am surprised, and amused, that people actually bothered to read my blog, ha-ha-ha...



i received texts and e-mails re the ring on my finger. i was taken aback when someone knew about my car malfunction so soon after i blogged about it. i chuckled when the kindness i experienced from a stranger cropped up in a conversation. i had to pause awhile when someone asked just the other night whether the camera on my hand was the very one mentioned in my blog (hey, i posted that months ago!)



someone even sort of complained about one entry being too long. i was torn between telling her, you didn't really have to read it, you know, and being touched she was patient enough to endure it. me, i usually pass when i see too much text.



when people tell me they've read my blog, my immediate reaction is to ask which one. and the reply i've been getting has been, 'every single one.' whoa!



i've been on friendster how many years but never even once checked a single blog... maybe i should click around sometime...

cinderella next year

last thursday, after soooooooo many years, a curfew was again imposed on the city. i was on a night out and i received texts, a phone call even, informing me of the 12 midnight to 5 a.m. curfew. the texts were not mere forwards but messages composed especially for me, ha-ha. one of the texters was an officemate who normally would not send me a non-work related message. i cringed at the thought that i now seem viewed as incompatible with curfews given my recent late nights which extend to early mornings (all good, clean, talk-talk-talk fun, let me emphasize)



i think my new year's resolution is going to be back to my cinderella way, i.e., home by midnight...

someone's looking

i don't usually allow guys to put their arms around me, hug me, give me a peck or anything physical. i reserve the privilege (really!) for relatives and, of course, for the one who owns my heart : )



last night, we had a send off party for a batchmate who was going back to the US. the batchmate has hugged just about everyone and when it came to me, i budged for a second but eventually gave in. someone remarked, 'it's ok, big brother is not looking anyway.' ('big brother' is another batchmate who's been interested in me since high school. nope, he is not, and was never, my boyfriend. ) came a rejoinder, 'yup, big brother is not looking but big sister is.'



it turns out our batchmate's partner was there and witnessed the short hug.



ooops : }

punctual

i was at a meeting this afternoon and we were trying to make sense of some heavy bandwidth utilization at 7:30 am.  (regular office hours are from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm.)



one of the attendees says, 'don't tell me it's the guards, they don't have system access.'



another wisecracks, 'it couldn't be the bosses, they come in at 9:00.'



follows a quick rebuttal , 'hey, don't say that!  ->  they come in at 10:00...'



laughter... ; D

the ghost of a dream

i have an aversion to riding a taxi cab by myself.  this is because of a bad, bad dream my mom had about me way back when i was still in high school.  i therefore prefer to take public transportation where there's me and many other passengers than ride a vehicle where there's only me and the driver.  i would much rather feel safe than convenient.



yesterday, since i have yet to have my car fixed, i again had to go on a public commute.  i walked past our village gate and rode the first jeepney that came along.  what do you know, i was supposed to go right and the jeepney turns left.  uh-oh.  i get off, wait for the jeepney to get out of sight (ha-ha), and walk over to the opposite side where i again take another jeepney.  ok, this one goes to the direction i'm going.  i get off where they have this jeepney terminal sign and stand there waiting for another jeepney going to the train station.  i've been waiting 15 minutes and still not a single jeepney has arrived.  i ask a man in the corner whether jeepneys going this place were really few and far between.   he tells me i am on the wrong side (yuck!  again!?) and that i should cross and take a jeepney on the opposite lane, get off at its terminal and take another jeepney to get to where i'm going.  huh?!  i was going so near and yet i have to go this roundabout way if i were to ride a jeep.



i think about how my brother earlier offered to fetch me from the house -> an offer i declined thinking it was too much of a bother to have him go to and fro my place.  on hindsight, maybe i should have just bothered him.  that's what brothers are for, right? ; )



anyway, cabs were passing by and i was really, really tempted to hail one already.  i gave in to the temptation telling myself it is broad daylight, the route is short and it is about time i shake off this fear which stemmed from a bad dream years back.



ride a cab i did and, when we reached the station, i paid the driver who then asks me where i'm going.  i tell him i'm going to quezon city.  he asks me to ride his taxi all the way to quezon city!  my heart skipped a beat, i tell him i'll take the train and i get off the cab as fast as i can.  ugh!  i hate it how this ghost from a past dream still haunts me up to now.  it will take a while before i ride another cab again  : }

postscript to my car malfunction

i show up at my parents' place on a thursday and my dad is surprised as i usually go there mondays and tuesdays.  i tell him my car overheated for the first time ever (i leave out the time, ha-ha) and i'm going to find a mechanic to check it.  what do you know, my dad goes, 'oh, you don't need a mechanic.  what you need is someone who would clean your radiator.'  he proceeds to tell me he tinkered with my radiator and something fell inside and that is almost definitely what is blocking some circulation causing the overheat.  huh?!  i was like, 'why didn't you tell me???'  aaargh!

my not so simple night/morning

i was ***supposed to***  have a simple night last night.



around 7:30 pm i walked over to a friend's house where i was supposed to help her upload some pictures.  while there, she called up a high school batchmate she also wanted to come over.  it turns out two other batchmates were at that batchmate's house.  not wanting to bring two unexpected guests to my friend's house, she invited us over to her house instead.  i balked saying i had parked my car at my parents' place.  my friend, who has a car but stopped driving a long time ago, said she'll ask her housemate to bring us to our batchmate's house.  i said we didn't really need to be bothering anyone as we could just stay put in her place.  our other batchmate, however, kept on insisting we go to her house.  i kept on declining until she offered to fetch us at my friend's place.  i was so touched that she was willing to do that so i gave in saying it would be better for me to walk back to my parents' place to get my car instead of her coming over from a not so near place to fetch us.



when i got to my parents' place, my mom asked whether i again have a meeting.  i said our high school reunion's over so no more meetings.  i suppose she then assumed my friend and i were already done uploading pics and i was going home already.  my dad even told me to call my mom once i got home.  i said my phone was still not working.  he told me to text her instead.  well, i did not as my friend and i were at our batchmate's place up to 1 am : }



past 1 am as i was driving past the intersection of C5 and kalayaan ave. i noticed the  blinking oil and battery indicators on my dashboard.  my battery is fairly new and my oil i regularly have checked when i gas up so i wondered what could be up  (yup, simply wondered.  looking back, i don't know why through all this i did not really get nervous or anything.)



i managed to get to bonifacio high street where my car first stalled.  i restarted the engine with the thought that i had to get to the house asap.  i coasted along then at the first bend, stalled again.  i restarted again and then right after turning the corner to mckinley, stalled for the third time.



that's when i decided to open my hood.  i checked the water and it was ok.  nevertheless, i still poured some in.  i was supposed to check my oil and realized i didn't know how to fill it up, horrors.  all i knew was you pull out  a stick to check it -> i did, but i didn't really bother to get a reading.  what i actually intended to do was put some oil in but ended up wondering how on earth i could pour oil through that tiny, tiny opening where the stick goes through.  (goodness, i started driving in college and only now realize that i am oh so ignorant about car stuff!)  i got my flashlight and tried to see where oil was supposed to be poured in.  i was able to locate it but then, i couldn't open the lid!  (funny but what crossed my mind was the instance i had to settle for peanut butter because i couldn't open the lid of a cheese spread.)



i decided to text a friend to be on standby in case i am not able to get the car to the house.  times like this i thought i should be bothering first either my dad or my brother but i couldn't as my parents think i was already home hours before : }



i tried to restart the car, it did.  i drove again.  only then did i notice the overheating indicator : }



i stopped and drove and stopped and drove a couple more times until my car stalled again approaching a well-lit lit area.  i again opened the hood and again tried to unsuccessfully open the oil lid.  just then a guy in a motorcyle passed by the opposite lane.  he went past my car then made a u-turn to help me : )  he was able to open the lid and told me my oil was actually full.  he asked whether it was just an overheat and said if so just wait awhile before i restart.  he asked where i was going and i said home which was near already.  he asked me to restart the car, it did, and we waved each other off as i drove toward our village.



my not so simple night ended with my car making it to my garage but not before i experienced the kindness of a stranger in the drizzly wee hours of this morning.  i did not get his name and he never got mine but, whoever and wherever he is, i'd like him to know that i am really, really thankful : )

the ring on my finger

thrice this month i've been asked, "how come you're still wearing your wedding ring?"

the latest was just last night at our high school reunion by no less than pido jarencio, my high school batchmate  ->  ha-ha... a little name-dropping there... hi, pido : )

anyway, thrice, too, i had to explain that the ring on my finger is actually not my wedding band but a tricolor i-love-you ring given me by my mom years back when i was still single.

i don't know but the question and my reply has made me realize that no matter what rings i may start or, contrary to my hopes and expectations, stop wearing, my mom's i-love-you ring will always be one ring i could go back to anytime and won't ever have to refrain from wearing.  such a comforting and heartwarming thought...

i love you, mom... thank you for the ring... thank you for your love... thank you for everything... : )

his joyful presence

i had a joint birthday celebration with a high school batchmate last night (up to the wee hours this morning :o). so batchmates were arriving one by one greeted with the usual, hi, hello, how are you... suddenly, one batchmate arrives and there were shrieks and excited HI!!!!!!!!!!!!-HELLLOOOOOOOO!!!s. i was about to conclude he was our most popular batchmate when i realize the excitement was due as much (?) to his presence as to the presence of a platter of cold cuts goodies in his hands.



ah, batchmates...



; )

the logic of sisters...

my car is coding tuesdays (here in the philippines, that means it has to be off the road from 7 am to 7 pm) so mondays i sleep over at my parents' place then ride with my brother to and from the office the following day.



this morning, my brother dropped me off at the office as usual. after office, i am surprised to see him walking, instead of driving, toward our building to pick me up. it turns out he forgot the keys inside the vehicle. no problem, we take a cab. he'll just come back for the vehicle later.



on our way, we fetch our neighbor (same office as mine) and then my sister (nearby office) who both regularly ride with him home.



in the cab, i was seated at the rear, behind the driver. i was looking out the window when i see an officemate in the jeepney in front. i break out in a wide smile and enthusiastically wave at her. now, what do you know... the guy beside her smiles and waves back at me.



i blurt out, "yikes! so embarrassing! the guy thought i was waving at him!"



my sister so coolly retorts, "oh, that's ok. he's cute anyway..."



talk about logic... :}

thoughtful ; )

last friday, i attended a meeting at a batchmate's house.  those of us present have already taken our fill of the generous spread on the table and were just having small talk while waiting for the meeting to formally start.  after a while, i went:  'may darating pa ba?'

batchmate2:  'si <toot>.'

me:  'sino pa?'

batchmate2:  'siya na lang.'

me:  'may kasama siya?'

batchmate2:  'mag-isa lang.'

me:  'wala nang iba pang darating aside from <toot>?'

batchmate2:  'wala na.'

me (looking at the 2 pieces of chicken left on the plate):  'puwede akin na lang 'yung isa pang chicken?'

natawa si <batchmate2>...

something better

i used to keep a diary in my teens and the thought of starting a blog has long crossed my mind but i haven't come around to it.  too many other things to do plus i wanted the first one to be about something nice and good and encouraging and reassuring and uplifting -- something positive and feel-good.  not that there were not any of those things in my life but nothing really stood out to be worth being my first blog.



well, looks like yesterday the worthy first has come for me.



my camera conked out saturday (more on this camera in some other blog) and i had to get a replacement asap as the annual mountain climb in our province was coming up the following saturday and, me being me, i could not imagine going there without a camera.  (i've been our family's photographer since second year high school.  that is a loooooooong time.)



my requirements were simple (or so i thought).  the camera has to have a flippable monitor and it has to be a sony  ->  only because i did not want my 1GB and 256KB memory sticks to go to waste.  well, what do you know.  it turns out the only recent model sony camera with a flippable monitor was the sony dsc m2.  so i call sm appliance center rockwell and ask whether they have such model (i wanted sm so i could earn rewards points with my purchase).  they said they have.  i asked whether they have it in stock.  they said they have.  so wednesday i go to rockwell to purchase the camera.  when i arrived there and saw the actual unit, i was disappointed.  it didn't seem sturdy at all.  nevertheless, i needed a camera asap and this was the only one which met my requirements so buy still i would.



i've already signed the warranty card and given my credit and rewards cards to the cashier when, lo and behold, the salesguys open the box and it was empty.  (ugh!  look before you sign!!!)  it turns out to be the box for the display unit.  i said i was told when i called that they have new stock.  some guy goes to the storeroom and comes back with another box, this time with a camera inside.  but then the box again was labeled 'display unit.'  i told the salespersons i am not one to purchase display units.  (i have passed up a lot of items in the past simply because the item on display was the only one left.)  one of the salespersons tells me the display unit is unused as they displayed only one of the two sent them by the supplier.  i asked what the difference was between a display unit and a non-display-unit.  the girl tells me display units are owned by the supplier not by sm.  i am not too happy.  one of the guys tells me it's up to me whether i still want to go ahead with the purchase.  another guy tells me i've already signed the warranty card.  i tell them i'll pass as there is the same item upstairs.  i'll just buy from there even if it means i won't be able to earn rewards points.



i go to av surfer at the third floor and ask to buy a sony dsc m2.  guess what.  what they have is again only the item on display and i will have to wait 3 days for them to get new stock.  that meant goodbye to a sony camera as i wanted to make the purchase asap because we were leaving for laguna friday.  it was already wednesday and i wasn't too keen on risking a last-minute look-around thursday.



i go to the canon section and decide to buy a powershot.  (a powershot would actually have been my first choice if not for the memory sticks i wanted to reuse.)  the salesperson tells me they don't have the model i want in stock.  oh my, oh my, oh my.  it was 6:30 pm and i was starting to feel down.  i go to rockwell on a weekday, pay parking and couldn't buy a camera.



i decide to try out megamall.  traffic was heavy and i get there close to 8 pm.  they close at 9.  i go straight to sm appliance center.  they have on stock the powershot i like, available on 12 months deferred payment at 0% interest with the credit card i have and... with a free printer to boot!  the printer was worth around P8,000!  was i happy!  i bought the unit right away, earned points with the purchase and am now looking forward to selling the printer.



when God closes a door, He opens a window.  when He doesn't give you what you think you need, it's because He has something better in store.  so true and i am thankful...