The Normal Side of the Looking Glass

I had a heart to heart talk with my dad today. After having a nice lunch at Greek Tavernas in Tagaytay, we went home and my dad called me to his office. I was a little apprehensive at first since I knew it would be about my not quite so stellar grades. But it turned into a much greater lesson in life.

He talked to me about hardwork, that while he will always be there to support me while still alive, he won’t be there for me when he’s gone. And that’s why I have to learn to stand on my own two feet. He reminded me that I have to be responsible for my actions, and that there will always be consequences.

He told me to find nice friends, to learn the German meaning of the word “FRIEND”, which is a deeper sense of friendship, not the literal translation. In his own words: “The English term for friend is nothing. Now the German meaning of friendship is something really special. Look at me and my friends. More than 50 years of German friendship.”

He asked me about Tristan. “I liked him, he was a nice guy,” my dad said. “What happened between the two of you?” I told him it was nothing. I couldn’t bring myself to say that we’ve no communication anymore. Maybe because I’ve always prided myself in always keeping touch with long lost friends. Even I can’t fathom why we aren’t friends. That’s just life I guess. My dad just read in my eyes what my lips couldn’t say. “We just didn’t work out.”

He talked to me about boys:
“Never depend on anyone, especially a man. Make something out of yourself, so that you can kick a guy on his ass”
“Don’t listen to what boys say. They can tell you many things when the day is long.”
“Everybody makes mistakes. Just don’t make mistakes that harm you.”
“Always take care and be careful.”
“Find a nice guy whom you like and likes you back. Don’t go for trouble making boys”
“Always do a background check on boys. Think more than twice” (haha!)

We talked about food. A mundane thing for conversation, perhaps, but fun nevertheless. Since I had Psari Skaras at Greek Tavernas, my dad complimented my about my taste in food. We even talked about wine, since I am his only drinking partner in our family. We bond over Greek White wine, which is simply “Première Classe!”

Through our heart to heart talk, my dad just proved to me again how much he loves me. I’m so so blessed to have him as my father. He could have given up on me during all those times that I just gave him disappointments. But instead he supported me during my darkest days. I will forever be grateful.

“PROUD KA BA SA LAHI MO?” suportahan natin ang PROJECT proud FILIPINO


click the following link: http://gfolio.multiply.com/photos/album/109/PROJECT_proud_FILIPINO#

I'm Filipino and damn proud of it :)
Let's show the world what it means to be a filipino! :)

How do you cool your lips
After a summers kiss
How do you rid the sweat
 After the body bliss
How do you turn your eyes
From the romantic glare
How do you block the sound of a voice
You'd know anywhere

(chorus) Oh I really should have known
By the time you drove me home
By the vagueness in your eyes
Your casual good-byes
By the chill in your embrace
The expression on your face
That told me you might have some advice to give
On how to be insensitive
 
How do you numb your skin
After the warmest touch
How do you slow your blood
After the body rush
How do you free your soul
After youve found a friend
How do you teach your heart its a crime
To fall in love again

Oh you probably wont remember me
Its probably ancient history
Im one of the chosen few
Who went ahead and fell for you
 Im out of vogue,
Im out of touch I fell too fast,
I feel too much
I thought that you might have some advice to give
On how to be insensitive

     A few days ago Arne contracted Dengue fever, and was confined at Makati Medical Center. It was a good thing my mom had him checked right away when he came home from school with a high fever. Otherwise, it could have been fatal. He's safe now, and due to come back home this tuesday. I've been spending my nights at Makati Med, and during my first night there I was scared to death because it was the first time I stayed overnight at a hospital. I kept on thinking about the people who died there, and the baby screaming and crying in the pediatrics area didn't help. Visions of tiyanaks crawling on me while I slept swarmed in my mind. After tossing and turning for awhile, drowsiness finally overcame me and I dozed off at around 1 am.

    On Saturday, I met up with Ate Tin and Tristan. We went to Providence and screamed our lungs out til Ate Tin's super possessive bf came and took her away. With 5 tokens left, me and Tristan sang our own horrible renditions of love song duets. Our voices didn't blend together and it was hard trying to keep a straight face while singing. After that we decided to go condo viewing. Since we were at Providence Tower already, we looked at their units first.
After signing our names, the woman in charge brought us to one of the rooms. I instantly liked it. It was far better than the one I initially wanted to rent, but 3000 pesos more expensive. I said i'd think about it, and got the owner' s business card. Next was Burgundy. I already inquired there before, but since I like condo hunting so much I decided I still wanted to go there. The office was closed though, since it was already 5pm. We postponed our condo hunting for next week.

    Tristan and I decided to go to Mall of Asia next. I don't know why, since I hate that place. I swore I'd never go back there after my first horrible experience (going there during opening week was a BAD idea. Crowds, crowds and crowds. Need I say more?) But I guess I thought it would be ok, since I was with The Boy Who is Always Happy and Optimistic. And I have to admit. I actually enjoyed it. We went Window shopping, had dinner, watched the fireworks display, and had ice cream afterwards.

    When we got bored, I decided to go to Makati Med and visit Arne. Tristan came with me and after irritating my brother, we went to the Mcdonald's 24 hour store nearby and had late night snacks while talking about everything under the sun. We were talking so animatedly that we lost track of time. It was past 12 when I finally went back to the hospital. He kissed me goodbye in front of Arne's door right there in the hospital corridor.

J. K. Rowling has just announced: Dumbledore was GAY!


"NEW YORK - Harry Potter fans, the rumors are true: Albus Dumbledore, master wizard and Headmaster of Hogwarts, is gay. J.K. Rowling, author of the mega-selling fantasy series that ended last summer, outed the beloved character Friday night while appearing before a full house at Carnegie Hall.
After reading briefly from the final book, "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows," she took questions from audience members.
She was asked by one young fan whether Dumbledore finds "true love."
"Dumbledore is gay," the author responded to gasps and applause.
She then explained that Dumbledore was smitten with rival Gellert Grindelwald, whom he defeated long ago in a battle between good and bad wizards. "Falling in love can blind us to an extent," Rowling said of Dumbledore's feelings, adding that Dumbledore was "horribly, terribly let down."
Dumbledore's love, she observed, was his "great tragedy."
"Oh, my god," Rowling concluded with a laugh, "the fan fiction."
Potter readers on fan sites and elsewhere on the Internet have speculated on the sexuality of Dumbledore, noting that he has no close relationship with women and a mysterious, troubled past. And explicit scenes with Dumbledore already have appeared in fan fiction.
Rowling told the audience that while working on the planned sixth Potter film, "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," she spotted a reference in the script to a girl who once was of interest to Dumbledore. A note was duly passed to director David Yates, revealing the truth about her character.
Rowling, finishing a brief "Open Book Tour" of the United States, her first tour here since 2000, also said that she regarded her Potter books as a "prolonged argument for tolerance" and urged her fans to "question authority."
Not everyone likes her work, Rowling said, likely referring to Christian groups that have alleged the books promote witchcraft. Her news about Dumbledore, she said, will give them one more reason."

There's gonna be a movie of LOVE IN THE TIME OF CHOLERA ! ! !
Its one of my favorite books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, next to 100 Years of Solitude and Of Love and Other Demons.

I can't wait! I can't wait! I can't wait!

Huhuhu. I hope the director does justice to Garcia's portrayal of  scenes, landscapes, the moving conversations, and the way of life in the 19th century in the Caribbean. It's a picturesque tale of unrequited love, deeply exploring the idea that suffering for love is a kind of nobility.

I really hope Fermina Daza and Florentino Ariza and come to life on screen. Please don't disappoint!



The summary of the book (for those who haven't read it yet:

The novel begins as Juvenal Urbino comes upon the body of an old friend and chess partner, Jeremiah de Saint-Amour. Jeremiah killed himself at the age of sixty to avoid growing old.

Upon returning home, Urbino falls to his death after trying to retrieve the household parrot from the branches of a mango tree, leaving his wife, Fermina Daza, a widow. After the funeral, Florentino Ariza approaches Fermina Daza and declares once more his vow of everlasting love. She is furious at him and orders him out of the house.

The novel then flashes back and relates the intertwining stories of Fermina Daza, Florentino Ariza, and Juvenal Urbino, following Fermina and Florentino from childhood to old age. As children, they had had a short and intense epistolary romance. After Fermina returns from a trip to her hometown, she recognizes her relationship with Florentino as naïve and is filled with disenchantment. She rejects him, leaving him obsessed and sick with love.

The middle of the novel tracks both of their lives: Florentino Ariza harbors an all-consuming obsession for Fermina Daza. He intends to stay a virgin until they are together again, but soon finds himself using sex to mitigate the pain of their separation, engaging in 622 affairs. Fermina Daza, forced by her father Lorenzo, marries Juvenal Urbino at the age of twenty-one and becomes a respectable wife to him.

The novel then returns to the beginning when Juvenal Urbino dies and Florentino Ariza repeats his vow. They resume an exchange of letters, building a stronger relationship than the first. The novel ends when Florentino Ariza and Fermina Daza are on a river voyage together and find themselves in love. Fermina fears the scandal this will bring, so the Captain of the ship raises the yellow flag of cholera, dooming them to exile
 

Screenshots from the movie:

Hahaha :) I sound ecstatic, right?
Bes has facebook na! Go! Go! Go!
Hahaha. I bombarded her profile with lotsa applications as a welcome :)
Have fun bes!

Its 1:49 am and I'm still awake. I wouldn't mind if I was out partying in Manila. That would be normal. But i'm here at home in Laguna with nothing to do. My dad is away on a business trip in Germany, my mom is away on business in Tarlac, and my siblings and I are sleeping in three separate bedrooms. There's nothing else to do on a boring night.
Fighting off my insomnia would be useless. Unless I take sleeping pills. Haha
Awhile ago, my sister and I were sorting out pictures from our past travels. It was hard because all the pictures we were looking for were in separate photo albums (no digicams yet!) I wanted to scan our old pics and save them digitally. Unfortunately, a huge batch of our picures were missing. And even more unfortunately, they were my favorites. The ones from France.

How could these photos be missing? I was really irritated because all the rest our pics were there. The ones from Spain, Cyprus, Sweden, Denmark, China, Dubai, Malaysia, Austria and Germany were ALL there.

It seems impossible that 2 years worth of photos (we traveled to France 2 times) could be gone. I rummaged in my dad's office, and everyy nook and cranny of the house. NADA. I even looked meticulously through my dad's CD storage collection hoping in vain that maybe he scanned them all already and threw away the originals. No such luck. Anyway,  the hunt for the Missing Pictures had to cease eventually. My sister and I grew tired of searching for them.

Instead, we just looked through our childhood photo albums and laughed and teased each other at the funny things we used to do as kids. I would have posted some of them along with this entry, but as I said, we grew tired. I contented myself with the fact that though the pictures may be missing, i'll still have the memories :) And of course, we haven't gone through the old family videos yet :) I think there will be a long period of reminiscing for me and my sister.


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On another note...

I have to say I have been addicted to Facebook. There's so many things to do and so many applications I never get bored of logging in. I swear everytime I log in I have new notifications, requests, gifts, comments, etc. etc. I especially love SuperPoke! where I can hug, kiss, pinch, throw stuff at,  hadouken, bodyslam, stalk , tackle, and and do a million other things to my friends :)  And Boozemail  is great for the alcoholic ones. Haha. I can send any drink of choice to my friends :)
I can even turn into a vampire, a werewolf or a zombie, and attack other monsters. Bwahahaha. Its soooooooo much fun. I just can't stop raving.
Hahaha. Screw Friendster. Facebook DEFINITELY owns.








And there's so many more applications!

Another great thing about is that through Facebook I have reconnected with old schoolmates from my old school. Maria Montessori Foundation, Alabang, or MONTE :) It's so nice to be able to catch up with them and finding out what happened to their lives. Its been so many years  since I last saw them. One is about to take up masters in San Francisco, others are already living in the states, and others, I just found out were studying at DLSU, right across my school, CSB :)

I've had a week that's been totally loaded with assignments.
And to top it all off I've been sick on and off again. I hate being so sickly,
I can't concentrate fully on things that I NEED TO DO. Curses!

I was supposed to give a report today on ORGACOM, but thanks to my asthma,
I felt like I was about to die from lack of oxygen just walking down the stairs.
Call me melodramatic, but any asthmatic person would concur would me.
 
If you had ever come close to drowning, or just dived into a pool, and realized that
you fell in too deep, and tried to rush out to the surface while you felt your throat constricting
and your lungs begging for oxygen, knowing you had to make it to the surface quickly, because
you desperately wanted to breathe, that's what asthma is like.

But its much much worse, cause you're not in a pool, you're not underwater,
yet you still strain to gasp for air. I hate that feeling SOOOOOOOO much.

I was on my way to school, forcing myself to breathe in and out cause didn't want to miss my classes.
It was a vain effort, and as I continued to walk I felt myself shaking, my chest painful, and I was desperate
for some relief. When I arrived at school I just sat in one of the chairs, wanting to cry because I couldn't breathe anymore. I texted my mom.

"Mama, I can't breathe. Ask the driver to pick me up from school na. I can't move."

She replied

"Ok, Mang Celin is on the way. Go to the clinic first."

Just like that. I felt relieved in a way. So I headed to the clinic. Thank God they had a nebulizer.
Actually I've mistrusted school clinics ever since I had a similar episode in high school. My old school
 clinic didn't have one so they just sent me home. Nightmare. 

Which is why I texted my mom right away.

Mang Celin came 2 and a half hours later. I could partly breathe already, but I still had wheezes. I went home like a sick little child, carrying prescriptions with three types of medications. Bummer.  

I've been so busy doing nothing these past few weeks...

I've had colds, fevers, and asthma attacks in that period of time.
ten days ago, I got sore eyes, got well again, and this week it returned.

Sigh.

When will this month of torture end?

On the other hand, Tristan and I have been spending so much time together that its practically
a miracle he hasn't contracted any of my illnesses yet. Haha! Though there was that one time
that he and I had the flu on the same day. I was home in Laguna and he was back in Manila,
we just kept each other updated on our symptoms through text.

I've been feeling a little downcast lately. Partly because of my sicknesses, partly because of the bad
weather, but also because nothing exciting ever happens anymore! I've got no problems, but i'm just
so bored with EVERYTHING! Dates with Tristan seem routine, visiting my friends have become mundane.

And school. I used to look forward to it everyday, but now, it just seems so BORING.

Everything is BORING BORING BORING.

Maybe because I've stayed at home far too long.

One of the only exciting things I've been doing is planning my Baguio trip with Tristan. We
plan to go there on Christmas Vacation. Originally we planned to go to Boracay, but then
he suggested Baguio instead, and the idea tempted me since I've never been there before.
I'd finally get to sightsee the Summer Capital of the Philippines :) And with my loving boyfriend, no less!

Another thing i've been looking forward to... is the last Sunday of Barops. No, not because I sympathize
with the Law Students of our country, but because... Ate Ally is coming! It's like what she said:

"Darling, reunion na ng mga prettiness huh!"

Gosh i'm so excited! Haha. My tirade of boredom is gone. I'm smiling again.



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Oh and another thing. We got a new dog, courtesy of Tita Aida. Well, frankly speaking, my siblings and I thought it was ugly. Not to sound ungrateful or anything, but there was nothing beautiful about it.
I guess it was cute, in an awkward kind of way.

We named her Chanel.

It was actually too scared to go near us, and frankly my ferocious rabbit Coco (Coco Chanel. Get it? Haha. Woe betide those ignorant of fashion legends) could probably beat it up if ever they had a fight. Indeed, Coco's eyes were glaring at Chanel like a predator surveying its prey.

I couldn't risk the dog getting bitten by Coco. My rabbit thinks of the garden as his territory. He can run wild and free there since we threw out his cage years ago. He actually chases anyone who goes in our garden, and everyone in my family has been bitten at LEAST once by him. I asked our boy, Kuya Louie to transfer him to our other "garden" which had a dog cage, to keep Chanel safe from our rabbit at night. SERIOUSLY.

I kinda felt sorry of Chanel, she was too meek, too cowardly, yet she was also humble and gentle. She never tried to bite, despite her fear.
My family had no interest in her though, and I think they plan to return her. Poor doggy.

Last Saturday I went to Ayala Alabang to visit my best friend, Sae Rom. I was ecstatic cause we haven't seen each other for months, and also because I could finally get my hands on the final installment of Harry Potter! It was weird going back to my old village, I missed it, but it seemed so different that I didn't feel a sense of longing anymore.

When we saw each other, we just started talking and laughing nonstop. My bes and I have a weird sense of humor that only both of us can get. It's a great feeling when she cracks up at my one liners while everyone else would just roll their eyes. Haha!

Anyway, I started watching Love Story in Harvard a few months ago, and ever since, I've had a weird craving for Kimchi Stew. So I was so happy when bes told me there was Kimchi stew waiting for me at home. And it was sooooooo yummy :) After eating I settled down to read the Deathly Hallows. And oh, for those who haven't read it yet, Harry Potter didn't die (hahaha!!!)

Next day, Tristan came to visit me. I told him I wanted to show him my old house in Ayala, and my old school, my hangouts, the Alabang Country club, where I hung around with friends (and where I tried to take tennis lessons but gave up). But the sun was too hot. I told him we'd do it next time, and we just ate in Alabang Town Center, and went window shopping. Well, we practically chased each other all over the mall trying to hit each other, laughing out loud. After awhile though, things got boring and I had a brilliant idea.

"Let's go home to Calamba" I said.

"Ayoko nga ang layo. Tsaka nahihiya ako pumunta sa bahay niyo." Tristan replied.

Well, nobody says no to me! I gave him my sweetest smile and said
"Sige na, ang tagal ko nang di nakakuwi eh. Kain tayo sa house and watch movies :)"

In the end, he relented. And we set off on our way to Calamba.
When we arrived, I was true to my word and I cooked and we ate bacon and chicken, my favorite foods. Then I let him watch basketball in my room while I showered, gathered my things, and prepared to leave in about two hours. My mom cooked sukiyaki for dinner, and when Tristan sat down with the rest of my family, he was cornered by my dad.

"Do you drink beer?" My dad asked.
"Yes, sir" Tristan replied.

And so my dad got beer, and they talked for 2 hours, while I slaved over the dishes. Hmp. (maid's day off) We were only able to leave at around 9:00 pm, then Tristan and I decided to sleep at home instead, and put off going back to manila till next day. I kept him company at the spare room till about 1 am, we just kept talking and laughing at all the silly things we do with each other. and then I got too sleepy and headed back to my own room.

Next day we had Nurnberger (a German sausage) for breakfast, and left at around 11:30 am. I didn't want to go back to Manila yet cause my classes start only at 8pm! But he wanted me to come with him so I gave in.

I loved that weekend :)