when i was in high school, i used to keep meticulous track of my life in my trusty filofax (gyaah! retro!). i would write down everything that happened to me each day in minute print (or shorthand, if it was top secret), attack each scaled-down entry with highlighters and metallic gel pens (blue, pink and purple--gawd i am such a girl), and fill it with hearts, smileys or sad faces, depending on the events of the day.
the very last thing i would do before snapping my filo shut was jot down a letter grade to sum up the day. the worst it usually got was a C (after all, how bad can high school possibly have been? i only started running into D and F days in college). the best was an A followed by x number of pluses--usually 3 or 4, and mostly reserved for my budding lovelife.
i dropped the letter grade system when i got too busy to really sit down and ponder my life on a daily basis. i also started running into some bad times early in college, and it's been a habit of mine since childhood to totally clam up and not write about things that made me really sad, or angry, or hurt me deeply.
this week, in retrospect, has been a pretty good week. good enough to temporarily revive my high school letter grade system. good enough, in fact, to get an A, and these are some reasons why.
splurges. i actually salted away quite a bit of my paycheck this month, which makes me feel good. i treated myself to a number of things, which i wouldn't have been able to do if i was still forking over money to that overpriced gym.
~~shades at i2i. i am the hardest person to buy shades for. the last pair i bought was way back before the 2001 tour. i2i makes quite a few cheap (P150-250) but very cool pairs, and i picked me up a nice black cat's eye set with tortoiseshell frames for that old hollywood glam feel.
~~way overdue pedicure. slightly overpriced at piandre in greenbelt (tips and toes was majorly booked), but my poor feet deserved it. come to think of it, my last pedicure was also before the 2001 tour! *hangs head in shame*
~~the art of travel by alain de botton. i've been lusting over this book since doc garcia quoted it in philo 101, also in 2001. geez. do i win the marshmallow test, or what?
~~ritter sport nugat, my europe bus stop chocolate bar of choice. sus. i wonder what other desires i've been suppressing since the 2001 tour.
~~lunch out with rose at pancake house.
~~thai cookbook as a welcome home present for marlon.
~~the october issue of preview. nice and thick with a free sample of something that promises to zap stretch marks. promising.
~~a few more cabs than absolutely necessary. hayaan mo, next week balik-tipid ulit ako.
nice, normal workload. although next week promises to be hellish, my workload this week was sane and doable. farming out subbing to freelancers made everything quite easy, until the freelancers started dropping like flies. still, i got to go home early most nights, with plenty of time to make above splurges.
pretty feet. did i mention that i got a pedicure? hihi.
---just realized that luxury for me seems to mean unparalleled ditziness. this is bad. may lead to bank-breaking designer shoe purchases in later life.---
a sweet, yummy bite of mooncake just now from emper, who got it from lou, who brought it as pasalubong from hong kong. this has a sweet lemony taste, unlike the local overpriced-hopia-mongo-masquerading-as-mooncake.
early morning cab ride. if you're wondering about how something tagged with the words "early morning" could possibly make me, the queen of snooze and tardiness, happy, well, so am i. acs was invited to this morning's episode of breakfast at studio 23 (which actually films at abs-cbn's studio 17, har har) to promote tomorrow's concert. though i got up at 430am, i ended up leaving the house by 520am for our 530am call time at abs-cbn--approximating TV-worthiness was quite a challenge.
after being driven insane by the workday morning rush for almost a year now, it was wonderfully soothing to see the city at daybreak. not just the city, but three cities, actually--my gem of a cabbie knew all the back routes from mandaluyong to get to quezon city through manila (and was nice and quiet throughout the drive, too).
as a result, we whizzed comfortably through the streets of old sta. mesa, passing its sleepy, decrepit houses and peeling, shuttered storefronts, to arrive at the studio in less than 20 minutes. it was also drizzling, which is always nice if you're tucked away in some dry, airconditioned spot.
breakfast was fun. the hosts (juddha paolo, patty laurel and angelo's erstwhile best friend wacky valdez) are disturbingly young, considering the show used to be hosted by yuppie-age celebs ryan agoncillo, bam aquino (ateneo '99 valedictorian, nephew/doppelganger of ninoy and unfortunate cousin of kris) and pia guanio. only marieton pacheco is a genuine yuppie; being a reporter is her post-college day job. (she's also rather a big girl for a TV personality, so i now semi-love her.)
juddha and marieton interviewed mimi and sir jojo for our segment, and we sang aba ginoong maria arranged by gp. not the most early morning peppy song, but it sounded decent. the hosts have this happy, light banter thing going, which is perfect for an early morning show. in fact, juddha and marieton were pretty good, except for the fact that marieton asked us if we were all "alumnis" of the ateneo--earning her dagger cheekbones from chris ong. taga la salle nga siya. (serves her right, mock-rubbing la salle's UAAP championship in our atenean faces. ha ha.)
oh, and they had the german ambassador on, too, this very german sounding, power-dressed middle-aged man who chatted with sir jojo in deutsch.
while the german ambassador was talking on the set, we were watching and having a little discussion of our own off cam.
lorna: sino siya?
loi: ambassador ng germany.
we watched as a rumpled teutonic woman in jeans and chuck taylors, from out of nowhere, joined the ambassador on the set.
me: kita ang bra mo, day.
chris: eh sino naman siya?
pensive silence.
loi: ambassador ng gerwomany?
snicker snicker.
that's pretty much it for an A week. babaw ko no? nothing spectacular, pretty quiet actually, and just good enough to get an A.
besides, i'm reserving my A++++ for the weekend. :-)
hey hey!! you were at ABS CBN the other day! I work in the same building and I would most probably have been here at that time! oh well.. i don't even know you (by face) yet heheh.. next time.. next time..
ReplyDeletehey. Ummm do you know Gerber Paul Marcelo???
He works for us and he posted a poster of the Ateneo Chamber Singers concert -- colleagues told me he's a member. you might know him :D
Oh i was also going to suggest a cheap but gooood foot spa here.. but i realized you live in Mandaluyong heheh.
hey, happy couple!
ReplyDeleteang tiyaga niyo talaga magbasa at mag-comment! wala akong masabi! haha!
arch: sure, no rush. we've managed to scrape by with our freelancers so we'll put you in our editors' pool for future requirements. if that sounds malabo don't worry, we outsource a sh*tload of articles on a monthly, sometimes even bi-monthly basis.
and yep, it WAS a great weekend. nothing like feeling ultra-loved... except maybe that fantastic chocolate buffet at the manila pen hehe ;)
hazel: yup i know gerber! since i was a freshman kasama ko na siya sa choir. what do you do in abs? i have a really good friend working there too, you might know her. her name is justine javier. i think she's like an associate producer na or something. last i heard she was working on born diva.
hope you two enjoyed your weekend!
Oh I don't work for ABS CBN . We just rent some of their floors in their corporate building. I, just as much as ARch is, am working for a call center. we are using about 3 and a half floors of ABS CBN's ELJ building. And Gerber's our Scheduling Analyst. :)
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