Over the holidays

i was extremely overworked. no joke. it got to a point (twice in fact) that by the time marlon came to pick me up for lunch or to go home, i was close to tears. it was also compounded by the fact that i was sick most of the week. the worst thing is that the work doesn't seem to end no matter how much you do and how fast. i have five pieces to edit just sitting in this laptop, waiting for me. will probably have to take home some more work over the upcoming long weekend.

harrassed me having tea with marlon at seattle's best

i got stark raving mad at and extremely fed up with someone at work. (who doesn't know it.) i'm so fed up with this person that i'm not going to sit on my ass about it this time, perhaps even at risk to my own standing at the office.

my boss resigned. not my new immediate boss, but the editor-in-chief of the EBU. this was a totally unexpected blow and really got everyone down. when the email announcement from the president of our unit went out, you could see everyone in the big room just sitting in front of their pcs, totally shocked. i was surprised with how affected i was (am), considering that i've known him briefly compared to most people. but really, surajit is an amazing boss. and it is hard for me to imagine sticking it out or doing well without having a leader like him. (especially not when you consider his temporary [i hope] pinch-hitter.)

i was late to simbanggabi at gesu and lost my voice.

am getting fat again.

you get the picture. my work week leading up to the holidays was a complete and total piece of sh*t. i don't think i ever had a pre-christmas week like this one. and let's hope i never, ever will again.

Let the good times begin

on the other hand, the wonderful thing is that the holidays kind of pressure you to scrounge for some real gems among all the hassle. ever get that feeling? "it's christmas, it can't possibly be this crappy." does that make sense? and so my horrible week had its perks.

finding out about my possibly-family. i know next to nothing about my indian side. i tried to write dima (my paternal grandmother) about family history before but she didn't give much details. so, i am not quite sure whether surajit was just pulling my leg or we really could be (very distantly) related.

his mother was a dutt and dima is a dutta, both bengalis from calcutta or kolkata or whatever the hell they call it now. apparently both last names trace back to the same roots (the duttas), but one branch of the family dropped the a to become more anglicized about two centuries ago. surajit says there is actually a book about the dutts/duttas since they are a very prominent intellectual and christian family in calcutta. according to him, they are also known for being extremely lazy. now i know where my sister and i get it from. anyway, i think he's serious because now surajit calls me cousin. i started calling him mama which means uncle.

surajit to me: "now you know where your fat gene comes from"

surajit's effervescent wife anjali, who loves sampaguita ("i have no idea what she's saying, but as soon as i heard her i knew it was a rebel singing!"), and len at the EBU party

hanging out at bel field with marlon. i have always, always wanted to do this with someone. and now i have marlon. we stayed for bibingka and churros after our simbanggabi mass and the acs concert, sitting in the middle of bel field with the cold december breeze and the lighted acacias. it was absolute heaven.

finally, blessed rest. have lived the past few days in my pajamas, subsisting mostly on chocolate. mmmm.

lunch with eena. a.k.a. my high school friend who's now a flight attendant with emirates. this is the first time i've seen her since she junked her interior design board exams and flew off to pursue her dream exactly one year ago. i'm so proud of this girl. she's so not the "coffee-or-tea"-sweet-smile type but she's totally thriving. a fellow reformed commitment-phobe, she's got a sweet swiss-german boyfriend who actually bought me a birthday present (a very funky polished-wood cuff from nairobi. nairobi!!!). it was superfun hearing her bitchy stories about nasty passengers and finding out that the purser is actually not the most useless person on the aircraft (which is what i always thought, hehe).

christmas day at home. was nice and quiet, which is how i like it. fun too, with all the usual favorites--queso de bola (microwaved for me), coke on ice, nanay going through her gifts and not waiting her turn, pictures by the tree, and lots of little trinkets that are not much monetarily, but are just fun to unwrap.

i got some really good presents this year. some of my faves: a stress ball from lynnie (we soooo need it); a four-piece bedsheet set from marlon's mom, which exactly matches the pink of my bedroom wall (!!!!!!!!); a beaded, indian-inspired candleholder from mimoy and loi (again, goes with my room--am so inspired to fix it up over new year's weekend); spa set from my sister (most kikay elements: a supersoft brush for facial scrubs and tiny makeup brushes); a black bag (can never have too many) from my sister again; elderflower eyegel, fantasia's debut album and a sniffle-inducing portrait from marlon. and the piece de resistance...

the sony ericsson k700i from marlon. i love this phone, i love it love it love it!!!!!!

all the pictures in this post were taken with this phone. aren't they great? (for a phone, i mean). it has a fantastic camera, not to mention an mp3 player, 40+MB memory, fm tuner, bluetooth, and all sorts of doodads i am still finding out about. my boyfriend has turned me into such a boy. my last few presents from him have been gadgets. plus we're getting a 5.2MP digital camera from our taiwan bureau in january.

christmas with marlon. having marlon home for two whole weeks has been wonderful. celebrating our first christmas together has been nothing short of magical for me. (he was in singapore, too poor to come home, last christmas.)

my mid-workday lunches with him kept me sane, and ending the day with him was always something to look forward to despite the exhaustion.

my sweetie. *sigh*

we had a great christmas day dinner at the mandarin's christmas buffet. great food and great ambience--very cozy and private since you never see more than two or three tables around you. we bumped into mark escaler (every comm major's favorite genius/lustpuppy, which i hope his wife didn't overhear me telling marlon), which was such a pleasant surprise. my boyfriend dutifully tried to muster up some jealousy, which was cute. oh and i gave marlon my present, which was a "guerilla recording" of me singing some art songs etc etc and gideon playing the piano.

at the mandarin christmas buffet

my wrapping masterpiece

capping off the evening at the bel air III park (marlon desperately trying to reclaim his childhood); this after driving around makati cbd to look at the lights

yesterday i spent the afternoon and evening at marlon's house watching dvds (harold and kumar go to white castle, super size me and labyrinth). we had dinner with his family who have been so incredibly sweet to me in the one year that marlon and i have been together. i met his other brother val (the one who doesn't live with them anymore) and was fed oodles and oodles of yummy food. we played fight club on PS2 and cuddled and generally were mushy together. the kind of simple thing that keeps us going.

so yeah, i still have to work but it's all good. the worst of the hassle is over, the man i love is home and i'm optimistic about the new year. so, dear reader, i hope this christmas was a happy and bright one for you, and that you were highly instrumental in making it that way for yourself.

merry christmas!

Dancing in the street

FINALLY! NOW WITH PICS!

last friday was our office christmas party. it was held at astor hotel, a two-star hotel on makati avenue (yes, near koreatown and all the girlie bars) after work.

at 530pm, surajit started shooing everyone out of the office to go to the party, so rose and i walked with gulnar (our new vm! it's her first week) all the way down makati ave. i semi-played tourist guide for gulnar on the way, and realized how overwhelming manila at christmastime must be for someone who's seeing it for the first time. gulnar seemed to like the stroll down makati ave--i mean, it's so much more alive than the concretelandia of legaspi village, where she's staying. she said it reminded her of bombay (she's from goa, which sounds like a really nice place from the way she describes it). of course i had to point out hossein's persian kebab and north park. what else is important on makati ave? hehe.

this year's theme was "street party", although it was held in a function room. the first thing to greet us when we stepped out of the elevator was this gigantic picture of david wheeler (one of the expat bosses) sitting in front of a bar, holding a beer and scratching his enormous belly. uh. ok. the hallway leading to the function room was done up as a street--gray with the white dashed line, street signs (my faves: the victoria court sign and the one that said "aso lang ang umihi dito. ASO KA BA?" how authentic! hahahaha!) and lamp posts.

they had henna tattoo artists, face painters and caricaturists. and having james simpson (production boss), david wheeler and jommel (our buff layout artist-cum-personal trainer) dressed up as BOUNCERS was such a hilarious touch! james stopped me at the door since i was wearing my hot pink "i carry no cash" t-shirt.

"i can't let you in. you carry no cash," he boomed. "how do you expect to pay for anything?"

"uh... face value?" i asked. he waved me in.

Strawberry demystified

as it happened, there was one seat right between rech and our office toy, whom we gave several epithets: strawberry (as in blond), barney and britney. some of us in my office lunch group started finding strawberry cute when we finally saw him smile after weeks and weeks of bustling around the office with this purposeful stride and serious frown. he finished his business with our floor last week and we thought we would never see him again (except for rose, who stalked him during the fire drill haha).

so, back to the seat. syempre tumabi ako sa kanya. si rech kasi eh.

uh, rech? saan ka nakatingin?

in a nutshell, strawberry was demystified that night since we got to talk. he's pretty friendly, actually, but i must admit that the purposeful stride/furrowed brow/unreachable aura thing was a large part of his appeal. he started becoming a little geeky even (darius to emper: "si redford white lang pala ang gusto mo!"). especially when he started dancing. major flashback to lakenheath in the uk four years ago: whoever said white men can't dance is SO not kidding. of course that didn't stop rech and i from weaving our way over to where he and mayann were dancing, leaving poor jason dancing by his lonesome.

but anyway, it was all good. it's fun to flirt harmlessly pala. ugh i remember college--i think i took flirting way too seriously. fun moment: after he introduced himself and we lapsed into this silence, strawberry said, "uh...what else can i ask you?" (nagtilian kami ni rech like a pair of badings when i told her about it.) he gave me a high five when i came back to the table after singing time after time (rose: "ang haba na ng hair mo! grabe!!!!!" jason: "panalo ka talaga!").

the singing ngo-ngo (still had a cough and cold)

well, michael kleist from the fifteenth floor gave me a high five too, but he doesn't count.

my co-workers at the EBU (electronics business unit) chowing down.

pretty girlies from the EBU

Other highlights

getting a henna tattoo of a butterfly below my collarbone, to the right (it smeared though when i went to bed that night! now i have to live with it for two weeks!)...

stephen and anthony wearing shades to sing unwell with the band (ang cute nila! rock star mode! hahaha)

winning a cute teddy bear with a santa hat and seven hundred bucks; oh, and dancing! i have not danced in the longest time and it was so much fun.

spent most of the evening dodging darius, who went crazy at the sound of old show-band tunes. ballroom dancer pala si lolo.

my friends were pretty lucky in the raffle too. nina and rech won food baskets (rech: "ayoko ng fruit basket! gusto ko ng trip to hong kong!"), darius won an overnight trip at some resort (he deserves a weekend getaway with his wife, especially now that gulnar is taking over), jason won a 21-inch TV (how apt from someone from the electronics team) and emper won a trip to palawan!

jason, the lucky schmuck, with charlie, our resident pretty girl

empot, lucky winner of a trip to club paradise *sigh*

i am SOOOO glad i didn't have to host, because RU made a total, utter fool of himself with his manic master showman mode. he ranged from totally kroo-kroo onstage to rather offensive offstage. let's put it this way: i'm just glad i have a different boss. (on a side note: jason is now officially the biggest fan of janet pech, RU's co-host who kinda looks like marcia gay harden. hihi.)

we went to coffee bean at greenbelt to wind down after the party--me, rose, lynnie, jason, acy, ren, emper, mayann, melanie, rech and strawberry! yes, the one and only demystified office toy. we were actually surprised that he agreed to come along since it looked like he had plans with the other expats to go to some girlie bar (found out later it was cathouse on kalayaan). he was nice enough to stick around until 130am, by which time everyone was so dead i felt like the designated stand-up comedian. after he left, everyone had a fun time dishing about him (ang galing ni nina mag-fish ng info! grabe!) and laughing over the events of the evening.

mayann told us that the foreign bosses try to come over for business at christmastime, because the manila office is know for having the absolute best christmas party. (the china, hong kong and taiwan offices have none at all, and the singapore office just has a tiny unremarkable one.) this year, aside from strawberry, we had visiting expats from hong kong for job objective setting (my new neighbor is graham kelly, EBU marketing director, who has this fab irish brogue. sigh. i miss europe).

all in all, i had a blast and looks like most people did too. will update with pics soon!

Procrastinating again

01. I have a cell phone.
02. I have friends who use me.
03. I'm an only boy/girl.
04. I'm a shopaholic.
05. I love dangly earrings.
06. I haven't smoked a cigarette before. (believe me, i've tried!)
07. I hate cold weather.
08. I'm obsessed with the computer.
09. I have shot a gun before.
10. I can't live without music.
11. I have no tolerance of ignorant people. (it varies from day to day)
12. I have ridden on a motorcycle before.
13. Ill be in this town forever.
14. I've been to five other countries. (at least)
15. I get annoyed easily. (i have triggers. lean on the MRT poles during rush hour and feel my full wrath!)
16. I eventually want kids. (remember, this is the girl who's consulted baby name books since she was seven)
17. I have neat handwriting.
18. I have more than a few horrible memories.
19. I'm addicted to chocolate.
20. I'm an atheist.
21. My parents are strict.
22. I love airplane rides. (i can sleep right through a fourteen-hour flight)
23. I love taking pictures.
24. I hate people who are fake.
25. I can be mean when I want to.
26. My parents care about my grades. (surprisingly, the fact that my mom doesn't is one of the reasons why i did fairly well in school. no pressure.)
27. One of my best friends is a girl.
28. I have excessively many shoes.
29. Im obsessed with fashion clothes.
30. Im easy to talk to.
31. I would never eat raw fish.
32. I cry easily. (yes! especially when i'm angry!)
33. I hate it when people are late.
34. I procrastinate. (see this blog?)
35. I love winter. (just for the clothes
36. I have too many clothes for my closet. (a lot of them are piled at the foot of my bed)
37. I love to sleep.
38. I wish I were smarter.
39. I'm afraid of flying.
40. I hate drama.
41. I bite my nails.
42. I have been on an 8-hour drive. (try 18 hours.)
43. I never fight with my parents.
44. I love the beach.
45. I have never had the chicken pox.
46. I have gone out in public in my boxers.
47. I can't control my emotions.
48. I have a best friend.
49. I have moved more than once.
50. I truly love my friends.
51. I have/had braces.
52. I love to write.
53. I have never broken a bone.
54. I agree with racist people.
55. I hate my computer.
56. I love girls/boys that play guitar.
57. I state the obvious.
58. Im a happy person. (again, it varies)
59. I love to dance.
60. I love to sing.
61. I love cleaning my room.
62. I tend to get jealous very easily.
63. I love cute underwear.
64. I have gotten high before.
65. I love night better than day.
66. I have been on the phone for over 4 hours
at a time.
67. I don't like to study for tests. (who does, anyway? oh yeah, maybe tor)
68. I love God.
69. I am too forgiving.
70. I have horrible sense in direction.
71. I miss elementary school.
72. I have had a girl/boyfriend before & miss them.
73. Im a mamas boy/daddy's girl.
74. I love kisses with tongue. (any kisses are nice :-)
75. I love the color red.
76. I love to sew.
77. My eye color changes.
78. I should see a therapist.
79. I played on a girls sports team.
80. I become stressed easily.
81. I hate liars.
82. I like comfortable sweatpants.
83. I can play the piano.
84. I love the smell of rain.
85. I love my family.
86. I hate needles.
87. I am a perfectionist.
88. I always wanted to learn to play the
drums.
89. I hate the feeling of failure.
90. I have friends in other countries.
91. I know how to cook.
92. I can be quite selfish.
93. At times, I still act like a little kid.
94. I have food allergies.
95. I love little kids.
96. I love to read.
97. I wish I were more motivated for school.
98. I love getting stuff in the mail.
99. I have problems with letting go of old
feelings.
100. I hate being alone.
101. I love summer.
102. I love the weekends.
103. I love black eyeliner.
104. I think I'm fine.
105. I type with one hand.
106. I wear make-up.
107. I have never ridden on an underground
subway.
108. I can swim.
109. I have bad memory.
110. I go to church.
111. I sing in the shower.
112. I have never been to a camping.
113. I hate cheerleaders.

Bumbay alahera gets Web-savvy

bumbays are supposed to be tech-savvy naman right? what with all the hullaballoo about india being the IT outsourcing capital of the world, blah blah. here i am approximating at least part of my heritage.

so my sister and i set up a photoblog for our wares. we're still trying to navigate this busythumbs site, add descriptions and generally whip the whole thing into shape, but do stop by and check it out!

one of a kind jewelry made by my mummy! prices range from php 1,200 to 1,800. the edgier pieces make fantastic treats for yourself, while the more mommy-ish pieces will be unique gifts for your mommy/mother-in-law/aunt/whatever. (we offer wrapping/packaging for a small fee. anyone who's ever gotten a gift from me knows how much i LOOOOVE wrapping presents.)

some of my personal favorites:

cat's eye stones in green, blue, yellow, brown and white. the perfect piece to jazz up a neutral/earth toned outfit.

made with blue glass beads (NOT plastic!) and round blue swarovski crystals. comes with a matching bracelet.

bring on the bling-bling! i wore this last week with a simple white v-neck sweater and jeans. got a lot of compliments on it too! rhodium plated chains and pave pendant encrusted with australian swarovski crystals. comes in gold as well.

check out more funky pieces at imshca.busythumbs.com! (imshca is the name of my family's trading company.) and check back often because we'll be uploading tons more.

--

in other news, not only have i been asked to sing at the global sources christmas party, i've been asked to HOST it!!!! with RU and surajit!!!

reasons to DECLINE:

1) the party falls on our dtp (deadline to production) for the computer monitors MIR! i'm even declining a harang for this blasted dtp!
2) i'm totally croaking like a frog. went home early yesterday to nurse a cold, cough and slight fever.
3) i have doubts about RU's ability for host-ish witty banter.
4) i have serious doubts about surajit's willpower when it comes to tormenting me in public. it might just become a "torch the ditz/newbie" kind of evening.
5) did i mention that i'm totally croaking like a frog?

reasons to ACCEPT:
1) ksp ako eh.

Random fluff

be warned, because when i say random fluff, i mean it. i am totally zonked out today. corporate slavery must be getting to me. as an act of rebellion, i will spend the last fifteen minutes of my paid workday blogging.

--

horror of horrors, i saw k walking outside my building yesterday. people who were at tricia's birthday party two years ago will know what transpired with me and k, and by golly my sister won't let me forget it. anyway, we actually caught each other's eyes and needless to say, nag-deadmahan kami.

ibig sabihin ba he now goes to office here in makati? that isinuka na siya ng binondo paper cartel? that i could actually run into him again? horror of horrors talaga!

maputla at intsik pa rin siya. he's probably still spineless too. and now he's thirty! gadzooks. i hope his hair is thinning. it probably is. note to self: never wear that blue tie-dye halter ever again.

--

according to diet.com, my...

Eating Personality is Steady Snacker
Exercise Personality is Rain Check Athlete
Coping Personality is Persistent Procrastinator

yeah, whatever. these alliterations are just too cute to be credible. nyah nyah nyah, they missed with "rain check athlete", whatever the *(^&$#! that is.

--

hallelujah! a regine velasquez song that i actually like: shine. acs was supposed to sing it for last year's US tour (as arranged by kuya arnel for choir), pero hindi pumatok. it's a really nice song, and regine reined in her caterwauling to a tolerable level.

our songwriter goddess trina b. emailed gp a funny story about regine recording shine:

funny nga eh, according to arranger arnold buena (who originally co-arranged shine in '96 tapos siya ulit ngayon), during the recording session, si regine mismo napatanong ng "hindi ba ako masyadong nagwawala?" but of course, giliw na giliw ang client sa kanyang mga bonggastic birit and wanted to retain the bonggastic ending kaya ang tunog ng song ay "...and the winner is!" pa rin! hahaha!

so at least regine has some level of self-awareness. wonder if she's aware that she's beginning to look a lot like michael jackson.

--

i am now an official bumbay alahera. i've got the giant bag, the jewelry, the ziplocs, the listahan and the staggered payment schemes to prove it. although i do think i tend to be rather generous and unbusiness-like with payment terms, for which my defense is that i'm only half bumbay anyway.

my mom is working out a distributorship with this australian jewelry dealer. the pieces are extremely pretty and very well designed, and are mostly made with rhodium, 24k gold plate, cubic zirconia and australian swarovski crystals. i offered to take some to my office the other day and show them off.

anyway, either ma-chika talaga ako or the timing is really good (a few days after christmas bonuses came in!) or the pieces are very attractive or all of the above, but i made five sales in the space of one hour yesterday! nina also decided to get a necklace-and-earring set this morning, and rose and melanie want to see more stuff tomorrow.

one interesting observation from my afternoon as an alahera: sorry to knock us women, but guys decide on purchases with lightning speed. i think i made these sales because men (i'm talking men, none of you metrosexual wusses) hate shopping. a really pretty gift waltzes up to you in the office, you don't have to drive, hunt for parking and navigate the horrible holiday mall traffic to get it, you don't have to rack your brain for a perfect personality match and fret that she'll hate it; bling-bling is safe and hassle-free, and i dare you to find me a girl who would totally barf at the thought of receiving jewelry from her significant other.

so, why not? sige. eto'ng pera. a sale is made.

take stephen from the ec team: he bought a bracelet for his girlfriend like five minutes after seeing it on charlie (another girl from ec. in fairness mahusay na model si charlie). bal, ec's vertical manager, is another case study. he went over to my cubicle, asked me if i had any necklace-and-earring sets, took like a ten-second look at one set, asked me how much it was, and said "sige, kukunin ko." tapos ang usapan! isang minuto ka lang!

the only exception was darius, a bargaining king if i ever saw one, who subtly guilt-tripped and charmed me into giving him extremely generous terms. in fairness again, he did buy the most expensive set among my wares. his wife is going to look soooo classy wearing what he picked out.

so there. this is actually fun and pretty easy, since the pieces mostly speak for themselves. although i don't think i'd want to do it forever, and i've got this gigantic bag permanently welded to my shoulder.

but the hopeless romantic that i am, i loved seeing men buying jewelry for their wives and girlfriends. i liked seeing the twinkle in bal's eye when he asked me to wrap his purchase not for christmas, but for "basta lang" (sweeeeeeet!), seeing the gift-wrapped box sitting on stephen's desk the whole day, and seeing darius consider his purchase very, very, very carefully (you could almost see him picturing his wife wearing the jewelry--or maybe he was just mentally computing. i'm such a pollyanna).

--

a super typhoon is expected to hit tonight. good luck sa atin, 'pinas. i'm going home.

Stuff I need

1) good pants for work. something that can be worn with both decent office blouses and my growing pile of quirky shirts. something tweedy perhaps? no more el cheapo pairs from Landmark or wherever.

2) sensible but non-frumpy heels. preferably camel, white or brightly colored. again, no more el cheapo pairs from Landmark or wherever. this time it's for keeps.

3) rubber shoes. RIP my beautiful black nameless rubber shoes from Koln, which I bought three years ago with pia (our first bonding moment). waaah.

4) a phone. waaah.

5) crates. yeah, those things fruits are shipped in. i have long ago decided that this is the ideal, and cheapest, form of storage for my junk. those giant tupperware drawers are a major no-no.

6) a 20-watt bulb for my night light.

7) christmas cards. i want something with filipino paintings on it. go figure. oooh, i can go christmas shopping on monday. no work, lalalalalala.

anyone know where i can get any of these? the 20-watt bulb is a no-brainer, so i'm not accepting any answers for that.

p.s. i have resolved to put off personal shopping unti post-christmas sale season in january. i got two-for-one levi's during that same period two years ago.

FLAMES, the web version

♥Deepa Paul and ♥Marlon Plazo

Trying to adopt three related children. Hope to kiss when permitted. Demonstrate their affection with skywriting and embracing.

Orchestrated by ianiceboy

uh, ok. whatever you say.

actually, it's more like:

• trying to... LOSE WEIGHT.
• hope to... LOSE WEIGHT.
• demonstrate their affection with... MEALS AND CHOCOLATE. aray.
  let's try again, shall we?
  
  

  ♥Deepa Catherine Paul and ♥Marlon Plazo

  Secretly adopted twenty-eight thousand identical kids. Are prone to hug each other for the foreseeable future. Are as one for tax purposes.

  Orchestrated by ianiceboy

what IS this hullaballoo about adoption?

ok, i agree with the perpetual hugging bit. :-)

happy me, boyfriend coming home this weekend for chocolate buffet at the pen. lalalalalala.

Lifestyles of the young and hip

From: EMPER
To: Charlie, Denice, Deepa, Jason, Jayme, Jambi
Subject: Xmas party shoot for the young and hip teaser

Hello all,

In view of the teasers being circulated for this year's Christmas party, the planning committee has scheduled a photo session TODAY :)

Please take note of our schedule:

When : 23 November (Tuesday), 2:00 pm
Venue : 12/F Lobby
Official Photographer : Kat Zuno
Recommended Attire : Come as you are :)
Please bring: hip and cool gadgets e.g. iPods, MP3 players, cellphones, organizer atbp.

Thank you very much.

Talent manager,
Emper :)

ps. i won't take NOOOO for an answer hehe :)

DEEPA: wow! we're young and hip! hahaha! wala yata akong hip and cool gadgets. meron lang akong UPS dito na nakakahon. how sad for CP. baka pwedeng humiram from Elec.

JASON: err wala din. baka pwede humiram sa TS. jambi has all the toys hehe

JAMBI: i don't think bringing Bubbles to the shoot counts as hip and cool.

DEEPA: as in literally TOYS. pero, if push comes to shove, akin si wonder woman. hahaha

DEEPA: waaah jason blurred tayo! so much for our modeling debut! bale ang instructions lang po sa production, paki photoshop yung aking scary glowing eyes hahaha

JASON: i know... di tayo pang print ad... mas bagay tayo for TV haha

JAMBI: maybe sadako's coming for both of you. i'd keep a baseball bat with me everytime i watch TV from now on.

Think, Deepa, think

this made me think. read it. hopefully, it makes you stop in your tracks for a while.

i envy this young man, and i can barely believe that he is my age. i envy him because to him, the word revolution is not the shallow, much-abused marketing buzzword (a "revolutionary" cellphone, a "revolutionary" MP3 player, a "revolutionary" party, a video game "revolution") that it has degenerated into, but something real and thriving and worth dedicating your life to.

i envy him for seeing the value of being "a leader or a soldier, cook, health worker, driver, technician and a marriage counselor." all those rolled into one is something that you can be proud of, as my friends who describe themselves as "full-time wives and mothers" are proud. excuse me, but what pride is to be found in being an "eventologist" or "socialite"?

i envy him for his meaningful existence. how many people our (his and my) age find that much meaning in our pursuits? even his dissatisfaction is meaningful, for it prods him to action. but what of the inherent, and far more subtle, dissatisfaction that comes with working our asses off to fill our endless stream of wants? another moving youngblood piece quotes an old beggar saying, "appreciate what you have. don't ask for what you don't have. when God gives people an apple, they will ask for a dozen. when God gives them a dozen, they will ask for a sack."

i wanted to write out a christmas list, as so many bloggers seem to be doing around this time of year. but now i can't bring myself to do it (you want MORE stuff?). i've already got my dozen apples. is it so hard to conceive living without the sack.

--

no, this does not mean that i'm about to run off to the mountains. but it does have something significant to say about what i want out of life and how i'm framing my goals.

for instance, i wanted to post how inspired i felt by anna netrebko, who put a glamorous face to my dream.

You see?" she says in heavily accented, broken English, pointing excitedly to the Escada Shop. "They will dress me next year. They see me sing and say they will give me the dress for the performances." On a Saturday in November, Ms. Netrebko's look is chic in a quirky, casual way: a clingy black off-the-shoulder top, pink iridescent Dior wraparound sunglasses and a plush duffel in the shape of a stuffed leopard.

i told some people that this spurred a greater desire in me to work hard not just to achieve my dream, but to become wildly successful and filthy rich besides. "can't think of a better motivation than that: all-you-can-wear free designer clothes!" i crowed, only half joking. talking about the future and all that we want to do and have, marlon often jokes that i had better become a filthy rich diva, so i can support him as a poor economics professor or policymaker.

think, deepa, think. it's not about the clothes, stupid. it's not about the money. it's about the music. the moment it becomes about anything else, what damage i will have done my dream.

perhaps as much about my struggle as his, diego martinez (author of the youngblood piece above) remarks: "you will not become a millionaire but then your priorities have changed."

then he adds, "who wants to be rich anyway when the rest of your countrymen hardly eat in a day?"

(this week's batch of youngblood contributions is quite good. this was simply the one that resounded with something inside me, built up by weeks and weeks of monitoring local current events.)

Cheap comfort coffee

i just finished a tetra pak of caffe chocolat, one of great taste's ready-to-drink cold coffees. i was craving for something comforting after an entire day of being hassled about our january issue pagination. don't ask me to explain--basta it's math and i hate it (as i hate all math. well perhaps with the exception of computing discounts hee hee). surajit was also giving me a hard time about wearing a che guevara t-shirt. apparently che guevara is his idol and i'm supposedly not worthy to wear a shirt with his face on it (especially after i spelled guevara with two R's in front of him). ngerf.

anyway, for 18 bucks a pop, this is really YUMMY cheap coffee. the cafe caramel flavor is really good too. the great taste RTDs remind me of college, when i used to drink this stuff all the time during my millions of long breaks. and doesn't drinking from a tetra pak just make you feel like a kid again? sigh. yeah, yeah, when life was simpler and all that rot.

--

i had tons of fun last weekend--lots of time spent with marlon, ditz-bashing in greenbelt, and a day trip to tagaytay--but i'm too lazy to write about it now. maybe later this weekend.

oh and i have to write about my latest adventure buy: miles davis' kind of blue album, which is apparently universally recommended for jazz newbies. i've been listening to it at the office, but i can't seem to fully appreciate it as it has ended up serving as muzak for the hassled. am listening to it now and i just want to go home and curl up in bed. hindi siya kinaya ng aking cheap comfort coffee.

Pondering a long weekend

i am about to go off and watch an extremely chinese, gay and red-haired friend play jesus christ in a protestant church musical. west end, ikaw na ba itu? is the world ready for the sight of gideon in a little white towel dangling from a cross? more importantly, am I ready for that?

rain, rain, rain. f*ck. marlon and i were so looking forward to the beach this weekend. (yes he's here. again. it's a long divali/hari raya weekend in singapore.) we toyed with the idea of bolinao, pangasinan, but the 6-hour bus ride was rather daunting. just when we were ready to "settle" for puerto galera, the weather turned awry and we had a bitch of a time figuring out what to do.

had a minor spat earlier this week about going to tagaytay, which at this point seems impractical given the rain and the cost of renting a car. (marlon says he must be the only poor OFW on the planet--did you know that the extremely chi-chi/insanely expensive residences above greenbelt are being bought mostly by balikbayans???? gawrsh.)

of course there's always the usual makati blah blah. i enjoy the time i spend with marlon, but i have been hankering for something different for us to do. since it looks like we'll be stuck with the usual this weekend, i'm crossing my fingers that we can still find tickets to cabaret tomorrow night. otherwise, we HAVE to find something to do to take advantage of this rare outdoorsy mood i'm in. maybe we can fly a kite in UP sunken garden. ANYTHING.

oh crap. it's raining again.

Care for some sushi?

or how about some duck?

what will these japanese think of next? granted, some guy on electronics news was whining about these USB flash drives being a symptom of a severe oversupply, but they're not so bad.

i don't own a USB flash drive myself (i'm horribly dependent on my office desktop), but if i did own one, i'd probably want it to be one of them sushi thingamajigies. the ducks are rather tacky--especially the pseudo-camouflage one. hehe.

Feeding the dream

gp recently emailed acs about a john mayer clinic held in berklee.

"I know exactly how you're feeling," [John Mayer] said, specifically to freshmen only in their second week of classes. "You get to strap your wings on now because you get to do 24 hours a day what you were fighting to do maybe 90 minutes a day, or 2½ hours a day."

He wanted them to recognize how important it was that they had decided to pursue music.

"If you're like me, half the people you talked to said, 'Go for it' and the other half said, 'Don't go for it.' You're here because you made the decision, not because there was a consensus."

--

this one from another article. in its november article, cosmo featured jedd tan, a filipina couture fittings model in paris. her little pearl of wisdom is much more bading, but no less true.

"Kung alam mong kaya mo, Diyos ko! 'Wag ka nang magpapigil sa nanay mo o boyfriend mo!"

--

is my supposedly big dream so fragile that it seeks strength from glossy magazines and forwarded emails? what small allies i have against the giants of circumstance and despair.

or is the dream growing, rearing its head, consuming more and more, that it must feed even on the pettiest and unlikeliest of sources? then, i say, let it consume me.

In memoriam Sony Ericsson Z200

Sometime Mouse, Compact and Electric Razor
Beloved Holder of Mushy Messages
Faithful Morning Waker
Lost to a Greedy MRT Pickpocket
Dearly Missed and (at the moment) Irreplaceable

January 2004 to November 2004
Requiescat In Pace
+

Long weekend hangover

urgh i am still sooo on long weekend mode. i slept at around 230 am and surprise! was around ten minutes early to work because my sister had to be in the office early. my head feels really heavy and am sure i have the word "autopilot" stamped on my forehead. fortunately it will be a rather slow-paced workweek (no MIR this month! hurrah!) so i can recover. let's start this morning off with something brainless, shall we?

bring in the survey! *gong*

1. I can't live without______ music
2. If only I could________ study in Europe
3. I don't want to be________
4. I want to meet________ musicians who followed their dreams
5. I want to be____ a star! BWAHAHAHAHA!
6. I want to eat_____ black pepper crab from Jumbo in Singapore. also grilled stingray from the hawker center near Raffles Place
7. I miss my_________ boyfriend. oh and our old house in hydra street.
8. I dream about________ people that i haven't seen in ages.
9. I want to get________ glasses with some form of eyestrain protection.
10. I'm planning to have________ kids by the age of thirty.
11. I want to change my________ waistline, dammit!
12. I want to quit________ putting off vocalizing.
13. I love my__________ boyfriend, family and choir.
14. I hate _________ Filipinos who always try to be the exception to the rule.
15. I'm proud to be________ half Indian, half Filipino.
16. I'm NOT regretting my________ choice of college. Ateneo rocks.
17. Tomorrow I'm going to_________ shop for one or two Christmas presents.
18. I'm excited about ________ going out of town during the long Ramadan weekend. where to, where to? *rubs palms together in anticipation*
19. I'm happy because__________ I am alive.
20. I'm sad because________ I wasn't able to visit my dad for All Souls' Day.

23

i figured it would be a shame to let my birthday sneak by without saying anything about it on this blog. so in keeping with my true nature as a compulsive list-maker, here are 23 things (in random order) that made my 23rd birthday a happy one.

1. lots of greetings. which is always nice. funny--people started greeting me as far back as one month ago (joseph, marlon's bro, greeted me on september 17 or thereabouts. "you sure it isn't your birthday today?"). lots of people texted and messaged me at friendster. one of the sweetest greetings came from mickey, who i didn't think would remember. man i miss college.

2. the fact that it's still sort of my birthday. i'm still getting friendster messages (miguel: "i'm here for the late birthday greetings. do i just go to the end of the line?") today. plus i celebrated with my family and at the office just yesterday, since i took ...

3. a half-day off from work! to have...

4. a foot spa! a nail spa opened at paseo center, just a couple of doors down from my building. it has a great view of the ugarte park (formerly the ayalas' private landing strip! grabe!), is very quiet, and uses this fantastic thick, creamy peppermint scrub. my feet and calves stayed tingly for hours. only Php 380 with a pedicure! more valuable than the pretty feet though was that it gave me...

5. some very good "me" time. which, again, is always nice.

6. post-foot spa nap. see, it takes very little to pamper me. just put me to bed after administering a dose of kikay-ness.

7. dressing up. hot pink t-shirt + white circle skirt embroidered with gold flowers and candy-colored beads + gold ballet shoes and apple green thai silk scarf. saya! bading na bading ako! i just looove dressing up. all in preparation for...

8. social climbing/gatecrashing. emper got us free tickets to the ayala corp. 170th anniversary event at greenbelt, which was a rep revue with cocktails. i lured marlon with free food. ("let's go sit up front where everyone can see us and realize that they've never seen us before!") his discomfiture with not knowing a single soul disappeared at the sight of all-you-can-eat roast lamb. naturally.

9. sangria and red wine.

10. chocolate fondue. as in, literally a FOUNTAIN of chocolate. yummmm.

11. pretending that the whole shebang was really MY party. "so glad you could make it! i really wanted breadfruit and pomegranates for the fondue, but they just couldn't be flown here in time!" hee hee.

12. JAZA! JAZA! JAZA! that's MISTER jaime augusto zobel de ayala to you, buster. gawd i was sooo starstruck (as always) when i saw him. also felt the mad urge to strangle his gorgeous, skinny, fashionable colombian wife.

13. broadway. i have not seen a rep show in ages, but knowing my current musical tastes and the gravity of rep diaspora (the greats are all inactive or abroad in various musicals), i warned marlon that the show had immense potential to annoy me. in fairness, it didn't. liesl batucan did. the woman has been doing that simpering sweetness act for nearly ten years. it's soo not cute anymore. besides, her voice is vastly irritating.

anyway, that said, the better part of the show reminded me of old dreams: how much i loved broadway shows, how much fun they are to sing along to, and how early i developed a love of performing. i remember the last rep musical i watched--jesus christ superstar--right before the cast of miss saigon netherlands left. i remember being so pleasantly amazed: angelo had such a wonderful voice that i never fully appreciated. sigh. i miss the old rep.

14. menchu launchengco-yulo's performance of "the meadow lark" from the baker's wife. ringing with clarity and passion. what a great way to be introduced to a song you've never met before.

15. elver esquivel and michael williams. elver has always been known for being rooted in solid classical technique. while michael apparently lived in london for a coupla years doing more plays, including the king and i, and now he has this very nice, light and warm broadway voice.

16. caffe puccini at the fort. new discovery away from the "madding crowd" (hi leow! hehe) of greenbelt. bintan-esque pizzas, candlelight and coffee in front of a nice open square. and it's right in front of pier one, so anytime you're sick of the expat atmosphere you can just cross the square, grab a bottle of negra and play billiards.

17. marlon. like, duh. spending this week with him has been the best birthday gift of all ("happy birthweek!" indeed, as he keeps on saying). i couldn't have thought of anything better than to have him home for ten whole days! a few things threatened to get me very depressed during the day, but he has this wonderful calming presence. it also helps that he knows how to make me laugh like a maniac and gives great big bear hugs. okay, i'll stop before i get overmushy. but really, i can't believe that i've been lucky enough to celebrate a second birthday with him.

18. marlon's present: a cd/vcd player! he said it wasn't right that someone who loves music so much (and hoards so many cds) doesn't have a cd player. so he got me one. i truly appreciated this when i listened to my scarlatti piano concertos before bed last night: it drowns out the annoying loud neighbors. oh and classical music sounds way better on it than on a cd-rom drive and bundled speakers. :-)

19. crepes with my family last night. at cafe breton, of course. my diabetic mother got a nutella crepe, of course. if anything made me realize how old we all are now, it was seeing my mom and sister sharing yosi.

20. birthday cake care of my boss. tuesday morning, surajit swung by my desk to greet me happy birthday.

SURAJIT: where's my cake?
ME: i don't know. i don't even know where mine is.
SURAJIT: what? you have no cake? that's so impossible.

then he picked up the phone to ask acy to buy me a cake. she actually bought me two--my classic red ribbon faves, chocolate mousse and chocolate crunch!

SURAJIT: how old are you?
ME: 23.
SURAJIT: you are ANCIENT!
ME: i know! doesn't it make you feel positively jurassic?
SURAJIT: of course not. don't be fooled by my big stomach [and kids, when he says big stomach, he ain't kidding. this is bigger than andrei's was in his prime]. i'm only 15.
ME: of course not. i wasn't fooled at all. that's just baby fat.
SURAJIT: very good. you're learning. you have a very bright future in this company.

go figure. it's astounding how nonsensical conversations with surajit can be, considering he's the big boss around here.

21. going to bed at night feeling tired but happy to have had a full day.

22. my future. marlon and i have been talking about the future a lot lately. not so much "our' future as a couple but our individual ambitions, which both involve further education and a major career shift (he wants to be a professional geek, i want to be a professional KSP).

i am a lot more optimistic about the future now then i was a year or even half a year ago. there were times when i couldn't talk to marlon about what i wanted without crying because i felt like there was no way it was going to happen and because i felt so guilty for even just wanting it. there were also times when he'd bring up planning for our futures and i'd feel cornered and pressured.

but now i'm much more focused and a lot less paralyzed by fear. i'll always remember something marlon told me: "there enough obstacles to your ambitions without the ones that you're creating for yourself in your head." if i didn't have marlon i might have given up a couple of months ago. but dreaming, strategizing and just talking about my dreams with him has done wonders for my attitude.

i still have some hang-ups, but overall i've stopped making excuses for myself and gotten off my ass to put together my action plan. i've been scouring around for schools, and talking to robert buckland from kammerchor stuttgart about career paths. chris pong and i teamed up recently to gather information on music programs as well. oh and there's more... but anyway briefly put: there is still so much to prepare for, learn, discover and do.

i am scared and humbled by the future, but excited, challenged, resolute and hopeful as well. a good combination of things to be upon turning a year older.

23. you actually got to #23? good for you. i never made it to the end of the list.

Eggs

pleeeeease, if reading my blog influences you to do one thing today, let it be this:

to listen to this song about eggs.

warning: if you are in a space with other people and want to preserve your dignity in their eyes, do yourself a favor and plug in your earphones first.

the videoke-style lyrics at the bottom subtly invites fellow egg lovers to play this over and over and actually sing along. there is something rather disturbing about having such a rabid love of eggs.

i personally dislike eggs, but since i've been on this silly diet i've had to eat more of them. thankfully, i've found that making an omelet using spanish-style tuna makes them infinitely more tolerable.

i used to hate it whenever i'd come down to breakfast before school and my mom would have a sunny-side up egg sandwich ready for me to eat. you can't get mad, because of course it's your mother and she got up early to make breakfast for you. so down goes the egg sandwich in one big gulp. after 22 years you'd think she'd be able to tell which of her two daughters detests eggs with a passion, but nooo.

joseph/giuseppe used to make fantastic spanish omelettes (omelets?) back in seventh grade. it was always really nice how he'd bring them to school himself at lunchtime so they would still be hot and yummy. they'd be practically vacuum-packed in this tiny tupperware, which would just explode once opened. *POOF!* and a hot, fluffy, golden spanish omelette big enough for an entire class would leap out at you. i have yet to taste a spanish omelette of similar quality. take that, casa armas.

it's rather surprising how many egg memories i have. my mom used to organize these incredibly OC easter egg hunts for two (me and ate, duh). once when i was around five, she color-coded all the eggs to correspond to prizes, like a box of munchkins or a hundred bucks or a t-shirt (still have the shirt). of course there had to be two of each otherwise me or my sister would totally freak out.

as we got older, the egg hunts started involving other kids, like chiara, anna and angel (and all our yayas haha). we set aside a separate day for decorating our egg baskets (you know, where you put the eggs you find) and painting the eggs themselves. we had pink eggs, blue eggs, bronze, gold and silver eggs. i distinctly remember that one of us tried to make a johnny depp egg by gluing on cutouts from teenybopper magazines (circa 21 jumpstreet). i think my mom vetoed the idea.

*Hangs head in shame*

jim paredes has a blog! (fyi he was my teacher for a fun comm elective in sophomore year, where i think i did some of my best and not-as-trying-hard writing.) this is just as surprising as finding a teacher over the age of 30 with a friendster account (thus tony lambino and mdj are not counted).

anyway, what's so disturbing about his having a blog that it's so much hipper than mine! and so much more indian too! damn. inspired tuloy akong pagandahin ito. paano kaya?

hazel and arch, techie couple! (or si hazel lang ba ang techie? haha!) help meeee!

Am I...

...an ACADEMIC GIRL who can kick your ass in Scrabble... in Latin?

...an ATHLETIC GIRL who trains for a triathlon... for fun?

...a CAREER GIRL who reads the WSJ on her PDA while tracking her IPO on the NYSE?

...a GIRL NEXT DOOR who makes gingham, college sweatshirts and needlepoint sexy?

...a GOURMET GIRL who knows her ciabatta from her cioppino?

...a GRANOLA GIRL who has solar panels on her roof, Birkenstocks on her feet, and a Green Party sticker on her bumper?

...an INDIE GIRL who collects Japanese candy wrappers and lawn gnomes?

...a PARTY GIRL who has never lost a game of quarters... or bar golf... or strip poker?

...a PROGRESSIVE GIRL who wants an SUV, but feels really bad about it?

...an UPTOWN GIRL who wishes that everything came in a little blue box from Tiffany's?

I am Progressive Girl Click on the picture below to read more: Take the 'What Kind of Girl Are You?' quiz at CookingToHookup.com

hmmm. got this from jeline. does this quiz have this particular effect on all who take it? jeline doesn't really seem to think she's an indie girl (although i can see the fit), and i have a bit of a hard time swallowing that i'm a few grains short of granola.

dagnabbit. i knew i should have chosen "oysters and filet mignon served on a yacht in st. tropez" over "dinner with the locals on a caribbean island after a day of exploring out-of-the-way beaches" as my dream date. i was quite stumped there. perhaps i would have edged closer to uptown. haha.

Beach bunny

no, it's not an early vacation (HA! i wish!). beach as in SOUTH BEACH, as in majorly hyped up diet du jour. yes i bought the hype. yes i'm on it (it's my second week). and yes it's working. people whom i only see once a week will back me up on this. (bawal sumagot ate ko! hahaha!) chrissie ongie told me yesterday that there has been a noticeable effect on my face. and of course aui, my diet partner and food supplier noticed too. (i found myself looking up salad recipes on the internet and wondered briefly if i was turning into a slightly tech-savvier aui.) better than that though, i now fit into clothes that i used to wear before i started dating marlon (before the weekly crab dinners, for-no-occasion-at-all gifts of dark chocolate, pugon pandesal, fraps, di rigeur dessert, yadda yadda yadda. you get the picture). the weight lost so far should be about 6 pounds--i don't know, i don't weigh myself everyday like some anorexic ninny. marlon's on the diet too, and we plan to shock each other when he comes home for my birthday. then we'll go and pig out on some sinfully chocolatey birthday cake. mwehehe. i won't bore you with the finer details of the 3-phase diet, but suffice it to say that: 1. i am never hungry. 2. this is more fun than i expected. although i had a slight identity crisis while carefully considering the merits of kraft part-skim mozzarella vs. bega super-light slices. "is this really me?" 3. if i can afford to do groceries like i do them now, i could seriously consider eating like this forever. of course you're supposed to gradually reintroduce fat/sugar into your diet after 2 weeks, so my eating habits won't be as strict as they are now. 4. eating out on the diet is surprisingly easy. i went to bizu, of the truffles and to-die-for mini chocolate cakes and sublime desserts, with jonathan and bea saturday night. i ordered A SALAD. AND I LIKED IT. i am cured! (bizu does make a really good hot mushroom salad by the way, with yummy giant portabella mushrooms. try it if you can tear yourself away from the desserts.) 5. i actually like salads. i had one today with tuna, olives, feta cheese, iceberg and green coral lettuce with italian pesto dressing. yum yum.

ok

so that is that. don't want to turn into a diet bore. you'll just hear about this again when i am sufficiently ecstatic about my weight.

in other news, there is a total hottie young lawyer in our building (eep! sorry marlon!). he looks suspiciously atenean (i.e. familiar), but i can't place him. he goes to the siguion reyna, ongsiako and montecillo law office on the 4th to 6th floors. (funny, whenever i see that name flash on the elevator LCD, i keep thinking of lots of irate armida siguion reynas in power suits. scaryyyy.) his cuteness may very well be due to the bango factor of lawyers' white linen polo barongs.

anyway, i've been in the elevator with him a couple times, and i seem to be powerless to do anything else except let more of my feet peek out from under my jeans. ganyan nga siguro kapag may boyfriend ka.

wonder how he liked my gold ballet flats from ukay-ukay.

I give this week an...

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. :-)