Shoeseses!!! (Insert crazed look here.)

I’m sad. =( The thing about buying shoes (heels or wedges, specifically) in the afternoon on a scorching hot day when my feet are at their most monstrous is that when I attempt to wear them the morning after when it’s cold and balmy, it’s usually a teeny bit disappointing. I swear, I tried on those shoes and walked around the store in them just to make sure they fit well. I tried them on when I got home from the mall, and they fit perfectly. Now I don’t know if by some magical thingiemajig, my shoes got bigger, or my feet got smaller, but this morning, my feet looked like size 7’s in my size 8 shoes. Saaaaaaaddd!!! I hope insoles can do the trick though. I would hate for those really pretty shoeseses to go to waste. Or I can just wear them in the afternoon. In any case, I’ve wasted enough time thinking about them this last (half-day) workday of the year.

Anywayyy… I have to get back to my productivity program. I wasn’t able to do anything yesterday, c/o our office trip to Ying Ying Tea House in Binondo. YUMMMMMMMMMM. And it’s cleaner than Wai Ying. We also went to the Dragon Fireworks warehouse (also in Binondo) to check out the new (and expensive) fireworks they were selling. Well, Helen was the only one who actually bought anything. I think Joy is going back with her husband though. And I think Caloy is buying for one of his friends. As for me, though I find fireworks thoroughly fascinating, the thought of spending thousands of my hard-earned cash on them is a bit beyond my spending arena. Yes, I do have a spending conscience.

On another note, just an hour and 10 minutes left! I’m so eggzited to go back to Baguio! =D My bags are packed, I’m ready to go back to the boondocks. Hihi. Seriously. All I have to do is change out of this dress and into more practical travelling clothes. Nooninooninoo… An hour and 5 minutes to go…

(Wave)

It still seriously surprises me that people read my ramblings. Anyway, hello to everyone who does. Oh, and happy holidays! I hope you have a great time too. I'm heading back to Baguio after lunch tomorrow. Back to the coooooooooold. Wheeeeeeee!!! Too bad I missed the coldest night (so far) though. PAGASA says it will get colder, so, yay me! It's still so much hotter than last year though. I distinctly remember that sometime last year (or was it '09), there was a day that it was 6C in the middle of town, which translates to around 4C in Eaglecrest, where my aunt lives. Well, my jackets can hope it gets colder. They're all just wasting away in my closet. And with that, I bid you adieu, and again, happy holidays! =D

What to do in Ilocos...

I'm going to Ilocos with Tita Susan (and maybe Tito Efren, Jem and Shayne) Jan. 19-23. I'm so eggzited!!! I've never been to Ilocos, but I've always wanted to go. Everything's set. Hotel reservations confirmed and fully paid. Flight booked and confirmed. Airport transfers arranged and fully paid. Now I have to get to work on my itinerary... So far, my general plan is to do Laoag on the 20th, Vigan on the 21st, Pagudpud on the 22nd, and the remainder of the places near Laoag on the 23rd, since my flight doesn't leave until 9:30pm anyway. Anyone have any suggestions?

Si, yo puedo escribir en español.

It’s true. I imagine that to a native speaker, or anybody fluent in Spanish, my Spanish would probably sound like Manny Pacquiao’s English, but hey, I’ve been only been at his for a few months total, so cut me some slack. Next year, we’ll be enrolling in Nivel 10. We’ll be done with B1 by March, and hopefully, we’ll be able to take the B1 DELE in May. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. 

Nwy, I was going through my Instituto Cervantes files, and I found this. It’s a summary of a theoretical sequel to the movie El Juego de la Verdad. There are so many interesting Spanish films: Nada en la Nevera, Manolito Gafotas, etc. Another goal for next year, watch more TVE and Spanish films. I need to get back on track with my foreign language studies.

Okay, so, about the film, I also googled the summary (I can't remember writing it, so I suppose I copied it from somewhere.), but it’s in Spanish, so just Google Translate it or something if you don’t speak Spanish. If you do, I apologize in advance for my grammatical blunders. If Spanish is your mother tongue, from the bottom of my heart, I ask for your forgiveness for having butchered your language.

Alberto y Susana son la pareja perfecta. Guapos, con una intensa vida social, con un trabajo reconocido y con grandes planes a la vista: una casa nueva y una boda por todo lo alto. Alberto es subdirector de un enorme supermercado. Y Susana es la presentadora más sexy del telenoticias en una cadena de televisión local.

Ernesto y Lea son sus mejores amigos. Pero a ellos las cosas no les van tan bien. No tienen dinero, no tienen futuro, y desde luego no tienen planes. Él repite monótonamente las ofertas en un supermercado por megafonía en lugar de trabajar en la radio. Y ella tiene que hacerse pasar por sordomuda para hacer la traducción para sordos en un informativo en lugar de ser presentadora.

Pero todo cambia un buen día, en el que los peores presagios de Ernesto (hipocondríaco incorregible) se hacen realidad: a causa de un error médico que él mismo propicia sin darse cuenta, le diagnostican un tumor incurable, y le dan tres meses de vida como máximo.

A partir de ese momento, las vidas de todos ellos dan un vuelco espectacular y salen a relucir las mentiras y las medias verdades en las que viven inmersos. Susana descubre que Alberto en realidad no quiere casarse con ella. Lea se destapa como una chica fantasiosa que se inventa amantes para suplir la falta de estímulos en su vida. Y todos escuchan por boca de Ernesto cuál es el verdadero deseo que le gustaría cumplir antes de morir: acostarse con Susana, la novia de su mejor amigo...

Si hay una continuacion de la pelicula El Juego de la Verdad, creo que será sobre las niños de los protagonistas en la primera pelicula.

Después de su boda, Alberto y Lea pelearan mucho, pero despues, besaran y reconciliaran, como siempre. Su vida matrimonial nunca será aburrido.

Me imagino que Ernesto y Susana se casaran tambien despues de unos meses, pero es probable que su vida sea un poco aburrido.

Probablemente, las parejas tendrán hijos despues de dos o tres años. Alberto y Lea tendrán una niña que parece Lea, gracias a dios! La niña, se llamará Carla, tendrá una personalidad fuerte como su madre.

Ernesto y Susana tendrán un niño con pelo oscuro. Su hijo, se llamará Francesco, será muy introvertido.

Quizás los hijos de las parejas serán mejor amigos tambien, de su niñez. Al primero, Francesco, el introvertido, no tendrá coraje para decir a Carla que la ama, pero ella sabrá lo. Pero todo cambiará cuando Carla tendrá un accidente. Francesco realizará que si no dirá a Carla su sentimientos, ella podrá morir sin saberlo.

Francesco hablará con Carla en el hospital, dírala todo, y quedará con ella mientras se recuperará.

Un año despues, Alberto, Lea, Ernesto y Susana asistiran la boda de Carla y Francesco, y sonreiran.

Financial (ir)responsibility

Well, the title is actually a bit misleading. I do have savings, and a tiny mutual fund investment. I could do better, but, well, sometimes you just have to have some things.

One of the biggest hurdles I have to overcome when it comes to my spending habits is my ability to rationalize things, e.g. I need that hairstyler so I will never have to go to the salon to get my hair done again. / Ooooh, I need new flats. / Ooooh I need new heels. All my latest shoe purchases are flats. / Mom said books don’t count as expenses. I could go on and on and on. Seriously.

Well, it’s been raining cash over here since October, but the money flows in and then flows back out again. Just to illustrate, I racked up something like 2,000 points on my SkyMiles Mastercard just this Christmas season. And that doesn’t even include my phone and my new, errrrr, capital investment of new jeans and tops for casual Fridays. I was able to set aside 30k, but again, I could do better. But the Kenneth Cole watch was just too cute (and too cheap---it was on sale) to resist! Same thing applies to the Longchamp bag. And the three (yes, three) satchels---camel, light aqua, and a cross between navy and royal blue. And the carpet bag. And the three pairs of flats, three pairs of heels, and three dresses. And the dvd’s. And my Kindle (plus accessories). And my phone. And a lot of other things. Oh brother…

I always say that I don’t know where all the money goes. Aside from the Php24,000 for basic overhead (rent, bills, amortization payments, etc.), that is. Well, I was going over my receipts yesterday, and I kinda figured out where all the money went. First of all, I ended up spending somewhere between Php10,000 and Php15,000 for Christmas gifts. My Excel file says that I spent a bit more than Php10,000 as of the end of November. And I’m pretty sure I spent more. That’s the problem with early Christmas shopping. I always end up buying double or triple gifts for people (and therefore, for myself too).

AND. Good Lord. I was compiling receipts, and when I added everything up, egad, I spent Php20,000 this year at Powerbooks alone. No wonder the sales people are so nice to me. See, all those glossy Impressionist books went on sale during the third quarter of this year, and I just could NOT resist. Art books. Architecture books. Travel books. Interior decorating books. Cookbooks. Spanish books. History books. Comic books. Biographies. Autobiographies. The first AND the second World War. The Cold War. Spies. The American Civil War. Philippine History. The classics. JFK. Nixon. Carter. Bush. Obama. You name it, I probably have it. I even have one on Persian carpets, for crying out loud.

On top of my Powerbooks purchases, I also spent quite a bit at the Manila International Book Fair last September (or was it October? I forget.). Again, trivia books. The Beatles. The Forties, Fifties, Sixties and Seventies in Pictures. Elvis. Lost Civilizations. Famous battles. Wildlife. The Uncanny. I could go on and on and on.

I blame my mother for this. She always said books don’t count as expenses. Well, mother, you have created a monster. I spent two nights after work just trying to figure out how to arrange all of my books given my muy muy muy limited shelf space at home. But hey, they make me happy. And mother knows best. Wink wink.

So anyhow, to counteract my purchases, I started cooking and eating dinner at home. Yes, seriously. I think I’ve been doing the whole housewife thing for six weeks now, and I am very proud to say that everything has been edible. I might even say deeeeeeelish, but I need someone to confirm. So eggziting. I’m going to the grocery later to stock up for when I get back from Baguio after the holidays. The whole domestication thing is fun. I just really really hate doing the dishes. I’ll clean the bathroom, vacuum and wax the floors, but I seriously vehemently detest doing the dishes. (Insert frown here.)

So there. I aim to become more financially responsible next year: increase my mutual funds investment, maybe finally work on my stock portfolio. We’ll see.

Before Sunrise: the Victory Liner edition (aka Whatever, Grace.)

I've been travelling to and from Baguio for as long as I can remember. I must say though, my more than 10-hour bus ride from Pasay the day before Christmas eve is by far the most interesting commute I have ever had.

I've met a ton of interesting people on my semi-regular commute to the city I still call home. A couple of old lawyers, the granddaughter of Dexter of Dexter's Catering, a couple of old ladies, a funny nurse from the Supreme Court clinic (who I met again when I started working for the SC, and who I still talk to every so often), and most recently, this guy named Ryan. Well, I suppose that's his real name. (Projection lang. My I-don't-want-to-talk-to-strangers fake name is Rachel Dela Cruz.)

I got to the station half an hour before my day-before-Christmas-Eve trip to Baguio, sat down on one of the many black plastic chairs (whose backrests are placed so far back you never actually use them), and followed the loooooooooong queue of people at the ticket booth. I seriously wondered, as I still do, why people still did not bother to book their tickets in advance. I whipped out my Kindle and started on the first first few pages of Lisa Kleypas' Suddenly You. (Yeah, the one with 40 pages of foreplay. Lol.)

A few minutes later, the 3:00pm bus positioned itself in its designated slot, and I got up to hand over my luggage (a medium-sized suitcase and a huuuuuge plastic bag of Christmas gifts) to the bus conductor. There was another girl with a maroon Longchamp travelling tote (Yeah, I noticed. It was really cute.) and this guy in a leather jacket, sort of a taller, bulkier version of Noel, my mom's former student at the SLU Boys' High School back in the early 90's, bar topnotcher and my former officemate. Small world. But back to my story. I thought, oh, he's headed for Baguio, maybe they're related. Maybe he's Noel's brother or something. I put on my staring-blankly-into-space face while we were waiting for the conductor to get off the phone and open the luggage compartment. I snickered to myself when this old guy carrying a VERY BIG backpack passed in front of the doppelganger and he sort of cringed with disbelief. It was like looking in the mirror. I would have reacted the same way.

A short while later, the conductor came back to stash our luggage. When I boarded the bus, the doppelganger was standing in the aisle, looking for the seat numbers. The nice person that I am, I asked him what seat number he was looking for. He said he was in seat 6, so I pointed out the seat next to where I was going to sit. Once he got out of the way, that is. (Okay, so maybe being nice wasn't my intention, it was more that I was annoyed that he was in my way and I couldn't get to my seat. I hate it when people do that, hanging out in the aisle, corridor or whatever, blocking my path. Another pet peeve, when people walk the same way most people in this city drive, i.e. without direction, swerving every which way. Seriously, if you want to gawk at something, get out of the way.)

We settled in for the long ride. He took out his inflatable neck pillow, which kept on falling down. (Annoying.) At some point, it fell right at my feet, and I refused to pick it up. More specifically, I looked at the pillow on the floor, moved my foot away, and went back to bonding with my Kindle. I thought, Hey leather jacket dude, your pillow’s at my feet. Go pick it up. He stuck the pillow behind his neck and alternately tinkered with his iPhone and his iPad. Hmmmm… Not bad, leather jacket boy. But your jeans are still ripped. Ewwww.

A while later, he fell asleep, and I focused my full attention on reading my trashy novel. Because we all know how much brain work that entails. Haha!

An hour into our trip, my ungrateful tummy started growling, and not in the hungry way. I shouldn’t have had that last slice of pizza… I prayed to all the saints and all the deities to calm my churning insides. I did NOT want to go in any of the restrooms at the designated bus stops, and we were a loooooooong way from Baguio. Yes, God, I get it, I’m a bad person. I should have picked up his pillow. The pain came in nauseating waves, but gradually subsided into a little uncomfortable lull. I decided to sleep through it. When I woke up two hours later, we were thankfully along NLEX. Yep, 3 hours from Pasay to NLEX. When really, sans traffic, we should have been in Tarlac by then.

By the time we got to Pampanga, we still weren’t talking. I have to admit, I was a teeny bit miffed at that. Not that I wanted to talk to him. But I wanted to have the option to say no. Teeheehee. Come on, it's a normal thing. Plus my legs were starting to feel cramped. My tummy had by then settled into a simmering sort of murmur, but I decided not to eat anything yet. Ah, yes, the laws of matter.

A couple of hours later, we got to Tarlac. He got off first, and then I headed for the washroom. The doppelganger was busy eating at one of the tables. I decided I deserved a cigarette, so I walked over to the convenience store. Luckily, they had Marlboro Menthols. I started walking around the store looking for tissue, but I didn’t see any. I went back to check if they had any behind the counter, and ended up there at the same time as the doppelganger. He let me go first (Well that was nice.), but since they didn’t have any tissue or lighters, I just said thank you, and went to inflict some damage on my lungs.

Outside, I positioned myself strategically right smack in front of the bus. No danger of forgetting which bus I was supposed to board. I borrowed a light from one of the men at the wooden bench. The doppelganger arrived a minute later and asked if he could borrow a light. (Oh goodie, he smokes. No judgment there. Btw, I’ve actually sort of semi-quit, but since it’s Christmas, I decided to spoil myself.) So anyway, since I didn’t have a lighter, he asked if he could light it with the tip of my cigarette, which I reluctantly handed over. (Huh. Errrr, close tayo?)

He began our little chitchat by asking me if I was coming from Manila. I learned over the course of the conversation that Ryan he was (well, is) a civil engineer from La Trinidad working for an Austrian construction company in Japan. (Can’t remember what city though.) Smalltalk button switched on. Really? Both my parents are engineers. We talked about the earthquake and the tsunami, and how long it had been since he last went home. He hadn’t had Christmas here in six years, and hadn’t been home in two.

We boarded the bus, and continued our little chitchat about life in Baguio before there were so many people there. He told me he graduated from Boys’ High in 1993, but apparently had never been my mom’s student. I told him about the new places to go and where to eat in Baguio. He told me about his life alone in Japan.

By the time we got to Sison, it dawned on me that we were nearing Baguio. Good, considering we’d been on the road for hours, but a little sad, because I’d be saying goodbye to a new acquaintance-slash-friend (whose name I did not know up until that point). Yes, the conversation was that good. I so seldom meet people who are actually fun to talk to, and are worth talking to, that it’s a serious treat when I do. (The pathetic-ness of this statement has since dawned on me. - ed.) And I thought he was kinda cute, in that indescribably unique Baguio boy way.

And so, instead of going back to sleep, we just talked and talked and talked and talked some more for the last hour and a half of our trip. I should have slipped him my number or my email address at some point, but I was conflicted. Yes, according to Anna, natabunan na daw ang inner landi. (Facepalm. Toink.) I’ve been on a hiatus from this whole thing for so long, and I was just getting my sea legs back. (I used to be good at the whole subtle flirting (aka SF) thing. Ask Chi. I think I need more practice. Now to look for a willing victim...) On top of all that, I wasn’t even sure if I was just reading too much into the whole thing than I should have been. Maybe he was (is) married, or in a relationship. No ring though. (I think. I've never been good at checking. I usually just assume everyone's married, attached, or not worth my time. Which, given the fact that I work for the Supreme Court and live in Ermita, is a very wise and practical strategy.) Or maybe he was (is) gay. Very unlikely. Seriously.

When we got to Baguio, he helped me carry my things to the cab. We said goodbye, and Merry Christmas. A rather nondescript, unmelodramatic, and extremely anticlimactic end to my little Before Sunrise, Victory Liner edition.

P.S.

I thought I saw him in Baguio last night, driving a white sedan, but it was just a quick glimpse. I would have loved to talk to him a little more, or maybe keep in touch, exchange stories or something. But if he didn’t ask for my number, or at least my email address or twitter id, I guess that means something, right? I mean, I’m not that difficult to look up on the internet if he really wanted to get in touch with me. Oh wells. In any case, it was a very interesting ride to have been on. Who knows, maybe I’ll run into him in Baguio or on my way back to Manila after New Year’s. If I do, I am so definitely giving him my number. What he does with it is his call.  

P.S.P.S.

Okay, so I finally figured out the scientific explanation for this whole thing. It's hormonal. Hahaha! Happy New Year, everyone!

Eggzited!!!

Tomorrow, I have to be up and about at 5am for El Clasico. For the first time ever, a local tv station is actually covering it LIVE. Yay for football in the Philippines! I seriously dream of the day when the Spanish team comes over here. Hehe!

Anyhoo, I'm going to another birthday brunch at 11 with friends from law school. So that'll be fun.

What won't be fun is delivering all these presents to their intended recipients. They're all in piles now, sorted and tied according to geographical proximity. Don't get me wrong, I looooooooove Christmas shopping. This year, I actually ended up getting multiple gifts for a lot of people. It's just that tomorrow, I have to drop by Victory Liner and send two huge piles of presents to Baguio ahead of my trip, then I have to somehow also bring the piles of presents for C and her family, and my law school friends who are going to R's birthday brunch. Oh how I wish I actually had a car. But with the Christmas traffic, errrrr...maybe not.

Oh, and then, the sucker for romantic comedies that I am, I'm going to see New Year's Eve with N tomorrow after brunch.

And so goes my Sunday.

Another thing to be eggzited about, we get our Kindles on Wednesday!!! Woohoo!!! Yay for technology! I do expect a verbal reprimand for the amount of stuff I asked my stepmother to bring home from Chicago, but at least I'll get my Kindle sans international delivery charge, right?

I also learned today that my cousin C and her family are going to Baguio for Christmas. Yay! I have such a small family, and within that group, so few sane relatives that I treasure the very few and far apart days I get to see them. I really seriously can't wait to go home for Christmas.

Voldie no. 2

A few years ago, I cut someone off because I finally realized, after quite a few rebound episodes, that I was in a vicious cycle of a relationship that had long outrun its course. Well, this year, I have finally realized that I am, again, in another vicious cycle of yet another relationship that has, again, long outrun its course. You know you're not really friends with someone when he/she is consistently nice to everyone but you in spite of your uncharacteristic niceness to him/her. So there. It's seriously Voldie all over again. Well, minus the making out stuff. Ewwwww. The thought makes me shudder. anyhoo, I am editing my relationships this year, and this time, this one's for real. It's been exhausting trying to extend the shelflife of a friendship that I probably should have accepted has been over for quite a while. And the funny thing is, I'm not even sad about it anymore. Distance sooooooooooo does not make the heart grow fonder. It just makes you forget and move on with your life.