Could this really be true? I say it’s just another silly thing to be paranoid about. Well, we had a good laugh at the office, pretending to be very paranoid – asking if we could just work from sofas and thinking of what we could wear or place on top of our seats to avoid getting shards up our butts should our chairs somehow explode.
Will we see a Mythbusters episode on this soon? 😉
I was with the high school barkada again yesterday for the birthday party of Trina’s younger daughter. We had a good time bonding with Trina’s mom and one of her brothers, who sat with us throughout the event. It was good to catch up with them since they also updated us with what’s going on with the rest of the brood. They gave us some funny and juicy details, haha! We really missed her brother Arnie since he would usually go with us on our out-of-town trips before he got married.
It was also great to be surrounded by kids – and to be kids again around them. I still get excited over loot bags and the kiddie games, while some friends still take balloons home, even if they don’t have kids. On one birthday party in the past, we had our faces painted and went straight to the mall, not caring about the stares we received.
The irony is, even though the kiddie vibe was all around us, Yan’s birthday party also reflected how we’ve aged in numbers and matured in character. How vastly different our lives are now, especially those who are already married. It makes me proud that our barkada has managed to stay together through everything that has taken place over the years. And I don’t mean the special occasions, but the fact that we are really still IN each other’s lives. It all seems silly now that I once feared that our friendship might not survive long after graduation.
At around this time last year, I wrote a post about the myriad of characters in our office building. There have been several interesting developments over the year that made these characters even more interesting and significant. Some of them are now longer mere familiar faces, but people with whom I’ve actually had some encounters – some funny, some downright embarrassing, and some awkward; all definitely out of the ordinary. The funniest and strangest thing is that I still haven’t actually gotten to know any of them personally. Heck, I don’t even know some of their names.
This past week, I have had encounters and incidents with practically all of the most interesting and significant ones. Let’s start with the leading man – The Enigma. After a few months of different kinds of eye contact and several shy and awkward moments, bam, physical contact! Not what you think, naughty minds out there, haha! He literally bumped me (Intentionally? Hmmm… :D). Missed opportunity though, since I didn’t know it was him! I had my back turned, and it was a light bump anyway so I didn’t bother turning around. However, according to E (who happened to be facing him), he stopped and turned, probably to apologize, but sadly, I didn’t look back. Haay, parang pelikula.
Then there’s Ex-Bodyguard. I accidentally stepped on his foot inside the elevator. We used to call him Bodyguard, until we found out that he’s actually part-owner of his law firm! In fact, one-half of the firm’s name is his. We called him by that nickname because he looked like one! He is a big guy, who always wears a plaid polo, tinted glasses (even indoors!), and always hangs around the food court, just walking around and looking at everybody. He looks as though he’s “scoping” the place. This brings us to another character – we imagined him to be the bodyguard of…Ex-Lawyer.
Just as in the case of Ex-Bodyguard, the “Ex” part of the nickname was a late addition. We simply assumed he was a lawyer because he works at a law firm and dresses like one. It’s a long story how we found out that he’s actually not. Suffice it to say that he’s the only one among the Characters that one of my officemates (ahem, sino kaya? 😉 ) actually got to know personally. Ex-Lawyer ALWAYS wears the same orange hoodie. So, I wasn’t able to hide my surprise when I met him in the hallway this week and saw him wearing a yellow hoodie! It was an awkward moment because of the said “history” and because we were the only ones in the hallway.
Finally, there’s the Original Leading Man (before The Enigma came sauntering through the food court doors). I saw him again after many months, and it was kinda funny. We caught each other’s eye, and he had this tiny smile on his face. He probably remembered the really funny embarrassing moment way back. It had nothing to do with him whatsoever, but it was just really funny.
There are many other Characters in the building, such as HMG (happily married girl), Jaja, Kabit (not in the way you think). Maybe I’ll have interesting encounters with them eventually. Trish wants me to write a sitcom out of these characters, encounters, and incidents (there are a lot more that I don’t blog about). I don’t know how it will actually turn out, but it will definitely be a lot of fun to do! If nothing else, it could be a nice keepsake to make us smile. 😀
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Oh, and I’m asserting my rights to these Characters and stories!
This has been going around the blogs and on Facebook. Though I’ve already been tagged by Trish, I’ve resisted…until now! What the heck, it’s fun to do and fun to read friends’ lists. So, here are 25 random things about me:
1. I still eat Cerelac, but only Wheat Banana, please.
2. On my first plane ride when I could already talk, I asked my parents as the plane landed, “Nasa Pilipinas na ba tayo? (Are we back in the Philippines?)”. It was only a domestic flight, but when I was a kid, I equated plane rides with overseas trips.
3. I can read musical notes and play simple melodies on a piano, but I have very little ear for music and can’t carry a tune!
4. When I was a kid, we had a cat named Jeprox, but I couldn’t pronounce it and called him ‘Papus’ instead. The nickname stuck, and everyone in the clan called him that from then on.
5. The only way I would eat egg yolk is when it’s scrambled. If I forget to request it and I get served sunny side up, I would eat only the whites, going around the egg yolk in the center.
6. I was once eating candy in class (circumventing the “No Eating Inside the Classroom” rule) when the teacher unexpectedly called on me to answer a question. I accidentally swallowed the still-large candy in my surpise, and almost choked!
7. I can’t sleep without a blanket and with only one pillow.
8. I can easily fall asleep at any time I wish – even standing up!
9. I recite the alphabet backwards in my head when I want to amuse myself or to relieve stress.
10. When I was little, and maybe even until now, I thought my dad could answer any question and solve any problem because he knows EVERYTHING!
11. I love Cherry Coke.
12. I once posed for a calendar. It was a group photo, depicting Merienda Cena during the Spanish period. I loved the costume (it was one of the prettiest) and it fit perfectly. I half-jokingly asked the coordinator if I could keep it. He said I could, provided I go back to Manila in full costume and makeup – the shoot was in Bacolod! I’m afraid I wasn’t brave enough to actually do it.
13. I’m a big fan of old Sharon Cuneta movies, heehee!
14. Commercials, movies, TV shows, books make me cry easily.
15. When eating pizza, I would eat the cheesiest portion of the slice last even if it’s the middle part; I would just eat around it first.
16. My dream outfit has always been a full winter ensemble consisting of mini-skirt, tights, knee-high boots, white turtleneck sweater, bright red trench coat, scarf, gloves, and a very pretty hat.
17. I dream of wearing the outfit above while walking the streets of New York, Paris or Florence.
18. As a kid, I believed that you could get pregnant from torrid kissing.
19. I love the smell of new books.
20. I can’t wait to skydive, but I don’t think I could ever bungee jump or scuba dive.
21. I don’t eat any black portion of any kind of fish.
22. I like melon shake and melon juice with shredded melon bits, but I don’t eat melon slices.
23. I’m afraid of going to the bathroom of a plane while it’s airborne.
24. I’ve fallen into a manhole twice already!
25. I’ve always prepared the fruit salad at Christmas since my mom passed away, but I don’t eat fruit salad. I usually like my fruits in their fresh, natural state.
Tennis has always been one of my favorite sports to watch. It may not be as exciting to some, but once you really get into the game, understand the history and get to know the players and follow the rivalries, then it’s easy to get passionate about it.
I started watching during the time of Boris Becker, Stefan Edberg and Ivan Lendl. I rooted for Becker. Then came the Pete Sampras-Andre Agassi rivalry. I followed every Grand Slam, willing Sampras to break the all-time record for the most number of Slams won. And he did! Fittingly, against Agassi at the 2002 US Open. Sampras retired after that and I no longer followed the tournaments regularly. Then came Rafael Nadal and his rivalry with Roger Federer.
Their rivalry is very interesting since they are such fierce competitors on-court, yet are very good friends off-court. It was something that never happened with Sampras and Agassi, considering that they’re compatriots. What I like about the Federer-Nadal rivalry is the great respect they have for each other, for the game, for their fellow players. But when they go on court, all that respect goes flying out the window – in a good way. Especially in the case of Nadal. As we say in the vernacular, “walang sinasanto“. He doesn’t care who’s facing him across the net. His mission is always to demolish, and you can see it in his every move. Federer’s mission is the same, but he does it in such a contrasting style. He’s all about grace and elegance; Nadal is all about brute strength. It’s like watching a match between a ballet dancer and a slugger.
Rafa is now the world number 1. He won last year’s French Open (demolishing Fed), Wimbledon (against Fed in 5 sets; one of the greatest matches ever), the Olympics, and this year’s Australian Open, again beating Fed in 5 sets – after coming from a 5-hour 5-set match less that 48 hours before! The next Slam is the French Open, where he’ll most likely win again. The guy is practically unbeatable on clay, but it’s almost unbelievable how he could also have won Grand Slams on grass and hardcourt. That’s where he’s one-up on Fed, who has never won the claycourt French Open, just like Pete Sampras. That’s the barrier to either of them being acknowledged as unarguably the greatest-ever. Also, how could Fed be the greatest-ever when he has a losing record against the number two guy (well, back then) and he has never won the French Open. Hmm…I have a feeling that Nadal may even beat him to winning all four Slams. All he needs now is the US Open, and it’s not impossible, since he has already proven that he could win a hardcourt Slam.
So, on whose side am I on this rivalry? Rafa! However, I must say that I have nothing against Fed. I also love watching him play, I just don’t want him to beat Rafa, hehe! He can beat everyone else, but not Rafa. I thoroughly enjoyed their Aussie Open match, and I just wanted to hug them both, especially during the trophy presentation. They have my vote for the greatest and most ideal rivalries of all-time.
I’ve been more active in Facebook recently. Aside from the fact that Friendster has gone way too “jologs”, there’s just a lot more interesting and cool things to do on Facebook. The layout is also a lot better. I don’t have as many in my friends list as most people do, but I am happy with what I have.
Most of the people who’ve added me in recent weeks were high school batchmates. And what have I noticed? 99% of them have hyphenated last names, haha! Anna also noticed the same thing. Sometimes we joke that we should also invent hyphenated last names for ourselves. 😀
Seriously though, I don’t mind it that much. After all, we’re at an age when most are usually married already. It just borders on funny-irritating when everytime you get a Facebook friend-invite, it’s always from some girl who already has a different last name. Then there’s the old school photos that would suddenly get posted. You scramble to see if you’re in them and pray very hard that you’re not, haha! And then you realize that you’re actually enjoying seeing all those photos, to hell with whether you’re in there looking horrible or not.
And why is the status bar one of the most addictive features? The fact that friends could instantly comment on it, I think. A perfect avenue for virtual kwentuhan (chitchat) and asaran. Us Facebook addicts can’t wait to log in everytime something interesting happens or when we’re just bored so we could immediately update our status and see if anyone would react. Haay…are we all just KSP by nature? 😀
Something bad and scary happened to my friend Anna more than a week ago. Her memory of the incident is sketchy so my account of it will not be very clear either. She left her shop at 11.30 in the evening and went to 7-11 across the street to buy dinner and pineapple juice. The next thing she knew, she woke up to find her head bleeding, a Barangay Tanod beside her, and her bag missing. Based on the account of the driver of the jeepney she rode in, someone aboard a motorcyle grabbed her bag (probably right after she alighted the jeepney) and pushed her, knocking her down and causing her to hit her head on the pavement and lose consciousness for a few moments.
She’s fine now, thank goodness! She lost her netbook, mobile phone, wallet and flash drive. I texted her that week about our party at Rebs’ house. She didn’t reply to my text messages, nor to my YM messages. Friday came, and I was just about to call her shop, when my dad called me at work. It turned out that Anna still has our home phone number memorized, even though she has rarely used it since the dawn of Internet and mobile phones. She asked my dad for my mobile number and told him what happened to her.
Our barkada would never have known right away what happened to Anna if she didn’t have my phone number memorized. I could have called her shop sooner, but I didn’t have the number memorized and I somehow wasn’t able to copy it from my old phone before I gave it to my dad. Good thing it wasn’t erased. I still know her home phone number, but it was good that Anna was able to get in touch with me sooner. Moral of the story: Do not forget to still memorize important phone numbers. Do not rely solely on your mobile phone or on paper phone books. Most of all, check on your friends through various means if you don’t hear from them for some time or if they don’t reply to your messages. Don’t always assume that they’re just busy.
Back from a very unintentional blogging hiatus! It was brought about by a combination of spotty Internet connection at home, a workload that leaves me mentally and quite physically tired at the end of the day, weekends spent with either friends, my dad, or just organizing all the stuff in my room, and the Australian Open.
A couple of Saturdays ago, the high school barkada (minus Anna; more about that in the next post) met at Rebs’ new house for a very belated Christmas party-slash-housewarming. It’s been a while since we’ve all been together including all the kids (5 little girls!). It was an afternoon of good food and good conversations. In fact, we were having such a nice, comfortable time that no one thought of taking pictures!
Other weekends were also spent shopping with friends and with my dad, taking advantage of the great year-end sale deals. Surprisingly, the hardware and the home stores became one of our more frequent stops! Rebs obviously needs a lot of things for their new house, while Tin and I are both in an organizing frenzy. I’m still not done, since I didn’t actually come up with a shopping list. I just went along with my friends and got items that I suddenly realized I needed as soon as I saw them.
Things at work are really going my way in recent weeks. First off, I got a project that’s really interesting and in line with one of the things that I love doing most. I can’t write about it yet, so I’ll leave it at that. And the best thing… I’ve already hinted that I was not exactly fond of my former immediate supervisor (an understatement, haha!). His replacement finally reported to work last week, and the guy is his complete opposite! We’ve gotten along from the very start, helped greatly by the number of things we have in common. It was something that was sorely missing the last time around. I’m also excited because we are in sync most of the time in all work-related matters. We are going to do a major revamp, a major re-branding. I really hope this is what it takes for the product to finally take off big time! It has a lot of potential after all.
The Australian Open tennis also took up most of my nights. I was a huge tennis fan beginning the time of Boris Becker until the time Pete Sampras retired. I began to lose interest afterwards because there was no more Sampras-Agassi kind of rivalry that made the game exciting and such a joy to watch. Then came Rafael Nadal, who’s now challenging Roger Federer. Again, more on that in another post.
Whew! I missed blogging! I’m happy to be back. 😀
Under the Sun 