who wants to be a millionaire?

February 26, 2009

Who doesn’t?

Everything is a gamble. Life itself is a genetic lottery. Perhaps that is the reason why so many people line up even though the odds of winning is very small. You’ll never know when luck will strike. For the 300+M lottery draw, even I took the chance. Had I won, what would I have done? People normally say they will resign, buy stocks, donate to charity. I would have specifically done the following among others. Hehehe.. Baka matuwa si Lord sa gagawin ko, papanalunin nya ko next time.

Family ko - Travel around the world. Name it! Dapat maging pilot ang kapatid ko kasi magpp-private jet tayo.

Maui - Bogart! Since I am so amazed with your passion, I will give the funds to start-up your own gallery. I will give you 8 sets of lens. Why 8? Because of Beng…

Beng - I will give you a one-way ticket to Manila. I will ask you to re-design your 8 models of Corruption. Why 8?! Because you already gathered 8 models. hahaha. Seriously, I will finance your political career. I really think that that is your passion.

Rica - Again, about passion. I will franchise a Beauty Bar outlet for you. hehe.. I will enroll you in the best cosmetics school in the world (with travels on the side). I will fund your business pa.

Tin - I will fund our Travel/Event Planning Business but before that we will travel the places that we will offer. I will ask you to resign from work and I will pay your monthly salary 8 times until you find the work that suits you. I will also post your pic in the lifestyle section of the newspaper.

Cesar - Weekly two-way tickets to Singapore and Manila. Hehe.. I will ask you to resign eventually until the MDE program starts then I will enroll you in full-time class. Swelduhan na lang kita. Taga-masahe. hehe.. Of course travel. Backpacking! Pahabol pala: Educ plan para kay Chong dahil magiging akin din naman siya in the future. haha

Rey -  Weekly two-way tickets to Singapore and Malaysia. Hahaha..  Dun ka na lang. Jucas! Since your passion is to take pictures (of yourself), I will give you a tripod. Seriously, of course we willl travel!

Adan - QB! Sandamakmak na Trench coat. Magshopping tayo sa NYand London. Pa-Belo na rin kita at ang buong family mo para di maoffend si papa. hehe

Urven - Diving gears natin. Career-in ang diving!

Son - I will buy the Pepsi products so you will meet your quota so you don’t have to work on Saturdays. Hehe.. Of course, Travel galore! And ultimate make-over plans natin.

Mica - I will give you the funds to start up your own resto-business. Malayo dapat sa LB. We’ll make sure we do majority of the things we put in our dreamboards. hehe… Of course travel!

Corleai - I will give you the funds to start up your own hospital. hahaha.. Ambisyosa! Of course, travel pa rin!

Ghia - Shopping galore at mag-beer challenge tayo sa Authentic Oktoberfest sa Germany! hehehe

Dino - I will give you start-up fund for your directing career. I will pay Kelly Misa to have a date with you. hehehe… Travel ulit kasi kasama sa business natin nina Tin!

Tristan - I will give you the ultimate make-over. We’ll go shopping at NY pa! You’ll be a shopaholic after this.

Gabe - Surfing, Wakeboarding (and Flying) gears! hehehe.. itodo na natin to. I will also produce the 1st big time concert of Bilderberg band but I can’t promise to be there. For sure, Son will be there naman.

Paul & Mars - I will give you the wedding of your lifetime. Naks! Sasama kami sa honeymoon.

Joyce - Pwede bang bilhin ang oras mo? hehehe

Steve  - ayaw mo naman magpasex change di ba? hehe.. bibigyan na lang kita ng sariling yacht para you can go to Mindoro as often as you want. naks! Yacht talaga noh? 

Mak - Sex change! hahahaha..

Marilyn - House & Lot and Educ Plan for Amiel. Naks! Serious talaga. Of course, travel to US, with the Puritas to visit Germs! 

Germs - Di na kita bibigyan ng ticket going to Pinas kasi pupuntahan ka nga namin. Baby showcase na lang.

Martha - People are People shoes mo. Educ Plan for Gab and Flow Controls - Consider it Sold. hehe

Jo-Ann - I’ll buyback EVP. hehehe.. Sandamakmak na make-up for you! of course travels!

Mikmik - Educ plan nina Bikbik at Dikdik. Swelduhan na rin kita para di ka na magwork!

Zel - Babayaran natin ang mga fixers para magkapassport ka na. hehehe.. Then saka tayo magtravel!

Bossing Jon - Vacation for your family. Alam kong mayaman ka naman pero sasagutin ko to for you by giving Ashok a one-way ticket to India. hehehe.. Dagdagan ko pa ng one-year supply ng BP maintenance pills mo. Sisirain ko rin ang Blackberry mo at papalitan ko ng vary posh 3210. hehe.. No email policy ka during your vacation.

Sir Louie - Maintenance Pills mo rin at Gym Showcase para mag-exercise ka na! hehe…

I will include my blogsy friends:

Karina - travels for you. Haagen Dazs. Kamiseta tops. Make-ups. At bibili na rin tayo ng boyfriend. hehe

Grace - Babayaran natin ang mga prof para di na tayo mag-MBA. I-uno na nila tayo. hehehe.. Magd-download tayo ng lovelife.

Ansarap mangarap. I almost always mention travel plans. Di naman ako magiging layas?! hehehe

reunions

February 23, 2009

I am not fond of reunions. I like some but to a certain limit. I like our family gathering (limited to 1st degree cousins) and I don’t even call that a reunion. It’s just a typical gathering for us which happens as if our family is not running out of occasions: birthday, congratulatory party, going-away party, welcome back party, barbecue party, seafood party. I like reunions with closest friends. Meet-ups, Coffee sessions, inuman sessions, out-of-town trips, movie day, shopping day but then again they are not reunions if anyway you do them almost everytime time permits.

I guess I don’t like reunions with people you think were close to you until suddenly when you meet you wonder how that happened in the past. I don’t like the part in reunions when the inferiority complex part of you starts to reintroduce itself and make you think had I not gone here, I wouldn’t think less of myself. Yesterday, I felt whole but here suddenly, another person whole-er than you shows up and you just are part of the rest of the statistics. Or you feel that there are far more better things you can do with your time other than to rub elbows with these people. No matter how you try to avoid incidences like this, they do happen during reunions.

I did not attend our grand clan reunion to my cousins’ protest because they also felt that way towards our clan reunions. It’s not that I hate them but I just don’t have a strong affinity to them for various reasons I’d rather not dicslose here. I just told my mom that I had to do more important things. I heard my Teatro-mates organized a reunion last December. I didn’t bother to know the details. I did not attend. I also don’t have plans of organizing our HS 10th year reunion although I wrote in my dreamboard that I want to be the most fab girl in our HS reunion.. hehe. I haven’t attended any homecoming in LB since the EconSoc’s 20th and DLS’s 50th but I meet a lot of brods and sisses in offline dates.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say is that I don’t like reunions but I like to meet people again. Reunion for me connotes grand meet-ups  and comparisons on where you are now compared when you last met and I know I am poor compared to a regular lay man’s standards. I guess my low regard for myself is the reason why I stopped updating Friendster. I feel nothing compared to what my friends have reached.

This is not a self-pity post. Actually, this is to redeem my idea of reunions. Last Saturday, I met-up (should I be using the word reunited instead of met-up to redeem reunions? hehe)with Rica, my best friend since HS, my Teatro-mate, my 4-year roommate in Crayon Box, my housemate when I worked in Laguna for a month. We haven’t seen each other since her sister’s debut to think that we live in the same Village in Batangas, we practically stay in the same area in Mandaluyong, we work in the same area. I feel guilty if I say we’re busy because I find the time to meet other friends even though I’m busy. I guess since we are just two, where it should have been easier to meet up, we find it more difficult to meet us because anyway we always reason that there will be another time to meet anyway where it will be more convenient for both. Anyway, so we met up last Saturday because I was bored and I had nothing to do. Since I had ADHD I asked all possible people to spare me some time for coffee or drinks or anything to get me out of my apartment. I was hoping Rica would be the most available and she was. We had dinner and coffee and we chatted like we used to. We chatted for 6 hours (unconsciously of the time) until we had to call it a night. We practically talked about everything. Mind you, there were no reminscing the past moments yet so if we were to add that, how much more time do we need? I did the talking at the start but later on I was just listening. So I was not yet in my talking self then. How much more? Hahaha.. Funny how you can learn, unlearn and relearn a lot about the most important people in your life. Funny how fast time flies. Funny how 6 hours of talking is too short and almost two-year of not meeting seemed short as well because we chat as if it were only yesterday that we last saw each other.

I learned that Rica’s passion is make-up. She plans to study the craft this summer although she really is already good at it now. I only learned about this last Saturday although we’ve been friends for more than a decade. I think it’s BS when people say that it’s the quality of reunions that matter not the quantity. Friends should reunite as often as possible, No excuses.

If we had done this more often in the past year, I wouldn’t have called it reunion, then I have to hate reunions again. hehe

emotional diarrhea

Finally, i.ph is up again. I’ve been wanting to write for weeks. I miss the times when every time there is something interesting, I mentally picture myself writing about it. I miss the times when I can re-read previous posts and relive the bittersweet memories. I miss the times when I love over-analyzing myself - my srengths and weaknesses, my passion, my habits, my idiosyncrasies. Now I think, my friends are doing this for me. I miss being the drama queen. What a thing to miss?

These 2 weeks, every time I planned to write, either something more important (who defines what is important anyway?) came up or I lose the drive to share or the site was down. But now, I can just pour all my heart’s content and share for sharing sake.

This February, I’m feeling loose emotions, LBM version of my emotional health. I don’t know what I ate or what ate me.. hehe. Maybe it’s because it’s February. Maybe bacause February always reminds me of the good time and the bad habits of my beloved LB life. Maybe because I’m halfway through the sem. Maybe bacause February is just 28 days and I didn’t think anything interesting can happen. Maybe because I’ve watched too many movies and one way or another I saw pieces of myself in those films. Maybe, like diarrhea, I cannot digest my emotions kaya sabog. haha

LB Life

I used to look forward to FebFair so much but now I’ve missed Fair two years in a row. I remember then that I actually resigned from my 1st job in December so I could be assured I’d go the LB for the Fair. Yearning for LB life was in fact the major reason I left the company. I was corporate-culture-shocked and there were various times I wished college life were 10 years and not just 4.  I remember taking Vacation Leaves just to go to LB. My officemates even found it ridiculous how much I held on to my LB college life. For me, it was not just a mere college life, it was LB college life and no amount of explanation could make them understand how I feel towards my beloved campus. LB memories were my source of fond memories but at the same time the cause of my quarter life crisis.

I said I did not want to go to LB because anyway, I meet my friends whom I met in LB anywhere anyway. My disinterest worsened when Beng and Cesar left the country. But I guess my lost of interest is brought by my fear that if I go to LB, I might start missing the lifestyle again and my QLC would come back. I know it’s weird but when a friend asked if I’d go to LB this year, I told him that going to LB is heartbreaking. I don’t know why I said that. Perhaps some power of the mind worked because I had fever during the FebFair and that gave me all the concrete alibi to miss another LB event.

But then one day, a classmate commented during my side comments and mockeries, “LB ka nga!” I was shocked in a nice way. I was saying to myself, you can take me out of LB but you cannot take the LB out of me. Maybe someday I’ll go to LB again, perhaps in a spontaneous moment where I just want to pig out on genuine LB food, drink at the tambayan, sit-in on Econ lectures, heart-to-heart kwentuhan with brods and sisses.

Slumdog Millionaire

I watched the film 3 weeks ago and I loved it. Yes, even the choreographed dance at the end. The concept of destiny, kismet, fate or anything written by the Invisible Hand (not Adam Smith’s version… hehe) has always had a strong appeal to me. The plot was well written. It really was written. It was not just the rugs-to-riches and conquer of great love story that gave it a strong charm to me. I guess it’s the scintilla of hope it brings that the least the life can offer are happy endings. Life is good, not always winning-moment-great, but i-could-have-lost-this-round-but-I-didn’t-good. Sometimes, we just have to trust that somwhere down the road there is a humble explanation for things. In retrospect we can always connect the dots. Life happens because that’s the normal course of things.

He’s Not Just That Into You

I like the movie. A must-see not just to enlighten ladies but to guys as well. It’s not a revolutionary film with a never-heard-before plot but is heartwarming in so many ways.

I almost cried in Beth and Neil’s story. You do not need a marriage to make a relationship work. It may be just a nice-to-have but sometimes you need to make unpopular choices for someone you love. My feelings towards marriage always changes. Perhaps because I have never been put on the spot to decide on it so I never really put a big thought on my strong opinion on it. Probably, we do not need to have a stand on it. Perhaps taking an opinion on it is an overwork because maintaining relationships to begin with is tough already, how much more a committed lifetime engagement?

They say Gigi and Alex story was quite predictable but I really thought that Alex was not into Gigi. He’s just a friend. We really cannot put a formula on how people in a relationship think and act.  Well, it made me wonder if I am part of the statistics, just a mere rule or am I an exemption? Which is a better fate?

why me?!

February 6, 2009

Why me?! This has been my display message since Monday. My booking mistake is worse that I though. Ang hirap maging tanga. 8k down the drain. Why me?! In December, I was so positive but i got my head stitched. January, I was even more positive and then that booking mistake. Kung magpake-nega kaya ako sa Feb, magka-lovelife kaya ako?! hahaha

But I can’t help it. Positive pa rin ang spirit ko. hehe.. In our meeting yesterday, my boss said that there were so many negative rumors in the office. Other officers were reacting and for a change, natahimik ako. Epekto ba to ng sobrang positivity. Di ko masyado nafi-feel ang nega aura sa office. hehe.. I should be sensitive about these issues pa naman. Why me?! hehe

happy booking

February 1, 2009

It’s really difficult to set travel plans. Deciding on a common time alone is difficult. Consensus building on the place to go to is even more difficult. I myself have set that if there were only 3 place in Pinas which I want to visit this year, it would be Batanes, Bicol and Davao.

So last Friday while I was busy looking for cheap fares for Davao, I randomly checked fares for Holy Week in Bohol, Cebu, Boracay among others and texted the Harpers. After series of text messages we finally decided on Bohol. It’s not in my oh-nine list though but I’ve been to Bohol and so far, it’s my favorite tourist place in the archipelago so going there with a different group of friends excited me. Although initially, it was just Son, Dino and I who were sure to go, I knew the planning was going somewhere. The following day, Mars and Paul said they would join. As soon as I got home Saturday night, I booked our flights. As soon as I booked I texted them that were good to go. I even got cheaper fares. But thenI realized I booked for the wrong date. $^*!%?! How stupid can I get?! I put the dates for out Davao trip. Kapikon! Nanlamig talaga ako. I could not contact the airline’s Customer Service pa. Actually until now. hehe.. But I’m a little relieved when I learned that the rebooking charges is around 450 lang naman pala. Although that more than a couple of thousand bucks down the drain, at least, ganun lang ang price ng katangahan ko. hehehe..

I suddenly remember that I also made the wrong mistake during our Malaysia trip last year. Feeling ko mas matindi yon kasi I realized the mistake during the actual day of travel. Imagine, nasa ibang bansa pa ko dumayo ng katangahan non! hehe.. Come to think of it, malabo talaga ako magbook siguro. My family and friends should realize this soon. Tsk tsk!

Happy Booking sa mga Gala! Here’s to a year of spontaneous bonggang-bonggang travels!