I purposedly dressed down (shoe-wise) during the concert coz I anticipated that the open grounds will be so unforgiving.

I decided to wear the 1.5" wedge brown sandals that I haven't worn in months. It matched perfectly with my outfit. But as I was walking to the parking lot, I suddenly remembered another shoe experience I had. I had totally neglected my leather knee high boots for a lonngg time and when I suddenly wore them again, the pair disintegrated. To my horror! Good thing I always have baon of shoes (and flip-flops) in my car, so I was able to mitigate that embarrasing situation.

So to that point, I checked on my wedges, tugged at them and all that, and they seemed fine. Whew! I decided to forego walking back another 3 buildings to my unit to grab an extra pair of shoes and my trusty Havis.

We arrived at the Global City uneventfully then managed to get a good parking slot. So far, so good. But, as we walked towards the venue, I felt the straps of my wedges snap. Darn it. Murphy's law!

And as if on cue, just a few more steps away is no other than All Flip-Flops in High Street. THANKFULLY! So I went in and scanned the room for the closest match to my outfit, and finally decided on the Dragon pair (brown). Got my size 35-36 to-go. Hahaha. Buti na lang they were still on sale. I mean, I promised to stop buying new pairs for myself and I've done well the last few months. And that promise was broken because of none other than Beyonce! hahaha..

Anyways, speaking of Beyonce, did you notice how her hair was flowing ALL THE TIME, but all the rest of the female band members' and dancers' didn't? That must be what diva hair looks like. Harhar.

Some other random thoughts --

* The Christmas traffic has started. Going to class last Saturday took twice as long! I missed a good part of our lighting session. Haay naku
* Here are some of the common ironies in life ---

-- a man who looks so smug about his 15th floor office with a view, only to find a display of Star Wars miniatures in his cabinet (the real irony of course was finding out how much I appreciated my current state by trying to seek out another)
-- finally getting a carwash after 1.5 weeks, only to get pouring rain (with matching baha) at night
-- buying a home pregnancy test after 1 month of putting in off, only to get your period the following morning
-- realizing that the ex in my last long-term relationship (excluding the on/off relationship I had prior to R) ended up with a girl whose name is the girl version of R's name. Exact match. right to the spelling. Hmm.. If not ironic, then it's definitely freaky :)

Labels: backstory, random

Been a busy bee lately.

1. 1st 2 sessions of photo class completed. 1st assignment pretty much sucked. Haha. Didn't have time to take the photo so I ended up taking my picture an hour before class. Haha. Talk about photo finish.

I managed to allot time for the 2nd assignment last Sunday. Went to the Lagoon in UP with my nephews. I was shooting away like mad. Didn't even notice I took around 380 pictures until we got home. Alaveet. Just really hope I become good at this. I feel so much energy when I'm trying to capture moments.

2. Spent the rest of the long weekend the other week with the fam at a hotel in Makati. We were just chillin', shared stories, watched TV, then watched a movie. Pure, simple joys with the family.

3. B is for bold and independent. B is for bootylicious and sexy. B is for brains and female power. B is for Beyonce.

Wow. I was totally awed. She rocked. Totally rocked. She is not only a powerful performer, she's the ultimate performer in that there is a purpose, a message in her performance. She had an all-female band, and basically an all-female cast except for the 3 (shall i say yummy) male dancers. I really loved the girl power aura to it all.

"The house I live in
I've bought it
The car I'm driving
I've bought it
I depend on me"


What can I say? Her songs are my songs. And they should be all women's :p


(Oh I should just add that Irreplaceable never gave me goosebumps, not until that concert.)


4. Movie marathon. Well, slight lang naman. Watched The Game Plan and it was super funny. And well, I cried a bit, too. Haha. It's a great family movie.


Also watched Rendition and it was chilling, as it was engaging.


5. Starbucks and friends. Good combo, I should say. I guess we all needed distractions. Glad we could do it, while catching up on our lives as well. Life is moving too fast, and sometimes we tend to pass people by in the process. Tending to forget that life is not a race. It's a journey to be appreciated with family and friends.


Speaking of friends, let's do a prayer brigade for Vanvan and her family, most specially for her Dad, who is facing a big challenge at the moment. She said it best - there's nothing better than God's healing power.


Vanvan, you've always been sweet and thoughtful and you deserve a lot of XOs! :)

Labels: Beyonce, family, passion, photography

If I was asked why I loved the movie, Stardust (aside from the obvious - Neil Gaiman, 'nuff said), it will be this monologue by Yvaine...

"You know when I said I knew little about love? That wasn't true. I know a lot about love. I've seen it, centuries and centuries of it, and it was the only thing that made watching your world bearable.

All those wars. Pain, lies, hate... It made me want to turn away and never look down again. But when I see the way that mankind loves... You could search to the furthest reaches of the universe and never find anything more beautiful.

So yes, I know that love is unconditional. But I also know that it can be unpredictable, unexpected, uncontrollable, unbearable and strangely easy to mistake for loathing, and... What I'm trying to say, Tristan is... I think I love you.

Is this love, Tristan? I never imagined I'd know it for myself. My heart... It feels like my chest can barely contain it. Like it's trying to escape because it doesn't belong to me any more. It belongs to you. And if you wanted it, I'd wish for nothing in exchange - no gifts. No goods. No demonstrations of devotion. Nothing but knowing you loved me too. Just your heart, in exchange for mine. "

Sigh.

Oh yeah, there's that song from Take That during the credits as well.

"If you stay with me girl, We can rule the world".

Sigh again.

Labels: movies, Stardust, Take That

It's a long weekend for most people here in the country, but not for me. I had to work yesterday though I did manage to take a leave today.

Didn't do anything special, as planned. I just wanted to rest. It's been a long week. Here's a rundown...

* If you don't have to get your passport renewed (or get a new one for that matter), try to wait it out. Right now, the whole process takes a day, I kid you not. I had to personally process my renewal as per advise, due to the newly implemented MRP (machine readable passport). I got there a little before 8AM, started lining up, and in two hours, I finally got to Step 1 - Verification process. Yey. (Insert a huge dose of sarcasm here).

Since I came from my shift, I had little sleep (1 hr, the most), and I started to get cranky. I almost bailed. But when I asked what will happen should I come back another time, I was told that I will have to do it ALL OVER AGAIN. No freakin' way. I decided to stay and get it over with, and by 3PM I was finally able to go inside DFA to proceed to Step 2 and beyond. I had a small bag of Chiz Curls for lunch (as that was the only chicheria available inside), and deliberately drank a small amount of water because the restroom was all the way across the street. So yeah, be sure that aside from a lot of patience and tolerance for hunger, you should also be very well-versed at holding pee.


I was finally done a little over 5PM, and I opted for the passport delivery option because I don't wanna have to go back to that place as much as possible. By the end of the day, I was very hungry, sleepy, sweaty (I forgot to mention that there's no ventilation of ANY sort in the waiting area) and all I really wanted to do was forget that ordeal. This has got to be the worse government agency experience I've had so far. The driver's license horror story in Tagaytay paled by comparison.

* And what is the best way ever to forget any excruciating ordeal? Shopping, of course. (Alright, it's only the 2nd best way, but given the circumstances.. hehe).. I had to go to the mall to buy my Halloween outfit and some other stuff for our office cube decor contest, so I sneaked in some shopping time as well. I stumbled upon the Havaianas sale, and managed to get 2 pairs. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I didn't get one for myself since they ran out of my size. Haha. Well, the sale is one for a few more days.. Hehehe.

* I'm a green tea frap afficionado. That is one of my best pick-me-uppers. But the green tea cheesecake is definitely fighting its way to the top. I must say it's heavenly. Definitely much better than chocolate. ;-)

* I finally got the goodies I bought online. I liked my purple strawberry bling the best. The Popobe bears were a little too overrated. But at least I got a lot of my Christmas shopping done. For the 1st time in years, I've finally started my Christmas shopping early! 65% complete for my family. Definitely a feat!

* We won the best decor at the office but was only 2nd in costume. A little bit disappointing after our huge effort on this. But it was fun along the way and I'm beginning to like the dressing up part during Halloween. One of our expat PD's wore a security guard uniform and it was really cute.

Next year, I wanna go as Britney, with a huge Venti cup in tow. Harhar.

* I've found my newest guilty pleasure -- Gossip Girl. In fact, I've totally abandoned Prison Break because no-brainer shows like GG is what I need to de-stress after a long week at work. I love Blair's bitchiness and Serena's perkiness. They kind of remind me of myself. Hahaha. And Humphrey is just the perfect boy next door. Cute boy alert! :p

Need to go to sleep. First day of photography class later. Jitters!! hehehe.

XOXO,
GJG

:D

Labels: government horror stories, mundane