You are so dumb sometimes that you make me look really smart.

(Hay. Yes I'm just being mean.)

... by two policemen in a squad car.

WTF mehn. YES. Chinita ako. Get over it.

To paraphrase what I heard in a homily:

Everyday, be better than you think you can be. One day you'll find that you're a better person than you initially thought you were.

Happy new year everyone! Hope 2008 was great, and here's to an even better year ahead! :)

Coming this January 2009.

Gulp.

Edit: redundant pala ang new beginnings. (I KNEW IT!)

the latter part of today sucked!!!

coming home, some rude pajero tried to cut me off. so in response, i honked my horn. the rude pajero retaliated by stopping in front of me. WTF mehn, kasalanan mo na nga, nang-aasar ka pa. i was so tempted to ram into his bumper na (kaso i feared for my life rin, baka naman may baril pala siya sa back seat)

theeen when i got home, na-excite ako, kasi my dinner was haianese chicken rice. pero, yung chicken one tiiiiiiny piece lang, and there wasn't any of the ginger and soy sauce sauce that makes haianese chicken super yummy. so bale, i had steamed chicken and rice for dinner. what a let down! grr.

I'm still not used to being here in Alaska - the sun never sets! Okay fine, I exaggerate. But it's 9:30 PM and it's still bright out. Sunset for today is estimated to be at 11 PM and tomorrow's sunrise is around 4:30 AM. Weird right? I still love it though, being away from it all is so awesome.

Random kwento lang. We're in Anchorage now, but for the past week we were on a cruise ship going around different ports in Alaska. On the 5th day, a message blasts across the ship saying that there was a medical emergency and they needed type AB + or O - blood. Guess who's type AB? (MEEE). When I get to the medical center, pa-cool pa yung mga nurse/doctors. They tell me to show my card, I fill up forms, they got a sample of my blood. They say thanks for coming and give me a pager, to let me know daw if they'll need me or not. Less than an hour later I get a call saying they want my blood. (haha) How weird is that, I donated blood, on a cruise ship pa!

On a more serious note, I think the poor lady survived but had to be airlifted when we disembarked this morning.

Since my mom blatantly asked if I was treating them out with my first paycheck, I decided to try and get some money with my ATM Card. (take note, I've never had one before so I don't really know how to use it.)

How hard could it be right?

Riiiight.

In a nutshell, this is what happened to me (my text to my mom, word for word)

"ATM pin not working so card got blocked have to call bank on mon. Guess there's no money for me haha"

YES, I FAAAAILED! I have no idea why my pin was wrong though, and I had the gall to try it thrice because it didn't occur to me it'd get blocked. Palpak talaga forever.

For years I've been feeling too busy during the Christmas season because I let school stress get in the way, but now that I'm this bum, I'm so excited by the fact that I'll be receiving gifts because it's a totally good excuse to get "free" stuff. Okay that makes me sound reaaally selfish. Whatever. I'll post a "happy-to-be-with-the-people-I-love" entry some other time. The point of this entry is that I want to enjoy the excitement of wishing for something just because it's Christmas. I'm not going to get all crushed naman if/when people don't actually get me the stuff I want, it's just fun to dream.

Here's my Christmas wish list, in no particular order. (I'm going to buy some of these things for myself once I get enough money.)

A job. A good job - one that I like, and that pays well. (yeah right)
A free pass to take up Baking and Pastry Arts, just for the heck of it.
A balenciaga bag (I forget which one I want).
Cookie cutters (labo!) and recipe books!
A semi funky but perfectly functional belt (for some reason I'm think I'm better at choosing men's belts than women's belts)
A new duffel bag - may cute sa Nike ;)
Black pumps with 2 1/2 inch heels.
Room makeover. My room is so. blech. Hehe
GC for a facial (and footspa!) at a nice pa.
Good concealer and foundation. (Lancome? MAC?)
MAC makeup. (what can I say, I'm vaiiin! :p)

And finally, world peace. (Seryoso yan.) :)

Stupid internet wouldn't let me update last night. Anyway.

I'm thrilled because for the first time in a long time (6 months?) I had a "real" weekend. I took Saturday off and spent the WHOLE day doing stuff. How fun is that? :) Had lunch with Placement friends at Shakey's and then went off with Tim to the bazaar in World Trade. On a side note, can I just say to whoever had those mini island things placed in EDSA somewhere along Makati that it's totally not helping. We had to bear 1 1/2 hours of traffic to that point all because of that! As in after we passed that area, wala na! All in all, it took us 2 hours to get to World Trade (yeah wtf aabot na ako sa Tagaytay nun on another day haha) so there was definitely no turning back!

I'd never been to that bazaar, the only one I've been to this year was the one in Core - a big disappointment, sorry to say - and HOLY CRAP I was shocked! I don't know why I was, considering it resembled Greenhills (and I shop naman there sometimes!) but I literally had to stop at the entrance to take a deep breath before we began shopping. And shop we did. We went through ALL the halls, up and down we went searching for gifts, navigating through old ladies with walking sticks and little kids I could (swear to God) have knocked over with our shopping bags and other shoppers who were also constantly jabbing me with their stuff.

We haggled best we could, but I guess my negotiating tactics don't work so much anymore, and well, Tim's not really an assertive person so feel ko talaga medyo nalugi kami. Wahahaha oh well. We're pretty happy with the stuff that we got anyway, we just have to iron some and clean the others, but all in all, it was a pretty good haul. I don't think I would have made it through without him - by the time we left we were each carrying at least three big, full and heavy! bags with us. On another side note, mostly to myself: next time I intend to shop, bring a big bag, kasi sayang plastic, even with all the times we opted to shove an item straight into one of the bags we already had.

For our late dinner, we met up with the rest of our family at Podium. After we ate (and since we were there na) my mom and I tried to stay for the midnight sale. I say tried because my mom was sooo sleepy, she was like a zombie - she'd go into a store and stand there staring while I'd grab a bunch of stuff, show 'em to her and eventually have her sign the credit card slip to pay. She gave up before 11:30 and I had to drive home (can I just say too, that she is SUCH a backseat driver, as in OVEEEER).

One of the things I thought I'd totally enjoy doing is to be a personal shopper, but omg ang hirap nito ha. To think, this time, the people my mom asked me to buy for were already people I knew and I had such a hard time pa thinking of stuff (or si Tim rin kasi makulit haha) that they'd like. But in fairness, I thoroughly enjoyed myself. I love shopping with other people's money. Wahahaha :p so, if anyone needs a shopping buddy, I'm game! :)

On his homily about relationships and love:

Priest: Listening is important... if you can imagine, take your right ear and your left ear and put them together, what shape would you have?

Me, thinking: apple???

Everyone else: HEAAAART!

Me: Oh.

What is up with people who comment "uy tumataba ka?!" when you clearly don't want to hear it? And then, after responding with an awkward smile and weak laugh, dadagdagan pa ng "kailangan mo na magpapayat ha! eto o laki (referring to my arms) and legs mo rin, parang si ****," like I didn't know what was being implied in the first place. I really wish I could've shot back a "yeah? you too" or some other witty reply, but I had to be all respectful, though I swear I could feel my eyes narrowing in annoyance. Hmph. Thanks a lot. Sana mali siya though, I'd hate to think sayang exercise ko. :(

I'm sorry, I just really have to laugh.

My parents have this rather amusing (although practical din naman) office policy. If you've got cough/colds or something, they make you wear a hospital mask. When the girl in front of me was given one this morning, she had this really confused like, "are you seriously going to make me wear this?!" look on her face.

Hilarious, really.

Final Run to the Bank.
My dad dials the number for the bank because he wants to tell them to prepare money so that I can pick it up (o diba, service!). First line is busy, so he dials the next. Being the joker that he is, and because he is a valued customer of that branch, when someone answers,

Dad growls: alam mo kung sino 'to???

(The girl, presumably answers no.)

Still on the joke, he goes: "di mo alam kung sino ako???"

(Again the girl probably says no.)

Dad: Ibank ba 'to?

(Surely some form of no)

Dad: Ay, sorry. Sige.

=)) okay, it was funnier when it happened. My dad and I had such a laugh over this.

Today however, ako naman yung napahiya. :p

License Renewal.
My (old) license expires this month so when my mom found out there was this Roving License Renewal (er...) station here in Ayala Heights today, she told me that I should skip the office na muna and head over there. She was assuming it'd be much faster, and of course, less crowded. I got there at 8am, still sleepy, having just grabbed my bag wild eyed and driven directly to the clubhouse after breakfast.

I'm the third person in line (dapat nga second eh, tapos yung girl sa station kakainis, pinauna yung isa!) and when I finish filling out the forms, she says "miss, it's 400". Thinking "uy sakto cash ko!" I look in my wallet only to realize that I only had 300. I had to call my dad to give me an extra 100. Talk about embarrassing! I could see the other two girls there smirking at my predicament.

After that, we waited for like 2 1/2 f*ing hours for the damn computers to go online! Potek, talk about inefficient. Nagbond na kami nung isang girl (she even offered to bring me home kasi kinuha na yung car na dinala ko and my dad left me na!) and I was starting to converse with this dude na about Ateneo basketball because we were literally, sitting there just staring at the wall. When we finally had to pay the final fee for the license itself, I told the girl in a very relieved tone that my dad had the foresight to give me extra money because if he hadn't I wouldn't have any more cash to pay for this. She laughed out loud and said "papautangin naman kita eh, wag ka mag-alala, sisingilin kita!" I spent half my Saturday waiting. Buti na lang I had amusing company.

Birthday fun.
I was exhausted, but the day wasn't over yet because it's Elroy's birthday today! :D we had relatives over for dinner, and because we were all here na rin, we had the annual dice game na. The routine kasi is, whoever wins one year will have to buy the set next year. And since last year, my dad won in one set, and I won in the other, my mom had to buy both sets for this year. Naguilty naman ako so syempre sinamahan ko siya. It's not easy I tell you, buying things that most, if not all will be at least, willing to get. Pati pagkain mahirap kasi may mga diabetic, may mga kailangan magdiet, tapos may mga matanda na gusto ng juice at fruit cocktail (haha).

Anyway, after all that shopping, we were telling each other, please, let's not win again, hanggang second prize na lang. All of us kids were gunning for second prize too because it included Chuckie which we are all currently obsessed with. We were so noisy and rowdy, screaming at the grownups to get the "non-fun" items so that the "good ones" could be left to us and cheering whenever something we liked went to "our family". So here I was, making deals na and closing my eyes pa, "concentrating" kuno, when I rolled 5 ones (and a 5 I think) and eventually ended up winning, much to the dismay of my mom. I didn't really win much of anything else, and I don't really care much for the main prize (Swiss card, btw) but at least I have gloating rights, 2 years in a row na akooo! (I just pray my mom doesn't make me pay for the prizes next year, since I've graduated and presumably will be getting "my own" money na.)

I predict more fun (and hopefully, more luck rin for me!) in following months! More fun, more fun! :D

Totally shallow, but I just had to share.

I'm attending this seminar with my mom about finance. Yes, it was kinda boring, with the speakers sometimes getting overly worked up about financial ratios and IPO's, BUUUUT, there were cute guys there. Okay take note, cute GUYS. As in more than 1. :p it also didn't hurt that there were some cute businessmen wandering around outside in well tailored suits. How did I get to be so lucky? :p

--

In other news, the maid and I used this old toothbrush to fish something out of the sink... er... hole/drain, and she put it back into my gargle cup. How icky is that?! Now I can't use it na... just imagining the disgusting stuff that's fallen through that pipe in my sink makes me shudder.