Chut up! Chut up!



Awful day at work. At least it was the kind of bad day that's really bad, it can't be anything else. I mean, if you're going to have a bad day anyway, why not make it the worst day possible.



In other news, my first-fifteen-songs-in-randomized-mp3-player list:



1. Carole King - So Far Away

2. Polaris - She is Staggering

3. Tenacious D - Wonder Boy

4. Mates of State - Hoarding It For Home

5. Butter 08 - What Are You Wearing

6. Mates of State - Nice Things That Look Good

7. That Dog - She Looks At Me

8. Jack Johnson - Posters

9. All Girl Summer Fun Band - Look of Love

10. Ciudad - Richie the Rockstar

11. Juliana Hatfield - Somebody is Waiting for You

12. Bright Eyes - Something Vague

13. Meryn Cadell - Secret

14. Mates of State - Quit Doin' It

15. Rocketship - Kisses Are Always Promises



Can you say Mates of State fan?

I will, I will, I Will and Grace



Last Friday's Will &Grace rerun was my favorite episode. Yes, I spent Friday night watching a Will & Grace rerun. (Don't judge me.) It's my favorite episode because one, there is a piano in it and two, Will (Eric McCormack) actually plays it and sings a very sweet version of Captain and Tenille's "Love Will Keep Us Together" and he has such a fabulous voice even though I used to boycott Will & Grace because I didn't like the way he looked. Anyway, it stuck in my mind so much that I actually downloaded it and sang along.



Hmmm.

Crying Ladies



Now showing at CC Village East Cinemas

181 2nd Avenue @ 12th Street

(212) 777-FILM

N,Q,R,W,4,5,6 TO 14th Street; L to 3rd Avenue

Show times today: 11:45, 2:00, 4:30, 7:00, 9:30



Go watch.



(via emmywerks)

Bacolod in bullet points

• There are so many good places to eat in Bacolod. Every year, a new restaurant pops up. Dependable Kaisei is still good, with its brand of Filipinized Japanese food, which means everything is a bit sweeter and tastier. Carlo Ristorante Italiano is still in Goldenfields. The newcomers include Imay's, Jewel's, the other Pala-pala (not the real, by-the-ocean one), and Brickpit. At Imay's we ordered buko juice, not realizing that these come in real coconuts and is about three glasses worth. Brickpit is a bit out of the way, which means you can actually have a nice, long conversation with friends there - no dirty looks from waiters aiming for a swift turnover. I love how the tables are spread out, which means you don't have to include all of Bacolod in the conversation. The lights aren't too bright or too dim. The pretentious-sounding Cafe Breizh, on the other hand, was a disappointment. It was too dull when we were in the mood for a fun girl's night out, and too loud when we just wanted to hang out and talk. The best discovery was Cafe Bascon - a small, cozy cafe hidden in the backroads of La Salle. They have the best mini cakes - way better than Manila's Bizu. Cafe Bascon's cakes are lighter and less sweet. I bet they're going to expand soon.
  
  
• At night, everyone goes to MO2. Their drinks suck and the place isn't even that nice. But everyone goes there, anyway.
  
  
• Twenty-four hours in Bacolod, and we'd been to two wakes and a funeral.
  
  
• On our last day, my mom, my sister and I drove all over town looking for isaw. Everything was closed. Everything closes from Dec. 24th to Jan. 2.
  
  

Happy tumble



V Day this year, was spent at our usual Thai restaurant. We ordered the specials (and wished we hadn't as the regular menu was way better), and had two glasses of Thai iced tea each. We would have gone for ice cream afterwards, if it wasn't freezing. So we ducked into a 99c store, and I felt, very strongly, that I had to buy something. So I got a box of rolled wafers with hazelnut filling. Later that night I had the whole box and didn't share. It was delicious.



The next day, at church, I filled in for the Praise and Worship team's absentee guitarist. I had a blast, but kept it to myself. It's ironic how at a time when I'm struggling to keep a hold on my faith, I've been going to two churches (attending two services, listening to two sermons, having communion twice on first Sundays). I'm the organist at the first church and fill-in guitarist for the second. If it weren't for music, I'd be wallowing in sin. Ha! I've been earnestly listening to the sermons (well, actually, at the first church I've been struggling to stay awake) and trying to push my doubts and skepticism away. Sometimes I feel like I'm radiating sinner vibes. Hello! This one here sitting in the third pew! Not too sure about the God thing!



At my sister's birthday dinner, we had valenciana, sarciado, menudo, carne frita, pineapple beef, and palabok. I love Filipino food. What we lack is presentation. We just don't have time to bother with garnish and stuff like that (Although I do enjoy looking (not eating, not a fan) at a plateful of palabok rimmed with slices of hard-boiled egg). Philippine cuisine is built on ingenuity. It's substituting whatever is on hand for unavailable or expensive ingredients. Although it's loosely based on Spanish cuisine, it's very different, possibly because of the way we improvise.



Last night, the cousins came over for pizza and Coke (in 8-oz. bottles, like ye olden days) and we watched Jeopardy, Wheel of Fortune, Fear Factor, and My Big, Fat, Obnoxious Fiance, in succession.

You shall know my velocity (or my Philippine trip)



I met up and had dinner with two childhood friends who were in town for a few days, and were due to leave soon after. When they left, we looked out the window and admired Glorietta (the mall in front of the hotel). Looking down, we saw our friends walking away. One of us suddenly remembered: we hadn't had our pictures taken! It suddenly seemed to be a matter of life and death. We scrambled for our phones and called them to look up at us waving frantically. They had to come back as we hadn't had our pictures taken. It could be another five years before we get a chance to meet again.



The next day, I headed off to Ateneo to pick up my diploma, oversized and in a dead language. Jared, who teaches Biology, dismissed his students early so we could have lunch at Manang's, whose inihaw (grilled pork) is the best and is probably one of the things people miss most about Ateneo. But I was late and he had another class in a few minutes. So he walked with me and we shuttled back and forth between the mainland and Bellarmine, students again, slaves to the whim of cashiers and clerks and the registrar. The school was eerily empty. I felt like saying Where's everyone?. Maybe everyone was in class. It probably would have felt weirder to be caught in the middle of rush hour and not know anyone at all, anyway. I remembered with wistfulness that the last time I was there was graduation day. The boy I liked walked away for the last time and I felt a bitter taste on my tongue, like lukewarm beer.



Jed and I said goodbye, and I promised to mail him back my college ID that I had left with him for requesting transcripts and such, that I was borrowing. I took a cab back to Makati, and promptly got stuck in traffic.



On my last day in Manila, I met up with my roommates. I was browsing at Music One, clutching the itchyworms' The Worm Jumped Over the Moon, when Cyb called, and in the rush to get downstairs, I put the CD back on the rack and I'm regretting it to this day. My roommates are great. We've been through a lot of apartments and different roommates, but Cyb, Day, Aye and I stuck together for four years, and tolerated each other's quirks.



I had to meet up with my blockmates shortly after, so my roommates and I split up. I was at Greenbelt when Bodge called to say she was waiting at the hotel. Now, it is convenient that Makati's malls are connected together, but it is quite a walk and one has to plod through massive crowds. Everyone is at the mall. Patient Bodge, who bravely plunged into med school after graduating from a totally unrelated course, waited while I walked through the malls, packed my overnight bag, and had dollars changed into pesos. At the overpass connecting Landmark and Greenbelt, I spied a red vintage convertible inching its way through traffic. No one in his right mind cruises around Manila in an open convertible, seventh on a list of Asia's most polluted cities. Of course. I did a double take as I realized that the crazy guy in the car was Marc, my crazy Theo groupmate, who makes girls swoon and who sings in an awesome band, and can be as irrational as he wants to be. We were late when we stumbled in to McDonald's, still the designated meeting place.



We had dinner at Recipes and had dessert at Bizu afterwards. The servings at Recipes looked small, but we all shared a couple of dishes and were satisfied. At Bizu, we had to share, three to a mini cake, as it was just too rich and sweet. There was a couple in the table next to ours whose date was rudely interrupted by a mini roach.



Bodge and Justin gave me a copy of Ciudad's "Is that Ciudad?...," which has been on repeat mode in my player for, gosh, two months.



After dinner, Emmy, Malou, Bodge and Justin split, while Jenny, Sheila Ann, Kath and I had a sleep-over. Unfortunately, we were all too tired and sleepy to talk, which defeated the whole purpose of the sleep-over. Nevertheless, good food and good company always makes for a great night.

Unordered list

• One of my thesis partners gave birth to a precious boy recently. I distinctly remember going to Marikina with her (and getting lost on the way) to pick up our "product" (flip flops that we planned to sell at five times the cost). We were such kids then.



• I just got my Keyspan bill and I spent most of last night, tossing and turning in bed, running through my irate customer speech in my mind ("This is grossly over-estimated, especially since no one was even in my apartment in December, and the rest of the time was spent under six layers of comforters...").



• The Lost in Translation DVD. 15 bucks and tax free from the DVD guy, if I can spare fifteen bucks, no thanks to you, Keyspan.



• Megan Mullally hosting SNL. Hilarious



• Why ugly sullen girl? Not so google-friendly, this.



• Dentist appointment tomorrow. Urgh.



• I just got a domain. I just got DSL. And I just watched Return of the King. Yep.



• I will write about the rest of my Philippine trip some day, probably in bullet point format.