Bikini kong itim

In the spirit of "if you build it, they will come," I bought two two-pieces this week! I've been itching (nay, dying) to go to the beach to remind my skin of what the sun feels like and what a tan actually is. There are a couple of planned beach trips, but I really dunno if they're going to push through. But oh well. I'm hoping Fate will smile down on me and throw a trip or two my way for being all girl-scouty (you know, prepared).

I bought a semi-sporty two-piece a few days ago, for the planned Ultimate beach trip. It isn't one of those Adidas types for beach volleyball or anything, but it feels a bit more secure than my usual halter-types. It's more pa-active than pa-glam. Haha. It's so cute--it's nautical inspired, so the top's got dark-blue-and-white stripes. The dark blue bottom looks like a pair of boy shorts/trunks with slits on the sides. These things were mix-and-match, and I was so tempted to pull an Independence Day-inspired outfit and get the red-and-white top to go with the dark blue bottom. I think I'll buy me a pair of red flipflops instead. And maybe a sailor hat. Haha. Now all I need is a yacht...

And today, perhaps to make myself feel better for having to work on a Saturday despite having the blasted flu (I have no appetite. Me!!!), I got another bikini, this time more glam. The top's a black-and-white striped one with a keyhole, the bottom's plain black with striped ties. I know, I'm in my 20s and this is the time to wear crazy colors. But I couldn't resist this set's appeal.

I think I'll buy another one at the end of summer, when all the swimsuits will be on sale. Hmmm, I could be spending my hard-earned money on other stuff, but what can I say? I love dem bikinis.

Name that paint

It must be trippy working at the paint company and being in charge of naming paint colors. "Dipped in Sugar," "The Hills of Huntley," "Frank's Fire"...who comes up with these things? The funny thing is, you immediately have an image in mind once you hear these names.

It must be fun just sitting around all day and figuring out what certain hues remind you of. Of course, I don't have it in me to be poetic (contrary to what my mom might say while brandishing a "poem" I wrote when I was seven). I'd probably churn out classic-but-never-been-used-for-paint color names like "puke green" and "pokpok pink." Ahh, an image comes to mind, eh?

My week as a single girl

H is out of town as I type, and this is the longest that he and I have been apart since I went to the US. I didn't even realize we were going to be away from each other this long. I just focused on squeezing a good number of activities into the days that he was gone so that I wouldn't miss him that much. (It didn't work.)

Wednesday, I had dinner with my family at Banapple, a place that I shall be blogging about soon. Thursday, I went salsa dancing with Tring, Anj, and Mona. It was funny how the guys were pretty much ignoring me, always going for Tring and Anj. Tring's like, "Grabe, you really have this look na you don't wanna dance!" I put on my "don't mess with me" aura coz I didn't really feel like dancing with the likes of the Brit dude we nicknamed Lolo Steve. (I don't dance with guys I don't know.) Or maybe I was just overshadowed by the hotness of my companions: a Shaina Magdayao-lookalike and a morena beauty. Haha.

The funniest thing about that night was that Anj fell in looove. With a guy whose name she didn't catch because she was too smitten to say anything. He was some Latino-looking dude who could shake his bonbon, and who was the first one to ask her to dance. He had longish hair and was wearing a cut-off black polo with torn and faded jeans, which led to Tring's hilarious comment, "Hindi ko siya type but I like the styling!" Hahaha.

Friday night was the bench bar-passers' party. Alas, I was working til about 4:00 am on Saturday! Sigh. Slept at around 5:00 am then had to get up two hours later for a shoot. Was too cheap to get a messenger to help me haul my pullouts and a desk from home, so I did the clearing and carrying myself. The driver and trusty ol' Elps took care of the desk (which fell apart by the end of the shoot).

A lot of people asked me if I found a room for the shoot (since I pestered people over text and email). Marie offered--or was forced into offering--the spare room at the condo she shared with her mom. I brought adobo and asado rolls from Conti's as payment. Man, I need a tan! (Photo by Ocs Alvarez)

After the shoot, I took a delicious nap at home before I headed to ultimate. Our team was down 8-2, I think, but we rallied in the end and won by 1. I didn't really do much though. Go boys! Hehe.

I didn't really have anything planned afterwards so I decided to stay home. (No one asked anyway. What a loser I am. Haha.) I discovered that Saturday night TV is definitely not for homebodies! Into the Blue was showing on Star Movies, and as much as I admire Jessica Alba's physique (my goal body!), the movie wasn't even good enough for cable! Luckily, towards the end of the night, shows like The Search for the Next Doll came on. Haha.

Sunday, I just slept for a good deal of the day, still recovering from working for about 24 hours from Friday to Saturday. That night I finally watched Love Actually in its entirety, and it is now officially on my favorite movies list! I've always liked it, but I would always catch it on cable and I'd never get to start it, so I didn't think it was right to deem it a favorite then. But now I feel like I could say that, if I could be in any movie, I would be in this one! Liam Neeson, Hugh Grant, Emma Thompson, Alan Rickman, Colin Firth, Rowan Atkinson, Keira Knightley...what more could you ask for?

Today, I just had lunch with Jerry, which was cool since we hadn't seen each other in a couple of months. And I found me a possible companion to Ilocos. Yay!

All in all, being "single" sucks. Sure, it works for some, but I guess I'm a relationship person, and I probably wouldn't do well in a long-distance one, mostly because I like being hugged and kissed, and having my hand held. And even if there's text messaging and email and phone calls, they pale in comparison to having a nice, warm body by my side.

What, no rice terraces?

So there's this online voting thing to determine which are the new seven wonders of the world (http://www.new7wonders.com/). They've narrowed the list down to 20. It's now my goal to see all of them before I croak:

Acropolis (Athens, Greece)
Alhambra (Granada, Spain)
Angkor (Cambodia)
The Pyramid at Chichen Itza (Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico)
Christ Redeemer (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil)
The Roman Colosseum (Rome, Italy)
Statues of Easter Island (Easter Island, Chile)
The Eiffel Tower (Paris, France)
Great Wall of China (China)
Hagia Sophia (Istanbul, Turkey)
Kiyomizu Temple (Kyoto, Japan)
The Kremlin and Red Square (Moscow, Russia)
Machu Picchu (Peru)
Neuschwanstein Castle (Schwangau, Germany)
Petra (Jordan)
The Statue of Liberty (New York, USA)
Stonehenge (Amesbury, UK)
Sydney Opera House (Sydney, Australia)
The Taj Mahal (Agra, India)
Timbuktu (Mali)

The Pyramids of Giza (Egypt) was taken off the list and made an honorary candidate since it's the last one standing among the ancient wonders. In short, ibang level siya! Haha.

I've seen the Colosseum, the Eiffel Tower (but didn't get to go up because the line was sooo loooong, and we only had a couple of days in Paris), and the Statue of Liberty. We wanted to go see Stonehenge, but our "tour guide," a Pinoy who probably didn't feel like driving all the way from London, dismissed the idea by saying, "Bato lang 'yon!" Geez. I was also supposed to accompany my mom to the Holy Land this year, and take a side trip to Egypt. And if Jordan's nearby (forgive me, I'm bad at geography), we could go see Petra...so that's two wonders in one trip. But I decided not to go on the trip this year, thinking that the pyramids will always be there, and I could go some day when it won't hurt my savings as much.

So, out of 21, I've only been to three places. Hmmm. Gotta get crackin'!

Today I received two of the nicest compliments I've ever gotten. Awww.

Illegitimi non carborundum

Was watching Miami Ink, one of the shows I'm totally obsessed with now, and a girl came in to have "Illgetimi non carborundum" tattooed on her lower back. It was a memorial tattoo, something her grandfather used to say to her. It's supposedly Latin for "Don't let the bastards grind you down." What an awesome saying. That's something I gotta learn to live by.

I realized lately that I have to try to be a more positive person. I noticed that I've been attracting a lot of negativity lately, and I thought it was what was causing me to react negatively. But it might very well be the other way around. So I've resolved to try to ditch the negative vibe and just take it easy. And when other people drive me nuts, I should just breathe in, breathe out, and not let dem bastards grind me down!

On a related note, this show is totally pushing me towards getting a tattoo. I've been thinking about getting one for years, but 1) I wasn't sure I really wanted it--it's forever after all, and 2) I didn't know what I wanted. But recently I figured out exactly what I want. So the only thing that's keeping me from doing it now is reason number one. If I had a chance to get it done at Miami Ink, I would get it done in a heartbeat!

My kind of date

A week ago, H and I made a stupid bet--which I lost (kind of a long story, but one scene had me hanging onto his arm, trying to slow him down so that I would win...while he easily pulled me across the Shang corridors), so I had to treat him to dinner.

We'd been planning to hang out at Serendra so this was the perfect time to do it. Yesterday, after having lunch at Chili's with his family (mmm, boneless buffalo chicken salad), he took a looong nap before we headed to the Fort. We walked around Shops at Serendra and Bonifacio High Street for a bit, and, of course, hung out at A Different Bookstore! We then had an early dinner at Conti's. The food was spectacular! As we dined over roast beef, chicken marsala (a winner!), and baked salmon, we talked a lot about the future (his, in particular). The man's sure got a lot on his mind. A weird thing I discovered: He actually wants me to nag him when it comes to certain things. How strange! It's funny how a non-nagger like myself ended up with probably the only guy in the world who wants to be nagged. I was like, "If I told you once, I told you a thousand times!"

Afterwards, we looked for a coffee shop where we could hang out...and read! I would've wanted to go to CBTL, but it was a bit too chilly. Since H hadn't tried the coffee at Bo's Coffee Club yet, we made our way there. He got his Panama coffee, I picked out a big lemon square, and we both settled in our seats with books in hand. (I'm lovin' The Shadow of the Wind, which I picked up from A Different Bookstore recently...its first four chapters have already got me hooked. Let's hope it can sustain my interest.) We spent the next hour reading, and every now and then we'd talk a little. Afterwards, we walked back to the car, passing High Street, where a gentle breeze whipped through the muggy summer evening. We held hands as we strolled along, watching as families played around on the grass. And it made me smile thinking I wouldn't mind spending every Sunday for the rest of my life like this.

Of course, I'd rather that he paid for dinner!