March madness

March highlights:

• Going to Davao (and setting foot on Mindanao!) for the first time ever
  
• Organizing a Bobby Newberry-esque workshop. I put together a dance workshop for the Summit peeps. We're gonna try and make it a regular thing.
  
• Having the new house blessed. It was funny how the first room the priest blessed was...the Poker room! He opened the door and I think he was surprised to find a poker table there. We all had looks of horror on our faces as he strode towards the first-floor room--we didn't have time to pull a Bugs Bunny, blocking the door and crying out, "He's not in here! He's not in here!" in a Southern accent. When the priest seemed to get over his shock (which I supposed he tried his best to hide), we were all just chuckling about it. He must have thought he was blessing a house of sin!
• Getting real bangs
  
• Doing something I haven't done in over two years...I'm just happy I tried. No regrets!
  

Clarity

Today, I had a moment of clarity in church, perhaps what people call an epiphany. It wasn't triggered by the priest's homily or anything--I was in the middle of my own thoughts as the choir sang, when it suddenly hit me: It is ridiculous to doubt in myself and my abilities, because I am a child of God, made in His image and likeness. To doubt myself is to doubt the power of the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent Lord. To doubt myself is to distrust my Creator.

I sincerely believe that it was the Spirit at work, and not merely my brain formulating a random thought. Today, I feel blessed that the Holy Spirit touched me, and whispered that I must put my complete trust in Him, my God who loves me and who wants me to be happy.

There's a short prayer in this little prayer book that I've had for years:

A PRAYER THAT SAYS EVERYTHING
Lord, You know all things,
You can do all things
and You love me very much

He loves me--and with God on my side, nothing is impossible. Never has this felt more true than today.

Happy Easter!:)

Heavenly Friday

Must...stop...watching...7th Heaven!

She bangs

And yet another haircut.

I was getting tired of teasing and pinning my overly long hair a la Ilonah Jean, so I finally went back to my stylist, Rene Vizmanos. Instead of getting side-swept bangs, I wanted to live a little and try something new. I had always wondered how I would look with true-blue, blunt-cut, full-on fringe bangs, and now I know.

I feel like I have to wear makeup every day with this look! I still think my 2007 bangs were the best ever, but this 'do is great for now. Panandaliang aliw!

Meme na

Carl started a meme and tagged "EVERYBODY!!!" I am just being an obedient reader and following instructions...

Instructions:

If you were a famous celebrity and you were asked to endorse three products and/or services, what would they be?

With each product or service, state in one or two sentences the reason why the product and/or service has won you over.End your post with the usual tagging (up to five is I think the standard), as well as a link back to the blog you got the meme from.

My answers:

1) Pancake House - And my tagline is, "Pancake House is my happy place!" I've thought about this, you see. I eat there about once a week, and even wrote about how much I love it here.

2) Nike - My most reliable sports bras are Nike, and I wish all my workout clothes were Nike (Adidas is cute, too, but I've grown to love the Swoosh). Sigh.

3) Ponstan SF - I try to keep off the pills (e.g., when I have a cough or a cold, I wait it out and drink lots of fluids instead of taking anything), but sometimes, pain can be utterly unbearable. Ponstan has saved me so many times from a day of misery or night of sleeplessness.

(Runners-up: Magnolia Low Fat Milk - I drink it every day and I think it helps my cuticles from getting all gross; Yakult - I also try to drink this every day, and never quite figured out why it isn't sold in bigger bottles; Milo - I can eat this on its own or mix it in with my Magnolia--I don't completely dissolve it though coz I like having some of the crunchy bits; Topshop - this appears a lot in my closet, but maybe it's because I can buy it with my GCs. Haha; Bayo - they generally have cute stuff, and it's a Pinoy brand so woohoo; Hawaiian Tropic Tanning Oil - it smells yummy and I get a lovely tan whenever I use it; Wonderbra - I so love the only Wonderbra bra I own. It's not heavily padded like a lot of those out on the market now--I'm not a fan of heavy padding--but it really does wonders! Haha. Too bad it doesn't seem to be sold anywhere in the country now.)

This meme was taken from The Carver's House. I am tagging the usual: Lei, Gladys, Mina...plus Miguel, and whoever else feels like killing time.:)

I've never really been into jewelry, at least not the real, bling-y kind--there are so many other things I'd rather spend my moolah on than diamonds. And while I ooh-ed and aah-ed over my friends' ginormous engagement rings, I never felt envy or a desire to have anything quite so large. (At one point, I even wondered what the point of it all was.)

I also prided myself in being the type of girl who's in no rush to get hitched. The original plan was to get married in '07, but obviously, it got moved, and I was totally OK with it. My reasoning was we would get there eventually, so we should just enjoy where we are now.

And then today, I happened to walk by a jewelry store on my way to a pullout, and a shiny little object caught my eye. It was a lone diamond set in an elegant platinum band, winking at me from beneath a spotlight. I actually stopped and stared at it, and then my eyes traveled to the other rings nestled on miniature pedestals. And then--gasp!--I found myself walking into the store and surveying the wedding bands.

Oh gawd no. Please don't tell me I've turned into That Girl.

February 2008 highlights

I realized at the start of Feb that I didn't really do anything significant in January. Of course, H's birthday happened, and that is always significant. But there were none of those once-in-a-lifetime-type events. I resolved to have at least one awesome experience every month--something worth telling stories about. For Feb, there are two:

• Hiring a private chef (which you can read about here)--and the highlight of this highlight was that truffle-oil-infused pumpkin soup. Yu-u-ummmy!
• Dancing at the CADs concert (which I'll write about soon)

There were also funny experiences:

• Seeing Aga Muhlach at the office
• Kind of getting hit on by an Iranian (although I'm pretty sure he didn't mean to do it)

It's cool coz I've got stuff to look forward to in the next couple of months, so my life seems less boring. Haha. Yay!

I normally spend Sunday mornings in bed...scratch that: I normally spend Sundays in bed. I get up before noon, have lunch, watch a bit of TV, read a few chapters of whatever book I'm reading, take a nap, go to mass with H, then either just chill at home or go to the mall (or on some days, get a massage from Feet For Us).

Yesterday was different in that I went to Quezon Ave., Pasay, and Makati--and all before 11:00 am! I had to get up at an unholy hour to make my 7:00 am shoot at the Lung Center Sunday Market (more on that soon in my other blog). Afterwards, we headed to Cartimar to shoot one last store. On the way back to home base, I got dropped off at Legaspi--I wanted to check out the Legaspi Sunday Market, and had me a bite (a pretty hefty one; again, more on that soon in my other blog) before sleep started to get the better of me.

I had to commute home, so I walked from Legaspi to the Ayala MRT station. On my way there, I came across a pretty little park. In my years of working in Makati, I had never been to that park, so it was a a pleasant surprise. It would've been awesome if I had had a good book with me, as well as about four more hours of sleep. I could've just chilled on one of the benches there, watching expats with their blonde-haired kids in tow, a Pinoy dad showing his two children the fish in the pond, a couple of tykes running around a modern sculpture. I told myself I would go back.

As I walked, the trees slowly gave way to bigger buildings, noisier streets, and more people. The rest of the city was just waking up, while I was on my way back to bed.