mind play... wala lang

got this from my officemate

count the black dots :)

looking good

while in UP, teacher carol asked me if yolando was my father. of course, he was (i gush whenever i say i'm his daughter; i was a "daddy's girl")! when another teacher asked the significance of the name, teacher carol replied, "only one of the best doctors in the country!" hear, hear!

i stumbled on my dad's resume on my mom's dressing room table one morning. it read like an award citation! all his accomplishments on 3 (?) sheets of paper... president of this, chairman of that, medical director of this, awardee for that... teaching posts, positions in both local and international organizations...

i gotta admit, even in death, dad looks good! damn! what a brilliant, brilliant man!

man, i miss him!

fear and an answered prayer

procrastination paved its way for me not to take my comprehensive exam for my MA this august. turns out that my true copy of grades won't be ready for another 2 weeks and the deadline is... tomorrow! hahaha! will take it in february next year and will still finish in time without penalty.

it's an answered prayer (yes, i prayed about this.). i went to UP with all intention to apply for the exams. my college's registrar sealed my fate.

truth be told, i'm not psyched up for this exam... yet. c'mon? five questions in 2 days to summarize everything you learned in 5 years? you gotta admit, THAT is scary (especially when you feel you really learned diddly-squat... moreso when you haven't read a single word from your notes of 5 years!).

after UP, i went home and did the unimagineable... i read my notes in FLCD 201. ooooh! sometimes, i impress myself. hahaha!

from the desk of...

like any other person in the workforce, i always look forward to fridays, especially friday afternoons. it's a day when you can feel proud of the work you've done the days before and guiltlessly repay yourself with a nap as you lounge on the bed. friday also happens to be "playstation day."

a i lay in bed, playing a game of solitaire on my palm, in marches a newly-bathed miguel:

miguel (demanding): ninang, you have to play playstation with me!

ninang: i'm sorry, i never got the memo.

miguel: what's a memo?

ninang: it's a piece of paper with instructions for the day.

without another word, miguel then turns around and runs out of the room. minutes later he comes back with this:

he wrote this all by himself! the only help he asked from yaya was the date today. i easily recognized the format of his memo; it's how we write our board messages in school. kudos to teacher mitch and ashley!

after a hearty laugh, a hug, and a kiss, i then happily proceed to whoop his ass in marvel vs. capcom.

yoda, i am

the teacher factor, it must be. just call me "master!" mwahahaha!

wala lang.

Which Revenge of the Sith Character are you?
created with QuizFarm.com

it's called "kleenex"

i got to spend last saturday night with some (younger) friends. somehow, the topic of our conversation got to mucous. true to the subject's nature, the topic "stuck" with us for a greater part of the evening (and more than i cared for) despite a car ride and change of venue.

shrills aside, i must say that the conversation had it's entertaining moments. i was particularly amused by how mike narrated and demonstrated to us how many times he can blow his nose into his hanky. a clean one, thank God! apparently, it can accommodate 16 "blows." i think jali can do more. me, i just use tissue. gesundheit! :)

not exactly a million bucks...

other than a good night at the mah-jong table or a good game of badminton, i never win anything... especially in raffles. i used to win in the annual Christmas office party raffles, but that's because we were assured of winning at least 1 major prize each. still, i never got the washing machine or the mini ref or the trip to cebu. instead, i won the toaster oven, the knife set, the habachi grill and the slow cooker. hmm... makes my winnings sound more and more like "luto!" hahaha! one year, i won cash... all of P1,000 (a big amount back then) which was just enough to cover the expenses on the costumes my group spent for our little number. my sis has better luck in those things. two years ago, she won a dvd player. cool!

so you could imagine that i was very pleasantly surprised when i received a package this past weekend. a couple of months back, i was in the grocery with miguel and i bought a pack of m&m's. they had that promo running then where you text in these sticker numbers to a cellphone account. i thought, "heck, i have nothing to lose and chocolate to eat!" i forget what was at stake. some mini ipods, i think.

what did i win? a really cute m&m cd case and a mini m&m mini radio (something i can use in school). i'll have to take a photo for you to see it (babaw!). i may have not won a million bucks, but with my luck (or lack of it) and my love for m&ms, i sure felt like a winner!

music to my ears

yesterday, a man said six words that were music to my ears: "no need for a root canal."

phew! what a relief!

what makes you happy?

i took miguel with me one night on one of my errands. i forget how we got to the topic but at one point, i remember asking him, "what makes you happy, miguel?"

his reply: "playing lego... building blocks... loving ninang!"

AWWW! i made it to the top three! isn't he the sweetest?

knowing that you are loved will make anyone happy. me pa? i'm a very easy person to please (read as "mababaw"). herewith is a short list of my simple joys:

1. "playing" with kids young and old
2. good food and even better conversation
3. receiving shiny P5 coins
4. finding P100 in my jeans pocket (actually, kahit P20, masaya na ako)
5. being with my cousin aly anywhere from her house to divisoria
6. my nephews and nieces
7. receiving "lubong" from someone else's grocery run
8. vanilla milkshakes
9. plain m&m's - not from the fridge, mind you
10. receiving handwritten letters and thank you notes
11. a cold beer after a dive (aaaaaah!)
12. a cold beer (period.)

alphabet for 2

ever notice that you hardly see a plate number with the letter "i" on it? you'll have a hard time finding one with either the letter q or o in it, too!

this i know because last week, while on our way to school, miguel asked for his usual dose of road games. the task was to complete the letters of the alphabet by spotting them on license plates. we were stuck on i for the longest time until luckily, i spotted a special plate with the word "filipina" on it! we gave up on the o and q.

of course, miguel got upset that we couldn't find plates with the letters i, o and q. but he had a solution. "ninang, i want that when i grow up, you buy me a car. then i can ask for a license plate with the letters i, o and q on it. then we could complete the alphabet!"