it's been a while since i last taught a class, unless of course you count the one i did last friday. but then who knew that i'd be back to my usual "teacher" self so soon in the game? who knew that i'd slip back into my old habbit of finalizing my lecture just a couple of hours before the actual lecture itself?

bad, huh. thank goodness for the fact that, well, i do know this topic like the back of my hand. the only difference though is that i came up - for some reason - with the idea of making an entirely different powerpoint and now i have to live with its consequences. read: finish powerpoint with less than seven hours to go before the lecture itself. seven hours should be good under normal circumstances but then if you've to figure in taking a shower, dressing up, driving all the way to ortigas, eating lunch, and setting up in the picture, well, seven hours isn't much.

and, oh, i've got to add "slight fever" to the equation. somehow, the fact that i actually got some studying done on a weekend seems to have shocked my body and reduced it to this sickly lump of clay.

two years ago i was a superwoman doing anything and everything i wanted. now, all i want to do is snuggle under the covers and sleep. 29 shouldn't feel this old.

last sunday, at his birthday party, leuts sorta complained that he doesn't know what's been happening to me lately as i haven't been posting really.

i do, but then considering the last couple of posts have been about how i've been engaging in incessant retail therapy, they don't really count, especially when all leuts really wants to know, him being leuts and all that, are the juicy stuff.

but then since i'm just in a smelly corner at netopia and i don't really enjoy surfing at smelly corners, here's just a quick unorganized summary of things that has happened to me recently:

1. new guy who asked me to hear mass with him on our first date. 1,000,000 pogi points.

2. and no, he's not the guy i've been pining over since april. a totally new guy.

3. the weird thing? i actually like the new guy.

4. finally went on leave, much to my officemates' joy. they keep telling me to go on leave so i can finally study. i think it has more to do with the fact that in spite of all the studying i have to do, i have a tendency to disturb them a lot.

5. shopping monster has went on hiatus, finally. i suspect it's because of the sorry and sad state of my finances.

6. i watched sukob. it was not exactly the best movie to watch especially when you have such a limited time for activities like watching movies. but i did, and stupid as it may have been, the time was well spent if only for the fact that it was pure, unadulterated entertainment that didn't require any form of thinking on my part. and, considering the huge amounts of information i've put inside my brain over the last five months, any activity that doesn't require a working brain is tops in my book.

7. i just realized i haven't really posted anything about the bar, save for a random complaint here and there. so, in case you're interested in bar news:
a. yes, i'm studying.
b. no, i don't think i know everything yet.
c. from how some students talk, it does seem possible to know everything. as for me, it'll be a miracle though if that were to happen.
d. my aunt asked me what's different between this year and last year. well, for one, i actually got through my first reading and am hoping to finish my second reading before pre-week. but, sad to say, commercial law has yet to make sense to me. i'm resigning myself to a really low grade at that subject. so, isn't it pretty dumb that almost every other person's telling me to go into corporate law???

the posts might be fewer and farther in between beginning today. the first sunday is just two and a half weeks away and i've so much to squeeze in my already much abused brain between now and that day. any extra-curricular activity - including blogging - will have to be severely cut down for the meantime.

so, i'll see you guys when i see you. and hopefully, by that time, things will be so much better for me ... and for you too!

p.s. if you were duped by starbucks to buy all those expensive drinks so you can get a planner, will you be kind enough to give me your coupons which allows you to "personalize" your drink? that is if you're not using them. thank you.

there are good days.

and there are really good days. days where you wake up early and feel like jumping right out of bed. days where you log on and catch the girl you've been having "offline chats with". days where you catch your dad online.

really good days are when you skip lunch but your tummy feels ok after downing two packs of cookies someone gives you for giving him a ride. it's when you arrive early but you don't mind as it gives you time to bond with new friends. it's when you're surrounded by five like-minded girls who you enjoy in both serious and non-serious capacities.

a really good day would mean you being able to avoid buying something that's been bugging your mind for days now. or, it's when you do decide to buy something simply because it was on sale and you liked the colors. it's when you're able to say that you don't need another pair of pink three-inch stilettos, even if you'll be able to get it 70% off the original price.

it's when you're able to park yourself in starbucks, plug yourself into your ipod and study like the bar's going to be tomorrow. it's when you're able to find something to tide you over until christmas comes and they have peppermint mocha on the menu once more (fyi: it's grande decaf mint non-fat with whip extra hot mocha). it's when everything else doesn't matter except you and your ability to make sense out of criminal law.

today's one of those days. ain't life grand?

it can't be THAT bad

the other day i received a text message telling me that there's a bunch of people suing kfc because of the oil they use to fry their fried chicken. and, since he probably knew i wasn't going to believe it cause it was, after all, just a forwarded message, it also said there that the message wasn't a hoax as it was reported in the international herald tribune last june 5.

a message like that would've probably deterred someone from eating kfc, even for a week at least. but NOT me. almost immediately after i read the message, i closed my book, stood up, and made a beeline for the nearest kfc.

i just kept thinking that i don't really exercise (except bounce up and down on my exercise ball) and i eat bacon anyway. i don't drink the required amounts of water and my sleeping, at best, is erratic. how much harm can kfc do, right?

plus, kfc makes me happy, and being happy makes happy hormones, which makes you quite healthy. so i'm thinking as long as i kfc brings me unadulterated joy, then i'm going to eat kfc. saturated fats notwithstanding.

right now i've got five hours to go before SM finally opens and when it does, i hope to be there, with my brand new hair iron in tow, fingers crossed, hoping to god that they've got a lenient return policy.

see, i know you can return stuff at sm. i've done that several times in the past, especially when a pair of shoes doesn't seem as pretty as it did when i was at the store. what i don't know is if they'd allow you to return something twice.

last tuesday, i finally succumbed to my desire to possess the watson's ceramic hair straightener. it was well within my budget and looked every bit as pretty as the expensive hair straighteners on the shelf. together with half of the population, i too own the tiangge ionic hair straightener (the guang ming kind) that was all the rage four years ago, something i just use when i need pictures taken and my hair has to be decent. so, technically, i didn't need this. but i wanted it, and so, after several days of contemplating whether i wanted it or not, i finally got it.

except that when i got home and tried the iron, i discovered that the plates didn't lie flat against each other. it did straighten my hair ok, but it wasn't any different from the cheap ionic hair straightener. so yesterday, i went to sm and hoped to have it exchanged for a similar straightener which had plates lying flat against each other.

i looked at every single straightener. each one had plates that gaped at the end. so, at the end of the day, i added money and got another brand.

the other brand wasn't as pretty looking. and while it did straighten my hair ok, again, it wasn't any different from the cheap tiangge ionic hair straightener.

a total waste of money, IMHO.

i've my heart set out on a 1800-watt hair dryer. unlike a hair iron, THAT i don't have. i'm beginning to think that all the other hair irons, no matter how expensive, can only be slightly better than my tiangge iron at this point. and since i hardly use mine anyway, maybe it's time to accept the fact that i made a mistake buying something simply because it looked pretty. right now, i'm totally hating the fact that there's no money-back return policy, only store credit, WATSON's store credit at that. so, i guess i'm stuck on getting a hair dryer. either that or i'm going to be blowing my money later on a whole lot of products i don't need.

(or, i'm realizing just now, if they have a really crappy return policy and they don't let me return the iron at all, i'm stuck with an iron i don't even want. and, THAT, is the crappiest thing of all.)

i finally bought the exercise ball.

i thought i'd be getting a lot of exercise using it. i imagined myself doing crunches on it, doing leg lifts, rolling on it, and the million and one exercises i've seen online.

but my goodness, how come never told me that THE major exercise i'd get was inflating the damn thing. and lest you think i used that puny pump that goes with it, i didn't. i actually used the pump that you use on car tires!

i've spent more than an hour trying to inflate it and so far, while it's now finally round, it's nowhere near the size and "give" it's supposed to be. both my legs hurt, both my arms hurt, i've sweat buckets, and i'm panting like i've never panted in weeks. had i not spent hard-earned money on it, i might have thrown it out in disgust.

i can't even imagine how long it would have taken me had i used the pathetic plastic little pump it came with.

so be forewarned. if you'd be tempted - like i was - to buy the exercise ball especially with the sm advantage card promo, make sure you have one of those pumps you hook up to your car. either that or get ready for the major work-out of your life... pumping the damn thing.

more wit and wisdom from my five-year-old nephew, elok

on my new belt
elok: ate rox, wag mo isuot yan.
me: bakit?
elok: baka kasi maipit tiyan mo!

on my aunt's boyfriend
elok (to his mom): sino yung parating kasama ni tita celia?
mom: sino dun?
elok: yung driver niya.
mom: ah, si mang boy!
elok: hindi yung isa pa. (now take note my aunt only has one driver)
mom: sino, si tito ronnie? (complete with puzzled look as ronnie is my aunt's boyfriend, although we've teased my aunt about the fact that she treats her boyfriend as a driver "with benefits")
elok: oo, yun nga! si tito ronnie!

had the most amazing weekend with my entire family from my dad's side. we got copies of the first few pics taken by the wedding photographer and while we were all in a sad sorry state owing to the heavy downpour, the photographer was able to make us all look pretty, glowing, and as if we hadn't had to deal with major downpour.

and, oh, we were all v. v. pretty in the pictures. here's a pic of my foot. stupid to upload a pic of a foot really but (1) i wanted to show my pretty shoe and (2) i wanted to show how my brother can be so sweet sometimes. that hand doing my shoe strap? that's my bro's hands.

pretty tired now but am waiting for my aunt's text message as we're having coffee with them. tita celia and sir are headed home to cabanatuan tonight and this will be the last time we'll ever get to spend with tita nilda before she heads back to canada.

before we all split up, tita celia said that wherever we'll be six years from now, we'll all have to be back in cab for my lola's 75th birthday. someone, i can't remember who, complained, saying that's a long way from now. i then made a statement which shocked even me - "oh, you'll all find yourselves back soon, i hope. i will, after all, be getting married before that time. and you will be coming home for my wedding, right?"

gaaaah. fearless forecast. i just hope it comes to pass.

i've started doing "the purpose driven life" and as if by fate, i found "the purpose driven life journal" at national bookstore as i was "resting" from all the crappy reading i've been doing. what's even better was that it wasn't as expensive as i thought it would be so i snapped it up immediately. less that forty days before the first examination. hopefully, by the time the first sunday rolls around, i won't only be prepared mentally but also spiritually.

true to form, i also got myself more post-its that i can actually use. the last time i was at national, i was surprised when the girl told me my bill had totalled more than 400 bucks... a surprise since all i got were post-its and pretty paper and random stuff that aren't really that important. it's crazy how 3M came up with this thing that for some reason or another, i can't live without. btw - while i buy non-3M post-its, i think it's a major rip-off when (1) they don't actually stick to what they're supposed to stick to or (2) the "stick" is so much that it almost tears the paper when you peel it from the pad but barely sticks when you actually stick it to what you want to stick it to.

anyway, this weekend i'll be off to spend the weekend with my family in cabanatuan. the people who came home for ian and anna's/christie's wedding are about to head back to canada so this might be the last time we'd all get to hang out. i'm looking forward to home cooking, chismis, and hopefully, some spa and parlor time with my two aunts.

and oh, how advisable would it be to buy those gym balls? they have a promo at sm (mothership!) for sm advantage card holders where you can get a gym ball for a hundred points plus a hundred bucks and i'm tempted to buy one (in purple!) and hopefully use it with my jumping rope in my bid to lose weight. i saw a feature of it in "kay susan tayo" (for the record i don't watch the show as i hate susan enriquez with a passion for some reason but i was channel surfing and i saw her doing the ball thing and she was sweating bullets!) and it looked like it was fun, interesting, and effective. either that or they just did a really good segment. anyway, tell me if it works... and if it does, i'll be keeping my fingers crossed that they don't run out of stocks before i can make it over there.

happy weekend people!