a long, long time ago, back when i was still stuck in the rut known as working-my-butt-off-so-i-can-pay-for-law-school, i fell in major like with the coolest boy in school.

okay, my friends may disagree with me, but i must admit, he was.

i remember meeting him in one of my favorite classes, one i had to take without my block for some reason. there i was in the back row, stuck with the frat boys. i think i got stuck with the frat boys cause one of them happened to be my blockmate.

anyway, there was four of us in that table: me, the blockmate fratboy, the fratboy who had some of the girls swooning - and if rumors were to be believed, there was a teacher who was into him too - and the coolest boy in school. the coolest boy in school was seated the farthest, i'm not sure why now, but he'd be there, twice a week, arriving late almost always, but somehow getting all the answers right in his recitation.

then - god must've really loved me then - the blockmate fratboy went on loa and the hot fratboy stopped going to class and so it ended up being just me and the coolest boy in school in that row.

and, law school being law school, we sort of became friends cause what do you do when there's just two of you in a row and there's the impending fear of recitation every meeting. he'd coach me when my answers were being stupid and he'd recite using the notes on the margins of my photocopied cases. for some reason, even if he clearly hasn't read the case, he'd have a way better recitation than i would. he was crazy brilliant smart.

the semester ended too soon, and even if he became my classmate once or twice after that - corp and ipl i think - i never got to share the same row with him again.

the coolest boy in school is a lawyer now, and married with a kid. once every so often, i'd google him to find out how he is.

today, i did just that, stumbled onto his new blog, and read his archives from start to end.

and you know what? he's still the coolest boy in my book. given half the chance, notwithstanding all my faux sophistication, i'd probably fall in major like with him all over again.

nothing to say except, thanks kikay!

last friday, i was stuck at work, basically overwhelmed at the sheer number of motions passed on to me by my boss for resolution, including a temporary restraining order that had to be resolved immediately. it was rainy, i was feeling quite sick and feverish, and wanted nothing more than to go to qc to pick up the bag and just bask in its presence. but, a job is a job and if i wanted to pay for the aforementioned bag, to work i must go, stomach flu notwithstanding.

and so i was there, plodding through the tro when the phone rang. it turned out to be gary - who, i might add, never calls. and he bore an invite - would i be interested in an overnight trip at sonya's garden, free of charge?

first thought: stupid question, of course yet.
second thought: if i said that, gary might be offended and might withdraw the invite.

and so, trying to keep my voice modulated (so as to hide super excitement), i said, ok, when will it be?

so, here i am now, back from the trip, all refreshed, invigorated, and happy.

thanks to kikay.

p.s. you may read all about the overnight at kikay.exchange.ph. they might be posting the write-ups starting next week.

me ... and my very first lv.

before anything, i will admit that there was a time when i said i don't get the fuss over lous vuitton bags, especially since they're basically sold by the bulk at greenhills, albeit fake ones. and, i will admit that i never imagined that i'll spend this much on a bag - especially since i'm a self-proclaimed shoe person.

but: one, if you've got an aunt willing to advance the money, allow you to pay on your terms i.e. dictate how much you'll be paying per month, and two, an uncle who's willing to go to rodeo drive and buy the bag for you, what's a girl to do?

well, first, spend hours upon hours online deciding whether she'll be going for the classic, a monogram speedy, or her childhood crush, a damier ebene, or spend the extra fifty or so bucks for the not-so-faked, ever-so-rare-in-manila mini lin in ebene.

then, she spends hours upon hours discussing with aforementioned aunt which bag to buy.

and, lastly, throw all caution to the wind, affirm self that as long as finances are in order, then it's okay to spend so much on a bag.

and then, the long wait. my uncle left for australia two weeks ago, then jetted off to the US after a week. on tuesday, my aunt texted me that the LV has been bought which kept me smiling the entire day. on thursday, another message to tell me my uncle has left the US already. and on friday, as i was taking a bath, i heard my phone with the ever-familiar tone indicating that a family member is calling. could it be, i asked myself. and so, still dripping from the shower, i ran to my phone to read the message: "the bag is here."

never in my life had i wanted to be absent from work so much. and, had it not been for the fact that i had to finish the draft of an urgent application for a temporary restraining order, i would have feigned illness, rushed to qc, and got the bag. but, being the responsible adult that i am - if you can call spending that much on a bag responsible, hahaha - i did every single thing that i had to do: go to work, go to casa to pick up car, go to school to pick up papers for checking, go to prayer meeting, go home to sleep and pack for the next couple of days, go to bataan to attend fiesta where officemate is hermana. and, exactly thirty-four hours later, i'm five meters away from my new bag, and totally pretending to my aunt and uncle that i wasn't excited at all.

their reaction? dali na, takbo na, nandun sa kama mo na yung bag.

so i ran upstairs, got the big brown louis vuitton paper bag from my bed away from home - i stay at their place so much i actually have a bed here already - and, without even bothering to take the pictures i had promised my frieds i'd take, opened the paper bag, removed the suede dust bag, and finally laid hands on my very own mini lin.

sigh.

when i bought my kate spade shoes, i told myself, christmas gift for a hardowrking girl. when i bought my ferragamos, i told myself, birthday gift as i turn 30. so to what do i attribute this newest extravagant purchase to?

i have absolutely no idea.

but who the heck cares? i have finally bought my first lv and i'm loving it.

p.s. as he so nicely put it, spirituality and materialism are two alien concepts, but i was glad to note that i wasn't the only one who thought of making the bag's first trip a trip to the house of god.

p.p.s. my aunt and i have basically spent the entire afternoon and evening looking for the authenticity codes/ date stamps of our bags... and we finally found it five seconds ago. happiness in shallow little things, don't you think?

with the gasoline prices being what they are right now, i've basically reduced spike to a huge white elephant in my garage. don't take me wrong, i still do take spike out for the occasional trip to the mall, alabang (lingkod and tuloy) and quezon city (for weekend visits to tita mayu) but more often than not, i leave spike at home to save up on gas money.

therefore, when the people over at pilhino told me that it'll take a couple of days to re-attach spike's new bumper, i didn't think being apart from him was going to be that difficult. after all, we didn't have an ag (action group - it's lingkod's small pastoral groups) meeting scheduled, and by the time thursday rolls around (which is my day at tuloy sa don bosco), spike will be back. no worries, i basically told myself.

i was wrong. so, so terribly wrong. because who knew that the simple fact that spike was in the garage, all gassed up, and ready to be used any time of the day or night that i wanted to use him gave me so much comfort?

saturday evening, hours after i left spike at pilhino, and five minutes away from the house, i realized that, stupid me, i had left my house keys in my car. paz (who had graciously offered to bring me home) and i were both tired (we were stuck in the mall for hours because of the rain), cranky (at least i was - my new shoes pinched my feet horribly), and sleepy (it was ten in the evening and both of us had little sleep the night before) so imagine how close i was to crying when i realized i couldn't get inside my house simply because i had been stupid enough to leave my house keys in the car. no spike = no way of going to pilhino in the middle of the night without begging a friend to take me there. (incidentally, if you think about it, if spike were there, then i wouldn't need to go to pilhino cause the keys would be there too. but then you know what i mean).

(as an aside you might be asking, what about her brother, doesn't he have house keys too? well, he does, but he wasn't around, and he couldn't be contacted, and he wouldn't pick up the phone or answer text messages. horrible, horrible, horrible. thank god for good friends like paz, who offered to take me in for the night and to bring me to pilhino the following day if i wanted to and ex boyfriends like mars, who will show up after one almost-crying phone call, actually take you to pilhino to get your car keys, and actually manage to smile at you even if doing so meant him being late for a party you didn't know he had to go to)

sunday means church and while it used to be easy to just hop in the car, go to church no matter what the weather, and stay for as long as you wanted to in the blessed sacrament without fear of the rain falling real hard cause, after all, you have a car, a sunday without a car apparently means going to church and praying, and praying, and praying that the rain won't fall until you get home. incidentally, it didn't.

and monday, horrible, horrible monday. our boss decided to invite us to lunch at cyma in trinoma and since i knew that there's an MRT station right at trinoma, i was actually excited to commute going to qc. four rides (trike going outside bf, jeep to domestic, bus to ayala, and mrt to trinoma) and an hour and a half later, i was walking gaily at the shiny floors of trinoma, all set to spend the afternoon gorging on good food and feasting my eyes on lovely window displays. but, having been spoiled by the court of appeals shuttle, i had no idea that going home would be the most horrible thing in the universe: it was easy getting to pasay via the mrt but since i had no idea that rush hour is the way it is, not only did it take eons for me to get on a mia-baclaran bus, i was also harassed by a man who kept pressing his crotch on my side. i initially had to give him the benefit of the doubt cause the bus was, in fairness, really filled to the brim. but when he'd sway when the bus was actually steady and he steadily press against me even though i squirmed and moved, and clearly showed discomfort, well, it wasn't long before i figured out that someone was trying to tide over his lust right then and there. evil man - may you rot in hell. i wish i could've sued you.

and so while today's commute didn't really bring me anything blogworthy (except that i stood in the bus for half an hour and i made the mistake of not riding the first fx that i saw), the pain of not having spike around has not abated.

and so please, pilhino. bring spike back soon. after all, this is cardriver.blogspot.com and while i've learned to love riding the bus all over again, i'm not planning on giving up my license anytime soon. especially not with perverts like that man around.

it's funny how years ago, when i first started blogging, every little thing that happened in my life was worth blogging about. i cursed the fact that i didn't have a camera phone or a digital camera cause i wanted pictures to go with my posts. it seemed like i had so many things to share with the universe, so many stories and opinions, and ideas that every morning, as i arrived at work, my fingers began itching to begin tapping out on the keyboard the stories that had been brewing in my head since the last time i had gone online.

fast forward to a little more than five years later and i find myself with very few stories to share. could it be that i had run out of steam? or could it be attributed to the fact that apparently, without law school, a boyfriend, my crazy roommate wilma, and students, there is nothing in my life worth writing about?

that, in my opinion, would be definitely one of the saddest things in the universe. because, come to think of it, so many things have happened: i got into a car accident which left spike's bumper with two major cracks, i've begun teaching a summer course in ua&p which will already end this coming saturday, the scheduled trip to mindoro was cancelled (and gay, smart girl that she is, used the money to instead buy this.), and a horrible date with a boy i never really wanted to go out with in the first place.

moving on, summer is nearly ending, and hopefully, so will the heatwave. there are no more trips to the beach to look forward to, save fpr the alnp-alabang outing. for now, trips to the mall should be kept at a minimum owing to my self-imposed saving spree. and absolutely no more dates with icky boys (paz has christened him teriyucky boy).

and, hopefully, more posts of increased substance, unlike this one.