how could it be eleven in the evening already?

before i went to sleep yesterday, i had a plan: go to work and work till i just have enough energy to get home and crash. of course i got home really late, but who cared. i was thinking positive thoughts and in my heart, positive thoughts were sufficient to get the job done.

and then i woke up at 9 am. what's worse, while that was late already, i said, a couple more minutes and i ended waking up at 11. then i turned on the tv and ended up watching showtime. and then it was pilipinas win na win and i wanted to see the new show (i'm a closet krissie fan, shhhh.) so i stayed in bed ... and i stayed there until it was elive and i was able to peel myself away.

for the record, can i just say that robin padilla, for all intents and purposes, is a vampire? he doesn't age, he's hotter than ever, and he positively sparkles. oh, mariel, i so do not blame you for falling for him. he's as rough as zanjoe, but infinitely more gwapo, more suave, and a definite a-lister. go, girl, go!

moving on -- hoping i could make the most out of the rest of my day, i sat on my (clean) desk and made a list of the stuff i had to do: have tire vulcanized, withdraw money, buy baon stuff for trip, go to sun. and then i left.

errand 1 went okay -- i was lucky enough to arrive when there were zero customers (soon after i arrived a whole slew of people needing vulcanizing jobs arrived) and was done in fifteen minutes.

errand 2 went okay too. atm was working, withdrew the money i needed, and left. two minutes, tops.

and then i arrived at robinson's bf. remember how i went there once to buy light and came home with a television? well, it happened again, sort of.

so there i was, going up the escalator, to go to the sun shop on the second floor when i spied a home sale. so i checked it out. nothing to lose, right?

wrong. money was lost ... on a whole lot of stuff.

so at first i spied this nice lumbar pillow. 100 pesos. i likey. so i asked the guy, are there others? so he went to get some and while i was waiting i saw a round red pillow. perfect. i had been searching for a round pillow for a while.

then he came back and uttered the words that led to my "downfall" -- ma'am madami pa po doon sa loob.

loob? loob where? turns out they were occupying the space beside handyman.

so i went and golly golly golly. it was a treasure trove of home stuff, almost all on 50% off. and, if they weren't on 50% off, they were priced so low that you wouldn't really mind that they weren't on sale. the only problem was that if you wanted something, you had to dig, and dig deep.

and that's exactly what i did. i don't know exactly how long it took, but before i knew it, i had two covers sized for a lumbar pillow, three sparkly throw pillow covers, and two natural-fiber-looking throw pillow covers. add to that the two earlier lumbar pillows (i dumped the round pillow by then) and i had two giant bags of stuff. crazy, i know.

after that i resumed "normal programming" and did the rest of my errands. but then, i couldn't, for the life of me, go home without buying pillows to go inside my pillow cases (the stuff they had at robinson's were all the "decorated" stuff -- no simple fillers) so i made a not-so-side trip to SM southmall.

henry sy -- you truly call out to me all the time.

let's just say it was 8 by the time i got home. add to that the time stuffing pillowcases, figuring out where stuff should go, and sewing shut a throw pillow cover (i had bought one with a broken zipper -- but it was the one i loved the most and at 40pesos, i didn't exactly mind just sewing it shut) and, surprise, surprise, it's almost midnight.

and all i've got to show for it are a whole lot of throw pillows.

sigh.

hello, world, this is rosa, the new home addict, signing off for now. i am using positive thoughts to bring me to the office tomorrow (i really need to work, boo me) and if i know what's good for me, i will haul my jiggly ass there, bright and early.

i'm manas ... what's up with that?

every single working day, as long as the receptionist is at her station, i get the requisite "good morning." now, since we're a tiny office and we're basically on chatting (read: critical at times) terms with one another, sometimes, the greeting will be punctuated with "ang taba niyo po ngayon" (to which i make a mental note to decrease the person's gift budget for christmas, mwahahaha) or "bagay po yung suot niyo today" (upon which the person's budget increases) or, the typics "ma'am, hinahanap po kayo ni xxx" (the partner who just can't get enough of my presence, hahaha).

today though, after i lounged about in bed an extra hour and a half, i was greeted with "ma'am, bakit ho mukhang manas na manas kayo ngayon."

sigh. manas. a tagalog word for which there is no exact english translation. i googled it and came out with beriberi and edema. i don't think so. for one, beriberi = weight loss, which i certainly have not experienced in years, and edema ... oh wait, edema just sounds about right, but doesn't really capture the idea of manas.

anyway, i tried pressing my face (to make it less swollen, how crazy, i know) and then i remembered, i just won the kiehl's miracle recovery concentrate contest over at beauty for a living. and, frances emailed saying that she'll just send it over by messenger. oooohhh. how happy is that?

so i said to myself, fine, the receptionist might think i'm manas. and, i sorta do feel a bit like manas in my face (especially below my left eye where i think some insect bit me). but a bottle of miracle is arriving soon (probably monday since there's no work saturday and sunday?) and i bet that in a couple of days i can tell the receptionist (with my now miracle-d out face), "so who is manas now?"

p.s. thanks again to frances for picking me as the winner! i had never won any "write a post" contest ever and it's especially encouraging that you picked my entry out of the many entries that you had ☺☺☺ so while i may write for a living (lawyers write more than they argue in court, promise), writing on this blog has been a passion for seven years (more if you count the old blog) and the prize is just the fuel i need to keep on writing more.

p.p.s watch this blog for updates about the transformative power of kiehl's on my manas face ☺☺☺

oh, younglings, we so have a problem.

dear sherry and john (and burger and clara),

sometimes, i don't know if i should regret the day that someone put the link of your website on twitter and i clicked on it and i started reading your blog. because seriously, after reading all the little tabs, and going back in time (i'm on august 11, 2008) now, i must admit, i've got a serious young house love addiction.

now, while that's necessarily a bad thing (i actually cleaned out parts of my house and room that i've dared not venture into in years), i remember promising henry sy that he and i ought to cool things off for the meantime. and cooling off with henry means avoiding SM as much as i can. unfortunately, since i've been so hooked on fixing up my house, getting rid of stuff and getting some new ones (unavoidable in certain situations), henry and i, well, we're so back.

at first, i told myself, all i needed was a place for me to get some work done that isn't the ironing board. so i cleaned out my desk. but since i was removing the bazillions of hotel toothbrushes and what nots, i ended up cleaning my shoe cabinet to transfer my toiletries there. and then i envied clara's lined drawers so i lined my desk drawers as well as my night table drawers. and since my night table drawers turned heavenly, i couldn't avoid cleaning the entire night table.

well, i guess you get the idea.

and you know what else? i've gotten pretty adventurous too. for the longest time, i've been looking for clear glass jars to hold my cotton, qtips, and floss picks. i saw one that was perfect, until i realized that the metal top might rust in my bathroom. so once more, i searched high and low. unfortunately, the only thing that was available was this nice jar with plastic/rubber stoppers, which i hated cause, well, they made opening the jars difficult. for a couple of days i kept looking at the jars, knowing i wanted them but knowing too that it wouldn't work until i realized that, hey, why not remove the plastic/rubber stopper, which i did, and viola, perfect jars. happiness.

i've also gotten pretty neat. for the first time in months, i didn't rush out of bed (although i desperately needed to) and took the five minutes to make the bed. the reason? well, because i finally whipped out the nice blanket + matching pillow sham my mom sent me from target, which fabulously matched existing sheets so i couldn't exactly leave without fixing the bed. after all, no matter how pretty my sheets, blanket, and pillows are, if they were all in a pile when i arrived home, it wouldn't be so lovely, right?

of course, its going to take eons before my three bedroom, two bathroom (with a maid's room + maid's bath to boot) will be in young house love condition. and given that i live in a third world country, the DIY options available to you will mostly have to be contracted out once i make enough money to do that. but considering that you guys have been at it for several years now and are still going at it, i guess i should be happy that i've at least hung my own curtains and once i retrieve the drill from my brother, who knows how far i can go.

with much love from your fan,

rosa

me, turn into a healthy eater? why not, chocnut.

so last week i turned into a domestic diva. and, while i've still to deal with the leaf situation outside my house (made worse by, gasp, neighbors who attacked my mango tree and left all the branches and leaves on my tiny front yard!), i've pretty much kept my side table and desk in the bedroom clean, as well as have swept almost every single night upon arriving at home.

as for cleaning the marble floors with hot water, and attacking all the other tiny projects at home, well, let's just say that yesterday, i spent the entire day alternating between my bed and my reading nook, doing nothing but, well, reading. my excuse? it was raining so hard outside to attack my growing pile of towels to be laundered.

anyway, since i'm on the rosa v. marth stewart path, i couldn't resist getting some goodies from s&r last weekend when we passed by.

at first i only had a roll of garbage bags on my cart (they were relatively cheap!!! hurrah!). and then i added a can of tuna. then my friends said it was time to go, especially since my cart was virtually empty. so i said wait ...

... and wait a bit ...

until i stumbled onto this ...

and guess what the label said: lolo rosa. hmmm... nothing like a little vanity to make me buy lettuce.

but then i also saw this ...

and truly, it was just too pretty for words that i also bought it.

what can i say? i like pretty food.

then i also bought salad dressing, and boneless fish (for use with my glad steaming bags, something i picked up from the biggest loser), and some ham (to perk up my salad greens), and viola, hello healthy eater rosa.

i'm proud to say that yesterday, while it poured outside, i was happily ensconed at home, eating my, ehem, steamed fish, and ham wrapped in salad greens. and, i'd like to think that save for the mrs, fields cookie i ate (one piece, baby), i had almost zero carbs yesterday. good job, me. good job ☺

of course, the challenge is how long i'll be able to keep up this healthy living (all that grocery shopping is expensive!!!) and how long i'll be able to stay away from cheetos twisted puffs (i avoided that aisle entirely). thank goodness i'm too stuffed right now to make a chippy-run over to 7-11 (i have my last giant pie from banapple as well as my lettuce-wrapped ham for breakfast to thank for the satiated hunger pangs) but i'm guessing one day i'll wake up craving for chippy like i never have before.

for the meantime though, people, i'd like to introduce you to healthy rosa. clap. clap.

*update: i just found out that contrary to my claim that yesterday was almost carb-less, lettuce has carbs. oh. then again, there's plenty fibers. go fiber go!!!

legalese

a while back, a good friend arrived at the office with a story about her commuting adventure. my friend lives somewhere in qc and takes the quiapo-espana route going home. the day before, the rain was crazy so getting an fx was also crazy, and so she was mighty relieved when she finally got on one and was finally on her way home.

somewhere along quiapo, however, the fx driver all ordered them to get off as he had decided to cut short his trip. well aware that it was going to be doubly hard to get a ride in quiapo, and sensing that no one else was going to stand up for the group, my lawyer-friend piped up and said, "manong, bawal po yung ginagawa niyo."

i can't remember the entire conversation now, but basically she informed him that under a contract of carriage, he was obliged to carry them all the way to the promised destination and that he will be liable should he fail to do that. the man then asked where's her proof, where's that law, to which my friend smartly replied, "nasa office ko po. bukas puntahan niyo, para tamang-tama ipapa-aresto ko na kayo."

now, that provision does exist, but it's in the civil code, so there's no way that the man will be arrested and jailed if he does refuse to continue on with the trip. however, that was sufficient enough for him to shut up the rest of the way (albeit mumbling under his breath) and my oh-so-smart friend found her way home with no difficulty after that.

i've always wondered when i'd be able to do something of that nature and it presented itself yesterday. i can't exactly disclose the details here, but let's just say i used the words "subpoena" quite liberally.

*btw - here's my official lawyer pic. don't you just love it? hahaha.

at the end of the day

just saw tita mayu, who handed over a document to be notarized. and (to my utter joy) she asked me if i could stay a while, maybe we could have dinner.

oh yes, oh yes. after all, cake "party" doesn't start till much later, and i haven't eaten lunch yet. (well, unless you consider that giant tuna pie i began eating at 10 and finished at around 1:30, then maybe i have eaten lunch already)

it's the end of the day and while i wish i can have a pleading (in this case, a draft voluntary arbitration decision) all set out and ready for editing, i don't have one. i guess i got too tired (lazy?) to finish it. i drafted the statement of facts a long, long time ago, and now, it feels weird finishing up the latter half of it. i hate how i assumed (ass of u and me ... i know) that the draft handed over to me had the decision and it turned out -- after finally going through it yesterday -- that it was just another statement of facts. and, after i had slaved over mine, do you actually think i'll use that.

uhm, no?

anyway, yesterday's home project was a big fail (and it was mighty big considering i ripped apart a perfectly nice length of cloth i had gotten from my lola a while back, as well as a perfectly nice t-shirt my mom used to make dolls but had shipped over here for me to do with as i wish) and i was a bit disappointed, especially since the throw pillow filler i had gotten from SM was also a fail -- at 20"x20", it was still too small for the cover my mom got. i also discovered that the happy ace hardware wall clock i had gotten for P129.75 had stopped working, although i attribute that to the japan home store battery which may have died due to age (i had stocked it for a long, long time). there were also a huge selection of pillows i wanted to buy, but considering the horrible return policy we have in the philippines, i restrained myself. after all, i don't have to get everything in one big go. (although, being the impatient wench that i am, i most likely will, sooner or later.)

while figuring out a way to put my thoughts into words (and finally finish the VA draft decision) i spied the teddy bear bookend i had gotten at the st. james bazaar last christmas and realized that hey, until i get to buy my buddha heads from dapitan arcade, the bear, together with my heavy snowman paperweight (hard to imagine, cause it's supposed to be a plush doll, but it's heavy, so i use it as a paperweight of sorts), will work well for this project that i want the buddha heads for. basta. all that matters is that i am heading home tonight with the bear and snowman in a recyclable bag i had (thankfully) left in the office.

before i head home, i need to get some pretty plates (hello, P88 store?) and plastic utensils (so not environmentally friendly, but i live in bf, and i hardly have water. you must understand ... i try to cut down on waste when i can) for my cake party. plus, i want to figure out if i really ought to buy those microfibre wipes so i'll be excited to do some dusting around the house. i also want to check out the pillows at sm once more (maybe they have new stock? hahaha). i swear, this home thing is mighty addicting.

till later ☺☺☺

watch your back, martha, i'm out to get you.

not. hahaha.

but seriously, yesterday's demand to finish a VA decision draft and a pleading due tomorrow notwithstanding, i still managed to sneak a thirty-minute trip to ace hardware and the home section of SM department store to get stuff for my house. and, a little more than P500 pesos later, i came out of the mall (with the guards almost forcing me to leave) triumphant and ready to attack my home improvement tasks once more.

see, i got so many good things for my P500:

• extra toilet seat cover (for less than P60) in case the new one gets dirty and ugly
• two small pillows (for P79.75 each) for the two wonderful chairs from my kiddie sala set (my version of vintage, mwahaha)
• kitchen wall clock (for P129.75) because not only are the number of the old wall clock not visible, it was also not working anymore
• extra universal adaptor (for P40, on sale), cause you never know when you'll need one, and i've learned to hate transferring from one appliance to another
• 3M commando (for P169.75) for those wayward plugs and cords, and to make sure that the lamp's switch isn't somewhere where i can't find it
• replacement feet for the ironing board (for P29.75)

am i just finding yet another reason to spend? i don't think so. i guess after my mom's visit (where i saw the house through another person's eyes) coupled with numerous home improvement blogs that i've been reading has woken up my sleeping (or was it more like dead) Martha genes and has converted me into this person who has found a revived passion for her home.

now, i do understand that buying a couple of rubber feet for the ironing board and finding a way to manage the cords at home does not make me a martha. but, come on, don't you think that the fact that i've found lovely spots for my crafts basket (oh yes, i have one!) and the fact that i've invited people over for dinner the other week without pressure from them (which is usually the case, hahaha) means only one thing: that i've gone a long, long way from the girl who has instructed her friends not to enter her home at all.

good job, martha, este, rosa.

i am looking forward to yet another trip to dapitan arcade where, unlike the previous trip, i have a working list of stuff i'll need for the revamped home. i'm also keeping my fingers crossed that one day, my brother will empty out the room he previously occupied so i can make use of it, but that's going to be next to impossible (the secret, rosa, the secret!!!) still, it doesn't matter. i've so many tiny (and cool) projects in my head that by the time i can afford a bathroom re-tiling, a house re-painting, a kisame repair, and re-piping, i'd be ready for visitors to drop by the house on any given day, my mother included.

dear frances, a miracle would be much appreciated right now. thanks.

When I was young and cocky, I didn't think much about skin care. Soap was almost always the the only cleaning agent of choice, and it didn't really matter to me what soap I was using even. As a matter of fact, one time, I actually believed my aunt that bathing using blue laundry soap (it was ajax i think) would do wonders for my skin.

When I was young and cocky, lotion was just something relatives brought home from the US when they couldn't think of anything else to give you. Moisturizer was a foreign concept and toners, well, toners were just eskinol with a sprinkling of dalacin-c (if i remember it correctly).

When I was young and cocky, I didn't mind putting lotion (yes, body lotion!) onto my face to make it softer. I didn't mind burning under the hot sun -- sunblock was too expensive and I knew that sooner or later, things would go back to normal.

When I was young and cocky, I thought soft supple skin would last forever.

And then this happened. I was burned, I was peeling irregularly, and I had an impending blind date with someone who's in the Philippines for just two weeks. I was desperate, and I tried almost everything.

It didn't come as a surprise that in spite of all my efforts, nothing much happened. All the facial moisturizers, sunblock, recovery creams, toners, and extra loving care couldn't undo the damage I had done to my skin simply because I neglected to apply and reapply sunblock that weekend. I wasn't young anymore, so I couldn't have afforded being cocky. So, I am sending a major shout out to the beauty gods to send some love my way. (please?) I want to try Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate because I am no longer young and cocky, and my skin could no longer afford the abuse being young and cocky brings..

You see, long after that trip to beach, people were still commenting on how dark I was (note, not tanned, but dark as in maitim -- to the tune of repeated chants of ang itim-itim mo!!!) It didn't matter that I regularly used a particular whitening product range, applied moisturizer with sunblock first before heading out of the house, and stayed out of the sun as much as I can. More than a month after getting back, my skin was still not over the torture it received. I'm afraid it'll never go back to its former glory -- I need a miracle, and judging on Frances's running diary on her experience with the Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate, maybe it's just what I need to bring back that youthful glow I once enjoyed.

And don't think I want to do this so I can be fair again -- the only reason why I used whitening products (and so wrong I know) at that time was cause I (mistakenly) believed that it was the best way to get my old skin back.

Promise, I'll use only two drops a day. Promise, I'll sleep the requisite 7 hours. And super promise, I won't be cocky anymore with my skin.

But before I go on making a bazillion promises, I just I hope I win my very own bottle of Kiehl's Midnight Recovery Concentrate from Beauty For A Living!

*image from kiehls.com

Undomestic Goddess*

Me, I’m not a domestic diva. In fact, while I am proud of the fact that I am able to do my own laundry, ironing, and wall-drilling, I am ashamed to say that my house cleaning skills are next to nil. Forget my true-blue Montessori education (where they actually teach you how to sweep the floor and fold clothes properly, among other things) – I have always lived by the philosophy that entropy – the state of disorder – is the most stable state.

For some reason though, ever since I started reading Holly over at Decor8, I’ve been addicted to home blogs. I’ve almost gone through all of Benita’s posts at Chez Larsson, and through the tweet of someone I follow, I’ve stumbled about the youngster’s Young House Love. And, after almost a month of reading these blogs, some latent gene must’ve kicked in and converted me into someone who actually wanted to do something for her home.

Innocently enough, it started with a desire to clean out two desk tops – there’s a desk in my room which had become a catch-all of anything and everything, and a desk in the living room which, surprise surprise, had become a catch-all of, again surprise, anything and everything. It was – to plagiarize the Cobra Starship song - a hot mess. Since I needed to do major overtime at home (something I’ve been doing since my mom left) I figured, I needed a place where I could park my laptops (Ben, the old one, which has MS Office applications, and Bimby, the new one, which is significantly faster).

So, while watching one of my favorite shows over at Discovery Home and Health, I removed all the debris on the desk in my room and started cleaning up. And while I was doing that, I though, why not my side table too? Then I had some stuff that I had to move to the top of my shoe cabinet so I started working on that too. Before I knew it, it was 3 am and I had started on a number of places all over my house. But, my room’s desk was more or less organized (with the drawers lined with lovely paper!!!), my side table was clear, and my head was brimming with ideas.

Having slept at 3 am you’d think I’d crash the following day but for some reason I woke up at around 7 … and raring to go. I tried to stick to my nature and stay in bed a bit longer but my mind just won’t let me sleep. Before long, I had started organizing once more while attacking the laundry and the piles and piles of leaves dumped by Typhoon Basyang.

It’s 10:23 in the evening now, and how I wish I can say that I’m sleeping with a clean house. But, my house is big (and horribly disorganized and un-clean) enough that even the most motivated girl – who has a crazy work-week ahead of her – will be forced to stop sooner or later. In my case, sometime around 4 pm, my feet felt crazy painful that I had no choice but to take a rest by plopping onto my bed. I am proud to say though that the desk which used to be in the living room is back in my mom’s room and is polished and organized with Bimby happily resting on top, the room in my desk is uber clean and organized (drawers included!!!), my side table is not only gleaming but has sufficient space in its drawers to accommodate my reading materials and what-nots, and a whole lot of things have found places where I wouldn’t trip on them should I wake up disoriented in the middle of the night.

What can I say, I was al woman possessed and if no one exorcises me soon, I might just finally create a home that my mom will be proud of .

And, oh, did I tell you that my kitchen towels are freshly laundered?


*with apologies to Sophie Kinsella’s book of the same title. Incidentally, I just discovered that my copy is missing.

songhits ng buhay ko

oh you know me. sometimes i can be very drama. and when i am, i actually belt out to songs like this ...



or

this



cheesy, i know.

there was a time when i hung out with this guy and we pretended to be best friends (and i say pretended cause really how can you be best friends after a week, right? of course i never admitted it at that time) and i was thrilled when this came out.



but then now, with all honesty, i just can't stand hearing that song. promise, no drama included.

anyway, i just realized how nice is it how hearing songs just bring a whole lot of memories ... good and bad.

like this song that i liked first in high school and i "dedicated" to my then-crush, then i "revived" a couple of years ago when i fell in major like with this guy who i see only on fridays.



and oh, in true fashion, i denied that that song was for him. hahaha. rosa the denial queen. (by the way, if you did view the video, wouldn't you agree with me that robert smith looks strikingly like heath ledger when he played the joker. hmmm... gaya gaya?)

right now i'm crushing on this



... especially since i've got this *thing* that i can't really talk about yet. i'm not feeling very positive about it, feeling mostly incompetent and what not, but i must, i must ...

anyway, i wish you the very best of weekends. i'm stuck at work, boo-hoo, but as i've tweeted, i'm not particularly feeling bad about this weekend's overtime. i'm leaving for a trip in 19 days going to ...



(i just realized not all of you will get it but, if you watched the series back in the 80s, you'll know where i'm headed off too)

'till monday, everyone. gotta go back to what i'm here for: work.

oh, hello weekend, are you planning to disappear on me

see this?

as i've blogged yesterday, my upcoming week is going to be quite crazy. and, oh, add to that a VA decision i have to draft for my boss BY MONDAY and clearly, the weekend of sleeping in bed, lounging about with a good book, and attempting to prettify my house just said sayonara to me.

oh, boo-hoo.

that said, i still can't get over the fact that my career drama, which hit an all time high last friday, has virtually dissipated. could it be the dinner with good friends vanessa and rey? could it be impromptu dinner with pazi and jen? or could it be yet another weekend spent lounging about in bed and cleaning the house in a mad dash to accommodate instant dinner guests? i don't really know. what i do know is that while my current work situation still leaves much to be desired, i am actually much better now, and cravings for comfort foods of whatever nature have virtually ceased.

i am thinking though if i should do overtime tonight -- i really have to get cracking on a whole lot of things -- so that even if really will do an overtime tomorrow -- decisions don't write themselves overnight -- i will be less pressured. with three pleadings i want to be able to submit by next week, plus this decision that i have to draft, i truly, truly, truly must get cracking soon (i.e. now na, ala krissie a.)

my contact lenses are giving me problems though, and there's nothing more i want than to remove them already and put on my nerdy glasses, and lounge (i clearly love lounging). but i musn't, i shouldn't, and i couldn't. work beckons, people, and this is me saying, goodbye weekend, it was nice having you last week.

p.s. could it be though that this positivity for work-related stuff is coming from the fact that i will be taking two days off in august to hie off to vietnam and that there's be two (two!!! oh how positively lovely) long weekends in august, one after the other that the craziness that is july is just oh-so-bearable. i dunno, but i am so glad i've got my mojo back.

the quest for metallic shoes goes on and on and on...

remember this? that day, after consulting a number of friends via text, i went to work, and actually attended a client meeting, wearing silver shoes with tiny silver balls and black grosgrain ribbons. and while those shoes died a natural death after being worn one too many times, my shoe closet has never been without a pair of shiny metallic flats - from bright palara silver to lovely matte gold. as a matter of fact, the other day, i barely restrained myself form buying yet another pair of gold flats. i so wanted them, but i couldn't afford them anymore, not with an upcoming trip to vietnam.

but then, i read anthology shoes's tweet. and i followed the link. and there it was: anthology's shanghai in gold.

ooooh. it's just too lovely to contemplate. and a size 8 at that. i'm beginning to think the shoe gods finally heard me.

*sigh* it would be perfect on the plane to vietnam, with a simple pair of dark jeans and a plain white button-down top. it would be perfect while eating those fresh spring rolls wearing a loose white summer dress (to hide the overstuffed tummy). it would be perfect walking around the market wearing cream shorts and a plain white tee. oooh... it would just be perfect anywhere, and considering that we're flying there and back with no check-in luggage, having one pair of shoes to go with every single outfit would just be heaven. and if i, the always over-packed shoe addict were to bring only one pair of shoes on a trip, then it would have to be something as fabulous as the shanghai in gold.

and did i say i was a size 8? at the risk of being repetitive ... it's just PERFECT.

back to regular programming

power's back on (at least at 3:45 a.m. in my part of the world) and with the sun out, life is pretty much back to normal. work clothes are ironed, drinking water is cold, and i actually saw myself on the mirror as i got ready for work. save for the extra couple of minutes (okay, the extra hour) that i spent in bed this morning (i just wanted to savor it a little bit more), i must say that i ought to be back on regular programming and i can no longer use the excuse of lack of sleep, fear of flying yero, and what not to prevent me from doing what must be done.

that said, here's what my work schedule is like (oh my):

♥ hearing at rtc qc on monday afternoon

♥ memorandum for the court of appeals on tuesday

♥ comment on a petition for certiorari with the court of appeals on wednesday

♥ motion for reconsideration for a court of appeals decision on thursday

♥ hearing at nlrc calamba on thursday afternoon

and, oh, take note, those are all different cases. make it work, rosa, make it work.

in between writing up a storm, i must:

☺ get my laundry done

☺ wash my suits -- i've really nothing else to wear for next week's two hearings

☺ sweep the front, sides, and back of my house to get rid of the leaves and other basyang-related debris

isn't my life pretty boring? thank goodness i'm not. hahaha.

anyway, i'm a bit sad cause yesterday, when i passed by subway, the sign for sub of the day wasn't there anymore and i was too shy to ask the counter guy if, well, there is still sub of the day. i'm beginning to think they recognize me already since i've eaten there at least twice a week since i've re-discovered the joy of subway. maybe later i'll ask. i'm too addicted to the sweet onion dressing to actually stop now.

and, on other news, i wore one of my new pairs of shoes yesterday, and another one today. so fun, i tell you. i know i am shallow, but what do you know, the drama of last week, including the "why am i a lawyer" and all that has all but basically dissipated. i do know that it'll take more than retail therapy to get to the bottom of things as deep-seated as that, but sometimes, it's the shallow things that count.

about last night

yesterday was a hectic day -- i had to present a witness in QC at 8:30 am and i had a hearing in NLRC Calamba at 2p.m. i guess it's understandable why i chose not to return to work anymore after the Calamba hearing and chose instead to be dropped off at alabang town center where spike was.

i was tired, and i wanted to be home early. and i was, if you could count going home after buying buy one take one philips cfl bulbs from true value, buying three pairs of shoes from francesco (they were on sale!!!), and quick dinner at burger king going home early.

anyway, let's just say that i was tucked in bed watching my dvd of drop dead diva by 6p.m.

by 7:30 p.m. though, the howling wind was so noisy that i had to turn on the subtitles, which i absolutely hate. by 8 p.m., i remembered to get the umbrella i had left out to dry in the garage, lest it fly to some far off place ... it was a coach umbrella, and i love it to bits. and by 8:30 p.m., i had to peek outside again to check if my house was still intact -- the wind was howling and i was scared.

i can't remember what time i slept -- it was after i had finished the last episode of drop dead diva. i left the tv on sleep mode and crashed almost immediately ... only to wake up at 1 a.m. i don't know if i woke up cause i had to pee (which was the usual case), cause it was warm (again, the usual case during the summer), or cause it sounded like yero was flying all over the place (which WAS NOT usual at all). this time around, i didn't check outside anymore. i was too scared i'd be decapitated by a flying yero.

the rest of the night i couldn't sleep anymore ... it was cool, cause of the rain, but it was also warm, probably cause of the mattress. it was relaxing, cause of the rain, but it was scary, cause of the wind. i tried drowning out the sound by listening to my ancient ipod, and i listened to worship songs too, believing that praying through song (or more likely while half-asleep) will help make the fear go away. i'm not a person who get scared easily, but for some reason, the thoughts of flying yero scared me big time.

i woke up with a start at 6a.m. because of the rain, i didn't want to commute, and since it was coding day, i knew i had to rush. i made it out of the house a little past 6:30 praying that the MMDA be driven indoors because of the rain. when i turned on the A.M. radio to listen to mike enriquez i learned though that there's no number coding today. that was almost enough to make me turn around and go home to catch some zzzzs. i think the only thing that kept me going was the knowledge that at work, there's going to be a generator set and i can charge my phone and my flashlight.

the trip to the office left my jaw slack -- trees were uprooted, steel gates were twisted, and one gasoline station near baclaran was left in near ruin. to think this was the typhoon that wasn't supposed to make landfall, according to kuya kim monday evening. i remember telling my brother that, and his reply was "weather's unpredictable"

as i struggled to get some sleep last night, i prayed that the security guards at our area were safe -- they were the nearest people i knew who had to be out in the elements while yero were flying about. looking outside the office window now, it seems that life is once more normal. then again, the aircon's off, we're running on a genset, so clearly, life isn't normal yet.

* image from Daphne Osena-Paez. Here's the original link --> http://tweetphoto.com/32542067

the weekend in numbers

11 a.m. - time i officially got out of bed on saturday

6/10 - rating for the new thai noodle place at the corner of tropical and el grande. sorely disappointed considering i had been wanting to try it for the longest time.

7 p.m. - time dinner with friends was supposed to begin.

1.5 - number of hours before dinner actually commenced

3 - number of hours before rey's kid asked why we were still there considering it was already late.

15 - number of minutes to get from rey's house to sucat where i was dropping off vanessa.

0 kph - spike's speed when the motorcycle with sidecar hit it.

1 - number of drunk drivers involved.

5 - number of policemen on the scene. it was right across a police detachment, thank god.

4 - number of references to Lindsay Lohan after they discovered that the guy was drunk.

Php235 - amount of money i spent to pay for the photos of the damage + the photocopying of my car's registration documents.

2 - number of times i went to rey's house -- realized i left my phone ... on the street!

5 - blessing i received that day: (1) car wasn't severely damaged; (2) vanessa and rey (separately) kept me company during the whole ordeal; (4) barkers prevented the man from getting away; (5) phone which was left on the side of the road at rey's village didn't get lost.

1 - number of drunk drivers i sent to jail. i was adamant i wasn't going to withdraw the complaint. what if he had killed someone instead of simply hitting my car?

0% - chances that a drunk driving charge will actually stick and that this guy will have learned his lesson already.

33 kms - distance traveled in one evening - house to SM Sucat to Conti's to 7-11 to Teoville to Sucat Interchange to Alabang to Teoville via Sucat to house. would you believe that that's farther than my house to UP Diliman?

4 a.m. - time i slept after the ordeal

8 a.m. - time i woke up the following day. turns out the owner of the motorcycle with sidecar was right outside my door.

2 - times i saw the mother of the guy cry.

2 - number of times i felt sorry for the mother.

25 - number of times the mother begged that i withdraw my complaint.

25 - number of times i said no.

3 - people who know about the ordeal

0 - number of times i want to discuss it after today.

quitting time

these days, i can't help but ask myself if, instead of jumping onto this job, that i should have spent time pursuing my dream of JVP.

would you believe that i already had the form, had asked friends to fill out the recommendations, and was all set to leave THIS life for a year and just serve others. the only problem was that i was too darn chicken to stop being a lawyer for one stupid year.

and now, i am upset, i am sorely unhappy, and don't even know what i want from this life. i can't help but ask, what if?

isn't that pretty miserable? it is, IMHO.

dear world, gusto niyo po ba talaga ako pumayat?

i am a creature of habit. if there was a grand plot to assassinate me or something (uhm, hello summer students, i know you want to do this), it would be as easy as a pie since i hardly ever change stuff around.

heck, i even order the same thing from my lunch place all the time: monday - sinigang na bangus; thursday - bachoy; friday - rellenong bangus.

predictable, right?

so as i was having a really horrible day yesterday, going through a personal mini-crisis or sorts, i figured why not resolve it the best (and most effective) way i know how -- by food, and by food, i meant my staple food. as i said, i am a creature of habit.

okay, i know i could lose more than a few pounds, and i've said countless of times that i'm going to diet and stop eating stuff, but yesterday was a really bad day, and i had stayed in the office later than usual working on yet another pleading, so i was hungry and i really needed food in my system.

first stop was subway. fail #1. it was not even 8pm and they had run out of bread already. so much for my sub of the day fix.

second stop was MXT. jumbo siopao at Php65 = happiness. fail #2. it wasn't there. at first i thought i had the wrong floor so i went up one more floor. not there either. apparently it had closed down. but i ate there at least once a week (or once at least every two weeks). how could it close down without so much as a tiny piece of bond paper stating where it transferred or when it would open again? boo, megamall, boo.

with two "fails" i was pretty despondent. i figured maybe it was time to cut my losses and just go home. after all, barely a kilometer away from my home is my not-so-secret 24-hour favorite lugawan place. i could always go there.

but i was hungry, the stomach-growling kind, and i was miles and miles away from home. so i stopped by kfc, ordered take-out, and devoured the coleslaw salad while on the shuttle to alabang. with the yummy smell of chicken and gravy wafting from the plastic bag on my lap, i knew i will survive till i got home.

and i did.

except that, had i not bought the kfc, and had i counted on my lugaw place, i would have been in for fail #3. cause when i passed by, for some reason, it was closed and boarded up and *gasp* no tiny bond paper telling me when it will open again or if it ever will.

Edit, at 4:28 p.m.: we had lunch with a client, and one of their representatives asked me, "when are you due?" i actually couldn't understand what he was asking and i asked him to repeat several times until i realized he thought i was pregnant. i couldn't say anything except, taba lang po yan. so yes, world, i hear you loud and clear. gusto mo na talaga ako pumayat. diet begins ... tomorrow?

* i know the picture has nothing to do with the post, but it's a happy picture, during a happy moment, and we all should be reminded of happy stuff, right?

BYOB,* anyone?

remember this?

i took that picture when we went on that pasig river cruise in the hopes of finding our own dear "august". needless to say, what we found was lots of trash. it was enough to make one swear off plastic bags forever.

however, when the image (and smell) faded from my mind, i must admit that the practice of bringing a recyclable shopping bag with me at all times likewise faded. while i do remember to bring them with me once in a while (like last friday when i did my groceries☺), i think i don't do it often enough.

it was thus a wonderful surprise that in Hong Kong, there are places where they have a zero plastic bag policy, and ngong ping happens to be one of them.

on our first day in HK, we just dropped of our bags in the hotel and immediately went to ngong ping village. this "sculpture" was the village's ode to their policy of "fading out" the use of plastic bags. and, if the idea is something that you're not exactly comfortable with, the brass plaque on the sculpture has a couple of fascinating facts for the skeptic:

1. the plastic bag you take lasts longer than yourself on the earth.
2. plastic waste is pollution!
3. plastic bags are harmful to the environment
4. they are like monsters invading earth. although plastic bag[s] are still available everyone should do their part in changing their habits and fade out the usage of plastic bags in their daily lives.

what's more impressive is that in several stores - like mannings and taste - actually charge you 25 cents (Php1.50) for every plastic bag that they will use to put the stuff you purchased from the store in. quite revolutionary -- at least in SM on Wednesdays they give you the option of putting your purchases in paper bags for free -- and alarming (especially when we found ourselves in taste without our disposable bags and a whole lot of groceries -- thank goodness we had purchased a number of items from some of the other shops so we just redistributed those and used the extra bags for the groceries). i mean, can you imagine manila without plastic bags? can you imagine buying grocery and being told that unless you have your own shopping bags, you will have to pay for the plastic bags they will use? naku, baka magwala ang madlang pilipino niyan.

then again, can we entirely wipe out plastic bags from everyday use? i'm willing to bet that instead of buying trash bags, you use grocery bags as trash can liners. and that your "dirty clothes" as well as extra pairs of footwear during out-of-town trips are stashed in grocery bags as well. if households had no plastic bags at all, will we not end up buying some other form of plastic as well like garbage bags?

i wish i had an answer to my own questions. but for now, why don't you try it. it really doesn't hurt at all. ☺ ☺ ☺

* bring your own bag

in the meantime ...

it's going to be a long day for me, rushing and what not, not to mention the need to be a "creative writer" once more. so, in the meantime, enjoy this picture with the promise that there'll be more posts to come once this craziness is done and over with.

while the entire philippines was silently asking where james yap was ...

... my friends and i decided to finally do something that i've wanted to do for the longest time: go to dapitan arcade.

first things first: i am by no means a martha stewart. i admit that there are times when i wish i were, but the mere fact that i am totally averse to any form of cleaning means that i will never achieve domestic diva status.

i am, however, proud of the fact that i know how to work an electric drill and in fact installed the curtains in my bedroom and the living and dining areas of my home.

still, i guess the girl in me wanted a lovely living area, something i can call my own, and so i've always asked my friends to go with me to dapitan arcade to find treasures.

and what lovely treasures we found. (i wish i could post pictures here but (1) i forgot to bring a camera yesterday and (2) i haven't taken pictures of my stash yet.)

shy (my friend and our driver) truly got to buy a whole bunch of things including vases, jewelry cases, presents for her mom and sister, future christmas gifts, and a whole lot more. in spite of being the one who has always wanted to go there, i went home with a mini-stash -- that metal tiered thing with plates that you can use to serve lots of stuff without taking so much space on the table and this lovely matte black bowl and three ceramic apples that, for some unknown reason, are a weird color. still, i actually like the weird color. so sue me.

after that, we ate at TGIFriday's Morato so we can avail of the P99 peso chicken fingers -- sigh, it was heaven, except that with drinks and appetizers, we still ended up spending around P500 each. truly, it's so expensive to eat out these days. i think i shall just eat at my (now) uber favorite subway. then again, i don't know what i shall do once they stop having subs of the day.

dessert was at the lovely, lovely fleur de lys.

after that, they were just thinking of dropping me off at megamall where spike was parked but then we had so much fun being together that ...

... we parked at podium and went around for a bit (with ting buying an umbrella from NBS bestsellers of all places) and then crossed over to ...

the tiangge at st. frances square where ting had to stop us from buying, and buying, and buying ... sigh.

it was a lovely mid-week adventure. i felt a bit wala sa uso cause while the entire universe was watching history unfold as noynoy took his oath as president and gave his now-famous "no wangwang" speech, i was gallivanting around metro manila carrying about as if buying ceramic apples were more important than the next six years.

then again, admit it. wasn't 50% of you just majorly curious where james yap was?

*images from visitpinas.com, http://www.philippines-travel-guide.com/podium-ortigas-center.html, and st. francis square website respectively