my lenten vacation

this year, instead of just doing our usual bisita iglesia, my tuloy friends and i decided to go on a full-fledged out of town trip and went to bicol. as is always the case when i travel with these guys, it was an amazing trip. bullet points:

* the less people, the more manageable the trip. four has always been our magic number.

* pick travel mates who aren't fussy, who share the same interest that you have, and who either take the lead or take a back seat. leave back in manila all those with opinions but never do anything but complain. they're an unnecessary waste of space, hahaha.

* snoring isn't a problem when all of you are crazy tired. everyone will just be dead to the world. and if someone complains about snoring, then leave that person back in manila next time, hahaha!

* if you have a tendency to overpack (like me!) bring a trolley. at least you don't have to carry it all on your back. and you don't have to wait for someone to carry it for you.

* on a 12-hour++ bus ride, sit beside a like-minded person. if you're madaldal, don't sit beside the person who'll be asleep way before the bus leaves alabang viaduct.

* and, oh, bring a pillow + blanket + wear sneakers with socks if you're the type who gets cold. no use giving yourself unnecessary woe when the bus gets deathly cold.

* all it takes is one companion with a dslr camera. your point-and-shoot will see less use than your phone with a data plan.

* research, research, research! and then when you're there, relax. your watch is only to make sure you don't miss your ride. everything else is one vacation time.

samba

there's a rumor going around the office that i'm iglesia ni kristo. it was fueled by the fact that (1) i wear dresses almost every single day of the week (except fridays) and (2) i make a beeline for the door on thursday evenings.

god knows i've told them often enough that i go to tuloy. but, between having to rush out for ag, tuloy, and lingkod three out of five days, i think everyone's confused. plus, i guess it's much easier to simply assume i'm something that i'm not. that's office gossip for you.

{from l to r: ralf, efren, fr. beng, hyna, theo, cathy}

in any case, these are the people who make my thursdays - no matter how tired/busy/lazy/upset/irritated/PMS-y i am - immediately better.

fr. beng, the guy holding the present, is my favorite salesian. he's just so practical, and he loves the kids immensely. i remember approaching him once so that he'd hear my confession and right there and then, he did. it was a bit awkward (i had to bare my soul to a priest i see every week!!!) but it felt good knowing that there's a man of god who's not busy to help you put things right with his big boss. he's also the coolest - he has a repertoire of magic tricks and used to create daily gospel drawings with verses for us to memorize. i'm looking forward to the day that fr. beng performs the sacrament of matrimony for me and ultimate crush, but since that might not happen anytime soon, maybe i should just look forward to him blessing a new car ... which might not happen anytime soon either, haha!

of all the volunteers, i've known kuya ef the longest. while our first tutorial session happened on separate days (i came on a tuesday and he came on a wednesday), we (and another new volunteer) met on a thursday and decided that this was something we all wanted to do on a regular basis. thus began our thursday group. a lot of faces came and went in the intervening years, but this was the group that stayed.

i've experienced highs and lows with this group, and i've visited places near and far. with them, i am nothing but honest and real -- it's so easy to be myself with them, no pretentions, no masks and i'd like to think that in spite of how upsetting my personality could be at times, they still (somehow) love me.

for the longest time we've been trying to figure out an "anniversary" date for us. yesterday, kuya ef ended up preparing a mini-feast for us, and we thought, hey, let's designate july 7 as our anniversary. and, it became even more exciting when we realized that kuya ef and i started volunteering in 2007. 07-07-07 ... it doesn't get any cooler than that.

or it could be. i mean volunteer work + amazing friends + helping kids create a brighter future for themselves ... that's way cooler, right?

so there, i'm not iglesia, i'm catholic. and on thursday, i don't make samba, i go to tuloy, tutor kids, and spend time with the most fabulous friends i know.

on valentine's, friendship, and doing the world a little good

funny how while i'm surrounded by people who aren't into valentine's, here i am, slightly miserable over the fact that once more, i am without a valentine.

i actually resent the seemingly prophetic words of the former assistant dean of the school of education who told me, "well, rosa, since you dated quite a lot in your twenties, maybe the reason why you aren't dating now is cause you're actually meant to be single."

uhm, no, i wanted to tell her.

i mean, how can this cuteness that is me not multiply and populate manila with cute, witty offspring?

bawal magreklamo sa kakapalan ng face ko. blog ko to. so pwede kong lokohin ang self ko if i want. hahaha.

sige na, pumayag na, birthday ko na sa march 2.

anyway, i guess having been single for the past couple (okay fine, more than a couple ) of years has taught me that while i might be missing out on the romance (and flowers and free dinners and good morning and good night texts, plus a default plus one to all weddings) and the love that comes from being in a committed relationship, i am blessed with wonderful friends.

wonderful friends who are willing to do jump shots in the middle of the road, notwithstanding the threat that a snake might cross from one rice paddy to another at any time.

friends who gamely pose notwithstanding the bazillions of people looking at us.

i guess we just trust our cuteness that much.

.

friends who not only know fun, but know how to make life fun for other people too.

all of us set aside a portion of our valentine cash to make 40 kids (+ one nun!) extremely happy.

come to think about it, that day with the kids might have been more fun the dressing up, eating an overpriced set meal, and braving the valentine traffic.

and, then again, in case it isn't, i'm blessed to have a friend willing to at least take the role of OUR collective boyfriend, even for just a day.

see, he played the role sooooo well that he even forked over cash for flowers and balloons!

so that was how i rolled this valentine's day. (technically, pre-valentine's, but you wouldn't take it against me, right?)

how was YOUR v day?

from one kaladkarin to another, happy birthday theonoski

one of the biggest treasures i found volunteering in tuloy ... my staunchest defender when that crazy girl from bacolod started maligning me - on friendster, on email, through bazillions of text messages ... the guy who knows most of my secrets ... my favorite cleaning ex-pat ... the only person i know who owns a koprahan ... the first person i "taught" how to drive (even if all i did was to remind him to turn on the headlights on his car) ... pepper lunch "date" ... kapatid, kuya, and fellow mataray rolled in one ... "that's why we're friends" ... Pepito ... driver ni Daredevil ... mabuting anak, mabuting kapatid, tapat na kaibigan ...

my dearest friend theo --

you are a treasure and a blessing rolled into one. who knew that the white shoe wearing volunteer who had no braces the first week and braces the second week would turn out to be one of my closest, dearest friends in the universe? i didn't. but i guess things immediately changed the day you said yes to my invitation to join lingkod. or when you proposed to clean my house. or when i shared some of my deepest secrets with you in antakya (together with he who shall not be named! hahaha). i am touched by your assurances (okay lang na chubby, cute ka naman), your support (12,000 lang pala, halika, i-withdraw na natin, now na), your generosity (e-heads concert!), and your loyalty (mas-pretty ka kaysa sa kanya).

i wish words can convey how imporant you are in my life, and how much i value our friendship. and i wish that i can show you how secure i am in the thought that i've found a true brother in you. but, we've got an entire lifetime of being good friends ahead of us ... i've got all the time in the world to be the same friend you've been to me all these years.

i pray for your continued success (translation: richness) and that one day you'll find your princess (but after i find my prince, wahehehe. igalang ang nakakatanda!). i also pray that your issues (kung ano man sila) will be resolved. at kung hindi man ma-resolve, okay lang yan, mayaman ka naman. joke ☺

happy birthday, theo. you are loved.

K.E.

he who replies to all text messages.

he who answers calls of distress.

he who listens patiently and tries to resist saying i-told-you-so.

he who is a friend, brother, teacher, driver, mentor, and donor rolled into one.

he who does not age.

he who laughs at my jokes, drives me home, and lends me drill bits, the step ladder, and yaya ising all the time.

he who fed us steak on sunday night.

we will begrudge the day he decides to marry and leave us without his company. for now, we are thankful that he has deemed us worthy to be his friends.

may your prayers be answered.

may your dreams become reality.

may you find good health, peace of mind, and the desires of your heart.

and may we never fight as much as we did in 2010.

happy birthday, k.e.

you are loved.

a belated very merry christmas to my five readers :)

belated merry christmas everyone!

the entire week has been hectic and stressful. as some of you know, i had scheduled the plumber to come in last sunday and again on the 23rd to complete the minor repairs i wanted in my bathroom, the kitchen, and the dirty kitchen. i had thought they were minor, except that there's still stuff to be done and the list just keeps growing. i guess that's the stressful part about house ownership (or in my case, house sitting for parents who don't seem to want to sell the house but have no plans of coming back to manila). i had a major tiff with the first plumber whose only goal was to get the better of me, so i changed plumbers mid-job. the second guy was so much better - i guess he didn't have much of a choice since he works where i work too and you don't crap where you work, right? - but it turns out he was a carpenter who just knows about plumbing so that's a bit of a bummer too. still, he did a great job (at least to my limited plumbing knowledge) and he was so agreeable that i want to contract him to do more repairs around the house. well, more repairs as soon as i find the money to pay him with.

anyway, the repairs that absolutely needed to be done were completed by the 23rd, just in time for the party. funny cause while i usually hate latecomers, i wanted all of them to come late on the 23rd since i got home from a mad rush to ruins/sm/bring home theo at around 8 p.m. already and i still had to wash the dishes and cutlery we were going to use, clean the bathroom of debris, and wrap some gifts. anyway, the party started at midnight -- yes, we're a late bunch -- and ended at 5 a.m. and it was everything i hoped it would be. lots of laughter, lots of food, lots of good cheer. i'm blessed to be surrounded by amazing people, and i just can't help but be thankful that i've got these people to call my friends.

the 24th meant cleaning up after the party (a chore i don't mind now that i have lots of water, thanks to maynilad!), wrapping up more presents, and going home to my dad's family in cabanatuan. our christmas fare was lovely, except that the lady who made paella made something more akin to biko instead, which was a huge disappointment! and yesterday, we all went to bahay ni san jose, a place my tuloy thursday friends and i visited for KAP 10 which, by some miracle, turned out to be a place where my lola and aunt have been doing their own mini outreach for years. it was especially touching that the kids still remembered me, notwithstanding the very brief moment i shared with them. i just hope that i'll be able to do more for them in the future. they're sooo special, and they deserve so much more.

the plans for the next couple of days are up in the air. funny how i've always wanted to spend time away from my home during the holidays, staying either in nueva ecija or quezon city, but recently, i just want to hole up in my house. maybe it's cause my bathroom sink's finally back on the wall, or maybe cause i now have running water. maybe it's cause of the book my mom and dad sent (book 13 of the wheel of time!!!) or maybe cause my car aircon's broken. a lot of maybes.

but if there's one thing that's for sure, it's that i'm having the most wonderful holiday season ever.

i need a hero

yes, i am independent. i am able to do minor plumbing repairs.

and, yes, i know enough not to panic when the battery in my car runs out because motolite is just a phone call away.

and, so what if my key has broken in half? a side trip to ace hardware and some fidgeting with a scredriver and philips will give me a spanking brand new front door lock in no time.

i am an independent woman who thinks she can do it all.

except yesterday, i left my house keys in my car. and my car happened to be in the office parking lot. so, a trike ride away from the house, i began dreading the inevitable -- how the heck am i going to get inside me house?

i texted pazi, who panicked along with me. and i texted dek, who asked me what'll i do now. i didn't even text person x -- i knew him well enough to know he won't be able to do anything.

in the end, i texted my ultimate knight in shining armor. he's the friend who would wake up early in the morning to bring me and my family to the airport. he's the friend who'd not only lend me his maid to ensure my house gets cleaned big time at least once a year, but would also buy new drill bits when i borrow his old ones (not to mention buy screws and the thingee you insert into the holes you make with your drill so the screws will have something to hold on to). he's the friend who'd bring you home when you're car-less (and even when you're just too lazy to drive) and would listen to you repeat the same story twelve million times without telling you "oh, i've heard that already."

so my knight in shining armor arrived, and we climbed two gates and broke one window in tandem (yes, i make an awful damsel in distress -- i had to be in on the adventure with him) so that we could finally get inside the house. it was embarassing enough to have been pretending all this time to be an independent woman only to call him when the going gets tough, it was even worse that he had to see the gubat that i had allowed to grow on the path on one side of my house, as well as my laundry gaily swinging in the breeze. and let's not even get to the part where i climbed said gates in a dress -- i'm just thankful that i left my four-inch heels at work and commuted home in my crocs. otherwise, a lawyer in heels and pearls climbing up her home's two gates would've been truly tragic.

my knight in shining armor, in true hero fashion, even suffered a minor injury along the way. but, ever gallant, he brushed it off and said, it'll be fine in a bit. i hope it is much better now ... we can't have knight in shining armor getting tetanus or something like that.

the night ended with a much needed trip to secret goto place, and major laughs about the "tragedies" i seem to get myself into all the time. in the end, i promised to duplicate my keys and leave a copy where they'll be easily accessible (translation: with knight in shining armor, of course). hopefully, with that done, i won't have to go through the trouble of scaling walls and braving crazy growing plants in the dark.

then again, if something like this happens again, well, i know who i'm going to call. and it ain't going to be the ghostbusters.

*image from http://www.cartoonstock.com/

a volunteer's heart

if there's one thing that i'm proud of, it's the fact that i work with former street children at least once a week. for the past three years, i've been tutoring kids on thursday evenings, helping them with their assignments, projects, and what nots. and, once every two years, i also have the honor of being part of a major sportfest wherein at least thirty centers - a total of more than a thousand kids - participate.

i love the fact that i am proud of something bigger than myself, that in my spare time, i am able to change lives of children. i am proud of the fact that while each and every second of my professional life may be billed to a client, i can give it freely and without reservations to those who do not have a single peso to their name.

but sometimes, even the most generous of hearts gets burned, frustrated, and mad. last night, that heart was mine.

i do not mind spending my hard-earned cash. i do not mind giving up my personal activities to spend more time with the kids. i do not mind loving, caring, and nurturing these children. what i do mind is when another volunteer wastes my time with her own negligence, with her irresponsibility, with her inability to respect the fact that other volunteers have plans of their own and would appreciate, at the very least, a text message informing them of a change of plans.

i was so mad at her i couldn't help but lash out behind her back last night. if i had more guts, i probably would've lashed at her to her face. and, late into the night, i was still sending text messages to a friend at how frustrated i was about the entire thing.

in three text messages, he reminded me that more than anything, i was a volunteer who wanted to make a difference in the lives of these children. he made me realize the fact that ang asar ay talo. and he wanted me to keep in mind that a humble heart is the most beautiful kind of heart there is (okay, this last part was more interpretation than the text itself, hahaha.).

so, i guess i'm fine now. or maybe not. we'll see later.

and so here begins the story of my fun weekend

we planned it almost four months ago. it was summer, and it seemed like yet another vacation would pass without us being able to plan to perfect holiday. so we agreed: let's plan something and whoever wanted to go is free to come.

then we agreed -- neither of us had ever been to kuala lumpur yet, hence our destination. we also said, okay, maybe january. so a barrage of text messages was sent, basically asking if they'd be interested to join us on a trip to KL. four -- including myself -- gave a resounding yes.

we were all set for january when i received an email -- KL tickets were going on sale over at cebupac, except that the flying dates would be around the time of ramadan and the malaysia carnival sale. september!!! i panicked a bit -- i had agreed to go to vietnam on august, and my mom was taking us to HK disney on june. could i afford a third out-of-the-country trip by august?

apparently, i could. first airplane tickets and hotel accommodations were booked. then emails with copious links were exchanged. and then all too soon it was the week before our trip and we had to come up with a definite plan for our trip.

and you know what? we did. i had the best weekend with the greatest people.