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.