Prayer check-- granted or still pending?

This year, my prayer is that may I soar and hunt and dive and kill (figuratively) like a great owl.
(c) Owl design on Landyacht longboard, by Andreas Preis

Last year, there were a handful of things that I prayed for. So, before the month of June ends, I want to look back and see whether God has been looking kindly at me this year.

I actually just had six things I prayed for last year - a desire to keep on growing, my teaching career, my writing career, being focused and fueled, loving others and proclaiming God's love. Let's see if my simple prayers had been answered...

Amazing moments that transpired so far on my 27th year

Amazed.

 Alternate title: My first semester as a part-time instructor in a college situated in a non-urban environment

Also: How life has been so far, for the first whole year (it’s not actually a year but I feel like it has been) that I spent in a non-urban environment

I know I do this all the time. I come to you and delight in you and then I leave you because I become too busy with my life. But remember this, you’re always in my mind.

Dorano, Dorano, you made me weep

It's the first of those days in a month and I'm feeling wonderfully weepy. Random things are making me shed tears of inexplicable origin. Among those things is this sidebar story I read while researching about the Olympics on Encarta Encyclopedia:

****

Italian marathon runner Dorando Pietri became one of the most famous Olympic athletes in 1908 for the manner in which he lost the marathon event. British writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of the Sherlock Holmes mysteries, described Pietri’s final few agonizing yards in this account. American runner John Hayes, who crossed the finish line second, was awarded the gold medal.

Thank you, Lord!

My birthday face! I painted this yesterday on my birthday --this is how colorful my life has become!

Dear Lord,

Thank you for birthday gifts that you have given, both great and small! Thank you for all the people and experiences that have helped shaped my entire 27 years.

Love,

Your child, Maia

"Oh give thanks to the Lord; call upon his name; make known his deeds among the peoples!" -Psalm 16:8

Prayers for my birthday

"Lord, always, always, always guide me. Show me the way. Light up my birthday candles and show me the proper path to follow when my cellphone battery goes out and I find myself in darkness."  -the short, silly version

I just got this pic from Google. But count the candles, there's really 27 of them!

Today, I am celebrating my 27^th year of being born into this amazing world. I wanted to write about some 27 things that I am grateful for on my birthday, or 27 wishes or prayers.I thought about it and realized that I have more than 27 things to be thankful for (although I may come up with the 27 most important later today. *wink2x* Who knows? I might I just surprise you). I also realized that for the wishes/prayers, I actually just have a few important ones.

Things have become new

Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.
-2 Corinthians 5:17

 It's June and it has been long time since I wrote in this blog --this blog which, if you look at it, seemed to be a lost blog --and that is exactly what I had been --lost, very lost.

June may be the sixth month in a year, but for me, it represents a new beginning. It's just aptly so, for somebody like me who is bound to be a teacher, because June represents the start of a new school year here in the Philippines. And this is my June now--new life, new opportunities.

I wanted to simply delete this blog, but then decided to leave it as it is-- with all my unorganized, unclassified, infrequently updated posts intact for everybody who comes across my blog to see, and for me to be reminded of just how 'lost' I had been.

Right now, for me, this is just a beginning of my true journey to become the best person that God created me to be. I may not be 'there' yet, in fact, the truth is I believe, I am just starting out like a newly sprouted seed, but with the help of our Lord, with prayers from family and friends, I will grow.

List no. 1- stuff I should write about

Well, hello to you whoever you are who wound up in this blog of mine. I've been lazy as ever, so instead of seeing actual posts, here I've left you a list of things that I should have blogged about in these past months. Hope I can actually find the time and the energy to write about some, if not all of them.

1. How 2011 went.
2. Movies and books I've watched, which are A LOT. Speaking of which,  think I'll post a sub-list for each of these categories.
3. Decisions or non-decisions I've made.
4. Bible verses I've read/ Homilies I've listened to, or the lack thereof.
5. Trips, or the few of them I've gone to.
6. Friends I've made. :) Quite a lot I'm proud to say, especially my HGS girlfriends Dana and Sweet, also Jee, and also my housemates Mary, Bern and Florence.
7. Things/ loves rediscovered -- which includes watercolor painting, sewing (just altering, to tell you the truth), and Photoshop! (lol)
8. Opportunities grabbed and missed.
9. People lost.
10. Happy thoughts and sad thoughts.
11. Dreams, hopes, wishes and prayers for the future.
12. Family and kids, and how horrifying it is to love with teenagers especially when you're finally becoming less like them.
13. Sibling wars.
14. Mom wars.
15. Daddy jokes including the infamous "Bakit, sino ba yan?"
16. Old friends I'm always thankful for, like Adel and the Silak people and the other artist types who fuel my terribly dry engine.
17. My disastrous tendency to be an overly distracted adult. Was I an undiagnosed ADHD kid, and still am an ADHD adult? This list just somehow proves that. Oh my.
18. Why FB is such a bottomless pit of nothingness disguised as a platform of substance. And also how FB can bring not only unproductivity and sometimes depression.
19. Animals? Dogs. Dogs. Dogs. Raffa the new puppy.
20. How it's killing me that I didn't AND don't love this guy yet he's always, always, always on my mind despite all of these things and a million others that I'm occupying my head with in an attempt to not think about him. And yet I do. See? :(

There WAS nothing

I haven't written a single blog post for May and June because there were things I had been busy about. Or there was just nothing. Nothing at all.

To stick to the busy excuse, believe me that I had gone up (or down) to several towns, did a lot of research for a writing assignment that I haven't yet finished, attended meetings and interviews here and there. I've also gone home and attended to some important business there. And I also took care of a job interview in a university, where I sat in an interview, did demo teaching, and after a few weeks, was informed ('regrettably,' as per the university HR officer) that I didn't get the job. So that's it, apart from all the other boring blah.

On the other hand, I also had pretty much a great time with a lot of wonderful people -enjoyed the rides going to and coming home from the towns I visited (and the moving window pictures on the buses and jeepneys), watched movies, went on walks, ate at different restaurants, ate lots of ice cream and crepes and blueberry cheesecakes, finished several bottles of beer and glasses of tequila as well. There was a trickle of parties all through May which I somehow enjoyed, a couple of them maybe I enjoyed too much, because I got drunk horridly. It will never happen again. And then of course, there were those times with :). It would be unfair to say I did not enjoy those.

Anyway, after all those running around for a whole month, it's like as if I was done living. Like I have reached my quota for having fun and for doing essential things such as going to work/doing work, like any mature, responsible person ought to do. I was attacked by this terrible case of anti-social behavior that pinned me on my bed for hours every morning, on my chair in front of my computer for several more hours after I've woken up for the day, and then a few more hours staring at nothing, punctuated by instances of going to the CR or to eat and drink. All I wanted to do is read a book or watch a movie or post comments on my Facebook page, or chat with whoever online. And in all instances, I don't know if I was even completely 'there' at all.

I don't know if it's a seasonal kind of disorder, or if it's any disorder at all; or maybe it wasn't and it was just a terrible case of good ol' bout of laziness. But it's crazy. I was going crazy about being that crazy. I've never been this inutil! A whole month and a week running?

There was just nothing. Nothing at all. No poems, no drawings (maybe one which is too dark and sad, and which I might post if I feel morbid enough), no diary scribbles (there were only dates, and what I did on those dates, and maybe timelines and short anecdotal comments on encounters with you-know-what). Other than that, nothing more.

I was like a zombified me. Only my basic survival and instinctual drives were working.

Hopefully writing in past tense would mean I'm through with all that and that I'm ready to rejoin the living world.

Hopefully.

Life is a series of random collissions. Eh?

 (Originally posted as a Facebook note on 26 February 2011.)


“Life is a series of random collisions.”
-  Jessica Zafra’s Chicken Pox for the Soul

Indeed. Some of them you’re more than happy to be tangled in – as a matter of fact, you  anticipate the impact, you relish the explosion. And some… Well, some you wish you could have undone, you could have avoided, because, really, when you think about it now, all those mashed up flesh and bone and hurt and pain, they’re not really worth the thrill of violating all the traffic rules for.  And oftentimes, these collisions are just one and the same – you really wouldn’t know where the excitement ends and where the panic begins.

This is how it feels like. This and more than this.

Not as loud as my heart

I heard Coldplay's "The Scientist" today.

This song takes me back to--
mornings when
the shadow fingers of acacia leaves would reach out to wake me,
me, rolling over to my shampooed pillows,
sunlight streaming through my open dorm room window;

Breakfasts of
wheat bread and honey and warm milk
and a hint of regret that the other day was done,
how sad it's done,
but then I know it never really was.

Because despite
walking under the knowing stares of the acacia trees,
but smiling because they just have ears and eyes but never mouths,
In the afternoons when
Downy uniforms are now sprayed
with the scent of batchoy and buttered chicken
as well as the sweet smell of ink and newsprint,
I realized, the acacia trees have their ways to speak.

But then,
they don't really speak as loud as my heart.

 ***

*I miss you SILAK peeps. T.T

Waji - Adel - Maia Night Out: Horsing around at CPU

Last night, Waji and Adelle and I made "tambay" at CPU and rolled around on the field, taking pictures and trying not to think about what other kind of human and animal "product" shares the grass with us.

Some pics we took:

Was I petting the horse, holding the cactus, or stupidly attempting to electrocute myself?

Adel and I at the "Boulevard Kuno"

Adel joyriding with Santa Claus. Waji just, uhmm... what were you doing exactly Waj? Pa-cute lang guro ah.

Those were just a weeee bit of the lotsa pictures we've taken.

Ay meron pa pala.

Eto, pangsindak:

Of chopsticks and waterguns and flour

My 3-Hera students and I had just parted from our classroom Christmas party just a few Internet hours ago. The event was something where I was more of an observer than a participant.

"Iligtas si Anne" and other parlor games
In the morning, they had treasure hunting and "Iligtas si Anne" (their version of "The Boat is Sinking". I joined one group and as the "lola" of the family, had to suffer rolling on the floor and being stepped on, sat on, in short, crushed to the bone. I had never ever played the game "The boat is Sinking" in my life. Not when I was in kinder, nor in elementary. Not even in high school when the idea of sitting on or lying on or simply holding onto a member of the opposite sex sounded exciting. Not even in college with all the leadership seminars I have attended.

After being stampeded upon by four to five students at different level of the "Iligtas"game, how much different do you think did I feel compared to beef tapa? (See picture. Can't see me? That's because I'm crushed underneath Raqueline, the tallest student in my class.)

Surely, if it was you, you could have eaten a whole cow afterwards. But say, you were indeed given a heavy table-ful of menudo and lechon manok and estofado and get-as-much-as-you-want rice, how would you further feel if you were handed chopsticks instead of spoon and fork?? Chopsticks! Imagine!

"Balut" the improv show
And then, some had their group presentations, too. The "Balut!" improv show seems to be the trend right now. Some of my grad school classmates also performed that in our Camping last semester. Hmmmnn... I wonder who turned this into an "uso"? Later on, if this kind of show continues, we could probably put it up on the same shelf as the "Luwa" --a genre of literature and drama that has no known author and was passed on through word of mouth.

"Espe-espe"
Well, anyway, after everybody felt somewhat restless again, we had the "exchange gifts" portion of the party. It was fun. I gave my SP (Sarah Mae Higgins) a bookmark and a book and an Artwork shirt, that-- to her utter disbelief, was exactly her size. Disbelief, because Sarah was the kind of girl whose entire wardrobe is composed of loose ("hal-hal") jeans, oversized Tshirts, and sneakers and slippers. Nothing pink unless it is an org or class shirt -meaning, required. I made her change into it after they all got wet and dirty with the flour-throwing game of tongue twisters, which to her felt like some kind of punishment, especially after I threatened that I'll make sure to see her out of the school gate still wearing the shirt. So funny! She keeps on whining, "Ma'am? Islan ko na Ma'am..." Hahahaha! Haay, Sarah ka!

"Clean-up time, anyone?"
Clean-up time always makes me feel alternately like a skipping MP3 player on mute and Sir Jamili, the teacher in charge of the CAT. Everytime I would yell, "Pang-limpyo na," it seems as if I have yelled it repeatedly for dozens of times, and it seems as if everybody was doing everything except what you ask them to do. The only time they would actually remember to hear me and follow my instructions is when I would switch on my Jamili mode and resort to a decibel-higher voice and open threats including "Itext ko si Nanay mo!" and the all-timer "Minus ten! Minus five!"

Haay... What if these kids are really my kids? God, I couldn't actually fathom what life would be like.

Cafe Laguna

Bad publicity is still publicity. So this 'eatery' could still thank me.


On October 31, as a way to celebrate Halloween and our extolling grace at being single still at the glorious age of twenty-four, my roomate and elementary gal pal, Ma. Jessica "Icai" Senador and her duty-mate (upod sa duty) Lexie Joyce Tapispisan, who is my newfound ka-NBSB (no boyfriend since breakup) coerced me into going out with them to the mall instead of going home to Lambunao. There we met with another elementary bud, Myrene Tess Leonida. She's also working with Icai and Lexie at the OR department of Mission Hospital. Myrene and Icai are a different kind NBSBs, though. These three girls have got such wonderful love/sob stories that the world simply has to hear about; but those can wait.

It is not the aim of this current entry to talk or rant about love, lost love and everything else in between. Rather, this entry is all about food and dining and how much one should spend on such things.

Now, in SM City, the four of us ate an early dinner at Cafe Laguna where the food was superb, the place great, the price sky-high and the service not on par with any of the abovementioned. Oh, and have I mentioned the sky-high prices?

And okay, I have to mention this or else these girls will accuse me of suffering from Transient Global Amnesia--Alej Lutero, another ex-elementary classmate, piped in for a little chat while we waited for our order. Some words exchanged, and he's off and finally we had our dinner. Anyway, this isn't about him, as I've already stipulated. This is about the restaurant.

For starters, our drinks arrived. The three of us Lambunao girls ordered a fruit shake each while Lexie, the Hiyas sang Roxas, got milkshake. And then we had pork sinigang, sauteed mixed vegetables with shrimps, chicken in pandan leaves and one serving of rice each.

I have yet to make my research regarding Cafe Laguna, but from what I have heard so far, its other branches, the one in Cebu, most particularly, are very well known for the palatable dishes they serve along with the great ambience. Ho- kay. So they say.

The food indeed equals expectations. It should. Why shouldn't it when each of us shelled exactly PhP250 each? A dinner worth one thousand pesos should taste like one thousand persos. And it did. Congratulations!

As for the ambience, it actually spells "perfect for your picky relatives from abroad of whom you're too 'ilang' to bring to a genuine Pinoy 'turo-turo' for fear of foot and mouth disease and/or salmonella and/or e-coli and/or snatcher and/or holduppers and your own fear of being tagged 'kuripot.'" And it was perfect, what with the cafe's subdued lighting and chintzy green sofas and some light wooden tones, and a number of shiny glass surfaces too. It's quite an interesting choice of interior decor and design for a restaurant serving Pinoy cuisine.

The menu was laid-out well, although there was a bit of deceit in there. I am a sucker for coffee and chocolate and I felt cheated when I saw a well-staged still life of succulent tablets of native 'tsokolate' on the menu, searched for the beverage name, only to learn that "hot choco," according to our waiter, actually just refers to commercial hot chocolate and not the 'tsokolate' I know that comes from actual cacao seeds which were dried and ground using 'lusong' (huge, rectangular, wooden mortar with the hollow part in the middle, either ends are wide enough for you to sit on and have your balls crushed if you happen to be a guy and a very careless one when it comes to using the 'hal-o') and 'hal-o' (huge wooden pestle), mixed with a little sugar and milk, molded on round-shaped cutters, and finally packed by 5's or 7's (depending on the thickness) on white bond paper and ready to be sold or given as pasalubongs to friends.

And to top the uber-superb experience of dining in a new, 'popular with the in-crowd,' chos Cafe Laguna, the beverage bar was racked with an array of both (at that time) currently and a-while-ago dished out, used and very much unwashed shake tumblers, water goblets, and other such stemware. And, along with the crew that is as restful to see as shoppers on a three-day sale, the spectacle was there for us, and the rest of the other customers, to bear.

And oh, the service- I don't know how others see those waiters and waitresses. But for someone who's so used to places such as Pecho Pak and Andok's and all those "happening" eating places for my wee people and I, I could get used to the waiters and waitresses of Cafe Laguna. They're not much unlike those of the two chicken houses I mentioned above. Really. They're just so "chummy." I suppose "class" has already ceased to mean "cautious and careful and prudent." Think: Joining in on diners' conversations. Isn't that lovely?

Point of the commentary: Next time, go to Annie's or Stanley's or, at your pickiest, Tatoy's or Breakthrough or Ramboy's if you're looking for good old authentic Pinoy gastronomic feasts. At half the price of a meal in Cafe Laguna, you can get twice, even thrice, the number of dishes and even get to have a few beers afterwards. Ambience? All these places (except for Ramboy's which is in Boardwalk, Diversion Road) are in Villa. What could be better ambience than a seaside one? Tatoy's and Breakthrough even have air-conditioned function areas for those maarte relatives of yours. And you get to have the nicest, most "happening" persons to wait on you.

Next topic: What PhP500 could get you at Villa. Mmmm-uhmmm!

It's a Sunday baby!

This baby of a blog is on its way out of my crazy, catatonic womb of thoughts, feelings, emotions, and everything else that compose me--including bladders, intestines, a brain, a gorgeous body, a beautiful face...

Everyone, remember this day, the 9th of March, 2008, Sunday. Today, my blog baby is born. It was conceived from my passionate, sometimes illicit, affair with Life and everything it has to offer--may it be happiness, sorrow, triumphs, disappointments, dreams, fears.

I hope that this baby may help me grow up as it gains its extremeties in the form of more posts!

So, see you around! And oh, yeah, Welcome to my blog!