Lol! Bear with me on this one --

On the cab ride home, this was playing on the radio (and it seems my J and I both like this song pala)

It's a little bit funny this feeling inside
I'm not one of those who can easily hide
I don't have much money but boy if I did
I'd buy a big house where we both could live

If I was a sculptor, but then again, no
Or a man who makes potions in a travelling show
I know it's not much but it's the best I can do
My gift is my song and this one's for you

And you can tell everybody this is your song
It may be quite simple but now that it's done
I hope you don't mind
I hope you don't mind that I put down in words
How wonderful life is while you're in the world
- Your Song by Elton John

... and, yes, we started singing it ^_^

* * *

Games! Games!

This is the new game we're (me, my J and youngest bro) playing. It's so hard to find booster packs for this game. We finally found some kanina when we had our expedition through Galleria and had a fun booster draft game in my house.

I have a nice Sentinels deck. Yay! ^_^

And check this out! My youngest bro discovered this game and is now slightly addicted to it. (I be a happy pirate -- arrrrr! ^_^)

* * *

A funny story --

My niece got baptized last Saturday afternoon at Mary the Queen and I was one of her ninangs (was touched by this gesture ^_^)

So it was the part where the ninang is supposed to place the white cloth over the baby -- it was a solemn moment and everyone was quiet in the baptistry --

Until my niece wrinkled her little nose and sneezed at me --

Yes, she sneezed at me.

Ah, but she was so cute when she did it! (Babies will get away with everything talaga) >_<

Coming up for air --

Whew! When I was given my teaching load, I thought it would be easy to manage -- 9 units per week = 9 hours, but now I find myself bringing work home and going to school even on my free days just to read and catch up on the lessons.

I'm enjoying myself though -- it is wonderful being back in the classroom and in front of a class. ^_^

And if anyone's interested -- here. ^_^ But you can't post there -- it's just for me and my students.

Your Superhero Identity For Today Is:

Name: Citronella
Secret Identity: K*** ^_^
Special Power: Somatic Stick
Transportation: Wonder Horse
Weapon: Ultra Lasso
Costume: Golden Bikini
Sidekick: Pollonius
Nemesis: Harold the Nasty
Tragic Flaw: Clumsiness
Favorite Food: Split Pea Soup

Take the test!

* * *

And the winner is --

In the recent issue of Guidon, they featured the results of a survey on course prestige, which they conducted during the summer --

1. BM-H
2. ME
3. ECO-H

27. ENGLIT

31. CW
32. HIS
33. HUM

36. DS
37. IS

... oh yes, there are only 37 courses in the Ateneo and we (me and youngest bro are IS majors) end up on the bottom of the list.

~sigh~

Am not sure what I want to say about this --

I'm sad that people don't realize how wonderful the course is (but then, this is a subjective opinion so ...)

I'm sad that people think we have it easy -- (True story: I was on my way to Music Appreciation class at the Art Gallery and I bumped into this acquaintance who was in BM-H. She asked me where I was headed and I told her which class -- to which she replies, in a very condescending tone, "buti ka pa, ang dali-dali ng subjects mo")

~sigh~

...IS majors are perhaps the happiest people on campus, thesis-blues notwithstanding. They get themselves involved in subjects they sincerely wish to take, and are definitely not forced to do anything they don't like. Happy people doing what they like best.
- introduction to the IS page in our yearbook

Ah, the weekend --

So ends my first week as an instructor of Freshman English --

I was so tired I fell asleep at 6-ish. My muscles (I found out I have muscles din pala -- hehehehe) were sore from all the standing and walking around (3 hours!) and my throat hurt like hell (had to drink Lo Han Kou to soothe it)

But it's the weekend! Yay!

* * *

I'm enjoying myself -- it looks like my classes are having fun naman -- I usually get lost in the lecture that I don't realize what time it is.

I gave them their first quiz of the semester -- hehehehe (talk about memories)

* * *

I finished reading Jules Verne's Around the World in Eighty Days -- and I borrowed my J's copy of The Acts of Kind Arthur and His Noble Knights by Steinbeck.

So many good books; so little time (and so little money -- ^_^)

Found inscribed on a copy of Amy Tan's Joy Luck Club --

Annie,

You've been my luck.
You are my joy.

Adam

Let's not let anything negative come between us.
There are few days left.

... my J and I were browsing through the books at Aeon Books and I found this copy of Joy Luck Club -- it had a pretty cover so I took a look at it. I found these words written on the inside cover --

... and I wanted to get that copy of the book because of the inscription.

But I didn't because I didn't have enough money.

* * *

New resto --

We tried the new resto in Greenhills Shopping Center yesterday -- Oyster Boy. The food was amazing! We had grilled oysters with cheese and garlic (yum!), a seafood rice, sinuglaw (scallops and liempo) and sisig -- OMG -- the sisig was so good!

And the prices were not bad -- we ordered enough for 4 people and the average cost of a dish is PhP150.

And Italianni's is opening in Greenhills -- yay! ^_^

* * *

New games --

My J and I decided to try out the new Marvel VS CCG -- got a starter and two boosters and learned how to play it yesterday afternoon.

It's interesting, but it lacks the social aspect of VtES (which I love) --

But I want more boosters! >_< (probably at the end of the month when I get money again ^_^)

We also got a copy of You Don't Know Jack XL -- I like this game. (Am looking forward to playing it with my J ^_^)

How to make a kiteflying

Ingredients: 3 parts jealousy 5 parts crazyiness 1 part leadership

Method: Layer ingredientes in a shot glass. Add a little cocktail umbrella and a dash of sadness

Username:

Personality cocktail
From Go-Quiz.com

* * *

On the first day of classes --

!!!!!!!!!! <--- is all I can say ^_^

(and the best part of the day was seeing my J after work and telling him all about my day. ^^)

I had a wonderful day and I can't wait to meet my classes again on Wednesday ^_^

I won't go,
I won't sleep,
I can't breathe,
until you're resting here with me

I won't leave,
I can't hide,
I cannot be,
until you're resting here with me
- Here with Me, Dido


...We are so much “one” that you are as vital to me as my own heart—-with one exception; you could never be replaced with a transplant.
- Ronald Reagan to his wife

* * *

Watched The Today Show on ETC yesterday morning and they were talking about the love letters Ronald Reagan wrote to his wife Nancy -- some were read and I found myself teary-eyed just listening to them.

Found this online:

You know I love the ranch but these last two days made it plain I only love it when you are there. Come to think of it that's true of every place & every time. When you aren't there I'm no place, just lost in time & space.

I more than love you, I'm not whole without you. You are life itself to me. When you are gone I'm waiting for you to return so I can start living again.

Happy Anniversary & thank you for 31 wonderful years.

I love you

Your Grateful Husband

For more of their letters, click here.

* * *

Movies to watch:
1. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
2. The Ladykillers
3. Home on the Range (cartoons! yay!)

* * *

Finally, some information --

The Met Theatre's A Midsummer Night's Dream opens July 16, 2004 at the Carlos P. Romulo Theatre, RCBC Plaza, Ayala corner Buendia Avenues, Makati City. The show will run from July 16 to September 25, 2004, Thursdays, Fridays, and Saturdays at 9pm, Sundays at 3pm and 7pm.

Regular tickets are P1,000, P2,000, and P2,500. Regular tickets for July shows are now available at all TicketWorld outlets, and at Ticketworld. Call TicketWorld at 891-9999 for regular ticket inquiries.

For more information on Met Elite tickets and on the Met Theatre, email info@themet.ph. Visit the Met Theatre online at The Met.

* * *

How I spent my Saturday --

Store was dead because it was a holiday so we decided to close early. Then it started to rain really hard (and that ruined our plans for late lunch).

Watched My Tutor Friend (Korean movie) with bro and my J -- and we all just died laughing.

Spent the rest of the afternoon watching television until it was time for Nigella Bites on Lifestyle. My J and I prepared peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ate them as we watched Nigella cook and eat. Yum! After that, we switched to ETC because it was time to watch Queer Eye for the Straight Guy.

And today --
My bro and I are going to Glorietta to try out Breadtalk (apparently, my bro loves this place and would eat there often when he was taking his MA in Singapore) --

I'm looking forward to doing some clothes shopping in Glorietta -- haven't really checked out the stores there lately.

And am taking my bro to T Salon & Emporium (which, I discovered from yesterday's episode of QE, is a franchise) --

* * *

Oh yes, school starts tomorrow. ^_^

Ah, the wonderful world of blogging --

My cousin informed me yesterday that she finally opened a blog -- yay! My bro is using a blog to chronicle his adventures in New York while he undergoes a month-long fellowship there. Another friend, E.T. (I don't know why, but we always have to refer to him using his full name -- ^_^) succumbed and made two blogs (one for him and one for his very cute daughter)

I've listed all of them in my blogstop list -- up to the curious to figure out which is which ^_^

* * *

Things to do before Monday --
1. Create course syllabi for En10 and En11
2. Photocopy course syllabi for classes
3. Get En11 module from English Dept -- erg! (this isn't ready yet ... and I have 4 days left)
4. Read through En10 module -- help!
5. Read through En11 module -- help!
6. Think of nice first-day-of-school outfit -- yay! ^_^

... am thinking of opening a blog for my two classes. what do you guys think? Most teachers opt for a yahoogroups and I always dislike how that floods my mailboxes. A blog seems easier to access and easier to communicate through --

The downside is having to maintain 3 blogs (the ones for my classes would be updated once a week)

Thoughts please? ^_^

* * *

The Corrs' new album is amazing ^_^ -- we've been playing it in the store at least once every day.

My friend B's book is out -- Wala Lang is available at the UP Press (it will soon be available in local bookstores). (Congrats, B!)

^_^ --

It's nice to be back home. (Spent the past few evenings in Katipunan because I had seminars in Ateneo)

Managed to read through most of the blogs on my blog list -- I hated not being able to go online to check my mail or read through people's blogs.

Turns out my youngest bro also had an adventure at UNO mart (Korean grocery along Annapolis), which I missed. ~sigh~

* * *

Attended CDy's art exhibit --
EYES WIDE OPEN
@ UFO
85 Araulllo St.,
Addition Hills, San Juan

dragged my J along and we really liked this heart-shaped mirror that was hanging on one of the walls. hahahaha!

(oh, i have so much fun with my J ^_^)

* * *

Can't believe school starts on Monday!

Am excited to meet my classes and am looking forward to teaching again --

but there's soooo much material to read through before Monday! >_<

Oh well ...

* * *

And I really love my Holga --

It takes such pretty pictures ^_^

Interesting morning --

So we managed to infect ourselves with the worm/netsky virus and spent the morning cleaning up our systems --

Word of advice: Don't open attachment files ... ever.

* * *

Every time that I get the feeling
You give me something to believe in
Every time that I got you near me
I know that's the way I want it to be

- Tide is High (Atomic Kitten)

* * *

Registration yesterday --

~Haaaaaay~

So I line up at the registrar's office in Bellarmine to get my reg form. The regcom member never mentioned that we needed an advisement slip in order to get our reg forms. Was there for about 20 minutes before being informed by the people handing out reg forms that I needed an advisement slip. Grrrr... I had to run to my department to get one. Buti na lang they accommodated my request. I ran back to Bellarmine only to be told that they had closed the office na for lunch break (this was at 1140) and I had to come back in the afternoon to continue my reg process.

~sigh~

Things went smoothly in the afternoon -- I finished registration in about 30 minutes.

Some plusses:
- Ma'am Perez showed me my table in the English Dept.
- Bumped into DM Reyes who was pleased to see that I was now part of the faculty (and he offered to help me with my MA thesis. yay!)
- spent time with my J later that day (hahaha -- that rhymed!) and we went to Coffeeheads (new coffee place above World Topps and Bento Box) and played an epic game of Dominoes. (Yes, it was epic)

* * *

It never fails --

Drop me and my J in any bookstore and we will manage to lose ourselves in the books --

We were on our way to Fresh yesterday afternoon (we wanted to try our hand at making sago't gulaman) and decided to drop by Booksale first. Siyempre, we never made it to Fresh because we spent so much time checking out the books. Lots of interesting things in Booksale Katipunan -- there's this coffee table book on posters from around the world -- but it's still pricey at 1k. =P

Hmmm... what do you guys think?



From Portrait Illustration Maker

* * *

Wow, will have to register for classes tomorrow --

Erg -- will need to defend proposal in July. ~sigh~

* * *

Harry Potter opened yesterday and I was in Megamall with my sister and my J -- grabe! the lines were soooo long! (will wait until the madness dies down before I go to watch it)

* * *

Finished reading Tom Holt's Falling Sideways, which is a departure from my usual reading list -- (but I read it anyway because the cover had a frog on it and the chapters are numbered by frogs ^_^)

Some nice soundbytes:

Love, after all, made the world go round; one of the many things it had in common with severe concussion.

...

That's love: possibly the sneakiest trick ever played on any variety of life form by a notoriously conniving Universe.

...

In fact, if we're going to have any kind of lasting relationship, I can see that fairly soon we'll need to have a whole series of long, dreary, horribly embarrassing conversations about it, of the kind that can only end in tears, recriminations, slammed doors and mutually assured sulking. What I'm hoping is that after a while, we'll both get so sick and tired of the subject that we'll leave it alone. Unlikely, though. You can't have a serious relationship where you only talk about nice stuff; that'd be like skipping the main course and having a triple serving of ice cream.

What a day! --

Yesterday felt like it was going to be a great day -- and it was!

I had so much fun and the universe never felt so right -- but, then again, the universe always feels/is right when am spending time with my J --

Games of Fluxx with D and T early in the day -- lollies all around from that Japanese mart (Co.Op along Amorsolo -- EVERYTHING is for PhP75) my J and I discovered on our adventure through Salcedo Village.

Had lunch with my J at Mcdonald's where I accidentally spilled Coke on myself -- (my J was so galing! He didn't panic or fuss at all -- he handed my his hanky and went to the counter to get more tissue. ^_^)

Yes, we continued to eat (I needed time to dry my skirt a little) --

When we got back to the store, G was already there and I brought her to Mocha Blends. It had been a while since we've gotten together for a conversation and so much has happened to her recently (and I wanted to make sure she was okay--)

G is always great to talk to -- she makes it so easy for you to open up to her and the conversation just flows easily. I learn so much from her (and I realize so much about myself after we talk)

(am never confident about giving advice to others, so I usually give them random soundbytes as food for thought -- am glad that some of it actually makes sense ^_^)

It was a pretty slow day at the store so my J and I decide to take a cab and go to my place so I could shower and change out of my sugar-sticky clothes =P

Oh, did I mention I also nearly tipped over the drink I had at Mocha Blends? Hehehe -- it gets better, when we had gotten home that night (after dinner and a movie -- Shrek2!!!), I also nearly tipped over the glass of water on my computer table --

After I had cleaned up, my J and I went to Greenhills Shopping Center to do some errands and to watch Shrek2 (fun movie! Puss is sooooo cute!).

Lots of really nice theory books at Booksale -- will have to consider getting them. (So many books, so little money! ~sigh~)

* * *

First of the Month --

Wow, it's June already -- two weeks before school starts. Will have to register for my thesis class on Friday -- (the plan is to defend my Chapter 1/Proposal this first semester and defend my thesis in December so I could graduate in March)

Am really excited for the start of school -- I wonder how I'll do as a teacher ^_^

Time really flies by fast -- my summers are usually agonizingly slow (fewer customers at the store, etc.) but this summer was a blast! (The new card games my bro brought back from the US really helped -- also the people who hang out at the store = excellent, excellent company! ^_^)

* * *

Activities for June --

It's the start of French Spring in Manila and here is the schedule of activities -- I want to watch the jugglers! ^_^

The French Film Festival starts this Friday at Greenbelt 3.

Fete de la Musique is on June 19 (Saturday) at Eastwood

and Cinemanila starts last week of June (opens with Zatoichi?)

In July, the Metropolitan Theater Group is staging A Midsummer Night's Dream ^_^