Cebu!

Talk about spur of the moment. Guess who's flying out of town next weekend - me! My cousin, Carla, is getting married in Cebu. We've known about this about a month ago but I had no plans of going since my family won't be going. My brother has classes during Saturdays and my mom doesn't want to leave him behind. My sis on the other hand wasn't really keen on going as well since she has to bring along Gabby and it would just be over the weekend.

Last night, all my other relatives were here since it's Tito Benny's last day in Manila and talk of the upcoming wedding came up. As it turns out, almost everyone is going to Cebu and it's only our family who won't have a representative! My mom was encouraging me to go (I even asked her if she would allow me if I'm all alone and one of my titas said, hello, mag-isa ka ngang pumupunta ng US eh! good point!) and she was ok with it since all my other titos and titas will be there to take care of me anyway...hehehe.

Pressure it is when all of them were telling me to go book a flight already. Masunurin naman ako so right then and there, I went online and got my ticket from PAL. So there. I'll be flying to Cebu on Friday night (the rest are going in the afternoon). The wedding's on Saturday morning and we'll all be going back to Manila on Sunday afternoon. This is my first time to go to Cebu and I'm excited to see what it has to offer. It would be better if the rest of my family is with me but being with my relatives would sure be fun as well.

And since this was all instant, I just realized, I don't have anything to wear yet to the wedding! This calls for a shopping trip! Hahaha! :)

Friday Date Night

In fairness, my friday nights are improving. We are now able to leave work early (as in by 5:30!) and have the rest of the night to ourselves. An accomplishment for him since he rarely leaves the office with the sun still shining. Hehehe.

We were supposed to watch 'The Proposal' earlier. We originally planned to catch the 6:30pm showing at Greenbelt but since it was a Friday, traffic was just horrible (not to mention the effort to get a ride!) and we knew that we won't be able to make it on time. Glorietta had an 8pm showing but by the time we got there (which was still about an hour before the show starts), all the seats were already sold out :( The next showing was at 9pm and that's too late. So we decided to just go shopping (yey!) and have dinner.

I was able to get a pair of shoes at Debenhams which was at 50% off (he was ok with it since it was a good buy) and he was able to get himself a nice shirt at Marks and Spencer which was also on sale. See, we are good shoppers! Hehehe. We were pretty tired already to walk all the way to Greenbelt for dinner so we just ended up at Friday's. On a side note, their buffalo wings are so NOT worth it! We were surprised to see that the 6 pieces were just so tiny! Malnourished ata yung chicken :(

It was a pretty good Friday night. No matter how simple what we end up doing is, the time spent together is just priceless :)

taking the big step

A lot of 'developments' has happened these past weeks and admittedly, it is just overwhelming. On one hand, it is very exciting but on the other, it's quite scary. Talk about taking the big step...or maybe even a leap! As I was telling my good friend Cristy last night, why is it that as we get older, the more difficult it is to make decisions?! And with what I have on my hands right now, it is indeed life changing.

One thing that somehow helps (but not necessarily making it easier) is going through this with him. We haven't really talked about the future but with the recent turn of events, that's all that we are thinking of now. Looking at it in that aspect, I would right away go for it! But of course, it's not that easy. There is more to it and I guess this is one of those times when you have to sacrifice and take the risk in order to prepare for what's up ahead. But no matter what, we are in this together.

I'm just really praying for the best and I hope that we do make the right decision.

Hay. Kaloka sobra.

The Sweetest Thing

...happiness is :)

Quality Time

There are times (or rather most of the time) when I so wanna curse Lec's project because of it's unreasonable and demanding workload. Super OA. Exag to the highest level. Neverending OT galore with matching weekend work pa. Kamusta naman di'ba? Goodluck to the so-called work-life balance. And because of this, suffer ang date nights. Kulang na lang is for me to set an appointment so that he could block off the time on his calendar. Hahaha. But seriously, we need to set our dates well in advance just to make sure that he's free and that he won't commit to any weekend work or something on that day.

So this weekend was one of those rare times that we were able to spend uninterrupted quality time together :) Being a Harry Potter fan, I already told him waaaaay in advance (I was still in Minneapolis then) that we should and will watch the movie on its first weekend. Back then, not knowing that I'll be going home earlier, I was set to forget about my jetlag just to watch this as soon as we can. I already reserved the tickets a week before and we were set to watch the 5:50pm showing at Greenbelt. We were supposed to meet at around 5ish and I was a bit pissed off that he was running late - because he had to go to the office (again, on a weekend!) and work! A production issue came up so he had no choice but to deal with it. Ok payn. He came at exactly 5:50. Talk about last minute! But he promised that that's the last of work and it's now our time (aba dapat lang! tutuktukin ko sya pag biglang he needs to go back to the office after the movie!).

The movie was pretty ok but we had the same sentiment - bitin! Though the ending was the same as that of the book, I was a bit disappointed that there was no major fight scene and they didn't show Dumbledore's funeral. But overall, it was able to capture the major highlights and we had some good laughs on the romance angle. Can't wait for the last installment!

We then headed to Eastwood to meet up with his friends. They've been wanting to meet me and with our first free weekend together since I got back, the timing was perfect. They were running a bit late though so we just had dinner first at Balducci. It's a bit pricey but worth it! The servings were big and the food was really good. We had the Seafood Soup (with LOTS of shrimp, mussels, clams and squid) for starters, then I had the Ravioli with Truffle Cream while Lec had their Lamp Chops. We'd definitely eat here again.

The mall was still open so we decided to look around. Lec was set to not let me shop, knowing how much I've already brought back home (some of which I haven't even used yet). He was literally steering me away from my shops (Ninewest was at 65% off!). So we just shopped for him instead and we were able to get him some shoes at Steve Madden which was also on sale - 65% off! I actually saw a pair that I liked but he didn't even let me try it on :( Unfair! Hahaha.

After getting our fix of Dairy Queen Rocky Road blizzard for dessert, we headed back to the condo to rest for a bit. We were starting to get sleepy already when his friends, Brenda, Ji, Clark and Mitch, finally came at around midnight. Switch to party mode it is as we were in for lots of videoke and drinks! It was really nice meeting his friends and I had a good time with them. Too good maybe coz we finally called it a 'night' at 5am already! It was funny that the roosters were starting to crow (don't know where they came from given that we were in the middle of Eastwood City but we sure heard them!) and it's slowly getting bright outside already just as we were about to sleep.

This was definitely a good weekend for us. After 6 months, we were finally able to spend time (a happy one, that is) together :)

Ask and You Shall Receive

My prayers were just answered but I'm still not sure if I should be happy or not. I guess it's too soon. On the other hand, I asked for a sign and with this, it sure is a clear one! I'm again praying for something and I'm keeping my fingers crossed that it would be for the best.

'til then, minneapolis...

With my unexpected early flyhome, all our plans for a proper 'goodbye' to the Twin Cities were scrapped off. My roomie and I already had a gameplan on how we'll spend our last 2 weeks which included a last trip to Albertville and MOA, taking our summer picture with the Cherry on the Spoon, eating for the last time at our favorite restaurants (good thing we had an early start on this and we were able to check Benihana, Quang and Seafood Palace off our list), last night out and bar hopping at downtown, a send off dinner for our downtown friends and for our last day, we were supposed to watch the midnight showing of Harry Potter with mommy and daddy then have our very early last breakfast at Perkin's. Sayang.

But even if we weren't able to do all that, I would always have fond memories of my 2009 Minneapolis adventure. This time around was very different than my last assignment, but what I liked most was that I was able to really have fun and bond with my good friends, and meet new ones as well.

I've been back home for about 3 weeks already and seeing Ros eariler (she's back!) brought back all the things that I'll surely miss...

...Symphony Place, apartment 1612
...midnight trips to Cub Foods
...cooking nights with my roomie - not to mention instantly whipping up our 'signature' dishes using ingredients available in our fridge and pantry simply because we're too lazy to go to the grocery (in fairness, our lunchmates always love them!)
...lunch breaks with our pinoy friends at the Oracle Centre - never a dull moment!
...morning bagels at Bruegger's - cinnamon sugar bagel with honey walnut cream cheese is the best!
...mint condition at Caribou
...sausage and egg croissant (for me) and biscuit (for Ros) at this German (?) stall along the skyway which were run by Chinese people
...winning over the downtown boys at Taboo
...Friday nights with the downtown peeps - you can always expect lots of yummy food, staying up late, and having fun, fun, fun!
...$5 movie nights at Southdale on a weekday
...our daily dose of vitamins at Jamba - Orange Dream Machine is a sure winner!
...anime nights with Fro and Ros. I don't watch anime but I just like hanging out with them (and not to mention the couch!) so I always end up sleeping...hihihi
...happy hour with Cads and Lawrence
...our daily dose of bongbong and bangbang kwentos!
...Brit's Fish and Chips paired with a cold glass of Bluemoon
...Solera's Peach and Ginger mojito and Shrimp croquettes
...Fogo de Chao's Caipirinha and cheese bread thingy (and we also love their buffet especially at lunch time - 50% off!)
...hangover breakfast at Perkin's
...dancing the night away at Drink
...impromptu weekday trips to Albertville when we don't have anything to do after work
...Angry Whopper at Burger King after our shopping spree at Albertville
...shopping sprees with my roomie (she's just so easy to convince!)
...swimming at the 7th floor
...Black and White nights at Newsroom (we braved the -40 temp one Friday night and walked just to get a fix of our fave martini)
...buffalo wings at Hooters! it has to be half hot, half 911 with a side of curly fries :)
...freshly baked chocolate chips and brownies (with a cold glass of milk) just before going to sleep
...weekend nights with mommy and daddy
...Seasalt's calamari
...parties with the Bastards at Dave's (always remember to have just ONE Mountain Don't!)
...watching Harold and Kumar then heading to White Castle afterwards
...Chiraz nights at Fro's
...grilled steak dinners
...the Fat Car! - we never changed it even if we can get a different car every month
...Cheesecake Factory's Shrimp Scampi and Chicken Madeira combo and Godiva Cheesecake for dessert...sinful!
...weekend shopping at the Mall of America

These are just some of the things which made this trip memorable. Never say goodbye, but rather, 'til next time... :)

Back to Reality

After 2 1/2 weeks of 'vacation' (wherein I wasn't really able to rest), I made my way back to work. Being my first day back after six months of being away, I went in together with Lec. As we were walking towards CG2, I was telling him that this is something I didn't miss at all. Hahaha. But admittedly, it was good to see my friends again (them I surely missed!).

In a way, it was good to return to my old routine. We're now back to our morning fix of coffee at Starbucks! Short Caramel Macchiato and Triple Grande Soy No Whip Mocha it is :) In fairness, the barista still knows me and was happily surprised when she saw that there was a short caramel macchiato along with Lec's order. Another thing that I was happy to return to was having lunch with him. This is usually the only time within the busy workday that we are able to really catch up and spend time together even for just an hour and a half.

Work was surprisingly light today (but that will soon change...waaaah!) and I was able to catch up with my emails and pick up from where I left off.

All in all, my first day wasn't that bad. In fact, it's good to be back :)

one day at a time

It has been 2 weeks now since my dad passed away. So far, we've been doing ok but just because we've been busying ourselves day in and day out with entertaining our relatives from the US. We've been going out everyday - from the condo in Eastwood, to Makati then Alabang and back. It has been endless mall hopping (which surprisingly didn't excite me so much) and food galore these past weeks. Tiring as it was (I usually go straight to bed by the time I get home), it has been good for the family. It gave us something else to think about and in a way, it has brought our family closer. Before, we usually just see each other once or twice a year - during major holidays. But now, it's like a reunion almost every other day.

Tita Elmie and Janus just left this afternoon. They're going back to Vegas and who knows when we'll see them again (though we're hoping to visit them next year probably). Tito Benny is still here but he's set to go back to Jersey in early August. And with our lives slowly returning back to normal, it's now sinking in again that we'll never be complete. I get this sudden bout of sadness every now and then, and there are days when I can't hold back the tears especially when I see the pictures of my dad around the house.

Just the other day, we were watching my sister's wedding video and I cried when I saw my dad walking down the aisle. He was still full of life then with a big smile on his face. I'll never see that again, but I'm just living in the comfort knowing that he's happy now and he'll always be looking over us.

In just a few days, I'll be going back to work and that's another thing that would bring back the normalcy in my life. Though I know that it will never be the same, but I'm just taking it one day at a time...

on a lighter note...

it's good to be back home with my boys :)

White Balloons and the Blue Butterfly

Saying goodbye is never easy especially if it's your loved one - in my case, my dad. We finally laid him to rest in peace at Everest Hills. Looking back, the past days were just a blur. I still haven't had any decent sleep. But somehow all the late nights, long days and all the people around us somehow eased the pain. It was comforting to know that so many people cared for him. The outpouring of love, support and concern was just overwhelming. The abundance of flowers in and outside the chapel was just a sliver of how many people came and paid their respects.

It's just quite sad and ironic that it takes something unfortunate to bring all the family and friends together. This is one of those rare moments when all my dad's siblings are complete. My uncle flew in from New Jersey and my aunt from Las Vegas. The last time that they were complete was when my lola died and it's quite sad that it took another death for them to be together again.

I'm not really superstitious but there's something about butterflies when someone dies. And true enough, right after my dad was buried, a blue butterfly appeared.

It first landed on Gabby...

Then my sister...Then finally on me...I later learned that the butterfly followed my mom's car as they drove home. May it be true or not, but we really felt that it was my dad, telling us that he's now in peace.

So even if my dad's not here with us anymore, I know that he'll always be looking over us.

We'll miss you papa, and you'll always be in our minds and hearts...