Girl Bonding

I promised Cristy that I'll visit her again before heading home so as promised, I'm heading off to LA for the weekend. Too bad Scusi won't be coming over but for sure, we'd still have fun, fun, fun! She just moved to the Valley so it's a new place to explore. Our weekend is pretty packed already - Malibu beach tomorrow morning, outlet mall in the afternoon (of course, there has to be shopping!), then night out at Hollywood to end the day. Sunday is still pretty open but I'm sure we'll think of something fun to do. Can't wait for this day to end. I'm looking forward to hop on that plane and go to the west coast this time for some girl bonding! :)

The Hangover

It's movie night once again and this time, we watched The Hangover. My roomie actually saw this already last weekend while I was at the east coast but she didn't mind watching it again. In fairness, it was pretty good and very unpredictable. It would really make you think, what happened?! It's one of those feel-good-no-brainer movies that will leave you laughing all throughout. Everything eventually made sense in the end but one thing was left unexplained - where did the chicken come from!?

sick

I blame it on the crappy weather. It's supposed to be summer but we haven't had sunshine since the weekend. It has been really gloomy these past days and not to mention cold! Just as I was packing away my sweaters, I found myself wearing one again. And the change of weather got into me. From a very hot New Jersey/New York to a very cold Minneapolis = stuffy nose, sore throat and slight fever :( I downed myself with medicines last night and even took my roomie's panget lozenges. I can't get sick! Especially not this week since I'm going to LA this weekend. In fairness, I'm feeling a whole lot better this morning (panget works! hahaha) but I still have the sniffles. I hope the weather improves already and I get better soon!

family time

Nothing beats spending time with family. I basically just relaxed in New Jersey. It was nice to see all of them (especially Baby Greggy! He made me miss Gabby even more) and just hangout by the pool, grill burgers and hotdogs, and simply enjoy the warm, sunny day. Of course I had to sneak in some shopping and I was able to get some good deals at Jersey Gardens...hihihi.

New York on the other hand was another story. We went to check out the Phil-Am parade thingy in celebration of the Philippines' Independence Day, and there was just so many people! It's the first time here in the US that I saw so many Filipinos all in one place. It was also so hot that we could only take so much of walking along Madison Avenue. We ended up desperately finding a shaded area in Madison Square Park to rest and cool off.

The weekend flew by so fast. It would have been better if I could stay for at least another day. I'll see if I can swing by again in July. It would be nice to visit them again before I head back home... :)

Big Apple

I'm off to the Big Apple later this afternoon for a much needed break (all these portuguese translations are driving me crazy already!). I'm looking forward to the warmer weather (it's gonna be chilly and rainy in the twin cities this weekend!) and to just relax (and possibly some shopping...hihihi) with my cousins, adorable niece and new nephew who I'm about to see for the first time. Can't wait for this day to be over. I'm on weekend mode already! :)

Checkpoint!

How fast time flies! It's already June and half of the year has already passed. I was going through my past posts and I came across the one I wrote at the start of this year. Let's see where I am with what I planned to accomplish...

Travel more. Check! I'm still here in the Twin Cities and I have a couple of trips planned in the coming weeks. I've just been to Chicago and next on my list is New Jersey and New York this coming weekend, and LA the next. I was hoping to visit a new state but that's still up in the air for now. But nevertheless, I'm pretty successful on the travel front.

Read more. Waaah. Unfortunately, I failed on this area. So far, I was only able to finish 1 book since I got here! Pathetic! The book that I brought along on the flight going here is still untouched. Hahaha. And I've been reading the same book for about a month already! This is so not right. Well, I've been really busy and I'm barely home on the weekends. For now, my goal is just to finish my current book before I leave. Hahaha. But I do hope I can catch up on my reading when I get back home. On the bright side, I've slashed off my book spending big time!

Work hard (but not kill myself!). Check! In fairness, I now have some work-life balance. I've had my share of toxic and stressful days (not to mention another maalaala mo kaya moment!) but I make sure that I make up for it - may it be happy hour, movie nights, partying hard on the weekends or having some shopping sprees (my ultimate pick-me-up!), I make time to have fun. :) Though I'm seeing that the upcoming weeks will once again be toxic, but what the heck, it's just a cycle and I've learned how to work hard and party harder :)

Eat healthy, stay fit. Check! I've actually lost weight! Yey! I've been swimming regularly and have been eating healthy. I've managed to stay off the Ben and Jerry's and Haagen Daz's (we've had the same 2 pints in our freezer for months now!) but when my craving for something sweet kicks in, Cheesecake Factory it is! Hahaha.

Spend less, save more. Check! I've reached my target savings for now (but I'm hoping to still increase it a bit) but I'm still able to splurge every now and then. In fairness, I've somehow managed to stick to my 1-coach-bag-a-month plan! Yey!

Drive again. Next.

Keep the love alive. Double check! Things are going really well with us, though we're missing each other big time! :( But that will change in just a few weeks (6 weeks to be exact!). Thank God, we've managed to make things work out. Can't wait to see him again. I've had enough of this long distance thing already!

Live. Laugh. Love. I'm definitely still living my life to the fullest, laughing hard and loving with all my heart :)

Not bad for my mid-year checkpoint. I still have time to accomplish the other things (read and drive!) and maybe do even more... :)

if you say so

It's interesting when people say one thing but their actions obviously show another. In denial? Maybe. But who are they fooling, other people or themselves? Hmmm...