thank you:

for fresh laundry (yay!)

for more gym clothes

for work

for a fresh start

for delightfully unexpected calls 

for an extra day

for reliving what has happened through photos i posted very late

for planned trips

for opportunities

for sweet tapa. seriously.

for new friends with the same humor

for old movies. as in really old.

for family holiday time.

for old friends that i hardly see but have seen over the holidays

for all my gifts!

for being able to give

for realizing that i have so much. more than i know i have, even.

for food on the table.

for new beddings that make sleeping a totally different experience

for dinner with friends 

for priceless conversations

for life lessons

for realizations that peg advancements in maturity

for waking up today

:)

my 2011 in a nutshell

2011 was the year when:

i sang at ccp again with some of the most awesome asian folks one will ever meet

 

i started hitting the gym and got hooked!

 

i celebrated 30 wonderful years of being alive

i zoomed to baguio for a refreshing and energizing break masked in a beautiful union of souls. also got to know some friends better during this trip.

i bonded with workmates in laiya, tagaytay and calatagan. the start and end of my many beach and out-of-town trips this year.

 

i had (almost) monthly dinners with harkadah and enjoyed every minute of it. i know it took a lot of effort from all of us, but that effort was what made each one so special!

i went to ilo-ilo, bacolod, guimaras and aklan, and bonded with some of my tightest friends (now known as the wandersluts) over roadtrips, foodtrips and visita iglesia for the holy week. a lifetime first!(fortunately, they all were also good photographers so our photos were fantastic!)

  

i experienced boracay for the first time with some of the most awesome people. (it surely won't be the last.) wouldn't have had it any other way:)

 

i was exposed to cinemalaya. and fell in love with it. it's a parallel universe, totally.

i gained a new sister :)

 

i trotted to europe with friends (aka bagneux brigade) to attend one of my best buddies' wedding. it was a grand excuse to escape and be an excited vagabond once again!

 

 

i flew to cebu and sailed with some of my oldest and newest friends and their little families

i reconnected and renewed bonds with friends of old (and new!)

i became instrumental in making history and singing with a thousand voices in THE araneta colloseum for THE ryan cayabyab

 

i became part of some stage productions that required other things apart from singing sacred music

 

i had a most intimate christmas with the people who most mattered

 

... aaaand i could go on and on.

all in all, 2011 was pretty gorgeous. i'm grateful especially for the chance to travel, which affirms that indeed, i am not limited to just one place/culture/group, etc. i like that feeling of being a person of the world.

ages ago, i stuck a note on my cubby door, which is the first thing i see when i wake up, to remind me to look back on the day that passed and just be grateful for at least 3 things.

and everyday, i'd never stop at 3.

here's to hoping your year was as blessed as mine! i'm ready and excited for the next one!

cheers!

my great morning

today started good. it's barely lunch time yet and ive gotten lots of good vibes already.

my whole team was on-time for our scheduled activity. even the hard-headed ones. great!

so i skip breakfast to make it to work on time. then at work, one of my agents gives me one of her 2-piece chickens because she ordered too much. nice:)

yes, we will be having an outing. next week!! wow, i haven't been to the beach in more than a year! this would be a grrreat way to start the 2nd quarter of the year! aaand, im prepared! my boardshorts are waiting to be taken out for a spin! up, up, here we go!

consulted my director for something when the VP butts in and asks when my US visa will expire. he just gave me a heads-up that there might be a roadshow happening last week of july till august. my director just smiles at me and tells him that i'll be in europe about that time. i just said that i wouldn't have a problem flying into the US from europe if need be. haha, i miss being a jetsetter!:) anyway, details are still vague so there isn't anything solid yet as far as that's concerned. i'll deal with it when it's there :)

im excited to attend the spinning class today, at lunch time! had an awful experience yesterday. i ate so much and was scheduled to attend the 845pm class of bodycombat. i had special blessings from my boss because we had to work late. she WANTED me to go because she's seen a great improvement in my mood since i started gymming. so okay, i went. and what do i find: FREE FOOD and CANCELLED CLASSES. apparently, it was fitness first's anniversary. ugh! i ended up running on the treadmill, which i hate doing. 10 minutes on it and i was tired as hell! i opted to sweat it out at the sauna before washing up and going home. but TODAY, i get to attend spinning classes. so yay!:)

okay, im late. better split!

life's little details

i've been busy the past days and i wouldn't exactly say that they've been pleasant because they weren't (hello, im in sales, and it's the end of the month. these are the times when the words 'targets' and 'quota' are thrown around like they were the only important words there are). but despite everything that had been transpiring, there've been fits of blessings here and there and it's surprising when you start counting. it really makes a whole lot of difference.

anyway, some random stuff i wanna remember from a couple of days ago until this afternoon. just wanna post because i don't wanna forget:

- been finding time to go to the gym regularly. im obsessed with BodyCombat! makes me sweat profusely! as in i go cranky when i don't get to workout!

- people at the office have been noticing and insisting that i lost weight, even if i've been disagreeing. today especially. i've been stressing that i have been eating so much especially since i started working out. and they still insist. well, okay okay. i guess that's better than everyone telling you how much you've gained:)

- my boss told me to have my car washed cos it's been so dirty since yesterday. fine. while waiting for the wash to finish, i waited at Kuya's, one of our most favorite restaurants ever (first time i tried it was in San Bruno just out of San Francisco when i was still working in the US. Was pleasantly surprised that they have it here!). their twice cooked adobo was divine, as always. but we tried something new: crispy binagoongan as recommended by twinkle. oh my, sarap! good thing ezah had her camera with her. the moment was captured:

 - then i randomly get this box from manila pen and inside was this small notebook with kids in peninsula hats. haha, so cool! i bet it's one of 'em notebooks that i won't be touching again. i just like that it's there, ya know?:)

cant wait to fix my room to get organized again. i wanna group my little notebooks together so i always know where to find them. i have a big bayong (literally a bayong-- i got it in salcedo market!) of trinkets and whatnots that i've been dying to segregate. one day soon (hopefully).

-  finally found the time to pick up these special business cards i had made. so happy to finally have them!

- saw this watch i was fascinated with. it's a watch AND a camera! so inspector gadget/sherlock holmes! im gonna go back to take a look at it again one of these days. these things excite me. i really feel like im gonna be able to use it one way or another. i always wanted to be a spy, i dont exactly know why:)

- i get this random call from onyl for this favor that he's asking from me. small chitchats, etc, and eventually i get an invitation to watch KAOS! so excited! been wanting to talk to gary about this but i've been procrastinating. well, well, well..look do we have here!

- yesterday, i bought a pair of board shorts because i think we're having an outing by next week. better prepared than sorry:) i have so many planned trips this year and it's just march! and i mean small trips, the ones i never got to do before! and some of them are trips to parts of the PHILIPPINES! omg, so excited!!

anyhoo, cas is waiting in SnR, im gonna go see him there and get a cup of blue bunny, which i haven't done in a while :) easy day for such a stressful period in my professional life. i miss singing and just hanging out with ateneo peeps.

photo: rwmanila.com

social life

Im surprised i have so many upcoming trips plotted out already for the year. And i have a lot more invitations i haven't said yes to/plotted.

Wow, is this what one calls 'social life'?:)

baguio (part 2)

 my 'alibi' for going, even if it was originally a day trip, was neil and trineth's wedding, my friend tria's baby sister. it was an intimate celebration. and because it was a villasis event, it was beautiful. i dont think pretty will make the cut cut in tria's books. it had to be gorgeous. and gorgeous it was!

after mine and onyl's brief stint as tourists, we freshened up and walked to the villasis's 'secret garden' in green valley (south china sea). our place was right across so it was easy for us to hop from our house to theirs. since there was kind of a wardrobe malfunction on onyl's end (read: everything he packed was bitin), we took so long and tria had to pick us up! talk about VIP treatment:) haha!

so here they were walking to the enchanted garden.
candles in brown paperbags lit our path. this reminds me so much of ferngully, i dont know why.

won't be posting a lot of food photos anymore because i noticed that almost all of my posts have a food element in them. okay maybe one. here's the dessert spread. note: NO chocolate! just healthy fruits;)

there was so much food but not everyone was up at baguio yet that time so we ended up (trying to) finish it all!

these folks uninstructedly gravitated towards this position, i just had to take a photo. so funny. when i asked for a photo, all they had to do was look! haha! 

de buena familia photo.

if you know me well enough, you'd know im not big on using the flash unless 

1) it's necessary (really dark/in a hurry) or 

2) im too lazy to keep a steady stance for a shot or 

3) i have some form of diffuser attached to my flash.

this particular shot, i had to really keep still because i wanted to preserve how magical the place looked that night.

i think i got it. this is exactly how i remember it.

with the designer/manang/wedding coordinator tria.

this scarf is an institution in acs already! for a wedding harang before, tria used it as a dress!

bride photoshoot effect:

the rest of the kids arrived at 3am. goodness, i really felt like i was on tour! brea kids, connect! mags is soundtripping and pia's rolling around in bed. heehee.

i was so kilig to wake up to this!

and this!!

preparing for the wedding. thank goodness for friends with extra scarves, pins, and talent to style!

pia's 'rosette'

st. ignatius chapel in PMA.

the entourage getting ready for the entrance. everyone looked gorgeous! and the designer, Tria Villasis-Ramolete did a grrreat job putting all these together in record time! the theme was origami, so yes, those are fabric cranes on the little girls' dresses. so tedious to make, but hey they made it on schedule!

Tria, i will shamelessly plug you here in case anyone googles. Her number is 0917-5242369. :)

wacky shot with tita ming and the kids. i'm in love with this photo. and yes, gids WAS on wacky mode.

little camp john hay at the manor.

it seriously looked like japan on cherry blossom festival. the caterer saw the decors and thought the cherry blossom 'trees' that they used during easter would go so well with it. and boy did it make a difference! talk about going the extra mile for service!

There were paper lanterns and 1000 folded paper cranes hanging from the branches! everytime the wind blew, you'd think they were birds in flight. so wonderful.

and these hanging namecards were a fun way to let guests know where they were to be seated. it had kanji characters that spelled out your name and had a translation below it. mine was 'daughter sound flow'. how very loloi:)

we tried EVERTHING that they offered us for cocktails. had a glass too many of that punch, i was so thirsty!

the newlyweds h.h.w.w. in the manor gardens.

as i was getting my business card in gids' car, boy abunda asked me about the cherry blossoms and if i was the one getting married. i just KNEW i had to tell maggie, who was the only one who'd relate to me. apparently she did! and she looked for him to have a photo with him. 

the cherry on top:mags teaching tito boy how to do the heart sign with his hands. :)

i left for manila right after the reception. it was nice of tria to arrange a bus ride for me. victory liner deluxe. didn't know they had that. airplane style, with a pack of cookies and a bottle of water. it was nice and comfortable. before i knew it, i was back in manila ready to go to work again.