my big eyes

ronald, my childhood mortal enemy / neighbor / guitar instructor, used to call me "bukaw" (owl) when we were in grade school. he would sneak behind my desk and tease me non-stop. our other classmates joined him, too. that used to make me so mad. i eventually got used to being called "bukaw" until i was in grade six. after grade school, the teasing completely ceased and i totally forgot about it.

until berlin reminded me of the memories that are deeply buried in my kokote. we were talking at the teacher's lounge after work, when she looked at me closely and blurted out, "your eyes are extraordinarily big tonight...like a "bukaw"." before i could say anything, andy also said something about how big my eyes are. ugh! 

we all went to the restroom and faced the mirror in a firing squad. me, andy, berlin, donna and rhea. "mirror, mirror on the wall, who has the biggest eyes of them all?" the answer was obviously "joanna marie"! how can i have the biggest eyes when back in Scandinavia, people usually greeted me with a "ni hao"?!

hmp! the next time someone will say "goodness! what big eyes you have!" to me...i'll borrow the wolf's line..." the better to see you with, dear!"

going back to storybrook

getting even

i may be the worst nightmare of cab drivers in the city. i cried and cursed out of frustration of being late for work and i unreasonably demanded some taxi drivers to get me to the office in an impossible 5-minute time. i know, it's a crappy attitude and i try to be nice and charming in my rush hours...or minutes.

and this is one proof that i've actually learned to tame my temper...just a teenee weenee bit...

i got off the jeepney at the corner of UP because, as usual, it would be impossible to get to the office on time in a jeepney. so i hailed a cab and asked manong driver, in a very cool and almost charming tone of my voice, to hurry because i'm late for work. i might have been too nice because he took the road frequently traveled by. in short, we were stuck in the traffic! manong driver successfully raised my blood pressure to 200 over 160 as the meter hiked up. i promised to keep my cool. so instead of asking him, in a, maybe sarcastic tone, why he took that road when he obviously knows that the  traffic is terrible on that area at that time, i just recited the prologue of "the beauty and the beast"...out loud!

                                                   Once upon a time, in a faraway land,

A young Prince lived in a shining castle.

Although he had everything his heart desired,

The Prince was spoiled, selfish, and unkind.

But then, one winter's night,

An old beggar woman came to the castle

And offered him a single Rose

In return for shelter from the bitter cold.

Repulsed by her haggard appearance,

The Prince sneered at the gift,

And turned the old woman away.

But she warned him not to be deceived by appearances, 

For Beauty is found within.

And when he dismissed her again,

The old woman's ugliness melted away

To reveal a beautiful Enchantress.

The Prince tried to apologize, but it was too late, 

For she had seen that there was no love in his heart. 

And as punishment,

She transformed him into a hideous beast,

And placed a powerful spell on the castle,

And all who lived there.

Ashamed of his monstrous form,

The beast concealed himself inside his castle,

With a magic mirror as his only window to the outside world.

The Rose she had offered,

Was truly an enchanted rose,

Which would bloom for many years.

If he could learn to love another,

And earn her love in return

By the time the last petal fell,

Then the spell would be broken.

If not, he would be doomed to remain a beast

For all time.

As the years passed,

He fell into despair, and lost all hope,

For who could ever learn to love...a Beast?

reciting that, made me feel relaxed a little bit. and i stopped myself from laughing when i saw the shocked reaction of the driver. hahaha! good thing, i had my sunglasses on. i enjoyed every minute of the confused-to-scared face of manong driver. and as if, the prologue wasn't enough, i sang " a whole new world " at the top of my lungs. that made him even more mentally disoriented. his eyes showed it all! if the driver wasn't brave enough, he could have stopped the cab and left a lunatic like me there. but he was courageous enough to drive me to the office. i'm thankful. i got even!

a date with the giants

i called my sister late in the afternoon to ask if she and the kids are free for dinner. i came over to their place and we went together to sm city. we checked the movies at the cinema and half-decided to see "Jack, the giant slayer". 

we had a hearty dinner and halo-halo for dessert at the food court. out of a sudden, kikay asked about the time. it was a quarter to 8 and without any second thoughts we left the food court and headed back to the cinema.

honestly, i was a little skeptic about the movie adaptation of the fairytale. plus, i was afraid that it wouldn't be suitable for the kids. the scenes might cause them nightmares. i actually asked them several times if they seriously want to see the movie.  after several times that i got yes-es from them, i finally bought our tickets.

once we were settled on our seats, we were carried away to the far-away place where a farm boy named jack, accidentally opened a gateway to the land of the giants and fought them to save princess isabelle and the kingdom.

i'm happy that my niece and nephew enjoyed the movie even though they screamed and squirmed at scenes that caught them by surprise. they were still talking about it while we were waiting for the jeepney. they kept on recalling their favorite scenes and characters.

as for me, my favorite character is elmont, the leader of the kingdom's guards.

elmont

one of my movie dates...

thAnk you, mAn on the moon

mArAming sAlAmAt sA mgA ito...

nAkAkAtAbA ng puso 

sAnA, nAkAkArAting sA'yo Ang mgA stories ko sA moon

mAg-ingAt kA pAlAgi, hA...

yuhum

after 17 classes, not to mention the 9 consecutive classes (oh, i still mentioned it), i felt exhausted. i was thinking of rewarding myself with a pack of dingdong after the shift, just to feel happy. but as i was turning off my pc, sonny, a great fan of bruno mars, passed by my cub and she was playing this song: 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k0DbpCbGrsQ 


what a big coincidence coz the song reminded me of somebody. a person whom i talk to, when i look at the moon.

anyways, i hurried to catch a jeepney since andy and berl had to meet their friends too. manong driver's radio was in full blast and this song was playing:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ffej15-Dgl0

hahaha! it's like someone's playing a trick on me. but i'm glad with whatever coincidences that i encountered late this evening, because they made me smile. a big big smile :)

let it rain

good morning, rainy wednesday! i am up and awake at 8am because i'd like to have a moment when i can have my morning cup of coffee while listening to the raindrops on our tin roof, accompanied by the swishing and swashing of the wind. what a wonderful musical! 

i love rainy days and wednesdays!


---------------------------------------------------------------


#i'm hoping that typhoon "crising" won't be too harsh to my kababayans in the southern part of the country...#

weekend sa bongol

namian gd ako kang orchids ni wenna ah...

ja pa gd ay...

amo ja ang gin agyan namon tanan para makakaon kang kombo nga niyog. kapoy kag lawig pero sadya sadya gd!

salamat gd sa amon hosts, wenna and borj!

happy birthday, pink roommate!

 my roommate, edel, may remember the boy, but she can't remember the feelings anymore...(i've been waiting to use that line from Joey Albert's song in one of my write-ups! i finally had the chance now. haha!)

but one thing's for sure, she will always remember to hug her pink teddy as she goes to sleep or bring it to mr. labada for dry cleaning.

the idea came up when i got back to the city last tuesday evening after a long weekend by the beach in miagao. i just blurted out the thought of celebrating her teddy's first year. i might have regretted it if not for her bright-faced response to it, as she hugged her beaming-in-pink-fresh-from-dry-cleaning bear. 

i excused myself from the usual after-work walk with the ggg last Feb. 13th. i got home just in time for 12 midnight. edel and i cheered for our pink roommate, ate the cake and talked and giggled until 3 am.

the birthday celebrant

edel and teddy em

devil's fantasy by coffee break

roommates

more years to come, teddy em :)

kilig mode

the night we had dinner at "Lumpiga", the songs of Boyce Avenue made us all stay there until the witching hour. now, i am staying up late again listening to their acoustic covers. ah! i love these men. 

thank you for the music, boyce avenue...

rechannelling

i never learn. i still leave the house a little too late for work. today was no different. i held on to my babbles as manong driver swept the city of all the passengers that he saw along  the street. i got off somewhere the supermarket and hailed a cab. to my great luck, all the cabs were occupied. i cursed while i walked to the next block. i waved to every taxi that i saw. of all days! why were all the cabs full of people who don't even seem to be in a hurry?! i walked for another 300 meters to the mall where the taxis were waiting. when i got in the cab, i was so overwhelmed with frustration that i cried. i must have scared manong driver for he pushed too hard on the gas and sped off to mapa st. 

i still came in late for work. the chagrin that i felt engulfed me that i felt restless in my cube. after my class, i took an hour break and walked to the city hall. i walked straight up to where the elevator is. there was a sign on the wall which says, "take the stairs. walking is good for your health." i didn't have any second thoughts. i walked straight up to the 7th floor and was led into the rooftop by an accommodating manong. 

i was short of breath when i reached the rooftop that i forgot all about my let down.  the view was breathtaking as well. i had  a close encounter with the "lin-ay of iloilo" that i only see from afar. the wind blew all the bad feelings away. i closed my eyes and welcomed the burning 3pm heat of the sun. i ran from one corner to another, my eyes feasted on the view of the city and the nearby guimaras island. 

i felt so much better. i stayed there for another 15 minutes and got intoxicated with all the wonderful feeling that came through me. happinness to the nth level.

now i know what to do and where to go when i'm fidgety.

from paranormal to the grudge

i'm suffering from a self-inflicted paranoia. i don't know how it started but rhea and i talked about the paranormal movie on the way home. somewhere along calle real, we turned around to find that berlin and andy were missing. we stopped by the parked cab along the street and waited for the sisters. then the radio in the cab made some scary sounds like the actual sound that one can hear in a horror movie. i jumped out of my skin! gosh! it was so scary! i told rhea that we should think of happy thoughts and we managed to do that until she got into her ride home.

andy, berl and i dropped by the statue of hon. jalandoni as we usually do every night before riding the jeepney. then the horror stories started again, with berlin as our manang basyang. she told folklore stories about witches, cults and aswang. when she started her story about the enchanted ficus tree close to their house, i felt like peeing already and i asked her to stop. but she insisted that it's just a short story. it was a short long story. i had goosebumps. i had that creepy feeling within me. when a man passed by my side, i shrieked and held tight to berlin. aaarrgghh!!! i decided to end the night. but before we parted ways, berl reminded me of that bathroom scene in the movie "the grudge". dear god! i was so freaky already and i just wanted to be home. 

i usually stay for a long time in the bathroom to freshen up. tonight was exceptional. if my housemates would have been awake, they would have applauded me for my time-record in the bathroom. i get jumpy even with the sound of the water.

ugh! no more horror stories, please...

#think of happy thoughts#

little things like this

i got this message from our customer service. 

i have been quite busy going to festivals around our island 

for the past weekends that i closed my weekend schedule

for classes. it's good to know that one of my

students, appreciate our lessons and have been 

looking for me. 

ms. tomo, my schedule will be open again in 

a couple of weekends from now. i'll talk to you soon.