Tuesday, August 31, 2004

my new disguise

just got home. . . kailangang talagang maka-experience ako ng masamang traffic bago ako makaalis ano?. . . at least it wasn't as bad as the epic traffic jam before shiela left. . . pero 1 1/2 hours from katipunan to antipolo is no joke. . .

about my day. . . i now have a new disguise. firstly, i got my glasses. . .50/50 pala grado ng matako. . . mej mukha akong teacher. . . then nagpa-hot oil ako sa profiles. . . tapos yung nag-treat ng hair ko sobrang na-obssess sa pag-uunat ng buhok ko. as in magsasara na yung salon at paalis na yung mga kasama niya ay bino-blowdry pa niya hair. apparently, hindi pa enough yun kaya plinantsa pa niya. kaya sobrang straight ng hair ko ngayon. nagmakaawa siyang wag kong basain para tumagal hanggang umalis ako. . . we'll see. . . worried lang ako baka di ako makilala nina justine and george. hehe.

i'll try to blog tomorrow. hopefully nagme-make sense pa rin ako by then. . .


Monday, August 30, 2004

i should be packing. . .

aaaaaarrrrrgggghhhhh! panic mode is on. . . why did i delay a lot of things until the last minute?. . . now, i can't get my gall bladder checked because my doctor is out of the country. . . and i'm still not packed!. . .

went to the dentist this morning. i remembered why i haven't been to the dentist in two years. . . as if the torture of tooth-drilling, polishing, cleaning and filling wasn't enough, side a/south border/ freestyle was playing in the background for the whole one hour and a half procedure. . . i must have been atoning for a sin or something. . .

i also bought toiletries. . . didn't expect shampoo, conditioner, facial wash, etc., costs could run that high. . .

had another 'surprise' despidida from church folks c/o my church kids. . . siyempre tears na naman. . . wala ng katapusan. . . pero in fairness, di na ako umiyak nung kumanta kami ng 'leaving on a jetplane'. . . hehe.

better start moving my things around the luggage again. . . might accidentally end up getting packed up that way. . .

Sunday, August 29, 2004

last chance. . .

as my last week here in the philippines winds down, i'm finding myself thinking of everything i'm doing as my last chance to, for instance, go to makati, eat bulalo, go to church, videoke at red box, go to tagaytay. . . no wonder i'm so tired. . . it's fun but very emotionally draining. . . and to add to this, i'm getting very little sleep at night. . . i'll probably look like a zombie when i get to ohio. . .

anyway, i had dinner with my college friends last friday night at greenbelt. and we established once and for all that however much we look the part, we will never be anything approximating your typical yuppie. we're too. . . something. . . i don't know. . . rough?. . . and we get sleepy very easily so late nights are not for us. hehe. and according to lei, she has never had geekier friends than us, even at med school! and here i thought i was pretty normal. . .

yesterday, i found myself back at greenbelt again (sosyal) for my last red box session with my best videoke buddies: my sister, mel, bea, patrick and grace. no disrespect to my other videoke-ing friends, but when i sing with people as good as they are, i feel like a superstar myself. probably had my most admirable videoke feat when i sang 'muli' with patrick (nask, regine). and singing avril and alanis is super fun. i'll soooo miss red box. going back there will probably be the first thing i'll do when i get back in december. . . iba pa rin siya sa magic mic e. . .

this morning, i went to church for the last time before i leave. siyempre pa, i bawled my eyes out in front of everyone, pero sanay na na naman sila doon. . . and i got all of them to promise to pray for me. yey!

after church, i went to tagaytay with my family. the trip was not so much for me as it is for leeron and zeth. they've wanted to ride horses since they saw the movie "spirit". anyway, they got to do that, along with my dad, who has never ridden a horse in his entire life! we also ate at rose and grace (my last bulalo) and window-shopped at the outlet store near there (nothing much there, mamplasan outlet store is better). we also had dinner at one of those garden restaurants. the place was called jardineros and you have dine there when you go to tagaytay. the food is superb, really. and they also sell fresh veggies and herbs you can pick yourself.

so that's how my weekend went. i expect this next week to be insanely emotional. bring out the tissues. . .

Friday, August 27, 2004

thanks superfriends!

had dinner last night with my superfriends. . . well, dinner might be too mild a word. . .hehe. ultimate buffet to be exact. in celebration of joan becoming an oblation scholar. . . 6 years ago. . . hanep.

anyway, they presented me with their present, which regrettably wasn't cash (hehe kidding!). it was actually so much better. they made me a scrapbook with stuff that go way back junior year in high school. my friend sarah keeps everything. . . as in everything. she's not a good friend to have if your want your past erased because i assure you sooner or later your past is going to come back to hunt you as long as she's still around. pictures, letters, class projects, doodles, receipts, tickets, gate passes, everything (some they actually "borrowed" from my own box-o'-memories)! some things i don't remember at all, some triggered entire memories of people, places and events , and other things i would rather forget. hehe. it's actually kinda bulky but they said our friendship's through if i dare leave it. . . there goes my house clothes. . . hehe. but i am so thankful to them for that. . . i now have something to sift through when i'm cold and lonely in ohio. i could say "i did have friends, good ones in fact, once in my life..." hehe. nag-drama ba. but really, i was so touched. . . thanks friends!

Wednesday, August 25, 2004

certified geek

punta akong greenhills today to get my glasses! garsh! after bragging to everyone that i always read in semi-darkness and in moving vehicles and still manage to have a 20/20 vision. . . joan told me to get contacts pero masyado pa ata mababa grado. concerned siya na ma-lessen ang ability kong mang-boys. . . i told her, i won't be able to see faraway boys clearly if i didn't have glasses. . .and since malayo pa sila, may time pa naman akong alisin glasses. . . hehe.

one week to go. . .


isa pa. . . Posted by Hello

ang po-pogi 'no? Posted by Hello

Tuesday, August 24, 2004


photon phorevah! Posted by Hello

supahstahs Posted by Hello

Monday, August 23, 2004

post-despidida musings

i've been too wiped out to post the past two days. i feel like i have to cram a lot of things into these last few days and i'm sooo tired. . . and anxious. . . and nervous. . . and excited. . . and obviously confused. . . hehe.

for those who weren't there ( shie, arlene and jenb. . . miss ko na kayo!) my despidida went pretty well. i didn't bawl my eyes out! what a feat! i'm so proud of me. . . i learned that the technique to not crying is to start fake crying when you feel the urge to cry. . . it worked all the time. . .

there was a lot of food. pero di ako masyado nakakain. . . everytime sasarap na kain ko either may dadating na tao or may aalis. . . but i'm making up for it by eating leftover party food for breakfast, lunch and dinner for three days now. . .

these days, i'm starting to equate food with videoke. . . singing probably helps people's digestion or something. . . pero ang saya. . .siyempre star sina mel and patrick. . . and the surprise star of the night was eloise with her rendition of estudyante blues (mabuhay ang mga RAs)! and i'm so proud of the church kids kasi almost all of them sang. i just wasn't there for all the "performances" because i was running around the place all the time. . . siyempre di rin patatalo photon friends although medyo wala ng tao when they started singing. di pa nga enough sa kanila ang magic mic, buti na lang nandon si oliver. . . they stayed until 2:30 am. pinaalis ko na sila kasi di na ako makamulat :) we talked about our lovelives. . . correction: their lovelives pala. . . ahhhh, to see the day when i could talk about my lovelife until 2 in the morning. . . maybe in 5 yrs or so. . . i'm hoping this blog will read more like the other blog jae and jem are religiously following by then (wink wink). hehe. . . o baka lab life na lang talaga by then. . . like how i've knocked out a useless gene and ended up with healthy and thriving mice/worms/arabidopsis. . . well, it's anybody's guess . . . basta i'll take the next few days one day at a time. . . or by the hour na siguro para sulit. . .

postscript: did i not say the US vs lithuania game was something to look forward to or what?!? galing talaga nung guy with frosted tips na naka 3 3-pointers in a minute or so. . . have you guys heard of micropets? bumili kami kahapon sa glorietta. dati siyang P500 ngayon P99 na lang. para silang tiny robots na cats, dogs, bears, etc na sumusunod sa voice commands. they're sooooo cute. then if you have more than one, they interact with each other. nakakaaliw. magdadala nga ako sa states para may makausap naman ako. kaso nga lang conversation namin limited to "Snow, let'walk/run/turn/bye-bye". . . well, that's better than nothing. hehe.

Saturday, August 21, 2004

it's my party (and i'll cry if i want to. . .)

it's exactly one hour and a half to go before my party. i should be doing something like peeling a potato or taking a bath but, well, i'm here. i'm feeling rather melancholic, which is probably not the best state to be before a party being held in your honor. . . it's not helping that i've put "all i want is you" (u2) on repeat while i'm typing this. . . no special meaning really. . .it's just that the song is so intense. . . remember the video? with the midget (or is little person more apt?) in the circus who's in love with the beautiful trapeze artist who's with the ringmaster? the song is quite long and it ends with the midget trying out the trapeze and falling to his death because there was no net (silly midget!). . . what the heck am i talking about?

anyway, i so hope that there'll be no crying in this party. . . ayaw ko pumangit. . . but i make no promises (about crying, not pagpangit. . .ang labo)

Friday, August 20, 2004

what to do with leftover eggwhites?

pavlova!

no, this is not the name of another russian olympian (although i do remember a rather cute hockey player named pavlov)i am obssessing over. this is actually my new dessert opus in the kitchen. . . new zealand pavlova.

"jona is baking?" you might ask in disbelief. "surely that would be a disaster!". . . i thought so too myself. . . but thankfully this is probably one of the easiest cakes to make, that's if somebody has already separated the eggyolks from the whites for you. . . which somebody actually did for me since they were making leche flan which only requires egg yolks. . . anyway, as long as you have one of those electric mixers, you're set to go. . . the recipe calls for:

3 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 tsp vinegar (white cane preferably but whatever's available is ok)
1 tbsp boiling water
as much whipped cream as you want
whatever fruit is in season (or fruit cocktail if you want to make your life easier)

1. preheat oven to around 475 deg. fahrenheit (i didn't really follow this since our oven doesn't indicate temperature , it just says 1, 2, 3 ,4... til 10... i just use 4...really nothing to it, just an arbitrary number...). grease baking pan
2. beat egg whites until stiff, add sugar and vanilla gradually while continuously beating.
3. add vinegar and water once the batter(?) is glossy, continue beating until glossiness(?) is gone and batter is very stiff
4. pour batter into pan. make slight "indentation" in the center so that sides are slightly higher.
5. place in oven and turn off heat. leave inside oven for about an hour
6. when knife comes out clean when you stick it into the center, the cake is done. let it cool and then add as much whipped cream and fruit as you want.

o diba, akala mo kung sinong expert. gahleng.

for those who are going to my party tomorrow, you might be able to sample my baking, that's if di pa siya nagshi-shrink. . . mukhang lumiliit siya e. . .


Thursday, August 19, 2004

cold feet, big feet

woke up this morning panicking again. had thoughts of calling the whole thing off, silly me. haven't paid for tickets yet anyway. hehe. must be cold feet, whatever that is. the excitement wore off once i finished shopping for stuff. . . could it be that i was excited about leaving BECAUSE i knew there was a lot of shopping to be done?. . . hehehehe. . . i think this is because arlene's leaving on friday. i also panicked a lot around the time of shiela's departure. . .

speaking of arlene, she had her 2nd despidida yesterday. siyempre ang daming food. tapos nag-videoke kami. eloise got a score of 100 for her rendition of freddie aguilar's "estudyante blues". woohooo! sobrang with feelings kasi pagkanta niya e. . . "ako ang nakikita, ako ang nasisisi, ako ang laging may kasalanan..." hehe. na-shock ata si ma'am saloma lalo na nung pinakanta namin si ate maan ng like a virgin. buti na lang she didn't ask us to stop for the sake of her child. hehe. pero ang saya nga.

it's a good thing there's the olympics to keep me distracted these days. nakakabano lang talaga coverage ng nbn. there's no rhyme and reason to it! they show the 200m individual medley finals and then show the heats for that event after. whaaat? so you never have any idea what the next event would be. such as an annoyance for people like me who have nothing better to do. . . too bad ian thorpe (the love of my life who i hope is not gay) lost in the 100m freestyle. . . oh and puerto rico lost to lithuania in basketball. . . usa vs. lithuania would be something to look forward to though . . .

just remembered, i could go shopping again with justine once i get to the states. . . hmmmmmm. . . am excited again. . .

Tuesday, August 17, 2004

uh-oh

my blog went awry for a while there. stupid me for messing up with the template code. . . that's why i have a new template. . . a very subtle change since its still unbelievably pink. . .

i didn't really do much today. just watched the olympics. . . rather, ogled at olympians. . .hehe. i'm so in love with that little guy from puerto rico who single-handedly humiliated the so-called dream team. . . oh and of course ian thorpe. . . although my sister thinks he might be gay. . .gosh i hope not. . .







jetskiing Posted by Hello

Monday, August 16, 2004

life's a beach (you wish)

i've been staring blankly at this page for a few minutes now coz i just don't feel like writing. . . i'm still pining for the beach!

ohmygosh! i had such a great weekend thanks to cathy, mel, arlene and of course, ate jackie. God was so good to us, He granted us two days of sun. . . now i'm lightly-tanned! yey! at least i won't be pale when i go. . .

di naman sa nang-iinggit ako pero let me regale you with the details of my wonderful weekend. . .

we arrived at ate jackie's house in anilao at around 12 nn saturday. we spent the entire afternoon chair-surfing. . . meaning we just floated around the water in our lifevests. . . while other people were either jet-skiing or windsurfing. . . unfortunately there were no beach dudes worth ogling at. . . but we had fun nonetheless. . . most of the evening was spent hooking up the dvd player to the amplifier and lcd projector. . . apparently, we had the wrong lim with us (hehe, peace arlene!). . . then we had a west wing marathon. . . and right before the bed, we reminisced about our pisay days. . . which convinced ate jackie that it's a good thing that therese did not get in pisay. . . we also competed for the worst prom experience award. . . but i won't tell you who the winner is. . . hehe.

we were supposed to go to dive and trek on sunday morning but the bangkeros said the waves were too big. . . so we settled for a morning of jetskiing and windsurfing. . . the entire balayan bay echoed with our squeals of terror. . . hehe. . . but it was really fun. . . i was a bit disappointed in myself for giving up so easily on windsurfing (the farthest i "surfed" was 2 meters at most). i really don't like the sensation of falling. . . jetskiing was more amenable to me. . . although other windsurfers were going faster than me in my jetski, which was kinda pathetic. . . but i screamed louder than they did (because they weren't screaming at all, silly)

i'll post pictures once i get them. . . that's when i figure out how to do that. . .


Friday, August 13, 2004

malling, cruising, panicking, etc

blogging is very addictive. when i wake up in the morning i think "hmmmm. . .what do i write about in my blog today?". bad sign. . . first thought in the morning is "hmmmm. . ." must get a life. . .

why are my thoughts so disjointed?

anyway, went to sidewalk sale at metroeast today. if you know me well enough, dapat alam mo na wala akong sale na pinapatawad. so it is a wonder of wonders that i went home empty-handed. wow! jona? ikaw ba yan? could this be a sign of maturity? . . is my EQ increasing? . . . am i on my way to becoming a responsible adult? . . . let's hope not. . .

oh, i was also at metroeast last night (mallrat!). i went with my sister to her "orientation" at fitness first ( a new gym). obviously i was not planning on signing up but the invite did say free cocktails. and since it's a gym, what other thing would be present that would make the visit worthwhile? yes, lots and lots of. . . physical trainers. hehe. we were late so free merienda and cocktails have run out by then pero at least busog mata ko. . .

am currently listening to polyphonic spree's album. the only word that comes to mind is. . . trippy. . .tipong "lucy in the sky with diamonds". . . parang sinulat ng taong high. . . but it's very pleasant. . . like the voices you hear in your head but with grandiose orchestra music in the background. . . cool. . . pwede siyang maging soundtrack ng emotional breakdown ko. . .





Wednesday, August 11, 2004

Panic attack!

Just received orientation information over the email. waaaah! it's just sinking in that i would have to do all these things alone. . . get ssn. . .open bank account. . . pay bills. . . live. . .

they're making me take english exams. . . as if my english isn't good enough for them. . . isn't it?. . . isn't it!?!

and there's a list of classes i have to take. . . Mol Gen 701 DNA transactions . . . what the heck? and i even have to take a radiation safety short course. . . that'd be cool though. . . hehe.

and i don't get paid until october 29?!?!?

waaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh! again.

thanks. i feel much better.

will vent again soon. . .

btw, saw the village last night. . . just go see it for yourself because any reaction i may have may give something away. . . if anyone of you, after seeing the movie, would want to join in a class suit i wish to file against m.night shyamalan, just tell me ok?

hehe.

Tuesday, August 10, 2004

Eternal sunshine

new day. new post.

saw "eternal sunshine of a spotless mind" last night. brilliant movie. totally unlike any i've seen for a long time. . .definitely not catwoman (the horror!). it's soooo good. if you've never heard of it, it stars jim carrey and kate winslet. they play lovers who have split up and who decide to erase their memories of each other. this erasure is made possible by a procedure that the character played by tom wilkinson has developed. this movie would be really interesting for you neuroscientists out there. i was literally at the edge of my seat for much of the movie, which is a strange way to be considering that the movie is a romantic drama. the movie was that captivating for me. the way the film visualized the process of erasing the memory is totally brilliant. and i've never seen jim carrey in this light before (well, i didn't see that other amnesia movie of his. . .) and it was quite disconcerting at first. he was so. . . controlled, he hardly spoke above a whisper in the first scenes of the movie. you keep expecting him to explode any minute. kate winslet on the other hand played the exact opposite of jim carrey's character and she was at turns charming and somewhat annoying but you can clearly see how these two people could be drawn to each other. no one would ever think a jim carrey and kate winslet pairing would work, but it did and very well too.

what i really loved about the movie is that it made me think, which not very many movies do. like, what is memory? is it really just synapses in our brains which connect one neuron to another? and if i do get the option of erasing a memory or an event or a person, would i do it? and what would i erase? . . . hmmm. . . heavy stuff. . .

speaking of memory erasing. . . turns out i've been driving all over the place for who knows how long now without a license. . . really, i seem to have lost my license. i have no recollection of ever taking the darn thing out of my wallet and therefore have no idea where to start looking. let's just hope that lto doesn't throw away unclaimed one-year old license duplicates. . .

more soon. . .



Monday, August 09, 2004

welcome!

aha! I finally mustered up enough self-esteem to start my own blog. Yey for me! Here's hoping this blog lasts longer than any of my ill-fated journals. . .

why did i have to start this on such an uneventful day?. . . even the weather's totally dull. . . so i can't start talking about that. . . i guess i'll just write down the things you can expect from this blog. . .

for starters, i decided on doing this to save on the amount and length of e-mails i need to send out once i go to the US. most of my e-mails from now on would be along the lines of " just go check my blog". . .nask. . . that's if this goes well. . . but i'm feeling pretty positive and upbeat today so i'm saying that this WILL go well.

the past sentence demonstrates my tendency to digress and contradict myself and you can expect to see a lot of that. . .

i also plan to post some pics once i get a digicam which will be . . . oh sorry, i'm still dreaming of that day so you'll have to settle for old pictures that i've gotten around to scanning. . .which i very rarely do since scanning is such a tedious task. . .

bakit ba ako nag-e-english? yan din, magbo-blog ako ng tagalog pag gusto ko. . . marami kasing emotions na walang translation sa english. . . parang. . . kebs. . . o. . . chuva. . . o . . . grabeh. . . pero kung iisipin mo hindi nga pala tagalog yan. . . o well

how long should blogs go?. . . basta, i'll end this here and post another one tomorrow. yihee!