happy! happy! joy! joy!

• got a PERFECT (23/23 baby!) score in my MG 715 Drosophila midterm!!!!!!
• boss was in california so no lab!!!!
• went to the zoo for the OSU late night at the zoo thing for free! . . . saw dugongs (finally). . . now i know who i was saving from extinction in msi. . . saw one eat a lettuce and fall asleep while chewing it. . . also saw the sillouette of an elephant, flamingos and lots of reptiles. . . and a couple of amorous turtles. . . great fun even if it was pouring the whole time. . .

watermelons

was walking by the union this morning. . . someone was mowing the lawn and for a while there i thought i smelled watermelons. . . hmmmm. . . got me thinking about summer again. . . i miss being warm. . . it's so frigging cold again. actually went out in slippers today because a) i'm almost out of socks (tagal na kasing di naglaba) and b) my slippers are sooooo pretty. . . bad idea. thought i'd end up leaving my toes somewhere. . . slippers won't be too pretty if feet have no toes anymore.

missing summer on a rainy day. . .

Rainday
Cynthia Alexander

Between breaths on a rainday
by smoky pane you'll find me
your eyes are diamonds
carving images on the glass

on a rainday a shard
of breaking light on a rainday
summer comes alive
on a rainday a fading blur
of colors streaming down my face

Between breaths on a rainday
silver beads and eloquence
draped on a web
by my window
for everything a reason

on a rainday a shard
of breaking light on a rainday
summer comes alive
on a rainday forever
you will see on a rainday
for everything a reason
on a rainday

a fading blur of colors
streaming down my face
cast upon the fates
for everything a reason
for everything a reason

dream come true #1

it was roughly thirteen years ago when we got our first cd player, which was in my dad's car. i remember the first couple of cds we bought. i'm not sure which member of my family had really good taste in music back then (could be my dad or my sis, whoever it is, i am awfully grateful) but we got james ingram's greatest hits (it has "just once" and "how do keep the music playing?". . . that was a good album. promise:) and sting's greatest hits: fields of gold. thus began my love affair with sting's music. i remember he went to manila around that time (or maybe it was a couple of years after) and i of course didn't get to see him because a) we went to the pahiyas festival in lucban, quezon and b) i was too young to watch concerts. anyway, i've been a huge fan ever since. and last night, my dream to see him live, finally came true.

when i heard the first notes of "message in a bottle" i swear, i almost fainted. now i know how those crazy michael jackson/beatles/elvis fans feel. i was laughing and crying at the same time. i did get a hold of myself enough to sing along (i mean, how could i not sing along? i'm actually singing along with STING!). we got surprisingly good seats on the floor, probably about 20 or so rows from the stage. i mean, i paid quite a lot for the ticket (grad student standard anyway) but i didn't really expect the seats to be that good. . . it's still weird for me though to watch concerts and be surrounded with lots of people drinking beer, and in this case, they were much, much older people. . . there was this older lady sitting beside us who obviously had too much to drink and kept telling me about her friend who taped oprah's interview with sting and how she has watched it over and over again. . .

anyway, he had a really simple set-up for the show, which i think is a lot different from his brand new day tour and way cooler. it was just sting on bass, a lead guitar, a rhythm guitar and a drummer. that's it. no keyboards with synths, no piano, no percussionists, no back-up singers. it was basically a straight-up rock concert. the stage was pretty bare, the lighting was pretty hi-tech though but in a very understated kind of way. the playlist was very unexpected. i at first thought this concert was in support of his last album sacred love which was why i was brushing up on my knowledge of this album a couple of weeks ago. but it was pleasantly surprising that he did more of his older songs as well as lots of stuff from the police. it seemed to me that he picked songs that were not necessarily his most popular ones, but songs that he really wanted to play. i mean, i thought i was a sting fan, but there were some songs there that i haven't even heard before. i really wanted to post a complete playlist but i have really terrible memory. and i was really too giddy to remember to write the songs down then. so the best i could probably do is rattle of a partial list of songs i could remember. and they won't be in any particular order too. although some songs will come in the order they came in (like the first three songs) but not like totally ordered. . . well you know what i mean. . .

message in a bottle

spirits in a material world (sting introduced this song by saying "madonna stole this song from me")

demolition man

i hung my head (this was apparently covered by johnny cash)

synchronicity II (didn't know what this song was 'til i looked it up)

the end of the game ("do you have foxes here?")

ghost story (he sang one verse because he felt sorry for a couple of girls who were holding signs requesting for it. . . he actually mixed up the words for that one verse too:)

heavy cloud, no rain

a day in the life (tribute to the beatles)

why should i cry for you?(really did make me cry)

fields of gold

king of pain

invisible sun

if i ever lose my faith in you (awesome version!)

voices inside my head /when the world is running down (with a little audience participation)

roxanne

she's too good for me (rockin' version)

lithium sunset

every breath you take

i'm sure i probably missed several songs but these are the ones i could remember. he ended the first set with "roxanne". he then came back for two encores and eventually ended with "every breath you take". . . with this concert, sting was probably out to prove that he was not satisfied with being the "old man of adult pop rock". i tell you, he can still rock with the best of 'em.

asides:

• phantom planet opened for sting. they were pretty good (and the lead singer was a cutie). it was probably a tougher gig for them what with most of the audience being around the age of their parents (yeah, i felt really young then). there were a lot of people asking "phantom what?". we only caught 3 songs from their set and they ended with, none other but "california".
• do you think i could go home now? i mean, this was what i went to grad school for right?. . . do you think msi would take me back?. . . hehe.
• i wasn't able to bring a camera in because they really do confiscate cameras here. it's still pretty dumb since camera phones seem to be ok. so i don't have any pictures but i took a picture of my gift for my sis. . .

proof that i was there at pasalubong ko kay ate. . . 

... it was the last signed copy there! 

more flowering trees 

weird pink tree 

study group on a beautiful spring day. . .  

cgsa pips (after wolfgang puck dinner) 

post haircut (ang itim ko!!!) 

magnolia tree 

aaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhh!

i'm seeing sting tonight!!!!!!!!

free time

it's 1:30 in the afternoon and i am here in my couch, watching spin city on upn and blogging. this was supposed to be a busy quarter right? i got lucky. the way my rotation project works, i have to wait for my plants to grow which takes about 2 weeks. so i have a little time in my hands. hmmmmm. . . what to do with all this free time?:) . . . of course i could study, but that would be a waste of this beautiful weather. . . or i could clean my apartment. . . or do my laundry. . . or just bask in the sunshine. . . decision, decisions. . .

spring squirrel 

study group 

real men wear pink 

7th time down 

mirror lake park 

finally got around to uploading pix from the indigo girls concert. had some free time today. was not scheduled really. didn't go to lab. or seminar. had a very good, and unfortunately, very painful excuse. but the story is not for everyone to hear. . .

spring quarter has been good so far,before today that is. my classes are pretty tough. but the geek in me finds them very interesting and challenging. i like the lab i'm working at too. surprisingly enough, it seems like i'm getting along well with my PI. people keep saying he's really hard to get along with but i guess i'm doing ok. and it's just pcr work for now so it's nothing i couldn't handle.

another great thing about spring quarter is spring! the weather is perfect! has been since sunday! sunny and the temp gets up to 70 deg now! gorgeous! and as usual, people are going crazy. too bad i had to spend most of today inside. but i'm counting on there being more days like this.

saw "the great gatsby" last night. awfully romantic movie. and very tragic. someone should've warned me he was going to die! anyway in my opinion, the greatest thing about gatsby is the way he could wear a pink suit and pull it off. pink!

ok, have to watch AI. go bo!

arena grand district 

waiting for george. . . 

indigo girls 2 

indigo girls 

amy ray 

emily