. . . at joan's condo 

out with the girls 

our christmas tree 

from justine's wedding 

i got a B!!!!!

in my neuroscience test! yey!

they actually sent our grades via e-mail. it was weird. the coordinator first e-mailed us that the mean was such and such and the range was from this to that. . . then a couple of minutes later, which gives you time to contemplate if you were the one with the lowest score in the range, you get your grade with the letter grade. . .. i'm sooooooo relieved i passed. . . . thank you Lord!

it's not yet 4:30pm and i'm already the last person in the lab. i really like this lab. we're also almost done moving into our new and bigger lab. so much space though = so much walking around. i could very well get half of my recommended 10,000 steps just doing my usual experiments. . . well ok, maybe not half, but i've sure walked a lot today.

it's about that time of the year again when i start complaining about the weather. the cold actually came much earlier this year than it did last year which is really depressing. it was 36 deg F when i left this morning! and we've been having highs in the 50s all week! it's really grey and miserable and as a result , i have been pretty grouchy all week (or pretty and grouchy. hehehe).

this entry is so disjointed. i apologize. i'll try to post pictures next time. those speak better for me than i do.

2nd entry of the week? whoa. i can't believe it myself. but here it is. just had time to spare while stupid gel runs ever so slowly. while poor boyfriend is waiting for me to go to college of business social thing. i agreed to go because there is, surprise, free food. and the grad student in me just can't say no to that.

you may think i blog because of something exciting happening. well, you think wrong. except maybe for the fact that this morning has been the second class in a row that i haven't dosed off during my neuro class. . . yes, wonder of wonders. this is the 830-1030 class mind you. it may have something to do with the last long exam that scared me out of my wits. . . or maybe it was because the professor was cussing like crazy. . . it was the first time i heard cuss word during a lecture. . . about signal transduction. . . go figure. . . but that kept me awake. . . he was actually a pretty good lecturer. . . but he probably sed a** like five times and d**n at least once. really odd.

and then i did rt-pcr. with 18 samples. yey. exciting.

had lunch.

ran gel.

which brings us here.

gosh.

i am only good for one entry per, i don't know, 3 weeks?

well, til then =)

last beautiful fall day. . .

or so it seems. . . it is just GORGEOUS outside today. the leaves are starting to change and the temp is somewhere in the 60s. but the weatherman says this will all end tomorrow. rainy and chilly. until april. . . sadness. . .

anyhow, it has been this beautiful all this last weekend til today. i would like to think this is nature's way of celebrating the time i was brought into this earth. but that might be a tad bit too egocentric of me to think so. so yes, a couple of days have passed since i turned 24. doesn't that just sound sooooooo old (sorry to other folks in their "early mid-twenties" and beyond). it feels just like yesterday when i thought that by 24, i'll be all mature and moneyed, wearing a suit to work and driving a car, maybe owning a home. . . ahhhhh, but that just isn't the case. mature? i don't think so. moneyed? definitely not. suit? i'm in jeans and sneakers today. car? i wish. home? i'm a renter. so there. i'm definitely not where i thought i would be. not that i'm complaining. a lot. maybe just a little.

i would've written about all this earlier, like maybe on my birthday. but i was way too stressed out that. stupid neuro test. but that's done. the day itself was pretty ok. got to talk to all the people who mattered. got a couple of cool gifts. shu gave me a bear that says "born to shop, forced to cook", which i think is soooo apt. leigh got me a gift card to urban outfitters (which i've already blown on a pair of slacks and shades. thanks leigh!). and the question that a lot of my friends asked me: what did paul get for me? hmmmm. . . that's actually a funny story. maybe i should start with what he didn't give me. he apparently got me tickets to see john legend live here in columbus. even joined the fanclub to get good seats. but that was not meant to be as the concert was moved on a wednesday. he has classes til 10pm on wednesdays. and that's the week before my 2nd long exam. so that didn't work out. so for my birthday, he made me a card and "pretend" tickets to. . . well, . . .bill cosby's show. . . you could probably sense the lack of enthusiasm on my part for that one. but i was like, ok, sounds like fun, thanks. . . he gave me the card before he went to class. and after he left, well, i got all dramatic and upset. talked to leigh about it and being the upfront and forthright person that she is, advised me to just tell him how i feel. so i did. i felt horrible, but i thought that would be better than me pretending to like bill cosby. i mean he's not bad, but i just can't see me in a bill cosby show. so paul's gift to me: an i owe you. i told him i could wait for when a good act comes to town and he could get me tickets. he felt bad at first i think. he said something about his first gift to me being rejected. . . well, it wasn't really rejected so much as. . . deferred. definitely not how i thought my first birthday with him would turn out. i'm ever so slightly disappointed but at least now i know his flaw: gift-giving.it's funny because he told me this story about his dad's first christmas gift to his mom after they got married was a vinyl carpet runner. and his mom cried and called her mom. so apparently, it runs in the family. but he did bake me a cake last saturday. and hung out with pinoys all weekend (claudine and hanna on saturday, justine and george on sunday). so he's been really nice. and he still makes me happy. and i better stop before this becomes a total sap-fest.

so the question i ask you all now is: did i do right? how else should i have reacted? bring 'em on.

with birthday boy at the fire on the mile 

haha. just opened my dashboard and who comes into the office? my boss of course. great timing jona. i don't realy have much to do this morning in the lab =) really. had to go to an animal welfare training course thing and have to get to seminar in an hour. so i can't really start anything now can i? . . . excuses. . .

anyhow, i'm done with my presentation, which went well (thank you Lord!). the moderators said i did a "great job" which makes me really happy. although i don't know how often they tell people that. . . my favorite comment was from a student writing on the evaluation forms which said "ease up on the (laser) pointer. . ." hehe.

we also celebrated paul's birthday this saturday. . . well, it wasn't much of a celebration really, poor guy. i did make breakfast for him (chocolate chip pancakes which he loves. . . i swear i'm dating a 12 year old. . . not literally of course) and he helped me do my laundry. . . he's really great like that. . . i felt really bad for that but needed to wash my coats and sweaters and such because it's starting to get cold. . . we also went out for lunch (which i paid for). it was actually kind of freaky during lunch because as we were paying for the bill and getting ready to leave, the waiter wished us a good day and we said the same to him. then he was like "oh, it will be because it's my birthday!" so there was a little love shared there between the two birthday boys for a bit. and he mentioned how he has a bunch of friends celebrating their birthdays that weekend.incidentally, it was also christina's and ians birthdays that weekend. . . and then i mentioned that it was my birthday next monday and the guy was like "it's my daughter's birthday on monday!" plus it's also paul's brother's birthday last saturday, my dad's this thursday, his sister's on sunday . . . and the list goes on. how weird is that?

anyway, after that, paul had to study ( he's not just, like, 12 he's also dorky. . .=) then later that evening we went to the waterfire art installation at the scioto river downtown. I'll post pictures later. basically, someone put bonfires on floaters on a mile's stretch of the river. it was rather pretty with the cityscape in the background and all, if it were not so frigging cold! after that we went to see "serenity" which was a pretty good movie and you all should see it.

so that's how his birthday went. i still think that was a much better day than how mine will be. i have a test on my birthday, lucky me. at 830 in the morning too. what fun.

delingkwenteng blogger na po ako. patawad. been pretty busy, what with classes starting and all. aaaarrrrgggghhhh. classes. di lang nagkaklase nung summer nanibago na ulit. and it doesn't help that the class i'm taking is MWF 830am - 1030am. . . noooooooo. . . i'm a grad student! sanay sa gising na alas-otso. this is just not right. . .

i'm also having my 2nd year presentation thursday this week. paper presentation for one hour. i've been working on it for a while pero i still haven't practiced it. everytime i look through my slides, i end up adding more and more slides. now i'm up to 48 slides. yey. mabilis naman ako magsalita e so i'll probably get through the whole thing in half an hour. . . pero scared pa rin ako. i'm soooooo bad at answering questions. my mind goes blank and i start to giggle. very un-scientist-like. i usually get through the actual presentation pretty well and then somebody asks me a question and . . . bleagh. . . ewan ko ba. hope it doesn't happen this time. pagdasal niyo ako please.

birthday's coming up in a couple of weeks (hint hint). tatanda na naman ako. pero mauna muna ang fafa. next weekend siya (8th). i was a bit worried about what to get for him kasi ano ba naman experience ko sa mga bagay-bagay na ganun. pero i've bought him his present na. he better like it. hehe. bad trip pa pala sa birthday ko may midterm ako. ang saya-saya. oh well.

o siya. i better get back to practicing my presentation. . . how exciting.

pic posting frenzy

just had some photos from the past month that i thought i'd post. . . enjoy!

from the meet the folks weekend - - - (left to right) leigh, kev, greg, marilee, paul, me. . . in front of glass sculptures by a famous glass. . . er. . sculptor. . . knowledgeable, i am. 

home . . for two nights anyway. . . 

i camped. . . really! the hello kitty pillow can attest to that! 

girls in the (fake) beach 

happy camper! 

ang cute! (ng llama) 

curious baby llama =) 

kelangan ng proactiv! 

not soon enough. . .

ok. so it wasn't soon. . . it was more. . . eventually. . . i totally understand if you all don't read my blog anymore . . . (nag-drama). . .

still no internet in my apartment. i've actually resorted to sitting on the steps to my building where i could get a signal. i'm just too cheap to go to the cafe place and buy coffee so i could get internet. been getting strange stares though so i don't really stay there for long. . . anyhow, the past couple of weeks or so have been pretty boring. i've mainly been working and not much else. hanna (mbb 99) came here last week so that was pretty exciting. helped her settle into her apartment and all that. it was fun. i'm so happy i have someone to say 'ang taray' to. . . or 'kebs'. . . or 'wagi'. . . at iba pang salitang bakla. . . hehe.

this week was mostly spent in the TA training seminar. tuesday to thursday. 9-4. all day. ano bang ginawa ko at pinarusahan ako ng ganun? hehe. . . actually, nag-half day pala ako kahapon. . hehe. . . delingkwente

paul has moved back to columbus pala. . . and left again. . . for iowa this time. pero for 4 days lang. . .

and school starts next week. ang saya-saya.

still alive. . . no internet in apartment. . . will blog soon. . .

post na talaga

so i haven't been blogging in a while. even i think photo-blogging does not count as blogging. so here i am.

i have cable again! for a month at least. got another one of those try-it-for-free-for-a-month deals from time-warner. i was more than happy to oblige. i seem to be favoring E channel today. saw top 50 hollywood breakups, but in true tv addict fashion, didn't see who was no.1. . . because i was channel surfing. . . am now watching old SNL episodes with will ferrel and chris kattan as mango. . . funny stuff. . . but i stupidly missed the rockstar:inxs results show. aaaarrrggh! that's the trouble with having too many channels. . . but did you guys see mig's performance last night? wasn't that great! i never really liked that song but the way he sang that. . . ooohhh. . . so sexy. . . so i voted form him thrice!

saw phantom this weekend. it was gorgeous! even if we had cheap, nose-bleed seats so far from the stage that i wouldn't have recognized any of the actors had any of them fallen out of the sky and onto my lap, we were that far. first of all, ohio theatre itself is beautiful. it's an old theater with really fancy gold trimmings and chandeliers and stuff. feeling taga-bundok talaga ako nung pumasok ako dun. then of course, the guy who played phantom was really good, i liked him better than the phantom in the movie. also the sets and the costumes were so rich. sulit ba sa bayad. and of course i so love the music from phantom. i cried twice =) once during the rooftop scene where christine and raoul sing 'all i ask of you' (during which paul reached over and took my hand. . . awww sweet. . . insert puking sound here), and towards the ending. i still think the whole story of phantom is psychotic but they tell it with such beautiful songs that i don't really care.

speaking of paul, his folks are coming to town this weekend. scared! i'm kind of nervous about it. i'm just scared of doing or saying something stupid. should i really be this worried? is there really anything i should be worried about? if there is you'll tell me right?

sige. 'til next time.

the couple at the pseudo-bachelor's party/karaoke night singing "a whole new world. . ." 

yes, we do clean up quite nicely. . . 

my (2nd) favorite picture of the day 

the gang. . . all dressed up! 

the newlyweds (aren't they cute?) 

wedding party 

My favorite photo of the day!. . .how yummy is this? =) hihihi. . . yes, that's a chocolate fountain behind my boyps. . .

jazz! ribs! festival!

this post is actually one week delayed, but i might as well post these pix. i was pretty busy last week because i'm actually working now. surprising ain't it?

anyhow, we went to the jazz and ribs festival last weekend. americans have a weird way of combining stuff but i totally applaud this particular combination. the thing was held in the bicentennial park in downtown columbus. and of course it just had to be a 90+ degree day. the place was packed and it wasn't easy too get around, but being the edsa 2 veteran that i am, i had no problem squeezing through the throngs to get to what i wanted which were 2 things 1) funnel cake and 2) ribs. on that day, pretty much nothing could get in between me and spare ribs. i actually didn't have red meat ALL WEEK in preparation for this so i was psyched. there is of course the issue of picking which vendor to buy ribs from. they all had trophies and banners claiming that they won in some barbeque contest in wisconsin or wichita or whatever other places. that didn't really help at all so our method involved finding the one with a reasonable number of people in line. we figured you really coudn't get bad ribs right? and we did get pretty good ribs. i only had one regret and that's that i should've foreseen that barbequed ribs would be so much better if i had rice. . . but at least i know that for next year. . . and aside from cinnamon sugar elephant ears (very similar to funnel cake), i also had chocolate-dipped frozen banana. . . just typing that up makes my mouth water. . . hmmmm. . ."so, how was the jazz?" you may ask. truth is i really couldn't tell you because they could have been playing crap for all i care but i was too full and satisfied to notice. we actually stayed behind the stage so we could hear the band pretty well without being with the crowd in front. they were playing latin jazz fusion of some kind. i would've dance if my butt wasn't too heavy from all the food. and i wouldn't have had anyone to dance with, because as much as i'm crazy about that boy, i'm not that crazy about his dancing skills =)

on other things:

• i tested out of my written english class for the second time! di kasi sila maniwala nung una na marunong akong magsulat in english e. haaah! that showed you.
• do any of you watch average joe? because the guy who got picked is the nephew of one of our friend from cgsa. wala lang. ang cool. hehe.
• i now have a dress and shoes to wear to christina's wedding next weekend. parusa pala maghanap ng sapatos dito sa columbus! miss ko greenhills! anyway, i'll post pics next week. . . you might also get to see paul in a tux =)
• ohio state fair naman titirahin namin weekend after next. fried candy bars! corn dogs! caramel corn! . . . my dietitian won't be too happy.
• ang init pa rin!!!
• yun lang.

downtown columbus 

teka, may tinga pa ba ako? 

paul eating ribs. . . 

unang araw

sadya ba talagang ganyan
palakad-lakad ka't nakatungo
sa'n patungo?
ngayong wala ka na
kailangang masanay na muling nag-iisa
sa'n ka na kaya?

'wag mo akong sisihin
kung minsan ikay hanapin/kung minsan akong iyakin
ito ang unang araw na wala ka na
ito ang unang araw na wala ka na

nasanay lang sigurong nand'yan ka
'di ko inakalang pwede kang mawala
'yan na ngaNababato, nalulungkot
luha'y napapawi ng singhot
at talukbong ng kumot

wag mo akong sisihin
kung minsan ako'y iyakin
ito ang unang araw na wala ka na
ito ang unang araw na wala ka na

--sugarfree

no big update

nothing new here really. another start of the work week. i'm actually a bit more busy now though not terribly so. was out of the lab by 430 so still not bad.

the weekend was surprisingly ok. didn't realize how long it has been since i've spent the weekend by my lonesome=). i actually get a lot of things done like cleaning the kitchen, catching up on some reading (now reading wicked by gregory maguire), doing some laundry, cooking(ginataang tilapia! with kangkong! plus adobong kangkong!. . . big surplus of kangkong called for a second dish). so i did ok. except for the 18 bucks i spent at the cd warehouse. but it was for 5 cds!. . . what can i do? i miss the guy. . . trying to make up for it with john legend and robbie williams. . .hehe

speaking of the guy, got a card in the mail from him today. so sweet. i really should improve on my girlfriend-liness. so dropped by the bookstore to look for cards that won't make me puke. didn't know it would be an ordeal, what with it being timed too because the store was closing in like 10 minutes when i got there. ended up buying 2 'i miss you' cards that were pretty funny because i couldn't decide.

this is a lousy blog entry. i promise to do better next time. . .

the gang:) 

my first german beer, well, my first beer actually:)