wahey!!!

My tatay just got back from Hong Kong last night. At about 6pm, he called me up and told us that they just got out of the airplane. Then I asked him, “Ano nabili nyo?” Then his jolly voice turned gloomy and said “Wala nga eh.” Of course that was a real downer. But well, I was still happy to be seeing him and hear his stories about their trip. He asked me to fetch them at 7pm near the Tabang tollgate, so my sister and I waited there until they arrived.

When we got home, he opened their bag and showed us a couple of t-shirts with Hong Kong designs on it, then told us that he would be giving us something but we should promise that we would share it to each other. I tried guessing, wallet or cellphone, though I wasn’t really interested. What he handed to my sister from his beltbag was something I never expected… a digicam!!! Hahaha! My sister and I were ecstatic! We were jumping for joy. My tatay told us that he didn’t spend his pocket money so he could buy us a digital camera. I really don’t care about the reviews, and the design (yeah, that grip is a little weird), because it’s still a digital camera! Kahit nga di-tulak na digicam basta digital, papatulan ko pa din. hehe

Then today, Bryan and I went with my tatay to Manila because we were going to buy gifts. We first looked for a camera case, and we found one in Jansport. A little expensive, but we want our camera safe and protected. We also tried to look for an exact same camera that we have, just to know how much it costs here. We found only one store. Boy, were we shocked. My tatay was so happy he bought it in Hong Kong. Hehe. After that we bought the gifts for some buyers of our dressed pigeons.

Also, Bryan and I bought drinks at Starbucks for the last 2 stickers in my card. I finally claimed my planner!!! Weeeee!!!! The barista must have seen the happy happy face I had when I finally got it; I think he congratulated me about 3 times. What an achievement. And with that planner, I got to donate P50 to project SparkHope. Nice. :)

However, Bryan didn’t come home with us anymore. We parted ways before we went home. He’s going back to La Union. Hay…. Another month of waiting… Thanks for the gifts and for the treats and for the company baby. I’ll miss you!

So there, I have a very wonderful year-ending. Too bad when we got home and turned on the tv, we saw footages of the tsunami. I felt a little guilty. Here I am rejoicing with my gifts, while the families of 55,000 victims are in agony. The Philippines is still lucky to have been spared. Imagine if we were not, after the 3 typhoons that hit us.

What is happening to the world? It’s like 2004 has been sailing smoothly and then all of a sudden a few days before the New year, things have gone really, really wrong.

Like any other, all I can do is pray for them… Hope 2005 will be a good year for everyone.

happy birthday to me

I’m now 22. Yay! My 22nd birthday has been the 2nd best birthday I’ve had (next to my 18th, of course).

It was kinda weird to have it really celebrated parent-less. We went to mass, visited my nanay, visited my Mendoza relatives at Sta. Isabel, and then my lola at Sta. Rita, before going back home so my tatay and stepmom can prepare for their trip. All in 2 hours, can you believe that? After a while at 11am, my tatay and tita were fetched by their companions and they left for the airport. Kainggit!!!

My sister and I then went to Catmon to celebrate the rest of Christmas with my Sulit relatives. After eating a hearty meal, and receiving numerous gifts, I spent most of my stay there sleeping, even if I was in the most uncomfortable position. I was sooo tired coz I didn’t get enough sleep the night before.

At about 7pm, even though I hated driving at night because my vision is kind of a problem in the dark (even though I wear glasses), we went to Bulacan, Bulacan to visit Tito Rey there. My aunt who visited him told us that he was waiting for other visitors, and that he was kinda sad because his other relatives weren’t there. We were happy to see him in a better condition. He was talking well, he could get himself to a sitting position without assistance, his skin color was not as yellow as before, and he was not whimpering in pain. The relief of seeing your sick relative in such a good state… The 200,000+ (2 days excluding doctors’ fees) that they spent at St. Luke’s Medical Center was definitely worth it.

And finally today, I got to see my baby again! :) We first dropped by Petron Starbucks before we went to SM North Edsa, ate at Chicken Inasal, and shopped for gifts for his family. I bought my Tito Rey a bolster from Bearhuggs because my Tita Ninia said he wanted that specific kind of pillow so he can hug something while sleeping. I bought my Tita Ninia a Mama Mary lamp similar to what I gave my nanay before. We bought a toy gun for Tap-Tap because he made bilin before Bryan and I left for the mall. I also bought little cakes and cookies from Art Cakes for my Tita Bonita and my younger cousins. I had fun shopping for gifts, although I still have not bought my baby any other gift than the pirated NBA Live 2005 cd. By the time we were done shopping he was a little irritable because his feet were aching from all the walking that we did.

We were supposed to celebrate my Bulacan barkada’s Christmas party at Nikka’s place at 6pm, but there were some issues and they decided to change the plans. But since they really wanted to see each other for Christmas (it has been a tradition of some sort already), they instead went to my house and celebrated there. Bryan and I bought the giant Yellow Cab pizza before we left SM, and when we got home, I drove Bryan to his Tita’s place because he said he had to go home early, and I went to fetch Butchik on my way home. I brought Tap-Tap along with me.

At about 7 pm, Mary Ann and Popoy arrived, and Mitzi and Cecilia a few minutes later. They brought chicken cordon bleu recipe by Mitzi’s sister, chocolate mousse from Red Ribbon, ube halaya (tama ba?), suman, some chichiria, and a few bottles of San Mig, which I was able to consume only half a bottle of, before finally giving up. Hehe. I don’t like the taste of beers. The best I can do is consume a whole bottle of Mule, nothing more.

It was fun. They started by singing to me the birthday song, with the cake sitting beside a candle they found in our house, but wasn’t lighted because there were no matchsticks around. Hehe. Aside from interviewing Mary Ann about how it feels to be a soon-to-be mom (she’s 7 months pregnant and is due February 25), and the perks of having a married life, we also had fun singing karaoke songs that my darling sister set up. We had a blast reminiscing about our highschool days, about our present lives, and also shared a lot of confessions. But this was definitely fun, fun, fun. They left at about half past midnight.

Great, great birthday. I received a lot of gifts, even those most-wanted under my wishlist. This has also been the year with the most number of people remembering my birthday (my 18th birthday doesn’t count. Hello, there were invitations handed so that’s a reminder) I spent the whole day of December 26 with Bryan, and he’ll be in Bulacan until the 28th. I have only 4 stickers left for the Starbucks planner. Kaya lang I wasn’t able to call my relatives abroad. Hay. Merry Christmas Cha and Che! Miss you!!!

To everyone who greeted my on my birthday, thank you!!! J I hope I don’t forget your birthdays… ahahaha!

Happy New Year!!! :)

greetings

idea from- who else?- the great Ala Paredes. hehe

♥ happy christmas everyone!!♥

thank you din sa lahat bumati happy birthday sakin! :)

sleeping pill entry

my sister just lost her 1thousand-peso bill. poor girl. as i am typing this entry, she has been constantly waking up from her sleep every 10 minutes or so for the past hour, gets up, checks her wallet, and then goes back to sleep again. had it been an ordinary night, a marching band could have entered the room and she would have no recollection whatsoever of any interruption the next day.

it's 1:10 am and what am i doing still up? i don't know. i just don't feel sleepy at all. i remember drinking 4 cups of coffee just for this day. i guess i drank too much.

today is december 24. tomorrow is december 25. christmas day. Jesus' birthday. my birthday as well. hmm...

in my entire life, i have only attended "simbang gabi" twice. haha. and do you know, we don't celebrate noche buena. :) i was actually surprised to learn that noche buena was to christmas, as media noche was to new year. i learned that only when i was in 1st year college, when a classmate woke me up from my sleep at half past midnight to greet me a happy birthday. she was surprised to hear my voice all groggy, and asked me when school resumed if we don't celebrate christmas at all. turned out that while everyone was preparing dinner and waiting for the clock to strike 12mn, to finally greet each other merry christmas and open their presents, my family and i are in deep slumber, and only start celebrating christmas when we wake up. :) i honestly thought, noche buena meant the whole day of December 24. stupid. hehehe

but we do celebrate media noche. ang weird naman kung pagka-gising namin eh saka lang kami magpapaputok at magtatatalon diba? :P

my tatay's leaving for hongkong tomorrow. he'll be back on the 28th pa, not the 27th. i wonder how my christmas would be without a single parent around... i have to start packing his things pa tomorrow. when my tatay's excited, he just gets too aligaga that he forgets things. i know he's excited, he just wouldn't show it. hehe. ever since my nanay passed away, i've always been the one doing the packing for him.

yehey, my eyelids are finally starting to get droopy.

that's it. i'm off to sleep.

merry christmas! :)

hail ala

I. AM. BORED.

Two more days and I'm 22.

Dang.

When will I ever be able to write like Ala Paredes? I wish my blog contained stuff that's actually worth reading. Like hers. I don't know how she makes even long entries interesting. I read every single word.

Oh well. Wishful thinking. Must be the genes.

I suck at writing. But congratulations to me, I am actually keeping this thing alive even if it's all crap. :)

"I write to express, not to impress."

Haha. I still wish I had the talent though. ;P

Found this while bloghopping last night and tried it.

Nina Kristine Mendoza Sulit

anagrams to

Moralize in unkindest saint

Try it here!

Hehe.

Whatever.

the ethereal layout

haha. i just fucked with this entry. was trying to edit it, and now it's gone.

very good job.

hay. if it wasn't for my new layout that i finally like, i probably would have been hitting myself right now.

since i am in a good mood, and i am not yet sleepy, i'm going to retype the whole thing again.

so there, i now have a new layout. i've been dying to have this layout since last semester (idea from this blog), and i'm happy i was able to do it on my own, the way i planned it. i wanted it simple, unlike my old blog, which was pretty much congested. :) and i'm surprised it took me a shorter time than the last time i decided to change my layout, only to revert to my old one. God, I really am OC with margins. Margins, padding, alignment. anything concerning lines. wahaha. at least i got to be css-literate before the year ends.

however, there's still the problem of vanity. er, just look at the pic on your left in case you failed to notice. heh. i was experimenting with photoshop, and after trying on a few filters, i can't remember how i came about with this pic of my face looking like it's glowing. and yeah, that's my hair covering the other half of my face. i just made sure my hair blended with the background.

so, why ethereal? i just put in that word, for balance? just so the picture won't look like something's missing.

ethereal = light and delicate, especially in an unnatural way. the pic's kinda eerie and haunting, i look like a ghost, but at the same time it shows a hint of lightness. just like me, behind that "mataray" and intimidating impression is a person just as sentimental and delicate as any other girl...

bleh.

hehe. i never said i was an artist. :P

i'm smiling. i'm happy. my baby and i are back together. weee!

i love you hon. :)

mi madre

Today is my mother’s 49th birthday. Since my father had to go to Pampanga for business (I know my mother would understand. My tatay’s been working like a dog lately), he told us to visit her and bring her flowers. So at about 11 am, my sister and I went to visit her burial place, we brought her a dozen white roses, and we prayed the rosary. I also talked to her in silence, asked her to still look over me and my sister, especially my tatay. Although my tatay’s got a new wife already, I can see that he still hasn’t forgotten about my nanay and that he still loves her more than anything in this world.

It’s been 5 years since she passed away, but up till now, I still having crying moments whenever I remember how much I am missing my nanay. Just last Monday morning, while I was reviewing for an exam, our neighbor turned their stereo on and played songs of praise. And then this song (the title was Power of Love I think…), which was one of her favorites, started playing. I was singing along at first because I loved that song too, then suddenly, I just got teary-eyed, and then I started crying. I miss her terribly.

Now it’s going to be our 5th Christmas without her, and it still is difficult. I can’t imagine how Christmas must be like for those who just lost their loved ones- the people of Infanta, the family of FPJ, the De Venecia’s, and many others. I sincerely pray for peace in their hearts, because I know how it feels to lose someone you dearly love.

I love you nanay. I miss you so much.

almost happy christmas

Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…

Yeah. :)

Yesterday our class had a mini Christmas party at Dencio’s. A little expensive, but the time I had with my classmates was awesome. :) We had our exchange of gifts there, and I finally got the Starbucks coffee beans I wished for (it’s my gift for my tatay) although my mommy didn’t know me (Baya). :P

I received marvelous gifts from my cool, great, sweet friends. :) Nicky and Mitzi gave me the Body Shop’s Olive Body Butter as a birthday gift (so sweet of them!), and Brenda gave me the Dry Oil Mist I really really wanted. I was surprised she gave me that, knowing it costs 650 and our exchange gift quota was only P300. She told me “Birthday mo din naman eh.” Haha. The pros of celebrating Christmas and birthday at the same time. :) And Dimple gave me a gift too, I’d rather not tell what it is. Let’s just say, “it” and cami don’t go together. Hehe.

Also, I have only 6 stickers to go for the Starbucks planner. Yay!

At the SLCM Christmas party last night, I also won a free coffee from Seattle’s Best. Haha. Boy, was it a “me day” yesterday. I claimed it this morning for my tatay, and I had to pour in a cup of creamer, 4 packs of white sugar, and 2 packs of brown sugar before he finally liked the taste. Imagine how bitter that coffee was…

And today, we went at SM to shop for Christmas clothes. :) I was soo happy to be able to buy the shoes I really want, that their size fit my big, ugly feet!!! Weeee!!! I love Via Venetto. First, the Birks. And now, this one. :)

Christmas vacation na!! Yahoooo! After spending 2 consecutive nights working on glitter, cutters, boards and pentel pens, I can finally sleep like a baby tonight. Thanks so much Redg for the design!!! Ganyan ka-special ang Days, kaya join na kayo. :P

By the way, she went home with us last night, and helped out with the Days stuff. She gave me a gift, and she told me that gift would surely make me remember her and our ghost experience, and it did. Wow. I finally talked to her. :)

1 week nalang, Pasko na.

Today is the 18th of the month. There’s only one person I’m waiting for para kumpleto na ang Pasko ko. If after Christmas, wala pa din… that’s it.

pizza, pasta, lovebirds and cutters

Since it’s my birthday on the 25th, and I am partly pressured by my friends treating us out to lunch or dinner or something during their own birthdays (hehe), I decided to treat some of my friends to dinner. I was planning it for Thursday, but remembering how hectic our schedule would be because of the stuff we have to do for Days, I decided after school to invite my friends over for a pig-out. :) We had Yellow Cab pizza (yum!) and pasta delivered at our home. Present were Nicky, Mitzi, Dimple, Joan, Tizza, and RJ. I was planning on inviting some more friends over, but I was worried my budget won’t be enough to satisfy their hunger. (We went to SM North yesterday to buy stuff for our class and barkada exchange gifts, and I bought gifts for some friends and family.) But when I saw how huge the 18” Yellow Cab pizza was, I regretted not having invited some more people. Joey and Gingi, I owe you guys.

Nevertheless, it was fun. We watched White Chicks on dvd while happily munching on our pizzas. My friend Jojo, now Joan’s boyfriend, also dropped by after work. It’s good seeing a college barkada I haven’t seen for quite a while now. It’s also partly frustrating seeing him in his office attire, and knowing he’s working now and earning money, while I’m still here stuck in medschool barely getting a decent amount of sleep every night. Oh yeah, when Jojo and Joan were on their way to our house, I was watching them, and I couldn’t help but smile. HHWW-PSSP. Hahaha. The classic holding-hands-while-walking-pa-sway-sway-pa thingie. It’s also a cute thing knowing that I am partly responsible for the happiness those two lovebirds have found in each other. :P I was the ultimate taga-tukso of them before, and look where they are now. :)

It’s great that although love’s not working well for me, at least it's working well for others.

Hay. Whatever am I going to do… You know I'm just waiting for a message from you.

Okay, moving on…

I discovered something interesting inside the pizza box. In fact, I have seen it a lot of times before in other pizza boxes, but it was just earlier that I took a closer look at it and found out that it was called a pizza cutter. Hehehehe. A breakthrough or was I just plain ignorant? Well, if it’s the latter, there are 3 of us ignorant then. Dimple and her cousin Louie didn’t know it was a pizza cutter either until I told them. I thought it was just a tool to keep the apices of the pizza slices from sticking together. But, it is a cutter, at least that’s what it says at the back of this thing. I had Dimple sign her name on it too, and I’m going to have the others sign on it as well tomorrow. Remembrance. Cheesy girl. :P

Ten more days to go and it’s Christmas! Yayyy!

Ten more stickers before I get my Starbucks planner...

2 weeks before christmas

Wow it’s almost been a week since my last update.

Exams, exams, exams.

Flunked, flunked, flunked.

Ha.

Well I’m almost sure I’m going to flunk all those, unless all the Departments decide to have 20% as their passing grade, which, as I know it, is next to impossible.

Okay, it’s all my fault. I only get to study the night before the exam itself, and I start studying always at about 9 pm on the average. Why? I don’t know. For some reason, I try to do something that’s actually nothing, just for me to not start studying. And that darn Yahoo game Feeding Frenzy really got me addicted, courtesty of, ahem… Dimple. Yeah, instead of studying, we’re either watching TV, or playing Feeding Frenzy. I even searched the internet for cracks and serial numbers, so I could convert the trial version to full. But I was unsuccessful, I got a lot of serials but they won’t work, and on top of that, my laptop contracted a virus which I still haven’t fixed. Badtrip.

On a happier note, Dimple, Mitzi and I went shopping yesterday. Mitzi did the real shopping, Dimple a little shopping, and me window shopping. Hehe. I didn’t bring money to shop, because I still haven’t planned on what to buy, and if I go to a shopping mall with nothing in mind and something in my wallet, I end up buying unnecessary stuff. I just brought enough money for food, and we ate at Chef d’ Angelo. Man, we ate a lot. Gluttony to the nth power:

Chicken Al Pesto
Chicken Fettucini
3 pc Big Bird (er, that’s how they call their fried chicken, just in case you get any crazy ideas. Haha!)
Pepperoni Pizza

Sarap. :) Nakakakain na ko sa Chef d’ Angelo, tao na ko. Wehehehe.

Oh yeah, before that, we dropped by Chocolate Lovers. Grabe, bakers' heaven. I want an oven for Christmas please.

Window shopping made me want to hit myself more for not saving money. I saw a lot of stuff I really want to have. Maria Mena’s cd is also out, and I immediately texted Joan when I saw it. That girl influenced me to like Maria Mena. :) I also want the Eraserheads Anthology cd, and Body Shop’s Dry Oil Mist in Olive (smells sooooo good). I’m going to have the Body Butter this Friday, because that’s what I asked for an exchange gift. Yay!

We also dropped by Starbucks, because I was begging Dimple and Mitzi to buy Fraps with me, so I can have more stickers on my card. I reallllly want that planner. I only have 4 stickers, and I still have a loooong way to go. I already decided not to try to get it, but when Ado gave me the card with one sticker on it, I thought that was a sign. So here I am, thinking day and night how I can get that planner.

For those of you planning to buy Starbucks coffee, and not interested in getting the planner, please inform me. I would very much like your stickers creditted on my card. Hehehe.

2 weeks until my 22nd birthday. Looks like I’m going to spend my Christmas without the men I love. The first is my tatay (he’ll be in Hong Kong), the second is the guy who always thinks I don’t love him. Hay.

Okay, this is too long. My New Year’s Resolution: shorter entries. Hehe For those of you who finished reading this, congratulations.

Oh, I slipped back to my old layout (as if it would go unnoticed). The layout I made was ugly, and it gave me a lot of nonfunctional stuff. I'm going to start working on a new one next week, hopefully, it'll come out the way I really really want it.

Lapit na Christmas vacation! Weee!!

Bye all!:)

labcon shit

epinephrine is a sympathomimetic agent, therefore, it increases the heart rate.

adelfa contains oleandrin which is a cardiac glycoside. glycosides are used in congestive heart failure. they inhibit the Na-K-ATPase pump, resulting to increased intracellular Na, and consequently, increased intracellular Ca. this results to enhanced myocardial contractility. glycosides in short, produce positive inotropy and negative chronotropy.

chronotropy = heart rate.

administration of epinephrine didn't produce a significant change in the cardiac activity of the turtle. administration of adelfa increased the heart rate, and decreased the force of contraction.

???

effect of adelfa containing glycosides -> positive inotropy, negative chronotropy

experimental result of adelfa administration -> negative inotropy, positive chronotropy

old trans -> adelfa is more effective than epinephrine in increasing heart rate and contractility

old trans = discussed in class last year = correct.

our present result = opposite of expected = because ???????????????????????

can't understand?

toxic?

i've been figuring this out since yesterday morning.

i started the powerpoint yesterday. i still haven't finished it.

my hypothesis: the dose of the adelfa was toxic.

sana si Dr. Tan ang facilitator tom sa labcon. para pwede sindakin. hehe

wish me luck.

blah blah

why are there plastik people?

bakit may yumayabang pag nakarating na sa states?

photoshop and html codes last week. powerpoint today. lab con on monday. argh.

what is it with men and basketball? last night my father was in a very good mood. laughing and making jokes about judy ann santos in krystala. and then ginebra lost the game. hell followed.

i just realized i am a left-handed driver. i drive most of the time with only my left hand on the steering wheel.

when you write something in your blog that you think is too personal, someone would say you're sensationalizing and you want your readers to sympathize with you. don't write about it, and that someone would think you're not affected by the situation at all. what the hell am i supposed to do?

inappropriate affect: people think i'm fine. they see me happy and joking around. they don't see the pain in my heart.

people who eat ampalaya amaze me. i don't know how they do it.

guilt: praying for the typhoon to come so classes would be suspended because i don't want to fail the quizzes i didn't study for. then realizing about the people praying for the typhoon not to come because they don't want to lose their homes and their lives.

let's all pray for the victims of they typhoon winnie. and thank God for sierra madre that somehow destroyed yoyong's plan of claiming more Filipino lives.