eye of the tiger

Not much on my March list right? I doubt April would be more exciting because… I never thought I’d say this but… I’m broke. Thrifty ol’ me is broke. It’s summer and I’m broke. Why?!

It all started with that damn ITR. Whoever invented taxes should be tortured. I have to pay almost a month’s salary for taxes I’ve accumulated when I was contractor… and I thought I wouldn’t have to deal with crappy taxes until I become an employee. Sigh! Good thing mom and I discovered some more deductions that helped in narrowing down my taxes. Whew!

Then, I took a step that I should have taken since I got a job… contribute to pay for the expenses at home.

To top it all off, I’ve charged too many things on my credit card including monthly gym fee, Davao plane fare and some shopping for eyeglasses and swimsuit. Hey, those are essentials. Yeh, right. Mhen, I’m in trouble.

I need a sideline to pay for the Pagudpod-La Union-Baguio escapade with training batchmates/teammates on the last week of May. Good luck to me. Good thing the SPL teambuilding is free.  All is not lost.

On the brighter side, I will not be dateless anymore. ;)) But then again, we’re both penny pinchers. :p

Due to insistent lunchmates’ demand, I will "epal"-ize here what I have been up to this past month. Not much really… (Warning: Sorry to disappoint you, lunchmates a.k.a batchmates, but you will not find the "updates" that you are looking for here :p)

On the first week, I don’t remember any happening. I must have been really tired from all the uphill walks in Baguio as projected in the three weeks I have ditched gym.

By the second week (seventh of the month to be exact), we (OJTmates) availed tickets to Davao for July 6-9. I’m really excited about this. I’m crossing my fingers that it won’t be rainy by that time. To compensate for splurging on this, I decided to "give back" the blessings by accompanying Kittie to B.A.T.A Foundation the following Saturday (Mar 11).

On the Thursday of third week, there was dinner for 2 of my teammates because they were going to be rolled off to another project. (Everybody seems to get rolled off to other projects except me. I’m doomed to stay in Hunter Water. On the other hand, when you get to eat a P400 worth meal at Fish & Co for half the price… who’s complaining? :p) When Saturday came, Karen, Genina and I "surprised" Au for her birthday.

The following week, I saw Genina again when I dragged her and Au to watch "trees" at the Redvolution event held on the NBC Tent(Mar 24). Let’s just say that March is gay ehem… women’s month. Also, on the same day, my training batchmates had lunch out at Bacolod Chicken. It just seems odd that our batch had lunch out for two consecutive Fridays without any occassion… or maybe I’m just noticing it now because I put in writing The previous week was in Enterprise btw. :p

The remainder of the month was spent watching more movies. I watched Date Movie, She’s the Man, Just Friends and Ice Age 2. Ayala cinema gives a raffle ticket for every 2 movie tickets bought so I’m watching as much movies as I can. Hope I’ll win that trip to Palawan. :p If not, the 7-11 car or the Wendy’s shopping spree would be nice. 8->

The month was culminated with the RCBC fire drill which was not a drill after all because there really was a fire at the basement of building. Don’t worry, nobody got hurt.

Feb 24

Inn Rocio

Unloaded our bags… Rested awhile from the long trip… Freshened up…  Took pictures on the way out.

Burnham Park

Ate brunch which includes kare-kare and crispy pata at Solibao Restaurant

SM Baguio

Hiked there to withdraw in ATM machine, took a leak and bought some things

Mines View Park

Picture taking with the kikay horse (worth P10 per shot which we were not initially aware of)… Picture taking again with Douglas the Friendster dog… Saw the view and took some shots…  Bought Romana’s peanut brittle in some stall and cashew peanut brittle, adobong mani in Good Shepherd’s

Inn Rocio

Siesta.

Burnham Park

Ate corn on the cob and cotton candy for merienda… Biking.

SM Baguio

Hanged out on balcony while others checked email in Netopia to get news on the state of emergency situation in Manila.

Oh My Gulay Restaurant

Ate pasta which was not really my mine because I was clueless on what my order looked like… Took pictures of the place because it was featured somewhere.

Inn Rocio

Watched PBB on TV to see who got evicted… Listened to concert of our neighbor, the Athletic Bowl…

February 25

Panagbenga @ Athletic Bowl

Rode horse… Watched the colorful flower parade, people in costumes and performances… Got a tan…

Don Henrico’s Restaurant

Binged on pizza, pasta and buffalo wings…

Inn Rocio

Much needed nap.

Camp John Hay

Planned to Mini Golf but got scratched because it was slightly costly… Posing with trees… Saw Ate Su and Ate Louie… Took pictures on garden with them… Entered butterfly sanctuary but I couldn’t seem to catch them butterflies… Bought choco flakes…  Looked at souvenirs…

Tam-Awan Village

Got different sketches which included bonita, cartographic, monkey look-alike and free-falling-nose versions of me. Toured around to see some art works and fertility huts… Wasn’t able to view the sunset (because it was foggy) and shout an echo (because it was getting dark)…

Inn Rocio

Devoured leftovers from Don Henrico’s for dinner… Watched fireworks…

Cafe By The Ruins

Munched on strawberry shortcake… Chatted on college life… Tasted rice wine back at Inn Rocio.

February 26

Baguio Cathedral

Attended mass in Ilocano and was very late for it because we had to walk because of traffic due to parade.

Session Road

Walked through a large crowd to see the parade.

Ukay-Ukay

Bought a pink blouse and white sweater.

Palengke

Walked through possible-stampede, solid-moluecule-like crowd to get there… Shopped for strawberries, lettuce and lengua (biscuits).

Central Park

Chomped on spare ribs which was not exactly my order due to the not-so-attentive waitress… Compensated for the additional expense by eating not-so-leftover beef mami…

Pasay Bus Terminal

• Flowers: check! (Orange tulips ulit ;))

• 

• Chocolates: check! (Ferrero Rocher at Hershey’s Cookies and Cream)

• Greeting card: check! (through email at may wallpaper pa ng bagong tiger stuff toy ko)

• Harana: check! (napag-tripan ata ako dito kasi iba ung kinanta (Makita Kang Muli) sa ni-request (Kapag Nawala Ka). Ang drama tuloy.. feeling ba nila ala-Panday ang love story namin?! =)))

San ka pa! What more can I ask for? Physical presence siguro..bwehehe.

Noong ika-11 ng Pebrero, pumunta (blech!) kame ng ilan sa aking batsmeyts sa Clark, Pampanga para manuod ng hot air balloon festival. (obvious ba sa title? :p) Nagsimula ang lahat sa pagsundo sa kin ni erin at daryl sa bahay. dapat dadaanan muna ni daryl si mike sa sm bicutan pero wla pa sha dun. After daanan si mike, si paulo naman sa may bandang edsa central tapos si vina sa bahay niya sa 14th st. Ang haba ng eksplanasyon ko noh. Actually, gusto ko lang enumerate kung sino ung mga sumama. Anyway, medyo nahuli na kami ng alis ng maynila kaya isang bughaw na lobo na lng ang naabutan namin. Naglibot libot kami sa grounds at nag picture ng kung ano ano. Ganito ang mga panahon na sana maganda ang camera ko kasi di ko makuhanan ang mga lumilipad sa langit tulad ng lobo, mga saranggola at kung ano ano pang eksibisyon. tapos, kumain na ng "breakfast". shempre, sa batch namin, hindi mawawala ang KFC sa daily diet. tapos tambay at habol ng tulog kasi napakaaga itong gimik namin. tapos kain ulit ng lunch naman pero d na KFC this time. tapos tambay uli at konting laro ng volleyball. bigla namin naisip na sana nagdala kami ni gitara o baraha. in fairness, medyo prepared kami kasi may picnic table at banig kami. tapos uwi na pero nag stop-over muna kami sa isang Select na convenient store. tapos tambay ulit. napagtripan namin ung malapit na playground at nagpicturan. para may group pix naman kami kahit papano, nagsisikan kami sa isang slide at nilagay sa timer ang camera. ayun..

Ano ba yan… andami na nangyari, wla pa rin ako nasusulat… nate-tempt na naman kasi ako mag bulleted format e.. siguro OC-OC lng ko pagdating sa ganyan o baka nakikinita ko na ang madalas na paggamit ng salitang "pumunta". o sya sya, eto na ang mga nangyayari.. hot air balloon, valentines day, outreach, baguio (panagbenga). yan, tsaka na ung mga details…yeah right! i guess beating around the bush is really not my thing.

Wow, I’m a lousy blogger. This is actually my third time to edit this entry and today whether I like it or not, I shall publish it. I can’t even think of a creative title to this entry so screw it. Here goes:

I hate going home early on Fridays. Topeng is going to Disneyland this February.. inggit ako kya.. bwahahah! Pumunta kami sa Eurostar Carnival. Tignan nyo na lng yung mga pictures sa album para tapos na. Sorry, napakatamad ko talaga. Bottomline is: Nag-enjoy ako kse

1. Maganda shang therapy. Wala naman ako kagalit at d naman ako stressed out ng mga panahon na un. Naisip ko lng na sana naisipan ko gawin yun nung nagte-thesis pa ko. :p

2. Nakakaganda sha. Theory ko lng kse sa sobrang kababaliktad, lahat na ng dugo nasa ulo/mukha mo kaya may blushing effect ka na. Tapos naalog na lahat ng taba mo kaya mas madali na shang isuka. (Note: Di naman ako nasuka.Hehehe.)

Ang demented naman ata ng mga reasons ko. Ganun ata talaga pag kasama mo si Au e. Jk lng! Yan, tapos na.

Reasons why I didn’t create this sooner:

1. I’m not a "sharing" type of person. That doesn’t necessarily mean I’m selfish or anything. Di lang tlaga ko makwentong tao. There! Nagtagalog rin ako. Whew! This leads me to Reason # 2.

2. I tend to indulge in shallow dilemmas. In tagalog, mahilig ako mamproblema ng mga kababawan. For example, di ko alam kung magi-English o magtatagalog. Ang hirap e.:p If I use English, it seems unnatural. Pag tagalog naman, baka balagtasan ang dating. Pag halo naman, ang conyo. waah! kaartehan! So here’s my policy, hindi ko na lng pagsasamahin ang English at Tagalog in one sentence unless di ko talaga alam ang direct translation. How ironic! Sheesh, I’m dwelling too much on this. It’s not as if I’ll be graded on this. This leads me to Reason # 3.

3. I’m avoiding the "epal effect". Enough said.

Reasons why I did create this:

1. It hit me that a lot of good things happened to me this 2005 and I wasn’t able to share (aka boast about) them. bwahaha! As they say, count your blessings. Now, it may sound that I’m contradicting my Reason # 3 so here’s the solutions I have:
a. Click on the comment link and write "pake ko!".
b. With exception to this entry, I will only post when there are pictures involved. This will ensure that events really happened and im not just on an emotional streak. (Note: I have nothing against emotional blog entries. People just have different levels of disclosure..that’s all ;))

2. Like most bloggers, I’m bored.

3. Wala lang. Gusto ko lang lagyan ng number 3 para pantay ng nasa taas. :p

P.S. You have just witnessed a debate between me and myself. I just don’t know why I’m being so anal about this. hehehe.