INAnities

MY NEW BLOG

2011-12-17T16:33:00.002-07:00

While I had a grand time keeping this blog for years, I finally decided to get myself a new domain with my new name. So in case you're wondering what's been happening to me, please go to http://inacmagat.blogspot.com or simply click on the text under my banner photo. See ya!

I'm still here! :D

2011-12-03T15:48:00.004-07:00

Can't remember when I really last blogged!

Updates:

Gary and I just moved into our own place about a week ago here in Sunnyvale, CA. Needless to say, we've been busy unpacking and fixing our stuff. California weather is very lovely, although the current freezing temperature makes it impossible for me to get out of bed in the morning. We are also closer to things we missed: for Gary his family; for me, Filipino groceries :D

I started working for an ISO-certified staffing firm based here in Silicon Valley, which places candidates in leading companies in the IT, Finance, Administration, Engineering, Bio and Manufacturing industries nationwide. It is a slight deviation from what I used to do in the Philippines, but I'm really enjoying myself learning the ropes. The company is full of well-educated, kind people, and is already showing me a tremendous opportunity to grow my career. I love it!

Gary is back in the Army, this time as a member of the Reserves. As I type this, I'm alone in the house while he's reporting for duty in Moffett Field, a military base in Mountain View about 10 minutes from here. This morning he wore his ACU after so long and I didn't realize I kinda missed him wearing it. The husband should be back before dinner.

So everything's looking up for us after so much moving around, and I'm happier than ever :D

Halloween!

2011-11-04T23:50:00.008-06:00

my cube

rory in her costume

saroj as a geisha

me and megan

margaret as frida kahlo

lauren, me and megan

me and annber

fleet week 2011

2011-10-12T20:36:00.008-06:00

gary and i went to san francisco last saturday with his sister and two nephews to welcome his brother sherwin for this year's fleet week. kuya sherwin is in the navy and his ship was among the vessels that docked in the san francisco pier. we met up with his wife, ate ella and their two adorable boys, sean and sam. there were soooo many people and the airshow was just fantastic. here are some pictures:

bohol 2011

2011-09-24T16:58:00.013-06:00

gary and i took a trip to bohol early this month using our mabuhay miles from PAL. flying business class was a real treat, and there were so many things to explore in that province. here are some photos :

on our way to tagbilaran

arrival

we headed straight to panglao beach

sunscreen and coconut juice break

riding the tricycle back to the city

starting our countryside tour

at the blood compact site

the hanging bridge scared the hell out of me

sleeping tarsier

the famed chocolate hills

lunch at loboc river

tarsier mascot at the butterfly garden entrance

gary with the phyton

the magnificent baclayon church

papa's 11th death anniversary

2011-08-09T21:17:00.003-06:00

august 4, 2011
hermosa memorial park
hermosa, bataan

the big reunion

2011-07-18T18:13:00.004-06:00

gary and i surprised everyone here in the philippines by coming home without anyone knowing (except for my brother jay who picked us up from the airport) last july 12. i'll blog about this when i have the time, but for now, here's some photos from our dinner with my dearest friends mina (and her husband jay) and tina (and her soon-to-be husband neil) at extremely expresso in subic. ina, mina and tina have grown up :P

chinatown sfo,ca

2011-06-19T14:14:00.000-06:00

the largest chinatown outside of asia

chinatown - picture slideshow

stanford university (palo alto, ca)

2011-05-02T10:11:00.008-06:00

look what i found...

2011-04-14T21:03:00.002-06:00

http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20060915-21283/The_good_fight

christmas 2010 in rosenberg,tx

2010-12-26T16:43:00.003-07:00

merry christmas everyone :D

2010-12-25T12:04:00.005-07:00

happy birthday ma :)

2010-11-29T16:57:00.003-07:00

it's my mom's birthday today in the philippines. i must admit i'm hoping our relationship could be better. the distance has really taken its toll on us in terms of communication. i often wish i could do more for her and be there more for her but i can't. the years are really rolling by and i guess we now realize that i really will be here and she really will be there and that's that. but here's to you ma, and i'll see you as soon as possible. :x

----

we've been staying here at gary's sister's house too long. they've been so gracious and generous to us and i can only hope we'll be able to return the favor one way or another. thankfully, we're getting our own place this friday and we're moving in this saturday. last black friday, we went cra-zy buying all the stuff we need for the new house. we're soooo excited! :D

more webcam shots

2010-11-20T18:14:00.002-07:00

i like all angelos :)

2010-11-19T19:00:00.001-07:00

here's angelo, gary's nephew. a shoutout to my angelo back home, who's also so grown up now :)

dancing dynamite :D

2010-11-18T11:46:00.003-07:00

why chok never outgrew this song escapes me, but he's still cute as ever :D

time flies :(

2010-11-11T18:09:00.003-07:00

this was my nephew chok when i first saw him...

this is him now...

the BIG move

2010-11-08T13:00:00.007-07:00

the third quarter of 2010 has just been so crazy for me and gary. at the same time i had the unfortunate miscarriage in october, gary was clearing out of the army. talk about stress! now, after nearly two years of residing in el paso,tx we're starting over--yet again--in a new city.

as i type this, our house is in chaos. i just took a break from filling boxes with books and files while gary's in the parking lot prepping my car for the long drive to our new home in rosenberg, texas. we shipped his car yesterday and had his sister pick it up this morning. we're renting a trailer which we'll hook up to the accord so we can haul our stuff. not that we have a lot to bring, but i guess the whole process of moving could be draining for just about anyone.

we decided to self-move, instead of having the army do the moving for us, that way there's more flexibility with the date and the manner of transfer. we'll finally say goodbye to el paso on the 14th, a day after the pacquaio-margarito fight. gary and i never really adored el paso because of its desert-like look and feel but leaving a place, no matter how lackluster, can stir up memories and memories can stir up some serious separation anxiety.

nevertheless, we are very excited to live in rosenberg, which is a few minutes from houston. we both crave for a more liveable city with places to explore, opportunities to grab and most especially, relatives to bond with. gary's sister and her husband have been so good to us, assisting us in every way possible when we were there last halloween preparing for the big move. his two nieces and two nephews are really good kids who are just so adorable. makes me miss my angelo and chay and chok in the philippines.

we won't be settling in our new place however until december 4, our mov-in date, so we have to stay again at gary's sister's house, which is like 5 minutes away. how or where we're gonna fit all the household goods in ate loulou's house without disrupting her home escapes me right now.

the fountains of rosenberg

this christmas will be the first christmas gary and i will spend in our own house as a married couple. it should've been last year, but i was in the philippines while he toiled in iraq during the holidays. we're just both so thankful we're past that stage and we can now both lead civilian lives together.

trick or treat! :)

2010-10-31T16:16:00.007-06:00

my pumpkin pie :D

manuel the devil, angelo the ninja, uncle gary the scary pumpkin and auntie ina the she-devil

trick or treating in rosenberg

with gary's sister loulou, and daughters wella and cyndee

sad news

2010-10-20T13:22:00.011-06:00

there are things i'd rather not write about, but i feel like i owe this one to myself.

last saturday, gary and i lost our baby even before we were fully aware we had the chance to be daddy and mommy. funny how i blogged about wanting to be able to say a baby's on the way a few weeks back and i didn't know i was already pregnant back then.

so here's what happened.

we're wanting a baby, but not really trying. trying meaning keeping track of the calendar, BBT thermometer, supplements--nothing like that. we're excited to have our little one--it has been a while, but there's no conscious effort to conceive. anyway, i was delayed for two weeks and gary has been telling me to take a pregnancy test, just to see. i didn't wanna preempt anything so i refused to buy even a home pregnancy kit.

last friday, i suddenly had some spotting. very mild, so i still thought my period was just on its way. you can't blame me, i didn't feel anything different. i wasn't dizzy, no cramping, no swelling. well gary would tease me now and then about my appetite, but i've always been takaw despite being skinny. it was weird though that everyday, my menstruation wouldn't come. when the spotting happened, i finally bought a home pregnancy test. i snuck into the restroom while gary was watching tv, did my thing and got the surprise of my life: instead of just one line, a clear cross formed in the test kit.

now i kinda imagined this before and i always wanted some sort of creative way to let the husband know he's gonna be a dad. but i realized when you're put in that overwhelming situation, you just throw creativity out the window.

"i think i'm pregnant," i told him bluntly, standing by the tv. a little disoriented, he went straight to the restroom to see for himself.

"are you sure you read the instructions right?" he said. i nodded, already crying uncontrollably. he swept me in a big, big hug and said, "yes, i'm gonna be a daddy!"

he wasted no time taking me to the william beaumont army hospital. i was still doubtful whether i was pregnant because like i said, i didn't feel pregnant at all. it was a really long wait to be seen by a healthcare provider, and being there on a friday afternoon, there were tons of people in line too.

gary was unstoppable. he was already planning this and that and all i could do was say, "please wait until they tell us we're pregnant!" a few hours later, i was given a urine test. a few hours more, a doctor finally met us in our hospital room. he said the test came out negative, and my heart just sunk from there.

"there are times when the pregnancy is too early to be detected in tests like these," the doctor said. "i suggest you just wait a few more days or weeks, if your period comes then you're not pregnant, if it doesn't then get another test."

now the husband wasn't pleased by all these. walking into the car he said, "i don't trust that test. it wasn't even a blood test given to you. let's buy another brand of pregnancy test and see." the power of instinct.

we dropped by the pharmacy, got a box of ept and tested again. it didn't even take a minute before the positive sign registered on the stick. this of course left us even more confused.

are these home pregnancy tests credible? the hubby had a funny solution. he tested his urine :P

well of course it turned out negative! by this time though, i was already in a lot of pain. i take this chance to tell everyone who cares to know how utterly lucky i am to have my husband. gary's just wonderful. i can tell he was as scared as i was but he tried to remain cheerful and supportive. he bought me medicine, prepared a hot compress, embraced me, prepared food for me, and stayed up the whole night to watch over me.

the hard part was figuring out what to do. do i take midol? because the test turned out negative, i could just be having my period. do i just endure the pain (which was nothing i ever experienced before in a menstrual period i tell you)? because i tested positive twice and i could be pregnant and taking medicine could be bad for the baby. gary just lulled me and watched me sleep off my pain.

i woke up in the morning soaked in blood and i just freaked out. we both knew something was wrong, and went back to the hospital. the nurse who attended to me first said it was so weird that instead of a blood test, i was given the urine test. she said this time they were getting a blood sample to see once and for all.

i went into a hospital room where a different doctor performed a pelvic exam on me. she said i was doing ok, but the blood test result will be given to me later. the longest five minutes of my life. she came back with an older doctor and i just knew i couldn't handle what was to come on my own. i asked permission to get gary first, who was in the waiting area. when we got there, we braced ourselves for the news.

"you are pregnant. but with the bleeding that has already started and your low levels, it is very unlikely that the baby will come through. this is a very common occurence, and you have nothing to blame yourselves for."

now i already knew this. and we were kinda prepared for the news too, having had that negative test result and having dealt with the disappointment already. but hearing it the way the doctors said it, and suddenly realizing this is a baby--our baby--we're talking about, i just suddenly cried silly in front of everyone.

"oh honey you'll have a baby soon," the older doctor said as they excused themselves and left me and gary to comfort each other. when i was able to compose myself, the nurse came in with some instructions. i need to have a check up and request for an HCG test again just to monitor my levels. we also need to watch out for extended bleeding, chills and fever.
four days now and the bleeding has significantly decreased although clotting is still visible.

i could run everything through my mind and say i should've done this, i could've done that. i mean, i should've tested a lot earlier, been more careful, ate better, slept earlier, what have you. i should've believed i was pregnant when i tested positive so then we could've monitored everything more closely. i could've had the chance to really start a family with gary, channel all our love and attention to a baby that's his and mine alone. but at the end of the day, gary and i just know this much: it's not time yet. call this a rehearsal. at least now we know more about the things we should and should not do.

more than the baby we lost, the real center of the story is my husband. this time, more than ever, is when i realize what they mean when they say you and your spouse are one. i was scared as hell, but seeing him made everything better. knowing my aches are his and that i have someone who will carry this with me no matter what makes me feel complete in more ways than one. i just love him so much, and after everything i've put him through, i just know he loves me so much too.

so we move on from here.

it didn't work out

2010-10-06T08:54:00.003-06:00

we got him his own space. we got him food. we got him a name. but after only two days, we had to let the puppy go. it just wouldn't work out. i'm too scared to come close to mclovin' (yeah, we named him after the guy from superbad--gary and i love that no-brainer movie :P) so he wouldn't be taken care of when gary's gone for work. plus he's too demanding. this being manifested most by his incessant noise that drove us crazy in such short a time. i think the hubby realized having a dog isn't as great as he thought it would be. so yeah, we're back to just the two of us and we kinda like it this way. for now.

something new

2010-10-03T14:15:00.009-06:00

there's a new addition to our family.

and god i wish i could say it's a baby! baby like human baby, gary-ina spawn, mini me or mini gary. but it's just our new baby dog. anyone close to me knows i don't like man's so-called best friend. i'm not a hater, i really like them in pictures... :P it's just i'm terrified by dogs. big time. but the husband wants a doggie around the house, and i guess this is what you call marital compromise, so i'm still trying to get over my fear of dogs. yes, even a puppy. i still scream when he walks towards me and i hate how my heart races even when i know he's not going to bite or anything.

the husband actually got two terriers but we had to give away our new puppy's sister because we can't handle them together. we've yet to name him. gary's giving me the honor, but i kinda wanna wait to see what kind of personality he has so he can get a name that fits him. right now he's just a sad dog. doesn't bark,doesn't run, doesn't eat. i can tell gary's amused, as i type this, the new partners are out somewhere in the compound walking. i never expected i'd say yes to staying in a house with a dog but i'll live.

he's as suspicious of me as i am of him. lol

my bridal march

2010-09-10T11:11:00.006-06:00

i captured my favorite part of our wedding video so i can upload it here. windows moviemaker is acting up on me, so this clip is longer than it should be. i hope the husband doesn't check on this blog anytime soon...i want us to see the whole thing together when i get back to the states this wednesday. too bad the resolution suffered from all the trimming and converting. but here it is, you guys enjoy ;)

iloilo-guimaras-bacolod

2010-09-05T07:10:00.002-06:00

fickle, fickle

2010-07-23T18:16:00.011-06:00

without even a week with me, my white corolla practice car is history. the husband sneaked out the car yesterday, sold it, and bought me a white honda accord today. can't be happier. the car is pretty sweet for somebody like me who doesn't know sh*t about driving :)

here's a familiar sight: gary cleaning my car. hehe

my new baby after a shower

sorry...had to take the customary owner shot. LOL

catching up

2010-07-19T12:54:00.007-06:00

as you may have noticed, no real pictures lately, which is ironic since gary and i each have our own camera. the funny thing is that gary's usb connector for his sony cybershot is missing, while my cannon uses disposable batteries which we never seem to remember to buy. so. i tested our lg chocolate phones and sent these shots to my verizon album online. worked like a charm, but the photos aren't as clear as i'd hope. here, date night at red lobster.

the hubby bought me a practice car, a white corolla. it's still in good shape, and more importantly, it's automatic. his civic is 5-speed, and knowing how bad i did at driver's ed in the philippines, a brake, a clutch and a gas pedal could be too much for me. LOL i can only stare at it, i've yet to get my driver's permit. haha

we got life to do

2010-07-12T13:15:00.005-06:00

in between date nights and house chores, gary and i are starting to realize that we're headed for some major changes in a few months.

first of all, gary's getting out of the army. he has until january next year because he's under stop loss, but it could be sooner since the rest of his brigade's coming back from iraq next week. he just needs to take their weapons in (he's the armorer) and clear by then. i see he's really weary of his job too, and as i said before, i'm wanting a normal civilian life for us.

the catch here is, he'll be under transition after he's out of service. he needs to get a new job. and well, it's really important that i get a job too before he finishes his contract, just to keep things running smooth.

right now, i'm torn between two job prospects, the first one in marketing is a sure thing, but is not something i look forward to doing because it's an entirely different field. it's financially helpful for sure, but half of me wants to wait and see what happens with the grant writer position that i tested for. i asked the human resource department about my application and i'm said to be scheduled for interview next week. crossing my fingers.

in a few hours i'm taking my test for a driving permit. i don't wanna take it yet, but the husband's hurrying to get me behind the wheel. he's also scouting for an automatic practice car (we have a 5-speed car right now). i always had a fantasy of driving a beat-up red pick up truck, and when i told gary that, he was pretty amused by the idea too. he's been looking for vintage trucks for days, but today the husband suddenly said he's worried about how i'll control such a big vehicle. so. i think i'll end up with a car after all. of course this whole driving thing is crucial if i'm working soon. i already took driving lessons while in the philippines, but ran out of time to get me an internatioanal driving license. now i have to go through the whole texas dmv process.

how to lose reality and alienate your husband (pasintabi kay Toby Young)

2010-06-29T23:05:00.009-06:00

check what time it is in the philippines.

turn on your laptop.

search for live streaming sites.

hook up your headset.

be transported to another time and place (read: philippine time and, well, philippines).

watch news about noynoy waking up. noynoy eating breakfast. noynoy being dressed by liz uy. noynoy getting in the car. noynoy in malacañang. noynoy with gma. noynoy sitting onstage. noynoy watching charice. christian bautista. apo hiking society getting out of retirement for another gig. ogie alcasid. regine velasquez. the madrigal singers. noel cabangon. noynoy taking his oath. noynoy giving his speech. noynoy walking out of the venue.

realize you've been glued to the monitor for five hours non-stop.

look at your starving husband who not only missed dinner but has taken to talking to the walls thanks to your prolonged mental and emotional absence.

stage husband

2010-06-23T18:37:00.004-06:00

so proud!

never in my life did i expect to get me a stage husband. but i like it. a lot :) i went to my first job test today, not an interview, just a test, and gary looked like a doting dad ready to drop his baby daughter off to 1st day of kindergarten.

i'm finally starting my job search, and this one was for a grant writer position downtown. as you may know, i battle with insomnia most nights, and the husband was adamant about making me sleep early last night so i could get enough rest for my test. i had to stop myself from laughing because he was serious about it.

in the morning he was a human stopwatch, telling me how much time i got left to eat and shower. i watched him watch me try out my wardrobe and when i was done with my make up, oh my gosh, the proud daddy took pictures. LOL maybe he missed seeing me in my office clothes. it has been a while.

i mean, the last time i went job hunting was five years ago, right after college, when i got my job in the senate. so naturally, i was a bit nervous. i could see gary was amused when i was quiet in the car. he kept on telling me 'you're gonna get this,' and when he saw that wasn't exactly the encouragement i was looking for, he tried 'there are many other jobs out there even if this one turns out to be not for you.'

we got to the company building 15 minutes early, and he sat there with me while i waited to be called. when i finished in about an hour, he was still there, smiling and asking me how everything went.

i have a stage mom, i have a stage husband, i'm made. LOL

new everything!

2010-06-17T09:06:00.004-06:00

as a little girl i always loved june and december. june meant the start of the school year, and december meant christmas. no, i didn't look forward to going back to school. i did get very excited however about getting new stuff for school. and then there's new shoes and clothes and toys for christmas of course.

i think this is something i wasn't able to outgrow. matter of fact, i love shopping. no matter how big or small the purchase, getting something new has a way of uplifting my mood. on this note, in just two weeks, gary and i never had more new things in our lives. it was no joke starting over, but i'm loving the fresh start.

we got to el paso the same day; him from iraq (i didn't make it to his homecoming! sadddd...) and me from santa clara, the day after arriving from the philippines. it was a leap of faith for me to come to el paso because as everyone knows, we gave up everything before gary got deployed to iraq--the car, the apartment, the pans and pots, the tv, what have you--and he wanted me to wait until he gets us an apartment so then i didn't have to have a hard time. i just trusted my instinct and flew in anyway.

so yeah. for a week, we stayed at the hotel and took the cab while we searched for a new apartment and a new car. saying that was hard would be the understatement of the year. we literally spent an arm and a leg going around el paso, aimlessly searching for these essentials. under the el paso heat. we're on three digits this month because it's still summer, and the scorching weather is just unbelievable. i worry about skin cancer, i kid you not!

so after a week of losing sleep, money and more, we finally found a new home. it's pretty close to our previous place but i really like this one for so many reasons. there are more trees in our new compound than in any other spot in the city. it's close to everything, like our place before, only this time it's even closer to gary's work, which is very important.

the one-bedroom apartment is just the perfect size for me and my husband. this means it's cozier and easier to clean up, thank you very much :P the bedroom already has a headboard, which matches the rest of the woodwork in the kitchen and the living room. i'm still in the process of putting everything together, so no pictures yet, but i'm splashing red, orange, and brown--autumn colors--all over the place. like i said, we gave up everything last november, so we bought new plates, a new couch, a new tv set(this 42" plasma is my new best friend), a new dvd player, a new shower curtain, new everything!

the hubby is pretty happy with his new red honda, although he gives me his non-chalant face and says the car is "ok lang" lol our new phones on the other hand are just plain eye-candies. they are soooooo hard to use. touch screen technology needs some serious tweaking. i always end up dialing a number by accident, and even texting becomes such a chore.

but beyond these new things, it's really the new life i'm looking forward to. gary is getting out of the service in a few months, and we're both in search of new careers. uncertainty lies ahead, but as it is always the case with me and gary, we always pull through :)

airports, flights and jetlag

2010-06-04T19:51:00.008-06:00

i'm finally back here in the states after seven months of stay in the philippines. i arrived here at gary's parents' home in santa clara late last night. his brother jeng and wife glenda picked me up with their little girl annber at the san francisco airport. it was a long trip with a stop over in hong kong.

the hong kong international airport is insane. i had to ride a train and walk a mile to get to my gate. good thing it's easy to spot the pinoys, and like a herd, we just went wherever the others went. i got through immigration pretty quick and the luggage retrieval went pretty fast too. except for the enormous weight of the two luggages i brought, i was okay.

i am jet lagging sooooooooo bad. this didn't happen to me the first time i came here but now it hit me hard. i didn't sleep at all on the plane and last night i was up the whole time. needless to say, i've been nursing a major headache the whole day. plus my entire body's aching too...try carrying around bags that weigh close to 21 kilos each and you'll know what i mean. there are no friendly kuyas who will lift your stuff for you for a price of a pack of yosi. but i managed.

my mom, ate beng and the kids and my two titas dropped me off at NAIA. my brother met up with us at mall of asia. i have to hand it to him, and if he's reading this then all the better, he left his work for a few hours just to send me off. i miss my baby nephew chok. i took care of him everyday and he is just the most adorable baby everrrrrr. last night while i was in bed, the neighbor's baby cried and my instinct was to call out chok. except it's not chok. :(

on a lighter note, the husband's almost here too. we've been racing our way here. we left the same day, him out of iraq and me out of the philippines. gary called my mom to say he was in kuwait while i was waiting for boarding at NAIA. we haven't heard from each other since then, i assume he's been moving around, but i got a call from the fort bliss people this afternoon asking if i'm going to his homecoming, which is at 1:45pm tomorrow.

gary and i already talked about this extensively. i was insisting on going to el paso ahead so then i can just take a cab, stay in a hotel and meet him when his army plane lands at biggs airfield. the husband was insisting that i wait until he lands before i fly to el paso so then he doesn't have to worry about where i'm staying, how i'm carrying around my luggages and how i'm getting a taxi.

the hardheaded side of me was trying to make a way to get to el paso tonight but as luck would have it, the flight tonight gets there too late and costs too much, twice more than what i paid for flying tomorrow actually. so yeah, gary will have no welcoming party tomorrow, instead he's picking me up at the el paso airport at 4pm. this is pretty much what we agreed on the last time we talked, except that gary has no idea right now about my flight. i really hope he gets a chance to call as soon as he lands so then there's no mix up. i don't wanna stay at the airport, not sure if he knows i'm there or not. i have no cellphone yet because we gave up everything when gary got deployed and i left for the philippines in november so the only chance he'll be there is if he calls home and gets to talk to nanay or debra.

it still disappoints me that i can't be there at gary's homecoming. i always pictured waiting there as he lands, taking pictures, running towards each other. in slowmo. like in the movies. ewwww. LOL no i just wanted to witness how he lands and comes home. oh well. at least we get to see each other right away. i hope :P

magat-claravall nuptials

2010-04-16T08:19:00.002-06:00

the official photos are in! :D

2010-04-15T08:45:00.018-06:00

my mom and i went to nice print photography's office in shaw yesterday and finally got the raw photos from the wedding. they gave us three CDs, i left another CD containing songs for the video, and then they told me to choose 150 pictures for the albums and one for the blowup picture, all to be sent via LBC. as mentioned before, it'll take months before we get to watch our wedding on DVD and see hard copies of our pictures.

aaaaaaaanyway, here are some of my favorite shots. nice print gave me like over four thousand digital pictures and i literally spent the whole day sorting everything. i just got all the really nice ones then practically killed myself trying to limit everything to 150. i'm almost done, but now i gotta get me some cheap CDs so i can give everyone (and i mean everyone; i don't know anyone who hasn't asked for a copy)a CD.

gary's yet to see the photos because he has a convoy today to doria. he's now stationed in his mother base, fob warrior, by the way. he gets his own room, his own internet connection, and there's burger king over there i think, so it's a relief he gets some of the comforts he's missed for months now.

rings and bouquet

awww :P

already nervous as hell here

the bridal march

saying "i do"

the st. peter of verona parish church

isa pang awwww :D

bottoms up! :)

me and my hubby

the hangover

2010-04-11T01:39:00.008-06:00

the countdown on my blog says it's been twenty days since the wedding, but gary and i spent another night chatting while looking at our wedding pictures. we just can't get over it! :P this week, the plan is to go to manila to pick up our raw photos, choose 150 shots for the albums, and leave our choice of songs for the wedding video. the albums and the edited video won't get to us until after three months (and i'll probably be back in the states by then) but what choice do we have, really.

i miss my husband. from the day he got to the philippines up to the day he left, we were always too busy. the only time we had that quiet moment for ourselves was when we passed by the subic boardwalk after going to our couturier. we didn't have a camera with us so we went back with my niece chay and nephew gelo, and gary's sister debra a few days after.

we also didn't have time for a honeymoon. gary left for iraq last march 26. so to make up for that, (and because a trip has always been planned after gary leaves the army this november) guess what we're planning!!! yay yay yay! we're going backpacking in europe! :D :D :D gary and i always wanted to travel, and we want to do everything together before we start a family and be busy with our jobs. gary deserves a break for working so hard in a warzone, and he's really excited about this trip. it's something to look forward to for us both, keep our minds off the frustration of being apart for months.

the next thing to think of is getting schengen visas. i already got one before when i went to germany and france but it expired already. gary being a US citizen doesn't need one, i read somewhere. or i don't really know. either way, i'm gonna have to go get one for myself because i still hold a philippine passport. but yeah. right now i'm looking through backpacking sites, where to go, what to do, where to stay (the cheaper the better syempre). i know i've been to paris already but i want gary to see it too, and i want to be there with him. sigh. okay, okay, too much daydreaming na. for now, i'm just gonna cross my fingers. hehe

happy birthday doc!

2010-04-05T08:37:00.008-06:00

when things get messy and you just don't want to be sad anymore, it feels good to be surrounded by lifetime friends who know you inside out. our doctor friend ate gay called me, ate nelly, avon and ate may for merienda last saturday (her birthday was easter sunday). we haven't done this in more than a year. ate nelly cooked (tried!:P) spaghetti, i brought ice cream (better safe than sorry), avon helped doc gay out with her really yummy siomai and ate may took care of the grill. i ate too much. again. but yeah, who cares?!

ang mga boss

birthday girl

putting the cam's timer on works :P

the shirt is a gift from my mom. my brothers got theirs too: masamang impluwensya and sunog-baga. our mother loves us dearly :)

nakikigulo lang sa pag-iihaw :P

just got (re)married! :D

2010-03-31T01:28:00.012-06:00

after months of planning and waiting, our wedding finally arrived. it was a dream come true for me and gary. i have to say, if there's one experience every girl--or guy, for that matter--must have in their lifetime, it is to get married at church. not just for the glitz, but more importantly, for the blessing and that special bond. while it has always been undeniable that gary and i have been crazy for each other (too crazy at times), we look at each other now with even more love than ever before. our church wedding is something that no one can ever take away from us, and can i just say i was so so kilig all throughout! LOL :P

of course, as in any wedding, ang daming palpak. hehe the rings were accidentally left at the hotel (they made it on time, fortunately), the audio for the AVPs didn't play (don't ask why), some gifts were lost (again don't ask), some egos were bruised, but hey, try to imagine two clans, an entire office, and friends made in a span of a lifetime, all together in one place at the same time and tell me how we could possibly please everybody. in the end, it was really just me and gary that mattered.

who gets the best actress award? i was too giddy to keep track of the drama. but i must say it made me 10x more nervous when i saw gary so handsome, waiting for me at the altar, ready to cry in his military suit. the husband kept on whispering "you're so beautiful" to my ear throughout the ceremony, i almost melted. plus the heat. gosh, the heat inside the church made everyone melt. LOL

we decided to write our own vows, and gary made a really, really, romantic one. i pretty much messed up the first part of mine but the husband reassured me he got everything i wanted to say.

i now take the opportunity to thank all the people who made our wedding possible.

the magat/cativo and claravall/tungol families, for their presence and support. gary & i both wish we could've done more for all of you but we were both so busy with the preparations and the rush of the event. we are very grateful for your understanding and love.

fr.mario margallo, for making us feel the loveliness of our wedding so easily, and for the instant friendship he created with me and gary. many times during the ceremony, i saw him smiling whenever i was kilig, and i also saw him nodding at gary from time to time, as if to say he was just as happy for us.

my childhood friend rev./kuya noel nuguid for doing the sermon, assisting fr.mayong and leading the prayer at the reception. many years ago he promised he'll be the one to officiate my marriage, and as God so amazingly planned, he was ordained two days before my wedding.

the church secretary mel nuguid, and the children of mary immaculate for assisting me patiently.

our ninongs and ninangs who really went out of their way to attend our ceremony. it means so much to us.

our entourage, for the friendship, which, we have proven, can push you guys to wear suits on a hot summer day, and revealing tube dresses :P

team kiko for being a real family. mahal na mahal ko kayo.

georg and jayson for adding class to the programme.

my friends from kalayaan residence hall in UP. thank you for pausing your climb up the corporate ladder to see me walk down the aisle. i miss you all!

to wonderful events wedding coordination, for all the help.

to nice print photography for capturing our special day. i must say neither gary nor myself liked the posing part very much, but we're very excited to see the photos and videos nonetheless.

ms.virgie reyes and JS bridals for the gowns and suits. alvina for my make-up. mayo arellano for my entourage's make-up. my youngest flower girl annber asked me, "ina, are you a princess?" and thanks to the beautiful wedding gown and makeup on my wedding day, i really thought i was. :)

global ventures for my classy invites.

lilwhiskers for our cookies and cream giveaways.

crown royale's mark and lizel for all the assistance, attention, freebies, what-have-you.

kuya michael and ate jonalyn for the beautiful flower arrangements. i was expecting a plain aisle because the church didn't want flowers at church during the lent season, so i was pleasantly shocked to see the beauty of the st.peter parish church decked with flowers. galing ninyo, wala akong masabi!: D

st.peter parish choir and sandy and her band for the beautiful music in the church and at the reception. i always said maganda lang music sa kasal ko masaya na ako. thank you!

to those i failed to mention, we're sorry, and please remember that we're just as grateful for all your help.

as i mentioned, the official photos are not with us yet, but i stole some pictures online from friends. yes, i know, the fact that it was my wedding doesn't mean i own these pictures, pero pagbigyan nyo na ako. excited eh. hehe so thanks to yvette, tina, giselle, arlo, debra and all other unwitting people whose shots i stole. :P

if you wanna see a bigger slideshow, follow this link:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/42425843@N07/sets/72157623739456716/show/

tantararannnn

2010-03-04T06:32:00.006-07:00

the invitations finally arrived this afternoon! yay!

it's better than i expected. a big shoutout to global ventures for giving me the attention every bride wants to get, especially for going out of its way to get me the right shade of purple for my stationery! the embossed printing is great, and i love love love the scent :)

husband news. gary's still stuck in fob warrior, awaiting a flight to balad, iraq, before going to kuwait and finally to the philippines. it is insane that he's on his way here but not quite. i mean, can he just get here already???!!!

soooooo excited!

2010-03-02T20:50:00.005-07:00

yesterday, gary left patrol base doria to go to his mother base, fob warrior in kirkuk. he'll be there until the 7th, where he'll be having some briefing sessions before finally flying home. we weren't expecting him to leave this early, since he was initially told his schedule at warrior was thursday. but who are we to complain about him getting here earlier than expected right?:P

i just realized i haven't blogged about the actual wedding venue. i got the blue horizon ballrooom at the crown royale hotel like i wanted...by moving our wedding on a monday! the church agreed to marry us on a weekday, in the afternoon, so it's all good. like hitting two birds with one stone: i got my preferred wedding venue and i get to have a dinner reception instead of lunch :)

i'm still awaiting the arrival of our invites but here's the final layout. you don't actually get to see the actual design of it, but this is basically the look and feel of the invites. :)

this saturday i'll have my gown fitting (yes, i'm fitting my gown, it's the year 2010 guys!) and i'll try to finalize all the entourage wardrobe. all the details must be ready when gary gets here. they have to be. as my mom knowingly predicts, "may sarili na kayong mundo ni gary nyan pagdating nya dito." LOL that's what the wedding planner's for mommmmmmmm! :P

a vow is a vow is a vow

2010-02-16T00:02:00.004-07:00

by now, anyone who's been reading this blog is definitely tired of hearing me talk about gary and the wedding. well lucky you, i'm not done yet!

we're already halfway through the wedding preparations. all the suppliers have been booked, and most have been paid half their fees too. all the trinkets have been purchased, and this week, i'm having my trial make up done.

with all these details going through my head, i almost put on the back burner a very important thing: my wedding vows. good thing, it turns out, gary has been thinking about his the whole time. and since i need to have both our vows approved by the parish priest prior to the ceremony, i get to know what he has to say too. haha well he's not done with his vows yet but from what he shared to me, i am officially warning each and every person attending my wedding that it's gonna be a cry fest. :)

so. my wedding vows. i'm really excited about writing it. but see i have this attitude when it comes to important things i have to write. i tend to get intimidated by them. the more important something is, the harder it is for me to start writing. because i want it to be perfect. because i want it to be something worth remembering. because i want to be able to say everything i want to say. because i only get one shot at this. ok, now i'm even more overwhelmed!

the first thing i'll do with gary when he gets here...

2010-02-13T16:37:00.003-07:00

besides that, is to watch dear john, a romantic drama based on the nicholas sparks novel about a soldier who falls in love with a college girl while he's on leave. the movie features channing tatum and amanda seyfried. it started showing last week here in the philippines...hope we can still catch it when gary comes home. happy valentine's day! :D

kinarir ko na 'to!

2010-02-12T08:44:00.005-07:00

i'm a geek bride. i actually went to a bridal fair! LOL i dutifully traversed the aisles of sm mega trade hall with assistant bride (read:my mom) in tow. LOL

yes, see, this whole wedding thing is serious business i tell you. there's a great deal of difference between unity candles and secondary candles. an embossed monogram on the cover of an invitation and a flat print. a wooden photo album and a magnetic storybook. fondant and royal icing.

ok, so i'm a dweeb, but hey, i finished all i needed to do in one day! i (finally!) found me an invitation maker. nothing drop-your-mouth-open-it's-so-fierce, but i like the look and feel of it nonetheless. simple but elegant. so cliché but i mean it :)

i also bought a guestbook since the photo/video won't make me one. as we all know, gary's coming here only a few days before the wedding and with all the pre-cana requirements, we can't have a pre-nuptial shoot, which means nice print has no material to use for a guestbook. the guestbook i got is too generic. i'm thinking i'll vamp it up if i still got time.

we also got this pair of humongous secondary candles. and another pair of party poppers. we have a bunch for the reception already but ritchelle says we need two more for when we get out of church after the ceremony. i was gonna buy my wedding shoes but there is nothing magical at nine west or celine or vnc. maybe another mall some other time.

there weren't too many people at the fair. well actually i don't know. maybe i was expecting a noel bazaar kind of crowd, but hey, it's a bridal fair. how many brides can you gather at one place right? my brother jay met up with us for lunch. we told him to find us inside the bridal fair. he was sticking out there like a sore thumb. LOL he left right after eating, while my mom and i stayed on to check out every corner of sm megamall.

bad!

2010-02-09T02:44:00.003-07:00

i'm bad.

with only nearly a month away from THE DAY, i still didn't have final suppliers for my photo and video, my invitations and my giveaways. ritchelle, my new best friend a.k.a. the wedding coordinator, said we should step on it and try to finalize these three by this week and i totally agree. so yes, i've been on the edge.

the husband's been really patient; i hate myself for being such a pain. we were online chatting and i've been throwing him super tantrums. blame it on the wait. i mean i hate, hate waiting and not knowing if i'm getting something done or not. i bet he was biting his lip trying to be nice to me when i was complaining like a three-year-old.

in case he reads this, as he sometimes does, this is a shoutout to you baby: i'm sorryyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy for the S, and i'm trying to pull it together. there's no excuse for behaving that way. :(

anyway, bridezilla was able to deposit the 50% for nice print photography today, so that basically seals the deal, except for the formal contract signing. see nice print's blog on my blogroll, it's pretty cool :)

my brand-spanking new passport

2010-02-05T02:44:00.017-07:00

my passport finally arrived in the mail today. i went through teleserv, the online service of dfa for renewing my passport. :D i paid extra for this service, but it was well worth it. no lines, and i didn't worry about the requirements much. gone is the green worn-out passport i had for years. the maroon passport i got carries the name ina magat :)

the old and the new

awww...all those travelling

2010-02-03T17:57:00.007-07:00

i start writing a blog entry title first, usually knowing what i wanna say and the stories i wanna tell. but as i type this, soooo many things are going through my mind i can't even come up with a title. i'll just put down anything and everything.
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i hate it when brides say they're busy and stressed out. i really do. it gives me the perception of self-importance, complaining about seemingly frivolous matters that they should be keeping to themselves. but now that i'm in their place, i can't stop myself from declaring how busy and utterly stressed out i am. can't sleep, can't eat (okay, that's a lie. LOL) can't sleep, can't sleep. the funny thing is, the hubby's going through the same thing. :D

me: why do you sound so tired?
him: i didn't sleep enough.
me: how can you not sleep enough, we ended talking at 2am, you only woke up now, it's lunchtime.
him: well it's like i didn't sleep at all. i'm in bed, my eyes are shut, but my mind's awake, thinking about the wedding and going home.

cute no? :D
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my little chokchok is sick. he has mild fever and a really bad cough. since i came home, i've been so attached to my 8 month-old nephew. he's super fat...10.8 kilos at 8 months, and really funny-smart. he copies what he sees, and he makes these weird sounds. :D it breaks my heart to see him sad and quiet and sick :(

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important times like these when i miss my dad. the wedding coordinator asked me what song i want for the father-daughter dance...i simply had to say there won't be one.

i must admit i should remember my dad more than i do. i'm a daddy's girl and after his sudden death, i always thought it's impossible to live without him. the heart really does have a way of moving on. i think i'll go visit his grave this weekend.

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the entourage and the guestlist are getting out of hand...and i'm entirely to blame for it. gary's side's presence in this wedding is like not even 5% but the husband is just charming about it. he gives me a freehand on this and that makes everything a bit easier.

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i have a good team for the wedding. i know i did all the work at the start but i can see that the remaining weeks will be easier for me thanks to my coordinator, and the people at crown royale are just so cooperative and accomodating i'm really feeling good about my choice.

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this wedding will be so surreal. it'll be like a montage of my life. gradeschool friends. high school friends. college buddies. team kiko. friends from various points of my existence. gary's relatives. my relatives. all in one place at the same time. how weird is that???

bride wars

2010-01-18T07:39:00.003-07:00

today i went to bataan's capital balanga city with my mom to check out crown royale, the only respectable hotel in town. i have envisioned a wedding in corregidor not long ago, but now that i'm here in the philippines, it just seems too taxing to stage a celebration there. besides, with our situation (gary arriving only 4 days before the ceremony) we have no choice really but to stick to my hometown, where i could (and was able to) use my life-long connections to make the wedding happen in such short notice. also, it just feels right to be married in a church where i spent almost all of my sundays hearing mass.

now that i've finished all the arrangements for the church requirements, the next target is to find the venue for our wedding. these days, my mom and i have been having our annabelle-ruffa moments more than usual. she insists i should have the reception in subic, which she says is a mere 10, 15 minutes away from hermosa via sctex. i'm more inclined to have it here in bataan, in balanga specifically, because...well, i just want to.

i've already given up the idea of a garden wedding because there's just too many risk factors that come with it: rain, too much sunshine, sound system quality, humidity, AVP equipment readiness, etc.

so yeah. today, we went to crown royale. it was surprisingly okay for a provincial hotel. it's new, it's clean and it's well-lit. the rates are okay, and we are sure to get the best suite if we book there. when the manager toured us around, i was a little disappointed with the first function room because while it was spacious, the really low ceiling gave me the feeling of suffocation.

then we saw the blue horizon area, which was really, really nice. it was a ballroom. like a ballroom. i wanted it right away, while my mom was exercising her haggling techniques. she was pretending it was ok--not good, not bad, and she was saying, yeah, well, we'll think about it.

minutes later when we went back to the management office, we were informed that another bride just confirmed her reservation for the blue horizon for the same day, at the same time (lunch). i was heart-broken. i had the gall to name-drop (one of the owners of the hotel was a contemporary in UP)and that got the manager pacifying me with a silly promise that we'll be notified should the other bride change her mind. actually, i'm the fifth bride to book one of their ballrooms for the same schedule. imagine that: five weddings at the same time in the same hotel!

now i have a lot of thinking to do, as if i'm not doing enough. how will i get the church to let me get married in the afternoon, so we can have the blue horizon area for dinner? the priest's rule is to not have weddings on saturday afternoons because they interfere with the anticipated mass at 5pm. do i just go for subic? do i plot against the person who stole my venue?!

my mom gave me a piece of advice: you can't get everything you want. i simply said, "watch me". i told you, bridezilla is in the house! :P

birth of the bridezilla

2010-01-14T05:43:00.009-07:00

here we go!

the husband gave the ultimate good news: he has an idea when he'll be here! his troop had some sort of a meeting where they calendared their leave applications, and he finally got the schedule that gets him to kuwait in march 14 for a few days of safety briefing before flying to the philippines via germany. we're thinking he'll be here on the 20th, at the latest.

first and foremost, i need to sweet-talk the parish priest and those who give the pre-cana seminar to let us finish all the wedding requirements within the first three or four days that gary is here in the country. this is of course really ambitious because the normal process takes months to happen. we gotta pull some serious strings i tell you.

then if i'm able to do that, the real stress of booking a venue, finding the perfect gown, sending out the invites, etc. begins.

witness the birth of the bridezilla. mwahahahaha

pre-cana long distance style

2010-01-14T05:43:00.008-07:00

yes, my friends, some very fortunate progress at last!

i went to the church secretary to tell her that gary's coming to the philippines this march, that he'll be here more or less 14 days, and that yes, please, by all means, get the monsignor out here before i lose the chutzpah to demand a short pre-cana process.

the nice secretary honestly told me that as someone who's listed many a happy couple in her marriage registry, four days to get all the church requirements done is nearly impossible. i pushed for it anyway.

so now gary and i find ourselves on yahoo messenger answering agree-disagree questions about marriage. if you wanna get married as bad as we do, going through the pre-cana while you're worlds apart is a pretty fair deal. it was actually pretty fun too, discussing what he thinks and what i think about every aspect of getting married. we finished page 1 of the 6 pages we have as advance reading. we'll be doing this for the next 5 more days, then we'll go through the sacraments, the prayers, etc.

he'll get here on a tuesday and we'll head straight to the priest for our 1st interview. a relationship seminar the morning after. cathecesis lectures for wednesday and thursday. 2nd interview and confession on friday. wedding on saturday. im already getting exhausted just thinking about it. hay my gulay!:P

two weddings and an anniversary

2010-01-03T18:29:00.150-07:00

this morning i went to the st. peter de verona parish secretary's office to register for the church wedding. we need to prepare some documents (baptismal and confirmation certificates, etc.) and we have to undergo a really time-consuming process (pre-cana seminar, cathecesis, interviews, confession)so i have, once again, turned on my panic button. this is aggravated by the fact that gary doesn't know when he will be here in the philippines. he applied for a two-week leave starting the 20th of april, but as the army goes, you don't know what's gonna happen until you get your oders. so how does one prepare the church schedule, the invitations, the venue, the flowers, the wardrobe, when there is no set date for the ceremony? you tell me.

gary insists it will happen. we both want this to be the wedding we have always planned and dreamed of, so even with the time constraint, we both promised to do everything in our power to have a wedding this april. it's now or never.

our first picture together

i've been meaning to blog about our civil wedding for a long time, but never got the chance, until now. today is our first wedding anniversary, and it's the perfect time to reminisce.

everything went wrong in our civil wedding. i mean everything. we were supposed to wait for my mom to get to the states before we tied the knot, but gary and i knew we had to get it done fast so he can put me into his records in the army, apply for housing inside the base, and be together in el paso. i was then staying at his parents' in santa clara, and it killed us to be finally in the same country but still be living apart.

so during his holiday break, he went home to santa clara and decided to finally get married. i was of course, feeling really really guilty for not having any of my family members with me. gary felt sorry for me too, but the longer we'd wait, the harder it was gonna get for us.

so we woke up one morning, and a few hours later, found ourselves driving with his family for 16 hours to nevada, where the marriage contract can be had the same day you get married. we needed this, because gary was scheduled to fly back to el paso in two days from san jose. this means we had to get the marriage contract and hurry back home for him to make it to his flight. we didn't even have time to prepare all the details, not even our wardrobe.

many hours into the trip, gary held my hand from the driver's seat and told me, "this isn't the wedding i have for you. we'll do this for practical reasons for now, but i'll give you the wedding we've always wanted. that's a promise."

we got there at dawn, and while we were all sleepless, nobody wanted to sleep anymore because we had to wait for the first chapel to open, have the ceremony, and go. at around 9am gary and i found this dainty little church that looks like it came straight out of the set of gilmore girls. i told gary, if we're gonna have this rushed wedding, at least have me married in this pretty little chapel. so we got scheduled for 10:30am. we then had to get the marriage license from the county clerk.

so picture this. we were both really tired from the really long trip. except for the drive-thru dinner we had, nobody's eaten anything yet. we couldn't get the damn GPS to work. so gary and i drove around and around looking for the city hall. i was getting really impatient, so i told him we should just stop and ask for directions. "baby, i'm a scout," he said. 30 minutes before our church schedule, and i was ready to walk out on him, the scout finally pulled over and asked for help.

it was a mad rush to the county clerk's office, and while i wasn't thinking anymore as i filled up the form, gary pulled me close and kissed me, when i asked why, he looked at the marriage certificate i was holding. he said it felt so good. i smiled back. it sure did.

so we got back to the room to get ready while everyone was out killing time before the wedding. gary and i got back to the van, and when we were about to pick up his family, he looked at me and said, "listen, let's do this on our own. it's only fair, you have no family with you, so i won't have my family with me. just you and me." and it was the most romantic thing he ever thought of.

the world stopped when we stood in the altar. it was just so romantic. the church was so pretty and everything was so quiet. it was only him, and me, and the reverend. we recited our vows nervously, and when the ceremony was over, we both felt so much closer to each other. like it was our very own little secret. what started out so wrong, in the end, was every bit right.

2010

2010-01-02T02:41:00.005-07:00

in the spirit of the new year and all the traditional readings and predictions, i tried my sign (aquarius-january 26) and gary's sign's (capricorn-january 9) compatibility. here's what i got:

Aquarius + Capricorn

Air + Earth = Dust

Aquarius and Capricorn is a very mysterious combination. You are both ruled by Saturn, which is a stable, predictable planet. These are the strongest characteristics of Capricorn, but Aquarius is less predictable, because it has the influence of Uranus as well.

Capricorn is thoroughly traditional, and loves sticking to the tried and true. Aquariius is very different: it feels that situations and rules must be taken apart (not literally!) and re-examined from time to time. It is not content with things as they are, so it is constantly looking for ways to push situations and people to their limits.

Aquarius' belief that trying out new systems is the best way to get the most out of life will be a big hurdle for Capricorn.

But these opposite approaches could be just what you both need. Perhaps Capricorn and Aquarius are two sides of the same coin. Capricorn needs a bit of a push to move them out of their comfort zone, and Aquarius could use a steady hand to keep it more anchored to the here and now.

Capricorn is very sensible with money, too, so they will secure your financial future if you get involved with them.

Your tastes in other areas of life differ considerably too, not surprisingly. Capricorn prefers traditional art or antique styles of furniture, but Aquarius loves more modern furnishings and abstract art. The same sorts of differences are likely in your musical tastes.

There are question marks over sexuality between you. Some Aquarians are considered kinky, so if you do like trying things that are a little way out, be gentle. Some Capricorns are a little staid here.

But Capricorn could well be captivated and completely seduced by your ingenuity in the bedroom. This could bring you together very quickly. And you might learn quite a bit from them: there’s plenty of fun to be had with good old-fashioned lovemaking. Stay open-minded!

Because Saturn rules Capricorns born between 22 December and 1 January, you’ll find your best mates born in this period. Even though your star signs are rather different, there are similarities between you and there will be quite a high level of mutual attraction.

You could have good marriage prospects with Capricorns born between 2 January and 10 January. As different as you seem at the start, you could nevertheless fall in love hard.

If you want lots of emotional stimulation, try getting involved with Capricorns born between 11 January and 20 January. They have a deeper feelings and more sensitivity than is at first apparent. You can gain a great deal of satisfaction from them.
---
oh, and we both have the same love sign, capricorn, which reads:

Having Venus in Capricorn is a sure sign that the game of love will not be rushed. A better question might be whether things will get off the ground at all! Those graced by this placement are cautious to the core, not ones to jump into love or meander through various flings. Rather, the tender care of another is what will bring this lover into full bloom. That said, once insecurities and fear of rejection are shoved aside, those with their Venus in Capricorn can be loyal and true lovers who will work hard at making their relationship click. Don't expect a fountain of feelings to flow from these folks, however; expect them instead to be relatively private, albeit sensualists in the right situation. That situation is likely to be one where emotional and financial security is virtually guaranteed. Now that's not too much to ask, is it? Well, hard worker that the Goat is, those with this placement can expect to spend much of their time doing the work, which will ultimately lead to relationship bliss. The fruits of this labor? A faithful and devoted lover. Not bad!

plus, my passion sign is gary's birth sign capricorn, and his passion sign is my birth sign aquarius :D

ang pasko ay sumapit

2009-12-24T21:34:00.009-07:00

team kiko christmas

2009-12-23T02:24:00.011-07:00

i got the chance to see old friends at the team kiko christmas party last dec.17 at the brickhouse in guadalupe. i brought my mom along, as we were scheduled to go to the noel bazaar at the world trade center in pasay the following day. a lot has changed, i felt a bit lost, but i still love my team no end :)
with my mom

with lizel

catching up with sen.kiko

with ditas

with team kiko

how (not) to send a care package to iraq

2009-12-14T19:05:00.005-07:00

christmas is coming up, and i feel really bad that gary has to spend the holidays in a war zone. we first got together during christmas three years ago, and this is our first christmas apart. so i thought, it's time for a care package!

i've sent him a few care packages in the past when he was in kentucky and korea (hey, now he's in kirkuk...there's a pattern here...) and there is no way i'm letting christmas pass without him getting something from me so i just jumped right in. i knew preparing the box could be pretty tricky, but i didn't know it was a hazard to one's mental well-being.

1. get the videos.
    before deployment, he asked me to make a video of me singing a song for him, something he can put on his mp3 player for viewing while he's away. i wasn't able to do it because, well, i didn't really want to. he's the only person who insists i have a talent for it. recording myself is like leaving an indelible track that may haunt me forever and i don't want that. he was making tampo about it when he left, so despite myself, and in the spirit of the holidays,i reunited with my jurassic acoustic guitar and recorded a song for him, and another one with a christmas message. i got my brother's baby, and i recorded a video of him too, which was even harder to do. dealing with babies and videos needs perfect timing i tell you. at the end of all the recordings, i suddenly realized the format was .avi, so i had to go online and check what types of video formats are compatible with his player. i then had to download a video converter, and if your computer has had no taste of a virus scan for the past two, three years, this can be totally infuriating. i was able to make them into .wmv after some agonizing hours, but having no special technical knowledge of sound/video editing, the timing of the audio to the video didn't match. oh well.

2. ready the dvds.
    gary's even more bored than i am. and he begged me to send him dvds to kill time. he bought a portable dvd player because our laptop's up for repair.

3. develop photos.
    i just figured gary and i didn't have hard copies of our pictures. who keeps 8x10s these days anyway? so i went through all our digital photos and had them printed for him. some were taken when we were still going out, one was during christmas, and then i added some photos of jepoy, our nephew/inaanak. i also put a framed picture of us...where i looked the nicest, of course :P

4. hoard pinoy foods.
    i stuffed my grocery cart with chocnut, and cornick, and peanuts, and eggnog, and what have you, only to realize that they're pretty strict about the halal standard in iraq. the la paz batchoy cup noodles had to go.

5. don't forget the toiletries!
    gary has this oc behavior when it comes to cleanliness. so it will forever escape me how he deals with his current portalet situation. i sent him this axe chocolate  deodorant, some baby wipes, baby powder, lotion, insect repellant, nail cutters, a loofah, and some muscle pain reliever.

6. pack them with L-O-V-E
   i carefully put together similar products to make it easier to ship. to protect the letter, dvds and cds i made for him from snoopy eyes, i carefully emptied a sustagen box from the bottom and slipped all of my stuff inside, along with a slim packet of nestea iced tea (to make that powder sound when shaken), and sealed the bottom side of the box with mighty bond. voila! you wouldn't know the difference.

7. do your research.
    having worked as a writer, i should have known step number 7 must ALWAYS be step number 1. this pretty much messed everything up. i went to fedex with my angel of a friend, tina, who drove for me all the way to subic. when we got there, the first fedex store was closed, we had to go downtown and try shipping from the other branch. the lady said they didn't send to APO addresses. the last time they did, the package got delayed for weeks.
    but i was unyielding. i said i was able to send to an APO address via fedex before (which is true you know) and that i didn't care whether it's gonna take weeks as long as it's gonna reach my baby before christmas. she must've sensed desperation (besides the fact that i really wanted the package sent, the hard work of putting together everything was just too much to forget) and said yes.
   so tina and i stuffed everything into the fedex box, which was, for the price i was paying, extremely small. mary poppins would've been so proud! we were able to put everything in...except for the v-cuts (which gary loves) because they took too much space. we sealed the box, paid the shipping price that's twice more expensive than what was inside, and crossed our fingers.
    when i got home, i checked fedex.com and saw all the regulations that i should've known in the first place. no powders. i sent baby powder, and the sustagen powder drink that contains all that's essential in the care package will also be, technically, not allowed. no liquids. the insect repellant, the mouthwash, the lotion are all of course in liquid form.
     they also really don't deliver to apos in iraq. the best that they can do is bring it to fob warrior and if the mail people there are nice enough, maybe they'll bring it to patrol base doria. if not, gary will have to make a way for him to pick up the package, which has, by the way, reached parañaque, china, and dubai.
     today i click on track your package at the fedex website and the 4 kilos that i sent is now only 2.7 kilos. did they get rid of everything? what about my videos? oh it's gonna suck so bad if the really important stuff in there don't reach him.oh, and did i tell you that right after i sent the package, i learned that i can pre-order a care package online from the states to be sent to him via US postal service and it will reach him in a few days for half the price? oh well. as long as my fedex box will reach him, it's worth all the pain. the website says it'll be in fob warrior december 20 at 8pm. let's see how it goes.

...

2009-12-05T18:12:00.002-07:00

writer's block. nothing to write about. nothing new.

my good soldier

2009-11-30T20:04:00.001-07:00

after two days of not hearing from each other, gary was able to call me yesterday. he finally reached iraq, and bought a local sim card to get hold of me. he said they've been moving around a lot, and are leaving their initial FOB to transfer to his final station 30 miles of Kirkuk. i read about this camp online, and well, let's just say it's still not IED-free.

people often ask me how i feel that my husband has the kind of job that he has, and well my answer is you really just don't think about it. well not NOT think about it, but i guess the human mind can condition itself well enough to reduce matters into just one equation: gary and me equals the future, everything else is temporary and is thus surmountable.

so we've been talking and talking last night to make up for lost time. it is INSANE how expensive it is to call iraq from the philippines. i called globe, and smart and sun (which doesn't reach iraq, by the way) to ask for their rates. contrary to what we expected, it's even more expensive if i make the calls compared to him placing them. despite the cost, our communication plan is still for him to text me first then i'll call him, because it's even harder for him to get by a phonecard where he's getting assigned. actually, we're not even sure yet if his new network has coverage in his next stop. the fun never stops! :P

he also went to the internet shop where everybody lines up to get 20 minutes online, and we tried to see each other on webcams. tried, because his cam won't connect to yahoo due to a faulty server. he was able to see me, but i still feel frustrated that i didn't get a glimpse of him even on the computer. as i already mentioned before, gary earns a lot of points for keeping in touch with me no matter what. this is what sustained us for the past years, and even now, he's still doing everything to make this easier for me.

he says he's been eating okay and isn't losing weight, so that's good. he and his troopmates stay together in a tent, on bunk beds. there is nothing at all close to home with his living situation right now. which gets me thinking, the army really has toughen up gary physically, mentally and emotionally.

i remember driving up to california for 24 hours from el paso with him. he of course did all the driving, non-stop. and i mean non-stop.i woke up, and slept, and woke up again in the passenger seat and he was still driving. he didn't stop at all to sleep. the only times he got off the wheel were during rest room breaks! he's also no-nonsense, he'd take whatever you give him (well he's not so easy to please when it comes to the food i cook, but that's another matter...) and he wants everything scheduled and systematic.

there was also this one time we ate at taco bell near our place in el paso from a shopping spree. the mall we came from was really far, and it was raining. so anyway, we ate, and drove home. when we were about to go to the house, i realized i left my bag behind. i just didn't know where. i. had. a. cow! all my important documents were there (okay, okay, 1, don't tell me i was careless, that's more than obvious, and 2, don't ask me anymore why i carry important stuff around, that's just me. end of discussion.) and i was thinking, if i left it at the mall, it'd be impossible to remember where, and even more impossible to get back.

i was in tears, and i would have perfectly understood if gary got upset with me too. but i guess he's been trained with high tension situations, plus of course he really is a nice guy to start with, he just remained calm the whole time. he asked me systematically what was in my bag, and i winced, waiting for his reaction after i gave him an answer. instead of getting mad, he reassured me anything in there, we can apply for again, it's just we needed to get the bag back to protect my identity and also save us all the hassle. he then asked me to recall when it was with me last. everything to me was in a blur, i was scared i'd be delayed with my plans to come home here in the philippines, i was crying, i wasn't even responsive. he just didn't bother me anymore and did his thing. he drove back as fast as possible to taco bell, was gone for a while and was back with my stuff.

gary really takes pride with what he does for a living, and while i will be the first to say that i want him out of active duty, i will also be the first to say that i am really, really, tremendously proud of him and what he's become.

happy day

2009-11-25T02:50:00.000-07:00

the hubby called this afternoon with good news: they're moving to a territory in iraq where there's phone coverage (yes!) and internet (yes!). there won't be a PX store where he could get his dose of american goodies or buy phonecards but i told him he can always purchase online. he's happy. i'm happy. we're happy. :D

just when we thought things couldn't get any harder...

2009-11-23T05:30:00.001-07:00

great. gary calls me tonight to say he had to tell me something important, but his line's so choppy we don't get to talk until after dialing a third time. they warn him that the area they're going to in iraq has zero phone coverage and of course, no internet. 'so, like, no word from each other for a year?' i ask, unable to hide my annoyance. 'i don't know babe, i hope not. don't get mad at me for this. what do you want me to do? i'm just as unhappy as you are about the situation,' he says. so we let it slide and hope for the best. i wanna cry.

camp buehring, kuwait

2009-11-22T17:44:00.001-07:00

gary finally got to call me twice, first on saturday, then yesterday. he's in camp buehring in kuwait for a two-week briefing before going to iraq. the poor guy didn't even know what day it was. seeing satellite photos of his present assignment makes me want to make him come home if i could. he's pretty positive about everything though. he says he can handle it, and is just looking forward to getting it over with so we can live a normal civilian life.

guess who's back?

2009-11-20T10:00:00.150-07:00

so i'm writing this entry at the ungodly hour of 3 am. third day back in the Philippines and I'm still nursing a jetlag. i would like to blame it all on this, but really, it's not just jetlag that's making me feel lost despite being home.

being away from gary makes me realize i neither belong here in bataan nor in santa clara with his family. i belong to him, wherever he is; which, i think it is now safe to say, is in iraq--he already left the states for his deployment yesterday. okay, so i'm speaking figuratively, but i literally feel like a piece of me is missing.

i really have to hand it to him. he does EVERYTHING to keep in touch with me. the boy was on the phone with me every step of the way, i felt like i was on a C130 heading to the middle east. even during refueling in minnesota, he managed to get hold of me to remind me he's always coming back for me no matter what.

i remember what he told me before we left santa clara. he said when he went back to el paso and i was left at his parents', he'd wake up in the morning and his instinct was to reach for me. "i feel like i'm about to lose my mind when i'm not with you." this is pretty much what i'm feeling right now. i enjoy being home, but i can't feel completely at peace with gary away. i'm still waiting to hear from him, which i hope is sooner than later. we have no idea how it's gonna be for us while he's stationed there but i'm confident he'll do everything in his power to touch base.

how was my trip back? unbearable, like i expected it to be. i cannot stress enough how much i dislike airports, and i always have airport stories to tell. for this outing, it was simply an episode from twilight zone. to begin with, all my luggages were overweight. i had a balikbayan box packed by gary, which exceeded the limit by 10 pounds. his brother's balikbayan box (which i was to bring to their other brother here) was a good 6 pounds overweight too. my carry-on luggage was 30lbs, when only 15 lbs was allowed. to top it all, i was hauling a 14.1" toshiba laptop that probably weighed more than i do on my backpack. in the middle of opening balikbayan boxes and weighing my stuff again, i just wanted to leave everything behind. the stress was just too much for a few freaking cans of spam and corned beef!

to make matters worse, the lady at cathay pacific was a total pain in the ass. she was at my throat, telling me she's about to close the counter and i might have to miss my flight. i wanted to give my 'is this the kind of customer service (fill in the company name) has?' speech, but this whole balikbayan business was too tiring i just decided to shut up. i was, of course, last to board.

the only nice thing about this trip was how surprisingly tasty food on cathay pacific was. definitely better than PAL or KLM. while i always thought plane food was bland, the meals for my flights were all really good.

i did not sleep a wink on neither my flight from san francisco to hong kong nor my flight from hong kong to manila. while waiting for my connecting flight at the hong kong international airport, i sat for three hours with filipinos going home from all points of the earth. it was so weird, almost like a ritual, to hear all these people ready to share their biography with complete kababayan strangers. 'i'm coming from vacouver...been there for X years, working as...' or 'i haven't seen the philippines for X years because my kids and i don't get along..' or 'filipino workers are trusted better here in hong kong...so i told my mother not to worry about me' they must've thought i was a total smuck for not wanting to share my lifestory. and as if this display of national bonding weren't enough, at one of the corners of gate 30 gathered some 14 (i counted!) filipino guys watching the replay of the manny pacquiao fight on youtube passionately. it was quite a sight...and i'm filipino!

past the really long trip, the immigration, the luggage retrieval, and all the other inconveniences, i'm happy to be home. i got to see my new nephew jepoy who is just soooo adorable. i got to eat siomai and tinapa. later my brother's coming home from manila and we'll probably be on the magic sing microphone the whole day. if only gary were here then everything would be perfect.

in denial

2009-11-10T16:42:00.002-07:00

gary's 10-day official leave before deployment just ended, and he's back in texas while i'm left here in california. he's getting shipped out next week, and things have just been crazy. we've heard non-stop of how difficult deployment could be but we always brushed it off, thinking two years of long distance relationship prepared us for it. not.

we've been fighting and fighting about the smallest stuff (of course he can't beat me on the being difficult factor, but he's a mess too). the uncertainty of the coming year is so heavy that instead of spending quality time together, we just chose to annoy each other endlessly. yesterday while we were talking and killing time before he got dropped off at the airport, we kept on disagreeing and disagreeing that we suddenly both said "ok, let's stop!" at the same time. it's so draining. now that we're apart, i've been analyzing why i've been a nightmare, and i realized that was my form of denial. because i was too busy being a smartass, i didn't have to think of the fact that i won't see him for a duration that's longer than the time we've been married.

he was not happy with how things went too, so now, inspite of the expensive airfare, he's coming back here this thursday on a pass. we both want this to be a better goodbye, but how can something be better when it's not even a good thing to start with? it doesn't matter. i just miss the boy really bad, and i'm happy i'll see him again for a few days.

oh. and i'm flying back to the philippines. maybe the same day that he's flying back to el paso next week. i know i'm supposed to find a job and stuff but i really can't handle being here the first few months that he's gone. i need a break. and the lucky bitch that i am, i'm even spending christmas in the philippines!

for those who give a rat's ass...some photos we took at the western playland in el paso (new mexico actually, but close enough) and during halloween. notice we didn't have legitimate costumes, we just got to california from a 24-hour drive from el paso and were too tired to go all out. the husband grabbed leis lying around the house, wore one and gave me one that matched what i was wearing. voila! instant ignorant tourists. the kids are gary's nieces and nephews :D

HELP FOR TYPHOON ONDOY VICTIMS

2009-09-28T21:54:00.000-06:00

my friend pia from the united nations world food programme is calling for donations for the victims of typhoon ondoy. please visit www.wfp.org/donate/ondoy for more details.

double yey!

2009-09-28T11:08:00.001-06:00

the husband called last night with good news: they're releasing him earlier than expected from training and could be home in texas by today. my flight is not scheduled until saturday though so i told gary we'll have to wait til then. rebooking costs an arm and a leg, especially if you do it the last minute. i called southwest airlines just the same to check their fares, and for the record, southwest is now officially my favorite airline everrrr. thanks to their military dependent fares, i just added $10 to my ticket. where else can you find that? so the husband has no idea i'll be home in el paso tomorrow lunch time. haylavet! :P

yey!!!

2009-09-26T18:11:00.000-06:00

only one more week to go and i'm going home to el paso. this morning i made my usual pre-departure trip to the filipino store to get all the products we can't find in texas. can't wait til saturday... :D

more pictures

2009-09-22T10:51:00.008-06:00

kakagigiiiiiiiiilllllll!!!!!!!!

2009-09-20T22:53:00.007-06:00

it's amazing how i've never seen my brother's youngest child jepoy, but i love him sooooooo much. it's breaking my heart how much i've missed--he's so big already! i can only watch him grow from afar, through photos and videos online. tell me, is he adorable or what?

luv sic

2009-09-18T11:14:00.003-06:00

the husband has been training for more than half a month now, and it's starting to be pretty difficult. he's at the national training center in the middle of nowhere (the closest landmark is nevada, but even that is about 3hours away), and he's not allowed to use his phone. we're paying for 700 unused minutes this month.

this is supposed to be training for both soldiers and their families. ntc is pretty much a replica of a village in the middle east, and the conditions there are as close as they can get to iraq or afghanistan. as for us family members, this could be how seldom we hear from our soldiers. it's hard.

it wasn't long ago when gary asked me to go with him to fort bliss. i knew it wasn't a happy bring-your-wife-to-work kind of invite, but the dreaded pre-deployment briefing. it was something both of us would rather not hear, but we needed to. while at the auditorium along with hundreds of soldiers with their wives and other family members, i couldn't help but look around and hope that everyone will make it back safely after 12months. it's too stressful just to sit there and listen.

gary's tentative deployment date is nov.17 this year. we wouldn't be spending christmas, our first anniversary, his birthday, my birthday, and all other important events together. but more than this sad truth, i'm worried about him being out there. just yesterday, when he was able to sneak a call using his troopmate's phone, he told me he hasn't been sleeping well, hasn't been able to shower, and hasn't been eating enough because they were in some desert, firing. it really is heartbreaking being apart, and i have to convince myself to be strong for him when he can't. we both have our work cut out for us.

one afternoon after work, he was running late. turned out he got me a little something :D

i love this picture. disneyland, july 3, 2009

this was taken during one of our movie dates. the story goes that before going to the movies, we checked the lotto ticket we bought a few days back, and realized we won. $5. haha we got two of the numbers, and were among the hundreds of thousands who won five bucks that draw. then we went on to watch the time traveler's wife, where the lead male, who can time travel, bought a lotto ticket with the winning numbers. gary tells me he should have stayed long enough in the future to get all the numbers right. corny, but we had a good laugh :)

my boobtube hunks :D

2009-09-12T23:33:00.001-06:00

there are very few people on TV that you can go on watching over and over and over without getting tired of their faces. well these two guys make my couch potato days bearable.

I have a schoolgirl crush on Anthony Bourdain, who could very well pass for my father thank you very much, except he's caucasian. haha he's smart. and funny. and he cooks.

I start my day watching Emeril Live. I love Chef Emeril Lagasse so much in fact that i buy Emeril tomatoes at Albertsons even when i don't need them :P he's smart. and he's funny. and he cooks.

i <3 kids

2009-09-11T22:41:00.001-06:00

here with jude (6), kiana (4) and amber (2). i miss my jelo (7) chay (6) and jepoy (0) back home... :(

pictures!!!

2009-09-03T22:14:00.007-06:00

gary's baby sister debra only had a few days left before going back to school in california. so we decided, along with gary's elder sister loulou whose family is now based in texas too, that we were gonna get debra down to texas for a vacation. so deb arrived in el paso and the three of us drove 16 hours (we made too many stops) to houston. because gary had to work the next monday, he and i had to travel ahead back to el paso. ate loulou, her husband kuya don and debra followed a few days later. debra, of course, flew out of el paso back to santa clara. here are just some photos we took along the way.

neither here nor there

2009-07-24T15:21:00.003-06:00

i am not filling this blog with any more grievance. i'm not going to complain that i'm here in california while gary's on a 12-day field training in el paso. i am not going to bitch about how this disrupted our simple life in our own little corner of the world. i will not gripe about how neither of us knows whether i should head back to el paso after the 12-day thing--he is, after all, going to a month-long intensive pre-deployment training shortly afterwards. nope, i will not fuss about the fact that i don't know when i'll see him next before his deployment, for how long, and what we're supposed to do from there. i won't. i have no right to whine about the travails of an army wife. no nagging, no muttering, no grumbling. yeah. none of that.

kaloka!

2009-06-23T15:49:00.005-06:00

the lease on the apartment is up, and gary and i are moving to a new place on the other side of town.

as if the universe conspired, gary's field training fell right on the date of our lease signing and move-in day. so the husband went to pay the deposit before he left, two days ahead of schedule. now the catch: i had to pack everything on my own. since we have to settle in tomorrow, gary couldn't help in putting away our stuff. he felt pretty bad about it, but we had no choice. i had to do this one on my own.

so now i have a mound of luggages, boxes and plastic containers in the middle of the room. i'm ish-ting-ky and i'm pretty beat. but i did it. and i'm really excited about our new home. :D

kiligs!

2009-06-18T22:28:00.005-06:00

i am so not in the position to announce this to the world but i'm just so happy for one of my bestest best friends, i can't help but blog about it!

i got an e-mail from tina today, saying the usual how-are-you, things-here-are-ok. then at the end of her message, she gave me the biggest shock (well it's not like i didn't know about what has been happening, but it still comes as a shock that she finally gave in--if you know her, you understand what i mean :) );she and neil are an item!!!

okay, what's all the fuss about? well, neil has been courting her all throughout high school and they were inseparable then. but see tina is tina. we shared the same nbsb record back then and it pretty much looked like it was gonna stay that way...at least for her. she's christian, and was really, really choosy like you would not believe.

college happened. they even went to the same university, so neil could be close, if i remember correctly. they somehow lost touch, and well, neil had a girlfriend.

tina is a very secretive person. even as her closest friend, she would not tell me how she felt about things. but i'm psychic, and she will tell you so now. i somehow always knew neil would come back, and that tina, in her heart, has never loved anyone but him and would eventually want to be with him.

we graduate. we work. the years just pass by, our other friend mina (yes, that's tina, mina, ina to you) gets blessed with two kids, i met the love of my life. there were signs that neil was making a comeback but tina always dismissed the 'rumor'...until now.

it just goes to show, however cliche, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. they are just sooo good together. they look good together, and it feels good to see them together. this is another one of those cases when you just know, you know? no questions asked, you just know.

so tins, if you ever read this, i'm sooo happy for you and neil, and oh my gosh mina and i were always scared you'd be an old maid. we are proud of you for proving otherwise :P

********
on to another subject, the husband has an inspection today in his class a suit. so! we went shutter happy.

ranting...

2009-06-16T15:39:00.004-06:00

my life right now feels like the front seat of a roller coaster at its peak, waiting to dive. literally everything in my life is on hold, and it mocks the i'll-put-things-in-my-hand, get-it-over-with sensibility i have.

i just had my biometrics with immigration today. gary and i have been in the process of first, petitioning, and now adjusting my status, for close to six months. besides a possible interview, all we can do now is wait until the dep't. of homeland security decides on my papers.

it's killing me. not that we expect a major problem or anything to happen, it's just the approval of my permanent residence case affects--if not dictates--what THE PLAN would be.

i cannot leave the states unless i have an advance authorization to travel from immigration, which of course, is part of the papers. can i go home to the philippines when gary gets deployed? will the papers make it on time? or do i live with his family again while he's gone? gary's giving me the choice on this one, but even this is out of my hands. i wait. and i hate waiting.

and man, he's leaving for a year. that's 365.242199 days. we don't even know what kind of communication he'll have in iraq. i hate not hearing from him even now that we live together. it's gonna be like gary and ina circa bootcamp 2006 again. waiting for his call for weeks only to miss it when he suddenly gets the chance to phone at three in the morning. and this, of course, is something i can do nothing about--but wait. and i hate waiting.

our lease is also up, and we're moving to a new apartment. it's really nice, and it was actually my choice out of all the places we gathered through research. moving out was another thing i was stressing about, but my fix-it guy surpised me and not only got the apartment i liked but also ironed out everything that all i have to do is get all our stuff and settle in.

i should be happy about this move. but now i have to notify just about everyone--the electric company, the post office, immigration, about this change of address. and i can't do the last two until we actually move out on the 24th to avoid mixing up my mail. so i wait again. and did i tell you i hate waiting?

so yes i'm stressed out about my life. patience is not a personal virtue. but then again, all this could just be pms.

O.M.G.!!!

2009-06-09T11:18:00.011-06:00

i had, lately, only very few streaks of flair. today, however, is a day of brilliance; and oh my gosh, am i excited!

a corregidor wedding. yeah? yeah!

okay, so gary and i were talking last night about our plans. he's most likely to get deployed to iraq by november, and we were discussing about saving up, or buying a house, or investing in the philippines, or maybe all. for a year, we will be apart, and we will both be busy with nothing but working, and earning.

then the husband tells me, 'hey what about the wedding?' the plan really was to have another wedding officiated by a catholic priest in my parish in hermosa where i grew up. we also wanted to have it this december, which, looking at our circumstances, is almost impossible.

so gary aims for a post-deployment wedding. it'll be perfect timing: he'll be out of the service and we'll have plenty of time to save and do the preparations.

and then this morning. i was doing my usual online surfing, researching about wedding planners in manila, and wedding packages that we can afford. one of the websites outlined possible venues in metro manila, luzon, visayas and mindanao. then
it hit me: corregidor is the place! i suddenly remembered that the last time i toured my college friends from UP in corregidor, the management was renovating the island hotel. now, judging by the photos online, it is ready to go.

think about it: corregidor is bataan (well yeah, it is under the supervision of cavite, but won't you agree if i say that world war II, the last stand, mt. samat, corregidor, all ring truer with bataan rather than cavite?), and bataan is my home. plus gary has somewhat of a link to this historical place too, being a member of the united states armed forces. i think it will mean more to both of us to have it as the wedding venue. also, guests coming from manila will find it convenient to board the ferry that travels to corregidor, because the terminal is located near the senate.

i stumbled upon the blog of the now-famous tour guide carlos celdran, the 'man who is trying to change the way you look at manila one step at a time.' he had about three posts about a trip to corregidor a few years back, and even he thought a corregidor wedding would be 'very edgy.' he's nice enough to allow me to use his photos on his blog, and even told me to drop his name to the lady in the agency that runs tours in corregidor. below are photos from his blog, walk this way:

i did not know that there was a chapel beside the hotel. it's small, and it's quiet. perfect for a simple, classic ceremony.

here's the inside, which he describes as 'a cute little chapel with cool retro/modernist hardwood confession booths.'

another shot of the hotel facade

the restaurant. i don't know if this is really where the wedding reception happens--it looks a bit crowded to me--but there is always hope.

the cozy room...which may look a tad too eerie to some

so yes, a wedding at the historic corregidor. this would normally spell a filipiniana wedding but i promised myself to not go that path. maybe an old world meets modern kind of theme. hmmm...

i know it's a little too early to get all worked up, but hey, our civil wedding was done in haste and gary and i just want to make this one THE wedding. i hope we can pull this off, transporting people (including a priest--which reminds me, my buddy noel might be a bona fide priest by that time)to the island, making a wedding work from a location an hour and forty-five minutes away from civilization and stuff. i can hear my mom now, 'hay, wag ka na magpakapagod sa ganyan,' or something like that.

well we got time. let's see what happens... :P

just another night at the movies

2009-05-30T12:01:00.004-06:00

went out to see angels and demons with mama and gary on a thursday night. it was a very sleepy week that we had the whole cinema to ourselves. no kidding!

then we had dinner (more like midnight snacks) at denny's.

can somebody tell me how to put two photos side by side? my blog layout sucks...

what's for dinner?

2009-05-20T14:57:00.006-06:00

just a quick post. i stumbled upon a gold mine when i purchased a good slice of beef, a container of steak rub (which consists of ground peppers, paprika, garlic, salt and chili), and a bottle of steak sauce.

i have never tried using a convection oven my entire life, so i had to google my way into cooking steak for dinner. i failed to take an 'after' photo, but this was the steak during purgatory, a good 45 minutes before it turned into a heavenly creation :D

we brought mama to the factory outlets in new mexico last weekend. she. had. a. blast. bought stuff for my brothers, the new baby (yey!) and everyone else. talk about great finds. she bought herself a pair of nine west suede, wine-colored shoes and an ann taylor, blood-red leather wallet for insanely low prices. here we are doing what we do best:

gary played the good son-in-law part to a t, showing us around, carrying our bags, and taking our pictures.

that is until we showed no sign of stopping. here he is, hungry, sleepy and, well, a little impatient :D

barbie doll arrives :D

2009-05-12T09:44:00.005-06:00

mama made it to el paso on mother's day weekend. soooo good to see her again.

my dad gave her the corny monicker barbie doll to make me and my brothers cringe. we still laugh about it whenever we remember. since papa passed, and all her kids started moving out, mama's been used to living on her own in bataan. it's nice to get the chance to spend some time with her, even under the scorching heat of the texas sun.

oh, did i mention gary and i are eating kaldereta, and galantina, and chopsuey these days? :D

here waiting for my brother and his kids to go online

at fort bliss

after mother's day lunch

new kid on the block

2009-05-04T09:17:00.003-06:00

last may 1, the latest addition to the claravall family arrived. welcome...err...he still has no name, my nephew by my eldest brother bim! :D can't wait to see him in person and pinch his chubby chubby cheeks :D

showbiz!

2009-04-29T14:46:00.007-06:00

everyday, i still get alerts from google about my former boss' internet exposure. i've been a subscriber to this service (which provides links to news, blogs, videos and any other internet content that carries the name of the senator) for almost three years now. even with my resignation from being a member of his staff, i remain loyal to my habit of browsing through stuff about him and the office online. this is how i learned of judy ann santos and ryan agoncillo's surprise wedding. the senator was one of the guests, while his wife stood as the maid of honor.

i usually don't give a hoot about philippine showbiz, but i just remembered a memory of ryan agoncillo and then my encounter with the newly-weds a few summers ago.

i was in college in UP, and me and my friends/dormmates were hanging out at tapika, a bar in katipunan where up-and-coming bands play (m.y.m.p. i believe started their career there, and i think they still play every once in a while). giselle, my then-roommate, suddenly started whispering frantically over our table to say ryan agoncillo entered the bar. ryan was a semi-celebrity then,known for appearing in the funny sprite tv ad, for hosting, and for being an atenista. he's a far cry from his present masa image of soap actor. when ryan entered that bar about six years ago, he was the sterling model of coňo. he was with a leggy, morena date and we had to stop giselle (who used to have a huge crush on him--mental note: contact giselle and rub this memory in) from boring a hole in ryan's direction with her stare. ryan and his date cuddled and whispered in their little corner of the world while we tried to ogle discreetly.

years later, in the thick of the 2007 senatorial campaign, i was assigned to the team that would produce one of my former boss' campaign ads. together with two other unitmates from the political communications group, we travelled south to a posh subdivision in cavite where we were to meet up with the creatives people, and showbiz couple ryan agoncillo and judy ann santos, who have been joining us in our campaign rallies and were there to shoot video endorsements.

i think i've said this before, and ask anyone who's had the same job as mine, being a member of the staff gives you every responsibility imaginable on earth. for this particular outing, it was to be on standby for any and every help the production team needs.

scenario #1. judy ann is inside the house, getting her make-up done while the crew sets up the lights and we wait for the director. i go to her to hand her her script. she gets the bond papers from me, reads the lines, and looks up to me to ask, "do i have to say kiko? can i just say kuya kiko? i'm more comfortable calling him that..."

scenario #2. this is the ultimate secret of my life. but in the spirit of the judy ann-ryan wedding, i'm outing myself. why not! :P the director shoots the video with judy ann. behind her is a man-made lake with a bridge. the director says, i need some movement from behind. he looks at me, to my horror, and to another officemate. the senator's niece volunteers. i give her a virtual hug for getting me out of the ordeal, only to hear the director say, "perfect. you three on the bridge!" i give him a pleading look, he promises us we'll be too distant and blurred to be recognized.

so, friends, behold my first appearance on film...as judy ann's extra. lol (oh, and giselle had a kick watching this. i really do need to remind her of ryan in tapika)

scenario #3. after a few takes, judy ann works her magic and we get dismissed. or so i think. the director readies ryan, for a separate video it turns out. we stay until past midnight, watching him read and reread his lines. cut after cut. he finally gets it right, and the director calls it a wrap.

no more war films for this sissy

2009-04-27T16:01:00.014-06:00

not yet eligible for employment, i spend my days inside the house, trying my luck in the kitchen and waiting for gary to come home from work. it really is a major change of lifestyle for me, so gary makes it a point to take me out every chance he gets.

a diversion we've both acquired living in sleepy el paso is watching movies. we rent dvds every night (we watch at least 8 movies a week) and go to the theatre every weekend (sometimes even on weekdays). for saturday and sunday, i got the uma thurman comedy 'my super ex-girlfriend' while gary got the soldier movie 'home of the brave' from blockbuster. the husband must've been tampo (bet he wouldn't admit it though) when i snuck out of the room to avoid watching 50 cent, et. al play u.s. army soldiers in iraq. i told gary the previous weekend that i was staying away from war movies after i soaked myself in tears watching 'letters from iwo jima.'

on a lighter note, we also went to the cinema yesterday hoping to catch 'state of play' but were three hours early for the next screening so we decided to have fun watching 'aliens vs. monsters' in 3D. we had to add a little for the 3D glasses (which gary never took off until we were back in the car :) ).

anyway, back to 'letters from iwo jima'. i always had this movie in my mind for some reason, and while we were scouring the aisles of blockbuster one weekend, i stumbled upon it. i didn't know (or maybe forgot) what it was about or who was on it but i didn't hesitate to get a copy. when we got home, i remembered why. the movie stars ken watanabe, who played the chairman in memoirs of a geisha (i was fixated with the book and the movie a few years back) and katsumoto in the last samurai.

letters from iwo jima, directed by clint eastwood, portrays the battle of iwo jima, an island in japan, during world war II. it was presented from the perspective of the japanese soldiers whose letters were found burried inside the tunnels they used during war. it complements eastwood's other movie about the same subject 'flags of our fathers', which depicts the same battle from the american viewpoint. letters from iwo jima is almost entirely in japanese but was made by american production companies.

maybe it's just me--i have a knack for crying when i'm not supposed to, and not crying when i should. maybe the movie really was touching. maybe because my husband is in the army, waiting for orders to get deployed in the middle east. maybe it's all of the above. all i know is, not even half-way through the movie, i was crying my eyes out, blaming gary for 'making' me watch another war movie (see i promised myself i wouldn't see one ever again when i became a captive audience of 'pearl harbor' playing in a bus travelling home to bataan). he gently reminded me i was the hand that picked the film from the shelf. oh well.

now gary has a lot to say about war. world war II. the japanese invasion (i think he's more zealous about the japanese invasion of the philippines than the clash between japan and the states--he wouldn't stop talking about the bataan death march since he learned of it). a soldier's life. human nature. honor and courage.

but for me, what touched me was how it showed that regardless of which side one is on, everyone is so much more alike than different. soldiers are husbands, and sons, and brothers (there were no female fighters in the movie). a mother's caring words to her soldier son are the same whether they were spoken in japan or the united states. love is indeed so universal that it makes us so similar however we'd like to think otherwise.

i do not believe in war--or any method that employs aggression for that matter--in solving problems. this principle makes it harder to accept that gary's remaining one year in the army could be extended if he suddenly gets deployed. everyday, we live a normal life of husband and wife--we wake up, eat breakfast, i see him off to work, we share lunch, he reports back to his job, and comes home for dinner. beyond these mundane activities, we often forget that neither of us could tell where he'd be in a few months. he points this out to me every once in a while, especially when i turn up my s(sumpong) over petty things. i hate to even think that we could be apart again for months and months, and he could be risking his life in a warzone because of his profession. the saddest part is, i can't do anything about it.

so yes, starting now, no more war films for this sissy. for real.

the canon camera was finally delivered, and it's GREAT! looks even better than i expected, and the shots are clear any way you take them. how come i have it already? gary found out about my wicked idea, told me there was no way i was taking advantage of my mother, and got me my canon powershot via amazon. he cancelled the freebie from citibank, and ordered a sofabed (which is supposed to arrive any minute now as i type--yipee!!!) in exchange. all's well that ends well. haha

sundays in el paso

2009-04-20T11:37:00.016-06:00

gary and i made the most of sunday.

we used to drive uphill to go to this catholic church about 15-30 minutes away from our place. it's the only catholic church gary was familiar with then. the structure is very nice though, homey with low-hanging chandeliers and a huge portrait of the virgin of guadalupe at the altar, so the distance was fairly okay with him and me. except we didn't understand a fraction of the ceremony. because we are situated at the border of texas and mexico, the mass is always in spanish.

until one day, i searched all the catholic churches in el paso online, and voila! the church of the blessed sacrament is just on the other side of our area, 3 minutes away says google map. since then, hearing mass became a lot easier for us. we usually wake up late on weekends, and the english mass schedule of 11am is just right for the lazy couple.

this particular sunday however, we realized that the mass coincided with 12 baptisms and a wedding sponsored by the parish, and the church was so jampacked we couldn't even go past the main entrance. we decided to go to the lady of guadalupe church again. the mass, of course, was half-way through by the time we got there.

once out of church, gary said he remembered a place where he could take me. we were both getting tired of going to the same places in el paso that we often decide to just stay home and watch dvd. this time though, we drove the I-10 to reach this factory outlet that kind of reminded me of serendra back home. stores for brands like puma, tommy hilfiger, liz claiborne, nike, levi's etc. lined up in a surprisingly well-ventilated area. ignoring the high heels i was still wearing, we went around the establishment to kill time. gary earlier asked me if i could walk in my stilettos and i answered "i used to run all day in them," smugly. five hours later i was cursing my black shoes.

i got me a baseball cap. now why a baseball cap? see it serves me two ways. one, during bad hair days (or late nights when you suddenly have to run to the store or grab midight snacks), i can just put it on along with a pair of hoop earrings and i don't have to worry about how i look. two, (although i've yet to prove this) it's gonna help gary save some of his patience waiting for me to get ready.

driving home, we suddenly spotted a sign that said sunland park mall was on the next exit. my hubby and i are on a search for recreation areas where we can bring my mom when she visits. so sort of like an advance work, we headed to the sunland park.

it. was. huge. even bigger than mall of asia, i think. it's like there were 5 or 6 malls put together plus a separate bookstore that is soooo similar with the fully booked branch in bonifacio high street, scattered restaurants, and other specialty stores for beauty, appliances, dogs, automobiles, among others. we didn't even know el paso had such an area(or, well, i read it's technically part of new mexico but you get my point).

we hit the mall first, then gary drove me to my mecca, the barnes and noble bookseller. bookstores smell the same. be it in manila, the states or paris. i just love the scent the union of brewed coffee and print makes. we stayed there until we were both famished.

we ate at the grand chinese buffet, which, for less than $30, was such a treat. i ate EVERYTHING. i got a plate full of just shrimps. i think there were three or four shrimp dishes on it. then another plate filled with cantaloupe, strawberries,green melon and banana bathing in cherry syrup. my baby got me dimsum like i asked, some sweet bread with white cheese inside, mini-siopaos, among others. gary also had chow mein. on my 'real' plate, i ate fried rice and corn and oh i just ate everything! :P

too full and about to throw up with the slightest provocation, we drove again for home--but suddenly decided to watch a movie at carmike theatre, which is about 3 minutes from our place. we were choosing between state of play and 17 again, but after all the activities of the day, we decided to go for something light. 17 again was pretty fun, especially the character of zac efron's best friend. we were sitting beside a couple in their late 70s or early 80s (no kidding!)and i was making gary promise me he'd still take me to the movies when we reach that stage.

we were really on our way home, when we realized we had to buy water from the nearby walgreens. then gary got a call from his brother, and we had to run an errand for him so we turned back and finished the favor. we then decided to rent some movies at blockbuster. by this time my legs were really killing me so i settled for the movie letters from iwo jima (which i'll write about next) and gary got the mystery-thriller fracture, starring anthony hopkins.

scheming technophile

2009-04-17T13:19:00.009-06:00

I'm an Aquarius. I've always carried the traits of my birth sign: I find it natural to talk exhaustively to people, I'm a free-spirit, and I'm loyal. I also carry the dark Aquarius side of being uptight, unforgiving and unable to speak out emotions (I can write them though :P ). Another thing I've always known about myself, but never really attributed to my birth sign until very recently, was my love for laptops and ipods and computer softwares and cellular phones. Apparently, according to this lady astrologist who was on TV last Christmas suggesting which gift to give what sign, Aquarius people are technophiles.

So you can imagine how psyched I was to learn that Gary's debit account has accumulated so many rebate points he's never claimed, and that he's letting me use them to get whatever electronic device fits his reward points. I got myself a point and shoot camera, which has yet to get to me.

In comes another one of my Aquarius traits: unpredictability. For some reason, I fell in love with another digital camera along the way: A Canon A1000 IS in brown, my favorite color. And I can't get over it. So what do I do with this nagging techno-lust when I have another free camera that's on the way?

I scheme. My mom's coming here for a visit next month, and I sweet-talked her into buying me the Canon (more expensive, of course)and I'll give her the other camera. "It's like buying me a gift, only I'll give you another gift in return."

I'm shameless :D

the army wife

2009-02-09T16:37:00.008-07:00

i finally arrived here in el paso last saturday. it's as if i've known the place for a long time, as i pictured everything in my head everytime gary would call since he got assigned here in june last year.

i slept on the plane on my way here, and while i took many plane rides before, i was astonished by the sight of giant nimbus clouds beside the plane--something i've never seen before--when i woke up. they were like ice bergs...or giant cotton candy. as the plane descended, everything on the ground was brown--desert brown. google already warned me of this, but i was far more excited to see my husband than to care about the wilting earth below me.

i always hated airports. being in a long distance relationship for two years, airports equaled gary equaled goodbyes equaled drama. but this time, everything seemed to be in reverse. it was him waiting for me as i came out of the arrival area, and instead of goodbye, we were saying hello to our life together as husband and wife.

while living in manila, i also always wondered how it would be like to have gary with me at the grocery store whenever i see couples before me at the supermarket. well, it was...funny. neither of us knew which vegetable went with which dish, and we had an empty apartment to fill with soaps and shampoos and cleaners and what have you, that we just knew we'd end up forgetting something.

and the apartment. gary can sometimes be modest when describing things. while he said he got us a two-bedroom apartment, he didn't say it was a spacious two-bedroom apartment. or maybe because we have no furniture whatsoever to fill up the space. the living room is big; i could practically roll over it all day. the bedrooms have walk-in closets and the restroom is roomy as well. but my favorite part would still be the kitchen. the place is obviously for a family of five, and to have this much space for the two of us, what's a newly-wed couple to do?

buy a guitar and a keyboard, of course! :P i have always questioned my and gary's ability to prioritize, but with me alone in the house during the day, my thoughtful hubby decided to buy me the things that keep me occupied first. so now at the centre of the empty living room are two musical instruments. and no,we're not sorry about our purchases.

as for my housemaking skills...i have to be thankful for ending up with a VERY patient guy. i love to cook. i really do. and sometimes, i do cook good food. but understand that for the past seven years, i've been living on fastfood in manila, and i have the great cooking skills of our dear ate tess whenever i go home to my mom's house in bataan. so last night, i cooked adobo, which gary said tasted good, although i later found out that he prefers his adobo with some sauce, not fried. this morning, we woke up at 4am (he has physical training at 6am)and despite the fact that we bought a lot of meat products, he preferred a light meal. i made a liver spread sandwich (a note to Reno exporters: you don't make your export product the same way you do in the philippines!not fair!) which was bland, and coffee...i've never made coffee in my life, as far as i know. tonight i cooked afritada, or menudo, or kaldereta. now this really escapes me. why would mama sita make a mix that can be all afritada or menudo or kaldereta? are they not supposed to be different dishes that all taste differently? how come nobody told me this culinary business can be so confusing?

everyone back home is asking me how i'm doing. i'm doing great. i have always been the type to be dubious when things are great and i'm happy but i feel a certain sense of fulfillment when i see gary first thing in the morning and last thing in the night, or when he suddenly shows up at the door when he should be at work, or when i send him off in the morning knowing that this time, i don't have to wait months for him to come back.

so yes, i'm doing great. i have to go ask him to take me out to dinner when he gets here though. the whole mama sita red sauce multi-mix thing just isn't working for me. :P

california love

2008-12-29T21:11:00.005-07:00

driving to lemoore for christmas

christmas and 2nd anniversary

golden gate bridge

cleaning out my closet

2008-12-09T01:13:00.004-07:00

i'm moving out of my apartment of three years. how i'll manage to do that, i still don't know, but to convince myself that i was making a little progress, i started sorting my stuff last night.

needless to say, i was overwhelmed by the junk i accumulated as a struggling young urban professional. i found my old curriculum vitae that says i was a journalism graduate with no work experience. 1x1 photos of my much younger-looking self. bank statements and pay slips, which didn't seem to have much activity all throughout the years.

i found worn out plane tickets from traveling to the visayas and mindanao for sorties. maps and brochures from trips abroad. exorbitant cellphone bills. branding documents for my boss during the campaign. old love letters (yup yup yup :D )...and my dad's death certificate. i didn't even know it was with me--it was an original document. i guess my brother, who used to share the apartment with me, left the certificate when he moved out of the house. the document carries my dad's cause of death, and at the bottom of the page, my eldest brother's scrawled signature. i can imagine how hard it must have been to put his name there.

when i finished, i had a huge shopping bag filled with mementos that i can't take with me anymore. i'm starting with a clean slate, as i should. :)

where have all the boxeadores gone?

2008-12-09T01:08:00.002-07:00

and so it happened again. another great mexican fighter forced into retirement by pacman.

i was rooting for de la hoya, not only because of the four-inch height advantage but because of my longtime fascination with mexican fighters which started even before manny pacquiao hit the bigtime.

growing up with a dad who loved boxing and two brothers, some of my fondest childhood memories were earmarked by great boxing fights. and to me, boxing equals all these tough mexican sluggers. so forgive my lack of team spirit.

as for de la hoya, i can only remember thinking one thing when i first saw him fight: what's someone this good-looking doing inside the boxing ring? from his loss against felix trinidad to his dramatic unification bout with rival fernando vargas, the golden boy really brought the game of boxing closer to so many people.
but as de la hoya himself admitted, he no longer has it. i take consolation in the fact that it's somebody carrying our flag who ended this legend's career.

inanity

2008-10-17T04:48:00.004-06:00

after staying at my place for three days, my doctor friend gay and i travelled back to bataan for the weekend. as the bus stopped in front of an elementary school in our hometown, we saw practically every kid running back and forth--to go home, to play, to get into a building.

me: bakit kaya napakanormal sa lahat ng bata na tumakbo?

doc gay: oo nga no. ang matanda, kahit nagmamadali, unless sobrang importante, di pa rin tumatakbo...parang nakakahiya.

me: imagine kung pati matatanda tumatakbo...

we looked at each other and pondered some more.

behind the scenes

2008-10-12T07:42:00.002-06:00

I was suddenly asked to sit in a meeting last week...and I don't know if I should be divulging these details but along with the two members of our legislative unit, I found myself in the same room as former Supreme Court Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban and the Nation's Fiscalizer, former senator Jovito Salonga. It was a party of nine, and I was so starstruck just to be in that exclusive gathering, breathing the same air as two of the country's most outstanding public servants.

Anyway, here's the column of CJ Panganiban, which appeared in the Inquirer. This is basically what the meeting was about.

With Due Respect
Responsibility for selecting justices

By Artemio V. Panganiban
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 00:33:00 10/12/2008
I AM glad that the members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) are preparing to face the challenge of nominating only the best and the brightest to the seven Supreme Court vacancies to be created by the retirement of an equal number of justices in 2009. Never in the normal history of the Court has almost one-half of its membership changed within just one year. (I say “normal” to exclude extraordinary events like the judicial cleansing undertaken by the Aquino revolutionary government in 1986.)

Scrutinizing the JBC. The Constitution provides that members of the Supreme Court (and the entire judiciary) shall be appointed by the president from a list of at least three individuals nominated by the JBC for every vacancy. The president’s power to appoint justices is severely limited; the field of choice is restricted only to those nominated by the council. Having been pre-screened by the JBC, judicial appointments are no longer passed upon by the Commission on Appointments.

Clearly then, the primary responsibility for choosing worthy justices falls squarely on the JBC. If the council nominates only the most qualified as it should, and expunges politics and favoritism from its selection, then every appointment made by the president would be unquestionable. However, even if just one undeserving candidate is smuggled into the list, the whole selection process tumbles because the president could then appoint that unworthy one. For this reason, the JBC’s process of searching for, screening and selecting (I call them the “three ‘s’ functions”) nominees cannot afford a single mistake.

Yes, the task of the JBC is not easy. The Constitution specifies three quantifiable requirements for Supreme Court members: natural-born citizen, at least 40 years of age, and practice of law or judgeship in a lower court for at least 15 years. More significantly, the Charter requires all jurists to possess four non-quantifiable qualities: “proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.” Of these, I believe the most important are independence and integrity. How to find these most elusive but most essential qualities is the JBC’s ultimate task.

The selection process for the first vacancy that will occur when Justice Ruben T. Reyes retires on Jan. 2, 2009 has already begun. The JBC set tomorrow, Oct. 13, as the deadline for the filing of applications. This early deadline is not generally known. I think it should be extended.

Monitoring the JBC. Relevantly, the initiative of Sen. Kiko Pangilinan, the Senate’s representative in the JBC, to convene the “Bantay Korte Suprema” is laudable. He is inviting the legal community, academe, civil society and business groups to organize themselves and participate actively in the selection process and to make sure that the public understands it.

The Pangilinan initiative dovetails with an existing method of checking the background of candidates. Authored by Dean Amado L. Dimayuga, JBC member representing the academe, the system was derived from the Judicial Nominees Evaluation Commission, the JBC’s equivalent in the state of California.

Under this method, the applicant is required to fill up a personal data questionnaire that asks for a list of courts in which he or she has appeared as counsel during the last two years as well as the names of the prosecutors, private attorneys, court personnel and other references in the legal community. If the applicant is an incumbent judge, he or she must list colleagues in the judiciary. Then, survey forms are sent to randomly picked references. From the responses (at least 20 must be received), the JBC makes an evaluation of the candidate. This system has been piloted and has produced some good results.

Judging the JBC. Also praiseworthy is the proposal of J. Conrado P. Castro, JBC member representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, that the votes cast by JBC members be recorded and made public. At present, the voting for Supreme Court nominees is done by secret ballot. Hence, there is no way of knowing who voted for whom.

However, the Castro proposal will make the process more transparent and the JBC members more accountable for their actions. When magistrates misbehave and are sanctioned, the natural question is: who were responsible for the appointment of the errant jurist? At present, there is no way to divine who among the eight JBC members voted for the penalized magistrate. The Castro plan will pinpoint responsibility for bad choices.

The votes of individual justices in all Supreme Court decisions, including the most controversial, are made known. Thus, I see no reason why the votes of JBC members should be hidden from similar scrutiny. Transparency translates to accountability that in turn breeds public confidence in our institutions and officials.

Obviously, the JBC is expected to nominate only the best and the brightest from among the most eminent, not from those who barely qualify. To select the finest for the seven vacancies is a monumental task. The JBC members will be praised or condemned by the quality of all their choices. Will they pass the test?

Aside from Pangilinan, Dimayuga and Castro, the other JBC members are Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno (chair), Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez, Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., retired Supreme Court Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., and retired Court of Appeals Justice Aurora S. Lagman.

the funniest guys on this imaginary earth

2008-10-02T04:54:00.003-06:00

you gotta see this! flight of the conchords...

ISSUES (Think About It)

Jenny

Hiphopopotamus vs. Rhymenocerous

b.o.r.e.d.

2008-09-27T18:27:00.003-06:00

after three weeks of isolation in the province, i'm dying to get my city life back. but no go, says the chief. my doctor said i'm not contagious anymore, but so as not to take chances, my boss advised me to work from the house for another week. i need to grab more junk food.

is she amazing or what?

2008-09-24T02:27:00.001-06:00

kt tunstall...black horse and a cherry tree

a follow up on kt's stunning guitar

2008-09-21T05:07:00.005-06:00

wala akong masabi. $3000-$4000 lang naman...sweet!

MODEL NAME G7593, White FalconTM I
MODEL NUMBER 240-1406-(805)
SERIES Professional Collection
COLORS (805) White
CATEGORY Hollow Body Guitars
BODY STYLE Single Cutaway
SCALE LENGTH 25.5" (648mm)
TOP Arched Laminated Maple
BRACING N/A
BACK AND SIDES Laminated Maple Body, 17" Wide, 2.75" Deep
NECK 3-Piece Maple
PICKUPS 2 High Sensitive Filter'TronTM Pickups
PICKUP SWITCHING 3-Position Toggle:
Position 1. Bridge Pickup
Position 2. Bridge and Neck Pickups
Position 3. Neck Pickup
CONTROLS Volume 1. (Neck Pickup),
Volume 2. (Bridge Pickup),
Master Volume,
3-Position Toggle Master Tone Switch:
Position 1. Medium Level, High Frequency Roll Off
Position 2. Switch Out of the Circuit, Pickup is Wide Open (That Great Gretsch Sound!)
Position 3. Slight Level, High Frequency Roll Off
WIDTH AT NUT 1-11/16" (43mm)
FRETBOARD Ebony, 12" Radius (305mm)
BRIDGE Ebony-Based Adjusto-MaticTM Bridge
TAILPIECE Gretsch Bigsby¨ B6GW Vibrato Tailpiece with Wire Handle
HARDWARE Gold-Plated
FINISH Gloss Urethane
CASE Includes G6242L Deluxe Hardshell Case, US MSRP $220.00
NO. OF FRETS 22
MACHINE HEADS Grover¨ ImperialTM Gold-Plated Die-cast Tuners
UNIQUE FEATURES V-Shaped Falcon Headstock,
Block Pearloid Inlay Position Markers,
Gold-Sparkle Fingerboard and Headstock Bindings,
Gold-Sparkle Bound F-Holes,
Multiple Gold-Sparkle Body Bindings,
Gold-Sparkle Inlaid Gretsch Logo on Headstock,
Gold Plexi Pickguard with Falcon Detail,
Knurled Strap Retainer Knobs,
Adjustable Truss

suddenly i see a.k.a. me getting addicted to posting videos

2008-09-21T04:48:00.003-06:00

kt tunstall singing the song i love to play in the morning while getting ready to face the world. check out her guitar, i wouldn't mind getting something like it for christmas! :D

tell him (colbie caillat)

2008-09-20T05:03:00.003-06:00

one of my favorite songs of all time. not as good as lauryn hill's version, pero pwede na rin :)

heart of the matter (india arie)

2008-09-19T06:01:00.003-06:00

a really beautiful cover by a really talented artist

bangkok dangerous

2008-09-16T04:02:00.006-06:00

just an amusing thing.

my thai friend somphon, bade and i were driving in the streets of bangkok from a night out late last year when we ran into a detour. somphon opened the window to ask a bystander what was happening, and when he turned to us dear foreigners to explain what was causing the delay, he said that a hollywood film was being shot right ahead of us.

"ask him who's the actor in the film," bade told somphon.

"arrgh," protested somphon, but he knew the most painless way out of it was to do as he was told.

"i swear if it's colin farrell, i'm getting out of this car," i told bade.

"nicolas cage," somphon reported.

and we drove happily ever after.

a few months later, it was somphon's turn to visit. while he, bade and i were killing time at mall of asia waiting for his flight back to thailand, we passed by the cinema to check out movie posters.

"hey look, somphon," bade said. "bangkok dangerous."

starring nicolas cage.

life's a bitch and then you...get chicken pox

2008-09-09T20:58:00.006-06:00

this is, no doubt, the most horrendous feeling EVERRRR.

after years of eluding chicken pox, it finally caught up with me last weekend. now i wonder how all those classmates in gradeschool who disappeared one by one in class managed to nurse these itchy bumps.the discomfort is just too much, even for a grownup!

now i'm stuck at home.until i don't know when.can't even look at the mirror.bet my work's piling up as i type this.and the maid can't stand my whining no more.and everyone's worried the kids might get infected too. geez. there is only one person i know who will be happy about this misfortune: my dermatologist.

Lucky

2008-09-03T04:07:00.005-06:00

woke up this morning to his call. he just came out of a 24-hour duty on, ironically, Labor Day...i competely understood why he sounded so down and tired. then he just poured his heart out, and we were both reminded why this is worth all the waiting, the worrying and the crying.

Lucky
by Jason Mraz and Colbie Calliat

Do you hear me,
I'm talking to you
Across the water across the deep blue ocean
Under the open sky, oh my, baby I'm trying

Boy I hear you in my dreams
I feel your whisper across the sea
I keep you with me in my heart
You make it easier when life gets hard

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

They don't know how long it takes
Waiting for a love like this
Every time we say goodbye
I wish we had one more kiss
I'll wait for you I promise you, I will

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
Lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

And so I'm sailing through the sea
To an island where we'll meet
You'll hear the music fill the air
I'll put a flower in your hair

though the breezes through trees
Move so pretty you're all I see
As the world keeps spinning round
You hold me right here right now

I'm lucky I'm in love with my best friend
Lucky to have been where I have been
Lucky to be coming home again
I'm lucky we're in love every way
Lucky to have stayed where we have stayed
Lucky to be coming home someday

Ooohh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh
Ooooh ooooh oooh oooh ooh ooh ooh ooh

dao-ed and all kung fu-ey

2008-08-19T02:55:00.012-06:00

I heard it was a great movie, but i never got the chance to see it...until my 7-year old nephew Gelo and my 6-yr old niece Chay pounced on my bed Sunday morning with a DVD copy of Kung Fu Panda. We had breakfast in bed while watching all the action--I had to cover their mouths to keep them from spilling what's gonna happen next.

I must be quite depressed the past weeks, or maybe I really am just as weird as my friends say, but this movie just enlightened me.haha. And suddenly, I wanted to make things right.

Some unforgettable lines...

Mr. Ping (sharing the secret ingredient to his Secret Ingredient Soup): The secret ingredient is ... nothing!
Po: Huh?
Mr. Ping: You heard me. Nothing! There is no secret ingredient.
Po: Wait, wait ... it's just plain old noodle soup? You don't add some kind of special sauce or something?
Mr. Ping: Don't have to. To make something special you just have to believe it's special.
Po: There is no secret ingredient ...

Master Shifu: Master, I have bad news.
Master Oogway: Calm down Shifu, there is just news. There's no bad or good.

Townspeople to the Dragon Warrior: How can we repay you? Dragon Warrior: There is no charge for awesomeness. Or attractiveness.

And my favorite part of the movie...

Master Oogway (when Master Shifu says the villain Tai Lung has returned): That is bad news, if you do not believe that the Dragon Warrior can stop him.
Master Shifu: Panda ?! Master that panda is not the Dragon Warrior, he wasn't even meant to be here ! It was an accident !
Master Oogway: There are no accidents.
Master Shifu: Ahhh, yes I know, you'd said that already, twice.
Master Oogway: Well, that was no accident either.
Master Shifu: Thrice.
Master Oogway: My dear friend, that panda will never fulfill his destiny nor you yours, until you let go of the illusion of control.
Master Shifu: Illusion ?
Master Oogway: Yes, look at this tree Shifu. I cannot make it blossom when it suits me, or make it bear fruits before it's time.
Master Shifu: But there are things we can control. I can control when the fruits will fall. And I can control where to plant the seed. That is no illusion Master.
Master Oogway: Ahhh yes, but no matter what you do, that seed it will grow into a peach tree, you may wish for an apple or an orange, but you will get a peach.
Master Shifu: But a peach cannot defeat Tai Lung !
Master Oogway: Maybe it can, if you are willing to guide it, to nurture it, to believe in it.
Master Shifu: But how ! How !? I need your help Master!
Master Oogway: No, you just need to believe. Promise me Shifu, promise me you will believe.

And so I'm now too Dao-ed for my own good. I'm letting go of the illusion of control and I'll just believe, because there is no secret ingredient...you just have to believe something is special. Skadoosh!

JOB OPENING IN THE OFFICE OF SENATE MAJORITY LEADER KIKO PANGILINAN

2008-08-13T21:51:00.004-06:00

ok.so i said this blog is personal, no work-related stuff. but for my own personal benefit i need a junior writer who'll share with me the joys of writing fiesta messages and speeches. haha. so...i'm reposting this here. bear with me.

Good day! The Office of Senate Majority Leader Kiko Pangilinan is urgently looking for a new Political Communications Officer, preferably a fresh graduate of a communications course. We are looking for someone who's ready to learn from others; a team player who is personable & articulate in Filipino (other dialects preferred :D ) Must be passionate about the development of our country and can write & defend his or her views.

Please send your resumes to ina.claravall@gmail.com and to colorbars7@gmail.com before August 24, 2008. Thanks. Do feel free to forward to your networks.

i'm loving...

2008-07-21T04:05:00.005-06:00

A trip to the supermarket with Ditas (my so-called stepmom/officemate/shrink/driver/lunch date) got me acquainted with two really cheap but really great products. I'm loving...

1. Olay Daily Purifying Body Wash with Sea Salts and Microbeads. Really fresh, not-so-strong, not-your-usual-sweet scent. The beads are there but they're not harsh at all, AND you feel moisturized but not in a Dove-sticky-moisturized kind of way. Had to text Bade, who's with P&G just to rave.

2. L'oreal Elseve Nutri-gloss serum. Since having my hair colored and straightened again last June, no amount of hot oil treatment made my hair shine. This product did the trick. And sooo cheap too. I've been computing the money I'm saving from not going to the salon. :)