neither here nor there

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!

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!

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...

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.!!!

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

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?

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

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

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!

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.