I signed up for a month with this gym near my office.

I had my first workout two days ago and now places I never even knew existed on my body are hurting.

But I'm going back there this afternoon after work to try out the hip-hop cardio group exercise.

Then if I'm still alive by tomorrow, maybe I'll do circuit training again (or maybe on Saturday na lang).

Bahala na si Batman.

Actually, all whining aside, it really is quite fun.

Hopefully, in due time, I can pass as Kate Beckinsale's body double. Yeah!

The food situation here in the office has officially reached an all-time low.

I ordered fried tilapia with rice for lunch today (I love toyo with kalamansi!) and when I unwrapped it, it was the saddest, driest and toughest little thing.

It made me think that I should have ordered the generic tasting meat with different colored sauces na lang.

Oh well, at least it's free. I'd kill myself if I had to pay for that.

Someone just sent me a cake!

But it's not an advanced valentine's day gift from an infatuated swain, rather, it's from a PR firm :p

So thank you GeiserMaclang, you made the housemates and i very happy :)

P.S.
I wonder why "Jill Sabitsana, Grandma" was taped on the cake box?

This was how I spent my morning.



Afterwards, this was my lunch.



While this was G's lunch.



Talk about unfair.

After more than an hour of waiting for our turn to speak with the Chief of the Muntinlupa Business Permit License Office, some joker government worker asked me:

JGW: Naiinip ka na mam?
Me: Oh no, I can do this all day.

A stupid question deserves an equally stupid answer.

Pictures after yesterday's garage sale.

As Margot said in her blog, the bargain hunters were so wild that Joey's hair got messed up.

Rock and roll baby Joey!

We had a garage sale this morning at Margot's house and it was pure mayhem!

It was supposed to begin at 8am, but by 7:15 Margot was already sending us distress signals ("Nasan na kayo? May mga tao na dito!").

Apparently, the AAAVA ads did such a good job of advertising the garage sale that as early as 7am someone was already ringing the doorbell, demanding first dibs on the stock :p

We arrived to see a very frazzled Margot and Drago haggling with a bunch of people.

Boss Krissy immediately assigned us to our respective posts, I was in charge of writing down the sales (each item had been tagged by its respective owners the night before) and collecting payment, while Melo had to bring out more stuff from inside the house.

Grabe, even before the boxes were put down, some people were already pawing through them!

I managed to sell most of the stuff that have been cluttering my closet for ages. I was surprised that my bottles of used perfumes were instantly snapped up within the first few minutes (maybe it's because I agreed to sell them for 10p each? :P) as well as my books which I didn't even realize were there in the first place (goodbye trashy novels!). I was also able to dispose of trinkets, old clothes, junket freebies etc.

Everything was priced ridiculously low because the buyers were mostly the helpers within the village (with a few kids popping up every now and then) so it would not have been good business to price things above P100. I sold my shoes for 50p per pair and even threw in a pair for free to this lady who already had a huge bag full of merchandise. Old bags were priced from 20p-60p, I even sold my "Pradida" for 50p to this lady who was guarding it with her life because there was another lady right beside her who kept on touching said Pradida bag.

Part two of the garage sale happens tomorrow and I'll check my things again to see if there are more things I can sell. This time, I'll be ruthless and unsentimental while weeding through my stuff.

P.S.

I really wanted to take pictures but there just wasn't any time. From the moment we got there, up to the time the last person left, it was just sell-sell-sell. Sayang, I wanted some pix for Kikay Ex pa naman sana for a future post. Oh well.

I'm finally having my right wisdom tooth removed next week.

I've been putting this off for almost 3 years now (after the left one was removed) but the inevitable has finally arrived (read: it's beginning to hurt!), so off you go.

I knew there was a good reason why I didn't head straight to the mall when I received my paycheck this week. During that time, I was just hungry and didn't want fastfood again so I went home without any detours. But apparently there was a higher purpose why I wasn't able to go shopping this month. It was meant to be. (cue creepy music)

Sigh. My bank account will look really pathetic again.

Tones, hit me up for Kei's wedding contribution on February na lang ha? :)

I can't believe it's been almost a year since my sorority held a speed dating thingy!

I remember pledging to bring 2 boys (hello Santi's friends!) but they backed out a few days before the event so I had to drag Mike with me instead :p

Thankfully he had fun and I think he came home with more than a few cell numbers so all in all, it was a success.

Portians unite!

Another thing I still can't quite believe up to today is the fact that I actually joined a sorority!

Parang: ako? sorority? wtf?!

In fact, when I told my non-law school friends that I joined a sorority they all laughed hysterically because, well, they never saw me as a sorority girl.

Ako rin :p

I remember joining because almost all of my blockmates were in Portia so, in short, naiinggit ako hehehehe.

But even after my blockies graduated and I was stuck all by my lonesome self in Malcolm Hall (with Mark Rabe popping up every now and then) I was seldom lonely because I had my instant barkada to back me up.

My bar review roommate was also a sis and for the almost half a year that we were in each other's personal spaces, we didn't fight or have any petty things going on. I'm not sure if that has anything to do with us being sisses or if it's mainly because we're naturally just great individuals :p But what I am sure of is that Kaka would not have been my roommate if we had not been in the same sorority, so for that I still have Portia to be thankful for.

So there, surprise yourself every now and then. You might actually end up liking it :)

Doing the "Kaka pose" with Kaka and Candy

Last year's barristers doing the "Em" pose. I just realized that all of my recent pictures are of the "Em" variety. What can I say, it makes my arm look slim and toned:p

I'm a paper pusher. Hear me roar!

roar.

After last Wednesday's emergency overtime brought about by my negligence, I learned two very important things:

1)Always, always check the files too when filing a pleading or any court, apparently it's not enough to rely on the code. For all you know, there might be a deadline lurking inside the files somewhere :p

2)Be more forgiving of others. God knows that everyone who stayed that night could have easily (and they would have been well within their rights too) chucked a stapler at me for my booboo but they didn't. Instead, they just took it in stride and worked towards a solution. If they could forgive me for what I did then, I certainly have no reason (ang kapal ko naman!) to hold a grudge when someone else makes a mistake.

Lessons definitely learned.

I can usually stomach our office lunch ration from the building canteen (the key is to eat a small breakfast because starving people are generally not choosy) but today's entree was exceptionally yucky.

Note to self: Never order the beef with mushroom again.

Thank goodness the canteen's sandwiches are usually better than their ulam.

The last day of 2007 was spend in Sta. Rosa where Tessa and I sent out a very clear message to the universe. Tessa has been mulling over buying a house in the Sta. Rosa area (contemplating=no definite time yet, could be next year or after five years) and so we hied off further south after breakfast.

We first checked out the Avida model houses. We looked at a two storey house with 4 bedrooms (including maid's room) and 3 toilets (with bath) and 1 powder area. Man, when I get a house of my own I'm seriously going to have interior decorators do their magic on it. A house is just a structure with walls but the moment the interior decorators step in, it becomes THE house (cue sound effects).

Basta, ang ganda talaga. I like.

Outside the model house.

The boy's room. Notice the nautical theme? If a real live boy actually lived there, you won't have ships floating around the room but rather...hmmmm....what are boys up to these days ba? Basta, not ships.

I loved this shelf, parang ang sarap punuin ng libro. What a great excuse to buy more books!

The Avida model house (inclusive of shelves, flooring and plumbing) costs 6M-7M. Ayan na Universe, do your thing.

Next, we went to the Georgian Club (or Lane?). The model houses there are patterned after that southern state so you have big porches and a relaxed feel all around. Of course, I once again drooled over the interiors.



There were two model houses available for viewing and the bigger one had a decked out attic. Where do I sign up to get adopted?

The houses in Georgia Club are more expensive though at 7M-8M with a smaller lot area than Avida. And they haven't started building houses too (unlike Avida which already has a bustling community) so you might have to wait a bit to enjoy your porch if you do decide to buy a house here.

Finally, we went to Sonya's Garden because it was Tessa's first time to go there and it wasn't fair to not let her experience the official family pasyalan place.

Salad for starters.

Sensuous Spa. San ka pa?!

After my nth time there, I finally met the famous Sonya. She's such a gracious and gentle lady.

That Terry is really annoying!!

Imagine the most palengkera and obnoxious person you know then multiply it by ten, that would be Terry.

I don't understand how her marriage with Henry lasted for 13 years! That guy must be a sucker for punishment. Last night was the second time in the race that he broke down in tears (emotional abuse anyone?)

Leave her. Leave her. Or better yet, push her in a ditch where no one can hear her caterwauling.

I can't believe last night's leg of the race was one of those non-elimination legs. Grrrr.....

I still can't believe it but it's been ten years since I graduated from high school (actually, it will be 11 years na pala this year)!

Grrr....it's been ten years and I'm still not a fantastic success! But I am fantastic so I guess one out of two will do for now :p

Pictures from the Sr-C Christmas party/10th anniversary reunion at Rosella's fabulous house in Southwoods.







*Guess who my prom date was :P

The year 2007 was supposed to be my Bar year.

Ideally, everything was supposed to revolve around it while everything else took a back seat.

Unfortunately, Life did not receive the memo so it inconsiderately threw a couple of curve balls our way.

2007 was the year when my dad had his heart attack necessitating a quintuple bypass surgery at PGH the third week of September. During my almost two-week stay there I realized that family means everything and that I'll never ever live in filthy Manila. Ever.

2007 was also the year when Maddie's heart murmur was detected. Poor baby has to undergo open heart surgery too middle of this year.

You'd think that with our current crop of heart problems my family has more or less learned its lesson, but no, tell that to the fried lechon we had the day after our new year party. In fairness to everyone though, it took us almost three days to finish off the lechon leftovers, whereas pre-heart problem era, it would take three hours or less.

But 2007 wasn't all doom and gloom, that was also the year I gained another sister and also when the baby kangaroo was born. Robyn Claire also made her presence known this year while the entire country trooped to the cemeteries.

Robyn

Joey

This year: my parents will celebrate their 30th wedding anniversary; my bar results will come out; Maddie and Robyn will undergo their respective surgeries; Santi will apply for his US visa in order to be present during his daughter's operation; Kei and Joan will get married and a good friend's marriage is getting dissolved. So far, those are the only things that come to mind.

This year I hope:

1. That my dad's health will continue to improve and that he can go scuba diving again (hopefully in Palau where I will definitely tag along).


2. For Maddie and Robyn's successful operations.


3. That Santi's visa will be approved.


4. That I pass the bar.


5. That the Exchanges become a raging success.


6. To have more stamps on my passport.


7. That I'll finally figure out what I want in life.