A Tag and A Quick, Random Update

From Emz! Thanks sis! Now I have to tag ten other bloggers...I'll be updating this as soon as I can.

The Rules:

1. Each blogger must post this rules.
2. You need to choose ten people to be awarded and list their names.
3. Don't forget to leave them comment telling them they've been tagged and to read your blog (soon).

Meanwhile...

It's 1:23AM and I'm kinda bummed. Oona's asleep, the bottles are sterilized and prepared for tomorrow, house is quiet and I'm bored. This is what I get for napping with Oona earlier. I don't get sleepy enough to go to bed when she does. Friends are asleep and hubby is in Brazil right now, attending to his office duties so I got no one to bug. He called earlier and I can tell he really misses us. We really miss him. Oona takes to asking "Daddy?" every time the front gate chimes ring, when she hears a voice sounding like his or even when she smells cigarette smoke. She even checks the garage if he's just hiding. It breaks my heart to see my little girl missing him even when she doesn't know what she's feeling.

Sure she's still happy and rambunctious but she knows something's missing. Or rather, someone. It's almost a relief to know she's still too young to realize Dad's been gone for about a week now. I don't think I'll be able to take the heartbreak if she cries for him and he can't come to her. I refuse to think what could happen if he doesn't see her for a year. Some kids forget, I know. That makes me think about all the OFWs out there who have kids at home. I know the staying parents do all they can to keep the memory alive with pictures, phone calls and frequent webcam dates. You have to marvel at technology, how it has worked to keep the love alive. For the kids, it's important for them to know that love can reach across space. 

And for us adults, it's even more important to keep the faith that love can survive across the time that stretches between the physical instances of being together. It can get lonely. Like now. Maybe that's why I can't go to sleep. I miss him, I even miss getting cranky and pissed off at him for weird reasons. Maybe that'll teach me not to be so cross and picky with him, after all, he really is malambing and I'm really just a cross, old fart. Or maybe not? 

Hay.

It's just been a week and I probably shouldn't miss him so much. After all, what's our separation compared to people who raise families countries apart?  Sometimes I think I'm just not as strong as other women out there. Other moms hack it on their own, with OFW husbands or as single parents. I know they're able to cope because they have to for their children and their own sanity's sake. My admiration and respect for these women have only steadily increased since I gave birth to Oona. It's incredible how they have managed the intense physical, emotional and mental demands of parenthood by themselves. Along with this, my admiration for mothers (including my own, but don't tell her that or I'll never live it down! :D) has grown tremendously. Just comparing my own experiences to others...it's incredible how mothers make way for their kids and families. Even at the expense of their own plans. 

Well, trading one future for another isn't so bad when you think about what you're getting by way of velcro hugs ("'ag! 'ag!") and sticky kisses. Oh, and when she simultanously calls me and requests to go wherever it is I'm going ("Mamo!"), I could take her to the moon for all it would cost!

Anyway...I was missing RF early this post. Now, I think I'll go upstairs and cuddle up to my sleeping bundle of half his DNA. Maybe I'll only just partly miss him then.

MY TEN RANDOM FACTS

i been parpolised by an award! thanks to tintintetay for this :D

Here are the rules:
- Each blogger must post these rules.
- Each blogger starts with ten random facts/habits about themselves.
- Bloggers that are tagged need to write ten facts about themselves.
- You need to choose ten people to tag and list their names.
- Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they've been tagged and also to read your blog.


okay...random facts about me:

1. i used to climb a lot as a kid: trees, walls, rooftops, cabinets, etc. you name it, i've been up on it first and fastest. i taught my brothers to do it and never had a fall. we'd gauge a wall, spotting hand/foot holds and the best route to take to a perch and just launch up. sometimes to get from one place to another, we'd have to climb one end of a wall and balance beam to the other end. nevermind if it was a twelve-foot drop on either side for a scrawny kid. our parents and neighbors gave up on trying to make us stay down and just prayed we never had an accident. my philosophy was, i didn't climb anything i couldn't stay on top of. i hated getting hurt and having to go to the hospital, so that was incentive enough for me to be good at what i did. but sadly, the glory days of height were soon over when my mother figured out she could put us to good use cleaning the rain drains of leaves and overripe fruit that fell from the trees towering above our rooftops. it wasn't so much fun after that. haha.

2. i hate needles. the kind that they stick in you at the hospital. i am deathly afraid of something happening while they stick me with the needles and they rip out my veins. with all due respect to everyone in the medical profession, i am just afraid. i pleaded with the nurses and my doctors to be gentle when i was giving birth and they wer putting on the dextrose. but oh, lucky me...they had to give me shots almost every other hour with different medicines because i was hypertensive, going 180/100. the bad part of it was i've never had so many needles stuck in me in my entire life! i felt like a pincushion! and i hate needles!

3. i can live on books. i can lock myself in my room with books to read and just go out to eat, do my girly business and go back to reading. i can not talk to people for an indefinite period of time as long as i have a good book. yes. i am a bookworm of the worst kind. i was banned from the library as a child for reading too much. they told me to go outside and play. i was like, what? get dirty and scabby while all those books are begging to be read? worlds are waiting to be discovered and explored! and they said yeah, nice try. go play... so i went. and got caught in the cross-fire of a water balloon fight. to think i was wearing my nice pink dress and white stockings. dammet. i went back and got a book and read in a quiet corner of the playground.

4. i played cards for money in college. not all the time, just whenever i'd REALLY need funds (which at least just happened 2-3 times only. damn xeroxed readings!). my luck ran strictly along those lines. whenever i'd run out of money for necessities, i played for the pot. not that we were hard-up, but i made it a point not to be a burden to my parents and go beyond my allowance. however, those readings and research projects really can cost a student a lot, so sometimes, i wouldn't have anything left for lunch or for fare going home. i walked home when i could, but having classes all day would drive me to play so i could have fuel for my brain. i'm not a hot shot player, but my luck would only work when i really needed the money...something along the lines of, when all else fails....and i'd win the pot. i just knew that if i played for profit or pushed the limit of my luck, i'd lose what i won. so i'd always quit while i was ahead. of course my opponents always wanted to win the money back and i'd get a stare down as i beat it out of there. still, they know i never play to rip them off. after all, i'm only following tradition. my dad did it, playing cards and shooting pool for food and fare, and so did my brothers. but always never for profit.

5. i like spaghetti noodles with kare kare and bagoong. nope, don't knock it til you've tried it. it's true pinoy pasta hehe! i first had this while infanticipating with Oona.

6. i am a frustrated violinist and ballet dancer. i can't play the instrument even if my life depended on one silken tone. and i have two left feet plus about a hundred pounds unsuitable for a tutu.

7. i wanted to be a pilot and an astronaut. buuuut i couldn't make the height requirement and all that math gave me vertigo.

8. the first dream i remember is about worms floating in my bedroom. i was about 3 years old at the time, my mom says. squiggly, sesame street worms floated in the dark. i kinda freaked out about it because i knew i was supposed to be asleep and worms didn't do that. let's not ask Freudian dream interpreters what that dream meant.

9. i'm a sucker for road trips. i love travel. if i can travel (in style of course!) for a living with my family in tow, i would! especially the beach. but i love mountains too. i think i'm at my most peaceful when i'm on the road. i'm lucky rf shares my joy of the open road. we try to indulge ourselves whenever time and money permit!

10. i am a die-hard, dyed in the wool, true blue romantic. i may be a liberated, opinionated, strong-minded woman of the latest independent breed who can outlast, outthink and outdrink most creatures of the other sex; but i love surprises, doors being held open for me and flowers on special occasions. i love walks in the park, sunsets, rose petals on my bed and a man who woos me and sweeps me off my feet. i read romance novels ( i love a good bodice ripping story) and swear solemnly by wine and candlelight dinners. poetry, handwritten notes and lazy afternoons with feathers rank way up there with a hot, sweaty salsa night and being kidnapped for a secret rendezvous.   

i now hereby tag MEC, Jonas, Johnny, Den, Jimbo, Jen Trajano, JenCC, Elapot, John Becaro, Pheng, Lette and Rei! 

UP NAMING MAHAAAAL...The Meme

More on a reminiscing note and for UP students to grow misty-eyed over...

1. Student number
95-04292

2. College
College of Mass Communications

3. Course
BA Film and Audio Visual Communication...pamatay isulat sa Form 5. Absolutely kills me writing the whole thing.

4. Nag-shift ka ba o na-kickout?
Overstaying. Kamuntik na ma-MRR (Maximum Residency Rule). Wala na raw nun ngayon?

5. Saan ka kumuha ng UPCAT?
Sa building tabi ng BA. Stat pa siya noon.

6. Favorite GE Subject?
Humanities.

7. Favorite PE?
The pool PE's. I just hated what the pool did to my hair. Or the fact that there would be frogs. Mega ligo ako after.

8. Saan ka nag-aabang ng hot guy sa UP?
SECRET!!!

9. Favorite Prof/s?
My Prof in Anthro, Prof. Armi Vallejos Santiago for Photography/Thesis and Prof. Hammy Sotto.

10. Pinaka-ayaw na GE subject?
Math, SocSci and NatSci.

11. Kumuha ka ba ng Wed or Sat classes?
Yep. College was my time in the sun!

12. Nakapag-field trip ka ba?
Yep...Banahaw, Tagaytay...etc.

13. Naging CS or US ka ba sa UP?
Nope. I studied but I wasn't trying to compete with the other brains.

14. Ano ang Org/Frat/Soro mo?
UP RPT Mutiny Batch '96; Cineaste yata

15. Saan ka tumatambay parati?
1st year: AS, FA, Sunken Garden
2nd year to 4th year: AS, CMC, UPRPT tambayan, Sunken Garden
5th year: Bahay Alumni

16. Dorm, boarding house or bahay?
Bahay.

17. Kung walang UPCAT at malaya kang makakapili ng course, anong pipiliin mo?
Fine Arts

18. Sino ang pinaka-una mong nakilala sa UP?
Basta blockmates ko...sina Hilda, Crissy, Will, Odessa, Armin, Kat, Sharon, etc...

19. First play na napanood mo sa UP?
Dammit forgot na.

20. Name the 5 most conyo orgs in UP.
Frats or soros ata, especially in AS. Meron din from BA. Law and Eng'g.

21. Name 5 of the coolest orgs/frat/soro in UP
FA for meeee.

22. May frat/soro ba na nagrecruit sa iyo?
Hinarang ng Nanay ko e. Tapos recently kong malaman na Frat/Soro people pala parents ko! Kaloka!

23. Saan ka madalas mag-lunch?
Beach house sa likod ng Library, Casaa, Arcade, International Center...RODIC'S!

24. Masaya ba sa UP?
BEST YEARS OF MY LIFE.

25. Nakasama ka na ba sa rally?
YUP

26. Ilang beses ka bumoto sa Student Council?
ONCE is enough

27. Name at least five leftist groups in UP
STAND-UP, Alay Sining, League of Filipino Students, Gabriela, er...

28. Pinangarap mo rin bang mag-laude nung freshman ka?
Sus. I was just to happy to be there. I was determined to have fun.

29. Kanino ka pinaka-patay na patay sa UP?
Sa College of Fine Arts.

30. Kung 'di ka UP, anong school ka?
Honestly I wouldn't have been able to stand being in another school. Maybe if things were different, or di ako napunta ng UP, baka kaya ko pala. I just wanted to be in UP.

***
Photo courtesy of Butch Dalisay...

Die hard na kung die hard. Pero I love college. Most of my adventures happened then. I was also at my coolest...for this former high school wall-flower, college gave me so much freedom. I was free from the vagaries of high school girl cliques! Free to wear my retro clothes! Free to act contrary to norm (which of course made me fit in UP all the better, so ironic)!

Ah...and to have the future at your feet.

I want that for my daughter: the freedom to be who she wants to be without fear of prejudice, censure or scorn.

WITHIN REASON, of course. And provided she keeps me up to date.

This Mom wrote the book on collegiate adventuring (within reason). ---> uuy! disclaimer! kaloka!

My Time Capsule

Tagged by Mec

RULES:

1. Answer the question below:

If you are to leave an important memory, what would that be?

I can't help it! I have to put this and my baby popot, Oona! If only just to prove that miracles do happen and plans, even if they don't go the way you want them to, ultimately has a better way of turning out. Yes! Falling in love and having a family wasn't in my plans. But here I am! Loving every minute of it!
Made this for our 7th Valentine's Day together. "Celebrating Evolution" was how RF described holding hands. "Imagine," he had said casually while walking around during our spare-change dates, "The dinosaurs died and gave way for humans to evolve through the ages, to this point in time, to us. To something so simple (but infinitely meaningful) as holding hands..."

I melted. Here I was, no newbie to the lines guys spout off and I just melted. It was certainly the most original and it struck me two ways at once: straight to my brain and my heart. I think that was the most romantic thing anyone ever said to me. A bit on the brainy-geeky side, but so what? I think it was then that I really knew I was totally into the guy. To this day, I don't know if he knew what an impact that made on me.

And the surprise Christmas child! She's our late Christmas present, supposedly conceived around Christmas time. I found out I was pregnant a few days after New Year. Sometimes I can't believe she's mine! Never, in all my dreams did I even see her coming. Being a wife is an adventure, but being a mother...ibang lebel na ito! It's a whole different dimension altogether.

I know I'm supposed to put just one, but one cannot do without the other for me. My hubby and my baby are the memories I have that are forever intertwined and inseparable. They are as one.

2. Copy the entire list and add your name below the person who tagged you. Then tag at least 5 friends (But you can tag as many as you like) and visit their blog to let them know you tagged them.

Bloggers who shared their important memories 1.)Kaptyurd 2.)and so I am 3.)Princess Vien 4.)Princess Bela 5.)Our Journey to Life 6.)My Planet Purple 7.)Women Xplore 8.)Crazy, Happy ARevalos 9.)MEComposing 10.)Hope This Helps You 11.) Mommyluscious 12.)add your site here

I am tagging Rei, Jonas, Johnny, and Pheng!

tip: to easily get the url, right click on this page, click on VIEW SOURCE... and just ctrl F on the keywords that you'd copy... ahehe

Ooh! I Got An Award!

Got this award from Mommy Angel Mec! Just when I was feeling down in the dumps, she popped this one on me out of the blue! She's got a second sense about people, this Mom!

Rules of this award are :
1. Put the logo on your blog.
2. Add a link to the person who awarded you.
3. Nominate at least 7 other blogs.
4. Add links to those blogs on yours.
5. Leave a message for your nominees on their blogs

I am awarding this to:

Jonas-For a brave, BRAVE man who, I dare say, is an honorary lady in my book. Your integrity in the face of adversity is incredible (although it's more than I can handle to try and keep up with your horse, Mr. White Knight!).
Johnny-For being one of the rare people I know who stand truest to themselves. You have such a beautiful soul and a generous heart!
Rei-There are few words to describe the kind of person who would stand by you through clear, present and mortal danger...in a red bikini and live to tell the tale of your friendship. You are my ageless soul-sister. I will be so put out if we don't meet up in our next lifetime.
Carver-Because I *heart* you! Your work makes me crack up when I need a laugh awful badly. Your talent inspires me no end. Plus, I AM A SHAMELESS FAN GIRL. Is there a fan's club I can join?

There are others who I wan to give this award to but these are the few I have who I know blog on a regular basis. You guys know who you are. I *HEART* you no less!

TAG TIDBITS WITH PHOTOS

this is a tag from pheng.

participants: 1. tere-blessings in life 2. yen-me and mine 3. jody-in this game of life 4. pheng - life. love. family. work. travel. 5. laya-mommyluscious 6. your name and site here.

1. what do you want for your birthday?
nothing material although a family vacation would be nice. i would really like to be with family and friends on a beach somewhere.

2. who will be your next kiss?
oona! or daddy...sometimes they ambush me together.

3. when was the last time you went to the mall?
yesterday. met up with rizal for badminton (naubusan kami ng slot sa court) and walking (na inulan kami). ended up at starbucks, waltermart and had dinner with mommy s and jonas.

4. are you wearing socks right now?
am barefoot, barelegged and happy about it. although i AM in my pajama shorts.

5. how did you spend your summer?
i spent the summer transitioning from one workplace to another (LONG STORY), helping my former boss launch a little studio of our own and plan for the future. we went to the beach with oona for the first time (she began to enjoy the beach when she discovered water was splashy).

6. have you been to the cinema in the last 5 days?
nope. would've wanted to watch dark knight but am just leery of the hype. i don't want to be disappointed. i watched a dozen DVDs over the weekend though! oona is a really cool couch potato buddy.

7. what was the last thing you had to drink?
kalamansi juice.

8. what are you wearing right now?
shorts, white linen billowy shirt, messy hair and a determined look on my face (to finish updating everything and work on oona's birthday plans).

9. what was your last purchase?
books! at booksale, my latest addiction.

10. what was the last food you ate?
tilapia, last night's left-over fruity salad from pancake house and half a cup of rice (naks!).

11. who would be the person you would call if you were up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep?
RF the hubby, but there would be other auto-defaults since work could slam him with meetings for hours on end.

12. have you bought any clothing items in the last week?
seriously, i haven't bought anything in the past three months or so that could be construed as real clothing...serviceable items, most like but real clothing...none yet.

13. do you have a pet?
nope. although oona does a wonderful impersonation of a puppy, a kitten and a vocalizing bird alternatively. she does water sprite and monkey every now and then too.

14. what made you laugh in the last 5 days?
last sunday, when RF surprised oona. she was quietly rummaging happily through my bag when RF came into the room suddenly. she was so surprised she cried and clambered to RF asking to be picked up. she then proceeded to vent her fright and angst on the defenseless tissue paper she was holding on to,shredding the tissue and babbling her gulat, gigil and nerbyos! na-stress! tissue confetti snowed on the floor and i was laughing so hard, i had a stitch on my side. my poor little baby!

15. if you could be anywhere right now, where would you be?
beach. retired. and filthy rich. having family around is a given.

16. what is the last thing you purchased online?
my breast pump from pheng.

17. one thing you hate about yourself?
i wish i could shed pounds faster and my posture! kuba na ako. peste.

18. do you miss anyone?
some of my friends in other countries.

19. what are your plans for the day?
read.

20. last person you msg’d?
mae hao, saowee and rei. yep all at the same time. if jonas was online, he would be the last i messaged, hands down!

21. ever went to a camp?
nope. i went up to famy with my high school class and banahaw with my rizal class in college. does that count? oh and we had a bivouac for PE in college. it was rainy, muddy and very uncomfortable. labbet.

22. are you a good student in school?
i studied. define good.

23. what do you know about the (your) future?
i know it's exciting and largely unknown.

24. are you wearing any perfume or cologne?
eau de tilapia.

25. where is/are your best friend/s right now?
singapore and manila, they are in.


now i’m tagging yas, jonas, johnny and mec.