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Saludos 2011!

Same time last year I posted:

Looking forward to 2011!  Latin America backpacking, New Orleans, living abroad,  already on my planning list!

Here's a little something we were asked to prepare for our family reunion especially that we are miles away...but I decided to share it as it could also be my thank you to some of the people who made it a deliciously great year for me, for making all that I wished for last year happened and to thank the void, Universe, God...the blessings are immensely appreciated, I thank with open arms, humbled and jumping for joy. 

 

Forgive the elementary video editing....so pressed for time. Okay, even if not pressed for time, it would still turn out that way - amateurish hehe! :)

Between The Comic and The Appalling

Ah, the memory of out of town trips with a best friend.  Taken last August 2011, on our way to a mystery spot, among a canopy of trees at Santa Cruz, California, Jaja driving, millions of stories shared in between. On a different note,  I would like to share a touching poem , If A Clown by Stephen Dunn. 

If a clown came out of the woods,
a standard-looking clown with oversized
polka-dot clothes, floppy shoes,
a red, bulbous nose, and you saw him
on the edge of your property,
there’d be nothing funny about that,
would there? A bear might be preferable,
especially if black and berry-driven.
And if this clown began waving his hands
with those big white gloves
that clowns wear, and you realized
he wanted your attention, had something
apparently urgent to tell you,
would you pivot and run from him,
or stay put, as my friend did, who seemed
to understand here was a clown
who didn’t know where he was,
a clown without a context?
What could be sadder, my friend thought,
than a clown in need of a context?
If then the clown said to you
that he was on his way to a kid’s
birthday party, his car had broken down,
and he needed a ride, would you give
him one? Or would the connection
between the comic and the appalling,
as it pertained to clowns, be suddenly so clear
that you’d be paralyzed by it?
And if you were the clown, and my friend
hesitated, as he did, would you make
a sad face, and with an enormous finger
wipe away an imaginary tear? How far
would you trust your art? I can tell you
it worked. Most of the guests had gone
when my friend and the clown drove up,
and the family was angry. But the clown
twisted a balloon into the shape of a bird
and gave it to the kid, who smiled,
let it rise to the ceiling. If you were the kid,
the birthday boy, what from then on
would be your relationship with disappointment?
With joy? Whom would you blame or extoll?

Gnocchis for Steve!

Gnocchis are so filling. Here's a good recipe, to try.

I'm stuck with thousands of pictures on my drive and could not find the time to collate and post.  I went to visit my good friend Jaja at San Francisco couple of weeks ago and I almost literally died. That's fine, all cool, it's my life, but what's not fine is that I have to drag people with me in my death.  Stories soon and oh, I hope it to be sooner than soon. 

In the meantime,  these gnocchis, my favorite at the moment is dedicated to Steve Jobs.  I have always loved Apple's designs way before the hype about iPod and iPhone. Back in 2002, I  spent all my savings to buy an iBook (worth 70,000 pesos back then) because the design haunted me and I could not get  over it until I have it.  Was it impractical? Not exactly :). I bought it not for the device but for the art I guess. 

But he gave significance to each one, saying how it sent him into the wilderness, strengthened him, made him the lateral thinker and innovator we know him to be. Look deeper into Jobs’s influences and you see not microchips and circuit boards but India, the Beatles, LSD, and Buddhism. In the nervous, incurious world of today, these markers are salutary for their apparent waywardness.  - How Apple Revolutioned the World.

But right now, I'm on Android, from time to time jumping back to Steve's world, for that kind of world has been a trailblazer for the rest. 

 

Quirkiness Meets Execution.

 

Elsie & Jeremy | May 15th 2011 from Goodwin Films on Vimeo.  Found via StylemyPretty

The most uniquely charming celebration I have seen - you could see the character of the celebrants with the whole shebang: Both are likely creative individuals,  quirky, playful, smart, dares to be different, and personal.  The color just bursts and I love the headbands! My favorite picture is the bridesmaid who is a pug and styled to the nines.   The bride: " When Jeremy and I envisioned our wedding day, we wanted it to be really personal. I’m a designer and he’s a song writer, so we spent a lot of time and energy on pretty visuals and our music selection. I own a boutique and we chose to host our ceremony on the third floor of our building, above my shop. The space is open with huge windows and peeling wallpaper. The ceilings are partially exposed. It’s a really amazing old building. We loved the idea of holding our ceremony here because we knew we’d be the first couple ever to get married in that spot! Our aisle was covered in white feathers and the flower girls threw colored feathers as they walked down the aisle."

Faves in Estados Unidos - Part Two

• Right-on Customer Service.  One day, the wireless receiver of my mouse got overheated (surreal, i know) and would no longer work.  I called Microsoft (were you surprised it is MS?) to report the incident  and no questions asked, they told me they will ship a new version with nary the burning hazard feature and it will arrive brand new in the color of my liking.  Call wrapped up in 5 minutes. Amazing, yes? Wait - here's more!  My work laptop hinted to crash lately and just yesterday it intermittently booted up, barely breathing.  I reported this to our customer service and they verified that it was 3.5 computer years old already which basically means  90 years old in human years.  I was about to cry because my laptop is the cornerstone of my staying productive (or the look of  being productive) and I badly need to salvage my data.  Guess what our customer service did? Here is a picture of my new laptop 15 feet from my doorstep, less than 24 hours after I called them up.  They sent me a new one - overnight shipping! Hallelujah! Isn't it amazing?

 I have observed that this whole concept of quality in customer service seems to be bounded by a good infrastructure - excellent and reliable postal services, sufficient supply of products and good trust with the customer - a naive kind of trust that customers would not abuse the suppliers, because the moment significant number of people do, the whole thing crumbles.  Companies invest on customer service because their business, in this information age, rely heavily on word of mouth, and as what Eric Schmidt (ex-CEO of Google) said (and I paraphrase), the moment we breach the trust of our users, we cease to be reliable, and people would  no longer trust our brand. 

And this kind of simple, all-in, fast and responsive customer service is what I like about the culture here in US.  Would it work in my home country? Yes, of course, we could even be better because we generally are built for service.  But it requires a culture change and more. 

Maybe trust is a good foundation for anything.

My Bitchin' 2010!

I never knew recalling moments and poring and picking pictures can be time consuming :).  But it's extremely gratifying to see through a year of fantabulous experiences and recognizing that it is indeed a time to be grateful.  It has been an epic year. I own 2010! So let me indulge and let you in my memories for the year that was/is.

• Watching Avatar in 3D with Dad (who loves technology more than I do).  

This is my favorite scene - the floating Hallelujah Mountains, if I can freeze it in one picture.  Definitely mouth-gaping, especially on 3D. 

Did you know those floating islands were inspired by a real life mountains in China (which incidentally has now been re-named Avatar Hallelujah Mountain haha!)?  

It's spell-binding.  Hunan Province, in China is now in my travel list to explore next!

• Penpal on overdrive. 

I actively sent out postcards to strangers through Postcrossing - the best part was checking my mailbox at home and finding out I got international mails from strangers - thank goodness, not just credit card bills! I got Nikki to join in and she, as always, amps any idea to wonderful craziness by making it a family event for her husband and their kids.  She writes on the postcards, Diego (10 year old, her eldest) mails the postcards and when they do get to receive one, they read it as a family. Pretty cool. Opens up her kids to new worlds.  Feel free to steal this idea :). 

• Baking and cooking were both great discoveries for me this year. 

Huge thanks to my trusty oven and  to Car and Anto for the tips and tricks and for always inviting me whenever there is food celebration at their house!  I really did try a lot of dishes and I also realized I kind of like cooking more.  Baking is so exact and I'm too clumsy and I get bored easily following the notes.  I've collected  the beautiful mess I made in 2010 (not comprehensive though).  in an album so I can laugh at it. 

• Embraced Blackberry and a Tablet. 

From a person who does not want to spend on technology (I'm for experiential purchases), this is my breakthough or may otherwise be known as the beginning of regret, let's see.  More on this soon and if there's anyone to blame, it is the bitch, my reliable, seldom reachable technical support. Blackberry, for its archaic design and a tiny screen, gets to be the most efficient phone for me to support my social networking activism.  

Not sure if I should label this as lowlights given the amount of distraction, but Plants vs Zombies deserves a cloud in my 2010!  And Words with Friends! (Both of which are not available as games in my current gadget, go figure). They ate my brains!

• Obligatory adventure on restaurant discoveries. 

Restaurant discoveries is a must as I prefer not to repeat the same restaurant with the same company.   The following springs with sumptuous delight in my memory - Van Gogh is Bipolar (for the inventiveness),  Kuya's,  O Kitchen,  Eat Well, Kebab's and Gratitude Cafe (this is more than a restaurant, I attended a session there on how to read someone's aura - superb!).  I think also one of my highlights in discovering new places for good food are my monthly lunch-outs with Mike and Nikki.  It's mightily challenging to schedule a common time for us to eat out but we still do manage to not miss it despite traffics and color-coding and still do stick to our no-repeat resto mantra. 

• Tasting Tibok-Tibok 

It was accidental - the trip was really our do-it-yourself Pampanga road trip with Pogs, Irish, Kat and Alvin and discovered this totally addicting dessert called Tibok-Tibok - which can be described in one sentence as maja blanca version 2.0.  Side trip: Philippine Hot-Air Balloon Festival and although colorful, the highlight was us trying to get out of that area so we could eat and getting lost finding San Fernando city!

• Rowing

I blogged about it. It's good for the upper arms, just bad I guess if you swallow the salt water (given that the salt water is from the very dirty Manila Bay).

• Coming back to social networking > Twitter.

Just happy to be back in Twitter for 2010.  I discovered it three years ago and have been intermittently updating it and when a lot of people have joined in, it then made sense for me why I did also become active. Social networking happens when there is significant mass of people to 'socialize' :).  Wow, genius. #sarcasm.  

Facebook on the other hand I may have officially given up. 

• Golf

My uncle enrolled me in golfing lessons as I told him I will be in Atlanta the next year and might be near to the famous Augusta (Tiger Woods' mothership).  Feeling talaga ako makakalaro ako duon, hehe.  My golfing instructor is so exasperated as he doesn't get it why I sway when I swing.  He said, 'Di sya sayaw..'. Oh. I thought much of golf is all about posing :). 

• Get Pricked!

I've leaned towards eastern medicine because I want to practice that belief that the power we need to heal ourselves are already within us.  Here I am with Yung Chin, a taiwanese traveler  who I brought to Dr. JC to experience this wonderful healing process, pinoy style.  

• Fishing

Again, my uncle and my dad's influence.  I was not able to catch fish but my dad did.  A huge one. 

• Watched Lea Salonga live. 

It was more a gift to my mom as I want her to witness Lea still singing well as if it's still her prime (it's still her prime, yes?).   My mom loves performances and watching Cats The Musical is so perfect, simple story but so abundant in singing and dancing.  The dancing is very techincal, it's amazing how the performers can still sing while doing the moves.  Mom and I enjoyed it very  much. 

•  Donated blood for the first time. 

Ask Des, I almost freaked out. 450cc of blood? That's enough to make two dinuguan good for 40 people! But it's at least a noble way of inflicting pain to oneself. Right after blood donation, against doctor's orders, Des and I went gallivanting the town with Pogs to tour an Estonian traveler within Quezon City.  And I went back home sick - nursing fever and flu for days. Moral of the story: Listen to your doctor! (And still donate blood, the feeling is priceless!). 

• Witnessed People Crucifying Themselves 

With the most appropriate people to see this kind of events with - my parents (and my Tita) hahaha!  We went to San Fernando Pampanga to witness people whipping their backs and nailing their appendages as nationwide Lenten season is being observed. It was hilarious as my mother cursed me for asking her to walk at that heat! My dad is laughing his head off as my all-white Machu Picchu got splashed with human blood - penitents whipping their backs during a procession.  The whole experience was like watching a Filipino classic movie - all the gore, the drama, and the suspense.  Oh it was bad-ass fun. You have to see it with your  old folks. 

In reflection, I do believe the Bible is a story in metaphor.  And most of what's happening  right now is just lost in translation.  What a bloody post this has become!

• Walked barefoot in the city. 

Not really a stiletto moment - but I walked barefoot from the Shangri-la Hotel to the Shangri-la Mall parking because my feet was begging for  mercy.  I promised to myself I will never wear heels again even if it looks good on my outfit (comfort over style, and I'm sure this promise I will never keep).  Yes, I came from a glamorous wedding and luckily, it was already evening when I decided to hit the ground, caveman style. 

• Travel by myself

I'm used to traveling with a buddy but  a milestone this year as I am very proud to have done traveling outside the country by myself that is not related to work.  Toronto was my experiment and it was an adventure to check out museums by myself, plot my itinerary by myself and fill the time with whatever I fancied. Good times.  

Given a choice, I would prefer to travel with someone for I was caught many times clasping my hands in excitement at a very nice piece of art but found no one readily available beside me to gush it with.  I do highly recommend that at least once in our lives,  we travel by ourselves - tough but good for the soul. 

• Watched a live baseball game

I did this already in Tokyo a couple of years ago, but nothing like watching it in a stadium with teams that are previous world champions.  Yep, it was Atlanta Braves vs Toronto Blue Jays - and the only player I know was Derek Jeter (Thank you Mariah Carey).

Come to think of it - Atlanta Braves. What a premonition! Main highlight - sitting on good seats costing around $70CAD and getting it for $10 dollars.  (My bargaining chip:  I'm from the third world...)

Bonding Experiences

• Reunion with my High School Barkada

Met all expectations of being a noisy, messy, but full of sentimental love kind of reunion as we walk dear Jenny down the aisle in wedded bliss.  It was perfectly set in the charming town of Bacolod, the place where we all introduced ourselves to each other 18 years ago. 

Post-event: Playing Mismo - a jejemon game of sorts in the wee hours of the morning at my house. I think we had a good belly laugh for over an hour.  

• Celebrity Sightings

Seen Megastar 3 feet away from me!  Seen Manny Pacquiao 300 feet away from me! Such a sucker for larger than life characters. 

• Watched Gay Pride Event in Atlanta

All for equality.  I know it does not beat the stories my friend Jaja tells me, of  how they do Pride in San Francisco, but Atlanta experience will do for now. 

 Picture stolen from Luan's facebook photostream :). 

• Get Rejected in a Bar due to Lack of Proof of Age

Yes, got rejected and not just one bar, but in two bars in mid-town Atlanta because I did not bring any form of identification.  In an act of desperation sans shame, I even sang a Beatles song to the bouncer to prove I'm old.

And during my birthday at that.  It actually feels good, ha ha ha. 

• Seen the Niagara Falls

Story here. 

• Voted in the elections. 

Finally for the first time. Post-mortem: My candidate for presidency did not win but I'm happy with the results. 

• Re-connect with friends, family, strangers. 

Even as simple as bringing my parents to Mercato Centrale to try out new food or as  elaborate  as  doing the yearly garage sale with Aimee, Cindy, Fe and this year with Chris, or those weekend overnighters (I remember the coffee farm house, that was good) with different loved ones, or driving on 100km/hr on ayala avenue (Ayala Ave!) at 2AM to bring a French traveler to his destination or even up to the extreme of traveling a thousand miles away beyond Pacific Ocean to reconnect with a good friend, all these proved that we do remember moments and happiness is only real when shared. 

2010 was definitely my year,  because everything was an adventure.  I don't post any work related stuff (as much as possible)  but that area too, for this year was an out of comfort zone thing experience. Anything that forces me to grow, tops it on my list - on a hindsight of course.  

I hope this year was awesome, heroic, stunning, kick-ass cool for you as it was for me!  

Looking forward to 2011!  Latin America backpacking, New Orleans, living abroad,  already on my planning list!

Gratefully yours, 

The absentee blogger 

Did It. Not Yet Done With.

Accomplishments a.k.a. welcome streaks of insanity, here we go.

Giant Trevally. I did not catch it, my dad did.  We're planning a second round of fishing this summer. Can't wait.

Baked 90% of this monster -  Waldorf Carrot Cake, thanks to Car for mentoring me. If you call this 90% = I grated 10 million carrots, I mixed the ingredients , I whisked them, and I put it in the oven, after which I forgot about it and if not for Car who did all the checking, the frosting, the strategy to ensure the cake does not get burnt, I don't know if it would come out as beautiful as this picture. So now we know, it is likely deserving and necessary to give credit to project managers, in as much as we credit the soldiers! Car, again, you should set up a resto na!  According to mom (I have a slice sent to Bacolod through dad) it tastes so good, "like Goldilocks, be!"  That's huge, Mom's favorite place is Goldilocks! So I'm planning to make one again this Holy week, yebah.

Flushing with Love.

Sun so hot, water so cool.

This one is really cosmic funny, got an email, thought it was a spam:

One day it will all be a distant memory, Rosemarie, yet I can tell you now, with the supreme confidence of someone who's gone ahead in time to know, that you'll look back on this life and be so flush with love and admiration for yourself, your journey, and who it made you, that you'll wonder, as I do now, how it could possibly have escaped you then.

Maybe this will help.

Your greater-self,
    The Universe

It's Notes from the Universe! Woot! Who needs theraphy?

----oOo-------oOo-----

I have a tip: Smile while driving. Aside from the fact that it will make you look like a driver demented but seems to be holding some secret that nobody yet knows, the fact that you're doing it, will classify you as a Wild Thing. Which is always a good thing. It will make your heart sing!

Just make sure your smile does not look like a leer!

----oOo-------oOo-----

Enter Belle and Sebastian -- these wondrously talented musicians will rule your week.  That's a promise.

Trusting The Void.

This picture is part of the theme of the house - a place conducive for conversations, food, fruit shakes. Taken at Granada, Spain, waiting for our orders with only our coins as our lunch budget.

I stop any music when I write. I need to hear the voices in my head so I can shush them. I'm writing on my bed  now, lying down, with laptop all over my chest, I don't even know where to put it. My hands are in an awkward position and the screen on a weird 60 degree angle pointing at me. Gadget acrobatics. Like how I'm jumping up with so much brightness today. I got good news.

I'm so immersed and trying hard not to be stressed with this project of fixing my house.  I'm over-the-moon tested and everyday I laughably repeat this line to myself: "enjoying the process, enjoying the process", trance-like mind you just so I could get it in my head that this is after all still a fun thing I chose myself to get crazy in. I have to move in less than a month now and I don't have a contractor to fix it based on my specs (another story altogether), that is of course compatible with my financial capacity. 

The first candidate gave me an estimate almost 100% more than my allocated budget. Mentioning negotiation is a laugh. But I'm not the kind of person who gives up easily.  Hello, um di naman sa pagbubuhat ng bangko, but I masterminded with my travel buddy Nikki a budget of 170K pesos for our 3-week-euro-backpacking travel and it's not a joke, europe is an expensive continent to travel to for third worlders like us.  I'm an expert cheapskater, hopefully where it matters.

I set a deadline last Friday, find a contractor or it's do or scrap-this-project-altogether moment na. I decided to trust the Fates and hope that my Project The 5th a.k.a. Yes-Filipinos-Can-Afford-To-Beautify-Their-Home-On-A-Non-Exaggerated-Price will happen. And oh yes it did. Last Friday at around 5PM, a contractor emailed me with a price estimate that fits my budget perfectly to a T. She was my last bet. I literally jumped for joy. I'm astounded by how things could work out in the end.

I don't want to put a period though. I  mean, we have just started bringing into reality this insanely beautiful mess of an idea. Let the outrageous, exciting, creative and fun stuff begin!

p.s. I hope you will be as trusting too, probably  more so, because everything does work out in the end. Let humanity take comfort :).

HapPENness.

It's a good thing that a few hours ago I was watching Into The Wild - a movie recommended by my teammate and friend Melissa - one of the most jarring movies I've seen this year. Most memorable scene -- the protaganist in his dying moments (now I spoiled it), scribbled in his journal -- Happiness is only real when shared. Ah, truth. Truth. It's a good thing I've watched that movie because it propelled me to tell you about the fund-raising event I initially shared a few weeks ago.

Saturday, we woke up very early -- because we also scheduled that day to participate in the garage sale that a year ago we also joined (we thought, hey, let's make it a yearly habit) and idiot that I was, I insisted and picked the date same as the fund-raising event -- I thought we have super powers to endure two events in one day. It's actually overwhelmingly tiring as I fell asleep driving in the wee hours of Sunday right after the event. But seriously, I'm beginning to think we have super powers, because we actually did it! Anyway, let's talk about the garage sale next time... (I earned negative, nagshop ako, di ako nag-sell haha!)..

I'm glad we did this for our friend you know. We're thankful to Aims who practically organized majority of it - because now one of the things I need to do before I die has been checked off the list - which is to host an event even for just 5 seconds, in front of an audience I don't know :). We raised around 52K and counting - and we were surprised we did reach 50K. We knew from the start that it's not the money -- it's the fact that we just needed to do something for our friend.

This is me singing. 

Haha! Lightning crashed, of course, I'm kidding. That's me introducing my teammates The Mammaries -- that's Arvil rolling his eyes, mocking me because of my description of their band in an email I sent previous week in the office,  inviting everyone to attend -- sabi ko kasi they're  "a band with a heart". I guess too mushy for rock and roll?

This is Aimee, dedicating Sarah McLachlan's Angel to Pen - allegedly Pen's favorite song.

Post-event story -- so while we were in Pen's house and watching the video that Cinds made, we were on the part where Aimee dedicated a song to Pen and described it as Pen's favorite song, Pen looked around us confused, "Ano ba favorite song ko?"  And Pen, ever the considerate, said, "Ah oo! Favorite song ko nga yan! Sino nga kumanta nyan?" Hahaha! I guess it's somebody else's favorite song (ahem!) not Pen's!

There are many people to be grateful for and you guys, all of you who contributed, you all rock and you're all golden.  I'm always amazed with the absolute raw power of giving. And I don't just mean money - but also time, love, talent. To share that to people you don't know -- god, it just gives you a certain kind of high just to see that. I want to fucking live in a world like that, like this. It's like a kiss in the air to the universe, arms wide open, flailing and screaming that it's too good to pass up.  So Universe, bless this people who give for the sake of giving.

What if I were smiling and running into your arms? Would you see then what I see now?

More visuals here.