Pigeon Battery Operated Breast Pump, never used although I did take it out of the box to sterilize it once as I thought I would use it. I am including some packs of disposable breast pads and a bottle adaptor. You see the breast pump fits normal bottles and pigeon bottles but it doesn’t hook up to Avent Bottles. This is why I have that adaptor made by Pigeon as well.
I got this from Baby Ga-Ga, a website which shows women at different stages of their pregnancies. This woman is supposed to be on her 16th or 17th month…I don’t look like that at all…far from it!! My baby must be microscopic…what if my baby’s a midget?
On a happier note, I heard my baby’s heartbeat today!!! Well I’ve heard it through the ultrasound a month ago, but my OB was surprised that she couldn’t hear it through the doppler 2 weeks ago. I was so paranoid I wanted to buy my own doppler machine (Ruy said I’m insane)…Imagine my relief when after 5 seconds of opening my pants the doctor heard the heartbeat…YEHEY! Ruy recorded it on his cellphone and I’m listening to it again right now…it sounds like a choo choo train but I can’t seem to hear enough of it.
My first quiet, calm, peaceful weekend in a long time. I actually liked it!
Saturday saw me waking up quite early and driving to the grocery to buy food for me. I bought so much I seem to have forgotten that I could go back another time. I bought Pineapple, Orange, Grapes (the fresh kind). 12 Fruit Cups (4 for each variety: mandarin oranges, peach halves and mixed fruit); 8 Yoghurt (in Mango); 2 huge boxes of my favorite Post Cereal (Banana Nut Crunch) and 4 boxes of milk. Those are only the healthy stuff. I also bought 4 rolls of Ritz Crackers (the only thing I can eat now without throwing up) and 2 bottles of Maggi Savor with Calamansi (this is actually the reason why I wanted to go to the grocery, problem is when I tasted it at home I didn’t want it anymore…hahaha I’m such a weirdo). Of course a trip to the grocery will never be complete without some toiletries; I bought a huge bottle of shampoo, wipes, and Ethyl Alcohol (I just learned through Dorothy that Isopropyl Alcohol is so much more dangerous than Ethyl, so it’s Ethyl all the way for me); I also bought Travel brush, 2 huge tubes fo Neutrogena Deep Clean Facial Wash…etc. One thing I bought which was not for me is this hand shower for my lola who’s been feeling dizzy lately I told her to stop using the pail and dipper and use the freaking hand shower!!
When I went home, I read, slept, played with the baby, ordered Pan Chicken (yes Ruy it’s the third time this week that I’ve eaten that freaking Pan Chicken) it’s just so damn good! I ordered the 3 piece panchicken and only ate 1. The rest was eaten by Nani and Mary….
I go to work quite early. I’m usually in my office by 10 (trust me this is early in my office). Normally, I am the only one in my area in the office by that time. It works very well for me as I get to concentrate on my task at hand and I have very minimal distractions.
So here I am in my office working on my laptop focusing on the complicated excel file which I was working when I suddenly heard footsteps. I didn’t pay attention to it cause people normally walk around here anyway. I then felt someone pass behind me while still hearing the footsteps. I turned around and said “John?”…thinking it was the network guy installing the new software in the PCs. Nope, there was no John. I went to every cubicle but NADA, there was no one there.
Needless to say I’m a bit freaked out right now.
Due to unavoidable circumstances. I have moved from http://www.ruyandliv.blogspot.com to this site.
16 days until my birthday, and 20 until Ruy’s. We’re not going to be doing anything special, although I did demand that he pick me up on my birthday as I want to have dinner with him. I don’t care where, it could be in my house or in Goodah or in Mang Jimmy’s for all I care. I just want to be with him.
Funny how birthdays have become just like an ordinary day when you’re an adult. My past birthdays (except for last year’s) has been disastrous. I’ve always been depressed and miserable. Last year was a bit different, after the discovery weekend Ruy and I were doing much better than ever. I also finished my therapy AND I was working in a company where I loved my work and I loved my boss and I loved all the people I was working with (I’m still working in the same company). A week before my birthday, I told Ruy it’s amazing how I wasn’t feeling depressed at all.
During my actual birthday, Ruy was in the province and so I was more than ready to just crash at home. I know something was up in the office though as my friends were acting strange. Mike de Villa would walk pass me without even smiling. Aaron and Dorothy were speaking in hushed whispers. I knew they were planning something. 
I was speaking with Ruy over the mobile phone and walking towards the pantry. When I opened the door there was a loud scream from Christene. It wasn’t a “SURPRISE” it was a “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH”….apparently instead of me being surprised, I surprised them. Wahaha
It was the best surprise party ever with the most eclectic menu. Imagine this: Tequilla, Bibingka, Chocolate Mouse and Crispy Pata….hahahah
2,890,800 minutes
2,890,800 moments so dear
2,890,800 minutes
how do you measure the life of a woman or a man
YUP!!! Ruy and I have been together for 2,890,800 minutes (and a bit more, I didn’t want to compute for the 2 extra days) \. It’s amazing when you look at it that way isn’t it? 2 million minutes as a couple. Looking at it that way puts things in perspective.
How can you cheat on someone who invested that much time on you? How can you waste all those minutes? How can you risk losing all of those memories? How can you risk not having 2,890,800 minutes more with this person?
I love the Madonna version of this song….”FEVER, when you kiss me, fever all through the night. You give me fever”. Unfortunately I literally have fever today. This probably explains why I’ve been shiverring and gnashing my teeth even if I’m wearing a thick jacket (courtesy of Sunny, thanks Sunny) and have been drinking tea given to me by Fabian (straight from London…naks).
Ruy’s being quite funny about it…he wants me to go home. HELLO, i’m not about to leave all my work just because of FEVER. My boss was working up until midnight last Friday even with a fever and a cough. He even went drinking with us until 3 in the morning…hehehe.
I’m supposed to train the Italian Sales Team of our company tonight and I’m not going to leave everyone hanging just because of a slight fever. Besides, what will I do when I get home? I spend 80% of my time at home just playing with my nephew (whose picture appears here…isn’t he the cutest? And I’m not just saying that because I took the picture) and if I’m sick then I obviously cannot play with him lest I infect him as well. So better stay at work and be productive right?
Allow me to digress. Ruy’s the best (for me), I realized how lucky I am to find a match. Am I sure it will be this good forever? Nope, he might cheat or we might lose interest in each other in the future. But right now he’s been such a blessing……waaah my fever’s making me mushy
Sometimes Ruy bowls me over with his sweetness. He asked me what I was doing and I said I was working and researching on my new medication. And he offered to buy it for me…and he was so mushy about it….hehehe. I wouldn’t write what he said verbatim in order to keep my fiance’s macho image…hehehe.
I refused to let him do it. Despite all my whinings, I’m more than capable of paying for my medicine. He then said “I know there’s no need for that financially but essentially, isn’t that what being together is all about? Let me do it…”
Woohoo…sooweeeet. I told him, I’ll let him do it when we get married. I just feel funny about letting someone take care of things I’m responsible for (i.e. My health). This is something I really have to work on, I have issues with depending on other people. Do you know that I even refuse to let Ruy carry my bag? My principle is, it’s mine, I knew it was heavy but I was stubborn enough to bring it so I should be the one carrying it.
In restaurants, when I order something bad and Ruy orders something really yummy he would offer to exchange with me. I also refuse. It’s my fault, it’s my stupidity which led me to the bad food therefore I should suffer the consequences.
I should learn how to accept help, and learn how to be weak from time to time. Howellll
This is Ruy’s wonderful comment after we went to Printer Matter. We finally saw the mock-up of our STD’s (that’s a Save the Date card by the way) and I would lie if I said that I was extremely pleased with it. I WASN’T!
The color was to light for my taste and I wanted it to be more gold and more black. But according to the people making it, we were limited by the paper we were using. Hopefully it would look better in the invites.
I wanted several revisions but Ruy stopped me. He said it’s not worth the trouble of going back and forth, he said he’s happy with it. I decided to be a good girl and follow Ruy. (see? I follow Ruy!! wahahah) I realized that it’s not such a big deal, would people really care if the save the date was more black? Or if the pattern was a bit off-center? Nope…it wouldn’t help our wedding or our marriage either. So I let it go…Patrick once advised me to choose my battles. I decided this is one battle not worth fighting for.
After a depressing post (depressing for me that is) I just want to share that it’s our 66th monthsary today! YIHEEE…No we don’t celebrate our monthsaries every month, although we try to greet each other IF we remember.
IT was Ruy who remembered today. Ruy has been sooooooo sweet lately despite my sour mood. Here’s a rundown of the sweet things he has done:
- he bought me an USHER dvd, even if he hates the fact that I love Usher
- he bought me a starbucks tumbler to hold my coffee in the office. Why? Cause I’ve been complaining that our office is freezing (when I say freezing I mean my teeth chattering most of the time)
- He bought me fruit shake yesterday (i’ve told him that I don’t like chocolate right now and all I want is fruit)
- He bought me 2 magazines. BRIDE and Metro HOME.
All the gifts were really sweet but I’m a bit uncomfortable about him buying too many things for me. My goodness I’d be just as happy with a sweet text. I loved what the magazine represented though, it reminded me of the 2 things we’re aiming for right now. *sigh*
When we started dating Ruy was incredibly…mmm…UNSWEET (i know there’s no such word, I’m making it up). And now he’s been so thoughtful. Amazing!
This is the state I’m in right now. My doctor just recommended that I take a medicine which costs 123 pesos each. Right now I’ll be taking it once a day and the frequency might increase if it still doesn’t work. WOW….so right now, my monthly medication costs 5000 pesos. That’s quite a lot!
So, I’ll spend 5k on medicines, 10k on the wedding, 6k on my car, 4k on gasoline, 2,500 on parking, 1,500 on mobile phone bills. That’s 29,500 a month just on my basic expenses. Now that I have done the computation, I realized that I should still have quite a lot left for other things in THEORY, but somehow in practice it seems that my salary disappears as soon as I pay everything off.
My family keeps on saying “You’re earning so much, I don’t understand why you’re being so stingy. You should have hundreds of thousands of savings right now” …I wanted to tell them “EXCUUUUUUUSE ME! Who forced me to buy a new car?”, I was perfectly happy with my beat up car, but noooooh, they had to scare me into buying a new car. And then now I’m the bad guy?
I was thinking about where my money has been going in the past. I realized that it’s been going to medical tests, medical check-ups, car repair and weekends. Obviously the first three cannot be scrimped on, I realized that the only way for me to be able to save some more is to have less extravagant weekends. That’s easy enough to do. I just hope I wouldn’t have to bail out of the SAGADA TRIP in August. I’m really looking forward to that.
Do your teeth look like these?
Probably not (yet) but chances are your teeth could be whiter. I know mine could. If you are like me, then your teeth have probably been stained by too much soda, tea, coffee or smoking. My mother is a dentist and I’ve begged her so many times to bleach my teeth but she has always refused. She would always tell me that the existing bleach has proven to be too harsh and it left teeth extremely sensitive and some have even burned the gums of the users. EWWWWWWWWW
Today however my mother actually approached me and told me that she found this wonderful product I could use! Yehey just in time for my wedding! She said that this wonderful product would come with a 2 week preparation in order to make sure that my teeth would be healthy enough for the treatment. I’ll be trying it out very soon (and no my mother’s not giving it to me for free) and I’ll be letting you guys know what happens. I’ll be taking my before picture now so we could compare it. I’m so excited.
In case any of you guys are interested just email me or pm me or tag me.
Who is Cyril? CYRIL is Ruy’s best friend and someone I love sooooo much. I don’t think Cyril knows this but whenever Ruy and I would fight in the past, all he has to do is call Cyril and I’d be happy.He’s just such a fun person to be around…we can actually take Cyril anywhere and he could fit in. Even Carmi (my bestfriend) adores him.
Now that he’s turning 22 (heeeheee) I wish we could have celebrated your special day together. Show us pictures of how you’re going to be celebrating Cy okay?
Ruy already knows that I can bug him into submission most of the time. This is what makes it so hard for him to surprise me, I normally bug him until he tells me. Today I received a text from Ruy.
RUY: I have something for you. I’ll give it to you when we meet, But I won’t tell you what.
LIV: Unfair, how come there’s a disclaimer already? You didn’t even give me a chance to bug you.
RUY: Sorry but I just can’t allow you that opportunity.
I’ll try to bug him for a hint right now. I’ll see if I can squeeze anything out of him. Hehehe, this is a challenge…
Dear Blog,
I can’t believe it’s been a year since we started this journey. I remember that in the beginning our relationship was a big secret. No one knew you existed, I wasn’t so comfortable about letting people read through my thoughts through you. Look at you now! You actually have regular visitors. Over 10,000 people have visited you and have gone through the roller coaster ride of life as you have.
Congratulations!!! Here’s to many more years.
Yesterday, Ruy insisted on having dinner together. I told him why don’t we eat at my house so that we could save up. He agreed…
What did we have for dinner? Lechon which Ruy bought from someplace and TINOMOK and Beef Ribs which I bought from Gerry’s Grill. We spent more than what we would have had we eaten out together…oh well
DOORS, after toilet bowls we are now supposed to choose the correct doors for our house. We need to find a design for the front door and for the side doors. My God who designs doors? Here is a design that I liked for the side door
Last Sunday, Ruy and I went shopping for TOILET BOWLS. Never in my life did I imagine that the time would come when I’d be shopping for TOILET BOWLS. Ruy was more persnickety about the designs than I was. I let him do the choosing, only hinting about the cost from time to time. The design we got is exactly what you can see above.
Last Saturday, we were supposed to attend a FOOD TOUR of Binondo. This was supposed to be our Father’s Day gift to Tito Ollie (Ruy’s dad). Unfortunately, the weather wasn’t cooperative so the tour guide called me up and said that we couldn’t push through.
Ruy and I decided to make it a productive day by doing some Wedding Preps. I was a bit uncomfortable because I wasn’t really dressed to impress. I was wearing my “I’m-going-to-walk-for-4-hours-so-I-don’t-care-if-I-look-like-crap-as-long-as-I’m-comfortable outfit” I looked like crap on that day. But I decided to brave it out and show my crappy self to the world. (I also forgot to bring Iron for my hair, clip, or a cap).
Ruy has contacted Printed Matter in the past to inquire about the STD (he did this out of his own volition! I didn’t ask him at all. I was so impressed and touched). So we already knew everything we needed to do, we went to their office and asked Printed Matter to make our STD’s. Ruy was nice enough to let me choose the style. I love what we chose and was actually willing to pay the downpayment for the invites right there and then. Ruy stopped me though, he wanted to wait it out a bit more. Oh well…fine. I’ll be seeing the mock-up by Saturday and I CANNOT WAIT. I feel like a giddy school girl.
We still had time to kill after the Printed Matter incident. We decided to go to Greenhills as we haven’t been there for a long time. On the way to greenhills Ruy and I tried to figure out why Michelle from Printed Matter thought we were sweet (she told us we were so sweet, and we were seated right across each other not touching, barely talking), we don’t get it. I concluded that she just needed something to say and she thought that would be a nice thing to say….hehehe.
In greenhills Ruy finally bought a keychain while I bought Mango Chiboust, 4 macarons de Paris and 3 Truffles from Bizu. We were talking about how my purchase amounted to the keychain which Ruy bought. Ruy said “The difference is this: Tomorrow, this keychain will still be with me, while all your food would be gone”. I then said, “I’m sharing this food 4 other people. It’s something they will remember”….
That’s how it started. Then it ended with Ruy and myself engaging in a huge fight. I will not go into details but it got pretty nasty. So nasty in fact I was contemplating of walking out, except I had my company laptop with me and I refused to place that laptop in any dangerous situations.
We were okay after an hour. THEN Ruy’s mom texted Ruy saying that there’s going to be dinner in his grandmother’s house. I seriously panicked. I refuse to look like a crap in front of these people….NO. I told Ruy I cannot as I look like this. Ruy somehow heard me say “Ok” (go figure)…
I sat through a 3 hour family affair looking like crap. It was the most painful moment of my life. So painful in fact I had migraine after. (talk about psychosomatic diseases).
During dinner by the way, I had my first taste of les escargots….mmmm, it was an experience. Ruy is a huge fan he ate like 30 of the little buggers. I told him “You swiped out an enitre colony of snails”
One conversation left me giggling during that night:
RUY: Ang galing, sino kaya nakaisip gumawa nang kuhol
Liv: (while looking incredulously at Ruy) mmmm, si God?
RUY: No I meant who thought of cooking it tonight!!!!
Wahahaha.
Are you guys familiar with this song? I wasn’t, not until 5 years ago when Ruy gave me a copy of this song (among other songs). To be honest I found the entire collection of songs weird. I didn’t know what he was getting at. Why was this man giving me a song which says “That certain night, the night we met, it was such a romantic affair…and when we kissed and said goodbye, a nightingale sang in Berkeley Square”. I didn’t get it, the night we met wasn’t romantic. And there was no nightingale in sight. To be perfectly honest I don’t think I ever remember seeing a nightingale.
I was expressing this to Ruy last Friday and he was laughing. He said that that song was one of his favorite songs, and he just wanted to share it with me. He then asked me “If you found me weird, why’d you keep going out with me?” . I didn’t have to think hard about it, I knew why. My reason was because he was SOOOO different from the men I used to date. To be honest, I was sick and tired of dating these kinds of men. I always knew where I stood with them. I knew I had all the power in the relationship. I knew that if I they saw me when I wasn’t wearing my make-up they’d probably be a bit turned off. I know they’d be sweet and suave until I become their girlfriend. Then things will change.
It was completely different with Ruy. I had no idea where I stood with him. I wasn’t even sure if he was interested in me. Up until we became a couple I wasn’t sure if he was really into me. Strange I know. This is why Patric said we were the dysfunctionally functional couple.
Last Friday, we heard that song once again. Yup, that was Ruy’s surprise. We got to watch Manhattan Transfer sing A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square. I LOVED the concert. It reminded me so much of my childhood. When I was growing up, while everyone my age was listening to RX and KC, my mom had me listening to Basia and Sergio Mendez, etc. I loved it then and I realized that I still love it now. I must say, that when the Manhattan Transfer sang Shaker Song I got chills down my spine. Ahhhh, it felt like home.
Ruy just called to tell me that he’s taking me out tonight!! Wooohooo, here I am feeling so needy because we haven’t “dated” in a long time, and now we’re going out…I didn’t even have to whine!!
I’m so excited. I don’t care how bad or good the night is…he prepared for it. That’s what matters…
“Olivia, I think when you are married you will beat your husband!”…WHAT?!!! When my client/friend told me this I almost cried. WHY? Why does everyone think I’m such an evil girlfriend. Don’t they know that it’s actually Ruy who’s been very grumpy lately? In fact, everytime Ruy would turn grumpy I’d either just keep quiet or tell him “You’re being grumpy again ah”
Why is this bothering me so much? Could it be because I’ve heard it too many times? I’ve heard it 4 times this week. Arvi just told me yesterday that he thinks Ruy will be under me when we get married. My goodness! I hate weak men. If Ruy was weak and if I could control him then I wouldn’t want him. Honestly! Weak men make me want to throw up.
Just to clear things up once and for all.
1. Ruy is not under me.
2. Nor am I under Ruy. We are both free to do as we want within the confines of commitment and morality.
3. I have never ever beat Ruy.
4. Ruy has never intentionally battered me. (Although, accidentally stepping on my toes and breaking my toe nails should be counted as battery as it hurts like hell)
5. Ruy is free to drink with friends. I go out more often than Ruy.
Ruy’s colleague got married last Saturday. I was of course ecstatic at the thought of dressing up. I started preparing last Friday. Ruy once mentioned that he liked those side-swept bangs so I said…hmmmm….maybe I should surprise him. So I had my bangs cut in order to be able to don that style. The picture you can see is how my hair looked upon waking up. (Yes, I had my digicam beside me while sleeping.)I HATED the bangs. Seriously! I called Ruy up immediately after seeing the hair and told him what I did. He was laughing and he said so why did you get it cut? And I said “Cause you said you liked it! This is your fault!!” (of course I knew it wasn’t really his fault, but it’s nice having someone blame. =)
I had my trusty stylist Mac Labay style my hair for me. (thank you Mac! You really are my sould mate!!). I went to my mom’s house, she loved the hair! Wohooo, you see my mom is a very critical person and if it passes her judging then I’m fine. My sister insisted that I stop fussing with my hair and make-up and take a picture of her instead. See, she just lost her front tooth and would like to see how she looked like. Yes people, my sister is just as vain as I am.
Ruy picked me up. He said I looked nice…woohooo a compliment from Ruy!!! This is quite rare. The first time Ruy took note of my make-up was when he told me that my blush on was not even (to make matters worse, I wasn’t wearing any blush on at that time). We went to Loi and Willard’s wedding in San Seb. Here’s a picture of the bride and groom. I’m glad things worked out fine for Loi. Remember that she had a big problem with one of her suppliers a week before the wedding. SCARY!!
After the wedding, I almost threw a tantrum cause I wanted Ruy to give me the car keys so I can run to the car. You see it was starting to Rain and my blow-dried and heavily styled hair would die a natural death if it gets touched by the rain. YES PEOPLE, AFTER READING MY BLOG FOR 11 MONTHS YOU SHOULD KNOW THAT I CAN BE VERY VAIN. We made it to the car but my hair still got a bit wet….hmmmmph. So during the reception my hair was not as nice as it was during the wedding. See Ruy doesn’t understand this as he has no hair!!! Hahaha…. Here are some reception pics.
This is the story of Ruy and myself this week. He has a Sales Conference here in Manila (a rarity as he is almost always in the province). The conference is actually held in QC Sports Club, a stone’s throw away from my house. YET we haven’t seen each other, nor have we been able to keep in touch over the telephone.
When he’s on break, I’m busy. When I’m not busy, he is. It’s a bit frustrating really. Every night, I’d try to stay up and wait for him to come home so we could talk properly. Unfortunately I end up falling asleep as I am sooooooooo tired.
Today I texted him at 6:59 am telling him that I’m in the office already. At 7:30 he texted back saying:
RUY: What?!? Bakit ang aga mo? At this rate we’d never meet.
LIV: Color Coding, I have no choice.
RUY: Damn I could have picked you up!
Awwwwwwwwww….I don’t know why that made me smile. I guess it’s nice to know that he’s frustrated too. We’ll finally be able to have dinner together tonight. Thank goodness.
I confess, I’ve completely lost interest in the wedding preps. It just seems so trivial now compared to the other things we’re preparing for. It really makes me wish we just had a small civil wedding with our families. Ruy wouldn’t have any of that of course (neither would my grandmother I suppose).
Right now, the entire hullaballoo of the wedding just seems so silly. Spending at least 25k on flowers? 30k on one gown? What for? Only a handful of the guests would actually appreciate it. It seems completely irrational to me specially since I don’t really believe in the Catholic Church.
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not an atheist. I am very spiritual, but I’m not religious. I don’t trust the people who make up the Catholic Church. Yet here I am, succumbing to one of their sacraments….
I was eavesdropping to a conversation while buying my daily bottle of mineral water when I heard a woman say “Beauty is overrated.” I looked at the face of the woman who said this and I thought to myself “Of course you’d think that, otherwise you’d be depressed.”
I would have to say that I believe beauty is underrated. I think that people don’t realize the impact of being considered beautiful. It could be as simple as being served first in a restaurant. It could be the fact that when you go to a drug store instead of waiting for hours before someone asks what you’re there for, people are actually clamoring to be the one to serve you. It’s about receiving free things all the time. It’s about never wondering if someone woudl be willing to be your date to the most boring wedding.
It’s the confidence it brings you. It’s knowing that when people look down on you it’s due to jealousy. It’s not wondering if your boyfriend’s parents would approve of your looks.
I could name so many other things that people might call superficial. It’s ironic though that the people who call these things superficial are those who save all their money just to get a full body bleach.
In case people are wondering what my title means, it’s the tagalized version of “Basking in Reflected Glory” (thank you to Patrick Tiongson, Patrick Porto, and Loi for this translation).
Congratulations Ruy!!! Mwaaaaaaaah (wahahaha, isn’t the fact that I’m not telling you guys what I’m congratulating Ruy for sooooo irritating?)
Ruy and I both try not to bring work home. We both work very hard already and we want to have a bit of rest during the weekend. More often than not, it’s Ruy who’s very guilty of this. It’s not enough that he’s working practically 20 hours a day hundreds of miles away. When he returns he still has work to do. Every once in a while I get the chance to participate (or help out)even if it’s doing something as mundane as encoding numbers in Excel while he reads them. Last Sunday, after lunch, we went through Ruy’s presentation together. It’s not often that people get to see their partner’s in their element. I often wish I could see Ruy do his job more cause I really find it impressive.
It’s not the sales, not the output which impresses me. It’s the way he deals with people. How people love him, and trust him. How he can talk to tricycle drivers or janitors in a sincerely nice way. I’ll stop gushing while I’m ahead.
Patrick Tiongson just arrived last Thursday and so I called up Patric Porto and Loi for a dinner last Saturday. Tiongson is still jetlagged but that didn’t stop us from having long, funny, senseless yet mind stimulating conversations.
Here’s to my 3 favorite men from Ateneo. MWAH!
I miss you guys. I expect to have another dinner with you guys sometime this week.
This week (as with the past week) has been quite hellish for me. I have so much work that I end up messing up on small details. Ruy is in the same boat, he’s stressing quite a bit with his job as they have a performance appraisal coming up. He’s always like that, always nervous always tense but I think that’s what drives him to do well during their performances.
Back to myself, a consultant came over with our CEO. I suppose (and I sort of hope) that we’ll be having a more delineated structure in the company. He listened to my meeting with 3 clients and I was happy to see that he eemed to like it. It was delightful to see him getting involved in the discussions (I was surprised by his enthusiasm as he is quite straight-laced and often times serious).
I’ll be working till 10 pm tonight. I just found out that we’ll be having another one of our famous parties tonight. I don’t know if I’ll have the energy for it. I might try to drop by for a minute or two.
This made my day…
megserranilla: uy kelan kasal mo?
Livee: Next year pa. we had it moved cause of feng shui
meg serranilla: hahaa
meg serranilla: so ilang taon ka na by then?
Livee: 24 ata
Livee: turning 25
Livee: gosh I’m young
meg serranilla: hehehe…ok lang yan
meg serranilla: si mama mary nga 14
If there’s one person who trusts my make-up skills it would have to be Patric. Sometimes I believe he trusts my skills more than I trust in myself. (self esteem issues people, bear with me) Looking at Patric’s picture below, I’d have to say that I am quite impressed at myself (my self-esteem fluctuates, sometimes it’s high sometimes it’s low bear with me once again) I made Patric look fierce, yet very clean. You see, during that time Patric’s skin was drying up and that’s so hard to hide specially cause Patric only told me I was going to do his make-up when I was already in the office and had a very limited supply of make-up in my kit.
I also ADORE the eye make-up (of course I adore it, I did it). It looks so fierce without looking scary. It also hid his feline eyes which sometimes makes his features look feminine. I wanted something more androgenous for this look and I think I achieved it.
Patric has asked me to work on his make-up thrice. And each time he presents me with a challenge. One was during a class production for a psychology class. Second was during a Malate halloween party and lastly that time shown in the picture for an Avant Garde Christmas Party. I love it! Patric can I do your make-up next Halloween again?
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I cannot let this week past without blogging about one of my best friends, PATRIC PORTO. I love this guy to pieces and when I talk about him I can’t help but be like a proud MOMMA! Allow me to bask in Patric’s reflectd glory.
When we were freshmen in Ateneo. I saw thi guy write this HUGE sign which he posted inside his notebook. It said SUMMA CUM LAUDE. He said that he would graduate Summa Cum Laude, I said “Right!?”
Fast forward to our graduation, yes he was the summa cum laude of Ateneo. I couldn’t be more proud. Patric doesn’t do anything just for the sake of doing it. Each step has a motivation, has a purpose. Since college, I’ve been pushing him to study abroad. He said he was tired of studying.
I’m so happy he finally changed his mind. Now he set his sight on Harvard (on a full scholarship). When I heard about this, my reaction was completely different from my reaction when we were freshmen. I had no doubts, I just said “It’s about time”
2 days ago, I received an excited phonecall from Patric. He just got his GMAT score he got 760/800. You only need 720 to enter Harvard.
Your one step closer Patxie!!
This is what I have with Ruy right at this very moment. I seriously think that when you need something you should be the one to follow things up and not leave the other person hanging. When you change someone else’s plans and include yourself in it, the least you could do is follow through.
Lastly, text back when you have 2 mobile phones. That’s not a lot to ask right? AAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHHH, can I strangle someone right now? I’m trying to strangle my 1 Liter water bottle but it’s not so satisfying without the yelps of pain.
There’s only us,
There’s only this.
No day but today
I told Ruy that after Baguio and after accompanying me to my extremely long and agonizing medical tests he deserved a restful weekend. Given that we spent Saturday braving the Quiapo crowds, we were left with only a restful Sunday.
We went to Megamall (for some weird reason, Ruy and I have an affinity to this mall when we watch movies) to watch OMEN. Everyone knows I hate horror films but I decided to brave this one out for Ruy. I have to say that this is even scarier than those horror movies with monsters because this deals with EVIL. I believe evil really exists. And the fact that the deaths seemed like accidents and not so out-of-this-world is even freakier.
We had lunch in Sugarhouse where we played around with the camera. Here is my favorite photo I call it “alone and greasy”….waaaaaahahaha. I can try as hard as I could but being deep and thoughtful is so not me. Ruy took some photos as well but I like mine better. HAhahaha. I’m the most self-centered person I know (after Affie and Patric and my mother)
After that we looked around for some tripods and a possible gift for Quitos, Ruy’s brother. Eventually Ruy sat quietly in chocolat, familiarizing himself with the camera while I went to the Bridal Fair. I’m beginning to hate bridal fairs! They’re so crowded! Anyway here’s one picture that Ruy took, might as well include it here as this is supposed to be OUR blog (not that he’s contributing anything to it….hmmmph)
Guess what this is!
A lot of you know off my grandmother. You all know that I’m the quintessential Lola’s girl. My St. Scho friends have all been recipients of her cooking (remember how she would force us to have lunch at 10 am?) and of her kakulitan.
When I was single, I would always say that it doesn’t matter if my mother approved of my boyfriend but my lola had to. I told Ruy this from day one, and luckily my lola ADORES Ruy. I think he’s the first in-law she ever liked.
Whenever I would look at my lola’s old pictures, I would be amazed at how similar we are. We have clothes that are exact replicas of each other, even the colors are the same. Our hairstyles are very similar. And we look so much alike. No wonder we are fans of each other! hehehe.
It is not unexpected for me to have her as one of my first subjects. Here are some more Nani pix.
The next couple of pictures are those of Nani playing with her great grandson. I jokingly called her “the Active Lola”….
I would like to point out that Nani is one of the best supporters of my camera. She’s my only willing subject.
Happy Birthday!!! You probably thought I wouldn’t remember right? 
hehehe. I miss you so much and I hope you’re having fun. DENNIS! You better take care of Dorothy…
I have to say that you looked absolutely radiant during your wedding. This picture made me so kilig. Dennis looked so happy!! Ruy you better look that happy during our wedding…hehehe
Ruy and I were having a very funny conversation about babies. We were talking about my two nephews who were born a week apart, Caspo (a nickname we gave him as he looked like Casper when he was born, his picture can be seen below) and Gabriel (i’ll post Gabby’s picture next time) and how one was taller than the other.
We then happily concluded that our baby would definitely be tall (I have tall genes as I’m the shortest in the family, meanwhile Ruy is really tall) so yehey for our baby! BUT our baby would definitely be dark ….AND he would definitely have curly hair! OH NO!!! I then concluded that our kids would be TALL, DARK, AND CURLY.
Ruy couldn’t help but laugh at my conclusion. He can’t deny it, he knows it true!! So when we were trying to come up with a name for our baby we were fooling around by saying that we’d name him (Ruy wants to have a girl, but we both think that our first would be a boy) Tyrese or Usher…para bagay sa color. Hahaha
If I have a really ugly baby, would I find it ugly? Sure, I’d love it of course but would I know it’s ugly? Would I feel pity for my baby because I know it’s ugly? Or would I be blinded by love as I’m the mother?
Based on recent family history, I don’t think I’ll be blinded by love. My cousins know what’s wrong with their children. My mother is my biggest critic, and my grandmother once exclaimed that if she ever had an ugly child she’ll hang it up on a tree. So you see, my family doesn’t wear rose colored glasses. We see beauty and the lack of it. But we take it as it is.
Going back to our baby, I am sure I’d love it sooooooo much. But I just have one prayer, if it’s going to be an ugly baby, can it at least be a boy? I have seen how mean girls in my high school were to girls they considered ugly. I don’t want my childl to have emotional scars…
Yup you heard it right, Sushi has a baby brother.
Yehey!! Finally a hobby Ruy and I can share (no he doesn’t like shopping and make-up and I can’t stand video games). The LCD of this baby is to die for. Seriously! I was amazed.
Henry’s in Quiapo was really a haven for cheap (read: poor) people who want to get into photography. Imagine I bought a 1GB Sony memory stick for 2000! I looked at the Sony Philippines website and I saw that it normally costs 5,999.00 in malls. What a bargain!
Ruy thought we should have bought an SLR but I said let’s practice with this gorgeous baby first. Then we’ll buy an SLR when we’re really really good already.
Loi was one of my bestest friends in College. God, he was my classmate in practically every subject during our first 2 years of college. He even endured learning Bahasa because of me.
Needless to say, I love this guy very much. Why? Cause he’s insane!! Check out our conversation yesterday. I just told him about my Mc. Do Incident.
Loi: i think i had a crayon na may Green Blue, which was different from Blue
Green
Livee: no kidding?
Loi: meron ding Orange Red and Red Orange
Livee: matalino pala yung tiga mc. donald’s. mas sosi yung crayola niya kesa sakin
Loi: baka she’s rather complicated
Loi: that’s why she found you plain
Livee: you’re probably right
Loi: perhaps she already found self actualization with her line
of work
Loi: and sees your struggle to find yourself
Livee: oh wow, she probably saw right through my masks.
Livee: she knows that deep down, i have no identity
Loi: yes
Loi: you are plain
Livee: you’re absolutely right. I am a blank slate
Loi: you better work at mcdonald’s as well
Livee: yes, mc. donald’s is what make’s the world goround
Livee: mcdonald’s is the center of the universe where one finds peace and contentment.
Livee: oh, and self-actualization
Loi: and you owe to that server this enlightenment
Loi: why did you get medical tests?
Livee: for my hormonal problems.
Loi: ahh
Loi: so you’re still contemplating to become a mormon?
Love you LOI!!
| You Are 82% Bitchy |
 Ouch, you’ve got a heart of steel, and you don’t mind throwing out cutting insults to whomever you hate. Those who know you well know not to mess with you. And those who don’t know you well are plain scared of you! |
| Your Spicy Score: Medium |
 You are hot enough to make a lasting impression, but you strike a balance. You know when you’re being too fiery, and you also know when to bump up the temperature. Naughty and clever. Sexy yet down to earth. You know how to work both sides of your personality. Men find you hot yet approachable - the perfect combination! |
I spent 20 minutes of my break time looking for a digital camera for Ruy and myself. I am currently torn between these two
I was looking around when I came across ABENSON. The guy promised to be able to coordinate with their supplier, he said “Ma’m just write your name and phone number on this pamphlet and I will text you when it’s ready” So I did that…I wrote Olivia and 0917-xxxxxxx and left. After the Mc. Donald’s incident I went back still fuming a bit and asked the sales man for updates. He said “Ma’m I’m sorry no one’s replying right now. Why don’t you leave your name and your phone number here and I’ll text you”
I was about to do that when I remembered, HEY! I just did this earlier, where’s the number I wrote down earlier? And you know that mother f*&#@$ said? “Ay mam nakuha po nung isang customer eh” I was so mad. I said “What? You gave away my phone number?” and he said “Ma’m wala naman pong problem yun, sulat niyo na lang ulit dito” of course I freaked out and started saying stuff like “What do you mean walang problema, shempre may problema, number ko yun! I don’t want to give that away to random people”
Why didn’t you take care of it? When you asked for it I entrusted you with that. I’m not going to give you my number again cause I don’t trust you. ….
So right now I am waiting for a text or a call from my new phone pall
It was lunch time. I’ve been working for 4 hours. I didn’t have a lot of time to eat so I decided to do what every working person falls prey to every once in a while…Fast food.
I went to Mc. Donald’s and ordered a double cheeseburger. They told me I needed to wait for 5 minutes, I said that’s fine. I waited…and waited.
Finally, my burger was delivered to me with the receipt. I looked at the receipt and there was a description of myself … “PLAIN GIRL IN A GREEN BLUE SHIRT!”
Excuse me? Plain girl? First of all, there’s nothing plain about me. Second, GREEN BLUE is not a color!
The past week hasn’t been easy in a lot of ways. I’m stressed over the medical tests, I have a lot of work, I had to go on leave to go to Baguio and to be tested, etc. Yesterday was my first day back. I spent Monday night making a list of EVERYTHING I needed to do, it came down to almost 2 pages, and to those of you who have seen my teeny tiny handwriting you would know that 2 pages means a whole LOTTA work.
I left the house to go to work at 7 in the morning. This is quite early as my travel time is usually just 15-20 minutes. I was driving when I noticed something strange about the way I was driving, I tried calling Ruy to ask but he wasn’t answering, so I went down to look at my car and saw that my front tire was extremely flat yet again. I wanted to cry (but I didn’t)…f*$#@ tires! I changed all four tires less than a month ago, and now it’s doing this again! I had no choice but to run the flat tire to the nearest vulcanizing shop. The guy said there’s nothing wrong with my tire and just put it back.
I arrived in eastwood at exactly 8. I decided to park outside where there was a flat rate (I knew I was going to stay in my office for a long time, and having to pay an exorbitant parking fee was just like adding salt to the wound). The manong told me I had to pay…damn it I noticed that I had absoloutely no money in my wallet. I told the manong to point me to the nearest ATM…he made me walk all the way to the starbucks complex to withdraw. Beggars can’t be choosers so I obliged, when I returned to pay him he said “Ang tagal mo naman, dapat dito ka na lang sa chinabank nagwithdraw”. WHAT!!!! I held my breath and tried real hard not to strangle him… he’s still alive now.
I went to work and work I did! I was in the office working, not blogging nor chatting, up until 12:00 in the evening. When that was over, I walked to the parking area dead tired, only to find my tire flat yet again.
I tried calling Ruy, no signal. I tried calling my Kuya (cousin), no reply. Eventually I gave up and realized that I had no other choice but to drive to the gasoline station.
Thank goodness for the wonderful manongs over there. I was so greatful for their patience and care. Bait talaga! When they were about finished I was finally able to call Aaron who dropped by to tell me what to do and to tell me not to drive like a maniac. THANKS AARON!!
While driving home I just couldn’t help but feel sad. After working like a maniac all day, all I wanted was a warm bath and a soft bed. But instead I was stuck in a gasoline station trying to call for help. I remembered my conversation with Ruy a long time ago, the one he got really upset over. I told him that ultimately I’m the only one reliable enough to take care of myself. I can’t expect anyone else to be available for me. That fact still hurts. We all want a prince charming or a fairy god mother to make everything better for us, but ultimately we’re the only ones who can do that to ourselves.
That made me cry. I hate being alone. I hate the fact that I was stuck with a flat tire and no one knew. What I hated even more was going home to my grandmother’s house at 1:30 in the morning to find her getting mad and saying “Ano ka bang klaseng babae, bakit ka umuuwi nang ganitong oras”
Wow. I didn’t even bother explaining what happened. What for?
I’ll be going to Baguio tomorrow. I still haven’t packed. In fact I’m still in the office. This is going to be my most disorganized trip EVER! I’m nervous….
I spent the whole day working yesterday, from 10am to 12am (yup, that’s 12 hours in the office) then I waited for 30 minutes for the elevator to pick me up(damn these eastwood elevators). I walked towards the parking area when I suddenly came across some people in the office having drinks in Jack’s Loft. You see our big boss is here and he loves his WENGWENG. =) So I was sucked in by the celebration and spent an hour and a half there blabbering away. Someone said…let’s be pigs and have a buffet breakfast in Something Fishy….yehey! I love the buffet breakfast there despite the fact that it sucks. =) It’s cheap food but I swear to god, I can subsist on it….I’m craving for the palitaw as we speak. For a breakfast whore like me, that place is a gold mine. So anyway at 2:30 am I ended up hauling my big ass home and seeing that I had 9 missed calls and 14 messages in my cellphone…whoooops I forgot to tell people I wasn’t going home. I was supposed to be home by 7 so everyone was a bit panicky.
Now it’s 8 in the morning, 5 hours after I arrived home, and I’m back in the office. I have a LONG day ahead of me. I’ll be talking for 14 hours straight and I swear to God I’ll be dead by the end of the day. WISH ME LUCK!!
Once upon a time, there were 3 friends named Patric (in the striped shirt), Loi (carrying the baby), and Liv (wearing the white Ateneo tank top) these three friends liked receiving expensive gift so they thought of a scheme. “Why don’t we give a collective gift to people so they’d be forced to give each of us gifts?”
Their plan was brilliant! They would get the cheapest cookies you could buy (the ones that came in pails, similar to what your maid buys when she goes back to the province) and they would decorate it a bit to make it look like they baked it themselves. Then they would give it to everyone a week before Christmas break, so people would have the chance to buy gifts for them. The best part about this, was that they’ll be spending around 200 pesos each to give gifts to around 30 people. That would give them a lot of money to spend on gifts for each other!
They divided the plan among themselves. Loi was in charge of the cookies, Liv of the chocolate and other decors and Patric of the wrapping.
So they bought chocolate blocks from Chocolate Lovers, and a pail of cookies from a grocery (courtesy of Loi’s mom, thanks Tita Gila). They melted the chocolate and made various chocolate designs on the hundreds of cookies they bought.
Then someone came up with a great idea: “We need to have our pictures taken in front of the cookies so that everyone would believe we really made it.” Thus the picture on top. (NOTE: the mittens were unused and the tupperware is empty)
Then came the packaging. They cooked up a ‘factory line’ sort of process to wrap everything.
The finished product was excellent! The best thing about it was that no one can say anything bad about it cause it was ‘homemade’.
A few months after, they suddenly remembered. They were so focused on the cookies, they forgot to give gifts to themselves….bummer.
Where the hell did my weekend go? It seems I just inhaled them all away. It seems that it passed without my noticing it. What was I able to accomplish over the weekend? Nothing. I brought home work and I wasn’t even able to pen my files…..aaaaaaarrrrrrrrggghh.
Last Saturday we visited this restaurant in Marikina called Windmill. We’ve (of course you know that when I say we I mean Ruy and myself) heard some raves about this restaurant so we decided to try it out. It claims to serve up steaks, barbecues and authentic Marikina dishes. Ruy and I decided not to try the Marikina Dishes (I’m not too fond of Waknatoy and Ruy doesn’t like Everlasting ad Pininyahan), instead we settled for the steak and barbecue. Now when I saw the sign outside which said Barbecue I had images of juicy and succulent ribs….wow. Instead we had a 15 peso barbecue on a stick. BUMMER. I didn’t like the look of the meat on the stick so I refused to try it I think Ruy said it was average tasting though. While waiting for our tenderloin steaks, we feasted (okay, feasted is an exaggeration) on their garden salad and laing. The gardn salad was the pitts. The dressing was ketchup and mayo (the marikina version of thousand island) and instead of lettuce, it had cabbages for greens. DAMN! The laing was okay but lacking in coco milk. The steaks were a different story though, they were quite good, but pricey for 90 pesos. Pricey cause the cuts weren’t too big. I curse the person who told me about this place, we could have gone to Mr. Kabab or Hot Racks. hmmmph
After the disastrous lunch. We went window shopping in MC Home Depot. Ruy decided to have a hotdog from the stand first as our lunch left us both hungry. I had no idea shopping for toilet bowls and bathroom tiles could be so difficult. It’s a good thing Ruy and I have agreed on a theme, it makes things a bit easier. We both wanted a strip of stone wall in the bathroom to give it a more “zen” feel. And instead of the typical bathroom tiles, we’ll be using textured materials. Like the kind you’ll use outside…wooohooo. I love it!
Ruy dropped me off in Marikina so I could wait for my family. My lola finished cooking her KARE-KARE (which is to die for) which I will be bringing over to Ruy’s house. You see, my mom, stepdad, aunt and sister were going to see the house Ruy and I are having built for the first time. Ruy’s parents were gracious enought to invite us to dinner after as well. It’s like pamamanhikan part 2.
I was so proud of Ruy cause he was such a great host. His pizza made from scratch was yummy, and my mom and step dad loved his baked tilapia in Oyster sauce recipe. Ofcourse I was teased for not knowing how to cook. I wish I could refute that statement, but it’s true. I don’t know how to cook.
It was weird cause going there I got so pissed off my mom and step dad I really blew up in the car. And then we had to be all smiles when we got to Ruy’s house. Hypocrisy? Maybe, but I’d rather call it being polite.
My mom said our house was “cute”. A polite word for minutely tiny. =) I don’t mind, I love the coziness and the fact that it can get paid very quickly. Then we can set our sights on a bigger house. Ruy’s dream house is actually very reachable. I hope we’ll be able to get that in 10 years….wooohooo talks about the future makes me feel giddy.
Taataa for now. I better work
It was a holiday in France yesterday so I was free to bum around and do nothing, that’s not what I did though. I started my day pretty early, drove to New Manila where my sister and mom were. We had breakfast and we went our seperate ways, my mom drove my sister to her Kumon class while I did some transactions in the bank. My mom took my car (cause I parked blocking hers) so I ended up walking from the bank to our house. Yeah I know I could have waited for my mother, but I had to watch the season finale of American Idol so I braved the sun and walked the 5 minute walk to my house.
While watching the show I kept myself busy by trying to find churches which hold confirmations regularly. No one was answering the phone in San Miguel (where I was confirmed 5 years ago) so I ended up calling Quiapo. Amazing how the same sacrament costs 100 pesos in Quiapo and 600 pesos in San Miguel Church, am I the only one who believes this is just crap by the Catholic Church? Crap which I’m obliged to follow because I’m getting married IN the Catholic Church. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not atheist. I just think that people should be able to avail of Sacraments without fees. I also called other churches just to be sure that I’ve covered all the bases. Mount Carmel and OLA in Marikina both refused to confirm Ruy as we’re not getting married there (isn’t that more crap)? I also called NSO and Marikina City Hall to ask for their requirements for the certifications we’ll be needing in the future. I was also trying to see if it would make more sense for us to get married civilly first.
My mom dropped my sister off our house and she went to Divisoria (my mom’s currently obsessed with her DIVI shopping sprees). My sister, my aunt and I decided to go to St. Luke’s where my mom’s clinic is to wait for my mom there.
My sister slept, so did my aunt (my mom’s clinic has a private room where my mom exercises and my sister plays) and I spent my time contacting florists to get info about their prices. Flowers are really the most difficult for me as I’m not so knowlegable with them. I just know I love looking at them but given our theme and motiff it’s really hard to find proper flowers. My mom arrived bearing A LOT of things from DIVISORIA. She delighted herself by asking each and everyone of us how much each item was. WOW, my mom needs to party more.
After a snack in Delifrance, I went to my ENDOCRINOLOGIST. I was so happy with him cause he was able to really tell me what’s wrong with me (PCOS with elevated Thyroid hormones) and he promised me two things: 1. I’ll be back to my natural weight by my wedding 2. And the most important thing, I can have babies without any problems. I am soooooooo relieved. The weight gain is secondary to the baby.
My doctor was really nice by the way. In case anyone needs help with their PCOS he’s the one to go to. He was the one who cured my aunt so I’m confident.
Ruy wants to have white walls. I was stunned, I asked him “What about me, made you think I would be happy going home to a house with white walls?”
Just venting.
To b or not to b? What is B? BAGUIO! Ruy’s parents invited me to join them on their trip to Baguio next week and I’m still not sure as to my decision. I desperately want to go to Baguio as I’ve never been there with Ruy. I like these trips although this will be our first really long trip with their whole family. I’m sure there will be awkward moments but I vow to sleep during the said moments.
Why am I hesitating? I should be jumping up and down now cause the trip is relatively free. Not a lot of money to spend except on pasalubongs and if Ruy and I would go out on our own. The thing is, I’m not sure if I want to miss work again. Basically I’ll be losing around 1,600 if I miss work despite being paid for my leave. Why? It’s hard to explain, basically we ahve a complicated salary system.
I want to go, but should I? AAAAAAARRRRRRGGGGGGHHHHH
What color should our B be? What color should our bathroom be? I never imagined that this would be a difficult situation. I thought bathrooms were supposed to be white. Ruy’s mom said that it gets dirty easily if it’s white. I agreed with her temporarily then I realized that I’d rather have something that gets dirty easily, so I can see if it’s dirty. And if it’s dirty then I should clean it. YES, I have taken it upon myself to clean our bathroom. I don’t think I’d trust anyone else to do that. Ruy wants to get a maid, but I refuse. I don’t want a maid, not yet anyway.
Back to the color of the bathroom, I just want a plain white and wood bathroom. It seems so boring though. Ideas anyone?
These are my three goals. Yes I am writing it down for the whole world to see so you can mock me if I fail. How did I try to achieve these goals today?
THIN - I ate cereals for breakfast. And tuna and mandarin oranges for lunch. I skipped my customary iced tea and fruit shake and settled for gallons of water instead.
RICH - since I didn’t buy iced tea and fruit shake or carbonara I havent’ spent anything all day. I’m sooooo going to be rich.
MARRIED - I’m asking Ruy to choose his barong supplier, Mang Rey or Veluz.
Small steps baby, small steps will get me there.
I’m amazed at how people have called me different names at different points in my life. Here are some of my names:
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I have this underwear which I bought from TOPSHOP which I think is my lucky underwear. I don’t like wearing it all the time cause it’s lace, and as people now lace isn’t the most comfortable underwear. Anyway I was forced to wear it today as it was the only one I saw in my other house. Then, out of nowhere Ruy asked me out. I realized that the past few times I’ve been asked out by Ruy, I was wearing the same underwear. This is now officially named my lucky underwear. I will buy a lottery ticket tonight and try it out.
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I’m sorry for all my grammar and spelling errors. I usually write my blog while talking to clients. I promise to spell check and review my posts often…or at least I’ll try.
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Jen made a comment that she’s sure that Ruy wouldn’t cheat on me as he’s so into me. This is not the first time I’ve heard this comment. People have been telling me how obviously into me Ruy is. I’m flattered of course but then…aren’t I obviously into Ruy too?
People might think I’m this evil person stringing Ruy around. But i’m not..I can be nice!!
I would have to admit that in the beginning Ruy was way more into me than I was with him. But after a year or so, the tables turned . I think I was more into him than he was into me. Now, we’re on equal grounds but sometimes we still fight about who’s more into who…this is why we’ve both decided that the inscription in our wedding ring would be :
Love You More
Instructions: Name ten of life’s simple pleasures that you like the most, then pick ten people to do the same. Try to be original and creative and not to use things that someone else has already used.So here are my ten simple pleasures:
Your turn!! I’m tagging the following
I just took an extremely difficult IQ test and when the results came out I was so pleased that I called a friend and said “HEY , I have an IQ!”… a statement which shows just how low my IQ really is. hehehe
Speaking of IQ, let’s talk about being smart. 2 people have told me to read this book called”Smart Couples Finish Rich” (thank you JEN and DATA) I finally followed their advices and bought this book last night. I must say that I’m not disappointed, I can see the value of the book. I’m looking forward to discussing the content with RUY. I like the way Data and Benc did it, Data would read a chapter then pass it on to Benc and they would discuss it. I don’t think I can do that though, I’ll probably have sleepless nights reading the book then force Ruy to read it and harass it for not reading it fast enough.
I have already told Ruy we’re going to have “money talk” soon. We need to lay down our expectations, what we’re going to be paying for in the future. How are we splitting the expenses, what are the rules regarding giving to relatives, etc. Another important thing is finding out how much we’re both worth right now. I must say that with the car, the house and wedding expenses I’m worth somewhere below zero right now…hehehe I’M POOR!!!
I can’t believe that YASMIN now costs 640 (thank you CYNCH for the heads up) how can something jump 80 pesos in one month? I feel even worse cause Jen said that in the US the insurance company pays for this. Damn the Philippine Health Care System!
I LOVE MY COMPANY. This is just too hilarious. I know it looks silly, but we are seriously in need of people:
iTi Consulting is a Swiss international company that specializes in English distance learning. It was founded with a vision to provide superior English training using the latest in communications technology and the finest individuals in the training industry. Recognizing the presence of a highly educated English-speaking workforce in the Philippines, iTi Consulting was established in Manila and began its operations in 2003. iTi Consulting Manila is the headquarters for training and IT operations, managing worldwide operations such as those in the US and Canada. In less than 18 months, iTi Consulting has become the leader of English distance training by telephone in Europe.iTi Consulting’s success lies in its people. Its workforce consists of top-notch individuals who are dedicated to ensuring that our learners receive the finest service possible. With skill and productivity as our main recruitment criteria, we make certain that only the exceptional are hired.
IT job openings:
Requirements:
Junior .NET Developers
Requirements:
Software Testers
Requirements:
.NET Architects
Requirements:
Project Managers
Requirements:
Web Design Specialists
Responsibilities:
Requirements:
Junior Database Administrators
Requirements:
IT Support
Requirements:
Yup Ruy’s Rubbers, his tires, actually my tires since he bought them for me. As some of you know my tires are going bonkers, apparently they’re horribly mishapen and in danger of exploding if I go really fast. Leave it to RUY and ARVI to scare the shit out of me. I was already set on buying second hand tires to replace my sucky tires but noooooh Ruy and Arvi tell me that I shouldn’t be scrimping on something so important. I finally concede and tell them “ok, i get your point I’ll change it at the end of the month”
Ruy still is unsatisfied though and yesterday he called me to tell me he has bought tires for me. Not 2 as I originally planned but 4! GOSH, as if I could afford this right now. I’ll be paying Paul Vincent, my car insurance and car registration, etc. I’m not the richest person right now. Good thing Ruy paid for it. =) I’ll have to pay him back really soon…or do I? hehehe
So he insisted on waiting for me to go home last night so he can personally give me the tires. I went home at 10:30 as I went overtime once again. I felt so bad for him as I know he needs to leave early in the morning the next day. I told him he shouldn’t have brought it over as I could have picked it up myself the next day, I couldn’t help but laugh when he told me “but if I didn’t bring it over there’d be no ‘kilig’ factor”…WHAT? hahaha Only Ruy can find romance in a set of tires!
I really loved seeing Ruy last night but I couldn’t enjoy it cause I’m acutely aware of the fact that Ruy is tired and really needs to rest. I hate that feeling, I hate wanting him there yet knowing that he needs to be somewhere else. I used to envy those people who could demand time, money, and effort from their partners without any consideration as to their partner’s current situation. I used to wish that I could be just as selfish/self-centered as them, but now I know better. I know how important it is for me to take Ruy’s situation into consideration and for him to do the same to me. MUSHY…..ewwwwwwww
Ruy took me to Dangwa to buy flowers for my lola. My lola loves flowers and as I’m the lola’s girl, i’m the one tasked to buy the flowers and to force my cousins to pay up. =) While I was bugging the vendors Ruy disappeared and later on reappeared carrying a bouquet of the most beautiful purple rose.
It was a bit weird receiving a bouquet of flowers in the middle of Dangwa but hey flowers from Ruy are always welcome.
When we were in the car I asked Ruy why he gave me flowers. I admit I was fishing and expecting a bit of mush. Ruy said “Wala lang, cause we were there and I know you like this kind of flowers so I thought I’d get you some cause it won’t be as nice if you buy it for yourself”…Times like these, thoughts of strangling Ruy comes to mind but the sight of the flowers cheers me up so I content myself with taking pictures of the flowers…but apparently Ruy’s monologue is not finished…
“Atsaka para you wouldn’t put in your blog that I don’t give you flowers. I give you flowers naman ah. I give you flowers every Valentine’s day. ”
I kept on trying to tell him that “NO” he doesn’t give me flowers every valentine’s day. In fact he’s only given me flowers one Valentine’s day. So to refresh my mind, I thought of reviewing what Ruy has given me in the past.
Valentine’s Day 1 - a violet knit top and tickets to a concert. we were both poor then so we had the cheapest tickets.
Valentine’s Day 2 - he gave me BOYZIIMEN tickets. FRONT ROW….
Valentine’s Day 3 - he gave me FLOWERS.
Valentine’s Day 4 - he gave me the necklace I love.
Valentine’s Day 5 - he gave me cake (cause I told him I refuse to accept over priced flowers and gifts now that we’re paying for our wedding and our house).
So you see, Ruy hasn’t given me flowers every valentine’s day but I don’t mind. He gave me other things. The thing is, women would appreciate receiving flowers more during times when there are no occassions. I think that’s a thousand times sweeter than receiving some on valentine’s day.
Last Saturday Ruy and I drove all the way to Pampanga (for the food) then back to Bulacan to look for people who could make our wedding rings. I would like to thank all the people who gave me names of jewellers in Bulacan. It’s amazing cause we’d be saving somewhere between 4k-10k just by having the jewelry made there.
We saw this lady who sold Sapphires for 20% of the price I was being offered here in Eastwood. I told Ruy that we should already buy it as it’s quite a steal and because the shape of Sapphire we needed for Ruy’s ring is so difficult to find. Ruy agreed so we ended up buying sapphires for his ring and mine. Ruy saw this collection of gorgeous Black Sapphires and he decided to buy two for his brother who adores the color black. I also saw this heart shaped amethyst which I decided to buy for my sister who collects gemstones.
When we were outside the store Ruy said “Naks, we’re shopping for gemstones” and I said “Yeah, cause we’re so rich and all”….wahaha if people only knew how much we paid for those stones…
We found a shop who was willing to make Ruy’s ring for only 12k. This was quite a steal considering that there was a relatively big diamond and that the lowest price we were quoted here in Manila was 16k. Isn’t that amazing?
… And I just can’t hide it! Hehehe. Our house is being built already, with walls and all. Ruy invited my cousin who’s an architect over to have dinner in his parent’s house then visit the site of our house which was practically a stone’s throw away from his parent’s house.
Ruy’s mom gave us the grand tour of the subdivision which is still currently being constructed. It’s so exciting! It’s true that the house is tiny, practically the size of a 2 bedroom condo unit, but it’s our house!! OURS!! It’s so exciting.
I have no problem regarding the size of the house for several reasons:
Ruy’s mom was against turning the 2 bedroom house into a one bedroom as she wanted to know where we’re going to put our baby when we have one. Instead of having to eplain the fact that I don’t want to have kids yet (something which Ruy’s relatives are outraged with) I just told her we’ll leave the baby with her as her house is less than a km away. Hehehe.
I just need to be proud of my Kuya. My kuya is an architect and he’s the magna cum laude of his batch. (First in 2 decades, no one has ever gotten Summa Cum Laude) Yesterday when he was inspecting the house I was so impressed. No I understood why he’s overloaded with projects. He’s brilliant!! Ruy’s mom seemed happy with him (she even asked him to design a frame for his antique). I couldn’t help but be proud. Kuya explains so well, you cannot help but understand what he’s saying. Despite now knowing anything about plumbing, etc., I actually understood the things he wanted to do with the house. I’m so happy he’s my relative, otherwise I’d have to pay him. =)
Just another proof of how strange my company is…my boss is the policeman (who refuses to give me an NBI clearance)
NOTE: THESE ARE COSTUMES people….
So let me try to cram 4 days into this little space starting with Friday!
Friday = remember the Vodka which Arvi and I drank in Samar? We never got around to finishing it so Ruy decided to ask his cousins to go to his house and have a vodka drinking session. Since Ruy was drinking, I decided to have fun with alcohol myself. My compwasany decided to have a MARGARITA NIGHT. It was fun, shocking, and HOT HOT HOT! I went home at around 4 in the morning, much to the chagrin of my ever alert grandmother.
Saturday = So as I have said earlier, I went home at around 4am on a Saturday morning. I went home and went straight ahead to wrapping a gift I had for Ruy. Actually it’s more for me than for Ruy. In fact what I told Ruy was this “I have something for you but it’s for me!”….Ruy, who is now used to all my odd comments just laughed and said “what is it?”….and guess what? It was a pink shirt! Hahaha, trust me Ruy it’s for your own good. He hasn’t worn it so I’m sure he’s still getting used to the idea. Knowing Ruy he’ll end up wearing it even if he hates the idea.
After the gift giving, we went to Ateneo to meet with Arvi and Abi. Abi was a bit late so Arvi toured us around Ateneo. I was surprised at how much has changed, has it only been 3 years? Anyway the highlight of the Ateneo trip was when I forced the ladies in the cafeteria to name a shake after me. Hahaha! First Samar, then Ateneo, next the WORLD!! (insert evil laughter here)
When Abi finally arrived, we all went to the original Dampa near the airport to give Abi her first taste of this oh so yummy experience. It was hilarious how it was Ruy and Arvi who ended up buying from the market as Abi and I both don’t know how. To say we had a feast would be an understatement. The boys went crazy food shopping! We had a seaweed salad, mangoes, chili crabs, buttered shrimp, baked mussel and baked oysters. FANTASTIC!! The crab, no matter how yummy it was still couldn’t compare to the CRABEH from Samar.
We then went to Mc. Do in Macapagal Highway to order Shake!!! Ruy ended up finishing his shake and mine. The cousins had strawberry while I ordered choco. By this time Abi and Arvi were both sleepy so we decided to drop them off Ateneo (were both their cars were parked) so Ruy and I could go watch MI3. I actually liked it despite my hatred for Tom Cruise!
After watching the movie I went car care shopping. I bought things to use for washing my car. The thing is, I’m not a car person. But not counting the house Ruy and I bought, my car is my biggest purchase ever and I think I should take care of it a bit.
SUNDAY = after mass with my family. I started to work on my car. Washing my car was so much fun! I can’t believe I haven’t done it before. The downside is seeing all the little scratches I have made because of my carelessness, now I’m so tempted to have my car repainted. Damn if only I can afford it.
Ruy and his other cousins went to a resort only to see that it’s incredibly full. Ruy called me to tell me that they were disappointed so I invited them over for a swim. I saw Ruy but unfortunately I couldn’t join them because I was helping my mom move 2 computers from one table to another.
MONDAY: I DIDN’T HAVE WORK!! Yohohoy!! It’s another one of the millions of French Holidays and I’m not complaining. I went to the Doctor to have my throat checked again. I then went home to challenge my sister to a game of BOMBER MAN. Do you guys remember this game? =) I was so happy, I finised the game with 46 lives.
After the game, I went to National Bookstore where I bought some books and a map of Samar. Ruy and I are already excited about our next trip to Samar. Arvi, you coming?
That was my long weekend. Notice how we didn’t do anything wedding related? I’m really tired of all the wedding preparations and am extremely tempted to just get married civilly. Not that Ruy would agree to this
I finally have one picture from our Samar trip. This one is courtesy of Ruy’s cousin, Arvi.
This is a public beach. Imagine?!! You just have to park at the side of the road and run down to this beautiful beach.
Yesterday I worked for 14 hours. I think I’ll have to do the same tonight. Tomorrow will be even worse……gosh. I want to sleep sleep sleep. I want to chat with my family, I want to chat with my best friend. I want to see my sister but nooooooohhh, too much work. =(
My goodness, I never knew people actually read this blog regularly. I have received so many emails asking for updates regarding my trip to Samar. I actually didn’t update immediately as I wanted to work first. Honestly, it was my work which made me want to go back. I miss my office!!
So anyway yes, I’m back. A long trip to the beach and back, and Ruy and I are still together. In the words of Ruy’s Lolo Rudy “Yooohooo”. Anyway, Samar was unbelievably fun. I’d be the first to admit that I had low expectations for this trip but wow I don’t remember having so much fun in a place without electricity. Seeing the places we’ve passed and visited really made me love the Philippines.
Here are some highlights of the trip:
- Arvi, Ruy’s cousin has named a dish “Crab-eh” it’s the most delicious crab dish we’ve all tasted. My mouth is still watering. People wouldn’t believe the amount of crab we consumed in one meal. I think Ruy had 2 and a half, I think Arvi had 3, I think I had 1 and a half.
- I asked Ruy’s Uncle who owns a bar in Samar to name a drink after me. It’s of course named “Olivia”, Arvi also insisted that the citrus version of the said cocktail be named “Arvi”
- It seems inevitable that everytime I go to the beach I have a drunken photo taken of myself. Ruy took one of me, passed out on the bed after drinking too much “Olivia”.
- Arvi and I consumed more than half of a bottle of vodka between the 2 of us. Arvi drank a bit more than I did
- While in Bicol I was talking to the man wrapping laing in leaves. I told hime “Manong, patikim naman ng konti oh”, and guess what? He gave us one whole order, he even offered us rice! Why can’t people in Manila be this nice?
- We were toured and guarded by 2 people named Joy and Taba, yes they are both men.
- I learned too much about Ruy, and Ruy’s family learned too much about me.
- I have met more nice people in a day there than I have met in 2 months here. Are the people just nicer in the province? Or was I nicer when I was there?
- The beaches were incredibly beautiful. I couldn’t believe not more people visit that place.
My goal in life. To go to another country, earn an incredible amount of money then go back to a province and be a haciendera. Hahaha
A lot of you don’t know that I’m obsessed with my job and my company. I really love both of them. Here’s a conversation I had with my boss just 10 minutes ago which reminded me yet again why I love my job:
Olivia said: where are you? i’ve been looking for you
Robert/Bobby says: you miss me?
Olivia says: so much!
Robert/Bobby says: i’m in the admin room
Robert/Bobby says: where are you?
Olivia says: why you miss me too?
Robert/Bobby says: oh yes i do. just stop coughing
I LOVE BREAKFAST. Yes it’s my favorite meal of the day, I love everything about it, the drinks, the food, the time, the temperature, the isolation.
THE DRINKS: Orange Juice? Milk? Tea? Coffee? Hot Choco? I love it all! Somehow the drinks add to the over all feel of the morning.
THE FOOD: Tapa, Tocino, Bangus, Egg, Sinangag, Pandesal, Yoghurt, Fresh Fruit, Cereals, The list goes on and on. Give me breakfast food and I’m a happy bitch.
THE TIME: Mornings. I love mornings. I love the woozy feeling of having just woken up. The lazy feel. Feeling so fresh after your bath. Mornings are great, they offer you so much possibilities for the rest of the day.
THE TEMPERATURE: Mornings are generally colder than the rest of the day. That’s a good thing.
THE ISOLATION: I specially love early mornings when you know a lot of people are still sleeping, and you have this extra hour just between you and whoever you’re with.
These are the reasons why I love breakfast. Unfortunately because of our differences with our work schedule and location, it’s so hard for Ruy and myself to have breakfast together. Add the fact that Ruy doesn’t like waking up early, breakfast with Ruy is practically impossible.
Last Saturday while driving to tagaytay I was telling Ruy how much I love breakfast and how I want us to be able to have breakfast at antonio’s after our wedding. He was okay with it and was laughing at my current obsession with pandesal. You see, I currently refuse to eat anything except pandesal for breakfast. My lola offered me tasty bread and baguette but nope, I didn’t want those, I want my pandesal!
Last night Ruy surprised me by bringing me a “breakfast dinner” he bought me pandesal and butter with bacalao a la vizcaina. YUMMY!! It was so sweet too… My lola was amused, she said that it seemed like Ruy’s really into me. I was like duh he’s marrying me. When Ruy’s being sweet like that it’s hard to be a bitch
My day began as a mess. I woke up pretty late, no time for my favorite meal of the day. My bath wasn’t prepared (yes I know I’m spoiled) and after rushing to get dressed I find that my car’s tire is flat. Yup, too flat to be driven in fact. I had no choice but to drive it though so I drove it to the nearest gas station here a lolo was taking his sweet time inflating a wading pool. Murder was going through my mind at this point.
After eventually getting my tire inflated. I drove to work, only to get stuck in traffic because of a disaster awareness thing Eastwood City was involved in. So there I was 20 minutes late, parked, ran to my office and then found out that my cellphone is missing…no I didn’t lose it. I left it at home.
I also saw that I can’t go home at 7 today because a client scheduled an 830 appointment. Here I am at 10:30 still at work cause my boss asked me to do some things. I don’t mind doing things for my boss because I have arguably the coolest boss in the universe. Seriously!! I thank God fo my boss everyday.
So anyway my boss gave me a laptop to try out and guess what? It can access blog. Yehey, I think I’ve reached the white light at the end of my dark tunnel of a day.
Here I am at home, using my sister’s incredibly slow computer just so I can blog. I miss blogging. Now that things are okay though it’s not so muh fun to blog. It’s nicer too whine here…who wants to read about happy people anyway? hehehe
I like wrapping gifts, I really take the time to find a nice wrapper and to add accessories (like flowers, ribbons, balloons, even cloths) to make it fabulous. During Christmas I wrap Ruy’s gifts tfor his friends and inaanaks. I also wrap Ruy’s wedding gifts and birthday gifts to friends and relatives. One person who has never been a recipient of my wonderful wrapping skills is Ruy. Somehow I always give him things which are unwrapped or wrapped by someone else. I don’t know why but I realized this the other night and so I felt bad. I then decided to wrap something nicely and give it to Ruy. I bought 3 horror books (the really scary but cheap ones called True Philippine Ghost Stories. Ruy’s been addicted to these lately. So i put 3 in a box and wrapped them in a white japanese paper with intricate gold patterns which I bought for 4 pesos. I then tied it with a nice gold ribbon. I also added gold sun charms with beads, etc just for effect. It was so pretty!!
Friday night after work, I took that box, put it inside an accordion envelope and dropped it off Ruy’s place. Ruy wasn’t home yet and he had no idea I did this…surprises are always good. I also took this chance to show my lola the lot where our house was being built. It seems unreal “Nani that’s our house!”…wow I have a house! How could I possibly have a house? I’m just a kid?
Speaking of being a kid. Ruy and I had a funny discussion about being a kid. He admits to being a kid trapped in an adult body. I told him I agree…I hope our relationship is not considered pedophilia.
Just in case I disappear again, you know were to find me: http://www.ruyandolivia.multiply.com
I am soooo happy. Ecstatic even, blogger worked today! I love it! I really miss my blogger account, it’s so much better than wedding announcer or multiply in my opinion. So much has happened since my last blog I don’t know where to start so I wouldn’t, I won’t talk about the past only the future.
This weekend we’re going to Tagaytay to have the date on the receipt changed. As you all know we changed our wedding date and our payment receipt still has the old date and guess who remembered? RUY!! Yehey, okay I gave him a list of things we need done, but hey any initiative is extremely appreciated.
Here’s the clincher to that, Ruy told me to wear something nice and a bit formal on Saturday. Why? Cause he’s taking me out on a date…yehey! I’m so excited! After 6 months of bugging him about dates he finally prepared for one. I don’t know where we’re going but I don’t care anymore, the fact that he prepared for it already made me so happy. Mushy I know but it’s true. In fact when he told me last night to wear something nice I was so excited I was literally hooting like an owl, a happy owl. I was like “Wooohooo, ohh, ohh, ohh”. I think Ruy thought I was pretending to be excited or just being funny but I was seriously excited. If it turns out to be a mc donald’s drive-thru with stargazing after I’d be happy.
Now people might be wondering why Ruy told me instead of just surprising me right there and then? Because Ruy has learned from his previous mistakes. He knows how important it is for me to be wearing the correct outfit to feel happy. He surprised me before and I was wearing a nice nautical inspired outfit complete with cute white sandals only to find myself in a muddy field and my sandals becoming ruined. I was pissed, I was annoyed. Ruy therefore knows that I should be told what to wear for important occassions otherwise I wouldn’t appreciate it at all. Superficial? Absolutely! But who cares?
I’m making a projection of future gastos when we get married. Question, how much is your monthly food budget? I have no idea!!
I was inspired by Van’s way of thinking so I decided to list down future expenses for our household. It’s a great way to scare yourself before getting married I tell you.
- Food
- Electricity
- Water
- Cable Bill
- Internet Bill
- Ruy’s Cellphone Bill
- Olivia’s Cellphone Bill
- House Installment
- Installment for Olivia’s Car
- Olivia’s Gas
- Gas (for cooking)
- Olivia’s Personal Savings
- Ruy’s Personal Savings
- Joint Savings
- Baby funds
- Travel fund (negotiable)’
- Gym Membership for Ruy
- ok fine Gym Membership for Liv too…hmmph
Those are the monthly payments. These are things that we’ll be paying every once in a while.
- Property tax
- Car Registration (only for Olivia)
- Car Insurance (once again only for Olivia)
- Olivia’s Birthday gift from Ruy - must be extremely expensive!
My gosh, looking at this list makes me want to go back to high school!! I wish my mother still pays for everything. Sigh…and to think when I was in high school I was in such a hurry to grow up
Just when things seem really bleak, when I feel so down and absolutely low… someone gives me this.
There is a God!
Reasons why it’s best not to talk to me today:
- Fight with Ruy (worst fight ever)
-Raging hormones
- 2 hours sleep
- haven’t eaten since last night.
Please don’t mess with me today.
Sleeping Beauty sang….
Someday my prince will come
Someday we’ll meet again.
And away in his castle we’ll go
To be happy forever….
BULLSHIT!
Sooo, Ruy and I are okay again. Apparently he has once againi fallen prey to my extremely dangerous PMS. It doesn’t matter how irregular my period is, rest assured that my pms will be there.
Just when everything was okay and Ruy was being so nice to me I mess up yet again. See I had to pick up my grandmother from the hospital yesterday so I arrived home so late. When I arrived home, Ruy and I were texting and as he was resting and reading he was giving me one word replies. I wanted a real conversation so I sent him a sad face =( then stupid old me fell asleep.
Ruy called my mobile, even called my landline but to no avail. I was sound asleep. Poor Ruy thought I was upset once again…wawa!
The first part of the post is a lie, I don’t really have so much time, but I am bored and it feels like I have so much time. Not to mention the fact that Ruy is going to be extremely busy today meaning I shouldn’t bug him. Although I already bugged him with so many unnecessary things today.
I have work to do actually, and I promise to do them as soon as I finish this blog.
We might be going to boracay!! Not in the summer though. I don’t like going to the beach in the summer, I hate the heat, I hate getting tanner and I hate the smell of people. I’m planning on going there maybe on August 4-8 (that’s my birthday all the way to Ruy’s birthday).
For the first time in years, I might not be able to see Ruy this weekend. He won’t be home until Saturday afternoon, I have a tutoring thing with cribs then. the next day my mom requested that I drive her places. I wonder how we’ll hold up?
I was playing around with my picassa and I made a collage of all my pictures. I love it, it’s the perfect form of vanity. I’ll be posting that one in my personal blog as I don’t think I should do that here as this is supposedly a wedding blog, sooooo I made another collage for this blog! yehey!!!
Just for fun, (my fun, not really yours) I’ll tell you a little something about the pictures. I’ll start from the top, on the left most picture. We shall call that picture #1
#1 was taken inside my house just last November 2005. Ruy picked me up from work (at 11 p.m.) then took me to a Tiangge in Marikina then we went home. We took that picture as soon as we went inside my house.
#2 Ruy’s baby picture!
#3 This was taken on the same day we took picture #1. We had a late dinner in one of the places along the Marikina river. While I was there I was being such a snob I was saying things like “It’s a good thing no one I know goes to these places, at least I’m sure no one I know will see me”. But damn, the ribs we had there was soooooo good. I just have to close my eyes with regards to the cleanliness though.
#4 Taken 2 years ago, we had our anniversary dinner in Gulliver’s Steak House. Then we picked Cyril up and watched a movie in Eastwood. The picture was taken outside Cheesecake Etc. while waiting for our double choco malts.
#5 My Engagement Ring…given last July 30, 2005. woohoo
2nd Row
#6 The necklace given to me by Ruy for Valentine’s 2005. I was so impressed by this for several reasons. First, it was a complete and total surprise. Second, I actually adored it. The design was really nice. Apparently he went online and researched before finding this one necklace. sweet!!
#7 Taken during Edward and Carlene’s wedding last year. Edward is Ruy’s cousin and my chemistry teacher in Ateneo. Talk about awkward.
#8 Picture during Gabrielle’s brithday. Gab is my cousin’s son.
#9 Free prenup pics taken during a free dinner we won in Trader’s Hotel.
#10 Bora pics. Riding the bangka on the way to the dive site.
3rd Row
#11 Drunk in Bora. That’s me going crazy while being kissed by Ruy somewhere in Station 2 in Bora.
#12 Sept. 10 2005. We had dinner in Paseo Uno to celebrate my birthday (yes my birthday was a month before that, but I forgot to throw a party or to have dinner with Ruy so we had it as soon as I remembered it). After dinner we went back to Eastwood to celebrate my company’s first anniversary.
#13 October, 2005. groovy baby! My company had a 70’s themed Halloween Party. Ruy was there to pick me up but got dragged into the party as well.
#14 This was taken during Angie’s wedding last Feb 18. I don’t know how this girl organized all the details, it was amazing. We had to join this contest for engaged couples and we lost…si RUy kase eh =)
#15 Still taken during Angie’s wedding. Ruy and I were an hour early so we decided to amuse ourselves by taking pictures…of ourselves.
4th Row
#16 Still taken during Angie’s wedding. Ruy and I were an hour early so we decided to amuse ourselves by taking pictures…of ourselves
# 17 and 18 This was taken in Solano. Last year, during our birthday week we decided to take a tour of Northern Luzon. We ate in this smallrestaurant where they serve authentic Dutch Pancakes. they were sooooooo good. The downside? Our waitress was crazy! Notice my face? That’s how I look bagong-gising. That’s my no make-up look. I asked Ruy “Think you can wake up to this face every day?” Cause I’d hate to be with someone who’s disgusted at how I look in the morning (I know this man who dated a singer and was so shocked when he saw her upon waking up)
#19 Ruy and I in Eastwood once again waiting in line for the World’s Longest Buffet. When htey say it’s the world’s longest buffet, they meant the world’s longest wait for a buffet.
#20 I was trying on some baseball caps. I look stupid wearing anything sporty, I feel like an impostor.
Last Row
#21 Ruy got inggit and decided to try on some caps as well. We were doing this while waiting for the treadmill we were buying.
#22 Ruy practicing how to be a daddy. That’s another pamangkin of mine, Caspo. He’s the son of one of my secondary sponsors.
#23 Ruy just had to have his picture taken beside Papa Piolo…hehehe. We were stuck in this place while it was raining so we decided to have fun and take Ruy’s picture beside Piolo. We then had coffee and buco juice in Serye.
#24 and 25 More photos taken during Angie’s wedding.
Reminiscing’s fun!!!
I wasn’t able to go to work yesterday cause of my sore throat and cough, and colds. I’ve had this for over 10 days and it showed no signs of slowing down yesterday. I figured maybe it’s because I never rested? So I decided to spend the whole day at home resting.
I still haven’t warmed up to Ruy, it really takes me a long timeto get over issues. I should work on this. Ruy even sent me frutis and yoghourt yesterday just to make me feel better. But still nothing. The thing is, I feel he doesn’t understand why I got upset. For me, the issue will never be over until I know he knows why I’m upset.
We only remembered to take pictures after all the food has been eaten…teehee!
When the pamamanhikan was over I have to admit that I went against my nature and actually got excited. Everything was now formal and finalized and things were starting to fall into place.
There were several things that were discussed which made me excited.
- Ruy’s family will be staying in their house in Tagaytay.
- My step dad’s friend will be lending us 2 houses in the Highlands for my family.
- Those two put together is worth around 30k. That would be 30k worth of savings for us.
- One thing we were worried about was the finish of the house, my step dad told us to just tell him what we’ll be needing and he’ll get it for us. Wohoo!!! Flat screen TV please? hehehe
- we’ll start building the house 2 Saturday’s from now, my mom and step dad want to visit the place.
See? These things got me all riled up. I texted Ruy last Saturday something extremely cheesy (you’ve been forewarned of the cheesiness factor, read at your own risk) “Honey! It feels more real now, we’re really getting married. You’re going to be my husband =) ”
I was in such high spirits that I forgave the fact that Ruy thought our 2pm meeting time was at 3. You see, we were supposed to meet only at 5 as my cousin invited Ruy to his birthday dinner at home. I told Ruy that I wanted to see him before that as we didn’t really have time to have an actual conversation during the pamamanhikan. Ruy obliged (yes obliged meaning to obligate, to compel; to do something as a favor,to accommodate) me by agreeing that I go with him while he does an errand. After the errand there was still a lot of time so I asked him to go around a mall with me. We went back to his house were he took a bath and got ready for my cousins party.
My cousin has told Ruy to bring the floorplan of our house so we can decide were to put the aircon outlets, tv outlets and other electrical outlets and switches. So at 8:30, Ruy and I sat down and began discussing which appliances are we going to buy first. This was followed by a discussion on where we’ll be positioning our appliances so as to ascertain the location of outlets. While this was going on, Ruy said something sarcastic about how I had grand plans for tonight. Referring to the fact that I had plans of making him stay even longer.
This really drove me insane. I can’t believe I had to rationalize the time we spent together. Patric with CK practically everyday, the same is true with Loi, and the same with Dorothy.Ruy is in the province most of the time and in my hopelessly romantic mind I thought that we’d be finding ways to see each other as often as we can during those few times that he’s here in Manila. Isn’t that what boyfriends do? Another thing that really bothers me when I tell Ruy these things is that he’ll start pointing things out to me like “Didn’t we see each other a lot last week?” or “Didn’t I pick you up last time?” ……I’m whining, I better stop.
My excitement went straight out of the window. That’s the problem with me. I completely shut down when things like these happen. So right now I’m back to being indifferent and cold. I’m not so excited about the house, the wedding, nor the weekend. How sad….
The pamamanhikan which was both much awaited (by Liv) and dreaded (by Ruy) is finally over…and we’re still getting married.
We held it in Hizon’s in Malate. Why there? Well this restaurant holds a special place for my family. It’s the place we all like and the place where we celebrate most milestones in our lives. Confirmation, Baptisms, Birthdays, Graduations, etc. We even make up occassions just to eat in this place. =) Ruy and I have had our share of Hizon’s moments. We actually ate there when no one in our family knew we were a couple (we celebrated somewhere and had dinner here). The scary thing is, the waiter (hi EDGAR!) knew my family so well that he told my mom I was there and even where I was sitting and what we ordered…ohlala! Nevertheless, despite having tattle tale waiters =) I still LOOOOOOOOOOVVVVVVVVVVVVVEEEEEE this restaurant.
Ruy’s family was amused with my mother (i’ll be uploading her pictures later). I think they were shocked and amused at how much my mother ate. It’s even more shocking that she remains slim….
More kwento later. I’ll have to email these pictures to Ruy first.
I was going through my inbox and came across this message from my dear friend patrick.
“I just had an epiphany. Ugliness is everywhere. ugly people, ugly places, ugly things, ugly events. We need to celebrate ourselves more, celebrate beauty in ourselves, the things we create.
Beauty is so rare and should be nurtured. Not enough people strive for beauty because it’s such a lofty goal, they remain ugly stupid simpletons.
Appreciating and striving for beauty is what makes us human. It’s the antithesis of banality.”
Damn it! I’m so sorry I failed you today Patrick. Today I became less than human. I promise to be more vigilant and to celebrate beauty more in the future. If I could only leave work and go to the salon now I will…
Why didn’t anyone tell me that I looked so disgusting today? WHY? Where are my so-called friends?
I shouldn’t have been allowed to go out looking like this. Times like these I wish I lived with Patric Porto. He’s the only one with the audacity to tell me “Liv you look like crap change out of that outfit right now!” Where are you Patxie? I NEED YOU!
Seriously I look awful!. I’m so embarrassed right now. I didn’t realize I looked this bad. I thought I’d dress down today cause I’ll be commuting so I put on my oldest pair of jeans, black lacoste polo shirt and plain black sandals. But it’s not the dress that looks awful (although I have to admit the outfit is a bit bland) it’s me. My face, my person!
I was trying on things in a shop when I saw my face in the reflection. Fuck! I can’t believe how bad I looked. I had unwanted hair in the wrong places. Hair unkempt and bordering on greasy (yeah yeah I overslept and wasn’t able to wash my hair today damn it). I had just the right amount of undereye circles to look like an addict. DAMN.
I panicked and bought tweezers from the body shop and scheduled an appointment with my salon tomorrow. I can’t go looking like this during the pamamanhikan.
Today my lola needs to go to her doctor so I offered to let her use my car. This means I’d have to commute going to work. I don’t commute. The only time I ever commmuted was when I dropped all my subjects in college and my mom got so upset and took my car keys. This another long and complicated story so I’ll stop and go back to my original point. I HAD TO COMMUTE TODAY. problem is I didn’t know how.
I texted my bestfriend Carmi and Ruy last night to ask them how to get to Eastwood from my house. Ruy went on and on getting upset about the fact that I’m commuting and Carmi was very helpful.
I was a bit overwhelmed and touched by the reaction of people to this “commute”. It was such a big deal to them. My goodness I’m 24 I think I can get from point A to point B without any problems. I appreciate the concern of my friends and loved ones though.
Carmi: Kept on asking for updates and even called me to make sure I’m fine. Isn’t my bestfriend the best?
Ruy: After his anger has subsided texted and said He wishes he could drive me instead. He also asked for updates.
Nani: My grandmother, texted to find out if I got to the office safe.
Guess who’s missing in this picture? My mother!! Hahaha. My mother is a strong believer in independence so much so that she allows me to commute, go to other countries by myself, etc. So for her this is no big deal. I sort of agree with her actually.
People might find it hard to believe but I actually have problems with low self esteem. This is the reason why I normally keep quiet, I don’t approach people I don’t know, I don’t like meeting people when I’m not wearing my make-up, why I refused to pose for our company banner, why I refused to appear on a TV show with my boss. I don’t like people staring at me, looking at me, etc.
When I was a kid growing up in Marikina (which was practically a province) the situation was pretty bad. People would go as far as point me out to their friends cause I didn’t look like a typical Filipina or at least not the typical Filipina around my area. I don’t look better or worse, just different, and when things are different you look and stare, just like what you do in the zoo or in freakshows. Sometimes I want to shout at them and tell them “HELLO!! I can see you staring! I can see you pointing and I can hear what you’re saying.”
The situation got a lot better when I went to college. I wasn’t so different when I was in Ateneo, there were a lot of half-breeds like me and basically people just didn’t care about us. =) I enjoyed the anonimity and the fact that I can blend in without any problem.
Now that the looking different issue has been resolved, another issue arose. So I don’t look different, what sets me apart then? What’s so special and so great about me? I still don’t know the answer to this question. This is why I’m perplexed when I see how into me Ruy is. I’m confused as to what he sees, I often wonder “BAKIT? Why me?”
A few minutes ago, after talking with Ruy over the mobile phone we had another exchange through text.
RUY: Honey you’re making me so happy. Thank you so much! 
LIV: Huh? What did I do?
RUY: I don’t know you’re just awesome!
LIV: Wow naman
RUY: wow nga! wanna know who got booted out of idol?
So now, I’m confused once again, What did I do?
This monday, I found out that the house has been approved. Today, Ruy called to let me know that they’ll have the groundbreaking on the 8th of April. I’m soooo excited.
After all the good news the wheels of change has turned and given me my fair share of bad luck.
- I lost my voice yesterday.
- I lost my voice and I had meetings with 9 clients
- I couldn’t shout at the people who ordered the computers I needed at the very last minute.
- My grandmother has an enlarged heart
- I left my freaking cellphone at home. =(
I’m taking it all in stride, last Sunday I was just exclaiming to Ruy at how lucky I am, or rather we are. I’m not claiming to be the prettiest, smartest, richest, happiest person there is. What I am though is satisfied. Things can get better I know but I’m content with what I have
After a weekend in which I saw Ruy for four consecutive days I thought the next few days would go downhill from there but NO!! Things are actually beginning to fall into place one tiny step at a time.
First things first: The house has been approved!! Yohohoy!! This is incredibly exciting for me, I hope it’s going to be smooth sailing from this point on. My cousin has adjusted the floor plan and on Sunday we’ll be talking about where to put outlets for the switches…who would have thought I’d be doing this at 24?
Second: Pamamanhikan is on the way! This is an extremely good news for me as Ruy is not so thrilled by this meeting. You see my family is not mmmm very nice. But Ruy’s mom called my mom last Saturday and they hit it off just fine. They were already plotting to make sure we have kids early on. Sheeesh; I plan on having kids in 4-5 years but when they bring the topic up during the pamamanhikan I’ll just smile like a good girl, no point having a debate.
Third: Working hours are now more or less regular! I’ll be working from 9-7 everyday!! I know I know it’s longer than the normal working hours, I asked for a 2 hour break kase. =)
Lastly: Because of my regular working schedule I can now go back to the gym!!! Yehey, finally. =) This would also mean more Ruy time as he goes to the same gym. I find it weird though, I don’t have any plans of stalking him, I think he should have his own gym time. We’d be in seperate areas as he’ll be doing boxing and anyone who knows me would know that I would NOT be doing boxing. =)
Speaking of Ruy and boxing would you believe he’s lost 34 pounds already? Hugging him feels really weird now, it’s like hugging a different person. I don’t want him to lose more weight as I think he’s gotten too thin, but it seems he wants to lose some more.
3 friends of mine have asked me why my status in YM has been perpetually set at busy, in a meeting or on the phone. This is my calendar and it ought to explain why the case is such. These are the things I need to do and prepare for on top of my more or less 8 clients a day. Remember that each client also needs a comprehensive report after our session. Today though, luckily I only have 6 scheduled clients! Alleluiah. Although I have a memo, minutes, write-ups to finish so basically I’m still busy. =)
Have you ever seen something which you know is so wrong yet you can’t do anything about it? You’re aching to do something to correct the situation but you can’t and you shouldn’t cause it’s not your situation to correct. I found out something that made me feel that way today, I was extremely frustrated, annoyed, angry, upset, most importantly sad. I wanted to scream, I wanted to kick, but I couldn’t.
I have always believed that I had a very good head on my shoulder when it comes to relationships. My first one lasted 3 years and Ruy and I are anticipating our 6th year. No cheating, no screaming, no beating…so far my batting average has been pretty good. I don’t claim to be a relationship expert though, I know I can goof up every once in a while but there are things that I learned in Psychology and in my personal experience which have been very accurate:
- when you are head over heels in love, step back and listen to your friends and family they see things you can’t see through your rose colored glasses
- the best indication of present and future behaviour is past behaviour. though we’d like to think otherwise
- shame on you if you fool me once, shame on me if you fool me twice.
- in the end, you are the only one responsible for getting hurt again. why did you stay?
- the best indication of a healthy relationship is how much you can tell your friends. too many secrets means something is not right. nothing shameful about love, that is if there is love.
I’m writing this with gritted teeth, feeling extremely powerless. Just know that no matter what I’ll be here, and I’ll shut up from this point on.
The key ingredient to a woman’s marital bliss is her husband’s emotional commitment, suggests a new study based on a survey of 5,000 couples across the country.
The finding is in contrast to previous research that focused on a husband’s salary and division of household work as the main drivers of a woman’s perception of a happy marriage.
Even so, the new research determined that women whose husbands bring home more than 68 percent of the bacon are the most content.
“Regardless of what married women say they believe about gender, they tend to have happier marriages when their husband is a good provider — provided that he is also emotionally engaged,” said W. Bradford Wilcox, a University of Virginia sociologist. “I was very surprised to find that even egalitarian-minded women are happier when their marriages are organized along more gendered lines.”
Fairness is also considered an important element.
W
omen who perceive that housework is shared in a fair manner consider themselves happier partners. Fair in this case does not necessarily mean splitting housework evenly—most of the women in this happier category perform the majority of household chores themselves. But because they believe that their husbands are playing an important role as providers, they view the unequal work split as fair.
“Wives are surely sensitive to imbalances in routine tasks and efforts, as almost all research shows. However, we find that they are more concerned with their husband’s investments in the emotional content of the marriage,” said study team member Steven Nock, a professor of sociology at University of Virginia. “We interpret our results to suggest that partners need to pay more attention to how their partners feel about their relationship and about marriage generally because equality does not necessarily produce equity.”
my vanity
Ruy’s vanity
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Vain Together
I don’t even want to think about what the people around us were thinking! I swear we weren’t doing this during the actual ceremony, we did this while waiting for the event to start. Ruy and I have this habit of being too early for events and that day was no exception.
Meet my baby sister Henna. She’s going to be my Jr. Bridesmaid. What does that mean? That means she’ll be telling people where to sit and she’ll be giving out souvenirs. Basically she’s an overgrown flower girl with responsibilities.
Here is a picture of my 2 cousins who will also be part of the ento. Of course the curly haired one is me.
Ruy took the initiative and emailed some STD (that’s save-the-date in case my non-w@wie friends are reading this) designs to me. This was his own initiative, woohoo! Can you hear the choir singing in the background? hahaha…
I was quite impressed, I didn’t think Ruy was doing any actual wedding preps. Just to remind everyone, I lost interest in wedding preparations and Ruy volunteered to do the preps from this point on. Didn’t I tell you I’m spoiled?
Personally though, I don’t get the point of an STD. What is it for really? It’s one of those things you HAVE to spend for on your wedding that doesn’t really make sense. Why do I have to give you a card that will tell you that I’ll give you another card to invite you to my wedding? There are other things I don’t get.
= unity coins (according to Loi it’s just the bride, groom and the priest who will actually see this, so why spend )
= unity candle (2,700 for candles!! not unless Madonna made it herself)
= bridesmaid (what do they do really?)
= groomsmen (same as above)
= bible bearer (Jen pointed this out to me, it was just too funny!)
= cake cutter ( I have to spend that much for something I’ll never use again?)
= wine flutes (I was just looking at these the other day, and of course I’d have wine flutes in my future house, but hell to spend at least 1k each to be used for our wedding?)
= doves (I will not for the life of me, hold a bird during my wedding. Not even if it was one of the migratory birds of the Philippines…hehehe…hi Ms. Tamino and all my compa-ana classmates)
= flower girls ( oh right, they have to carry the unnecessary flowers i also NEED to buy)
Actually, when you think about it. The whole wedding is a waste of money. I can’t believe I’ll be spending that much just to “showcase” our love and committment to the whole community. I don’t even care about the whole community! Did I say that out loud?
On a nicer note, I think it’s touching how people are involved and excited about our wedding. One of Ruy’s aunt volunteered to shoulder the cost of the flowers! Another volunteered to shoulder the wines! Isn’t that sweet? None from my family though, they’re not too sweet. Hahaha
I would like to thank my friends who helped me prepare for the picnic. Patric Porto and Loi Lim — don’t know what I’d do without you guys. Michael de Villa for his “Mimosa” recipe and for helping me get intoxicated with cosmopolitans and goldschlagger last night. Hi to Lou Anne hope you’re feeling better. Jen!! I am not alone in being a brat pala! hahaah
Also, thank you so much for the write-up Dorothy.
My lola is an excellent cook. Her kare-kare is to die for…literally and figuratively (hell the peanut butter and goto can really drown you in cholesterol). I was bugging her to teach me how to cook as I don’t know anything about cooking. She always refuses as she says I’m just an “istorbo” in her kitchen.
I told her before that I think I really should learn how to cook cause I feel like I’m actually going to be a good cook. (yeah yeah, i say these things to bug her and it works) I even told her “Nani, you know what? feeling ko i’ll be better than you once I learn!” After the picnic yesterday I am convinced I am correct. It was fantastic!!
Ruy loved it, he said it’s like hotel food. Now those who are not yet convinced at how blindly in love Ruy is, this is the proof you need. =) The food I prepared was soooo good, I really really loved it, and so did Ruy. Never mind the fact that the only cooking I actually did was boiling and frying.
I prepared for tomorrow’s picnic!! All me…no maids!! I did the shopping, the chopping, the boiling, the peeling, the squeezing, the stirring…EVERYTHING. Okay, everything except the cleaning. I cleaned 80% of the mess…the melted chocolate on the pot was just too difficult for me. But basically preparing and cooking and cleaning wasn’t so hard after all, it was quite enjoyable actually.
It made me realize that I’d rather not have a maid during our first few months of marriage. I’d like to give that a try. The important thing about this though is that I’m not getting a maid because I don’t want to, it’s my choice. That’s why I’m fine with it, but if there comes a time when we don’t have a maid because we can’t afford it…ohlala, I swear I’d throw a tantrum.
Remember the natural highs I posted before? I got new ones and they all happened today:
- going to the grocery
- going to the grocery to buy stuff for Sunday’s picnic
- going to the grocery to buy stuff for Sunday’s picnic and falling waaaaaay below the budget.
- TAX REFUND!! today!!! and it’s huge. I LOVE THE GOVERNMENT!
It’s a good day.
So many w@wies emailed and texted me regarding their wedding dates so here are the auspicious days (or dates which are considered good for weddings) :
Dec. 1 - chong for Horses
Dec. 3 - chong for Monkey
Dec. 4 - chong for Rooster
Dec. 7 - chong for Rat
Dec. 9 - chong for Tiger
Dec. 11 - chong for Dragon
Dec. 14 - chong for Goat
Dec. 15 - chong for Monkey (allowable)
Dec. 16 - chong for Rooster
Dec. 27 - chong for Monkey
Dec. 28 - chong for Rooster
Dec. 30 - chong for Pig
Unfortunately, my book is missing one page (from Jan. 1 -14) =( sorry guys.
Jan. 15 - chong for Rabbit
Jan. 20 - chong for Monkey
Jan. 21 - chong for Rooster
Jan. 27 - chong for Rabbit
Feb. 14 - chong for Monkey
Feb. 17 - chong for Rat
Feb. 18 - chong for Ox
Unfortunately people, I only have until Feb 18 cause Feb 18 is the start of another Chinese year.
We’re going on a picnic , TODAY!!! Lalalala. I’m soooo excited cause Ruy and I are going on a pseudo picnic this weekend. Here’s how we ended up having a picnic.
Liv: What are we going to do this weekend?
Ruy: I don’t know, tagaytay?
Liv: Okay fine, what are we doing there?
Ruy: Go around and relax
(after 10 minutes)
Liv: damn we can’t go to tagaytay it’s Tito Ed’s birthday
Ruy: of right, let’s go jogging instead.
Liv: You go jogging, I’ll go walking
Ruy: Sige
Liv: Great! I’ll prepare a picnic…
I admit that I will take any opportunity to have a picnic. I just love the idea of preparing one meal, hanging out, not doing anything, not having to be extremely dressed up. Here’s the menu I’ll be cooking up.
Salad - Seafood Caesar Salad
Sandwich- choosing among the following
- Tomato and Mozarella Bruschetta
- Chicken Salad Sandwich
- Grilled Chicken and Eggplant Pesto Sandwich (with Feta Cheese)
- Spicy Corned Beef Omelette Sandwich
Dessert - Strawberry dipped in dark chocolate
Juice - either
- champagne with orange juice
- orange juice
- fresh fruit shake
Decisions, decisions
Does it have anything to do with the planetary alignment? The form of the stars? The shape of the moon? Why is it that all the leo’s I know and love are down today.
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RUY, a leo, is physically and emotionally down and out. I think it’s PMS. Is pms contagious? What do you think Yoda?
Meanwhile my friendly Lou Anne who is also a Leo is heart broken. I swear to God I’m going to kick that J’s ass. I hate J soooooo much. I’ve never met anyone as trusting and as open as Lou Anne. And to have someone take advantage of her like that is driving me insane. (Lou Anne is seen below with me)
Another Leo who’s not okay? ME!! I feel lethargic and sick. Damn it!
I find it disconcerting that if I die while driving home tonight, Ruy wouldn’t know until around 7a.m. tomorrow morning. It’s even more disconcerting that if he dies while in the province, I probably wouldn’t know until the end of the week….SCARY!
When so many life changing things are happening in your life it’s hard not to lose sight of the thing that really matters. The essentials. Ruy and I are in this stage. We’re planning a wedding, saving up, buying a house, integrating ourselves into each other’s family and planning the pamamanhikan. I have a tendency to be too focused on things, specially those that require money so much so that I sometimes forget that the reason we’re buying a house, the reason we’re getting married is to be with each other (and the tax breaks of course).
Wish we could afford to go back to Boracay or Bohol or Palawan and have 5 days without talking about the wedding. That would be glorious. Unfortunately we can’t have that, what we did have is 2 hours watching Capote.
If I had a dollar for every time I had this conversation with someone I’d be rich by now.
Okay that’s not really true, I’d just have enough money to buy a top from Mango for example. That’s not the point though, the point is this. Why are people so obsessed with the idea of “THE ONE”, is this the effect of the Matrix on us? Are we just hopeless romantics? Or are we just in denial, refusing to take responsibility for bad decisions and claiming rather that “It was not meant to be”?
When people ask “Are you sure he’s the one?” I give a standard and nonchalant reply of “Nope!”. I swear, the look of horror on people’s faces is priceless. They are actually flabbergasted that I’m marrying someone when I don’t think he’s the one. I want to clear things up once and for all.
I DON’T BELIEVE IN THE CONCEPT OF THE ONE! I think God is nicer than that. I can’t imagine a God who loves us too much and then assigns a man and a woman to each other, but here’s the catch: You can never be sure if that person is the “one”. Sheesh. Sorry for sounding preachy here, but take it from someone who has loved and lost (my first boyfriend died in a car accident) loving is not dependent on another person, it relies solely on you. Each and every single day you have to make the decision to love the person you’re with. Yes there are some personalities that match yours more than the other, and because of these loving becomes so much easier. I love you because I choose to love you, not because you’re the one.
Aint it pretty? Different colored walls though, and the flooring would be dark wood panels. The carpet would either be non-existent or made of natural fibers
No not sexually you perv. Emotionally, I was a numb person. My theory is if you can’t feel anything you can’t get hurt. Thank God I was able to change that, I now feel happy and sad, pleased and mad, etc. One thing I never learned to feel (well) is excitement. Yesterday while looking at the site of our house-to-be (hopefully that is) I couldn’t feel excited, I was worried, tensed, nervous. here’s a text conversation between Ruy and myself.
LIV: You know what I realized? I suck at showing my excitement
RUY: =) I think you’re right. Sometimes I feel that with you excitement is a bad thing like a sin. Hehe. Why kaya?
LIV: I’m afraid it won’t come true if I get excited.
RUY: For me, things to get excited about are blessings already!
LIV: You’re right!
RUY: There can be miracles…if you believe! =) hehehe
LIV: Sira
Now that my obsession with the wedding has passed and has since been replaced with my obsession with the house we MIGHT be acquiring/building very soon. I am beginning to see things differently.
For example, an Alex Franco cake (together with the out of town charges) would cost me as much as building a laundry area in the house. Building the partitions for 2 bedrooms would cost just as much as the Photo and Video package I got from Paul Vincent. The cost of the roof insulation would cost as much as my gown from Veluz. Outlets for Aircon, Telephone and Cable TV altogether would cost as much as my ento gown.
Why the hell am I spending so much on this ONE day? The house at least would last me and Ruy hopefully a very long time it is therefore a worthwhile investment. after all, we do need roof insulation right?
In conclusion, I will be reviewing our budget and cutting down considerably on certain things… =) I’ve got something bigger to save up for
As a child I was a voracious reader and a sitcom fanatic. Don’t ask me about the names of the characters from the books and tv shows, I probably won’t remember any. What I remember vividly are the scenarios. How they fell in love, how conflicts are resolved, how a man proposes, the happily ever after. All of these are still clear in my head.
I alway imagined my life to be like those in these books. My exes have apparently read the same book, we did everything as they were expected to be - as they were “SUPPOSED” to be.
Initially Ruy and I were not on the same page - hell it wasn’t even the same book, it was an entirely different library all together. It was so difficult, I couldn’t understand why Ruy didn’t know the things I knew. These things came so naturally to the characters in the books right?
Ruy you’re supposed to call me at exactly 12mn during New Year or Christmas Eve. What? You have to have dinner with your family? So what? I don’t care! That’s what people in the tv shows do.
Ruy when I walk out, you’re supposed to come running after me and then we kiss under the rain okay? Hmmm, wait a minute I can’t walk out cause my school things are in the back seat and they’re too heavy for me to carry around. Damn it, I can’t walk out when you’re driving!
Ruy you’re supposed to surprise me with sorry gifts when we fight. When I open my car you’ve left something inside, or you’re there standing outside my office after an argument, or maybe your car would be waiting outside mine? What? You can’t do that because you’ll coming all the way from Marikina and you need to be in the office at 7 am tomorrow? So what? I don’t care if I sometimes leave the office at 12, the men in the movies don’t sleep!
I think you get my point. I had a highly romanticized version of what relationships are supposed to be. I seriously imagined life was supposed to be like that, thus the tantrum about the fact that Ruy (initially) didn’t give me an engagement ring. However things practically never turned out the way I expected them to.
Life snuck up on me and stomped on my fairy tale. Nothing about my relationship with Ruy was like what I imagined it to be. Not the way we met, not the way we do things, not the way we “date” or don’t date, not even the way he proposed. Nothing.
It’s better that way, it’s surprising and fresh and dynamic and alive. Oh and absolutely IMPERFECT.
p.s.
The picture was a free prenup which Ruy and I won through Traders Hotel. My friends call it the “Telenovela Picture”. They tell me I look like the evil haciendera (the contrabida) who is trying to seduce the nice man…I love my friends! Speaking of which hello to my friends who read my blog. PATRIC PORTO, PATRICK TIONGSON, LOI LIM, LOU ANNE DELOS REYES….and others. Miss you guys soooo much
Anyone who knows both Ruy and myself would know that we are 2 very different people. Sometimes I look at us and say “How the hell did we end up together?”. To enumerate all our differences would be tiresome for me and probably boring for you so I would instead talk about some fo the things we have in common. TV SHOWS….we don’t watch the same things but there a few shows we do watch and enjoy taling about. These are American Idol, the Law Firm and the shows in Crime and Suspense Channel. It’s so much fun actually having something to discuss and debate about.
I’ll leave you with this while I rack my brain for other thing we both like.
In our relationship we have taken on several roles that we just automatically expect the other person to do. Being the person with a compulsion for lists and schedules I was of course in charge of taking care of all the details of our wedding preps. Having done this for the past couple of months has left me quite exhausted.
Last night I told Ruy “Tinatamad na ako”; after some panic on Ruy’s part he later realized that it’s not that I don’t want to get married, I’m just tired of the preparations. He said, okay let’s take turns, send me everything you’ve done with the papers and I’ll take care of everything. YAY!
I’m not sure if I can let go completely but I would really really appreciate the help.
It’s Sunday, I’ve already been on a Ruy overload, imagine being with him for more than 8 hours 2 days in a row. It’s unheard of…I’m exaggerating of course. We’ve actually spent days and days together during our vacations but now that we’re both busy with work it’s become almost impossible to do that.
So it’s Sunday, and unbeknownst to my grandmother we are throwing a surprise celebration for her. I don’t know how I pulled it off under my grandmother’s nose but it happened. My grandmother had no idea until she saw the cake, and even then she didn’t know how elaborate the scheme was. All the grandchildren (okay not all, just most) brought food and so we had a small feast there at home. Mary (my lola’s alalay) was even able to cook rice using the rice cooker without my lola knowing about it (she cooked the rice inside her room). Ruy brought over balloons for my lola. We feasted on: roast beef, cordon bleu, elar’s lechon, barbecue, spaghetti bolognese, cake and of course the ever present pineapple juice.
Ruy was there of course, she knows how special my lola is to me and so he made sure he’d be there.
Saturday began with me wakin gup really sick. I could barely speak and throat was hurting like hell. I knew I was going down with the flu the moment I opened my eyes. Nevertheless, flu or no flu I still needed to do some errands for my grandmother, so it’s off to here and there doing this and that. After that I proceeded to the parlor for waxing, blowdry, manicure, pedicure and eyebrow shaping. It has been a loooong time since I last went to this parlor and they were surprised at two things: 1. I lost weight…YEHEY! and 2. My hair is now extremely long, yup it now reaches down the curve of my back when straightened. I would have to admit though that I hate hate hate having hair that long, it’s just crazy, can you imagine how much hot oil, and hair color costs now? I need to keep it long however for my wedding. *sigh*
Parlor-home-Ruy’s car. So from the parlor, I went back home, took a bath, put on my party clothes, rode Ruy’s car and drove with him all the way to Laguna for Angie’s wedding. I must say it was an EXTREMELY ORGANIZED wedding. I think the pictures Angie posted say it all. Ruy was quite impressed with the attention to detail Angie has shown. Congratulations girl!
We went on our way back to Manila at 8:30 to be in time for Zsa Zsa’a birthday get together. Ruy and I were amazed at how we can never seem to be late for anything. We were early for Angie’s wedding as well as for Zsazsa’s party. Damn.
12:00 found Lolo Ruy sleepy so we headed home.
I used to be resentful of the fact that Ruy and I only get to spend one day a week together. Patric used to tease me that I’m like one of those martyr seaman’s wife waiting for her man to come home. I have repeatedly said that seeing Ruy more than once a week is a bonus in itself, IF that is so then this weekend was the jackpot prize.
Friday started quite late for me. Ruy and I were both on leave as we chose to spend this day dealing with some wedding suppliers. Ironically though we ended up accomplishing only two things for the wedding. We started with a meeting with Loi. (Loi I don’t know if you are reading this but we thank you soooooooooo much. It was so much fun. Ruy was so happy.) Loi is my friend who is doing something special for our wedding. I’m sooooo excited to see the result Loi. Thanks for sparing 2 hours of your time with us.
We then drove all the way to Veluz place where we finally paid the d.p. for my gown. Ruy loves Veluz. It’s quite funny. He likes the fact that Veluz sided with him on some issues, he’s also happy that Veluz said moving our wedding date from December to February was an excellent idea. Finally, he said that talking to veluz made him feel excited about the wedding again.
A trip to gateway mall then followed. Ruy and I spent 2 hours trying to choose a gift for Angie. We never knew it could be that difficult, I’m dreading the day we have to make a list for our own bridal registry…gosh that would be painful. While in gateway Ruy bought me champagne truffles…my favorite! Yehey. =) I think he was a bit surprised that each small round chocolate costs around 110 each. hehehe
Finally the day ended with us driving to eastwood for me to buy a shawl for Saturday….
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I don’t really like watching movies. In fact it was only Ruy who started pushing me to watch more movies. I saw this list of Valentine flicks and I thought of making a tradition out of it. So from now on we will watch one movie from this list every valentine’s day…. hahaha POOR RUY!
AmelieA pixie-like Parisian puts the sparkle in the City of Lights.
Annie HallWoody Allen shows that even hopeless neurotics can find true love.
It Happened One NightThe “Walls of Jericho” are certainly coming down.
MoonstruckWhen the moon hits Cher’s eye like a big pizza pie: that’s amore.
RoxanneThe race to win this beauty’s heart will be won by a nose.
Say AnythingFor anyone looking for a ‘dare to be great’ situation.
The Princess BrideA romantic, funny, exciting fairy tale? Inconceivable!
When Harry Met Sally…Making millions of friends want to have what she’s having.
An Affair to RememberMeet you at the top of the Empire State Building.
CasablancaYou must remember this: the most quotable movie of all time.
Love StoryWhat can you say about a 34 year-old movie that’s sad?
MoulinRougeThe singing!The dancing!The tuberculosis!
The End of the AffairWith that title, you know it won’t be happily ever after.
The Remains of the DayA butler is torn between love and his duty to stand still.
The Way We WereBabs and Bob team up for a story of opposites attracting.
TitanicNear, far, wherever you are, it’s the classic modern tear-jerker.
Steamy
9 1/2 WeeksStarring Kim Basinger, Mickey Rourke, and a very lucky ice cube.
Basic InstinctSo hot the movie might get charged with smoking.
Body HeatForget green-house gases. This is the cause of global warming.
Dangerous LiaisonsIn games of the heart, there’s one principle: win or die.
Like Water for ChocolateA forbidden yet flavorful affair.
Risky BusinessSometimes you gotta say…well, you know.
The Big EasyWhich is spicier in New Orleans: the food, the jazz or the lovin’?
The Unbearable Lightness of BeingCzech mating.
Cheesy
Dirty DancingThey all call her Baby, but to him she’s like the wind.
FootlooseA town bans all music. After you hear Kenny Loggins, you’ll know why.
GhostSam is a spirit trying to protect his love. Like Casper with feathered hair.
GreaseYou know it’s the one that you want. Ooh, ooh, ooh, honey.
Pretty in PinkHer choices are guys named Blane and Duckie?
Pretty WomanYou can’t buy love, but $3000 is a good down-payment.
Sleepless in SeattleCan you find your soul mate on talk radio?
The BodyguardWith a song that’s stuck in your head for twelve years.
Last Saturday my sister celebrated her 7th Birthday and of course Ruy was present. He really had no choice but to be there. My family is chockful of social obligations that you just HAVE to do. As my fiance, being present in my only sister’s party was of course a must.
When my relatives started arriving my mom introduced Ruy as her “manugang”. I was stunned, wow! I personally hate the sound of the word manugang, I don’t know why but it sounds so old to me, I can’t believe my mom (who looked stunning during the party by the way) has a manugang….wow. However, I cannot help but be touched by the thought of my mom really considering Ruy as an inlaw.
My mom actually bugged Ruy about our wedding date. She said “Nakakainis naman kayo bakit minove nyo pa!”. Is this normal? Seems like my mom’s really itching to have me married off. When she found out that we MIGHT get married civilly first she was extremely pleased…too pleased. Odd isn’t it? I later found out through her that she’s afraid I might break up with Ruy and end up with a bad person. Sheeesh
I need to have a quick rundown of things still lacking in my wedding preps. I know I still have over a year to prepare but I don’t want to cram. And anyone who knows me from college would know that I am the queen of cramming. So here is a list of everything we’re missing
That’s it? Not bad!! I think this is perfectly doable. It’s the paying for everything which is difficult. hehehe
Every year Ruy throws 2-3 tantrums, that’s a mere 0.5% of the number of tantrums I myself throw. I at least try to move out of his way when he does have these tantrums.
Ruy and I barely fight, we’ve only shouted at each other maybe once or twice. We do argue a lot although by arguing I mean debating for hours (and when I say hours I mean this literally). I often find myself raising my voice when I get frustrated and Ruy does so when he’s surprised. Other than the increase in decibel to show our irritation we don’t do anything else. We don’t hit, cuss nor whisper any profanities to each other.
The scenario would be:
- Liv and Ruy talks
- Liv gets pissed
- Ruy has no idea Liv’s pissed
- Liv gets pissed even more as Ruy doesn’t know she’s pissed.
- Liv gets quiet
- Ruy gets worried
- Liv remains quiet, the calm before the storm
- Ruy keeps on asking “What’s wrong?”
- Liv can’t hold it in any longer and lashes out (dramatic I know)
- Ruy’s surprised at how a small offense can mean such a big thing
- They argue
- They reconcile.
That is the natural progression of things. We have fallen comfortably into this pattern so much so that when something falls out of place we are both surprised. Yesterday we were both faced with a surprise…Ruy threw a tantrum.
He hasn’t thrown a serious tantrum in a long while so I didn’t know how to react to this. What’s even more surprising was the trigger of the tantrum…a stupid lambing from myself. The progression therefore changed into:
- Liv says something
- Ruy takes offense and lashes out
- Liv is surprised and gets very defensive
- Ruy is pissed at Liv’s defensiveness
- Liv is pissed that Ruy’s pissed….
You can imagine how frustrating this whole process is for both of us. Everytime we try to forget about it, I say something that gets Ruy started again. How did this end? I sent him a text saying:
“Love you honey…even if you are sooo sungit. Are you pms-ing? =)”
This made him laugh and we finally had a fight-free conversation …at least for 20 minutes. Whew!
It’s final, we’re getting married on February 17. I love love love this date. I don’t know why, I just do. I was just telling our good friend Dorothy that I never felt any affinity to the date December 2 and I’m so excited about the change of date.
You know how I feel now? I feel like I’ve been given an extra 2 months to prepare for my wedding. It’s like a bonus. All my suppliers are more or less final so I’m practically all set.
So I am extremely satisfied with the arrangement, one person who is not as satisfied is my mother. I think she’s dying to give me away. More on this later
There is a great possibility that our wedding date will be moved. To when? We are not yet sure, either to the 27th of January or 17th of February. Personally I prefer to get married on the 17th as this is our anniversary. The final decision still lies on Ruy’s hands…I just thought I’d let my friends from the US know so that they’d have the chance to re-organize their trips as soon as possible. We will make the final decision as soon as possible.
We are so blessed that ALL of our suppliers are still available and that they are not asking me for any additional costs….I LOVE my suppliers.
Speaking of suppliers have you guys noticed that Paul Vincent’s style has been improving so much lately? I’ve actually sent him a text message saying how I love his work so much more now!
Tata for now!!
I like make-up, no I LOVE make-up. I have been paid by people to put on their make-up thus I’m really looking for something special from my make-up artists. I have looked at the pictures taken after some of my trial make-ups and I compared them with my own work. If you would look at the picture, the third row shows make-up done by other make-up artists, while the rests are my own work.
I may be extremely biased but I really really like my own work more….haaayy! I can’t believe I’m paying people thousands just to do something I’m more than qualified to do!
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You know when we fight looking at the engagement ring makes me feel better. Here’s a picture of it by the way, a lot of my friends have been asking to see it. Sorry I couldn’t take a better picture…I suck!
Divisoria and I. Despite all the rumblings and grumblings about Divisoria I was there yet again yesterday. I think this is my 6th visit in the last 2 months but Ruy was with me yesterday so it was a bit fun-er!! =)
Excuse me for inserting a bit of mush here, but it seems that time passes a bit quicker when I’m with Ruy. We parked in Tutuban Mall and walked the long road to Tabora. Two weeks ago I was literally dying while walking that road, I thought it was unbelievably long. But yesterday I was surprised at how short it was. The company perhaps? I could also attribute it to the fact that there were less people in Divi and that I actually had more than 2 hours worth of sleep (I slept for 4.5 hours) but I’d rather say that it was because I was with Ruy…naks!
After a quick shopping in Divisoria Mall (once again it seemed quick but it actually lasted 4 hours) Ruy and I walked back to Tutuban and Ruy drove us both to China Town. What better way to celebrate Chinese New Year than going to China Town? As cliche as it may sound that’s exactly what we did.
We ate at a restaurant called President’s tea house where we had to wait for a long time to be seated. Was it because we were the only non-Chinese there? Was it because we weren’t dressed in red? Unfortunately we will never know the answer. Ruy chose to pass the time by making a song which goes like this “We are the only Filipinos here, even if we are in the Philippines…” forgive me for forgetting the rest of the song, as much as I love Ruy I don’t think that song will win any grammys. Hahaha
Lunch was good, uneventful, and free! For me at least =)
After lunch we went around China Town looking for some lucky things for Feng Shui. Ruy has just started believing and practicing this Chinese belief recently (but apparently he’s been reading about this since he was in highschool) and he wanted to buy some things. Ruy bought so much!! I bought him an ancient sword that was supposed to protect him from evil and he bought me a jade necklace with a rabbit that is supposed to counteract my bad luck this year. I personally don’t know if I should believe these things but what I know is I need all the luck I can get this year. The last thing I need is for lady luck to turn against me.
* START OF SIDE KWENTO *
Speaking of luck we’re having some problems concerning our wedding date, reception venue and caterer. It’s a bit complicated to explain so I’ll just explain it to you as soon as we sort it out.
* END OF SIDE KWENTO *
On the way to wherever we were supposed to go next I received a phone call from my lola. She said that my cousin who was supposed to drive her to tonight’s party will not be able to and could we drive her instead? Ruy, knowing that I was a lola’s girl, said yeah no problem so we ended up picking up my lola to Marikina in order to drive all the way back to Ortigas to go to our party.
In the middle of the party Ruy and I fought. He said I was being an ass. I really was, I’ve been in an awful mood all week last week. I don’t know why. I supposed it’s because of my daily migraine. It could be because I was pms-ing (I have my period again now). Whatever the reason was, Ruy’s had it and he got pissed. We’re a bit better now we’re talking and saying I love you and stuff…I still have migraine though. =(
I was a cute baby. am I conceited? Maybe so but I don’t care. I think I looked cute then, maybe more so than now. And gosh look at my stylish top…hahaha!! Take note people that I already had earrings at such a young age! I was born kikay. =)
This is my first and only picture of my self involved in any physical activity (otherwise known as sports). Notice how I was wearing a tank top with flowers while running.
We enjoyed the no wedding talk day so much we forgot to switch modes this weekend. We had a long day last Saturday spent with Cyril.
We first picked Cyril up from his house. As usual Cyril was late, I was panicking because I needed to pick-up the lechon I ordered from my mom. I was an hour late and they might give my lechon to someone else. Ruy (who was normally a very careful and sensible driver) practically flew and drove a 40 minute route in less than 20 minutes. I got my lechon, I’m happy.
The 3 of us took the lechon to my mom who was celebrating her birthday. My mom, who despite her slim appearance is actually a voratious eater, was pleased. We tore a piece of the lechon skin off and went on our way.
Lunch followed at Burgoo. We had so much food that we weren’t able to finish everything. I ordered HAMBURGOO which is actually burger made out of different meats. Ruy odered burgoo stew and a small appetizer sampler plate which turned out to be a misnomer. There was noting small about that sampler plate NOTHING! Needless to say Ruy and I didn’t finish everything. We finished half of the burger (patty only) and he ate all the buffalo wings and I ate the Sta. Fe spring rolls, we split a chimichanga among us. The onion rings remained uneaten. I must point out that no one should be forced to eat that much onion ring in one sitting, it’s inhuman!
After filling our tummies and emptying our wallets, we filled them up in the ATM and went to SM City. Why SM City? I didn’t know the reason initially but I found out that Ruy called SM Megamall and found out that tickets to the Manny Pacquiao fights were already sold out. IMAGINE? Anyway Ruy who is currently learning (and *ahem* excelling in) Boxing HAD to watch it. I have nothing against his going there but damn I didn’t think we’d have to line up for over an hour just to get those tickets. I was an evil girlfriend and left him while he stood in line. I went around looked at wedding rings, and for the latest issue of Wedding Essentials. Damn that was one hard magazine to find! there was only one store that was carrying it in SM North, MAgnet. They didn’t even have it on display yet, it was just on the floor fresh out of the box. This magazine was soooooooooooo heavy. It was a workout carrying it around the mall (it was Ruy’s workout by the way not mine….hehehe). Satisfied, I bought Ruy a drink and waited in line with him. I had my magazine so I wasn’t bored anymore.
Fastforward to Ruy finally getting the ticket. We decided to go to Starbucks. Cyril had his coffee jelly and i had my caramel latte. We decided to go to Eastwood so Cyril can taste the TAZA de XOCOLAT, the best hot chocolate in the universe!!
Eastwood it is. I spend 5 days a week here and I still spend my weekends here every once in a while, isn’t that sick? We went around, bought tickets for Narnia. The movie was going to start quite late so we passed the time by going to this cheesy videoke place inside Timezone. Ruy and Cyril belted their little hearts out while I tried to sleep. This was followed by dinner in EBISU. YAY! I have never eaten here before but I loved it. Amazing! It wasn’t so expensive but the food was fantastic. Cyril had iced tea, cosmo and tendon. Ruy and I had a 5 piece tempura, grape shake, crab puffs and grilled beef. So yummy, this is my new addiction. I’m a tempura addict, I think I ate more than 8 in Paseo Uno before.
I then treated Cyril to Taza de Xocolat, he asked how much he owed me and I said “Your pleasure is payment enough!”…NAKS! Went inside the cinema and drank our hot chocos and enjoyed the film. The film left me and Cyril wondering about one thing…are there going to be beavers in Tenessee?
What are the chances of Ruy agreeing to wear this beautiful beautiful jacket from Dolce and Gabbana? Or at least a great replica of it? Slim-to-none most definitely.
Ru-ru (a nickname I’m trying to give Ruy but he refuses to acknowledge it, my friends say it sounds like a poodles name…here I am digressing again) or Ruy wants to wear a barong. Why? He says a suit is too formal for him. The jacket shown here isn’t too formal is it?
I am currently on the lookout for barongs, anybody here who has any suggestions on good styles, embroidery, or material? I’m seriously at a loss. I don’t know anything about barongs! All I know is I don’t like those cheap looking barongs, those that look like plastic. Ewwww…so if anyone has pictures, suggestions, etc. Please please let me know.
Here’s the only barong I found somewhat nice.
I still think the D&G jacket is so much better!
I thought of doing what Angie does in her blog. I put a collage and I will discuss each picture respectively…so much easier than putting individual posts for each picture. Hope you don’t mind the immitation Angie. =)
The first picture is a picture I took of myself inside the Mango dressing room. Shhhh don’t tell them! I love the mediteranean look of the dress, and it’s on sale for 70%! I find it too plunging though, I thought Ruy would kill me if I bought it. I took a picture so that I could show my mom’s designer. THEN Ruy actually liked it…I was so surprised. Anyway I’ll have it copied but a little less revealing please.
The next 4 dresses are inspirations for the cuts and necklines of my wedding gown. Notice how all the dresses show or emphasize the real waist? I have a very big butt, low waist dresses or empire cut makes me look fatter. We don’t want fatter!
The last picture of the 2nd row are CARAMEL KISSES!! Mike gave me some today and I love him for that. THANKS so much Mike!! You’re the best..you’re so “S” talaga. =)
3rd Row. The first two pictures show the kind of make-up I want. I want it strong and striking! The last picture is that of Cyril and myself. =( Cyril is Ruy’s bestfriend who became a very good friend of mine as well. He just received his working visa and will be leaving in 2 weeks. I want to cry. We’re not sure if he can make it to the wedding. CYYYY!!!
I was obsessed with Beauty Bar, make-up, parlor, and spa. I just had my debut. I was an adult. I was smoking (only Capri please, I liked how it looked). I thought I wanted to be a doctor.
I just came from a messy, messy break-up. My lolo just died, my life was in chaos.
The Philippine political system was a mess, there was a clear delineation between the administration and the opposition. Erap, the current president of the Philippines, was being tried for Corruption charges.
I was still in School. I was taking up Psychology. My pysch 102 (statistics)group was complete Patrick, Loi, Pat and Avril. They were taunting me for not going to EDSA on January 16. They said I had no love for my country “I’m not even 50% Filipino, so technically this isn’t my country” was my stupid reply.
The malls were empty, classes were suspended. Everyone cared about politics except me. I was an indifferent brat. People were in Edsa and I was dating.
I was dating a few guys. Ruy was one of those guys. He asked me to go out with him. So I did.
There was nothing good to watch in the cinema. Remember the Titans seemed to be the best thing to watch so that’s what we did. I think we watched it in Sta. Lucia, how unromantic I know.
Ruy told me, like he always did, that he loved me. For the first time I said I loved him too.
Last Sunday Ruy and I had our first “No-Wedding-Talk-Allowed-Today Day”…this is one of my inventions. I always try to introduce this kinds of oddities into our relationship. The purpose of this one is to continually have fun and take care of each other amidst wedding preps. I’ve heard horror stories of couples who devoted so much of their time into the wedding preps neglecting each other and then ending up married with nothing in common…SCARY!
So last Sunday Ruy and I vowed to just enjoy and have fun without any wedding talk whatsoever. DAMN it was so hard. I was dying to talk to Ruy about the things I bought in Tabora but I couldn’t, what I did was lay them out on my lola’s table and that’s about it. I couldn’t explain, I couldn’t describe..nothing!
We then went grocery shopping in SHOPWISE, this didn’t require any thinking or speaking so we were okay. We then went to TIENDESITAS, we heard mass then had lunch. Lunch began quietly, all the conversational topics I could come up with were related to the wedding (I’m such a loser I know)…eventually we warmed up and started chatting up a storm. Actually I chatted up a storm while Ruy made comments. =)
After going around, we relaxed a bit, watched TV, had a tickle fight, discussed Pacquiao, etc. We went to BOOKTOPIA to find the book that Ruy’s been looking for for around 2 months now. It still wasn’t there.
We drove all the way to SEVEN SUITES in Antipolo to have dinner. It was a disappointing dinner but I had so much fun, imagine this…around 2 hours just chatting, laughing, and teasing overlooking the city. We were the only 2 customers and so we had the roofdeck all to ourselves! Ruy and I discussed the last time we were there, it was last April. I was pissed off at Ruy at that time. We tried to remember why I was mad. I realized that it was because Ruy wouldn’t take me out on dates. Our last 2 dates were courtesy of MOI. It has to be explained at this point that I have a very strict definition of what a date is. A date is something the other person prepared for, saved up for, fixed all the details in advanced, etc.
I told him it’s okay, I don’t need a date anymore right now. I’m just happy and extremely satisfied with how things are going right now. I don’t need the affirmation and self esteem boost from dating. BUT!! I stil expect to be taken out on dates when we get married. hehehe
The night wasn’t over then. We made a bet on whether or not KFC serves macaroni salad. I won the bet and so Ruy owes me lunch. =) We then went to a shoe salon and to Watsons and then Ruy drove me home.
I had a blast!!! Sometimes because I’m so focused on the wedding I forget the reason I want to marry Ruy in the first place. Yesterday I remembered why.
I spent around 6 hours in Divisoria today. It was fun, exhausting, irritating, and disgusting all at the same time. Let us first go back to the night before.
I went home at 4:15 a.m. Saturday morning, I spent hours talking to my colleagues (no Ruy I wasn’t partying, I didn’t even sip wine) . I love being surrounded by smart people, it’s addictive. Anyway that’s not my story! I went home at 4:15, collapsed on the sofa and fell asleep immediately.
I woke up at 6 in the morning to my aunt asking me “What time will Ruy pick us up?”…WHAT? Why is he picking us up? Where are we going? AFter only an hour long sleep my brain cells weren’t functioning yet, I was dazed and confused and I didn’t understand what was going on.
Apparently she asked me to go with her to Divisoria and I promised her I would (this happened around 3 weeks ago), I also told her I’d ask Ruy to come with us as I don’t feel very safe in that area. I completely forgot about this conversation and I didn’t realize that that day was today. Needless to say, I wasn’t ready, I only had 300 in my wallet, I haven’t slept and Ruy had no idea about this entire thing.
I called Ruy up at 6 in the morning to ask him where Divisoria was in relation to 168. No, I didn’t ask him to go with us as I’m not that evil. We found out, I showered quickly and got dressed. I drove us to the nearest LRT station, parked my car, rode the train, rode the jeepney and walked a LOOOOOONG and muddy road to divisoria mall.
The road to Divisoria mall is called TABORA. I have heard of this street from a lot of w@wies, apparently this is a place where people buy stuff for D.I.Y.’s. I can totally understand why, angel wings, butterfly wings, boxes, bottles, ribbons, you name it they probably have it. It was quite amazing, I almost enjoyed myself really.
Please don’t get me wrong, I’m not a snob, I’m just slightly claustrophobic and slightly psychotic about dirt and crowds. I don’t like being pushed around by sweaty people, I don’t like being stepped on by people wearing muddy slippers. Several times today I almost wanted to give up. I wanted to tell my aunt “How much will you be saving from buying here? I’ll pay the difference, let’s just leave!”. But I couldn’t…
I began enjoying myself when I saw something my sister bought in a posh shop here in QC, it costs 700 pesos and my sister adored it. I got the EXACT SAME THING for 50 pesos in TABORA. My God, isn’t that crazy? I’m incorporating it into the centerpiece and I’m soooo happy. What made me even happier was the fact that I gave another one to my sister and I told her “Happy Birthday!” and she was jumping up and down. I kinda feel guilty, the wrapper of my last birthday gift to her costs more than that thing. =(…the important thing is that she liked it sooo much.
Going back, I think I MIGHT just drag Ruy into this place yet again. I bought samples of all the things we could use and took pictures of other things. I also got the contact number of the people I talked to. Hopefully we can get the things we need without having to go back. As much as I hate the place, the 650 peso price difference is taunting me to go back.
(We went home at around 1:30, I missed my first belly dancing lesson…uuuugggh!)
I have nothing important to post so I thought of putting this here. My birthday is August 4 and Ruy’s is August 8
| Your Birthdate: August 4 |
 You have an extraordinary character - moral, responsible, and disciplined. Your sincerely and honesty shine through in almost every situation. Driven and focused, you rarely let your emotions get the better of you. You’re level headed and rational. People count on your to look at things objectively. Your strength: Your unwavering loyalty and ethics Your weakness: Your rock solid stubbornness Your power color: Navy blue Your power symbol: Shield Your power month: April |
| Your Birthdate: August 8 |
Watch out Donald Trump! You’ve got a head for business and money. You’ll make it rich some day, even if you haven’t figured out how yet. A supreme individualist, you shouldn’t get stuck in a corporate job. Instead, make your own way - so that you can be the boss. Your strength: Your undying determination Your weakness: You require an opulent lifestyle Your power color: Plum Your power symbol: Dollar sign Your power month: August |
Mine is crap, but Ruy’s was pretty accurate.
IT’s going to be a busy, busy period ahead of us. So many things are going to happen, so many things need to get done…I will make a list of everything right now to help me see what I need to do.
Looking at my schedule is already making me tired. Damn it!! LOI!!! When can we meet? Oh no, damn it. Don’t you sometimes wish there are 10 days in a week?
I used to whine about the fact that Ruy never emails me…now he drowns me with so many sweet e-mails. He’ll probably kill me for posting this here but hell he barely reads this blog anyway
I love you so much baby! I’m so happy with our relationship! THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU!!!
I hope you have a good, fulfilling and productive day at work.. Please always keep in mind that you are one of a kind and that all your abilities and talents are yours alone to use and touch other people with. You are wonderful and I’m just so glad I am one of the people whom you have touched…
Hey baby, I just want to tell you that right now I miss you so
much that I wish I was your assistant instead. Thank you so much for being great this new year even if you’re PMSing.=)Galing! I’m also so happy that you were able to read such a great book which you liked so much. I’d love to hear about it as soon as we can be together again… Ang hirap pala when we got to be with each other a lot.. Sobra nakaka miss ka..
Take care always honey and I hope your car doesn’t agitate you to much anymore. More importantly, I hope it doesn’t give you trouble. If we can manage this weekend I’d love to take your car to the repair shop for a check up so we’ll know what is wrong with it and if it’s just a minor thing we can have it fixed immediately.
I love you so much honey. Please take care aways.
Ruy
Hey baby, thank you so much for being my dreamgirl! This is the year we’re getting married you know?=) I just want to tell you that I’m soooooooooooooooooooo happy!!!!
HAPPY, HAPPY NEW YEAR MAHAL KO!!!
1. Be realistic about each other.
Don’t try to turn your partner into something he or she is not. Let’s face it, guys-there’s only 1 Pamela Anderson in the world, and even she has had her implants removed! Give your gal a break and understand that her physical appearance is NOT going to change overnight with the help of a few facials! or treatments. And ladies, Brad Pitt has already been taken, so you’re gonna have to do with what your guy is like! Chill out, love each other for what u are. There is more to your partner than what meets the eye.
2. Always talk things out.
Now guys, I know this is not your fave pastime or mode of resolving issues, but u know what? This works with the gals. Don’t make assumptions about each other’s feelings. Learn to express yourself better so that your partner understands what you’re angry about, or hurt about, or even happy about! When u stop talking to each other from the heart, it’s the beginning of the end.
3. Do stuff together.
Make an effort to do things together. Do some sports or involve yourselves in some shared activities; something both of u enjoy or are interested in. It could be as simple as watching movies together, or jus strolling hand-in-hand down Orchard Road. Watch soccer with him once in a while though the green patch on TV puts u to sleep in 3 seconds. And guys, do give in if your gal asks for another day at window-shopping, rather than suggest! that she go out with her girlfriends for “that sort of activities” instead. If you’re spending more time with your friends rather than with your partner, it’s a warning sign that you’re drifting apart!!!
4. Meet each other halfway.
If he agrees to throw out that rotten T-shirt with the “The_Rock” print, u shouldn’t kick up much of a fuss if he asks u to keep your room tidy. There’s gotta be a little giving and taking in a relationship, so learn to meet each other halfway.
5.Show your love
Buy her flowers or candy or perfume every now and then, even if u have been together for years. It’s wonderful to continue showing someone that u care for him or her. Cook him a special meal, paint him a Valentine’s Day card. Knit him mini-socks he can’t wear (like for decoration purposes =>), buy him a packet of milk for breakfast, or pack his wardrobe for him…so he knows u can still be romantic and loving despite having been together for quite a while.
6. Respect each other.
Stop making jokes about her hair or skin, or whatever it is u love to laugh at. Ask yourself if she thinks if it’s funny. And if he has an inferiority complex about his height, stop ogling at tall guys and make him feel worse! Love is about respecting each other’s feelings and being sensitive to each other at all times.
7. Bury the past.
Stop bringing up the past. Gals…don’t bring up the happy things about u and your ex to your guy, it would just make him jealous or unhappy. And guys, don’t talk about the happy times that u had with your ex or mention about her in your every other sentence as it would make your gal feel un-happy and she might think that u saying all this b’coz u are going to get back with your ex or not interested in her anymore.
8. Sit on your jealousy.
All of us go thru’ spells of insecurity at the beginning of the relationship, but don’t translate that insecurity into jealousy. If you’re going to go through your partner’s mail and cupboard, and eavesdropping on conversations, u know something is wrong - with u!!! Jealousy is like a poison that slowly spreads thru’ the relationship before finally killing it. Trust your partner; love has to have trust in it.
9. Keep your commitments to each other.
If your partner is standing you up all the time and canceling dates and breaking promises, u need to talk! If you’re in a relationship, make your partner your priority and don’t disappoint them if u can help it. It’s really terrible when someone promises to take u to dinner, and then calls to cancel it. Don’t make promises u can’t keep. If your partner starts to feel that he/she is not important enough to u, u may just lose him/her.
10. Be honest.
Honesty is not scowling at how awful she looks first thing in the morning, or telling him that he has the biceps of a fly~! When we say “be honest”, we mean expressing your feelings clearly, not being bitingly cruel. When you’re hurt, say so, and when you’re angry, tell him/her, w/o getting hysterical. If u can’t be honest with your partner, who can u be honest with? If Love is also about honesty, and a relationship where honesty doesn’t exists probably it isn’t worth it!
Looking back on my relationship, Ruy has never cancelled, rescheduled any date with me…WOW!
This girl is one of the w@wies I truly admire for her creativity and organizational skills! Add the fact that we have similar tastes…it’s no wonder why I’m a constant visitor of her blog. Anyway here are some pictures Angie Just because you asked for it… =)
20 years ago…
I was 3 and a half years old (going on 4) I was trying to convince the nuns of St. Scho to let me enter their school. They say I’m too young…waaaaaaaay too young. I was forced to go to school in Rainbow Kiddie Center where I was Mother Mary for 2 years. I also slapped my first male there….he is still afraid of me up to this day.
15 years ago…
I was 8 years old. At the time when normal kids are still playing, I was reading books and crushing on boys. When kids would ask me to play I would say “Papawisan ako eh”. I had my first communion, I was the commentator. I felt so important. I thought I was so good….it didn’t mean anything pala. Hehehe I think this was the best years of my life. I was old enough to enjoy life, family and friends yet too young to be a snob and to be jaded.
10 years ago…
I had suitors and was trying to figure out how the hell I could dump them. I met some friends I treasure up to now like Bea, Carmu and Friendly. I learned about friendship, and about enjoying life.
5 years ago…
I met Ruy. It was the most difficult period of my life. I was going through so many problems, issues, worries. I met some bad people. My lolo died, I learned that being smart is not good enough. My values got screwed up. I was officially a mess.
3 years ago..
I was a bum at home, my mom slowly helped my put my life back together…the hard way. No atm, no credit card, and commuting. My mom made sure I knew the value of everything I had
Last year…
I was back! Finally my life had direction, I had a job I absolutely loved. My mom and I are okay. I was praying more, I loved my life! The best part, I was engaged and I wasn’t pregnant!!! hahaha
This year..
It’s just the start of the year, I don’t know what it has in store for me. I just know this is the year when I’ll get married.
Yesterday…
Had a loooooooooong day with Ruy. We had lunch at North Park where Ruy and I finalized some important wedding details like the entourage, sponsors, readers, etc. We then went to Celebration Cakes to look at the cakes. Then went all around Greenhills looking for wedding ring suppliers. We found quite a lot of prospective suppliers.
We tried to look for more cake suppliers, then we went to Tiendesitas. We had grape juice that was soooooo yummy! We went to the grocery to buy cereals for myself and health drink for Ruy. We then picked up Cyril and we had dinner in Chili’s.
Last night…
Waited for more than 30 minutes in Burgoo. We left after ordering (damn I’m still craving for that seafood ceasar’s salad) and we then went to Chili’s. Ruy and I shared baby back ribs and southwestern egg rolls…yum yum! Cyril had chicken crispers and weng weng. We had a 2 hour dinner chatting up a storm in the process.
Ruy then drove me home. I read a bit before going to sleep
Today…
Woke up quite early. Had cereals, then watched a bit of TV. I then went up to bug my sister. My mom came home from the civic action, we came up with our guestlist for the wedding. My mom slept, my sister drew while I finished reading my first book of the year! YEHEY (my resolution was to read 12 books this year, one down eleven to go!)
My mom then took me to this designer she’s recommending for my wedding. Spent a long time at the designer’s shop then headed to Dunkin Donut for snacks. Sheesh…I think this is the first time I’ve ever eaten inside dunkin donut…the things you’d do when you have a 6 year old with you. We then bought grocery, fruits then went home.
I then went online to update my blogs, show my mom what havaianas are and make an online guestlist.
Tomorrow…
Have to be up by 6am. Will then drive home to Marikina. Go to work and hopefully still not eat rice.
Next year…
I’ll be married!!
5-10 years from now…
I would either still be in the Philippines without kids, or in another country with kids. Ruy will decide this.
You want to take a trip down memory lane??? Take this!
330 days to go before my ooops our wedding. (Note to self, try to be less self centered before you get married). Anyway that’s 10 months and a few weeks…so short!! I’m panicking. It’s the budget I’m most worried about really.
I’m bracing myself for all the problems, issues, dramas…bring it on! I’m soooo ready
Sometimes, I take a step back and try to view our relationship from an outsider’s point of view. When I do this, I become in awe of Ruy. I know this might sound like I’m patting my own back, but sometimes I’m amazed at how much this guy really loves me. Sometimes I ask “Why the hell is this guy so into me?”….I don’t get it. I’m the biggest bitch in the world…earlier Mike and Aaron just referred to me as “evil” yet somehow Ruy still loves me. WHY? What’s wrong with him?
I asked Patric Porto before if he felt the same way (as he is also with someone who’s so into him) and he says NOPE. He says that he feels he deserves to be loved that much and it’s not really surprising for him. I wish I could have his confidence…
I’m not going into self pity or anything I’m just being objective. I’m complicated, I’m not very nice, and sometimes I think I’m more trouble than I’m worth. Yet Ruy doesn’t seem to think so.
Concrete example. Last week I was down with the flu…Ruy and I were supposed to go out but he said it’s better for me to rest instead. Ofcourse I threw a tantrum “You just don’t want to be with me…” and all that crap. I then left and went to the grocery…of course not following Ruy’s request that I stay home and rest. I then went home to find a bouquet of yellow roses (my favorite) in the house…
The next day I threw a tantrum because of apple pie…don’t ask it’s too petty to write here.
The day after, I bitched about having to do a task that Ruy forgot.
After all of this, I received this text from Ruy…
“Olivia, I can’t wait to your husband…Kanina I can’t help imagining you walking down the aisle into my arms…sarap!”
Damn…I must have done something right in my pastlife! (I better be careful with my behaviour now though, I have a feeling I’ll be a dung beetle in my next life)
What Ruy gave me this year really surpassed any gift he has ever given me…Watching the fireworks in the HYATT Regency Lounge, 10 stories up, in perfect view of the fireworks was just amazing. I was surprised that we were the only people there, I guess it was only Ruy who came up with the brilliant plan.
Here are other things that made that night really nice…
- having a long discussion on who’s a better gift giver.
- discussing past presents and why they were good and why they sucked.
- being alone
- seeing all the people watching the Firework Olympics stuck in traffic while we were sitting comfortably…suckers!! hehehe
- looking pretty (yeah I think I looked nice that night)
- not sweating, I hate sweat and had we watched the fireworks display with the other people we would have been sweating our asses off…eeeeeeewwwwww
- discussing which presentation was the best and why (I liked Australia better and Ruy liked China)
Up to now I’m still in awe of Ruy’s gift. I’m glad he thought of it, galing!!!
I went grocery shopping last December 30. Why did I go shopping? For 2 reasons, FIRST: Just so I can leave my house, SECOND: I needed to buy the final ingredients for Ruy’s salad dressing.
I realized that shopping during the Hiliday rush can teach you somethings about life, and about yourself.
- When I have kids I should NEVER bring them grocery shopping during the holidays.
- People who drive are better cart pushers than nondrivers. I therefore conclude that everyone should be asked to take driving lessons before being allowed to push shopping carts.
- the keep right rule makes perfect sense, except no one seems to follow it.
- there is no need to wear micro mini skirts while grocery shopping…really.
- I understand that grocery shopping MIGHT be a fun family affair to some people, but please don’t have a family field trip during the holiday season.
- People are less considerate of other people when they are happy. This is a shocking realization but it’s true. Those who were shopping with boyfriends were less considerate than those alone or those with family members.
I don’t remember the other things I realized but I promise to add to this list as soon as I remember some of them.
My last Christmas as a single person and I spent it not with my family but with Ruy’s family…go figure!
Let us first establish several things…I was sick. I had the flu, and I wasn’t the nicest person during the holidays. It was the worst time for anyone to get sick, I had to miss workon the 23rd cause I was really soooooooooo down. Anyway on the 24th I had no choice but to go to Ruy’s house as promised. (I was supposed to spend New Year’s Day with them but my family decided to have a New Year’s celebration instead) Ruy picked me up at 830 we were there hanging out not doing anything and then I asked him “What time are we supposed to go to your Lola’s house?”, he then said “Later pa”. WHAT?????? Ofcourse I was pissed off to hear this, I was out all day shopping with my bestfriend buying last minute gifts I was tired, irritable, etc. and now he tells me I wasn’t really needed there?!!!?? DAMN!
He then tells me “I want to hoard you all to myself muna”….wow. Tell me how you can continue being pissed after that!
We later went to his Lola’s house. I was so touched by how his family welcomed me. I received several gifts from his family…specially his mom and lola. I didn’t even receive ANYTHING from my family and then his family gave me stuff. I’m so touched talaga.
So many things have happened to our family in the past couple of years. We have 2 new babies, I’m engaged, my aunt’s a nurse now etc. Last year due to family issues we dropped our New Year tradition, I’m happy to say, that we’re back to normal this year. We spent this year doing what our family does best…eating.
Here’s our New Year Menu…
- One whole Leachon from Elar’s courtesy of my mom
- Steak (so yummy) cooked by Kuya Bo
- Mashed potatoes
- Buttered Veggies
- Morcon cooked by my Lola
- Sotanghon by Tito Eddie
- Fruit Salad
- Pineapple Juice courtesy of MOI!
Celebrations are incomplete in my opinion without Pineapple Juice. It’s ingrained in my subconscious as the only acceptable drink during celebrations. I’m seriously considering having pineapple juice served during our wedding.
Ruy just planned the best gift ever for me. BACKGROUNDER: Every Friday at around 9p.m. there’s a fireworks display here in Eastwood. When it starts I’m the first one to close all the lights, run to the window and jump up and down. I like fireworks, I like new year, I like beatiful colors in the sky…with that being said, let’s go back to Ruy’s gift.
Ruy got reservations for us to go to this place with the best view of the first ever FIREWORKS OLYMPICS!!! Wow!! I’m so excited. Hell, I didn’t even know that there was such an event, grabeh the research and the preparation that he went through for this is amazing. I’m so happy!!
I took a test which will tell you about your personality type. It was eerily accurate! Here is the result.
TYPE 2: HELPER
World View: People depend on my help. I am needed.
Basic Desire: to be loved
Basic Fear: of being unloved
Healthy loop controlled by Basic Desire:
Need to be loved -> help others -> loved -> Need to be loved
In the healthy state, the need to be loved induces Type Twos to help others which causes them to be loved. When Twos feel loved, the need is satisfied and a balance is reached.
In the average state, when Twos’ are not helping others and are not loved, the need to be loved increases, which helps Twos to again reach out and help others. Thus the balancing loop can help Twos to recover.
Unhealthy loop controlled by Basic Fear:
Fear of being unloved -> resent and manipulate others -> loved -> Fear of being unloved
In the unhealthy state, the basic fear of being unloved can cause Type Twos to feel resentful and try to manipulate others into loving them. This can cause people to love them even less, which further increases Twos’ basic fear. The cycle continues to build up.
Insight:
We can see from the diagram that a way to help break the control of the basic fear is to weaken the unhealthy loop. Twos can refrain from manipulating others but start to genuinely help others. This will cause Twos to be loved, and thus reduce the fear of being unloved.
The Helper (the Two)
Helpers are warm, concerned, nurturing, and sensitive to other people’s needs.
How to Get Along with Me
Tell me that you appreciate me. Be specific.
Share fun times with me.
Take an interest in my problems, though I will probably try to focus on yours.
Let me know that I am important and special to you.
Be gentle if you decide to criticize me.
In Intimate Relationships
Reassure me that I am intersting to you.
Reassure me often that you love me.
Tell me I’m attractive and that you’re glad to be seen with me.
What I Like About Being a Two
being able to relate easily to people and to make friends
knowing what people need and being able to make their lives better
being generous, caring, and warm
being sensitive to and perceptive about others’ feelings
being enthusiastic and fun-loving, and having a good sense of humor
What’s Hard About Being a Two
not being able to say no
having low self-esteem
feeling drained from overdoing for others
not doing things I really like to do for myself for fear of being selfish
criticizing myself for not feeling as loving as I think I should
being upset that others don’t tune in to me as much as I tume in to them
working so hard to be tactful and considerate that I suppress my real feelings
Twos as Children Often
are very sensitive to disapproval and criticism
try hard to please their parents by being helpful and understanding
are outwardly compliant
are popular or try to be popular with other children
act coy, precocious, or dramatic in order to get attention
are clowns and jokers (the more extroverted Twos), or quiet and shy (the more introverted Twos)
Twos as Parents
are good listeners, love their children unconditionally, and are warm and encouraging (or suffer guilt if they aren’t)
are often playful with their children
wonder: “Am I doing it right?” “Am I giving enough?” “Have I caused irreparable damage?”
can become fiercely protective
Our longest and most difficult tampuhan is finally over. WE’RE OKAY!! I’m so happy, not simply because things are okay, but because I’m so sure that we are going to be better after this. As cliche as it may sound, I truly believe that these fights are giving us tools that we could use in the future.
That being said, I would still rather keep the fights to a minimum. They’re emotionally exhausting!!
1) Was 2005 a good year for you?
- pretty much
2) What was your favorite moment of the year?
- July 30 (the proposal) and July 1-3 the Discovery Weekend Seminar with Dorothy
3) What was your least favorite moment of the year?
- Probably that one incident inside Ruy’s car that led to the 2 week fight. But that’s over and we’re okay so no regrets.
4) Where were you when 2005 began?
- in the house of Ruy’s lola. I celebrated new year with his family.
5) Who were you with?
- Future in-laws….yeah!
6) Where will you be when 2005 ends?
- my lola’s house
7) Who will you be with when 2005 ends?
- With my family, I think we’re celebrating New Year together again this year. I hope Ruy can join us if ever, but he probably won’t enjoy our new years (no fireworks)
Did you keep your new years resolution
of 2005?
- i didn’t make any
9) Do you have a new years resolution for
2006?
- i’m getting married this year!
10) Did you fall in love in 2005?
- Again, and again, and again, with the same person
11) If yes, with who?
- with myself everytime I looked in the mirror. Hahaha…kidding. Ruy of course
12) If yes, do they know?
- He’d better!
13) Are you still in love with him?
- I’d better be!
14) Do you regret it?
- of course not
15) Did you breakup with anyone in 2005?
- nope. we’re still together
16) Did you make any new friends in 2005?
- Quite a lot. Our office is expanding so rapidly, so many new people
17) Who are your favorite new friends?
- Dorothy, Aaron, Mike, and Vicki!
18) What was your favorite month of 2005?
- July definitely!
19) Did you travel outside of the philippines in 2005?
- Oh my goodness! I didn’t! I hate it..
20) Did you lose anybody close to you in 2005?
- none, thank goodness!
22) Did you miss anybody in the past year?
- my college friends, Pat, Patrick, Loi, Affie, etc…
23) What was your favorite movie that you saw in 2005?
- Must Love Dogs, can’t think of anything else
24) What was your favorite song from 2005?
- Ruy’s song for me!!
25) What was your favorite record from 2005?
- Emancipation of Mimi
26) How many concerts did you see in 2005?
- none
28) Did you drink alcohol in 2005?
- but of course! I work in ITI
After several weeks of not buying anything for myself the shopaholic strikes again. This week I bought:
= a pair of shoes
= leather bag
= a pair of pants
= hot hot hot shirt
= office shirt to be worn during Ruy’s family party (I’m pretending to be a nice, decent girl)
= 2 make-up brushes
= gold belt
= 6 eyeshadows
= volume express mascara
What makes this so bad you might ask? I WANT MORE!!! I’m limiting myself to one more pair of pants, one top, and 2 bras. Hey, I should revive my wardrobe before I get married right? Besides I need to look pretty again, I’ve been looking so pangit lately.
I SUCK!! This year my Christmas shopping has been so sporadic so much so that I still don’t know what to give Ruy. I was able to buy gifts for all of Ruy’s inaanaks but I still haven’t finished my list. Here’s my list so far:
MOM = Ipod (haven’t bought yet, I’m trying to get my cousin in law “Lorlyn” to buy it for me in Ireland where it’s cheaper)
Nani = DVD Player (bought this on sale already, she’s currently using it, but now i’m still compelled to buy her more DVD’s…stop it Olivia!)
Abap = Leather Bag (just bought this 5 minutes ago, I liked it so much I bought one for me too…hehehe)
Henna = I HAVE NO IDEA…(damn I don’t know what to give my sister)
Mary = Jacket (Mary’s one of our angels in our house)
Ariane and Welyn = T-shirts (other angels)
Vince and Mark = scooters (these are my inaanaks and nephews, they are so excited about their gift…hehehe)
Tita Lulu and Tito Ollie = Ice Cream Maker (these are Ruy’s parents)
Caspo and Gabby = NONE YET (my last 2 inaanaks)
Carmi = Havaianas (for my bestfriend)
Cyril = Spongebob Toy (for Ruy’s bestfriend)
Quitos = necklace (Ruy’s brother)
Dorothy = marriage book (for her and her fiance)
Mike = santa outfit for his dog
Christine = eyeshadow
Joy = lipgloss
Allan = magic set (he’s my baby during our exchange gift)
Did I miss anyone?
Aaaaaaargh, I hate myself for taking too long to get over this issue with Ruy. It’s been 10 days since the incident. Ruy has apologized profusely, he’s been more than wonderful since that time yet I’m still not okay.
I don’t know why, but the incident is still so fresh in my mind. It’s weird, everytime I remember what he said I feel like a cold bucket of water was poured over my head. Then I feel numb…then I can’t bring myself to say “I Love You”.
Poor Ruy
I was talking or rather whining to my friend Kresta about the expenses of getting married. When she asked the oh-so-important question, “Why are you getting married now? Why not wait a couple more years when you’re satisfied with all your material possessions and you wouldn’t mind spending on the wedding?”
My first reaction was “Do people ever really get satisfied?”, people are essentially greedy (bear with my screwed-up way of thinking, remember I’m a Freudian trained psychologist people) and would end up wanting more and more. If I wait till Ruy and I have bought all the things we want then we’ll never get married.
It only dawned on me now that I am already at that point where I am actually satisfied. When Ruy was asking me what Christmas gift I would want, I told him that no material thing turns me one right now. Nothing excites me (not even make-up!). I told Ruy I would just want to go anywhere far with him, just a quiet trip somewhere…anywhere.
I admit, the enormous responsibility of marriage scares me sometimes. The never ending saving for something, the bills, the taxes, the caring for someone else 24/7. But then, isn’t that so much better than an aimlessly spending, tax-evading, and solitary existence? (yes people I am obsessed with taxes, I pay 32% every month so I have every right to obsess).
I tease my colleague that the only reason why I’m getting married is for tax purposes. That’s not exactly 100% true, I also see marriage as a life-long project. For once in my life, every single thing will be up to me and my husband. The decisions, the triumphs, the mistakes, I can own it all.
I asked Ruy why he wants to get married and this is what he said :
Why not now? Are we sure we’ll be alive then? Are we sure no kind of temptations are going to come and make us commit a stupid relationship-ending misjudgement? Are we certain our loved ones will be there to witness the day of our lives? We’re sure now that we love each other and want to spend the rest of our lives together and its not like were being impetuous about it since we’ve planned for more than a year.
I think his explanation is better than mine. The next time anyone asks me this question I’m just going to tell them “Talk to Ruy instead.”
“Honey are you pms-ing again?”, this comment really ticked me off a couple of days ago. Is this his oh-so-subtle way of saying that I’m being a bitch? Furthermore, IF I was being a bitch, why should it be automatically blamed on raging hormones? Why doesn’t he ever consider the fact that maybe, just maybe, he really did something wrong which warrants my anger?
Why is it that when I’m upset, people automatically assume that I’m being unreasonable? Being illogical? The last time Ruy and I broke up (this was around 2 years ago)my grandmother asked me “Why? What did you do?”. Can you imagine? The nerve, the audacity of this people! I am not a bitch just because I want to be a bitch, there’s always a reason why I lash out on people.
So what is the reason why I’m being a bitch now?…I’m pms-ing, Ruy’s right again. DAMN IT!
Ruy has chosen the ring design that he wants. I was so happy because it’s the same design that I wanted for him as well. I find the ring so masculine…HOT!
Isn’t it bizarre that the 3 jewelers I talked to all gave me quotes wherein Ruy’s ring would cost more than mine? Ruy deserves the treat, my gown is going to cost so much more than his suit or barong anyway. But he better take good care of it. If he loses it I’ll wring his neck…honestly.
As for my ring, I’m still pretty much undecided. Here are my short-listed designs.
I’m torn between the baguette cut sapphire and the asymmetrical style. Choices, choices!
Meanwhile Ruy and I are just recovering from the biggest fight we’ve ever had! Actually when you think about it, it’s not really a fight. It’s actually just me being very very very upset. Ruy said something very insensitive that I can’t even write here. Honestly I was talking to Carmi and I think that’s possibly the meanest thing that anyone has ever said to me. But then, how can you blame someone for telling the truth?
Things are a bit better now, I cried every night for 4 days. Last night, I didn’t. I still can’t say I love you or I miss you, or anything like that. But I think I’ll get there soon.
Despite this, the wedding preps is still going strong. Ruy has been unbelievably involved. Dorothy (a common friend of ours) said:
Livi, think of it this way. If Ruy didn’t think you were wonderful. Why would he be marrying you? If he really thought there’s something wrong, why would he be rushing to marry you? He can’t wait to make you his, that’s why! And the fact that he got you flowers for the wedding? That’s a sign!How sweet is that? He’s letting you know he can’t wait
What was that about? Well Ruy surprised me with a mock-up of my bridal bouquet last Sunday. He insisted on picking me and my aunt up from 168 and he gave me the bouquet and said something like “Please don’t change your mind about marrying me?”…yeah yeah it’s sweet I know. =)
It’s hard to keep working,
to pretend to be happy,
to make sure no one knows.
It’s hard not to cry.
It’s hard to look at yourself in the mirror,
and see what others see.
This has been the hardest decision ever. Ruy has already allowed me to have an eternity wedding band, but somehow I’m not satisfied with it yet. I went online to try to find some rings that are not so boring.
I am toying with the idea of putting colored stones on my wedding band. So far, none of the wedding bands appeal to me, I wonder if there is a superstition against this? I’m not really superstitious but I’d rather not take chances on my marriage.
Here are other designs that slightly interest me, but honestly nothing excites me. Also, is it important that Ruy and I have the same design?
Oh my God, this is it, the one year mark. Finally people will stop telling me “You’re preparing too early” or “Tagal pa yan, mashado ka namang excited!”.
One year for me is a very short time, after all just a year ago Ruy and I were still fighting about this wedding. I also wasn’t officially engaged, I didn’t have my engagement ring, we had a different wedding date and we weren’t sure about the church.
Now, 365 days after, everything is set and final. It will be in the church Ruy always wanted, on the date I chose.
There are things we still need to accomplish a.s.a.p.
- We need to organize the pamamanhikan soon.
- Ruy needs to be confirmed
- File leaves
I had my second trial make-up last Sunday. I’m really enjoying having people fuss over me. I think I’ll enjoy the wedding day so much.
Anyway I had a free trial make-up with a new group called “Make Up Your MInd”. I availed of their free trial through w@w and I must say that I was quite impressed with them.
THey began by applying a liberal amount of Vitamin E and moisturizer to my skin. This is their “prep” to make sure that my skin is ready for the layers and layers of make-up . It was followed by foundation, concealer and loose powder.
I made them do a different style of make-up as my mom felt that the make-up I made Angie do was too Sultry and Seductive (which was perfect for me). So anyway I made them do a simpler but still striking make-up style.
My verdict? The look was soooo clean. It was quite impressive how good they made my skin look considering I had allergies that day. They’re perfect for the brides who want the glowing, simple, and elegant look.
Unfortunately, I’m going for the really dramatic and really dramatic look. So I’m sticking with Angie.
For the w@wies. THeir rates are so affordable. I would really recommend booking them. If you book before January, the rates would be 5,000 - brides + 2 heads; 750 for every additional head.
I’ll post the picture as soon as they send it to me.
The freakiest thing that could ever happen to a woman driving alone at 1:30 a.m. just happened to me. Let me first tell you about the route I took that day…
I first went over the new flyover in Libis. Now, I know of a woman who was hospitalized after passing this flyover. She looked at her rear view mirror, and what did she see? A woman staring back at her. She willed herself not to look at this woman, but she couldn’t help herself. She kept on looking and driving very fast but the woman won’t go away. She eventually parked in her driveway only to find the woman still there. This lady woke up the next day in the hospital.
Needless to say my heart was beating so quickly while driving here. Lo and behold, there was no light on this flyover. DAMN! I then went through Santolan..this was the least freaky part of my drive ghostwise. Although I was still so paranoid about cars following me trying to carnap my car.
I had 2 possible routes to take to get to where I was supposed to go. ONE: I could pass through the shorter route which would mean I’d have to pass through Balete Drive or TWO: A longer but saner route through Dona Hemady.
I of course took what I thought to be a safer route. So there I was driving quite fast through Hemady St. (I always drive fast at night making sure no car is following me) When out of nowhere, a half naked man with a bandage across his chest jumps in the middle of the road blocking my car. I literally felt cold all over, and for a split second I was frozen. My mind was trying to make sense of the situation. Who the hell was this man? IS he trying to kill me? Steal my car? Or was he just plain crazy?
Before I could decide I saw two headlights far away so I panicked. “Damn they’re going to corner me and steal my car!!” I honked my car really really loud as people adviced me to make a lot of noise to scare attackers. The car stopped…
The man in the car stopped and rolled down his window.(the naked man was hitting the front of my car at this point, it was really really scary) The man in the car shouted at the naked man. THe naked man then shifted his attention to the other car and started hitting his car instead.
I have no idea what happened next as I sped off already. I’m just relieved to have gotten away. Whoever that man in the white car was…THANK YOU SOOOOOOOO MUCH.
You belong in Paris. You are a real romantic, you
live to be loved. Paris will sure give you
love!
In What City Do You Belong?
brought to you by Quizilla
I knew it! I’ve always known I was born in the wrong country. How else would you explain my love for cheeses? The smellier the better!
Awwwwwwwww, my sister’s in this “I idolize my Ate” phase. So she keeps on drawing stuff with Ruy and myself in it.
Today Ruy and I went shopping. While I was looking for my perfume, Ruy was looking for some CD’s. The man is obsessing about Bossa Nova, Jazz and Latin Music these days and he wanted to get one (I don’t mind, for me this is better than his Kid Rock and Bob Marley phase, I adore Sergio Mendez, Astrud Gilberto etc.)
When we met up, he was grinning from ear to ear (like the cat who just swallowed a canary) and I was glad that he was finally able to find some cd’s. He also showed me some Urban and RnB cd’s (which were more of my taste than his) which he bought.
When we were in the car already, I got the plastic containing the cd’s as I wanted to listen to them. When I opened the cd’s guess what I saw? (No! Not a playboy dvd you naughty mind) I saw a cd with the title “Wedding Music”…aaaawwwwwww!
I’ve been preparing obsessively for the wedding and it’s nice to know that Ruy is just as interested as I am. The things he is obsessing about as well? The menu, the souvenirs, the church, and the music.
First ever shouting fight with Ruy today! Wow… My colleagues have never ever seen me in anything but a good mood so they were sweet enough to invite me over for a night out. Unfortunately crying makes me sleepy so I was soooo sleepy the whole day.
And yes people, we aer still getting married. The fight is over, I’m satisfied and I think he is too. We’ll be okay. I decided to post these pictures just to remind myself of happier moments.
Flowers. I adore receiving flowers, but ironically they are not my top priority for the wedding. I was actually quite relieved when Ruy made the decision for my bouquet. He wants the calla lily bouquet in dark colors. We’re still trying to see if the florists can come up with calla lillies with the same color as the flowers here.
Suggestions anyone?
Here are 2 sketches from Veluz. The gown I chose is not here, it’s with my fiance and we both agreed to keep it a surprise for everyone. =) I love, these two sketches as well. They are so oppulent and the materials she will be using are so unique. However, everyone fell in love with the first sketched she emailed to RUy and myself so I’m going with that sketch. I just thought I’d post it to show everyone how talented Veluz is.
Ruy and I are working on the menu so that we can have our food tasting A.S.A.P. Menu#1 is Ruy’s choice; while the second is mine. I like his choices but I lessened the oyster, mussels etc. My family’s allergic to seafood…
First Proposed Menu
Baked Mussel with Cheese and Garlic
Salad Bar
Boullaibaise Soup
Korean Pork Spareribs
Beef with the same sauce as the Lengua (we don’t eat Lengua)
Chicken Cordon Bleu
Steamed Lapu-lapu in Mandarin Sauce
Beef with Asparagus in Oyster Sauce
Green Peas with Shrimp
Buco Lychee Jello
Leche Flan
Second Proposed Menu
Spicy Chicken Wings
Baked Mussels w/ Cheese and Garlic
Salad Bar
Creamy Pumpkin Soup
Pork Tenderloin with Mushroom Sauce (Lengua Sauce)
Italian Beef Rolls
Chicken Barbecue
Grilled Prawns in Lemon Butter Sauce
Buttered Veggies
Halo-halo Bar
My lolo Oscar was a heavy smoker. He’s been smoking since his early teenage years and he sure as hell loved his Cigars. There was a time when everyone in the family was bugging him to stop as he was having lung problems already. He refused, it came to the point where he’d be forced to smoke in the bathroom just to escape my lola’s glare.
When asked to stop to prolong his life he would say “I’m ** years old, what’s 10 more years of my life?”. I always found this logic quite funny. Until now, today it’s his 5th death anniversary and now I realize what the extra 10 years could have meant.
It meant seeing the birth of 2 adorable great grandchildren.
It meant seeing me graduate.
It meant seeing Abap graduate from her second course.
It meant seeing me get a job that I love, a job I inherited from his side of the family.
It meant not leaving Nani alone.
It meant being able to continually inspire people in our community.
and lastly
It would have meant being able to walk me down the aisle next year. =(
After several weeks of not having wedding updates, it seems like we’re finally moving forward with our wedding preps yet again. Here’s a rundown of things we’ve accomplished (or almost accomplish)
Church - Paid d.p. for reservation
Reception venue - Paid 50% for reservation
Caterer - Paid down payment, will pay 70% 3 months before the wedding. We’re finalizing our menu so Engineer Alex from Juan Carlo can use our menu for his next monthly food tasting
Flowers - our choices are down to 2 and Ruy and I will decide on Saturday. We’ll be paying for our down payment on December.
HMU - Had my trial make-up, perfectly satisfied. I will make my down payment on December as well.
Bridal Gown - if all goes well, we’ll be getting Veluz (fingers crossed), Ruy’ll be paying 20k down payment in January.
Ento Gown - i’ll be paying Tet either this December or on January
Souvenir - Ruy and I found the souvenirs we liked. We’ll be ordering them online so that we can begin working on them. We’re extremely excited about this and we swore that it will be a surprise…I’m so excited!!
Invites - I’m considering having a DIY invite, Quitos (Ruy’s brother) is really artistic and I’m sure he can deliver. However I need to compute the costs to see if it would cost me less to DIY it.
Decor - my sister and I have begun working on the decor. Honestly, We’ve finished 5 pieces, that leaves us with around 95 more to go. According to my sister it will take us 6 years to finish it. I hope that my six year old sister is wrong.
Centerpieces - I have several ideas and Ruy has some too. We’ll be spending next weekend trying to conceptualize and see which ones are feasible.
Misalette - I’ve began typing a sample misalette from Calaruega. I’d rather do it know than cram this in the future. If only I was this hard working and organized during my college years, I would have been magna ( I can never be summa as Patric was there)
Ring Box = Ruy and I found this excellent Moroccan looking jewelry container from Oceanic. We decided to buy it already, we now have a ring container and no rings. =)
Bridal Car = included in the Juan Carlo package
Wedding Cake = we currently have two cakes. One that’s included in the caterer’s package and another from Alex Franco. Which one we’ll be getting will depend on the budget definitely.
Church Choir = HELM!! Yehey…this is the first supplier we ever had, because this is Ruy’s choir. I’ve heard them sing so many times and I can say that they can compete with the expensive choirs here.
Entertainment = we MIGHT get Concertino as Toks is Ruy’s cousin…although this will of course depend on how much discount we’ll be getting =)
All in all I think we’re progressing very well. I’m a bit amazed at how much we’ve accomplished. Here are things we still need to work on in the future.
- Ruy’s Confirmation
- Wedding Rings
- Ruy’s Barong
- Ruy’s shoes
- Guests Accomodations in Tagaytay
- Printing of Misalette
- More reception decors
- Gifts for Sponsors
Is that all? I have a feeling I missed something. HELP?
Today is Sunday, I’m bored…I’m waiting for Veluz to email me the quotation for the sketches she has sent me and I have nothing else to do but blog. So I thought I would document what I have been doing for the past days.
Last Friday I had a trial make-up with Angie Cruz and Ogie. I didn’t know what to expect with this two as I haven’t seen their pictures nor heard of stories about them before, good thing that I LOVED THEM. Yes them, the people not just the work. They were simple, humble, competent, well-versed in hair and make-up, sweet and very nice. That was already enough to endear them to me, they were neither cocky nor loud. They were just right.
As for their work, I have to admit I had very low expectations from them. I scheduled my trial make-up this way…start from the cheapest trial…work my way up to the more expensive. Why? So that if I’m already satisfied with the cheaper make-up artist, there would be no need for me to spend on the more expensive trials. (my fiance was quite pleased when I told him this, he said “i like the way your mind works!”…thank you Ruy, I do to!). Anyway Angie and Ogie had the cheapest rates so I began with them…when Angie opened her make-up kit I was awestruck…Dior? T. Le Clerc? Shiseido? His make-up was all high-end! And he knows how to use them well. The blending, the color combination, the shading…perfect!
Unfortunately, Ruy was not so happy with the hair. He said it was too 80’s…hahaha. Well it was my fault, I wasn’t specific with my instructions. I was so satisfied because they executed my instructions down to a T, and they did it artistically. Can you guys tell that I’m in love? Yes I am!! I’m booking them..yehey!
SATURDAY - I woke up at 430. There was too much banging and noise in the house. Everyone was getting ready to go to Tarlac. My lola’s sister is celebrating her 80th birthday in Tarlac, Tarlac and for a family like mine that barely goes on road trips, this was a very big deal. So big a deal that they felt the need to wake up in the middle of the night to be able to leave at 5a.m.
Ruy and I followed at 7:30. Ruy just came from the province, driving for hours…picked me up then drove back to Tarlac. Sometimes the patience of this guy astounds me…really!
Our family does not have any province so I don’t know how people celebrate in the provinces! (What? they don’t drink Tequilla Rose and Vodka in Embassy? Why!! Do they prefer Greenbelt?)Needless to say I loved it!! The simplicity, the warmth, the camaraderie. The litson, was being roasted by their neighbor beside their house. The pig was bought from a “kumpare”, it was chopped in front of the guests…and the guests crowded around to grab as much skin as they could. The sauce was also homemade. Ruy enjoyed it too, he said he doesn’t remember eating so much skin in 5 minutes (yes that’s how long it took for the guests to eat up all the skin).
We had to leave the party at 1p.m. as Ruy and I had to go to Divisoria to buy stuff for our wedding decors. Yes we are going to do it ourselves, and yes we are alotting one year for it as it’s really taxing.
I told Ruy that I’ve never heard of anyone going to Tutuban at 330 in the afternoon. I personally wouldn’t be brave enough (and all of my relatives thought we were crazy). But it was actually painless! We found a parking easily, found what we needed immediately and we were able to finish by 6!
I should stop babbling now as Veluz texted me saying she already sent me the email…waaaaaaah I’m so excited. Ciao for now
Ruy texted me yesterday asking if I will be having my period anytime soon. Huh? Where did that come from? I didn’t know where he got this accurate piece of information as he normally doesn’t know (or care) about these things.
So I bugged him how the hell he knew. He sai “Hehehe…..attitude”. WHAT? I wasn’t fighting with him or anything yesterday. I wasn’t being a psycho bitch. He said I wasn’t as talkative as normal, so he knew my mood was different.
WOW…after 5 years of being together, I think my fiance is finally getting to know me. Galing!!
Ruy asked me what time my breaks are today. I told him 730…at 7:20 he texts me this “I’m here in Eastwood, my mom’s asking me to pay for her Citibank card again…can you come here and see me?”
My thought bubble at this point was “LIAR!”. This was the same excuse he gave me last week as to why he was in Eastwood. Nevertheless I’m happy, I told my boss to block off my dinner break so I can go down without worrying about my clients.
I went down to meet him and he gave me 2 books, one for Helena, and one for myself. Inside the book for myself was …MADONNA’s ALBUM!!
I was literally screaming all over Eastwood…eventually I just said “Okay I’ll keep quiet now” I’m sooooo happy!!!
Patric told me ” remember this moment the next time you think ruy is a bad boyfriend, he brought you the greatest gift of alll…Madonna!”
I’m so happy…I’m so happy…I’m so happy!!
I was going over the photos from my cellphone when I saw a picture of a bouquet of flowers from Ruy. I was feeling warm and fuzzy all over when I saw the date. December 5, 2004…hmmm…it has been 11 months since the last time Ruy has given me flowers?!!?! THis is an outrage considering the fact that I ADORE FLOWERS.
I was still thinking about this piece of info when my lola called me to lunch. During lunch she mentioned the lechon kawali Ruy gave me a couple of months ago. You see Ruy gave me five dishes for me to have baon to work each and every single day of the week!
I felt so bad about feeling bad…huh? Okay let me rephrase that, I felt so bad about doubting Ruy’s sweetness and care for me. Ruy is truly atypical when it comes to displays of affection. He’s never been a flowers and chocolate kind of guy. But he’s always been able to show me how much he loves me…in different ways….MUSHY!!! Enough na
My goddess and soulmate is back. I’m overwhelmed with happiness. I must say that the wait for this album has been filled with such a hodgepodge of emotions. I was obviously excited. It has been 2 years since the American Life album. The moment we heard that album we knew it wasn’t going to top the charts. Patric and I had to work hard just to love the album…this is saying a lot considering we are both diehard Maddie fanatics. This brings me to my second emotion…FEAR.
I was literally terrified for Madonna (or Esther as she is now called). She NEEDS this album to be a success. American Life was a huge flop, at least for her standards and she needs to rise from the ashes…to emancipate herself as Mimi did (yay Mariah!!..I digress). When her broken rib cage and her issue with the Jewish ministers didn’t even make the front page you know her popularity is not what it’s used to be.
Our lives have always been very compartmentalized. Ruy’s work, Ruy’s family, Ruy’s friends: Liv’s work, Liv’s family, Liv’s friends…then Ruy and Liv together. I am a firm believer in having seperate lives, I don’t believe in the two become one shit. Marriage involves 2 individuals not 2 halves of one whole.
Sometimes though it’s fun to integrate each other into the other’s life. Last Friday, I pleaded with Ruy for him to come to my company’s 70’s Costume Party. It’s nice to see how the other lives, to see what the other does, who he/she hangs out with…etc.
Ruy, like any normal buman being is entertained, flabbergasted, and shocked with my office. I, meanwhile, am amazed at how normal his office is.
It’s amazing how much our work reflects our personality. I am the wacky, funny, outrageous and naughty one, while Ruy is the serious, contemplative, nice one. Together, we even each other out. Patric (one of my best friends) said that God gave me Ruy to lessen the superficiality in my life, Ruy claims that God gave me to him to add some excitement in his life. I’m not quite sure what excitement means, but I’ll take it as a nice thing…
When your bosses look like this. (I love you Bob and Yas!!)
Yesterday Ruy and I spent a long day with each other. I had to pick him up as my mom wanted me to test drive my new car with Ruy. Ruy was so excited about the car, I wish I could share his excitement but to me a car, is a car, is a car.
We then proceeded to go to dampa. On the way there we missed three turns, and got caught by the Makati police once…it was already a long day after just an hour into our trip.
Finally we reached dampa, needless to say the food was AMAZING!! Ruy did an excellent job in marketing and choosing the menu…I can still taste it now…haaaayy.
After that we went to the house of Veluz. Let me just say that for 2 marikina based people, Veluz’ house is so unbelievably far! Grabeh kakaloka. When we got there we had to wait a little while as the person before me came in late. Then it was my turn.
I now understand why people are obsessed with Veluz. She’s something else! She was like a psychologist really looking into your character and personality and finding a gown that suits not just your body, but who you are as well. I am so excited receive her quotation for the gown. I really hope I can afford her
Last Friday we had a costume party in the office and it was a blast! As I have mentioned in the past, my office is a real life sitcom. Wild and unusual characters seem to co-exist peacefully in the office and every once in a while (or rather every month at the very least) we see it fit to have a party.
I seriously believe that the people in my office would find a reason…any reason just to party. 2 weeks ago we had a “goodbye to the geeky french fries party”; last week we were lucky enough as we didn’t have to invent a holiday or a reason to party…it was halloween.
ITI is full of histrionics and closet histrionics. What better way to celebrate histrionicity than by wearing a costume…the more outrageous the better. People were not satisfied by merely wearing a costume in the office. The first thing people told me when I arrived in the office was “Come with us we’re hanging out in Gloria Jeans!” If there’s one thing we all have in common in the office it would be the fact that we love attention…and we’re not afraid to get it.
| You’re an Passionate Kisser |
 For you, kissing is about all about following your urgesIf someone’s hot, you’ll go in for the kiss - end of storyYou can keep any relationship hot with your steamy kissesA total spark plug - your kisses are bound to get you in trouble |
| Your Power Color Is Magenta |
 At Your Highest:You energize yourself and push others to suceed. At Your Lowest: You feel frustrated and totally overwhelmed. In Love: You are suprised by who you attract. You’re a love magnet. How You’re Attractive: Open and free spirited, people want to explore the world with you. Your Eternal Question: “What is my next source of inspiration?” |
No updates, nothing happening, no meeting with suppliers. Our wedding preps have reached a sort of stand still. I hope I’ll finally have an update tomorrow.
My beloved company…TERE!!! Why am I not here =(
Today a man named “beefy boy” tried adding me up in YM. This man turned out to be Ruy. The only thing I was able to say was “Oh my God!”.
I got over-excited just because of this little thing. I was smiling from ear-to-ear despite my pms. Ruy doesn’t have enough time to sit down in front of his PC so much so that we never have the chance to communicate on-line despite the fact that I’m in front of my PC for at least 10 hours a day.
I was literally so kilig earlier, it’s bizarre! It just proves my point that I’m a very mababaw person. These little things, little efforts really have a gigantic effect on me. My beloved Nani always said “Little things mean a lot.” and I agree
Paul from Paul Vincent Photography texted me today to tell me that he found the album I wanted! Yehey. I’m a bit worried about the cost of the entire thing but I’m so happy that he took the time to find it and was actually successful in doing so.
I posted the albums I wanted here. I haven’t told Ruy about my preference (oh no! I think I should do that), buti na lang he doesn’t read this blog. hehehe
I saw this picture of Caleruega and I was just overwhelmed. It’s just so beautiful, it totally matches my theme.
People have been asking me how we ended up with this church. Truth of the matter is this church doesn’t reflect my personality at all. I wanted a melancholic look for my wedding, I wanted it vintage-y and romantic. Ruy wanted it happy. I told him “I don’t do happy” .
When Ruy first showed me this church I had so much against it. First, it was too happy. It was so cheerful I couldn’t stand it at first. I couldn’t deal with all those colors. I found it too gaudy actually. The fact that it was out of town and would cost an arm and a leg was also an important consideration. Third contention was that my lola would have a difficult time climbing it as it’s too steep. And anybody who knows me knows that you don’t mess with my lola. If she can’t go then I won’t.
Needless to say the first trip ended with Ruy so disappointed and I dissatisfied. We eventually agreed to just look around and find another church we both liked. I don’t know exactly how we ended back in Calaruega. Maybe it was because we couldn’t find another church. Maybe it was because Ruy really loved that place. I ended up saying okay.
We went back up there with a very smug Ruy. “What made you change your mind?”, “What made you realize I was right?”…hahaha.
The church has really grown on me. And Ruy was right the distance made it all the more special. Only people who really cared enough about us would sacrifice their time, money and gasoline to go all the way to Calaruega.
Ruy and I have been fighting more since the Discovery Weekend we attended together last July. Some people might interpret this as the failure of the discovery weekend, a waste of the 5k we spent on it. I think otherwise.
We’ve been together for more or less 5 years. Throughout this time we haven’t perfected the art of fighting. We rarely fought, I would just keep quiet, be a bitch and say “Nothing” when he asks me what’s wrong. Ruy on the other hand, keeps it all bottled up until he bursts once or twice a year. Totally unhealthy.
It was only after the discovery weekend that I began to feel comfortable expressing my anger, sadness, disappointment. Mind you I still suck at it, but at least I’m doing it. Ruy has been a bit more vocal about it as well. For the past months we’ve been fighting every time we’re together. Last week we did, but we were able to resolve it immediately before parting ways.
Yesterday, he expressed irritation after which I expressed irritation, but no fighting. I think we’re getting better at it!
I told him 3 weeks ago that I find the fighting refreshing, I know that I can get mad, and he can get mad as well without us feeling the need to break up. Breaking up has never been an option.Someone once told me that it’s not how many times you fight that’s important, it’s how many times you make up (and make-out) that defines the status of your relationship. I think I agree
As my wedding will be in the morning, I prefer cocktail/tea-length dresses either in satin or chiffon…I don’t want them to look like bridesmaids. I want them to look like they’re going to a party. I want them to be able to wear the dress after the wedding
Here are the 4 colors we’re going to use. Unfortunately I only have 3 people in my entourage. I wonder how i’ll distribute these colors??
Halter type gowns also interest me as they make arms look thinner…like the first picture shows I have no problem going as low as you want cleavage wise. =) I don’t like the fit of the skirt though, I’d prefer it A-line.
Second picture is another style I really like. I like the bit of lace peeking out. So naughty! I don’t like the simplicity of the material of the corset though.
For the third picture … well I just find it so pretty.
Yes, I am posting specially for Veluz, I will be meeting with her very soon and I want to show her gowns which interested me in one way or another.
Let us first establish the theme, I want a jewel tone motiff leaning more on the Moroccan theme. Rubies, Saphires, Emeralds etc. these are the colors I want for my entourage. As for me I want a middle eastern looking gown. The works of Elie Saab really caught my eye, Karolina Kurkova’s gown here really really caught my eye. From the first time I saw it I really fell in love with the effect. I also love the bodice although I don’t want a tube type gown. I want to have maybe a few drapings on the arms? This is not final yet but this has been my inspiration from day one.
There’s another picture beside Karolina Kurkova’s, it’s also a gown by Elie Saab. It’s less elaborate but equally beautiful. I don’t want a white gown and the color I want is a combination of the two gowns here. One is too bright, the other too dull…
Ruy is in Manila all week this week. It’s one of those rare occurences that merit a celebration for us. We decided last Saturday that we will meet and have dinner sometime this week.
Today is Friday, I need to get home early tonight. No news about dinner…I guess he forgot, the same way he forgot the dinner last month or the way he forgot the concert of the Company last week. I guess he forgot =(
Talk, discussions, fights…we went through all of these in our quest for a photographer. I (Liv) was being unreasonable as usual, I was upset with Ruy for choosing a particular photographer because I didn’t know exactly what I was looking for. I’m sure a lot of you are now saying “Huh? That doesn’t make sense!”, you are absolutely right, it doesn’t!
Basically I know most of the photographers out there are good as a matter of fact it is so hard to identify one photographer’s picture from the other. However I was looking for something beyond photos, I was looking for a certain rapport with the photographer. I’m a bit uncomfortable with the idea of posing for a camera (Gasp of surprise coming from the people who know how vain and superficial I used to be). Yes people, Ruy and I share the same discomfort in being photographed. That is why the rapport was on the top of my priority.
I however didn’t know that I was looking for this, until I found it (very much like the quest of for the logos in philosophy but this is another topic right Patrick?). I remember when Ruy and I were looking for a name for our dog, I was also so difficult to please. There were so many good names being considered but I didn’t know what I wanted until Ruy nailed it. In the same way I didn’t know what I was looking for untill I found Paul (naks!).
Fun, this is one word I would use to describe Paul. He was also unrattled with my unconventional ideas and my selfishness (kelangan pa bang kasama sa video yung mga bisita, hindi ba pwedeng nasa akin lang ang video?). SO today we finally gave our down payment to Paul. We also talked about some pressing issues in photography. Here are the most important points/questions we discussed today:
Vital questions to ask wedding photographers I must say!
I went shopping, I’m a certified shop-a-holic/bag-a-holic, but I’ve been repressing these urges to shop for such a long time cause Ruy and I are saving up for our wedding. But when Ruy told me that he’s taking me to meet some of his clients this weekend I knew this was the perfect excuse to splurge on an outfit.
First I bought a simple black top. SO totally not me yet I bought it, why? Cause people applaud simplicity. Simplicity can easily be interpreted as elegance. Simplicity is also easier for everyone to appreciate. This weekend my goal is not to look fabulous but to look like a catch. I want Ruy’s clients to see me and say “Wow what a lucky guy” and not “I wonder what he saw in her, she must be rich!”
I then bought accessories to compliment that outfit, knowing me accessories are imperative! I bought this gorgeous copper quilted bag. Very reminiscent of the quilted channel bags of the past. I plan on wearing my pink shoes then i’ll top it all off with copper and pink chandelier earrings! Fabulous!!
Ruy and I are fighting right now. We probably want to strangle each other at the moment. Yet I can honestly say I love him so much. And he said the same to me…
It’s during times like these when I’m confirmed that I’m making the right choice in marrying him. If you can honestly say that you still love somebody while in the middle of a fight, you must have something special.
Yesterday I was driving to work when I heard some weird meowing sounds. It seemed to be coming from inside the car. I thought this was another weird gimick of Gwen Stefani whose song was playing in the background. I turned of the radio but what do you know, the meowing is still there, louder than ever.
At this point it’s important to point out that I hate cats. I don’t have any at home and I once inflicted serious harm on a cat when I was 5 years old, so a cat has no business being INSIDE my car.
I stopped the car to listen. The meowing is still there. SHIT! I called Ruy on my cell
LIV: “Ruy there’s a meowing sound in my car!!!”
RUY: What meowing sound?
LIV: Like a sound of a cat IN my car.
RUY: (laughing at my distress) Why don’t you check under your car to see if there’s a cat there
LIV: I don’t want to see a bloody and mangled cat…I’m so freaked out! (at this point I was laughing and crying at the same time)
RUY: Okay here’s what you do, go to a machine shop and have them look at it okay?
LIV: OKAY!
(FLASHBACK: When I was in my senior year in college we had to dissect a cat. I named my cat Armida. I was one of the few people who actually took her cat home. Armida stayed at the trunk of my car for around 3 months. Yes yes I know it’s not safe carrying around a skinned and formalin-laden cat but I’d gladly take that risk rather than a./Having my cat stolen like what happened to some people or b./ Having a maggot infested cat, eeew. So Armida lived in the trunk of my car. When I was hearing meowing sounds I seriously considered that I was being haunted by Armida!)
I followed my boyfriend, went to a machine shop and talked to the people there. While my car was parked people kept coming up to me to tell me “Miss your car is meowing” Grrr, I hear it to people! THe mechanic eventually told me that I have a cat stuck in my car’s chassis and that all I have to do is park it for a long time and the cat might eventually go out….
I HATE CATS!
No other supplier has ever made me feel this way. When Alex confirmed that yes he’s available during and that yes he’ll make my cake for me I felt goosebumps all over me. I’ve never been this excited over a supplier before!
Alex Franco is really a dream come true for me in terms of my wedding. I just have to say I’m sooooooooo Happy!
Sometime’s I’m jealous. Jealous of the girls whose boyfriends have time to see them. Of those whose boyfriends actually see them. Those who’d lose sleep just to be with them. Of guys who’d surprise them at work, at home, in the car. Not all the times, just sometimes…
It was a fantastic night for both of us. Ruy picked me up at 640 to go to the 7:00 buffet at Paseo Uno. To cut the short story even shorter, we got lost. Ruy thought Mandarin was in Manila. I only questioned his Route when we were already in Recto. One hour and 20 minutes later we were finally in Mandarin.
It wasn’t so funny at that time, in fact I was a bit pissed as I couldn’t believe he didn’t just ask me where Mandarin was. When I told him this he told me “I thought I knew where it was, why would I ask you when I thought I knew the answer!”…I had to laugh. Things were okay after that.
We realized that the reason God allowed us to get lost is to make sure we were hungry enough for the buffet. We enjoyed the buffet so much, maybe too much for me. =) It was worth every penny…
After that we went to my company party where this picture was taken. It was so much fun introducing Ruy to the people I work with. It was also great for RUy to finally see the people I’ve been telling him about. Ruy was entertained (to say the least) with the sitcom I call office.
I’ve been crying a lot lately. This is strange coming from someone who used to believe that crying is a sign of weakness. But I’ve been crying for various reasons:
Tagged by Heidi!
Ok… let’s do this!
Seven Things That Scare Me
1.) Losing my cellphone, my only link to Ruy
2.) The death of my grandmother
3.) Failure of my upcoming marriage
4.) Failure of my upcoming marriage because of me
5.) Lizards..you have no idea how many times this animal has made me cry
6.) Losing myself
7.) Living in mediocrity
Seven Things I Like The Most
1.) Watching the stars
2.) Night time
3.) Romantic dinners, dinner dates
4.) sleeping in
5.) Make-up
6.) hugs
7.) talks…long talks
Seven Random Facts About Me
1.) I have one sister
2.) I’m going to be a make-up artist…once I become confident enough
3.) Like Heidi I graduated from premed but didn’t pursue medicine proper
4.) I need to have lists
5.) I’m detail oriented
6.) I nag Ruy to death…I don’t know why he still loves me so much
7.) I’m very thoughtful
Seven Important Things In Our Bedroom
1.) A cross, or an image, somewhere I can pray
2.) Pillows
3.) Books, I have so much ready, depends on my mood
4.) pen and paper for making lists
5.) Cellphone
6.) Cordless phone
7.) big bed
Seven Things I Plan To Do Before I Die
1.) Visit Greece
2.) Buy my mom a Rolex
3.) Buy my sister a life a insurance
4.)Be a make-up artist
5.) Meet MAdonna
6.) I want to get married sana pero kawawa naman si Ruy he’d be a widower agad
7.) Have a son
Seven Things I Can Do
1.) I can put on make-up on people and make them look pretty
2.) I can speak English
3.) I can make Ruy love me even if I’m being a brat …=)
4.) I can go on for 40 hours without sleeping
5.) I can drive like a taxi driver
6.) I can blog!!! Finally natuto rin
7.) I can spurt out psychobabble
Seven Things I Can’t Do
1.) I can’t live without Ruy…naks!
2.) I can’t date around…I’m engaged people!
3.) I can’t sleep when I’m excited
4.) I can’t survive in Pinoy Big Brother
5.) I can’t not eat fruit
6.) I can’t stay mad at Ruy
7.) I can’t eat ampalaya
Seven Things That Attract Me To The Opposite Sex
1.) Speaks English Well
2.) Sophisticated Sense of Humor
3.) Witty
4.) Thoughtful
5.) Smells really good
6.) Sense of Responsibility
7.) Open to PDA
Seven Things I Say The Most
1.) Damn
2.) Shit
3.) What the fuck?
4.) Pwede ba?
5.) You’ve got to be kidding me
6.) Seriously
7.) God
Seven Celeb Crushes (Whether Local or Foreign)
1.) Ricky Martin
2.) Usher
3.) Tyrese
4.) no more
5.)
6.)
7.)
Seven People You Want To See Take This Quiz
1.) Van
2.) Ruy
3.) Carmi
4.) Cyril
5.) Elle
6.) Geri
7.) Dorothy
Ruy and I went to the Wedding Expo at the NBC TENT last Saturday. Needless to say it was so much fun and Ruy was such a great sport through it all. Imagine he went with me looking at jewelries, cakes, invites and photographers.
We won an arrhae from Matus and I was so excited. I felt that it was a sign from God saying that he’ll be blessing our life together. (okay I might be over reading things but who cares!).
I think one thing that really made me so happy was our chat with Ronald of Balay Kandila. We weren’t sure if we could affor his services so we wanted to just order some materials to be used for our centerpieces. Ronald asked us “Bakit? Ayaw niyo ba ako doon?” to which I replied “Gusto! Gustong gustong gusto!”. He then told me to just meet with him, he’ll design the centerpieces and then he’ll see if there are things that we can do ourselves para tipid. I wanted to hug him!! Ang saya!!
Thanks so much for enduring the heat, exhaustion, and hunger Ruy!
I was reading a book which teaches a different kind of prayer. I tried it last night and it’s amazing how gratifying it feels. You realize that yes, I’ve been so blessed..Here’s a part of my prayer last night.
Dear God,
You’ve been so good to Ruy and myself. Thank you for choosing us for each other. Thank you for giving us the chance to spend a lifetime with the person we love.
Thank you for Ruy. Thank you for the ability you gave him to do all the things he has to do for his job this week. Thank you for giving him faith. Faith in you and in himself, faith that he will be able to accomplish everything he needs to no matter how difficult it may seem…
I’ve been battling with depression for a long time and finally after years and years of tears I’m finally over it. Ofcourse I didn’t do it alone, I had my mother who pushed me to get better and who paid for my 700 peso an hour therapy. And of course Ruy…
Ruy once told me after driving me to one of my sessions with my shrink “I’m not going to leave you just because you’re screwed up.” Luckily, Ruy’s one of those people who never back down from their promises. His resilience throughout the ordeal has been amazing, I can’t imagine anyone going through all of that for me. And he did.
Today everything is more or less better. I have a job which I absolutely love. My boss is so much fun and so perfect for me. I love my working hours, my officemates, etc. And the salary is not that bad. I’m about to be regularized this week and I’m so amazed at how God has led me to this amazing job and to this amazing life.
Ruy has continued supporting me even if I don’t need it as much as before. He’s been so steadfast despite my hormonal fluctuations and PMS. I was PMS-ing last Monday and Tuesday and he kept on texting me stuff which eventually made me feel better…
RUY: GOOD MORNING!!! I miss seeing your beautiful face baby ko
RUY: Thanks for giving me the joy of simply knowing that I have you in my life
RUY: Baby i’m soooo proud to have such a beautiful girlfriend. I’m thinking that right now and I’m overwhelmed
RUY: Haaayyy, baby you simply gie me strength to hurdle every challenge in my life and live my life to the fullest. Thank you
Sarap! How can you not love this guy? Anyway I was thinking about all this things I have and I can’t help but be greatful, it’s amazing how much God has blessed me now.
Let’s do the math!
Ruy always texts me while he’s busy with work so more often than not his spelling is less than perfect (mine is almost always good only because I use the Dictionary function). Here are the most noteworthy errors:
Ruy: Hey baby, how’s your brake?
Liv: I’m great. Baby check your spelling
Ruy: That’s grate! hehehehe
ANg kulit!!! Here’s another one.
Ruy: How arf you?
Liv: How arf you==> I’m okay.
Ruy: Arf! I’ll bite you…
Nyikes….so funny!
I am no feminist, but I am a proud proud person. I refuse to ask for help until I really need it. I drive myself around, I don’t ask or borrow money from anyone. I don’t make guys carry my bag and I pay for my own keep.
It’s tiring to be that way. Sometimes I just want to kick back and have somebody pamper me even for just a couple of hours, but that only happens to me in parlors and spas and they only pamper me there cause I pay them too. It’s a bit depressing actually, men hire prostitutes to please them, women hire hairdressers and spa masseuse. It’s all the same.
I used to find men who hire prostitutes pathetic. I thought, why do you have to pay someone to do to you what everyone is doing to each other anyway? How pathetic. I didn’t realize that time will come when I’ll need to hire someone to pleasure me too…albeit in a non-sexual way.
Ruy declared yesterday that he hated dependent women. He liked women who are independent, who aren’t needy and aren’t clingy. That’s when I realized that sometimes I’d love to be dependent, needy and clingy sometime. I’d love to have my needs taken cared of by someone who loves me.
No I’m not going to be a devoted housewife whose entire life will be devoted to her family so much so that she loses herself. I’m not going to allow a guy to run my life (not like Ruy has any intention of doing so). But sometimes, like at times like this, I just want to throw away everything I’m doing and tell someone “Please take care of me?”…and he will….and he can.
July 30 Saturday. It was a busy day, my whole family (all 18 of us) were meeting at Alba’s in T. Morato for some celebration. I was the designated driver of my Nani (grandmother), I was to drive her from Marikina to New Manila to T. Morato to New Manila and finally back to Marikina. Ruy was invited to the celebration as well which was nice. I normally see Ruy only once a week, so every chance like this makes me feel like I’m getting a bonus.
My entire family was already in Alba’s and they were already eating. I on the other hand was still on the phone with Ruy. “Hey honey where are you?” “I’m still in Quezon Ave sorry there was unexpected traffic near our house.”….so I waited. I eventually saw Ruy walking into Alba’s I ran to meet him outside so I can give him a hug before he comes in….we don’t usually show affection in front of the family so I needed to meet him outside. I was really so happy at that time. It was rare for our family to be all together like this, and it was just as rare to have Ruy join us. Mixing the two which I love so much (okay three if you include the conchinillo) really made me almost giddy that day.
While eating Ruy told me that he’ll be driving me home okay? And I said, oh no I took my car and I drove Nani here. If you want you can drive both Nani and myself home to Marikina. He then said, okay let’s talk about it later. Meanwhile he told me he had something for me. I love surprises, I love gifts and I love them more from Ruy so I was almost jumping up and down and saying “What? What?”. He took out a cd of the movie A Very Long Engagement with Audrey Toutou and showed it to me. I was thanking him profusely and decided to open it later. Now it is important to note that I’ve been whining about not being able to watch this movie 6 days ago. At the same time my bestfriend Carmi and Ruy’s bestfriend Cyril said to him “Speaking of engagement, ano na ba nangyari sa proposal?”…That talk didn’t end well, it ended with me sighing and Ruy telling Cyril to shut up…This is why when I saw the cd then I was thrilled and I thought to myself…wow at least he remembered something we talked about that day. I then forgot all about it and focused on the yummy dessert.
It was then agreed that Ruy will drive me to New Manila and Nani will ride with my mom. On the way to my house, Ruy took a wrong turn. Actually it’s not really a wrong way but it’s a longer route to our house. HE said “can we go this way I need to smoke” I agreed cause of course who am I to say no to an extra 5 minutes with Ruy right? He then gave me the cd again. I opened the cd, with a lot of difficulty. Those plastic wrappers around cds are really tight. I finally succeeded in removing he plastic. When I opened the case, there was a ring in place of the second cd!
I see the ring, I see a letter on top of it with the words “Will you marry me?”…but I didn’t get it. 1..2…3…4…5…6…7…8…9…10 seconds, it took me at least that long before what had just happened registered to me! I then said “Oh my God, Oh my God…” i said this repeatedly for a couple of minutes before I finally was able to remember that Ruy was beside me and needed a response….
As if you didn’t know enough about me already….
FIRSTS
First screenname: Gorgeous
First self purchased album: If it was using my own money it’s got to be Wilson Phillips
First funeral: Auntie Belen I believe (my grandmother’s sister in law who shares my birthday) First piercing/tattoo: first piercing would be the one on my ears as I’ve had that since I was a baby, but the first one I actually paid for would be my bellybutton piercing
First true love: Ruy
LASTS
Last car ride: While driving to work today
Last kiss: Kiss on the cheek from Ruy last Monday as I was getting into my car Last good cry: yesterday, when I realized my dream wedding is gone.
Last library book: shit don’t remind me…I had to pay 1600 before Ateneo would sign my clearance form
Last movie seen (in theater):Must Love Dogs and Skeleton Key (same day 20 minutes apart) Last beverage drank: Choco-cino, free from our office vendo
Last food consumed: A couple of bites from 2 slices of yellow cab pizza, Aaron is finishing it off right now
Last phone call: I called a number that left a missed call on my cell…and alas it’s a catering company that doesn’t have any idea why they called me.
Last Time Showered: This morning
Last shoes worn: White Wade Wedges (say this real fast)
Last item bought: I paid 120 for my share of the pizza
Last annoyance: Missing the wedding supplier I really really really wanted Last time wanting to die: back in my suicidal days a looong time ago
Last time scolded: Last Sunday “You left for so many days with Ruy and he didn’t even tell me”
RELATIONSHIPS
Do you have a boyfriend/girlfriend? Yes
Do you do drugs?: No
What kind of shampoo do you use? Depends on what’s available honestly, today I used Finesse Shampoo and Finesse Conditioner
What are you listening to right now? Aaron’s story
When do you want to get married? Well I’ll be getting married on Dec. 2
What would you change about yourself? I’ll fix my fucking hormones…okay not that kind of hormones the other kind
FAVORITES
Color: pink, cream
Food: I’m too full to think about food
Boy name: Santiago, Miguel, Inaki
Girl name: Agatha, Sophia, Alexi
Subjects in school: English, Psychology
Sports: Shopping…
Perfume: D&G Light blue, Acca Kappa from Essences, Amazing Grace from Philosophy, and Ralph Lauren
Ever been in love?YES
Made yourself cry to get out of trouble? I don’t think I’ve ever done that….great idea though Lied? Yeah!!! hahahah Fallen for a close friend? Almost…then I realized I can’t be with someone who’s exactly like me…too freaky.
Been rejected? Not really, I don’t crush a lot
Rejected someone? Yes but I suck at this. I suck so bad there was one time when I thought I was finally able to break up with someone ayun pala he thinks sinasagot ko siya.
Used someone? Duh, I’ve used people, I’ve been used by people. Shit happens when you don’t live in Sesame St.
Done something you regret? Oh yes plenty plenty things!
CURRENT
Clothes: Slippers (cause my toe hurts), dark jeans and a black Lacoste polo shirt (I’m really mad about the fact that my toe is currently damaged so I’m in a dark mood today)
Music: nothing…I’m too tamad
Annoyance: That I spend thousands on pedicures and foot spa and Ruy steps on my toe for a fraction of a second and now I only have 74% of my big toenail left
Smell: I smell D&G light blue thank god.
Favorite band/artist: Usher, Madonna, Beyonce, Kylie
Desktop picture: a collage of my boracay pics
DVD in player: Winsor Pilates
LAST PERSON
You touched: Beth my officemate while telling her about big brother
Hugged: Gabby my nephew…I think he’s my favorite nephew…only because he’s the only one who’s always happy to see me. =)
You imed: Patric Porto!! The hottest gay boy ever
Imed you: Patrick Porto who else?
Called you: Well Ruy called me last night
You called: I called my badminton instructor
Bought you flowers: Oh my God…I think it was Ruy a looooooongggggg loooooonnnnnnnngggggg time ago
WHO DO YOU WANNA
Kill: stupid people…I’m evil I know.
Slap: People in the elevators with no manners…Kase babae kung uunahan mo lahat ng tao pumasok sa elevator make sure na hahawakan mo naman yung “Open” button di ba? Atsaka if you see a line forming outside the elevator it means these people have been there for a long time and you have no business going inside the elevator before they do
Kiss: mabango people. And my Gabby my pamangkin
WHICH IS BETTER
Coke or pepsi: I like coke
Flowers or candy: Diamonds hahaha…fine flowers…actually anything basta good timing
Tall or short: Taller than Me
RANDOM
In the morning I am: doing pilates and playing with Gabby
All I need is: discipline
Love: is a decision you have to make every single day
You dream of: leaving the Philippines having a son and a daughter and being able to cook
Last person you danced with: Ruy, we were swaying to a song yesterday
Worst question to ask: Did you gain weight? or Are you pregnant? haha
Who makes you laugh the most: Loi, Patrick although in different ways. I love these guys to pieces. Also Dorothy…damn our office would be boring without her
Who has a crush on you: Ruy…you better have a crush on me!! Although I doubt, I’m not his type
DO YOU EVER
Wish you were a member of the opposite sex: Hell no! I’ve enjoyed my femininity so much, I’ve milked it for all it’s worth.
Wish you were younger: Sometimes, I wish life was simpler
NUMBER
Of times I have had my heart broken: by my mother so many times, by men 2
Of hearts I have broken: I don’t know, I don’t count
Of continents I have been in: 3
WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE
Movie: Must Love Dogs, American Beauty, La Vita e Bella, Amelie, A Very Long Engagement , Y tu Mama Tambien
Song: Like a Prayer by Madonna, Human Nature by Madonna, the song Ruy wrote for me Holiday: Ruy’s birthday
Ice cream: Ben and Jerry’s Chunky Monkey among others
Book: Like Water for Chocolate, house of spirits, da vinci code, I also love the shopaholic series. Quote: Wala I hate quotes
Number: mmmmmm
Flower: I like all flowers except mums
Memory: when Ruy showed up in Power Plant unexpectedly…
WHO IS YOUR FAVORITE:
Actor: Johnny Depp, Will Ferell because he’s so funny. John Cusack,
Actress: Diane Lane, Nicole Kidman and Kate Hudson
Three names you go by:
1. Livie
2. Liv
3. Lia
Three screen names you have had:
1. Gorgeous
2. Ohlalala
3. Tres Delicieux
Three physical things you like about yourself:
1. Nose (only because Ruy likes it)
2. Lips..i like the shape
3. Hair, I love having curly hair!
Three physical things you don’t like about yourself:
1. thighs…die thighs die!
2. Hands
3. Feet
Three parts of your heritage:
1. Filipino
2. Arabian
3. Spanish
Three things that scare you:
1. lizard
2. death of people I love
3. that’s it
Three of your everyday essentials:
1. Cellphone
2. Pen (got to make lists everyday baby)
3. work ( I love my work)
Three things you are wearing right now:
1. Cream off-shoulder top from Topshop
2. Black slacks from Guess
3. My engagement ring…sigh!
Three of your favorite bands or musical artists:
1. Madonna
2. DC3
3. Beyonce (am I a pop slut or what?)
Three of your favorite songs:
1. The one Ruy made for me…I wonder if I’ll ever hear it again. I doubt =(
2. Two Words
3. Like a Prayer
Three things you want in a relationship:
1. Ruy
2. Ruy
3. Sex…mwahahhaha
Two truths & a lie (in no particular order):
1. It’s my birthday today
2. I’m having a huge party
3. I’m 23 years old
Three physical things about the opposite sex that appeal to you:
1. Brains
2. English Speaking Skills
3. Bad boy image but good boy pala…that’s hot!
Three of your favorite hobbies:
1. Make-up
2. Ruy
3. Shopping (hahaha!)
Three things you want to do really badly now:
1. Sleep
2. Sleep in a Hotel
3. Sleep in a hotel in Greece
Three careers you’re considering/you’ve considered:
1. Spy (yeah!!)
2. Forensic Investigator (except I realized I have to hold dirty things…eeeewwwwww)
3. Make-up Artist
Places you want to go on vacation:
1. Paris (I want to see my clients)
2. Greece (my dream destination)
3. Amanpulo in the Philippines…
Three kid’s names you like:
1. Santiago
2. Miguel
3. Inaki
Three things you want to do before you die:
1. Be a make-up artist
2. Own the complete brush collection of Kevyn Acuoin
3. Meet Madonn
aThree ways that you are stereotypically a boy:
1. I check out hot girls that pass by
2. I can be callous sometimes
3. I can talk about sex with other boys
Three ways that you are stereotypically a girl:
1. Make-up
2. Detail Oriented
3. Talk too much
Three celeb crushes:
1. Ricky Martin
2. Marcus Schekenberg (I don’t know the spelling of his last name, that’s why he broke up with me)
3. Ferragamo (the grandson of Salvatore)
No one can say my company is boring. It’s such an insane and interesting mix of people and personalities that you wouldn’t believe it if I told you. But you have to believe this, there’s nothing normal about this company, not the boss, not the job, not the freaking coffee machine that tells you to go and get your Choco-chino in 7-11 if you really want it.
eleven things on my wishlist
11. a roundtrip ticket to Greece
10. Alex Franco cake on my wedding (I just can’t bear to spend 21k on cake)
9. 100 wishes more
8. To be able to read minds
7. Smaller thighs
6. Complete collection of MAC and Smashbox and NARS and Laura Mercier cosmetics
5. the perfect pair of jeans
4. A really small wedding
3. A romantic dinner
2. That Ruy would eventually change his mind and leave the Philippines with me
1. End corruption in the Philippines
ten random things about me
10. I am terrified of lizards…one ran into my foot the other day and I cried and cried
9. I am part Arabian part Spanish part Filipino
8. My mother is hypochondriac
7. I am histrionic
6. I am a fag hag
5. My mother once told me to choose a boyfriend who loved me more than I love him, I chose Ruy…Now I love him more than he loves me.
4. I love my job
3. I once spent 5 hours inside beauty bar. I had my first make-up kit at 11. I’ve been allowed to use make-up since I was a toddler
2. I have 20 things running through my head right now…
1. I am a sucker for freebies…free dinner, free chocolates, free anything
nine places i’ve visited
9. kowloon (hong kong)
8. sydney
7. melbourne
6. boracay
5. San Jose
4. San Diego
3. San Francisco
2. Calaruega =) in Tagaytay
1. BEAUTY BAR…winner!!!
eight things i want to do before i die
8. Go to Greece
7. Give my passwords to people so they can access my stuff
6. Hear mass
5. Get married
4. meet Madonna
3. eat Banana bread
2. see my sister graduate
1. be a make-up artist
seven ways to win my heart
7. Show me care and concern
6. Speak in English
5. Give me flowers
4. Spend every waking moment with me…
3. Listen to my hour-long ramblings
2. Surprise me
1. Know me enough to know what I want and what I need
six things i believe in
6. My relationship with people depends on how they treat me. You are only my friend if you exert an effort to communicate with me.
5. I believe in the Power of Love => thank you for this wisdom Madonna
4. That no woman should die without having an orgasm
3. Madonna is my soulmate…no really
2. I’m nice
1. God
five things i’m afraid of
5. My lola’s death
4. Lizards
3. The future of the Philippines, which is ultimately my future too cause it looks like Ruy wouldn’t want to leave the Philippines
2. Living and dying in Mediocrity
1. when I disappoint people
four of my favorite things in my bedroom
4. My pillows…I loooove big fluffy pillows. Mine are covered in pink polka dot pillow cases. It’s too adorable
3. Doggie…my 16 year old stuffed toy also my confidant
2. My books
1. My writing stuff (notebooks and pens)
three things i do everyday
3. Shower
2. Read
1. Make a list
two things i’m trying not to do right now
2. Get depressed
1. Procrastinate (damn liv finish your freakin report)
one person i want to see right now
1. Ruy
Friendly I miss you so much!!! This is still my favorite highschool picture ever!!!!! It really captures the craziness and fun we had then…and no friendly you were not an outcast then.
We’re taking the wedding preps slowly…one baby step at a time. We started out by attending the Discovery Weekend which was truly the best decision we’ve made. The order of events is actually perfect except for the lack of proposal (repeat after me Olivia “I must get over it…I must get over it…I must get over it”), I think proposals in any form from Ruy are just not meant to be, I think I can live with that at least I’m sure I’ll try to.
I must admit that I was a bit panicked when I checked out W@W and saw that most of the Dec. 2006 brides had already started their preps…while I on the other hand was still floating on a sea of maybe-s! So reserving the church last Sunday was really a big deal for me…we’re on a roll now…I hope.
Last Sunday, a bunch of us went to Tagaytay to scout for possible venues. Calaruega church seemed even more beautiful now than it did before. Maybe I’m biased, I now feel a sense of ownership as we have finally booked and paid for the church. Now it’s MY church…MINE MINE MINE.
Hey I might be getting married but I’m still allowed to be a brat every once in a while. ;p
I can’t wait to form more memories with Ruy.
It has been about 4 months since we last went to Boracay. I miss Boracay so much…I wish Ruy and I can go back there, but this time without any issues..
LIV’S NATURAL HIGHS in no particular order:
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I Love it When You Talk Back