welcome 2008

So, it's 2:08 am on a Tuesday and the start of the new year. Another year has passed and a new one just ushered in. It's been one hell of a ride, 2007.. But now, I shall bid it farewell and all memories be kept in my mental and emotional diary and be treasured forever.

2007 was great - I made new friends, loved and got hurt, experienced being rejected and accepted at the same time, attended a friend's wedding, went to a carnival, learned a lot of new things and got to know more about myself better above all.

In preparation for the coming of 2008, my mom and I decided to really prepare for the meja noche. Sort of like making up for what happend on Christmas eve wherein we didn't cook a thing thinking that we would be able to have dinner at Chowking after the mass but didn't and ended up eating bread and hotdogs at my grandma's. So right after the mass at 8, we went straight home and had dinner. The dining table was overflowing with food! There was tacos (with all the ingredients like the lettuce, tomatoes, beef and cheef on separate platters), the spaghetti with the tuna sauce and a very big bowl of yummy fruit salad that had an extra kick of fresh juicy strawberries thrown in. It was a fun dinner, everyone was enjoying themselves and the food. Then right after, we took some photos. At last we have a new family portrait, yay!

After lola left, we all did our individual things while waiting for midnight to strike. Mike came back right after he took my lola home. We all watched CARS on the Disney channel which was fun. At exactly 11:30PM (Dec. 31), we lit these candles that my aunt gave us at the reunion. There were seven candles all different in color. Each candle symbolized various aspects of life like peace, wealth, health and etc. We were instructed to put out the flames at 12 midnight and arrange them from smallest to biggest. Then, the candle that melted the quickest will symbolize the good fortune that the New Year would bring us, followed by the rest. I forgot the arrangement but the orange candle died out first which was the gift of BRIGHTNESS. Just what I need this new year.

As the clock struck 12, our next door neighbors began firing out their firecrackers and fireworks to usher in the new year. It was fun to see them all excited and together as one happy family and enjoy the coming of the new year. Like they were, we too were excited and together as one happy family. We were all in my parent's room, fully airconditioned with all the windows and door closed because our living room and dining room smelled of fumes from the firecrackers and smoke coming from the outside. Dad popped out the wine cap and we toasted to a new year ahead of us. The family was never a fan of alcoholic drinks so my brothers really didn't appreciate the wine. I don't like wine but I drank mine anyways and I'm still drinking the leftover right now which I poured in a little bit of Coke as to lessen that bitter taste haha. We had hotdogs, ham and queso de bola then for dessert, there was the blueberry cheesecake my mom made and the mango float I made. We continued to watch CARS and when it finished, we watched Talladega Nights. We then realized that there was a theme to the shows that we were watching this evening. Race cars was it? My mom fell right of to sleep and after a while, Mike went home and Daryl and I tidied up the place so mom wouldn't have to worry about dishes in the sink when she wakes up.

I know it's tradition to have new year's resolution/s after every 365 days and I would like to share some of mine to all of you. I warn you that I may not accomplish everything but I hope for the best and at least do half of the list. I am ready for change especially if it's a change for the better so here goes my 2008 resolutions and goals (not in any particular order). A clean slate ready to be filled..

1. Do Project 365 (take a picture each day for a year)
2. Be less lazy, maybe start learning some new things
3. Spend less time on the internet (haha)
4. Play my guitar!!
5. Clean my room at least once a week
6. Help my family in any way possible
7. Be more efficient in accomplishing any tasks give
8. Live life. (socializing, clubbing, and finding more new friends so that I have more chain to hold on to whenever I'm blue).
9. Practice drawing
10. Don't stay up so late.
11. To become more articulate and adept at expressing myself.
12. To make no excuses, but do what has to be done.
13. Find my inner peace
14. Be more optimistic.
15. PRAY MORE OFTEN and attend mass regularly.
16. Donate blood (?!?)
17. Be organized in any aspect of my life
18. Be happy - genuinely happy.
19. Read more - because so far, I have only read 2 novels in my 20 years of existence but I'm currently reading Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Big thanks to Glenda.
20. Never give up (on anything. no matter what. try, try, try.)
21. Be open to new experiences.
22. Take more time for myself. Do what I WANT to do, not what anyone else wants.
23. Take a risk. A big one. (Something major. That will change my life.)
24. Stop procrastinating
    Wear my back brace more often
25. See my dentist regularly
26. Feed the dogs regularly on time
27. Be home on time
28. Be more selfish, because yes, people take advantage of me too much.
29. Drink beer more. (YES, DRINK BEER)
30. Get aother tattoo (this isn't a resolution I know but I want to add it here)
31. Practice more on my Nihonggo. Hai!
32. Keep in touch with friends whether through text or small get togethers
33. COOK.
34. Be more trusting of others
35. Be less cynical and sarcastic. haha yeah right.

Well, there you have it. MY LIST. It's a pretty long one I know but it's better than nothing. I have more resolutions but I simply can't remember them at the moment. I'm exhausted and I think I'm hitting the sack nah because this red wine is kicking in *hik!

I hope everyone had great start for the year. GOD bless and happy 2008 once more. :)

a Merry Christmas indeed

Christmas day is finally over and it was exceptionally and surprisingly FUN. :)

I didn't think that I'd enjoy this Christmas but I did. Being able to feel the spirit of Christmas on the day itself was the most overwhelming thing. I almost thought that I was going to end up as a Scrooge this year with all that humbag and doubts of Christmas being a total bummer - but I was totally wrong.

Christmas day was full of fun and games. Every Christmas is a reunion for the Quiazon clan and we never fail to amuse ourselves with party tricks and entertainment. This year's celebration felt more exciting and more joyous than the previous Christmases. The family would always come up with certain gimics to jazz up the reunion and to make every Christmas more unique and more festive. This year's theme was "Naughty or Nice?" and everyone wore something that would represent whether they were one of both. Almost everyone came with costumes which was really cool because it just shows how much of a sport we all are.

The food was delicious as always; we had one whole lechon on the table, paella, salad and the softest ox-tongue in red sauce! There wasn't much food but it was enough to satisfy everybody's tummy that day. The dessert was pretty abundant with fruitcake, food for the god, my mom's blueberry cheesecake (which was a hit), a chocolate cake and my Pepper and Chocolate Chip cookies. I was happy from the positive responses from the Pepper Cookies that I made because it was the first time I ever tried baking them and they turned out good. Yay!

After everyone had finished eating and have rested, the program began to take place with my aunt, Tita Zeneth, as this year's MC. First order of business was the family introduction with our respective costumes. Then followed the games and a performance by us. My brothers, mom and I did a band presentation and played "Ewan". It was my second debut as a guitarist at a family gathering. It felt pretty good playing again even if it was just infront of my relatives. The games that my aunt prepared were the most creative games I've seen and participated in. Everybody loved them and had such a blast with each one. And after all the games and commercial breaks, it was time for the giving of the gifts which I think is what everyone awaits for during Christmas.

I've noticed that as the years pass and as I and the rest of my cousins get older, we get money instead of gifts now. I like the money as presents but I miss how I would recieve bags and boxed presents filled with goodies that I would curiously open as soon as I get them; I miss the excitement and thrill of guessing what present I would be getting as I unwrap the Christmas paper from the gifts; I miss bringing home gifts that I can actually use and not spend. It's true that when we grow up, things that we were used to will eventually change and this includes how people would give presents on Christmas. Nonetheless, I am pretty much content with the gifts I got this year which include:

• Neverwhere book by Neil Geiman from my bestfriend GLENDA
• baking tools, a halloween tray, and the coolest stuffed toy cat in the universe from ARENCE
• a Domokun display toy from my kuya MIKE
• a penguin designed tshirt and some socks from MOM & DAD
• pink slacks from my AUNT ALMA
• lipgloss from TITA ROWH
• a silicon cone-shaped cupcake mold, Betty Crocker food coloring and icing from TITA SHY'
• and the rest were aguinaldos from other aunts and my lolo's and lola's. I got a total of P_____.*hihi

I would've never expected this Christmas too be this happy. I should've given myself the benefit of the doubt. I was wrong about my feelings about the yuletide season. I was being nonchalant but I eventually gave the feeling up on Christmas eve and it felt great. This Christmas couldn't have been more perfect. Everyone was genuinely happy and I wasn't in any place to complain about the feeling either.

What did I learn about this Christmas season?

I learned that gifts and money will always be present during this season of giving, but the best thing that you could give anyone is the gift of LOVE. Sounds a little cliche but at the most it's also so true. Christmas is made up of the people around you who care and love you even if you do the stupidest or the greatest of things.

I hope everyone had a good Christmas and may you still enjoy the rest of the holiday season and the resto of 2007. :)

♥♥♥

If you want a visual story of my Christmas, you can check out my Multiply and look for the Christmas albums. Enjoy!

look at the moon!

I kept texting that message last night to people. Were you able to get a glimpse of it? I tried taking some photos of the beautiful thing but all I could'nt get the whole thing. It was too big! I just wished that I was with Arence last night so we could've stayed at the park or either at their place to gaze up at the moon. It was the most overwhelming thing I've seen in a long time. I love anything that has to do with the sky- stars, the clouds, the moon - everything.

It was a good thing that I had this spur of the moment idea of texting my friends to have coffee last night. I miss them a lot and having coffee at Northern Brew was the ultimate get together date. I felt kinda out of place being around the three of them just because they were in their school uniforms. I miss wearing my uniform especially when I wear my slighty loose black pants which I actually don't know what material it's made of. We talked, laughed and I even made their brains almost burst from that probing question I gave them. It was so funny how they were all thinking really hard what the answer might be and it took them almost an hour and a half before Cai "accidentally" answered the problem! haha We weren't able to take photos of ourselves together last night because we were too busy talking and gossiping. Yes I gossip! But only when I feel like it ^_^ I hope that everyone of my barkada will be present in the next get together. The last time that we were all together I think was when they had a surprise birthday party for me which was like 2 or 3 years ago. Man is that a looong time.

Tomorrow is the big day. THE Reunion. I hope everything goes well. Now I'm off to another biglaan date with my highschool friends this evening. Camalig here I come!

i think i can i think i can

Because I was always making excuses that I won't do certain things because I wore a back brace, I did the unthinkable - I washed all my clothes that were piling up in my laundry basket inside my closet today. I "shouldn't" be doing such a task but I was running out of clean clothes to wear that it was imperative that I do the laundry even if my lazy-ass-full-of-excuses-not-to-wash-the-clothes self disagrees. Amazingly, I finished washing more than 30 shirts, under garments, 3 pajamas and several pairs of socks all in just 4 hours! (applause) I am very proud of my lazy-ass-full-of-excuse self. Yes I AM. And I would also want to acknoledge Arence for encouraging me to do so (even if he made it sound like that I was really full of excuses and that I looked like the laziest person there is next to him). lol juuuuuuuuust kidding.

It's been a busy week eversince my relatives (aunt, uncle and cuz) came home from Hawaii last Sunday. Everyone was trying to grab a hold of them since they got here meaning lunch dates here and dinner dates there. My cousin Ara must feel really exhausted everyday but thank gahd for entertainment technologies, he has my brother's DSLite to get herself adddicted with.

After days of not being able to spend time with Ara, I was given the opporunity yesterday. My mom, my aunt, Ara and I went out and had afternoons snacks at Perfect Loaf. Then we headed to Nepo Mall to look at some outfits she needed for an event back in Hawaii. I got her to try FIC and she loved it! I finally got my FIC craving done with yesterday and I was really happy to have had that avocado ice cream touch my tongue once more.

This is my quirky cousin Ara. :)

♥ She loves to eat.

♥Is apparantly a bit of a bookworm (currently reading Love in the Time of Cholera)

♥Very fashionable (she's wearing skinny jeans and chuck taylors in the photo)

♥Is addicted to Cooking Mama and Brain Age

♥Doesn't like Sudoku

♥Is taller than me and she's only 16! (she's 5"7)

♥Witty, outspoken and funny

♥And she makes me laugh a lot!

I love 'er. :3

I have so much fun with Ara for so many reasons. I could only wish that she and her family lived here in the Philippines instead. Ara's dad is I think in the army or navy so they constantly shift from one country to another. She's lucky cuz she's been to a lot of places already. I envy her a lot because they once lived in Japan. This coming Sunday, everyone from my mom's side of the family will be having this grand reunion and we'll all be heading off to GreenHills. I just hope that I have money then or else I'm going to freak if I see something there that I want to buy that I won't get to acquire due to lack of paper currency. I desperately need a job. Yes I do. :3

Hoookay! Now I'm off to my coffee date with friends. It's funny that I was the one who set the date but am the one who is apparantly late for it. haha LATER!

33 months

It was our 33rd month yesterday.

We had a long walk to Nepo mall and back just to buy some chocolate and gummy bears.

I treated ourselves to one delicious avocado ice cream at FIC.

I still can't believe I went out in my My Little Pony designed pajamas.

Got to watch Kasal, Kasalo, Kasali at home and maybe half of Knocked Up.

(we had to stop watching it because my folks were home and all we ever heard from the movie was the word FUCK! lol)

The pictures say it all.

I love him and he loves me.

That's all what really matters. :) ♥

breakfast at tiffany's

Actually it's breakfast at "Northern Brew", I just thought Breakfast at Tiffany's was a neat title for the entry. *teehee

Having breakfast with Arence is always an amazing experience. I never did eat my morning meals but whenever the both of us get to share this one little part of the day together, I just know that the rest of my day will be great. Breakfast is also a tad bit better when we have it at Northern Brew because they serve an eat-all-you can buffet every Sunday which only cost P99! I always loved having breakfast in cafe's (and McDonald's too) because they are such cozy places.

It was a real treat for the both of us to have had breakfast together this week. Breakfast was good and the day was even better with the sun shining brightly in the morning sky. We haven't really been out on a "date" eversince gahd knows when and this past Sunday was our lucky break. It's nice to know that we are still able to go out once in a while, especially when I'm not going to school anymore (meaning no MOOLAH for me). Anywyas, date or no dates, I still love this guy to pieces. ♥

After that wonderful brekfast, I hurriedly went to Bartmall to meet up with my friends and classmates for our so-called closing party-slash-reunion. Since everyone from the class are mostly 4th year students and will be taking their practicum anytime soon (meaning we might not get to have these kinds of get togethers in a long time), they decided to have a closing party which we had at Villa Antonina, a resort in Baliti.

It was my first time at the resort and may I say that it is darn beautiful. It was even better than that resort we went to on our last class trip to Batangas and it cost us thousands! We swam in all 5 (i think) pools that day and took pictures along the way. I'm so funny to bring my cam everywhere including to pool areas but what the heck, it's still alive and I've got loads of photos to remember the day by.

Having this closing party with my classmtes has been fun and I am already looking forward to our next get together. Maybe the next one is a trip to Bagiuo or somewhere far from home! *fingers crossed ^_^

brownout madness

I had this strange, kinda scary dream the other night. I was being chased by angry-zombie-ish cats at a wedding! It's like Resident Evil only felines! haha It was quite funny afterwards but after waking up from that terrible dream, my body was oddly achey and because of that I wasn't able to go to the store today. *boohoo.

I stayed at home the whole day doing nothing but watch tv and surf the net with our 50.6kbps connection. I kinda wished I went to the store instead but it was too late already when I felt like it. After having mirienda, I decided to sleep the rest of the afternoon off and wake up to dinner, which did happen.

Because it was soo hoot this afternoon, the only thing that could possibly happen next is rain. I like it when it rains and when I'm at home. My room becomes really comfy to hangout in and produces this very relaxing ambiance that makes me want to lie in bed and sleep the rest of the day (or night) through.

Arence came by the house this evening. It's been a few days since he last visited and I was quite thrilled to see him at our house again. Mom and dad were quite happy to see him too judging from their faces when he went to make mano.

We hung-out at my room like we usually do then after that, watched some tv when all of a sudden, all the lights went out. BROWNOUT man. How lucky were we? So with nothing to do besides play Mario on my brother's DSLite, we had some fun camwhoring with CROCKY (my toy/stuffed animal thingy) and the rest of some of the toys in my room including DOMOKUN.

We are such big dorks playing with toys in the dark not to mention take pictures in the dark. We had a blast making these goofy expressions with CROCKY, it was HILARIOUS! We even made DOMOKUN look like he was attacking my incomplete Nightmare Before Christmas georama which was a total trip. I never knew how much fun you could have on brownouts. Playing in the dark is FUN! Wait, that didn't sound right? lolz After more than forty minutes of darkness, finally there was light. We both headed back to the living room to watch tv and waddaya know, MIAMI INK was on. Yay! :)

NO CROCODILES WERE HARMED DURING THIS PHOTO SHOOT.

For the complete photos of the wacky night, you can check out my multiply site. (if you can't seem to find them in there, it's either I haven't finished uploading them all yet or I've put it on private mode. Will post as soon as possible). Thank you.

Haloween blues

I'm a bit disappointed this Halloween. The hype that I always had when this day came wasn't present this year. Halloween was supposed to be FUN; it was supposed to be my favorite day of the year. But maybe not this year it ain't. I think it's safe to say that maybe I'm growing up. It's only fair to conclude it because,well, first off, I'm already 20 and secondly, I don't think that the PowerPuff Girls are every girl's superheroes anymore. Enough of the depression attack, on to more happier things!

So, last night I met up with Glenda (aka MY BESTEST BESTFRIEND IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE UNIVERSE) to attend this so-called reunion of some batchmates from highschool. I really thought that we were going to end up with only 5 people that night, thankfully, people started arriving; arriving and hour and half later that is.

We ended up having dinner at Camalig which was great because it's been ages since I last set foot there. I was also coincidentally craving for one of their pizzas which are by the way one of the most delish pizza's in town. I always enjoy devouring pizzas and my usual favorite from their menu is the Doy's Kapampangan which has pickle relish, longganisa and salted eggs as it's topping. Sound gross right? But it's actually tasty you'll be surprised. I didn't order the usual but instead, Glenda and I got a medium Mexican Medley pizza which had tomatoes as one of their main toppings. We loove tomatoes.

After staying at Camalig, the guys wanted some booze so we all went to Zach (because I think beer is cheaper there. Gotta love them 3+1 promos). I wasn't really going to drink that night because I was actually already too full to drink and well, almost out of moolah at that, but what the heck I had one bottle. Glenda had one bottle too and it was quite amusing to see her drink because I've never seen her drink let alone hold a beer bottle. G was never the party girl, but I think college changed that LOL 'Twas a fun filled night with new and old people all together. Hopefully this'll happen again in the future.

Cheers to us Familians!

IRONIC FACT:

I love tomatoes but I hate tomato KETCHUP!

Tigtigan Terakan King Dalan

All I can say is it was the most fun TTKD I've ever attended :D

I went out with three great people

Drank good beer

Ate at one of the best pizza places in town

Saw some familiar faces

Cheered on my friend's band

Got starstruck by the DAWN..

and so did a hundred other fans

and! were able to grab some coffee at the end of the night.. err morning that is
It was one of the best night outs I've had in a long long time.

I enjoyed every second and I will never forget it. ♥