sa klase

our class talked about etiquette and manners this week. the girls are complaining that it seems to them that chivalry is dead, that gentlemen are rare these days.

what exactly is a gentleman anyway?

According to wikipedia, the term gentleman (from Latin gentilis, belonging to a race or gens, and man, the Spanish gentilhombre, the Italian gentil uomo or gentiluomo), in its original and strict signification, denoted a well-educated man of good family and distinction, analogous to the Latin generosus (its invariable translation in English-Latin documents).

Another site described a gentleman as "a considerate man with high standards of proper behavior and refined manners. Being a gentleman has nothing to do with social status, wealth or age. A gentleman is basically a man who treats others with respect and also strives to gain their respect."

if you ask me, a gentleman is someone who takes good care of his lady friends, most especially his girlfriend. he treats his girl the way how he wants his sister or future daughter to be treated. a gentleman is someone who does not only open doors for me, or helps me carry my bag, or takes my hand and does the "gentlemanly" thing when we cross the street, but a gentleman is someone who never takes advantage, who is never rude, who is honest. he is determined but he isn't a bully. he can be the toughest guy but he also has a vulnerable side that he reserves to show to only a select few. he keeps his promises. he puts his lady first. he knows that romance comes from the heart, not the trousers. he is charming but he never takes advantage of anyone. he listens but he also knows when to speak his mind. he knows the right words to say and he also knows that sometimes, a hug and a kiss are better than anything he can say.

he is passionate. he is committed.

he isn't perfect but he is perfect for the girl he loves.


for me being a gentleman will never go out of style.
thanks etiquetteforagentleman.tumblr.com

yay keians!!

Even unexpected things can reflect beauty. During our photo activity this morning, I never thought to see this image reflecting in the spoons that are hanging behind the walls of the grade school cafeteria of WVSU. I guess beauty is everywhere, it only needs to be appreciated. - Reflection

first place photo entry during Panulaton 2011 by D. Jaranilla.

go P'keains!! very proud and happy adviser here =)

----
good day today but very tiring at that. and since it rained hard and i was still sortasick, my body was not able to fight back. hello fever once again. dayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyum! i need some robin thicke lovin' *puts earphones on*

goodnight everyone!!!

waving the white flag

August and September had been super crazy. Everything happened in a flash. At least I had some wonderful moments in August but man, September's just whizzing by. Basically, I had a lot of work (some I actually enjoyed), a lot of things to worry about (I just pray) and not much time for exercise (actually, none at all..unless you can count my going up and down the mendel hall that).

And because my body is awesome the way it is, it crashed. With a vengeance. Just this afternoon.

So I'm waving the white flag for now (or at least til Monday morning). I need to get better for an important trip this coming weekend. Still so much to do but I can finish this.Finals week is fast approaching. I need to get better.

I can already smell you, sem break. I feel that we will be great friends.

Goodnight, everyone! Sleep tight!

sept 23 = Bimboy!!!

my boys and i had dinner at cafe laguna

yummy super creamy shakes!

bistek tagalog

cafe laguna chicken (i love!!)

then we had coffee at sbucks (baby brother's happy they finally lifted the smoking ban)

cheesecake + caramel macchiato ftw!

From beginning til end you will always be my confidante, my partner in weirdness, and my best-est friend. I love you! Happy birthday! :D

a letter to 16 yr old me

i went to my high school yesterday to visit someone and so i took some time to roam around the campus. sadly, our hs building is now the building of the College of Business Admin but walking along the campus brought a flood of memories. High school was a rollercoaster of emotions.
i remember a hashtag in twitter a long time ago that says "tweetyour16yearoldself" so here's my take on it.

UTMT?

Dear Sixteen-Year-Old Ta,

I'd like to tell you things that I wish I knew at sixteen. Things that I've experienced and learned more than a decade later.

One: My goodness, stop being so darn shy. You were blessed with a loud voice. Use that voice wisely. Speak up and let your opinions be known. Do not be afraid. I know that feeling left out or used or taken for granted are big issues with you. So start talking. You can also use your voice to say NO when you feel that your niceness is being abused.

Two: You are not a fan of change and I understand that. But don't be afraid of it. You will go through changes brought about by fear, heartbreak, and loss, among others. But you will become a better person because of those experiences.

Three: Don't stop reading. I don't care if we're talking chick lit (though please don't make this genre a staple in your bookshelf) or historical fiction. Just read. And read. And read some more. Just like reading, listen to more music. Different kinds of music. And never give up on your violin. Watch a lot of movies. Different movies. And tv series. Arm yourself with knowledge. That's power.

Four: Nurture your thirst for adventure. Travel. You learn a lot from traveling. And bring little brother along. Make memories with him. In the end, you will just have each other. The bonds you have with other people will never match up to what you and Bim have.

Five: Make friends. True, some of them will end up hurting you but in the end, those who are true will remain and you will have them not only for the four years you have in high school, but for life.

Six: You are not fat. Continue being active because one day, you will discover that you have hips as a result of genetics. And that your waistline will expand. An active lifestyle will ward of sickness and fatigue. You are not fat. Keep that in mind. Work it, girl!!

Seven: Cherish being sixteen. Laugh because the biggest thing in your life is Jonathan Brandis. Or Silverchair. The eraserheads. And dare I say, TGIS/Growing up/Dawson's Creek. Soon enough, it'll be time to grow up and face the "real world" = adulthood. The memories you make today will last a lifetime. Don't be in a hurry to want to have a boyfriend, or to go out on "gimmicks" at night just because everyone else is doing it. There will be plenty of time to do those, believe me.

Eight: Keep on setting a good example for Bimboy and the younger cousins and being the responsible eldest of Tatay and Nanay. Cherish every moment you have with them. No matter what happens, they will always be there to love you and take care of you. They're very important.

Nine: Set high standards for yourself, but don't be disappointed if things turn out differently. The excel timeline you and ez once made (i.e. work at 20, be married by 27, have kids by 28) won't necessarily be what God has in store for you. Pray for His will in your life and know that He will give you just that.You'll be surprised at what will happen.

Ten: Have fun! Don't be too serious. You have a tendency to overanalyze things. Life is and will be good. Girl power, girl.

Love,
The Ta of 2011

LSS

i "discovered" Robin Thicke thru Entourage and i am so loving his songs. serious LSS-ing here!

and this one's for Jacq:

goodnight everyone!

ramblings at 1am

i wanted to sleep but my mind was not ready so here i am with my verbal diarrhea.

for some time now, i have been thinking a lot about direction. for a long time, there was just one direction i followed, and it was not even a choice i personally made. i just went with the flow. it was convenient, it was safe. i let time pass me by.

and now i feel stranded. i feel that it's about time i move my ass. i have some decisions to make but i dunno if my decisions will be the right ones. i dunno if my choices will work out.

i remember a conversation a few nights back which went like this:

"how do we know if we made the right choice?"

"we don't." .

so yeah, i am scared. i feel like my days have been a constant red light.

that stoplight has to go green soon.

“I was right where I needed to be”

am trying to write something but i just can't get it right. so here's something i'd like to share. i chanced by this from one of the blogs i follow and so i'm sharing this with everyone.

“I was right where I needed to be”

They say life is a journey—which is funny because it makes me think of the band Journey and Steve Perry’s awesome poof mullet. That thing was righteous. Regardless, we each have a journey we’re walking, a story we’re living as we progress through each day. Sometimes our journey is a happy one filled with good times and laughter; other times, it’s full of heartache and shame. Whichever is true of your current state, you and I are on a far reaching journey—a journey that doesn’t end until we’ve let our last breath slip from our lips.

If you and I were to sit down and discuss the intimate details of my journey thus far, we’d need several hours. It’d be soaked with tales of deceit and depression, of faltering virtues and a flawed logic. But looking back, and because our precious hindsight is so perfectly clear, I can see each roaming step I took led me, thankfully, to where I am now—happy, fulfilled, content, and following a calling I ignorantly ignored for years. No, the mistakes I made—and there were plenty—aren’t forgotten, but each one, despite my best efforts, led me to something good, something worthwhile. It only took me accepting His will for my life once and for all.

God has a plan for each of us, but He also allows us the freedom of will to make our own decisions and choose which paths we’d like to take. So what happens when the choice we make doesn’t match up to the plan He’s laid out for us? What happens when we refuse to follow our calling or His ways and we end up off track and lost? Can we ever get back? The answer is actually rather simple. Yes, we can. God tailors His plan based on each step we take so that we are never too far from jumping right back on to the path He’s chosen. And while it’s possible to feel as if we’re a million miles away from anything resembling the will of God, the plan that He so carefully crafted for us is always being altered, always being conditioned so that it’s ever-ready to accompany us should we choose to meet back up with Him.

You may have stepped away from His journey for a minute, or maybe it’s been a long while. But I can truthfully say that you’re right where you need to be. God can use you, help you, restore you right where you stand. It may not seem like it right this moment, but imagine looking back on the spot where you now stand and seeing how it soon led you to something beautiful and full of redemption. You may feel unworthy of the love and grace He has to give, and that’s understandable. But imagine looking back one grace-filled day and saying softly to yourself,“I was right where I needed to be”. Let that be you. Acknowledge where you are and know that you’re right where He needs you to be.

(Note: You can find the writer on Twitter @Cory_Copeland. Thank you so very much for reading.)

i am tired

just what i need to do right now

Attraversiamo.. Let's cross over.

i was planning to write about something else but i saw this movie on tv so i took a break from work, got some chips and decided i do need a break from all the grading and checking and chores and...everything. (from writing what i intended to, as well)


so, in honor of "eat, pray, love", i would like to share my favorite quotes/lines from the book and the movie.

"Destiny, I feel, is also a relationship - a play between divine grace and willful self-effort."

"People think a soul mate is your perfect fit, and that's what everyone wants. But a true soul mate is a mirror, the person who shows you everything that is holding you back, the person who brings you to your own attention so you can change your life. A true soul mate is probably the most important person you'll ever meet, because they tear down your walls and smack you awake"

"When you're lost in those woods, it sometimes takes you a while to realize that you are lost. For the longest time, you can convince yourself that you've just wandered off the path, that you'll find your way back to the trailhead any moment now. Then night falls again and again, and you still have no idea where you are, and its time to admit that you have bewildered yourself so far off the path that you dont even know from which direction the sun rises anymore."

"Faith is belief in what you cannot see or prove or touch. Faith is walking face-first and full-speed into the dark."

"A friend took me to the most amazing place the other day. It's called the Augusteum.
Octavian Augustus built it to house his remains. When the barbarians came they trashed it a long with everything else. The great Augustus, Rome's first true great emperor. How could he have imagined that Rome, the whole world as far as he was concerned, would be in ruins. It's one of the quietest, loneliest places in Rome. The city has grown up around it over the centuries. It feels like a precious wound, a heartbreak you won't let go of because it hurts too good. We all want things to stay the same. Settle for living in misery because we're afraid of change, of things crumbling to ruins. Then I looked at around to this place, at the chaos it has endured - the way it has been adapted, burned, pillaged and found a way to build itself back up again. And I was reassured, maybe my life hasn't been so chaotic, it's just the world that is, and the real trap is getting attached to any of it. Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation."


"Letting go, of course, is a scary enterprise for those of us who believe that the world revolves only because it has a handle on the top of it which we personally turn, and that if we were to drop this handle for even a moment, well – that would be the end of the universe. But try dropping it….Sit quietly for now and cease your relentless participation. Watch what happens...The trees do not wither and die, the rivers do not run red with blood. Life continues to go on…. Why are you so sure that your micromanagement of every moment in this whole world is so essential? Why don’t you let it be?"

"One thing I do know about intimacy is that there are certain natural laws which govern the sexual experience of two people, and that these laws cannot be budged any more than gravity can be negotiated with. To feel physically comfortable with someone else's body is not a decision you can make. It has very little to do with how two people think or act or talk or even look. The mysterious magnet is either there, buried somewhere deep behind the sternum, or it is not. When it isn't there (as I have learned in the past, with heartbreaking clarity) you can no more force it to exist than a surgeon can force a patient's body to accept a kidney from the wrong donor. My friend Annie says it all comes down to one simple question: "Do you want your belly pressed against this person's belly forever --or not?"

"Be with them who know what they have when they have you"

"Do not apologize for crying. Without this emotion, we are only robots."

"The problem, simply put, is that we cannot choose everything simultaneously. So we live in danger of becoming paralyzed by indecision, terrified that every choice might be the wrong choice."

"This is a good sign, having a broken heart. It means we have tried for something."

"Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be."

"Sometimes, to lose balance for love is part of living a balanced life."

"You have no idea how strong my love is!"


will write more in the next days

so tired

I want a hug. But not just a normal hug. No. I want one of those pick-me-up-off-my-feet-squeeze-me-tight-spin-me-around-hurts-my-tummy-but-still-makes-me-smile-leaves-me-breathless-gives-me-butterflies-makes-me-giggle-stupidly kind of hug. (yeah i'm corny like that)

a little while ago...

...i heard my first christmas song on the radio.

wow. time sure flies.

Lord knows what I really really reeeeeeeally want for Christmas but chances of me getting what my heart desires are slim to none so I'm just gonna hope and pray for the best.



I want a happy Christmas this year!

May we all have a happy Christmas this year.

(now thinking about making my Christmas list *excited*)

engine trouble

my car's engine caught fire earlier this morning due to a short circuit.


my wires were melted.


needless to say, i had a panic attack. my dad and our mechanic have never failed to teach me what to do in cases like these, but my mind just went blank and i had difficulty breathing. good thing there were helpful manongs who immediately removed the battery terminals (and one even had a pail of water with him) and helped nix the fire.

my car's fine now. i was able to drive it again by mid-afternoon. and - people who know me will say this is an achievement - i didn't cry! hahahaha

i am scared to ask the questions for it scares me more to hear the answers.
(i can almost imagine my heart breaking into tiny pieces, taking a lot of time to put back together)

i've never been this happy yet this scared at the same time.

-- have you ever felt like this?

light a candle for me, will you?

getting lost

the world is big.
for some years now, i got stuck in my own little world working my ass off, trying to make my then-relationship work, letting time pass idly by. i never even noticed that years had passed since i started working and never had i taken some serious time off.
this year, i rediscovered my love for traveling and i gave in to it. whether it's just in the other town or in the island near us or abroad, i allowed myself to wander. feel. get lost.

Somehow, in the middle of getting lost and feeling lost, life finds you but sometimes you realize that, in the end, what you’re really starting to find is yourself.

"Remember what Bilbo used to say: It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out of your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to" (JRR Tolkien)

I still have a lot to discover - about the world, about myself.I have a lot of questions. I have a lot of doubts. I am confused. I still feel lost.

May you have wonderful adventures into finding your selves.

please indulge me. i think my hormones are to blame

"Every girl has their best friend, boyfriend & true love. You're lucky if they're all the same person."

update

like i said in my previous post, making a list of what i want kinda works. so this year i posted the things i wanted for my birthday ( here ) and i actually got some of them (still...world peace is very hard to come by).

i got books!! a boxful of them. icantwaittofinishthemall.

i got a phone that i am loving more each day (even if i really can't get the wifi thingy to work).

i got a watch. it's not the charm watch i wanted but i got a watch (leather. i am a bit allergic to it but hey, it's pretty! hahaha)

i traveled ilo-mla-sing and to boracay in a span of two weeks! and got booked for three more trips within the next months. yay!

so...........i need to work on that spa renewal, jacket, eyeglasses, fitflops and ct scan. i want more trips too! and world peace! i guess they'll be in my christmas wishlist this year.

what made my day were the surprises i got from my friends and my family:

i got a ring!!! the inside says you + us forever, Ph2A.
awwww. this is better than my engagement ring, then.
(yes, i got engaged. super painful, alright, but God is good coz He delivered me away from what could have been a terrible marriage/big mistake. i still do want a ring but that should come with love, commitment, passion and legal papers. oh, and can i please have fraternal twins? hahaha)

as for my prayers...i got some answers too and i still am praying for some more. i know i will get my answers in due time.

i am very thankful for all the blessings. i hope for more blessings not only for me but for those i love too.

here's wishing that i will have more to blog when i celebrate my birthday next year!

cheers!

boracay for the long weekend

we went to boracay for the long weekend last week. we left in the morning and stayed at crystal sand resort, a beachfront place that was just perfect for us.

(my view from our room)

the weather was bad when we left the city but thankfully, the skies cleared up as soon as we reached the island. i thought it would be a great time for me to do my "muni-muni" but alas, it was not. there were a lot of people and the word "quiet" was not really in their minds.

so we did the next best thing: went island hopping

i heart crystal cove! thanks liit!

and ate our hearts out

looking forward to going back to bora soon!

cheers!