still giddy until today

i still have that goofy grin whenever i think about "superman returns." brandon routh was just superbly awesome in that film and drop-dead gorgeous. i am crossing my fingers that this superman film will do extremely well in the box-office (maybe beat spiderman) so that a sequel is guaranteed. i'm looking for superman battling it out with more super-powered beings, after all he is the man of steel. thinking out loud, i think what will really rock as a movie will be "justice league." can you imagine seeing all your superheroes in one film? that will be a blockbuster for sure - i wonder if anybody thought about doing that film. you'll have batman, superman, flash, wonder woman, martian manhunter, green lantern and hawkgirl all at the same time. i hope they do one in the future.

why the world needs a superman

i eagerly watched "superman returns" a while and i have to say there is nothing to not love about the movie. brandon routh, without a doubt, is the most gorgeous superman ever. he was enough reason to see the movie. i hate to admit it but while tom welling (of smallville) is equally gorgeous, i don't think he would have looked as hot as brandon in superman's outfit. what i loved about clark kent in the movie was that he was the same clumsy clark that christopher reeve portrayed during his superman movies. bryan singer's "superman" was awesome - i loved the sensitivity he imparted on this superman and brandon's delivery just makes you adore him. the special effects of the movie was stunning, the action sequences were nicely done. the airplane scene - wow, that was a visual masterpiece. after seeing this film, i guarantee you will love love love brandon routh. i know, cause i love love love him already. i don't really need superman - brandon routh is enough.

"you wrote that the world doesn't need a savior, but everyday i hear the people crying for one."

sojourn : fifth week

i can't believe its already been four weeks since i got here in chandler, arizona. after this week, there's two more weeks left and i'm finally going home. i knew when i signed up for this gig that there was going to be a lot of work involved - and i was dead right. things have been piling up big time and i am already having a hard time managing my asia responsibilities with the projects i am involved with in the US timezone. well, i did ask for more projects so i'm not complaining.

looking back, this trip has really been a wild ride. i've gotten to know more about the people here by hanging out with them at dinner, lunch, drinks, bowling, barbecue's and small get-togethers. people here have been asking me if i would take a one-way transfer to the US and i finally managed to come up with a consistent answer "i'm going to consider it." seems like a really easy decision to make except that if i move here, i move here alone. it means leaving a lot of the people that means a lot to me back in the philippines. i don't think i can do that. and i do love the philippines, graft & corruption & all. but we'll see, i've never been much of a long-term planner ... i take it as it is given the cards at the table. i guess one thing i learned is that life is too short to be planning so far ahead in the future - so i adopted this "live for the moment" mindset nowadays.

the work environment here in the US is kinda laid back, like i can go to the office around 9am and no one will care, or i can even choose to work from home if i don't have meetings at the office. it doesn't mean though that i'm not doing a lot of things cause i do continue my work at the hotel right after dinner. the food though at the cafe do not vary a lot and after a while, you just can't take another bite. so eat out a lot at resto's which serve a big plate = get fat. i haven't weighed myself yet but i'm pretty sure i got fat already.

i'm just waiting for the fourth of july sale. it will definitely be big and i plan on roaming all of the malls during those four days - no sense in wasting a good sale, and my credit card hasn't maxed out yet so its too early to think about how to pay for it.

32 flavors & then some

looking back when i was still in high school, i couldn't wait to grow up cause it seemed back then that grown-ups had all the fun. as years passed by along with those fun & sad times, you realize how quickly time pass by and you suddenly don't feel as young as you used to. yes, i am 32 years old today in the US (yesterday in manila) and i no can no longer lay claim that i am still part of the calendar.

looking back though on the past 31 years of my life, i would say that i have lived a very rich life. i have been blessed with the life experiences that has helped shape me into the person i am today - whether good or bad is a matter of perspective. all i can say is that being 32 today meant 31 years of God waking me up everyday and keeping me safe and healthy. so here are the important people/things in my life that i will eternally be thankful for - God above all, of course.

1. family. my family may not be perfect but they're my family and i love them.
2. jacob. my nephew is God's greatest gift to me & my family.
3. friends. i'm thankful for being blessed with true friends who love & care for me.
4. mcbaby. it has always been you, and it will always be you - no matter what.
5. work. working for intel has helped hone my skills to reach my full potential. viva intel.

maybe being 32 isn't that bad at all? i can still call trixy & ria "ate" so that's a relief.

futbol madness

we can't deny that all eyes are on the ongoing world cup tournament, which like the olympics only happens every 4 years. i never really watched football before maybe in large part to how a bunch of men go back and forth across the field trying to kick a goal in. i kind of thought it was boring - but then again, that was what i thought about the formula 1 racing until i got hooked. the world cup is actually one of the biggest events in sports participated by 32 countries all in all.

i first watched the world cup games to support costa rica since some of the my officemates were original tico's before they moved here in the phoenix. while costa rica lost on the eliminations, my interest in the games prospered. who wouldn't want to watch david beckham, cristiano ronaldo, michael owen, philippe senderos, and kaka battle it out in the field. not only are they blessed with gorgeous good looks, but they can really play futbol. i think what is amazingly fun to see during the games is how much the fans support their teams from donning sometimes ridiculously loud costumes, to face paints, to big hats to anything that can catch attention. yeah, that can be how obsessed the fans can get but they do make great pictures.

what is great about the world cup right now is that i am in the US. i am in the timezone where i can watch the games live (well maybe i'd have to work from the hotel) and cheer for which team i still am trying to figure out.

ultimate atkins

our date for the ultimate atkins diet was thought of a week earlier during our texas roadhouse baby back ribs dinner. gizie scheduled the dinner at fogo e brasa (4909 E Chandler Blvd) around 6pm and i got there sometime around half past six. we started out with a few bites from the salad bar - some mussels, shrimps and crabs. as soon as we turned the sign "green" the meat carvers came one after the other putting slices of an assortment of meat on our plates. we dined on picanha (rumpsteak), alcantra (top sirloin), fraldinha (flank steak), lombo (pork loin), linquica (sausage), ham, chicken wings and frango (turkey wrapped in bacon). the meal came with a variety of sides - farofa, fried bananas, vinagrette, rice and refried beans. i had a bottle of bud light which felt good after devouring all of those meat. it was great the first two rounds of the meat but it was becoming more of an ordeal after - too much meat is really too much. i felt ready to throw up after taking a few bites of the tiramisu i ordered. it was a great atkins experience though - something probably you'd do at least once a year - at $49.

chinese food, red wine & a couple of margarita's

papeco sent a late invitation for dinner and drinks yesterday at pf chang's around 7. up for some chinese food were iris, ben, jessica, papeco, arjun and myself. ben ordered a bottle of red wine (being the french guy that he is) and we all had a taste of it. it was a good partner with the fried shrimp wonton and spicy ribs. papeco and arjun picked the dishes and i have to say they were all very good. we also had two desserts after with one like mini-turons (banana wrapped in lumpia wrapper & fried) with awesome vanilla ice cream & drenched in caramel. the other was a new dessert with soft waferlike rods with chocolate inside - then you dip this in a rich creme brulee sauce & roll-it in a bed of nuts. Ultra yum & a calorific nightmare.

i think what made the night enjoyable was the fact that the people i was with were very fun and friendly people. while iris & i have had our share of work troubles, outside of work she is quite a nice person to hangout with. and ben can be real chatty and funny. papeco & arjun were a riot. jessica was her usual talkative self. we actually finished 3 bottles of red wine, me chugging 4 glasses during the whole pf chang's stay - hahaha! we talked about a lot of things, the work-related where we laughed hardest. we talked about the people at work we didn't really like and how screwed up some of the directions we were getting. i was amazed to hear this from these people and it was actually nice to know that you are not alone in your dilemma. mindy came after dessert and we all laughed a bit and decided to move to kona grill right by chandler fashion mall.

kona grill wasn't packed and we were able to find a good table immediately. papeco ordered margarita's for everyone so we got stuck sipping on it while we continued hanging out. there were stories about papeco & arjun's thailand experience wherein they got a taste of the "thai ger" show - both of them thought it was "tiger" but it actually meant "thai girl." papeco got into more detail of those exploits, some of it not for general reading so i gotta skip that. no lurid details on papeco & arjun - both were good boys. i learned that night that papeco has managed to visit up to 31 countries already and mindy around 24 or something. i thought that was really amazing and wished to myself i could do that someday. i'd love to be able to visit or live in another country - the US, Italy or Greece or wherever. we had another round of margarita's before we decided to call it a night. it was past midnight already that time.

i managed to get to my hotel in one piece and just slumped to the bed cause my head was already swirling that time. i realized i was really whacked from all of the alcohol. i woke up a couple of hours later with a terrible headache so i had to chug 2 advils.

i got up at 6am to do a presentation. headache gone. thank you advil.

que vida la mia - reik

Me despierto en la mañana, para verte pasar,
y tenerte en mi mente por el resto del dia...
Que vida, la mia...
Aun no se tu nombre y ya eres dueña de mi,
y me paso todo el dia imaginando tu risa...
Que vida, la mia...
Nose que hacer, para ser el aire que va a tu alrededor,
y acaricia tu piel...
Solo quiero conversar, solo quiero conocerte,
dame un poco de tu tiempo para convencerte,
Yo solo quiero ser tu amigo, y me muero por salir contigo,
dame una señal, solo dame una mirada,
si tu estas a mi lado, a mi no me importa nada,
ya quiero estar entre tus brazos, y me muero por
probar tus labios, rojos, llenos de ti...
Solo dime que si...

Me desvelo en las noches para pensar en ti,
y si duermo solo sueño con tener tus caricias,
Que vida, la mia...
Tengo todo este amor y solo es para ti,
y yo solo me conformo con mirarte otro dia,
Que vida, la mia...
No se que hacer para ser el aire que va a tu alrededor,
que acaricia tu piel...

Solo quiero conversar, solo quiero conocerte,
dame un poco de tu tiempo para convencerte,
Yo solo quiero ser tu amigo, y me muero por salir contigo,
dame una señal, solo dame una mirada,
si tu estas a mi lado, a mi no me importa nada,
ya quiero estar entre tus brazos, y me muero por
probar tus labios, rojos, llenos de ti...
Solo dime que si...

thanks to trixy for sending me this song from her costa rican lulong days!
peace! mwah! =)

a very long saturday : texas roadhouse (part 2)

in one of the conversations going to sedona, we talked about how much we loved the food at oregano's and at the cheesecake factory that it dawned on gizie & larry to take me to the best ribs in town. texas roadhouse was our last stop after our whole day prescott+sedona tour. it was around 930ish when we got to the restaurant along mesa (1605 S. Stapley, Mesa Az 85204). we got a generous helping of the hot off the oven bread + their signature cinnamon butter. man, the cinnamon butter was divine and pairing it with hot rolls was perfect. we were debating whether we should order the full- or the half-slab of ribs where the price difference was only about 4-5 dollars and we all unanimously agreed to take the full-slab and just ask for a doggie bag if we don't finish it. I got mine with mashed potatoes and baked beans. armed with a 22oz tall mug of bud light, we were all waiting to have a go at those famous ribs.


my full-slab of ribs is shown at the left, it probably doesn't seem as much but i can assure you these are generous servings. we all feasted on the ribs and the sidings for a few minutes with larry having no problems devouring the full-slab. i didn't want him to one-up me so instead of eating half of the slab and taking the other home, i decided to show larry and finished the full-slab hahaha yes, the filipino can! hahaha but damn, those ribs were good! could have been more juicier but i finished every last bit of meat there. it was only gizie at this time who had leftovers and a fabulous rib meal for sure the following day. ahhhh, these ribs were really fantastic. if i didn't take those damn mashed potatoes i could have gotten away with saying i was doing atkins, hi-protein diet. hahaha

so anyway, here is what my plate looked like after i ate all those poor ribs. mind you, there were leftover mashed potatoes and some beans but overall, i cleaned out the plates real well. i even managed to chug the remaining bud light.

texas roadhouse. great ribs. great meal.

gizie said there's still one more restaurant (all meat goodness) we will fatten ourselves with next friday. we are going to rest our poor, overworked stomachs from monday to thursday first. hmmm, that may not likely happen since i'm having dinner with joan on thursday. maybe at the cheesecake factory? hmmm, not bad not bad.

a very long saturday : sedona (part 1)

gizie offered to take me to sedona saturday and we made plans for me to pick them up at san cervantes sometime around 10am. i dropped by the gas station because we had to make a stop at the hertz rental for me to do two things : one, extend my rental until july 15; and two, ask for a different car because the ford focus' a/c was whacked. i got a red pontiac vibe which is a hatchback car - it was actually better (and much cleaner) than the focus except for one freakin' flaw, it had a regular CD player so that sucked big time.

sedona, should actually been a two-hour drive from chandler but we decided to take the scenic route and passed by prescott (pronounced by the americans as pris'kuht) which was actually an old town that has a rich history attached to it. it was a quaint, laid-back town which added an appeal to it. that day, there was some activity going on at the park on a lot of people were hanging out with their kids. old folks were lazily hanging out under the shade of the trees. it was a perfect afternoon with the weather sunny, breeze slighly blowing and the temperature somewhere around 95deg F (about 10 deg lower than it was in chandler, yay!). we decided to take a long delayed lunch (it was around 2pm already) at The Palace which was supposedly arizona's most historic restaurant and saloon - something about wyatt earp, etc attached to this town. we had generous servings of sandwiches, me having a bacon cheeseburger while gizie having a meatloaf sandwich and larry a bbq burger sandwich. biting into a big burger with braces can be a bitch so despite looking weird dining on it with fork & knife in hand, it was decidedly the most logical thing to do.

we left prescott with renewed energy and excitedly took the road again to sedona. we did a few stopovers along the way just to take some souvenir shots. the pictures overlooking the red rocky mountains were breathtaking. just being able to see this vast piece of the world makes you feel fortunate. traveling is truly an enriching experience - there's nothing better than seeing it and being there for you to appreciate what you have and the differences that go with it. we went around for a while and had two scoops of ice cream with generous heaps of whipped cream, chocolate & caramel syrup and pecans (giz & i shared, ayt!) to cool it down. we stopped by the mountain rock chocolate factory where larry had (after a scoop of ice cream) a frozen cheesecake dipped in chocolate while gizie & i contented ourselves with a free morsel of chocolate. i must say the chocolate was heavenly - it was rich and had the perfect sweetness to it. while we were waiting to cross the streets, an old lady approached me and asked me what the tatoos on my arms meant and i dutifully told her it was chinese for "come" & "good fortune." and she asked me if indeed i had been lucky with it, and i said "yes." come to think of it, i have been extremely fortunate during the past years. so "thank you God!"

one of the real gems in sedona for me was seeing the church of the holy cross - the church was literally built into the rocks (as you can see from the picture). it was too bad we weren't able to go inside the church because the gates closed at 6pm (yes, it was 6pm when this picture was taken). we just missed it by a few minutes. we again took the scenic route going out of sedona - i didn't expect that scenic meant super rocky roads (and i always thought all roads in the US are paved hahaha) which hopefully the poor car's suspension managed to survive. we took some really great pictures overlooking the valley - now this is where elmer's dslr would probably have come handy and the pictures would have had better exposures, but hey, we do what we can with a point & shoot.

the drive home was a long one and thankfully larry was up to the challenge of it. i dozed off for a few minutes a couple of times which made me realize that posing a lot and having your picture taken is also a tiring job. seeing the pictures though after and being able to capture it made the trip all worth while.

best pizza so far & another great dessert

having gizie & larry around makes it easy to find which places serve the best meals around. in the case of an impromptu dinner last tuesday, i was wondering whether i would like another doze of pizza & beer for dinner. oregano's, it turns out was by far the best pizza i have had in chandler. normally at peak hours, it will take you between 30-45mins to get a table at oregano's but since we were there right before 6pm, we didn't wait long hanging at the bar chugging our bud lites before our table was ready. we ordered guaca tony, which is a guacamole (avocado as better known in manila) dip with basil and roasted garlic surrounded by oregano's paper thin, ultra yum pizza crust strips. gizie also ordered some salad, which she said was for her "the best salad in the world" which after having some, i tend to disagree with her - hahaha! we also ordered two 18-in pizza's, one with pepperoni, ham and another meat and the other was some sorta of pesto chicken mix pizza. i'd have to say the pesto pizza was delish, but the all-meat wasn't bad either. if you are in for thin crust pizza's, then this is it - the crust was really thin and you'd think its there just to hold the other stuff together. now pair those up with your bud lite, and its like a match made in heaven.


we had the chocolate chip and the white chocolate macadamia nut pizza cookie for dessert and i'd have to say it was super yum. i can still feel the chewey, melt-in-your mouth cookie dough topped with vanilla ice cream. gawd, that was good. i have to agree with our server that it is definitely one of the best desserts in the world (at least for me it is).

so now i contemplate, how many freakin' hours in the gym will it take to burn those calories away. i think i've put on like 3lbs already since i got here, there are just too many nice restaurants, it will be a sin not to eat in any of them. so there, if its a sin to not eat in them, then i will gladly follow the rules. kind of a nice way of justifying it right? teehee =)

ang pag-ibig kong ito

Umiiyak ang aking pusong nagdurusa
Ngunit ayokong may makakita
Kahit anong sakit ang aking naranasan
Iyan ay ayokong kanyang malaman.

Mga araw na nagdaan
Kailanma'y hindi malilimutan
Kaytamis na araw nang pagmamahalan
Ang akala ko'y walang hangganan

Ang pag-ibig kong ito
Luha ang tanging nakamit buhat sa iyo
Kaya't sa Maykapal tuwina'y dalangin ko
Sana'y kapalaran ko ay magbago

cheesecake factory

gizie decided to set-up a farewell dinner thursday night at the cheesecake factory for ice since he was flying back to manila early friday morning. so yeah, in the multiple times i have stayed here in chandler, it was the first time i dined out at the cheesecake factory. its not that i don't like food (believe me i love it!), its just that you can get caught up in the multitude of work you have to finish that you can't find time to sit in a decent restaurant and pass the time away (wine or beer on hand). i must say the thai chicken pasta was awesome, the farfalle with chicken and roasted garlic exquisite and the grilled salmon special was perfect. nachos + spinach dip is always good company to a bottle of bud lite. yeah, bud lite's a constant companion these days. the free chocolate bread was warm and tasted like heaven so gizie, ice & i finished every morsel and we had to ask for some more.

as usual, we never finished our portions of the meal and i was stuffed full after gorging on a quarter of the pasta. of course we had to have cheesecake - the dessert is the whole purpose of the meal right? we had a chocolate+oreo cheesecake that was just sinfully delicious that you couldn't help but get a few more bites. larry was giz & i's saving grace on the cheesecake while juan for my pasta and ice's grilled salmon. it was a fantastic dinner, a bit expensive @ $30 each but overall it was worth it. this trip is really becoming more enjoyable than my other trips.
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my trip is officially extended up until w28. already made arrangements to change the date of my return flight to july 15. that's four more weeks of sun, excellent meals, non-stop english and mingling with the locals. there's at least more time to think about getting a suunto and an oakley. oh yeah!

same old, same old

you know what's funny, i can't really hate you. no matter what you do and how much you hurt me, i can't really hate you. i guess that's what suck cause its easy to write it and talk about it but after a while, i realize that i don't want to hate you, or anybody else for that matter. hate is poison and i don't want to live a poisoned life -much less hate you for a long time. i still think you are one nice person and you are an awesome friend - to other people perhaps but never to me. i guess that's what hurt so much cause i tried hard to give our friendship another chance. i had my doubts before, and i really tried to believe other people's assurances - and that was foolish. i've always had good instincts and could read people pretty well, i should have trusted them but i was really blinded and wanted things to work. it does really look like goodbye now, God knows i wish things were different pero it takes two people to make a friendship work, and i can't do it alone.
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just need joan's final approval, but my trip will be extended by 3 more weeks. so i am going to be staying in AZ until W28 - that's until july 15. first time i'm having my birthday in a foreign land. i really miss my real friends and my family. i miss my nephew so bad.

hate

hate probably is such a strong word to describe how i feel about you right now but there's really no better word for it. I HATE YOU. And this i can say for certain, we are so over and i am going to stop giving you favors, and i am going to stop trying to be friends with you. i don't think you're worth it and despite how good and how great you are to other people, you will never treat me the same way and i am not going to take this crap from you.

i totally deserve better. and you are so not the person i thought you were.

mc'd no more?

dear mcbaby,

being away for the last two weeks in a way made it easy to not think about you so much. i mean i still do wonder what you are doing at times and i do hope that some time you think of me too - pero i think that's not too likely. maybe this trip was meant for me to realize how foolish it is to stay so much in love with you, that if i try hard enough, that i can bring myself back to that stage wherein i was genuinely ok not being so into you. i was really there back then, and when i told people i was over you i meant it. i guess being back here is true testament that at times, we do fall back in between the cracks. i just wanted so much to have something to look forward to, to feel giddy and have that doe-eyed look whenever i see you, or take time finding the clothes you'll say "wow" to and you know, just see how colorful the world really is with you in it.

i guess in the next few weeks, i'd have to make that painful decision of giving you up. same old, same old. i realized that us being friends is never going to work out, and its way past the point i should have moved on. i just can't do it anymore you know; my friends are tired of me professing my eternal love for you. i can say honestly that i may never love someone as much as i have loved you - you will always be that person for me. but i need to do this for me, because i don't know how to handle it when you move on to the next stages of your life.

goodbye mcbaby. this is it.

yuan*

craving for pad thai

i was feeling adventurous last saturday and was craving for some delicious pad thai that i mapquest'd my favorite thai restaurant "malee's" and wrote down the driving directions on paper. now malee's is in downtown scottsdale which is 22 minutes @ 65mph from where i am staying. that's 16miles away so driving that far will be a challenge. well sort of, mapquest gave really good directions and i overshot a turn only once but managed to take a u-turn down the next block and figured where malee's was right on time for lunch.

i've only been to malee's once before and having their pad thai was enough to leave an unforgettable memory on my taste buds. when dawn served my pad thai feast, all diet restrictions left me and i greedily ate all my pad thai down to the last bit of chicken morsel left on the plate. to me, that was still the best pad thai i have tasted - and its even better than the one they serve at pei wei's.

so yeah, i know how to drive to malee's already and i'll probably make another trip down scottsdale before i leave for manila.

bowling & bar hopping friday night

yeah, this is a late post - one which i should have talked about last weekend but i was waiting for some pictures and then i eventually got busy. yeah, you heard me, i got busy. dammit!

jeff sent the invitation to go bowling mid of last week and while i decided to work from the hotel last friday, i was even debating whethere i should pull a no-show at the bowling lanes or socialize with our american & costa rican office friends. i chose the latter. there were a lot of people there (arjun, arun, jeff, mindy, dennis, juanpa, juan, ice, gizzie, and larry) when i arrived and they were rounding up their first bowling set. everybody was playing and it was fun to see gizie gracefully walk the floor and sorta put the ball down and let gravity take its course. of course, i'm exaggerating but you do get the picture. i bowled a 120+ during my first set which was fairly decent considering i haven't bowled in a LONG time. my second set was even better, i managed to bowl 148, highest in my group. i showed them we filipinos could bowl - and that wasn't even tournament worthy! oops, i forgot that in between bowling sets, dennis treated us to pizza which was fatteningly delicious - 2 slices and a lemonade. ok, so some beer on the side.

after bowling, eight of us decided that the night was too young to go home and agreed to go on bar hopping - first check out the bars here in chandler, and then go to tempe. we carpooled at our first stop, zipps, which is a new sports bar in chandler. we all had bud lite at zipps and i was eagerly getting accustomed to its light taste. 2 pitchers after, we went to the next bar, i forgot what it was called but this time, we all had jell-o shots ($2 each) which were a bit too vodka-laden and the jell-o was too aplenty it was difficult to swallow everything in one big gulp. when we got into tempe, we went to another bar - this one, more quiet than the others - no dancing or singing here. the good thing here in the US is that they let you sample the beers! so we had around 6 different beers (small glass of course), this time i did pass having another glass in this bar and just sipped some agua instead. next bar again, after showing our passports, paying the $5 entrance, we danced some, had some bud lite and then later on watched gizzie & mindy battle it out dancing on top of the bar/stage. wow, they were really at it you'd think they were auditioning for "so you think you can dance." gawd, tempe was awesome. lots of goodlookin peeps frolickin' in their crumpled shorts, flipflops and their definitely abercrombish get-up. definite eye-candies. last bar we went too was pretty crowded but it had loud, weird music which we danced to on the floor. mindy called it quits around past midnight so we left ahead of giz, larry, dennis and juanpa.

it felt really good to be able to go out and have a good time for a change. it was actually my first time to go bar hopping in tempe. tempe is hot! peeps were hot too! can't wait to go back and drink some more.

extensions ...?

there's a possibility that my trip is going to be extended. that should be good news right? except that i'm kind of getting bored and lonely here in arizona. i mean there's only so much malling you can do and i've already bought a number of items already. i need to phase my spending.

i miss home. i miss my friends na rin. i miss going to the gym. its kind of boring going to the gym here by myself so so far, i've only gone once hahaha. its getting difficult to figure out what to eat every night - not that there aren't a lot of good restaurants here. Its just that when you're trying to eat less and keep your weight, eating out isn't really that great an option.

and i'm supposed to be back in manila on my birthday. and i miss my nephew so much. i want to go home na. but if i need to extend, i have to be professional about it.

snippets of the last four days

the last four days went by like a breeze i almost didn't feel it passing by. it was probably because i haven't been sleeping well (2-3 hrs in broken hours) since i got here. no, nothing is really bothering me - not mcbaby - its my body clock having a terrible time adjusting to the different timezone.

monday
i slept during the most part of the day whenever i felt like it. it was memorial day and my heart just wasn't ready to go shopping yet. partly because i haven't mapped out how much money i can spend for shopping, and since i'm super OC, i needed to know how much i can afford before i start buying. i'm dying though to buy some clothes - damn!

in the wee hours of the morning, across the globe in asia, the coalition belles were playing their hearts out to win the 2nd game of the championships. unfortunately, the other team this time around proved the better team and took the championships. the team played exceptionally well, not having beaten their opponents during the eliminations & semi-finals, to play the games in its full 5 sets. there's still next year coalition belles, being second this year doesn't mean we lost - it just means we're ready to share the blessing.

tuesday
the face-to-face isn't until tomorrow so coming to work around 9am was no biggie - no boss to hound me on my attendance, let alone my tardiness. well, peeps are way laid back here in AZ that they're not really particular what time you come in or even go. i spent most of the morning catching up with gizzie and then when i was about to start working, mindy dropped by and went non-stop on some f2f topics. it wasn't until guia dropped by to pick me up for lunch that our conversation ended. guia was kind enough to invite me to lunch at her house - beef sinigang and kare-kare. it was kinda weird eating them without rice but i did - i think i'm down to 172lbs now and i was like 180-185lbs last time i checked. hurray!

i watched the 4th game of the NBA playoffs between phoenix suns and the dallas mavericks. phoenix won by 20 points! oh yeah. and raja bell was smokin' hotness!

i stayed out in the wee hours of the morning to await the fate of my volleyball comrades as they battled it out for the championship in the last of the best-of-three games. like a repeat of last year's tournament where i missed out the last deciding championship game, my team won! i guess everybody stepped up and played exceptionally well to win the championship. or it can probably be angelo "bertud" taylo's unbelievable luck that swayed the game in our favor. just the same, congratulations.

pedro - finally, after 5 tournaments, nag-champion ka din! coming to our team was really one of the best decisions you made.

baby bro - we did it! yeah, we still have it!

emong - are we still keeping count of how many championships we won?

dj - champion na naman tayo, 2nd year in a row! one more and three-peat na! hahaha

obong - man, you are the best sweeper, hands down!

ja-mes - you are one of the most sipag players around. you toss well most of the time and you really know how to read the game - galing ng mga placing mo!

wednesday
the face to face was quite interesting, there were indeed a lot of controversial topics to cover. for most of the discussions, they actually made sense in a way except for the whole aggregation discussion. i am not belittling or criticizing cristina's work, i think she did a good proposal, its the overall concept of doing aggregation that i don't agree on. i don't think that solves the problem - granted it simplifies the analysis process, although superficially, it won't guarantee we resolve the issues of management. i agree that the key is to simplify the data inputs but at the same time, ask ourselves, are we providing the IE's with the right reports for them to understand what is happening to their capacities?

jessica sent out a dinner invitation but i couldn't go because i had to meet with my boss. dam'mit! i went to the gym instead after the meeting hoping to tire myself well enough to get sleep in one continuous block - to no avail. again, dam'mit!

thursday
2nd day of the face-to-face, usual really lengthy discussions. blah blah blah. boring to speak of it again. it was educational and interesting in some parts but yeah, i am one of those people who have a hard time with monotony.

after work, we went to tempe to a sports bar called "mcduffy's" which was packed by the way by peeps hanging out to watch the 5th game of the playoffs between the suns and the mavericks. the game was awesome right before the final 10mins where phoenix sucked. damn you dallas!!! damn you!!! while i'm not really a NBA fan, i was having fun watching the game. we were all cheering wildly whenever the suns managed a shot, or tied the game, or lead the ballgame. damn, i am such a boy sometimes!

in between drinks (like chugging on the beer), we waited for an hour and we never saw the waitress assigned to our table but we did place our order by the bar. gizie sweet-talked the manager about it and when we got our bill, the orders we placed ahead were free. That was like $30 off the bill. Winner!

so anyway, its 341am now, but i did catch up on zzzzz's a bit earlier and i'm going to work from the hotel later. by the way, phoenix lost. saturday's game is going to be fantastic. now if only i can get tickets ... probably 0% chance. damn.

tomorrow - we're going bowling.