weekend wonderland

the weekend began as early as friday when i had to slip out for a couple of hours to take my mom and nephew to sm bicutan for some halloween costume shopping. mom was bringing jacob to a trick or treat event at her past office - its nice that she still gets invited even after she has retired already. we quickly snag jacob a sort of roman soldier costume but for some reason, he didn't want to try it on. later on, we'd realize that he's not going to put it on despite our prodding. after a quick bite at wendy's, jacob was pulling us to go where the carousel was and we ended up giving him a ride on the carousel and on the moving animals. i'm really amazed how fast my nephew is growing up and how he can form all of these sentences already. he still gets "bulol" at times but he is able to recognize a lot of things and signs and symbols and associate them. i always feel happy whenever i see my nephew's eyes light up because of excitement and sheer joy. it would be good to feel that way - to feel happy with the small things and small joys in life but as we grow older, we tend to make things (and life) more complicated.

i was not really up to partying friday night but since juan and phil was in town, i felt that it would not be proper to not spend time with them. we dined at cafe havana where the food, that was just so-so, was overpriced. i took a mental note never to dine in that yuck restaurant again - ever. we sat down at absinth right after, had better bottled san mig light, some sisig and when trixy got there, we both ordered the green fairy which was a mixture of absinthe and something. yeah, absinthe was the drink in the movie "moulin rouge." it didn't really tasted as good as we expected and it must have been the light but it was more blue than green. we both didn't really feel it that quickly but i think that was what kept my head spinning on the way home. i had to leave sometime past midnight since i had been awake for 23 hours already and had whole-day school the next day. mental note #2 - try not to drive again when uber groggy.

nothing much on a saturday. school was uber boring. i missed out on jesse's wedding (bummer!). bought a lot of dvd's which shoots up my backlog to like 150+ hours (series' included). managed to download a good copy of "superman returns" and load it up my ipod. did i say i love my ipod? ok, i love my ipod. hahaha

i was planning on spending sunday doing some ems work but friend d called up from the airport (just got back from hk) and invited me to watch a movie. we ended up seeing "the prestige" at rockwell. the movie was dark and twisty but both hugh jackman and christian bale delivered very good performances as battling magicians. i would have preferred to seeing a lighter film that didn't require so much attention but this film was satisfyingly enjoyable. i can't wait for hugh jackman's "wolverine" movie and while i enjoyed the x-men movies, i have to say i am fairly disappointed how far they have taken the story away from the comic books. and having been an avid fan of the x-men for a good number of years, i must say i hated it. christian bale is also set to reprise his role as the dark knight in the sequel to "batman." i actually liked christian way back when he starred in "newsies" which was a really good film by the way, and in "swing kids" opposite robert sean leonard (who's now seen in house m.d.). he was a very good actor since then and has been in a few more movies (american psycho, the machinist) that i can't really recall.

surprisingly, a lot of people are already going to the cemetery as early as sunday (see pic). traffic has been moving quite slow already that i can't decide whether to visit my dentist (to get the fracking wires cut off and adjusted) or go to the gym tonight. i guess considering that the holiday this week is only on nov 1 (wednesday) itself, people do not want to tire themselves so much and come back to work immediately the next day. i need to go and visit abet since i my plans got sidetracked to visit him during his death anniversary when i had to bring my nephew to the hospital. i owe him a visit - i just need to figure out how to weather through the traffic since i'm not a very patient guy. maybe i can just bike my way through on wednesday.

i still haven't adjusted going back from my US trip. 7pm still feels like bedtime and 12MN wake-up time. i thought the friday night partying will reset my body clock but i guess i was wrong. i probably will take some sleeping pills on tuesday night - after my group meeting.

sidebar : update on the gift buying plans - so far the US trip screwed up my plans on visiting the bazaars. i have some catching up to do except that the next two weeks is going to be uber busy with both work and school (yeah, dam'it!).

see you soon elmers

it was elmers last official visit to intel cv yesterday - going one last time to work on his clearance and submit some documents. elmer helped build CV1, or at least the layout part of it. it is ironic that elmers and i never (maybe barely) even spoke in college and somehow in the last 9 years we became good friends. back in college, we actually moved in different groups and pursued different interests. lea was the only person i was friends with that was really friends with elmers. i guess maybe it was our mutual love and spending for technology. or maybe it was through our shared experiences in having lea as a boss back then - our pet peeves and our issues that helped us forge a friendship. i am glad to be friends with elmers and his family, they're very good people - maasahan mo financially (though lately, it seemed it was the other way around between us ... oist, you still owe me!), everyday ka-IM at YM (alternate or sabay pa minsan, la kasi ginagawa), kakunchaba (sa MOA gimiks) at ka-gossip on the stuff that matters.

elmers & his family is moving to sydney tonight. can you believe it elms? it was our well-kept secret months ago, clandestinely talking about it (with a new blog pa about it) and now hopefully your family's dreams are coming true. the only consolation here is that i get free food, board & lodging when i step into sydney in the future. i will surely miss our daily chats particularly on our next big purchases (dslr's, macs, ipods, cars ... and the list goes on), company chika's, you asking me how much i earn? how much ang bonus? and asking me "pautang?" hahaha hey don't forget na we need to set up a "raket" ha? we both need the extra money di ba? wala pa tayong mac (imac or macbook ba?) e. elmers, i am going to miss you friend. good luck.

sidebar : try to blog more often via ur multiply or ur blogger. post pictures. keep us updated.

the agony of a canceled flight

everything is a little fuzzy now but i think it was around 820am (boarding time) when the ground crew announced that the flight was going to be delayed with an etd of 935am because of the weather conditions in LA. so i just tried to wait it out listening to my ipod tunes until around 945am or so when they announced that the flight has been officially canceled. bummer #1. it was my first time to have a canceled flight so i diligently fell in line when the ground crew asked us to if we had questions. it was after waiting for 20mins or so when a guy one person ahead of me asked what will happen to his international connecting that he was pointed to another booth. bummer #2. so i patiently left that area and went to the US Airways customer service wherein there were i think 10 people ahead of me with 4 service crew active - i thought "hmmm not bad, this wouldn't take long." i was dead wrong, each person took like 30-to-45-to-60 minutes to be serviced and i waited in that line for one hour and a half just to be told that (1) the earliest they can re-book me is at 1040am flight tomorrow; (2) i can be an standby for the flight tonight (but everybody is on standby); and (3) they're not going to rebook my cathay pacific flights and will not even shoulder if there are additional penalties since the weather is beyond their control. bummer #3. i asked for the number for cathay pacific and wow, i couldn't believe that since it was a sunday, there was literally NO ONE who can assist me from Cathay Pacific. i even opened my laptop then to check the cathay pacific website for any other number, zilch. bummer #4. so i ended up calling gizie and she gave me the number for american express travel which i called via my mobile phone (hahaha i didn't care about the roaming charges anymore) and they couldn't pull-up my file and while they were quite helpful, they couldn't do anything. useless travel agency. bummer #5. so i just proceeded to the baggage area to reclaim my luggages where the girl promptly told me it will take probably 45-60mins and i should just get lunch first - i didn't even realize it was already past noon that time. i settled for some whopper and fries at burger king and logged in to my laptop while i was eating. when i got back, she inquired about my luggages and it turns out they made it through to LA already. bummer #6. i think she felt sorry for me so she went and just gave me an overnight kit (containing toothbrush, deodorant, etc) and $75 discount certificate valid for one year (which i later on gave to gizelle). i decided to just proceed to the rental car building where i was shocked to see that there were like twenty people on line at hertz. it was another 30-45mins of waiting before i managed to get to the counter and the guy told me they only had mini-vans left. at this time i didn't even care how much the freakin' minivan cost so i just gave him my drivers license and amexco.

i met up with larry & gizelle at teakwoods where they were hanging out watching the football games where it turns out larry is a big fan of the denver broncos and i quite liked the arizona cardinals because matt leinhart is an awesome & ruggedly handsome quarterback. we went back to their house around 5pm where i managed to log in and i sent a note to my managers if i could buy some clothes. good thing i had a piece of clean undies on my carry-on (i was planning to take a shower at the lounge in HK when i got there). i didn't even wait for a reply back and just went to chandler fashion mall and bought 2 shirts at hollister - hahaha beat that! it was good that the travel agency back home (cavite) managed to rebook all of my flights so i am traveling on the night flight for cathay tomorrow. larry, gizie and i went to oregano's for dinner that night down in tempe where we waited for about 45mins to get a table. we had bread, salad and a pizza and the awesome pizza cookie (which i love so much).

when we got home, i was dead beat. it was then i realized that i didn't catch any major sleep last night so when i hit the sack, it was complete lights out for me.

sidebar : i sent my professor an email that i probably will not be able to make the midterms on wednesday just because my flight is just arriving that day. hopefully he is going to reply to my email or else i am going to die that day.

and the wait begins

i'm sitting by the gate waiting patiently for my flight to LA, half-asleep and half-awake at the same time. its 722am and my flight isn't until 852 - there's not a lot of people at the airport at this time. i prefer to sit here listening to my ipod play out senti tunes. having had little sleep last night, i feel groggy and exhausted right now. good thing the half slab of texas roadhouse i wasn't able to finish last night tasted as good this morning. if only i have my half-pint of haagen dazs butter pecan right now, waiting here would be perfectly comfortable. i wonder what people would think if i just lay down on top of these chairs here - they're not exactly comfortable but hey, times like these, they're better than nothing. leaving chandler always feels like i'm leaving home which is a bit weird considering that i feel exactly the same way whenever i leave manila. well who said you can't make homes in both sides of the world right?

while thinking of what title to put for this entry, i suddenly remembered mcb. yeah, mcb's chapter is ending - i guess it was forthcoming and i always knew it was only a question of when. i am really going to miss mcb. i'm counting down the days ...

loving the good stuff

giz, larry, ice, cherry, agnes and i had dinner last night at the cheesecake factory. it was a good thing cause i can't can't come and visit chandler without dining at the cheesecake factory. over the course of my two-week stay, i've visited chili's, pf changs, elephant bar, malee's, grazie, the cheesecake factory and tonight will be texas roadhouse. of course i also did a round of my fave fast food places panda express (i love this!), kfc and in-n-out. last night however, the cheesecake factory was packed with lots of people waiting to be seated. we didn't really wait that long for a table, around one bud-lite which i think i downed too quickly. as soon as we placed our order, agnes and i hurried over the apple store where she picked up her 30GB Ipod-Video and i managed to snag my uber cool-looking ipod rubber casing. i think my ipod looks hawt!!!

the food was already served when we got back and my thai chicken pasta never looked so amazing. it went well with the bud lite but i managed to gobble up only 1/4 of it since i already had half a pint of butter pecan from haagen dazs (insert sigh here!). fat - fat - fat - alright!!! everyone's food actually tasted excellent and i wasn't even sure if we had room for dessert. we finaly gave in to having three cheesecakes and they were all regrettably good that we had to finish most of it. ahhh, i love cheesecakes, and carrot cake (speaking of which i haven't had the delicious carrot cake from wildflower and bread at the mall). dinner was really good i was ready for bed when i got back to the hotel. i managed to catch portions of battlestar galactica's show that night and i have to say again, its one of the best sci-fi shows i've seen - ang galing!

need to find it back again

sometime when i moved to jt's group during the reorg a year and a half back, i somewhat slowed down a bit. the work was different, it did have its challenges but mostly after i've managed to reorganized everything it was smooth sailing from there. i had a lot of time on my hands and while i relished being able to breathe in nine years, it feels somehow that i lost some of the edge, and the drive for competition. i still do exceptionally well i suppose to have been handed a program manager job - and i look at it as a step-up since i seemingly now is at par with the other managers who got pm jobs as well. sometimes i miss working in the factory - the daily grind, the yosi breaks (i'm officially a year nicotine free, not that i've ever been addicted), the challenge of it all. it was stressful yes, but it did keep my brain on its toes. with this new job, i really need to find it again - the edge, the drive and commitment to succeed. the team who is working for me expects a lot from me, and while i know they seem cordial, i know there is still some doubt there. i have faith though and i know that that in itself is enough to weather me through.

winding down

my trip is winding down. these days i don't know if days go by faster or they drag on - but one thing i know is that i can't wait to get back home. i'm missing a lot from school already and its going to be midterms next week. there's so much stuff i need to read for school. this trip was actually one of the more busy trips this year and i feel like there is a huge burden on my shoulders right now with this ems project. sometimes i don't know if the challenge scares me but i've been quite emotion-deficit the past months. life has been good to me in general, probably not so much in the love zone, but i can say i been showered with a lot of blessings. i try to focus on those things these days - putting mcb on the backseat. "i'm fine. or its fine." is my usual retort whenever friends ask me how i feel about mcb and mcb's decisions of late. sometimes when i'm alone, the realization of never seeing mcb again haunts me - and it feels like soon there's going to be this big hole that will be difficult to fill. but what's important is that mcb's happy - and that is the only thing that matter.

i feel sad that the once fun and outgoing office barkada has changed so much the past year that it doesn't feel like home anymore. maybe we all got tired already of trying to make it work - bridging and trying to keep the friendships alive while we try and take a hold of our busy lives. nowadays, i try to just think how lucky i was to have met so many wonderful people. and i find comfort in that.

am i a shopaholic?

so i did say that i wasn't going to buy a lot of stuff (clothes, shoes, whatevers) during this 2-week trip but somehow i ended up with a few more things that i wanted to avoid. i went to DSW just to tag along morgan who was trying to find some hiking shoes and i ended up seeing a white adidas samba that left me craving for it until the next day that i finally gave in and bought it. and since i was in an unusually "shoppery" mood, i decided to check out some of my favorite stores - old navy, gap, hollister and abercrombie & fitch. i must have been on lucky streak since i even managed to buy really good bargains out of the tommy hilfiger store in arizona mills. and just so you know, i got two uber nice shirts at the kids section of hilfiger (size "L" fits me). i also got a nice yellow-jacket from hilfiger at $20 bucks - it was such a bargain i was elated the whole time. so i got a few shirts from old navy, 2 from tommy, 2 from hollister, 1 from a&f and 1 from american eagle outfitters. oh yeah! and i've decided to get an 30GB ipod+video but i'm still planning to do that in the next couple of days i guess.

if you noticed the stuff i bought, they're very casual. i'm no longer really a big fan of long and short-sleeves shirts these days - kakatamad e! shirts & jeans just look more way cool (at least for me) and i don't have a whole bunch of flat-front pants to go match with my shirts --- pag sinipag ako, i'll start shopping for some "yuppie" and semi-formal clothes. shopping is therapy that's why i guess i love it so much.

*this blogging about stuff shopped is patterned after "dose of x" who is a co-shopping addict.

Friday Night Lights

we went to tempe friday and had dinner at monti's feasting on some free nachos & cheese and some really delicious steak. we had a few bud lites with our steak before we headed to an irish bar where i had a black velvet which turns out to be ginnis beer and champagne. it was quite a new drink but i had no problem downing it. we moved to another bar after where we had a few more bud lites and later on through prodding we did two shots - first of something that somewhat resembled gin pomelo (hahaha) and another chocolate cake (didn't know that was a drink too). i was quite buzzed when i got home that night.

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Thursday @ Scottsdale

arjun was kind enough to invite jessica, morgan, mindy and i to the dinner for the folks here on training. dinner was at grazie in scottsdale which turns out to be an italian restaurant serving pizza among others. we had a few bottles of red wine to go along with the pizza, the bruschetta, calzone and the yummy kebabs. there were quite a number of folks who attended the dinner and most went to get dessert at sugar bowl. i had a yummy butter pecan ice cream. as others decided to go to some bar (turns out to be martini ranch), i decided to go home early with arjun and mindy cause i was feeling beat.

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Los Dos Molinos

our supposed to be small dinner get together turned out to be a night for margarita as a bunch of travelers here in arizona was game for a night out. it was still wednesday but we were all ready to have a relaxing evening. los dos molinos, it turns out is quite far and secluded but the margarita was actually quite good. i keep forgeting that its really getting cold in chandler when i donned my sleeveless hooded shirt, cargo shorts and flipflops - ugh! it was actually a quite fun night, just a couple of margaritas to keep the blood warm and some mexican food.

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should i or shouldn't i?

i was thinking of getting a more lightweight music player so i was weighing on buying an ipod shuffle. of course, browsing through the web and looking at the ipods, i am actually drawn now to buy either an ipod nano or an ipod video. the 1GB shuffle is perfect for the gym - just clip it and i'm ready to go. besides 240 songs is more than enough for the gym and its $79 only. the ipod nano however can pack more songs with the 2GB at $149. then there's the ipod video, the 30GB is retailing at $249 and by showing my intel ID at the apple store, i get a 6% discount which offsets the tax a bit. the ipod-video actually looked cool playing videos but i was thinking when will i be able to watch the videos on my ipod anyway? a friend also tells me that apple might release a new video ipod with a bigger screen the next year or so. so should i buy for function (video) or need (music)? i have to ask though when the shuffle is coming since i passed by the apple store today and it said there "coming soon." ugh, the agony of wanting and not knowing what to do with my 40GB ipod+photo.

mariah carey live

a friend managed to get tickets to the mariah carey concert last night at US Airways Center and so i was looking forward to seeing mariah perform live. the place was actually packed full and everyone waited patiently while busta rhymes opened up the show. i'm not really a hard fan of street rap but i have to say seeing busta rhymes onstage made me appreciate the hip-hop, rap feel of the songs. i am definitely going to check out his album when i get back in manila next next week.

it was actually another long wait setting up the stage after the opening act but when mariah came out and belted her first song, i was immediately mesmerized. what was great about the concert is that she sang most of her classic favorites like vision of love, always be mcbaby (errr ... my baby pala hahaha), shake it off, i'll be there, dreamlover, fantasy, fly like a bird, hero, its like that, thank God i found you, heartbreaker and for her encore - we belong together. seeing mariah carey live made me realize why i loved her songs so much and why she was such an awesome singer. i was still giddy right after her last number and was humming her songs during the ride home. awesomeness!!!!

back in az

i'm back in az. the weather is actually nice at this time of the year. it can still get hot in the daytime but early evenings is pleasant enough i'm tempted to wear sleeveless. i got in around 7pm last night to the hotel after fifteen hours of flight time (not including the waiting time) and i was pretty beat that i wished i could just get 8-hours of sleep straight. it wasn't hard to doze off after taking a hot shower except that i was awake around midnight. i couldn't sleep back so i did what any abnormal guy would do - i read the EMS materials (hell yeah) and when i couldn't take it anymore, i ironed out my clothes (productive di ba?), burned a couple of cd's for the car (which by the way, i requested for a mid-size at $15 more hahaha. SUV sana pero $50 more e), and then just finally decided to watch episode 2 of battlestar galactica, season 3. BSG is just the best sci-fi show right now i can't wait for the next episode.

the day went by quite fine with me feeling groggy the rest of the afternoon save during the activity sessions. its a miracle i am functioning quite well despite the exhaustion. i suddenly feel homesick right now - i do miss the people back home. i haven't seen ice or migs today since the f2f is in ocotillo. it was nice to see gizie - i missed her a lot. and i can't wait to see larry too. am i ready for the restaurant tour - part 2, hmmm probably hahaha. i can't wait to hang out with arjun, papeco, jessica, mindy and the rest of the gang. gotta have 'em margaritas.

lack of words

i haven't really been up to writing anything in this space for the past few days. it might be the lack of stuff to talk about or i may have been a bit pre-occupied with the need to write two reaction papers to reading articles for my digital technology class. i noticed lately that its getting harder for me to hold on to a thought, i'm always dazed and confused. i probably just have a lot in my head now - what with the upcoming trip and mah head racing to figure out how to study and manage the requirements for the trip at the same time. i gotta bring the damn textbook on sunday -how sad is that? and i got to figure out a way to get the school handouts for warehouse management so i can read through it. my e.m.s knowledge is zero right now and already i have tons of material i have to sort through. pressure.

a few friends at work are really hardset in leaving the company. i feel sad that i probably never see them again but if their decision will make them happy and better off, then i wish them the best. people are just meant for different things. we should go after that which makes us happy.

fortunately for me, i get my kicks from just 2 scoops of vanilla ice cream. and some lemon chicken.