In response to Prime-time gal Noemi's tag, here are tidbits about me that relate to beauty and fashion.
I am a late adopter of fads and style. I began to wear the mini when it was on the way out and then I so liked it that I continued to wear it well into two pregnancies. It also took a while before I went for shoulder pads; I still wear them now -- when nobody else ever does -- and am sworn to wear them till death do us part. I love scooped necklines but not when it plunges even one bit. So I sometimes wear my blouses baligtad because the backside is more hapit sa chest. When some of my friends have the temerity to ask why I am wearing clothes back side front, I just say I am starting a trend. But nobody has picked it up. Why kaya? I hate going to a beauty parlor. I am peeved when someone not my son or daughter calls me "mother." I hate being asked who did my hair last as though the person who did deserved to die. As a result, I have usually gone "do-it-myself" for manicure, pedicure and hair coloring. I have even tried perming my own hair. I have worn my hair in its current style for a good part of three decades -- the reason why my old friends still recognize me through thick and thinning hair. (By the way, my daughter cuts my hair and may be cajoled to do my nails too). I am devoted to brands and shades. I have seen Kanebo foundation rise in price from P50 to P550. When my Kokuryu "Passionate Red" lipstick was phased out, I wrote the manager thrice to put it back or at least run a batch for me even if it meant buying a hundred sticks that would last seven lifetimes. I was about to mount a rally at the Kokuryu factory when mercifully, I found a comparable shade of red in the Revlon line. I am perfectly okay with two pairs of footwear, two handbags, and no jewelry. I have never gone to a gym nor undergone professional facial, skin peeling, wart removal, botox, eyelift or similar procedure. And the only time I had a professional make-up done on me was on my wedding day. I am threatening to go through all these next year for my high school reunion, as I am batting for Homecoming Queen. Out of topic ... I also like to write memes with tongue in cheek. I tag anyone and everyone who might wish to share his or her fashionista secrets.
Showing posts with label memes/chain blogs. Show all posts
Showing posts with label memes/chain blogs. Show all posts
Friday, June 22, 2007
Friday, June 15, 2007
Your Royal Weirdness or Mine?
Name six ways you are weird, my friends Chateau of imomonline and Dine of D-spot, ask me. It should have been a breeze to answer because behaving weirdly is one of the few things I do best. The only trouble was how to choose six among my hundred and one.
Lemme see. Where do I begin?
1. I am the most ligawin person in the world, and this hasn't remotely to do with being attractive to suitors unless you'd want to include young men (and women) who call up almost daily with propositions for yet another credit card deal or internet service. I am so ligawin I still lose my way around the UP campus after 30 years working there. I am so ligawin I'd enter the main door of an unfamiliar office, transact my business, and then try to let myself out through the door of the company President's room. I am so ligawin that when I eat out, I can get lost going back to my group's table from the comfort room of a biggish restaurant.
2. I am a compulsive mirror looker. I am drawn to anything that reflects my face -- including jeepney side mirrors, car windows, computer screens, the rounded side of spoons. My favorite gazing surface is the pupil of another person's eye or the shiny tip of his nose. Lately, however, I get more and more depressed when I look. I wonder why?!
3. I don't watch television -- unless it shows Philippine Idol, American Idol, or reruns of Meteor Garden and the Erap impeachment trial.
4. I don't eat breakfast and am constantly surprised my family expects me to cook it when our maid is away. My appetite is nil in the morning, begins to stir at lunch, perks up at dinner, and goes on a rampage at midnight.
5. I can't stand long telephone calls. After 30 minutes on the phone, my inner firewall goes up and I no longer hear. My ears begin to buzz, my eyes glaze, my responses reduced to soundbites like "uhmm," "aha," and "talaga." When at last, the voice at the other end thanks me for being such a good friend and listener, it's all I can do to keep me from hanging myself by the telephone cord.
6. I can't small talk. Put me in the company of people I don't know and I wouldn't know how to strike up a conversation, unless they'd want to listen to a discussion on why Hitler went to heaven. Maybe they sense this, so they give me wide clearance.
Katuwaan! Fun time! If you think you could get any weirder than me in my No. 1 (the ligawin thingie), I dare you to show me up with your own quirkiest. A surprise prize if you can beat me at being royally weird. We need an unbiased judge of course -- the first to volunteer gets it. The judge gets a keepsake, too, of course.
Note for the Non-Filipino reader:
The Pilipino word ligaw has two meanings: (1) courtship or love suit and (2) to be lost, not to know the direction. So ligawin can mean either (1) someome who is attractive to suitors; or (2) someone who has no sense of direction.
CONTEST UPDATE:
As of June 18, 1:00 a.m., we got a judge, Chesca (ex-skindiver) and six challengers: Chateau, Jigs , Evi, Sexy Mom , Richmond, and Jerry, an offline friend.
Lemme see. Where do I begin?
1. I am the most ligawin person in the world, and this hasn't remotely to do with being attractive to suitors unless you'd want to include young men (and women) who call up almost daily with propositions for yet another credit card deal or internet service. I am so ligawin I still lose my way around the UP campus after 30 years working there. I am so ligawin I'd enter the main door of an unfamiliar office, transact my business, and then try to let myself out through the door of the company President's room. I am so ligawin that when I eat out, I can get lost going back to my group's table from the comfort room of a biggish restaurant.
2. I am a compulsive mirror looker. I am drawn to anything that reflects my face -- including jeepney side mirrors, car windows, computer screens, the rounded side of spoons. My favorite gazing surface is the pupil of another person's eye or the shiny tip of his nose. Lately, however, I get more and more depressed when I look. I wonder why?!
3. I don't watch television -- unless it shows Philippine Idol, American Idol, or reruns of Meteor Garden and the Erap impeachment trial.
4. I don't eat breakfast and am constantly surprised my family expects me to cook it when our maid is away. My appetite is nil in the morning, begins to stir at lunch, perks up at dinner, and goes on a rampage at midnight.
5. I can't stand long telephone calls. After 30 minutes on the phone, my inner firewall goes up and I no longer hear. My ears begin to buzz, my eyes glaze, my responses reduced to soundbites like "uhmm," "aha," and "talaga." When at last, the voice at the other end thanks me for being such a good friend and listener, it's all I can do to keep me from hanging myself by the telephone cord.
6. I can't small talk. Put me in the company of people I don't know and I wouldn't know how to strike up a conversation, unless they'd want to listen to a discussion on why Hitler went to heaven. Maybe they sense this, so they give me wide clearance.
Katuwaan! Fun time! If you think you could get any weirder than me in my No. 1 (the ligawin thingie), I dare you to show me up with your own quirkiest. A surprise prize if you can beat me at being royally weird. We need an unbiased judge of course -- the first to volunteer gets it. The judge gets a keepsake, too, of course.
Note for the Non-Filipino reader:
The Pilipino word ligaw has two meanings: (1) courtship or love suit and (2) to be lost, not to know the direction. So ligawin can mean either (1) someome who is attractive to suitors; or (2) someone who has no sense of direction.
CONTEST UPDATE:
As of June 18, 1:00 a.m., we got a judge, Chesca (ex-skindiver) and six challengers: Chateau, Jigs , Evi, Sexy Mom , Richmond, and Jerry, an offline friend.
Monday, June 4, 2007
I was interviewed! Do you wanna be, too?
It is nice to find oneself, at the opposite end of an interview – for once, or twice.
So I told Noemi I wanted to be interviewed when she asked. (This is actually some sort of mutated meme – passed on to Noemi , in turn to me … thence to you! )
Here are the questions Noemi sent me:
1. A a blogger you have been described as bubbly, perky, funny, quirky. How do your real life friends describe you? Is there a difference between your online and real life persona? – Bubbly , perky, funny are what I have always wanted to be but am not but which I could fake online because of all the editing and re-editing opps blogging allows. So what starts off as ‘corny” can be worked out to be “funny.” I don’t think anyone ever goes about wanting to be quirky. So I guess I really do have more than my fair quota of quirks, most of them innocuous. I suppose if you ask my real world friends, they might say I am someone who tries and occasionally succeeds to be funny, bubbly and perky. But they would also probably say that I can be moody and quiet and mahirap ispelengin (quirky na nga) and they might excuse that for my being “a writer.” 2. A frequently-asked question when I used to work in your office was “what is the best business that I can start?” Are you often asked that question, and what is your response or advice? I handle communication and publication there and so, yes, I am constantly asked that question. So I have more or less put together an answer that often disappoints those who ask. I tell them: IT DEPENDS. Depends on who they are (their training, experience, interests) and where they are (the resources and market that exists in a given province, city, or town). When is also relevant – which refers to the state of the economy , the quickness of responding to opportunities, and all that blah. (For more on this, you might wish to check my new site, http://plugging4smallbusiness.com/. And that, my friends, is a stealthy infomercial.) 3. If you had the magical power to concoct a potion for the “joints beginning to creak” or the newly old, what would that be? Explain your concoction in detail. Hmmmm lemme see … I have all these on my dresser, in various stages of unuse, compliments of well meaning friends and relatives : a jar of Oil of Olay, a bottle of Riche Creme, packets of emu oil, and a pint of virgin coconut oil. I guess I’d mix them all together and pray hard over the resulting concoction. and ask those who will use it to pray as hard, too -- before they discover a fine print that says it probably won’t work. And I am not contradictory, just quirky. 4. You say “Pinoys are easy to spot (in online scrabble). They like to use give-away names. What Pinoy (scrabble) name would you choose or suit you? I have used “Pipinay” and “Anamanila” before, so these are out because I am also quirky in the sense I don’t wanna repeat myself. Hmmm … maybe “‘Kakabakaba” (contracted into Kkbkb) for what I used to feel when I played scrabble or ‘Bababa-ba” (Bbbb) for the direction my scrabble rating tends to take these days. 5. What is the most memorable word formed in a scrabble game which gave you the highest score ever? Hmmm ... and I thought no one would ask me this question while I still walk the earth. I formed ‘HAWKINGS” sometime last year for 213 points! It is a double triple word and a bingo (plus 50 points), with the K on a double letter, an A (APE) already in place. I almost fainted when I saw how much it was worth and I think my opponent did faint for a minute.
Noemi’s e-mailed interview questions concluded with “Enjoy!” Did I?
Well, I had a draft within the half hour of starting it, as I chuckled and my chair teetered
Now, do YOU want to be interviewed? I promise interesting, "very you” questions – almost as interesting and “very me” as the set Noemi made for me. Interview rules:1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someoneelse in the same post.5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
So I told Noemi I wanted to be interviewed when she asked. (This is actually some sort of mutated meme – passed on to Noemi , in turn to me … thence to you! )
Here are the questions Noemi sent me:
1. A a blogger you have been described as bubbly, perky, funny, quirky. How do your real life friends describe you? Is there a difference between your online and real life persona? – Bubbly , perky, funny are what I have always wanted to be but am not but which I could fake online because of all the editing and re-editing opps blogging allows. So what starts off as ‘corny” can be worked out to be “funny.” I don’t think anyone ever goes about wanting to be quirky. So I guess I really do have more than my fair quota of quirks, most of them innocuous. I suppose if you ask my real world friends, they might say I am someone who tries and occasionally succeeds to be funny, bubbly and perky. But they would also probably say that I can be moody and quiet and mahirap ispelengin (quirky na nga) and they might excuse that for my being “a writer.” 2. A frequently-asked question when I used to work in your office was “what is the best business that I can start?” Are you often asked that question, and what is your response or advice? I handle communication and publication there and so, yes, I am constantly asked that question. So I have more or less put together an answer that often disappoints those who ask. I tell them: IT DEPENDS. Depends on who they are (their training, experience, interests) and where they are (the resources and market that exists in a given province, city, or town). When is also relevant – which refers to the state of the economy , the quickness of responding to opportunities, and all that blah. (For more on this, you might wish to check my new site, http://plugging4smallbusiness.com/. And that, my friends, is a stealthy infomercial.) 3. If you had the magical power to concoct a potion for the “joints beginning to creak” or the newly old, what would that be? Explain your concoction in detail. Hmmmm lemme see … I have all these on my dresser, in various stages of unuse, compliments of well meaning friends and relatives : a jar of Oil of Olay, a bottle of Riche Creme, packets of emu oil, and a pint of virgin coconut oil. I guess I’d mix them all together and pray hard over the resulting concoction. and ask those who will use it to pray as hard, too -- before they discover a fine print that says it probably won’t work. And I am not contradictory, just quirky. 4. You say “Pinoys are easy to spot (in online scrabble). They like to use give-away names. What Pinoy (scrabble) name would you choose or suit you? I have used “Pipinay” and “Anamanila” before, so these are out because I am also quirky in the sense I don’t wanna repeat myself. Hmmm … maybe “‘Kakabakaba” (contracted into Kkbkb) for what I used to feel when I played scrabble or ‘Bababa-ba” (Bbbb) for the direction my scrabble rating tends to take these days. 5. What is the most memorable word formed in a scrabble game which gave you the highest score ever? Hmmm ... and I thought no one would ask me this question while I still walk the earth. I formed ‘HAWKINGS” sometime last year for 213 points! It is a double triple word and a bingo (plus 50 points), with the K on a double letter, an A (APE) already in place. I almost fainted when I saw how much it was worth and I think my opponent did faint for a minute.
Noemi’s e-mailed interview questions concluded with “Enjoy!” Did I?
Well, I had a draft within the half hour of starting it, as I chuckled and my chair teetered
Now, do YOU want to be interviewed? I promise interesting, "very you” questions – almost as interesting and “very me” as the set Noemi made for me. Interview rules:1. Leave me a comment saying “Interview me.”2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someoneelse in the same post.5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will ask them five questions.
Monday, April 9, 2007
SONGS THAT TUG AND HUG
In the movie Children of a Lesser God, a deaf-mute (played by fiery Marlee Matlin, who didn't have to act the role) asked her talking-hearing lover (played by the magnificent William Hurt) what MUSIC was like.
Otherwise an eloquent, creative teacher who taught speech to hearing-impaired kids, Hurt's character pondered the question reluctantly. Then he closed his eyes, looked up, smiled -- ecstatic. Before long, he was a man gone wild, arms flailing, face contorting -- until he gave up in sheer frustration! He was angry he lacked the body language to explain what music is to his beloved who never heard a sound before.
In that movie, love wasn't able to bridge the chasm between the world of silence and of sound.
This musical tag I have been tugged to do is only for those who reside in the house of sound. It assumes that bloggers hear.
Alas, this assumption is only partly true of this blogger -- who's tone-deaf and can't sing in tune and in rhythm to save her skin. But who nevertheless sings perfectly in her mind (I swear I do!). And who can't imagine how life would be without music and its magic.
And that entitles this blogger, in spite of impairment, to comply with a musical meme from two blog buddies.
Here you are -- Houseband00 and Sassy Mom -- seven songs among so many that hug and tug. Chosen for their power to make me stop (whatever I am doing, including my blogging) and listen with something resembling rapture.
Otherwise an eloquent, creative teacher who taught speech to hearing-impaired kids, Hurt's character pondered the question reluctantly. Then he closed his eyes, looked up, smiled -- ecstatic. Before long, he was a man gone wild, arms flailing, face contorting -- until he gave up in sheer frustration! He was angry he lacked the body language to explain what music is to his beloved who never heard a sound before.
In that movie, love wasn't able to bridge the chasm between the world of silence and of sound.
This musical tag I have been tugged to do is only for those who reside in the house of sound. It assumes that bloggers hear.
Alas, this assumption is only partly true of this blogger -- who's tone-deaf and can't sing in tune and in rhythm to save her skin. But who nevertheless sings perfectly in her mind (I swear I do!). And who can't imagine how life would be without music and its magic.
And that entitles this blogger, in spite of impairment, to comply with a musical meme from two blog buddies.
Here you are -- Houseband00 and Sassy Mom -- seven songs among so many that hug and tug. Chosen for their power to make me stop (whatever I am doing, including my blogging) and listen with something resembling rapture.
- A Case of You by Diana Krall - "I can drink a case of you, baby, and still be on my feet" -- how would you feel if someone drawls that out, throaty-like, to you? I bet you'd swoon!
- Memory (Midnight) by Barry Manilow - Originally a poem by the divine T. S. Eliot. Adapted by Trevor Nunn and set into music by Andrew Lloyd Webber, it became the showstopper song in "Cats" (the musical).
- Spolarium by the Eraserheads - Here Ely Buendia spills out his angst, demanding why this world can be so colorful and yet so broken. I sometimes want to second the motion when he yells "Pwede bang itigil muna ang pagikot ng mundo."
- Kung Ako Na Lang Sana by Bituin Escalante. "Kung ako na lang sana ang iyong minahal, di ka na muling luluha pa" -- the classic story of unrequited love, sung with lilt and catch in the throat by an underrated singer.
- Imagine by John Lennon - A vision of a world that only exists in the mind of Lennon and other dreamers; makes one wanna go down on his knees and weep because it seems so beautiful and ... impossible.
- The Way We Were by Barbra Streissand. When I hear Barbra sing, its almost like hearing the winds whisper, rivers gurgle, trees rustle. What I mean to say is THAT voice is so uncannily like God's.
- Pipikit Ako - written by daughter as theme of her award-winning thesis-film, Pirouette. It is chockful of poignant images I didn't know young people are capable of conjuring. You might say it's a biased choice, but hey, listen: "Pipikit ako, pipikit at magpapatihulog. Tutuksuhin ng hangin ang tastas ng aking paldang lumalagpas sa gilid ng bato. Nais kong lumangoy sa kawalan, lumangoy sa kawalan. Pipikit ako't sisisid sa karagatan ng mga bisig mo. Pipikit ako't sisisid sa karagatan, sa nalalabing karapatan ko. Nakabukas man o sarado ... Pagkatapos, sasabak ang aking katawan sa kawalan. Bahala na kung ano ang makita pagbukas ng aking mga mata. Mga matang nakapikit, nagpupumilit sumilip. Ooooh pipikit ako't sisisid ... pipikit, sisisid ooooh."
Now let's see, what seven songs tug and hug you -- Sheilamarie, Mari, Gina, Chateau, Myepinoy, Prab, and Ladycess!?!
Notes:
1. Translation of "Pipikit" for the non-Pinoy reader :
I will close my eyes, close my eyes and freefall into the wind, teasing the tattered hemline of my dress thence into the void. I dive into the never ocean of your arms -- unsure if it would catch me or let me fall. I will close my eyes and swim the shallow pool of what remains of my right to your love. Then I will open my eyes to espy the truth -- happy or sad. Before then, I will close my eyes and dive into the never ocean of you ... close my eyes and dive, close my eyes , ooooh ..."
2. Image: from the Piroutte DVD cover.
3. Suggested links: Dimaks shared http://www.musicovery.com
channel (all genres) in his blogsite -- cool. Try also http://www.tristancafe.com for original pinoy music -- you can listen to Ako na lang sana and Spolarium here.)Friday, February 2, 2007
A Curious Meme: page 123
I would have wanted to say this taggee owed the tagger one and so the taggee was obliged to comply with the meme. That would have sounded so cool . But honestly, this taggee is still tickled pink to be tagged and to tag. Which she hopes you will all take to mean she's really still a newbie even after five weeks of blogging and three memes tucked up under her. In fact, she wishes she will never get jaded, will never make it to highschool. This one doesn't mind staying in grade 10 section 10 row four forever.
Nevertheless, there is still that squiggly, itchy question. What's the point to this meme? Hindi ko talaga gets. Well, maybe if virtue is for virtue's sake and beauty is its own excuse for being ... some meme is for ..... aw shucks ... let's just do it. Anyway, sabi nga ni tagger Prab, madali lang naman.
Let me see, the meme simply asks that we:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Then turn to page 123.
3. Mark the fifth sentence. Pick up the next three sentences and post. (In other words, post sentence nos. 6-8 on page 123.)
4. Acknowledge the book and the author.
5. Tag 3 people in turn.
Picked up those instructions from memory. I hope I didnt distort any. On second thoughts, why not distort some ha -- according to Wikipedia (thanks, Sajid) a meme mutates as it passes from blogger to blogger.
So, here goes:
" His name was Hugh. Kate has never met a Hugh before. How did one name a baby, defenseless, small, and new, Hugh?"
From Alice Walker's Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. (Indulge me to make yabang about Alice Walker -- Pulitzer award winning author of The Color Purple, made into one of the most breathtakingly beautiful movies of all time. Directed by Steven Spielberg lang naman. Featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey lang naman.)
Alice Walker is who I have in my mind when I said (in a blog? in a comment? I can't recall anymore) that at this point of my life, I prefer action that takes place within rather than action that happens without. And that was my alibi for never getting past page 50 of The Da Vinci Code, even as two daughters read it in one or two sittings, ditto 2,500 of my friends , and even as rave reviews made big of DVC, mocking me.
Someday, I will write Alice Walker's praise or that of some other delicious authors like Ayn Rand or Jostine Gaarder or Steinbeck. But for now ... I got to put this meme behind me.
Before I tag the next 'it' I got to come clean: I cheated a little. The book that is right under my nose is "Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0" by Diane Zak left by a son who's self-studying programming on the computer table. I had to skip it because who wants to post "save and run the application" or "control, alt delete." I am afraid Dimaks owns the patent to that?
So I stretched the instructions a little and chose a book that I was currently reading and was getting into my skin. Can anything get closer than that?!
Awright. I now tag:
Rhodora again (ay, baka naman singhap singhap ka na sa meme)
Dimaks (hmmm i hope its not exam week in Japan)
Gibbs (hmmm pansinin kaya? I worked with the guy in a joint project before he joined PDI, but I bet he doesn't know who the heck is anna).
P.S. I will stretch the rules again and tag a fourth one:
Jonnel! (a highschool senior, gifted, as best as i can make him out) - Take it away, Jon.
Nevertheless, there is still that squiggly, itchy question. What's the point to this meme? Hindi ko talaga gets. Well, maybe if virtue is for virtue's sake and beauty is its own excuse for being ... some meme is for ..... aw shucks ... let's just do it. Anyway, sabi nga ni tagger Prab, madali lang naman.
Let me see, the meme simply asks that we:
1. Grab the nearest book.
2. Then turn to page 123.
3. Mark the fifth sentence. Pick up the next three sentences and post. (In other words, post sentence nos. 6-8 on page 123.)
4. Acknowledge the book and the author.
5. Tag 3 people in turn.
Picked up those instructions from memory. I hope I didnt distort any. On second thoughts, why not distort some ha -- according to Wikipedia (thanks, Sajid) a meme mutates as it passes from blogger to blogger.
So, here goes:
" His name was Hugh. Kate has never met a Hugh before. How did one name a baby, defenseless, small, and new, Hugh?"
From Alice Walker's Now Is the Time to Open Your Heart. (Indulge me to make yabang about Alice Walker -- Pulitzer award winning author of The Color Purple, made into one of the most breathtakingly beautiful movies of all time. Directed by Steven Spielberg lang naman. Featuring Whoopi Goldberg and Oprah Winfrey lang naman.)
Alice Walker is who I have in my mind when I said (in a blog? in a comment? I can't recall anymore) that at this point of my life, I prefer action that takes place within rather than action that happens without. And that was my alibi for never getting past page 50 of The Da Vinci Code, even as two daughters read it in one or two sittings, ditto 2,500 of my friends , and even as rave reviews made big of DVC, mocking me.
Someday, I will write Alice Walker's praise or that of some other delicious authors like Ayn Rand or Jostine Gaarder or Steinbeck. But for now ... I got to put this meme behind me.
Before I tag the next 'it' I got to come clean: I cheated a little. The book that is right under my nose is "Programming with Microsoft Visual Basic 6.0" by Diane Zak left by a son who's self-studying programming on the computer table. I had to skip it because who wants to post "save and run the application" or "control, alt delete." I am afraid Dimaks owns the patent to that?
So I stretched the instructions a little and chose a book that I was currently reading and was getting into my skin. Can anything get closer than that?!
Awright. I now tag:
Rhodora again (ay, baka naman singhap singhap ka na sa meme)
Dimaks (hmmm i hope its not exam week in Japan)
Gibbs (hmmm pansinin kaya? I worked with the guy in a joint project before he joined PDI, but I bet he doesn't know who the heck is anna).
P.S. I will stretch the rules again and tag a fourth one:
Jonnel! (a highschool senior, gifted, as best as i can make him out) - Take it away, Jon.
Sunday, January 21, 2007
Thanks or no thanks to blogging
Thanks or no thanks to blogging:
- At the office I am busy busy busy. Between blogging and bookwriting (my real work at the moment), there's no time to lunch (better than Southbeach), gossip (keeps me away from sin), whine (that was one thing I used to do very efficiently). In other words, blogging makes me more -- ahem -- sublime.
- At home, kids are happier. They ask permission to go out in the middle of a blog: I shoo them away. They ask for money in the middle of replying to a comment: I say -- "go get my wallet, take it - take it -- and get outta here."
- I am called -- refreshingly -- a freshie, a newbie by my blogging berks (for the unhip, that's barkada!). Only in this blog-a-day world!
- As a blogger, I have been described -- for a change -- as bubbly, perky, funny, quirky. Now, if they only knew the offline dullard that's me!
- Retirement seems tolerable, even palatable.
There, Pining, don't make hinaing. Short and straight answers in honor of your meme. (Actually, I have to cook sinaing and press some clothes. Sus, nabisto tuloy -- still a maid of honor!)
Now let me pass this meme on to -- let's see --
Noemi (I hope she hasn't been tagged yet!
Kate (why can't I access your blog?)
Sexy Mom (Hwag madala ha?)
Won't breathe till you tell us: five things that happened to you because of blogging.!
Friday, January 12, 2007
Five Well-Kept Secrets Declassified
We were lingering over dinner at Kalye ni Juan -- my amigas and I -- when we got to talking about secrets. We agreed that though we go back many years and trust each other more than anyone else in the world, there are still secrets we keep from each other. Deep, dark secrets. Such as what? Well, we collectively tried to guess what these might be:
loving someone we shouldn't have getting rid of someone we should have kept or (this one amidst giggles) getting a lipo, a face lift or a nose job
When do we take old skeletons out of closets? -- we speculated. Will there be a time they wouldn't shock /embarass anymore? When we get to 60? 70? Beyond? At our deathbeds?
Never, maybe?
And now here comes Toe, high priestess of the kurokuro cult, upperclasswoman of the blogging society, tagging me and two other come-latelies to a meme, daring us to publish -- for anyone who cares to see -- five of our well-kept secrets.
Now, as blogger, I am told I come across as bubbly, funny, game-na-game. Not wanting to spoil this (mis)impression and eager as a beagle to fasttrack my mainstreaming into this cool, kewl society, I have agreed to dare and bare. Well, some.
Let me see. I guess the following secrets may now be declassified:
- Most dastardly secret: I sometimes keep chocolates from my children so I can have them all. I must be the most clever chocolate hider on earth. At first, I was so unimaginative I hid them under the bed. -- but they were soon tracked out. And so I looked for unlikely hiding places: inside a canister labeled "FLOUR," inside the medicine cabinet behind vile-looking bottle of scotch emulsion; on the altar back of Christ the King. Nights, when the pesky ones sleep the sleep of the unknowing, I stealthily rise to take the contraband from its hiding place and take it to bed with me while i read, relishing it morsel by divine morsel. Ah, this is the life, I used to murmur.
- Most aw-shucks secret: I lie to make each kid feel special. As if to neutralize dastardly act No. 1, I am sometimes capable of taking a small, delightful thing (e.g., an apple, a toy, a stationery set, a book) to one child, with an admonitiion to "hush-don't-tell the others-about it- you're-the-only-one- I am giving this too." What he doesnt know is next day or next week, I go to the next child with more or less the same gift, the same script. I like the way a child's face lights up when told he's the special one among so many and being handed a trophy as an evidence of it
- Most unpardonable secret: I read my daughters' diaries. Everyone says this is a no-no, but I can't help it. My excuse: I want to know what's happening in my children's lives -- whether they are happy or troubled." Well, I guess they have learned to live with it. While I was at it one day, straining to read my bunso's deliberately disfigured handwriting, I suddenly came across a line, all caps, boldface: "HI, MOM. I KNOW YOU'RE READING THIS. ENJOY! :) " Yup, my bonch is a brat.
- Most criminal secret: I plagiarized unabashedly. In high school, I drooled over my dad's letters to my mom -- sent from La Union where he was based for a time. He would be particularly sappy on Valentine's Day with lines like: "The pivotal truth, the all-consuming truth is that I love you. Yes, you, to whom I am the best even at my worst." And so when my class had to write an essay that December on Mother's Day, Teacher singled out my piece, reading out aloud the best part of what I wrote: "Yes, you, my beloved mother, to whom I am the best even at my worst." She ended with "very good, very promising" as a the young girl that was me beamed, blissfully unaware of intellectual property rights.
- Latest secret: I was a Philippine idol fanatic. I spent a small fortune e-voting for Jan, for Mau, for Pao. And this was how I met Noemi and her blogs , so I could root for my idols. And the rest, as the cliche goes, is history.
There you go, Toe, your meme accomplished with five secrets unleashed. Not deep dark and shocking, though. But teenyweeny, cutesy, the color of honey.
Well, Toe, I got crimson-colored secrets, too. But you're not old enough for them. :)
Now, whom shall I tag?
Your turn.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Stat Counter
