i have to learn how to cook chicken mami by 6 p.m. tom. I've surfed the net and i've come out with this and this. i just hope that they are legitimate good recipes and that my guests don't die on me.

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i also hope that they don't read this and find out i'm experimenting with them tomorrow night.

i am so positively addicted to dewberry.

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false alarm lang yon... of course i'd still blog. it's just that quarter life crisis doesn't sound so appropriate anymore. baka magalit si Lord na crisis pa rin tawag ko sa buhay ko kahit sobrang madami na siyang ginagawa for me.

so, the floor is now open for nominations for a new name for this blog.

am i done with my quarter life crisis?

things have been okay the past few days, nothing to rant about anymore. when i first put up this blog, i was this bitter 25-year-old girl who was sick of her boyfriend (now ex, thank god), sick of her work, and sick of her life in general. i couldn't drive, i hated my job, and looked ugly as hell.

but now, i'm done with all that. the ex and i pretend to be friends now (i mean, really, with the exception of bestest ex, who could be friends with an ex?) and i'm okay with that. my job isn't any better but with two more years of law school and the possibility of actually finishing my thesis within the next two months, it's tolerable. i could drive now (thank god for small miracles) and i'm more independent. i have the martian who loves me a lot, plus my brother and i get along really well these days. and looking into the mirror isn't as bad as it used to be.

life is beautiful.

so you begin to think, is there any more reason to blog?

what was gloria thinking?

read from the news that gloria pleaded with transport groups not to increase their fares but in the same breath commented that the gasoline price increase was just fair.

unleaded gas has increased by 2.19 centavos per liter since i started REALLY driving -- and that was only three months ago. i don't use the car that often and i don't drive long distances but i have felt the increase affect my gasoline budget. i have a feeling it has more than affected those who need gasoline to make a living.

f**k!

thesis adviser just texted me asking if i can defend my master's thesis by march (eek!). told her, april na lang, on the pretense that march is finals time and that i have to work on the apprenticeship sites of my students before vacation.

i have done NOTHING at all ... save for the pachi-pachi stuff i concocted before i was operated on. now it's like i have to present something BIG to her by ten a.m.

darn. should've met with bestest ex* over the weekend so i would have at least something!

*bestest ex, two weeks ago, promised to help me write my thesis in exchange for a trip to sagada the moment i get my first paycheck as a master's graduate.

would buying pink high-heeled slingbacks be considered a splurge?

if yes, then i may have spent too much on a pair of shoes.

15 days na lang birthday ko na.

padala niyo na lang yung mga regalo niyo sa bahay o kaya sa office.

it's valentine's day -- happy valentine's day!!!!

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it's the martian's birthday! greet him for me, will 'ya?

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people have been seriously doubting whether or not i did graduate from UP on account of my not having been to the UP fair EVER! so, last night, i did go to the fair for the first time (with the martian of course!).

now, we're both sporting fake tattoos on our wrists (his on his right, mine on the left). awwww... sentimental blokes.

shallow

a student council that goes by some other fancy name had the brilliant idea of coming up with an 8-page glossy "student update paraphernalia."

point number 1: what does the word "paraphernalia" mean?
a collection of esp. small objects, esp. those needed for or connected with a particular activity
obviously, what they meant to use was pamphlet
a thin book with only a few pages which gives information or an opinion about something

point number 2: why print a "pat-on-the-back" sort of publication that describes one of your projects as "wala, baduy!", "it sucks ... master ko, bulok", and "ang KJ ng master ko!"?

point number 3: as it is, the impression of most people about the school is not quite the way we want it... why bolster that impressions with a council update that features the officers concerning themselves with carpool, hellweek, the varsity teams, and judging from the pictures, a whole lot parties and events which provides them with opportunities to break the staid dresscode?

makes you think sometimes that we haven't been doing our job properly.

no offense, bundi. i hope you understand where i'm coming from.

traffic

when will they finally bring back color coding/odd-even or whatever it is that they call the traffic scheme that they suspended for two weeks?

awful really.

according to one AM station, Mayor Atienza does not mind the new traffic scheme. in fact, in his opinion, if only mmda were to properly enforce the rules than to prey on drivers who didn't know any better, then traffic would be a breeze instead of the pain it is these days.

i totally disagree. in the martian's words, "o. yang kotse sa harap na yan, kung may color coding, nandiyan na tayo. o, ayun pa isa. add to that the cars way up front that we can't even see and you know why we're still in katipunan and not in UP."

point taken.

a dorm open house + take home midterm exams in specpro + relatives visiting = two hours of sleep + a splitting headache

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this is one weekend that sneaked up on me without me even knowing what happened to the rest of the week.

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this is my new phone, thanks to an aunt who was willing to take a year-old 8250 because she found her new phone not to her liking.

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to the curious - you and you - the power shampoo treatment is nice, but no miracles. no major difference that i can see. think of it as a fling: feels great while you're at it, but in the end, you just get screwed.

when the going gets tough, the tough get going.

i, on the other hand, make a mad dash to the nearest parlor.

teacher in civpro, after arriving nearly an hour late, decides to give a quiz. i have read, no question, but not enough to answer a quiz equal to five recitations. after half an hour of squeezing my brains, teacher collected the papers and told us we were free.

ok... no discussion. no way to rectify one's self. darn.

the atrocious green sign of reyes haircutters, together with the big print on the glass plate window that reads "haircut with free shampoo and blowdry 49.99" drew me near. i just had to have a haircut. i entrusted my now nice long hair to a stylist that had bleached blond hair that was turning quite brassy with really dark roots and told him exactly what i wanted: remove the thin layers at the end, keep it below the shoulders, do not cut any more layers except to fix them.

he followed every word. good boy (girl?).

i have never come across any stylist (or blowdry girl) who didn't market a whole slew of services while doing your hair. they suggested a power shampoo treatment (PhP100), hair spa (PhP350), and while we're at it, footspa (PhP250). Since i haven't finished the magazine i was reading (ok, i was still not over that darn quiz), i opted for a power shampoo treatment.

good deal. they spray this minty thing all over your hair, then they scrub it with this round palm brush, then they massage your scalp. i will definitely be back for this treatment.

but what's the deal with the PhP100 charge for the haircut? i was surprised when i was asked to pay a hundred bucks instead of the advertised PhP49.99. apparently, the longer your hair is the more expensive the cut? is it because they use more water to shampoo your hair, more shampoo and conditioner, and more electricity to blowdry it? do they base it on your hair length when you came in or the final hair length. i was too tired to argue. forked over my two hundred bucks, tipped the stylist and the blowdry girl, and left.

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it was a good thing the cut was to my liking. otherwise, i would have raised holy hell.

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i have my hair cut/colored/straightened/treated when i'm happy, sad, excited, broke, rich, depressed, agitated, etc.etc. tpie, my best friend at work, has once commented how evil i was to my hair. unlike her who has a specific stylist and blowdry girl she goes to in david's megamall ALL THE TIME, i would not hesitate to enter that dimly lit parlor filled with gays who had seen better days. one of the best cuts i have ever had was done by this gay guy who seemed one step away from AIDS whose parlor was right beside a beer garden in a dark corner of kalayaan avenue. on the other hand, i have never had a cut in a ricky reyes parlor (ooh. new add with ricky reyes and ruffa in the billboard with the tagline "ang ganda nila". gave me my first laugh of the day) that i kept for more than two days (honest). i've always thought, what the heck, it'll grow back.

except that there's this comment that keeps coming back to me: when you cut your hair rosa, like felicity, you always run the risk of losing in the ratings scale. (his evidence? he does not turn to look at me as often as he did in freshman law when i had long hair)