Les Miserablés

So today anak and i went to see the movie Les Mis. I am happy to report that I did not have to drag, bribe or coerce her into seeing it with me. Lucky me!

So, because Les Mis seems to be the best movie of the year (unless they do Miss Saigon), i have to process all my thoughts and make sure i record them for posterity:

1. I wonder what kind of bread Valjean stole? Wheat bread? Italian bread? Pandesal?

2. What would the "i dreamed a dream" scene be like if fatine had lost her 2 front teeth?

3. For some reason, Hugh singing the contents of Marius' letter reminded me of Ate Helen. Vela.

4. Injured Marius was dragged across murky waters,fell down the sewer and had this face covered by mud--and yet he survived beautifully well. Talk about lucky.

5. Does love at first sight really happen?

6. I feel for Eponine. Masyadong masikip ang belt ng damit nya.

7. Were the hookers during the 18th century really that filthy?

8. That scene where Anne appeared as an angel to Valjean threw me off-guard. Naging fanta-serye?

9. Who was driving Valjean's coach everytime they would ride to escape or move places?

10. It must have been a sad honeymoon night for Marius and Cosette. KJ si Valjean. Mamatay ba naman sa wedding day ni Cosette!

Daily Grind

Sometimes we get so consumed by the daily workings of our lives that we forget to appreciate what we have.

Sometimes we get so engrossed in what we do that we think everyone is as interested as we are.

Sometimes we get so involved in the goings-on around us that we let our emotions rule.

Sometimes we get so attached to our concerns that we become tactless and disrespectful.

There is more to our lives than what occupies the hours of our day. Do not let transient matters consume you, break you and rule you.

Better to live a life that is guided by a thoughtful heart than one driven by fleeting emotions. ❤

Bucket list

My bucket list of annoying facebook posts:

1. Photos of one's self uploaded in succession. I know how you look, i do not need to be reminded every nano-second.

2. Comments to shout outs that make the shout out seem to be about the person
making the comment.

3. Shout outs written in migraine inducing, gramatically incorrect english.

4. Shout outs in colehiyala or konyo english.

5. Photos aiming (hoping!) to show how luxurious one's taste in food is.

Drives me crazy. And yet, i do not have the courage to not log in and spare myself the anguish! Haha

Instagram

Anak has 959 followers. I have 20. 😜

Bridges

Last year was a significant one. I burned many-a-bridges, but also reinforced many of the existing ones. It was a year when I learned about what makes friendships work. It is not time. It is not presence. It is TRUST.

And with trust jumping off the edge of the bridge, the next reasonable thing to do is burn that bridge. It will not take me anywhere else... And i also do not wish to go back and rebuild what has been lost.

So with that, here's to the new year and to the many new bridges that eagerly await. Cheers!

Canimals Diary

This diary app is hilarious. You can mark the day when you had "smooth bowel movement" ☺ how can any other diary beat that?

Brace yourself!

Anak had her braces fitted before 2012 ended. Just in time to not be able to eat as much during new yer's eve media noche 😊but she did not complain. Not even a whimper of pain. Tutuong "tiis ganda" lang. 😄


(btw, these photos were taken weeks after the braces were placed, when she can already enjoy eating out again🍴)

Dysfunctional

I love facebook. I enjoy sharing snippets of my daily life with people who have bothered to add me as "friend" (yes, when it comes to the virtual world, i use the word friend quite loosely).  I equally find it entertaining to read about what has been keeping people in my virtual world busy.  I enjoy playing psychologist, trying to read behind the lines and photos. Truly, facebook tells you more about a person's insecurities than about a person's real life.

Think about it. That girl who keeps posting images of meals taken at restaurants must have grown up deprived of the joy of dining out.  The friend who keeps posting shout-outs about her shopping sprees was probably a recipient of hand-me-downs.  That person who does nothing else but watch pirated movies at home must have no constant relationship to speak of.  The guy who keeps your wall occupied with images of his new "toys for the big boys" perhaps missed playing with action figures and toy cars when he was little.  It can be a sad, sad world that they are living in, made even more depressing with the virtual "realities" that face them everytime they log in to their account.

I used to get annoyed by the hype someone would try to put in for what seems to me are trivial, every day occurrences of life - say, the standard lunch fare becomes a full-blown "it-seems-to-me-that-my-friends-do-not-know-what-spaghetti-is-so-i-am-going-to-post-a-close-up-photo-of-my-half-eaten-meal" experience.   But as I come to share someone's virtual life,  I have learned to recognize that I live in my own dysfunctional universe too.  That if I am truly, absolutely mortified by all these postings, I would not even dare log in to spare myself the pain.  And yet I do. Every day. Multiple times a day.

I guess I like knowing that there are people more dysfunctional than me.

Bucket List

I have never been into bucket lists but as of late, with so many things to wish for, a bucket list is the only way to go.

1.  Watch The Phantom of the Opera, for free. The tickets are so dang expensive, i truly believe it will break my heart more if I spend that much!

2.  Spend another weekend at the Shangri-la, lazing by the pool.

3.  Get that new lacoste bag in red. Un (fortunately?) for me, the new style I like does not come in red. (No, it's not this one)

4. Get my own iPad, so I don't have to borrow anak's.  Puro pictures kase ni Greyson Chance at One Direction ang iPad ni anak. :-)

5. Get rid of my old iPhone, and buy a new one.

I may never get to do them (or buy them), but just being able to "say it out loud" sort of helps get that itch scratched.

Hay. Double hay.

The Art of ...

I love to complain.  I complain about anything and everything.  I complain when it rains; I complain when it's too dry.  I complain when it's cold; I complain when it's hot.  I complain about my workload; I complain when I have nothing to do.  I complain that I have so many things to complain about. 

Being that I spend most of my waking hours at work, I am always seized by the urge to complain out loud.  Skimming through my previous posts and blogs and diary entries, I was amazed by the amount of time I spent harping about my unrelenting work inbox.  I can get way too pesky even for myself!  Tsk. Tsk.  

However, in the very recent past, I have resolved to stop complaining, and start appreciating.   This was not a decision I came to because I was really grateful for what I have.  This was a decision I made because I got tired of hearing the same old gripes here and there.  I came to realize that it is no fun to be around with if all you ever do is complain. 

It is not an easy thing to do though - biting my tongue when I feel like spewing all sorts of expletives.  Sometimes I feel like I have a bubble on my head bursting with a plethora of punctuation marks.  It is HARD.  But, it can be done.

I am a work in progress.  Sometimes, I fail - I give in and recite a litany of discontent.  I am human, after all.   Then I remember....