Always my Mama's girl

It's quite unfortunate that I've been stuck in this writing rut for a while now. Bouts of negativity have been piling in front of me these past months and it's frustrating to not be able to rely on words to make it all better. Where writing fails, however, music and my mom (most especially) saves the day, as always.

As much as I hate to admit it, even at the "adult" age of twenty-one, when my life gets sidetracked, I am easily comforted by Mama's voice on the phone, calling me from over six hundred kilometers away. Just her calm tone of telling me that "It will be okay" assures me that it already has. That, with our usual round of videoke sessions whenever I'm at home and insane episodes of crying out to tunes like Since You've Been Gone in the middle of the night while my twin sister giggles in the background.

On a serious note: Mom, thank you for putting up with all my drama; there had been lots in the past year alone. Thank you for being you, for taking care of us five in the way you think is best for us. I may question your parenting style most of the time, but I have always appreciated that you stuck by us in spite of everything.

Returning to this hearty, coastal city

I have the faintest memory of San Francisco. From our family vacation to California a little over a decade ago, I could vaguely recall staying in the City by the Bay for more than twenty-four hours and what a bummer that had been for the future Charmed and Princess Diaries fanatic in me. Sure I remember passing by gorgeous Victorian houses lined up on one side of the road and the glorious Golden Gate Bridge on another. I owned and overused an Alcatraz shirt, drove through and had a picture taken with "the crookedest road," that section on Lombard Street, and got lost exploring Pier 39 with my siblings.

But aside from these ten-year-old tidbits, I don't have anything else to be able to keep this chilly Californian city etched in my memory for long. Goes without saying that for quite some time now I have been wanting to go back and reintroduce myself to this city I was once lucky enough to step foot on yet unfortunate to be slowly forgetting. And thankfully, on the cusp of Christmas month, return and create new, fond memories is exactly what I did.


At first it was really just about meeting and spending time with relatives and friends in the northern California area. But finding out that San Fo was America's Best City in 2012 really sparked my curiosity, making me want to teleport there right away. Understanding, however, that I don't have the superpowers of my much-adorned Charmed witches—Prue Halliwell's astral projection and Paige Matthews' orbing—and that these things take time and planning, I had to wait it out and weigh my options. Good thing that during my SoCal visit in September, my Tita Lalee invited me to hang out with her in San Jose for a weekend, even offering to tour me around forty-five-minutes-away San Francisco.

Challenge accepted

From the phone: Last night's pizza party at home, sponsored by the twentysomethings to kickstart an adventure-filled week · K, gotta go. Wish me luck!!! :) · Interesting photo from work of the day: the corkboard at our pantry. Around the world map are post-its of did-you-knows. So far, my favorite: "Walt Disney was actually afraid of mice."
Today marks my first day at work and because I'm still at a high from it, here's something I've grown to love over the years, and especially now at my job—a list:

1. Waking up to my alarm at 5:30am, leaving the house by 7am, being at the office by 9am, leaving work at 6pm, arriving home a little past 8pm, and then having trouble sleeping... They told me wrong. This isn't like high school nor college. This is high school and college combined. And I love it!
2. In connection to #1, the long, gruesome commute from Las Piñas to Ortigas (tricycle, two jeepneys, train, and a fifteen-minute brisk walk) and back (said brisk walk, train, bus, jeepney, and tricycle).

Until next time, my kind of town

You probably know by now how in love I am with the US state capital: enough that a few minutes into my first visit I made a decision to live there one of these days (I now understand what people meant by love at first sight!); too much that I can't help but swoon at the mundane sight of the letters D and C being strung together (And it doesn't help that they follow each other in the alphabet!). So I guess it did not come as a surprise to Tita Inds and Tito Chris when they asked me what I wanted to do on my last weekend in the East Coast and all I could do was chant these two letters repeatedly.

Our other options seemed either less interesting (Baltimore area) or too far away (towns in Virginia) that District of Columbia ended up being the best destination for that Saturday. The night before our drive, they gave me the task of making an itinerary and I was caught in a momentary panic as the organization freak in me goes. Aware that there still were dozens of amusing places to see, I eventually got my cool and settled with the pocket-friendly yet worthy ones.

Hearts all over the world

Happy Valentine's Day to my lovely readers! How's your heart today? As for me, same old same old. Nothing special, really. Well, except for two things. First, I'm a song away from completing I love love: a 30-day Valentine playlist, a personal project I put up on Tumblr about a month ago to celebrate the season. Although I must admit I got sidetracked for a bit and had trouble choosing the songs to place there, I still found my efforts worth the trouble. Anything for music and for romance!

And second, I learned how to be in good terms with time and timing. What difference can a year make! Without having gone through a complete turn from last February 14th, I wouldn't have discovered one of my greatest passions: to travel. But being able to see the Philippines (and eventually, the world) then write all about those experiences—now that's the perfect gift I could ever receive at this stage in my life.

Forget the flowers, stuffed toys, and chocolates. 2013, you're doing a pretty good job. Keep it up. As for me, I know I've been failing at this blogging thing, but let me make up for all the lost updates by sharing phone photos I gathered since the end of November 2012: