MEComposing

... I get a social life.

Words cannot decribe how inexplicably happy I am right now, all because I have a social life.

Last week, it was merienda with LATCH moms and dinner date with hubs.

Yesterday, twas dinner and coffee with friends.

Today, I assisted in a LATCH training of nurses then met up with college friends later. I was goe for the whole day and much as I missed my son, I couldn't deny that I was happy as a lark to be out. What's more, I had make-up on and a kinda sexy top.

Sigh.

It's not that I miss the party fun girl I was before. But I do miss dressing up and owning cute outfits. And I do miss being out. And it's great to be validated that am still engaging and fun.

*~*

On a sad note... I hate finding out that two friends of mine are/were battered women. I just pray they find the love for self they've lost and fully recover.

Nature does know how to protect its creatures.

puffer fish at the beach


tough and hairy shell of crabs

I'm hoping though that we'd do more to protect them in turn...

Hubs and I have booked our flights to Marinduque this May and Boracay in July.

Did you know there's a Starbucks already in Boracay? I know I should actually be offended by the fact. I know this is another testament to how commercial Boracay is, how exploited, how unpreserved.

But since it's been six years since I was there last... I am uber excited! And I cannot help but fantasize about sipping my fave choco cream chip drink while in my bikini. Not that I can fit in a decent bikini at the moment (more like a well-designed maillot). Ok, most probably I would be wearing a tankini and board shorts when sipping that blasted drink, but i'd still be sipping it sitting on pristine white sand and after having eaten my fill of seafood.

Yes!

These are wind chimes being sold at the Moriones Expo in Boac, Marinduque last Holy Week. I absolutely loved this shop because all the chimes and decor and dividers they were selling were just so lovely.

I feel so sorry and sad for Ted Failon's family... because this is a tragedy and it seems to have been bungled with right from the start. Or too sensationalized.

I also can't help but speculate that Ted has annoyed a lot of police and other authorities, for them to be so aggressive with all the arrests they've been making. I mean, I actually expected him/them to be treated better. But everybody is having a field day over them, even ABS CBN is exploiting the case.

I just hope it will be an eye opener, at least for him, how violating media people can be. So that maybe, the next time he reports news, he'd be more considerate... or at least, he'd know that there are real people in those news. Ones with loved ones and families.

The Moriones Festival is one of the more famous festivals in the country. I have known my husband for around nine years now and we've been married for three, but it was only this year that I got to experience it with his family. See, they have a beach home in Gasan, Marinduque.

Here are some fave shots:


my favorite Moriones puppet, which could be
made to bat his eyelashes, open-close his jaws
and brandish his sword (Gasan town)


Moriones roaming the streets and expos
"looking for Longinus"
(even kids and girls/women partake)


female penitents who join the procession
barefoot and clad in all black with
pupua wreaths on their head, which they
offer and leave at the Church after


one of many flagellants
(it's hard taking pics of them since
they're obviously drunk, and they wear caps
or keep texting)


as I was saying :)


I found the Independencia Church statues
more beautiful


my favorite part of the street dancing
procession

Hopefully, this is the start of me really being able to witness other big festivals in the country before they become defunct or too commercialized.

Just got back from spending Holy Week in Marinduque with my in laws.

Anyway, there I was, shooting pictures of the gathered Moriones at the Boac plaza when I was dustracted by a growing crowd on a sort of hill near the plaza. Mustering courage (and dictated by laziness), I scurried across the plaza, in front of the Moriones, to get to whatever it was the crowd were watching from the hill. I was in such a hurry that I mised the pool of water being swept dry by two men and I slipped.

I tried to get up immediately from my disgraceful fall but the soles of my shoes couldn't get a grip on the wet floor and I kept coming down. In front of at least a hundred Moriones. Ugh.

And the blasted thing was, no one offered a hand. Worse, the sweepers kept telling me, "Miss, madulas dito (Miss, it's slippery here.)"

Duh!

*~*

Oh, but a nice-looking guy with a bigger camera did ask me later if I was ok.

Here's a perfect example of how politicians get away with having a building named after them.

See, saying it's a "type" of building allows them to defend the name choice by saying it's a model (building design) that politician likes, or is promoting. I've seen at least three such public school buildings for Vilma Santos Recto.

Technicality is the name of the game. What does it matter if it's deceiving.

The irony of it all is that I am 140 lbs. at 5'4" in my 30s. I just consumed 800 ml. of Coffee Crumble Ice Cream to cap a grand dinner of crabs, crispy beef ribs and seafood rice at Zamboanga Restaurant. I think I have been averaging three Starbucks frappes and two 800 ml. ice cream every week for the past month. I blame the heat and PMS and lethargy, but really, those are just excuses.

The irony is, I actually want to live healthy, and be a healthier weight, and really look sexy again (not just feel it). I don't have any plans of going vegetarian, but I actually LONG to eat healthier foods. I actually desire to delight in better food. I actually hope i'd go into ecstasies when am eating veggies... after all, I am also a little tired of meat. Maybe it's age talking, my palate is changing.

So allow me the hypocrisy. Allow me to delude myself. Who knows, I may just succeed this time.

I want to lose 15 lbs. by July. That means I should at least lose five pounds every month. Strategies and means that I intend to use to help me acheieve this include:

1) No more ice cream purchases from my/our own purse. And if i'd eat ice cream somewhere else, I can only eat as much as 1 cup of it.

2) Iced treats will have to be ice candy from real fruits. Much cheaper and healthier. Or i'll just drink ice water to cool down.

3) I will sleep less. I will wake up at 8 AM everyday, regardless of what time I slept. I can make use of that time for more internet time. Or more work time.

4) I will make sure I spend M-W-F working. For real.

5) I will capitalize on the heat and my son's swimming lessons to also burn more calories.

6) Initial target: 1 hour on the treadmill per week (it's not much but it's more achievable)

7) I will cook two dinners per week, at least.

8) I shall allow myself only two occasions of second servings per week. I can pile food on my plate but I just can't have second servings most times.

9) At least one afternoon per week, I will bring my son to the nearby park and subject myself to running after him.

10) Certainly, more fruits and vegetables and water and milk. At least two fruits a day, even if they're only bananas. (great thing it's summer and the season for so many wonderful fruits)

11) I will implement the FIVE TREATS LIMIT PER WEEK on myself.

12) I will use a LUHO JAR where I can have hubs or myself put the equivalent amount of money for my usual treats and cravings and food whims, which I can then spend on other things except personal food (so I can use them for groceries if I want to).

13) I will MOVE TILL I SWEAT for at least twenty minutes each day (so that would mean I either exercise or dance) on top of whatever treadmill time I put in. Running after my son also not included.



I am being realistic. I know it's harder for me to get going because i've been such a sloth for so long. And I really don't want to be as skinny as I was before. But now I have two really important reasons to push myself to lose the excess weight:

1) I want to get pregnant again.

2) I want to wear sexy bathing suits when we go to Boracay in July.

3) I have got to beat this PMS sh!t.


There...maybe I can sleep now!!!

The years have surely flown. My niece has just graduated from grade school. When I saw how prettily she was made up, tears sprung to my eyes. And when I saw her mother putting her medal around her neck, I gave in to the tears. She has really come a long way from that baby who refused everybody but her paternal grandma at my lola's ancestral home.

And how can I not be proud? She has landed herself a scholarship at La Salle Lipa. Neither her parents can ever hope to send her there, but she was one of the 15 lucky kids in Batangas who are assured of better education and opportunities for the next four years (if they maintain their grades, of course). Other kids would have found her circumstance reason enough to rebel and self-destruct, but all in all, she has really grown into a good child, a promising child.

And ever since, i've loved her as my own.

I'm really proud of all the hard work she's done, and wish her nothing but the best in the coming years. I worry about her and what high school might do to her, but i'm keeping the faith that she has enough love in her life to make informed decisions where and when it matters. Besides, I intend to remain an annoying, ever-present fixture in her life.