sapok, sampal, hampas

as a lenten activity, the sisters of lingkod planned to watch the film "the passion of Christ". since kuya and april had plans to visit the IT fair today, i offered that we could watch the film here in our house.

this is the second time that i watched the film. the first one was during the movie screening in manila. i watched it with mami. a couple of years passed but when i watched it today, it had the same effect on me - shock. besides the fact that the portrayal was close to perfect, something that happened during college kept on flashing in my mind while watching the film.

it was RELS class (i'm thinking it's RELSONE). we had this professor (i forgot his name) who asked for a volunteer. one of the girls (i won't tell who she is) raised her hand and she was prompted to go to the front.

teacher asked her, "come, hit me hard on the face." we were all shocked. i found it hard to fathom what his point was. she didn't hit him. teacher made his point. we find it really hard to hit somebody on the face but every time we sin, we become one of the people who gave Jesus the deathly blows prior to His death.

i have so many moments in my life that i am not proud of, in fact i am really ashamed to even talk about these. how many blows have i given Him? in the movie, i cringed every time He was hit. i even cried at certain points. the realization here is... i am one of the killers. when i watched the movie for the first time, what i felt was just pure awa for Him. this time, my realization is different. i was able to associate myself with the soldiers who beat Him to His death, with the people who threw stones at Him, who rebuked Him and showed no mercy. i am one of them. it was so easy for me to show my disgust and cry when He was hit in the film, but it's amazing how easy and shameless it is for me to continuously sin day after day.

i appreciate the activity today. so many realizations. perfect way to end sunday.

PS: my girl classmate hit the teacher really hard after a good convincing. i didn't tell in my story above because i was trying to help teacher make his point :p hehehe. he was hoping she wouldn't hit him so he could get his message across. he was still successful, i think, because i still can't forget it after all these years.

so what do i do now? i know i'll still hit Him a million times or more during my entire lifetime, but i could always try and aim not to.

s-16 chums

i am in a sentimental mood. sentimental in a good way. i'm browsing through some old mobile pictures and look at what i found. these girls are my original buddies during college. pic was taken when i went home a few years ago.

we were lunch buddies, block mates (before i moved to a different block), project mates, thesis mates, movie and mall buddies, tambay mates, aba'y lahat na ata.

mauie was my elementary classmate and HS schoolmate. we didn't talk back then. i could only recall one instance during 4th yr HS but that's just about it. we were mere acquaintances. during the first orientation day, i was really shy to be around her. maybe because we were never close during HS. as the days passed, i fell in love with her being and i consider her to be my closest girl friend during college. we clicked instantly and we share the same kapilyahan. hehehe! as i mentioned before, our souls were twins! as in!

riche was the sosy girl from CSA. at first, i was really intimidated because she's so sosyal... with the english ispokening and all. she was the girl with long hair and big shirts. rakistang mistulan. she was best friends with allen - who is the other sosy CSA girl. hehehe. they were sosy but not maarte and not mapangmata. from the boyish image, she slowly transformed to this semi-girly image. i was with riche when she first learned of z's existence. i was with riche when i first met mike.

ecel was the girl na mahilig mambara. hahaha! while mau, riche, and i share the same characteristic of being bungisngis, ecel was the straight-faced one. when one will tell a joke, the 3 of us will giggle immediately. ecel will remain serious. hehehe. she's a very deep person but that doesn't make her less lovable. i love it when, during college, ecel shared her fears of remaining single forever, and now she's really blooming and in love with mr. papa.

i love these girls. we've been through a lot. we've been through everything. we shared the same wish of being hit by a bus when we almost failed our thesis. we (minus mau) shared the same house in laguna during ojt. we all stayed up all night doing projects in riche's room - all those countless nights we slept on riche's carpet! college days were tough but they were extra special and bearable with these girls around. towards the later part of the college years, i also became super close with camille and liza - they are not in the picture but i do hope one day we'll have the chance to be together in one great pic :) i love these 5 girls!

play pen!

look, look, look! baby has a new tambayan ;). my niece is coming home
soon. so sooooon! can't wait!

i miss hershey's brown cow

when we were young, mama would buy us hershey's brown cow. there's a small bottle and there's also a big bottle. if mama bought the big bottle, ay! jackpot yun!

hershey's brown cow has always been a treat for us. we didn't buy it regularly because we were not rich. it was quite expensive that time. fresh milk wasn't in yet and pang sosyal lang ang fresh milk noon. what we had was birch tree full cream powdered milk. prior to the refill pack era, we bought the canned birch tree. if we have extra money, mama will buy the biggest can. if medyo gipit, medium lang. hehehe.

i wonder if there's still hershey's brown cow. why did i remember? when we went to the universal studios, there's a hershey's shop and you could find everything that hershey's-ey in there... except brown cow :( the closest they have is this hershey's syrup. well, it's not that bad :) we also bought the one that's malt flavor but it doesn't taste superb. so-so lang.

moooooo

updates and bands

time check: 9 months before the wedding. everything is going smoothly. we agree on just about everything.

suppliers that have been booked so far:

• church - st. pancratius chapel
  
• reception - ibarra's garden
• invitation - wink
• photographer, videographer, photo booth - nice print
• gowns and barong - amonn velasco

suppliers that need to be booked:

• flowers
• music band for the church and/or reception (if we'll choose to have one)
• lights and sounds in the reception
• hair and makeup
• souvenirs for the principal and secondary sponsors
• honeymoon
  
• wedding rings/bands

wedding rings/bands. as i said, we agree on just about everything. when we are scouting for suppliers, one of us will give an idea and the other will agree right away. no sweat. no idea is ever too ugly or questionable for us. that is until we started talking about the wedding rings. last night we had our first disagreement about it.

mike wants to have bulgari rings. i don't. a paulinian is warm, simple, and active. i'm not warm. i'm not active. i think i'm simple (yes ginamit pa ang pagiging paulinian ;p). for this reason, i want a really, really, really simple wedding ring. i don't want too many flashing stones and neither do i want brands being advertised on my finger. the one he likes is this ring with "bulgari" boldly and visibly engraved on the sides.

really, i should have told him subtly but what i told him was plain and direct: i don't like having a brand name displayed like an ad. if we grow old, do you think it will look good on our fingers? i like just a simple band. i may have been too direct. he became quiet and gently told me he is making tampo because it's like i shrugged his idea away without even considering it.

dear me, why do we have to agree on everything but the rings? :( he really likes it so i don't want to force him to wear a simple band. but i also do not like the bulgari ring and i don't want to force myself to wear it. :( hay.

today, ahngel and ate a accompanied me to some jewelry stores and my my i fell in love with this very thin band with 2 or 3 small stones. the groom's ring is also gorgeous but i'm sure he'll not like it. so how, ah? the store manager said that i could ask mike to look for a design that he likes and he'll try to find a similar design. anyway, the ring that i like isn't too choosy with a partner, meaning we could try to mix and match.

mike is the most understanding soul. i told him, "i found some good rings today. they are also on sale!" he said, "ok, ikaw na ang bahalang humanap ng ok na design for us." i know deep inside that he still wants the bulgari ring and i don't want him to look at his simple ring with hidden disgust. so... it's still my dilemma. i forwarded him some catalogs. who knows, he might find one that he likes and he will give in to me mwahahahaha :)

for now, it is an open item. sale period is almost over. i have a few more days to convince him. kapalit ay kiss, papayag kaya sya? :p

ps: i don't have anything against couples who wear the bulgari rings. if it makes them happy, then it can't be that bad :) but it's just not for me. it won't look good on me. i. simply. know. bow.

turistas

it isn't very obvious but there are a number if tourists on this
picture. pic taken at the fountain of wealth one lunch break. i love
the feeling of being a tourist. you don't have any worries. you are
there to feast your eyes an fill your senses with all things that are
wonderful.

disturbing

a few weeks ago, i saw the ara mina interview by mo twister. she's running for some public office, mo was interviewing her. she said she doesn't watch the news because it's depressing. bless her :p

here are some disturbing news i've heard from the past days. maybe events like these make ara sad.

• during a show (forgot which US state), a killer whale grabbed its trainer by the waist and strangled the trainer to death - this happened in front of families watching the show :-S it shouldn't work this way. killer whales don't kill people. the trainer wanted to be a whale trainer since she was a little girl. who would have guessed that this dream will take her life one day? :-S
• a korean couple was arrested for the death of their baby. in the autopsy, the cause of the death was long-term malnutrition. investigations show that they were addicted to... wait for it... RAISING A VIRTUAL BABY! how lame could that sound! they were both unemployed and spent hours in internet cafes raising the virtual kid. the real-world baby was neglected to her death! they feed her only once day. poor baby. :-S
• earthquakes here and there
• giant waves hit a cruise ship and injure a couple of people
• drought affecting most crops in the philippines

hay...