P A T C C

This year has been amazing to me.
Started the year being legal but ironic how I never got a driver's license, a voting ID and stuff adults tell you to comply when you turn 18. I like the driving lessons part but I guess I have to go through school first while envy my other friends through Instagram.

I've had adventures over the summer with my classmates. Going out on a trip to a nearby island without parents for the first time made me feel a bit uneasy at first, but it turned out not as bad as i thought. Then I begin to get addicted to it I'm willing to be on the beach on my own.  My first international trip was also a good first of the making of an aspiring traveler. I got myself lost in the city of Macau with no communication leaving me an empty pocket and a good memory to lead me back home. From that it taught me a lot of things. There are times that I feel reckless and free I'm just glad it happened to me

I  had a great Christmas. I wasn't expecting presents at all. I was trying this thing called "giving until it hurts" from the feeding project we had with the indigenous and street people. At the end of the day, it feels fulfilling to give what we have and not asking for any return at all. Noble work.

I almost concluded that this was to be the worst year ever. There was a point that almost everyone hates me and I feel all screwed up I don't know what to do to fix it. Eventually everything was fine and things followed well and good.

2013 had been good, bad and ugly. Overall it's a year to celebrate! Have an amazeballs year ahead guys!

Reading Waking up in the late dawn missing the last Dawn Mass, missing a good plane fare for summer vacation and having a bad sleep is not one of the things that you don't want to happen on a Christmas eve. Today was supposed to be a day full of cheer and be festive and getting excited to wear your new red dress and admit it, showing it off in a crowd of church goers during the midnight mass. But still, the universe is still the same hairy guy pulling out its tantrums on us and constant mood swings.

I was reading Thanksgiving post from aiaaaa.net and it inspired me to feel grateful. Let's try to scratch that and be on the greener grass. So instead of sticking a middle finger up in the air, why not thank a few things that constantly reminds us how we are extremely blessed.

• For parents who not only sends us to school but sends "I love you" messages as well.
• High school buddies who never fails to give abdominal cramps due to excessive laughter
• College buddies for the copies of American sitcoms, season by season.
• For indie music that reminds me to be reckless at times.
• 8Tracks who keeps me up at 3 in the morning.
• Oh, and you too coffee. Yes I love you too.
• Cheap airline fares making a poor aspiring traveler's dreams come true.
• Amusement parks and my undying love for Disney
• Frank Sinatra Christmas music for giving me the "Christmas with dad" feels.
• Percy Jackson
• The existence of tinting lip balm and everything that makes me effortlessly attractive.
• Ateneo for the wonderful college year
• Carlos for blabbing so much about you. Even if you're out of topic, he never fails to share what he learns from the internet with his distracting hair.
• Mitch Albom for the tear-jerking books 
• For last minute instincts and ending the day with imaginary glass cheers.
• S&R for everything American.
• Pizza who understands me at all times.
• Keepsakes for welcoming me with your cheap buffalo wings.
• Two Door Cinema Club for making me promise I'd lose my concert virginity to them one day.
• Java Jive where everything started.
• The guy playing drums at Timezone playing September which became our song.
• To every stranger who have been a fiber of my life 

Most things may be shitty, but the sparkles are the ones who always shine bright. Have a Merry Christmas everyone! :)

 Last Friday my friend Johanna and I went to the 3-day Christmas bazaar in Davao Convention Center on its first day. We were drooling over the clothes on sale, crafty goodies (I went insane over the washi tapes) and found the best red cheesecake bars and can't stop talking about it.

We got married and had dark cheesecake kids.

We got no money as much as we wished to bring home some stuff so we promised ourselves to go back the next day with  our moms. Scored myself an outfit worth Php200 from Soul, two washi tapes, three sample of whitening soaps (HAHA I GET IT!!!) and a ham. I'm digging bazaars so much I think I should put it on my yearly calendar and save up for it.

My definition of a Sunday is getting stressed with school works, as usual. Not the chill type of person because I make last decision work. Might as well change my routine by relaxing by the pool. Witnessing a periwinkle sky was the best part.

The previous week was pretty sluggish as time moves so slow. I still can't believe I cried my eyes out in class (ugh something terrible happened) and been in my school blues. But call me lucky for having friends, family and a boyfriend of keeping up with me and surprisingly take me on a picnic night date with glowsticks!!!!

So the semestral break is over but I still can't get over with the feels. Still savoring the time by drenching myself in junk food and TV sitcoms while it's still orientation week.

Just some of the things happened recently:

1. Remembering how I was obsessed with everything Hello Kitty with their human sized characters
2. Silhouettes 
3. This cute can of Swiss Miss French Vanilla cocoa reminds me of *ehem 
4. Collecting dead flowers
5. Practicing calligraphy and I'm pretty good at it hihi
6. Ending the week not with a fizzle but with a bang: a bottle of beer, a mini heart attack and feeling the hype at the recent Carte Blanche.

How's your week? Let me know! :)

Sembreak has been the bomb. I've been meaning to get myself a break after being sleep-deprived and stressed out. It has been productive because I've accomplished so many things. At the same time it was the perfect opportunity to get together with friends and  bring  home so many stories to tell. Times have changed but they're still the good people I've been enjoying to be with and never failed to make my stomach ache from too much laughing.

I also get to spend good times with my college buddies together with my boyfriend who can get along with them so well I can't fit myself in the group anymore huhu. Kidding aside, we had cards, gin and cake meringue all over our faces.

I had so much fun over the break and finally it's time to hit the books again. Funny how I miss pressing my calculator.

1// Dreamcatcher with leftover flowerettes
2// Kitty Ears prepping up for Halloween trick or treat though I'm never going to make it
3// printed "Polaroids" starting to fill up the wall
4// Flower crowns I make to feed my 12 kids

Aside from watching sitcoms and movies gobbling up cheese popcorn, I make things whenever I'm on house arrest. I never feel productive if I'm not fiddling anything with my hands so I find interesting things around the house (and even our neighborhood). I actually miss doing these things because I've been out of the house most of the time of my semestral break. I'm actually satisfied that I've been committed to my "sembreak plans" which includes "to make creative things" on the list".Cheers!

 Opening a box of Krispy Kreme donuts just bought from Manila is a bliss, but with a huge Duty Free bag surprising you with vinyl records is breath taking. I never thought dad would love old school music so much that he collects their vinyl copies!!!!! I feel hipster haha

 Maybe vinyl tracks is not dead after all. All I need right now in my life is a turntable to play these treasures. That makes it a challenge for me because it's hella difficult to find one around the country(ugh) most especially here in Davao (double ugh) and if you guys maybe know where to score one let me know! :) And if possible that's within the city hihi :3

1. Morning Jogs, witnessed a shooting star and a beautiful sunrise
2. Afternoon bike rides
3. Last minute hunt for food and water before hitting the beach
4. Telling each other how you look amazing with the angle of sunlight beamed on your face.At the same time.
5. Fist pumps for a job well done
6. Finished watching Season 1 of Parks and Recreation
7. Douche bag Dance moves
8. Surprise kisses in the middle of the sea
9. High School basketball jersey and over sized Old Navy shirt right beside my bed
10. Business profit that will always redeem me from a bad case of an empty wallet.

Things I recently found:
1// A Photo of my father in his toddler years
2// Solar eclipse
3// Polaroid of mom and a little ray of sunshine which is unfortunately not me

I have this thing with rummaging things around the household especially photos. Curiosity always gets me so my mom would tell me the things that had happen behind. Although old school photography is much of a hassle, it's awesome how fulfilled one feels to see an outcome without getting a tiny bit of a hint of how it would look like.

It's so often we see prints in the present because of the advantages technology offers to us. Personally, i think that prints are not dead  and I'm on my attempts of making "prints" with our trusty printer and probably keep them in an album. Wouldn't it be nice to Imagine maybe five decades from now when I become old and gray my grandkids sitting down my lap and show them my pretentious prints instead to douchey-type of tablets that will IDK maybe fly?

It doesn't make sense but the point is, old school photography is the bomb.

1. The birth of iTunes Radio
2. Mom leaving a muffin in my bag 
3. Saturday madness: Catching Up Dharma Down's last song, being chased down by a stand up comedian and conyo impersonations with boyfriend
4. A look announcing an "attempt" of stealing a bike from a store
5. Norah Jones' Don't Know Why + hundred feet above city lights
6. Surprise House Infiltrations
7. Kickball and victory dances gaining a score of 5 while opponent gets 10.
8. Semestral Break plans
9. Tickets to my first music festival
10. The Jan Mark smirk

We crossed the sea to get to visit the restaurant stilts. They cook your catch from their fish cages but we just took home bulad.

Great for a desktop wallpaper eh?



panorama view of the sea
Next stop was the mega known Enchanted river. It's not that impressive, quite frankly, well maybe except for the blue part of the river. I felt weenie-ish to swim in the blue part because I get creeped out what could have been deep down there.
The lake going to the falls.

We passed by a boulevard.
.

Sometimes I feel like running away, like maybe steal a nice pickup and tell a stranger: " Hey I'll pay you just take me away somewhere far from this shit I'm going through" So this is how I feel today. I don't know if people can see it but I find it difficult carrying heavy burden and Utang na loob, Which doesn't makes sense to me until now.

I'm not a fan of keeping things to myself so I have reliable friends to tell them to but it seems that they're fed up with things that I say so maybe I just have to regulate it. They often see the bad things but as much as possible I don't want to cramp their good vibe with my wallows.

There are just things in life that shouldn't bother you at this point in time but I feel like it's a bit too late for that. Sometimes I want to throw myself off a building wondering where in the world were those days when everything's fine and normal and boring and actually I like the idea of having a boring life right now. Maybe  it's just me or the universe is not on my side these days. Seems like everyone hates me right now. The one left is my stuffed baby seal.

I just want to have fun, meet other people and expand horizons. The thought of settling everything in place is not one of the problems eighteen screwed up kids like me should worry about. I think I'm too young for that. This is the time I felt extremely emotionally exhausting, it makes me want to drop everything and, incredible mushy to say, run away far from home and shit and find myself.

I am looking forward to a better week and hopefully be preoccupied with the things I enjoy doing.Biking seems like a good idea.

Hoho! Showing off my very first design for an invitation which I fully volunteered for a friend. I've put all my heart in this work and I was beyond happy of what came out. It was fulfilling. It somehow felt like a dream come true when you see your design being reproduced and given to other people and hearing good feedback just melts my heart better than John Mayer does. I know it's not much of a good one but it was a satisfying first start.

And seriously John Mayer, stop making me wallow over your songs.

Just a few things making up my week. I'm looking forward to a sunnier week because it rained here most of the time.

*Photos not mine